the Trump administration is mobilizing heritage and architecture as tools of ideology and control. He is seeking to roll back inclusive historical narratives at U.S. parks and monuments. And he is reviving sanitized myths about America’s history of slavery, misogyny and Manifest Destiny, for use in museums, textbooks and public schools. Dictators, tyrants and kings build monumental architecture to buttress their own egos, which is called authoritarian monumentalism. They also seek to build the national ego – another word for nationalism.
Commentary
What would Mark Twain Think of Donald Trump?
Mark Twain would have found Trump the showman – the pre-2016 version – a fascinating figure. He would have been appalled, however, by much about Trump the president. Imagining how Twain would view Trump is timely because when some have tried to look to history for an equivalent political moment, they’ll sometimes point to two decades – the 1880s and the 1900s – that happened to also be important in Twain’s life and career.
The Disgraceful History of Erasing Black Cemeteries
Shockoe Hill African Burying Ground, the largest burial ground for enslaved and free people of color in the United States, has witnessed deliberate acts of violence. As the historian Ryan K. Smith writes, Shockoe “was not, as some would say, abandoned – it was actively destroyed.” In recent years, similar threats to Black cemeteries and questions about preservation have been reported at the Whitney Plantation in Louisiana, the Morningstar Tabernacle No. 88 in Maryland and a rediscovered graveyard in Florida, among many others.
The Great Louvre Heist and Security Challenges to Museums Everywhere
On Sunday October 19, criminals managed to steal eight pieces of extremely valuable jewelry from the Louvre Museum’s Gallery of Apollo, in Paris. The robbery highlights long-standing issues for criminology in the field of cultural heritage, as museum security has to address traditional and emerging threats as well as a range of symbolic visions and criminal dynamics. From a security point of view, there are five key ideas that can help us understand what the flaws were in the Louvre, as well as how, and why, criminals target museums.
The Real Reason Conservatives Are Furious About Bad Bunny’s Super Bowl Gig
The spectacle of a Spanish-speaking rapper performing during the most-watched sporting event on American TV is a direct rebuke of the Trump administration’s efforts to paper over the country’s diversity. Beyond that, there’s his gender-bending wardrobe. He has slammed the Trump administration’s anti-immigration policies. He has declined to tour on the U.S. mainland, fearing that some of his fans could be targeted and deported by ICE. And his explicit lyrics – most of which are in Spanish – would make even the most ardent free speech warrior cringe.
The Pentagon’s Unprecedented War on Press Freedom
Throughout modern American history, reporters who cover the Pentagon have played an invaluable role shining a light on military actions when the government has not been forthright with the public. Free press advocates warn that recent changes in a Pentagon policy threaten journalists’ ability to cover the Department of Defense. That’s because it could curb their rights to report information not authorized by the government for release. That’s a big step toward outright censorship.
Beyond Protest: 10 Effective Ways to Make Change
What happens now? That may well be the question being asked by “No Kings” protesters, who marched, rallied and danced all over the nation on Saturday, Oct. 18. practices used globally to fight democratic backsliding or topple autocracies can be instructive. In a nutshell: Nonviolent resistance is based on noncooperation with autocratic actions. It has proven more effective in toppling autocracies than violent, armed struggle. But it requires more than street demonstrations.
Why do Teens No Longer Answer the Phone?
Teenagers can seem to have their phones glued to their hands – yet they won’t answer them when they ring. This scenario, which is all too familiar to many parents, can seem absurd and frustrating, or even alarming to some. Yet it also speaks volumes about the way 13-to-18-year-olds now connect (or fail to connect) with others. If smartphones are ever-present in the daily lives of adolescents, this does not mean they are using their devices in the same way adults do.
Studying Philosophy makes You a Better Thinker
Philosophy majors rank higher than all other majors on verbal and logical reasoning, according to a new study. They also tend to display more intellectual virtues such as curiosity and open-mindedness. Philosophers have long claimed that studying philosophy sharpens one’s mind. What sets philosophy apart from other fields is that it is not so much a body of knowledge as an activity – a form of inquiry. Doing philosophy involves trying to answer fundamental questions about humanity and the world we live in and subjecting proposed answers to critical scrutiny.
