Source: Responsible Statecraft
by Daniel Larison
“Is America experiencing a crisis of confidence? That is the assessment of some world leaders from allied and partner nations in recent months. Former NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen criticized the U.S. at the start of the year, ‘Recent global events in the Taiwan Strait, in the Middle East, in Ukraine are all results of American hesitance to actually lead.’ As he addressed Congress earlier this month, Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida chided his audience for what he called ‘an undercurrent of self-doubt among some Americans about what your role in the world should be.’ One implication of these complaints is that the world would supposedly become more stable and secure if the U.S. simply possessed and demonstrated greater resolve. Given the wreckage created by American hubris during the first part of this century, we know that this is not true.” (04/22/24)
https://responsiblestatecraft.org/us-global-leadership/
Source: Reason
“Worst 4/20 Ever.” (04/22/24)
https://reason.com/podcast/2024/04/22/worst-4-20-ever/
Source: Semafor
“The head of Israel’s military intelligence has resigned from his post, citing failures surrounding Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack as the main reason for his departure. ‘The military intelligence directorate under my command did not live up to our mission,’ Maj. Gen. Aharon Haliva wrote in a resignation letter released on Monday. ‘I have been carrying that black day ever since, day and night. I will live with the horrible pain of the war every day.’ Haliva’s departure marks the first major resignation among Israel’s top brass since the Oct. 7 attack that killed 1,100 people, and ultimately triggered a war that has lasted more than six months and left more than 34,000 Palestinians dead.” (04/22/24)
https://www.semafor.com/article/04/22/2024/israels-idf-intelligence-chief-resigns-citing-oct-7-failures
Source: JimBovard.com
by James Bovard
“Former Senator Bob Graham passed away on April 16 at the age of 87. Graham had been one of the most outspoken opponents of the Iraq War, but his brightest legacy was his perennial fight against the George W. Bush administration’s cover-up of the 9/11 attacks. Graham was chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee when terrorists toppled the World Trade Center towers. When President Bush whipped up support for war by blaming the 9/11 attacks on Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein, Graham recognized the scam. In October 2002, when Bush rammed a pro-war resolution (though not a formal declaration of war) through Congress, Graham objected that another war in the Middle East would obscure the real perils: ‘If you believe that the American people are not going to be at additional threat, then, frankly, my friends — to use a blunt term—blood is going to be on your hands.'” (04/22/24)
https://jimbovard.com/blog/2024/04/22/sen-bob-graham-9-11-and-the-mirage-of-american-democracy/
Source: Associated Press
“Donald Trump tried to illegally influence the 2016 presidential election by preventing damaging stories about his personal life from becoming public, a prosecutor told jurors Monday at the start of the former president’s historic hush money trial. … A defense lawyer countered by assailing the case as baseless and attacking the integrity of the onetime Trump confidant who’s now the government’s star witness. … It is the first criminal trial of a former American president and the first of four prosecutions of Trump to reach a jury. Befitting that history, prosecutors sought from the outset to elevate the gravity of the case, which they said was chiefly about election interference as reflected by the hush money payments to a porn actor who said she had a sexual encounter with Trump.” (04/22/24)
https://apnews.com/article/trump-trial-hush-money-opening-stormy-daniels-6beee9b99114898ee0dd60185d43bac5
Source: Bet On It
by Bryan Caplan
“You’ve heard how Japan finally surrendered to the United States after the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. You’ve heard how Emperor Hirohito went on Japanese radio and informed his people of his decision. But have you ever actually heard what Hirohito told his subjects? The Emperor’s surrender speech is one of the most egregious examples of demagoguery that I’ve ever read. A pile of preposterous pretty political lies for peace. And while we should all embrace the peace, today we’re going to review the lies.” (04/22/24)
https://betonit.substack.com/p/the-demagoguery-of-emperor-hirohito
Source: BBC News [UK state media]
“Papua New Guinea’s leader has dismissed US President Joe Biden’s suggestion that his uncle may have fallen prey to cannibals in the Pacific nation during World War Two. Mr Biden said last week his relative had been shot down over the country, and his body never found as ‘there were a lot of cannibals’. US media pointed out that his comments were not backed up by official records. Papuan Prime Minister James Marape put it down to ‘loose’ talk. He said his American counterpart had had a ‘blurry moment’ and insisted the US-Papuan relationship was strong, and characterised by ‘deeper values’. Mr Marape said the pair had met several times, and ‘never in those moments (has) he spoke(n) of PNG as cannibals’. While the nation does have some history of cannibalism in remote areas, it has tried for years to shed the trope, which it views as outdated.” (04/22/24)
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-68873824
Source: The Hill
by Alizeh Ahmad
“Over half of America is one unpayable bill from sleeping on the street. And before the end of June, the Supreme Court will decide whether you can be punished for doing so. On April 22, the court will hear oral argument in City of Grants Pass, Oregon v. Johnson to decide whether three of the city’s anti-homelessness laws are cruel and unusual punishment under the Eighth Amendment of the Constitution. Collectively, the three laws ban sleeping on streets, sidewalks, alleys, park benches and numerous other public areas. They also ban the use of blankets, or even cardboard scrap, for warmth and protection from the elements. Because unhoused people in Grants Pass have nowhere to go when night falls, they involuntarily violate the ordinances by existing outdoors — that is, unless they stay awake and walk indefinitely.” (04/22/24)
https://thehill.com/opinion/4610634-will-scotus-allow-cities-to-punish-the-homeless-for-being-homeless/
Source: United Press International
“The Supreme Court on Monday opted not to hear a case brought by Arizona Republican U.S. Senate candidate Kari Lake and state GOP figure Mark Finchem alleging electronic voting machines are vulnerable to hacking. The nation’s highest court denied certiorari in the case of Kari Lake, et al. vs. Fontes, Ariz. Sec. of State, et al. in an order list published Monday, continuing a string of legal setbacks for the Republican candidates on the issue. The move lets stand a decision by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals last year in which the appellate panel dismissed the pair’s contentions that electronic vote-counting machines in Maricopa County had been ‘hacked’ and ‘manipulated.'” (03/22/24)
https://www.upi.com/Top_News/US/2024/04/22/Supreme-Court-hear-Kari-Lake-case-alleging-voting-machine-hacking/1771713810408/
Source: The Dispatch
by Kevin D Williamson
“There is a William F. Buckley Jr. line for every occasion, and the one for Sen. J.D. Vance is: ‘I won’t insult your intelligence by suggesting that you really believe what you just said.’ Vance came to his heartland populism via an education at Yale Law School, Peter Thiel’s money, Hollywood, and the New York Times bestseller list. A venture capital man who once denounced Donald Trump as unfit for the presidency and who currently is so intimately and uncomfortably attached to Trump that it is impossible to distinguish him from a hemorrhoid, Vance has decided to be the clown prince of a very small kingdom: the realm of people who feel very strongly that the U.S. government should accommodate Vladimir Putin’s imperial project in Ukraine and beyond.” (04/22/24)
https://thedispatch.com/newsletter/wanderland/pinching-pennies-for-putin/
