Author: nick

From last week’s decision by Judge Virginia Kendall (N.D. Ill.) in Obi v. Cook County: The Court strikes Plaintiff’s motion [to alter or amend the judgment dismissing her complaint] for violating Local Rule 7.1 and sanctions her $5,000 for violating Rule 11. Plaintiff’s motion is 10.5 pages single-spaced and her core argument runs six straight pages in a single paragraph. 10.5 single-spaced pages is 21 pages double-spaced. Plaintiff’s reply briefs are 23 pages single-spaced (46 pages double-spaced) and 13 pages single-spaced (26 pages double-spaced). Plaintiff never sought leave to file such voluminous papers. The lack of table of contents is…

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President Donald Trump said he is willing to take weapons that NATO had bought for Ukraine and send them to the Middle East for the war against Iran.  During a cabinet meeting on Thursday, President Donald Trump was asked about a Washington Post report that weapons that were scheduled to be sent to Ukraine were redirected. He explained the US frequently takes that action. Reporter: Is the U.S. diverting some munitions that were meant for Ukraine to the Middle East? Trump: We do that all the time. We have a lot of munitions. Sometimes we take from one and use…

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House for sale, Williams, California. Photo: Jeffrey St. Clair. With so much going on, I managed to miss the release of data on existing home sales for March. According to the National Association of Realtors, it was down by 3.3 percent from February and 1.0 percent from March of last year. Sales were down in all four major regions, but the drop was sharpest in the Northeast with a 8.5 percent month-over-month drop and 12.2 percent year-over-year. Interestingly, the West, which is largely California, is doing best. The one-month decline was just 1.3 percent, and sales were up 1.3 percent…

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My coauthors Cassandra Robertson, Zoe Robinson, and I just published an article entitled “Can Speech Policy Protect Public Health?” in the Utah Law Review. Here is the abstract: Government speech shapes public health outcomes, yet political incentives often lead officials to either remain silent about emerging threats or subordinate scientific evidence to partisan goals. This Article examines how three factors interact to influence public health: the constitutional status of health-related speech, the political economy of public health policymaking, and the modern information environment. Drawing on insights from public choice theory, we demonstrate how misaligned incentives lead political actors to avoid communicating about…

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Gaslighting the public into supporting the slaughter of innocents is a tale as old as the state itself. If we don’t abandon the cult of personality, history is about to violently repeat itself. While millions of people across the country gathered with their families to celebrate a day historically dedicated to the Prince of Peace, the commander-in-chief of the American empire was busy on Truth Social, outlining his next mass casualty event. In a completely unhinged Easter Sunday ultimatum, Donald Trump promised the people of Iran a “Power Plant Day” and a “Bridge Day,” threatening to reduce the country to…

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In early March 2026, mere days into the United States and Israel’s latest war against Iran, various news outlets reported that President Donald Trump had engaged directly with Iraqi and Iranian Kurdish leaders to promote an uprising spearheaded by Iran’s Kurdish minority against the Iranian regime. The White House denied these assertions. On March 6, a Reuters exclusive reported that Israel, which has its own contacts with Iranian Kurds, was backing their plans to seize Iranian territory. The next day, however, Trump declared that he had “ruled out” Kurdish participation in the war. “I don’t want to see the Kurds…

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Photograph Source: paz.ca – noma Restaurant in Copenhagen – Main Entrance – CC BY 2.0 There are an easy bunch to demonise, and to a certain extent, they should be.  The God Chef, the collector of Michelin stars; the veteran of the kitchen, with all the cuts, bruises and wounds to show for it; the brute who terrorises the staff, mocking their lack of adeptness, skill and knowledge for overcooking the pigeon or adding a touch too much salt.  Hurled crockery, flying language bristling with savagery and filth.  And the rituals of hazing and collective shaming. Copenhagen’s Michelin starred restaurant, Noma, has seen…

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