Thirty miles south of Chicago, the Gary Works steel mill is getting a $14 billion modernization, protecting tens of thousands of jobs. Similar investments are underway in Pittsburgh. On the surface, these are the headlines American manufacturing needs. But the bigger story is far darker: across the country, American manufacturing is losing ground. Gary and Pittsburgh are exceptions, not the rule.
Browsing: Opinions
On Saturday, 8 November, 2025, Dan Perry wrote in The Jerusalem Post about Israel’s projected lifting of the media blockade on Gaza. Perry laments that Israeli censorship has left all reporting of the atrocity in the hands of Palestinians, who refuse to be silent. To date, Israel has assassinated over 240 Palestinian journalists.
When I sat down to write this piece, I wrestled with how to begin. Should I start with something clever? A historical parallel such as Darfur in the 2000s or Rwanda in 1994? In the end, there is no need for literary flair when the truth itself is haunting enough. While it has not captured the world’s attention like Gaza or Ukraine, Sudan is enduring the largest humanitarian crisis on earth, with over 25 million people needing urgent assistance and nearly nine million displaced as entire cities are reduced to rubble.
The United States stands at a perilous crossroads, confronting a presidency swollen by executive aggrandizement and a democracy strained by institutional decay. Executive power has steadily expanded beyond constitutional design, eroding the balance among co-equal branches. The nation has witnessed the President assert unilateral authority in immigration, tariffs, foreign policy, and emergency powers—often bypassing Congress. What was once an office of stewardship evolved into a command post where loyalty to the leader eclipses duty to the Constitution.
Time to power up!
Well, folks, the Hug Heard Around the World is apparently the only story that matters this week. Forget wars, forget inflation, forget the ever-shrinking middle class. The only thing America seems capable of discussing right now is that long, slow, camera-perfect embrace between J.D. Vance and Erica Kirk — an embrace that’s somehow managed to outlast the national attention span itself.
On November 6, the City of Fort Lauderdale plans to dedicate a historical marker honoring Diana Nyad on Fort Lauderdale Beach – the same sacred ground where the 1961 Wade-In Civil Rights protest took place. That is a line we cannot allow to be crossed!
AZ Representative Rachel (Jones) Keshel is amongst the figures pushing the story. It alleges that the teachers are wearing the shirts to mock the death of Charlie Kirk. Evidence that they wore the same shirts for Halloween last year has gotten to her, but she says, “I want to see the evidence that the Cienega High School math department wore the same shirts last year @vailschools. Post the picture. I’ll wait.”
Republicans are already spinning the narrative, and if history teaches us anything, it’s that a confused public blames everyone equally—even when one party controls everything. Republicans are blaming Democratic “obstruction” and claiming Democrats won’t negotiate even as Democrats offer solutions. They’re deflecting from Trump’s shutdown record with distractions and misinformation. And now Trump is threatening to end the filibuster so that Republicans no longer need to negotiate and can then take credit for ending the same shutdown they started.
We just fell back. The season of darkness is coming on. But this year, more than any I can remember, that darkness feels existential, not just seasonal.