Source: Reason
by Veronique de Rugy
“This week, Congress moved closer to passing four separate bills with $95 billion in funding for Ukraine, Israel, Indo-Pacific allies, and the domestic submarine industrial base. This funding has been debated for months, with much of it intended for wars that have been going on — and likely will continue — for a while. In other words, it’s not new or surprising. Yet once again, it will be labeled ’emergency spending,’ a tool allowing legislators to double down on their fiscal irresponsibility.” (04/25/24)
https://reason.com/2024/04/25/congress-continues-to-abuse-emergency-spending-for-non-emergency-purposes/
Source: Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
“Even as Ukraine works to get arms from a huge U.S. aid package to the front line, its government is seeking to reverse the drain of its potential soldiers, announcing that men of conscription age will no longer be able to renew passports from outside Ukraine. The Cabinet of Ministers said late Wednesday that men between 18 and 60 years old who are deemed fit for military service will only be able to replace their passports inside Ukraine. Millions of Ukrainians have fled the country since Russia’s full-scale invasion in 2022, mostly to neighboring European countries. The European Union’s statistics agency, Eurostat, says 4.3 million Ukrainians are living in EU countries, 860,000 of them men 18 years of age or older. … Oleksandr Pavlichenko, executive director of the Ukrainian Helsinki Human Rights Union, said the measure was a violation of individual rights — and also unlikely to succeed in getting Ukrainian men to return home from abroad.” (04/26/24)
https://www.nwaonline.com/news/2024/apr/26/ukraine-tightens-passport-renewals/
Source: Garrison Center
by Thomas L Knapp
“The phrase ‘accidental shooting’ is usually a contradiction in terms. There are, in the normal course of events, only two kinds of shootings: Intentional and negligent. An intentional shooting occurs when a competent individual intentionally loads, points, and fires a properly functioning firearm. A negligent shooting occurs when a competent individual fails to do his or her job. That job includes: 1. Knowing what’s in a firearm’s chamber or magazine before pointing it. 2. Taking care not to point a firearm at anything the shooter doesn’t want to hit. 3. Taking care to not pull the trigger if there’s anything or anyone other than the intended target in front of the firearm. 4. Taking care to secure the firearm such that people who shouldn’t have access to it DON’T have access to it. Truly ‘accidental’ shootings are incredibly rare.” (04/25/24)
https://thegarrisoncenter.org/archives/18533
Source: Financial Times [UK]
“The US Supreme Court on Thursday wrestled with how to define the scope of presidential immunity from criminal prosecution as Donald Trump fights charges of interfering in the 2020 election. During oral arguments the court sought to draw the boundaries between a president’s personal and official acts, suggesting the matter might need to be sent back to lower courts to evaluate the nature of Trump’s actions. Such a move could further delay one of the most serious criminal trials against Trump, the presumptive Republican nominee in the 2024 presidential elections in November. A decision is expected before the end of the high court’s term, typically in late June. Trump has argued for a broad interpretation of immunity, saying presidents may only be indicted if previously impeached and convicted by Congress for similar crimes — even in some of the most extreme circumstances.” (04/25/24)
https://archive.is/8W09Y
Source: Agorist Nexus
by Free Market Militia
“Bitcoin, emerging as a defiant symbol of financial sovereignty, operates on a decentralized ledger that transcends global borders, eluding state control and its punitive tax regimes. It epitomizes the Agorist principle that true market operations require no state intervention. In stark contrast, CBDCs represent the state’s attempt to cloak its insidious control in the guise of modern financial innovation. By mimicking the technology behind cryptocurrencies, governments aim to seduce the public back into the fold of regulated financial systems, under the pretense of improved efficiency and security. However, this maneuver is fundamentally flawed. The very essence of blockchain technology, upon which Bitcoin thrives, is its ability to operate beyond the reach of centralized control.” (04/25/24)
https://www.agoristnexus.com/5061-2/
Source: St. Albans & Harpenden Review [UK]
“Lebanon’s militant Hezbollah group fired anti-tank missiles and artillery shells at an Israeli military convoy in a disputed area along the border, killing an Israeli civilian, the group and Israel’s military has said. Hezbollah said that its fighters ambushed the convoy shortly before midnight on Thursday, destroying two vehicles. The Israeli military said the ambush wounded an Israeli civilian doing infrastructure work, and that he later died of his wounds. Low-intensity fighting along the Israel-Lebanon border has repeatedly threatened to boil over as Israel has targeted senior Hezbollah militants in recent months. Tens of thousands of people have been displaced on both sides of the border.” (04/26/24)
https://www.stalbansreview.co.uk/news/national/24280185.hezbollah-ambushes-israeli-convoy-killing-civilian/
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/
