"The Economic Mess We're in Is Entirely of Trump's Own Doing"

"It always sounds a bit earnest to deplore corruption, but one of the practical reasons for eschewing corruption is because at best it acts like an invisible tax on economic growth. At worst, it corrodes the economic engine to the point that it doesn't properly function any longer. Before Trump, the United States was a world leader in combatting corporate and political corruption abroad for the unapologetically realpolitik reason that American companies could win on a level playing field. Under Trump II, the DOJ has explicitly stopped enforcing the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, and we're now in a grubby race to the bottom.

David Kurtz at Talking Points Memo writes that "[n]ot only are Trump's second term attacks on economic growth hard to reverse, let alone quickly, they're deeply wired into who he is and what he’s about."

"Pro-Worker, Pro-Family, Pro-America"

"We have no complaints and feel fortunate to have had a place to regularly publish our political and policy ideas since 2020. Hopefully, TLP's insights and arguments made some difference in the Democratic Party's strategic discourse and in wider political debates—or at least got people to look at matters in a different light and reconsider some of their positions."

John Halpin at The Liberal Patriot winds the site down, alongside articles from various writers:

Henry Olsen,

Michael Baharaeen,

Justin Vassallo,

Juan David Rojas, 

and Ruy Teixeira.

Let's Dance

"That's what birthed punk rock. Not anarchy but ennui. The energy had to go somewhere. It went into a fast, urgent 'One, two, three, four…'"

Jonathan Eig at AudioPhix marks the fiftieth anniversary of Ramones.

March 2026 Acquisitions

Books:

David Avallone et al, Elvira in Monsterland, 2024.

David Avallone et al, Elvira Meets H.P. Lovecraft, 2024.

Bertolt Brecht, The Good Woman of Setzuan, 1999.

Garth Ennis et al, Punisher: Welcome Back, Frank, 2026.

Jonathan Hickman et al, Ultimate Spider-Man Vol. 2: The Paper, 2025.

Jane Hope and Borin Van Loon, Introducing Buddha: A Graphic Guide, 2008.

Jim McCarthy and Kevin Cross, Living for Kicks: A Mods Graphic Novel, 2016.

Kim Ostrow and Tim Jessell, Harrison Ford: A Little Golden Book Biography, 2025.

The Pocket Beatles, 2026.

Royal Canadian Air Force Exercise Plans for Physical Fitness, 2016.

Movies:

Roger Corman's Cult Classics: Action Packed, 1999.

Roger Corman's Cult Classics: Lethal Ladies, 1999.

Roger Corman's Cult Classics: The Nurses Collection, 2012.

Music:

Beatles, 1967-1970, 1973, 2023.

Brigitte Calls Me Baby, Irreversible, 2026.

Cast, Yeah Yeah Yeah, 2026.

Chosen Gospel Singers, The Lifeboat, 1992.

Waylon Jennings, Willie Nelson, Jessi Colter, Tompall Glaser, Wanted! The Outlaws (1976-1996 20th Anniversary), 1996.

Mitski, Nothing's About to Happen to Me, 2026.

World Party, Egyptology, 1997.

"He Refuses to 'Let Defeatism Have the Last Word'"

"Later, he said he wouldn't have found his way into philosophy and social theory if he hadn't experienced confronting the reality of Nazi crimes as a young man. He recalled that 'you saw suddenly that it was a politically criminal system in which you had lived'." 

At The Guardian, Donna Ferguson and Philip Oltermann report the death of Jürgen Habermas.

"Two Hundred and Fifty Years After the American Colonists Broke Free of Empire, It's Time for a British Declaration of Independence"

"Iran desperately needs a fresh start. The theocracy symbolised by its assassinated supreme leader, Ali Khamenei, has long ago had its day. Many, probably most, Iranians yearn passionately for an open, freer, more prosperous, pluralist, pro-western society. But this destructive, un-thought-through US-Israeli regression into the worst excesses of imperialist vandalism crushes hopes of peaceful change–the only kind that lasts–and hastens a collapse into warring camps. What may emerge is not a reborn, friendly Iran but a fractured country held hostage by a more brutal, paranoid, ever-threatening hardline rump regime embroiled in endless conflict with its people and the west."

