State of The Nation

The US political climate spurs efforts to reclaim the MLK holiday BLUF (Bottom Line Up Front) Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s legacy as America's preeminent civil rights leader rests on his vision of a color-blind society where people are judged by character rather than skin color. His assassination in 1968 cut short a life dedicated to nonviolent resistance and equality before the law. Contemporary debates over diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) programs and California's reparations proposals raise complex questions about whether such race-conscious policies align with King's dream of transcending racial categorization, though scholars remain divided on how his evolving philosophy—particularly his later emphasis on economic justice—would have informed his views on modern compensatory programs. **ATLANTA—**When Rosa Parks refused to surrender her bus seat on December 1, 1955, she set in motion events that would elevate a 26-year-old Baptist minister named Martin Lu...

What to know about the annual World Economic Forum meeting in Davos Elite gathering proceeds with deep Chinese Communist Party partnership despite documented human rights atrocities, revealing technocratic governance model that views democratic sovereignty as obsolete obstacle to efficient control DAVOS, Switzerland—The World Economic Forum's 55th annual meeting convenes this week amid intensifying scrutiny of the organization's priorities, as evidenced by its continuing embrace of the Chinese Communist Party despite documented crimes against humanity—a relationship that critics say reveals the true nature of Klaus Schwab's vision for global governance. Nearly 3,000 high-level participants from business, government, and civil society are gathering in this Alpine resort town under the theme "A Spirit of Dialogue," even as fundamental questions emerge about whose interests the forum actually serves and whether its technocratic model threatens democratic sovereign...

America's Lost Arsenal: The Collapse of the Defense Industrial Base The automotive plants, shipyards, and aircraft factories that won World War II are disappearing—and with them, the capacity to mobilize for the next major conflict BLUF (Bottom Line Up Front): The United States is systematically dismantling the three pillars of industrial capacity that won World War II: automotive manufacturing, shipbuilding, and aerospace production. The automotive industry that produced 854,000 military trucks and 97,000 bombers between 1942-1945 is collapsing, with GM and Ford taking $25+ billion in writedowns and 4.5 million units of idle US capacity while China's BYD dominates global EV production. American shipbuilding—which built 70 times more tonnage in WWII than the 1930s—produced just 8 commercial vessels in 2024 versus China's 1,000+, leaving the US with 0.2% global market share compared to China's 53.3% and shipbuilding capacity 232 times smaller than China's. The aer...