Author: Thomas L. Knapp

Source: The Realist Review
by Pelle Taylor

“Over the course of a single century, Sweden lost all four of its greatest international figures to assassination or state violence: Raoul Wallenberg, the diplomat who saved tens of thousands of Jews in Budapest; Folke Bernadotte, the first United Nations Mediator in Palestine; Dag Hammarskjöld, the UN Secretary-General; and Olof Palme, Cold War prime minister and voice for global peace and nuclear disarmament. In each case the trail points toward a foreign state actor. In each case Sweden looked away. It seems strange when Sweden itself has been so peaceful. That none of the deaths was ever satisfactorily resolved says a great deal about how the Swedish state failed to follow through on the consequences of being a so-called moral superpower.” (04/30/26)

https://therealistreview.substack.com/p/the-price-of-moral-superpower-sweden

Source: Gideon’s Substack
by Noah Millman

“We all have embarrassing fantasies, I imagine, and most of us keep them to themselves. I have a bad habit of sharing mine with other people. One of these, one I’ve shared before and will share again now, is of an American Senate that works more like the way it was intended to, which is to say: not as a partisan body. Could that fantasy actually become reality? To make it so, you would need a Senate that was closely divided between Democrats and Republicans, and for a small group of senators to refuse to caucus with either party. If they thereby deprived either party of a majority, they would have the leverage to shape the Senate’s rules and agenda, since essentially the only ways the body could get anything done would be either for Democrats and Republicans to work together against them, or for either or both parties to negotiate with them.” (04/30/26)

https://gideons.substack.com/p/the-dream-of-a-non-partisan-senate

Source: Expression
by John Coleman

“A casual exchange with a chatbot can help someone understand a lease, think through a medical question, or navigate a personal issue. It can become specific and personal, even though people understand it isn’t a licensed professional. Yet even basic, exploratory conversations risk being labeled professional advice under a New York bill introduced this session. Senate Bill 7263 would prevent AI chatbots — defined broadly as any system that simulates ‘human-like conversation’ and provides information or services — from generating responses that would amount to the unlicensed practice of a profession like law, medicine, finance, or mental health, if that profession is normally provided by a human.” (04/30/26)

https://expression.fire.org/p/licensed-to-speak-how-nys-ai-bill

Source: The Daily Economy
by Barry Brownstein

“The ability to direct one’s attention is an increasingly scarce and valuable practice — and a prerequisite for meaningful freedom.” (04/30/26)

https://thedailyeconomy.org/article/ben-sasses-warning-reclaim-your-attention-before-its-too-late/