31 min listen
This week Freddy speaks to Andrew Cockburn, Washington editor of Harper’s Magazine, about America’s response to the developments in the Middle East. On the podcast they discuss the ‘squad’ (a section of Democrats who have been making pro-Palestinian noises), how America and Israel’s surveillance system allowed the attack to happen, and the importance of the conflict ahead of next year’s presidential election.
Crossing a state line on one of the American interstate roads, drivers are normally greeted by a variety of signs. They may advertise the delights awaiting the visitor – ‘10,000 LAKES’ or ‘FAMOUS POTATOES’ plus instructions about local speed limits. And normally, as the coup de grâce, ‘BUCKLE UP’. Travelling north in New England on the I-95 and passing from Massachusetts into New Hampshire the message is more discreet. A small sign announces ‘Buckle up under 18. Common sense for all’. In other words, in New Hampshire, adults of voting age do not have to wear seat belts. It is the only state in the US where this is not
One of Argentina’s presidential candidates is unlike the others. La Libertad Avanza’s Javier Milei whizzes past crowds shaking a chainsaw in the air and roaring his catchphrase ‘¡Viva la libertad, carajo!’, or ‘Long live freedom, goddamnit!’. In the run-up to the general election, on 22 October, this anarcho-capitalist libertarian has flipped from being a joker wild card – and something of a meme – to the front-runner. Milei, a pro-life, climate change-sceptical libertarian, sends a message of his intentions to chainsaw through the red tape of what he considers the most prolific ‘organised crime group’, otherwise known as the state. His chainsaw has become such a signature accessory that figurines have gone on sale of Milei
23 min listen
Freddy speaks to Roger Kimball, editor of the New Criterion and columnist for The Spectator’s US edition. After Kevin McCarthy was ousted as speaker of the House this week, they discuss why the Republican party is such a mess.
In comparison to the Republicans in the United States, the British Conservative party is a model of unity and discipline. In Manchester this week, for all the blather about Nigel Farage and ‘pandering’ to the far right, the grumbling about nanny-statism and HS2ing-to-nowhere, the Tories held themselves together. Across the Atlantic, meanwhile, a small group of right-wing representatives in Congress managed to throw out their own House speaker, Kevin McCarthy. A motion for him to ‘vacate to chair’ was won 216 to 210. That’s never happened before. The trigger for McCarthy’s removal was disgruntlement over the spending deal he struck with President Joe Biden in order to avoid a US
Congressman Matt Gaetz pulled the alarm but, unlike the stunt by his fellow House member Jamaal Bowman – who recently set off a fire alarm to delay a vote – there really was a fire. Gaetz set it himself, with help from seven other Republicans on the party’s populist right. Now the whole party has to deal with the smoking ruins. Make no mistake: the entire Republican Party will pay an enormous price for this manoeuvre Because the majority party has only a slim edge in the House of Representatives, any small, cohesive group among them can wield huge leverage. They can threaten to sink legislation or oust the Speaker by
Brits or Europeans might not have taken note of the ongoing strike by United Auto Workers (UAW) nor of the fact that Donald Trump has chosen to host them at a rally in Michigan instead of participating in the GOP primary debate last night – just a day after president Joe Biden had joined the workers on the picket line near Detroit. Yet the strike’s relevance lies not only in Michigan’s central place in America’s complicated electoral politics. It is also a harbinger of political battles as the Western world, and Europe in particular, transition to electric mobility. Most importantly, it is a warning to Europe that an overly ambitious
The worst job in America on Wednesday was trying to moderate the second Republican debate. With seven candidates on stage struggling for air time, the moderators, Dana Perino, Stuart Varney and Ilia Calderón, did a creditable job under impossible conditions. They asked the right questions but couldn’t stop the candidates from talking over each other or returning to previous questions which was they wanted to answer but hadn’t been asked. The moderators’ job was like being the referee with seven boxers in the ring. None of the fighters won, and none failed. They all put forward their best arguments in the sliver of time they had for each question. Unfortunately
‘If aliens attacked Earth, do you think we would be safer under Joe Biden or Donald Trump?’ That’s a question in a new poll of American voters, and 43 per cent of respondents opted for Trump, 32 per cent for Biden, while 25 per cent sagaciously picked ‘Don’t know’. It’s fun to imagine President Donald in charge against the extra-terrestrials. ‘Zogblark the Magnificent is a good friend of mine,’ Trump would shout from the White House lawn, as the helicopter blades of Marine One clattered away behind. ‘He’s said some very nice things about me. Believe me. Things you wouldn’t believe… But we can’t have him exerting the supreme authority
Another day in America, another judgment against the Trump family. In the latest, New York state Supreme Court Justice Arthur Engoron has ruled that the Trump Organisation is liable for ‘persistent and repeated fraud’ and stripped the 45th president’s family business of its operating licenses in the Empire State. At first glance, it appears to be a devastating piece of news for the Trumps’ fortunes and a victory for New York’s unabashedly anti-Trump Attorney General Letitia James. And, if the judgment is upheld after appeal, it would be exactly that. But that still could be years away. So for now, this new fraud verdict can simply be added to that ever-expanding, unclassified file marked ‘Trump’s ongoing legal troubles’. Judge Engoron, in rejecting Team Trump’s ‘bogus arguments’, suggested that the family’s lawyers had attempted to ‘glaringly misrepresent’
