¡Martes por la tarde, enlaces mexicanos!

by | May 3, 2022 | Daily Links | 286 comments

No. No, I don’t think it is safe to go on the internet yet.

From the inbox:

Dear MoveOn member,

Last night, a draft copy of the Supreme Court decision on abortion rights was leaked to POLITICO, and it is the worst case-scenario come true.1

The draft opinion, written by the far-right extremist justice Samuel Alito, states that “Roe was egregiously wrong from the start…We hold that Roe and Casey [the 1992 decision affirming Roe] must be overruled.”2 If this nightmarish opinion becomes reality, it will mean that abortion will be banned or extremely limited in at least 26 states, and the right to bodily autonomy will be stripped from tens of millions of people—especially low-income people and communities of color—across the United States.3

Sadly, MoveOn and our allies have been preparing for this moment for months, and we are ready to flood the streets, protest, rally, and work together to protect abortion providers and people seeking abortions.

This is an existential threat to our lives and our futures, and we must fight back. Please, will you rush a $3 donation to fund MoveOn’s emergency campaign and support the National Network of Abortion Funds, The Yellowhammer Fund, and the Abortion Care Network? Your donation will be split equally between the organizations.

This decision is the culmination of 49 years of plotting by the right wing to control our bodies and strip away our rights. Together with anti-abortion extremists, the right wing has worked tirelessly to spread dangerous, fearmongering lies about abortion procedures, pass laws that chipped away at abortion access, and pack all levels of our courts with far-right judges who they knew would set the stage for this final blow.

But let’s be very clear: This fight is FAR from over.

With the potential for Roe to be gone within weeks, we must turn to the Senate and demand that they take action immediately to enshrine the right to an abortion in federal law.

No more waiting.

No more waffling from so-called moderate Democrats.

No more letting the GOP block votes by abusing the filibuster.

And no more silence from Senators Susan Collins, Lisa Murkowski, and other Republicans who have claimed to be pro-choice.

Now is the time to act.

Just when you thought ammunition prices were showing signs of finally stabilizing they go and pull something like this.  At least these people stopped complaining about Trump-endorsed candidates.

*Deletes email*

 

Bolsonaro

Even if press won’t discuss the recession in the US, the recession in Mexico…continues!  Don’t worry they have a plan to fix it.  One that worked out so well in the US.

Luckily, Mexicans still have Ukraine to point and laugh at.

I’m sure the Communist Pope has nothing to do with this.  Maybe more to do with this, I dunno.  ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

A Honduran politician cracks down on AnCap zones within the country.  Is it any surprise her name is Castro?

Brazilian Trump is back to trolling.  Frankly, this is a good thing.

Metal bands are a cesspool of libertarian thought.  Have a great day!

About The Author

mexican sharpshooter

mexican sharpshooter

WARNING: Glibertarians.com contains chemicals known to the State of California to cause cancer and birth defects or other reproductive harm. https://youtu.be/qiAyX9q4GIQ?t=2m22s

286 Comments

  1. Count Potato

    “far-right extremist justice Samuel Alito,”

    LOL

    • Count Potato

      “especially low-income people and communities of color”

      In by the third sentence.

      • db

        Wait, so, are they admitting to genocide?

      • Lackadaisical

        Look, those racist knuckle dragging far righters just want more black and brown babies in the world. Pure evil.

      • Tonio

        Margaret Sanger weeps in hell.

      • Rat on a train

        “Those anti-choice people would change their minds if we told them people of color abort at a higher rate.”

      • Dr. Fronkensteen

        They only abort at a higher rate because systemic white supremacy forces them to.

      • Tonio

        But in all fairness it is a run-on sentence.

    • Count Potato

      “Sadly, MoveOn and our allies have been preparing for this moment for months,”

      It’s sad you’re prepared?

    • db

      He’s been plotting this for a decade along with Far Right Extremist Mitt Romney.

    • Count Potato

      “to spread dangerous, fearmongering lies about abortion procedures”

      Such as?

      • Ownbestenemy

        That they are safe and rare?

      • MikeS

        ZING!

    • Count Potato

      “With the potential for Roe to be gone within weeks, we must turn to the Senate and demand that they take action immediately to enshrine the right to an abortion in federal law.”

      Then why didn’t you do that years ago? Didn’t Obama have both the House and Senate for the first two years?

      • SDF-7

        Good thing for them I’m not on the Court. Besides not agreeing with them in general — it is pretty clear that if the majority opinion is there is no mention of it in the Constitution, it can *not* be an enumerated power of the FedGov either. (Boy oh boy, would I love for the Court to come out and say that the Feds are supposed to stick to the contract and only do what they’re explicitly allowed again….). So I don’t see how making it Federal law should fly.

      • whiz

        ^^ This

      • R C Dean

        it is pretty clear that if the majority opinion is there is no mention of it in the Constitution, it can *not* be an enumerated power of the FedGov either.

        Commerce Clause haz a sad.

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      This is an existential threat to our lives

      If we cannot abort, it’s la grande mort!

      • SDF-7

        Almost as apt as the Guardian reporting the mood outside an abortion clinic today (the one that sparked the case, I believe) was: “Gutted” and “Like someone has died”

        You don’t say…..

      • The Other Kevin

        I saw a tweet from someone lamenting that their newborn daughter would not be able to get an abortion.

        Self awareness is not their strong suit.

      • Tonio

        Damn, that is epic.

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        It really is quite impressive.

      • Sensei

        Well it did start with la petite mort.

  2. Tres Cool

    whaddup doh’

    I think Im going to bed. Some of us work all night.

    /looks @ Rufus

  3. Semi-Spartan Dad

    the right to bodily autonomy will be stripped from tens of millions of people

    I’m guessing MoveOn was supportive of vaccine mandates.

    • Rat on a train

      COVID could kill people.

    • EvilSheldon

      I have carefully cultivated my non-interest in the abortion debate.

      But I gotta say, the ‘bodily autonomy’ screeching would ring a lot more true, if the abortion proponents could point to a single other issue in which they give a fuck for it. Abortion, and depressed teenagers sexually mutilating themselves, doesn’t really make for a consistent ethos.

