"And Yes, We Now Know, Republican Extremism as We Have Known It Can Become Far Worse"

"So the devil we thought we knew, the man whose saturnine image chilled many a liberal heart during his years in power, pointed at this new devil and suggested new depths of power-hungry mendacity were coming into sight. Perhaps Dick Cheney knowingly lied about Iraq possessing weapons of mass destruction in the run-up to the U.S. invasion in 2003, or perhaps he was self-deluded. And maybe Cheney and George W. Bush swept into office in an election even more disputed than that of 2020. But they relied on the U.S. Supreme Court to consummate their victory, not a mob invading the U.S. Capitol."

Ed Kilgore at New York reacts to the death of Dick Cheney.

"To Produce More Winning Candidates Who Address Voters' Pessimism Head-On"

"This phenomenon might seem distasteful or incomprehensible. Democrats groan, 'How could these so-called moderate voters possibly give the amoral, white-supremacist-coddling, and self-aggrandizing Trump the benefit of the doubt?' It would nevertheless be futile to refute the ways in which it has transformed our politics. The breadth of Trump's 2024 coalition, the increasing scale of the Democrats' regional polarization penalty, and the association of progressivism with a 'woke' left-establishment axis (rather than with the common good and safeguarding the American dream)—these challenges all suggest the rise of the 'moderate' Trump voter is one Democrats must first accept if they are to arrest the MAGA realignment."

Justin Vassallo at The Liberal Patriot describes a rivalry within the Democratic Party between "progressives" and "populists."

"A Cynical Means for the Affluent to Transfer Ever More Wealth From the Rest of Society to Themselves"

"In private equity, there is a saying that goes: 'Every day you're not selling, you're buying.' It means that as long as you hold on to a company or some other asset without profiting from it, you're betting on its longer term success. Behind it is a principle that is widespread on Wall Street: that there are only two sides to every trade--the winner and the loser. The same might be said about society's relationship to private equity: every day we're not regulating it, we're letting it regulate us. We're letting it take over our cells and replicate aggressively. It's clear who's on the winning side of that bargain."

In a 2024 Guardian article, Alex Blasdel explores the world of private equity.

"Looking at These Epoch-Making Events Also Suggests, I Think, That They May All Share a Single Cause"

"The decline of deviance is mainly a good thing. Our lives have gotten longer, safer, healthier, and richer. But the rise of mass prosperity and disappearance of everyday dangers has also made trivial risks seem terrifying. So as we tame every frontier of human life, we have to find a way to keep the good kinds of weirdness alive. We need new institutions, new eddies and corners and tucked-away spaces where strange things can grow."

David Mastroianni at Experimental History argues that "[p]eople are less weird than they used to be."

October 2025 Acquisitions

Books:

Nigel Benson, Introducing Psychology: A Graphic Guide, 2007.

Dave Dwonch and Travis Hymel, The Loose End, 2025.

Jeffrey Weinstock, The Rocky Horror Picture Show, 2007.

Movies:

The Last Showgirl, 2024.

Music:

Richard Ashcroft, Lovin' You, 2025.

Black Keys, No Rain, No Flowers, 2025.

Dropkick Murphys, For the People, 2025.

Hives, The Hives Forever... Forever the Hives, 2025.

Lords of the New Church, Killer Lords, 1993.

Royel Otis, Hickey, 2025.

Saint Etienne, International, 2025.

"This New Age of Nationalism"

"For more than a decade, leaders have not only been slow to respond to the millions who feel left out and left behind, but also to the changing balance of global economic power, moving us from a unipolar world once dominated by the US to a multipolar world of competing superpowers, and from a rules-based order to a power-based one. The ethnic nationalism that this has incited means free trade is giving way to protectionism. Where economics used to drive politics, the politics of nationalism is now driving economic decisions, and already more than 100 countries are running mercantilist policies marked out by reshoring and friend-shoring and by bans on cross-border trade, investment and technology transfer, sinking international cooperation to its lowest ebb since 1945." 

