On Robert Tsao, Donald Trump, Michael Chertoff, Kamala Harris, William F. Buckley Jr., Mario Vargas Llosa, a song of September, and more
Did you see this news? The headline reads, “Taiwan tycoon donates $47m to train 3 million ‘civilian warriors’ for defence against Chinese invasion.” That tycoon is Robert Tsao, the founder of a microchip-maker. The Chinese Communists, says Tsao, “learnt violence and lying from the Soviet Union.” He adds, “The People’s Republic of China is a gangster organization disguised as a government and country.”
If you wish to learn more about Robert Tsao, consult this article from Radio Free Asia. It is Tsao’s fervent hope that Taiwan not become “another Hong Kong,” as he puts it: another great, free, Chinese place that is crushed by the Communists. Tsao, a septuagenarian, is thinking about his final years. You know what would be a good way to go? “Dying laughing while watching the fall of the CCP.”
There are many, many ways to give away your money. Many, many types of philanthropy. Just about all of them are laudable. But giving away your millions to train people to defend themselves against invasion and subjugation by an evil, murderous dictatorship? That is inspired.
• I also admire Donald and Barbara Jonas. A recent obit in the New York Times was headed “Donald Jonas, Retail Magnate Who Sold Art to Help Nurses, Dies at 92.” The subheading tells us, “A founder of the Lechters housewares chain, he and his wife focused their philanthropy on a profession they felt had been largely ignored.”
From an early age, I have believed that nurses, in general, are saints among us. The profession is almost self-selecting. You need great reserves of compassion to do it.
About Robert Tsao’s philanthropy, I used the word “inspired.” The same applies to the Jonases’.
• “To China’s fury, UN accuses Beijing of Uyghur rights abuses.” (Article here.) If the Chinese government — the perpetrator — is furious, that speaks very well of the U.N.’s report.
• You may have seen this: “Trump shares barrage of QAnon content and other conspiracy theories on his social media platform.” The subheading of that article reads, “Facing numerous investigations, Trump shared posts promoting conspiracy theories, some of them from the account that originated QAnon, as well as a fake quote from his daughter.”
Trump’s social-media platform is called “Truth Social.” It is Trump’s version of Twitter. The tweets, so to speak, are called “truths.” When you tweet something, you “truth” it. A retweet is a “re-truth.”
Every day, Trump pumps out his lies via Truth Social, “truthing” these “truths.” I try not to say “Orwellian” (or “Kafkaesque”) except on special occasions. The most apposite of occasions. I believe this is one of them.
Orwellian.
• In the course of his “truthing,” Trump talked about the 2020 presidential election, saying,
Declare the rightful winner or, and this would be the minimal solution, declare the 2020 Election irreparably compromised and have a new Election, immediately!
I sometimes wonder: Are MAGA people, and anti-anti-MAGA people, ever embarrassed by things like this? Do they ever think, in private moments, that maybe Trump is not fit, in mind or character, to be president? Or is such a thought verboten, because it would risk giving aid and comfort to the Democrats and the “RINOs”?
• “Obstruction now a major focus in Trump documents probe,” reads a headline from the Associated Press. The article has many interesting things in it — one of which is this:
In some instances, the agents and attorneys conducting the review of seized documents required additional clearances since the material was so highly classified.
Important things have become clear: Trump took many classified documents (some of them classified at the very highest levels). He lied about it. He refused to return them. Etc. I have one question: Why? Why did Trump take the documents (and lie about it, etc.)?
I don’t know that we’ll ever have the answer. But I wish we could.
• Another headline reads, “Republicans notably silent, split as Trump probe deepens.” (Article here.) It’s getting harder and harder to portray the FBI as the wrongdoer.
• Michael Chertoff has long been one of my favorite public officials. He was a top-flight Republican lawyer. He was a judge on the Third Circuit Court of Appeals. He was secretary of homeland security under George W. Bush. I interviewed Chertoff in 2006 (here). Very thoughtful, deeply experienced guy.
As this article tells us, Chertoff has come out for the Democratic nominee in the Pennsylvania governor’s race. This says something big — honking — about the Republican nominee, who is a classic MAGA demagogue.
