May 26, 2022

Afternoon Update:

Jonah Bromwich, et al., of the New York Times: "Donald J. Trump and two of his adult children must sit for questioning under oath as part of the New York attorney general's civil investigation into their business practices, a state appeals court ruled on Thursday. Mr. Trump's lawyers had argued that the inquiry by the state attorney general, Letitia James, was politically motivated and that she should not be permitted to question him or the children, Donald Trump Jr. and Ivanka Trump. The lawyers also claimed that the attorney general could not force Mr. Trump to face questioning in her civil investigation because he was also the subject of a criminal inquiry into some of the same business practices. But the court found that the Trumps had not shown they were being treated differently from other investigative targets and argued that 'the existence of a criminal investigation does not preclude civil discovery of related facts.'... The unanimous ruling from a four-judge panel of the New York State Supreme Court's Appellate Division, First Department, upheld a decision from a lower court granting Ms. James permission to question Mr. Trump and his children.... Lawyers for the Trumps could appeal the ruling to New York's highest court, the Court of Appeals."

Alex Marshall & Julia Jacobs of the New York Times: "The British authorities have authorized criminal charges against Kevin Spacey on four counts of sexual assault against three men, the country's Crown Prosecution Service announced in a news release on Thursday.... The authorization of charges followed a review of the evidence collected by London's police force. Mr. Spacey cannot be formally charged unless he enters England or Wales, a spokesman for the service said in a telephone interview. The spokesman declined to comment on whether the service would pursue extradition proceedings...."

The New York Times' live updates of Covid-19 developments Thursday are here.

~~~~~~~~~~

Marie: Late start today. Additions up to & after 9 am ET.

From the New York Times' liveblog Wednesday of developments in the Uvalde grade school massacre: "The gunman who killed 19 children and two teachers in a rural Texas elementary school on Tuesday entered the building despite being confronted by an armed school security officer, then wounded two responding police officers and engaged in a standoff inside the school for over an hour, state police officials said. While gaps remained in the timeline of events, details emerged on Wednesday of a protracted scene of carnage at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde. What began around 11:30 a.m., with the first report of an armed man approaching the school, ended as specialized officers breached a pair of adjoining classrooms and killed the gunman barricaded inside just after 1 p.m., state police officials said.... Officials said that the officers had successfully contained the gunman ... until more specially trained officers could arrive.... By Wednesday, all of the victims had been identified by the officials.... ~~~

~~~ "President Biden said he would travel to Uvalde in the coming days.... He did not call on Congress to take up gun safety legislation but in remarks on Wednesday said that the 'Second Amendment is not absolute' and that previous gun safety laws did not violate its constitutional protections. 'These actions we've taken before, they save lives,' he said. 'They can do it again.' Still, with little apparent opening at the federal level, states controlled by Democrats moved to introduce their own changes. [At a press event in Uvalde, Texas Gov. Greg] Abbott stressed the need for better mental health care.... [But the Uvalde shooter] had no history of mental illness. [And Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick] suggested arming teachers." ~~~

~~~ Marie: In these brief paragraphs, Republicans once again showcased the useless emptiness of their supposed remediating "solutions." Clearly, a heavily-armed staff would not have stopped this gunman. A phalanx of law enforcement, as well as an armed security guard were on the scene before the gunman killed anyone, yet this army was unable to prevent the massacre. And while Abbott suggested that better mental healthcare would be a mediator (how much has the GOP-controlled Texas legislature spent on that? Update: asked & answered, below), in the next breath he admitted that this shooter had no history of mental health problems. Now, let's all go to the NRA convention in Houston. ~~~

~~~ Mike Hixenbaugh & >Corky Siemaszko of NBC News: "Gov. Greg Abbott said Wednesday that the Uvalde school shooter had a 'mental health challenge' and the state needed to 'do a better job with mental health' -- yet in April he slashed $211 million from the department that oversees mental health programs. In addition, Texas ranked last out of all 50 states and the District of Columbia for overall access to mental health care, according to the 2021 State of Mental Health in America report."