      • Tonio

        And whatever you do, don’t bring up masks and vaxes to them, BECAUSE THAT’S DIFFERENT!!1!eleventy

      • DEG

        In the NH subreddit, I saw someone bring up masks and vaccine mandates in response to someone talking about abortion restrictions infringing on bodily autonomy. The person bringing up masks was downvoted to oblivion, and responses could be summed up as “THAT’S DIFFERENT!!!1111!”

      • Dr. Fronkensteen

        You know they’ll bring this up as a counter argument. They’ll mention that it’s ironic that the same people who fought vax mandates under medical privacy and personal autonomy now don’t want medical privacy and personal autonomy. They’ll also state that covid can affect everyone whereas abortion only affects the person involved. (from their perspective there is only on person involved)

      • Lackadaisical

        …and when they write the laws that say you need to provide your equivalent medical history for your job and to travel I will be against those too.

  4. Rat on a train

    Dear MoveOn,

    Clinton survived impeachment. Move on.

  5. rhywun

    enshrine the right to an abortion in federal law

    Yeah, about that….

    Not gonna happen.

    • Certified Public Asshat

      Why did they wait 49 years?

      • rhywun

        Just spit-balling here, but could it be that congress-creatures are too chickenshit to put their name on an abortion bill? Far be it from them to let the courts do their dirty-work for them, though.

      • Count Potato

        Same with gay marriage.

      • rhywun

        Yeah, we have 50 laboratories of fabulous democracy for a reason.

    • Semi-Spartan Dad

      It would be interesting to see what would happen if such a bill was passed and then signed by Biden. Surely, several states would immediately bring suit under the 10th Amendment, and I don’t see what interstate commerce loophole the Feds could cram abortion into.

      I know the 10th Amendment hasn’t been historically popular at the Supreme Court, but I could see it here.

      • Rat on a train

        Everything effects interstate commerce. Maybe they can also penaltax people who don’t get abortions.

      • Lackadaisical

        Nah, need the baby parts for something or other, plus medicine is now practiced across state lines. Not to mention baby formula, etc.

        I’m sure they can think of something.

      • Semi-Spartan Dad

        Sure, the Dems will think of a million reasons, but it’ll have to be serious enough for the SC to accept. I doubt the justices who were just willing to overturn Roe are going to simply accept the interstate loophole.

  6. Tres Cool

    I’m guessing the Yellowhammer Fund people are pro-choice since its not likely many of them will get fucked by a man anyhow. And its a good grift.

    I wonder why they have no men on staff? I mean, men can have babies too, right? RIGHT ?

    • Rat on a train

      I’m not a biologist.

      • Fourscore

        The Executive Director will not have to worry about the lack of abortions. She’d have to get pregnant first, fat chance of that

    • rhywun

      (they/them/she/ella)

      LOL

      I’m going to start using German pronouns.

      /rhywun (er/ihn)

      • SDF-7

        (she/he/it) — pronounced “sheheeeeit”, of course.

      • JaimeRoberto (shama/lama/ding dong)

        Senator Clay Davis approves.

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        Stolen

      • SDF-7

        In that case, credit where it is due — originally in a Peter David Star Trek: New Frontier novel. The chief engineer there is from a hermaphroditic race, and mentions that they were trying to figure out what pronouns to use for Federation Standard (English). They tried she/he/it… and it took them a while to figure out why all the humans they interacted with burst out laughing.

        Maybe he stole it from someone else — but I can’t take credit for someone else’s classic.

      • Ted S.

        Mine would be der Gnädige.

      • rhywun

        IIRC wasn’t capital ‘Er’ also used for a sort-of royal “you”?

        I can work with that.

      • Ted S.

        I remember Woyzeck had to call the nobleman Ihro Gnädige, but I can’t find the text online anywhere to back up my memory.

      • Lackadaisical

        Nazi confirmed.

      • Rat on a train

        Rat on a train (siya/niya/kaniya). Non-gendered pronouns are easy, but I need to get used to dual/inclusive/exclusive we.

    • JaimeRoberto (shama/lama/ding dong)

      Lindsey’s not bad looking. She could have some success.

      Why do some of them list 4 pronouns? We must do something about pronoun inequality.

      It’s seems to be bad taste to have hammer in the name of a pro-abortion group.

      • rhywun

        So they have more to choose from at random depending on their mood/which personality they’re choosing each day.

      • Lackadaisical

        Also, of someone calls you the one you’re not that day you can castigate then.

    • Tonio

      Tres, I nominate you to do outreach to Laurie Betram Roberts. If you can’t convince her of the joys of heteronormativity, then nobody can.

  7. Ted S.

    Metal bands are a cesspool of libertarian thought. Have a great day!

    You’re not down with FPC?

    • mexican sharpshooter

      Yeah you know me?

  8. DEG

    Prospera’s backers issued a statement just prior to the repeal vote saying they intend to proceed “confidently with plans to invest hundreds of millions of dollars and to create tens of thousands of good-paying jobs in Honduras in reliance upon its acquired rights under the ZEDE framework.”

    “For the State of Honduras to deny these rights would plainly violate its obligations under international and domestic law based on well-established legal principles,” the statement said.

    They’ve altered the deal. Pray they don’t alter it anymore.

    And on that note… Honduras is going to have another run of bad luck.

      • Tonio

        You tempestuous man, you.

      • Dr. Fronkensteen

        You’ll have to suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune to look at those books.

      • Zwak,The Baddest Johnny on the Apple Cart

        Careful, or you will get Calibaned!

      • db

        I have altered the pants. Pray I do not alter them any further.

    • Lackadaisical

      Yeah, good luck with the leftist fucks there. Lefties, especially Latino ones seem adapt at killing the golden goose.

  9. Count Potato

    “Conservationists have blamed Mr Bolsonaro and his government for turning a blind eye to farmers and loggers clearing land in the Amazon, which is the world’s largest rainforest.”