At The Guardian, Gordon Brown argues that "the hard right can be stopped in their tracks."

"In All of Its Complexity, Contradictions, and Ingenuity"

"Launching today and just ahead of the nation's 250th anniversary, a special issue of The Atlantic brings together a remarkable group of scholars, essayists, and reporters to revisit America's founding era, measuring the success of the American experiment, two and a half centuries later, against the lofty dreams and designs of the founding generation. In an editor's note, The Atlantic's editor in chief, Jeffrey Goldberg, writes of the issue, 'You will see that we are not simplistic, jingoistic, or uncritical in our approach, but we are indeed motivated by the idea that the American Revolution represents one of the most important events in the history of the planet, and its ideals continue to symbolize hope and freedom for humankind.' He continues, 'We are publishing this at the end of 2025 for a number of reasons: This month marks the launch of an Atlantic project meant to explain the meaning of the Revolution and its consequences, which we will carry through all of next year… We also recognize that the American experiment is under extraordinary pressure at the moment, and we think it important to do anything we can to illuminate the challenges we face.'"

The Atlantic unveils "The Unfinished Revolution."

"We Are Not Fascists, and If You Call Us Fascists, We Will Arrest You"

"Fascist regimes have classic, telltale traits, like vilifying immigrants, adopting patriotic symbolism of their nation's glorious past, embracing a narrow definition of masculinity and family values, and striving for economic and diplomatic self-sufficiency. But just because we also do all of those things does not make us fascists. That the unhinged left insists otherwise is proof that we're really the victims in all of this. Which is why we must apprehend and silence our critics in self-defense."

From Carlos Greaves at McSweeney's.

"Blame the Screens"

"Moving online created a parallel universe that bore some relationship to the physically experienced world, but in other cases could exist completely orthogonally to it. While previously 'truth' was imperfectly certified by institutions like scientific journals, traditional media with standards of journalist accountability, courts and legal discovery, educational institutions and research organizations, the standard for truth began to gravitate instead to the number of likes and shares a particular post got. The large tech platforms pursuing their own commercial self-interest created an ecosystem that rewarded sensationalism and disruptive content, and their recommendation algorithms, again acting in the interest of profit-maximization, guided people to sources that never would have been taken seriously in earlier times. Moreover, the speed with which memes and low-quality content could travel increased dramatically, as well as the reach of any particular piece of information. Previously, a major newspaper or magazine could reach perhaps a million readers, usually in a single geographic area; today, an individual influencer can reach hundreds of millions of followers without regard to geography."

Francis Fukuyama at Persuasion argues that "is the one factor that stands above the others as the chief explanation of our current problems."

September 2025 Acquisitions

Books:

Carol Byrd-Bredbenner et al, Wardlaw's Perspectives on Nutrition 10th Edition, 2015.

Nick Craine, Hard Core Logo: Portrati of a Thousand Punks, 2017.

Stephen Glynn, Quadrophenia, 2014.

Scott Jordan Harris, World Film Locations San Francisco, 2013.

Owen Holland and Piero, Introducing Literary Criticism: A Graphic Guide, 2016.

Mike Katz and Crispin Kott, Rock and Roll Explorer Guide to San Francisco, 2021.

Bill Morrison, The Beatles Yellow Submarine, 2018.

Stuart Sim and Borin Van Loon, Introducing Critical Theory: A Graphic Guide, 2009.

Scott Tilley and Nick Balian, Disneyland Is Your Land!, 2025.

Toyo Tyler and Courtney Dawson, My Little Golden Book About San Francisco, 2021.

Music:

Curtis Harding, Departures & Arrivals: Adventures of Captain Curt, 2025.

Stereolab, Instant Holograms on Metal Film, 2025.

Neil Young, Talkin to the Trees, 2025.