Catie Edmondson of the New York Times: "Hours after the worst school shooting in a decade took place in his home state, Senator Ted Cruz of Texas ... suggested a possible solution: putting armed law enforcement on campuses. Then Mr. Cruz, a Republican, quickly turned to blame Democrats and the news media for politicizing the issue.... 'But as sure as night follows day, you can bet there are going to be Democrat politicians looking to advance their own political agenda, rather than to work to stop this kind of horrific violence and to keep everyone safe.' Mr. Cruz remained unapologetic in his broad opposition to gun control measures.... Mr. Cruz's unwavering position on guns reflects the entrenched opposition in his party to virtually any proposal that seeks to limit access to firearms."

Leah Askarinam & Glenn Thrush of the New York Times: "Former Representative Beto O'Rourke interrupted a news conference held by Gov. Greg Abbott of Texas on Wednesday to accuse Republicans of 'doing nothing' to address gun violence in the aftermath of a shooting at an elementary school in Uvalde. Mr. O'Rourke, the Democrats' nominee for governor, stood in front of a stage at a Uvalde High School auditorium during the news conference and shouted that the killings were a 'totally predictable' result of lax state and federal gun laws. When Mr. Abbott's allies saw Mr. O'Rourke step forward, they began yelling at him. One official [according to Catie Edmondson (linked above) that official was Ted Cruz] ordered the El Paso native to 'Shut up!'... [Texas Lt. Gov.] Dan Patrick, told him, 'You're out of line and an embarrassment.' The mayor of Uvalde, Don McLaughlin, said he could not believe Mr. O'Rourke was the type of 'sick' individual who 'would come to a deal like this to make a political issue,' using an obscenity. Moments later, uniformed security guards pulled Mr. O'Rourke away.... Mr. O'Rourke's move drew both scorn and praise." A CNN report is here. ~~~

~~~ Patrick Stivek of the Texas Tribune: "Gov. Greg Abbott attended a fundraiser for his reelection campaign Tuesday night in East Texas, hours after a gunman killed 19 children and two adults at an elementary school over 300 miles away in Uvalde. His campaign says he is postponing all political activities going forward.... Abbott addressed the fundraiser during a news conference Wednesday afternoon in Uvalde, suggesting he only made a brief appearance cut short by the news of the shooting. 'On the way back to Austin, I stopped and let people know that I could not stay, that I needed to go and I wanted them to know what happened and get back to Austin so I could continue to my collaboration with Texas law enforcement,' Abbott said." MB: MB: Gosh, Greggers, it does look as if politics comes first for you, doesn't it? ~~~

~~~ James Barragán of the Texas Tribune: "Gov. Greg Abbott said Wednesday he was not sure whether he would attend the National Rifle Association's annual meeting in Houston this week.... Abbott, U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz and Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick are scheduled to attend the event but none of their offices have commented on their attendance since the shooting unfolded on Tuesday.... Donald Trump, who is scheduled to speak, said Wednesday he still plans to attend."

Bill Chappell of NPR: "Pope Francis says that his heart is broken over the mass shooting at Robb Elementary in Uvalde, Texas, and that the U.S. must act to prevent the spread of guns. 'I am praying for the children and adults who were killed, and for their families. It is time to say enough to the indiscriminate trafficking of arms,' Francis said on Wednesday, during his weekly general audience in St. Peter's Square at the Vatican.... People should be working now, the pope said, to ensure a similar tragedy can never happen again. In the U.S., his sentiment was shared by another senior Catholic leader: Cardinal Blase J. Cupich, the archbishop of Chicago."

Dan Balz of the Washington Post: "Nowhere, it seems, are children and young people engaged in learning truly safe in America. Not in a nation where guns outnumber people, where a culture of gun violence continues to be tolerated and where episodes of carnage have become the norm.... In the years after Sandy Hook, the NRA has been hollowed out and weakened by scandal. But no matter. The gun lobby as it exists today is a citizen-grounded movement that retains a stranglehold on the Republican Party. Instead of moves to tighten gun laws, legislatures in Republican-led states, among them Texas, have acted to loosen them. These actions further enshrine the gun culture as part of America's heritage, all in the name of the Second Amendment, though it's questionable that the Founders envisioned the constitutional right to bear arms serving as such a shield in the face of mass shootings of children.... Only in America..., do [mental] afflictions [and political rage] manifest themselves with such regularity in mass shootings.... So long as the right to bear arms is seen as wholly sacrosanct and not subject to scrutiny, [President] Biden will not be the last president to exclaim, as he did Tuesday night: 'Why are we willing to live with this carnage? Why do we keep letting this happen?'"