    Because food and timber are bad?

    “Brazil’s vast rainforest absorbs huge amounts of greenhouse gases from the atmosphere, acting as what is known as a carbon sink.”

    Actually, rainforests are carbon neutral.

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      On Taibbi’s post about Paypal totalitarianism today, some nitwit was railing on about injecting environmentalism into every debate, including freedom of speech because we’re all going to die, but all the little creatures would die first and that was somehow worse.

      The environuts are nothing if not single-minded

    • JaimeRoberto (shama/lama/ding dong)

      Could be worse. Swalwell says they want to overturn interracial marriage next. Justice Thomas hardest hit.

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        could impact gay marriage

        Every time a baby survives, a Russian oligarch gets a new yacht.

      • Bobarian LMD

        It was my understanding that slippery slope arguments were invalid.

        So now Joe Biden is in favor of polygamy and bestiality?

      • JaimeRoberto (shama/lama/ding dong)

        Where do you think Hunter got it from?

      • Bobarian LMD

        That’s why Major was biting people.

      • JaimeRoberto (shama/lama/ding dong)

        That was just foreplay.

      • Rat on a train

        Would he also be back in chains?

    • The Other Kevin

      There goes Biden shooting off his mouth again. And people still wonder why we couldn’t avoid a war in Ukraine.

    • Drake

      None of these people have ever heard of federalism?

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        If they have, they despise it.

        At least until the GOP is in charge.

      • SDF-7

        Well it isn’t like they *work* in the federal government and swore oaths to uphold the Constitution and the laws or anything…. That would just be silly….

      • Rat on a train

        You will need to search news between 2017 and 2020 to find when they were last interested in federalism.

      • Bobarian LMD

        Look for pictures of some orange dude.

      • mexican sharpshooter

        None of these people have ever heard of federalism?

        Get the fuck out of here.

    • rhywun

      I see none of the Dems are quibbling about the leak in the first place. Interesting, that.

      • SDF-7

        Even better — Mr. “Judicial Ethics mean Thomas must be impeached” himself Senator Whitehouse doesn’t want the FBI to even investigate.

      • Lackadaisical

        That’s fine, because the justices have their own law enforcement that isn’t answerable to Congress.

    • Tonio

      Why yes, yes it could affect gay marriage. There will suddenly be an uptick in adoptable infants; gay couples rejoice.

      • Rat on a train

        If you are pro-life, do you go to the front of the line? I keep hearing that if you oppose abortion you must support the child. Hopefully it is spread out. I can’t take in everyone. Also, I oppose the death penalty but am not willing to take in those on death row.

      • R C Dean

        I actually doubt the rate of abortion will decrease all that much. If you are so casual about getting an abortion that you can’t be arsed to travel, how likely were you to get one anyway?

      • rhywun

        Agreed, nothing will change. Amazon has already said they will pay for you travel to a blue state to get your abortion on. I’m sure there will be plenty of “help” to go around.

      • Rat on a train

        I won’t bother hoping it will make Ds appreciate federalism.

      • JaimeRoberto (shama/lama/ding dong)

        But according to my local paper, “California prepares for a surge in patients from Alabama, Arizona, Florida, Louisiana, Arkansas, Georgia, and Texas.”

      • Tonio

        This will really hinge on how narrowly the states define abortion. Does Plan B, aka the “morning after” pill count? What about “medical abortions,” which are pharmaceutical as opposed to surgical abortions?

        I can see trafficking in these drugs in states that don’t permit them. Drug war, part deux, vaginal boogaloo.

    • Atanarjuat

      When I go kayaking in the shallow flats here, I have the choice of Row vs. Wade.

      • Tonio

        Technically, if you’re kayaking you’re paddling, not rowing. But I appreciate the effort.

      • Atanarjuat

        Dagnabbit

      • Rat on a train

        Abort!

      • Zwak,The Baddest Johnny on the Apple Cart

        So, are you saying he needs a paddlin’?

      • Animal

        You really had to rack your scull for that one, didn’t you?

      • whiz

        He just floated it out there.

  10. Sensei

    Well the NYT finally admits Feinstein is addled. Will they go for Brandon next? I’m wondering if this is preparation of some kind for the expected November losses.

    As Feinstein Declines, Democrats Struggle to Manage an Open Secret

    At 88, Ms. Feinstein sometimes struggles to recall the names of colleagues, frequently has little recollection of meetings or telephone conversations, and at times walks around in a state of befuddlement — including about why she is increasingly dogged by questions about whether she is fit to serve in the Senate representing the 40 million residents of California, according to half a dozen lawmakers and aides who spoke about the situation on the condition of anonymity.

    On Capitol Hill, it is widely — though always privately — acknowledged that Ms. Feinstein suffers from acute short-term memory issues that on some days are ignorable, but on others raise concern among those who interact with her.

    Ms. Feinstein is often engaged during meetings and phone conversations, usually coming prepared and taking notes. But hours later, she will often have forgotten those interactions, said the people familiar with the situation, who insisted that they not be named because they did not want to be quoted disparaging a figure they respect.

    • whiz

      My mother-in-law has vascular dementia, which greatly affects short-term memory. Sadly, it also seems to be affecting her personality, as well.

      • Sensei

        Same with my MIL. What was interesting (and sad) was early in the disease how impacted her sense of time. She’d go to do something that should takes seconds that would turn into tens of minutes.

        Later when it progressed she’d get nasty with staff at assisted living. This was also completely unlike her prior to the disease.

        You have my sympathies.

      • whiz

        Thanks. That sounds like it was very hard to deal with.

        She originally said that she won’t leave her apartment until the medical professionals tell her she cant stay there (which is about to happen, we think). But later she has said she won’t leave, period. The next month or two could be very difficult.

      • Ted S.

        My mom also likely had vascular dementia, having had a series of TIAs, although officially the doctors said she had Alzheimer’s. Mom was always prone to temper tantrums, and if anything the dementia made these even worse.

        But then she probably had an undiagnosed mental illness all her life.