Various, DIY--Do It Yourself: Punk, Post Punk, Punk Funk & Beyond: The Rise of the Independent Music Industry, 2007.

Various, K-Pop Demon Hunters, 2025.

Various, New Wave for the Next Generation, 2003.

Various, The Rocky Horror Picture Show, 1975.

Various, Under the Influence: Ian Brown, 2003.

The Return of History

"I think that there was excess state regulation and state interference in economies that had developed by the 1970s. And so, you had politicians like Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher that tried to roll back some of that regulation. They were supported in this by very prominent economists, like Milton Friedman. The problem was that [they] went too far and attempted to undermine all forms of state activity, even necessary ones, for example, of regulating the financial system. And as a result, we ended up with a globalization that increased inequality and led to substantial instability in the global financial system. And this, of course, provoked a populist backlash that you see both on the left and the right, which partially explains why we are where we are today."

In a 2022 El Pais article, Sergio C. Fanjul interviews Francis Fukuyama.

"It's Worth Reconsidering"

"Some of these old standards will feel alien to zoomers and alphas. In his 2022 book The Nineties, the critic Chuck Klosterman explores the decade's hostility towards 'selling out,' which he calls “the single most nineties aspect of the nineties'. Selling out involved a respected artist deciding to make work that was more 'palatable' and therefore more commercially viable. By 2010, says Klosterman, 'it was hard to illustrate to a young person why this act was once seen as problematic; by 2020 it was difficult to explain what the term literally expressed'."

Rachel Aroesti at The Guardian calls for a return of "cultural snobbery."

"A New Generation of Democrats Needs to Recapture This Same Spirit"

"Democrats need to move away from the language of equity, which implies that it would be acceptable to close the racial gaps in health or education by helping members of the disadvantaged racial groups improve while denying any help to lower-income whites. Obama understood this reality instinctively, as he made clear in his 'A More Perfect Union' speech. He called on all Americans to 'realize that your dreams do not have to come at the expense of my dreams; that investing in the health, welfare, and education of black and brown and white children will ultimately help all of America prosper.' Like the 44th president did, today's Democrats must talk along these lines regularly and weave these concepts into their communication about all kinds of issues, not just on special occasions."

Ian Reifowitz at The Liberal Patriot writes about "How Democrats Lost Obama's Vision of American Identity."

While Bridget Bowman, Ryan Nobles and Frank Thorp V at NBC News write that "Bernie Sanders makes his next moves to reshape the Democratic Party."

"Destruction Is So Much Easier Than Construction"

"Hysterical hyperbole? I would love to think so. But during seven weeks in the US this summer, I was shaken every day by the speed and executive brutality of President Trump's assault on what had seemed settled norms of US democracy and by the desperate weakness of resistance to that assault. There's a growing body of international evidence to suggest that once a liberal democracy has been eroded, it’s very difficult to restore it."

At The Guardian, Timothy Garton Ash writes that "Americans have 400 days to save their democracy."

"But the Crucial Difference Is at the Top"

"Different rules apply. After an act of violence, Democrats must be gracious, empathetic and call for calm on all sides, while Republicans can mock the victims, blame only one side and demand more violence. And there's a further asymmetry: a single post from a random, anonymous user online will be treated as a statement from 'the left', while the outpourings of the right's most powerful voices, in politics or the media, and including the president himself, somehow get a free pass."

Jonathan Freedland at The Guardian writes that "[t]he US is on the brink of another era of political violence–and Donald Trump 'couldn't care less.'"

"The United States Has Entered a New Era of State Capitalism"

"The real question is no longer whether the state will act, but whose interests it will serve. Will it merely prop up incumbents and invite capture? Or can public ownership and golden shares be harnessed for resilience and equity? If progressives don't seize this moment to define a democratic, public-minded industrial policy, they will find themselves living in one designed by the Trump administration."

Todd Tucker at The New Republic tells Democrats, "Don't Let Trump Define What State Capitalism Can Be."