https://twitter.com/michaelmalice/status/1521635285557202946?s=20&t=05jC8VcJHYfCi1w-SwI4rQ
https://twitter.com/pleonidasp/status/1521604722544680960?s=20&t=05jC8VcJHYfCi1w-SwI4rQ
https://twitter.com/emeriticus/status/1521645169799532547?s=20&t=05jC8VcJHYfCi1w-SwI4rQ
Pro-life activists march during the 49th annual March for Life in Washington, Jan. 21.
By Andy Puzder May 3, 2022 11:50 am
About six months earlier, we had been on the opposite sides of a Supreme Court case, Webster v. Reproductive Health Services. The justices were considering a case the clinic had brought challenging a Missouri law I had helped draft, which declared that human life begins at conception. The day after the high court upheld the law, the Post-Dispatch ran side-by-side photos of her and me on its front page as representatives of each side in the debate. The photo made her look as if she were crying, although she was in fact straining to hear a question.
In the wake of that case, popular opinion was that the court would soon get out of the abortion debate and return the issue to the states. It didn’t happen. But, amid that uncertainty, for a time there was an opening to a less acrimonious path.
Over the next few months, Ms. Isaacson-Jones and I met and expanded our group to include her colleague Jean Cavender and longtime Missouri pro-life leader Loretto Wagner. We all stuck to our principles on abortion, yet the areas of agreement were surprisingly broad and the meetings were surprisingly friendly.
None of us wanted to see poor women in situations where they felt economically compelled to have abortions. On the pro-life side, that meant support for allocating more of society’s resources toward assisting such women to make birth a more viable choice. The pro-choice side recognized that giving birth is a choice too, and that women shouldn’t be denied that choice because they lack the means to exercise it. Providing aid for such women was perfect common ground.
In a June 1991 Post-Dispatch op-ed, we jointly proposed that people on both sides of the abortion debate could also find common ground on “aid for pregnant women addicted to drugs, providing treatment and follow-up care for crack-cocaine babies, reducing teen pregnancy, increasing the availability of pre-natal and post-natal care and providing financial assistance for single-parent households.”
Over the next few years, activists formed a national organization called the Common Ground Network for Life and Choice with an office in Washington. All four of us were involved. Ms. Isaacson-Jones and I wrote a booklet for the organization, “Adoption as Common Ground.” Under her leadership, Reproductive Health Services offered adoption placement. Two of the organization’s participants were invited to the White House to discuss common ground with First Lady Hillary Clinton. The organization had two well-attended national conferences. Things seemed to be moving in a positive direction. People were talking. And then it stopped.
In the years following the Supreme Court’s decision in Planned Parenthood v. Casey (1992), which modified but essentially upheld Roe, the momentum for common-ground solutions slowly waned. Today the opportunity and need for a common ground movement is perhaps stronger than it was on that day in 1990 when Ms. Isaacson-Jones picked up the phone to speak with a man she had never met and with whom she had strong disagreements. Unfortunately, it’s the kind of courage you don’t see much anymore.
In words that apply as well today as they did 30 years ago, the four of us ended our mutual op-ed by calling for people on both sides of this issue to move forward “based on reason and justice rather than bigotry and rhetoric.” We argued that our common enemies were “poverty, ignorance and prejudice” and concluded that “whether one is pro-life or pro-choice, crisis pregnancies are fraught with painful, personal, heartbreaking problems. The common sense of common ground—our common humanity—can ease this pain.”
Today those words may sound naive, but they are no less relevant—and no less true.
https://www.wsj.com/articles/an-abortion-provider-and-a-pro-life-lawyer-found-common-ground-roe-v-wade-supreme-court-clinic-debate-women-children-11651591057?mod=e2two
https://twitter.com/seanmdav/status/1521630802055995392?s=20&t=05jC8VcJHYfCi1w-SwI4rQ
Repairman who revealed Hunter Biden laptop sues Schiff, CNN, Politico and The Daily Beast
Miranda Devine
The Delaware computer repairman who blew the whistle on Hunter Biden’s laptop — filed a multi-million-dollar defamation suit Tuesday against Democratic Rep. Adam Schiff, CNN, The Daily Beast and Politico, saying they falsely accused him of peddling Russian disinformation.
