“The Queen’s Gambit: a review.”
The essential place of compassion. The Queen’s Gambit has been out now for a couple of months on Netflix. In a word, it is brilliant in every way—plot, acting, contextual relevance, and historical accuracy. It is a challenge to attempt to review…
“The Assange ruling.”
This will not end well, regrettably. There is relief and surprise in London today, and everywhere else the world over where those of humane and principled sentiment have gathered in behalf of Julian Assange these past many months. There is…
“A yearend conversation.”
The Scrum’s founding editors gather to look back and forward. This afternoon, our last of the year, we convened via Zoom to take a (not so fond) look back at the year that was. We spoke from Washington, Toronto, and…
“The Russia question.”
The Scrum’s James W. Carden converses with Thaddeus Russell. Shortly before Christmas I conversed for nearly two hours with Thaddeus Russell, the historian, podcaster, and author (A Renegade History of the United States, Free Press, 2011). The YouTube recording of…
“The great realignment II.”
Populism and its enemies. This is the second of our two-part series on the ongoing American political realignment. In Part I we explored the historic backdrop of these momentous shifts. Here we consider alternatives to the neoliberal/fusionist consensus that has…
“The Biden blackout.”
“Soft despotism” is upon us. This article first appeared on The Scrum. DECEMBER 17—Those who followed events in 2016 with sufficient acuity will have registered events it is now well to recall. In the infra dig response of liberals to…
“Politics, tragedy, sovereignty.”
The meaning of today’s Russia. The Simone Weil Center for Political Philosophy recently hosted a panel discussion on U.S.–Russia relations and Russia’s place in the world. The full video of this exchange, recorded December 2nd, is here: The discussion was moderated…
“The Great Realignment.”
Shifts in political allegiance. As Democrats continue their transformation into the party of the 1 percent, Republicans appear poised to become the party of the working class. This profound shift in American politics, historic in proportion and significance, will have…
“Thanksgiving thoughts.”
Grounds for gratitude. Rummaging around for something to be thankful for this apparently thankless season seems to be the favored flavor this Thanksgiving. The New York Times recruited the safely tame poets laureate of these United States to make some suggestions and…
“The return of the blob.”
No hope. No change. Just Biden’s favorite Blobsters. On Monday, President-elect Biden unveiled his national security team. The results may have come as a surprise to progressives who lied to themselves (and their readers) over much of the past year in…
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