Quote of the Day (W. H. Auden, on Propaganda)

“Propaganda is a monologue which seeks not a response but an echo.”—Pulitzer Prize-winning English-born American poet-critic W. H. Auden (1907-1973), “A Short Defense of Poetry,” originally delivered at the International PEN Conference in Budapest, October 1967, printed in The New York Review of Books, Jan. 30, 1986

Over two days in Beijing this week, two 24/7 practitioners of propaganda, Donald Trump and Xi Jinping, met. These leaders of America and China, so used to employing this “monologue” on their countrymen, wielded it on their foreign counterpart.

Don’t be fooled into thinking that these efforts were aimed at establishing their countries as superpowers. Rather, in their blatant legacy-building, these septuagenarian strongmen were engaged in the final rites of their own cults of personality.

TV Quote of the Day (‘SNL,’ Imagining ‘Tucker Carlson’ on Maine)

“Tucker Carlson” [played by Jeremy Culhane] [after criticizing stars at the recent Met costume gala]: “What are we doing? What’s going on? Is this the New York we want to live in, Colin?”

Colin Jost: “Don't you live in, like, Maine?”

“Carlson”: “Yes. And let's talk about Maine. M-a-i-n...e? Huh! Really? The ‘e’ is silent. But who silenced it and why?”

Jost: “What the hell are you talking about? You're talking about the silent ‘e’ in Maine now?”

“Carlson”: “I'm glad you brought it up, Colin.”

Jost: “I didn't.”

“Carlson”: “And what does that ‘e’ stand for? Oh, I know. ‘Euphoria.’” [A poster for the HBO series “Euphoria” flashes on the screen.]

Jost: “No!”

“Carlson”: “Oh, yes. ‘Euphoria.’ And no, I'm not talking about the feeling I get when I press ‘1’ for ‘English.’” [High-pitched, self-satisfied cackling.]—“Weekly Update” segment, Saturday Night Live, Season 51, Episode 18, original air date May 2, 2026

Tucker Carlson has been lampooned before on SNL, but it was almost inevitable that the show would return to him recently, especially considering his podcast apology for past support of Donald Trump.

But his interview with Lulu Garcia-Navarro of The New York Times following his much-publicized break with Trump over the Iranian invasion deserved scorn that the show's writers ignored.  It’s astonishing: he can sound sincere, even logical, and before you know it Carlson’s spewing the most bigoted, conspiratorial nonsense.

All this shoots from his mouth with such glib rapidity that he can’t keep track of what he says. So he denied to Garcia-Navarro, for instance, about ever wondering if Trump might be the anti-Christ, even though he said it only a few weeks ago on a readily available recording.

I love how in his devastating impression, Jeremy Culhane captured how what Carlson wants to be a chuckle turns into a cackle. Only I wish he had included one of this demagogue’s most weaselly statements whenever he discusses matters like COVID vaccines: “I’m just asking questions.”

Quote of the Day (Thomas Paine, on ‘The Irresistible Nature of Truth’)

“But such is the irresistible nature of truth, that all it asks—and all it wants—is the liberty of appearing.”—English-born American pamphleteer and patriot Thomas Paine (1737-1809), The Rights of Man (1791)

Flashback, May 1926: General Strike Paralyzes Great Britain

A century ago this month, more than two million British workers walked off their jobs, either miners or unions in solidarity with them, over conditions already desperate and dangerous underground and only worsened by mine owners and the Conservative government. 

After nine days, the Trades Union Congress (TUC) was forced to call off the General Strike, yielding their demands but not bitterness over what one striker called “the boil that needed lancing.”

I first became aware of this tumultuous event in British labor history while reading the first volume of William Manchester’s biography of Winston Churchill, The Last Lion.

As Chancellor of the Exchequer, often considered the second most powerful figure in His Majesty’s government, Churchill was heavily responsible for hardening opposition to the TUC in the Cabinet of Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin and, once the work stoppage began, mounting the government’s propaganda effort against it.

For the rest of his career, union workers and their sympathizers did not regard this as Churchill’s finest hour, to say the least. In the immediate aftermath, for instance, an editorial in the progressive political and cultural magazine The New Statesman was titled, “Should We Hang Mr. Churchill or Not?”

What animated Churchill and other Conservatives in Baldwin’s Cabinet was a British equivalent of the Russian Revolution of nine years before. They feared the tumult similar to that resulting from the Bolshevik takeover: property owners dispossessed, churches closed, the royal family executed, and even the overthrow of the new, more liberal government of Alexander Kerensky.

