It’s time for some consequences.

Just a week after the U.S. and Israel attacked Iran, Trump referred to the war as an “excursion” for the first time and said that “Every single element of their military is gone. Their leadership is gone. There’s not a thing that’s not gone.” A day later, he claimed, “I think the war is very complete, pretty much.”

Trump has said so many conflicting things about the war on Iran that The Bulwark published a “war glossary” to try to keep up with his pronouncements. The war is an “excursion” that we’re “winning by a lot,” that will be over “soon,” and that “hostilities have been terminated,” so there is no need for the 60-day report to Congress demanded by the War Powers Act.

Sixty-five days after Trump and Hegseth launched their war, Iran has a stranglehold on the Strait of Hormuz. Twenty percent of the world’s trade in oil is frozen, anchored in ships in the Persian Gulf and Indian Ocean. When Trump announced “Project Freedom” on Sunday and promised to escort tankers and cargo ships through the Strait, Iran fired anti-ship missiles on two U.S. destroyers and started launching new drone and missile attacks on its neighbor, the United Arab Emirates.

Meanwhile, there has been no comment from the Pentagon on CNN’s recent report on the U.S. bases that were destroyed early in the war and that have been largely abandoned. Nobody knows why Iran was able to destroy two U.S. AWACS aircraft that were sitting on runways in Saudi Arabia. Nobody has explained why a U.S. Naval headquarters building in Bahrain was destroyed, or why a complex of radar domes in Kuwait were so damaged, they are unusable. The war room at the U.S. airbase in Qatar was hit and has been unoccupied since early in the war. CNN reported that in all, Iran was able to severely damage 16 U.S. military facilities in eight countries in the Gulf region.

So, with no war room in Qatar, with no radar facilities in Kuwait, with no naval headquarters in Bahrain, how is what is left of our war on Iran being run, and by whom?

No answer to that at the Pentagon today, where Hegseth held a press conference standing next to General Dan Caine, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, who is looking more and more like a handy prop for Hegseth and less like the Pentagon’s chief military officer.

How easy it is to forget that it was just last year that Hegseth faced questioning at his confirmation hearing about the sexual assault charges that were made against him in Monterey, California in 2017 by a woman who was a participant at a conference of Republican women at which Hegseth was the keynote speaker. I went back and re-read the reports of the incident. Hegseth met the woman, described as a wife and mother who was staying at the Monterey hotel with her husband and children, in a bar at the hotel after his speech. Around 1 a.m., there were complaints of a disturbance at the hotel pool. Security guards who responded found a drunk Hegseth and the woman. Hegseth started screaming that he “had freedom of speech” and had to be restrained by the woman, according to a police report filed later. The woman explained to the security guard that “they were Republicans” and apologized for Hegseth’s behavior.

Later, Hegseth took her to his hotel room and blocked the door with his body so she could not leave. The woman told the police that the last thing she could remember was Hegseth being on top of her with his “dogtags dangling in her face.”

Vice President Vance had to break a 50-50 tie vote in the Senate to secure Hegseth’s confirmation for the post that was then still called Secretary of Defense.

Last week, Hegseth faced congressional questioning about having his former attorney, Timothy Parlatore, serving as a “senior advisor” to him in the Pentagon at the same time he is still representing clients in private practice. Hegseth refused to answer a direct question from Representative Jason Crow about whether Parlatore has a top-secret security clearance, since he accompanies Hegseth to classified briefings and travels with Hegseth to highly classified military bases and facilities.

Nobody asked Hegseth how much he paid Parlatore when he was the lawyer who represented him during a police investigation of the sexual assault claim by the woman in Monterey. Parlatore was also Hegseth’s lawyer when he reached a settlement with the woman who had threatened to sue him for sexual assault. Hegseth paid the woman $50,000. Parlatore attempted to get the police sexual assault investigation report sealed, but was refused, because Hegseth himself had previously requested that the report be emailed to him, negating the privacy laws in California.

