Source: The UnPopulist
by Peter M Shane
“The president is counting on that to get away with taking over independent agencies and installing loyalists to advance his crooked plans.” (04/24/25)
https://www.theunpopulist.net/p/will-trump-convince-the-supreme-court
Source: CounterPunch
by Kshama Sawant
“Trump’s sweeping tariffs have been opposed by much of the ruling class because they correctly recognize them as a recipe for recession and economic chaos in their system. … they’re certainly not opposing Trump’s tariffs on behalf of working people. At the same time, tariffs are not a solution for the international working class any more than free trade [sic] and neoliberal globalization have been.” (04/24/25)
Source: US News & World Report
“Thousands of Americans campaigning for the Novavax COVID-19 booster got some good news this week: the FDA signaled it might still win approval after Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr cast doubt on its efficacy. The Novavax vaccine is the only COVID-19 booster in the United States that does not use messenger RNA technology — which some states have begun to ban — and the only option for many people who cannot or will not take an mRNA vaccine. … Novavax has been available since 2022 through a pandemic-era Emergency Use Authorization. A decision on full approval – which rival mRNA shots from Moderna and Pfizer and its partner BioNTech already have – was due from the Food and Drug Administration by April 1, but had been delayed by the FDA without explanation.” (04/24/25)
Source: Politico
“Trump ratchets up pressure on Zelenskyy.” (04/24/25)
https://traffic.megaphone.fm/POLL9742894469.mp3?updated=1745469105
Source: The American Conservative
by Doug Bandow
“The world can be an ugly place. Russia invaded Ukraine. Sudan is consumed by civil war. Haiti is overrun by violent gangs. Conflict has surged in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Somalia is ravaged by violence. Israel is waging war on Palestinians. In Burma the military regime is committing murder and mayhem. The list goes on …. These and other conflicts and potential conflicts are terrible. Many people, especially in Washington, look to the U.S. for answers. In their view, if only Uncle Sam is willing to “lead,” the lion will be forced to lie down with the lamb. And all will be well. Unfortunately, this strategy, as evidenced by the last three decades, has proved to be disastrous. Fixing the world proved to be well beyond Washington’s capability. Equally important, these battles aren’t Americans’ responsibility.” (04/24/25)
https://www.theamericanconservative.com/saving-the-world-is-not-americas-responsibility/
Source: Liberal Currents
by Samantha Hancox-Li
“The constitutional settlement that once governed the United States has broken down. The world that we knew is gone. The second Trump Administration is working their hardest to forge a new settlement: an ugly settlement, based on personal authoritarian power and MAGA culture war. Is Trump II a structural result of a breakdown, or is Trump himself a singular and contingent cause of breakdown? At this point it hardly matters. Something has broken. The world that we were born in no longer exists. It is the task of this essay to ask what broke and what Trump II is trying to put in its place.” (04/24/25)
https://www.liberalcurrents.com/the-present-crisis-and-the-end-of-the-long-90s/
Source: Fox News
“XX-XY Athletics founder Jennifer Sey slammed Nike over its alleged funding of a study on puberty blockers for children and how it would affect their athletic and training performance. … The first notion [?] that Nike was allegedly funding was in a New York Times article published over the weekend about the plight of Blaire Fleming – the San Jose State Spartans transgender female volleyball player who played a controversial role in the 2024-25 NCAA women’s volleyball season. OutKick pointed out that the piece mentions Joanna Harper, a trans woman who studies transgender athletes, is ‘currently helping to lead an ambitious study of trans adolescents that measures their results on a 10-step fitness test before they start hormone therapy and then, after they have begun to medically transition, every six months for five years.'” (04/24/25)
Source: The New Republic
“Trump Suddenly in Retreat on Many Fronts as Poll Reveals Key Weakness.” (04/24/25)
https://newrepublic.com/article/194327/trump-suddenly-retreat-many-fronts-poll-reveals-key-weakness
Source: spiked
by Freddie Attenborough
“A UK court has struck a rare blow for civil liberties. The highly secretive Investigatory Powers Tribunal rejected the British government’s bid last month to repress all public reporting of its attempts to gain ‘backdoor’ access to our private, encrypted data. The legal challenge was brought by Apple, which provides its UK customers with what is known as its Advanced Data Protection, or ADP, service. The ruling has barely been reported on in the British press, but is nonetheless of great significance.” (04/24/25)
https://www.spiked-online.com/2025/04/24/apples-battle-with-the-uk-surveillance-state/
Source: EconLog
by Scott Sumner
“If the US intends to abandon Nato, the best hope of smaller nations is to strengthen their mutual defense alliances, perhaps even creating a unified European defense force. Even then, it would be considerably weaker than the US military. But deterrence doesn’t need military superiority to be successful, it merely needs to be strong enough to inflict considerable pain on its adversaries. Switzerland’s military wasn’t strong enough to defeat Germany in WWII, but they were strong enough so that Germany did not consider it worthwhile to attack.” (04/24/25)