Source: The Hill
“Jury selection consumed the third day of former President Trump’s hush money trial on Thursday. All 12 jurors have been seated for Trump’s hush money trial after two were dismissed earlier in the day. Dozens of jurors were almost immediately excused after admitting they could not be fair or impartial during the politically divisive trial. Each side, the defense and prosecution, only has about a handful of strikes left. … The first of six alternate jurors was also selected.” (04/18/24)
https://thehill.com/regulation/court-battles/4602135-jury-selection-day-3-trump-hush-money-trial-live-updates/
Source: Orange County Register
by John Whitehead & Nisha Whitehead
“The government long ago sold us out to the highest bidder. The highest bidder, by the way, has always been the Deep State. What’s playing out now with the highly politicized tug-of-war over whether Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act gets reauthorized by Congress doesn’t just sell us out, it makes us slaves of the Deep State. Read the fine print: it’s a doozy. Just as the USA Patriot was perverted from its stated intent to fight terrorism abroad and was instead used to covertly crack down on the American people (allowing government agencies to secretly track Americans’ financial activities, monitor their communications, and carry out wide-ranging surveillance on them), Section 702 has been used as an end-run around the Constitution to allow the government to collect the actual content of your conversations (phone calls, text messages, video chats, emails and other electronic communication) without a warrant.” (04/18/24)
https://www.ocregister.com/2024/04/18/down-with-big-brother-warrantless-surveillance-makes-a-mockery-of-the-constitution/
Source: Town Hall
by Armstrong Williams
“Hard work, passion, virtue and true grit earmark the American heartland. Anecdotes, generation-spanning farm families and crop innovations speak volumes. They are all children of agriculture. Farming teaches faith in God, food cultivation, animal husbandry, the value of love, the richness of relationships and the growth of character. Farming offers time for reflection — an Aristotelian balance between nourishing and strengthening the physical body and deepening and improving our souls. From my earliest days, the farm was my classroom and nature was my teacher. I learned to treasure my parents, a work ethic, discipline and sacrifice. A diminishing number of Americans are denied that chance today. Engaging in routine daily farm tasks and providing care for the animals instilled accountability and highlighted the precariousness of life, illustrating how it can be either abruptly lost or extinguished over time.” (04/18/24)
https://townhall.com/columnists/armstrongwilliams/2024/04/18/a-story-of-the-soil-and-the-soul-n2637940
Source: United Press International
“A new Virginia law signed by Gov. Glenn Youngkin on Thursday allows universities to pay student athletes for name, image and likeness endorsements. It’s the first state law that could override or nullify the NCAA’s rules on student athlete NIL compensation. The new law takes effect July 1. It outlaws NC[A]A punishment for schools paying athletes through the NIL deals.” (04/18/24)
https://www.upi.com/Top_News/US/2024/04/18/Virginia-law-student-athlete-compensation/5631713467271/
Source: The UnPopulist
by Thomas Shull
“After Jan. 6, 2021, any future election involving Donald Trump was going to make a sizable bloc of Americans anxious about the state of U.S. democracy. Trump’s persistent, months-long lead over President Joe Biden in surveys of the 2024 presidential race thus raises what would once have been viewed as a pointless question: Just how committed are Americans to representative democracy? Now come two recently published survey reports not on the presidential race, but rather on Americans’ views of democracy itself …” (04/18/24)
https://www.theunpopulist.net/p/americans-may-be-turning-against
Source: The Tom Woods Show
“V.I. Lenin, 100 Years Later.” (04/18/24)
https://tomwoods.com/ep-2480-v-i-lenin-100-years-later/
Source: The American Conservative
by Bradley Devlin
“House Speaker Mike Johnson has finally unveiled his foreign aid package. His plan to get it across the finish line, however, remains less clear. There are three main bills in Johnson’s package that will provide aid to Ukraine, Israel, and the Indo-Pacific respectively. Although the supposed urgency for this aid package stems from Iran’s strikes on Israel, the bulk of the package’s funding, just over $60 billion worth, is aimed towards Ukraine. Israel receives quite the chunk of change, however: $26 billion courtesy of the American taxpayer. The Indo-Pacific region gets just over $8 billion. This brings the total price tag of Johnson’s foreign aid bonanza to $95 billion. Sound familiar? The resounding answer for conservatives in the House is yes. Johnson’s future hangs in the balance, and his conservative wing is nearly out of patience.” (04/18/24)
https://www.theamericanconservative.com/johnson-tying-his-own-noose-with-foreign-aid-package/
Source: Financial Times [UK]
“The husband of Scotland’s former first minister Nicola Sturgeon has been rearrested in relation to a police probe into the finances of the Scottish National party. Peter Murrell, the SNP’s former chief executive, was previously arrested on April 5 last year as part of Operation Branchform, an investigation that has cast a shadow over the party that has governed Scotland for 17 years. … The investigation, launched in 2021, has focused on complaints that party donations given during independence referendum fundraising appeals of 2017 and 2019 were spent on other things.” (04/18/24)
https://archive.is/WkmBo
Source: Free Talk Live
“Riley and Bonnie talk about having an existential crisis when they first came to Liberty :: Feeling lied to when you find out the truth about the US Empire :: 1984 should be a warning :: Possible Assange plea deal :: Pop music and pop culture; is it real freedom and individuality that they advocate? :: Are you actually guaranteed any rights? :: FISA amendment gives government goons more excuses to spy on you :: 2024-04-18 Hosts: Bonnie, Jay, Riley.” (04/18/24)
https://soundcloud.com/freetalklive/free-talk-live-2024-04-18
Source: The Price of Liberty
by Nathan Barton
“More hyperbolic fearmongering? Or is there something for real here? The International Monetary Fund (IMF) is a government-run, government-supporting, micro-management sort of institution. It exists to empower government and has always done so. Whatever reports they issue have to be judged not just on accuracy and professional competence but on what political points they are pushing and who is pushing their buttons.” (04/18/24)
https://thepriceofliberty.org/2024/04/18/economic-collapse-or-more-chicken-little-with-intent/