The former shop owner, John Paul Mac Isaac, decided to fight back after losing his business and being harassed for 18 months by Big Tech, the media and Delaware locals in President Biden’s home state.
“After fighting to reveal the truth, all I want now is for the rest of the country to know that there was a collective and orchestrated effort by social and mainstream media to block a real story with real consequences for the nation,” the 45-year-old Mac Isaac told The Post.
“This was collusion led by 51 former pillars in the intelligence community and backed by words and actions of a politically motivated DOJ and FBI,” he continued. “I want this lawsuit to reveal that collusion and more importantly, who gave the marching orders.”
Mac Isaac came to legally own the laptop after Biden’s son Hunter dropped it off at his store for repairs in April 2019 and never came back. The material on the laptop has raised serious questions about what Biden knew of his son’s overseas business deals, during which he and the president’s brother, Jim Biden, often invoked his powerful name.
After handing over a copy of the laptop’s hard drive to the FBI in December 2019, eight months later Mac Isaac alerted then-President Donald Trump’s lawyer Rudy Giuliani, who provided a copy of the hard drive to The Post.
When The Post’s first story broke in October 2020 — just three weeks before the presidential election — Twitter and Facebook moved to censor it. Then Schiff and 51 former intelligence officials labeled the laptop Russian disinformation.
In the aftermath, Mac Isaac says his business and reputation was ruined.
“Twitter initially labeled my action hacking, so for the first day after my information was leaked, I was bombarded with hate mail and death threats revolving around the idea that I was a hacker, a thief and a criminal,” Mac Isaac said.
Schiff, who chairs the House Intelligence Committee, “has some explaining” to do,Mac Isaac insisted.
“Without any intel, the head of the intel committee decided to share with CNN and its viewers a complete and utter lie,” Mac Isaac said. “A lie issued in the protection of a preferred presidential candidate.”
Mac Isaac said he’s since endured false accusations of being a Russian spy and a “stooge” for Russian President Vladimir Putin.
“The fight to get to the bottom of who told everyone this was Russian disinformation is far more important for the nation than me clearing my name,” Mac Isaac said.
In the suit, which was filed in Montgomery County, Md., Mac Isaac claims Schiff defamed him in an interview on CNN two days after The Post began publishing revelations from the laptop.
In the interview with Wolf Blitzer, Schiff told the CNN host — without citing evidence — that he believed “the Kremlin” was behind a smear of Joe and Hunter Biden.
“Well we know that this whole smear on Joe Biden comes from the Kremlin. That’s been clear for well over a year now that they’ve been pushing this false narrative about the Vice President and his son,” Schiff told Blitzer, according to the suit.
Mac Isaac was forced to close his computer repair business near the Biden family homes in Greenville, Delaware, after people started throwing vegetables, eggs and dog excrement at his store. He went into exile in Colorado for a year.
The suit claims CNN knowingly broadcast the “false and defamatory story” that the laptop was linked to a Russian disinformation campaign, causing Mac Isaac significant damage, including the closing of his repair shop.
“CNN’s broadcast of the false statement accuses the Plaintiff of committing an
infamous crime, i.e., treason by working with the Russians to commit a crime against the United States of America by attempting to undermine American democracy and the 2020 Presidential election,” the suit states….
Continued, long article
https://nypost.com/2022/05/03/repairman-who-revealed-hunter-biden-laptop-sues-schiff-cnn-politico-beast/
>Repairman who revealed Hunter Biden laptop sues Schiff, CNN, Politico and The Daily Beast
Part 2 of 2
Similarly, Mac Isaac accuses the Daily Beast and Politico of peddling disinformation about the laptop in two articles published on both sites.
The Daily Beast claimed the laptop was “purloined” — which Mac Isaac says alleges he stole the computer — in an article headlined “FBI Examining Hunter’s Laptop as Foreign Op, Contradicting Trump’s Intel Czar,” the suit states.
And in an infamous story in Politico, the website reported dozens of former intel officials believe the laptop to be “Russian disinfo.”
“The article was written by journalist Natasha Bertrand, who seemingly has a history of transforming speculation into fact in the stories upon which she reports,” the suit states.
His attorney Brian Della Rocca said Mac Isaac is seeking “at least $1 million in compensatory damages [and] punitive damages which will be the much bigger number and will be determined at trial.”
