Mel Brennan

Nation Without Empathy That’s the suicide Chip Roy fears

It is not civically honest to deploy empathy in the ways in which Congressman Roy does, when the people and communities he ostensibly represents, like all of us, are in so much need of it, one to another...

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Suburban Salt Demand a hopeful present. Even in - maybe especially in - American suburbia.

This is why the critique that some people call “suburban sprawl” is not really about suburbs. It is about the loss of a culture of place...

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The Blackprint Wanna know how to defeat hate? Study the Black History of American Resistance.

...Each of these strategies (education, mutual aid, protest, culture, law, solidarity) formed a blueprint that Black people have refined generation after generation. In every case, the essence has been: community self-determination...

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Slow Murder Democracy Dies in Billionaire Hands

When it comes to papers of record, Bezos’ late actions are tantamount to the murder of useful, national consensus.

How, in the case of the Washington Post, did this “murder” happen?
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Elegy Sans Accountability How David Brooks Explains American Crisis While Excusing Its Most Explicit Architects

David Brooks’ farewell column in last Sunday’s New York Times is written in the soft light of gratitude and self-reflection...It is well-crafted. It is earnest.

It is also, in its most consequential dimensions, not good enough…

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Why We Watch If it were up to FIFA, we'd have left years ago. Luckily, it isn't.

In the 98th minute, every single person watching saw something they’d never seen before.

Ever.

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The Next Best Thing No Justice...well, you know the rest. Get out your mirror and your map.

The Next Best Thing
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This Is Us The Final Season

This is us. This is the divided reality of America: where one community weeps and demands change, another applauds the killer and labels the victims and their defenders as traitors:

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It Is Finished The Americanized Jesus is Gone. Where He Was, Only Heresy Remains.

It Is Finished
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Drumhead Revisited America in early 2026 is unrecognizable from even a year ago

Over time, it became shorthand for justice stripped to essentials, and, too often, a revealing; one of due process stripped entirely away.

Have you heard the drums?

The Empire Strikes Out In the Late-Stages, Far From a Shining City On a Hill, This America Ends Up Typical

Trump’s flag-waving and bluster cannot reverse the erosion of American leadership – they only underscore its fragility. History’s verdict is clear: late-stage empires lash out abroad to mask weakness at home, hastening their own end...

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If This Is To Continue A 250-Year Reckoning with Power, Profit, and Human Worth

Did you know that history is just a memory / And we are the present memories of future centuries? / ...So since history is a record of past events / Let’s give the future something it can respect… open.substack.com/pub/seguniro...

Gǎnzhī, Xiànshí yù Zhēnxiàng "Perception, Reality and Truth"

Under Trump, the American state began to [move toward the Chinese model and] redefine who safety was for and who it was from…

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Finis Pax Americanae The Nation Is Dead; Long Live the Nation.

All the signs and signals...point to an Age ending. The “American Century” that began in 1776 is now closing.

Yet the century’s final act could, Du Bois suggested, birth something new... open.substack.com/pub/seguniro...

Becoming Draw nearer, one to another.

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays.

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The Desert of the Unreal Power, Desperation, and the American Alibi

Cruelty is not solving a problem. It is performing an identity.

Which brings us to the most uncomfortable question of all: cui bono?

Who benefits, really?
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The Investigator in Me Justice and Truth over Power and Privilege

I worked as a confidential investigator at a time when the city’s political establishment had already decided how far justice would be allowed to go.

How far, I soon learned, was not far; yet that distance illuminated much of my career...

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THE END OF SPORT Through FIFA’s Looking Glass Into a Crippled Land of Narcissism

Football is not dying. But something within it is...

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Dissent How do three Justices who only get to say "I disagree" for the rest of their lives instead become narrative-builders for whatever America becomes next?

Dissent - open.substack.com/pub/seguniro...

The Giving of Thanks The Truth is, it is Easy to be Thankful for You

My wife often reminds me of the research showing that gratitude itself is powerful—So even if it weren’t easy to be thankful for you, it would still be healthy. But the truth is: it is easy. Very easy. I’m grateful for this community every day.
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An American Complete If we want to elevate anyone at Year 250 of America, it ought to be this man

If we want to elevate anyone at Year 250 of America, it ought to be this man...

An American Complete

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A Doctrine of Discovery How a 15th-century theology of conquest still shapes America’s soul

On January 6, 2021, amid a chaotic siege on the U.S. Capitol, insurrectionists hoisted crosses and banners...At first glance, this blending of religious symbols with raw political aggression seemed shocking. In truth, it was the latest chapter in a centuries-old narrative...

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Reimaging Our Rotunda Images Matter.

Walk into the U.S. Capitol Rotunda and look up. Eight large historical paintings ring the space. The problem isn’t what’s there. The problem is what isn’t…

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Kelly in 2018, Kelly today. Why Kelly at all?

As in "Why does this person's voice matter to anyone outside her family and friends...at all?"

Ṣẹ́gun Irora | Mel Brennan | Substack Ṣẹ́gun Irora. Means "Conquer/Overcome the pain." Combining ideas, submissions and rebellious sentiments in a time of tyranny and ascending hate in sport and in society into a thought-refuge and platf...

Hello, I'm a real person who writes seeking to combine ideas, submissions and sentiments in a time of tyranny into a thought-refuge and platform from which to build and deliver a better world. Do you want the same thing? Then please subscribe to my Substack: segunirora.substack.com

The Blacklight We are seeing who we are.

For the last eleven months, Donald Trump has been America’s blacklight...We are seeing who we are. Not the filtered photograph we send to the world, but the raw exposure beneath it...

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Black President A Sample From My Upcoming Book FIXING FOOTBALL (SAVING SOCCER)

...I knew…Warner…would never voluntarily give up power, never orient FIFA’s resources democratically...

These were men who sought to be Kings, or at least Little Princes; masters, forever, of their own fiefdoms in a feudal sporting system…

The Great Questions | Part Four What Do We Owe One Another?

What do we owe each other simply by virtue of being Americans?

At its heart, this question defines the unspoken spine of our politics and society…

The Great Questions | Part Four
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The Great Questions | Part Three Is Freedom a Private Possession, or a Public Trust?

The Great Questions | Part Three

Americans often celebrate liberty as a personal right...no matter the cost. But...if one person’s “freedom” endangers others’ health or safety, is it really freedom?

Today our nation is grappling with this tension.

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The Great Questions | Part Two Can America Be Redeemed Without Truth and Repair?

Can America Be Redeemed Without Truth and Repair?

The Great Questions | Part Two

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