“When Donald Trump announced his presidential candidacy in June 2015, ‘Make America Great Again’ didn’t appear on any baseball caps. It was emblazoned on white T-shirts (in at least some cases) given to people hired to fill out the crowd. There was no hint, though, that the phrase would soon be a central element of the most robust attack on American democracy in 150 years. In fact, Trump’s 2016 campaign didn’t even come up with the MAGA hat. According to 2017 reporting from CNN, someone else sent an early version of the ball cap to the campaign. Trump, holding an outdoor event at the border one day, threw it on, immediately striking a chord. The hat was ‘un-designed,’ in the words of a designer who spoke with CNN, something that just sort of emerged. But it was extensible, replicable and cheap. Soon, it was unavoidable.” (04/14/25)
“Brazil appears to take one step forward and one step back regarding crypto, often making progress reluctantly. Last week, we criticized the stance of Brazilian regulators on stablecoins, and now a ruling from one of the highest tribunals benefits crypto, but it feels like a curveball.” (04/14/25)
“On March 15, National Security Adviser Michael Waltz informed fellow Trump Administration officials through their now-infamous Signal chat that a U.S. missile attack had resulted in the collapse of an apartment building filled with Yemeni civilians. Vice President JD Vance replied, ‘Excellent.’ Democrats on Capitol Hill have since expressed outrage — not at the deaths of innocent civilians, or at the United States’[s] unprovoked attack on a sovereign country, but at the fact that the conversation was not more carefully shielded from the public. The Trump administration claims to have resumed bombing in Yemen to stop the Houthi rebels’ [sic] attacks on shipping vessels in the Red Sea, despite the fact that the Houthis, who serve as the de facto government of much of the country, had ceased those attacks months ago.” (04/14/25)
“In a rare Saturday sitting of parliament, MPs voted this weekend to allow the UK government to assume operational control of British Steel. The emergency legislation will be used to block the firm’s Chinese owner, Jingye, from closing down its two blast furnaces in Scunthorpe, Lincolnshire. Full nationalisation is likely on the way. There is no doubt that government intervention was necessary to prevent the plant’s closure. … This weekend’s emergency legislation has certainly bought the steelworks some time, but UK PM Keir Starmer has some serious brass neck to claim that he has ‘saved’ British steelmaking. On the contrary, his government is committed to the very policies that have made steelmaking and other heavy industries unviable in the UK.” (04/14/25)
“When Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents are trying to track down undocumented immigrants, they seek out all the data they can find. In Arizona, they’ve found a special trove that’s ripe for abuse. The Transaction Record Analysis Center, or TRAC, database offers a rare glimpse into the financial lives of millions of immigrants and U.S. citizens alike. The database contains details about more than 340 million wire transfers sent via Western Union and more than two dozen other companies that immigrants rely on to send money back home. … The data dragnet is powered by Arizona’s state attorney general using administrative subpoenas, which do not require a judge’s sign-off. But TRAC operates as a nonprofit and a clearinghouse for ICE and hundreds of other law enforcement agencies around the country to access the data.” (04/14/25)
“Republican leaders in Congress have been working feverishly over recent days to renew the rich people: friendly 2017 Trump tax cuts set to expire at this year’s end. Both the House and Senate have now passed bills that do that renewing, and also add in some assorted new goodies. All that remains before this latest giveaway to grand fortune becomes law: a bit of dickering between House and Senate GOP leaders over the tax cut’s particulars and then President Donald Trump’s John Henry on whatever legislation that dickering ends up producing. Trump can barely wait for the signing ceremony. But he’s also pushing for much more than an extension (and expansion) of those 2017 tax cuts. His ultimate goal: erasing taxes on income from the entire federal tax code.” (04/14/25)
Source: Liberal Currents
by Katherine Alejandra Cross
“In the vision of Musk and other lords of Silicon Valley, the purpose of AI technology is to insulate them, and only them, from any hint that they might live in a society.” (04/14/25)
“Broad and unquestioning public acceptance that Iran is pursuing a nuclear weapon is build upon what A.B. Abrams has called a ‘greater vilifying metanarrative.’ The U.S. and its partners, both government and media, repeat a claim so often that a foundation is built in the public imagination upon which current accusations are easily established. But next time the government or media feeds you the steady diet of evidence free claims that Iran is building a bomb, remember two things. Iran is not building a bomb. And, despite what you are being told, no one really believes that they are.” (04/14/25)
