Leonard Leo isn't just a "Conservative Judicial Activist". He's VP and Board Chairman of the Federalist Society, and shady AF.

{King] Charles seems like a weasel to me too, and I'm British. I loved the Queen, I don't have a problem with the monarchy per se, but Charles gives me the ick and don't get me started on Camilla. There will be no oath of loyalty coming from anyone in my family, even the ones still living in Blighty.

You have until May 11th to stock up on free Covid home test kits.
Walgreens and CVS both offer in-store pickup.

https://time.com/6277050/how-to-get-free-covid-tests-public-health-emergency/

@2: A dash of weasel attributed to King Charles III doesn't bother me. The joy and blessings of the British monarchy is watching mere mortals afflicted with their human character disorders perform their gracious and elegant duties in drafty old castles.

King Charles is a Victim
of Royalty, Colonialism, Patriarchy
the whole ball of wax but his Victimhood's
more of a Blessing when it comes to Long Life

it's Good to be King
the Biggest Dick
of 'em All.

(well-Played
Landscape
Vandals!

be on
the Lookout
for Copy-Cats
Greenskeepers &
Landscape 'Technicians'
with stealthy* Implements)

(and Kings).

*electrified!

I'm all for checking the ages (and trafficking status) of the people who perform on porn sites, but controlling your kids' access to porn should be a family and personal responsibility, not the government's. However, as an old fart who had to work really, really hard to see a boob when I was a kid, I think easy access to porn is making children lazy.

nyt:
Why
Nearly All
the King’s Realms Want
to Say Goodbye and Good Riddance

Whether through a hard break or a soft fade in ties, nations that have kept the British monarch as their head of state are moving toward separation.

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/05/05/world/europe/coronation-british-realms.html

one nyt reader's comment:

No one needs a monarchy, or ever did.

The American colonies figured this out by 1775, and formally renounced the English monarch's authority in 1776.

If monarchies were properly called kleptocracies, maybe they would hold less allure. Where, exactly, did all those jewels in the English crown come from? Taken by force is the obvious answer, and kept by royal families for their own amusement. What subject's life was ever improved by a monarch wearing a crown?

--alexander Hamilton; new York

Agreed.

17,000/2800000 is a 0.6% death rate. Given cases are now underreported (I didn't tell anyone when I got it), it's even lower than that.

The Pandemic is OVER. Thank Dog.

@8: Pouters gotta pout

And in other news, a passenger was voted off of a plane - in this case a Frontier flight originating in New Jersey.
If I were ever in New Jersey and boarding Frontier, I’d want to be voted off the plane, too!

I certainly hope nobody in Utah ever finds out what a VPN is or how they work. That would be tragic.

That pasta was Chris Christie's lunch.

@8: Monarchies are the defacto form of government for most of human societies throughout history. Even when they're abandoned, more often than not, they re-constitute in the form of a dictatorship or a military junta.

Who is Putin but the new Tsar? What was Stalin before that?

A Democracy is a very difficult thing to maintain (see: Athens), and pretty new in history. Maybe a hereditary monarchy was a pragmatic solution that limited internal strife? Obviously, it wasn't particularly good at that, but the UK's compromise system is pretty stable.

@14: More likely leftovers. It was cooked pasta too.

https://www.inquirer.com/news/new-jersey/new-jersey-pasta-dump-old-bridge-township-reddit-20230503.html

As much as I generally adore what's left of the Century 21 Exposition, the bleachers at Memorial Stadium are truly a menace. I trust that whatever they do they will keep the war memorial.

Good one, royal vandals! I crown thee, Charles III, the UK's Biggest Dick.
I wonder how many Brits are already pining for William V and Queen Catherine.
Personally, I'd love to see similar vandalism occur at Mal-a-Tardo*.
It would be most fitting.

*Thanks, kris.

@5 & @8 kristofarian: Seconded and thirded.

@9 Max Solomon: Just to be safe, I'm still getting annual Pfizer boosters as well as my flu shots.
Mask wearing restrictions may have lifted in most places but are still required in healthcare facilities, at least where I live.

@11: .....and is that why trolls gotta troll, raindrop dear?

@14 DOUG: For the WIN!! Every time I see an image of Chris Christie I think of hog slop.

@8: "What subject's life was ever improved by a monarch wearing a crown?"

Well yes, ask Camilla.

David Bronner on How
Psychedelics Could Be
a Cure for Capitalism

The soap company CEO on why he believes tripping can lead to a healthier, more just society

Q: How does psychedelic policy reform fit into Dr. Bronner’s model of “constructive capitalism”?

We’ve seen the results of rapacious capitalism — it’s ripped the world apart. Oftentimes, businesses are set up to maximize shareholder return and profit at any cost. We can learn how to build more ethical business models by applying lessons we learn in medicine spaces.

Constructive capitalism is like multistakeholder capitalism. It accounts for all the stakeholders: workers, suppliers, customers and the environment. It’s a way to do business that isn’t making things worse. There are no magic bullets; someone isn’t going to take acid and immediately rock a more ethical business model, but it can be helpful.

Beyond making the justice system more equitable, Bronner says there is another reason he has invested so much in psychedelics: He believes such substances can also help people to behave better.

