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The Dallas Morning News
George W. Bush compares Zelenskyy to Churchill, calls Iraq invasion unjustified in gaffe
In some of his most extensive public comments about the Russian invasion of Ukraine since the war began, former President George W. Bush on Wednesday compared Ukranian leader Volodymyr Zelenskyy to Winston Churchill, while decrying the increasingly autocratic Russian regime.
“The way countries conduct elections is indicative of how their leaders treat their own people, and how nations behave toward other nations,” Bush said. “And nowhere is this on display more clearly than Ukraine.
Bush noted that Zelenskyy, whom he described as a “cool little guy,” and “the Churchill of the 21st century” was empowered by electoral legitimacy before leading the defense of his country against the Russian invasion. […]
“The result is an absence of checks and balances in Russia, and the decision of one man to launch a wholly unjustified and brutal invasion of Iraq,” Bush said, before wincing and correcting himself. “I mean, of Ukraine.”
The Washington Post
Doug Mastriano’s Pa. victory could give 2020 denier oversight of 2024
As a Pennsylvania state senator and gubernatorial candidate, Doug Mastriano railed against the rampant fraud that he believes was responsible for Donald Trump’s 2020 defeat. He vowed to decertify voting machines in counties where he suspects the result was rigged. And he asserted that the Republican-controlled legislature should have the right to take control of the all-important choice over which presidential electors to send to Washington.
As governor, Mastriano would have the opportunity not just to speak, but to act. The Trump-endorsed 58-year-old, who won the Republican nomination for governor on Tuesday, would gain significant influence over the administration of the battleground state’s elections should he prevail in November, worrying experts already fearful of a democratic breakdown around the 2024 presidential contest.
Those concerns are made especially acute in Pennsylvania by the fact that the governor has the unusual authority to directly appoint the secretary of state, who serves as chief elections officer and must sign off on results. If he or she refuses, chaos could follow.
Stars and Stripes / The Washington Post
Army officer Yevgeny Vindman who reported Trump probably faced retaliation, inquiry finds
Army Col. Yevgeny Vindman, who along with his twin brother raised alarm about President Donald Trump’s actions toward Ukraine, precipitating the first of two impeachments, suffered a “swift” reduction in responsibilities advising the White House and probably was punished for speaking out, according to the findings of an investigation released Wednesday.
The Defense Department inspector general’s office determined it is “more likely than not” that Vindman, an Army officer who in 2019 was assigned to the National Security Council, “was the subject of unfavorable personnel actions and that these were in reprisal for his protected communications” with superiors.
The subject of Vindman’s concern was a call in which Trump implored Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to have the government in Kyiv open a corruption investigation of Trump political rival Joe Biden, who as vice president under President Barack Obama led much of the administration’s outreach to Ukraine and made numerous trips to meet with its leaders.
The Kansas City Star
Kansas Supreme Court upholds congressional map that splits diverse Wyandotte County
The Kansas Supreme Court on Wednesday upheld a Republican-drawn congressional map that divides racially diverse Wyandotte County, a blow to Democrats who argued the redrawn lines diluted minority voter power.
The decision means Wyandotte County, a Democratic stronghold, will be split between two districts— with the northern half almost certainly represented by a Republican and the south included in a reshaped 3rd District that incumbent Democratic Rep. Sharice Davids will struggle to hold.
The decision comes as Democrats nationally are heading into a tough election cycle and will have difficulty retaining their thin House majority. The new 3rd District is nearly certain to boost the prospects of Amanda Adkins, a former state GOP party chair who is Davids’ likely general election opponent. Davids defeated Adkins in 2020 by 10 points.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Law designed to help Kemp proves fundraising boon for Abrams too
Knowing Democratic challenger Stacey Abrams could rake in unprecedented campaign money, Republican leaders in the General Assembly last year pushed through a bill designed to give Gov. Brian Kemp a distinct advantage through newly legal fundraising committees without donation caps.
The law made it so Kemp would be the only candidate for governor who could create such a “leadership committee” last year. But the law of unintended consequences may be at work in 2022.
In just a few days in March — after Abrams filed to run against Kemp — her “leadership committee” collected three contributions totaling $3.5 million. Then the state ethics commission told her committee to stop raising any more until after she wins the Democratic nomination Tuesday.