Hegseth has fired 24 generals and senior commanders in the military. None of the generals or commanders had any negative performance related reviews against them, nor had any of the generals been accused of sexual harassment or assault. Sixty percent of the generals whom Hegseth fired were women or Black.

So, let’s review. Pete Hegseth has been in charge of Trump’s war on Iran for more than two months. Iran, while accepting a ceasefire offered by Trump that they didn’t even request, has resisted all attempts at a peace agreement, demanding that its control of the Strait of Hormuz and its highly enriched uranium are off the table.

Meanwhile, the world is being starved of the oil that remains bottled up in the Persian Gulf, with gas prices skyrocketing, gas rationing being ordered in some countries, and petroleum-based fertilizers produced by Gulf countries in short supply around the world. Experts have made estimates that if the Strait of Hormuz remains closed for much longer, the lack of fertilizer will begin to affect food supplies.

Why does Pete Hegseth still have his job? Because he works for a deranged man who only three days ago was bragging about being able to identify a squirrel in a cognitive test that he claims was overseen by “a board of doctors.”

This country elected a sex-criminal as president who appointed a sexual abuser to be in charge of the U.S. military. They started a war that they cannot win. We are getting exactly what our fellow Americans in the Republican Party voted for.

Late breaking news update: Axios is reporting that Trump has cancelled “Project Freedom,” the operation to escort ships through the Strait of Hormuz, because of “progress” in negotiations with Iran. The blockade by both Iran and the U.S. of the Strait of Hormuz remains in full effect, with no ships allowed to pass in and out of the Persian Gulf.

I don’t know what the hell this means, other than Trump doesn’t want to look weak, and he has do something, and this spastic craziness is it. He wants to save face somehow. It ain’t gonna happen. He and Hegseth have lost their war, and Iran knows it.

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If you’ve ever been offered “no interest” financing at checkout, whether for medical care, home improvement, or a retail purchase, then you’re not alone because it’s become a common occurrence. These offers are everywhere, and on the surface, they sound like a smart way to spread out payments without paying extra, so you might be tempted to go for it, but there’s a detail buried in the fine print that many consumers miss, which is deferred interest.

Deferred interest is one of the most misunderstood financing structures out there. And if you don’t fully understand how it works, it can end up costing you a lot more than you ever expected.

In this article, we’ll look at exactly what you’re getting into before you sign.

What Is Deferred Interest?

Deferred interest is a type of financing where interest is temporarily put on hold , usually only for a promotional period such as  6, 12, or 18 months.

During that time, you’re told you won’t pay interest. Basically, that’s true but only if you meet the terms. Interest is still being calculated in the background from day one. It’s just not added to your balance yet.

If you pay off the entire balance before the promotional period ends, you avoid paying that interest entirely. But if even a small portion of the balance remains, all the accumulated interest gets added back onto your account, but can cause you financial problems that you might not have counted on paying.

Why It’s Easy to Misunderstand

The phrase “no interest” creates a sense of safety that really doesn’t exist. It sounds similar to a traditional zero-percent APR credit card, but deferred interest is not the same thing.

With a true 0% APR offer, interest simply doesn’t exist during the promotional period. However, with deferred interest, it’s more like a ticking clock in the background because the interest remains.

Many consumers assume that making minimum payments is enough to stay on track. In reality, minimum payments are rarely structured to fully pay off the balance before the deadline, so you’ll be stuck with paying interest. That misunderstanding can lead to a surprise bill that’s much higher than you probably expected.

How the Costs Add Up

Let’s say you finance $3,000 with a 12-month deferred interest plan.

You make your monthly payments on time, but by the end of the promotional period, you still have $200 left to be paid even though you’ve made the payments.

Instead of just paying off the remaining balance, you now owe all the interest that  has accumulated over the full 12 months, often at rates exceeding 20%. That could add hundreds of dollars to your total cost overnight.

When the interest takes effect retroactively, it doesn’t matter how close you were to paying it off. Missing the payoff by even a small amount will trigger the full interest charge to be launched.

