Philip Lane, chief economist of the European Central Bank, recently expressed urgency for the need to develop a digital euro—also known as a central bank digital currency (CBDC)—to compete against stablecoins such as Tether and electronic payment systems developed by U.S. tech firms, such as Google Pay and Apple Pay. Not content with eliminating cash, now the goal of central banks is to eliminate any competing electronic payment system.

In early 2017, less than two months into Donald Trump’s first term as president, I published a piece of speculative fiction. Set during a then-imaginary second Trump term, it depicts a nightmare scenario in which American troops abandon Europe, the pro-Russia Alternative for Germany wins 20 percent of the vote in a federal election, and Russia launches a full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

This month, Andrew Bernier, a US Army Corps of Engineers researcher and a union leader, says that he has received a barrage of menacing messages from the same anonymous email account. Unfolding like short chapters in a dystopian novel, they have spoken of the genius of Elon Musk, referenced the power of the billionaire’s so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), and foretold the downfall of “corrupt” union bosses.

About eight years ago, while still an undergraduate, I was selected for the Intercollegiate Studies Institute’s annual summer honors program, a weeklong immersion into the great books at a mountain resort in Southern Washington State. I delighted in sitting among the lush forests of the Columbia River Gorge and discussing the intricacies of the past with new friends and mentors. For a student like me, who was brand new to the serious study of the Western intellectual tradition, the program was a treat.

Three years after it was made a federal holiday, Juneteenth 2024 marks a day of celebration as well as education.

The federal holiday known as “Second Independence Day,” marks the day the last African American slaves were notified that they had been freed from their masters, the National Museum of African American History and Culture said.

America today celebrates Juneteenth, a commemoration both of the horrors of the nation’s original sin, slavery, and of its end.

The holiday traces to victorious Union Gen. Gordon Granger’s June 19, 1865 order putting the Emancipation Proclamation (issued in January 1863) into full legal effect across Texas and freeing all the state’s remaining slaves.

The celebration has since spread, especially in the South, culminating in federal recognition in 2021 by President Biden

Look, I understand that the hot dog eating contest is a joke. The Nathan’s Famous International Hot Dog Eating Contest represents the epitome of American hucksterist gluttony, a nation of plenty making its decadent abundance repulsively real with a row of human beings smashing as much processed beef refuse into their mouths as quickly as our species’ biological limitations will allow them to. I can certainly attest that it never fails to disgust whatever friend or family member I harangue into watching it with me every July 4.