I can't leave my house for ten minutes...

[Mayerling]

Well, the coup attempt in Turkey is over. But that is probably because it happened at the very end of my holiday. The insurgents would do well to study my itinerary better next time.

I'm trying to figure out if the failure of the coup was a good thing or not for Turkey, in that the military usually supported the secularization of the state on western models (since the time of Ataturk), and Erdogan is definitely a supporter of the Islamic religion role in Turkish life. But seeing how many were killed it's hard to support the coup and (generally speaking) coups are not things to want to see happen anywhere.

The New York Times today was examining how the coup took everyone by surprise, and it's failure has also caused consternation among those scholars who analyze the causes of military coup -d'etats. Apparently they only are expected to occur (this was what the article said, based on this research) in societies that are living close to the poverty level, and where child mortality is high. Turkey's economy has been improving since the last military intervention in the late 1990s, and it has been having sustained reduction in child mortality. It was therefore not considered likely to have any real chance for any coup, even with the current problems dealing with Erdogan and his regime. Further, the fact that it was only a faction of the military (mostly from the airforce) behind this attempt suggests serious fissures in the unity of the military elite in Turkey (it was also mentioned that most of the army leaders - general that is - were not involved in this coup).

Jeff

[Mayerling]

On the plus side, you remain immune to agoraphobia.

Every cloud, mate.

As for Boris - what a massive bell end - but then he won't look out of place in the British Government.

This is perhaps why we were never meant to be in a union with the Europeans: in Europe all the serious people who think they're gonna save the world turn up in politics; in England all of our failed comedians turn up in the House of Commons to give it one last go.

Yes Fleetwood, all those "failed comedians" turning up in the House of Commons in Britain, while here they become Presidential candidates after serving time as the chooser of "apprentices" on television.

Jeff

[Karl]

Well, to be fair, the British parliament is at least able to attract a captive audience:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PWeaLGealHQ

Other countries demonstrate to a perhaps even greater degree that politicians are little more than overgrown children:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_V5On2HhIh0

Meanwhile, in Norway...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eiOSFSRMh4I

Don't worry about not knowing the language. It is just a bunch of legalese, with references to this or that paragraph in the Constitution (without elaborating what those paragraphs actually say), and generally uninspiring stuff. I assure you it is every bit as boring when you understand what they say. Look at all the empty seats: even politicians do not show up unless you twist their arms.

[Caligo Umbrator]

Hi, Mayerling.

You don't know how close you might have come to real terror . . ..
Boris was born in N.Y.C. and had dual nationality.
Last year, in a matter that was entirely unrelated to capital gains tax owed in the U.S., he renounced his U.S. citizenship.
Of course, technically, as he was born in the U.S., if things don't work out at home, he could still run for POTUS. . . .

Your, Caligo

[Mayerling]

Hi, Mayerling.

You don't know how close you might have come to real terror . . ..
Boris was born in N.Y.C. and had dual nationality.
Last year, in a matter that was entirely unrelated to capital gains tax owed in the U.S., he renounced his U.S. citizenship.
Of course, technically, as he was born in the U.S., if things don't work out at home, he could still run for POTUS. . . .

Your, Caligo

Hi Caligo,

I've been thinking of Boris this past few days. Two figures from the past arose to make me ponder the vagaries of multi-national backgrounds.

First was okay - Sir Winston Churchill. In one of his visits to Washington, D.C. in World War II, he addressed the U.S. Capitol in a joint session of Congress, and made a speech that he was thinking how his mother and grandfather (Jennie Jerome Churchill and Leonard Jerome - both citizens of the U.S., unitl Jennie married Lord Randolph Churchill) would be proud to see him at that moment, and that had his father been American and his mother from Britain, he would have been getting to speak in Congress by this time too! Churchill (as you may know) was one of two foreign born (and resident) figures who were given honorary American citizenship (the other was the Marquise de Lafayette). [At the same time, several American Prsidents, beginning with Franklin Roosevelt, were given that British "honorary knighthood" that was specially designed for U.S. citizens, because the Federal Constitution forbids us to have titles.]

Second was not as okay - and I'm not sure even Boris deserves this comparison. Because Boris had dual citizenship, he presumably had two different passports, or could have had two. That reminded me of "his Lordship of HawHaw" William Joyce. Joyce was born of Irish parents in New York City. In his teens (I think) he returned to Britain, and would soon be one of the faces of Mosley's "New Party" of fascists. Just as Britain finally stood up to Hitler and war beckoned in August 1939, Joyce would go to Germany and he soon had German citizenship and a German passport. One of the most intriguing mental games to play when reading of his treason trial in 1946 is the question of his U.S., U.K. and Nazi German passports, and whether when he started his "Gairmany calling!" broadcasts he was a German or British or American citizen (keep in mind that from 1939 to 1941, as an American citizen, he was not committing treason - after December 1941 it would have been a different story).

I suppose we would have not been happy had Boris stayed in the U.S., but given we have Donald who's to say our experience was better with or without Boris here?

Anyway, he couldn't have argued for us to leave the E.U., could he?

Jeff

[Karl]

November update

I swear, I didn't go anywhere this time!

It was my sister's birthday, however...

[louisa]

Don't knock Boris. He may not have been a great Statesman but he was a great sportsman. Just look at the last clip on this video....

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s4y_hbRH2fc

.
.

[Karl]

I suppose the US presidential election was a foregone conclusion once Boris Johnson became Secretary of State in the UK. The Americans had to have someone in office somewhere to match. Either because of some misguided sense of fashion, or merely out of sympathy.

[Svensson]

I swear, I didn't go anywhere this time!

It was my sister's birthday, however...

Did you move house recently..?