On Cuba, TikTok follies, the GOP, Bad Boy cellists, Ithaca, N.Y., and more.
You may know the old joke: “If the Eskimos ever went socialist, they’d have to import ice.” This is not really a joke in Cuba. In the past, Cuba has had to import sugar (which is much like the Eskimos’ importing ice, or the Arabs’ importing sand).
In the Miami Herald, Andres Oppenheimer writes, “Cuba’s March 4 admission that it has requested the United Nations’ World Food Programme (WFP) for subsidized powdered milk for its children got little international attention, but says a lot about the island’s economic collapse.”
Oppenheimer goes on to say that this is “an embarrassing admission coming from a dictatorship that has always claimed it has improved the nutrition standards of the Cuban people.”
Garry Kasparov had an apt remark, as usual:
Tragic, but self-inflicted by the Cuban criminal dictatorship. The failures of capitalism have always been far superior to the successes of socialism. https://t.co/QRxiGn0RjM
— Garry Kasparov (@Kasparov63) March 13, 2024
• If it’s true that “money talks,” then Chinese money shouts. (So does Saudi money.) A column by Josh Rogin is headed “Trump’s TikTok reversal suggests his China policy is for sale.”
“Earlier this month,” writes Rogin, “Trump spoke at a conference of the influential conservative organization Club for Growth, after a request by its main benefactor and Republican megadonor Jeff Yass.”
And “Yass’s firm, notably, has a stake in ByteDance worth more than $20 billion.” ByteDance is the parent company of TikTok.
Further from Rogin:
Other Trump-world figures also now appear to be locking arms to defend TikTok. Former Trump White House official Kellyanne Conway is being paid by the Club for Growth to lobby against the bill, Politico reported. Former presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy, who once called TikTok “digital fentanyl,” has also recently come to its defense.
And so on. Curious.
• Senator James Lankford, the Oklahoma Republican, has been censured — censured by his fellow Republicans in Oklahoma. To read about this, go here. The censure tells me that he must have been doing a good and honest job. My hat is off to him.
• Have a look at the statement by Nancy Mace’s campaign manager:
Nancy Mace says SC-01 GOP primary rival Catherine Templeton should drop out of race now that Trump has endorsed Mace re-election.
"To do otherwise would be to oppose the direction our party leader, Donald Trump, has set for us,” Campaign Manager John Mason Long said. pic.twitter.com/SpSHpUhSoi— schuyler kropf (@skropf47) March 13, 2024
Does that sound very American to you? It sounds more North Korean to me.
• An article begins,
Daily Wire host Candace Owens fully embraced the far-right conspiracy theory that France’s first lady, Brigitte Macron, is a man — going so far as to say she would stake her reputation on it.
Some more, if you can take it:
Owens, known for her bombastic and attention-grabbing claims, dedicated much of her Monday show to the topic, which she labeled “The BIGGEST Political Scandal In Human History.” Owens has nearly 3 million followers on YouTube and has one of the top-rated “news” podcasts in the United States — landing at #6 on the most recent Spotify chart.
A little more:
“This episode is blowing up so I just want to say — after looking into this, I would stake my entire professional reputation on the fact that Brigitte Macron is in fact a man. Any journalist or publication that is trying to dismiss this plausibility is immediately identifiable as establishment,” Owens wrote on X (formerly Twitter) Tuesday, promoting her show . . .
“Immediately identifiable as establishment” — sounds like “kulak.”
Look, it’s easy to write off such people as kooks. But they should not be written off. They are hugely influential. (I see their influence on people I know, including some of my nearest and dearest.) For 50 years, William F. Buckley Jr. labored to separate the American Right from kookery. That effort has lapsed. It should be revived.
• “Philippe de Gaulle, Admiral and Son of Charles de Gaulle, Dies at 102.” Here is a slice of that obit: “Interviewed by Le Figaro after he had reached 100, Mr. de Gaulle said, ‘I would have preferred to give some of my longevity to my father.’”
What a generous, loving, humble thing to say. It must have been hard — very hard — to be the son of that man, Charles de Gaulle.
• For decades, the cello section of the Houston Symphony has been known as “the Bad Boys” — after the great Detroit Piston basketball teams (1986–92). Recently, they had a little fun. Standing, in the below video, is Brinton Smith, the section leader (and a friend of mine). They are horsing around with The Flight of the Bumblebee.
I think of the Champ: “Float like a butterfly, sting like a bee.”
• In the Ithaca (N.Y.) airport, you see a couple of mottos. I have always loved them:
• Growing up in Ann Arbor, I would occasionally see a bumper sticker: “Ithaca is gorges.” Surely, these were on cars of people who had studied or taught at Cornell and were now studying or teaching at the University of Michigan.
Well — a lil’ gorge action:
• Speaking of bumper stickers: I like one I see in Ithaca: “It’s still today.” I remember a poster from the ’70s (I believe): “Today is the first day of the rest of your life.”
• It’s hard to get a good picture of an Ithaca gorge, or at least I found — because of fences. These fences are understandable, existing to prevent suicide. Have a look:
• Back to something more pleasant: A friend of mine remarked, “It’s kind of a pity that New York City hogs all the attention, because New York at large is such a beautiful state.” Yes. It is underrated for its beauty. (Also, I believe the state is poorer than most Americans know.)
• Check out a church, in Ithaca. A winner, right?
By the way, it’s hard to take a picture in this little town without telephone wires. Lots of telephone wires. Useful as they are, telephone wires are great blighters of the landscape (and of the townscape). People talk about oil derricks, in North Dakota, for example. But what about telephone wires? (If you want to get really radical: What about roads?)
• Carl Sagan was a big deal at Cornell University, here in Ithaca. He was a big deal all across America. An astronomer, and one of the great scientific “explainers” to the general public. As you will see, a shop here sells little Sagan dolls. (The top row has Frida Kahlo, and the middle one has a different kind of painter, Bob Ross.)
• Here’s Ezra — Ezra Cornell (1807–74), the father of the university:
• A typical look, at Cornell:
Another typical look:
• Are too many things in America named after Lincoln? Arguably, too few.
• I hear a student say: “Campuses are supposed to be small and hilly or large and flat. This one is very large and very hilly.” It sure is.
• If you’re like me, you appreciate a bright yellow house — a handsome, bright yellow house:
• Nice inn. Who was William Henry Miller? An architect, who lived from 1848 to 1922. He lived in Ithaca and went to Cornell in the 1860s, when it was new.
• I like the idea of hanging out a shingle — so American:
• I had to smile at this. People refer to the Second Amendment as “2A.” Well, here’s 1A — complete with flag:
Thanks for joining me today, y’all, and have a good weekend.
If you would like to receive Impromptus by e-mail — links to new columns — write to jnordlinger@nationalreview.com.