      • hayeksplosives

        I had my first appointment with my Nevada neurologist last month, and he took a full family medical history. Because my father had Alzheimer’s, the doctor had me take a mental function test on an iPad as a baseline for future comparison.

        I think I did just fine on the test, but the fact that he wanted me to take in the first place was unsettling.

      • Fourscore

        I did something last week at the clinic, draw a clock, label the numbers, set the clock on a prescribed time, then repeat the 3 secret words I’d been given before hand. I’m not sure why, probably by looking at the way I was dressed, they kind of wondered if I should be alone.

      • slumbrew

        I remember the clock thing from Hannibal. That was such a dark, brilliant show.

      • R C Dean

        I wouldn’t worry about it. Having a “clean” baseline is a great idea, and setting it should be much more routine than it is.

      • DEG

        Yes.

      • Atanarjuat

        Nice hat.

      • hayeksplosives

        Thanks. It was my Kentucky derby hat a few years ago.

      • Zwak,The Baddest Johnny on the Apple Cart

        I had to do that too, as my father also had that deeply shitty disease. Sadly, dad was pretty good at hiding it at first, unsurprising as he was a professor. But when the dam broke, so to speak, it was a world of shit.

    • Bobarian LMD

      among those who interact with her.

      That was your first mistake.

      Never interact.

    • Atanarjuat

      Why the fuck would you still show up to work at 88, much less in a terrible place like the halls of government?

      • one true athena

        And was just re-elected too, instead of handing her seat off to the Proggiest of Progs Who Progged who tried to primary her.

      • Fourscore

        She forgot the way home?

  11. B.P.

    “If this nightmarish opinion becomes reality, it will mean that abortion will be banned or extremely limited in at least 26 states….”

    I guess the much-touted civil war is going to be a resorting of the population among states instead.

    • Certified Public Asshat

      26 out of 50 sounds democratic.

      • Rat on a train

        States are artificial constructs. A national popular vote should decide who should be the oppressors and who the oppressed.

      • Bobarian LMD

        51 to 49. Sorry about your luck.

      • Bobarian LMD

        Now get into the train car.

  12. The Other Kevin

    “Together with anti-abortion extremists, the right wing has worked tirelessly to spread dangerous, fearmongering lies about abortion procedures, pass laws that chipped away at abortion access, and pack all levels of our courts with far-right judges who they knew would set the stage for this final blow.”

    Those right wing extremists don’t represent the majority. They’re only like 2% of the population. But somehow they have the magic power to pass laws and pack courts.

  13. Ownbestenemy

    I hear now that pregnancy is a government mandate. Are we going to be alloted a specific number of ladies per month or what?

    • rhywun

      You can have mine.

      • Sean

        lol

    • Nephilium

      You’ll get hit by that bus and like it.

      • Atanarjuat

        Finally got around to reading the PKD story from this morning. Fucking powerful. I do think he was a bit optimistic about the role of the press and how oppositional it would be versus a murdering government. If I hadn’t been banned from Twitter I would post this as a reply to all of the pro-choice regime blue checks carping about the SCOTUS thing:

        “This is a great day,” Ian Best said.

        “Yes,” Ed Gantro agreed. “A great day in which a noble and effective blow has been struck for all helpless things, anything of which you could say, ‘It is alive.’ “

        By the way what you did there, I seent it.

    • JaimeRoberto (shama/lama/ding dong)

      California will probably mandate abortions for men, women and children under 5.

  14. The Late P Brooks

    Back from the grocery store ~20 bucks’ worth of groceries now costs $35.02. Curse you, Vlad the Inflator!

    In other “Inflation? What inflation?” news, I cruised through my friendly neighborhood ranch supply store. The Wrangler “carpenter jeans” I used to buy at Target for about fifteen bucks were there, for 45. Not necessarily apples to apples, but….

    • The Other Kevin

      Oh no, was AOC killed again?

    • EvilSheldon

      We get about one of these in the CVC every year.

      • Sensei

        I remember about 10 years ago when one of DC’s finest left his Glock in bathroom stall on top the TP.

      • Sean

        Wasn’t that the same dude who shot Ashley?

      • DEG

        Yes.

      • Count Potato

        CWAA

      • Translucent Chum

        10 years later he would become the man who shot and killed a woman in the capitol. Now you know the rest of the story.

      • Sensei

        Of that connection I was unaware. Sigh…

      • Rat on a train

        You get 3 strikes before they fire you.

      • Zwak,The Baddest Johnny on the Apple Cart

        Well, Glocks are striker fired.

    • Ted S.

      Negligent, not accidental. But everyone here knows that.

      • slumbrew

        The weapon went off…

        See? Just some freak accident.

      • Sean

        I go through buckets of spackle every montb.

    • R.J.

      Desk pop!

    • Atanarjuat

      Narcissistic Personality Disorder is also a helluva drug.

  15. Drake

    Has Pie been around lately? Wondering how tense things are there.

    Speculation now that when Russia is done in the east, Poland, Hungary, and Romania might all take bites out of the west.

    • Rat on a train

      Pie is placing dirt-filled coffins strategically around Romania in preparation.

      • Homple

        I still say that Professor Abronsius caught up with him.

    • Sean

      Romania might all take bites

      *squints*

      Vampire joke?

    • Lackadaisical

      Lvov was always Polish.

      • Drake

        Expect to hear that a lot in a few months.

      • Rat on a train

        Restore the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth!

      • rhywun

        -1 Lemburg

      • JaimeRoberto (shama/lama/ding dong)

        Transcarpathian Ruthenia was part of Czechoslovakia.

      • Zwak,The Baddest Johnny on the Apple Cart

        We have always lived in the castle.

    • Atanarjuat

      That’s been speculated at Moon of Alabama, but I don’t see how that goes over in the Western press which has made Zelensky out to be the next George Washington. Although the regime media might be studiously ignoring the Ukraine situation as it gets worse and bloodier and further from their rosy predictions of a scrappy underdog defeat.

      • DEG

        I don’t see how that goes over in the Western press which has made Zelensky out to be the next George Washington.

