The Frontier

Carlos argues that the standard map of the contiguous United States actively hides a global empire. By omitting territories like Puerto Rico and military bases, the nation maintains an exceptionalist self-conception that denies its ongoing colonial reality.

The United States claims fourteen territories under a legal status where they belong to but are not part of the nation. Five of these territories are inhabited by approximately four million people who lack voting representation in Congress.

Carlos highlights the federal neglect of colonies, noting that a poll taken after the devastating 2017 hurricanes revealed only 54 percent of Americans knew Puerto Ricans are citizens. Donald Trump even proposed trading Puerto Rico to Denmark for Greenland.

The Guano Islands Act of 1856 enabled the United States to acquire ninety-four uninhabited islands by 1902 to extract agricultural fertilizer. This pursuit of resource extraction established the legal and imperial precedent of owning foreign lands without integrating them.

The United States uses territories as military testing grounds, leaving severe environmental damage. The Navy used the Puerto Rican island of Vieques as a bombing range until 2003, leaving residents with high cancer rates and extensive unexploded ordnance.

Kim Kelly highlights a resurgence in black lung disease among Appalachian coal miners, driven by highly toxic silica dust. A report shows rates are at a fifty-year high, affecting one in three miners with over twenty-five years of experience.

While the Department of Labor scheduled a protective silica rule for April 2025, political transitions threaten its implementation. Meanwhile, artificial stone fabrication has caused a silicosis epidemic in California, sickening over five hundred immigrant workers and causing thirty-two deaths.

Starbucks Workers United has raised concerns about a new blending powder containing silicon dioxide. While food-safe to ingest, workers report inhaling the powder during preparation, causing respiratory issues, coughing fits, and skin rashes.

National Nurses United aggressively defends its members, recently mobilizing hundreds of nurses to stop ICE from transferring detained nurse Deborah Kapisha to Louisiana. Kapisha, a Zambian-born nurse with legal authorization, was detained at Logan International Airport on July thirtieth.

Jailhouse Lawyers Speak announced a nationwide prison human rights strike scheduled from May first to June nineteenth, 2027. Strikers are demanding an end to legalized slavery by repealing the Thirteenth Amendment's exception clause and restoring voting rights.

Bridget Todd states that AI intimacy has transitioned from a niche curiosity to a mainstream phenomenon. A study reveals that ten percent of Americans, and twenty percent of those under thirty, use AI for emotional support or intimacy.

Bridget Todd argues that tech companies deliberately design AI assistants with sycophantic, empathetic personalities to maximize engagement. This design encourages users to disclose highly sensitive personal data, which private corporations then harvest to build invasive profiles for targeted monetization.

Bridget Todd notes that US lawmakers are drafting regulations focused primarily on protecting minors from explicit AI interactions. This emphasis ignores research showing that young users primarily seek emotional advice and support from AI, rather than sexual roleplay.

Robert Evans notes that while Carlos Lopez ran a highly kleptocratic regime, stealing 25 percent of all revenue, his decision to open Paraguay's borders enriched the citizenry. This economic boom made the population tolerate the family's pervasive secret police.

The Lopez family enriched themselves by trafficking enslaved people. Benino Lopez purchased cheap liberto children, whom the law required to be freed at age 24 or 25, and sexually abused them on a massive scale.

Carlos and Francisco Lopez attempted to settle the desolate Chaco region by importing 500 French volunteers to farm. The unskilled settlers failed, and Carlos arrested the survivors for breach of contract when the colony collapsed.

In 1858, Carlos Lopez arrested several foreigners under false assassination plots. The regime executed the Deco brothers because Carlos Deco was engaged to a woman who had rejected Francisco Lopez's sexual advances.

Francisco Solano Lopez brokered a brief peace treaty between warring Argentine factions in 1859. The treaty collapsed within two years, but Lopez was so proud of the achievement he minted a gold medal to display in Paraguay's capital.

In 1859, the British Royal Navy seized Francisco Solano Lopez's flagship in Buenos Aires. The British forced the future dictator to release a wrongfully arrested British citizen, James Canstat, in exchange for the outdated warship.

Francisco Solano Lopez initiated unsustainable military conscription based on an inaccurate census. An incompetent census taker reported Paraguay's population at one million, but the landlocked nation actually contained only 450,000 citizens.

Although Francisco Solano Lopez modernized Paraguay's military with European cannons and rifles, he purchased multiple calibers, rendering ammunition non-interchangeable. Furthermore, Paraguay's defense factories remained entirely dependent on imported European spare parts.

Francisco Solano Lopez paid foreign journalists to publish flattering articles in British newspapers. One writer demanded 150 ounces of gold for a propaganda piece, but Lopez ultimately paid him in a massive shipment of yerba mate.

Upon taking power in 1862, Francisco Solano Lopez established his Irish mistress, Eliza Lynch, as the center of high society. Lopez declared party attendance a patriotic duty and imprisoned elites who were uninvited from her home.

Paraguay declared war on Brazil in 1864 after Brazil invaded Uruguay to support the Colorado Party rebellion. Francisco Solano Lopez sought to annex Brazil's mineral-rich Mato Grosso province, initially capturing the regional governor on a merchant ship.

When Argentina denied Paraguayan troops passage to Uruguay, Francisco Solano Lopez declared war on Argentina in 1865. This prompted Argentina, Uruguay, and Brazil to form the Triple Alliance to overthrow Lopez and disarm Paraguay completely.

At the 1866 Battle of Tayuti, Francisco Solano Lopez ordered his elite troops to charge through a swamp into defensive gun lines. The catastrophic defeat cost 6,000 Paraguayan lives, wiping out three percent of the entire national population.

After the 1868 breach of the Humaita fortress, Francisco Solano Lopez fled with his best forces. He left behind a starving rearguard of children who looked like concentration camp victims to face the advancing Brazilian army.

Fearing a domestic coup, Francisco Solano Lopez revived medieval Spanish treason codes in 1868 to execute political enemies. Lopez tortured and executed his own brothers, clergy, and elites at the open-air San Fernando death camp.

Allied forces shot Francisco Solano Lopez in the back at the Aquidaban River on March 1, 1870. The five-year conflict killed up to 90 percent of Paraguay's population, leaving just 28,000 adult males alive in the country.

James Stout argues that public lands face systematic dismantling for private profit through Senate bills and executive actions. These political maneuvers target vulnerable areas, including the California deserts and the Arctic.