Today is Saturday, April 15, 2023. The news wasn’t good for the “antiwoke” governor of Florida, Ron “DeSant-ASS,” when it was reported today that a billionaire GOP donor is pulling the plug on funding the still-as-yet-announced presidential candidate over his book-banning crusade and his extreme positions on abortion just exposed the other day when he signed a severely restrictive abortion ban despite how unpopular this was with voters in general. The backlash against this autocratic governor appeared in an online Raw Story article by David McAfee entitled “GOP donor pulls plug on funding DeSantis over book-banning crusade: report.”

The billionaire donor is Thomas Peterffy, the founder of Interactive Brokers Group, Inc., who previously said that he would vote for former president Donald Dumpf if he’s the GOP nominee in 2024 (who said that being a billionaire makes you instantly smart?), he would do what he can to make sure the party nominates a different candidate.

Now, Peterffy said he and other donors are withdrawing from supporting DeSantis, who hasn’t formally announced his campaign. He also added that the group will be withholding all funding for candidates until it’s more clear which one could win the general election, Financial Times reported. That report was first picked up by Bloomberg.

Maybe this new development might derail DeSant-ASS’s fledging presidential campaign if he receives no money from once-reliable sources. We could only hope. Though the other prospect ain’t any better: Donald “Insurrection” Dumpf, who is still the leading contender in 2024. Which is totally stunning, given his myriad legal troubles and possible indictments handed down before 2024.

A very interesting side effect of the far-right’s demolishing of abortion access in June 20222 appears in an online Telegraph article that is written by Melissa Lawford entitled “A ‘vasectomy revolution’ threatens to plunge America into a population crisis.” This outcome we probably didn’t think of when Roe v. Wade was overturned by the Supreme Court last year. But it makes sense now, considering the terrible consequences of what overturning this 50-year protection of women’s reproductive rights would have on the other party involved in creating life: men.

This unexpected side effect of the ruling has what urologist Esgar Guarin, of the SimpleVas Clinic in Iowa, has dubbed a “vasectomy revolution.” Thus across the country, more and more men are choosing to have the operation because they no longer have a back-up option.

Guarin stated, “Within the 48 hours of the overturning of Roe v. Wade, our clinic saw a 300pc increase in the traffic to our website. Then we had a 100pc increase in the number of vasectomies that we do in the clinic.”

If maintained, this surge is likely to have long-term consequences – and not just for the men involved. According to the article, “It could further exacerbate a decline in the U.S. birth rate that is already putting long-term growth at risk in the world’s largest economy.” A demographer at Johns Hopkins University, Alison Gemmil, said, “The birth rate has fallen pretty dramatically since 2008.”

A new reality is that women are having children at older ages.

The change now seen in men wanting to undergo the procedure is that those getting the snip are younger and much more likely to be childless. Previously, men getting a vasectomy were older and already had children.

The number of vasectomy procedures jumped when the abortion decision was leaked, then rocketed after it was formally announced. By August 2022, the healthcare organization was doing 218 procedures a month. This was more than double the monthly figure in 2018.

After the right to having an abortion was overturned, the median age of a man getting a vasectomy fell from 38 to 35 years. Nearly a quarter were under 30, compared to just 1 in 10 in 2021. The 2022 cohort were also less likely to be married. The share who did not already have children doubled from 1 in 12 to 1 in 6.

The surge in men undergoing this procedure threatens to deepen the wider slump in America’s birth rate. In 2021, the number of births was the third lowest in 40 years.

Another reason why so many young men are seeing urologists to undergo this operation is that they have decided that this isn’t the world they’d ever want to bring children into, according to Marc Goldstein, professor and director of male reproductive medicine at Weill Cornell Medicine in New York. He noted, “What I’m seeing is very similar to what we saw during the Great Recession of 2008.”

Goldstein mentions, “The patients who are coming to me today are almost all couples who have decided that this is not a world into which they want to bring children into.” According to Goldstein, half say they cannot afford to have children today. Others, Goldstein says, cite climate change.

For those considering this procedure, it’s nice to know that Goldstein himself uses a method known as the “no scalpel” vasectomy. He brought it back from China. This was a technique developed during the era of the One Child Policy in the most populated country in the world – an era that created a demographic time bomb.

This sobering article is just a reminder of what the far right has sown with its draconian measure of overturning the right of women to have an abortion. It could lead to the greatest population decline in this country ever seen – and to the decline of the country’s dominance in the world. You can thank repugnicans for this ancillary negative consequence of the erosion in women’s reproductive freedom.

Did anyone see the ghastly Fox “Infotainment” interview with the Orange Menace the other day conducted by “Fucker” Carlson, who has been caught on tape indicating that he hated the former president? This bloated hypocrite by the name of Carlson conducted a full hour-long interview with the moron. It seemed that he fawned over the failed presidential candidate of 2020 and let the blithering idiot drone on for so long without questioning anything he stated as fact in the gabfest. I can’t wait for the decision to be rendered in the Dominion Voting Systems’ lawsuit against this menace to democracy masquerading as a “news network.” The trial is supposed to go on this coming Monday. The company suing Fox is asking for $1.6 billion in damages. They deserve to get double that amount, in my opinion.

Anyway, have a good Sunday. The temps are expected to be in the low 70s.

Stay safe and be well.