Mac Isaac has “suffered immensely at the false statements spread about those who brought the information on Hunter Biden’s laptop to everyone’s attention,” Della Rocca said.
“He has lost his business, friendships, and his honorable standing in his community,” the attorney continued. “This lawsuit is to attempt to repair a small portion of that damage caused by the defendants in the suit … We intend to show that their actions were intentionally malicious.”
Mac Isaac tried unsuccessfully to sue Twitter for defamation last year and was lumbered with the tech giant’s legal bills — an amount he says is roughly $175,000.
But Mac Isaac now has well-heeled backers at non-profit The America Project, which was founded by Trump loyalists retired Army Gen. Michael Flynn, brother Joe Flynn and businessman Pat Byrne.
“[We are] honored to sponsor John Paul Mac Isaac in his fight against the injustice that has been done to him when the political elite coordinated with the leftist news media claiming the Hunter Biden laptop was Russian disinformation – which was a blatant lie,” Flynn said.
“The synchronized efforts of these parties to wield their words like weaponsare evident through years long continuous coverage that led to extreme public backlash against JP and the closing of his business.”
Mac Isaac has penned a book about his ordeal — “American Injustice: My Battle to Expose the Truth” — which will be released in November.
The Post exclusively revealed the existence of Hunter Biden’s emails in a series reports in October 2020 based on the contents of a damaged MacBook Pro laptop that was abandoned at a repair shop in the Biden family’s hometown of Wilmington, Delaware.
After downplaying the emails as unverified, both the New York Times and the Washington Post authenticated many of them — including some apparently being used in a federal probe of suspected tax fraud, money laundering and foreign lobbying violations by Hunter Biden.
Calls to Schiff, CNN, the Daily Beast and Politico were not immediately returned.
https://nypost.com/2022/05/03/repairman-who-revealed-hunter-biden-laptop-sues-schiff-cnn-politico-beast/
https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1521807738317066240?s=20&t=eJAxxvRgZUR2ehUFnMNxfw
MAY 03, 2022 01:14 PM
BY
QUIN HILLYER
Justice Samuel Alito’s draft decision in the Dobbs abortion case is a powerfully argued legal masterpiece throughout, but its central point is made in just 25 words on page 15.
To wit: “Until the latter part of the 20th Century, there was no support in American law for a constitutional right to obtain an abortion. Zero. None.”
That is the indisputable reality of abortion jurisprudence, as Alito shows through exhaustive historical research and bracing logic. In both the Roe v. Wade decision in 1973 and Planned Parenthood v. Casey in 1992, the majority of justices essentially made up constitutional provisions from thin air. As Alito wrote, “The Constitution makes no reference to abortion, and no such right is implicitly protected by any constitutional provision.”
Yes, not even implicitly.
This has nothing to do with whether one’s policy preferences are “pro-life” or “pro-choice” or some mix of the two. This has everything to do with how our constitutional system is supposed to work. The Constitution’s list of rights and protections is explicit. Even if it is not exhaustive, it contains no grant of broad authority for justices to create whatever new, so-called “rights” their own sensibilities demand. In addition to rights expressly listed in the Constitution, the only other ones that are inviolable are those (quoting prior Supreme Court cases) “deeply rooted in this nation’s history and tradition” and “implicit in the [very] concept of ordered liberty.”
And yes, those strictures are meaningful, rather than open to broad interpretation. There are legitimate methods of historical and legal inquiry to determine which “rights” are both deeply rooted and obviously implicit. (For a great example of such methodology published within the past year, read The Original Meaning of the Fourteenth Amendment by Randy Barnett and Evan Bernick.) Alito even quotes a series of liberal, pro-choice constitutional luminaries who have acknowledged that Roe identified no such roots and that it essentially invented constitutional provisions from the ether.
The good news for those seeking other, nonconstitutional legal protections is that the bulk of the Constitution is not dedicated to listing rights but to creating a system whereby representative, republican processes allow the people themselves to determine how the law works in their communities. Rights or privileges that do not obviously predate society itself are not always so widely recognized as to be enshrined by the people in their Constitution. Yet these can still be protected through state and local laws.
