"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."

"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, 2024.

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.

"A Cautionary Tale, Not a Triumphal One"

"This dark history has a happy ending, sort of. The Environmental Protection Agency began forcing smelting companies to install pollution controls in the 1970s. The EPA's phaseout of leaded gasoline, fought by oil company lawsuits for years, was basically complete by the mid-1980s. Blood lead levels in the population dropped 78 percent from 1976 to 1991, and crime rates began dropping dramatically in 1992. The correlation was so close it gave rise to a 'lead-crime hypothesis' among epidemiologists. The nationwide number of serial killers, whose average age is 22, dropped, too, from 669 in the 1990s to 117 by the decade ending in 2020; a 2007 analysis concluded that there was a 'robust' connection between childhood lead exposure and violent crime. Whatever inborn tendency to serial murder that seems to exist in some men may have lost its environmental trigger."

In a 2025 Washington Post article, Wendy Smith reviews Caroline Fraser's Murderland: Crime and Bloodlust in the Time of Serial Killers.

"The Old Order Is Not Coming Back"

"For a while, the US's allies comforted themselves with the belief that Trump was an aberration who would one day be gone, allowing the old ways to resume. That delusion has also been shattered. When Trump still seemed determined to make good on his Greenland threats, there was no sign of anyone or anything inside the US that would stop him. Over these last 12 months, Trump has demonstrated that the formal restraints designed to hold a US president in check are easily swept away. And if it can happen once, it can happen again. Which means it is not just Trump who is an unreliable ally. Sadly, it is the US itself."

Jonathan Freedland at The Guardian proposes "a new constellation of the European Union plus the UK plus Canada."

"An Optimistic Cultural Renaissance Will Have to Precede Political Reform"

"But now, I wonder if my notion of culture being grounded in music or film has been eclipsed by the culture of the algorithm. For the past 10 years, in books like Move Fast and Break Things and The End of Reality, I have been writing about how a few tech billionaires have built unimagined fortunes by destroying our culture. The technocrats are well-known: Musk, Mark Zuckerberg, Peter Thiel, Marc Andreessen, Jeff Bezos, Sam Altman. The project of 'disruption' these men championed at the dawn of the digital age has ended with the immiseration of musicians, journalists, and photographers."

Jonathan Taplin at Rolling Stone asks, "Can the Counterculture Rise Again?"

"It's Horror All the Way Down"

"As for Miller's vision, it's horror all the way down. He's not looking to solve for this state of nature. He simply calls it 'the real world,' one whose anarchic rules America just needs to accept and use to its benefit. If Miller has read Hobbes, he's drawing the wrong lesson. Even if he might like the idea of Trump as the Leviathanlike authoritarian come to bring order to the chaos (and Miller's recent, and disputed, invocation of a president’s absolute 'plenary authority' would suggest that that’s the case), this is not how Trump understands his role; otherwise, he would be bolstering international institutions and multilateral relationships rather than trashing whatever and whoever does not serve his glory."

Gal Beckerman at The Atlantic writes about "the dog-eat-dog worldview of this administration."

And Rex Huppke at USA Today asks, "We're really doing another year of this?"

The Left Wing of the Possible?

"In recent polls, about 40 percent of Americans say they have a 'positive image' of socialism. A clear majority of people under 30 feel that way. But for most of them the term evokes what Mamdani and other social democrats who have actually managed to win elections try to achieve: a more secure life in a society that narrows class differences without preventing some individuals from becoming rich as long as they create products or services that ordinary people value. Four decades ago, the great social-democratic author Irving Howe described those 'socialists' who managed to gain influence in capitalist countries: 'They engage themselves with the needs of the moment, struggling for betterment in matters large and small, reforms major and modest: They do not sit and wait for the millennium.'"

At The New Republic, Michael Kazin says that New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani is "not a democratic socialist but a social democrat."

But Ruy Teixeira at The Liberal Patriot offers caution about "The Future of the Left in the 21st Century."