PATRICK LAWRENCE: The Maestro of Messes
Biden apparently dreamed of the presidency for decades. And now as his first year in office draws to a close we must reflect on how perilous it often turns out to be when dreams come true. How fitting that Joe Biden’s first year…
PATRICK LAWRENCE: Obituary for Russiagate
The fraudulent fable has died, but its consequences live on. Russiagate, that fraudulent fable wherein Russian President Vladimir Putin personally subverted American democracy, Russian intelligence pilfered the Democratic Party’s email, and Donald Trump acted at the Kremlin’s behest, is at…
“‘If you remember, you’re alive.'”
Oliver Stone on ‘JFK Revisited.’ There are many things to say about Oliver Stone’s just-released new film, JFK Revisited: Through the Looking Glass. One of them is that Stone’s new work demolishes, thoroughly and conclusively, the official version of what happened…
“A post-imperial language.”
Conversing with novelist Peter Dimock. Ray McGovern, who I count a dear friend and supporter, once observed in one of his speeches that it’s not enough to dwell on the incessant rains that fall upon us. The true task is…
“Courage beyond doubt.”
Pilger on Assange. The Scrum welcomes John Pilger, the noted journalist and filmmaker, to its pages with these personal reflections on Julian Assange during the years of his captivity. There is as much heart as mind in this piece, we find,…
PATRICK LAWRENCE: The Manufacture of Decline
Americans suffer the same disabilities as the Europeans of 1919: They cannot think. They cannot speak plainly among themselves. “We modern civilizations have learned to recognize that we are mortal like the others. We had heard tell of whole worlds…
“The ‘sacred outcast.'”
Assange behind glass. Part 3. The Scrum concludes publication of an extended essay on the Julian Assange case that first appeared in Raritan, the quarterly journal. Proceedings at the Royal Courts of Justice in London, during which the Crown Prosecution Service presented…
“‘The experiment of total domination.'”
‘Assange behind glass.’ Part 2. The Scrum continues to publish an extended essay on the Julian Assange case. As court proceedings continue in London—a travesty of due process by any serious measure—and in the face of the shocking silence among corporate…
“Assange behind glass.”
Shards of a shattered life. The Scrum begins today to publish an extended essay on the Julian Assange case. We offer it as our contribution to the admirable worldwide effort to bear witness to the WikiLeaks founder’s courage as a publisher…
PATRICK LAWRENCE: Putin Speaks
As the Russian president’s year-end presser helped underscore, Europe will increasingly understand itself as the western end of Eurasia rather than the eastern shore of the Atlantic. Vladimir Putin was “defiant” during his end-of-year press conference last Thursday. The Russian…