Weekly Round-up 1/19/2024

Unclench your jaw

Happy Friday everyone,

This week saw the release of the long-awaited third part of the series on legendary civil rights lawyer Clarence Darrow’s forgotten arrests for bribing jurors. Darrow was trying to free two labor organizers who had bombed the headquarters of a conservative newspaper, killing 21 innocent people in a pretty horrible way.

Darrow insisted the bombers had been framed and denied that a bombing had even occurred, though he knew that none of that was true. He successfully bribed one juror in the bombing case and was caught by detectives in an undercover sting while trying to bribe a second juror. Although Darrow’s reputation has grown to enormous proportions in the decades following his death, for most of his life he was widely hated for his corruption and hypocrisy. The story of his jury bribery scandal reveals that Darrow wasn’t really a passionate defender of the innocent, instead he was a person who represented terrorists because he supported terrorism. Great story that has a shocking number of parallels to today. You can start from the beginning at Part I here.

The other new article this week was this collection of American anti-Bolshevik political cartoons from the First Red Scare. The comic below was my favorite. It really is funny how people back then “got it.” Many of these comics from 100 years ago seem like they could have been drawn today.

I’m going to try to keep the history articles on the First Red Scare coming at a steady pace. I think I’m the only person writing on many of these topics. Although it’s fun to put these together, I would like to once again ask every one of you to please upgrade your subscription to paid literally right now. Every single paid subscription really does make a big difference in my life. Please, I’m literally begging you in the most pathetic way possible, subscribe right now. It’s only $5 a month and you get a lot of content.

On top of paid-exclusive articles (listed below), paid subscribers also get access to every episode of the podcast (listed further below). New (paid-exclusive) episodes of the podcast coming soon include one with a review of Michael Mann’s new movie Ferrari (and discussion of the rest of his films) and another on the Russian Civil War tactical strategy videogame Last Train Home.

Throwback article of the month:

What should conservative music be? (Free) - Thoughts on how to build a conservative culture that can endure and grow in very hostile modern conditions. I propose one of my favorite musicians, Johnny Horton, as a good figure to take cues from. It’s important to lighten up a bit.

Here are the paid-exclusive history articles:

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Communists opened fire on a Veteran's Day parade in Washington, 1919. 4 dead, 4 wounded (Paid) - Details the Centralia Massacre, a mass shooting committed by members of the far left labor union the International Workers of the World, and the subsequent cover-up which saw all of the shooters legally exonerated on dubious grounds and then released from prison

Forgotten Counterrevolution: The Boston Police Strike of 1919 (Paid) - Recounts the infamous 1919 Boston Police Strike, three days of terror inflicted on Boston by an alliance of immigrants, labor unions, and street criminals that were only ended by State Guardsmen and rightwing vigilantes flooding the city

America’s “Fighting Mayor” vs the 1919 Seattle General Strike (Paid) - Provides an introduction to the 1919 Seattle General Strike, which in my mind represents a good “opening shot” to the failed (and largely forgotten) leftist revolution attempted in 1919. The crisis was successfully resolved due to the heroic efforts of Mayor Ole Hanson, a very interesting figure in his own right who is also profiled in the article

In March 1914, socialist mobs invaded and shook-down churches all over New York City (Paid) - Provides an introduction to the socialist/anarchist International Workers of the World union by detailing a series of violent “protests” they staged in New York City during an economic downturn, targeting local churches. It turns out that people didn’t like the “Wobblies” for pretty understandable reasons

Anarchists almost blew up St. Patrick's Cathedral in 1915 (Paid) - Gives an introduction to anarchist terrorism of the period by recounting the fall of the “Bresci Circle” after a conspiracy to blow up a cathedral in New York City was discovered and infiltrated by the (then brand-new) NYPD bomb squad. The investigation itself is interesting but the trial afterwards, in which liberal lawyers created a bogus civil rights controversy to distract from the bombings, is perhaps more revealing

Sacco and Vanzetti were always guilty (Paid) - Provides an overview of the Sacco and Vanzetti case, placing it within the context of the surrounding leftwing terror wave and other unrest. Although a “wrongfully accused” narrative has been built around the pair over the last century, it turns out that the evidence against them was pretty overwhelming and they were both members of a terrorist network

The 1932 Bonus Army scandal was always communist propaganda (Paid) - Gives a rundown of the infamous gathering of 20,000 veterans with 20,000 other followers in Washington, DC that ended with the US military running everyone out at bayonet point. Surprise: it was a communist psyop

How Marshal Mannerheim saved his country by quitting and telling everyone to fuck off (Paid) - An introduction to the 1918 Finnish Civil War (more on this to come) and the actions that led to Marshal Mannerheim, the national hero of Finland, rising to his role of supreme commander of anti-communist forces

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Here are all the podcast episodes available now (most are paywalled):

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Ep1: Redditors of the Reddit Moon (Paid)

Ep2: Robocop: Rogue City review (Free)

Ep3: "War to the Knife" takes a shit on your stupid Civil War 2 fantasy (Free)

Ep4: "The Glorious Cause" is the best book on the American Revolution (that I've found) (Free)

Ep5: Your opinion on The Killer (2023) determines whether or not you have bad taste (Paid)

Ep6: Bitter master director Ridley Scott takes his time shitting out historical epic no one wanted (Free)

Ep7: This is the one (1) movie that you absolutely need to watch literally right now (Paid)

Ep8: Revenge thriller episode (Paid)

Ep9: Ride with the Devil (1999) is the best Civil War movie that I know you haven't seen yet (Free)

Ep10: 🚨ALERT🚨 Japanese launch devastating surprise attack on moviegoers' heartstrings (Paid)

Ep11: Total Recall (1990) was the sci-fi slaughterhouse America needed and deserved (Paid)

Ep12: I watched a bunch of the new DailyWire+ original movies last week... (Paid)

Ep13: If you don't force your family to watch this movie for Christmas, they will despise you (Paid)

Ep14: Emergency surprise free Christmas review of the Prometheus Engineer chronicles (2012) (Free)

Ep15: "A Disease in the Public Mind" is the most important book to read about the Civil War and America today (Free)

Ep16: Someone finally made a good Afghanistan War movie and nobody noticed (Paid)

Ep17: If you don't watch this new movie in theaters, you are betraying me and yourself (Paid)

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If you’ve read this far into the Weekly Round-up, you’re a weirdo, a freak, a fanatic, and I really want to hear from you. What’s on your mind? How are you holding up? Do you have any suggest topics for articles or podcasts? I really do read all of these. They help a lot. PLEASE RESPOND.

That’s all I’ve got, see you next week!

Lyrical length-padding to follow:

I bombed Korea every night.
My engine sang into the salty sky.
I didn't know if I would live or die.
I bombed Korea every night.

I bombed Korea every night.
I bombed Korea every night.
Red flowers bursting down below us.
Those people didn't even know us.
We didn't know if we would live or die.
We didn't know if it was wrong or right.
I bombed Korea every night.

And so I sit here at this bar.
I'm not a hero.
I'm not a movie star.
I've got my beer.
I've got my stories to tell,
But they won't tell you what it's like in hell.

Red flowers bursting down below us.
Those people didn't even know us.
We didn't know if we would live or die.
We didn't know if it was wrong or right.
We didn't know if we would live or die.
I bombed Korea every night.