2020 Favorites

The Late Adopter selects...

Albums:

Paul Weller--On Sunset (Polydor) 

Nada Surf--Never Not Together (Barsuk)   

Flaming Lips--American Head (Warner) 

Strokes--The New Abnormal (RCA) 

Alex the Astronaut--The Theory of Absolutely Nothing (Nettwerk)

Bob Mould--Blue Hearts (Merge) 

Green Day--Father of All… (Reprise)

Fontaines D.C.--A Hero's Death (PTFK)    

Liam Gallagher--MTV Unplugged (Live at Hull City Hall) (Warner Bros.)  

Paul Weller--In Another Room (Ghost Box)  

Songs:

Paul Weller--'On Sunset'

Real Thing--'Someone Oughta Write a Song (About You Baby)' 

Nada Surf--'So Much Love'

Weeknd--'Blinding Lights'

Alex the Astronaut--'I Think You're Great'

Strokes--'Bad Decisions'  

Doja Cat--'Say So'

Best Coast--'Different Light'  

Powfu and Beabadoobee--'death bed (coffee for your head)'

Green Day--'Graffitia' 

December 2020 Acquisitions

Books:

Joe Aparo et al, Batman: Cover to Cover, 2005.

Tony Bacon, The Telecaster Guitar Book, 2012.

Christie Brinkley, Timeless Beauty, 2018.

Neil Gaiman, The DC Universe by Neil Gaiman, 2018.

Matt Groening, Simpsons Colossal Compendium Volume 2, 2014.

Matt Groening, Simpsons Colossal Compendium Volume 5, 2017.

Carole King, A Natural Woman: A Memoir, 2012.

Robert Lacey, The Crown: The Official Companion, Volume 1, 2017.

Madeleine L'Engle, A Wrinkle in Time, 2007.

Emily J. Lordi, Donny Hathaway's Donny Hathaway Live, 2016.

Movies:

Amazon Women on the Moon, 1987.

Betty Blue, 1986.

Black Panther, 2018.

Coraline, 2009.

Spider-Man: Homecoming/Spider-Man: Far from Home, 2019.

Music:

Creedence Clearwater Revival, Live at Woodstock, 2019.

Various, Deutsche Elektronische Musik: Experimental German Rock and Electronic Music 1972-83, 2018.

Various, From Where I Stand: The Black Experience in Country Music, 1998.

Various, Nuggets of the Golden Age of Gospel 1945-1958, 2009.

"This Is the Largest Mass Execution in US History. It Was Also the Largest Act of Executive Clemency in US History"

"If he had been guided by short-term political calculations, Lincoln would have had every reason to simply allow the military tribunal’s order to execute all 303 Dakota men to take place. Lincoln was aware of the backwardness and racism that existed toward Native Americans, just as he was of racism toward blacks. Yet he did not make concessions to these tendencies, even within his own party. Lincoln's larger strategy involved elevating the consciousness of the population. His aim throughout the war was to tactfully mitigate the powerful racist tendencies that did exist and that were an objective block on his war policies."

Renae Cassimeda at the World Socialist Web Site tells the story of Abraham Lincoln and "the Dakota 38."

"The Racial Permeability of the Upper Classes Is Accompanied by an Increased and Inverse Racial Permeability of the Underclass"

"Here is a rough sketch of a strategy to tackle both questions at the same time. Crudely, we need to move away from the politics of representation and focus on universalist policies, but not in a colorblind way. Even policies expressly meant to address various racial gaps should also be universalist policies, but weighted so that racial equity is pursued by means of universal benefit. For example, imagine a program like the Green New Deal—clearly meant for universal benefit—but with a measure of race-sensitivity in its resource allocation mechanisms (e.g. tendering procedures, geographical priorities, and so on). In this way, we can embed antiracist policy within a universalist materialist politics. We should view antiracism as constitutive of universalism, not as an add-on. At the same time, because of this constitutive relation, we should abandon the politics of mere representation in favor of a form of joined-up materialist universalist antiracism, which we call responsive universalism." 

In Spectre, Enzo Rossi and Olúfẹ́mi O. Táíwò look at "wokewashing."

