Politics ain’t beanbag, for sure, but sometimes, when you consider the intellects of the playas involved, perhaps it ought to be. A case in point is Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer’s recent pseudo gangsta-style outburst directed at the Supreme Court, telling the Supremes in no uncertain terms to keep their goddamn hands off of goddamn…
Author: Alan Vanneman
Cutting Ike’s pages, and cutting Ike’s prose
I recently read a new book by Slate’s Fred Kaplan (if a webpub can be said to possess a man)—The Bomb: Presidents, Generals, and the Secret History of Nuclear War—which is an interesting read, though I wouldn’t call it “definitive”, unless perhaps when Fred says he’s giving us the “secret history” he implies that he’s…
Gilad Hekselman Trio—“Let’s Cool One”
Gilad on guitar, Jeff Ballard, drums, and Joe Martin, bass. Sundae Jazz Club, Paris, March 2015. Posted by Gilad Need more Monk? Of course you do, Go to Mostly Monk
Well, this is embarrassing! Donald Trump will probably/possibly/maybe do what Barack Obama should have done. Get us the heck out of Afghanistan!
Yes, it’s true! Or maybe it is, as Donald Trump would say. Who knows? Tune in next week! Indeed, the agreement signed between the U.S. and the Taliban contains a lot of if thens and if whens. As Adam Wunische, over at the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft, explains, in his article “The U.S.–Taliban Deal…
Bernie Sanders is not a social democrat. He is a revolutionary socialist.
Bernie II is starting to look a lot like Trump I, as the startled center starts to realize that there’s no there there any more. The bad news is, Bernie Sanders isn’t a Hillary Clinton/Barack Obama style conventional liberal reformer; he’s a true believer socialist who wants to smash capitalism and live in a righteous…
Shorter Mike Bloomberg: Yes, I am an arrogant, self-involved, racist, anti-Muslim, authoritarian billionaire! But I’m not as bad as Donald Trump!
The sad thing is, everything in that headline is true. I would take Mike over Trump, though by a damned small margin. Not only does Bloomberg have a record of obvious racism, blame-shifting with regard to the provenance of the Great Recession, authoritarian longings, and a frenzied Likudist/interventionist take on foreign affairs, as mayor he…
Aniol Torrents—“Round Midnight”
Electric bass: Aniol Torrents; Drums: Timothée Kamba Tobias; Piano/Keyboards: Biel Roca. Posted by Aniol Torrents Girbau
Brave Bill Barr: Speaking truth to power, or lying his ass off? We report, you decide
That should be “lying his big fat ass off,” but, well, it’s more euphonious without the adjective, so we’ll go with the short version, even though throwing around ad hominem sneers n’ snickers at public figures is kind of a tradition here at Literature R Us, particularly when it comes to fat, aging, wrinkled, rancid,…
Going Back In Time: The World War II Esquire Jazz Concerts
Back in January of 1944 and 1945 Esquire Magazine organized two serious all-star jazz concerts, featuring all the poll winners—people like Louis Armstrong, Coleman Hawkins, Art Tatum, Billie Holiday, Benny Goodman, and Duke Ellington—all joining together, and, remarkably, for the most part playing together without the whole thing turning into all-star ego-fest. The concerts were…
Does the libertarian movement need a kick in the pants? Or is it just Nick Gillespie?
Sorry, Nick, but if you give Literature R Us an opening for a cheap shot, we’re going to take it. Nick incautiously let his guard down last month with a post in Reason, “The Libertarian Movement Needs a Kick in the Pants”, in itself a riposte, as it were, to Tyler Cowen’s thought-, if not…