Author: Dr. Julian Vasquez Heilig
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The American republic has long claimed to be a guardian of the rule of law. A nation that, imperfectly but sincerely, places due process and judicial oversight at the center of its claim to legitimacy. Yet in recent months the United States government has moved very publicly in a different direction: administering lethal force in…
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For seven months, in a private Telegram chat, Young Republican party officials and activists from New York to Arizona exchanged racist, homophobic, and antisemitic messages so vile they could have come from the darkest corners of the internet. They joked about loving Hitler, mocked Black people as “watermelon people” and “monkeys” hurled slurs at LGBTQ+…
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When the Swedish Academy announced that Hungarian author László Krasznahorkai had won the 2025 Nobel Prize in Literature “for his compelling and visionary oeuvre that, in the midst of apocalyptic terror, reaffirms the power of art,” it resonated far beyond the literary world. Krasznahorkai has long been called the “master of the apocalypse,” a writer…
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Picture this as satire: you’re driving down Pennsylvania Avenue and the White House has become a tollbooth—pure metaphor, not a factual claim. Inside, a neon-vested Donald Trump leans out and says, “Pay up,” lowering the striped barrier. What follows is commentary and opinion based on publicly reported facts from U.S. and international outlets. Those reports describe payments, settlements, lobbying, and access-seeking…
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Paul Bloom’s recent essay in The Chronicle of Higher Education, “Why Aren’t Professors Braver?,” makes a point that resonates beyond universities. He argues that the very process of American education selects for caution rather than courage. From the earliest stages of schooling, US students learn that advancement depends on following rules, deferring to authority, and…
Cloaking Inequity 