Simon Tisdall at The Guardian writes that "Britain's enemy now is Donald Trump."

And Martin Gelin discusses the conclusion by the Varieties of Democracy Institute at Gothenburg University "that the US is hurtling towards autocracy at a faster rate than Hungary and Turkey."

"We Continue to Live in the Wake of Mid- to Late-60s Developments"

"It's easy to look back at the Johnson administration, with the benefit of hindsight, and see little possibility for the revitalization of the New Deal coalition. But it's important to remember just what a moment of political sea change the mid-1960s was. With the exit of the Dixiecrats, the Democratic Party was in the midst of a profound transformation wherein its base did substantively shift. That [Bayard] Rustin saw an opening for the civil rights and organized labor coalition to take a driving seat within the party was not that fanciful, yet it was treated that way by a curious number of people on the Left then and still on the Left today. It's worth asking why that was and is. His critics on the Left are fine pillorying Rustin for his comments on anti-war protest tactics. But where are the similar condemnations of the New Left for sitting out the fight for the Freedom Budget for All Americans, arguably the last off-ramp from an imminent neoliberalism?"

Damage Magazine runs Benjamin Y. Fong's introduction to the new book Rustin's Challenge.

February 2026 Acquisitions

Books:

Margaret Atwood, The Handmaid's Tale, 1985.

David Avallone and Kewber Baal, Elvira in Horrorland, 2023.

Malcolm Croft. The Little Book of John Lennon, 2020.

Malcolm Croft. The Little Guide to the Beatles, 2019.

Bill Morgan, The Beat Generation in San Francisco: A Literary Guidebook, 2003.

The Little Book of San Francisco, 2022.

Music:

Shirley Caesar and Rev. James Cleveland, The King and Queen of Gospel Volume 1, 2002.

Claude Debussy, Greatest Hits, 2001.

Dixie Hummingbirds, 20th Century Masters--The Millennium Collection: The Best of the Dixie Hummingbirds, 2002.

English Beat, The Beat at the BBC, 2025.

Faces, Early Steps, 2025.

Terry Hall, The Collection, 1992.

Heaven 17, Higher and Higher: The Best of Heaven 17, 1993.

Tina Turner, Simply the Best, 1991.

"They Sense That Behind Them Is the Same Old Democratic Party with the Same Old Elites and the Same Old Cultural Priorities"

"Working-class voters are acutely aware that the professional-dominated educated upper middle class who occupy positions of administrative and cultural power is overwhelmingly Democratic. For the working class, the professional upper middle class may not be the super-rich but they are elites just the same. These voters harbor deep resentment toward the cultural gatekeepers who they feel are telling them how to live their lives, even what to think and say, and incidentally are living a great deal more comfortably than they are."

Ruy Teixeira at The Liberal Patriot argues that Democratic candidates "need a strong dose of cultural populism" along with economic populism.

"So Why Is American Economic Confidence at Its Lowest Point in More Than a Decade?"

"The answer lies in a mix of economic reality and human psychology. On the reality side, Americans are not at all pleased with the high cost of living, particularly for the 'hard' goods and services in modern life, including housing, energy, health care, childcare, education, household goods, and things such as car payments, insurance, and maintenance. Even with decent wages and income and prospective tax cuts, working- and middle-class families do not feel particularly solid when they open their banking apps. A middle-class life that once seemed attainable and sustainable seems out of reach to many younger people and increasingly precarious for more established older Americans. Cheap televisions, ubiquitous phones, endless entertainment, and fast internet won't make up for people's inability to pay their health care premiums or save enough for a down payment on a home or retirement."

John Halpin at The Liberal Patriot argues that "the ideological faction or leader who figures out this economic reality first—and responds genuinely and empathetically to Americans' psychological worries about their finances—will be well positioned for success, at least temporarily."

"To Better Understand How Gender Norms Underlay Social and Political Organization"

"Until this week's latest dump of the Epstein files by Trump's justice department, I hadn't seen the connection between the two. But now it's as clear as day. The abolition of gender studies is a way of further guaranteeing impunity to the elite men whose contempt for and exploitation of women and girls apparently knew no bounds, whether they actually slept with the women on offer or simply shared Epstein's fantasies in order to gain influence or funding."

