Author: nick

Victor Wembenyama at 2025 NBA Cup. Photograph Source: Daiei Onoguchi – CC BY 4.0 The upcoming June 14 vote on limiting Switzerland’s population to 10 million is a daily reminder here in Geneva that nativist populism remains a powerful political force. In France, Marine Le Pen continues to build support on anti-immigration politics. Nigel Farage pushes similar anxieties in Britain. The AfD does the same in Germany. Donald Trump’s version is familiar: build walls, tighten borders, send ICE into cities. Across much of the West, hostility toward foreigners has become ordinary politics. Which is why the recent announcement of the…

Drunk History debuted in 2007 with a riotous retelling of the political rivalry between Aaron Burr and Alexander Hamilton—a rivalry that eventually resulted in Hamilton’s death. The Founders made frequent appearances throughout the series’ lifetime, from Benjamin Franklin’s more salacious activities to Revolutionary War stories to the political dramas that unfolded in the republic’s early years. The colorful renditions of the 1800 presidential election are particularly entertaining, highlighting the intensity with which Thomas Jefferson and John Adams campaigned against one another. The two men’s close friendship devolved as Jefferson and his supporters slandered Adams in the press, using phrases like “monarchical…

No matter what happens, I am confident the Iran war will be a major tailwind for gold. Here is an overview of how I see the conflict unfolding and its major financial implications. The Strait of Hormuz is the world’s most important energy corridor. Iran now has undisputed control over Hormuz. Stripping Iran of that control would require a successful full-scale ground invasion of Iran, a country roughly 40 times the size of Switzerland. A full-scale ground invasion is unlikely to happen, and even if it somehow does, it is unlikely to succeed. Iran is therefore likely to retain control…

The signing of the Declaration of Independence is often seen as a victory, a vindication of a free people’s “self-evident” rights in the face of an oppressive government. Yet nothing was certain to the 56 men who risked their lives, their fortunes, and their sacred honor by putting their names to parchment on that fateful July day. The occasion was not celebratory. Benjamin Rush, a Philadelphia physician who signed the Declaration, recalled in a famous 1811 letter “the pensive and awful silence which pervaded” the final roll call as the signers approved “what was believed by many at that time…

There is a line in the Fourth Amendment that was supposed to settle this. The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects against unreasonable searches and seizures shall not be violated, and no warrant shall issue but upon probable cause. It is not a suggestion. It does not contain an exception for emergencies, for terrorism, for immigration, or for your own good. It was written by men who had watched a government treat a population as a thing to be catalogued, and who meant to draw a line that no administration could cross…

An example of a K-shaped recession during COVID-19. Image Source: US Chamber of Commerce – Public Domain The corporate press has a new obsession, the so-called K-shaped economy. This metaphor is meant to describe a system in which one group of people, represented by the top, inclining line of the K, watches their fortunes rise as the other group’s fortunes fall. The idea is that Americans who are already doing well financially are doing better, while conditions worsen for those already struggling to make ends meet. The problem is that when we use this letter K shorthand, we lose almost…

Colby Groves, documenting Amazon’s Baldy Mesa solar project. This week in the Anthropocene The road is dusty and trash-strewn. My friend and collaborator Colby Groves is hanging out the car window as I drive, gazing at a patchwork of solar panels lined up behind a chain-link fence. “This has to be it,” declares Colby, balancing a large camera on his lap, hoping it doesn’t bounce off as we traverse a series of bumps and divots. We are in this land of scorching sun and heat, searching for a large Amazon solar installation in rural San Bernardino County, California. This is…

Jefferson County, Alabama, Probate Judge Yashiba Blanchard has been suspended after a 120-page complaint accused her of serious misconduct and running her court unprofessionally. The complaint says she called herself the “ultimate authority” with “no boss” and handled cases improperly. Her poor management of the court docket delayed involuntary commitment hearings for months, forcing some people to stay locked up or hospitalized longer than necessary. In one case, a hospital repeatedly contacted her office begging for a hearing so a patient could go home, but cancellations added extra weeks in the hospital, leaving the person “lying in bed crying and upset,”…

Image by David McLeod. U.S. Marines roll into Kuwait International Airport in light armored vehicles and M-998 high-mobility multipurpose wheeled vehicles after the retreat of Iraqi forces from Kuwait during Operation Desert Storm. Kuwait International Airport, Kuwait, 27 February 1991. U.S. National Archives, Combined Military Service Digital Photographic Files. Public domain. Major news outlets have reported on the US and Iran exchanging attacks overnight and early morning on June 3, 2026. Headlines capture the fact that Iran simultaneously attacked both Kuwait and Bahrain, noting that at least one Indian national was killed, with numerous injuries reported. Take a look at…

Photo courtesy of Ken Jones. There is nothing like walking quietly with a group of committed people through the hot Arizona desert to bring home the deadly reality faced by migrants coming to the U.S. through its southern border. Thousands of migrants have made this journey over the years. Forced into the Sonoran desert by the inhumane U.S. Prevention Through Deterrence policy and hunted by Customs and Border Patrol (CBP), they have endured blazing heat and scarcity of water and shade as they have desperately sought asylum and a better life. Some have made it through, but many have not.…