Where Deferred Interest Is Often Used

Deferred interest financing shows up in a wide range of industries such as the following:

• Healthcare and dental procedures
• Cosmetic treatments
• Furniture and appliance purchases
• Electronics and retail stores
• Home improvement projects

In many cases, it’s presented as a convenient solution to make large purchases more manageable.

And to be fair, it can be, but only if you fully understand the terms and plan your payments carefully to avoid the interest.

Why Companies Use Deferred Interest

From a business perspective, deferred interest is an effective way to increase conversions. Offering financing removes the immediate barrier  of a large upfront cost. It allows customers to say “yes” to purchases they might otherwise delay or decline.

The structure of deferred interest means that lenders still have a strong chance of earning interest revenue, especially if consumers don’t pay off the balance in time.

It’s a model that benefits businesses, but it places the responsibility squarely on the consumer to manage the risk to the best of their ability.

Fine Print Matters

One of the biggest issues with deferred interest plans is how the terms are disclosed.

Important details, like when interest starts accruing, how it’s calculated, and what triggers it, are often buried in dense contract language that’s hard for a person to decipher.

Consumers may not realize:

• Interest accrues from the purchase date and not after the promo period
• Minimum payments don’t guarantee payoff in time
• A single late payment can void promotional terms
• The interest rate may be significantly higher than standard credit cards

These aren’t small details, but the difference between saving money and paying a premium.

How to Protect Yourself

Deferred interest isn’t inherently bad. It just requires a more strategic approach.

If you’re considering this type of financing, here are a few ways to protect yourself:

Know the Exact Payoff Date

Don’t estimate. Instead, get the exact date when the promotional period ends and work backward from there.

Calculate Your Monthly Payment

Divide the total balance by the number of months in the promo period. That’s your target payment, and not the minimum payment listed on your statement.

Set Up Automatic Payments

Missing a payment could cancel your promotional terms, so it’s imperative that you make your payments on time.

Pay It Off Early If Possible

The sooner you eliminate the balance, the less risk you carry.

Alternatives Worth Considering

Depending on your situation, there may be better financing options available.

These include things like:

• True 0% APR credit cards (without deferred interest)
• Personal loans with fixed interest rates
• Transparent payment plans with no retroactive charges

Some financing providers are also working to make terms clearer and more consumer-friendly, by focusing on simple interest rather than deferred interest rate structures.

Exploring these alternatives can help you avoid surprises and choose a plan that aligns effectively with your financial goals.

Why Transparency Matters

As more consumers become aware of how deferred interest works, there’s a distinct growing demand for clearer, more transparent financing options.

Regulators and consumer advocates have raised concerns  about how these plans are marketed, especially when key terms aren’t clearly communicated so there are a lot of gray areas.

At the same time, financial literacy is improving because people are asking better questions and taking a closer look at the details before committing to the loan.

That shift is important. Because when consumers understand the rules, they’re in a much stronger position to make informed decisions and avoid interest.

Final Thoughts

Deferred interest financing can be a useful tool, but only if you go into it with a clear understanding of how it works.The biggest mistake isn’t using it, but it’s  assuming it’s something it’s not.

Before you agree to any financing plan, take a few extra minutes to review the terms, calculate your payments, and consider your options. That small amount of effort can save you a significant amount of money. Because in the end, the goal isn’t just to make a purchase more affordable today, but to ensure it stays affordable in the future.

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Once upon a time, the pro-life movement liked to pretend that they cared about “states’ rights.” That they only wanted to end Roe v Wade so they could get the federal government out of the way of good god-fearing Christian red states. Then the good people of America could decide for themselves if they wanted to allow women to brutally murder babies make their own choices concerning their sinful whorish ways bodily autonomy.

But we all knew that was a fucking lie. We knew that “pro-life” zealots didn’t care about the unborn. They cared about murdering women. As many as possible. They’re a death cult. They’ve always been a death cult. They cheered when their handpicked murderers struck down Roe, but that was then; this is now.

Now, they want more death, and Trump isn’t delivering it fast enough to sate their psychotic bloodlust:

“Trump is the problem. The president is the problem,” Dannenfelser told the Wall Street Journal in a striking intervention from a woman who once led Trump’s pro-life ground game.

