A weekend reprieve.

April 15, 2023

          This newsletter is primarily intended to open the Comments section as a forum for weekend discussion. Although only paying subscribers can comment, everyone can read and enjoy the high-quality discussion among readers of this newsletter. I thank the community of regular commenters for sustaining the level of discourse in the Comments section.

          Justice Alito granted a five-day administrative stay of Judge Kacsmaryk’s ruling revoking FDA approval of mifepristone. The plaintiff in the case (an advocacy group of doctors) must file a response by Tuesday at Noon. The stay remains in effect until Wednesday, April 18^, 2023, at Midnight—meaning that mifepristone will remain available until then without regard to Judge Kacsmaryk’s order. We should read nothing into Alito’s issuance of an administrative stay. He is simply giving the full Court time to read the briefing.

          There is nothing MAGA extremists cannot make worse. They have rallied to the defense of a 21-year-old National Air National Guardsman who leaked damaging intelligence assessments to impress other teenage members of a private online chat group (on a Discord server). The Atlantic, A Trivial Motive for a Dangerous Leak. The documents have been exploited by Russia (by altering them to spread disinformation) and have damaged US relations with allies in Europe and Asia. The leaker, Jack Teixeira, took time away from espionage efforts to spread racist and antisemitic memes among the teenage boys on the Discord server.

          But none of that stopped Marjorie Taylor Greene and Tucker Carlson from defending Teixeira as an “antiwar hero” who told the truth about Ukraine. See Business Insider, MAGA-World Defends Jack Teixeira, the Accused Pentagon Leaker. Of course, Tucker Carlson publicized documents that were clearly altered by Russia to understate its losses in Ukraine. See Media Matters for America, What Tucker Carlson left out of his defense of accused Pentagon leaker Jack Teixeira.

          The MAGA extremists not only hate democracy, but they also hate America—the only explanation for glorifying a traitor who leaked information that will make all Americans less secure. The leaked information comes from “signals intelligence”—electronic eavesdropping employed by the US to understand the global threat environment. Importantly, that eavesdropping could not catch Teixeira because he was an American engaging in free speech on US soil—and was thus beyond the reach of US intelligence gathering.

          Finally, as background, I have continued to struggle all week with a nasty virus and have been largely absent from the Comments section and responding to reader emails. My apologies. I hope to be back in the saddle next week. My Managing Editor and I are both on Round II of an aggressive treatment regime, so we are looking forward to relief.

          Have a good weekend everyone! As always, please be respectful in the Comments section and “like” worthy comments to promote them to the top for other readers!