Britain represented an even more tempting target for Communists bent on international expansion. Churchill had engaged in a poorly planned, unsuccessful 1919 Allied effort to invade Russia to, as he put it, “strangle Bolshevism at its birth," but he was determined not to allow chaos to metastasize at home.

Mining was a particular pressure point for British employment and the economy. With coal required to fuel the ships, power stations, coke ovens, home use and industry to make munitions, the government nationalized the industry during World War I. After the armistice, the Mine workers union wanted to keep the 18.5% wage increase they won during the conflict.

But in March 1921, Prime Minister David Lloyd George returned the mines to private owners. By spring 1926, they had locked one million of their employees—a tenth of the British male workforce—out of their workplaces, demanding longer hours but less money.

Even many of the Conservatives in Parliament and Baldwin’s Cabinet felt that the mine owners dealt unjustly with the workers; it’s just that they feared the Marxist bogeyman more.

In the latest issue of the British publication The Literary Review, Richard Vinen explained why another issue—safety—only added to workers’ grievances:

“About a thousand a year died in accidents. Of the three most important leaders of the miners in 1926, two had lost their fathers in accidents underground. There were many injuries. [Historian Jonathan] Schneer cites the case of Thomas Baker of Sheffield, who received ten shillings a week as compensation for having lost a leg at the age of seventeen….The life of a miner was unimaginable to most people. Driving trains or buses might, for a time, seem amusing – which is why so many young men volunteered to do it in 1926. No one would have volunteered to be a miner, which is why men had to be conscripted to dig coal during the Second World War.”

Altogether it was, according to the late Welsh actor and film producer Stanley Baker, whose father lost a leg in a cave-in, “a place where death and poverty are daily threats.”

In back of it all was the restoration of the gold standard that Churchill pushed through in 1925. The result, explains Lawrence Reed, writing for the Foundation for Economic Education, in June 2023, was “a series of destructive results. British export industries suffered hugely, especially coal, leading to strikes and slowdowns.” John Maynard Keynes’ prediction of just this eventuality, in The Economic Consequences of Mr. Churchill, went unheeded.

As the miners union felt increasingly pushed towards striking, they were joined by workers from other sectors walking out in sympathy, including transport and dock employees, as well as those employed in gas and electricity, printing, iron, steel and chemical jobs.

But the owners and the government were making their own preparations months in advance to stave off what Baldwin called “the road to anarchy and ruin.” A nine-month subsidy to owners to keep wages stable gave him time to:

* coordinate food and fuel availability through the Organisation for the Maintenance of Supplies;

* use the Emergency Powers Act of 1920 to issue regulations maintaining order; and

* establish a commission headed by Sir Herbert Samuel, which issued a report that, though critical of the mine owners, also recommended the reduction of miners’ wages.

Central to the effort, exactly where he wanted to be, was Churchill, who throughout the strike edited a four-page daily newspaper, the British Gazette. A blatant tool of government propaganda, it falsely assailed the TUC for attacking the constitution and threatening order while simultaneously jeering that the effort was for nought.

More crucial, Baldwin had also mobilized the army and volunteers to protect transportation services. Many volunteers who assumed the strikers’ roles may have felt they were engaging in what the American philosopher William James called “the moral equivalent of war”—the discipline engendered by armed conflict. Keeping Britain functioning called for reserves of idealism that the past brutal conflict had vastly reduced.

Considering the bitter emotions involved, it was surprising that casualties were comparatively limited during the strike: 41 people treated for injuries at the hands of baton-wielding mounted police. But it would be a mistake to say there was no damage.

Several train crashes occurred, with nonprofessional drivers—volunteers to fill vacancies left by those out in sympathy with the strikers—at the helm. One such accident at the Edinburgh Waverley station—a train hitting wagons in the tunnel—left three people dead.

Though Baldwin called for no reprisals—and the General Strike was over in little more than a week, with no concessions won by the strikers—the miners whose desperate plight sparked this epic owner-union capitalist tried to tough it out for another half year, when they were forced to yield to their bosses’ implacable demand: longer hours, less pay.

The hard heel on their necks was reinforced by government action in 1927 in the form of the Trade Disputes and Trade Unions Act, which outlawed sympathy strikes—legislation so seemingly successful that to this day, Britain has experienced no other general strike. 

By 1928, TUC membership had plummeted to half a million, and to maintain future electoral viability, the Labour Party felt forced—at least for a while—to moderate its more militant elements.

It took more than a decade, but British sympathy for the strikers increased markedly by the end of World War II, as reflected in the books (and film adaptations) The Stars Look Down by A.J. Cronin and How Green Was My Valley by Richard Llewellyn.