In an address to donors at her group’s gala in D.C. on Wednesday, the Journal reported, Dannenfelser warned that if Republicans keep allowing individual states to decide abortion policy, “then the movement as we know it is finished.”

The problem is twofold. The first is that women can still access Mifepristone, the abortion pill. Because Republicans have made it all but impossible to get an abortion in a hospital or a clinic, more women than ever are turning to abortions using the pill. That’s caused an overall increase in abortions because fewer women are trying to jump through the GOP’s hoops and going straight to abortion through the mail.

Ah…unintended consequences. Fucking idiots.

The second problem is exactly what Dannenfelser “warned” her fellow death cultists about. Individual states, i.e., blue states where Democrats still respect civil rights, continue to allow women to decide their own destiny. The fucking nerve of them!

But, again, we always knew this was coming. When the right talks about “freedom” and “choice,” what they mean is the freedom and choice to dictate how you live your life. This is a foundational part of America’s right wing. They cry about oppression when others are given the rights they’ve enjoyed all along. Equality is anathema to a Republican. They only feel free when they have their boot on the neck of the people they hate.

I promise you, if Dannenfelser or her daughters were faced with a fatal ectopic pregnancy, she would not pray to JAY-zus for salvation and a miracle. She would get that abortion in a fucking fetal heartbeat. Because why should she or her loved ones die? That’s crazy! But you and your daughters? Well, that’s too fucking bad. You should have thought of the consequences before spreading your legs, you whores. Oh, you’re married with four kids, and you want to have more? Well, it’s God’s will for you to die, sweetie. Too bad. Now, excuse me while my children and I continue to receive proper healthcare.

Salvation for me, not for thee. It’s the Christofascist way.

Trump has not put a lot of effort into pandering to the pro-life movement since “winning” the 2024 election. Not because he doesn’t want the Evangelical death cult on his side, but because he doesn’t give a shit about abortion. He never did. Trump literally does not give a second thought to women’s reproductive rights. It’s a meaningless topic for him. If his base was pro-abortion, he would be pro-abortion. If his base was pro-abortion until the second trimester, that’s what he would back. He doesn’t care at all. Trump is a misogynist to the bone, but not in this particular way. He’ll happily watch women die because of his policies, but he won’t put in the time and energy to restrict their rights further because what a woman does or doesn’t do with her body doesn’t affect him, personally.

And that is what it’s always about with Trump: How do I benefit from this, or how does it hurt me? If it doesn’t, then why bother?

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Trump got the Evangelical vote. It got him back into power. They still overwhelmingly support him because abortion is illegal in wide swathes of the country. It will be a very long time before the rank and file death cult tires of women bleeding to death in hospital parking lots. The leaders want more, but Trump isn’t going to pay much attention to them until they persuade enough of the base to stop supporting him. And so Dannenfelser has learned the lesson so many have learned before: She was not using Trump. Trump was using her, and now he doesn’t need her anymore.

That doesn’t mean abortion access is safe. The Republican-controlled Supreme Court is infinitely corrupt and will, without a doubt, eventually “discover” a new legal justification for banning abortion nationwide, rejecting their own reasoning about letting states decide for themselves.

Trump will certainly take credit for that, unless he sees it hurting him in the polls. Then he’ll throw his own Justices under the bus, denouncing them as “too extreme.” Trump has no ideology beyond “Me.” We all know this.

It is, however, very helpful of Dannenfelser and her fellow soulless monsters to so openly clarify who and what they are. No more pretending they care about states’ rights and freedom and choice. They have dropped all pretense that they care about anything other than a nationwide abortion ban and spreading as much death and misery as possible. We can dispense with the veneer of respectability the legacy press has allowed these murderers to hide behind for decades and hold them up as the death cult we’ve known to be all along.

It really does make the choice much clearer for the public going forward. Isn’t it nice when the Christofascists stop pretending to be anything other than sadistic animals?

