Author: Thomas L. Knapp

Source: Orange County Register
by Dave Min

“The murders of Alex Pretti and Renee Good by masked federal agents earlier this month shocked our consciences. But it is important to understand these killings were the inevitable result of a culture of violence and lawlessness at the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), in which masked DHS agents have been routinely engaging in brazenly criminal acts across the country for months with no accountability or oversight. To be clear, punching someone in the face because you don’t like the sign they are holding is a crime. Same with pulling a gun on or spraying bear mace at a peaceful bystander. And yet we have seen literally thousands of clearly documented crimes like these committed by DHS agents over the past year with no consequences or even investigations. This is part of a broader culture of lawlessness and contempt for accountability that permeates DHS and ICE.” (02/01/26)

https://www.ocregister.com/2026/02/01/dave-min-trumps-lawless-dhs-is-tearing-america-apart/

Source: The Dispatch
by O Alan Noble

“What are we to do with the fact that Christians, like myself, claim to believe in what pastor-theologian Francis Schaeffer once called ‘true truth’ and yet seem to be no less likely to fall into the traps of political tribal thinking and even conspiracy theories? On the one hand, many evangelicals like myself were raised to believe in ‘absolute truth’ and were warned against threats of creeping secular ‘relativism’ and ‘postmodernism.’ But on the other hand, Christians (of all political persuasions) regularly promote ideologically driven propaganda, misinformation, conspiracy theories, and untruths. In fact, according to one survey by the American Enterprise Institute, white evangelical Republicans are more likely than nonevangelical Republicans to believe a host of conspiracies, including something as farcical as the QAnon conspiracies.” (02/01/26)

https://thedispatch.com/newsletter/dispatch-faith/conspiracy-theories-christians-truth/

Source: The Reframe
by AR Moxon

“The so-called Justice Department issued another tranche of emails from the Jeffery Epstein trove known colloquially as ‘The Epstein Files.’ I imagine that, like previous emissions, Justice has redacted most of the references to the best friend of the infamous serial child-rapist and sex trafficker (who is our current and temporary president Don Trump, in case you didn’t know). And I imagine that, like before, a bit of the tip of Trump’s culpability iceberg will manage to break through to the surface, because when you’re dealing with an iceberg of such magnitude there’s only so much hiding you can do.” (02/01/26)

https://www.the-reframe.com/where-it-ends/

Source: spiked
by Joel Kotkin

“The 20th century was an era of consolidation and centralisation. Power shifted away from localities, communities and families, moving ever higher up the political food chain. In the ultimate shift, power flowed towards transnational bureaucracies – most notably in Europe, in the form of the EU. Today, we may be seeing the emergence of a counter-trend: one that seeks to return control to local bodies, closer to where people actually live. The internet and social-media platforms, though destructive in many ways, have also empowered local communities, who now enjoy access to much the same information as those in Brussels or Washington, or in the corporate towers.” (01/31/26)

https://archive.is/vEJQW