Author: nick

[ad_1] In June of 1826, the citizens of Washington, D.C. invited Thomas Jefferson to their celebration of America’s 50th Independence Day. His health failing, the Sage of Monticello sent his regrets: I should, indeed, with peculiar delight, have met and exchanged there congratulations personally with the small band, the remnant of that host of worthies, who joined with us on that day, in the bold and doubtful election we were to make for our country, between submission or the sword; and to have enjoyed with them the consolatory fact, that our fellow citizens, after half a century of experience and…

[ad_1] Foreign Affairs Lose the Battle, Win the Century Iran doesn’t have to be America’s reckoning. Washington is once again in the throes of a postwar autopsy. Did the United States win in Iran? America’s latest military operation was launched, seemingly, to achieve regime change and permanent denuclearization. It ended with a messy ceasefire, a still-defiant adversary, and a war powers debate Congress will never resolve. By the standards Washington set for itself, the campaign did not deliver. Tehran’s government did not collapse. The Strait of Hormuz blockade dragged on for months. And it was a negotiated ceasefire, not the…

[ad_1] Trieste Herencia (Sad Inheritance) by Joaquín Sorolla, 1899. Public Domain. Few ideas command more universal agreement than the belief that children must be protected. Across cultures, religions, and political traditions, they are regarded as uniquely deserving of care, safety, and opportunity. Yet a glaring contradiction emerges when we look closely at the conditions under which millions of children actually live. Around the world, childhood is routinely fractured by war, hunger, pollution, displacement, and poverty. Even within the United States, children face food insecurity, inadequate healthcare, environmental hazards, failing infrastructure, and unequal educational opportunities. We usually discuss these realities as…

[ad_1] Hours before Iran’s national soccer team took the pitch in Seattle for its group-stage match against Egypt, the U.S. Central Command announced further strikes against the Islamic Republic. This sequence was without obvious precedent. A World Cup host nation had never bombed a participating country during the tournament. Fortunately, FIFA had already provided the punchline by awarding President Donald Trump the FIFA Peace Prize just over six months before the tournament’s opening kickoff.  The scene is absurd, but the paradox is typically American. As we reflect on the anniversary of our independence, we may confront the fact that America…

[ad_1] Photo by Federico Scarionati Interview with João França Building movements is an arduous and involved process. It takes organising people, building morale, and grit, and that isn’t even half of it. Don’t you wish you had a positive blueprint for how to move forward, to draw inspiration from, to continue the fight? Look no further than João França’s Yes, It’s Possible! A Handbook from Building Power from Below (Common Notions, 2026). Based on the success of the Platform for People Affected by Mortgages (PAH), a movement in Spain that has stopped evictions, kept people in their homes, and changed…

[ad_1] You are an otherwise healthy person, and you want to keep it that way.  However, wherever you turn you are being told that your current state of ‘health’ is tentative; You could be sick and not know it. Maybe you have something lurking inside — possibly an early sign of cancer — so shouldn’t you do something? After all, better safe than sorry, right?  Consider this statement from Dr. David Sackett in The Arrogance of Preventive Medicine, CMAJ Aug 20, 2002: Preventive medicine displays all 3 elements of arrogance. First, it is aggressively assertive, pursuing symptomless individuals and telling them what they…

[ad_1] Image by mohammed al bardawil. There is no shortage of things that should astonish us about the West’s indifference to Israel’s genocide in Gaza, but the treatment of children stands apart. In ordinary life, care for children is the deepest moral reflex we have: parents structure their days around it, laws and institutions exist to enforce it, and even distant or imagined threats to our children are enough to produce panic, outrage, and decisive action. When one of our children is hurt – physically or emotionally – we feel it in our own bodies; a small injury can be…

[ad_1] Truthful Fiction Buster Keaton sat atop the locomotive coupling rod in The General. Unexpectedly, the unexpected surprised. What followed was a hilarious adventure and a transcendental calm. For a moment, my eyes melded into Buster’s. For a mere few seconds of moving celluloid, our eyes shared a meditative pause, and the entire universe was explained. I became acutely aware of the places between the worlds of fiction and nonfiction. Universes ablaze, everything that looks like harmony poses before my single reflex. Photography has never been about where I arrive at. I am telling a story that has not been seen yet. I…

[ad_1] From U.S. v. Virginia, decided yesterday by Judge Robert Payne (E.D. Va.); these conclusions played a role in the court’s “irreparable harm” analysis, one of the factors that the court had to consider in deciding whether to grant a preliminary injunction:The record in this case shows that, with increased enforcement activity and the resistance thereto, there came to be “increasingly common threats of targeted harassment of and retaliation against federal immigration officers for simply doing their jobs.” In particular, it is shown by the affidavit of Eric S. Weiss, the Deputy Field Office Director for the United States Department…

[ad_1] From U.S. v. Virginia, decided yesterday by Judge Robert Payne (E.D. Va.): On May 20, 2026, citing concerns that federal law enforcement officers were “undercut[ting] basic expectations of accountability, sow[ing] fear and confusion, and erod[ing] the public trust,” Governor Abigail Spanberger signed the Mask/Identity Law. The Mask/Identity Law makes it a misdemeanor [with some exceptions] for a “law-enforcement officer” to “wear a facial covering that conceals, obscures, or otherwise covers his face while such law-enforcement officer is engaged in the performance of his official duties.” A “law-enforcement officer” includes both state and federal law enforcement officers…. The court concluded…