That’s far more than Kemp’s leadership committee raised from Feb. 1 through April 30, when either the General Assembly was in session or the governor was considering what legislation to sign into law. It’s not far off the $4.7 million Kemp’s committee has raised in total since its creation in July.
The Philadelphia Inquirer
John Fetterman dominated the Pa. Democratic Senate primary. Here’s how he won.
John Fetterman didn’t just win in Pennsylvania, he trounced his Democratic Senate primary rivals. The lieutenant governor won every single county in the state and had a 30-point lead over U.S. Rep. Conor Lamb with almost 94% of the expected total votes counted Wednesday.
He did it even with a late and shocking development: Fetterman suffered a stroke days before the primary and spent election day recovering in the hospital.
His victory was so decisive, it became a footnote amid a tight GOP Senate race that was still too early to call Wednesday and likely headed for a recount. And while predicted by polls and political observers, his win represents a clear shift away from the more moderate candidates Democratic voters typically favor in Pennsylvania primaries.
Fetterman tapped into a growing populist electorate in Pennsylvania, combining that appeal with a progressive message. He got into the race early and set up an unbeatable fund-raising operation. And his “every county” strategy — combined with a social media campaign and TV ads — blanketed his brand statewide.
The Local.se
Erdogan urges Nato to ‘respect’ Turkey’s concerns over Sweden joining
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who has threatened to block Finland and Sweden from joining Nato, urged the alliance's members on Wednesday to "respect" Ankara's concerns about the two countries, which Turkey accuses of harbouring terrorists.
“Our only expectation from Nato allies is… to first understand our sensitivity, respect and finally support it,” Erdogan told his party’s legislators in parliament. […]
Erdogan accused Stockholm of providing safe haven to members of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) designated as a terror group by Ankara and its Western allies.
The Kyiv Independent
264 Azovstal defenders evacuated to Russian-controlled territory, promised medical treatment
Deputy Defense Minister Hanna Maliar said that 264 Ukrainian soldiers were evacuated on May 16 from the Azovstal steel plant in Mariupol to hospitals in Russian-occupied Novoazovsk and Olenivka.
Of those evacuated, 53 heavily wounded soldiers will receive medical treatment in Novoazovsk, while 211 will be transferred to Olenivka to take part in an upcoming prisoner exchange, according to the General Staff of Ukraine’s Armed Forces.
“We are continuing efforts to rescue the defenders who remain at Azovstal,” the General Staff said. Earlier reports said that some 1,000 Ukrainian soldiers were at the plant, which remained the only Ukrainian-controlled area of Mariupol.
In his video address to the nation on the night of May 16, President Volodymyr Zelensky emphasized that “Ukraine needs Ukrainian heroes alive.”
Reuters
Russia says nearly 700 more Mariupol fighters surrender
Russia said on Wednesday nearly 700 more Ukrainian fighters had surrendered in Mariupol, while the United States became the latest Western country to reopen its Kyiv embassy after a three-month closure.
More than a day after Ukraine announced it had ordered its garrison in Mariupol to stand down, the ultimate outcome of Europe's bloodiest battle for decades remained unresolved.
Ukrainian officials declined to comment publicly on the fate of fighters who had made their last stand at the Azovstal steelworks plant, holding out as Mariupol was taken over by Russian forces.
NPR
Poland's restrictive abortion laws could be problematic for Ukrainian refugees
Ukrainian women who were raped by Russian soldiers are among the millions of refugees who have fled to Poland. And they now find themselves in a country that severely restricts access to reproductive health care, including both contraception and abortion. […]
Current Polish law still permits abortion up to 12 weeks when the pregnancy is the result of a crime — rape or incest — or when it poses a serious risk to the life or health of the pregnant person.
But in practice, activists and providers say, abortions for rape victims are almost never performed. "The rape exception is meaningless," says Mara Clarke, founder of the London-based Abortion Support Network. "You have to prove that you were raped with a certified letter from a public prosecutor. Expecting that anyone, Polish or Ukrainian, will be able to file a criminal complaint and obtain a conviction in time to access an abortion is ludicrous."
The New York Times
In Ukraine, Gruesome Injuries and Not Enough Doctors to Treat Them
Days after Russian forces invaded, Yaroslav Bohak, a young cardiovascular surgeon, was at home with his family in the relative safety of western Ukraine, when a colleague placed a desperate call from the east, pleading with him to come help.