Let Us Now Bow to the Quackery of Conversion Therapy
Conversion therapy is the non-medical and debunked theory that if you hector gays, lesbians and trans long enough, they’ll convert back to heterosexuality. The approach is premised on self-loathing. It’s abusive. It has nothing to do with science. It has everything to do with a perverted interpretation of Christianity’s vilification of anything non-heterodox. yet after hearing the case this week, the U.S. Supreme Court, continuing its upending of First Amendment interpretations, appears inclined to open the door to conversion therapy to those under 18 as a legitimate professional practice.
Space X’s Destructive Plans for its Starship-Super Heavy Rockets in Florida
Space X, the aerospace company owned by Elon Musk, wants to make big changes at Cape Canaveral, boosting the number of rockets it annual launches and lands there to 44, as well as boosting the size of the rocket involved. “Starship-Super Heavy” is “the world’s most powerful launch vehicle ever developed,” according to the Space X website. Floridians are concerned about increased pollution, rampant water waste, a huge loss of public access, lots more sonic booms and — not to be rude — the tendency of Space X rockets to blow up. There have been four explosions so far this year.
Why We Still Need Public Schools
The consequences of withdrawing from public education could be dire for the U.S. From Horace Mann’s “common school movement” in the early 19th century to the GI Bill in the 20th that helped millions of veterans go to college and become homeowners after World War II, public education has been essential for not only creating an educated workforce but for inculcating the United States’ fundamental values of liberty, equality, fairness and the common good.
George Washington’s Fears of Partisanship Are Coming True
Partisanship is the primary problem for the American republic, according to Washington. Washington’s fear that partisanship could lead to destruction of the Constitution and to the rule of “ambitious, and unprincipled men” was so important to him that he felt compelled to repeat the warning more than once in the Farewell Address.
States Push to Put 10 Commandments in Schools as Supreme Court Turns Clerical
At least a dozen states have considered proposals that would require classrooms to post the biblical laws, and three passed laws mandating their display in 2024-2025. All three laws have been at least partially blocked – most recently Texas’ law – after federal trial court rulings. But the ongoing cases seem aimed at overturning a 45-year-old U.S. Supreme Court precedent prohibiting the posting of the Ten Commandments in public schools.
The Supreme Court’s Vision of Unlimited Presidential Power
The unitary executive theory claims that whatever the federal government does that is executive in nature – from implementing and enforcing laws to managing most of what the federal government does – the president alone should personally control it. If the theory gains the official endorsement of the Supreme Court, it can become governing orthodoxy.
László Krasznahorkai’s Nobel Prize for Literature
Awarding the Nobel prize for literature to László Krasznahorkai today, the Swedish Academy commended the author’s “compelling and visionary oeuvre that, in the midst of apocalyptic terror, reaffirms the power of art”. But in itself their decision is also a commitment to the value of serious and intellectual writing in an age characterised by immediacy, the distractions of digital culture and the entertainment industry.
María Corina Machado’s Peace Prize
Machado is in many ways a controversial pick, less a peace activist than a political operator willing to use some of the trade’s dark arts for the greater democratic good. Of course, many Nobel Peace Prize awards generate controversy. It has often been bestowed on great politicians over activists. And sometimes the prize’s winners can have complex pasts and very non-peaceful resumes. Past recipients include dubious choices such as Henry Kissinger, Yasser Arafat and Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin, despite their past association with terrorism and, in Kissinger’s case, mass slaughters.
With Shutdown, Democrats Finally Take a Clear and Critical Stand
Trump’s Big Beautiful Bill will add $4 trillion to the national debt and throw 20 million people off Obamacare over the life of the bill, which lets supplemental premium subsidies enacted during the Biden administration expire. It would more than double premium costs for Obamacare recipients. The cost of extending the subsidies over the next 10 years is $350 billion, or 8 percent of the Trump tax cuts. This is what the Democrats have been willing to shut the government over. It’s about time.
For Trump’s Perceived Enemies, the Process May Be the Punishment
If the case against Comey is exceedingly weak – and little more than a political prosecution – then it should result in the dismissal of charges by the judge or a not guilty verdict by the jury. But even when an individual is not convicted, the process of defending against charges can itself be a form of punishment, as renowned legal scholar Malcolm Feeley pointed out almost 50 years ago.
