Thomas Knapp

US president Donald Trump signed yet another massive government spending bill – $1.3 trillion – on March 23, after threatening a veto. Why did he threaten a veto? Because the bill doesn’t fund his cherished US-Mexico border wall idea, and because it doesn’t address the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program that he’s threatened to … Continue reading “On Military Spending and Trade, Trump Puts Americans Last”

Speaking to CNN on the possibility of resuming hostilities in the nearly 70-year-old Korean War (in uneasy ceasefire since 1953), US Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC) says “all the damage … would be worth it in terms of long-term stability and national security.” Worth it, Senator Graham? To whom? The last period of open war on … Continue reading “More Korean War Is ‘Worth It?’ to Whom?”

In late February, Venezuela’s government began accepting presidential candidate registrations and announced a snap legislative election for April. The country’s opposition denounces the process as a sham and Maduro as a dictator, both of which may be true. Oddly, a third voice – the US government – also weighed in. Per US state media outlet … Continue reading “America’s Democracy Hypocrisy”

“An epidemic terror seized upon the nations,” wrote Charles Mackay in his 1841 masterpiece, Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds. “It was a crime imputed with so much ease, and repelled with so much difficulty, that the powerful, whenever they wanted to ruin the weak, and could fix no other imputation upon them, … Continue reading “Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Russiagate”

The Atlantic’s Ronald Brownstein reports that a new political organization, With Honor, “has launched a major effort to elect to the House more recent military veterans who commit to working across party lines. … a bipartisan core of House Members who are inclined to seek common ground, whatever their personal views.” The idea that veterans … Continue reading “Veterans in Politics: It’s Not About Honor”

Ahead of a vote in the United Nations’ General Assembly on a resolution condemning US recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, president Donald Trump and UN ambassador Nikki Haley threatened states voting for the resolution with the loss of US financial aid. “We’re watching those votes” said Trump. “Let them vote against us, we’ll save … Continue reading “US Foreign Aid: Bad for America, Bad for the World”

The Goldwater-Nichols Act requires the president to submit a “National Security Strategy” report each year. Every president since Ronald Reagan has failed to comply with the law in one or more years of his administration, but on December 17 Donald Trump issued his report. Unfortunately, Trump’s offering is of a piece with his prior displays … Continue reading “Trump’s ‘National Security Strategy’ Is the Opposite of National Security”

“Today with the signing of this defense bill,” US president Donald Trump said as he affixed his signature to the 2018 National Defense Authorization Act on December 12, “we accelerate the process of fully restoring America’s military might.” Is Trump truly under the mistaken impression that US military might is ailing? Or is he mindlessly … Continue reading “Here Comes the Next ‘Defense’ Shakedown”

On December 1, former National Security Advisor Michael Flynn pleaded guilty to two counts of lying to the FBI about conversations he had with Sergey I. Kislyak, then Russia’s ambassador to the United States. The charges, and Flynn’s plea, were part of Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation of “Russian meddling” in the 2016 US presidential … Continue reading “Finally, Evidence of Russian Election Meddling … Oh, Wait”

On November 15, US Senator Ed Markey (D-MA) and US Representative Ted Lieu (D-CA) introduced one of the shortest bills in the histories of their two parliamentary bodies. Shorn of the obligatory “be it enacted, blah, blah, blah” boilerplate, the bill’s content comes to 14 words: “It is the policy of the United States to … Continue reading “How To Stop a Rogue President From Ordering a Nuclear First Strike”