Many doctors had fled the fighting, his friend said, and conditions at the hospital resembled a bygone era of warfare, with the surgeons who remained amputating limbs, instead of trying to repair them, to save grievously wounded soldiers.
“He called me and said he could no longer cut off the arms of young people,” Dr. Bohak said, as he stood in an operating room of a hospital in Kramatorsk. “When I came here, I had surgery on the first day.”
CNN
US reopens embassy in Kyiv
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced Wednesday that the US has reopened its embassy in Kyiv after it closed three months ago ahead of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
“Today we are officially resuming operations at the U.S. Embassy in Kyiv. The Ukrainian people, with our security assistance, have defended their homeland in the face of Russia’s unconscionable invasion, and, as a result, the Stars and Stripes are flying over the Embassy once again. We stand proudly with, and continue to support, the government and people of Ukraine as they defend their country from the Kremlin’s brutal war of aggression,” Blinken said in a statement.
The Sydney Morning Herald / AP
Russian soldier accused of war crimes in Ukraine pleads guilty to killing a civilian
A 21-year-old Russian soldier facing the first war crimes trial since Moscow invaded Ukraine pleaded guilty on Wednesday to killing an unarmed civilian.
Sergeant Vadim Shishimarin could get life in prison for shooting a 62-year-old Ukrainian man in the head through an open car window in the north-eastern Sumy region on February 28, four days into the invasion.
EuroNews
Five things to know about the EU's big plan to become independent from Russian fossil fuels Access to the comments
The European Union is facing a once-in-a-lifetime dilemma: how to cut its heavy and costly dependency on Russian energy while keeping the lights on for citizens and businesses across the continent.
The sudden reckoning has been prompted by Russia's invasion of Ukraine, a large-scale military operation that is partly bankrolled by the Kremlin's profitable sales of fossil fuels, of which the EU is the number one client. […]
Independence from Russia energy will require more than LNG and solar panels: the great objective will also need "behavioural changes" in the way Europeans consume electricity.
Among the suggestions: use more public transport, reduce the speed on the highway, turn down the heating and air conditioning, work from home and choose households appliances that are more efficient.
"Saving energy is the cheapest, safest and cleanest way to reduce our reliance on fossil fuel imports from Russia," the Commission's document reads.
Deutsche Welle
Putin says EU ditching Russian oil is 'economic suicide'
Russian President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday said European countries would not be able to impose a ban on Russian oil imports.
His remarks came as EU members failed this week to negotiate a proposed embargo on Russian oil after a small group of countries continued to oppose the plan. The proposed embargo is part of broader action by the West against Moscow over its invasion of Ukraine. […]
Putin said Europe would see higher energy prices and inflation as a result of the proposed Russian oil embargo. "Of course, such an economic suicide is a domestic affair of the European countries," he said.
The Guardian
Biden reverses Trump withdrawal of US army trainers from Somalia
The US will send up to 500 soldiers back on full-time deployment to Somalia, to train the country’s army to combat the increasing threat posed by al-Shabaab militants. […]
The move marks a reversal of Donald Trump’s abrupt decision, in the last weeks of his presidency, to withdraw 750 US troops who had been stationed in Somalia until then. A senior administration official called Trump’s decision “irrational”.
“It was an abrupt and sudden transition to a rotational presence,” the official said. “Since then, al-Shabaab, the terrorist group in Somalia that is al-Qaida’s largest, wealthiest and deadliest affiliate, has unfortunately only grown stronger. It has increased the tempo of its attacks, including against US personnel.”
ESPN
How the USWNT and USMNT achieved equal pay, rewrote history
The long slog toward equal pay -- and labor peace -- in the U.S. Soccer landscape took a giant step forward on Wednesday with the announcement that the unions for players on the U.S. men's national team and U.S. women's national teams had ratified new collective bargaining agreements with the U.S. Soccer Federation.
The deals will begin on June 1 and will last through the end of 2028. In many respects, the agreements are history making.
Al Jazeera
Fresh Tripoli clashes underscore Libya’s political volatility
Libya’s fragile ceasefire almost fell apart on Tuesday as clashes erupted in the capital Tripoli in response to another attempt by the prime minister of the rival government to install himself and his cabinet.
