“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…
“A note to readers.”
A year’s publication draws near. As The Scrum prepares to mark its first anniversary as an independent publication on Substack, we look back with measured satisfaction (though no hint of complacency) and forward to another year of work readers will find worthwhile….
PATRICK LAWRENCE: Instead of a Free Press
In the failed corporate coverage of Steven Donziger and Julian Assange there is an imposition of darkness, ignorance inflicted on Americans with intent. Just before the weekend came news that Steven Donziger, the courageous attorney who fought Chevron and won…
“Economic war crimes.”
Kneecapping China seems the best Biden can do. This is the third of a three-part series on China and the West’s obsession with its emergence as a regional and global power. Part 1 can be read here and Part 2 here. Gina Raimondo,…
“Our China ‘diplomacy.'”
Incompetents in command. This is the second of a three-part series on China and the West’s obsession with its emergence as a regional and global power. Part 1 can be read here. Not one week after President Biden announced a…
PATRICK LAWRENCE: The Empire’s Last Stand
The origins of the first Cold War have been hopelessly blurred in the histories. We can watch this time. It is occurring before our eyes. In the early months of 1947, President Harry Truman and Dean Acheson, his secretary…
PATRICK LAWRENCE: Power
Patrick Lawrence asks some pertinent questions of the American people. Are Americans going to sit around indefinitely eating potato chips while the State Department and Treasury starve Venezuelan children? Are Americans going to play video games while Israel fires U.S.–made…
PATRICK LAWRENCE: No Insight After Afghanistan
Remaking the world — all of it — in the U.S. image has been a foundation stone of American foreign policy since the Wilson administration — a century ago. Tragedy, a scholarly friend reminds me, does not mean merely a…
“And now?”
Post–Afghanistan truths and lies. Americans are alive with questions now that Kabul has fallen, though “fallen” does not seem quite our word any more than it was in late April 46 years ago: Saigon did not fall; it rose. Vietnam…
PATRICK LAWRENCE: Psyops
The Deep State’s imperative to colonize independent media is now before us. Watch and listen, O you with open eyes and ears. The national security state’s long, very long campaign to control our press and broadcasters has taken a new…