Steve Kelman on Politics, Culture, and Life, 3.20.23
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
Republican phishing
I just got the following email from "Republican membership services.": "Are you letting your 3-year Republican Membership streak disappear or did you miss our email?" What weird phishing. Never contributed a cent to Republicans.
Getting a tweet from Marjorie Taylor Greene
Wow, how did a tweet from Marjorie Taylor Greene land on my Twitter feed? Thoughts?
Biden’s “masters” in Beijing?
A Fox reporter has referred to "Biden's masters in Beijing." Over the line.
Latin American teams in baseball championship
My Spanish article for today from The Times is about the world baseball championship, where most of the teams are Latin American. The article centers on fans from various countries now living in Miami. Differences between US and Latin American people: "The Americans just watch. The Latinos play, dance, and have fun." "It's like going to a concert without music." Guessing this article appeared only in the Spanish edition of the Times, nowhere in English.
Signing up for TikTok
I just signed up for TikTok to get a feel for what was on the site. I saw two people demonstrating handbags, a video of an NFL football game, and a link to Japanese TV news. I can understand why Marco Rubio is worried the Chinese will use the site to manipulate American opinion.
“Israel” in Chinese
Just learned from a book I am reading on Chinese Jews that the Chinese word for "Israel" (yisileye) actually means something -- the grant of lands by a new emperor. This is in line with the amazing ability of Chinese to come up with Chinese homonyms for names of Western products -- e.g., cola as in Coca Cola is "ke le" (entertaining).
Israeli secular Jews back democracy protests
The Israel Democracy Institute estimates that one-third of all Israeli secular Jews have signed petitions or demonstrated against Netanyahu's judicial plans. A huge number, though essentially no ultra-Orthodox have joined them. Over half of Israeli Jews are secular.