On a recent tour of the U.S. Capitol building—my first since working there nearly 30 years ago—I was reminded of just how beautiful and magisterial it is. Its construction and design, however, were hotly contested things, as I learned from Brian Jay Jones's "The Capitol: The Surprising Biography of an American Building."

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There's a new trend in American politics: Candidates affiliated with the Democratic Socialists of America, some of whom have at least expressed affinity for communism, are winning Democratic congressional primaries.

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America's 250th birthday is now nearly upon us. The semi-quincentennial, whatever else one might say about it, has been a decidedly muted affair compared with the last big national anniversary, 50 years ago. The bicentennial was a major event, and not just on July 4, 1976, but for a long period leading up to it. It was such a big deal, in fact, that it wound up drawing into its orbit no less than four American presidents or future presidents.

Gerald Ford occupied the White House in 1976, and he presided over a series of patriotic events that many boomers and Gen Xers still view today with nostalgia. But his experience is only part of the bicentennial story.

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Fans of Tom Clancy's bestselling thriller novels will unfortunately find little of Jack Ryan's moral clarity in the latest film inspired by the series. "Jack Ryan: Ghost War," one of the Top Five movies on Amazon Prime, follows CIA agent Jack Ryan as he tries to stop an MI6/CIA team created to fight Islamist terrorists. A pro-America version would make the team fighting the terrorists the heroes, but that isn't the case in "Ghost War." Instead, the villain appears to be the head of the post-9/11 antiterror task force, while the protagonists (led by Ryan) are people who want to shut the task force down.

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UFC Freedom 250—the fight lineup planned for the White House's South Lawn on Sunday, President Trump's 80th birthday—is getting a lot of criticism. Sen. Adam Schiff called it "out of touch," White House historian Edward Lengel said it "transcends the bounds of tastelessness." Joe Rogan, a former UFC commentator, has said, "I don't like it."

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