Author: Thomas L. Knapp

Source: Orange County Register
by Steven Greenhut

“In authoritarian Russia, critics of Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine have an odd habit of falling out of windows. These likely acts of defenestration serve as a stark warning for other critics, although the official line is usually that they tripped or committed suicide. In the democratic United States, opponents of ICE agents in Minneapolis sometimes also meet unusual fates. For instance, court documents show that ICE agents claimed Mexican immigrant Alberto Castañeda Mondragón experienced bone fractures and head injuries after he ‘purposefully ran headfirst into a brick wall’ — an explanation that was disputed by the medical staff …. the Trump administration’s outrageous whoppers regarding myriad ICE incidents — that, say, victims of ICE violence were insurrectionists or terrorists — are a loyalty test. The more preposterous the claim, the more it separates blind MAGA followers from everyone else. The distortions echo the Kremlin’s approach: they’re a warning to its foes.” (02/13/26)

https://www.ocregister.com/2026/02/13/steven-greenhut-time-to-stop-ices-efforts-to-defenestrate-the-constitution/

Source: Liberal Currents
by Guillaume AW Attia

“The security and prosperity of nations does not depend on complete uniformity of thought, manners, or coloration.” (02/13/26)

https://www.liberalcurrents.com/future-is-african/

Source: Expression
by Samuel J Abrams

“Last week, I wrote that students are beginning to treat speech as insufficient, as though persuasion is a kind of performance and disruption or violence is the only thing that works. I shared my own attempt to explain this to my students. But that lesson didn’t go as I had hoped. I left that class unsettled, and more than a little upset, realizing that so many of my students seem unmoved by the premise that words are a better alternative to force. I promised myself I would go back and try again. … I went prepared. I took more than moral exhortation. I took the best empirical record we have about political change. And I left feeling unsure that my students had even heard me.” (02/13/26)

https://expression.fire.org/p/when-speech-no-longer-seems-sufficient-e3f