Author: Thomas L. Knapp

Source: Underthrow
by Max Borders

“He didn’t recognize them anymore. The world he knew had shattered, and they were all but shards. Sometimes they cut. Whether he walked among the market throngs or sat alone in the forest, he felt alone. In that solitude, he was hollow and anxious, surrounded by loud waves of change, fear, and anger. Sometimes he wanted to gasp and kick, thinking that soon he might tire of treading water, then fall into the deep and drown. But a few, he saw, had turned back to the old ways—the books, the traditions, the places of worship.” (04/13/26)

https://underthrow.substack.com/p/the-twelfth-stone

Source: The Contrarian
by Jennifer Rubin

“As a full-fledged narcissist, Trump expects complete subservience — no matter how badly he treats others. He, therefore, must have been shocked when NATO countries did not rush to aid his disastrous war of choice against Iran. More recently, the White House was likely flabbergasted when its effort to strong-arm Pope Leo (!) triggered another Vatican tongue-lashing, which was leaked. Never in the post-World War II era have so many world leaders shown open contempt for a U.S. president.” (04/13/26)

https://www.contrariannews.org/p/bullying-does-not-pay

Source: Independent Institute
by Christopher J Calton

“In recent years, a growing number of states have begun to allow residential construction in commercial zones in an effort to lower rising housing costs. Since 2023, six states — California, Florida, Montana, New Hampshire, Oregon, and Texas — have passed laws requiring local governments to permit multifamily and mixed-use developments in commercial zones (and in some cases, industrial zones). Other states have adopted more modest reforms to allow commercial-to-residential conversions. The trend encouraging residential construction in nonresidential zones resembles an early model of zoning known as ‘hierarchical zoning.’ With the country facing rising housing costs and an unprecedented shortage of multifamily homes, it may be time to bring hierarchical zoning back to America’s cities.” [editor’s note: Better yet, ELIMINATE zoning! – TLK] (04/13/26)

https://www.independent.org/article/2026/04/13/hierarchical-zoning/

Source: Responsible Statecraft
by Molly O’Neal

“Ascendent leader Peter Magyar is no liberal, and is certainly not pro-Ukraine but tapped into the bread and butter issues pressing on the people.” (04/13/26)

https://responsiblestatecraft.org/viktor-orban-defeat/

Source: The American Conservative
by Bill Kauffman

“While waiting for Vice President J.D. Vance — who as Senator Vance was among the corporal’s guard of war skeptics in that body — either to regain his voice or to reclaim his cojones from a safe-deposit box buried deep within the bowels of Trump Tower, patriots in the administration’s foreign-policy division might examine how their forebears answered the question, ‘Should I Stay or Should I Go?’ In Resignation in Protest (1975), the political scientists Edward Weisband and Thomas M. Franck wondered why, despite Vietnam and Watergate, there had been so few ‘courageous public defections of key disaffected members of the Johnson and Nixon administrations.'” (04/13/26)

https://www.theamericanconservative.com/quitting-time/

Source: The Daily Economy
by Barry Brownstein

“F.A. Hayek explained how a healthy society functions when individuals submit to the ‘discipline of abstract rules.’ These rules, which we may not even be able to articulate, create an environment where people can form expectations and cooperate with others. Even when meeting strangers, we rely on shared abstract rules.” (04/13/26)

https://thedailyeconomy.org/article/civility-the-invisible-glue-of-society/