The Gaza Peace Plan’s Familiar Rings
The latest U.S.-sponsored peace plan for the Middle East was unveiled at the White House on Sept. 29, 2025, and immediately accepted by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. The proposal, which U.S. President Donald Trump said marked a “historic” moment that was “very close” to ending the two-year-old war in Gaza, will now go to Hamas.
AI’s Energy Consumption and Data Center Efficiency
Artificial intelligence is growing fast, and so are the number of computers that power it. Behind the scenes, this rapid growth is putting a huge strain on the data centers that run AI models. These facilities are using more energy than ever.
The Supreme Court Resumes Its Rightward Reel
This year’s controversies at the Supreme Court focus on three dominant themes. One is the continuing constitutional revolution in how the justices read our basic law. The court has shifted from a living reading of the Constitution, which says the Constitution should adapt to the American people’s evolving values and the needs of contemporary society, to an original reading, which aims to enforce the constitutional principles understood by the Americans who ratified them.
The US Edges Closer to War Footing with Venezuela
For many in Venezuela, the question is no longer whether tensions with Washington will reach a boiling point – they already have. Rather, the big unknown now is whether the U.S. will follow up on threats and the sinking of drug boats with something more drastic: direct military engagement or even regime change.
Rampant Gaslighting About Freedom of Speech at Florida Universities
Our state government is authoritarian and proudly ignorant, hell-bent on destroying what makes universities great — freedom of expression, critical thinking, creativity, exposing students to ideas that may challenge them (or even upset them), unfettered research, scientific rigor, and advances in knowledge based on data. Why would a scholar want to pursue a career in such a fact-resistant, small-minded, censorious state?
The Shutdown and the Battle Over Obamacare Subsidies
In the lead-up to the current shutdown, Republicans needed Democratic votes in the Senate to pass a bill that would keep funding the government at existing levels at least until November. In return for their support, Democrats sought several concessions. A major one was to extend subsidies for ACA insurance policy premiums, which were established during the COVID-19 pandemic. These subsidies addressed a shortcoming in the ACA by decreasing premiums for millions of Americans – and they played a crucial role in more than doubling enrollment in the ACA marketplaces.
Privatizing the VA Is a Disaster in the Making for Veterans
The VA MISSION Act of 2018, passed under President Trump’s first term, established a parallel private network, the Veterans Community Care Program (VCCP). The VCCP now sees 60 percent of VA patients and eats up over $30 billion a year that could go to hiring more staff and improving the VA’s aging infrastructure. This year, VA Secretary Doug Collins asked Congress for a 50 percent increase in VCCP funding and — in an unprecedented move — a reduction in VA funding.
George Washington’s Lesson to Pete Hegseth
Washington’s overall vision of a military leader could not be further from Hegseth’s vision of the tough warrior. For starters, Washington would have found the concern with “fat generals” irrelevant. Some of the most capable officers in the Continental Army were famously overweight. Washington became a soldier not because he was hotheaded or drawn to the thrill of combat, but because he saw soldiering as the highest exercise of discipline, patience and composure. His “warrior ethos” was moral before it was martial.
Trump Threatens Peace in Gaza: The Good, the Bad, the Muggy
If you look past the puerility of Trump’s language there are real nuggets in the Gaza peace plan. But it exists as if history did not. Arab memory isn’t that shallow, nor that dumb. Still, Trump’s plan is the best thing to come out of the White House for the Middle East since 2001, as long as it is taken as a starting point for negotiations, not a poisoned take-it-or-leave it threat. Trump’s mobster threat that Israel will “finish the job” if Hamas doesn’t unconditionally surrender ensures failure from the outset, and continued failure of Israel’s offensive in Gaza, genocidal results aside. There is no job to finish. Only lives.
Jane Goodall Redefined What It Meant to Be Human
Anyone proposing to offer a master class on changing the world for the better, without becoming negative, cynical, angry or narrow-minded in the process, could model their advice on the life and work of pioneering animal behavior scholar Jane Goodall.
What the 1st Amendment Protects, and What It Doesn’t
What the First Amendment makes clear is that it does not just protect the rights of speakers who say things with which Americans agree. Or, as the Supreme Court said in a separate decision it issued one year after the case involving the funeral protesters: “The Nation well knows that one of the costs of the First Amendment is that it protects the speech we detest as well as the speech we embrace.” But free speech is not absolute.
