Preserving America’s Heritage Orchards

The U.S. National Park Service is known for its preservation of historic homes, monuments, and beautiful wild landscapes across the country: the Statue of Liberty, the Grand Canyon, and Yellowstone’s Old Faithful geyser immediately come to mind.


Book Review: Submission by Michel Houellebecq

University Professor Francois is approaching the thick of middle age while the Islamic world encroaches on the French Liberal Body Politic. Women are wearing burqas, alcohol is prohibited (except for the Islamic elite), and all men are encouraged to have multiple wives, the younger the better. Francois will soon lose his job at the New Sorbonne University, unless he submits to the new reigning Islamic order. He must profess his loyalty to Allah.


Is DSA electoral successes hurting the Democratic Party?

DSA is the primary organization challenging the perceived lethargy and incompetence of the Democratic Party’s policies, similar to what social democratic parties have promoted in Europe.

 

 


The Reflecting Pool: Three Reflections and an Interlude

In May, Donald Trump’s post was cited in The Cultural Landscape Foundation’s lawsuit against the U.S. Department of the Interior. TCLF, a nonprofit group that advocates for the value of our shared landscape heritage, maintains that Interior violated federal law by failing to submit for review a change of paint color – from achromatic/gray to “American Flag blue” – for the basin of the Reflecting Pool on the National Mall.


Book Review: DEATH AND THE BUTTERFLY by Colin Hester

DEATH AND THE BUTTERFLY cracks open the door and allows us to peer into lives that are far apart in time and culture, yet every character has been touched by the long-term effect of the tragedy of World War II. Three storylines, developed over multiple timelines, are interwoven to create a narrative that is equal parts prose and poetry.


The Iran War was the result of Trump's narcissism

Trump was driven by his vanity rather than by the necessity of stopping Iran from attacking America, rather than by the necessity of stopping Iran from attacking America when he bombed Iran and started a war.

Tearing Away at the Rule of Law

It’s been another chaotic month for all three branches of American government, with further attempts by the Trump administration to impose outrageous acts on us as forms of distraction from other forms of behind-the-scenes grift or wrongdoing on matters like the Epstein files. The most egregious is the $1.8 billion dollar slush fund connected to a settlement of Trump’s income tax audits, while refusing to exclude convicted January 6 criminals from seeking recompense for the trauma of imprisonment. 


June 2026 Magazine

 

Jobs and work have always been our key topics for June. While everyone is hellbent on talking about A-I and technology, we need to keep in mind that traditional career opportunities abound and offer deep job satisfaction. Barbara Lloyd McMichael writes about a farmer who owns Johnson Pecan Farms in Beebe, Arkansas. Dr. William Johnson, Jr. is growing crops and cultivating farmers for the next generation. As a longtime farmer on a farm that has been associated with his family for generations, he knows the challenges firsthand.  My Friend Sue is an essay about a wonderful friend. I’m astonished that the things we did as little kids predicted who we would become as adults. I think we might have been acorns. A theory about acorns asserts who we are destined to become is imprinted on our souls from the first moment of our lives. Robin Lindley interviewed renowned Professor Doug Underwood, who has recently launched his debut novel, Always Tessie, a Tale of the Turbulent 1960s that is set in the Pacific Northwest. Robin Lindley also interviewed Australian Director Anthony Maras about his new film “Pressure” that captures the intense planning for D-Day immediately before the invasion during World War II. Please see the entire interview that was originally published in the Hollywood Progressive.  ––Patricia Vaccarino