Welcome to 2026 - The Year of America 250

 

 Happy New Year 2026

 

 

As we welcome 2026, Best Wishes for the New Year.  This should be an exciting, even disruptive year:  American military and technological leadership is back, and our "America 250 Celebration" begins now.  
 
As for legal predictions, I note that conventional wisdom is that the United States Supreme Court will limit the President's use of tariffs under an "emergency” rationale, but it may not matter because the President has other powers in this regard.  
 
This sounds somewhat likely, but the real answer, of course, is that no one really knows what will happen.  One thing I have learned is that those who appear to know the outcome of litigation beforehand really don't, and that virtually all participants in the legal system underestimate the risks of an adverse outcome.  But looking at this philosophically, if litigants were to accurately gauge the risks of litigation, there would be far less of it and far less work for legal professionals.

 

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Happy 249th Birthday to the Best and Fairest and Most Equitable Nation on Earth

During the next 365 days we will be celebrating America 250 by highlighting the great moments of our history, present, and future.  I thought it befitting to start things off with what I call our "unofficial National Anthem," the words to During the next 365 days we will be celebrating America 250 by highlighting the great moments of our history, present, and future.  I thought it befitting to start things off with what I call our "unofficial National Anthem," the words to America the Beautiful. 

My favorite verse is the last, which begins “O beautiful for patriot dream:”

America the Beautiful

by Katherine Lee bates

 

O beautiful for spacious skies,
For amber waves of grain,
For purple mountain majesties
Above the fruited plain!
America! America!
God shed His grace on thee,
And crown thy good with brotherhood
From sea to shining sea!
O beautiful for pilgrim feet
Whose stern impassioned stress,
A thoroughfare for freedom beat
Across the wilderness!
America! America!
God mend thine every flaw,
Confirm thy soul in self-control,
Thy liberty in law!
O beautiful for heroes proved
In liberating strife,
Who more than self their country love
And mercy more than life!
America! America!
May God thy gold refine
Till all success be nobleness,
And every gain divine!
O beautiful for patriot dream
That sees beyond the years,
Thine alabaster cities gleam
Undimmed by human tears!
America! America!
God shed His grace on thee,
And crown thy good with brotherhood
From sea to shining sea!
Oh beautiful for halcyon skies
For amber waves of grain
For purple mountain majesties
Above the enameled plain!
America! America!
God shed His grace on thee,
Till souls wax fair as earth and air
And music-hearted sea!
O beautiful for pilgrim feet
Whose stern impassioned stress,
A thoroughfare for freedom beat
Across the wilderness!
America! America!
God shed His grace on thee,
Till paths be wrought through wilds of thought
By pilgrims foot and knee!
Oh beautiful for glory-tale
Of liberating strife,
When once and twice for man’s avail
Men lavished precious life!
America! America!
God shed His grace on thee,
Till selfish gain no longer strain
The banner of the free!
O beautiful for patriot dream
That sees beyond the years,
Thine alabaster cities gleam
Undimmed by human tears!
America! America!
God shed His grace on thee,
Till nobler men keep once again
Thy whiter jubilee!

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