Joan Wallach Scott at The Guardian argues that gender studies is "a critical tool for examining–in the case of Trump and Epstein–the predations of toxic masculinity."

"That's Not Just an Economic Issue. That's Stability Risk"

"The country is living in a K-shaped economy: two diverging roads, where outcomes for one group accelerate upward while outcomes for another flatten–or quietly deteriorate. The top half is compounding: stable employment, rising asset values, and the confidence that comes from having options. The bottom half is exposed: high sensitivity to inflation, fragile cash flow, rising credit stress, and a feeling that even doing everything 'right' isn't enough."

Josh Tanenbaum at Fortune warns of an America "where the top gets insulated enough to become careless, the bottom gets desperate enough to become combustible, and the middle loses belief that effort translates into progress."

"A Future Worthy of Our Children and Generations Yet to Come"

"In times of great crisis, the American people came together and chose democracy over authoritarianism, justice over greed, solidarity over division. They understood in the past–and we understand today–that when we stand together, no matter how much money and power the oligarchs have, there is nothing that we cannot accomplish."

Bernie Sanders at The Guardian argues that "[w]e can reverse America's decline."

"Talent Still Calls California Home"

"Recent comparisons to Detroit misunderstand what makes each city remarkable. The Motor City's decline was largely due to companies offshoring innovation to cheaper factories abroad. Los Angeles' challenge is the opposite: an overabundance of innovation that is decentralizing faster than anyone expected. The industry is not dying; it is diversifying."

In a 2025 Los Angeles Times article, Rachel Zaslansky Sheer and Lori Zuker Briller discuss Hollywood as a place and as an industry.

"Nobody Cared"

"It is also a grim judgment on the entire political system. The Supreme Court has effectively rendered the Emoluments Clause of the Constitution moot. Republicans are completely in thrall to Trump and unwilling to exercise the kind of patriotism their party showed when leaders of the GOP broke with Richard Nixon over his crimes. Democrats, with some noble exceptions such as Senator Elizabeth Warren, have been notably reluctant to make corruption an issue, since it seems to have little political traction."

Jeet Heer at The Nation describes Donald Trump "as perhaps the most corrupt elected official in human history."

January 2026 Acquisitions

Books:

Bonnie Bader and Sue Cornelison, Martin Luther King Jr.: A Little Golden Book Biography, 2018.

James Ellroy and Glynn Martin, LAPD '53, 2015.

Albert B. Feldstein (ed.), The Invisible MAD, 1975.

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, The Sorrows of Young Werther and Selected Stories, 1962.

Torunn Gronbekk et al, Catwoman Vol. 2: Never Let Them Smell Blood, 2025.

Owen King et al, Self Help, 2025.

Cynthia Von Buhler, Minky Woodcock: The Girl Called Cthulhu, 2025.

The EC Archives: Crime SuspenStories Volume 2, 2024.

Movies:

Barb Wire, 1996.

Music:

Bix Beiderbecke, Volume 1: Singin' the Blues, 1990. 

Chills, Soft Bomb, 1992.

Dr. Feelgood, Stupidity, 1976, 2025.

Ferris Wheel, Can't Break the Habit, 2000.

Roberta Flack, The Best of Roberta Flack, 1981.

Curtis Harding, Face Your Face, 2017.

Edwin Hawkins Singers, Oh Happy Day, 2001.

Human League, Greatest Hits, 1988.

Yoko Ono, Plastic Ono Band, 1970.

Pachelbel, Greatest Hits and Other Baroque Favorites, 2003.

Jimmy Page, Jimmy's Back Pages... the Early Years, 1992.

Sex Pistols, The Great Rock 'N' Roll Swindle, 1979.

Various, Hang the DJ: Modern Rock 1987, 1996.

Various, Mod Anthems Volume 2, 2016.

Various, Tonite Let's Make Love in London, 1968, 2016.

"Something More Purposeful and Sinister Than Run-of-the-Mill Greed or Gangsterism"

"The resemblances are too many and too strong to deny. Americans who support liberal democracy need to recognize what we're dealing with in order to cope with it, and to recognize something, one must name it. Trump has revealed himself, and we must name what we see."

Jonathan Rauch at The Atlantic calls Donald Trump a fascist.