I write to help you cope with the fear and anger threatening to overwhelm you every day. If this newsletter gets you through these dark times, please consider becoming a contributing supporter for only $5 a month or just $50 a year (a 17% discount!). Thank you for everything!

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There are only 181 days until the midterms, and the regime is panicking. They’re afraid of us. Keep making them afraid every single day. Remember, you are never alone. We beat the fascists once. We will fucking do it again.

These are dark times but I will continue to tell the stories you need to hear in a clear (and usually profane) voice. If I entertain/anger/inform you, preferably all three, please consider becoming a supporting subscriber today for only $5 a month or just $50 a year (a 17% discount!).

🔥Burn Fascism To The Ground!🔥

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We need to have a conversation about racist mediocre white men. They’re a plague on this country, and they’re killing everything good in the world. They’ve become so dangerously toxic, there is a very real possibility they’ve doomed us to half a century (minimum!) of misery and death because they cannot bear the idea of being the mediocre nobodies they actually are. They HAVE to be special and powerful and in control, and if they’re not? Well, then everything has to burn to the ground. That’s what you get for not acknowledging how superior they are in their mediocrity.

I’ve been hearing a lot lately about a so-called “extinction burst.” This is the idea in psychology that when a toxic behavior is no longer rewarded, it intensifies in a desperate bid to restart the reward cycle. If that fails, the behavior dies out, aka, goes “extinct.”

This is supposed to be what we are seeing right now with racist, mediocre white men. Men who have nothing to offer but their rage and weaponized incompetence. They’re lashing out and destroying everything around them because they need to show the world they are actually mommy’s special little snowflake. They need to prove that they’re superior to all the mean dark-skinned people and cruel women and scary gays and even scarier trans people. To do that, racist, mediocre white men have gone all in on fascism and white nationalism. That’ll show those meanies who’s in charge!

Is it an extinction burst, though? Only if we make it one. Are we prepared to do that? Are we finally sick and tired enough of racist, mediocre white men to shut them down for good?

I was told the Tea Party was the last gasp of racist, mediocre white men. Then they elected the most racist, most mediocre white man on Earth. Their temper tantrum was rewarded.

I was told Trump’s first time in office was the last gasp of racist, mediocre white men. Then he stayed in the headlines for four years and “won” the 2024 election after building an even larger and more racist cult of mediocre white men.1 Rewarded yet again.

Now this fascist shithole regime is the last gasp of racist, mediocre white men. There’s always another “last gasp.” Always another “extinction burst.” The racist, mediocre white men always get another bite at the apple they’ve covered in shit and filth.

Until we say they don’t. Until we say, “Fuck you. No more of your bullshit. Sit your bitch ass down and shut the fuck up, spoiled little white man.”

We have to do this. We have to stop coddling racist, mediocre white men.

There are encouraging signs we are reaching/have reached a tipping point. A lot of women are being really blunt about who these men are:

Women have been speaking out about this for a very long time, but it’s reaching a crescendo. Women, especially younger women, are so absolutely fucking fed up with racist, mediocre white (and non-white) men that they’re just checking out. And since bisexuality is not nearly as frowned upon among women, they’re looking elsewhere for romantic and sexual fulfillment. Or they’re just going solo, and they’re fine with that because the alternative is garbage.

Men are left to fend for themselves or listen to fucking morons like this:

@lucasanswerNever Help With Chores!

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Look at this fucking loser. Listen to his advice for racist, mediocre white men. Don’t be a partner. Don’t cook or clean or participate in any way in being in a relationship. She’s either your domestic servant or you are hers. Listen to that advice and then ask yourself what women would ever put up with that shit? None I know.

Then men have the fucking gall to cry and whine and rage about a loneliness epidemic? Why won’t women date me? Why won’t they have sex with me? Why do women prefer to be alone? Are you shitting me? Have you MET a woman in the real world? Women are horny as fuck. They WANT to get laid as much as men do. What they don’t want is a penis attached to a loser who thinks women exist for his pleasure and nothing else.

