Opinion / American Politics

Junk Diplomacy

We started with junk food. Then we had junk sport. Now we have Junk Diplomacy. This takes numerous exotic forms. But in its mainstream version it consists of high-level expensive and expansive Dialogue, the more vacuous the better. Thus European Voice reports poor prospects for this week’s EU/Latin America Summit […]

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A Question…

… about the Democratic nomination race in the USA.   Hillary Clinton’s chances look to rely on bringing into the reckoning the Democrat delegates from Florida and Michigan, who for internal party reasons (as things stand) are excluded. Byron York nails it: Her demand was pooh-poohed in some circles of the commentariat, but […]

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I Am Not Surprised

My observations on Poland’s Diplomatic Ball were picked up by Bartosz Weglarczyk’s fine blog in Poland and have raised an eyebrow or two. (Note to non-Polish speakers: every time you see a Z in a Polish text, remember that it serves much the same function as an H in English. Thus cz […]

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The Precise Stamp Of A Cut Diamond

Maybe I follow US politics too much. Those who wisely do not might like at least to be aware of one Professor Bill Ayers. As a younger man Bill Ayers had the full 60s’ experience to the point of being an original member of the Weathermen, a group of charmless people dedicated […]

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Chicago’s Busy Weekend (2)

More on this subject via Instapundit who compares the bloody quagmire in Chicago to violence in Mosul, Iraq: Still, they’re different: One has crooked officials, violent gangs with their hooks into government and law enforcement, and a culture of corruption that has resisted the central government’s effects to clean it up, and the […]

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Wailing At The Blood-Red Moon

More hi-octane prose from (of course) Camille Paglia bearing down on Hillary Clinton and her prospects. Questions. Camille says this : Furthermore, Hillary’s mythomania and her chameleon-like daily alterations of persona and voice are unsettling. (Even Hillary’s eye colour is fake: she wears blue contact lenses.) No male candidate enjoys […]

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Looking Smart

The Sunday Times today writes about expensive Sunningdale courses for civil servants on how to comport themselves and look nice. The case for the defence? A spokesman for the school said: “Many senior politicians have had training in how they present themselves, right back to Margaret Thatcher and Bill Clinton. […]

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Food Madness

Back in April 1986 Foreign Secretary Sir Geoffrey Howe made a powerful speech at the Lord Mayor’s Diplomatic Banquet in London in which he called for an an end to the global agriculture subsidy race. I remember it well, as I helped him draft it. Some changes have happened since […]

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More Cuban Reforms

Great news from Cuba!  More reforms! Take the cases of Cuba and, say, Singapore. Both islands in a nice warm climate. Cuba in 1958 had a per capita GDP of $3,170 according to the OECD. (Canada‘s was $8,947) … the island nation’s per person wealth was higher than any East Asian country […]

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US Ambassador Gunned Down

Only now has the full tragic truth emerged about Hillary Clinton’s 1996 visit to Tuzla in Bosnia. This authentic tape shows exactly what happened just as Mrs Clinton was meeting a young Bosnian girl at Tuzla airport. US Ambassdor John Menzies and Bosniac leader Ejup Ganic were both blown away […]

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