News of James Neilson

James Neilson

Former editor of the Buenos Aires Herald (1979-1986).

Weirdoes do battle for the world

28-07-2025 15:33 Few imagined that the old order would soon fall apart and that through the cracks would emerge political leaders determined to bring about drastic changes in the societies they lived in.

by James Neilson

As I see it

Politics becomes a strictly personal matter

21-07-2025 05:49 Once upon a time, politicians were expected to stand for rather more than their own egos, but in most parts of the world, the more successful political parties now tend to be one-man bands.

by James Neilson

As I see it

Do smartphones make people stupid?

12-07-2025 06:51 For a long time it was taken for granted that headlong technological progress would greatly benefit youngsters by providing them with a cornucopia of educational resources that had been denied to previous generations.

by James Neilson

As I see it

Milei hurt by yet another time bomb

05-07-2025 07:34 A New York judge has ordered the government to hand just over half the shares in YPF to a vulture fund that had purchased the rights of companies harmed by the cack-handed takeover of the oil firm in 2015.

by James Neilson

As I see it

The world is Donald Trump’s playpen

28-06-2025 07:38 Trump clearly imagines he can reshape the rest of the world by treating lesser potentates like counters in a board game he has devised.

by James Neilson

As I see it

High noon for Israel and the ayatollahs

21-06-2025 06:03 The Israelis hope that, by humiliating an incompetent regime and killing its military commanders one after another, they will encourage the Iranian people to take to the streets and help them remove it.

by James Neilson

As I see it

Tougher times for politicians on the take

14-06-2025 06:41 Argentina is turning into a country in which even the most powerful among them understand that they would be well advised to respect the letter of the law.

by James Neilson

As I see it

Humanity in the grip of a death wish

07-06-2025 06:39 According to Austral University’s human resources department, the birth rate in Argentina has fallen to 1.4 per woman.

by James Neilson

As I see it

Censorship is making a comeback just about everywhere

31-05-2025 06:28 Milei has a habit of shouting “Freedom, damn it!” whenever the opportunity arises, but he is clearly an authoritarian at heart who does not take kindly to criticism.

by James Neilson

As I see it

Milei wants to paint Argentina violet

24-05-2025 06:49 Milei and his sister are well aware that political loyalties usually owe more to a person’s sense of belonging to a vaguely defined community than to reasoned arguments. Handouts can help, but peer pressure counts for more than anything else.

by James Neilson

As I see it

Being pope in an irreligious age

17-05-2025 06:28 Leo XIV faces a most difficult dilemma.

by James Neilson

As I see it

Milei looks like a one-trick pony

10-05-2025 07:45 Chainsaws are great but they can maim or even kill users who are too weak or too clumsy to handle them properly.

by James Neilson

As I see it

When the machines stop working

03-05-2025 07:00 A growing proportion of decisions that affect people will be made by artefacts that can be hacked either by individuals working for hostile regimes, religious zealots who disapprove of Western ways or mere mischief-makers who get a kick out of provoking turmoil.

by James Neilson

As I see it

Goodbye to the Argentine papacy

26-04-2025 05:00 While some of the causes Bergoglio embraced may have been good, by adopting them he blurred the distinction between Catholicism and what most of the “progressive” atheists and agnostics who have long dominated Western culture already take for granted.

by James Neilson

As I see it

Milei goes low in an effort to get high

19-04-2025 06:00 To get the big electoral majority he is after, Milei will have to persuade such people that he is the man, as was Juan Domingo Perón in his moment and after him, Carlos Menem and Néstor Kirchner.

by James Neilson

As I see it

Trump has China in the crosshairs

12-04-2025 05:41 The 19th century belonged to the United Kingdom, the 20th to the United States. And the 21st?

by James Neilson

President Javier Milei and his libertarian crew.

As I see it

Sailing blithely into the maelstrom

05-04-2025 06:15 Like Donald Trump with his error-prone minions, Javier Milei is accompanied by an entourage which includes far too many individuals who are unsuited for high office.

by James Neilson

As I see it

The old order is fighting back

22-03-2025 07:45 Milei has managed to apply a much-needed corrective to a political order that, until he took over, seemed to have been programmed to destroy both itself and the country.

by James Neilson

AS I SEE IT

Demography should help the US keep China at bay

15-03-2025 07:46 Despite the fact that demography has always been China’s not so secret weapon, in recent years it has become a major problem that seems certain to put a premature end to the imperial dreams of Xi and his immediate successors.

by James Neilson

AS I SEE IT

Alarm bells ringing in Europe

08-03-2025 06:00 Have the Europeans stumbled into the dependency trap? Trump and his cronies evidently think they have and therefore deserve to be treated like the supplicants they are.

by James Neilson

As I see it

Hail to the chiefs

01-03-2025 06:15 Much of the world is reverting to an older formula in which it is taken for granted that everything depends on the whims of a handful of big men.

by James Neilson

As I see it

Milei caught in a crypto spider web

22-02-2025 06:09 By associating himself with a cosmopolitan bunch of chancers, Milei has raised serious questions about the government he leads.

by James Neilson

As I see it

A cyberpunk at the helm

15-02-2025 06:10 Is Milei an astute operator who is merely playing the role of a foul-mouthed cyberpunk or is he simply showing the world the kind of person he really is?

by James Neilson

As I see it

Mar-a-Lago on the Med

07-02-2025 09:58 Why is Trump’s suggestion being derided as hopelessly far-fetched and reactionary?

by James Neilson

As I see it

The quest for the new philosopher’s stone

01-02-2025 09:07 For good or ill, Artificial Intelligence is the philosopher’s stone of the age we are living in.

by James Neilson

As I see it

Back to basics with Donald Trump

25-01-2025 06:43 Progressives should be aware that what Trump represents is an increasingly powerful movement that is certain to endure.