Militarism for Show
The president’s and the defense secretary’s campaign-like pair of bombastic speeches to hundreds of generals summoned to Quantico, Va., signals an escalation in the administration’s embrace of a militaristic mindset that, as long ago as 1961, President Dwight D. Eisenhower warned against in his farewell address, and that the nation’s founders deliberately aimed to constrain.
Charlie Kirk, AI-Generated Martyr
An AI-generated image of Charlie Kirk embracing Jesus. Another of Kirk posing with angel wings and halo. Then there’s the one of Kirk standing with George Floyd at the gates of heaven. When prominent political or cultural figures die in the U.S., the remembrance of their life often veers into hagiography. And that’s what’s been happening since the gruesome killing of conservative activist and Turning Point USA co-founder Charlie Kirk.
How Bruce Springsteen’s ‘Born to Run’ Speaks to America’s Psyche
Bruce Springsteen’s1975 “Born to Run” album was shaped by the times, particularly the malaise of the post-Vietnam and post-Watergate American landscape. There was an energy crisis, and it wasn’t only oil that was in short supply. These lyrical, operatic songs about freedom and fate, triumph and tragedy, still resonate, even though today’s music is more likely to emphasize beats, samples and software than extended guitar and saxophone solos.
At Least in France They Imprison Their Felon Ex-Presidents
Former French President Nicolas Sarkozy has been found guilty of criminal conspiracy. Sentenced to five years in prison, he is due to appear in court on 13 October to learn the date of his incarceration. The unprecedented ruling enshrines the Republican principle of full and complete equality of citizens before the law.
Trump’s Targeting of ‘Enemies’ Like Comey Echoes Grimmest History
At the Department of Justice, a “Weaponization Working Group” has a long list of Trump’s perceived enemies to investigate. It marks the first time since J. Edgar Hoover’s 48-year reign as FBI director that the FBI has targeted massive numbers of people perceived to be political enemies. The recent statements from both Trump and top aide Miller suggest the FBI’s independence, and broader constitutional requirements that the administration remain faithful to the law, are meaningless to them. They suggest that, like Hoover, they would criminalize dissent.
It Is Happening Here
Where would America be without hyperbole? From the chutzpah of the City Upon a Hill speech aboard the Arbella to the skirmish-turned Boston “massacre” to American Carnage a few years ago to the ongoing beatification of Charlie Kirk, it’s fair to say that without hyperbole, America would be more like a sprawly humble Saskatchewan than the Galactic Empire it’s become. But America’s slouch toward fascism is no hyperbole. Sinclair Lewis once mused that it can happen here. Today, it is happening here.
The Extremist Federalist Society’s Lock on the Supreme Court
Justices affiliated with the Federalist Society will advance the conservative legal agenda decades into the future. The Federalist Society’s educational mission is pursued chiefly in law schools. That’s where it trains the next generation of lawyers in the approaches and goals of the conservative legal movement. This includes promoting the judicial philosophy of originalism – the idea that the best way to interpret the U.S. Constitution is according to how it was understood at the time of its adoption.
Looking Beyond the Turning Point of Charlie Kirk’s Death to the Soil We’re Tilling for the Next Generation
Charlie Kirk’s assassination feels like more than another entry in America’s long and tragic list of political violence. It feels like a hinge point, writes former School Board member Colleen Conklin. But history suggests scars can be the beginning of strength. If the pattern holds, today’s youth may yet rise to become the next Greatest Generation. Now is the time to cultivate compassion stronger than ideology, courage rooted in empathy, the ability to separate people from their ideas. What then grows could astonish us.
Trump’s ‘Your Countries Are Going to Hell’ Speech
Trump congratulated himself, for turning the US into the “hottest country anywhere in the world” for repelling a “colossal invasion” of migrants at America’s southern border and for ending seven wars – for which he repeated his line that he should have been given the Nobel peace prize.
The Problem with Auschwitz-Birkenau’s New Digital Camp Replica
Use of digital technology to safeguard Holocaust memories for future generations is symptomatic of a global shift towards digitising the Holocaust as the survivor generation passes on and heritage sites decay over time. While the virtual site digitally preserves and encourages historically rooted depictions of the camp, it cannot ensure ethical engagement with the Holocaust. In fact, its creation only raises further issues about the extent to which the Holocaust’s digitisation goes hand-in-hand with ethical modes of remembrance and representation.