        Easy.

        The science changed bigot!!

    • R C Dean

      It depends on whether Russia will let them, I suspect. If Russia decides its in too deep to settle for less than the whole enchilada (which I still think was the plan the whole time), they should cool their jets. After this, I don’t know why anyone would want to share a border with Russia, anyway.

      • Drake

        The middle leftovers around Kiev will be left as a neutral no-man’s-land with no access to the Black Sea.

      • R C Dean

        When the Russians finally beat the Ukrainian army, I don’t think there is any way they don’t take Kiev. I think its odds on they roll straight to the Polish border. They may leave a rump state that is laughably “neutral”, I suppose.

        But I’m just guessing. Who knows? Putin may actually be telling the truth. This time.

      • Atanarjuat

        Here’s a guess as good as any other. (source: https://www.thepostil.com/our-interview-with-jacques-baud/)

        TP: What do you think will be the fate of the Ukraine? Will it be like all the other experiments in “spreading democracy” (Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, etc.)? Or is Ukraine a special case?

        JB: I have definitely no crystal ball… At this stage, we can only guess what Vladimir Putin wants. He probably wants to achieve two main goals. The first one is to secure the situation of the Russian-speaking minority in Ukraine. How, remains an open question. Does he want to re-create the “Novorossiya” that tried to emerge from the 2014 unrests? This “entity” that never really existed, and it consisted of the short-lived Republics of Odessa, Donetsk, Dnepropetrovsk, Kharkov and Lugansk, of which only the Republics of Donetsk and Lugansk “survived.” The autonomy referendum planned for early May in the city of Kherson might be an indication for this option. Another option would be to negotiate an autonomous status for these areas, and to return them to Ukraine in exchange of its neutrality.
        The second goal is to have a neutral Ukraine (some will say a “Finlandized Ukraine”). That is—without NATO. It could be some kind of Swiss “armed neutrality.” As you know, in the early 19th century, Switzerland had a neutral status imposed on it by the European powers, as well as the obligation to prevent any misuse of its territory against one of these powers. This explains the strong military tradition we have in Switzerland and the main rationale for its armed forces today. Something similar could probably be considered for Ukraine.

        An internationally recognized neutral status would grant Ukraine a high degree of security. This status prevented Switzerland from being attacked during the two world wars. The often-mentioned example of Belgium is misleading, because during both world wars, its neutrality was declared unilaterally and was not recognized by the belligerents. In the case of Ukraine, it would have its own armed forces, but would be free from any foreign military presence: neither NATO, nor Russia. This is just my guess, and I have no clue about how this could be feasible and accepted in the current polarized international climate.

      • R C Dean

        It could be some kind of Swiss “armed neutrality.”

        I think that is quite optimistic indeed.

        Since I believe Putin has said he wants Ukraine demilitarized.

        I just find it very difficult indeed to believe the Russians have launched a full-scale, very costly war, so they can completely withdraw from every inch of Ukrainian territory when they win. Are they even going to give back Crimea?

      • Atanarjuat

        Of course not.

  16. Count Potato

    “The Trump Organization and the Presidential Inaugural Committee will pay a combined $750,000 to Washington, DC to settle a lawsuit over allegations that the former president’s inaugural committee misspend funds to enrich his real estate empire, the capital’s attorney general announced on Tuesday.

    Donald Trump panned Racine’s investigation as a ‘witch hunt’ and implored the Democratic official to focus on ‘soaring’ crime rates in his city instead.

    The agreement, which has yet to be signed by the presiding judge, would see the sum split between two DC-area nonprofits benefitting the city’s youth, according to a copy of the document shared by Attorney General Karl Racine.

    The ex-president himself was not named as a defendant in the suit, which targets Presidential Inaugural Committee, the Trump Organization and the Trump International Hotel in DC.

    Trump claimed he only settled due to the ‘impending sale’ of his Washington, DC hotel.”

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10779227/Trump-reaches-750-000-settlement-Washington-DC-lawsuit-hotel-payments-inauguration.html

    • R C Dean

      the sum split between two DC-area nonprofits benefitting the city’s youth

      How legal settlements get paid to non-parties has always been a mystery to me.

      • rhywun

        As long as the laundromats play their expected part.

  17. DEG

    Maggie Hassan is worried about getting reelected

    A candidate in the U.S. Senate race is out with a new ad promising to take on President Joe Biden and her fellow Democrats to lower gas prices for the average American.

    No, it is not another Republican entering the crowded GOP primary, but endangered incumbent Democratic Sen. Maggie Hassan. Fresh off her poorly-received trip to the southern border where she was criticized for calling for more wall construction, Hassan’s new ad distances the first-term incumbent from her party and president.

    “I’m taking on members of my own party to push a gas tax holiday,” Hassan says in the ad out Monday. “And I’m pushing Joe Biden to release more of our oil reserves. That’s how we lower costs and get through these times.”

    • The Other Kevin

      I like where this is heading.

      • Swiss Servator

        Lying to get reelected, then going back to being a good old reliable TEAM BLUE hack?

    • Rat on a train

      He needs to settle on one spelling of his name.

    • Atanarjuat

      If true, and this dude was involved with biolab treachery, I hope he’s subjected to the full Russian prison experience.

      I wonder if that’s who they sent all those helicopters to Azovstal in those suicide extraction missions for. Supposedly there’s an American general in the same predicament.

  18. Lackadaisical

    Someone posted a link to Philip k. Dick’s Pre-persons.

    He clearly would have been a glib. I think I actually read that in school once. My teachers must have been really based. Worth a reread as an adult.

    “Because of energy and fuel shortages,” Ferris was saying, “population must be
    radically cut. Or in ten years there’ll be no food for anyone. This is one phase of -”

    https://www.ufrgs.br/bioetica/pre-personsPhilipDick.pdf

    Really pegged the assholes, even back then. Not surprising since the people he was criticizing here went to teach all the kooks we’ve got to deal with now.

    • Tonio

      “Really pegged the assholes…”

      • Sensei

        Legit LOL.