"The Triumph of Pottersville"

"George had been living in Pottersville all along. He just didn't know it. Because he was seeing the world through his eyes--not as it was, but as he was: honest and fair. But on 'The Night Journey,' George is nothing and nobody. When the angel took him out of his life, he took him out of his consciousness, out from behind his eyes. It was only then that he saw America. Bedford Falls was the fantasy. Pottersville is where we live. If you don't believe me, examine the dystopia of the Capra movie--the nighttime world of neon bars and drunks and showgirl floozies. Does Bedford Falls feel more like the place you live, or does Pottersville? I live in a place that looks very much like Bedford Falls, but after 10 minutes in line at the bank or in the locker room where the squirts are changing for hockey I know I'm in Pottersville." 

In a 2010 Salon article, Rich Cohen calls It's a Wonderful Life the "most terrifying Hollywood film ever made."

"It Is Crucial to Understand the Sources and Contours of This Skepticism Toward Science and Scientists"

"Through all of this disputation, the core image of science as a value-neutral, and thus innately amoral, enterprise has sunk ever deeper into the cultural bedrock. Generations of commentators have taken for granted that science entails a morally detached approach to the world, even as they clashed bitterly over its applications and implications. The consequences, though hard to measure, have been substantial." 

Andrew Jewett at Boston Review explains "How Americans Came to Distrust Science," while Richard Dawkins at The Spectator decries the "insidious attacks on scientific truth."

"So Vile They Cry Out for Reform"

"Our Founders and civic-minded public servants ever since understood that, inherent in the minds of moral leaders was a sense of shame. That unwritten sensibility was an internal brake on using the powers of high office to abuse that power. Trump, a narcissistic sociopath, has no such restraint. His previous pardons, especially those of Roger Stone and Michael Flynn, have rewarded those who flouted the rule of law and lied to protect Trump's interests. In an office demanding the utmost in high character and ethical judgment, this president has no shame." 

Rep. Steve Cohen at The Hill criticizes Donald Trump's pardons of political cronies.

"Recovered Utopian Notions"

"The imprint of his childhood among anticolonial poets and his father's generation of war poets, evident in his Romantic sense of his own agency, also manifested in his insistence on poetry's importance to liberatory politics. EP and his father drew on their vestigial belief in the potential for heroic action to question the imperial, great-man historical imagination that had given them that belief. In doing so, they helped imagine a new kind of history and history-making, infused with a poetic vision."

At Aeon, Priya Satia looks at the early influences on E.P. Thompson.

"A Decontextualized, Ahistorical, and Inaccurate Description of Racial Antagonism, Caste, and Class"

"In Wilkerson's book, oppression and exploitation are understood through indignities that starkly remind the Black elite of their Blackness. The class perspective offered throughout Caste—shown through anecdotes such as being slighted in the first-class cabin of a flight, facing mistreatment from white workers who are beneath Wilkerson in terms of class but above her based on 'caste,' and living in an affluent neighborhood but not being treated with the dignity afforded her white neighbors—is particularly ironic given Wilkerson's failure to account for how class structures race relations in the United States." 

At Boston Review, Charisse Burden-Stelly reviews Isabel Wilkerson's Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents.

"Trump Has Spent Four Years Actively Damaging the Fabric of American Democracy"

"Donald Trump has opened a portal to another political dimension and we can now expect other Trump-like creatures to cross into our universe. If Donald Trump could figure out a way to do it, he would happily ignore the Constitution, ignore the laws, subvert our elections, and install himself as president for at least another four years. If we have avoided autocracy this time it’s only because the current president isn't competent enough or intelligent enough to pull it off. But we can't expect to be as lucky next time."

Chris Truax at The Bulwark calls on the Biden Administration to "Strengthen the Guardrails of Democracy."

"The Talented Retain Many of the Vices of Aristocracy Without Its Virtues"

"Yet whereas conservatives at the time saw the market as the solution, Lasch often viewed it as a problem, capitalism being in symbiosis with radicalism. By encouraging instant gratification and the ephemeral, especially when it came to jobs, the market undermined the family, which he called 'a haven in a heartless world'. The very things that radicals attacked—'the authoritarian family, repressive sexual morality, literary censorship, the work ethic, and other foundations of bourgeois order'—have already been 'weakened or destroyed by advanced capitalism itself'."