Florida Is Misleadingly Invoking Slavery as It Readies to Kill All Vaccine Mandates in Schools
On Sept. 3, 2025, Florida announced its plans to be the first state to eliminate vaccine mandates for its citizens, including those for children to attend school. Dr. Joseph Ladapo, Florida’s surgeon general and a professor of medicine at the University of Florida, has stated that “every last one” of these decades-old vaccine requirements “is wrong and drips with disdain and slavery.” He is wrong.
Teaching Fact-Checking to College Students Blasted By Misinformation
For Generation Z, born between 1997 and 2012, social media – especially YouTube, TikTok, Instagram and Snapchat – has become their source of information about the world, eclipsing traditional news outlets. In a survey of more than 1,000 young people ages 13 to 18, 8 in 10 said they encounter conspiracy theories in their social media feeds each week, yet only 39% reported receiving instruction in evaluating the claims they saw there. The Civic Online Reasoning program was built to address this gap.
Donald Trump’s New McCarthyism
A modern-day political inquisition is unfolding in “digital town squares” across the United States. The slain far-right activist Charlie Kirk has become a focal point for a coordinated campaign of silencing critics that chillingly echoes one of the darkest chapters in American history. This is far-right “cancel culture”, the likes of which the US hasn’t seen since the McCarthy era in the 1950s.
Condemning the Kirk Assassination, and Condemning What Kirk Stood For
It is possible to condemn the assassination of Charlie Kirk and still condemn the ideas he stood for, to decry the flags at half-mast for so-called values hardly distinguishable from those of Proud Boys. A glean of the successful agenda Kirk pushed shows to what extent nationalist Christian extremism has been re-normalized, with Kirk playing an essential role in that latest of Great Awakenings. It was not a healing voice.
Hell No: Boston Whaler Should Not Be Allowed to Exit Without a Fight from Flagler County’s Leadership
We cheered when Brunswick returned after closing once before, investing taxpayer resources and community goodwill in welcoming them back. Now, once again, we are faced with the prospect of a shuttered plant and broken promises. At what point do we as a community stand behind our leaders and say hell no, you can’t go?
State Department Layoffs Could Hurt American Companies’ Competitiveness
When more than 1,300 people at the U.S. State Department lost their jobs in a mass firing this summer, most headlines focused on what it meant for American diplomacy. But the layoffs are about more than embassies and foreign policy – they could also make it harder for U.S. companies to compete in global markets.
Fact: Right-Wing Violence More Frequent and Deadly Than Left-Wing Violence
Most domestic terrorists in the U.S. are politically on the right, and right-wing attacks account for the vast majority of fatalities from domestic terrorism. During the 2024 election cycle, nearly half of all states reported threats against election workers, including social media death threats, intimidation and doxing. Domestic violent extremism is defined by the FBI and Department of Homeland Security as violence or credible threats of violence intended to influence government policy or intimidate civilians for political or ideological purposes.
Fox’s Murdoch to Public Interest Journalism: Drop Dead
Rupert Murdoch has succeeded in securing his vision for the future of News Corporation, the global media empire he has always thought of as his family business. To achieve this, he has torn apart his family. He has also ensured his media outlets, especially Fox News, remain committed to his hard right-wing views. Rupert’s chosen successor and elder son Lachlan has headed News Corporation and Fox Corporation since Murdoch stepped aside in 2023, and will inherit the empire.
Charlie Kirk Wanted American Education Wrested from Liberals
A large part of Kirk’s political activism centered on what education should look like. Conservatives, well before Kirk’s time, have been trying to reclaim education from liberals whom they view as valuing equity and belonging instead of timeless values of order and traditional values in society. This philosophy overall focuses on reclaiming education from liberals.
As the Colorado River Dies, A New Battle Over Water Rights
The seven Colorado Basin states have been grappling with how to deal with declining Colorado River supplies for a quarter century, revising usage guidelines and taking additional measures as drought has persisted and reservoir levels have continued to decline. The current guidelines will expire in late 2026, and talks on new guidelines have been stalled because the states can’t agree on how to avoid a future crisis.





















































