“How Do We Get Rid of You?”

"'A historical perspective is the key to democratic politics, which if denied can bury the real issues and confine news coverage to high-level gossip about the rich and the powerful, reducing us to the role of spectators of our fate, rather than active participants,' he argued. 'The obliteration of the past strengthens the short-term calculations that pass for political thought, and for me the real heroes are those few who try to explain the world in order to help us to understand what we can best do to improve our lot.'"

John Nichols at The Nation marks the one-hundredth anniversary of Tony Benn's birth.

"Furious Trump Cancels 'Atlantic' Subscription After 48 Years"

"'Their long-form journalism has stayed on point for years, long after most publications abandoned anything longer than 1,000 words, so it's a real shame. It's Mother Jones for me from now on. That, or I try n+1. I've been hearing really good things about it from Hegseth.'"

From The Onion.

March 2025 Acquisitions

Books:

Clifford, The Harmony Illustrated Encyclopedia of Rock, .

Coates, Black Panther: A Nation Under Our Feet, .

Eisner, The Complete Will Eisner's John Law, .

Hacker, A Pocket Style Manual, .

Hill, Postal Vol. 4, .

Loeb, Superman for All Seasons, .

Moore, Endless Summer: Dead Man's Curve, .

Stephenson, Long Hot Summer, .

Thorstein Veblen, High Learning in America, 

Movies:

Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, 2008.

Music:

Roy Ayers, 20th Century Masters: The Millennium Collection, .

Bad Brains, Rock for Light, 1983, 2021.

Dorothy Love Coates, The Best of, .

Echo and the Bunnymen, Me, I'm All Smiles, 2006.

Horrors, Night Life, 2025.

Housemartins, The People Who Grinned Themselves to Death, .

David Johansen, From Pumps To Pompadour: The David Johansen Story, 1995.

Wilko Johnson, Back in the Night, .

Kneecap, Fine Art, .

Rain Parade, Last Stop on the Underground, 2024.

Sam and Dave, Soul Men, .

Sylvester, The Original Hits, .

20/20, Back to California, 2025.

Barbara Weathers, Barbara Weathers, .

Link Wray, Rumble! The Best of Link Wray, 1993.

Various, Destination: Bomp!, 1994.

Various, Gone but Not Forgotten: A Tribute to Those Who Rocked, 1995.

Various, Millions Like Us, .

Various, Suburban Annihilation: California Hardcore 1978-1983, 2023.

Various, Twisted Dream Machines, .

Various, Weird Scenes from the Hangout, .

"Corporate Restructuring Leads to Mass Layoffs at C+C Music Factory"

"'These changes are definitely necessary, but a lot of good workers are being sent home today. Of course we'll miss them, but it's now time for us to move forward as the nation's prominent supplier of dance music.'"

From The Hard Times.

"Not the Freedom to Do Anything You Damn Well Pleased"

"'It's a very malleable phrase,' said Patrick Henry Jolly, a fifth great grandson of Henry. 'It's something that can be applied to many different circumstances. But I think it's important that people understand the original context.'"

Ben Finley at the Associated Press notes the semiquincentennial of Patrick Henry's "Give me liberty, or give me death!" speech.

"De-Brahminizing a Profoundly Brahmin Left Party"

"In short, Democrats need a class traitor—a politician who's not afraid to ask Democrats who the social justice they prize so highly is really for. Is it really for the poor and working class who have the short end of the stick in our society or is it to make Democrats feel righteous and onside with Team Progressive? Are Democrats' social justice commitments and priorities what the poor and working class actually want? Does the language Democrats speak on these issues even make sense to them?"

Ruy Teixeira at The Liberal Patriot gives more advice to Democrats.

A Consumer of Lies

"The result, says one longtime Trump watcher, is that 'he's more sheltered from outside information than he ever has been before'. Like Saddam Hussein in his bunker as US forces approach the palace, he is being told that tariffs made the US rich in the 19th century and will do so again, that Elon Musk is popular and that the people are grateful to their leader, even when the economy is nosediving. Inside the info-bubble, any contrary voice can be dismissed, even if it requires acrobatics to do it."

Jonathan Freedland at The Guardian describes Donald Trump as "high on his own supply of fake news."

Trump U

Various writers discuss Donald Trump's attacks on higher education:

Jonathan V. Last does so at The Bulwark.

As Owen Jones does at The Guardian.

As Jonathan Chait, Edith Olmsted, Jonathan W. Gray, and Felipe De La Hoz do at The New Republic.

Trump Is for Billionaires; Bernie Is for You

Various writers discuss Bernie Sanders's responses to Donald Trump:

Aaron Regunberg does so at The New Republic.