Quoting the late Justice Antonin Scalia, Alito writes: “The permissibility of abortion, and the limitations upon it, are to be resolved like most important questions in our democracy: by citizens trying to persuade one another and then voting.”
As Alito demonstrates at great length, Roe was so poorly reasoned that subsequent “pro-choice” Supreme Court decisions have jettisoned all of it — both its reasoning and its practical applications. All that remains is a shell around the idea that abortion is a right. But even in reaffirming that right, Casey created an entirely new justification for it. Later court rulings further modified (and in many cases abandoned) Casey’s arguments, too.
In sum, not even those who say abortion is a constitutional right can settle among themselves why it is such a right or what provisions of the Constitution actually protect it. That’s because, as written, it manifestly does not.
“Roe was on a collision course with the Constitution from the day it was decided,” Alito wrote, “and Casey perpetuated its errors.”
If the court majority finalizes something like Alito’s draft decision, then the Constitution, rather than Roe and Casey, will happily survive that collision.
https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/restoring-america/equality-not-elitism/alitos-draft-abortion-decision-is-brilliantly-persuasive
Only lefties think in convoluted ways, their dream will never come true
Extremely creative!
The demon abides in her entire body…she’s fucking sick
4 May, 2022 11:29
HomeRussia & FSU
German MP urges expulsion of Ukrainian ambassador
Kiev’s envoy, Andrey Melnik, is under fire for insulting Chancellor Olaf Scholz
(I knew this was coming when he called Scholz “Liverwurst”)
The deputy leader of the Bundestag’s Left Party, Sevim Dagdelen, has accused the Ukrainian ambassador in Berlin, Andrey Melnik, of being a Nazi sympathizer and urged for his immediate expulsion. The move was called for after Melnik insulted Chancellor Olaf Scholz, calling him an “offended liverwurst” for his reluctance to pay a state visit to Ukraine.
“If you don’t expel the Nazi sympathizer Melnik now, you have lost all self-respect,” the MP tweeted on Tuesday.
“Anyone like Melnik who describes the Nazi collaborator Bandera as ‘our hero’ and makes a pilgrimage to his grave or defends the right-wing Azov Battalion as ‘brave’ is actually still benevolently described as a ‘Nazi sympathizer,’” she added.
Earlier the same day, in an interview with news outlet DPA, the envoy expressed frustration over Germany’s lack of support for Ukraine in its fight against Russia. The diplomat described Scholz as an “offended liverwurst” and not “statesmanlike” in response to the chancellor’s refusal to visit the Eastern European nation. Melnik also criticized Berlin for failing to deliver on its promise to supply Kiev with ammunition for the Gepard self-propelled anti-aircraft guns.
Other German politicians have also slammed Melnik for his comments. The Bundestag’s vice president, Wolfgang Kubicki, told the envoy that “Olaf Scholz is not a liverwurst but the Chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany.” Another member of parliament, Johann Wadephul, urged the Ukrainian diplomat to treat Germany’s statesmen appropriately, adding, “Melnik’s statements do not help Ukraine.”
A spat between Ukraine and Germany occurred in mid-April when Kiev refused to welcome German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier, who intended to visit the war-torn nation along with the leaders of Poland and the Baltic states. The Ukrainian side, however, made it clear that Steinmeier was not welcome in the country due to his previous positive stance on Russia and the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline. Scholz described Kiev’s move as a “remarkable instance” that could stand in the way of his own visit to Ukraine.
https://www.rt.com/russia/554954-kiev-envoy-expulsion-german-mp/
4 May, 2022 11:54
HomeWorld News
EU needs veto overhaul – Italian PM
Mario Draghi has argued that the bloc should make key decisions by qualified majority
Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi has urged the EU to make key decisions by a qualified majority, rather than seeking unanimous consent of its member states.
Draghi said that in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic and Russia’s military campaign in Ukraine, the EU must learn to work more robustly and effectively.
“The geopolitical situation is undergoing rapid and profound change. We have to move, and move as quickly as possible,” Draghi told the European Parliament on Tuesday.
“Building a common defense must be accompanied by a united foreign policy, and effective decision-making mechanisms.”
We must move beyond the principle of unanimity, which gives rise to an intergovernmental approach based on mutual vetoes, and we must head towards qualified majority decision-making.
