Impromptus

‘These guys are good,’ &c.

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An Israeli waves a national flag during a parade marking Jerusalem Day at the Western Wall in Jerusalem, 2009. (Darren Whiteside / Reuters)
On an Israeli operation in Iran; Donald Trump and Ron DeSantis; Abraham Lincoln and George Orwell; and more

The PGA Tour used to have a slogan: “These guys are good.” I know that some people make too much of the Mossad and its abilities. No intelligence service is superhuman. But, boy, these guys are good. Here is a headline from last week: “Mossad abducted terror leader inside Iran to thwart Cyprus attack.” (Article here.)

Iran sends agents to countries, including the United States, to kidnap its critics — its Iranian critics in exile. (One such target has been Masih Alinejad, a great and brave woman, and a friend of mine.) What’s the difference between that and what the Mossad has done?

Bill Buckley had an excellent answer to this — he was thinking, really, of the CIA versus the KGB: One man pushes an old lady into the path of an onrushing bus, and another man pushes an old lady out of the path of an onrushing bus. The point about the two men is not that they both push old ladies around.

• Bianca Jagger is probably the most famous Nicaraguan, if it is not the dictator, Daniel Ortega. She is using her fame, her platform, for good — to call for human rights in her brutalized, pulverized native country:

Viva Bianca, viva Bishop Álvarez, and viva a free Nicaragua.


More in Israel

• Grant that countries are different from one another, that cultures are different from one another. Down the centuries, however, people have said: “Japan is really different.” Isn’t it so?

Have an article, headed, “In workaholic Japan, ‘job leaving agents’ help people escape the awkwardness of quitting.”

• Stay in the East, for another interesting report: “South Koreans grow younger overnight as the country changes how it counts people’s ages.”

• On seeing this, I thought, as I often do, of Oscar Hammerstein II:

“You’ve got to be carefully taught.” And the adults around this precious girl have done a number on her.

• Have a look at this:

As many have said, a Trump rally is like a pro-wrestling show. Trump, of course, had experience in these shows, before entering politics. If this is the case, is Senator Graham like the designated villain? The one the crowd is supposed to boo?

I know there is stagecraft in politics, and I’m not opposed to it. (You don’t need to go the full Leni Riefenstahl, however. A Mike Deaver level will do.) Still, there ought to be sincerity, authenticity, and dignity, too.

• Have a look at this:

A walk down Memory Lane. In November 2015, Trump held a rally in Worcester, Mass. As I recall, the weather was horrible, and people stood in line for hours, outside in the dark. (I might be stretching this story, the way a fish grows in retellings, but the gist is solid.) I thought, “Huh. Whoa.”

Flash forward to March 2016. Trump holds a rally somewhere in Arizona. And the traffic is bumper to bumper for miles and miles. I remember a helicopter, filming the scene. Again, I thought, “Whoa.”

Trump indeed marched to the nomination, and he won the general, through the Electoral College.

My message to Democrats (not that they’re listening, or that anyone else is, for that matter): Don’t be complacent. Don’t be complacent about Trump 2024. Especially when your candidate, the president, is feeble.

To be continued.

• You may well have seen this:

I thought Jonathan Swan’s comment was apt:

I’ve said for years now: I have many wishes for the Republican Party and the conservative movement, but two of the biggest are — that they recover a proper sense of (1) manliness and (2) patriotism.

Here is an article by Nicholas Nehamas and Maggie Haberman in the New York Times: “DeSantis, Seeking Attention, Uses L.G.B.T.Q. Issues to Attack Trump.” The article includes an interesting quotation from Trump. Let me get to that second.

Back in 2016, Trump said this, to the editors of the Times: “You know, if it gets a little boring, if I see people starting to sort of, maybe thinking about leaving, I can sort of tell the audience, I just say, ‘We will build the wall!’ and they go nuts.”

Last month, Trump said, “I talk about transgender, everybody goes crazy. Five years ago, you didn’t know what the hell it was.”

Could transgender and gay stuff be in the ’24 cycle what the “wall” was in the ’16?

• I had never heard of Andrew Tate until he was arrested for human trafficking, rape, etc. Apparently, he is supposed to be a “conservative influencer” and a “manly man.” Have a taste of what he says to his 7 million Twitter followers:

It ain’t Bill Buckley . . .

• I often say, “Martin Luther King is younger than you think.” That seems a strange thing to say, but you will know what I mean. If King were alive today, he would not be the oldest living Nobel peace laureate — it would still be Henry Kissinger. King seems such a distant figure, because he was murdered, at 39, so long ago.

His sister, Christine King Farris, has now died at 95. To read an obit, go here.

• Marvin Kitman, who was a TV critic, among other things, has died at 93. I smiled at something funny in his obit — something funny that Kitman wrote. I have had, I suppose, a lifelong crush on Cheryl Ladd. Still, this is funny.

Cheryl starred in a 1983 TV movie called “Kentucky Woman.” Wrote Kitman, “Cheryl Ladd as a coal miner was a very moving television experience. It made me want to convert to nuclear power.”

(We probably should, regardless.)

• A little language? More and more, I am seeing phrases such as “core tenets” and “central tenets.” The thing about tenets — they are, by implication, core, central. The tenets of a church, for example. Its doctrine.

• The more I learn about Lincoln, the more I admire him. People try to knock him off his pedestal. I find him elevated all the more. I have a similar view of George Orwell. The more I know about him, the more I admire him.

Let me recommend a piece by my old friend — and partner-in-crime at The Weekly Standard — Matt Labash, here.

• Où sont les neiges d’antan? I remember these ladies well — or ones much like them:

• Heard something hilarious at the golf range a few days ago. A pro — an excellent one — was giving a lesson. His student said, “But a friend of mine told me to do this” (whatever it was — some wrong move, some wrong position). The pro answered, “Can your friend break 100?”

• Carlos Alberto Montaner was a Cuban writer, in exile. He was an unwavering, eloquent champion of freedom, democracy, and human rights. He has died at 80. (To read about him, go here.) I wish he had lived to see a free Cuba. What a great day that will be. A “great gittin’-up morning.”

• Robert Sherman was a broadcaster in New York. He was the son of a famous pianist and teacher, Nadia Reisenberg. He has died a few weeks shy of his 91st birthday. Maybe I can give you a tidbit.

Last summer, I interviewed Marilyn Horne, the legendary mezzo, at her home in Santa Barbara. (For the piece, go here.) She had just recorded “Happy Birthday” for Sherman’s 90th.

• The Fourth of July, Independence Day, is nearing. If I could give everyone one book, I think it would be Give Me Liberty: A History of America’s Exceptional Idea. It is by Richard Brookhiser.

• If you’re in the mood for a music podcast — offering American music, and music influenced by America — I’ve got one for you, here. A blessed, wondrous land ought to have blessed, wondrous music, and we do.

Later, y’all.

If you would like to receive Impromptus by e-mail — links to new columns — write to jnordlinger@nationalreview.com.

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