Gerard Alexander
@gerardalexander.bsky.social
Reposted by Gerard Alexander
Cause I’m built for comfort/
I ain’t built for speed/
I ain’t built for speed/
January 24, 2026 at 1:04 AM
Cause I’m built for comfort/
I ain’t built for speed/
I ain’t built for speed/
Reposted by Gerard Alexander
I've done My Week: Donald Trump (again) for tomorrow. My first draft genuinely had a joke about Trump thinking there were penguins in Greenland but I took it out because it seemed too stupid.
January 23, 2026 at 11:17 PM
I've done My Week: Donald Trump (again) for tomorrow. My first draft genuinely had a joke about Trump thinking there were penguins in Greenland but I took it out because it seemed too stupid.
Reposted by Gerard Alexander
Reposted by Gerard Alexander
I got very choked up in class today showing my students what James Baldwin had to say about Shakespeare:
“the greatest poet in the English language found his poetry where poetry is found: in the lives of the people. he could have done this only through love…”
“the greatest poet in the English language found his poetry where poetry is found: in the lives of the people. he could have done this only through love…”
January 21, 2026 at 7:57 PM
I got very choked up in class today showing my students what James Baldwin had to say about Shakespeare:
“the greatest poet in the English language found his poetry where poetry is found: in the lives of the people. he could have done this only through love…”
“the greatest poet in the English language found his poetry where poetry is found: in the lives of the people. he could have done this only through love…”
Reposted by Gerard Alexander
How it started How it's going
January 21, 2026 at 9:07 PM
How it started How it's going
Reposted by Gerard Alexander
Mark Carney's speech really is terrific: full text is here and very much worth your time.
The Carney doctrine
Open comment thread on the PM's Davos speech
paulwells.substack.com
January 20, 2026 at 5:52 PM
Mark Carney's speech really is terrific: full text is here and very much worth your time.
Reposted by Gerard Alexander
Carney: "American hegemony in particular helped provide public goods, a stable financial system... this bargain no longer works. Let me be direct. We are in the midst of a rupture, not a transition... recently, great powers have begun using economic integration as a weapon. Tariffs as leverage ... "
January 20, 2026 at 3:50 PM
Carney: "American hegemony in particular helped provide public goods, a stable financial system... this bargain no longer works. Let me be direct. We are in the midst of a rupture, not a transition... recently, great powers have begun using economic integration as a weapon. Tariffs as leverage ... "
Reposted by Gerard Alexander
He remade the world in a scant 12 years - between the ages of 26 and 38 - and foresaw his assassination years in advance.
January 16, 2026 at 2:41 PM
He remade the world in a scant 12 years - between the ages of 26 and 38 - and foresaw his assassination years in advance.
There are some who claim to be tempted by China’s solidity.
‘In his first two years in power, Xi purged seven hundred top officials, including Hu’s former chief of staff, Ling Jihua. In his first five years he had two million party members put under investigation for corruption.’
@tomstevenson.bsky.social on Xi Jinping.
www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
@tomstevenson.bsky.social on Xi Jinping.
www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
Tom Stevenson · Climbing the Ziggurat: Xi Jinping’s Inheritance
China, which in the post-Cold War period was viewed as either lunch for American capital or an irredeemable dungeon, has...
www.lrb.co.uk
January 19, 2026 at 7:23 PM
There are some who claim to be tempted by China’s solidity.
Teeniest tiniest violin
Donald Trump’s latest tariff threats against Europe over his push to acquire Greenland have put European far right party - some of his closest allies - in a difficult spot
www.ft.com/content/d41c...
www.ft.com/content/d41c...
Europe’s rightwing parties squirm as Trump threatens tariffs
Maga allies refuse to condone US president’s threats over Greenland, with many staying quiet or blaming Brussels
www.ft.com
January 19, 2026 at 6:51 PM
Teeniest tiniest violin
Reposted by Gerard Alexander
Calling the 25th Amendment…. www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2026/0...
Trump’s Letter to Norway Should Be the Last Straw
Will Republicans in Congress ever step in?
www.theatlantic.com
January 19, 2026 at 3:47 PM
Calling the 25th Amendment…. www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2026/0...
Colm Toibin singing of human unsuccess in this painstaking exegesis - they doubted their own words - of three magical poets.
www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
Colm Tóibín · Yeats, Auden, Eliot: 1939, 1940, 1941
Who was English; who was American? If Auden was English, was T.S. Eliot American? Or was it the other way around?...
www.lrb.co.uk
January 19, 2026 at 6:35 PM
Colm Toibin singing of human unsuccess in this painstaking exegesis - they doubted their own words - of three magical poets.
www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
River Forth haard at work today
January 13, 2026 at 7:59 AM
River Forth haard at work today
This is reliably great from Andrew O’Hagan, love Lippmann, remarkable to think that this America existed - not always benign, but not certifiable either. Albeit I am sure Orwell used the term ‘Cold War’ before Lippmann, and Public Opinion owes a wee debt to David Hume.
‘Individual citizens cling to their fictional environments so thoroughly, Lippmann argued, that they could be living in different worlds from those who don’t share them.’
