Author: nick

Editor’s Note: The following article is not intended as tax advice. For such advice consult a licensed professional. Further, while not a tax professional, the following was reviewed by a tax attorney. While taxation is coercive, economically distortive, and ultimately something to be abolished, it does not follow that one may simply opt out of the existing legal regime. As much as one might wish otherwise, there does exist—at present—a binding legal obligation to report and pay income taxes under U.S. law. This article then is a response to a recent post on Twitter by Peter Schiff, who argued that, unlike excise…

Falla Cuba – Dénia 2025- Secció 4ªA. Sector 6 Russafa B. Título: “Al mal temps bona cara”. Artista: Enrique i Mario Cardells. Photograph Source: Ponscor – CC BY-SA 4.0 In Cuba, hardship is not abstract. On my most recent visit, I watched residents use metal rods to probe beneath the pavement for water lines because municipal pump failures had left them scrambling for access to drinking water. If U.S. policy is meant to help the Cuban people rather than merely punish the Cuban government, it should expand humanitarian channels that actually reach local communities. I have traveled to Cuba in…

If you really want to start an argument with a Labour politician, just ask them why Britain is now poorer than the poorest state in America, Mississippi. “Nonsense,” they would say. “That is a right-wing trope debunked by fact-checks.” Crude comparisons, they’d insist, ignore social transfers and how much Americans spend on health without the beneficence of the NHS. They would be wrong. In terms of GDP per head—i.e. wealth creation—Britain has indeed been falling behind America’s poorest state: €49,780 against €48,411 in 2024. Even by the International Monetary Fund’s Purchasing Power Parity standards, Mississippi is still above the UK.…

Social media platforms. App stores. And next—computers and smartphones? If some lawmakers get their way, Americans could have to show IDs or submit facial scans to so much as open a laptop or power up an iPhone. You are reading Sex & Tech, from Elizabeth Nolan Brown. Get more of Elizabeth’s sex, tech, bodily autonomy, law, and online culture coverage. A bipartisan federal bill called the Parents Decide Act would require age verification at the operating system level. That means most computers, smartphones, and tablets would all be age-gated. The Parents Decide Act was introduced earlier this month by U.S.…

The U.S. government invaded Iraq after a painful public debate over the possibility that Saddam Hussein was developing chemical and biological weapons. The claim turned out to be false, and the war led to the deaths of thousands of American service members and hundreds of thousands of Iraqis. Two decades later, the episode is widely remembered as a signal failure not just of the post–Cold War foreign policy establishment but of the media that were supposed to hold the government to account and keep the public better informed. Yet as bad as the Iraq War was, America’s current war against…

If the objective of the U.S. war upon Iran is to ensure that that country does not develop nuclear weapons, that goal was attained more than a decade ago through a far different approach than the one now being followed by the Trump administration. Iran, as a signer of the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty of 1970, had agreed to forgo the development of nuclear weapons.  Even so, fears grew during the early 21st century that Iran’s uranium enrichment program, used for peaceful purposes, might be diverted to the development of the Bomb, thereby throwing the volatile Middle East into yet another…

With the Middle East in flames, President Donald Trump’s desperate lobbying campaign for the Nobel Peace Prize looks ever more bizarre. Of course, his claim to have ended and prevented numerous wars is more fantasy than reality.  Worse, his surprise bombing of Iran amid negotiations, twice, demonstrated that his goal is anything but peace. Moreover, his proposal for a massive military buildup with no connection to American security suggests he is preparing even more reckless wars of choice. He has ostentatiously flouted Alfred Nobel’s desire to reward those who did “the most or the best work within the past year…

April 23, 2026 Elliot Sperber White oak, Turkey Run State Park, Indiana. Photo: Jeffrey St. Clair. The invisible forest is made upOf trees (of beeches/booksMade up of leavesTurningInvisibly, this forestThrough which we walkDetermining our path,The tree trunks – the caudex –The codesDetermine the widthsOf the streets, the roadsThe materials that constituteThe sidewalksOf our constitutionalsThe composition of the airWe struggle to breatheBecause of these Elliot Sperber is a writer, attorney, and adjunct professor. He lives in New York City and can be reached at elliot.sperber@gmail.com and on twitter @elliot_sperber Are articles like this important to you? We are 100% reader supported and…

There’s been some dissension recently about the three-to-nine-year prison sentence handed down by a New York judge to former police sergeant, Erik Duran, for throwing a plastic beverage cooler at a fleeing suspect in the Bronx. The cooler hit the perp in the arm, causing him to lose control of his motorcycle, crash, and die. The harsh sentence was uncharacteristic for Supreme Court Justice Guy Mitchell, who a few years earlier gave only nine months to a guy who beat a homeless man to death. But what the complainers don’t realize is that there is an epidemic of violent, cisgendered…

The UCLA Federalist Society invited James Percival, the General Counsel of the Department of Homeland Security to speak on Tuesday, April 21. Unfortunately, there was a massive protest that disrupted the speech. Students consistently disrupted by the event by booing and heckling the speakers. There was a nonstop cacophony of ring tones and other sounds, again, which were intended to disrupt the event. This event has been covered by Fox News and the UCLA Daily Bruin. I give credit to Professor Jon Michaels, who introduced the speaker. Michaels is a staunch critic of the Trump Administration, but still believes in…