Source: Law & Liberty
by Andrew Beck
“In the modern context, ‘aristocracy’ is believed to be those possessing the earmarks of inherited wealth, unearned social privilege, and personal vanity. Classically understood however, aristocracy is simply ‘the rule of the excellent’ (from the Greek aristo or ‘excellence,’ and kratos or ‘rule’), where according to Plato, governance is entrusted to individuals deemed to be of superior virtue, wisdom, and merit. Noticeably absent from Plato’s qualifications is property and material possessions, or reputation, i.e. ‘honor.’ While the Greeks believed that inherent traits of strength and intelligence qualified one as an aristocrat, the Romans required more suitable measurements.” (04/24/24)
https://lawliberty.org/forum/american-aristocracy/
Source: United Press International
“Germany said it plans to resume funding the United Nations Release Agency for Palestinian Refugees after joining more than a dozen other countries in suspending support amid allegations that employees were involved in the Oct. 7 attacks on Israel. Germany’s Federal Foreign Office and Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development issued a joint statement announcing that the country would ‘shortly resume its cooperation with UNRWA in Gaza’ following the release of a U.N.-commissioned report that found Israel did not offer enough evidence to support the claims.” (04/24/24)
https://www.upi.com/Top_News/World-News/2024/04/24/Germany-UNRWA-restart-funding-Israel-Hamas/5521713971141/
Source: Hoover Institution
“Russian Economic History — A Conversation With Sergei Guriev.” (04/24/24)
https://www.hoover.org/research/russian-economic-history-conversation-sergei-guriev
Source: CounterPunch
by Nick Licata
“The breakthrough technologies of the printing press and data digitization allow the masses to access information. That flood of new information crumbled the legitimacy of the established political orders. Will great powers fall again due to the greater information flow in the new digital media era? Over 500 years have separated the invention of the Guttenberg Press and the creation of digital data. Each begat substantial social and political upheavals. Those changes could come sooner since the speed and breadth of the digital era’s impact dwarfs that of the printing press.” (04/24/24)
https://www.counterpunch.org/2024/04/24/the-digital-era-will-prompt-revolutions-as-did-the-print-era/
Source: New York Post
by Jonathan Turley
“For many of us in the legal community, Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s case against former President Donald Trump borders on the legally obscene: an openly political prosecution based on a theory even legal pundits dismiss. Yet Monday the prosecution seemed to actually make a case for obscenity. It wasn’t the gratuitous introduction of an uncharged alleged tryst with a former Playboy Bunny or expected details on the relationship with an ex-porn star. It was the criminal theory itself that seemed crafted around the obscenity standard Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart famously described in 1984’s Jacobellis v. Ohio: ‘I shall not today attempt further to define [it]. … But I know it when I see it.’ The prosecution must show Trump falsified business records in ‘furtherance of another crime.'” (04/24/24)
https://nypost.com/2024/04/24/opinion/alvin-bragg-has-his-trump-trial-all-he-needs-now-is-a-crime/
Source: Reuters
“U.S. Supreme Court justices, wading back into the battle over abortion access, appeared divided on Wednesday in a case pitting Idaho’s strict Republican-backed abortion ban against a federal law that ensures that patients can receive emergency care. The justices heard arguments in an appeal by Idaho officials of a lower court’s ruling that found that the 1986 U.S. law at issue, the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act (EMTALA), supersedes the state’s near-total ban in the relatively rare circumstances when the two conflict. President Joe Biden’s administration, which sued Idaho over the abortion law, has urged the justices to uphold that ruling. The court has a 6-3 conservative majority. No consensus seemed to emerge among the conservative justices, who expressed concerns including what protections federal law extends to ‘unborn children’ and whether Congress had clearly spelled out that EMTALA can mandate abortion in certain emergency cases.” (04/24/24)
https://www.reuters.com/world/us/us-supreme-court-weighs-idahos-strict-abortion-ban-medical-emergencies-2024-04-24/
Source: USA Today
“On Wednesday, the Supreme Court will hear oral arguments on whether a state’s near-total abortion ban conflicts with federal requirements for emergency care under the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act. EMTALA was passed by Congress in 1986 to ensure that all patients can access emergency medical care, free of discrimination. We have all needed to use the emergency room at some point in our lives. This case will have real consequences on real lives and jeopardizes our fundamental right to religious freedom. Protecting emergency reproductive care that prioritizes the life of the pregnant person is at its very core about our right to religious freedom in a country that claims to have separation of church and state. People of all faiths must be able to practice what their religion teaches.” [editor’s note: If my religion requires me to … make involuntary withdrawals from … banks, do I get to practice it? – TLK] (04/24/24)
https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/voices/2024/04/24/supreme-court-idaho-abortion-emergency-healthcare-emtala/73425094007/
Source: Politico
“Democratic Sen. Elizabeth Warren, who’s leading the charge in Congress to crack down on the digital-asset industry, is getting another crypto-friendly challenger to her reelection bid. But Republican Ian Cain, who founded a startup incubator south of Boston that’s geared toward growing the use of blockchain technology, claims cryptocurrency won’t be a major focus of his campaign — even as he goes up against Congress’ loudest crypto critic and against Republican John Deaton, whose digital-asset advocacy has attracted financial backing from major industry players. … Like his main rival for the Republican nomination, Cain only recently joined the GOP.” (04/24/24)
https://www.politico.com/news/2024/04/24/elizabeth-warren-senate-republican-challenger-00154039
Source: The Bryan Hyde Show
“The dangers of unsound money are becoming more apparent by the day. Mike Maharrey describes how the founding fathers predicted the economic problems of today.” (04/24/24)
https://www.podbean.com/ep/pb-669ug-15f4b9a
Source: Antiwar.com
by Roger D Harris
“The North American peace movement is contesting ongoing US wars in Ukraine and Palestine and preparations for war with China. Out of the fog of these wars, a clear anti-imperialist focus is emerging. Giving peace a chance has never been more plainly understood as opposition to what Martin Luther King, Jr., referred to as ‘the greatest purveyor of violence in the world: my own government.’ … The overall consciousness of the resurgent peace movement reflects the normalization of anti-imperialism as a leading current; antiwar sentiment is becoming explicitly anti-imperialist.” (04/24/24)
https://original.antiwar.com/Roger_Harris/2024/04/23/the-north-american-peace-movement-at-an-inflection-point/
