Author: nick

[ad_1] Locke, Jefferson and Trump. Collage: Jeffrey St. Clair. When 56 representatives from the 13 colonies signed the Declaration of Independence from Britain in 1776, it was over nearly 300 years since America’s first contact with Europe took place, in 1492. Some 2.6 million impoverished European peasants had descended on the “New World” like locusts, escaping from Europe’s feudal regimes or the agrarian capitalism that was dispossessing them of land in England. In the first 200 of those years, much of the action, or devastation, had taken place in Meso- America and the Southern Hemisphere, as the Spaniards destroyed the…

[ad_1] In England, a major report found that more than 500 mothers and babies died or were seriously harmed at Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust because of poor care over 13 years. The inquiry looked at problems at two hospitals and blamed a “toxic” culture with bullying, understaffing, and staff who often ignored women’s concerns or treated them cruelly. Common mistakes included not watching babies closely during labor, missing signs of distress, and not getting doctors involved quickly enough. These failures led to avoidable deaths, stillbirths, brain injuries, and other harm. The report also said leaders knew about the dangers but…

[ad_1] Photograph by Nathaniel St. Clair I have saved for last the rule the new-new left seems most thoroughly to have forgotten, because every other fault finally runs through it. The first purpose of politics is to assemble a coalition large enough to win elections and take power. Everything else, every program and principle, is inert until that majority exists. This is not cynicism; it is the precondition of doing any good at all. Dahl understood democratic politics as the patient construction of majorities out of overlapping minorities, none of which can govern alone. The tradition understood it too: Harrington…

[ad_1] Dred Scott. Oil on canvas by Louis Schultze, 1888. (Detail) Missouri History Museum Collections. n23864. The United States has always been divided against itself. From its founding, the promise of democracy has existed alongside the violence of settler colonialism, slavery, racial capitalism, and white supremacy. The nation’s greatest democratic advances have emerged not from the fulfillment of its founding ideals but from generations of struggle against racial domination, economic exploitation, and political exclusion. American history is therefore not a story of inevitable democratic progress. It is an ongoing struggle over whose histories are remembered, whose humanity is recognized, and…

[ad_1] At time of writing, it looks like the U.S.-Iran ceasefire may be on its last legs. On Tuesday, the U.S. military launched strikes against more than 80 targets in Iran, retaliating for what the Pentagon termed Iran’s “unwarranted aggression” in firing on three commercial ships earlier in the week. President Trump, asked about the situation at the NATO summit in Ankara, called dealing with the Iranians “a waste of time” and pronounced the interim agreement signed last month “over.” Even before the latest strikes, however, the president had been sounding a more bellicose note. In his Fourth of July…

[ad_1] Along with creating tumult in a must-win race for Democrats, Graham Platner’s exit is laying bare division between the party’s left wing and moderates. [ad_2] Source link

[ad_1] The fragile ceasefire between Iran and the United States has been broken once again. The United States has been bombing Iran, claiming that its attacks are in retaliation for Iran attacking three vessels near Straight of Hormuz, which it considers as violation of the Islamabad agreement, officially known as the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between the two nations. But it is in fact the United States that has been violating the MoU because its interpretation of Article 5 of the MoU is simply false. According to Article 5 of the MoU, Iran is obligated to “Make arrangements using its…

[ad_1] In 2026, the world’s first trillionaire—following the recent stock debut of SpaceX—Elon Musk has remained one of the most influential figures in American politics. After campaigning for Donald Trump in 2024 and initially playing a leading role in the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), Musk has remained a constant presence in the headlines. One of his latest political clashes came with Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA) over the impact of DOGE’s cuts to the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID). Citing a 2025 Lancet study, Khanna argued the reductions were “potentially a death sentence for an estimated 4.5 million children…

[ad_1] I think that F. Scott Fitzgerald was perhaps never more wrong than when he opined that “there are no second acts in American lives”. The trope of second chances and redemption are rather common notes in the melodies of American life, even if there is no set consensus on who deserves to sing them. Worth bearing in mind when considering why or how a Jewish person such as myself might pen an essay in service to a man, indeed a friend, who at one time was, as I put it in my first interview with him, “America’s most notorious…

[ad_1] Freddie DeBoer in a Monday Substack post noticed a tic among advocates for more aggressive home-building policies (“YIMBYs,” for “Yes in My Back Yard,” in contrast to “NIMBYs,” for “Not in My Back Yard”). When confronted with opposition, these YIMBYs dismiss the possibility that the other side may have good-faith reasons of its own, instead resorting to ridicule and abuse.  DeBoer points out that this is not really how democratic politics works: You have to get people on board with what you want to do by the usual methods of persuasion and incentive-creation. Telling your fellow citizens that their…