Politics

Tsunami alerts were triggered this morning across the Pacific after an earthquake struck off Russia’s Kamchatka Peninsula. The quake, one of the most powerful ever recorded with a magnitude of 8.8, prompted evacuations from Hawaii, California, Japan and Russia. Initial waves, however, have so far proved less destructive than originally feared.Waves up to 4ft high were recorded in Oahu and Maui. Flights to and from Maui were canceled and commercial harbors closed as a precaution. "God willing, these waves will not hurt us," said Hawaii’s Governor Josh Green. "But you have to assume they will be life-threatening." Hawaii’s tsunami alert was later downgraded to an advisory, with officials warning of unusually strong currents and urging residents to avoid the coast.

With great fanfare, California Governor Gavin Newsom recently signed “historic” legislative package designed to “advance an abundance agenda.” It’s a nod to the recent (and fashionable) book Abundance by the liberal bloggers Ezra Klein and Derek Thompson, and it’s supposed to reform a state best known for a punitive cost of living and chronic shortages of everything essential – including housing, water, and energy.  Key to Newsom’s new legislation are Assembly Bill 130 and Senate Bill 131, both of which make fundamental changes to how the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) is enforced.

Remember Angela Davis? Few people under fifty do. Was Cambridge University counting on that historical ignorance when it decided to honor Angela Davis with an honorary degree?   In case you, Dear Reader, are a little fuzzy about Davis, I note for the record that the former Black Panther and two-time vice-presidential candidate on the Communist Party ticket with Gus Hall is the recipient of many honors, including the Soviet Union’s Lenin Peace Prize.  Cambridge University, of course, has long demonstrated a certain fondness for Commies, as the names “Kim Philby,” “Guy Burgess” and “Anthony Blunt” remind us.

There is never a dull moment in the second, more cheerful reign of Donald Trump. I am writing from London, but was in France last week, picking my way through various battlefields and cemeteries in and around Verdun, Bastogne (think “Easy Company” and “Battle of the Bulge”), and Reims. Well-informed readers will know, as I did not, that “Reims” is not pronounced as its letters might suggest but rather as a nasalized “Reince.” I have always associated the place with champagne, and I am pleased to say that the city capitalizes on the association. But one point of interest had nothing to do with that magical elixir. Reims was also the location of General Dwight D. Eisenhower’s headquarters at the end of World War II.

When I was promoting the various books I wrote about the British royal family, I was asked a number of questions by the audience. A lot were about Meghan and Harry and were uniformly hostile. Some were, indeed, more an observation than a question. I’d allow the speaker a couple of moments to rhapsodize about the late Queen and the Princess Royal; I usually didn’t mind, as long as the gabber bought a book afterward. But one of the running strands throughout my various appearances was that there would usually be someone present, slightly more excitable looking than the others, who would ask me, “Do you believe the official stories about Princess Diana’s death?” The questioner would then be pleased, and many of the others surprised, when I replied, candidly, “No, I don’t.

During a frantic Tuesday news cycle – where President Trump accused President Obama of high treason and Congress planned to recess early to avoid making any Epstein-related decisions – a smaller item caught Cockburn’s gimlet eye (while he was drinking a midday gimlet on the patio). House Republicans on the Appropriations Committee approved an amendment that would rename the opera house at the Trump-run Kennedy Center “First Lady Melania Trump Opera House.” Representative Mike Simpson of Idaho said that was an “excellent way to recognize” the First Lady’s “support and commitment to promoting the arts.