Fathi Bashagha, who was appointed prime minister three months ago by the East-based House of Representatives, arrived in Tripoli in the early morning hours with cabinet members and was reportedly accompanied by the Tripoli-based Nawasi Brigade militia.
The move sparked a backlash from different militias in Tripoli as gunfire broke out and the Nawasi Brigade headquarters came under attack. Bashagha subsequently left the capital less than four hours after arriving.
MercoPress
Chile back to state of exception in southern provinces
Despite its reluctance to resort to the same constitutional mechanisms adopted by the Sebastián Piñera administration, the Chilean Government of leftwing President Gabriel Boric Font Wednesday announced a state of exception to address violence in the indigenous southern zones.
Boric's initial proposal was for an “intermediate state,” which lacked support from his own coalition due to the traditional rejection of the militarization of La Araucanía by leftwing groups.
“We have decided to make use of all the tools to provide security,” Interior Minister Izkia Siches admitted.
CBS News
Mexico's official list of "disappeared" tops 100,000 as drug gang-linked violence increases
The number of people reported missing in violence-wracked Mexico has exceeded 100,000, according to official data, with rights groups calling for "immediate" action from the government to locate the disappeared. The country's National Registry of Missing Persons — which has been tracking disappearances since 1964 — said that as of Monday, the whereabouts of 100,012 people are unknown. About 75% are men.
Disappearances have skyrocketed in the wake of mounting drug violence that has rocked the country for 16 years.
The Movement for Our Disappeared warned Monday that the figure was "certainly well below the number" of cases that are reported daily, calling for the government to "deal with this crisis in a comprehensive and immediate manner."
BBC News
How climate is making Australia more unliveable
[…] In the past three years, record-breaking bushfire and flood events have killed more than 500 people and billions of animals. Drought, cyclones and freak tides have gripped communities.
Climate change is a key concern for voters in Australia's election on Saturday. So is the cost of living - and these issues are converging like never before.
Australia is facing an "insurability crisis" with one in 25 homes on track to be effectively uninsurable by 2030, according to a Climate Council report. Another one in 11 are at risk of being underinsured. […]
"Climate change is playing out in real time here and many Australians now find it impossible to insure their homes and businesses," says chief executive Amanda McKenzie.
Gizmodo
Desperate Utah Lawmakers Discuss Piping Ocean Water to Fill Great Salt Lake
A legislative commission in Utah has given the green light to study several strategies to help with the worryingly low levels of water in the Great Salt Lake—including potentially building a pipeline to carry water over land from the Pacific Ocean. The study to determine “the feasibility and cost of piping water from the ocean to help fill the Great Salt Lake” was approved as part of a master list of other initiatives during a session of the state’s Legislative Water Development Commission held Tuesday.
“There’s a lot of water in the ocean, and we have very little in the Great Salt Lake,” Sen. David Hinkins (R), the commission’s co-chair, said during the meeting. That is… true!
Vox
The air conditioning paradox
The world is now 1.1 degrees Celsius — 2 degrees Fahrenheit — warmer on average than it was at the dawn of the Industrial Revolution. But baked into that seemingly small change in the average is a big increase in dangerous extreme temperatures. That’s made cooling, particularly air conditioning, vital for the survival of billions of people. […]
The planet is only going to heat up more, rendering parts of the world unlivable. The most optimistic scenario is that global average temperatures will rise 1.5°C (2.7°F) this century, which will lead to even more intense and frequent heat waves. Right now, though, the world is on course to shoot well past this target. […]
But staying cool amid the heat poses a paradox: The tactics for cooling can end up worsening the very problem they’re trying to solve if they draw on fossil fuels, or leak refrigerants that are potent heat-trapping gases. And the people who stand to experience the most extreme heat are often those least able to cool off.
The Toronto Star
Lettuce, oranges, butter and beef: The cost of grocery staples has surged again and there’s no end in sight
Lettuce, oranges, pasta, butter, cereal, and beef — food staples for most Canadian households — have seen some of the sharpest price increases due to inflation.
According to new inflation data from Statistics Canada released Wednesday, consumers paid on average 9.7 per cent more for groceries in April, compared to a year earlier, the highest rate of food inflation in 41 years. And the sticker shock is only going to get worse.
