Source: Informed Comment
by Juan Cole
“Trump announced a two-week ceasefire on Tuesday, April 7, the 39th day of the Israeli-US war on Iran. He depended on Pakistani mediators and a 10-point peace plan put forward by Iran itself. It did not win as in, scoring a knockout. It won in the sense that if I went 12 rounds with Deontay Wilder and was still standing up at the end of it, it would count as a win.” (04/08/26)
Sourcxe: CBS News
“Rex Heuermann pleaded guilty Wednesday to killing seven women between 1993 and 2011 and admitted he killed an eighth, in a series of murders that came to be known as the Gilgo Beach serial killings. … The ultimate break in the case when a car registered to Heuermann matched the description a witness gave of the one that picked up victim Amber Costello before she disappeared. Once police made that connection, they started checking cell phone records. Cell phone tower pings connected Heuermann to the victims, prosecutors said. … investigators collected pizza crust Heuermann allegedly tossed in a Manhattan trash can, resulting in what they said was a DNA match.” (04/08/26)
Source: The New Republic
“Trump Ex-Allies Suddenly Join Call for His Removal: ‘He’s Gone Insane.'” (04/08/26)
https://newrepublic.com/article/208757/finally-trump-ex-allies-call-25th-amendment-he-gone-insane
Source: Popular Information
by Judd Legum
“In March 1968, during the Vietnam War, members of the military killed hundreds of civilians in an incident known as the My Lai massacre. In a subsequent court-martial, Lt. William Calley argued that he was simply following orders from superior officers. Calley was convicted, and the U.S. Court of Military Appeals found that conformity with an illegal order is not a valid legal defense. Therefore, any members of the military who help destroy power plants or assist Trump in killing the entire Iranian civilization could be liable for war crimes.” (04/08/26)
https://popular.info/p/just-following-orders-is-not-a-defense
Source: Cato Institute
by Johan Norberg
“A 16-year experiment has yielded none of Viktor Orban’s stated goals.” (04/08/26)
https://www.cato.org/commentary/hungary-laboratory-illiberal-nationalism-results-are
Source: Bluegrass Institute
by Caleb O Brown
“A court ordering the legislature to dismiss a duly passed impeachment resolution is not the judiciary defending co-equality. It is the judiciary subordinating a co-equal branch.” (04/08/26)
https://www.bluegrassinstitute.org/supreme-court-senators-oaths-of-office/
Source: Washington Post
“Biggest TACO yet? Trump backtracks from ‘Living Hell’ threat.” (04/08/26)
Source: Sex and the State
by Cathy Reisenwitz
“Unlike most pride-having, mentally well individuals, I wrote about my anxieties around taking a service-sector job. (Security clearances are a big thing in Huntsville. Recently my dad joked to me that I have at least one qualification: ‘You’re impossible to blackmail!’ he laughed. This is not a challenge.) Among other things, I worried a shit job would somehow preclude me from office work. I imagined a hiring manager smelling the stench of low-skill labor on me before I even walked in.” (04/08/26)
Source: Mother Jones
by Kiera Butler
“Once allies opposing abortion, gay marriage, and supporting Trump, the war broke them.” (04/08/26)
Source: United Press International
“North Korea fired short-range ballistic missiles on two separate occasions Wednesday, Seoul’s military said, marking three launches over two days after South Korean President Lee Jae Myung expressed regret over a drone incursion. At 8:50 a.m. Wednesday, the North launched several short-range ballistic missiles from its coastal Wonsan area toward the East Sea, Seoul’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said in a text message to reporters. The missiles flew approximately 150 miles, the JCS said …. North Korea later fired a single short-range ballistic missile from Wonsan toward the East Sea at 2:20 p.m. Wednesday, the JCS said in a separate message. The missile flew approximately 435 miles.” (04/08/26)