No one is forcing men to follow the path of the incel. No one is forcing them to be lazy slobs who think the only emotions worth showing are anger and lust. Is it easier? Sure. Is it working? Obviously not. Men are falling behind, and they’re not getting laid, and they’re not getting married. Even when men put the effort in to look good and be successful, too many of them do it for the wrong reasons, imagining that toxic masculinity and dominating women will make them attractive partners. Imagine their surprise when all they attract are women who don’t give a shit about them personally, but rather view them the same way they view women: A means to an end. How emotionally fulfilling. 🙄🙄🙄

Sure, they’re having sex, but it’s JUST sex. Sooner or later, the emptiness of that life will eat away at their souls and leave behind the bitter resentment etched into the faces of hollow men like Elon Musk and Donald Trump. I’ve been with Mrs. Ogre since 1997, and I promise you, I’m a thousand times happier and more fulfilled than the “manly men” who have slept with 500 women and wake up every morning to an empty bed.

But back to the main point: With each “last gasp,” the racist, mediocre white men of America become more and more extreme and unfuckable. They become louder and stupider and more obnoxious. They’re not even bothering to pretend to be decent human beings anymore.

They decided that the best way to show America they deserved to be in charge was to go full Nazi.

You never go full Nazi. Ain’t no American woman ever got turned on by a goose-stepping fascist screaming about how Jews need to die, women need to submit to his authority, and 14-year-old girls should have his white babies.

But here we are, anyway. The final extinction burst. Because after this, we either make the racist, mediocre white men pay such a steep price for their arrogance that they grow the fuck up, or we are lost as a nation for a generation or two (or three).

And that really is what we’re talking about: Making racist, mediocre white men grow the fuck up. I’ve written about this more than once over the years, and it really does seem to be penetrating.2 We have coddled these manbabies for literally centuries, and the only way forward is to stop. Stop the coddling. Stop them. Stop all of it.

When the regime falls, and it will, the chorus of enablers will be deafening. They will insist we have to “look forward” and “join hands to heal the nation.” What they’re actually telling us is to reward the temper tantrum yet again by not holding racist, mediocre white men accountable for their actions, just like we’ve been doing for over two hundred years.

But spoiled children never learn unless there are consequences for their actions, and it has to be more than a slap on the wrist. These screaming toddlers have to learn to fear the cost of trying to destroy America. They have to look around at their fellow fascists and see them spending decades in prison or swinging from the gallows for the crimes they’ve committed. The racist, mediocre white men who fancy themselves the masters of all have to learn they are masters of nothing because they were only ever mediocre nobodies. Their only power was being white, angry, and stupid in a country that refused to hold them responsible for anything, ever. Take that away, and they are left with the choice to do better or slink off into the background, never to be heard from again.

I’m ready to kick this plague of losers to the curb and reclaim our future from the dumbest, angriest fucksticks America has ever produced. My kids and hypothetical grandkids deserve better.

I hope you feel better informed about the world and ready to kick fascists in the teeth to protect it. This newsletter exists because of you, so please consider becoming a supporting subscriber today for only $5 a month or just $50 a year (a 17% discount!). Thank you for everything!

🖕FUCK THE PATRIARCHY!🖕

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There are 182 days until the most important midterm election in American history. The regime is afraid, and they should be. We are legion, and they are weak. Stay strong. You are never alone.

More than a decade ago, I was reporting in Brazil about the country’s strict abortion ban. I interviewed a doctor who had been excommunicated from the Catholic Church for providing an abortion to a nine-year-old rape victim — he was threatened and protested, and the girl herself had to be smuggled past vicious anti-abortion protesters to even get into the hospital. I talked to a young woman who, pregnant and desperate, told doctors she had been raped so that she could get a safe and legal abortion. While Brazil criminalizes abortion, the state also forced its will women who chose to have babies — for example, by forcing women into C-sections under threat of criminal penalty — and allowing for the widespread abuse of birthing women. “It's part of Catholic culture that this experience of childbirth should come with humiliation,” one doctor told me.