Marie: I am not sure most people realize how flagrantly sexist right-wing "philosophy" is. Balz writes that Americans enshrine gun culture as a fundamental tenet of our heritage. But what's fundamental about the gun culture is that it is primarily by, for and about men. The vaunted Minute Men were, well, men. So are today's mass murderers. I'm not suggesting women are absent from gun culture, but they seem more like hangers-on, not leaders. And the wingers who treat the Second Amendment as God-written gospel are the same folks who labor to deprive women of reproductive rights. The right wing is patriarchal; it idealizes the power of men to call the shots, literally & figuratively. Men -- white men -- are the masters. (Why is the room where heterosexual couples sleep called the "master bedroom"?) Men are the leaders, the rule-makers, the judges, the heads-of-household," the supposed "protectors" of the rest of us. Men have "granted" any residual rights women may have. And just as they have granted these rights, so they may take them away.

Alyssa Rosenberg of the Washington Post is understandably furious: "America practices child sacrifice.... The latest young victims of the ritual slaughter our culture permits are the 19 children shot to death inside their school in Uvalde, Tex., on Tuesday..... Given the lack of action after these spasms of butchery, there is only one possible conclusion: We are willing to tolerate the murder of children. We accept events that will gravely wound the bodies and psyches of many others. But in exchange for what? For what Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Tex.) has called 'the fundamental, God-given right each and every one of us has to defend our lives, to defend our homes, to defend our children, to defend our family'"; Rosenberg compares modern-day gun huggers to Agamemnon, who in Euripides' play "Iphigenia at Aulis," sacrifices his daughter because he doesn't want to look weak to his troops.

Rachel Treisman of NPR: "'"No Way To Prevent This," Says Only Nation Where This Regularly Happens' has been republished 21 times in almost exactly eight years. Its headline has remained the same for every major mass shooting from Isla Vista, Calif., in 2014 to Tuesday's school shooting in Uvalde, Texas. The main image, and basic facts about the shooting, are updated every time. It always quotes a fictional resident of that state lamenting a tragedy they describe as inevitable[.]... 'At press time, residents of the only economically advanced nation in the world where roughly two mass shootings have occurred every month for the past eight years were referring to themselves and their situation as "helpless,"' Tuesday's version -- like its predecessors -- concludes. The Onion leaned into its message on Wednesday, sharing a Twitter thread listing every version of the piece from over the years."

Amanda Taub of the New York Times: "'The modern quest for gun control and the gun rights movement it triggered were born in the shadow of Brown [v. Board of Education],' Reva Siegel, a constitutional scholar..., wrote in a 2008 article.... 'Directly and indirectly, conflicts over civil rights have shaped modern 'understandings of the Second Amendment.' Desegregation sparked a reactionary backlash among white voters, particularly in the south, who saw it as overreach by the Supreme Court and federal government.... Promises to protect the traditional family from the perceived threat of feminism drew in white women.... The gun control laws in the United Kingdom, Australia and Norway were all passed by conservative governments.... [In the U.S.,] the Federalist Society pushed for nominations of conservative judges, slowly reshaping the judicial branch into a conservative institution that enshrined a broad Second Amendment right for individuals to own guns. Unless Supreme Court precedents like District of Columbia v. Heller get overturned, it would be difficult for the government to enact broad gun control measures."