Andrew O’Hagan on the work and theories of the liberal journalist Walter Lippmann:
www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
Andrew O’Hagan on the work and theories of the liberal journalist Walter Lippmann:
www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
Andrew O’Hagan · Fatal Realism: Walter Lippmann’s Warning
Lippmann was called the greatest journalist of his age, but his claims as an original thinker rest on his book Public...
www.lrb.co.uk
January 12, 2026 at 6:17 PM
This is reliably great from Andrew O’Hagan, love Lippmann, remarkable to think that this America existed - not always benign, but not certifiable either. Albeit I am sure Orwell used the term ‘Cold War’ before Lippmann, and Public Opinion owes a wee debt to David Hume.
Reposted by Gerard Alexander
‘Individual citizens cling to their fictional environments so thoroughly, Lippmann argued, that they could be living in different worlds from those who don’t share them.’
Andrew O’Hagan on the work and theories of the liberal journalist Walter Lippmann:
www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
Andrew O’Hagan on the work and theories of the liberal journalist Walter Lippmann:
www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
Andrew O’Hagan · Fatal Realism: Walter Lippmann’s Warning
Lippmann was called the greatest journalist of his age, but his claims as an original thinker rest on his book Public...
www.lrb.co.uk
January 11, 2026 at 6:32 PM
‘Individual citizens cling to their fictional environments so thoroughly, Lippmann argued, that they could be living in different worlds from those who don’t share them.’
Andrew O’Hagan on the work and theories of the liberal journalist Walter Lippmann:
www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
Andrew O’Hagan on the work and theories of the liberal journalist Walter Lippmann:
www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
The Garngad, just north of the Royal Infirmary, housed asylum seekers when Glasgow was the only local authority to do so. One of the poorest parts of Glasgow, it’s where I am from, but it’s an example of acceptance and assimilation
"We get to see the larger community response, which is: what can I do? How can I share? What do you need at the moment?” Such a good, nuanced piece by @libbybrooks.bsky.social looking at the confluence of factors causing tensions in Glasgow but also how the city is fighting Reform's toxic rhetoric.
‘The response is a beautiful thing’: how Glasgow is squaring up to Reform
In the face of Nigel Farage, flag-waving and a longstanding housing crisis, some Glaswegians are taking on anti-immigration rhetoric
www.theguardian.com
January 12, 2026 at 8:36 AM
The Garngad, just north of the Royal Infirmary, housed asylum seekers when Glasgow was the only local authority to do so. One of the poorest parts of Glasgow, it’s where I am from, but it’s an example of acceptance and assimilation
Native Americans look thoughtfully into the middle distance
Trump talks about Denmark and Greenland just now: "The fact that they landed a boat there 500 years ago doesn't mean that they own the land."
January 9, 2026 at 11:35 PM
Native Americans look thoughtfully into the middle distance
I miss singers shyly chatting before singing. Good angles here of the beautiful Joan Baez Modigliani face, and a sweetly-sung fierce song of rejection
youtube.com/watch?v=xIjz... m
youtube.com/watch?v=xIjz... m
JOAN BAEZ. .......IT AIN'T ME BABE
YouTube video by rjun67
youtube.com
January 9, 2026 at 11:33 PM
I miss singers shyly chatting before singing. Good angles here of the beautiful Joan Baez Modigliani face, and a sweetly-sung fierce song of rejection
youtube.com/watch?v=xIjz... m
youtube.com/watch?v=xIjz... m
Almost work, almost light
January 8, 2026 at 8:08 AM
Almost work, almost light
Off to the bus. Signs of light
January 6, 2026 at 7:55 AM
Off to the bus. Signs of light
Reposted by Gerard Alexander
Conparisons between Mamdani and LaGuardia are “naive and premature,” writes the historian Brenda Wineapple www.nybooks.com/online/2026/...
‘Imagination for the Other Fellow’ | Brenda Wineapple
In his victory speech, Zohran Mamdani vowed to put forward “the most ambitious agenda” New York City had seen since the administration of Fiorello La
www.nybooks.com
January 4, 2026 at 1:35 PM
Conparisons between Mamdani and LaGuardia are “naive and premature,” writes the historian Brenda Wineapple www.nybooks.com/online/2026/...
Reposted by Gerard Alexander
This is what cribs look like in Italy: entire miniature worlds. They remind me of WH Auden’s poem Musée des Beaux Arts. Something incredible might have been happening in their midst but people had things to do - bread to bake, wood to chop - and carried on doing them.
January 5, 2026 at 11:19 AM
This is what cribs look like in Italy: entire miniature worlds. They remind me of WH Auden’s poem Musée des Beaux Arts. Something incredible might have been happening in their midst but people had things to do - bread to bake, wood to chop - and carried on doing them.
The Good Doctor is people giving good advice to each other every episode all the time
January 3, 2026 at 7:12 PM
The Good Doctor is people giving good advice to each other every episode all the time
Reposted by Gerard Alexander
illuminated tree, Kew Gardens
January 2, 2026 at 10:32 PM
illuminated tree, Kew Gardens