csdickey Profile picture
Author of 'Our Man in Charleston: Britain's Secret Agent in the Civil War South,' and six other books; Paris-based Foreign Editor for The Daily Beast.
Feb 2, 2020 6 tweets 2 min read
Read This: "The Worst Day for Democracy Since the Civil War" ⁦@djrothkopfthedailybeast.com/trumps-gop-jus… The @djrothkopf piece sent me back to some of my 2015 essays about the American Civil War and Current Events, several of which are collected here: christopherdickey.blogspot.com/2016/02/the-am…
Nov 23, 2019 7 tweets 2 min read
Thomas Jefferson's indictment of King George III in the Declaration of Independence would make for suitable articles of impeachment against Donald Trump:
1) The King was “obstructing laws for the naturalization of foreigners, refusing to encourage migrations" [more]... 2) The tyrant "made judges dependent on his will alone"
3) He "sent hither swarms of new officers to harass our people"
4) He "cut off our trade with parts of the world"
5) He "altered fundamentally the forms of our government”
Nov 15, 2019 4 tweets 1 min read
In America, people who are stupid and incompetent can imagine they could be rich, so they don’t hate the rich. But they can’t really imagine themselves as intellectually brilliant or competent, so they hate those people who are. Trump knows that, and plays it. It will be precisely Amb. Yovanovitch’s intelligence and competence that Trump and his sycophants will try to use against her, suggesting that she, and George Kent, and Amb. Taylor and other veteran public servants are part of the hated (smart, competent) elite.
Nov 11, 2019 17 tweets 6 min read
A long thread, looking back on the fall of the Berlin Wall with some excerpts from my latest column, and a post-script: thedailybeast.com/the-night-the-… ( photo by @PeterTurnley ) @PeterTurnley “Under a full moon we walked in the Tiergarten, following the path that the Wall cut through the park. A blind man could have done the same, just listening to the noise of picks and hammers.”
Oct 30, 2019 15 tweets 11 min read
This is quite a column from @tomfriedman: Trump, Zuckerberg & Pals Are Breaking America nyti.ms/36eqYv6 - following are a few excerpts... @tomfriedman But first, this thought from ol' Pogo ...
Oct 17, 2019 15 tweets 3 min read
My latest. Read This: "The Kurds Gave Their Lives to Defeat the ‘Islamic State.’ Trump Just Pissed It All Away." thedailybeast.com/the-kurds-gave… "No amount of Trumpian huffing and puffing, threatening and cajoling can change the widespread view in the Middle East—and in Congress—that almost on a whim he collapsed a fragile balance of power, then had to cut and run."
Oct 8, 2019 13 tweets 3 min read
Read This: "Kurds Have Been Preparing for Trump’s Syria Betrayal—With a Vengeance" ⁦@AnneSpeckhardthedailybeast.com/kurds-have-bee… "The military, remembering Trump’s December order out of Syria and subsequent reversal, is waiting to learn if Trump will follow through with withdrawal this time."
Aug 23, 2019 4 tweets 2 min read
My take on last year's debacle. I have every expectation this year will be worse, and will be talking about that on @msnbc in the 11 am hour. — The Madness of King Trump on Full Display at the G7 thedailybeast.com/the-madness-of… via @thedailybeast "It’s as if seven people went to a club to play poker, and one of them, the richest, threw the deck in the air and announced they would play 52 pick-up instead." @thedailybeast 2018
May 28, 2019 8 tweets 3 min read
On this day after Memorial Day, as the 75th anniversary of D-Day approaches on June 6, I am reposting on this thread some of he pieces I have written about the Normandy Landings and their commemorations over the years. There is in all of them a mix of mourning and anger. From D-Day 2004, when George W. Bush came to the Normandy cemetery to pay his respects one year after he launched his war in Iraq — Shadowland: The Last Roll Call newsweek.com/shadowland-las…
Mar 25, 2019 11 tweets 2 min read
My summation: Trump is Putin's useful idiot. That's obvious, but apparently not a crime, merely a national humiliation and grave threat to national security. My prediction: Overreach by triumphalist Trump so egregious it will lead to his downfall, but the cost to our nation will be extremely high.
Jan 20, 2019 10 tweets 5 min read
My latest look at women and sex in the Second Empire: The British Courtesan Who Created an Emperor of France thedailybeast.com/the-british-co… via @thedailybeast One my earlier pieces on Sex in the Second Empire: The Muslim Playboy Behind Paris’ Most Scandalous Painting thedailybeast.com/the-muslim-pla… via @thedailybeast