Author: Thomas L. Knapp

Source: The American Cosnervative
by Nicholas Spyridon Kass

“It’s good for the U.S., and for them too.” (04/16/26)

https://www.theamericanconservative.com/keep-the-kurds-out-of-the-iran-war/

Source: Libertarian Institute
by Joseph Solis-Mullen

“For decades Washington has advertised its air and naval supremacy as the indispensable guarantor of global order. Recent events have shown this to be little but increasingly expensive theater. The 2026 Iran War has paused not with Iranian capitulation but in a cascade of humiliations that have permanently altered the strategic landscape. Washington’s vaunted power-projection capabilities proved unable to shield even its own forward bases, depleted critical munitions stockpiles, and ultimately ceded effective control of the Strait of Hormuz to Tehran. These lessons will not be lost on Beijing or Taipei.” (04/16/26)

https://libertarianinstitute.org/articles/the-iran-war-exposes-the-emptiness-of-american-strength-in-east-asia/

Source: Washington Monthly
by Steven Hill

“The Hungarian strongman’s electoral manipulations created a system so volatile that a modest popular swing wiped out his supermajority.” (04/16/26)

https://washingtonmonthly.com/2026/04/16/how-viktor-orban-got-rolled-by-his-own-gerrymander/

Source: Foundation for Economic Education
by Grant Stark

“Adding more generation capacity without hardening the last-mile delivery network leaves the cake half-baked.” [editor’s note: Relying on centralized generation and long-distance transmission is the problem – TLK] (04/16/26)

https://fee.org/articles/energy-reliability-is-only-as-strong-as-its-weakest-wire/

Source: Los Angeles Times
by Jackie Calmes

“Once again, as in Trump’s first term, the public and press are inattentive to the nation’s fiscal health relative to past years. But that reflects the president’s own disengagement with reconciling spending and revenue — this from a president many Americans voted for based on his purported prowess as a businessman. For decades back to Ronald Reagan’s time, so-called deficit wars in Washington were a big story. Now, even Republicans in Congress complain of Trump’s absence from the fiscal fray as they struggle to belatedly finish this year’s budget work that was due last fall, and to end a weeks-old partial government shutdown, before turning to the budget for the fiscal year starting Oct. 1. Yet it’s worth paying attention to U.S. budgets even if Trump won’t, for the sake of our children and grandchildren who’ll inherit the bills.” (04/16/26)

https://archive.is/NHrgF

Source: Cobden Centre
by Dr. Richard M Ebeling

“This year marks the 90th anniversary of the beginning of modern macroeconomics with the publication of John Maynard Keynes’s The General Theory of Employment, Interest, and Money on February 4, 1936. Few books have left such a mark on economic theory and, most certainly, on economic policy in so short a period of time.Ninety years after the appearance of The General Theory, many practical men of affairs and politicians in authority remain the slaves of defunct economists and academic scribblers.” (04/16/26)

https://www.cobdencentre.org/2026/04/the-damage-still-done-by-keynesian-economics-90-years-on/