    • rhywun

      Yeah, I’m looking forward to reading that. I don’t think I’ve read it before.

      • robc

        I make an algebra joke whenever the abortion issue comes up (well, whenever I bother), so you have been missing out.

      • robc

        I didn’t on this thread, because MS made the 26-year joke and that undercut my joke.

    • Nephilium

      /takes victory lap

      PKD is one of my favorite authors, though I find that reading too much of his work in a row leads me to a bad mental state.

      • robc

        I like the idea of PKD better than I like reading him. He gets weird.

        Agree about the mental state too.

      • Nephilium

        The short stories are usually easier to handle, and some of them actually have a happy ending.

      • Zwak,The Baddest Johnny on the Apple Cart

        Dick wrote a lot of marginal stuff, not unexpectedly as he wrote for money. But when he is on, oh boy is he good. VALIS, The Transmigration of Timothy Archer, A Scanner Darkly, Confessions of a Crap Artist, and best of all UBIK are all masterpieces, standing head and shoulders with modern literary greats.

    • Atanarjuat

      The thing about soulless women who have no instincts for nurturing and want to destroy men because they are more powerful (in certain ways) is a perfect description of the blue-haired, mask-wearing, convincing their 6 year old kids that they are trans set.

    • Yusef drives a Kia

      thanks! I’ll read it now.

  19. The Late P Brooks

    Philip K Dick was a more accurate prognosticator than Nostradamus.

  20. Certified Public Asshat

    Misoprostol is relatively easy to acquire from veterinary sources, since in addition to medically inducing abortions, it's also used to treat ulcers in horses. https://t.co/nglKSGjXA0— Motherboard (@motherboard) May 3, 2022

    Only a foal would take ivermectin though.

    • SDF-7

      Are you saying that they’re worried about horsing around with some stud after drinking too much Colt 45 and being saddled with the consequences of their choices?

      Yeah, I can see why they’d bridle at that.

      • TARDis

        We better hoof it on out of here before you know trots in.

      • Dr. Fronkensteen

        Forget hoofing it. I’m galloping out.

      • Fourscore

        I’m getting off this merry-go-round, before I have to pony up for another ticket

    • The Gunslinger

      The mane thing to remember is to only take a bit of ivermectin.

      • Yusef drives a Kia

        “I guess, he thought, saying something doesn’t make it true”

  21. The Late P Brooks

    Wasn’t that the same dude who shot Ashley?

    That claim has been made. I have no idea if it is true.

    • R C Dean

      Yes, its true.

  22. Gustave Lytton

    “We emphasize that our decision concerns the constitutional right to abortion and no other right,” Alito, a George W. Bush appointee, also wrote, according to the draft published by Politico. “Nothing in this opinion should be understood to cast doubt on precedents that do not concern abortion.”

    Cmon Alito, you pussy. Apply the actual Constitution to those as well.

    • Semi-Spartan Dad

      I took that to be a defense of Heller.

  23. Dr. Fronkensteen

    I’ve long felt that from a political standpoint the worst thing that could happen to the Republican party is for Roe v. Wade to be overturned. How many votes and contributions has that issue provided? It will be interesting to see how this affects the mid-terms. Before everyone was talking about a red wave due to the incompetence of Biden. Now. I think it will be a wash.

    • The Other Kevin

      Me too, although the midterms are a long way off, and economically things will keep getting worse.

      • Drake

        By then, blue states will have already ensured abortion on-demand up to and through labor. The other states will be having a healthy debate about what point elective abortion for birth-control purposes should be limited. Screaming harpies interrupting those serious discussions won’t be welcome by many people.

      • The Other Kevin

        Over on PJ, they don’t think it will be a factor, because people don’t list abortion as one of their most important issues.

      • Urthona

        It’ll be interesting to see what happens but PJ Media does make some good points.

        The people who are radically pro abortion were unlikely to not vote Democrat anyway.

        The people who are radically pro life but didn’t care for Trump may now see the wisdom in more of a conservative coalition.

        The vast majority of people are motivated by economic issues. Particularly now.

        Most Americans favor at least some restrictions on abortion so — depending on what Republican states do in response — they may not find it too bad.

      • Yusef drives a Kia

        PL is a bunch of fucking Warmongers,
        That is all

      • Urthona

        If you’re gonna be a warmonger, be the kind that fucks.

    • Sensei

      Interesting thought.

      The question is if you are socially liberal, but pro-life is there a bucket that is going to support all the other progressive goals like racial equity, gender fluidity, aversion to traditional religion and the like. You are probably A-OK with social spending and Krugman Econ. The issue is how current progressive seem to hate any traditional values.

    • rhywun

      Nah, I don’t this will have nearly the impact on the mid-terms that the leaker was hoping for. There are a dozen issues ranking more important in the polls.

  24. R C Dean

    Here’s one to think about:

    I have noticed over the years that many (most?) pre-Roe abortion laws are still on the books. They don’t come off the books unless the legislature repeals them, which in many cases was never done. They have been unenforceable, and have sat there dormant. Much depends on exactly how the decision is written (assuming nobody flips their vote, of course), but if Roe is simply overturned, then I think all those 60+ year old laws will be fully effective. At this point, I doubt anybody really knows what the law would be on abortion if SCOTUS just vaporizes Roe. Everybody has been ignoring the pre-Roe laws. There are a lot of people who should be scrambling right now to figure out just what the legal landscape will be if Roe is overturned “cleanly”.

    • Fourscore

      Strange that a pregnant person can get a drive thru abortion but it takes years and years to execute a convicted felon. Shouldn’t a fetus have the same safeguards? An appeal at least.

      • Rat on a train

        It also takes years to evict a squatter.

    • Tonio

      Kee-rect. Legislators are reluctant to repeal anything. Both because of inertia, and because “we might need that someday.”

      I like Heinlein’s idea of a legislature with a chamber that existed only to repeal laws. Not practical, but aspirational. I also support mandatory sunset limits on all laws, somewhere between twenty and fifty years, ie within the lifespan of a person. I also, also support laws that require that each extension of a bill must be debated and voted on individually, no rollups.