Ed West at UnHerd calls Christopher Lasch's The Revolt of the Elites "the most prescient work of the age."

"Accidental Architect"

"All of this work with the Disney people over the decades began because of that one young man and the love the Disney people had for me." 

Sam Weller at The Paris Review presents an old interview with Ray Bradbury about Bradbury's influence on architecture.

"A Growing Number of Americans Seem to Be Saying: If This Is Capitalism, What's the Alternative?"

"Another 33 DSAers were elected this year for the first time, bringing the total to 101 when the new winners take office in January. This is greater than at any time since about 1912, when the Socialist Party had a strong foothold in both urban and rural America. Most of the socialists who have recently been elected to office represent safe blue areas, but they have also made inroads in purple areas, including Montana, Indiana, North Dakota, Texas and Tennessee. DSA also spearheaded several impressive ballot measure victories around progressive causes like the minimum wage, rent control and universal pre-school." 

Peter Dreier at Talking Point Memo looks at the growth of the Democratic Socialists of America.

"Like a Large Body of Water Fed by Three Currents, One Religious, One Political, and One Creedal"

"To many supporters and critics alike, the word sounds like a claim to superiority and privilege. But the first people to use the term 'American exceptionalism' thought of the United States as anything but virtuous. For the Communist International in the 1920s (and for Marx and Engels before it), the United States posed a vexing problem. According to Marxist theory, as the world's most advanced industrial nation it should have been leading the way on the path to working-class consciousness and revolution, yet it was not playing the part. Jay Lovestone, head of the Communist Party USA, argued that because of the nation's economic opportunity and egalitarian civic culture, and prosperity that extended to the working class, the inevitable crisis of American capitalism lay far in the future; hence, the Party would need to follow a different path in the United States. The debate came to an abrupt end in 1929 when Joseph Stalin summoned Lovestone to Moscow to inform him that he was incorrect. Lovestone was driven from his leadership position in the Communist Party USA for what Stalin called his 'heresy.'" 

At The Hedgehog Review, Steve Lagerfeld explores the concept of American exceptionalism.

"One of Those Writers Whose Influence Is So Great It Extends to People Who Have Never Read His Books"

"Rodden gives a good account of the rise and robustness of Orwell's reputation, while suggesting that the author's early death might have been timely for it. That is correct, I think. Had Orwell lived even a few more years he would have been drawn into public discussions of Animal Farm and Nineteen Eighty-four and their meaning. And had he equalled his friend Cyril Connolly's longevity and lived into the 1970s, he would have become embroiled in controversies like the Cold War, nuclear disarmament, feminism, decolonisation, Vietnam, immigration and, who knows, Northern Ireland. He would also have seen his Labour Party move, not closer to socialism, but further away from it. The way he reacted to all of this would have affected the way we think of him." 

At the Dublin Review of Books, Martin Tyrrell reviews John Rodden's Becoming George Orwell: Life and Letters, Legend and Legacy.

"Trump's Lies Will Linger for Years, Poisoning the Atmosphere Like Radioactive Dust"

"America under Trump became less free, less equal, more divided, more alone, deeper in debt, swampier, dirtier, meaner, sicker, and deader. It also became more delusional. No number from Trump's years in power will be more lastingly destructive than his 25,000 false or misleading statements. Super-spread by social media and cable news, they contaminated the minds of tens of millions of people." 

George Packer at The Atlantic writes "A Political Obituary for Donald Trump."

And Jonathan Russo at Talking Points Memo defines poor Trump supporters as the lumpenproletariat.

"Centre-Left Parties in the West, Predominantly Professional and Middle Class These Days, Have Been Turned On By a Large Part of the Blue-Collar Base They Were Founded to Serve"

"If Labour wishes to reconnect with its lost voters outside the progressive, liberal cities, these instincts and preoccupations must be given more respect and space to express themselves. Equal rights and equal access to individual fulfilment are fundamental to any contemporary notion of the common good. But belonging, a sense of mutual dependency and the idea that individuals find meaning in something bigger than themselves contribute to it too."

At The Guardian, Julian Coman argues that "[i]n beginning a new conversation with the voters it has lost, the left needs to take its own conservative traditions more seriously."

