Author: nick

Americans are so lucky! They get to be ruled by a FIFA Peace prize winner and a living Messiah!! Shakespeare’s long-lost London home has finally been found. The AP Strange Show goes down the rabbit hole with SMiles Lewis. You’ve lived this life before: Nietzsche’s mystical insight. TikTok psychic seeks relief from $10m verdict for false claims in Idaho student murders. The BoA Revival podcast explores the Corpsewood Manor murders with Amy Petulla. Why the AI backlash has turned violent—and why it-s probably gonna get worse. Are UAPs nuclear sentinels? Roswell revisited. Is there a future for NASA’s space plane…

For decades Washington has advertised its air and naval supremacy as the indispensable guarantor of global order. Recent events have shown this to be little but increasingly expensive theater. The 2026 Iran War has paused not with Iranian capitulation but in a cascade of humiliations that have permanently altered the strategic landscape. Washington’s vaunted power-projection capabilities proved unable to shield even its own forward bases, depleted critical munitions stockpiles, and ultimately ceded effective control of the Strait of Hormuz to Tehran. These lessons will not be lost on Beijing or Taipei. If the United States cannot impose its will on…

Irrigation ditch for alfalfa farmers in the Imperial Valley. Photo: Jeffrey St. Clair. Across most of the arid West, snowpack is low, rainfall is scarce, and residents are staring down the barrel of another year of major drought. Water levels are dropping, native fishes have become endangered, and a battle royale is heating up between western states to decide whose water uses will go unfulfilled. Right now, water is allocated based on Wild-West-era laws that allowed the first settler who filed a claim to get priority rights to use that water. You could claim as much water as you could…

Happy Tax Day, if such a thing can exist. Today marks the last day that most Americans can file their taxes with Uncle Sam or else face financial consequences. For most people, tax filing is stressful and messy. And even though average refunds are expected to significantly jump thanks to the GOP’s sprawling tax bill from last year, nearly 60 percent of Americans say taxes are still too high, according to a new Gallup poll. But the burden of paying taxes is more than monetary. Here are four other reasons to loathe tax season.   In addition to spending about…

In late March, European Union (E.U.) officials announced they had taken down a five-country cigarette-smuggling operation and seized over 40 tons of tobacco products. The ambitious network reportedly transshipped the cigarettes far and wide to obscure their sources and destinations, while also hiding them in hidden compartments built into cargo containers. Why would smugglers go through such effort to move perfectly legal products, and why would the authorities care? In Europe, as in the United States, the answer is the same: sky-high taxes. You are reading The Rattler from J.D. Tuccille and Reason. Get more of J.D.’s commentary on government…

he makers of our Constitution undertook to secure conditions favorable to the pursuit of happiness… They sought to protect Americans in their beliefs, their thoughts, their emotions and their sensations. They conferred, as against the Government, the right to be let alone — the most comprehensive of rights, and the right most valued by civilized men.~ Justice Louis D. Brandeis (1856-1941) When the Bill of Rights was being crafted in the House of Representatives, it was left to James Madison to articulate the values that would provide an insulation between government negating freedom and the inalienable rights of all persons. The right to worship freely,…

I’ve been trying to distract myself from the end of the world, as Trump blows up not only Iran but the Republican Party with a pointless war that has spiked oil prices, depleted our munitions, closed the Strait of Hormuz, jettisoned America’s moral standing, distracted the president from immigration, and, so far, cost us $30 billion in direct military spending, with $200 billion more requested. So I’ve been spending my time on murder mysteries. Reading David Baldacci’s action-thriller To Die For, I was willing to suspend disbelief and accept his portrayal of the CIA and FBI as all-powerful, super-stealth agencies,…

The Iran war has widened the gulf between the United States and once-Great Britain. President Trump threatened to withdraw from NATO in retaliation for Britain’s unwillingness to join the war. He said Prime Minister Keir Starmer is “not Winston Churchill”, and that the Special Relationship is imperiled by Starmer importing and appeasing Muslim voters “from foreign lands who hate you.” All true—but Trump has given a boon to Britain’s most hated prime minister on record, because Starmer’s decision to abstain from the war, unpopular on both sides of the pond, looks prudent. Iran now controls the Strait of Hormuz, holding…

From S. Fla. Muslim Fed., Inc. v. Atrium Trs I, LP, decided Jan. 27 by Judge Raag Singhal (S.D. Fla.), but only recently posted on Westlaw; an appeal is pending: Plaintiff, South Florida Muslim Federation, Inc. (“SFMF”) describes itself as “an umbrella organization representing over thirty South Florida entities serving religious and secular Muslims, including Islamic centers, schools, and other similar community organizations, and over 200,000 Muslims in South Florida.” It operates “a resource-sharing hub” that connects the South Florida Muslim community with “both religious and secular businesses, goods and services.” SFMF sponsors an annual conference for the South Florida…

Today’s guest is Stimson Center Senior Fellow Emma Ashford, a foreign policy analyst who has written widely on post–Cold War strategy, the Middle East, and the limits of American power. An adjunct professor at Georgetown University’s Security Studies Program, a columnist at Foreign Policy, and a former Cato Institute staffer, Ashford is the author of First Among Equals: U.S. Foreign Policy in a Multipolar World. She talks with Nick Gillespie about the incoherence of President Donald Trump’s Iran strategy and the surprising and disturbingly ineffective continuity of U.S. foreign policy since the end of the Cold War.   Previous appearance:…