Quitting Time?

Source: The American Conservative
by Bill Kauffman

“While waiting for Vice President J.D. Vance — who as Senator Vance was among the corporal’s guard of war skeptics in that body — either to regain his voice or to reclaim his cojones from a safe-deposit box buried deep within the bowels of Trump Tower, patriots in the administration’s foreign-policy division might examine how their forebears answered the question, ‘Should I Stay or Should I Go?’ In Resignation in Protest (1975), the political scientists Edward Weisband and Thomas M. Franck wondered why, despite Vietnam and Watergate, there had been so few ‘courageous public defections of key disaffected members of the Johnson and Nixon administrations.'” (04/13/26)

https://www.theamericanconservative.com/quitting-time/

Thomas L. Knapp

Civility: The Invisible Glue of Society

Source: The Daily Economy
by Barry Brownstein

“F.A. Hayek explained how a healthy society functions when individuals submit to the ‘discipline of abstract rules.’ These rules, which we may not even be able to articulate, create an environment where people can form expectations and cooperate with others. Even when meeting strangers, we rely on shared abstract rules.” (04/13/26)

https://thedailyeconomy.org/article/civility-the-invisible-glue-of-society/

Thomas L. Knapp

Nigeria: Scores Killed in Regime Military Strikes as Clashes With Militants Intensify

Source: New York Times

“At least 50 people were killed and many others injured when the Nigerian military conducted airstrikes Saturday against insurgents in northeastern Nigeria, according to residents and the local authorities. A Nigerian military spokesman, Lt. Col. Sani Uba, said the strikes hit what he called a terrorist enclave and logistics hub near Jilli, in what he said was an abandoned village in Borno State, killing militants who had taken up residence there. But the local authorities and human rights groups described a starkly different scene, saying the bombs struck a weekly market that attracts hundreds of people and denying that the town was abandoned. They said the number of dead, mostly civilians, was much higher than reported.” (04/13/26)

https://archive.is/f4JwA

Thomas L. Knapp

Goodbye NATO, Hello America First

Source: Town Hall
by Jeff Crouere

“The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) was founded in 1949 and has grown to 32 nations. Not surprisingly, the United States of America is the largest contributor to the organization, supplying 16 percent of the overall NATO budget and having the largest expenditure on national defense, totaling $980 billion, which is 62 percent of the overall defense spending of all member nations. Realizing that many nations were freeloading and not contributing their fair share, in 2014, the leadership of NATO mandated that members spend at least two percent of their Gross Domestic Product (GDP) on defense spending. Unfortunately, in 2024, then-NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg admitted that nine member nations had still not met their two percent goal. The new goal for NATO is for members to spend 3.5 percent of their annual budget on defense spending by 2035. Currently, only three nations have met that goal.” (04/13/26)

https://townhall.com/columnists/jeffcrouere/2026/04/13/goodbye-nato-hello-america-first-n2674330

Steve Trinward

The Fight Against Red Tape Continues in Georgia

Source: Foundation for Economic Education
by J Thomas Perdue

“Georgia is one of many states that has recently begun to look critically at its growing regulatory code. Lawmakers, business leaders and policy advocates have pointed out how regulations enacted by unelected bureaucrats in the executive branch have placed an unnecessary burden on the state’s workers and industries. The lack of legislative oversight in what functions as de facto lawmaking (this is especially true at the federal level) is another concern. This problem is compounded by the fact that Georgia’s code has grown unchecked for decades, resulting in a lack of transparency as well as redundant, outdated and even contradictory rules. But as the state’s code grows, so too does the list of other states that have taken steps to reduce their own.” (04/13/26)

https://fee.org/articles/the-fight-against-red-tape-continues-in-georgia/

Thomas L. Knapp

State Wars Bleed a Nation to Death

Source: Ludwig von Mises Institute
by George Ford Smith

“The US, with its military prowess that comprises approximately 37 percent of all global military spending and exceeds the combined defense budgets of the next nine largest spenders, no longer worries about winning or losing wars. The point is to get them started — let the death and destruction begin. That’s where the money is — initially. Later, profits are made from rebuilding countries the attackers have demolished. But there’s a looming question: Does the American state have the funds to pick on any country it chooses? The answer: As long as the Federal Open Market Committee of the Federal Reserve remains functional and Americans remain ignorant of its work, the sky’s the limit, at least until people wise up or the ink runs dry on its printing press.” (04/13/26)

https://mises.org/mises-wire/state-wars-bleed-nation-death

Thomas L. Knapp