This is edition 2025/39 of the Ten@10 newsletter.
Welcome back. It's 2025 and 20 years since I started writing about politics and anything else that took my fancy. Thank to my VIP members for making this site what it is today. In July we will be having a 20th birthday celebration. Stay tuned for more announcements.
This is the Ten@10, where I collate and summarise ten news items you generally won't see in the mainstream media.
Enjoy!
1. There is nothing new under the sun
Liam Hehir
- 💥 Phil Goff’s sacking sparked outrage and defensiveness over his comments about Trump and Churchill, highlighting the irony of invoking Churchill’s legacy by those with a shallow understanding of his views.
- 🤔 Goff’s comparison between Churchill's historical courage and modern-day appeasement wasn't groundbreaking, but his question about Trump's grasp of history raised an interesting point.
- 🌍 Churchill’s perspective on diplomacy during WWII showed his opposition to Roosevelt's naivety in dealing with Stalin, a viewpoint that echoed today’s diplomatic challenges.
- 🕵️♂️ Roosevelt's optimism about Stalin's goodwill led to tensions with Churchill, who saw through Stalin’s motives but compromised for the sake of the U.S.-UK alliance.
- 🧳 Soviet sympathizers within the U.S. administration, like Henry Wallace, held idealized views of the USSR, despite Stalin's purges, further complicating U.S.-Soviet relations.
- 🚫 Western missteps: Obama’s attempts to reset relations with Russia, such as dropping missile defense systems and vetoing NATO membership for Ukraine and Georgia, emboldened Moscow.
- 💣 Russia’s actions: The U.S. response to Russia’s aggression, from Crimea to eastern Ukraine, was often weak and inconsistent, further encouraging Russian expansion.
- 🔄 Churchill’s lesson: His pragmatic approach, balancing realism and morality in dealing with adversaries, is often lost amid the political noise, with his legacy inconsistently invoked against Trump.
- 🗣️ Trump and Churchill: Churchill would likely view Trump’s foreign policy as another example of U.S. missteps, marked by both over-aggression and naïve trust in adversaries.
- ⏳ Historical perspective: Instead of catastrophizing the present, it's important to remember that history is full of miscalculations, and that a broader perspective can ease the anxiety of today's crises.
