Source: The Nation
by John Feffer
“Trump and those backing him hope to disable enough of the political infrastructure to create the space for non-state actors to do his work for him.” (04/29/24)
https://www.thenation.com/article/world/haiti-trump-election-gangs/
Source: mint [India]
“The US Supreme Court rejected an appeal from Elon Musk in his ‘Twitter sitter’ case, leaving intact his agreement with the Securities and Exchange Commission to have an in-house lawyer pre-approve his social media posts about Tesla Inc. The justices, without comment, refused to hear contentions from the billionaire Tesla chief executive officer that the accord he signed in 2018 now violates his constitutional free speech rights. Musk, the world’s third-richest person, has battled the SEC over his social media posts since he tweeted in August 2018 that he had ‘funding secured’ to take Tesla private, sending shares of the electric carmaker surging. The regulator claimed in a lawsuit the following month that Musk misled shareholders with that post. Two days later, Musk settled with the SEC, agreeing to resign as Tesla chairman and pay $20 million as part of the deal.” (04/29/24)
Source: EconTalk
“The Top EconTalk Conversations of 2023 (with Russ Roberts).” (04/29/24)
https://www.econtalk.org/the-top-econtalk-conversations-of-2023-with-russ-roberts/
Source: Ludwig von Mises Institute
by Mustafa Ekin Turan
“If you have been using the internet for longer than a couple of years, you might have noticed that it used to be much ‘freer.’ What freer means in this context is that there was less censorship and less stringent rules regarding copyright violations on social media websites such as YouTube and Facebook (and consequently a wider array of content), search engines used to often show results from smaller websites, there were less ‘fact-checkers,’ and there were (for better or for worse) less stringent guidelines for acceptable conduct. … This article will argue that changes in European Union regulations regarding online platforms played an important role in shaping the structure of the internet to the way it is today and that further changes in EU policy that will be even more detrimental to freedom on the internet may be on the horizon.” (04/29/24)
https://mises.org/mises-wire/how-eu-law-has-made-internet-less-free-everyone-else
Source: BBC News [UK state media]
“French actor Gerard Depardieu is to be tried over allegations of sexual assault, Paris prosecutors say. The 75-year-old actor was summoned to a Paris police station on Monday morning, broadcaster BFMTV said. He was questioned over separate allegations brought by women who worked with Depardieu on film sets in 2014 and 2021. Depardieu was released from custody later the same day and denies the accusations, his lawyer said. Shortly afterwards, prosecutors said Depardieu would appear in court in October over the allegations of assault in 2021. … Depardieu has also been accused of sexual assault by more than a dozen women. He denies wrongdoing and claims any relationships he has had were consensual.” (04/29/24)
Source: Future of Freedom Foundation
by Jacob G Hornberger
“Ever since the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, a question has naturally arisen: What role, if any, did Vice-President Lyndon Johnson play in the assassination? With the publication of Douglas P. Horne’s massive 5-volume book Inside the Assassination Records Review Board, the national-security establishment’s role in the assassination has now been established beyond a reasonable doubt. … But what about Johnson? Was he just an innocent beneficiary of the assassination? Actually not. The circumstantial evidence establishes beyond a reasonable doubt that Johnson himself was up to his neck in the assassination. Johnson had three primary roles in the assassination.” (04/29/24)
https://www.fff.org/2024/04/29/lyndon-johnsons-role-in-the-jfk-assassination/
Source: US News & World Report
“Britney Spears and her father Jamie Spears will avoid what could have been a long, ugly and revealing trial with a settlement of the lingering issues in the court conservatorship that controlled her life and financial decisions for nearly 14 years. A hearing on those issues — including a request from Jamie Spears for a broad ruling dismissing them — had been scheduled for Monday but was pulled from the court calendar after the settlement was approved by a judge on Friday. Britney Spears was taken out of the conservatorship in November 2021 …. But several elements remained and dragged on in court, including final payments to the attorneys who helped operate the conservatorship. Spears’ attorney Mathew Rosengart had also sought a public reckoning over what he said was financial malfeasance by Jamie Spears and allegations of excessive surveillance of Spears.” (04/29/24)
Source: The Bryan Hyde Show
“One of the biggest curiosities of our time is that so many people trust coercion over voluntary choice. Doug McCullough lays out why markets are better than mob rule.” (04/29/24)
Source: Liberal Currents
by Matthew Downhour
“The first state or states to adopt a UBI face a severe issue of adverse selection much more severe than the Federal government deos: individuals with few job prospects might find it worth relocating, especially from nearby states, to establish a minimum income for themselves, whereas higher income individuals or companies subjected to taxes to pay for the UBI might similarly cross state borders to lower their tax bills. These problems are especially acute in the face of income or sales taxes, but even traditional property tax revenues will likely suffer — after all, the sort of big, expensive property development that tends to bring in substantial revenue will also be discouraged if property taxes rise to cover a UBI. This is where an old idea, however, may come in handy — that of a land value tax.” (04/29/24)
https://www.liberalcurrents.com/a-ubi-in-the-united-states-may-necessitate-land-value-taxes/
Source: New York Post
by Tarren Bragdon
“Joe Biden has an ace up his sleeve. Without a doubt, the president is the weakest incumbent in modern history. No matter: He’s using the strength of the federal government to register and mobilize voters who are likely to support his re-election. It’s an unprecedented effort, unwittingly funded by taxpayers, and it may even overcome the factors that could otherwise doom Biden’s electoral prospects, from his extreme age to his disastrous policies. Biden began building this whole-of-government campaign almost immediately after taking office.” (04/29/24)