The Atlantic Is at Sea | They Fired Jeffrey Goldberg for What?
By Thomas L. Knapp Things that make me go hmmm … The Atlantic’s editor-in-chief, Jeffrey Goldberg, adds conservative writer Kevin D. Williamson to the publication’s masthead. An odd choice, it seems to me. I’m a fan of both the magazine and the writer, and for similar reasons, but they make an odd match. I […]
Some Questions from the Edge of Immortality
By Thomas L. Knapp Nectome, a startup headed by two former artificial intelligence researchers, is serious about immortality. They’re touting a process for preserving the human brain at the point of death (by killing the patient with the preservative), with the next (unfortunately still notional) step being to “re-start” that brain as computer software. […]
Cakes, Guns, Discrimination and Freedom of Association
By Thomas L. Knapp In the wake of the mass shooting at a high school in Parkland, Florida, a number of businesses have moved to distance themselves from scary-looking weapons like the AR-15, from younger purchasers of weapons in general, and from organizations that don’t support laws violating the Second Amendment to the US […]
There She Goes Again: Clinton’s Blame Game, Mumbai Edition
By Thomas L. Knapp It’s been James Comey. It’s been Them Russians. It’s been Barack Obama. It’s been misogyny. It’s been WikiLeaks. It’s been social media. Hillary Clinton has tons of reasons why she lost the 2016 presidential election. And, oddly, none of those reasons are herself or her campaign. This week, the excuse […]
Capitol Punishment: Or, Keeping House is too Expensive
By Thomas L. Knapp Politico reports on a letter to US Representative and House Ethics Committee chairwoman Susan Brooks (R-IN), from more than two dozen members of the Congressional Black Caucus, requesting an investigation into “the legality and propriety” of lawmakers sleeping in their offices. Among their complaints are that the free lodging and […]
No Huawei! US Spy Chiefs Reverse Course on Phone Spying
by Thomas L. Knapp If it seems like only a year ago that the director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation was telling us how dangerous it is for Americans to have encrypted smart phones that make it hard for the FBI to poke around in our data, that’s because yes, it really was […]
A Korean Spring after the Winter Olympics is Unlikely. Here’s Why.
by Thomas L. Knapp Peace between the Republic of Korea (South Korea) the the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (North Korea) suddenly seems closer than ever as the 2018 Winter Olympics open in Pyeongchang on February 9. The North is contributing athletes to a bi-national team with the South, and also sending a delegation […]
The Census for Dummies (Including the US Department of Justice)
by Thomas L. Knapp “Uncertainly is swirling over whether the Census Bureau will be able to get an accurate population count for the 2020 census,” The Hill reports. The Department of Justice wants the bureau to ask respondents about their citizenship status, which could result in people avoiding the census altogether. There’s a simple […]
Veterans in Politics: It’s Not About Honor
by Thomas L. Knapp The Atlantic’s Ronald Brownstein reports that a new political organization, With Honor, “has launched a major effort to elect to the House more recent military veterans who commit to working across party lines. … a bipartisan core of House Members who are inclined to seek common ground, whatever their personal […]
Bye, Bye, FBI? The Case for Disbanding the Federal Frankenstein’s Monster
by Thomas L. Knapp The Federal Bureau of Investigation is always under fire for something. As of late January, that something is destruction of evidence. Text messages between agents involved in the Bureau’s investigations of Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump, from a key time frame during the presidential transition, are missing. Congress, the Bureau, […]
