Author: Thomas L. Knapp

Will Gravity Pull Down the AI Bubble?

Source: CounterPunch
by Dean Baker

“I have written before on the AI bubble. The stock valuations we are seeing now look a lot like the valuations we saw before the Internet bubble began to crash in 2000. Even a quarter century later, people miss much of the story of that bubble. It’s true we had companies that never made a profit, like Pets.com, with valuations in the billions. But the story went far beyond some flaky companies having ridiculous market capitalizations. The irrational exuberance, to use Alan Greenspan’s great term, infected everything.” (04/30/26)

https://www.counterpunch.org/2026/04/30/will-gravity-pull-down-the-ai-bubble/

Thomas L. Knapp

May Day Politics Come to Classrooms

Source: The Daily Economy
by Corey A DeAngelis

“Chicago Public Schools has struck a deal with the city’s teachers’ union that turns students into political props. On May 1, a regular school day, children will participate in rallies and civic lessons before being bused to a union rally at Union Park. The agreement promises no retaliation for participants and for joint lobbying in Springfield. This deal does nothing to advance education. It simply enables the union to use children as pawns to demand more money from the very taxpayers funding the system.” (04/30/26)

https://thedailyeconomy.org/article/may-day-politics-come-to-classrooms/

Thomas L. Knapp

Press freedom worldwide falls to its lowest level in 25 years

Source: Al Jazeeera [Qatari state media]

“Freedom of the press around the world has fallen to its lowest level in a quarter of a century, according to the leading Paris-based press freedom NGO, Reporters Sans Frontieres (RSF), or Reporters Without Borders. Every year, RSF publishes a World Press Freedom Index used to compare the level of freedom enjoyed by journalists and media outlets in 180 countries. Its ranking uses a five-point scale to assess a country’s level of press freedom, ranging from ‘very serious’ to ‘good.’ For the first time since RSF started producing the index in 2002, more than half of the world’s countries fall into the ‘difficult’ or ‘very serious’ categories for press freedom – ‘a clear sign that journalism is increasingly criminalised worldwide.'” (04/29/26)

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2026/4/30/global-press-freedom-falls-to-its-lowest-level-in-25-years

Thomas L. Knapp

Florida Republicans Are Gerrymandering. They Just Can’t Say So.

Source: The Atlantic
by Russell Berman

“Florida Republicans have approved a new congressional map that could hand them as many as four House seats that Democrats currently hold. Their goal is straightforward and universally understood: They want to bolster the GOP’s majority in Congress and retake the lead in a yearlong, nationwide partisan gerrymandering showdown with Democrats. Good luck, however, getting top Republicans in the Sunshine State to openly admit that. In contrast with other states that have held lengthy and freewheeling public debates over redistricting during the past year, the drive to redraw maps in Florida has been marked by secrecy and obfuscation. Republicans can’t acknowledge the intent of their gerrymandering proposal, because the state constitution expressly prohibits partisan redistricting.” (04/29/26)

https://archive.is/dGrJB

Thomas L. Knapp