“A Europe able to make prompt decisions is more credible in the eyes of its citizens and in the eyes of the world,” Draghi said.
The PM urged to “streamline and optimize” military spending, and to process Ukraine’s application to join the EU “as quickly as possible.”
“We need pragmatic federalism, encompassing all areas affected by the ongoing transformations – from the economy to energy and security,” Draghi said.
The veto power allows the bloc’s individual members to strike down decisions that affect the EU as a whole. Most recently, Hungary said that it would not back a ban on Russian oil and gas because its economy is heavily dependent on energy supplies from Moscow.
Last week, the European Parliament approved draft proposals for a comprehensive EU reform, stating that most issues that are now “decided by way of unanimity should be decided by way of a qualified majority.”
https://www.rt.com/news/554955-eu-change-veto-power/
4 May, 2022 11:06
HomeBusiness News
German exports to Russia sink – report
Sales slumped by 63% in March due to sanctions, data shows
German exports to Russia plummeted to about €860 million ($905 million) in March “because of the sanctions imposed,” as well as “further measures to restrict exports, and unsanctioned behavior of market participants,” Germany’s federal statistical office said on Wednesday. That is the lowest level of exports in almost two decades.
Imports from Russia declined by 2.4% month-over-month to €3.6 billion ($3.8 billion) in the same period. The disruption of trade with Moscow led to a 3.3% fall in overall German exports last month, according to the press release.
“Looking ahead, despite richly filled order books, the short-term outlook for German exports doesn’t look encouraging,” said ING analyst Carsten Brzeski, as quoted by Bloomberg.
“The war in Ukraine is very likely to disrupt other supply chains for good,” he said. “More generally, with a high risk that the war accelerates the trend of de-globalization and high energy and commodity prices for longer, the German export sector is facing more headwinds ahead.”
Russia accounted for 2.3% of total German foreign trade and was the fourth most important country for German goods outside of the European Union in 2021. The main goods that Germany exported to Russia included vehicles, machinery, trailers and chemical products. Russia’s main exports to Germany were crude oil, natural gas, metals and coal.
Last month, S&P Global warned of a possible financial shock if there’s a “trade rupture” between the two countries. That could put a dent in German manufacturing, one of three global manufacturing centers after the US and China, S&P’s Chief Economist Paul Gruenwald told CNBC.
https://www.rt.com/business/554945-german-exports-to-russia-sink/
4 May, 2022 12:39
HomeBusiness News
Supply chain bottleneck warning issued
The Royal Bank of Canada says one-fifth of container ships are currently stuck at global ports
A new study by the Royal Bank of Canada (RBC) has found that 20% of container ships are currently stuck in congestion at various major ports. According to the report, published on Tuesday and seen by Reuters, China’s Covid lockdowns, the conflict in Ukraine, and other strains are causing longer delays at ports, driving up costs.
RBC data shows that ships awaiting berth at the Port of Shanghai now tally 344. That is a 34% increase over the past month, with shipping from a warehouse in China to one in the United States currently taking 74 days longer than usual.
The same can be seen in Europe, where ships from China are showing up an average of four days late.
“Global port congestion is worsening and becoming increasingly widespread,” RBC analysts said, acknowledging that it’s hard to say when things will improve. The plethora of problems is having a “domino-like negative compounding effect across various markets,” they added.
According to the report, since the start of the war in Ukraine and the sinking of several ships in the Black Sea, insurers have hiked premiums to between 1% and 5% of the value of ships compared to the pre-war levels of 0.25%.
Meanwhile, marine fuel prices in Singapore, the world’s largest refueling port, have soared 66% over the past year.
Many market participants thought that supply chains would be untangled by now, but this scenario has failed to materialize,” the report said. It showed that the average global delay of a ship’s arrival was still 7.26 days in March. The figure rarely topped 4.5 days during normal times.
The research also noted that the ban of Russian-flagged vessels from key European ports has led to a re-routed flow and is pushing increased container ship activity at those ports.
The aggregate Time of Turnaround (ToT) for the three largest European container ports – Rotterdam, Antwerp, and Hamburg – are 8%, 30%, and 21% respectively above their five-year normal levels.
