Vive la France!
Provence, July 2024.
Quote of the Day
”Life should not be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside in a cloud of smoke, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming “Wow! What a Ride!”
- Hunter S. Thompson
Amen to that.
Musical alternative to the morning’s radio news
Reina del Cid | Ship of Fools
Nice cover of a memorable Grateful Dead number.
Long Read of the Day
The seed of Elon Khan
Ed West has an unmissable post on his Wrong Side of History blog about why some men appear to have an obsession with procreation (in general without consulting the women who bear their children). And oddly enough, guess who’s the latest in this line that stretches at least as far back to Genghis Khan?
Here’s an (AI-generated) image that will give you a hint.
Screenshot
The story starts with a fecund Irishman named Niall of the Nine Hostages, a fourth century Irish warlord who makes Donald Trump look like Winnie the Pooh, but it gets to you-know-who eventually.
Hope you enjoy it as much as I did.
Books, etc.
Screenshot
This comes out in the UK tomorrow. I haven’t read it yet, but I know (and think highly of) the author, a former diplomat who worked in Meta at a very high level, and therefore saw how the social-media sausage is made. So I’m looking forward to reading it. In the meantime, the New York Times has already reviewed it.
My commonplace booklet
Here’s an interesting thought-experiment. The Trump crowd (led by Musk) are supposedly free speech extremists. And yet they are fanatically cleansing every Federal website of any mention of ‘DEI’, ’trans’, ‘LBTQ+’, etc. I now hear rumours that references to ‘human rights’ are to be hunted down and expunged. This is censorship at scale, orchestrated by people who apparently worship the First Amendment.
But the economy — or at any rate the stock market — is now on the slide as much of corporate America is beginning to wonder if the madness — and the economics — of Trumpism are about to get much worse.
So here’s my question. We are going to find that Wall Street analysts working for investment banks, ratings agencies, etc. are going to be issuing warnings to investors. In other words, they will become bearers of bad news for Trump and his courtiers. Will they suddenly find that the thought-police who are rooting out ‘DEI’ will come for them too. And won’t they seek shelter behind the First Amendment?
It’s one thing to shut down newspapers and broadcasters for purveying ‘fake news’ about the economy going down the drain. But what if Wall Street is also telling the same uncomfortable story?
When I mentioned this to a lawyer colleague at lunch yesterday she predicted that Trump, Musk & Co, will use ‘national security’ as the way of silencing uncomfortable economic news. Eh? Well, she explained, letting foreign adversaries know that the US is going down the drain could be construed as a national security issue.
Hmmm…
Chart of the day
Screenshot
This chart, from the FT’s John Burn-Murdoch’s epic analysis of the latest World Values Survey (which asks hundreds of questions of people in dozens of countries, in an attempt to quantify differences in the culture, norms and beliefs of people in different societies), explains why, when European leaders — from Macron and Starmer, to Ireland’s Michael Martin — arrive in the Oval Office they are actually entering a parallel ideological universe from the one that they — and we — inhabit.
Linkblog
Something I noticed on Saturday’s FT letters page..
This Blog is also available as an email three days a week. If you think that might suit you better, why not subscribe? One email on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays delivered to your inbox at 6am UK time. It’s free, and you can always unsubscribe if you conclude your inbox is full enough already!