“Republicans are marinating in gloom following the midterm elections, and fair enough. They ought to spend time considering the course that led them to lose so spectacularly in Iowa, Ohio, Texas and Mississippi. But the pessimism about their party’s chances in 2028, which has some people suggesting that Vice President JD Vance write off the year and wait for a better one, is overdone. … Some elections are unwinnable. Democrats were never going to beat Ronald Reagan in 1984, no matter who they nominated or what the nominee said. Republicans had no chance of winning in 1996 or 2008, either. But it’s much too soon to say the Republican nomination isn’t worth having in 2028.” (11/12/26)
“Donald Trump is not well. His hands are swollen and discolored. He brags about ‘acing’ a cognitive test that is used as an instrument to detect dementia. He appears to have suffered from a stroke which led to visible irregularities on his face. He regularly falls asleep during press conferences and shits himself on camera. Donald Trump is not well. But he still retains his power to terrorize his own closest supporters.” (11/12/26)
“Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang resigned from the chipmaker on Thursday, sending shares down 7% and capping a whirlwind week that cast a pall over what was once the most valuable company in the world. The chipmaker’s CFO Colette Kress will serve as interim CEO, while the board conducts a search for a permanent successor, looking at both internal and external candidates, the company said Thursday. … Huang’s ouster came less than a week after he admitted to an affair with a suspected Chinese spy; on Wednesday, multiple media reports detailed that Huang had another extramarital affair with a subordinate, leaving his position untenable at the company he founded 33 years ago.” (11/12/26)
“At school, my son is studying King Lear. In a recent test, he came fifth best of twenty-two students. ‘What was the subject of the test?’ I asked him. ‘It is impossible to feel sorry for Lear in the first two scenes of Act One,’ he told me. ‘What did you write?’ I asked. ‘That it is not impossible to feel sorry for Lear. Because of Lear’s cognitive decline.’ Lear, victim of Alzheimer’s disease. One of the richest literary outputs of human history: swallowed by a diagnosis.” (11/12/26)
“When Vladimir Bukovsky’s memoir of his public struggle against Soviet tyranny appeared in 1978 in Michael Scammell’s energetic English translation, reviewers welcomed it as an exceptional book. Written with literary flair and suffused with quiet moral authority, it exposed, in excruciating detail, the demonic brutality of the psychiatric repression of political prisoners under Khrushchev and Brezhnev. To Build a Castle also vividly portrayed the misery of life on both sides of the barbed wire in a country ruled by fear, plagued by pervasive aggression, alcoholism, and nightmarish bureaucratic torments, and impoverished by universal corruption and an economically murderous ideology.” (11/12/26)
“The offenses cited by Representative Thomas Massie (R-KY) in commencing impeachment proceedings against Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth—that he initiated and sustained the war with Iran without required congressional approval, conducted military operations in Yemen and the Caribbean without such approval, and eroded protections for civilians trapped in overseas war zones—are all valid and fully justify his removal from office in accordance with constitutional precepts. But however worthy, they fail to capture his essential, unpardonable offense: strategic malpractice when commanding troops in battle.” (11/12/26)
“When French finances go deeply negative France cannot simply demand that the Bank of France print more francs out of thin air. The franc is gone and the Bank of France, which still exists, is an intermediate entity between French banks and the European Central Bank. The power to print more euros and buy French bonds is difficult because the other members of the European Union have power to oppose what they easily see as monetization of French debt that probably will not be repaid in euros of purchasing power as lent. If they accede to a new round of bond buying at all, the interest rate will be much, much higher.” (11/12/26)