“Significant compression of ToT times [is] required before we can confidently suggest a path toward normalizing shipping costs,” RBC analysts said, adding: “The problem? Things are getting worse.”
https://www.rt.com/business/554951-supply-chain-bottleneck-warning-issued/
4 May, 2022 05:48
HomeWorld News
Germany says it will back NATO expansion(the death is growing)
Russia’s attack on Ukraine was a “turning point” for security relations in Europe, the German chancellor said
Germany will support the admission of Finland and Sweden into the NATO military alliance, Chancellor Olaf Scholz said, after the two Nordic states expressed interest in joining up despite decades of neutrality.
Speaking to reporters on Tuesday following two days of closed-door meetings with his Finnish and Swedish counterparts in a town near Berlin, Scholz vowed to back both nations’ bid to join the Western military bloc should they submit membership applications.
“For us it is clear: If these two countries decide they should join the NATO alliance then they can count on our support,” he said, adding, “Even in the period before such NATO membership is decided, they can always rely on Germany’s support. As Europeans, we see ourselves obliged to do so anyway.”
Scholz’s comments follow reports that Helsinki could declare its intent to join NATO as early as next week, with President Sauli Niinisto purportedly set to announce the move on May 12. It remains unclear if Stockholm will follow suit, though the country’s parliament recently said it would conduct a review of Swedish security policy before a decision is made.
While earlier reports stated both countries would submit their applications at the same time, Finnish Foreign Minister Pekka Haavisto has said his country could ultimately go ahead without its neighbor.
“Currently I think the mood in parliament… includes the possibility to go without Sweden,” the FM told the Irish Times in an interview last week. “It would be good to do the same things at the same time as Sweden, but that depends on Swedish decisions. It is too early to guess the date, but I think before the summer we are proceeding.”
Addressing journalists after Scholz on Tuesday, Swedish Prime Minister Magdalena Andersson said a decision had not yet been made and that “All options are on the table,” comments echoed by Finland’s prime minister, Sanna Marin.
“Finland and Sweden are facing important decisions regarding their own security,” Marin said, adding that “Russia’s attack on Ukraine has dramatically changed our security environment, and that cannot be undone.”
The German chancellor similarly labeled Russia’s military operation a “turning point” for security on the continent, saying the attack prompted Berlin to scrap a long-held policy against shipping weapons into active conflict zones. “It was right and necessary” to change that policy, Scholz continued, adding, “we are now providing large-scale support [to Ukraine], which we will continue to do.”
https://www.rt.com/news/554937-germany-support-nato-expansion/
https://www.rt.com/news/554958-uk-crackdown-russian-media-rt-sputnik/
https://twitter.com/michcusejac5/status/1521823718527455234?s=20&t=yCL804aEZRi-sAIwcKcwJg
This creature is deeply evil and sick!
https://twitter.com/libsoftiktok/status/1521737903050616832?s=20&t=yCL804aEZRi-sAIwcKcwJg
https://twitter.com/RevolverNewsUSA/status/1521362365308100608?s=20&t=yCL804aEZRi-sAIwcKcwJg
I posted the entire article in this bread, look above
Gates is worried he won’t get dead babies or even live babies to experiment on
https://twitter.com/tomselliott/status/1521822112121561089?s=20&t=yCL804aEZRi-sAIwcKcwJg
https://twitter.com/greg_price11/status/1521692417451335682?s=20&t=yCL804aEZRi-sAIwcKcwJg
Its a really long thread and well documented, great info, too much evidence to post
Her husband is friends with Gersten and he was hired by WAPO
Shes a rabid free choice abortion freak
Will Chamberlain
@willchamberlain·10h
Replying to
@willchamberlain
Here's where things start to get interesting. Every law student has to write a note - a long legal research paper, usually making a novel argument about the law.
Elizabeth Deutsch wrote hers about reproductive rights and abortion.
See note below
Really great work by Will
https://twitter.com/willchamberlain/status/1521685971015802880?s=20&t=yCL804aEZRi-sAIwcKcwJg
Here it is
An Abortion Provider and a Pro-Life Lawyer Found Common Ground
We were on opposite sides of a Supreme Court case, but we found there was a lot on which we agreed.
https://www.wsj.com/articles/an-abortion-provider-and-a-pro-life-lawyer-found-common-ground-roe-v-wade-supreme-court-clinic-debate-women-children-11651591057?mod=e2two