Nazism

Tuesday

Alexander Larman

Is Kanye West the David Bowie of his age? 

Kanye "Ye" West has been barred from appearing at London’s Wireless Festival by dint of having his temporary visa withdrawn. The move has generally been met with approval, save by those disappointed fans of his music whose pre-ordered tickets will now be refunded. “Kanye West should never have been invited to headline Wireless," said Prime Minister Keir Starmer. "This government stands firmly with the Jewish community, and we will not stop in our fight to confront and defeat the poison of antisemitism." Fair enough, many might say. Last year Ye released a single entitled "HH" (Heil Hitler) and declared himself a Nazi on social media. Ye has now made a series of groveling public apologies.

kanye west

Wednesday

Clare McHugh

Mitfordmania in Carla Kaplan’s Troublemaker

I won’t attempt to explain Mitfordmania; we’d be here all night. Suffice it to say that fascination with the British sisters – Nancy, Pamela, Diana, Unity, Jessica and Deborah, born to the 2nd Baron Redesdale between 1904 and 1920 – shows no sign of waning. This year alone, the six have inspired Outrageous, a lavish (and fatuous) multi-episode television drama available on BritBox; The Party Girls, a play by Amy Rosenthal; and Do Admit: The Mitford Sisters and Me, a graphic novel by cartoonist and fangirl Mimi Pond. Now comes biographer Carla Kaplan’s Troublemaker: The Fierce, Unruly Life of Jessica Mitford. I did wonder if there was anything left to say. Famous for the muckraking classic The American Way of Death, Jessica also wrote two well-received autobiographies.

mitfordmania troublemaker

Monday

Cockburn

Ron DeSantis’s accidental neo-Nazi rebrand

Rumors began to swirl that the Ron DeSantis team was planning a major reboot last week following plummeting polls and financial woes. But the first ad to emerge from his circles since appears to suggest that the presidential hopeful is a neo-Nazi. Cockburn never would have guessed this was the campaign-saving pivot his team had planned.  On Sunday morning a staffer for the DeSantis campaign retweeted an ad from the Ron DeSantis Fancams Twitter account. https://twitter.com/ltthompso/status/1683126430534598656 It features a “doomer,” a crudely drawn young man who suffers from depression and a crippling cigarette addiction, watching reports of Trump’s vaccine rollout and undelivered border wall promises.

sonnenrad neo-nazi desantis

Monday

Daniel DePetris

Putin’s Victory Day speech shows he’s not backing down

“Victory Day” is one of the most solemn events on the Russian calendar. Every year on May 9, the country gets together to celebrate the defeat of Nazi Germany in what Russians call “the Great Patriotic War,” in which as many as 26 million Soviet troops and civilians perished. It’s a time for reflection, for an appreciation of history, and, yes, for pomp and circumstance, with Russian troops decorated in dazzling uniforms marching in unison throughout Moscow's Red Square. This year’s Victory Day celebrations, however, had much of the world on edge. In next-door Ukraine, Russian forces were taking a beating, with smaller but nimbler and more determined Ukrainian units continuing to mount stiff resistance against a Russian military offensive in the Donbas.