"Also Serves as a Reminder of the Need for a Wider Lens When Thinking About Enslavement and Freedom Throughout the Americas Today"

"Slavery shaped the Americas for four centuries, blighting the entire hemisphere. The long struggle to dismantle it did not happen only in the U.S. or only in the South; in fact, in Cuba, Puerto Rico and Brazil it continued for decades after the U.S. Civil War. Simple narratives such as 'California banned slavery at its founding' and 'slavery ended in 1865' obscure much of its connection to this larger story. What happened to California illuminates the unevenness of abolition and the many false promises of freedom. It also serves as a reminder of the need for a wider lens when thinking about enslavement and freedom throughout the Americas today."

Carrie Gibson at the Los Angeles Times discusses slavery in California.

"The 'Putinization of US Foreign Policy'"

"Trump's fear of foreign wars seems to be waning. He was clearly thrilled by the drama of the Maduro operation, and the efficiency of the American soldiers who carried it out. For an ageing president, growing more petulant, irascible and incoherent with every day in office–facing diminishing popularity and desperate to distract attention from the Epstein child-trafficking scandal–a tightening embrace of military power is an ominous development."

Julian Borger at The Guardian reacts to Donald Trump's invasion of Venezuela.

2025 Favorites

The Late Adopter selects...

Albums:

Mavis Staples--Sad and Beautiful World (Anti-) 

Tom Meighan--Roadrunner (Townsend) 

Curtis Harding--Departures & Arrivals: Adventures of Captain Curt (Anti-)

Royel Otis--Hickey (Capitol)  

Wet Leg--Moisturizer (Domino) 

Kendrick Lamar--GNX (Interscope)

Dropkick Murphys--For the People (Dummy Luck) 

Franz Ferdinand--The Human Fear (Domino)  

Stereolab--Instant Holograms on Metal Film (Duophonic)

Paul Weller--Find El Dorado (Parlophone)

Songs:

Mavis Staples--'Sad and Beautiful World'

Tom Meighan--'Silver Linings'

Curtis Harding--'There She Goes'

Royel Otis--'Car'

Kendrick Lamar--'Squabble Up'   

Wet Leg--'Liquidize'

Tame Impala--'My Old Ways'

Chills--'Dolphins'

Hives--'The Hives Forever, Forever the Hives'

Paul Weller--'White Line Fever'

December 2025 Acquisitions

Books:
Charles Ardai et al, Heat Seeker: Combustion Vol. 2, 2025.
Emily Brontë, Wuthering Heights, 1847, 1996.
David Graeber and David Wengrow, The Dawn of Everything: A New History of Humanity, 2021.

EC Epitaphs from the Abyss Vol. 1, 2025.

What's the Story: The Little Guide to Oasis, 2025.

Movies:
To Be or Not to Be, 1942.

Music:
Bangs & Talbot, Back to Business, 2022.
Buckingham Nicks, Buckingham Nicks, 1973, 2025.
Mavericks, 20th Century Masters--The Millennium Collection: The Best of the Mavericks, 2001.
Various, Praise Be! Boarding The Gospel Train, In Thrall of The Lord Lux and Ivy Dig the God-Fearing Nation, 2025.

"Revolutions Are Overrated"

"At an unsettling moment in world affairs when the tectonic plates are shifting (to recycle another melodramatic cliche), it's important to stay grounded, to maintain perspective. As 2026 trepidatiously creeps through the door, nursing hangovers from the tumultuous year just ending, try counting the continuities and bridges rather than dwelling on earthquakes and chasms."

Simon Tisdall at The Guardian argues that "[i]n history's bigger picture, Trump is a blotch, an unsightly smear on the canvas."

And Mona Charen at The Bulwark writes that "Somebody Needs to Tell Trump Everybody Is Laughing at Him."

"The Public Wants to See Something Bold"

"It's an argument that began in the progressive wing but is increasingly finding purchase across the party: Be proudly, loudly, without reservations, anti-AI. It's not enough, these pollsters, consultants and elected officials say, to caution, minimally regulate and signal a friendly stance toward tech companies building AI. There is a massive, growing opportunity for Democrats to tap into rising anxiety, fear and anger about the havoc AI could wreak in people's lives, they say, on issues from energy affordability to large-scale job losses, and channel it toward a populist movement—and not doing it, or not doing it strongly enough, will hurt the party."

Calder McHugh at Politico discusses options for Democrats regarding the politics of technology.

And God Created Bardot

The Guardian reports the death of Brigitte Bardot.

