“Our leaders have been surprisingly expressive in signaling U.S. military support for the defense of Taiwan. Ironic, considering that official U.S. policy is dubbed ‘strategic ambiguity,’ meaning we don’t say one way or the other about our defensive intentions for helping the island nation against a regularly threatened and rehearsed-for Chinese invasion or naval blockade. Four separate times during his term, however, former President Joe Biden publicly pledged American military help to counter a People’s Republic of China assault on Taiwan. As for the Trump 2.0 Pentagon, weeks ago it leaked (or suffered a leak of) a global defense strategy memo that said preventing a PRC takeover of Taiwan was the ‘sole pacing scenario’ engaging our armed forces. Surprising unanimity for the two parties in Washington. But has anyone asked what the American people think?” (04/29/25)
Source: Common Dreams
by Kendall Avenia & Hartzell Gray
“The Democratic National Committee needs to take a step back and reflect on the moment in which it finds itself. The sense of national anxiety and uncertainty is palpable. Trust in our institutions is staggeringly low. Everyday Americans are scared, and they’re looking for actual leadership. They’re looking for hope. They’re looking for visionaries. However, for the sake of party unity and integrity, the leaders of the Democratic National Committee (DNC) must remain neutral when it comes to primary challengers. At least, that’s what the DNC leadership is saying now. That certainly wasn’t the approach taken in 2016 when Hillary Clinton was given insurmountable preference and privilege by the DNC, and again in 2020 when early primary victories for Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) sent the party establishment into a panic. … Neutrality surely wasn’t a priority then.” (04/29/25)
“Many of the people involved in Uberto Pasolini’s new screen adaptation of Homer’s ‘Odyssey’ are intimidatingly talented. It’s a pity, then, that the film is such a disaster.” (04/29/25)
“To mark Trump’s first (worst?) hundred days, I thought it might be fun to look at all the impeachment articles against presidents and figure out how many Trump has already matched or surpassed. Spoiler: It has not been fun. And the answer is pretty much all of them — from Andrew Johnson in 1868 to the charges in Trump’s own pair of impeachments a few short years ago. How do we know? Because it’s all unfolding publicly and blatantly in real time.” (04/29/25)
Source: Electronic Frontier Foundation
by Jennifer Pinsof
“Senate Bill (S.B.) 2880 seeks to prevent the sale and distribution of abortion pills — but it doesn’t stop there. By restricting access to certain information online, the bill tries to keep people from learning about abortion drugs, or even knowing that they exist. If passed, S.B. 2880 would make it illegal to ‘provide information’ on how to obtain an abortion-inducing drug. If you exchange e-mails or have an online chat about seeking an abortion, you could violate the bill. If you create a website that shares information about legal abortion services in other states, you could violate the bill. Even your social media posts could put you at risk. … Texas legislators not only want to make sure no one can start a discussion on these topics, they also want to make sure no one can find one.” (04/28/25)
“Imagine a neurological disease that changed your perceptions in subtle, damaging ways. Stubbing your toe would bring pleasure. Rotten meat would taste delicious. Deadly cold would feel comfy. Meanwhile, a gentle neck massage would make you feel sick, and fresh food would taste disgusting. You wouldn’t last long with such a disease. But our society is facing something similar. The news media, which are supposed to act as a sort of nervous system for the body politic, instead give us misinformation. The national equivalent of stubbed toes and rotten meat gets media praise and approval, while healthy things are treated as vile and wrong. The latest example comes from Saturday’s much-diminished annual dinner of the much-diminished White House Correspondents’ Association, whose self-appointed members meet annually to give themselves awards and congratulate themselves on their brave truth-telling. This year went badly.” (04/28/25)
“News this week that Elon Musk will soon be departing his ‘Department of Government Efficiency’ (DOGE) is a grim reminder of what happens when you challenge big spending DC. Unfortunately, the lesson once again is that when you challenge the empire, the empire eventually strikes back. … The exposure of the real harm being done to the country by agencies like USAID and others reinforced the idea that much of the ‘Federal bureaucracy’ was simply not needed. Although Musk became a figure of hate for the entrenched special interests, to the large chunk of America forced to pay for Washington’s excesses he became a hero.” [editor’s note: He only became a “hero” to those who didn’t notice that he cut no overall or future spending and largely just jiggered particular current spending to benefit his cronies – TLK] (04/28/25)
“The year 1978 is not just noteworthy for the election of Pope John Paul II and National Lampoon’s Animal House. It was also the year that a little investment banking firm known as Kohlberg Kravis Roberts announced plans to take manufacturing conglomerate Houdaille Industries private through a leveraged deal, using the company’s assets and future cash flows as collateral to secure debt financing for the acquisition. Although KKR had completed three smaller deals the year before, its acquisition of Houdaille was the first leveraged buyout of a public company in modern history. The successful deal set the stage for KKR’s rapid expansion into the 1980s and beyond. Today, KKR is a publicly traded investment firm with $638 billion in assets under management. Despite some initial skepticism, Wall Street would go on to follow in the firm’s footsteps.” (04/29/25)
