Category: Culture Wars/Current Controversies

Dave Smith and Alex Nowrasteh debate immigration

Dave Smith and Alex Nowrasteh debate the resolution, “Government restrictions on the immigration of peaceful and healthy people make sense from a libertarian standpoint, especially in present-day America.” Comedian and host of the podcast, Part of the Problem, Dave Smith defends the resolution. Taking the negative is Alex Nowrasteh, […]

The Re-Emerging Anti-MAGA Majority

If voters had known in November what they know now—which could and should have been possible—Trump would have lost. By Michael Podhorzer May 24, 2025 Pierre Kattar/NPR (Washington, DC) This week we are in the midst of another spasm of 2024 retrospection, reviving two narratives. The first I’ll […]

Why I’m leaving the online Atheist cult

Join Derek Lambert in this deeply personal and powerful episode of MythVision Podcast, where he openly shares his journey from escaping Christian cults to now leaving the online atheist community he once embraced. Derek courageously addresses the controversies surrounding his close friend and mentor, Dr. Robert M. Price, […]

Trump Declares War On Harvard

This is not about reforming higher education; it’s about destroying it out of spite. Andrew Sullivan May 23, 2025 (Erica Denhoff/Icon Sportswire via Getty) The modern conservative movement in America began with an attack on the Ivy League. God and Man at Yale — William F Buckley Jr’s […]

Israeli Embassy Staffers Killed

Israeli Embassy Staffers Killed Plus: Trump bill passes the House, Danish father of five detained in ICE custody in Louisiana, and more… LIZ WOLFE Two Israeli embassy staffers shot: Last night, outside an event at the Capital Jewish Museum in Washington, D.C., two Israeli embassy staffers were shot and killed by […]

The Drone Wars

Sponsored by Hirmer Publishers Our June 12 issue is now online, with Fintan O’Toole on the Chicago pope, Namwali Serpell on Nettie Jones’s breathtaking bawdiness, Tim Judah on new weapons on the battlefield in Ukraine, Tim Flannery on the body electric, Christopher Benfey on a pretty porcelain teapot, Michael […]

REPORTAGE Book Launch

Forwarded this email? Subscribe here for more Watch now REPORTAGE Book Launch The Corbett Report May 21 READ IN APP BUY THE BOOK: reportagebook.com On May 10, 2025, James Corbett appeared at The Deck in Osaka for the worldwide gala launch of his new book, REPORTAGE: Essays on the […]

Trumpism’s multiple factions

By Dandy Andy Since the January inauguration, developments in the US have proceeded with breathtaking speed in a way that fulfills and moves beyond Steve Bannon’s 2018 call to “flood the zone with shit.” Bannon was calling for the massive use of disinformation to undermine the media. The […]

Rogue Nation

View in browser   |  Your newsletter preferences 05.19.25 At WIRED, we’ve had a long-running obsession with rogues. This is, after all, a publication that was founded in the early ’90s, born of a desire to champion the subversive, disruptive advent of the internet—and the hackers, hustlers, and blue-sky lunatics […]

The Travails of Trumpification Revisited

Trouble viewing this email? View it in your browser. Save 25% while supplies last! The Travails of Trumpification Revisited With Donald Trump’s second presidential term now underway, it is the perfect time to pick up your copy of Timothy W. Luke’s The Travails of Trumpification, from Telos Press Publishing. Save […]

David Graham On Project 2025

View in browser   The Dishcast with Andrew Sull… David Graham On Project 2025 0:00 1:33:54   Listen now   David Graham On Project 2025 We talk executive power-grabs by both parties over the decades. And why this is new. Andrew Sullivan May 16 ∙ Paid READ IN […]

Is Trump Losing? A Debate

Is Donald Trump eroding American democracy and consolidating power for himself? Or is he trying to do that and failing? Is this what sliding toward authoritarianism looks like? Or is this what a functioning democracy looks like? And how can you tell the difference? Two articles came out […]

Chomsky, Epstein and the CIA

Posted on May 15, 2025 by winter oak by Crow Qu’appelle Oh, how the mighty have fallen. We now know that Noam Chomsky, the venerable Dean of the American Left, was controlled opposition all along. I know, I know, it’s tough to believe. Didn’t Chomsky write Manufacturing Consent, which […]

After 100 Days of DOGE

May 14, 2025 Welcome to The Lighthouse, the weekly email newsletter of the Independent Institute covering politics, economics, current events, and everything in between. Dear Readers, This past week marked a slight shift in direction for American trade policy… Fresh off a new trade deal with the United […]

A months-long, bad-faith saga

Illegitimate claims in the courts   The Republicans won big in the November elections, but they didn’t win everything. In a high-stakes judicial race to determine control of the state Supreme Court in North Carolina, the Republican candidate, Jefferson Griffin, lost by just over 700 votes to Democrat […]

Trump’s Corrupt Crypto Heist EXPOSED

Episode 225 with Lisa Gilbert Krystal Kyle & Friends May 09, 2025 Welcome back to KKF! For Episode 225, we bring Public Citizen’s co-president Lisa Gilbert on the show to talk about Trump’s newest nefarious schemes with cryptocurrency. Plus, we dive into the bombshell article on John Fetterman […]

It Could Never Happen Here

TUESDAY, MAY 6, 2025 There is little satisfaction from doing good if individuals are mandated to do the right thing. Character and responsibility are built when people voluntarily choose right over wrong, not when they are forced to do so. – Mark Skousen, Liberty Magazine [September 1991] HORNBERGER’S BLOG May […]

The Dangers of a Political Gender Gap

By Joel Kotkin April 26, 2025/in Demographics, Politics Throughout history, poverty, class and economic self-interest have driven radical political movements. The Bolsheviks harnessed the anger of impoverished workers and peasants to create a movement that controlled the world’s biggest country for seven decades. The Nazis came to power […]

No Revolution without Counter-Revolution

A Chronicle of Revolution (ACOR3) Peter Turchin May 04, 2025 Any revolution is a struggle between the ruling elites and counter-elites. Once counter-elites gain power and attempt to build a new social order, the ci-devant (meaning former, or “have-been”) elites1 face a stark choice. They can accept defeat […]

Hundred Days Poor

MAY 2, 2025 Hundred Days Poor After 100 Days of Trump, a Growing Economy Started Shrinking → Donald Trump hit the 100th day of his second term, a benchmark that typically “triggers a slew of sober press assessments, gauging the White House’s roster of early achievements against those […]

Too Hot to Work

Prostitution is cool again, oops I meant sex work Evgenia Apr 27, 2025 In the last few months since MAGA came into full power, it seems that the vibe shift I’ve been harping on has been taking a more definitive shape. It’s not just a vibe anymore, it […]