Author: Thomas L. Knapp

Source: RealClearPolitics
by Kathleen Enright

“By many measures, we are living in one of the most divisive moments in our nation’s nearly 250-year history. Disagreement has hardened into mistrust. Americans are trading blame. As we saw in Karl Zinsmeister’s recent op-ed, even the deeply American commitment to charitable giving is increasingly under scrutiny. With mistrust distorting perceptions of philanthropy, a concerning narrative is taking hold. This narrative, visible in Zinsmeister’s piece and elsewhere, holds that the generosity we disagree with is inherently suspect, even illegal. A clear-eyed view of how charitable foundations work helps put the debates about the sector in the proper context.” (01/28/26)

https://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2026/01/28/defending_charity_in_an_age_of_political_mistrust_153762.html

Source: Antiwar.com
by William D Hartung & Tom Engelhardt

“Trump’s rush to war in Latin America is a phenomenon that, until recently, seemed long over. Its revival should raise multiple red flags, given the history of Washington’s failed efforts to install allied governments through regime change. (Can you spell Iraq?) In fact, given this country’s lack of success with such attempts since the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991, it’s a good bet that regime change in Venezuela will not end well for any of the parties concerned, whether the Trump administration, the new leaders of Venezuela, or the people of our two countries.” (01/28/26)

https://original.antiwar.com/william-d-hartung/2026/01/27/trumps-doubling-down-on-imperialism-in-latin-america-is-a-formula-for-decline

Source: CounterPunch
by Nick Licata

“Trump, through his appointed Secretaries of the Department of Homeland Security, the Department of Justice, and the Department of Defense, has converted ICE into a militarized agency that operates more like a private police force than a public one. In fact, ICE agents are not trained to act as police because they cannot legally enforce local laws that police are trained to enforce. However, a federal statute (8 U.S.C. § 1357) allows them to arrest anyone who commits a federal offense in their presence or for whom there is probable cause to believe they have committed a federal felony. Neither condition concerns immigration status.” (01/28/26)

https://www.counterpunch.org/2026/01/28/ice-as-paramilitaries/

Source: Ludwig von Mises Institute
by Ryan McMaken

“The idea of political unity has long been a popular trope and slogan in politics. ‘He’s a uniter, not a divider’ is a sentiment that many American politicians like to cultivate about themselves. Over many centuries and across many jurisdictions we encounter the claim that unity is a political virtue, and that anything that ‘divides us’ must therefore be condemned. Some even label opposition to unity as a type of treason. So, it makes sense that political unity is often the language employed by those who seek to enhance and increase the power of the state.” (01/27/26)

https://mises.org/mises-wire/we-can-have-unity-or-we-can-have-freedom-we-cant-have-both

Source: Independent Institute
by Craig Eyermann

“President Donald Trump recently celebrated the first anniversary of his second term in office, the first two-term President since Grover Cleveland to not serve consecutive terms. When he was sworn in on January 20, 2025, the U.S. government was almost four full months into its 2025 fiscal year. With that being the case, there wasn’t much he could do to alter the U.S. government’s fiscal situation through September, the end of its 2025 fiscal year. In January 2025, the Congressional Budget Office projected the U.S. government was on track to spend $7.028 trillion during its 2025 fiscal year, while collecting $5.163 trillion in taxes. The federal government was set to rack up an annual budget deficit of $1.865 trillion.” (01/27/26)

https://www.independent.org/article/2026/01/27/fiscal-trends-trump-first-year/