President Joe Biden’s re-election campaign has a major disadvantage. With no pandemic, Biden can no longer campaign from his basement and instead has to navigate the real world, which is filled with all kinds of hazards. Rogue sand bags, stairs, and bicycle pedals all threaten to trip up the president at any moment. It sounds absurd, but Operation Don’t Let Biden Fall is a ‘critical project’ for Team Biden, Axios reports. Surrogates for the president have publicly brushed away concern about Biden’s age as a right-wing conspiracy, but the campaign is well aware that there is a serious problem. Will Biden’s team put him in front of the voters and
Justin Trudeau’s government sees fascists everywhere, except when one is standing right under their nose. That’s the brilliant if bleak irony of the Canadian parliament’s standing ovation for Yaroslav Hunka, a 98-year-old veteran of the Ukrainian military who, it turns out, fought under the Nazis in the Second World War. It was an extraordinary sight, surely unprecedented in the modern West. At the behest of the House Speaker, Anthony Rota, MPs rose to their feet and gave rousing applause to an old bloke who once fought on the same side as Hitler. It occurred following an address to the parliament by Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky. He clapped too. Trudeau himself,
Professor Ibram X. Kendi has run into a spot of trouble. His fantastically funded Center for Antiracist Research – more than $43 million (£35 million) in the first two years alone – at Boston University is in financial meltdown. What happen to the $10 million (£8 million) from Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey? Where are the donations from discount retailer TJ Maxx, food emporium Stop & Shop, and exercise empire Peleton? Why did the centre lay off almost all its staff last week? No one at Boston University can give a straight answer. The story has made it into the national press, but the most illuminating details come from the student newspaper, the Daily Free
Hunter Biden, the ne’er-do-well son of the president, has been indicted by federal prosecutors on gun charges. Last night, a Delaware federal court indicted Biden on three counts following an investigation by Special Counsel David Weiss. Two of the counts concern the president’s son allegedly lying on a form when purchasing a Colt Cobra revolver five years ago, where, according to the indictment, he falsely claimed that he was not using illegal narcotics at the time of sale. The third count alleges that he was using the drugs while in possession of the firearm. The indictment attempts to lay out how Biden fibbed to the authorities when he agreed ‘that
Like the little boy who pointed out that the emperor was naked, veteran US politician Mitt Romney has just voiced an uncomfortable truth that everyone knows, but few wish to utter: America is being run by men who are too old for office. At 76, the former Republican governor of Massachusetts and presidential contender is no spring chicken himself, but in announcing that he is retiring from being the junior senator for his native state of Utah, Romney called on both 80-year-old President Joe Biden and 77-year-old former President Donald Trump – who is running for a second term in the White House – to follow his example and step down
There were many potential titles for Liz Truss’s memoir: 49 Days that Shook the World, perhaps, or simply What Happened, like Hillary Clinton’s. Instead, she’s gone for a cri de coeur: Ten Years to Save the West. Westminster has a long history of drawing inspiration from Washington Such swashbuckling language is best suited to an American market, and the former prime minister seems to have this in mind. She has declared that her book will appear ‘ahead of the US presidential election’ and explain why it’s vital that ‘conservative arguments win – and the left is defeated’. In the PR so far, Truss has referenced Joe Biden more times than
As Napoleon is reputed to have said, never interrupt your enemy when he is making a mistake. So why are Republicans seeking to impeach Joe Biden when he’s looking increasingly capable of losing next year’s presidential election all by himself? We will never know what kind of president Biden would have made in his prime, but it is clear that his prime was passed some time ago. It has become painful to watch the President interact with people or make a speech – even with prompt cards at the ready. This week, his press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre was moved to call a premature end to a press conference he had
Harvard, consistently ranked as one of the world’s best universities, has just been rated the worst for free speech in the United States. The Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (Fire), which compiled the rankings, described the state of free speech at Harvard as ‘abysmal’. This news is surprising, since in April over fifty Harvard academics formed a Council on Academic Freedom dedicated, in its words, ‘to promoting free enquiry, intellectual diversity and civil discourse’ on campus. The Council’s formation marked a milestone in official recognition of the problem of free speech, mainly for conservative professors. The psychologist Steven Pinker and Lawrence H. Summers, former advisor to President Clinton, are both members. So why does
Queen Elizabeth II, who died a year ago today, has left an unfillable void – not least for the many Americans like myself who so deeply admired Her Majesty. Though the United States rejected monarchy in 1776, Queen Elizabeth was to many of us a living reminder of the noble, just, and humane principles central to our inheritance from our mother country. Throughout her reign, the Queen played a significant role in enhancing the US-UK relationship. She maintained close relations between the two countries and was a robust ally to the United States. The Queen met every sitting US president during her reign, except Lyndon Johnson. Her capacity to charm
It’s a peculiar thing about billionaires: they don’t half have a weak spot for building ideal communities from the ground up. You could call it pluto-utopianism. The latest manifestation of this is California Forever. A number of ultra-wealthy Silicon Valley tech entrepreneurs have been quietly buying up 55,000 acres of farmland in Solano county, California, and at the end of last week they launched a website revealing what they planned to do with it. Behold, the future of rural America: a new community rising from the empty earth, the vision for which is set out in a series of watercolour-style illustrations. Here is a version of that anxiety transmitted into town-planning: a sudden burst of
