Source: USA Today
by Rex Huppke

“I’d like to congratulate Donald Trump on the speed with which he’s turned the Republican Party into something resembling an extortion racket. Aside from sinking his fangs into the Republican National Committee like a hungry bat on a plump Berkshire hog, the man spending his days in a Manhattan courtroom under criminal indictment is now looking to bleed cash out of down-ballot GOP campaigns. In an April 15 letter, Trump’s campaign notified all Republican candidates that if they use the former president’s name, image or likeness on any campaign advertisements, they need to deliver at least 5% of the money they raise back to the aforementioned criminal defendant. You know, a little kickback for the boss man. Just enough to get Trump’s beak wet. Because, as has been made abundantly clear, the GOP is Trump and Trump is the GOP.” (04/18/24)

https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/columnist/2024/04/18/trump-gop-candidates-fundraising-nil-election-campaign/73365456007/

Source: Jacobin
by Branko Marcetic

“There is no ambiguity about the fact that Joe Biden’s administration is in flagrant violation of international law for its support of Israel’s brutal war on Gaza. No one seems to care.” (04/18/24)

https://jacobin.com/2024/04/biden-gaza-violation-international-law/

Source: Caitlin Johnstone, Rogue Journalist
by Caitlin Johnstone

“Israel’s allowed to bomb an Iranian consulate, but Iran’s not allowed to strike back. The US is allowed to surround China with war machinery, but it would be World War Three if China ever tried to militarily encircle the US. NATO is allowed to expand to Russia’s doorstep and amass proxy forces on its border, but the last time Moscow placed a credible military threat anywhere near the United States, the US responded so aggressively that the world almost ended. The ‘rules-based international order’ that the US-centralized power structure purports to uphold just means an order in which the US makes up the rules and nations had better obey them. It means rules for thee but not for me.” (04/18/24)

https://caitlinjohnstone.com.au/2024/04/18/rules-based-order-means-rules-for-thee-but-not-for-we/

Source: Washington Post
by Catherine Rampell

“Tariffs are kind of funny. Politicians sometimes acknowledge that they raise prices and kill jobs. But they seem to realize this only when the other team proposes them. On Wednesday, President Biden called for tripling the tariffs on steel and aluminum from China, an announcement he coincidentally made while visiting the United Steelworkers union headquarters in Pittsburgh. This isn’t pandering ahead of an election, the White House insists; it’s about protecting U.S. manufacturing from ‘unfair trade practices’ overseas. Because it apparently bears repeating: No, steel and aluminum tariffs are not good for the U.S. manufacturing sector or its workers.” (04/18/24)

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2024/04/18/biden-trump-tariffs-steel-aluminum-protectionism-china/

Source: The Nation
by James Bamford

“Standing at the thick, eavesdropper-proof windows of his office suite on the eighth floor of OPS 2B, newly appointed NSA director Timothy Haugh, an Air Force general, has a commanding view of his hidden empire. The size of a small city, it is the largest, most secret, most powerful, and most intrusive spy organization ever created. And last Friday, General Haugh was likely smiling very broadly as he looked out on his secret world. The House of Representatives had just passed Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. This legislation would permit the agency, without a warrant, to collect from Google and other US Big Tech companies the communications of Americans talking, e-mailing, or texting with non-Americans outside the country—in theory to gather foreign intelligence, but in practice amassing an enormous amount of data on American citizens.” (04/18/24)

https://www.thenation.com/article/world/nsa-warrantless-surveillance/