      • R C Dean

        We don’t do “elective” abortions, although we do occasionally have fetal demises that count under a retarded AZ law that was passed to try to work around Roe as much as it could. I don’t have a clue what the state of play would be in AZ if Roe is repealed cleanly, and I’m a healthcare lawyer.

      • robc

        Jefferson suggested 19 years.

        I would go with 25, but who am I to argue with Tommy J?

    • MikeS

      In North Dakota there is a “trigger” law ready and waiting to automatically ban abortion 30 days after the overturning of Roe. I believe at least a handful of states have similar laws.

      • Pope Jimbo

        I’m sure that civic leaders in Moorhead and East Grand Forks in the great state of Minnesoda are gloriously happy at the thought of all those Abortion Bucks coming in from NoDak.

        Driving around today someone on MPR was opining that Minnesoda has a holy duty to keep the abortions going because we are surrounded by evil patriarchies who want to put women back in chains.

        The MPR reporterette was worried because we have let down our guard here too and now have a super restrictive 24 hour waiting period on the books!

      • Lackadaisical

        I have a feeling I am going to start accidentally writing ‘Minnesoda’ from now on.

  25. The Late P Brooks

    WTF?

    More than 200 sailors have moved off the USS George Washington aircraft carrier after multiple deaths by suicide among the crew, including three in less than one week in April, according to the Navy.

    The sailors are moving to a local Navy installation as the nuclear-powered aircraft carrier continues to go through a years-long refueling and overhaul process at the shipyard in Newport News in Virginia. Over the past 12 months, seven members of the crew have died, including four by suicide, prompting the Navy to open an investigation into the command climate and culture on board the Nimitz-class carrier.
    The commanding officer of the carrier, Capt. Brent Gaut, made the decision to allow sailors living on board the ship to move to other accommodations, according to a statement from Naval Air Force Atlantic. On the first day of the move, which began Monday, more than 200 sailors left the carrier and moved to a nearby Navy facility.
    “The move plan will continue until all Sailors who wish to move off-ship have done so,” the statement said. Although the carrier does not have its full complement of approximately 5,000 sailors, the ship still has between 2,000 and 3,000 sailors living aboard during the overhaul process.

    I assume some of those sailors have continuing duties and responsibilities, but thousands of them living on a ship while it’s in the shop?

    • rhywun

      And for years?! Yeah, I’m not surprised at all.

    • Tonio

      Paging Nephilium and R.J. This would be a perfect GlibFlick if available for free.

      • Sensei

        It’s awesome. A SF version of The Kentucky Fried Movie.

      • R.J.

        It would! Currently paywalled. It is on the watch list.

  26. Count Potato

    “for those of you who are just catching up: if you are able to afford it, and if it is safe for you to do so, you should consider arming yourselves, then finding others to train with in teams and learn how to defend your community—we may need these skills in the very near future”

    https://twitter.com/xychelsea/status/1521567314373664768

    • R C Dean

      Its good advice.

      Given for completely batshit reasons. The states can now decide on abortion, so death squads will be hunting trannies?

      • MikeS

        I scrolled through the replies for a while (too long), and apparently there is a whole group of people who are absolutely convinced the right is committing violent crimes and will soon be ramping it up. The detachment from reality is amazing, and a testament to what the gaslighters at MSNBC, Slate, etc., etc., etc., can accomplish.

      • rhywun

        I don’t get it. They are aware that the left wants to disarm them, no…?

      • Drake

        Angelina Jolie had some more work done.

    • Drake

      Waiting for my CWP to show up so I can join the local club (require an FBI background check if you don’t get it). Put a deposit down on a back-ordered rifle, that needs to hurry up.
      Tired of this being patient bullshit.

  27. Sean

    Disney has money. Why is there even a question about “who’s going to pay Disney’s debt?” when the windy creek thing goes away?

    Da fuq?

    • Shpip

      It’s the lefties’ current tu quoque fallacy: “Whycome you small government types are going to foist a $1B bond on Orange County taxpayers?” without mentioning, of course, that Orange County would gladly assume a $1B debt in exchange for $500M or so annually in property tax.

    • Urthona

      Quit trying to make naked gardening day a thing, Wikipedia

      • R.J.

        Nice melons!

      • Pope Jimbo

        Hoes everywhere!

      • Rat on a train

        Sow your oats?

    • JaimeRoberto (shama/lama/ding dong)

      Not a good idea. It gives me flashbacks of my time in Central Europe where the babushkas would work their gardens in their bras and panties. I’m triggered.

      • Pope Jimbo

        lol. The one group of women canoe paddlers that were topless that I ran across in the Boundary Waters were way back in the sticks and at least 65 years old.

        They were pretty cool. Even funny. They joked that even with their tops off, we couldn’t see their nipples because they were sagged way down below the gunwale of the canoe.

    • Ed Wuncler

      I have rosebushes in my backyard and there’s no way in hell I would trim those bushes naked.

      • mexican sharpshooter

        Dude, I got palm trees.

  28. Ed Wuncler

    I had an observation about today’s abortion news. All of my white friends who are women are fucking losing their minds like this is Saudi Arabia, but the wokest of my black friends have barely mentioned anything about abortion.

    The Left always tries to frame the abortion debate in patriarchal but also racial terms but the black community at best is meh towards abortion and at worst incredibly against it.

    But lastly they can all go and fuck themselves. These are the same people who cheer-leaded the long dick of government fucking over individuals who objected to being forced to take the suped up flu shot. But suddenly the pro-abortion crowd are rediscovering the aspect of body autonomy when it comes to their pet issue.

    • Tundra

      I think this will be a very revealing time for normies. It seems like the lefty freaks are doing everything in their power to red-pill the regular folk.

    • Urthona

      All the whites women I know that are married with kids are cool about it.

      All the unmarried, professional, and bitter women I know from my college days at a northeastern university are going batshit.