** Cops Dither While Killer Opens Fire. From the Guardian's live updates of developments in the Uvalde massacre:"Frustrated onlookers urged police officers to charge into the Texas elementary school where a gunman's rampage killed 19 children and two teachers, witnesses have told Associated Press. 'Go in there! Go in there!' nearby women shouted at the officers soon after the attack began, said Juan Carranza, 24, who saw the scene from outside his house, across the street from Robb Elementary School in the town of Uvalde. Carranza said the officers did not go in." MB: As I wrote a couple of days ago, it seems these murders might have been averted with better policing. ~~~

~~~ Tess Owen of Vice: "Texas officials are clapping themselves on the back for what they've described as 'heroic' and 'courageous' actions by law enforcement who responded to an armed 18-year-old at an elementary school on Tuesday.... Officials are being strangely opaque about what actually happened at Robb Elementary in Uvalde, Texas. When asked how much time passed between the gunman arriving at the school and the gunman being killed, Texas' Director of Public Safety Steve McCraw offered an indefinite response.... The difference[s] between some of the official accounts were striking....

Robert Klemko, et al., of the Washington Post: "The gunman in Tuesday’s elementary school massacre was a lonely 18-year-old who was bullied over a childhood speech impediment, suffered from a fraught home life and lashed out violently against peers and strangers recently and over the years, friends and relatives said.... In a Wednesday news conference, state officials said [the shooter] purchased a semiautomatic rifle at a local gun store on May 17, bought 375 rounds of ammunition the next day, then went back to the local gun store on Friday to purchase a second semiautomatic rifle.... A spokesman for the Texas Department of Public Safety said the gunman wore a vest used to store extra magazines == often used by tactical police units -- without the armor plates that law enforcement officers typically wear." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: The main job of a bartender is to sell alcoholic drinks, but I think most states require bartenders to stop selling drinks to visibly drunk patrons, especially those who may try to drive themselves home. So why not require gun sellers to refuse to sell a kid two semi-automatic weapons & 375 rounds? Oh. Gun lobby. BTW, I gather from the British TV shows I watch that in the U.K., residents have to register every gun they own (including antiques), allowing the police to see whether or not there are guns in the home before they respond to a domestic disturbance. Fat chance most U.S. states will do that. In fact, "as of January 1, 2019..., nine states explicitly prohibited the creation of such registries."

Naomi Nix & Rachel Lerman of the Washington Post: "Facebook said Wednesday that the Texas gunman sent direct messages regarding his attack on one of its platforms, something the social media giant learned after the school shooting. Gov. Greg Abbott said at a news conference that the gunman posted his plans on the social media site before the attack. The gunman ... wrote, 'I'm going to shoot my grandmother' and 'I'm going to shoot an elementary school' shortly before the attack, according to Abbott. But in a tweet, Facebook spokesman Andy Stone said, 'The messages Gov. Abbott described were private one-to-one text messages that were discovered after the terrible tragedy occurred.' Another company spokesman, Joe Osborne, clarified that the messages were sent privately but declined to say which of its social networks were used. Facebook, which was renamed Meta last year, also operates Instagram and private messaging service WhatsApp."

Katie Glueck, et al., of the New York Times: "In Alabama, Gov. Kay Ivey unpacked lipstick, an iPhone and something else from her purse in one campaign advertisement -- 'a little Smith & Wesson .38,' she said. A Republican candidate for governor in Georgia declared in a different spot, 'I believe in Jesus, guns and babies.'... More than 100 television ads from Republican candidates and supportive groups have used guns as talking points or visual motifs this year. Guns are shown being fired or brandished, or are discussed but not displayed as candidates praise the Second Amendment, vow to block gun-control legislation or simply identify themselves as 'pro-gun.'" The reporters also discuss why Democrats don't often hype gun safety measures in their ads.

Marie: After reading Akhilleus' and Patrick's comments at the end of yesterday's thread, I predict that the next GOP rap on Democrats will be that coastal elites are plotting to replace "real Americans" with pod libs they've rocketed in from a planet far, far away. Expect NASA funding to go the way of gun safety laws.

Tom Jackman & Peter Hermann of the Washington Post: "The executive order to improve policing in the United States unfurled by President Biden on Wednesday has direct effect only on federal officers and agents, who were instructed to wear body cameras, create a national database of police misconduct and conduct thorough internal investigations in use of force cases. But there are about five times as many local police officers and sheriffs deputies nationwide as federal agents, and the president doesn't have authority over them.... Still, local police officials say they have already implemented most of the reforms being ordered by Biden federally, though some community activists say the pace of change hasn't been fast enough. And two of the key contributors to the Biden order, the leaders of the International Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP) and the Fraternal Order of Police (FOP), said the Biden reforms were largely based on changes already enacted at the local level."

