Author: nick
Had Thomas Sankara not been assassinated in 1987 and been allowed to advance Burkina Faso’s development, perhaps the Sahel would have followed his example a generation ago – and things might look very different today. Olga Yaméogo, Burkina Faso, Le soleil est dans vos pieds or The Sun Is at Your Feet, 2023. (Via Tricontinental Institute) By Vijay PrashadTricontinental: Institute for Social Research On Oct. 15, 1987, Thomas Sankara, the leader of Burkina Faso, was assassinated alongside 12 of his senior officials. At the time, which I remember well, there was great confusion as to who had carried out this unforgivable…
Democrats agree that they need a plan for what they’d do with the power they’re asking voters to give them. The details of that hypothetical agenda are another story. Source link
Professor Jonathan Zimmerman of the University of Pennsylvania has a worthwhile essay on the state of higher education in Liberties (a relatively new journal that is routinely filled with worthwhile material). His essay, “The President and the Universities” begins: In March of last year, about six weeks after Donald Trump returned to the White House, I traveled to Washington for a meeting of American education scholars. The opening panel focused — appropriately enough — on Trump’s threats to university funding, free speech on campus, and more. Then it was time for questions, and I raised my hand. I said that I…
Image by Luis Ramirez. Xavier Becerra recently told Californians that we need to think about the future of humanity. He said it with conviction. He said it with urgency. He said it as a candidate for governor of a state on the frontlines of climate change. And then he defended taking campaign money from Chevron. Not just quietly accepting it.Not just brushing it off.He said, plainly, that “we need Chevron.” That statement deserves scrutiny, especially from Latino communities who live every day with the consequences of decisions like that. Because in California, the future of humanity is not an abstract…
The German social philosopher Jürgen Habemas, who AI assures us is “one of the most significant thinkers of the 20th and 21st centuries,” died in Starnberg in southern Germany on March 14, 2026, at the age of 96. Habermas’s working life spanned more than seventy years and from 1956, when he became the assistant of Theodor Adorno at the University of Frankfurt through his academic career at Frankfurt and Heidelberg, Habermas was closely associated with the Frankfurt School for Social Research. Indeed, this prolific social critic stood out as the most famous representative of that movement’s second generation. Given Habermas’s…
Like hundreds of her coworkers, Kira Junod never voted to join the Teamsters. The massive Lamb Weston plant in American Falls, Idaho, where Junod works, is one of the world’s largest suppliers of frozen french fries and other potato products. The employees there voted decades ago to unionize. Now, even with Idaho’s right-to-work laws that allow workers to opt out of paying dues, the local Teamsters union was the only entity allowed to negotiate with management on behalf of Junod and her colleagues. When you got a job at Lamb Weston, you were subject to the union contract. That’s just…
This assassination attempt feels different. Following the previous attempts on the president’s life, progressives briefly acknowledged that their false and ugly depiction of Donald Trump as a modern-day Hitler with a penchant for rape may have inspired the violence. One might hope for deeper soul searching this time, considering that the would-be assassin at last Saturday’s White House Correspondents’ Dinner specifically echoed left-wing talking points about the “traitor” and “pedophile” in the White House. Instead of experiencing a come-to-Jesus moment, progressives have denied, deflected, and explained away their complicity. Some give-no-quarter lefties claimed that Trump had staged the incident to…
Siege reveals hole in Tehran’s strategy of guerrilla warfare and controlling Strait of Hormuz Source link
U.S. GDP grew at a 2 percent annualized rate in the first quarter of 2026, according to the latest report from the Bureau of Economic Analysis. That is up significantly from last quarter’s anemic 0.5 percent rate, but narrowly missed economists’ expectations of 2.2 percent. Economic prospects for the rest of the year remain clouded by the Iran War, which has pushed up fuel prices. Iran’s closure of the Strait of Hormuz has cut off a significant portion of global oil supply. Brent crude oil prices remained elevated at $111 per barrel Thursday, while the average price of a gallon…
A fresh snow in Montana, but not enough. Photo by Joshua Frank. Let’s start with the good news. As of 2025, coal is no longer the dominant energy source worldwide. It’s been at the top for over 100 years, but it’s been edged out by renewables, driven mainly by China’s solar boom. Now, the reality. Despite this surge in renewables, the world saw a record increase in carbon emissions last year. That’s because fossil fuels are still being burned in record numbers across sectors beyond energy, such as transportation, which accounts for nearly 30% of global fossil fuel consumption. Not…