Author: Thomas L. Knapp

Source: Liberal Currents
by Ryan C Smith

“Free and democratic society is not possible when the kings of oil and gas can threaten our stability, pollute our information systems, and poison our politics.” (02/25/26)

https://www.liberalcurrents.com/carbon-and-the-new-imperialism/

Source: Electronic Frontier Foundation
by Matthew Guariglia

“The Secretary of Defense has given an ultimatum to the artificial intelligence company Anthropic in an attempt to bully them into making their technology available to the U.S. military without any restrictions for their use. Anthropic should stick by their principles and refuse to allow their technology to be used in the two ways they have publicly stated they would not support: autonomous weapons systems and surveillance.” (02/24/26)

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2026/02/tech-companies-shouldnt-be-bullied-doing-surveillance

Source: Independent Institute
by Phillip W Magness

“The Supreme Court dealt a serious blow to President Trump’s economic agenda by ruling that the International Emergency Economic Powers Act doesn’t allow him to rewrite the U.S. tariff schedule. Mr. Trump immediately invoked a different law to impose a 10% tariff on all countries, followed by threats to raise it to 15%. The White House’s tariff Plan B looks copied from President Biden’s playbook when the court overruled his student-loan forgiveness scheme in 2023 and Mr. Biden began statute shopping for anything to back it. That strategy hit a roadblock in federal court, as a succession of rulings invalidated his attempt to revive the policy under different laws.” (02/24/26)

https://www.independent.org/article/2026/02/24/section-122-cant-carry-trumps-tariffs/

Source: spiked
by Sean Collins

“In response to his tariff defeat, Trump went on a rant. He called the judges ‘fools and lapdogs.’ Even worse, he questioned their patriotism, going as far as to say they had been ‘swayed by foreign interests.’ This insult was bad even by Trump’s standards, and his talk of ‘foreign Interests’ – without any evidence – can only fuel online conspiracy theorising. The Supreme Court justices were doing their job. On many occasions in the past, including when it came to the president’s personal immunity, the majority has ruled in Trump’s favour. The separation of powers, which places limits on the power of the presidency, is a key principle of the US Constitution. In this regard, the court has been consistent under both Joe Biden and Trump.” (02/24/26)

https://archive.is/yfUEc

Source: Desultory Scribblings
by Tyler Harris

“‘Why do Trump’s supporters keep trying to kill him?’ That’s the question I’ve most seen floating around in the wake of the killing of Austin Martin, a 21-year-old man who attempted to storm the cordon at Mar-a-Lago this past week while wielding a shotgun. It’s mostly rhetorical, but the glib and obvious answers – that Trump’s unique detestability and employment of violent rabble-rousing makes him an alluring target, even for his own acolytes, or that MAGA itself is a mental illness particularly prone even to internal violence – obscure a far more sweeping challenge. The online right has created an incredibly efficient and effective engine for breaking and radicalizing lonely young men.” (02/24/26)

https://tylerjohnharris.substack.com/p/the-online-right-is-radicalizing

Source: American Institute for Economic Research
by Thomas Savidge

“This explainer traces the evolving, mutually dependent relationship between the federal government and the states through four pivotal eras of fiscal transfers: the Antebellum Land Grants, the Civil War, the New Deal, and the Great Society.” (02/24/26)

https://aier.org/article/a-brief-history-of-federal-transfers-to-the-states/