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The abortion rights legal landscape, like the landscape for reproductive rights more broadly, was pretty abysmal. But some one million women were still having abortions in Brazil every year. And they were doing so largely thanks to abortion pills.

This is true all over the world where abortion is banned. I’ve reported many times on the proliferation of abortion pills, which women manage to get on far-flung Indonesian islands, in conservative pockets of Pakistan, in Bangladeshi refugee camps, in rural Kenyan villages. Abortion pills have been legal in parts of Europe since the late 1980s. In Latin America, where abortion was long criminalized across most of the continent, women began noticing that the ulcer medicine Cytotec came in interesting packaging, with a little symbol of a pregnant woman with a red line drawn over her and a strongly-worded warning not to take while pregnant. Well. Lots of women began turning up at pharmacies complaining of ulcers.

Nothing has changed abortion access as profoundly as abortion pills, which in the US are typically a combination of mifepristone and misoprostol, and in places where abortion is banned are often misoprostol alone. Before misoprostol, abortion in countries where the procedure was outlawed mostly looked like it did in America’s pre-Roe days: The wealthiest and most well-connected women might be able to travel overseas to end a pregnancy; others might be lucky enough to find a kind and well-trained albeit illegal provider; but many went to scammers and dangerous charlatans, or tried to take mattes into their own hands. In America, the symbol of abortion’s Bad Old Days is the coat hanger. In sub-Saharan Africa, where I’ve reported for many years on abortion access, it might be the sharp stick.

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Predictably, this killed a lot of women. Some 70,000 women were dying every year from unsafe abortions, almost entirely in countries where the procedure was outlawed. Five million more were seriously injured year after year after year. And each year, roughly 220,000 children were left motherless. As you might imagine, unsafe abortion was one of the top drivers of maternal mortality worldwide.

Today, deaths from unsafe abortion number closer to 29,000, a nearly 60 percent decrease from 2009. This is still horrific, and these deaths would be near zero if all women worldwide had legal access to safe abortion care. But cutting unsafe abortion deaths by more than half is a huge achievement. It’s worth noting that the global maternal mortality rate has decreased by 40 percent from 2000. In other words, unsafe abortions decreased at a much faster pace, in a shorter period of time, than pregnancy-related deaths generally. Something about abortion changed.

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Just when you think you’ve seen it all…

Seconds after watching the concluding round of the PGA Tour Cadillac Championship golf tournament at his Doral golf club in Miami, Donald Trump went on his Truth Social account and posted his war plans to use the United States Navy to “guide Ships” through the Strait of Hormuz beginning tomorrow morning “Middle East Time.” And yes, he capitalized “Ships” and “Crews” throughout the post.

I have a hard time comprehending exactly how insane this is. First of all, there is a war going on with Iran, and Trump is down there in Florida, staying at his residence/hotel/club/top-secret-stolen-documents-storage-facility, Mar a Lago, and what he thought was important to do today, with American troops in danger in the Middle East, was to attend a fucking golf tournament.

Then there is the usual insanity of using Truth Social to blast out what he thinks he’s going to do in his war against Iran. Of course, there is the plan itself, to help “people, companies, and Countries that have done absolutely nothing wrong — They are victims of circumstance.” The circumstance being that Trump started a war with Iran and in retaliation, Iran closed the Strait of Hormuz, stranding some 2,000 ships that have been anchored on either side of the Strait since February 28, more than four months ago.

Now comes the rationale: “This is a Humanitarian gesture on behalf of the United States, Middle Eastern Countries but, in particular, the Country of Iran.”

Huh? Iran closed the Strait. The U.S. has had all Iran trade under sanctions for years…until Trump started his war and Iran closed the Strait, starving the world of 20 percent of the international oil trade – except for Iran’s oil, on which he lifted sanctions, along with sanctions on Russian oil, because of the oil shortage that he, Donald J. Trump, caused on February 28.

So get this: Iran is selling its oil on the open market. Iran’s ships are transiting the Strait of Hormuz, except that we’re blockading them. Or something.

Trump goes on to say he thinks escorting the ships will “go a long way in showing Goodwill on behalf of all of those who have been fighting so strenuously over the last number of months.”