"The Goddess of Go-Go"

"Now she lives alone in 'a wonderful house in Los Angeles' with her five cats and her dance studio next door. She still teaches students, judges street dance competitions globally and is regarded as a legend in the field. And she still hears Mickey echoing through the culture: in movies (most recently Die My Love), and in songs by the likes of Run DMC (It's Tricky), Gwen Stefani (Hollaback Girl), Taylor Swift (Shake It Off), Charli xcx (Speed Drive) and, most recently, Blackpink singer Ros'’s hit single with Bruno Mars, Apt. 'It's kind of an anthem now. Here in America, if you're a little cheerleader, you're dancing to it.'"

Steve Rose at The Guardian talks with Toni Basil.

"Welcome to the Death of Higher Education"

"The real tragedy isn't that students use ChatGPT to do their course work. It's that universities are teaching everyone—students, faculty, administrators—to stop thinking. We're outsourcing discernment. Students graduate fluent in prompting, but illiterate in judgment; faculty teach but aren't allowed the freedom to educate; and universities, eager to appear innovative, dismantle the very practices that made them worthy of the name. We are approaching educational bankruptcy: degrees without learning, teaching without understanding, institutions without purpose."

Ronald Purser at Current Affairs says that "AI is Destroying the University and Learning Itself."

Sweet Neo Cons

"Today, roughly 70 percent of Americans say they don't believe in the American dream. That loss of faith is like a giant bomb detonated in the middle of our society, robbing us of our central, unifying vision. Absent that shared vision of possibility, people revert to a tribal, us-versus-them morality. If the ghosts of the original neocons have anything to tell us about specific policy choices, it's that we need to do what we can to expand social mobility and restore faith in the American dream."

David Brooks at The Atlantic argues that "[t]he neocons were right."

While Chris Ryan at Tangentially Speaking asks, "Just How Cynical is David Brooks?"

November 2025 Acquisitions

Books:
Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips, The Knives, 2025.
R.K. Gordon, Beowulf, 1992.
Robert Inchausti (Ed.), The Pocket Thomas Merton, 2017.
Nicole Johnson, Pirates of the Caribbean, 2023.
Ziauddin Sardar and Borin Van Loon, Introducing Cultural Studies: A Graphic Guide, 2010.

Movies:
Close Encounters of the Third Kind, 1977.
Clueless, 1995.
Ferris Bueler's Day Off, 1986.
Hairspray/Pecker, 2001.
The Harder They Come, 1972.

Music:
Ivy, Traces of You, 2025.
Spinal Tap, The End Continues, 2025.
Mavis Staples, Sad and Beautiful World, 2025
Tame Impala, Deadbeat, 2025.

"All Id and No Superego"

"Sociologists and political scientists have long been aware of the effects of ressentiment on entire nations, not least because it is often a red flag: a marker of a society ripe for decay into authoritarianism. And that is where the danger lies in the juvenility and coarseness among both the Trump elite and its most loyal supporters, some of whom treat grave issues of national and even global importance as little more than raw material for mean-spirited jokes and obscene memes. This shallow behavior leads to a deadening of the moral and civic spirit that undergirds democracy." 

Tom Nichols at The Atlantic calls the Trump administration "A Confederacy of Toddlers."

And Ed Kilgore at New York writes about "5 excuses MAGA makes for its toddler president."

"Culture as a Sort of Terroir"

"Making art with lasting meaning requires resisting the pull of instant exposure and early buyouts. We must think through ways to encourage artists to disappear into their own worlds for a while, developing ideas away from corporate influence and assimilation. Not everyone will have the discipline or capacity for this, but those who do or can will shape the future. And the least that critics and fans can do is give them esteem—when justified—for attempting to move culture forward, instead of ignoring them as marginal, castigating them as pretentious, or belittling their view counts. The past 25 years have taught us that the contemporary economy and media will not prioritize creative invention. The question is: Will you?"

The Atlantic runs an "article has been adapted from W. David Marx's new book, Blank Space: A Cultural History of the Twenty-First Century."

"The Head of This Clerical Revolt"

"What the US urgently needs now, metaphorically speaking, is a national champion, a sort of modern-day Saint George to slay the dragon, save the people and ensure the triumph of good over evil. Who, in reality, might fill this role of moral saviour?"

Simon Tisdall at The Guardian says that Pope Leo can "confront Trump, to positive effect, on poverty, inequality, migrants, civil rights, Russia, Palestine and other pressing issues."

"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."

While John B. Judis at Compact writes that "The Left's Project Has Just Begun."