The governance, or lack thereof, of the great republic.
This is one of the most contentious election cycles in recent history. On the right, you have a Republican Party thrown into chaos because the most popular candidate is not just a racist, right-wing demagogue, but a racist, right-wing demagogue who is not yet under the control of the party …
Yesterday, we discussed the idea that, despite all their baying at the moon over the presence of the Great Usurper, Republicans are going to line up behind spoiled condiment receptacle Donald Trump if he manages to garner enough delegates for the G.O.P. nomination. (The frequently excellent Hamilton Nolan explains why in …
It is not, despite the angsty sweat-beads flying cartoonlike from the foreheads of a thousand keyboard town criers, a foregone conclusion that Donald J. Trump, a decayed yam in a gimme cap that has somehow amassed a real estate fortune and learned how to mumble the word ‘quality’, is going to …
It’s a truism I’ve repeated in my critical writings more times than I can count: you have to review the movie you’re watching, not the movie you wish you were watching. Any sharp critic with a creative streak and a broad foundation can easily imagine how a movie, particularly one …
I take Rosa Luxemburg very seriously. Since feminism and class consciousness have been two of my passions my entire adult life, it’s easy to see why I’m drawn to women who vocally espoused both, and Rosa Luxemburg is perhaps the greatest of them all. I’ve read her writings, studied her …
From time to time, this website offers a current events quiz feature, so that our readers may feel au courant in these confusing times. Herewith, our January 2016 edition. 1. The Powerball lottery prize this week was a world’s record $1.5 billion. Who won this colossal prize? (a) A young couple …
Sex crimes are awful things. This should go without saying, but my point is that, beyond being awful on their face, they keep being awful long after they’ve happened; they can leave a victim traumatized for the rest of their lives, not only because of the acts themselves, but because …
Decade: the 1770s Greatest Threat: the English Nature of Threat: British sought to place us back under the thumb of their imperial rule Consequences of Failure: we’d all be speaking English today Victor: America! Decade: the 1780s Greatest Threat: liberals Nature of Threat: Attempts to place too many restrictions on gun ownership and not enough restrictions on free …
Hi, everybody! Today we’re going to talk about a certain presidential candidate, and that means we’re going to have to use the f-word. The candidate is Donald Trump, and the word, of course, is “fuckface”. Ha ha! Just kidding! The word is “fascism”, and the candidate is “all of them”. …
Well, that was unexpected, wasn’t it? Another major terrorist attack on a Western city was probably inevitable, but it was still shocking. The coordinated attacks on various locations in Paris on a busy weekend, by all indications planned and carried out by members of ISIS, left over a hundred innocent …
During the Paris Commune of 1871 — one of the first and still one of the greatest attempts by ordinary people to throw off the rule of priests, bosses, and money-men and take control of their own lives — a group of Communards, mostly workers and craftsmen, set off towards …
So, yesterday, we talked about problematic art, and how it can be dealt with in a productive and respectful way and not in a way that’s just griping that doesn’t accomplish anything. Hooray! I’m solving all the world’s problems! Now let’s talk about the concept of “allies”. Like “problematic”, this …
“Little things that just don’t matter,” goes a Quasi lyric often quoted by my partner, “still could get me mad as a hatter”. Yes, folks, we’ve been putting it off for a long time, and I’m not any happier about it than you are, but it’s time we finally had …
The genius of Stan Lee — and he was a man possessed of genius, despite the bad press he’s generated in recent years since translating that genius into a fortune that was denied to many of his employees — is that he was able to see the way the wind …
Excitement is hardly in short supply this year when it comes to politics, but the Republican Party, apparently committed to its position as a third-place network who will throw absolutely anything at the viewing audience just to see what sticks, is offering us fare like those overstuffed modern dramas where something …
