Tension City, &c.

On Los Angeles and Trump; China and Taiwan; a peculiar pen (auto); New York folkways; and more

Los Angeles (Josh Miller on Unsplash)

Concerning the drama in Los Angeles and the response of the White House, a few observations:

(1) Clearly, President Trump is itching to use force.

(2) History may view Lafayette Square—the events of June 2020, during Trump’s first term—as a prelude.

(3) Rioters are among Trump’s best friends. Rioters did his bidding on January 6th, of course. Rioters are playing into his hands now.

(4) Writing in social media, Trump refers to Gavin Newsom, the governor of California, as “Newscum.” You may think this is beneath the presidency—these playground epithets. But they are a key part of Trump’s appeal, I think. Without them, Trump would not be Trump. The popularity of his style says something about us, the people.

(5) Without law and order, you have nothing in society. Ordered liberty is the name of our game. Both the adjective and the noun are extremely important. Liberty without the “ordered” part can be license or anarchy. Order that is not in the service of liberty can be . . . problematic.

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Bill Buckley routinely introduced his columns the way I did, above: “Concerning [Subject X], a few observations.” So, my opening is an homage.

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A language item (so early in my column!): If you pronounce “homage” “ommidge,” as I do, you would write what I did: “an homage.” If you pronounce it “hommidge,” you would write “a homage.”

(If you say “oh-MAHZH,” à la francaise—well, “an” again.)

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Did you recognize the phrase I’ve used in the heading over this column? “Tension City”? I learned it—we all learned it—from the first George Bush. He was liable to say, “Yeah, it was Tension City for a while there.”

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At international forums, China insists that Taiwan be excluded. If Taiwanese are included, Chinese will not participate. This was certainly true at Davos, in my years there. (I am using “Davos” as shorthand for the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum, which is held in that glorious Swiss town.) If Taiwanese had been included, Chinese would have refused to participate. Taiwanese were excluded.

I was so pleased to see this article a few days ago. “Vancouver mayor Ken Sim,” it begins, “rejected a demand by China that a Taiwan representative be blocked from an event hosted by the city.”

Mayor Sim is the son of Hong Kong immigrants. I salute him.

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Years ago, I heard a veteran foreign-policy hand speak of the interconnectedness of things. One situation in the world relates to another, which relates to another. “The thigh bone’s connected to the hip bone,” he said, quoting an old song.

The same lesson applies to economics. A headline from June 4 reads, “Trump’s 50% tariffs on imported metals will mean pricier cars and canned goods.” (Article here.) One thing is connected to another.

I wish this were more broadly understood.

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The Republicans’ reconciliation bill—the “One Big Beautiful Bill Act”—will add $3 trillion to our national debt. Or $5 trillion. Anyway, a lot. (To read an article on this matter, go here.)

I’ve been thinking about Republicans of yore, or some of them.

Some of them said that the accumulation of debt was “immoral.” Not just bad economic policy but downright immoral. This was because we were saddling future generations with a terrible problem—a problem of our making, not theirs. Was this a decent, moral thing to do? Is this the way parents treat children, or grandparents treat grandchildren?

Romney & Ryan talked that way. (They lost to Obama & Biden in 2012, you may have heard.) Such Republicans were right, in my opinion.

When I made this point on social media, Garry Kasparov responded with a quotation from George Washington, delivered in his message to Congress on December 3, 1793: “No pecuniary consideration is more urgent than the regular redemption and discharge of the public debt: on none can delay be more injurious, or an economy of time more valuable.”

Tell ’em, George W. (the first one).

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A message from our current president, on March 17:

The “Pardons” that Sleepy Joe Biden gave to the Unselect Committee of Political Thugs, and many others, are hereby declared VOID, VACANT, AND OF NO FURTHER FORCE OR EFFECT, because of the fact that they were done by Autopen.

A message from that same source, a few days ago, reads,

With the exception of the RIGGED PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION OF 2020, THE AUTOPEN IS THE BIGGEST POLITICAL SCANDAL IN AMERICAN HISTORY!!!

There is a lot to say about this. I’d like to say something personal. A little walk down Memory Lane.

When I was in college, I served an internship in the office of Senator Bob Dole. There, I saw the autopen. The autopen was a perfectly conventional tool. But I had never heard of it. And my 19-year-old self was scandalized. It seemed so . . . deceptive, fake, artificial.

I have to chuckle at my own innocence. (Bill Buckley’s secretary, Frances Bronson, signed about a million of his signatures, in the usual red ink.)

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For Politico, Jonathan Martin, a.k.a. J-Mart, has written an excellent article on Ohio politics—the Republican politics of that state in particular. I winced on learning one fact (at least one).

In Hamilton County, the name of the big GOP dinner is . . . the “Lincoln-Reagan-Trump Dinner.”

I believe the first two men would object, strongly. (And maybe the third would object, to having to share a billing.)

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Drop Dead City is a documentary about the 1975 New York City fiscal crisis. Sounds like a dry subject for a documentary. The documentary is, in fact, enthralling. It is one of the best films about New York I have ever seen. A pageant of humanity, American to the gills.

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The complexion of New York City has changed. It has been changing since the 1600s, I suppose. In Jewish delis, the workers tend to be Hispanic.

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In one of these delis, I was buying lox, for a friend, who had requested it. When I proferred my credit card, I was told: “Cash only.” I did not have enough cash in my wallet. The man behind the register said: “Pay me later.” He merely took my name and telephone number.

Can you believe this still exists, in 2025? It does. What trust. This left me with a warm feeling.

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In my friend’s building, there was an elevator operator. A man in the elevator, pressing the buttons. That has faded out—but not entirely.

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Staying with the theme of New York, let me quote from a column by Max Boot:

I know there are many bigger outrages in the world, but today I would like to share with you the frustration that gnaws at me as a fan of the New York Knicks following the firing on Tuesday of our gruff but beloved—and widely respected—head coach, Tom Thibodeau.

“Thibs,” as he is universally known to the Knickerbocker faithful, had just taken the team to its first Eastern Conference finals in a quarter-century. Sure, they lost to the Indiana Pacers in six games, and that was deeply disappointing . . . But in the previous round, the Knicks had knocked off the defending champions, the Boston Celtics, and that was a result almost no one saw coming.

I thought of Dwane Casey, who in 2018 was the NBA Coach of the Year. And was fired (by the Toronto Raptors). (My Detroit Pistons picked him up.)

A cut-throat business.

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On June 1, I published a column headed “The Value of Foreign Students, &c.” For as long as anyone can remember, foreign students have been coming to America, in droves. This has been good for them. And for us Americans (I argue).

A few days later, I read an obit in the New York Times, by Roger Cohen, that paper’s famed Paris correspondent: “Philippe Labro Dies at 88; Restless Chronicler of the French Condition.” I would like to paste a couple of paragraphs:

Mr. Labro had first gone to America on a scholarship at the age of 17, attending Washington and Lee University in the mountains of Virginia’s Shenandoah Valley. This American experience, which included months spent working with the U.S. Forest Service in Colorado, marked him.

“He was the most American of French writers,” the daily paper La Croix said.

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Every year about this time, I think of a line of poetry—penned by James Russell Lowell in the 1840s: “And what is so rare as a day in June?” I hope you are having a good one, wherever you are. Thanks for joining me.