“The challenge with the factors contributing to food inflation is that they are in sequence … we started with the climate, then the pandemic, war and now we’re seeing nations hoarding. All of these factors are making food more expensive,” said Sylvain Charlebois, a professor in food distribution and policy at Dalhousie University and the senior director of the Agri-Food Analytics Lab.
France24 / AFP
UN chief warns of famine, urges Russia to free Ukrainian grain
UN chief Antonio Guterres warned Wednesday of years of mass hunger and famine if a growing global food crisis goes unchecked as he urged Russia to release Ukrainian grain. […]
"Now the war in Ukraine is amplifying and accelerating all these factors: climate change, Covid-19 and inequality," he told the meeting on the growing food crisis chaired by US Secretary of State Antony Blinken.
"It threatens to tip tens of millions of people over the edge into food insecurity, followed by malnutrition, mass hunger and famine, in a crisis that could last for years," Guterres added.
Minneapolis Star Tribune
After prospering in the pandemic, Target is now a symbol of inflation's impact
Target Corp., whose growth in the pandemic pushed its stock to record heights, on Wednesday became a symbol of inflation's toll on the American economy.
The Minneapolis-based retailer's latest quarterly profit was halved compared to a year ago as it contended with higher costs and changes in shopping habits, news that spooked investors fearing signs of recession.
The company's stock price plunged 25%, its biggest one-day drop since the 1987 market crash, and the news helped start a major sell-off in the broader market. The Dow Jones industrials shed more than 1,100 points, or 3.6%, their biggest one-day drop since June 2020.
Bloomberg
Gasoline Tops $4 a Gallon in Every US State for the First Time
Gasoline pump prices have risen above $4 a gallon in all states in the US for the first time ever as the last holdouts -- Kansas, Oklahoma and Georgia -- saw prices rise overnight, according to auto club AAA.
In California, the most expensive state, prices are averaging $6.021 a gallon, a fresh record, while five other states are above $5 a gallon. Ever-higher prices less than two weeks before the start of peak summer driving season are a burden to consumers and a potential challenge for US president Joe Biden. Biden’s decisions to release crude oil from emergency reserves have translated to little relief at the pump, in part due to a lack of refining capacity to process that crude.
The Wall Street Journal
U.K. Inflation Hits 40-Year High, Putting Government on Defensive
The U.K.’s annual rate of inflation jumped to a forty-year-high in April, the highest level recorded by an industrialized nation since the start of the global price surge last year.
Consumer prices in April were 9% higher than a year earlier, a jump from 7% in March and the highest inflation rate since March 1982, the Office for National Statistics said. The pace is now the highest recorded by one of the Group of Seven rich economies in about a year.
NBC News
Biden invokes Defense Production Act to address nationwide shortage of baby formula
President Joe Biden on Wednesday invoked the Defense Production Act in a major step to boost the supply of baby formula.
The announcement means the federal government will prioritize key ingredients for formula production and compel suppliers to provide the needed resources to formula manufacturers ahead of other customers ordering those goods.
In addition to invoking the 1950 law, which allows the government to direct manufacturing production for national defense, Biden also launched a program that will use U.S. military aircraft to import formula from abroad.
South China Morning Post
China’s zero-Covid policy questioned as expert says ‘stabilising the economy will protect lives’
Beijing should allow more open debate on the consequences of its zero-Covid policy amid fears the country is “losing more than it gains” from harsh lockdowns that are taking an enormous toll on the economy, Chinese experts say.
The recent Omicron wave and corresponding containment measures hammered the world’s No 2 economy harder than expected in April, fuelling worry that China may not achieve economic growth of “around 5.5 per cent” this year.
AP News
A third of US should be considering masks, officials say
COVID-19 cases are increasing in the United States — and could get even worse over the coming months, federal health officials warned Wednesday in urging areas hardest hit to consider reissuing calls for indoor masking.
Increasing numbers of COVID-19 infections and hospitalizations are putting more of the country under guidelines issued by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that call for masking and other infection precautions.
Right now, about a third of the U.S. population lives in areas that are considered at higher risk — mostly in the Northeast and Midwest. Those are areas where people should already be considering wearing masks indoors — but Americans elsewhere should also take notice, officials said.
Los Angeles Times
L.A. coronavirus hospitalizations start rising again; officials urge mask-wearing
Los Angeles County’s coronavirus-positive hospitalizations are rising again, causing health officials to urge residents to put masks back on if they have stopped doing so.
