Source: The American Conservative
by Doug Bandow
“There simply is no justification for risking the lives of Americans, including military personnel, in Burma. Overthrowing the regime would be costly and transfer responsibility for Burma’s future to America, creating an unpredictable, probably violent long-term commitment. Supporting an insurgency is tempting but could go bad. The U.S. would become responsible for the outcome — and war is rarely a good humanitarian tool.” (04/25/24)
https://www.theamericanconservative.com/burmas-military-junta-totters-toward-the-brink/
Source: Christian Science Monitor
by staff
“A historical term in geopolitics – the Great Game, or when big powers fought to control the heartland of the Eurasian supercontinent – may need to be retired. Over the past two years, many countries in Central Asia and the Caspian basin have seen a flurry of investments and friendly diplomacy from around the world, reflecting the region’s emboldened streak of independence from foreign intervention. The latest example is an April 22 summit between Russia and Azerbaijan. The focus was mainly economic – how to finish building a road-and-rail corridor across Eurasia, one of several transportation projects in the region. That was in sharp contrast to news just days earlier when Russia, weakened by its war in Ukraine, started the withdrawal of some 2,000 peacekeeping soldiers from the Karabakh region of Azerbaijan, a remnant of Moscow’s previous clout.” (04/25/24)
https://www.csmonitor.com/Commentary/the-monitors-view/2024/0425/Opportunity-knocks-in-Central-Asia
Source: Law & Liberty
by James C Capretta
“Health care presents unique challenges to elected officials. Without some public regulation, market failures will lead to consequences many voters would find unacceptable, as Kenneth Arrow explained long ago in a seminal essay. Among the problems that inevitably arise is the collision of risk aversion among consumers, which leads them to seek insurance protection against expensive medical services, with the ability of insurers to steer clear of potential customers who can be identified as high risks because of their health conditions. … Public regulation and subsidies are the tools all countries use, including the US, to address this unavoidable problem. But these challenges in the market do not mean that the only viable system is one based on full governmental control, which itself carries risks owing to the predictable failings of regulations written and overseen by politically sensitive officials.” (04/25/24)
https://lawliberty.org/how-to-discipline-health-care-costs/
Source: Libertarian Institute
“Biden Campaign Will Keep TikTok Account After President Signs Ban.” (04/25/24)
https://libertarianinstitute.org/kyle/coi-582-biden-campaign-will-keep-tiktok-account-after-president-signs-ban/
Source: Fox News
“Emory University condemned anti-Israel ‘activists’ who are ‘not members of our community’ for disrupting campus on Thursday, as police responded to a massive crowd swarming the quad. … While authorities have not released numbers on how many people were detained or arrested during Thursday’s protests on campus, video shows the tense moments where officials can be seen using zip ties to detain people, tear gas, tasers, and the sound of rubber bullets being used to disperse the crowd. It appeared to be a mix of both anti-Israel demonstrators and ‘Stop Cop City’ supporters – a slogan used in an ongoing effort to stop Atlanta Police from building the Atlanta Public Safety Training Center, a training facility for police and first responders scheduled to open later this year.” (04/25/24)
https://www.foxnews.com/us/emory-university-rips-anti-israel-activists-disrupting-campus-police-use-tear-gas-zip-ties-during-arrests
Source: EconLog
by Kevin Corcoran
“A long time veteran of [National Public Radio], Uri Berliner, wrote an essay lamenting that the organization has gone from and admittingly left-leaning but still rigorous and fair journalistic enterprise to a politically driven monoculture that lets ideology drive its reporting. … Berliner resigned shortly thereafter. Naturally this got a lot of attention, and people have recently started highlighting a TED talk given by Katherine Maher, NPR’s new CEO and former CEO of the WikiMedia Foundation – the parent organization for Wikipedia. In her TED talk Maher made the following comment: ‘For our most tricky disagreements, seeking the truth and seeking to convince others of the truth might not be the right place to start. In fact, our reverence for the truth might be a distraction that’s getting in the way of finding common ground and getting things done.'” (04/25/24)
https://www.econlib.org/in-defense-of-seeking-the-truth/
Source: Caitlin Johnstone, Rogue Journalist
by Caitlin Johnstone
“It’s just a tough situation, with victims on both sides. On one side you’ve got people being slaughtered in droves by genocidal massacres and siege warfare, while on the other you’ve got people whose feelings get hurt when these atrocities are opposed. Hard to say which is worse. … I have dedicated every day of my life to the project of spreading awareness of the depravity and deceitfulness of the western empire, but I will never write anything more effective toward this end than what the empire is doing itself on university campuses right now. I mean, you kind of have to wonder what they’re thinking. ‘Yeah, that’s it. Violently quash pro-Palestine protests at universities, ban TikTok to ensure the suppression of pro-Palestine content, and saturate the boomer media with obvious propaganda. That’ll make the kids love Israel.'” (04/25/24)
https://caitlinjohnstone.com.au/2024/04/25/quashing-university-protests-and-banning-tiktok-to-make-the-kids-love-israel/
Source: Politico
“The Federal Communications Commission on Thursday revived Obama-era net neutrality rules, setting up another clash with the telecom industry and Republicans. The 3-2 vote along partisan lines is a victory for Democrats, who have pushed for this type of regulation for the last two decades and say it’s necessary for consumer protection, fair competition and national security. The rules, which prevent [sic] broadband providers from blocking and throttling consumers’ internet traffic, were repealed in 2017 during the Trump era. The order also reclassifies broadband as a telecom service, as the 2015 rules did, expanding the agency’s authority to regulate internet networks. An earlier version of the rules was struck down by a court in 2014.” (04/25/24)
https://www.politico.com/news/2024/04/25/fcc-reinstates-net-neutrality-rules-00154296
Source: Show-Me Institute
“Missouri Needs a Taxpayer Bill of Rights, SB 727 and Metrolink Expansion.” (04/25/24)
https://showmeinstitute.org/blog/state-and-local-government/missouri-needs-a-taxpayer-bill-of-rights-sb-727-and-metrolink-expansion/
Source: The Hill
by JT Young
“Fortunately for both Biden and Trump, November won’t be a popularity contest. Biden is the more fortunate of the two, but only slightly so. According to Real Clear Politics average of national polling, Biden trails Trump 44.2 percent to 44.5 percent in a two-way rematch, while his unfavorable rating is 55.1 percent to Trump’s 53.7 percent. In such adverse circumstances, November will be about getting supporters to the polls: Here Biden’s disadvantage looms larger still. … One telling element that is only starting to emerge is the divergence between polls of registered and likely voters. This difference is only starting to emerge because pollsters are only now beginning to differentiate between the two potential voting groups: those eligible to vote and those indicating a greater inclination to vote.” (04/25/24)
https://thehill.com/opinion/campaign/4618327-its-not-just-biden-versus-trump-but-registered-versus-likely-voters/
