What the Danish and European media misunderstand (and misrepresent) about America, and vice versa. And other stuff.
An opinion piece in Berlingske asks an interesting question: Should there be room for “well-coiffed hatred and cheeky fascism” at the Popular Assembly?Esben Vest Billingsøe (Opinion), Berlingske.dk, May 20 What I’m translating as the “Popular Assembly” could also be translated as the “People’s Meeting.” It’s an annual summer event (held in the 24th week of…
Ukraine won the Eurovision Song Contest on Saturday Night. To nobody’s surprise, they racked up the most points of any country in the history of the competition. To my own surprise, however, the Danish media have been very transparent about the fact that the Ukrainian song wasn’t very good and that this was obviously a…
Politico sends one of its intrepid explorers to the very edge of civilization, where he meets two even more intrepid explorers who have in fact pressed beyond the edge and into the darkness beyond—whence they have returned (alive!) to tell their tales of wonderment from the world of the political right. One wonderment in particular…
Here’s something that showed up on the DR website a couple of days ago: Bill on abortion access voted down in US SenateReuters/Ritzau, DR.dk, May 12 That’s a very crisp and succinct headline in English. The actual Danish headline speaks of “fri abort,” which I translated here as “abortion access.” I’ve often translated it in…
Reflecting on his 1912 defeat as a third party presidential candidate, Teddy Roosevelt lamented that “the average American in his party affiliations is largely influenced by a feeling quite as unreasoning as that which makes the average fan depressed or exultant over the victory of a professional baseball team.” That’s from TR: The Last Romantic,…
According to CNN, Joe Biden is “sharpening his mid-term message.” At the White House on Wednesday, Ole Puddinhead delivered a speech that “reflected Biden’s preparations for intense midterm campaigning built around hammering Republicans.” You know, the way “unity” candidates often do. With his approval rating as bad as the low 30s in some polls and…
There’s obviously been big news out of America since my last post, but believe it or not I’m not going to write about JD Vance having won the Repubican primary for the Ohio Senate. Instead I feel obliged to write about the other little story that broke Tuesday night: the leak of the Supreme Court’s…
