Source: Antiwar.com
by Marc D Joffe
“Fiscal conservatives have been sounding the alarm about endemic federal deficits for years, but many also support the $95 billion supplemental foreign aid for Ukraine, Israel, and Taiwan now before Congress. Can supplemental military spending be reconciled with budget balancing? Conservative hawks think so, but their faith is not supported by budget and political realities. The Congressional Budget Office projects that annual deficits will increase from $1.5 trillion this year to almost $2.6 trillion in fiscal year 2034 and that publicly held federal debt will reach an unprecedented 166 percent of GDP by 2054.” (04/15/24)
https://original.antiwar.com/marc-d-joffe/2024/04/14/do-fiscal-hawkery-and-supplemental-military-packages-mix/
Source: Associated Press
“Colorado’s Democratic-controlled House on Sunday passed a bill that would ban the sale and transfer of semiautomatic firearms, a major step for the legislation after roughly the same bill was swiftly killed by Democrats last year. The bill, which passed on a 35-27 vote, is now on its way to the Democratic-led state Senate. If it passes there, it could bring Colorado in line with 10 other states — including California, New York and Illinois — that have prohibitions on semiautomatic guns.” (04/14/24)
https://apnews.com/article/assault-weapon-ban-colorado-gun-91b1a35b838b984e743141ddc619a24c
Source: EconTalk
“When Prediction Is Not Enough (with Teppo Felin).” (04/15/24)
https://www.econtalk.org/when-prediction-is-not-enough-with-teppo-felin/
Source: Free Association
by Sheldon Richman
“Today is the 104th anniversary of the birth of Thomas Szasz (1920-2012), the great if unappreciated libertarian and defender of individual autonomy and dignity. A psychiatrist by profession, for over 50 years, Szasz was the foremost critic of the social-control system we call institutional psychiatry, or what we could call the government-medical complex. He called it the Therapeutic State. He opposed involuntary mental hospitalization, forced medication, the insanity defense, prescription laws, drug prohibition, laws against suicide, and the psychiatric position (until the 1970s) that homosexuality was a mental illness requiring forced intervention. I am proud to have had him as a friend and also a columnist when I edited The Freeman.” (04/15/24)
https://sheldonfreeassociation.blogspot.com/2024/04/thomas-szasz.html
Source: Town Hall
by Mark Lewis
“America fled from Afghanistan with its tail between its legs. Russia invaded Ukraine. Hamas attacked Israel. Iran has attacked Israel. Every Third World country is invading America, sending its human refuse across our border. Joe Biden is putting sissies into a powerful position in the United States military. He is telling Israel to ‘de-escalate,’ i.e., don’t defend itself. Does he think the world doesn’t see all this? One of my first thoughts is, what is Xi Jinping waiting for? Why doesn’t he invade Taiwan now when America obviously has the weakest leadership it has ever had in its entire history? I am frankly beyond weary of the arrogant moral preening of the Left. They try to pass themselves off as so loving, compassionate and ‘tolerant,’ but they have no clue what those concepts really entail.” (04/15/24)
https://townhall.com/columnists/marklewis/2024/04/15/iran-and-israel-the-nicest-thing-we-can-do-is-obliterate-leftism-n2637768
Source: SFGate
“The director of Donald Trump’s 2020 presidential campaign in Wisconsin, who pushed allegations of widespread fraud that were ultimately debunked, has been hired to run the Republican Party of Wisconsin heading into the November election. Andrew Iverson will serve as executive director of the Wisconsin GOP as it prepares to host the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee in July, the state party announced Friday. He takes over for Mark Jefferson, who left in February to serve as executive director of the Tavern League of Wisconsin. … In 2020, Iverson was the state director for Trump Victory, a joint operation of the Trump campaign and the RNC. It was in that role following Trump’s narrow loss in Wisconsin in 2020 that Iverson told other operatives two days after the election to support claims that Trump had actually won.” (04/15/24)
https://www.sfgate.com/news/politics/article/former-trump-staffer-who-said-to-fan-the-flame-19403996.php
Source: Big Head Press
by Scott Bieser
Cartoon. (04/15/24)
https://www.quantumvibe.com/strip?page=2475
Source: US News & World Report
“Hong Kong conditionally approved its first spot bitcoin and ether exchange traded funds (ETFs) on Monday, money managers said, paving the way for the city to become Asia’s first to accept the cryptocurrencies as a mainstream investment tool. At least three offshore Chinese asset managers will launch the virtual asset spot ETFs soon. The Hong Kong units of Harvest Fund Management and Bosera Asset Management said in separate statements they had received conditional approvals from the Hong Kong Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) to launch the ETFs. Meanwhile, the Hong Kong unit of China Asset Management — ChinaAMC (HK), said it had received regulatory approval on Monday to provide virtual asset management services, and the firm was developing spot ETFs of bitcoin and ether.” (04/15/24)
https://www.usnews.com/news/technology/articles/2024-04-15/hong-kong-gives-initial-approval-to-first-bitcoin-ether-spot-etfs-say-funds
Source: Lions of Liberty
“Fighting Back Against the Great Reset with Jason Jones.” (04/15/24)
https://www.lionsofliberty.com/episodes/fighting-back-against-the-great-reset-with-jason-jones
Source: Responsible Statecraft
by Kelley Beaucar Vlahos
“Members of Congress who have said little to nothing about the over 33,000 Palestinians dead amid Israeli bombs and artillery — two-thirds deemed innocent civilians — in retaliation for the Oct. 7 Hamas attack that resulted in the deaths of 1,200 Israelis, are swiftly calling the Iranian drone and missile attacks Saturday night a ‘disproportionate’ response by Iran. Iran was responding to the killing of seven of its officials in what has been deemed to be by many (except most pro-Israel Western countries) an illegal Israeli strike on the Iranian consultate in Syria on April 1. Saturday’s response by Iran has been called highly choreographed to send a message, even limited, and it was. After the missiles and drones started to fly, the Iranians literally broadcast that their message to Israel had ‘concluded.'” (04/15/24)
https://responsiblestatecraft.org/congress-responds-iran-attacks-israel/
