AIPAC spent more than $30 million trying to stop one man in Michigan. It was the largest single-race expenditure in the organization’s history. Abdul El-Sayed won anyway. By one point. Both halves of that sentence matter, and almost everyone is reading only one of them. The left is reading the first half: the money lost, […]

By Patrick Balahan The ceasefire is dead. Again. The 14-point Islamabad Memorandum that was signed with fanfare in mid-June — the one that was supposed to end the war within 60 days — lasted barely a week before Iranian drones hit commercial shipping in the Strait of Hormuz. By July 7 the President was calling

By Patrick B. Balahan There is a recurring belief in global policy circles that a durable agreement with Iran is ultimately achievable. Each cycle of negotiations brings renewed optimism that diplomacy, incentives, or economic pressure might produce a stable and lasting outcome. However, this expectation rests on a flawed assumption. It overlooks two structural forces

By Patrick B. Balahan When Donald Trump first suggested the United States should acquire Greenland, most people reacted exactly as expected: with laughter. The idea sounded absurd, cartoonish, almost deliberately provocative. Buying an island. Purchasing a country. It was filed away as another Trump eccentricity, a headline designed to dominate the news cycle for a

When news broke that Nicolás Maduro had been captured, the public reaction followed a familiar arc: shock, relief, celebration, and finally, certainty. Certainty that justice would now run its course. Certainty that a man long associated with repression, corruption, and state collapse would finally face consequences. But certainty is rarely warranted in geopolitics. I want

As the U.S. Department of Justice declares the Epstein investigation closed and maintains that there is “no client list” and “no further public interest” in releasing more documents, one question remains: why is so much of the case still sealed? The claim that there is nothing more to disclose may satisfy institutional interests, but it

There’s been a lot of noise, speculation, and deflection surrounding the Jeffrey Epstein case. But beneath all the headlines, I believe one thing is clear: the full story is being deliberately withheld from the public. The people and institutions tasked with upholding justice—whether it’s Donald Trump, the FBI, or others—appear more interested in controlling the

In a case that has gripped both the legal world and pop culture for nearly two years, Sean “Diddy” Combs was recently acquitted of sex trafficking and racketeering conspiracy—but convicted on two Mann Act violations related to transporting women across state lines for alleged prostitution. While this split verdict may appear balanced on its surface,

Bryan Kohberger, the man charged with the brutal murders of four University of Idaho students in November 2022, has accepted a plea deal that spares him the death penalty in exchange for pleading guilty to all charges and receiving four consecutive life sentences without the possibility of appeal. This decision has sparked widespread debate, particularly among

By Patrick Bijan Balahan Introduction: The Hidden Power Behind California Prisons California pours about $14 billion of General-Fund money each year into the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR). Yet violence, medical neglect, and cover-ups remain routine. A major reason is the California Correctional Peace Officers Association (CCPOA) — a politically connected union whose influence over Sacramento stifles