Long Memories

HILLARY DOGGED BY BILL'S PAST

By Richard Carreño

[WC News Service]

London

In 1996 I also happened to be in London when that other Clinton, William Jefferson Clinton, was reelected to his second term. The mood then, in the media and amongst my friends and acquaintances, mostly academics and journalists, was strong, widespread interest in the election. But little expressed concern. Even less emotional engagement. Twenty years later, that same platter is still on offer.

 

With a twist. Brexit anyone?

 

Back then, my political cohort of centre-lefties, largely New Labourites and enthusiastic followers of their new team captain, Tony Blair, saw Bill Clinton as being in the same putatively progressive mold of Blair. Clinton's sexual dalliances, exploits, and financial scandals were, as was the case then in the United States, set aside by his supporters, including his feminist cadre. for the greater good.

 

FAST-FOOD, BLUE JEANS, AND ROCK 'N ROLL

FLY ON THE WALL
Facing Down the Ugly American

By Don Merlot

[WC News Service]

New Orleans

Back in 1968 I started my international career in February and took off for my first international trip in June. When I stepped off the plane to experience my first foreign culture exchange and to pursue an international global career, my expectation was, as a recent college graduate, that I could handle anything and everything. 

One of the things that I was told about seeing a new culture was, do not judge a culture or compare it to your own. You do not have to like it, nor comment about it publicly. You are a business ambassador doing business and be polite and diplomatic.

Maybe as I look back, that was true; in the American Culture of the 1960s we were the Baby Boomers out represent the USA and its interests but it was not practiced by all American travelers that I had met or known. And there I was, starting my first business trip in June 1968 surrounded by an anti War movement, racial discord, political division.  My new business group consisted of Americans who wanted to sell excess manufactured goods. There was a common feeling then that Americans were exporting “fast food, blue jeans, and rock 'n roll." 

RAYMOND CHELLEL, The PJ's UK-based correspondent, wonders ...

Jeremy Corbyn

IF THERE'S A TORY VICTORY
IN LABOUR'S CORBYN PICK?

Though Not Certain -- Test Will Come in By-Elections

'Interesting -- But Probably Not in a Good Way'

 

LONDON [WC News Service] -- Corbyn!  There are two British political groups celebrating the election last week of Jeremy Corbyn as Labour Leader:  The unreconstructed, hard-left socialist wing of the party, and just about all Conservatives, who, with good reason, believe this lurch to the left will make Labour unelectable for years to come.  After all, Corbyn's predecessor, Ed Miliband (who, with the support of the trade unions, beat his brother to the leadership) moved the party to the left and consequently presided over one of the worst electoral defeats in Labour history.

RICHARD CARREÑO

Frederick Wiseman
Photo/Richard Carreño

NATIONAL GALLERY DOCUMENTARY INFORMS, DESPITE MUDDLED, PLODDING EDITING

Philadelphia |WritersClearinghouse News Service

Here are the things you don't learn in National Gallery, a new documentary by the esteemed American director Frederick Wiseman: that the museum was established in 1824; it's opened 361 days a year; it houses Western art from the 13th to 19th centuries; admission is free; and that it's been located on Trafalgar Square since 1838.

     Here is what you do learn: that the museum's director, Nicholas Penny, is a scholarly, amiable chap, whose hunched over-bespectacled look suggests a character actor from Central Casting. Penny, who has been director since 2008, seems far less impervious and imperial than the Gallery's legendary war-time director, the late Lord Clark, the prolific art historian who became wildly famous for his BBC-PBS television series Civilisation.

Scotland Votes for Independence

 

Results to be Known Friday
A Cri de Coeur
By Our London Correspondent  
[WritersClearinghouse News Service]

London Posted 18 September 2014

This  may be Great Britain's last forty-eight hours as a united country, with the referendum on Scottish independence taking place today. (18 September 2014).

As you know, I have always been a political person, but nothing I have experienced, including the election of Nixon in the US, has distressed me like this. When I read that the Yes campaign had closed a thirty point gap in the
polls and had now edged ahead of Better Together, I actually felt queasy.

And angry.  Angry at the imminent victory of parochialism and
quasi-religious nationalism over common sense.  Angry at the untruths
and half-truths peddled by that oily little fourflusher, Salmond, and
his harridan of a deputy, Nicola Sturgeon.  Angry that they have
stirred up  witches' brew of conflict and hatred the like of which I
have never seen in this country and which will poison the relationship
of Scotland and England for years to come, whatever the outcome of the
referendum.