Often, you hear laments about bipartisanship: There’s not enough of it. I often think there’s too much of it. The parties seem to agree on trade (hostility to); the deficit and debt (indifference to); entitlements (whistling through the graveyard); and more. Could we have more partisanship, please?

In the Washington Post, Catherine Rampell had a column titled “Republicans and Democrats are falling for the false allure of autarky” (here). So true.

Let me quote another article, this one from Bloomberg News:

Former President Donald Trump’s proposal to institute a 10% tariff on almost all imports would cost American consumers $300 billion a year, result in the loss of 550,000 US jobs, and cut growth by 0.7%, according to a new analysis from the nonpartisan Tax Foundation.

In life, feelings sometimes take precedence over facts, practicalities, etc. Let me propose something to you: A good number of people would prefer a lower standard of living — less prosperity — to cooperation with foreigners and other “outside” elements.

True or false?

• Birnam Wood has come to Dunsinane. Over the years, I have had cause to knock CAIR (the Council on American–Islamic Relations). Not now. A press release says that CAIR has “joined Uyghur advocates in calling on travel companies to stop selling trips to China’s Xinjiang region, where the Chinese government is conducting a campaign of genocide and mass internment against Muslim Uyghurs and other Turkic minority groups.”

Bravo, CAIR.

• Some readers may snort at what I now have to say, but (a) when don’t they? and (b) okay. Senator Bob Menendez is in perpetual corruption trouble. A subheading in the Wall Street Journal reads, “Lawyers for New Jersey Democrat preparing to meet with prosecutors in a bid to head off potential charges in public-corruption probe.” (Article here.)

This pains me because Menendez, in my view, is exceptionally sound on foreign policy (as Cuban Americans tend to be). He is a Scoop Jackson Democrat, and thus a rare specimen.

It would be a pity to lose him — but if he’s guilty, he’s guilty.

• A tweet, followed by a comment from me:

San Francisco is possibly America’s most beautiful big city. It has degraded appallingly. This is not only a local calamity, or a Bay Area disaster, but also a national concern.

• A headline from NBC News reads, “Rudy Giuliani defamed former Georgia election workers, a federal judge rules.” And the subheading: “Giuliani conceded he made ‘false’ statements about a mother and daughter who sued him for baselessly claiming they committed fraud in the 2020 election.” (Article here.)

Ruby Freeman and Shaye Moss are “little people.” Trump & Co. made their lives a “living nightmare,” as the women have said. Freeman and Moss were mere collateral damage in MAGA’s war on the election process. This is one of the things that burn me: The populists claim they are for “the people.” But they are quite willing to trample all over the likes of Freeman and Moss in pursuit of their political objectives, namely power.

Think of the election officials in Arizona, too — all the death threats they received, from people whipped up by MAGA lies.

These lies have not been harmless. Flesh-and-blood people are their victims. I wish the Trumpistas would reflect on this, but I have seen no evidence that they do.

• Speaking of Arizona: “Blake Masters Plans to Enter Race for Kyrsten Sinema’s Senate Seat.” That is a headline from the Wall Street Journal (article here). Masters would run in a primary against Kari Lake — making it MAGA on MAGA. A friend of mine commented, “Iran–Iraq War.” In an earlier time, people said, “Battle of Stalingrad.”

• Another political note:

A stateswoman of MTG’s stature should not have to settle for the lowly U.S. Senate.

• From the BBC: “Police arrest hundreds at ‘gay event’ in Nigeria.” I will quote a couple of sentences from the article:

Police spokesman DSP Bright Edafe said homosexuality would “not be allowed in Nigeria, it will never be tolerated”.

“This act is evil and we cannot copy the Western world,” he said.

I know that millions in the West would applaud this. I also know that liberal democracy is terribly rare — like green shoots in a desert. The way of the world is authoritarianism, it seems. Instances of liberal democracy are semi-miracles, to be appreciated whenever, and wherever, they crop up.

