The US bombed Afghanistan for 20 years and weeks after finally leaving, the Taliban returned to power, more brutal than ever, with lots of scores to settle against the Afghans who had naively allied themselves with the US.

The last time the US conducted regime change by airstrike, it turned Libya into a slave-trading enclave.

For political science, the Epstein saga represents a ‘Galileo moment.’ It is the realization that our institutions are not the center of the political universe, but are often satellites orbiting private elite interests.

“Gonzo governance” describes a style of political rule that delegitimizes social institutions in favor of leadership promoting the politics of fear that is chaotic, personality-driven, and often indifferent to conventional standards of objectivity.

Since acquiring Monsanto in 2018, Bayer has paid out about $11 billion to settle almost 100,000 cancer-related lawsuits, with approximately 61,000 still pending.

Israeli prisons and detention centers have been systematically transformed into a network of torture camps.

The relentless exploitation of victims of tragedies and their families to advance his fascist policies is one of the most grotesque set-pieces in Trump’s long-running political schtick.

Across the country, there are thriving models of nonpolice alternatives.

We are still discovering the tracks of the Underground Railroad.

Kudos, Jerami!

On direct deaths from violence, Sidhwa writes that “the number is likely between 120,000 and 215,000, representing one out of every 10 to 18 people in Gaza, but may be significantly higher."

For more than two decades, America’s forever wars have been coming home in large and small ways. But in 2026, death cards made famous in a war that ended more than 50 years ago — a war that America’s president dodged — have made a reappearance.

Trump is clearly determined to show that no Supreme Court decision is going to hamstring him in his determination to have absolute control over tariff policy. That presents Republicans with another Trump-induced choice:

You weren't around, you fools. Harrington & Co. forever turned off the young militant left of the late 1960s & early 70s to your careful brand of cold war socialism. That's why your base is restricted to the armchair left in academia, media, union bureaucracies & lib think tanks.

If you think about it, the world’s not that wide. It only feels that way on maps. It gets pretty narrow at key pressure points like the thin ribbon of water called the Strait of Hormuz.

The empire’s decline persists, and with it, its extension to the US economy as a whole. And it will continue whether or not Trump finds another law to use to justify tariffs and whether or not SCOTUS invalidates it.

Fidel's 5-hour harangues on agricultural production in rural Cuba seemed shorter and livelier than Trump's bitchy, repetitive, and leaden performance last night. I guess he should be congratulated for not dozing off. I did.

The two most important institutions for implementing national security decisions—the Department of State and the National Security Council—have essentially vanished.

What do Canada’s retired general Wayne Eyre and Saudi Prince Mohammed Bin Salman share in common? Answer: In their own ways, both have inadvertently warned the public about the deep relationship between nuclear weapons and nuclear energy.

Phil Ochs: “If there's any hope for America, it lies in a revolution, and if there's any hope for a revolution in America, it lies in getting Elvis Presley to become Che Guevara.” Well, that didn't happen, Phil. Instead, RFK's son turned into Kid Rock.