Monthly Archives: July 2025

Twain: Autocrats Fear Being Laughed At

By Robin Bates | Published: July 21, 2025

In “Mysterious Stranger,” Twain calls upon us to laugh at autocrats—even when it gets us in trouble, as it did Late Night’s Stephen Colbert.

By Robin Bates | Published: July 20, 2025

An uplifting Alison Luterman poem about our migrant communities, which in spite of all Trump can do refuse to be defeated.

By Robin Bates | Published: July 19, 2025

In Kipling’s “The Sons of Martha,” the speaker channels Martha’s resentment against her sister Mary, who chooses to sit at Jesus’s feet.

By Robin Bates | Published: July 17, 2025

Superman has anti-fascist roots, as Chabon explains in his novel “Kavalier and Clay.”

By Robin Bates | Published: July 16, 2025

Reports of the U.S. burning 500 tons of USAid food designated for children brings to mind a comparable scene in “Grapes of Wrath.”

By Robin Bates | Published: July 15, 2025

Hammett’s “Red Harvest,” with its tale of corruption rebounding on the corrupt, seems particularly relevant today.

By Robin Bates | Published: July 14, 2025

Bill McKibben reports good news about the world’s conversion to solar so here are poems praising the sun from Larkin and Milton.

By Robin Bates | Published: July 13, 2025

Ibsen’s “Enemy of the People” helps us understand MAGA’s hatred of expertise.

By Robin Bates | Published: July 12, 2025

Henry Lawson’s “Good Samaritan” recasts the story in working class terms.