Quote of the Day (The Knicks’ Mike Brown, on Being ‘Linus’ to Jalen Brunson’s ‘Blanket’)

“What's the dude's name on Snoopy? Linus? He’s got a blanket. I'm Linus, and Jalen [Brunson] is my blanket. He helps me relax throughout the course of a game. That’s what great players do. They keep you poised, they make the game easier for everyone else and they help you get through a stretch.”—New York Knicks coach Mike Brown, on star guard and team sparkplug Jalen Brunson, quoted by James L. Edwards III, “With Brunson Leading the Knicks, The Good Old Days Are Here Now,” The New York Times, May 12, 2026

No less an authority than Walt Frazier has called Jalen Brunson “sagacious” and “tenacious,” even likening him to teammate and fellow Basketball Hall of Famer Willis Reed in his team-first orientation and heart.

Frazier and sportscaster Stephen A. Smith have even gone on record as saying that, if Brunson leads his team to the NBA Championship that has eluded the New York Knicks for a half century, he will rank among the all-time great franchise players.

If you’re like me, you groan when you read statements like this. First, let’s get through these final two rounds of the playoffs (which have become so long that they should be called “tournaments” instead), where potential obstacles loom in the form of injuries (will OG Anunoby be himself again after that right hamstring strain?) and the eventual champion of the NBA West.

Even so, long-suffering fans can applaud what Brunson has done to date: a thoroughgoing demolition of the Philadelphia 76ers (not just a sweep, some wags had it, but a “deep clean”), and long term, making Madison Square Garden a place of relevance and electricity again after years in the doldrums.

Edwards cites important numbers to put it all in perspective:

“Since Brunson came to New York, the Knicks have won at least 45 games every season, including 50-plus wins the last three campaigns. The Knicks won 45 games in a season just one time between 2002 and Brunson’s arrival. New York has reached the second round of the playoffs every year since Brunson donned the blue-and-orange. The Knicks made it out of the first round just once between 2001 and 2022.”

Brunson creates space with his movement off the ball, makes few mistakes, and is positively deadly in the clutch. Moreover, he’s done all of this while standing a mere 6 ft. 2 inches—undersize among the NBA’s behemoths, but a beacon of hope for us normal-size people.

(The image of Jalen Brunson accompanying this post was taken on Apr. 26, 2023 by Erik Drost.)

Quote of the Day (Tim Wu, on Company ‘Convenience Cocoons’)

“The ideal business model for a company now is to create a space where almost everything a consumer wants is available so that person never has to leave. Amazon is perhaps the clearest example of this. Of course, it’s not impossible to leave Amazon’s cocoon and to buy things elsewhere, but the small frictions — like typing in credit-card numbers or creating new accounts — make a huge difference….[T]he careful cultivation of monopoly power tends to keep us inside the system once we’re in.”— Columbia Law School professor Tim Wu quoted by Josie Cox, “Escaping the Convenience Cocoon," Columbia Magazine, Winter 2025-26

The image accompanying this post, of Tim Wu at a 2018 “Curse of Bigness” event, was taken on Dec. 4, 2018, by New America.

TV Quote of the Day (‘Parks and Recreation,’ on a Pivotal Moment in a Beauty Pageant)

[Serving as a judge in the Miss Pawnee Beauty Pageant, Leslie hopes to weed out one contestant whose lack of cranial matter is cheerfully overlooked by the male-dominated panel.]

Leslie Knope [played by Amy Poehler]: “Trish, Alexis de Tocqueville called America ‘The Great Experiment.’ What can we do, as citizens, to improve on that experiment?”

Trish Ianetta [played by April Eden]: “Uh, well, uh, I think America is the land of the free, which is a wonderful thing, and also the brave, where people can live. And nobody can ever take that away from you, and it never gives up. But the high birthing rate of immigrants frightens me! No offense to anyone out there, but if it were up to me and my family, I would actually call it our America, and not their America! Thank you.”

[The audience applauds enthusiastically.]

Leslie: “Don't applaud that. She didn't—she didn't answer my question.”— Parks and Recreation, Season 2, Episode 3, “Beauty Pageant,” original air date Oct. 1, 2009, teleplay by Katie Dippold and Harris Wittels, directed by Jason Woliner

This is a scene in which the full vacuity of a character can only be conveyed by watching an actor rather than by reading the admittedly clever dialogue.

In a few years, it sounds like Trish and her family would be among the original, hard-core MAGA contingent.