Psychedelics can be “boundary dissolving,” giving people a better understanding of their relationships to others, themselves and the planet.

With such a boundary-free world view, Bronner believes, people could embrace both social justice and “multistakeholder capitalism,” the idea that businesses have a responsibility not only to shareholders but to their workers, customers, the environment and Indigenous communities.

Bronner said his company practices multistakeholder capitalism in its equitable hiring practices, paying a starting wage of almost $26 an hour for full-time workers and capping executive salary at five times the lowest-paid fully vested employees, among many other measures.

tonnes more:
https://www.rollingstone.com/culture/culture-features/david-bronner-psychedelics-capitalism-1234730373/

I don't Hate capitalism
only the UN-fettered type.

thank Gawd there's
a Rational Alternative.

I see not much concern for the culture that creates monsters who think it's OK to unleash bullets at six year old boys. Tell us again who isn't civilized.

nyt:
The Unexpected
Women Blocking South
Carolina’s Near-Total Abortion Ban

They call themselves the “Sister Senators”
and three of them are Republicans.

When the United States Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade last summer, advocates on either side presumed that the country would divide along the bright color lines: red states completely banning abortion, blue states protecting it.

That prediction failed to anticipate the Sister Senators.

The Sisters, as they call themselves, are the women in the South Carolina State Senate — the only women, three Republicans, one Independent and one Democrat, in a legislature that ranks 47th among states in the proportion of women.

As a block, they are refusing to allow the legislature to pass a near-total ban on abortion, despite a Republican supermajority.

But as men argued that abortion was killing babies, the five women insisted that abortion bans are not about saving lives but controlling women — and that they will not be controlled.

They have argued the ban reduces women to “baby machines” like the dystopia of “The Handmaid’s Tale” and rejected as ludicrous claims from male legislators that women use abortion as birth control.

South Carolina State Senators Sandy Senn: “We the women have not asked for, nor do we want, your protection,” she said, addressing her male colleagues on the floor, wearing flip flops for comfort during the filibuster. “We don’t need it. We don’t buy into the ruse that what you really want is to take care of us.”

--by Kate Zernike; covers abortion for The Times.
May 7, 2023

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/05/07/us/south-carolina-abortion-ban.html

lookit That, willya?
the Womenfolk
Standing
fucking
Tall.

Well Done!

@22 -- well if they're
Uncivilized we've no
choice -- other than
to Bomb them back
to the Stone Age.

That'll
Learn
'em!

okay
since there's such a
Pause in the comments
here's one more Terrifying
than all the rest put together
from Sunday's nyt. take it away:

Billions in Reparations for Black Residents

A task force recommended that legislators enact a sweeping program to compensate for the economic harm from racism in the state’s history.

A California panel approved recommendations on Saturday that could mean hundreds of billions of dollars in payments to Black residents to address past injustices.

The proposals to state legislators are the nation’s most sweeping effort to devise a program of reparations.

The nine-member Reparations Task Force, whose work is being closely monitored by politicians, historians and economists across the country, produced a detailed plan for how restitution should be handled to address a myriad of racist harms, including housing discrimination, mass incarceration and unequal access to health care.

Created through a bill signed into law by Gov. Gavin Newsom in the wake of the nationwide racial justice protests after the murder of George Floyd in 2020, the panel has spent more than a year conducting research and holding listening sessions from the Bay Area to San Diego.

It will be up to legislators…

--by Kurtis Lee, Oakland, Calif.
May 6, 2023

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/05/06/business/economy/california-reparations.html

striking more Terror
in the 'hearts' of
NeoLibs & Cons
than 400 years
of KKK Rule

looks like
they may hafta
Treble Down on Fascism.

hell
it's Always
worked* before

*for
THEM.

@23 kristofarian: Thank you for sharing some encouraging news. YAAAY! And a big shoutout to the Sister Senators of South Carolina who refuse to be controlled by trolling incel neofascist white RepubliKKKan men. Bravo, well done, Sisters, and AMEN!
No reproductive freedom? NO SEX! It's as simple as that. And if RepubliKKKan man-boys don't like it, may the castration of GOP males begin, with the Taliban to immediately follow next until the deadly global virus of misogyny is finally wiped out.

I LOVE your Idea of
the Womenfolk
just saying NO
auntie Gee!

not a Big fan of
Castration but why not
let 'em have a shot or two at
Each other? who knows, maybe
they'll switch Teams? then they could
leave everyone Else the Fuck Alone. for once

here's Willie
on Cowboys
lust & riding
High on the
saddle-
horn:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NyIE40z0FpI&t=72s&ab_channel=passionfrk

he's so Awesome
they fucking
LISTEN to
Willie &

he's not
Afraid to
Preach it.

and Burt Reynolds isn't
afraid to have a little
Fun in the Vid either.

@25: Well my goodness auntie, I'm still a registered Republican! I haven't voted one for the presidency since Mitttens but I remain hopeful for a classic Republican to someday return to the Oval. It would be heartbreaking for me to walk past the large oil portraits of Ron and Nancy in the foyer knowing that I changed my affiliation just because of the Trump cult.

Show some compassion, please don't castrate me!