by James Neilson

As I see it

The battle of the sexes is far from over

18-01-2025 06:46 Trump and the people who surround him evidently believe that the time has come to roll back some of the gains chalked up by women.

by James Neilson

As I see it

Dreaming of a Trumpian empire

11-01-2025 06:36 By openly declaring that all that stuff about sovereignty, the inviolability of internationally recognised borders and such should be discarded for what he says are strategic reasons, Trump may well have kickstarted something that could have far-reaching consequences that he would be the last to welcome.

by James Neilson

As I see it

Chainsaws are now in fashion

02-01-2025 07:45 Though Trump has yet to take office, his electoral triumph has had an immediate impact not just in his own country but also in Europe and further afield where it has strengthened those who feel betrayed by the political parties.

by James Neilson

As I see it

Quite soon there will be nobody left

21-12-2024 05:07 If present trends are anything to go by, then our descendants, most of whom will be in their dotage, will occupy a prominent place on the endangered species list.

by James Neilson

As I see it

Milei is still very much in charge

14-12-2024 15:37 The success or failure of the far-reaching programme Milei devised will depend on whether or not most members of the political fraternity have learned enough from their many errors.

by James Neilson

As I see it

The return of the great disruptor

07-12-2024 06:07 Caught off-balance, progressives in the United States and movers and shakers in Latin America, Europe, East Asia, the Middle East and Africa are asking themselves what the return of the great disruptor could mean.

by James Neilson

As I see it

The invasion is about to begin

30-11-2024 05:46 Putting up protectionist barriers can be wonderfully easy, but pulling them down is anything but.

by James Neilson

As I see it

Green going out of fashion

23-11-2024 06:00 Javier Milei is far from being the only prominent person who thinks global-warming activists have rather more in mind than an understandable desire to prevent the entire planet from going up in flames.

by James Neilson

As I see it

Milei books a seat on the Trump express

16-11-2024 05:52 Though Milei expects Trump to lend him a helping hand on the financial front, he must be worried by his determination to surround the US with sky-high protectionist walls.

by James Neilson

As I see it

Post-electoral Democrat blues

09-11-2024 07:36 If Democrats were wise, they would understand that it was due to their incompetence, combined with highhandedness, that Trump came roaring back.

by James Neilson

As I see it

Fear and loathing in the US

02-11-2024 06:42 About the only thing Donald Trump and Kamala Harris agree upon is that, unless one of them wins, democracy will die in the United States.

by James Neilson

As I see it

A most unappetising choice

26-10-2024 05:32 The choice, then, is between a blustering egotist and an almost comically vacuous lady.

by James Neilson

As I see it

Milei and the uses of fanaticism

19-10-2024 06:23 Javier Milei’s reputation, and with it his ability to rule, depends on his willingness to stick to his fiscal guns, come what may.

by James Neilson

As I see it

There are no easy answers in education

12-10-2024 06:59 Living as we do in an egalitarian age, many educationalists are reluctant to take into account another unfortunate fact: people have different talents

by James Neilson

As I see it

Israel takes on the holy warriors

05-10-2024 06:15 It would therefore be reasonable to assume that the Western democracies would not only approve of Israel’s attempt to annihilate Hamas and Hezbollah but would also be sending troops to help her get the job well and truly done.

by James Neilson

As I see it

The UN gets the Milei treatment

28-09-2024 06:22 Hypocrisy is the glue that holds the UN together. It would fall apart if the democratic members began demanding the immediate expulsion of countries whose regimes refuse to observe the rules they pledged themselves to respect.

by James Neilson

As I see it

Israel’s terrible swift sword

21-09-2024 06:20 Israel not only tore apart Hezbollah’s communications’ network and undermined its morale, but also scored a major propaganda triumph. For a small country whose very survival depends entirely on its military prowess, this is a matter of literally vital importance.

by James Neilson

Trump, Harris: Battle for the White House.

As I see it

Waiting for the next leader of the free world

14-09-2024 06:08 In the United States, politicians enjoy shouting insults at one another, a habit that has been picked up by Javier Milei, who greatly admires “The Donald.”

by James Neilson

As I see it

A most illiberal libertarian

07-09-2024 06:06 Is Milei a democrat? Probably not; it is increasingly clear that, by instinct, he is an authoritarian who does not take kindly to even mild criticism.

by James Neilson

As I see it

A window of opportunity for autocrats

31-08-2024 05:37 Donald Trump is far from being the only North American politician who would like to see his country leave the rest of the world to its own wretched devices.

by James Neilson

As I see it

Milei’s party a prey to infighting

24-08-2024 05:29 In democratic countries, leaders of a ruling party that has little to fear from an opposition in disarray soon find themselves confronting internal rebellions. In Argentina, Javier Milei’s party finds itself in a similar situation.

by James Neilson

As I see it

Alberto left twisting slowly, slowly in the wind

17-08-2024 06:43 Was Alberto Fernández an exceptionally bad character or was he just a typical member of what Javier Milei calls “the caste” who felt he was entitled to make up his own rules?

by James Neilson

AS I SEE IT

Maduro still has plenty of fans

03-08-2024 14:54 For Xi Jinping and his underlings, the alleged ability of the Chinese Communist Party to solve quickly problems that keep Western politicians awake at night is a major selling point which they use to impress leaders of underdeveloped countries who see democracy as a threat.

by James Neilson

Donald Trump, Kamala Harris and Joe Biden.

AS I SEE IT

Almost half a year to go

27-07-2024 14:11 In a sane universe, the all too evident shortcomings of Donald Trump and Kamala Harris, let alone Joe Biden, would make it impossible for one of them to become what their compatriots plausibly say is the “most powerful” person on earth.

by James Neilson