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17 Mar, 5 tweets, 4 min read
@jonathanchait @AJentleson A tip-off that the story is bogus: in all the hundreds of paintings of genteel Anglo-American tea-drinking in the 18th century, I'cw never seen one in which the tea is drunk from a saucer rather than a cup
@jonathanchait @AJentleson
@jonathanchait @AJentleson
@jonathanchait @AJentleson
@jonathanchait @AJentleson

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More from @davidfrum

David Frum Profile picture
17 Mar
Act One (yesterday morning)

To end the border surge, Biden must clearly communicate: don't come.
theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/…
Act Two (yesterday afternoon)

Twitter reverberates: it's racist to press the president to enforce the border and communicate: don't come
Act Three (yesterday evening)

Biden appears on ABC to clearly communicate: don't come
Read 5 tweets
David Frum Profile picture
14 Mar
I strongly approve of this Biden press conference reticence, and for 4 reasons, thread if you're interested ...
Reason 1)

Assertive presidential leadership can polarize something that otherwise would be broadly unifying. IE the reason we had a "Marshall Plan" (named after then SecState) rather than a "Truman Plan" was that President Truman's name excited strong partisan feelings 2/x
We saw this in the Obama and Trump years over and over again. People might not have an opinion over this program or that issue. They had STRONG feelings about Obama/Trump. Attach the high-intensity name, and the merits of the program/issue got lost. 3/x
Read 9 tweets
David Frum Profile picture
13 Mar
If you'd invested $100 in gold in 1960, buying 2.85 ounces, you'd have $4900 today

If you'd invested $100 in the S&P in 1960, reinvesting all dividends, you'd have more than $38,000 today.

They give this information away for free on Google, it's amazing.
If your theory of the case is that we are headed for hyper-inflation, the collapse of political authority, etc. ... it's bizarre to imagine that there's an INVESTMENT STRATEGY that will protect you. Investment strategies presuppose civil authority able to uphold property rights.
A little while ago, I moderated a panel of money managers. I asked the most pessimistic, "Are you one of those gold, guns, and canned goods guys?"

He answered, "In a real collapse, the only assets that matter are the guns. They'll take the gold and canned goods."
Read 4 tweets
David Frum Profile picture
11 Mar
Woodrow Wilson used the phrase "America First" as an isolationist slogan in the election of 1916 to imply that his Republican opponent Charles Evans Hughes sympathy for Britain in the First World War was influenced by Hughes' father's English birth.
A pro-Wilson writer, Breckenridge Long, argued that Hughes was ineligible for the presidency - not a "natural born citizen" - because of Hughes' father's British birth. Long's arguments against the Republican Hughes were rediscovered a century later by anti-Obama birthers.
Here's the Long essay on "natural born" citizenship scribd.com/doc/68922032/N…
Read 4 tweets
David Frum Profile picture
3 Mar
Many news organizations are tonight referencing a "possible plot against the US Capitol" EG washingtonpost.com/politics/2021/… Image
The headlines tend to be vague about who the plotters are and what they are plotting, reserving specifics for deeper into the text of the story. EG Image
Back in 2016, candidate Donald Trump had harsh words for media and politicians who played coy with the identity and motives of terrorist groups.

"Now, to solve a problem, you have to be able to state what the problem is or at least say the name."

debates.org/voter-educatio…
Read 5 tweets
David Frum Profile picture
3 Mar
For a year, Trump types on Fox etc. have argued: "Public health authorities urge masks and vaccination is so they can tyrannize human beings forever. They will never allow a return to normal life. Instead, ignore them and instead rely on fake cures and magical thinking." 1/x
As red-state governors yielded to demands from Republican-leaning industries to disregard health and safety, they relied on the "Dr Fauci wants shut downs forever" complaint for justification. 2/x
As the Biden vaccination program gains the upper hand over the virus in 2021, we'll see a real-world test: Did public health authorities issue their mask guidance out of a mysterious sudden eagerness to close the US economy for no good reason? Or ... 3/x
Read 14 tweets

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