L.A. County already requires mask-wearing on public transit and at its airports, and Public Health Director Barbara Ferrer urged residents Monday to wear masks inside schools, stores and workplaces.
“This would give us a chance at slowing down spread while we continue to increase the numbers of residents and workers up to date with their vaccinations, since vaccines give us the most protection from severe illness and death,” Ferrer said in a statement.
Stat
CDC expresses concern about possibility of undetected monkeypox spread in U.K.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention expressed concern Tuesday about an unusual outbreak of monkeypox in the United Kingdom, suggesting there appears to be at least some undetected transmission of the virus there and warning of the possibility that the outbreak could spread beyond U.K. borders.
“We do have a level of concern that this is very different than what we typically think of from monkeypox. And I think we have some concern that there could be spread outside the U.K associated with this,” Jennifer McQuiston, a senior CDC official, told STAT in an interview.
Seven confirmed and one probable case of monkeypox have been discovered in the U.K. since early May — an unusually large number given that human monkeypox cases are uncommon, and are especially rare outside West and Central Africa.
Jalopnik
Chinese Boeing 737 Crash May Have Been Intentional: Report
Investigators have been analyzing the flight data recorder from the Boeing 737 that crashed in China in March. Now, it seems we’re closer to an answer as to what happened on that tragic day. Data from the black box seems to indicate that the plane was purposefully put into a nose-dive, which would suggest that the crash was intentional.
On March 21, China Eastern Airlines Flight MU5735 departed Kunming at 1:11 p.m. local time bound for Guangzhou, due at 3:05 p.m. local time. The Boeing 737-800 never arrived. Videos posted to social media showed the aircraft plummeting to the ground in a near-vertical descent, killing all 132 people on board. […]
The Wall Street Journal spoke with people familiar with a preliminary assessment done by U.S. officials. WSJ’s sources, who are not named, say that data from the plane’s flight data recorder suggest the plane entered a dive when someone pushed on the aircraft’s control columns. As one source told WSJ, “the plane did what it was told to do by someone in the cockpit.”
Ars Technica
Texas social media law will cause “chaos” online, Supreme Court is told
More than two dozen groups have urged the US Supreme Court to block a Texas law that prohibits large social media companies from moderating content based on a user's "viewpoint."
The Texas law, HB20, "results in blatant violations of the First Amendment rights of platform providers," said a Supreme Court brief filed yesterday. The law taking effect means that "chaos will ensue online with disastrous and irreparable consequences," the brief said, continuing:
With platforms unable to effectively moderate scammers, messages preying on vulnerable populations, including the elderly, will proliferate online. The uptick of this content will predictably result in yet more people being tricked into sending money to scammers or disclosing financial information, leading to identity theft and financial ruin. Platforms will be powerless to regulate speech praising terrorists and those who engage in murderous campaigns, with horrendous potential ramifications if even a single person engages in copycat activity. And they may be precluded from protecting children from age-inappropriate content, including reprehensible messages encouraging our youth to engage in self-destructive activities.
The Atlantic
The Myth That Roe Broke America
The idea that American politics became bitter and divisive because of Roe v. Wade, the 1973 Supreme Court decision legalizing abortion, is a cherished bit of right-wing folk history, akin to the idea that Robert E. Lee opposed slavery or that the purpose of the Electoral College was to protect small states from the tyranny of big states. Like any political use of history, its purpose is to justify the use of power to achieve a desired end—in this case, the overturning of Roe and the elimination of women’s right to decide whether and when they have a child. […]
Roe is an important part of the story of polarization in American politics, but it is not its genesis. “The idea that Roe kickstarted polarization is a really dramatic oversimplification,” Mary Ziegler, a law professor at UC Davis and the author of the forthcoming Dollars for Life: The Anti-Abortion Movement and the Fall of the Republican Establishment, told me. “If people are genuinely upset about polarization, presenting Roe as the source of that denies that a lot of other people had responsibility. There were a lot of politicians, activists, media figures, and lawyers who deepened the divide on abortion and benefited from it.”
The notion that Roe is solely or largely responsible for polarization and bitterness in American politics is an ideal just-so story for anti-abortion advocates who wish to celebrate its destruction, but that story bears little resemblance to history as it actually occurred—it is an argument that rests on wiping the 1960s from public memory…