Kimberly Kindy & Laura Reiley of the Washington Post: "When a whistleblower sent a 34-page report to the Food and Drug Administration in October alleging a host of unsanitary conditions at an Abbott infant formula factory, the top official in charge of food safety didn't see it. In fact, Frank Yiannas, the FDA's deputy >commissioner for food policy and response, didn't learn about the complaint until four months later, according to Yiannas and others knowledgeable about the case.... Other top FDA officials less-versed in food safety had elected not to send new inspectors to the plant in Sturgis, Mich.... The national fallout over the Abbott case has exposed a fractured structure at an agency that has long prioritized drugs and medicine over food safety, experts say.... Yiannas said he continues to be cut out of the FDA's oversight of the Abbott facility. He began work on a corrective action plan for Abbott in February but said he was told to 'stand down' by [former Deputy Commissioner Janet] Woodcock. The FDA disputed [Yiannas' claims]...."

Ana Swanson of the New York Times: "Federal Reserve officials agreed at their last meeting that the central bank needed to move 'expeditiously' to bring down the most rapid pace of inflation in 40 years, with most participants expecting as many as three half-a-percentage-point interest rate increases in the months ahead, minutes of the Fed's May meeting showed."

Trump Favored Hanging Pence. Maggie Haberman & Luke Broadwater of the New York Times: "Shortly after hundreds of rioters at the Capitol started chanting 'Hang Mike Pence!' on Jan. 6, 2021, the White House chief of staff, Mark Meadows..., told colleagues that ... Donald J. Trump was complaining that the vice president was being whisked to safety. Mr. Meadows, according to an account provided to the House committee investigating Jan. 6, then told the colleagues that Mr. Trump had said something to the effect of, maybe Mr. Pence should be hanged." Two committee witnesses confirmed Meadows' remarks. "The committee has also gathered testimony that Mr. Meadows used the fireplace in his office to burn documents, according to two people briefed on the panel's questions.... Representative Jim Jordan, Republican of Ohio..., signaled he would not appear for his deposition on Friday unless the panel turned over voluminous documents to him." A Yahoo! News summary report is here. ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: I recall reading accounts early last year that during the insurrection, Trump did not call Pence to check on his well-being. Now we know why. Trump was unhappy his veep wasn't lynched.

Alan Feuer, et al., of the New York Times: "The Justice Department has stepped up its criminal investigation into the creation of alternate slates of pro-Trump electors seeking to overturn Joseph R. Biden Jr.'s victory in the 2020 election, with a particular focus on a team of lawyers that worked on behalf of ... Donald J. Trump, according to people familiar with the matter. A federal grand jury in Washington has started issuing subpoenas in recent weeks to people linked to the alternate elector plan, requesting information about several lawyers including Mr. Trump's personal lawyer Rudolph W. Giuliani and one of his chief legal advisers, John Eastman, one of the people said. The subpoenas also seek information on other pro-Trump lawyers like Jenna Ellis, who worked with Mr. Giuliani, and Kenneth Chesebro, who wrote memos supporting the elector scheme in the weeks after the election. A top Justice Department official acknowledged in January that prosecutors were trying to determine whether any crimes were committed in the scheme."

Cat Zakrzewski of the Washington Post: "Federal regulators Wednesday announced that Twitter will pay a $150 million fine to settle allegations that it deceptively used email address and phone numbers it had collected to target advertising, in one of the largest privacy settlements federal regulators have reached with a tech giant. The Federal Trade Commission and the Justice Department said the company also will be banned from profiting off the 'deceptively collected' data and be required to notify the more than 140 million users who were affected that it used their phone numbers and email addresses for advertising, according to a news release about the settlement. And the company will be required to implement and maintain a new privacy program that will require the company to review the security risks of new products." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Yo, Elon. Another excuse for you to bail: "Gosh, they never told me about that potential $150MM liability."

The New York Times' live updates of Covid-19 developments Wednesday are here.

Moises Velasquez-Manoff in the New York Times Magazine: "A wave of parents has been radicalized by Covid-era misinformation to reject ordinary childhood immunizations -- with potentially lethal consequences.... [One pediatrician speculates] that rampant misinformation related to the Covid-19 vaccines, and the fact that pundits like Tucker Carlson on Fox News have devoted a lot of time to bashing them -- among other untruths, he has suggested that the vaccines make people more likely to contract Covid-19, not less -- has begun to taint some people's view of long-established vaccines.... Such doubt has been accompanied by, and may have been augmented by, an erosion of confidence in medical expertise generally."

