CA: Two contentious measures move toward 2026 ballot

Source: SFGate

“Two highly contentious ballot measures are expected to come before California voters in November. The first is the GOP-backed brainchild of a conservative California Assembly member. If passed by voters this fall, it would require voters to bring a valid government-issued ID to vote. At present, California voters are only required to give their name and address to cast their ballot. Assemblymember Carl DeMaio, who represents San Diego, has argued that a voter ID law would help protect against voter fraud, while Democrats push back and say the measure is part of the Trump administration’s agenda to keep people away from the polls. … A second proposal introduced by SEIU, the state’s largest health care union, would impose a one-time wealth tax on the net worths of the state’s more than 200 billionaires and use the revenue to fill the gap in health care funding due to President Donald Trump’s 2025 budget bill.” (04/28/26)

https://www.sfgate.com/politics/article/ballot-measures-california-november-22228575.php

Steve Trinward

Is Anyone Responsible for the WHCD Shooting Other Than the Shooter Himself?

Source: Glenn Greenwald
by Glenn Greenwald

“As occurs with every act or attempted act of political violence in the U.S., many have attempted to blame the rhetoric of their political adversaries for ‘inspiring’ or ‘provoking’ violence through their words. In the case of the shooting at Saturday’s White House Correspondents’ Dinner at the Washington Hilton Hotel, many Trump supporters are seeking to heap blame not only — or even principally — on the attacker whom President Trump described as a ‘lone wolf.’ Instead, under a theory long used by liberals against the American Right, blame is being widely assigned to President Trump’s more vocal critics for allegedly ‘inspiring’ violence against him. … While this framework of culpability may be understandable or appealing at first glance, it has an ugly and dangerous history.” (04/27/26)

https://greenwald.substack.com/p/is-anyone-responsible-for-the-whcd

Thomas L. Knapp

Aftermath: California Gas Prices Are Up, and It’s Not Just the War

Source: The American Prospect
by David Dayen

“Today we’re going to talk about gas prices, which are high everywhere but especially where I live in California. It’s a long and involved story, but I hope you stick with it! And tell a friend; it shouldn’t be this hard to understand the truth amid all the disinformation. Send them to prospect.org/aftermath for all of our stories about the consequences of the Strait of Hormuz crisis. I mean, who knows? Meetings keep getting set up and blocked; the latest is that the Trump administration is mulling over an Iranian offer to open the strait and then postpone nuclear talks. This would call into question why we ever went to war in the first place; opening the strait isn’t a concession but the state of the world before the attacks began on February 28.” (04/28/26)

https://prospect.org/2026/04/28/aftermath-california-gas-prices-are-up-not-just-the-war/

Steve Trinward

Mexico: Military captures top cartel leader

Source: ABC News

“The Jalisco New Generation Cartel, Mexico’s most powerful criminal enterprise, suffered another blow Monday when the Mexican military captured one of its top leaders in the northwest of the country, two months after the cartel’s leader was killed. Audias Flores Silva, also known as ‘El Jardinero,’ or The Gardener, was seen as a possible successor to the killed leader and the United States had a $5 million reward out for information leading to his arrest. The CJNG regional commander was captured while he was hiding in a roadside ditch near the community of El Mirador in the state of Nayarit, Mexican officials said Monday. No one was killed or injured during his arrest, according to Mexico’s government.” (04/27/26)

https://abcnews.com/International/wireStory/mexicos-military-captures-top-cartel-leader-blow-jalisco-132441441

Thomas L. Knapp

Russia: Drone attack causes fire at Tuapse refinery

Source: Reuters

“A Ukrainian drone attack has caused a ‘large-scale fire’ at Russia’s Tuapse oil refinery on the Black Sea, forcing ​the evacuation of nearby buildings, local officials said on Tuesday. The Rosneft-owned ​refinery delivers oil products mainly for exports but operations ⁠have been halted since April 16 following an earlier drone attack, industry ​sources said. Ukraine did not immediately comment on the reports. Kyiv has stepped ​up strikes on Russia since March, with U.S.-brokered talks on the war in Ukraine on pause and Washington mainly focusing on the Iran war.” (04/28/26)

https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/drone-attack-causes-fire-russias-tuapse-refinery-authorities-say-2026-04-28/

Thomas L. Knapp

Rule by Secrecy – How Covert Regime Change Shaped Our World

Source: Antiwar.com
by Michael Holmes

“The modern international order rests on a contradiction rarely examined in full daylight. Western states present themselves as guardians of international rules, democracy, and self-determination, yet the historical record of their behavior abroad tells a different story — one written not in treaties or speeches, but in classified cables, deniable operations, and shattered political systems. Covert Regime Change, first published in 2018, matters because it documents, with unusual rigor, how this contradiction became a governing method. Lindsey A. O’Rourke, Associate Professor at Boston College, does not ask whether covert intervention occasionally went wrong. She demonstrates that it became a routine instrument of statecraft, one whose predictable consequences were political collapse, mass violence, and long-term instability.” (04/27/26)

https://original.antiwar.com/michael_holmes/2026/04/26/rule-by-secrecy-how-covert-regime-change-shaped-our-world

Thomas L. Knapp