Boy, the dangers of the radicalized right came into clear focus for just a moment with the arrest of the young con who released all of those classified documents. His prize? He’s facing up to 20 years in prison and a Dishonorable Discharge. He’s 21 years old and his life is already over. The prison time will be bad enough. The Dishonorable Discharge will take care of the rest.

But what motivates a young Air National Guardsman to betray their own country? Radicalization. The cons are very fond of a propaganda outfit called RT.com. ‘RT’ stands for Russia Today. It’s mostly owned by the Russian government and, not surprisingly, it presents a very rosy picture of Russia and paints Putin as a strong-willed and resolute leader. (The editors get murdered if they say anything otherwise.) More importantly, it presents the Russians as the victims in the Russo/Ukraine war – and the cons believe it. (Yeah, they believe a lot of stupid things…)

Currently, cons stand against US assistance in Ukraine. In short, they’re rooting for Putin. This kid just took a few extra steps to help the Russians out. His actions will help the Russians plan troop movements and block off weak areas in their systems and processes the US (may have) exploited for intelligence gathering. He also gave the Russians a very good look at just how much intelligence the US has gathered on the Russians.

The world has seen one assessment that suggests Ukraine won’t be winning this war any time soon – if at all. The cons have jumped on it as “proof” that Ukraine is losing the war. Truthfully, I don’t think Ukraine can win, either, so long as they’re fighting what, historically, has been called a “limited war.” A “limited war” is when one side picks a line and refuses to go beyond it. That allows the other side to attack and retreat to safety to re-group and re-arm over and over and over again. The US tried it in Korea and Vietnam. It didn’t go well for us then and it won’t go well in Ukraine, either. If you’ve got a war to fight, fight it. If you’re not going to fight to win, don’t fight.

The conservative fantasy delusion about life in oh-so-glorious Russia is kind of amazing. I suspect that living there for about a month or so might have them singing a different tune, experience being what it is. I suspect they LOVE the idea of being able to murder one’s political opponents like Putin does but they simply fail to take into account the possibility THEY might find themselves the “opponent” that gets murdered someday. Yeah, great system. But they don’t live there so they’re free to pretend any damn fool thing they want and to their heart’s content. As with everything else, the radicalized right stands against the United States and with anybody/everybody else who opposes the US. Putin and his Russo/Ukraine war are no different…

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So, what else are the cons wrong about this week/month/year? Okay, everything – so let’s just focus on this one: abortion. They’re really coming after abortion rights right now. It makes sense to them. They will likely never have a better shot than they do right now. They’ve corrupted enough of the judiciary to have legal cover and they’ve gerrymandered enough state houses to get the laws passed and THEY ARE PUSHING.

So, they found themselves a conservative activist “judge” who decided to apply his vast medical guesswork and preferences in lieu of, you know, a medical education, and take a stance on one of the medications commonly used for abortions these days, Mifepristone. Mifepristone (aka, RU-486) has been around in Europe since 1980 and came into use in the US in about 2000. (Yeah, despite the rhetoric, the US lags Europe in most areas…) The “judge” declared that the FDA didn’t test it well enough and the now-forty year practical application experience isn’t enough and is, therefore, invalid.

Fortunately, another, you know, actual judge (that is, not some activist, ideological moron) ruled nearly simultaneously that Mifepristone is perfectly legal and must stay available to women. This will buy a little time to have the whole thing sorted. More importantly, it will buy time for people to secretly stockpile as much Mifepristone as they can lay their hands on while right fights wrong. Oddly, conservative Kangaroo of the Roberts Kangaroo Court, Samuel Alito, has issued a stay on the ideological “judge’s” ruling, leaving Mifepristone available for now.

The only trouble I can see is that most Americans prefer choice. To be clear, NOBODY is “pro-abortion” but most people are “pro-choice.” Nobody is “pro-life,” either. THAT crowd is actually “pro-birth.” After delivery, the woman (and the kid, incidentally) are on their own. And I DO mean “the woman.” I’ve heard a LOT of talk about forcing the woman (or violated child) to have a child she isn’t ready for but I’ve heard precious little about forcing the man to take full financial responsibility for the child he sired. When one removes all the specious arguments from the anti-abortion crowd, they REALLY seem interested only in punishing that slut bitch for having sex in the first place…

Fortunately, the cons are in direct conflict with big business, as well as sane Americans. How do you think the pharmaceutical industry is going to feel about losing countless millions of dollars for a very unpopular ideological position? Yeah, it really sucks having to rely on the greed of a corporation for help but, if nothing else, greed endures…and it will help in this case.

You likely remember when Obamacare passed, it required insurance companies to provide for birth control. Hobby Lobby sued, saying such a ruling violated their mythology and they shouldn’t have to do it because they made a wild, blind-ass guess that their invisible super-friend in the sky might somehow take offense. And they won. (I know!)

So they’ve laid it out for you in detail and in black and white and make no mistake. Conservatives, in the guise of the Republican party, want to eliminate birth control AND access to abortion and they’re moving as aggressively as they can to do all of that. Fair warning: they won’t stop until they are stopped and the only way to stop them is get them out of power.

I’ll tell you this: I can’t/won’t tell you for whom you should vote. But I WILL say that if you value freedom and choice, you can NOT vote for Republicans – ever. They’re doing everything they can to subjugate women and return them, barefoot and pregnant, to the home where they “belong…”