"A Constant Near-Trainwreck of Bumbling, Improvisation and Profanity"

"Presidents have generally succeeded in keeping that aspect of the job well-hidden, managing to project an image of executive competence no matter how absurd the backstage dynamics.                                                                                                                                                        "And then came Donald Trump.                                                                                                                                                                                "'Every day was like a Veep episode,' said one former senior administration official, recounting his time working for Trump. 'You tried to win each day, but like most Veep episodes, it typically ended in disaster.'"

Matthew Choi and Daniel Lippman at Politico present the "Veepiest Moments of the Trump Era."

"If You Don't Define Yourself, Somebody Else Will"

"Obama has been attacked on the Democratic left, criticised for failing to see the urgent necessity of police reform. But that is to miss the point. It's because change is urgent and necessary that Democrats need to argue for it in a way that wins, rather than loses, support." 

Jonathan Freedland at The Guardian discusses "the gap between what people say and what other people hear."

"There Is No Such Thing as a Free Fact"

"There are consequently very few restrictions on creating a page. The bar is set almost as low as it can be. You can't post an article on your grandmother's recipe for duck à l'orange. But there is an article on duck à l'orange. There are four hundred and seventy-two subway stations in New York City; each station has its own Wikipedia page. Many articles are basically vast dumping grounds of links, factoids, and data. Still, all this keeps the teachers and scholars in business, since knowledge isn't the data. It's what you do with the data." 

Louis Menand at The New Yorker connects Wikipedia with Jeopardy!

"A Deeper, More Fundamental Point"

"A public health crisis that demands a coordinated, powerful public response, leveraging all the power and reach of the federal government, meets an ideology that cannot accept a robust role for the public sector and believes the free market will solve all. An incredibly unequal economic crisis driven by a collapse in customers, in which the wealthy are mostly doing fine while everyday people teeter on the brink of generational ruin, meets an ideology that cares only for the prospects of those at the top and sees tax cuts as the only useful economic answer. A fast moving, novel virus meets an ideology that disdains scientific expertise and treats empirical research as a threat to business interests. A disaster that exploits existing racial disparities meets an ideology that refuses to accept the reality of structural inequity." 

At Politico, Michael Linden and Sammi Aibinder write that "COVID was the test that conservatism was built to fail."

"If All You Care About Is Money, I Suggest You Go to Texas"

"Elberling, who before the pandemic spearheaded new restrictions on skyscrapers in San Francisco, is among those who believe the city was being overrun by people who arrived for one reason.                                                                                                                                        "'The motivation got to this get-rich-quick attitude,' he said. 'And that isn't what our city is about.'"

David Ingram at NBC News reports on the trend of tech workers moving out of San Francisco.

"What Rural Voters Want is a Glimmer of Hope That Things Will Change"

"It was not for a lack of effort that the Biden campaign was unable to connect with rural voters this year. In May, Biden convened a virtual 'rural roundtable' in western Wisconsin to show the candidate listening to stakeholders about rural economic development, health care and the crisis in Wisconsin's dairy industry, brought on by chronically low milk prices. Nor was it for a lack of policy proposals: The Biden campaign released an exhaustive 'rural plan' for anyone to read. All of these political gestures, however, are filtered through the lens of what political scientist Katherine Cramer calls 'rural consciousness'—including a perception that cities are where decisions are made, culture happens and resources flow, and that rural communities are not in control of their own futures. Even as a kid from Scranton, Pennsylvania, Biden was seen as a creature of an establishment that has marginalized rural communities for decades." 

Bill Hogseth at Politico writes that "many rural people have lost trust in the Democratic Party."

"How Elusive the Language and Epistemology of Race Were and Still Are"

"In 2017, Thomas Chatterton Williams wrote in The New York Times that we should not assume that the 'original sin—white supremacy—explains everything.' He was cautioning against the hierarchy of oppressions, what Audre Lorde warned of decades earlier. All the familiar categories matter: not just race but also gender and class, region and religion, ethnicity and sexual orientation, law and politics, capitalism and corporatism, globalism and militarism, science and art. They all play a role in explaining modern America." 

Nancy Isenberg at The American Scholar argues that "[w]hiteness does have a place in understanding the past and present, but its limitations need to be recognized."