Thomas Knapp

On March 14, US president Donald Trump signed an executive order reducing “statutory functions of unnecessary governmental entities to what is required by law.” Among other institutions, the order targets the United States Agency for Global Media and the broadcast media it operates and funds: Voice of America, Radio and Television Martí, Radio Free Europe/Radio … Continue reading “Turn Off That (Government) Radio!”

As January bled into February, Lora Kelly notes at The Atlantic, US president Donald Trump “announced 25 percent tariffs on the country’s North American neighbors, caused a panic in the stock market, eked out minor concessions from foreign leaders, and called the whole thing off (for 30 days, at least).” Cue collective sigh of relief, … Continue reading “Trump’s Tariff Schemes Hurt Even More When He Flip-Flops”

In 1989, US forces invaded, conquered, and occupied Panama, replacing its pet dictator, Manuel Noriega with a new regime. Then-president George H.W. Bush’s justifications for the invasion included protecting US citizens in Panama and prosecuting the ill-conceived and ill-fated US war on drugs. The more likely reason is that Noriega, after many years of obedient … Continue reading “A Man, A (Bad) Plan, A Canal, Panama”

In 2016, Donald Trump ran for president as a kinda-sorta, maybe-a-little-bit, “antiwar” candidate. Once in office, however, he escalated every war he had inherited, ending none of them, “surging” US troops into Syria and Afghanistan, making a public head-fake at withdrawing from Syria before changing his mind, abrogating the Iran “nuclear deal,” and negotiating a … Continue reading “Brian Mast As Foreign Policy Indicator: New Boss, Same as the Old Boss”

Wait, what? We’re talking about Joe Biden? Why? He’s a “lame duck.”  No matter who wins the US presidential election on November 5, he’s going home to Delaware on January 20.  His chances of asking  for, and getting, much from Congress during that two-and-a-half month interregnum are negligible. But as head of the US government’s … Continue reading “How Joe Biden Could Save Lives And Change American Politics on His Way Out the Door”

In early September, the US Department of Justice announced criminal charges against two employees of RT (formerly Russia Today), alleging that the state media outlet “orchestrated a massive scheme to influence the American public by secretly planting and financing a content creation company on U.S. soil.” Separately, DOJ announced its theft (“seizure”) of 32 Internet … Continue reading “Would-Be Censors Peddle Yet Another Election Meddle”

On May 1, the US House of Representatives passed the fraudulently titled “Antisemitism Awareness Act of 2023.” It’s not yet law, pending Senate passage and a presidential signature, but the lopsided House vote (320 to 91) should worry all Americans, including the country’s 7.6 million Jews. In theory, the bill merely clarifies how the US … Continue reading “We’ve Already Got an ‘Antisemitism Awareness Act.’ It’s Called the First Amendment.”

I’m too young to remember the campus convulsions of the 1960s, but older friends who were there tell me that the growing campus protest movement against US support for Israel’s war in Palestine bears a striking resemblance to those days. I happen to support that movement’s goals, at least to the extent of wanting to … Continue reading “Campus Protests: The Kids May Not Be Alright, But They Are (Mostly) Right”

“Absent a directed, sustained, and articulated policy of no daylight between the United States and Israel,” Matthew Continetti wrote in the Washington Free Beacon on March 29, “the rift between America and her ally will widen and the world will grow more dangerous.” Proof that Continetti had things completely bass-ackward arrived on April 1, when Israeli aircraft … Continue reading “US Foreign Policy: ‘No Daylight’ Is Where Peace Dies In Darkness”

On February 16, the Russian Federation’s Federal Penitentiary Service announced the death in custody of a prisoner at its FKU IK3 “corrective colony.” The prisoner – one Alexei Anatolyevich Navalny – “fell ill after a walk, almost immediately losing consciousness,” according to an official statement, and could not be resuscitated by medical staff. US president … Continue reading “Russia: Why Navalny, and What’s Next?”