As Zak Cheney-Rice does at New York.

As Zeeshan Aleem does at MSNBC.

As Alexander Bolton does at The Hill.

"Scientific and Public Health Success Has Provoked an Anti-Intellectual and Antisocial Backlash"

"Americans have become more individualistic, more conspiracy-minded, and less committed to collective social effort. This new social Darwinism helped elect Donald Trump—and now it's being put into practice by RFK Jr. and Elon Musk."

Jeet Heer at The Nation looks at America five years after the beginning of the Covid pandemic.

"The Conduit for Everything"

"Hamilton also dished out news, gossip and tips from across Britain, encouraging DJs to send in lists of their biggest records that he compiled into the first ever UK dance chart: in an era when, as Cook puts it, DJs 'very rarely played outside their own local catchment area', it was as if he was trying to singlehandedly forge a country-wide dance scene. 'I mean, it's impossible for kids with the internet to believe, but there were all these little scenes going on in different places, and unless you went to visit a mate for a weekend, you'd never know what was going on in the next town, there was no cross-pollination between different cities–if you lived in Brighton, you would have no idea what the Wild Bunch were playing in Bristol,' says Cook."

Alexis Petridis at The Guardian discusses the life of British music journalist and DJ James Hamilton "the 'eccentric aristo' who catalysed British club culture."

"The Task of Our Generation Is to Defeat the Totalitarianisms of the 21st Century"

"Europe is at a crucial juncture of its history. The American shield is slipping away, Ukraine risks being abandoned, and Russia is being strengthened. Washington has become the court of Nero: an incendiary emperor, submissive courtiers, and a buffoon on ketamine tasked with purging the civil service."

The Atlantic runs a transcipt of the March 4, 2025, speech by French senator Claude Malhuret.

"America Has Amused Itself to Death"

"Rule by performers doesn't need to impose an autocrat's lies on the people; people do it to themselves through their entertainments. In 1984, George Orwell described doublethink as the kind of intellectual gymnastics demanded by a totalitarian society: 'To tell deliberate lies while genuinely believing in them, to forget any fact that has become inconvenient, and then, when it becomes necessary again, to draw it back from oblivion for just so long as it is needed, to deny the existence of objective reality and all the while to take account of the reality which one denies.' Reality television and the WWE demand similar distortion-effect gymnastics; their audiences willingly suspend their disbelief and gladly accept events they know are artificial as real. The audiences come to political debate already prepared for the blurring of illusion and reality."

Stephen Marche at The Atlantic calls Donald Trump's government a "histriocracy."

February 2025 Acquisitions

Books:
Selina Alko and Sean Qualls, The Case for Loving, 2015.

Max Allan Collins and Terry Beatty, Ms. Tree Vol. 6: Fallen Tree, 2024.

Frank Miller and David Mazzucchelli, Daredevil: Born Again, 2025.

Eldo Yoshimizu and Benoist Simmat, Gamma Draconis, 2021.

Cody Ziglar and Justin Mason, Spider-Punk: Arms Race, 2024.

The Economics Book, 2024.

Movies:
The Day of the Locust, 1975.

Music:
Brand New Heavies, Shibuya 357, .

Jerry Butler, The Best of Jerry Butler, 1987.

Dave Clark Five, The Hits, .

Marianne Faithful, 20th Century Masters, .

Kendrick Lamar, GNX, 2025.

Psychedelic Furs, Beautiful Chaos: Greatest Hits Live, 2001.

Otis Redding and Carla Thomas, King & Queen, .

Jules Shear, Horse of a Different Color, .

The Smiths, The World Won't Listen, .

Vangelis, Blade Runner, .

The Who, Quadrophenia, .

"A Concept Highly Malleable in Meaning"

"As the firewall between the far right and the moderate right has eroded in recent years, many of these ideas have seeped into the mainstream. Racialised ideas of belonging and identity have become accepted even by many of those formally opposed to racism."

Kenan Malik at The Guardian discusses ideas of race and ethnicity.

Conor Friedersdorf at The Atlantic argues that "the DEI debate is defined by Americans talking past one another."

"Focused on Protecting Blue-Collar Communities from the Depredations of Free-Market Capitalism"

"A post-industrial cleavage both cultural and economic was never just about the case for and against leaving the European Union. At its most basic, the blue-collar leave vote expressed a desire for rupture with a globalised capitalism that had undermined the power and agency of the western working class. It also reflected a latent perception that compassionate 'one world' social liberalism coexisted happily with a callous economic version; one that had stripped people and places of dignity, status and self-esteem."

Julian Coman at The Guardian calls for British politics to turn toward Blue Labour.