Sorry, Jamie, but even by “businessman” standards—if they still exist—you’re a whore, and a pretty goddamn big one too. Here’s Jamie talking to CNBC about the state of the world, after meeting with Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy (Ukrainian spelling as per Wikipedia): But, you know, my heart goes out to the guy. I mean, people…
Tag: Russia
The Coalition of the Swilling
Here are two questions that few today can answer, to wit: “During the Vietnam War, what could you buy in a Filipino PX that you couldn’t buy in an American PX?” “Johnnie Walker Black Label and Chivas Regal.” “What else could you buy in a Filipino PX?” “Nothing.” After Lyndon Johnson sent American ground troops…
F*ck yeah I’m a Wikipedia-surfin’ Kissinger wannabe! Ugottaproblemwitdat?
My old buddy/bête noir Dan Drezner brings me this message, Are "Wikipedia-Surfing Kissinger Wannabes" Killing the Political Risk Field?, jumping off a fulminatin’ post by one Tina Fordham, a serious, totally non-amateur political risk chick who now runs her own company, Fordham Global Foresight. Writing in the Financial Times, Tina ripped a new one for…
Shorter Bill Barr: Yes, I am a complete tool. Surprised?
Well, I am, for one, not. In fact, there never was a doubt in my mind that William Barr was a super shit, a super shit—to muddy the metaphor—of the very first water, a sentiment I have expressed any number of times, in exuberantly fecal prose. If there ever were any doubt in anyone’s mind—and…
Shorter India: “The United States of ‘America’? Isn’t that one of those little western countries?”
That’s the perspective from New Delhi, Varanasi and Chennai, as reported by NYT guy Roger Cohen in his long post, Russia’s War Could Make It India’s World, suggesting that the Biden administration’s moralizing attempt to turn the current world situation into Cold War II isn’t playing too well beyond the Atlantic community of nations, almost…
Joe Biden’s foreign policy: regressin’ to meaninglessness and following the path of greatest stupidity
Gee whiz but I wish I wasn’t so prescient. A whole six months ago I wrote a post Joe Biden likes being a Cold War President, moaning a bit theatrically about Uncle Joe’s “senile swagger.” Well, it seems like Joe was just getting warmed up. United States Enters a New Era of Direct Confrontation With…
Fareed Zakaria is showing definite signs of improvement. He definitely is!
China is weaker than we thought. Will we change our policies accordingly? reads the head for Fareed Zakaria’s latest column, which I found cogent in the extreme, Fareed noting that, way back in 1992, when he was, well, managing editor of Foreign Affairs—“my first full-time job,” he notes—so humble!—“everyone” thought that Japan was going to…
Yo, Blobists! If we “have” to learn how to get along with Saudi Arabia, shouldn’t we “have” to learn how to get along with Russia and China too?
Yeah, Blobists! Or Establishmentarians, or whatever you like to call yourselves these days! What is the deal with this hardnosiosity, or perhaps rhinosaurusism, that is coming to the fore with regard to Saudi Arabia? I first noticed, and bewailed, this unfortunate “trend” last March, when I faulted Atlantic editor Jeff Goldberg for pushing the line…
What if they gave a Cold War, and nobody came?
I spend a lot of time grasping at straws these days, and Politico has kindly sent a couple wafting my way of late, viz., The U.S. Can’t Force the Rest of the World to Support Ukraine. Here’s Why. and A Forecasting Model Used by the CIA Predicts a Surprising Turn in U.S.-China Relations, said surprising…
Ukrainians brave, Russians cowards! Ukraine good, Russia bad! Well, yeah, but couldn’t I get a little nuance on the side?
War, no matter what anyone wants to tell you, is not a morality play, where one side is ever brave and virtuous, and the other ever sneering and evil. And, to amplify that point a little, we shouldn’t end up fighting World War III just because the Russian invasion of Ukraine is deeply immoral. The…