Jay Nordlinger
@jaynordlinger
Music critic, The New Criterion
A memory of Bukovsky: He told me, "Reagan loved to hear the latest jokes from us dissidents." (I also remember the stylings of Yakov Smirnoff. My favorite joke: "You have this expression in America: 'Your mother wears army boots.' That would make no sense in Russia, because your…
New Yorkers will be able to use many Soviet jokes. Like when the furious guy leaves the long bread line to go shoot Brezhnev but comes back because the line to do that is even longer.
Today's Republicans talk a lot like the university-town lefties I grew up around (though they dress differently).
“Corporations should just eat the cost” used to be a progressive fantasy that conservatives mocked. Now it’s Republican orthodoxy on tariffs. Conservatism but make it socialism.
Well-nigh aphoristic.
Nobody wants to be told how to live, while almost everyone wants to tell others how to live.
On a street in Kensington, three schoolboys accosted me with a question: "Messi or Ronaldo?" Soccer is not my topic, but that did not stop me from holding forth. Today, I conclude a London journal. Have a look. jaynordlinger.com/p/london-journ…
One thing’s clear: Lots of people like a strongman — but only if he’s wielding governmental powers in a way they approve. If another strongman, uncongenial to them, came in, they’d turn all liberal, spouting Locke and Madison. So human. Very human.
Young people must have the impression that politics is for the conscienceless. But this isn't so. We have seen many politicians of conscience. It's just that they're thin on the ground now. I hope good examples rise up.
Astounding that Republicans can still talk this way with a straight face in the age of Trump
Not that it matters, because nothing matters, in our nat-pop age: but has Melania Trump ever seen an opera? nytimes.com/2025/07/22/art…
N.B.
Also a reminder that Ukraine, unlike Russia, is a democracy with a strong civil society, despite all its problems. No such protests would be allowed for a second in Moscow.
Thank you, cousin. 🇬🇧🇺🇸
Few things are as flattering as praise from thoughtful Anglophiles. They see us as we are, with all our crimes broad-blown, as flush as May; and they like us anyway. Few Anglophiles are as thoughtful as @jaynordlinger. jaynordlinger.com/p/london-journ…
Is "The Merry Wives of Windsor" a good play? It is a Shakespeare play, which is good enough. I discuss this in my London journal today, along with disparate other issues. Have a look. jaynordlinger.com/p/london-journ…
Nixon used to quip that you could tell when Ted Kennedy was gearing up to run because he was slimming down.
The JB workout sightings are getting more prevalent. One could say that…he’s running.
Two seconds ago, the entire Republican Party was screaming for transparency on Epstein. The attorney general handed out binders that said "Epstein Files: Phase 1." And now the whole thing has to be deep-sixed? Why? (You can't blame people for suspecting the worst.)
Mike Johnson shuts US House until September to avoid Epstein vote on.ft.com/4f0CwWN
If North Korean officials did not perform sycophancy, they could be executed. Officials in a free country have no excuse.
Bessent: "Newspapers like the Wall Street Journal are not used to a high-functioning executive president. They are used to perhaps President Obama, who was not as economically sophisticated as President Trump."
But what if it's kind of like "Tastes grr-eat!"?
I will be very disappointed in Powell if he writes an official letter that breaks “grateful” after “gr.”
A lot of national issues are bundled in one monologue: youtube.com/watch?v=VIZegL…
Very interesting. We will see what can ultimately be learned about this case (and others). Has the administration earned the public trust? One interesting detail about the DHS's press release: It relies on reporting by the Associated Press, a bête noire of the administration.
Indeed it is shameful that people spread hoaxes. DHS Sets the Record Straight: ICE Never Deported Media’s “Allentown Grandfather” dhs.gov/news/2025/07/2…