“The economy is actually booming.”—Richard Bernstein, guest on CNBC, January 15, 2026

“The US economy just delivered a shock. Third-quarter gross domestic product grew at a 4.3% annualized pace, far exceeding expectations and marking the biggest expansion in two years.”—Nicole Goodkind, “The Economy Is Heating Up. Why the Experts Keep Getting It Wrong,” Barron’s, December 24, 2025

When moving away from superficial, cartoonish, and caricatured history, the importance of context and distinctions becomes obvious. Part of the task of responsible history is to show how things are often more complicated than first assumed. The Civil War is an important historical event in which this is evident. Zooming in on just one aspect of the US before the Civil War, it is key to understand the role of the federal legal protections of slavery.

Palantir joins a growing tech migration to Florida. Unfortunately, the beleaguered people of Colorado will still be subject to the fed-funded dystopian techno-panopticon Palantir is building. 

Most serious writing that advocates repeal of the 17th Amendment was published more than a decade ago. At the time, libertarian and constitutionalist circles showed modest interest in restoring Senate selection to state legislatures. That discussion never matured into a sustained reform effort, and it eventually faded.

In recent years, and with particular intensity since Donald Trump’s ascent to the political center stage, trade deficits have been increasingly cast as symbols of national weakness. Persistent US trade deficits are treated not as accounting outcomes, but as evidence of unfair dealing, foreign predation, or elite incompetence. Surpluses are praised as victories, while deficits are framed as losses demanding correction through tariffs, subsidies, and industrial policy.

Trump is close to launching a major attack on Iran as it continues a massive buildup of military forces in the Middle East, according to a report from Axios.