Steve Kelman on Politics, Culture, and Life, 3.6.23
Steve Kelman, Harvard Kennedy School prof, moderate Dem, pro free speech/anti cancel culture, pro tax rich, pro-Israel. Research improving gov performance, China interest. Blog reprints Facebook posts
Trump CPAC speech and Ukraine
Reporting in Sweden's leading newspaper on Trump's CPAC speech emphasized his statement he would withdraw from Ukraine if elected. I may have missed something (please correct me if I'm wrong) but I haven't seen this even discussed in the US news coverage I've read of the speech.
Trump on the pre-Trump Republican party
Trump's description of the Republican Party before him: "“We had a Republican Party that was ruled by freaks, neocons, globalists, open-border zealots and fools.”
Record homicides in New York?
At his CPAC speech, Trump said that "killings are taking place at a number like nobody’s ever seen, right in Manhattan.” Homicides reached record of 2245 in 1990. Last year the number was 433. The numbers have declined somewhat the last few years.
“Final battle”
Referring to the fight for control of the Republican party with his opponents, Trump said at the CPAC meeting, "This is the final battle." It is so nice to hear him quote word-for-word lines from the leftist anthem the Internationale.
Meeting of China’s “parliament”
China's Global Times writes of the meeting of China's "parliament": "This year's two sessions provide a panoramic window to observe how China's whole-process people's democracy is practiced." This is true, but it's not a pretty picture, with a week of fawning.
Guessing who’s Jewish
The respected, tradition-rich Jewish newspaper The Forward has an article featured on its website called "Was a Jewish soldier the only man to get out of the Alamo alive?" This somewhat weird story reminds me of when I was younger being on the lookout for people one wouldn't guess were Jewish who actually were.
Fifth column
I have learned that the phrase "5th column," to refer to people inside a country who support the country's enemy, was coined during the Spanish Civil War in the thirties. It was definitely quite common when I was younger, does anybody know if people are still using this expression at all?
Australian foreign minister Penny Wong
Australia's foreign minister is named Penny Wong -- great to see an Asian-Australian in this important position, my impression is this is relatively uncommon there, despite a large population of Chinese origin.