      • Ed Wuncler

        My wife is pro-choice but she told me after our daughters where born that while doesn’t agree with scrapping Roe, she can understand why people would be against the court ruling and consider abortion as murder.

      • Tundra

        What I don’t get is that scrapping RvW doesn’t outlaw abortion, it just punts it to the states. How the fuck don’t people know this?

      • rhywun

        The left in action.

        Anything they like must be universally accepted if not praised.

      • JaimeRoberto (shama/lama/ding dong)

        Maybe I’m guilty of thinking that everyone thinks like me, but it seems to me that most people are ok with it being legal up to a certain point. That certain point is likely somewhere around 3-4 months. I don’t think there are many who want it to be completely illegal, and most are disgusted with the idea that it should be legal to 9 months.

      • creech

        I was arguing that a woman should have made up her mind whether or not to abort by the end of the first trimester. The person I was discussing this with came back with “so what if she’s in her eighth month and suddenly loses her job or the baby father runs off? She should still have the right to abort.”
        I guess one can come up with any number of rationalizations why a woman can’t decide before any arbitrary time before actual birth. However, maybe the indecisive woman has to then suck it up, go through a couple more months of pregnancy, and then put the baby up for adoption?

      • JaimeRoberto (shama/lama/ding dong)

        According to the internet the youngest surviving premature baby was 21 weeks. It seems to me that that is a good benchmark to use. Now if I were pro-unrestricted abortion, I wouldn’t want to tie the law to technological advances that will likely drive that number lower. But it seems to me that if the child can survive outside the womb, it’s too late for an abortion.

      • rhywun

        “so what if she’s in her eighth month and suddenly loses her job or the baby father runs off? She should still have the right to abort.”

        That’s sick.

      • Tundra

        Evil.

      • JaimeRoberto (shama/lama/ding dong)

        And if the boyfriend who ran off had killed her before running, he’d be charged with double murder most likely.

      • Drake

        Yes. I think most of us agree with this in principle and the place to work out that limit is in the state legislatures.

      • trshmnstr the terrible

        I don’t think there are many who want it to be completely illegal,

        A large fraction of evangelical Christianity want it completely illegal or at least illegal except in the most challenging of situations.

        It’s not a few thousand who want it completely gone, it’s millions.

      • Tundra

        I’ve changed my mind.

        I want it gone.

      • trshmnstr the terrible

        Me too. I used to be in the viability camp. I evolved on the issue as people challenged my views. My more extreme views were solidified when we had our first kid.

      • rhywun

        I evolved.

        I was “pro-choice” in college because all the cool kids were. But it wasn’t an opinion that I had arrived at with any thought. And I never gave much thought to it again until the last few years.

        It’s still not a top issue of mine at all, but when I think about it there is no other logical conclusion to arrive at besides “it is always wrong”.

      • JaimeRoberto (shama/lama/ding dong)

        US voting age population is about 250 million. It may be millions and still be a small percentage.

  29. The Hyperbole

    DAILY QUORDLE ROUNDUP™©®
    (The ‘Has everyone gotten enough strawman today?’ Edition)

    #99
    Champs
    Bobarian LMD 18

    MikeS 19
    Not Adahn 19
    whiz 19
    Grumbletarian 20
    The Hyperbole 21
    grrizzly 22
    Rat on a train 23
    SDF-7 23
    Sean 23
    Ted S. 23
    Ghostpatzer 24
    Grummun 24
    kinnath 24
    Scruffy Nerfherder 24
    trshmnstr the terrible 24
    Tulip 24
    The Other Kevin 25
    Tundra 25
    TARDis 27
    Ozymandias 29

    Chumps
    db 113
    rhywun 115

    23 Players, 30.7826087 Average, 7/16 TL, 40 SSS. Bobarian LMD goes back to back champ, can he Three-peat? Otherwise our worst day of the week so far also the highest Solution Scrabble Score…Coincidence? Probably, there’s still not enough data to tell if that’s a good indicator of difficulty or not. Now, go out there and get you some abortions while you still can.

    • rhywun

      I knew I could do it.

      • Sean

        ? ?

    • Raven Nation

      Daily Quordle 99
      6️⃣5️⃣
      4️⃣7️⃣

    • TARDis

      Anybody below 20 is a champ to me.

    • one true athena

      Daily Quordle 99
      6️⃣5️⃣
      4️⃣7️⃣

      for, statistical purposes, I guess?

  30. Tundra

    A Honduran politician cracks down on AnCap zones within the country.

    Yes, good plan you stupid twat. Why the fuck would you want your slaves to better themselves.

    Cunt.

    Why we fuck around halfway across the globe when CA and SA are ripe for development is beyond me. Resources, workers, proximity – we could build one hellaciously good manufacturing alliance.

    • TARDis

      China has actual slaves. Oh, I mean prisoners. Bad people serving the state.

  31. rhywun

    W00t – I got my first Amazon package after a debacle a couple months ago that left me hesitant to use them. I was a little worried from the tracking page that they were going to deliver it to the wrong state again but it actually arrived.

      • rhywun

        Hopefully the second half comes tomorrow.

        Same. Mine is also two boxes but nothing quite that majestic.

      • Yusef drives a Kia

        That looks cool but not for that price jeez, must be German…

      • TARDis

        Be homeless in style! That is ridiculous.

      • rhywun

        It’s not cheap Chinese shit. ?‍♂️

        I have one that is cheap Chinese shit and it shows.

  32. juris imprudent

    The Bee decides to forego parody.

    Democrat leaders claim the Circuit Court’s decision has no legal power, but we all should obey it anyway since Democrats still need a way to dispose of their mistresses’ children without anyone finding out.

    Republicans responded with anger to the 9th Circuit ruling, but then shrugged their shoulders and said their hands were tied and there was nothing they could do—since Republicans also need a way to dispose of their mistresses’ children without anyone finding out.

  33. pistoffnick

    I got a lady interested in me on one of the dating sites. we message for an hour and a half. I message her my cell number through the site. Then my phone refuses to send or receive texts. FML!

    rebooted, force-stoppped the text app, cant get it to send or receive