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John Fea

John Fea is Executive Editor of CURRENT and the author of The Way of Improvement Leads Home blog.

Is it OK to like Barry Manilow’s music?

John Fea   |  September 29, 2023

In fifteen years of blogging I think this is my first Barry Manilow post. I’ll join Tom Nichols of The Atlantic in admitting that I sometimes listen to Manilow’s music. (Though I have never seen him in concert.) Here is...

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Ibram X. Kendi’s “failure, intellectual and moral, is as much ours as it is his”

John Fea   |  September 29, 2023

Back in June we brought some attention to Bates University environmental studies scholar Tyler Austin Harper‘s New York Times piece on race and college admissions. Now, in a piece at The Washington Post, he has weighed-in on the Ibram X....

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California Senator Dianne Feinstein has passed away

John Fea   |  September 29, 2023

Until an official obituary appears, learn about this trailbazing United States Senator here. She was mayor of San Francisco from 1978 to 1988 and was elected to five U.S. Senate terms. In 1984 she was on Walter Mondale’s vice-presidential short...

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What is popular this week at Current?

John Fea   |  September 29, 2023

Here are the most popular features of the week at Current: Here are the most popular posts of the last week at The Way of Improvement Leads Home blog: Here are the most popular posts of the last week at The Arena blog:...

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Donald Trump goes to Michigan and speaks at a non-union factory

John Fea   |  September 29, 2023

Donald Trump skipped Wednesday night’s GOP debate. Instead he went to Clinton Township, Michigan and spoke at a non-union auto parts factory. The day before Trump’s visit to Michigan, sitting president Joe Biden joined United Autoworkers leader Shawn Fain at...

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Commonplace Book #286

John Fea   |  September 28, 2023

Even at their worst, the churches kept alive a vision of man and fraternity, a knowledge of injustice suffered and retribution due. And for long periods, given the hopeless political environment in which the Negro found himself, “other-worldliness” was the...

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Springsteen is done for the year

John Fea   |  September 28, 2023

The Boss has canceled all of his remaining 2023 shows. (He originally just canceled September shows). He continues to battle peptic ulcer disease. Here is Melina Newman at Billboard: Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band have pulled their remaining 2023...

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Evangelical roundup for September 28, 2023

John Fea   |  September 28, 2023

What is happening in Evangelical land? The National Association of Evangelicals has launched a “racial justice Assessment tool.” Syrian evangelicals on the ground in Turkey. The 50th anniversary of the Lausanne Covenant. New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary hosts a conference...

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Donald Duck and the GOP

John Fea   |  September 28, 2023

At times I thought last night’s debate was taking place in an alternate GOP universe

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Commonplace Book #285

John Fea   |  September 27, 2023

The miners retain many of their admirable qualities today, but it is evident that their world, the world of early industrialism, is dying–and the union, seeking to survive by allying itself to management and mechanization, itself becomes an enemy. It...

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The Christian faith of UAW’s Shawn Fain

John Fea   |  September 27, 2023

He carries a Bible and regularly invokes his faith as he leads the United Auto Workers in a historic strike against the country’s three largest automakers. For Fain, the strike is a “righteous cause.” This reminds of Eugene Debs’s claim...

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Every candidate on the stage at tonight’s GOP debate should go after Trump

John Fea   |  September 27, 2023

Tonight is the second presidential primary debate. Donald Trump will not be there. He really doesn’t have to be there. He has a massive lead in the polls. Why would any political adviser suggest that the former president attend this...

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Conquering the wilderness, building a city on a hill, and tonight’s GOP debate

John Fea   |  September 27, 2023

Historian Peter Mancall will be looking for references to the Puritans in tonight’s GOP presidential primary debate. He found several in the first debate. Here is a taste of his piece at Zocalo Public Square: The second Republican debate will...

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Brooks Robinson, RIP

John Fea   |  September 26, 2023

RIP:...

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Joe Biden joins the United Auto Workers picket line in support of striking workers

John Fea   |  September 26, 2023

For the first time in United States history a sitting president joined a picket line. Here is Joe Biden at a General Motors warehouse in Van Buren Township, Michigan: More here. Interesting take from a Cambridge University historian: Socialist Jacobin...

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“The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice”: A short history

John Fea   |  September 26, 2023

Over at Black Perspectives, historian Nico Slate reflects on the history of this famous phrase with a short analysis that spans from Theodore Parker to Martin Luther King Jr. to Barack Obama and beyond. Here is a taste of his...

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Who will be on the GOP debate stage tomorrow night?

John Fea   |  September 26, 2023

The second GOP presidential primary debate on Wednesday night will include Doug Burgum, Chris Christie, Ron DeSantis, Nikki Haley, Mike Pence, Vivek Ramaswamy, and Tim Scott. Donald Trump will not attend. Former Arkansas governor Asa Hutchinson did not make the...

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Ralph Nader will support Biden in 2024

John Fea   |  September 26, 2023

The goal is to keep Donald Trump as far away from the White House as possible. Here is Michael Scherer at The Washington Post: The liberal activist Ralph Nader still remembers nearly the exact words Joe Biden used to banish...

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Is “girl boss feminism” on the decline?

John Fea   |  September 26, 2023

Here is Liza Featherstone at Jacobin: This elitist vision of feminism has been around for more than one hundred years. In the early twentieth century Alexandra Kollontai, a Russian socialist organizer and writer who would later become the only woman in...

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“Don’t let right-wing culture warriors obscure the fact that some ideas behind this progressive ideology have genuine problems.”

John Fea   |  September 26, 2023

Last week we called your attention to Yascha Mounk’s new book The Identity Trap: A Story of Ideas and Power in Our Time. Today we want to call your attention to a Mounk piece at The Atlantic based on the...

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