Saturday, September 22, 2018

Bobama

New York Times on the premium music tour style pricing for Michelle Obama book events --

Anand Giridharadas, the author of “Winners Take All: The Elite Charade of Changing the World,” a critique of modern philanthropy, said the Obamas should not be held to a higher standard than other former public officials who have made money after holding office, but he added that he was still taken aback by the planned rollout. “As the first African-American president and first lady, I am very wary of arguments that they should not do something everybody else was allowed to do,” Mr. Giridharadas said. “But an arena with tiered seating is a powerful metaphor for everything they presumably want to destroy. What this illustrates to me is that cashing in has become our common culture in a way we don’t realize. It’s the water in which we’re all swimming.”

To understand what's happening here, you don't need to look any further than a case of the resolution of Status Income Disequilibrium.

They don't make them like they used to

A classic New York City obituary in the New York Times for Anne Russ Federman. More social history in this than you'd get in entire books.

Saturday, September 15, 2018

Quote of the Day

In the FT,  Henry Mance wonders if the sudden change in style at the Daily Mail could happen in other newspapers:

As for the Financial Times, you'll know the revolution has come when you receive the first ever How To Spend It: Lidl Edition. 

Saturday, September 08, 2018

What happened in Islington didn't stay in Islington

The news of the separation of Boris Johnson and Marina Wheeler makes it worth recalling that, had that separation happened 3 years ago, Brexit, or at least the disorderly version of it, might not have happened at all. Because, as David Allen Green has pointed out, the obsession with the European Court of Justice seems to have metastasized within the Johnson - Wheeler household!

Saturday, September 01, 2018

The check is in the mail

From the Gulf coalition statement accepting very limited responsibility for the botched air strike in Yemen that hit a school bus --

The Joint Committee will be mandated to consider granting voluntary assistance to those affected in Yemen by contacting the legitimate Yemeni government to determine the identities and names of those affected so that they can be assisted in accordance with the procedures.

The casualties occurred in a rebel area. How will compensation sent through the "legitimate" government get to them?

Fake News

This blog has been approached by advocates for a McCain - Lieberman presidential run in 2020 to use the slogan "Best of Both Worlds."