Monday, September 28, 2026

Tag: history

Political collapse: Lessons from fallen empires

Our investigation of the disastrous society-wide collapses of four pre-modern polities, China’s Ming Dynasty, the South Asian Mughal Empire, the High Roman Empire, and Renaissance Venice led to the discovery of an unexpected historical pattern.

Empire decline and costly delusions

Historically, declining empires often provoke denials and delusions that teach their people “hard lessons” and impose on them “hard choices.” That is where we are now.

My ultimate history crash course

To understand the present, study the past. 

Learning from history, if we dare

To leverage and learn from humanity’s history regarding what fostered sustainability in the past, we need to know the outcomes.

The Titan and the Titanic: two tales of capitalist hubris

The doomed OceanGate submersible offers us many of the same lessons that the 1912 Titanic sinking did.

How a tribal rights lawyer is winning back the rights of...

Attorney Frank Bibeau found a way to legally protect nature by suing the state of Minnesota in the name of manoomin, or wild rice, sacred to the Ojibwe people.

Six questions for a world that seems to be losing interest...

How do we shape a democratic future living in a zeitgeist that is tightening its grip across the globe?

Michigan opens the door to restoring union power

For the first time in nearly 60 years, a state is poised to reverse its “right to work” law and begin to undo the damage of a corporate-driven anti-union trend.

What Kevin Alexander Gray taught me

The late civil rights activist and author didn’t let elected officials off the hook, no matter how liberal. He understood the importance of intersectionality and what it takes to achieve progressive change.

Why student debt cancellation is reasonable, not radical

The right has narrowed the parameters of discussion on student debt forgiveness, and President Biden is not fighting back aggressively enough. We should, in fact, center the idea of fairness in this debate.

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The Melrose Gate at Paramount Pictures in Los Angeles. Photo: Chris Brown (zoonabar) / CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

States settle antitrust suit over $111 billion Paramount-Warner Bros. merger

Critics say a force-majeure clause and a company-appointed editorial board leave the settlement's protections easy to escape.
The Office of Personnel Management in Washington, D.C. Photo: Another Believer / CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Unions win settlement forcing Trump administration to rescind shutdown mass-firing policy

The agreement follows a court fight that began after roughly 4,200 federal employees received layoff notices during last fall's 43-day shutdown.
The U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C. Photo: FEMA/Bill Koplitz, via Wikimedia Commons

The best comeuppance for the first anti-American administration – perpetual exposure as the seditious...

If Russia or China wanted a Manchurian candidate (a brainwashed stooge who betrays his own background and constituency), could they have surpassed the president harumphing in the White House?
A press briefing at the White House. Photo: The White House

Federal judge orders White House to restore access for CNN, MS NOW and Politico

The order lasts 14 days, and the outlets have until Monday to seek a preliminary injunction after some reporters were briefly turned away despite the ruling.
The Knesset, Israel's parliament building, in Jerusalem. Photo: Gary Todd, via Wikimedia Commons

Why didn’t Netanyahu’s cabinet preempt October 7 (since it knew about it in advance)?

New York Times reporting confirms Israeli leadership had advance intelligence before the October 7 attack, raising fresh questions about why it was not acted on.