I wouldn't describe my response as 'enraged.' And the suggestion that Britain shut down its Foreign Office building because it is too old fashioned, proudly celebratory and historical for modern times is not conservative. Nor is it mildly progressive.

“The right is witnessing a revival of ideologies centred around hereditary differences among large human groups, eugenics and IQ, and a Nietzschean worship of strength.”

🖊️ Sohrab Ahmari newstatesman.com/comment/2024/0…

Yes but a month or so in, triumphalism soared

Maybe you are the eternal unipole after all

Some of them are, like Iran and North Korea. Egypt secretly planned to supply rockets until it was discovered. China's supply of non-lethal equipment is also important for Russia's war effort. & giving Russia an economic lifeline matters more than resolutions. Ask Moscow.

To be blunt, the governments of the 'global south' have been very flexible & accommodating with Russia over Ukraine. Their opposition to atrocity & colonialism over Gaza comes across as hollow. That in itself doesn't make them wrong. But moral lectures will ring hollow.

Apropos of proposals to dramatically increase U.S. defense spending…

There are major fiscal constraints going forward. economist.com/finance-and-ec…

Right. Expectation Russia's economy would quickly collapse assumed US coercive economic power greater than it was, & that world would isolate Russia. Large parts of the 'Rest' trade busily with Putin. They don't want to bleed for Ukraine.
thecritic.co.uk/issues/may-202…

Indeed. And vice versa.

Sort of. On one hand, they speak of history as directional. Yet they also feel the need to agitate others to get there. Future teleology as form of advocacy. Ben Cobley

🎯

During the CW, the Chinese did not have a blue water navy. In the 1960s, mainland China had a gdp per capita that was literally equal to or lower than much of subsaharan Africa. The Soviets certainly had some serious naval assets in the Pacific, but not comparable to the…

My February essay critiquing the pro-Hamas left as it endangers the Palestine solidarity movement sadly has fresh relevance as Verso has just put out an essay calling on the international left to back “heroic”Hamas. It’s now been unpaywalled: compactmag.com/article/how-th…

Thread.

Used to admire Jodi’s work. But her writing on the Verso blog defending Oct 7 as the “heroic” “latest instantiation of the Palestinian revolution”, calling for the left to support Hamas, isn’t just monstrous but acts as Netanyahu’s useful idiocy undermining Palestinian solidarity

I must complete & file a US tax return this year. Via the miracle of Sprintax. Americans, I salute your stoicism.

Britain’s elite is obsessed with Trump and the States, writes Patrick Porter, when it needs to concentrate on the Home Front
thecritic.co.uk/were-all-livin…