Author: nick

This is an edited version of a speech delivered at the Freedom Conservatism Conference on May 20, 2026.   At a White House press conference in May, Secretary of State Marco Rubio was asked, “What’s your hope for America at a time such as this?” Rubio responded: My hope for America is what it’s always been. I think it’s the hope I hope we all share. We want it to continue to be the place where anyone from anywhere can achieve anything, where you’re not limited by the circumstances of your birth, by the color of your skin, by your…

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Jake Johnson Common Dreams The Israeli military bombed Iran on Monday shortly after US President Donald Trump urged Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu not to respond to an Iranian missile barrage, which came in retaliation for Israel’s earlier bombing of Beirut. “I am going to call Bibi right now and tell him not to retaliate,” Trump told Axios on Sunday, noting that the Iranian strikes did not appear to cause any injuries. “Each of them had their fun. Israel had its strike, and Iran had its strike. We don’t need another one.” Iran’s missile attack on Israel was the first since a tenuous ceasefire agreement took…

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IDF 162nd Division on the Israel–Lebanon border. Photograph Source: IDF Spokesperson’s Unit – CC BY-SA 3.0 Call it a repeating script, a rusty template, or simply a creaky model to emulate time and again.  The structural and homicidal destruction of Gaza undertaken by Israeli forces is now finding full expression in southern Lebanon, a cause of concern even for those in Washington.  The war’s increasing savagery is a reminder of how hollow the exhortations by the Netanyahu government seem following the official cessation of hostilities against Hezbollah in November 2024. Israel’s pre-emptive war on Iran, commencing on February 28 with the full and criminal…

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By Ryan Claycamp This article was originally published by Truthout As pressure intensifies, universities have restructured, fired faculty, cancelled classes and limited discussion topics. Students at both the University of Texas and University of North Texas held mock funerals in May 2026 outside of meetings of the board of regents for their respective universities, where they mourned the loss of open discussion and academic freedom and integrity due to years of a right-wing legislative and institutional onslaught. Cameron Samuels, a law student at the University of Texas at Austin, as well as co-founder and executive director of Students Engaged…

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Israel and Iran exchange first strikes since April: For the last two months, the ceasefire between Israel and Iran had mostly held. Until this weekend, when it quickly unraveled. Now Iran is indicating its military campaign is over for now and that it’s ready to deescalate once again. (Who knows how true that is, of course.) “Iran fired waves of ballistic missiles at Israel on Sunday night in retaliation for an Israeli strike near the Lebanese capital, Beirut, against its ally Hezbollah,” reports The New York Times. “The Israeli military said on Monday morning that it had launched two waves of airstrikes…

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As central banks stockpile gold and reduce reliance on U.S. Treasury debt, a decades-long shift away from dollar hegemony is accelerating—driven by sanctions, war, and a growing distrust of Washington’s financial power. Joshua Scheer For generations, the U.S. dollar has served as the undisputed foundation of the global financial system. But beneath the headlines and market fluctuations, a profound transformation is underway. According to a new report from the European Central Bank, gold has officially surpassed U.S. Treasury securities as the largest reserve asset held by the world’s central banks—a milestone that would have seemed unthinkable just a decade…

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