Former President Donald J. Trump asked Mark T. Esper, his defense secretary, about the possibility of launching missiles into Mexico to “destroy the drug labs” and wipe out the cartels, maintaining that the United States’ involvement in a strike against its southern neighbor could be kept secret, Mr. Esper recounts in his upcoming memoir.

Those remarkable discussions in 2020 were among several moments that Mr. Esper described in the book, “A Sacred Oath,” as leaving him all but speechless when he served the 45th president.

Mr. Esper, the last Senate-confirmed defense secretary under Mr. Trump, also had concerns about speculation that the president might misuse the military around Election Day by, for instance, having soldiers seize ballot boxes. He warned subordinates to be on alert for unusual calls from the White House in the lead-up to the election.

The book, to be published on Tuesday, offers a stunningly candid perspective from a former defense secretary, and it illuminates key episodes from the Trump presidency, including some that were unknown or underexplored.

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/05/05/us/politics/mark-esper-book-trump.html

Here's who else is buying Twitter now: Qatar, a16z, Binance, Larry Ellison et al.

How it started:
World's richest man is buying Twitter and setting speech free.

How it's going:
World's rich men are buying Twitter and setting it free from public accountability.

Calling all over-educated women who support abortion access. Buy this shirt and support @yellowfund, working to make abortion accessible for all who need it in the Deep South.

The brilliant @smartstatistic had a great idea: put this on a shirt. So, we did. All proceeds go to The Yellowhammer Fund (@YellowFund), a 501(c)3 abortion fund and reproductive justice organization serving Alabama, Mississippi, and the Deep South.

BUY: https://bonfire.com/over-educated-

We will not be silenced, we will not go back, and we will not stop fighting! Now is the time to act. Congress MUST codify Roe v. Wade into law. It cannot wait.

As the pandemic has shown so clearly, public health issues are workplace issues. Business leaders are responsible for protecting the health and well-being of our employees, and that includes protecting reproductive rights and abortion access. 

Access to reproductive health care, including abortion, has been a critical factor to the workplace gains and contributions women have made over the past 50 years. Further restricting or criminalizing access will jeopardize that progress and disproportionately affect women of color, putting their well-being at risk and impeding diverse hiring pipelines. Women in some states would have fewer rights than women in others, and our country would be consigned to a more unjust and inequitable future. What’s more, companies would need different health policies for different locations – including coverage for time off and travel across state lines – to ensure employees can access reproductive health care.

We know this is a fraught conversation; it’s not something we enter into lightly. But women make up 58 percent of our global workforce, and in recent years, numerous employees have expressed to leadership their growing alarm over the rollback of all forms of reproductive care.

Our position on this is in keeping with our efforts to support employees and family members at all stages of their lives. That includes advocacy for national paid family and medical leave, protections for pregnant workers, and gender and racial equity more broadly. Our position is also aligned with majority public opinion. In recent polling, 60 percent of Americans stated that the Supreme Court should uphold Roe v. Wade and three-quarters said abortion decisions should be left to women and their doctor.

https://www.levistrauss.com/2022/05/04/protecting-reproductive-rights-a-business-imperative/

As more states make abortion illegal, people of color seeking abortions will likely end up being targeted by authorities even more if Roe falls.

The U.S. Supreme Court’s leaked plan to overturn Roe v. Wade has confirmed what many have been fearing for months—and now, experts gearing up for the fall of Roe say it will disproportionately harm people of color in the U.S., especially Black people.

A Supreme Court draft opinion that leaked Monday night indicated the majority of the court will overturn Roe v. Wade this summer, ending a half-century of constitutional protection for abortion rights in the U.S. The decision will further clear a path for several states, including Alabama, Texas, and Georgia, to continue to severely restrict access to legal abortion, and it will disproportionately harm pregnant Black people and people of color, as well as immigrants, undocumented folks, and LGBTQ folks, experts say.

This could also give authorities yet another way to target people of color.

“We see very clearly that people are being surveilled, targeted, and accused of accessing abortion,” Dr. Jamila Perritt, an abortion provider and president of Physicians for Reproductive Health, told VICE News.

https://www.vice.com/en/article/epxedp/black-people-abortion-rights