Jennifer Rubin/WaPo:
Democrats are mad. Maybe Biden is catching up.
As Robert P. Jones, head of the Public Religion Research Institute, wrote Tuesday, the leaked Supreme Court draft opinion overturning Roe v. Wade is of a piece with the rest of the MAGA worldview. “It is part of a gambit — seen in attacks on LGBTQ rights, immigrants, the separation of church and state, and critical race theory — to hold onto a particular conservative vision of white Christian America and impose it upon a more religiously and racially diverse nation that is increasingly supportive of … a Constitutional right to privacy.” And the Democratic Party, which embraces that diverse, 21st-century electorate, does not like this one bit
Katie Kraschel/Twitter:
Roe has long protected the fertility industry from regulation of IVF & fertility care decision making. My take on WHAT COULD HAPPEN TO Embryos, IVF, and ART IF THE LEAKED DOBBS DECISION STANDS.
Note: most IVF cycles involve “extra” embryos
(1) READ PERSONHOOD BILLS CAREFULLY some will apply abortion criminalization laws to all embryos, but some legislatures have been clever in defining what actions are illegal in ways that won’t interfere with embryos in a petri dish/cryovial
Missouri’s trigger law is a good example of this, it defines abortion as “destroy the life of an embryo or fetus in HIS OR HER MOTHER’S WOMB." So under the Missouri law when Roe is overturned, discarding embryos – no problem.
Conversely, the Louisiana bill introduced this week specifically revises their existing law to REMOVE “and implantation” from their previous person definition “from the moment of fertilization AND IMPLANTATION."
Shaun Walker/Guardian:
How Victory Day became central to Putin’s idea of Russian identity
Rhetoric of 1945 victory over Nazis has become more twisted over two decades of Putin’s rule
In cities across Russia on Monday morning, tanks and missile trucks will growl their way along the main streets. Soldiers will march across central squares. Fighter jets will roar overhead.
Victory Day, when Russians celebrate the 1945 endpoint of what they still call the “great patriotic war”, has gradually become the centrepiece of Vladimir Putin’s concept of Russian identity over his two decades in charge.
This year, as the Russian army’s gruesome assault on Ukraine grinds on, the day has particular resonance, with some expecting a dramatic announcement from Putin, either declaring victory in Ukraine or raising the stakes further.
Axios:
Connecticut enacts law making state safe haven for abortion providers
Driving the news: The unique legislation will shield providers from bans that are enforced via civil lawsuits and is a direct response to laws in Texas, Idaho and Oklahoma that ban most abortions and allow private parties to sue anyone who they suspect has helped a person obtain an abortion.
- While the Texas and Oklahoma six-week bans remain in effect, the Idaho one was temporarily blocked by a federal court in early April.
- The new legislation protects people in Connecticut who have never stepped foot in Texas or Oklahoma from being charged under the their laws. It does not protect people who are fleeing those states and seeking an abortion.
What we’re watching: It could "serve as a blueprint for states across the country seeking to protect the right to choose" as red states continue to pass restrictive laws, according to Connecticut state Rep. Matt Blumenthal (D), one of the bill's authors.
- The Supreme Court might overturn Roe v. Wade, according to a leaked draft opinion reported by Politico.
Guardian:
Boris Johnson under renewed pressure after damaging local election losses
Scale of Tory backlash tempered by mixed picture for Labour, while Lib Dems and Greens perform well
Boris Johnson’s leadership is facing fresh peril after senior Conservatives blamed him for losing swaths of the party’s southern heartlands to the Liberal Democrats and flagship London boroughs to Labour.
In a punishing set of local elections for the Tories, the party lost about 400 council seats, ceding control of Westminster and Wandsworth in London to Labour for the first time since the 1970s, and plunging to its worst position in Scotland for a decade.
Noah Berlatsky/Substack:
The press loves "Dems in disarray." But GOP infighting is far more consequential.
Dems are divided on some issues, as is any political party. But Republicans can't even agree about free and fair elections.
It may seem odd to talk about Republican dissension as the party prepares to gut abortion rights with barely any intra-party protest. Maine Senator Susan Collins claims to be pro-choice, and has expressed mild consternation that Brett Kavanaugh, who she claims promised to preserve Roe, is apparently committed to forcing women to give birth. But she’s not planning to overturn the filibuster in protest and it’s hard to imagine she’s actually that surprised. To the extent there’s a difference of opinion here, it’s a cosmetic one; Collins knows that being a Republican means holding her pro-choice opinions lightly.
But the consensus on abortion doesn’t extend to every issue. Republicans have for decades encouraged conspiratorial anti-government rhetoric, as scholars Amy Fried and Douglas B. Harris have argued in their book At War With Government: How Conservatives Weaponized Distrust from Goldwater to Trump. That anti-establishment rhetoric is volatile; once you’re in power, it can easily be turned on you. Which is why Republicans were so angry when Madison Cawthorn claimed they were all elitists indulging in cocaine orgies.
And on recent unconfirmed reports of a powerful Russian frigate getting hit by a Ukrainian Neptune anti-ship missile:
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