Politico Playbook Audio Briefing, 04/14/26
Source: Politico
“Swalwell fallout scrambles California governor’s race.” (04/14/26)
Author: Thomas L. Knapp
The Headlines, 04/14/26
Source: New York Times
“Two Resignations in Congress, and the Pope’s Back-and-Forth With Trump.” (04/14/26)
This Is the Basic Political Problem for Republicans
Source: The American Conservative
by W James Antle III
“There is simply nothing that has happened in American politics between Trump’s epic 2024 political comeback and the Democrats’ romp in last year’s off-year elections running on an affordability mantra that would suggest voters prioritize a foreign war over higher prices. A thousand clips of Trump expressing his distaste for the ayatollahs or a hundred polls showing rank-and-file Republicans still support him do not prove otherwise. … Salvaging the Republicans’ midterm election prospects is going to require extricating the U.S. from the war in Iran while keeping the Strait of Hormuz open, whether GOP lawmakers know it (or are willing to publicly admit it) or not.” (04/14/26)
https://www.theamericanconservative.com/this-is-the-basic-political-problem-for-republicans/
Sudan: Drone strikes kill nearly 700 in three months as civil war reaches grim milestone
Source: France 24 [French state media]
“Nearly 700 civilians have reportedly been killed in drone strikes in Sudan since January, the United Nations aid chief said Tuesday, decrying that three years of civil war had created the ‘world’s largest humanitarian crisis.’ Now entering a fourth year, the war between Sudan’s army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) has killed tens of thousands of people, displaced more than 11 million, and thrust several areas into hunger and famine.” (04/14/26)
The Kyle Anzalone Show, 04/13/26
Source: Libertarian Institute
“Larry Johnson: Are Russia, China and Iran the Big Winners of Trump and Netanyahu’s War?” (04/13/26)
Chiles v. Salazar: A New Frontier of Speech
Source: Washington Monthly
by Alison Gash
“In its 8–1 ruling on Colorado’s conversion therapy ban, the Supreme Court recast mental health care as protected expression.” [editor’s note: The First Amendment is not unclear. Speech is speech, Not liking particular content of speech doesn’t magically make it not speech – TLK] (04/13/26)
Trump Is Making the Best of ObamaCare
Source: Independent Institute
by John C Goodman
“Healthcare usually benefits Democrats politically, but some of the most important health-policy changes of the past decade have come from Donald Trump’s White House. Now his administration is proposing a reform that could change the U.S. healthcare system as radically as Barack Obama’s Affordable Care Act did. This latest proposed reform, the 2027 ACA Exchange Rule, would allow health insurers to offer nonnetwork plans on market exchanges where people buy their own insurance. Today, most healthcare plans cover care only from doctors and hospitals with which they have contracts for treatment and payment. Under the new rule, health insurers would be able to set ‘reference prices’ — say, for an MRI or a knee replacement — that would apply regardless of which provider a patient chooses.” (04/13/26)
https://www.independent.org/article/2026/04/13/trump-is-making-the-best-of-obamacare/
US regime publicly confesses to two more maritime murders
Source: CBS News
“The U.S. military said it [murdered] two people in a strike on an alleged drug-trafficking boat in the eastern Pacific Ocean on Monday, bringing the death toll to at least 170 since strikes began last September. U.S. Southern Command, which is responsible for Washington’s forces in the region, said in a post on X that ‘the vessel was transiting along known narco-trafficking routes in the Eastern Pacific and was engaged in narco-trafficking operations.’ … The latest strike comes two days after U.S. military strikes [murdered] five people in two boats, also in the eastern Pacific.” (04/13/26)
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/us-military-alleged-drug-boat-strike-eastern-pacific/
AI Summer, 04/13/26
Source: AI Summer
“Sayash Kapoor on Claude Mythos as normal technology.” (04/13/26)
https://www.aisummer.org/p/sayash-kapoor-on-claude-mythos-as
The Supreme Court’s refusal to stand up for press freedom is catastrophic
Source: The Hill
by Austin Sarat
“In 2017, journalist Priscilla Villarreal did what good journalists ordinarily do. She was working on two stories — one about the suicide of a border agent and the other about a serious car accident. To confirm the names of the people involved in those incidents, Villarreal texted a member of the Laredo Police Department. The officer responded and provided the information she was looking for. … But then someone in the police department got wind of what Villarreal was up to. Soon afterward, she was charged with violating an obscure, Orwellian provision of the Texas Penal Code, the Misuse of Official Information Act. … the Misuse of Official Information Act cannot be reconciled with the First Amendment’s protection of press freedom. But on March 23, the U.S. Supreme Court let it stand by declining to hear the case.” (04/13/26)
https://thehill.com/opinion/judiciary/5826184-texas-law-muzzles-journalists/