“I dedicated my career in public service to upholding the rule of law and defending the Constitution,” said Chertoff. “Right now, we all have a responsibility to support candidates of whichever party who will stand up and defend our democracy.”
• Let’s have a little language. The other day, Vice President Kamala Harris spoke of America’s explorations in space, and she used a notable phrase: “mankind and womankind.” For eons, no one doubted that “mankind” referred to the entire human race — not just one sex. Same with the word “man,” in relevant contexts. (“The rights of man.”) I think the loss of this understanding is both sad and dumb.
• On a recent Tuesday, Kevin D. Williamson was talking about words that are squished up and words that are not squished up. I thought of him when reading the Bible.
The classic evolution goes like this: two words, hyphenation, one word. A classic example is “wild life,” “wild-life,” “wildlife.”
Ooh, let me sneak in something related: Young people — i.e., people who are younger than I — write “email.” I am attached to “e-mail.” I like that separate letter. How do I feel about “Gmail”? Not good, frankly.
But back to the Bible. I saw (in the King James Version) “every where” — which would later be “everywhere,” of course. And “way side” — which would later be “wayside.”
Talk about old-school. (“Oldschool”?)
• Earlier this week, I had a post on Bill Buckley and his vocabulary — and his spirit, which is related to the vocabulary. Later, I was talking with a colleague about the difference ’tween now and then. We generalized — but a little generalizing is permissible. Otherwise, hard to talk.
WFB — William F. Buckley Jr. — wanted to lift people up to him: his vocabulary, his way of thinking, his manners. And lots of “ordinary” people aspired to be like him, or to approach him. These days, writers are apt to write “down” — often to the lowest common denominator. They talk the language of the rabblerouser, the mountebank, lest they be accused of “elitism.” The populist has the upper hand. The whip hand.
This is a big subject, needless to say. I addressed it in an essay last year: “Voices from Philistia” (whose title is borrowed from WFB, naturally).
• Sam Roberts is a master — a master writer. A few days ago, he published an obit headed “Roland Mesnier, Pastry Chef to Five Presidents, Dies at 78.” He described Monsieur Mesnier as “a member of the chief executive’s kitchen cabinet.”
• More masters? Here is MVL — Mario Vargas Llosa — on Gustave Flaubert. What a treat.
• Masterly writing is found in this piece, too. I have linked to Adam Kirsch, in The New Criterion, on Edna St. Vincent Millay. Delicious piece of writing.
• Stick with The New Criterion. My piece in the new issue is about recordings — recordings of music. Maybe I could quote the last two lines:
I hope that all great musicians get to have a recorded legacy, of some kind. The not-quite-great ones, too.
• Happy September! Lots of songs about September — but I’m thinking of this one.
Let me quote from a piece I wrote in 2020 called “Waxing Lyrical”:
A month ago, I was interested to read the obit of Allee Willis, who, with Maurice White, wrote “September,” the Earth, Wind & Fire song. White had a nonsense phrase in there: “bah-dee-yah.” It occurred over and over. Willis asked him what it meant. He replied, “Who cares?” “I learned my greatest lesson ever in songwriting from him,” Willis said, many years later. “Never let the lyric get in the way of the groove.”
Maybe I could quote one more paragraph:
Wherever she went — weddings, bar mitzvahs, shopping malls — Allee Willis heard “September” played. People told her it made them happy, and that made her happy. It is, I must say, one of the happiest songs I know.
Damn skippy (as we said way back).
• You know how you get calls, on your cellphone, that are not from anyone you know? Calls that are crank calls, or spam calls? You may get a call from a city — even a country — in which you know no one.
The other day, my phone rang and this is what Caller ID said: “Fiji.”
Uh-uh.
• Lindsay Lloyd was one of my favorite people. He was a seasoned international-affairs man — a great friend of freedom, democracy, and human rights. For the last ten years or so, he worked at the George W. Bush Institute, in Dallas. What a gent. A pure American, a classic American, as I see it. He passed away a month ago. The announcement from the Bush Institute is here. We could use a lot more Lindsay Lloyds. I am so glad to have known that one.
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