Opinion

Almanac for Sept. 1, 2026

Today is Tuesday, Sept. 1, the 244th day of 2026. There are 121 days left in the year. Today in history: On Sept. 1, 1985, a U.S.-French expedition located the wreckage of the Titanic on the floor of the Atlantic Ocean roughly 400 miles off the coast of Newfoundland. Also on this date: In 1715, following a reign of 72 years, King Louis XIV of France died four days before his 77th birthday; he was succeeded by his five-year-old great-grandson, Louis XV. In 1807, a federal jury in Virginia acquitted former Vice President Aaron Burr of treason for plotting to seize lands belonging ...

Editorial cartoon for Sept. 1, 2026

They Will Try to Steal the 2026 Elections

The Supreme Court gave us a start yesterday, with what looked, at first glance, like a win for Trump's efforts to suppress mail-in ballots. But, as Andrew Egger explained, that isn't quite what happened. In broad outline, the Court stayed a lower court injunction while the legality of Trump's ...

Trump has a credibility problem with Iran

After six months of war with Iran, President Trump has a credibility problem. His blustering threats, alternating with claims of imminent peace and victory, are doubted by friends and foe. Will his new threat this week on Truth Social of the “MOST CRUSHING ECONOMIC OPERATION EVER TAKEN AGAINST ANY COUNTRY!” be different? By now the world will have to see it to believe it. No President has yet climbed the Iran sanctions ladder with China, moving from the isolated “teapot” refineries that buy Iran’s oil to the Chinese state-owned enterprises that support them. Nor has any ...

Twilight's last gleaming

There is a point in the decline of republics when the problem is no longer that government breaks its own laws. Governments will always behave unlawfully. The deeper problem comes when the constitutional machinery designed to prevent those acts stops functioning — when spending becomes ...

Almanac for Aug. 31, 2026

Today is Monday, Aug. 31, the 243rd day of 2026. There are 122 days left in the year. Today in history: On Aug. 31, 1997, Diana, Princess of Wales, was killed after the car she was riding in crashed in Paris; her partner Dodi Fayed and driver Henri Paul (who was found to have been intoxicated at the time of the accident) also died. Also on this date: In 1881, the first U.S. tennis championships (for men only) began in Newport, Rhode Island. In 1886, an earthquake with an estimated magnitude of up to 7.3 devastated Charleston, South Carolina, killing at least 60 people. In 1962, the ...