Source: CNN
“Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has signed into law a key piece of legislation overhauling the country’s [military enslavement] rules. The legislation places a new requirement on all men between 18 and 60 to register with Ukraine’s military and to carry their registration documents on them at all times. The aim is to make [enslavement] processes more efficient and more transparent, the government says. Men of service age who are living abroad will not be able to renew their passports at Ukrainian consulates without producing up-to-date registration paperwork. The new law does not cover any potential increase in the number of people who might be [enslaved].” (04/16/24)
https://www.cnn.com/2024/04/16/europe/zelensky-signs-mobilization-law-intl-latam/index.html
Source: Reason
by Ethan Blevins
“While pundits and lawyers cross swords over free speech on social media, a quieter yet critically important principle is being ignored: property rights. In addition to violating the First Amendment, the rush to force social media platforms to host content violates the Fifth Amendment as well — in particular, the Takings Clause. … Likewise, the Takings Clause shields social media platforms from regulations requiring they host content or users they want to exclude. These platforms have as much right to eject unwelcome digital interlopers as homeowners do to stop the government from using their yard as a public right of way — unless they are given just compensation. If states intend to force social media apps to host users and content against their wishes, they will have to pay for it.” (04/16/24)
https://reason.com/2024/04/16/social-media-platforms-have-property-rights-too/
Source: Serious Trouble
“Blasts From the Past.” (04/16/24)
https://www.serioustrouble.show/p/blasts-from-the-past
Source: USA
“The first-ever criminal prosecution of an ex-president picked up speed Tuesday, with seven jurors seated in Donald Trump’s historic hush money trial. Opening arguments could begin within days. Tuesday’s proceedings saw the presumptive Republican presidential nominee warned by Judge Juan Merchan over potential juror intimidation, while several possible jurors were confronted with social media posts that Trump’s lawyers said showed bias against the onetime reality TV star. … More than half of the first 96 prospective jurors were dismissed on Monday after most said they couldn’t be impartial in a trial of the former president. By Tuesday, prosecutors and defense attorneys were questioning possible jurors one by one over their feelings for Trump.” (04/17/24)
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/elections/2024/04/16/trump-trial-day-2-takeaways/73348388007/
Source: Mother Jones
by Tim Murphy
“In 2016, the Libertarians had their best-ever presidential election showing by a factor of three. Dissatisfied by two unpopular major-party nominees, nearly 4.5 million people voted for the strange-but-plausible pairing of former New Mexico Gov. Gary Johnson and ex–Massachusetts Gov. Bill Weld. Running on a promise of ‘socially liberal, fiscally conservative’ governance, they exceeded the margin of victory in 11 states and raised more than $11 million. It was the best performance by a third party in a presidential election since Ross Perot. Then it all fell apart. Under the auspices of expanding the tent, some within the LP — and a fair number outside of it — began clamoring for a different kind of party: more aggressive, more offensive, and more right-wing. They weren’t interested in third-place showings; it wasn’t entirely clear if they were interested in competing at all. What’s followed has been more than seven years of spectacularly messy infighting.” (for publication 05/24)
https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2024/04/the-spectacular-implosion-of-the-libertarian-party/
Source: Sky News [UK]
“Israel has claimed a Hezbollah commander has been killed in an airstrike in Lebanon. According to the Israel Defence Forces (IDF), the commander of the militant group’s coastal sector, Ismail Yusaf Baz, has been ‘eliminated’ in a strike in the Ain Ebel area. It claims one of its aircraft made the hit on the region roughly 7km north of the Israeli border. … Earlier, Hezbollah said it attacked Israel’s Iron Dome air defence units in the area of Beit Hillel, claiming they made direct hits and had killed or wounded crew members. Hezbollah has not yet commented on Israel’s claims.” (04/16/24)
https://news.sky.com/story/hezbollah-commander-killed-in-israeli-airstrike-idf-claims-13116638
Source: Antiwar.com
by Ron Paul
“Section 702 authorizes warrantless surveillance of foreign citizens. When the FISA Act was passed, surveillance state boosters promised that 702 warrantless surveillances would never be used against American citizens. However, intelligence agencies have used a loophole in 702, allowing them to subject to warrantless surveillance any American who communicated with a non-US citizen who was a 702 target. Intelligence agencies could then also conduct warrantless surveillance on any Americans who communicated with the new American target. This Section 702 loophole has been used so often to subject Americans to warrantless wiretapping that it has been referred to as the surveillance state’s crown jewel.” (04/16/24)
https://original.antiwar.com/paul/2024/04/15/fisa-exchanges-real-liberty-for-phantom-security/
Source: The Guardian [UK]
“Defiant and determined, the House speaker, Mike Johnson, pushed back on Tuesday against mounting Republican anger over his proposed US aid package for Ukraine, Israel and other allies, and rejected a call to step aside or risk a vote to oust him from office. ‘I am not resigning,’ Johnson said after a testy morning meeting of fellow House Republicans at the Capitol. Johnson referred to himself as a ‘wartime speaker’ of the House and indicated in his strongest self-defense yet he would press forward with a US national security aid package, a situation that would force him to rely on Democrats to help pass it, over objections from his weakened majority.” (04/16/24)
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/apr/16/johnson-foreign-aid-resign-republican
Source: Garrison Center
by Thomas L Knapp
“The message of ‘tax day’ and ‘Tax Freedom Day’ is really the same: For nearly 1/3 of the year, the government considers itself entitled to everything YOU earn or produce, and demands that YOU do the work of documenting whether it took ‘enough.’ There’s a word for that kind of claim … but we supposedly ended slavery in 1865. I guess there are reasonable arguments for using weaker terms like ‘theft’ or ‘extortion,’ but there’s no honest way of making taxation sound moral. The dishonest way is best exemplified by Oliver Wendell Holmes’s claim that ‘taxes are the price we pay for a civilized society,’ or Barney Frank’s definition of ‘government’ as ‘simply the name we give to the things we choose to do together.'” (04/16/24)
https://thegarrisoncenter.org/archives/18517
Source: South China Morning Post [Hong Kong]
“China’s Ministry of Public Security said police around the country have made over 1,500 arrests and solved 10,000 cases since the launch of a campaign targeting online rumours in December. The ministry has imposed administrative penalties on about 10,700 people and debunked more than 4,200 rumours since it launched the campaign last December, according to a Tuesday report by People’s Daily. The numbers were first released on Saturday on the official WeChat account of the ministry’s cybersecurity office. The campaign has identified and investigated illegal activities that make money from spreading rumours about hot-button issues.” (04/16/24)
https://archive.is/azpQl