This statement is more insanity. Just between you and me and Trump’s golf caddy, “all of those” who have been engaged in this war are three: the United States and Israel, who started the war, and Iran, whom they attacked. Trump also whines that the “Crews” of the stuck vessels, which he falsely identifies as “largescale” for some reason, are running out of food and suffering from “health” and “sanitary” problems.

As if Trump has ever worried about the health and sanitary conditions of anyone other than himself and his immediate family, and probably not so much about Eric and Tiffany.

He also has to issue a threat, because what would a Trump post on Truth Social be without an ill-conceived, ill-directed, unplanned-for, and insane threat. If his “Humanitarian process is interfered with, that interference will, unfortunately, have to be dealt with forcefully,” Trump claims at the very end of his post.

Any sane person considering such a plan and such a threat would ask: Exactly how is this going to happen? We have somewhere between 15 and 20 warships in the Persian Gulf region, including three aircraft carrier strike groups. One of these strike groups typically consists of the aircraft carrier – those on station in the region are the Gerald Ford, the Abraham Lincoln, and the George H.W. Bush – and seven to twelve combat supporting vessels, so if their strike groups are at full combat readiness, there goes the availability of all the guided missile cruisers, destroyers, submarines, and supply ships that are necessary to defend the three aircraft carriers.

If all those naval vessels are busy defending the floating targets we call aircraft carriers, what ships are we going to use to “guide” commercial vessels through the dangerous Strait of Hormuz, which at this point has been mined by Iran and is protected by a flotilla of vessels that have been hidden from U.S. attacks by the Iran Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC). Those vessels include fast-attack speedboats, catamarans armed with missiles, and unmanned naval surface drones. Despite Trump’s constant bellowing that the U.S. bombing has put the entire Iranian navy, which he says consists of 159 ships, “on the bottom of the sea,” there are reports that with 1,200 miles of shoreline and countless small bays and hiding places, Iran has managed to save as many as 1,000 of its small attack craft.

So, let’s review. There are 2,000 commercial vessels stuck on either side of the Strait of Hormuz. Some of them are said to be close to running out of fuel oil, so they would presumably need refueling before they could be “guided” through the Strait. We have about 20 warships in the region, including three carriers, so that means about 17 usable escort vessels, because our Navy isn’t going to let one of its precious carriers anywhere near the Strait, which is defended not only by the IRGC small boat fleet, but by missile batteries deeply dug into the range of mountains that overlooks the entire Iranian shoreline and is within range of firing those missiles on any ship daring to enter the Strait.

With 20 Navy warships that we can’t use, because they’re defending aircraft carriers, how are we going to “guide” even a single ship through the Strait? If Trump and Hegseth are foolish enough to dispatch one of our destroyers or guided missile cruisers to escort a commercial vessel – and they just might be that foolish – and it is attacked, Trump has already told the world, including Iran, that we will deal with it “forcefully.”

Which means bombing the shit out Iran, so they’ll be ready for that, too.

Trump’s entire 18^th hole war plan is idiocy of the first order…and the second and the third and the fourth. It’s worse than folly. It is public, out in the open, in the clear military planning madness.

Donald Trump isn’t the only one who can use social media to make military plans and threats. Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps has an account on X. The IRGC concludes that “Trump’s room for decision-making has narrowed.” Noting that Trump has sent a “passive letter to Congress” brought on by the 60-day deadline which caused him to “declare that hostilities are over,” the IRGC says “there is only one way to read this: Trump must choose between ‘an impossible military operation or a bad deal with the Islamic Republic of Iran.’”

The IRGC use of the English language on X is better than that of Donald Trump on Truth Social. Naturally.

I wonder how that response went down at the 18^th hole at Doral as Trump watched the final foursome making their putts at the “Cadillac Championship.”

The whole world is watching, and the whole world is laughing at our certifiably demented and insane president, who has been bragging over and over that he has been officially tested three times by real doctors, and he passed because he can tell the difference between a bear and a giraffe.

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