• For the George W. Bush Presidential Center, Ellen Bork has written about a democracy leader and political prisoner in Burma: Lin Htet Naing, who goes by “James.” (Article here.) James is being kept in a prison called “Insein,” where torture is routine. He and his wife, Phyoe Phyoe Aung, participated in a program at the Bush Institute in 2015. These people, who risk so much, wanting freedom and democracy, are a continuing wonder. Heroic, in my book.

• Rangoon has Insein Prison. Tehran has Evin. Managua has El Chipote. François Duvalier, in Haiti, had Fort Dimanche. On it goes. These places are hearts, or bowels, of darkness.

• From the Wall Street Journal: “Hunted by the Taliban, Ignored by Washington — an Afghan’s Fate After Helping U.S. Forces.” (Article here.) The subheading: “Ahmad Jawed wonders which will come first, approval for a U.S. visa or his capture; ‘If they recognize me, they will kill me.’”

In 2015, I wrote a relevant article, here. “A Question of Honor: As the wolves circle, Iraqis who helped us are pleading for visas.” I spoke of Vietnamese allies, as well as Iraqi. And I would like to quote the last paragraph of the article:

Soon, we will have desperate Afghans to think about, or ignore. The Iraqi Refugee Assistance Project helps them, too. IRAP’s website says, “Every day we receive emails and letters from Afghan interpreters and former and active-duty U.S. Service Members concerned about their interpreter’s fate.” IRAP also cites a “recent news estimate,” and a painful estimate it is: One Afghan is killed every 36 hours owing to his affiliation with the United States.

• Something lighter (what isn’t?): Dan Hannan has spotted a unicorn. “Meet Javier Milei, the world’s only electable libertarian.” So reads the heading over a recent Hannan column. Señor Milei is running for president of Argentina. Hmmm.

• Years ago, I knew people in Minnesota who very much admired a man named Al Quie. Funny-looking name, right? It is pronounced “kwee.” He was a Minnesota politician, a Republican, who served in Congress for 20 years and as governor for four. He has died at 99 (a month before he would have turned 100). The obit in the New York Times says that Quie “became identified with Christian piety and limited government.” There are worse things in life than Christian piety and limited government. Many, many, and much, worse things.

• A little music? For my “New York chronicle,” in the September New Criterion, go here. Reviews from the Salzburg Festival? Here’s a string of five: Evgeny Kissin; Matthias Goerne; Grigory Sokolov; the Vienna Philharmonic under Riccardo Muti; and Asmik Grigorian.

May I kvetch about transliteration? “Evgeny” is pronounced “Yevgeny.” We used to spell the name “Yevgeny.” We also used to write “Yelena,” the way that name is pronounced. Now we write “Elena.” Why? And who decides?

Dunno. But would like to speak to him/her/them.

• The New York Times had a typo — or rather a wrong word. (A typo is “lane” when you mean to say “lame.”) In an obit of Laszlo Birinyi, “Leading Stock Picker and Market Forecaster,” the Times had “severe downtown” when the intended phrase was “severe downturn.” (For a “severe downtown,” see my note, above, about San Francisco.) I bet this was a problem of auto-correct. I have that problem, especially in iMessages.

I shared the downturn/downtown business with a colleague of mine, who said, “Sometimes a typo is better than the intended word.” I told her a story from years ago. I had written an article about Susana Martinez, who was then the governor of New Mexico. In that article, I described her as “a full-service conservative.” This was in the Before Times, when most Americans had a different idea of “conservative” than they do now. I meant that Martinez was a free-marketeer, a social conservative, an advocate of U.S. leadership in the world, etc.

Kevin Williamson said he liked my phrase “full-service conservative.” Uh-oh. That was a mistake. I had intended to write the conventional phrase: “full-spectrum conservative.” In my lil’ mind, that got twisted into “full-service conservative” — which I too kind of like, frankly.

Sounds like I was talking about a gas station!

Thank you for joining me today, my friends, and have a good weekend.

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