Author: Thomas L. Knapp

Charges in Trump documents case would be bad for him — and the country

Source: Washington Post
by Eugene Robinson

“According to a 2021 recording obtained by special counsel Jack Smith and first reported by CNN, Trump bragged to guests at his Bedminster, N.J., golf club about having a secret document relating to Iran. According to news reports, Trump expressed a desire to share the information with others but acknowledged he shouldn’t do so because the document was classified. For once, the truth. If media reports about that recording are accurate, Smith has powerful evidence that Trump knew the documents at Mar-a-Lago were still classified. Smith may now have no choice but to seek a felony indictment. Do not be joyful at the prospect.” (06/05/23)

https://archive.is/nVzpp

Thomas L. Knapp

Ron DeSantis May Find Fighting “Wokeism” Is No Vote Winner

Source: The Daily Beast
by Matt Lewis

“We will wage war on the woke. We will fight the woke in education; we will fight the woke in corporations; we will fight in the halls of Congress. We will never ever surrender to the woke mob,’” DeSantis declared recently, channeling Winston Churchill’s ‘We shall fight on the beaches’ speech, delivered eighty-three years earlier, on June 4, 1940. If that wasn’t on the nose enough, DeSantis’ wife Casey wore a black leather jacket to Iowa last weekend, with a picture of an alligator and the words, ‘Where Woke Goes to Die.’ We get it. We get it. You’re clearly doubling down on the fact that fighting woke-ism is your raison d’etre. This is your Make America Great Again. This is your Build Back Better. But does casting opposition to woke-ism as DeSantis’s bete noire make sense, politically? I’m not sure.” (06/05/23)

https://www.thedailybeast.com/ron-desantis-may-find-fighting-wokeism-is-no-vote-winner

Thomas L. Knapp

Afghanistan: Provincial governor killed in car bombing

Source: Al Jazeera [Qatar state media]

“The acting governor of a northeastern Afghan province has been killed in a car bombing, officials said, months after the region’s police chief was killed in a similar attack claimed by an affiliate of the ISIL (ISIS) group. The bomber rammed a car filled with explosives into the vehicle carrying Nisar Ahmad Ahmadi, acting governor of northern Badakhshan, in provincial capital Faizabad. The driver was also killed and six others wounded in the attack. It was not clear who was behind the bombing, which was the first known attack on a Taliban official in Afghanistan in several weeks.” (06/06/23)

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/6/6/afghan-provincial-governor-killed-in-car-bombing

Thomas L. Knapp

How School Choice Can Mitigate Harmful Culture War Policies in Public Education

Source: The Volokh Conspiracy
by Ilya Somin

“Current culture wars are just one more manifestation of the reality that public education routinely devolves into indoctrination and imposition of majoritarian ideology on dissenters. But school choice can help mitigate that problem.” (06/05/23)

https://reason.com/volokh/2023/06/05/how-school-choice-can-mitigate-harmful-culture-war-policies-in-public-education/

Thomas L. Knapp

Ukraine war: Destruction of dam unleashes floodwaters

Source: CNBC

“A strategically important dam in Russian-occupied southern Ukraine was blown up on Tuesday, raising fears about safety, water supply, and Europe’s largest nuclear power plant, which receives cooling water from the reservoir upstream. Russian and Ukraine both accused each other’s forces of an intentional attack on the Nova Kakhova dam. CNBC has not been able to independently verify the claims. Footage verified by NBC News showed water cascading over the damaged dam, with evacuation efforts underway to protect thousands of people living in low-lying areas downstream. The dam is situated on the Dnieper River and holds back an enormous body of water. It was built in 1956 as part of the Kakhovka hydroelectric power plant. The Kakhovka Reservoir supplies water to the Crimean Peninsula, which was annexed by Russia in 2014, and provides cooling water to the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, which is also under Russian control.” (06/06/23)

https://www.cnbc.com/2023/06/06/ukraine-war-breach-of-nova-kakhovka-dam-unleashes-floodwaters.html

Thomas L. Knapp

The Plan: Lock You Down for 130 Days

Source: Brownstone Institute
by Jayanta Bhattacharya

“What if the coronavirus pandemic was not a once-in-a-century event but the beginning of a new era of regular deadly respiratory viral pandemics? The Biden administration is already planning for this future. Last year, it unveiled a national strategy to develop pharmaceutical firms’ capacity to create vaccines within 130 days of a pandemic emergency declaration. The Biden plan enshrines former president Donald Trump‘s Operation Warp Speed as the model response for the next century of pandemics. Left unsaid is that, for the new pandemic plan to work as envisioned, it will require us to conduct dangerous gain-of-function research. It will also require cutting corners in the evaluation of the safety and efficacy of novel vaccines. And while the studies are underway, politicians will face tremendous pressure to impose draconian lockdowns to keep the population ‘safe.'” (06/05/23)

https://brownstone.org/articles/the-plan-lock-you-down-for-130-days/

Thomas L. Knapp