Author: nick

[ad_1] Democrats Set Aside Qualms and Embrace El-Sayed [ad_2] Source link

[ad_1] It’s 7 a.m. on Thursday, the sun is out, and I’m stuck at my desk staring down a long day of work rather than, say, sleeping until 11 and spending the day kibbitzing at a coffee shop. Instead of enjoying my comfy house, purring cat, quick internet connection, and full belly, I’m fantasizing about what life should really be like. I am, as the Democratic Socialists of America program explains, imagining “a future without capitalism.” According to DSA, that world would be groovy. Admittedly, the group’s first promise is confusing: “You enjoy your work; it’s interesting to you, and you’re…

[ad_1] I recently wrote that more Americans than ever before are carrying firearms for protection, with about 30 percent of the population toting a gun in public at least some of the time. The reason for that growing commitment to armed self defense was underlined last Saturday when a gunman opened fire at an In-N-Out Burger in Twin Falls, Idaho, only to be driven off by people at the spot who were willing to fight back. You are reading The Rattler from J.D. Tuccille and Reason. Get more of J.D.’s commentary on government overreach and threats to everyday liberty. “An…

[ad_1] The rail network in the Catskills with summer resorts, ca. 1901 – Public Domain Several weeks after the White House Correspondents’ Dinner, I finally sat down to watch Trump’s performance. The Dinner is one occasion when the President is expected to be entertaining as well as presidential. What I saw was a very poor imitation of Borscht Belt comic performers like Sid Caesar, Rodney Dangerfield and Henny Youngman. While many psychologists have analyzed Trump’s behavior, the Catskills’ comedy tradition offers another way of understanding him as a failed performer. The Borscht Belt was a region just north of New…

[ad_1] The word neighbors evokes white picket fences, borrowed cups of sugar, Norman Rockwell, and Mr. Rogers. The HBO docuseries Neighbors shows the decay of this ideal in a world saturated with surveillance technology. Each episode chronicles petty arguments between neighbors that escalate into shouting matches, lawsuits, and worse. The show’s subjects include a conspiracy theorist, a self-proclaimed interstellar traveler, a cosplaying TikToker, and an elderly nudist with an OnlyFans page. They are odd, cranky, and quintessentially American. In the show, nearly every dispute is recorded and shared. These nosy neighbors use social media in the most cringe and intrusive ways imaginable, posting videos…

[ad_1] For a long time, the classic 18th-century song “Rule, Britannia!” by English composer Thomas Arne, with lyrics by Scottish poets James Thomson and David Mollett, effectively served as the United Kingdom’s second national anthem. Its refrain, “Rule, Britannia! Britannia rule the waves,” powerfully captured the essence of the concept of “Mistress of the Seas,” a title Great Britain proudly bore for several centuries. For a long time, the guiding principle of the United Kingdom was to maintain a navy equal in strength to the two strongest navies of other powers combined. However, as the ancient saying goes, times change,…

[ad_1] Drainage pipe from an abandoned uranium mine in southwest Utah. Photo: Jeffrey St. Clair. Most people who society labels “environmentalists” begin their vocation in defense of their own local environment. If they continue that campaign, the work of a lifetime and beyond in itself, at first, they see the opposition as one or more “special interests,” influencing local politicians from the mayor to the congressman and US senator. But after a few years of legal and political struggle, you conclude it is more than a set of special interests; it is your whole local society. After you have simmered…

[ad_1] Global Antifa is a myth. Global fascism and Neo-Nazism aren’t. Fascist graffiti on the wall of a county government building in Clackamas County, Oregon. Photo: Jeffrey St. Clair. In September 2025, Donald Trump designated “antifa” a domestic terror organization. Last month, his administration went one step further by declaring that the “extreme left” had developed the antifa network into a global threat. Marco Rubio announced at a press conference on July 16 that Antifa militants and their comrades travel from across Europe and to the Americas to participate in each other’s attacks, to funnel propaganda and training, materials, and…

[ad_1] Jason Rogers, who taught in Minnesota’s Underwood School District, was sentenced to two years of probation and permanently gave up his teaching license after pleading guilty to three counts of malicious punishment of a child. During a school lockdown drill in 2025, Rogers, who weighed more than 350 pounds, stepped on three students’ backs while they were lying on the floor because he believed they were not taking the drill seriously. One student suffered severe back pain and was walking “like an 80-year-old” and “sobbing in agony” afterward, according to court documents. As part of his sentence, Rogers must…

[ad_1] Mono Lake, photo by Joshua Frank, August 3, 2026. I just returned after a few days of hiking in California’s Eastern Sierra, home to the Lower 48’s highest peak (Mt. Whitney, 14,405 feet), alpine lakes, hot springs, and expansive valleys. It’s one of the state’s most scenic places and, depending on when you ask, my favorite refuge from the steamy sprawl of Los Angeles.  While much of the Rocky Mountain West experienced extremely low snowpack this year, the Eastern Sierra didn’t fare well either, despite early rains in December and January. It also saw low precipitation, with snowfall at…