Fast Takes: Did AOC ever mean it, Reproductive-tourism biz is sick and more

“With a laugh and a smile,” Rep.Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez said “Woke 1 was crazy,” notes Carlos Lozada at The New York Times: She was “distancing herself, whether subtly or overtly, from what is known as wokeism” — but how much of it did she “truly believe at the time?” If she “did believe it, jettisoning it now should take something more than a sheepish grin.” If she didn’t, “yet declared it with such passion, with such pretensions to moral clarity,” she should “acknowledge the dissonance” and “explain the shift, not just explain it away.” What ideas about police abolition, trans ideology and white guilt does she “now regard as crazy or cringey or silly?” AOC has a right to change her mind, but let her “explain how and why she’s moving on.”“Following the Supreme Court’s landmark decision on birthright citizenship,” the United States should restrict all forms of reproductive tourism,” Emma Waters argues at The Hill.

This biz sells human embryos, eggs and sperm, and — “thanks to birthright citizenship” — potentially US passports.“Non-U.S.

residents accounted for 59,246 assisted reproductive technology cycles between 2014 and 2022”; “China alone generated 19,718 cycles.” “The international clientele is buying the specific services the rest of the world restricts or bans” — while “reproductive tourism in the U.S.relies on these ethically fraught” practices.

“A nation can take seriously its own infertility crisis without operating an open-borders bazaar in embryos, eggs, and passports for the clientele of the entire world.”  While Target has “often loudly expressed its progressive values,” new CEO Michael Fiddelke “is leading a turnaround effort that has pushed shares upward,” cheers The Washington Post editorial board.Burned in culture-war battles over post-George Floyd controversies, trans-bathroom policies and Pride Month merchandise, the Minneapolis-based retailer has le...