Author Archives: bernardporter2013

Trump’s problem – or, rather, our problem with Trump – is that he can’t think analytically. Or at all. He simply accepts what he’s told by his ideological allies, on Fox TV and social media, or by the last world … Continue reading →

Vice-President JD Vance’s speech on Saturday to the Munich Security Conference (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pCOsgfINdKg) may have marked a crucial turning-point in recent world history. This is not only for its signalling of the USA’s disengagement from the defence of Europe after eighty … Continue reading →

Excellent article here, from yesterday’s Guardian, but by an American-born Dagens Nyheter correspondent, Martin Gelin (https://sv.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_Gelin). https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/feb/12/sweden-risbergska-orebro-gun-massacre. – (If it doesn’t come up, try the Guardian website.) They’re thinking of tightening their gun laws here in Sweden. The shooter in … Continue reading →

The hero of the Ayn Rand novel I’m struggling with presently, Atlas Shrugged (see https://bernardjporter.com/2025/01/30/ayn-rand/), is a railroad magnate. The hero of the one I abandoned a few years ago, The Fountainhead, was a builder. Déjà vu? The two men … Continue reading →

Apparently if you’re an immigrant it costs thousands of pounds and a mountain of paperwork to acquire British citizenship these days. – Just for purposes of comparison: when I got my (dual) Swedish citizenship five years ago it cost me … Continue reading →

Eleven dead, at an adult education centre, including the shooter, a 35-ish white man with no previous criminal record, but a history of school failure, unemployment and solitariness. Thank God he wasn’t a Muslim. (As many of his victims were.) … Continue reading →

It used to be dismissed as hyperbole. Now the idea of the USA’s being – or shortly becoming – a ‘Fascist’ power is being taken seriously. Obviously Trump is not gassing Jews, or anyone else, yet. But neither did Hitler … Continue reading →

Ayn Rand’s ‘philosophical novels’ are supposed to have had a great influence on the American Right, with their glorification of free enterprise and heroic male industrialists. With America now being ruled (once again) by a millionaire property developer, supported by … Continue reading →

Interesting historical piece by a conservative Canadian/American. https://www.nytimes.com/2025/01/23/opinion/trump-mckinley-populism.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare

Prince Harry’s utter vindication this morning in his High Court case against the Murdoch press (https://www.reuters.com/world/uk/prince-harry-v-murdoch-lawyers-due-back-court-after-last-gasp-deal-talks-2025-01-22/) is a rare ray of light in today’s on-going war between Good and Evil. I’ve not much time for the British royal family, least … Continue reading →