Source: Town Hall
by Mark Lewis
“‘Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.’ — John Adams … What did Adams mean and why do Leftists [sic] hate him and our Founders so much? To our Founders, there is only so much ‘power’ in a political system, a true ‘zero sum’ situation. People ‘power’ is called ‘freedom.’ Government ‘power’ is called ‘tyranny.’ And because only so much power is available, the only place government obtains power is by taking freedoms from the people. The more ‘power’ government has, the less ‘free’ the people are. As they viewed history, our Founders perceived that the constant, unchanging tendency of governments was to gain more and more power, thus leaving their people less and less free.” (04/17/24)
https://townhall.com/columnists/marklewis/2024/04/17/our-constitution-was-made-only-for-a-moral-and-religious-people-part-ii-n2637920
Source: Bloggingheads.tv
“How Iran’s Attack Benefits Israel | Robert Wright & Joshua Landis.” (04/16/24)
https://bloggingheads.tv/videos/67536
Source: Common Sense
by Paul Jacob
“Yesterday, a whole lot of people paid a whole lot of taxes. It was Tax Day — filing day — for most Americans. Truth is, American workers pay income tax with every paycheck. And they pay other taxes too. Somehow, though, Pfizer — one of the world’s most profitable companies — did much better than we did. ‘Drugmakers make big profits in the U.S.,’ explains Sydney Lupkin at NPR. ‘But many pay taxes far below the 21% corporate tax rate. Pfizer’s effective tax rate is so low it’s getting a big refund despite booking $59 billion in revenue.’ Did you get a big refund on top of a huge wage hike? No? Well, you should lobby Congress more.” (04/16/24)
https://thisiscommonsense.org/2024/04/16/what-pfizer-pfolks-got/
Source: Al Jazeera [Qatari state media]
“Russian peacekeepers have begun withdrawing from Azerbaijan’s Nagorno-Karabakh region, ending Moscow’s years-long military presence there, according to officials. ‘This is indeed the case,’ Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told the Interfax news agency on Wednesday in response to media inquiries without giving a timeframe for the withdrawal. Nearly 2,000 Russian peacekeeping soldiers were deployed to the breakaway South Caucasus region of Nagorno-Karabakh in November 2020 under a Moscow-brokered deal that halted six weeks of fighting between Azerbaijani and ethnic Armenian forces. Despite the deployment, Azerbaijan retook Nagorno-Karabakh by force in September last year in a move that triggered an exodus of 120,000 ethnic Armenians living there and the arrest of the breakaway area’s ethnic Armenian leaders.” (04/17/24)
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/4/17/russian-peacekeepers-start-withdrawal-from-azerbaijans-nagorno-karabakh
Source: Pioneer Institute
“Industrial Policy Reimaged: Can Government Improve Free Markets.” (04/16/24)
https://pioneerinstitute.org/featured/industrial-policy-reimaged-can-government-improve-free-markets/
Source: Independent Institute
by Alvaro Vargas Llosa
“[S]torming embassies constitutes a violation of international law. Diplomatic conventions, including the much-cited Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations (1961), clarify that the premises of diplomatic missions are inviolable. Ecuadorean president Daniel Noboa knew this when he ordered the extraordinary measure — and fully expected the condemnations from many countries around the western hemisphere and other parts. However, his decision has highlighted the fact that Latin American left-wing populists have made a mockery of international law by granting protection, for ideological reasons, to people for whom the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations and other conventions protecting the sanctity of diplomatic missions were not meant, blatantly interfering in the affairs of other states to destabilize them. Such hostile conduct directly opposes the letter and the spirit of international law governing relations among states.” (04/17/24)
https://blog.independent.org/2024/04/16/ecuadors-undiplomatic-basta/
Source: SFGate
“A lack of affordable housing is such a critical issue at UC Berkeley that even the squirrels roaming the wooded campus are worried about it. Or at least that’s what a satirical — and successful — candidate in the university’s recent student government elections is saying. Last week, Furry Boi, a squirrel from Berkeley’s eucalyptus grove, won a student senate seat for the next academic year alongside 19 human candidates. And he barely squeaked in, coming in with the second-lowest number of votes. But it’s not all as nuts as it may sound: A person is behind the squirrel. Ethan Hu, a 19-year-old sophomore computer science major from the Bay Area, told SFGATE he wanted to avoid a performative campaign that would be just for his resume, which can be a trait of some student government candidates.” (04/16/24)
https://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/furry-boi-squirrel-berkeley-senate-19404639.php
Source: System Update
“SCOTUS Skeptical of Main Jan. 6 Prosecution Theory. Neocons Try to Destroy Tucker over Israel. PLUS: Former Rep. Dennis Kucinich.” (04/16/24)
https://rumble.com/v4puyq9-system-update-show-258.html
Source: Electronic Frontier Foundation
by Thorin Klosowki
“Data about potential voters — who they are, where they are, and how to reach them — is an extremely valuable commodity during an election year. And while the right to a secret ballot is a cornerstone of the democratic process, your personal information is gathered, used, and sold along the way. It’s not possible to fully shield yourself from all this data processing, but you can take steps to at least minimize and understand it. Political campaigns use the same invasive tricks that behavioral ads do — pulling in data from a variety of sources online to create a profile — so they can target you. Your digital trail is a critical tool for campaigns, but the process starts in the real world, where longstanding techniques to collect data about you can be useful indicators of how you’ll vote. This starts with voter records.” (04/17/24)
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2024/04/how-political-campaigns-use-your-data-target-you
Source: In These Times
by Adam Federman
“Amin Chaoui had been in Atlanta less than 24 hours when things took an unexpected turn. Chaoui, then 31, drove down from Richmond, Va., to attend a March 2023 music festival organized by activists trying to stop the construction of the police training facility known as Cop City. The sprawling compound in one of Atlanta’s largest urban parks would require clearing at least 85 acres of partly forested land that abuts a predominantly Black neighborhood in DeKalb County. It faced growing opposition from racial and environmental justice advocates, including an occupation of the forest that began in November 2021. Chaoui was loosely familiar with Cop City — he’d seen flyers around Richmond — but hadn’t been involved in the campaign. He’d also never been to Atlanta, and was especially drawn to the music.” (04/17/24)
https://inthesetimes.com/article/war-protest-standing-rock-cop-city-repression-criminalize-dissent-political-rights-first-amendment