Author: nick

[ad_1] Image by Ye Jinghan. I’ll be honest with you. Today I spent money I didn’t have to spend, and I don’t regret a single penny of it. I went to Apple TV and bought The Alabama Solution (2025) even though I already have an HBO Max subscription where it streams for free. This film was Oscar-nominated for Best Documentary Feature, and it lost. It lost. I wrote about that on my Substack, When The Oscars Looked Away, because that loss meant something. It meant that a film made by people who smuggled phones past guards who would’ve killed them for it,…

[ad_1] In a normal, pre-Donald-Trump political world—you know, when pastors didn’t pray around golden statues of political leaders and presidents didn’t plaster their names and faces on public buildings, passports, and currency like in a tin-pot dictatorship—lawmakers could agree on some basic parameters of decent behavior. Democrats and Republicans may fight about everything, but they could unite in their opposition to self-dealing outrages. That’s no longer true. There is seemingly nothing Donald Trump or his family could do that would spark denunciations from the GOP. That’s especially obvious after Trump exacted vengeance in Tuesday’s primaries on the handful of Republicans who would…

[ad_1] In January of 2025, Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) promised to slash $2 trillion from the federal budget. After 10 months, the initiative, inspired by the dog meme, became a villain in Washington and only saved $215 billion (by its own estimation).  Now, the spirit of DOGE lives on, this time in Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s New York City…kind of. On Thursday, Mamdani launched a Commission on Government Efficiency (COGE) initiative to make the city government “work smarter, faster, and more effectively for working people.”
He wrote on X, “New Yorkers deserve a city government as careful with their…

[ad_1] Image by Mathieu Odin. India’s decision to accelerate work on the Chenab-Beas Link Tunnel in Himachal Pradesh may become the first major geopolitical consequence of the effective collapse of the Indus Waters Treaty (IWT). More than a conventional infrastructure project, the initiative signals the emergence of a more assertive Indian approach toward river-water utilization, strategic infrastructure development, and long-term hydrological leverage in South Asia. The proposed project aims to divert surplus water from the Chandra River in Lahaul-Spiti through an 8.7-kilometer underground tunnel beneath the Pir Panjal range into the Beas basin. The tunnel, estimated to cost over ₹2,350…

[ad_1] Three Democrats vying for their party’s U.S. Senate nomination in Michigan sparred over campaign finance, foreign policy and state business development during a May 28 debate.  During the Mackinac Policy Conference debate, the candidates presented competing visions about who is best situated to face Republican Mike Rogers in the November election, and for the direction of the Democratic Party. Michigan’s primary election is scheduled for Aug. 4.  We fact checked some of the statements from candidates Abdul El-Sayed, a former public health official, state Sen. Mallory McMorrow and U.S. Rep. Haley Stevens. El-Sayed: “I’m the only candidate on the…

[ad_1] NA Today, Liberalism.Org published my new article “Liberalism’s Uneasy Relationshp with Democracy.” Here’s an excerpt: Liberalism—defined as the political philosophy that prioritizes individual freedom and human happiness—has always had an equivocal relationship with democracy. Democratic governments generally feature much greater liberty and happiness than other types of regimes. Liberals should resist the temptation to embrace authoritarianism. But there are also multiple ways in which democracy can often threaten liberty and human welfare. These dangers include the tyranny of the majority and widespread voter ignorance. Democracy can also be a threat to its own perpetuation, by bringing to power authoritarian…

[ad_1] Please note: this post is also available on my Substack. ******************************* BRICS-based multipolarity will save us from The Technocratic Dark State by making the rollout of an oppressive global surveillance state much better. This will be the result of “improving global governance.” At least, that is according to the BRICS Outcome Document published by the Indian Ministry of External Affairs after the latest riveting meeting of BRICS foreign ministers. Centralised global dictatorship will be a happier, fluffier kind of new world order tyranny under the BRICS’ multipolar model because it will be “more just, equitable, agile, effective, efficient, responsive, representative, legitimate, democratic and accountable.”…

[ad_1] Since September 2, the U.S. military has attacked suspected drug boats in the Caribbean and the Eastern Pacific 59 times, killing 196 people. According to President Donald Trump’s mysterious math, that means this campaign of carnage has prevented around 1.5 million drug-related deaths in the United States—more than 20 times the total number recorded in the year before Trump started treating suspected cocaine smugglers as “combatants” who can be killed at will, from a distance and in cold blood. Back on planet Earth, there is no reason to think the boat strikes have prevented any deaths at all. That could…

[ad_1] Journalist Arun Gupta returns to CounterPunch Radio to discuss the state of the left, antiwar politics, and much more. Arun talks to host Eric Draitser and provides his analysis of the No Kings movement and how leftists should understand it, as well as a retrospective of the antiwar movements around Iraq and Vietnam. He explores the importance of physical community and organization using the example of New York’s Lower East Side, where he resides. The conversation also touches on the Left’s historic role in countering the hegemonic view of global affairs. A devoted leftist, Marxist, investigative journalist, chef, and…

[ad_1] Two months after the Trump administration fired Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Kristi Noem under a cloud of controversy, DHS’ most aggressive and controversial practices have largely continued under her successor, Markwayne Mullin. Mullin replaced Noem in March after months of growing external outrage and internal dissatisfaction with her leadership. Along with allegations of frivolous spending sprees by Noem and other top aides, there were repeated instances of DHS officials lying about deadly and violent incidents involving immigration agents. In its attempts to move past Noem’s controversies, the administration portrayed Mullin as a more serious and focused leader.…