Beyond the Beltway

Oklahoma. Luke Vander Ploeg & Kate Zernike of the New York Times: "Gov. Kevin Stitt of Oklahoma signed a bill on Wednesday that bans nearly all abortions starting at fertilization. The new law, which takes effect immediately, is the most restrictive abortion ban in the country. The law makes exceptions in cases where an abortion is necessary to save the life of the mother, or in cases of rape or incest if they have been reported to law enforcement.... 'If other states want to pass different laws, that is their right, but in Oklahoma we will always stand up for life,' [Stitt said]." MB: Uh-huh. Until birth. The Guardian's story is here.

Oregon. Mike Baker of the New York Times: "A romance novelist who wrote about 'How to Murder Your Husband' was convicted in her husband's killing on Wednesday following a contentious trial in which prosecutors leaned on a 'puzzle' of circumstantial evidence to portray the author as a duplicitous spouse who spent months quietly plotting the perfect crime. Nancy Brophy, 71, stood quietly ... as the verdict was handed down, seven weeks after the trial began in Portland, Ore." The Guardian's story is here.

Pennsylvania Senate Race. Neil Vigdor of the New York Times: "The Republican primary for a Senate seat in Pennsylvania will go to a recount, with Dr. Mehmet Oz, the celebrity physician backed by ... Donald J. Trump, clinging to a narrow advantage over David McCormick, a former hedge fund executive, in one of the nation's most intensely watched midterm contests. Dr. Oz was leading Mr. McCormick by 902 votes as of Wednesday, according to Leigh M. Chapman, the state's acting secretary of the commonwealth, who said that all 67 of Pennsylvania's counties had reported unofficial tallies to the state. The recount could lead to a series of lawsuits and challenges in the marquee primary, one that could ultimately determine control of the closely divided Senate. That legal wrangling has already begun: On Monday, Mr. McCormick filed a lawsuit demanding that undated mail-in ballots should be counted."

Way Beyond

Ukraine, et al.

The New York Times' live updates of developments Thursday in Russia's war on Ukraine are here: Russia's "central bank cut interest rates again on Thursday, the latest in a raft of measures by Moscow aimed at stabilizing an economy buffeted by Western sanctions and four months of fighting in Ukraine. The move came a day after ... Vladimir V. Putin promised to increase the minimum wage and military benefits, a rare acknowledgment of the costs of his war, while insisting that the Russian economy was doing better than some had predicted when he had his military invade Ukraine.... The move came a day after President Vladimir V. Putin promised to increase the minimum wage and military benefits, a rare acknowledgment of the costs of his war, while insisting that the Russian economy was doing better than some had predicted when he had his military invade Ukraine.... The European Union has stalled on its proposed ban on Russian oil, held up by Hungary's refusal to back the measure along with the other 26 members of the bloc. Earlier this week, Prime Minister Viktor Orban asked that the proposed embargo remain off the table. He said that his concerns about it had not been resolved." ~~~

     ~~~ The New York Times' summary of developments Wednesday is here. ~~~

     ~~~ The Guardian's live updates are here.

News Lede

New York Times: "Ray Liotta, who created intense, memorable characters in 'Goodfellas,' 'Field of Dreams' and other films as well as on television, died in his sleep on Wednesday night or early Thursday in the Dominican Republic. He was 67."

Comments

[P.D. Pepe]

Marie on Men––see her comments on the Baltz column.

And isn't that exactly what we have in the Christian religions? God as the father, the protector, the patriarchal head. along with his son who follows in his footsteps.

. "The right wing is patriarchal; it idealizes the power of men to call the shots, literally & figuratively."

An old story––and–––this god figure's son is mostly depicted as WHITE. Something Meagan Kelly insisted the same for Santa.

As far as women and guns are concerned the sledge hammer of the NRA is a woman whose last name IS Hammer.

[P.D. Pepe]

Le Monde, the French newspaper, describes what America truly excels at:

"If there is any American exceptionlism, it is to tolerate the fact that schools in the U.S. are regularly transformed into bloody shooting ranges." and–––they blame the GOP!
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/le-monde-mass-shooting_n_628edc31e4b0edd2d01f514f

[RAS]

Now we know what Space Force was really created to stop, pod libs. Those illegal aliens from the Andromeda galaxy. Elon Musk's Mars trip may be to make sure only the Right kind of aliens are allowed back here on Earth.

[RAS]

Republicans don't care about kids — just imaginary children
For all the talk about "groomers" and "pro-life," the GOP ignores — or exacerbates — threats against real children"

[P.D. Pepe]

One more: Joy Reid has made the assertion, several times, that other countries don't have mass shootings like the U.S. What she fails to say is that many other countries DID experience horrific mass shootings but they did something about it. These countries have enacted reforms that turned mass shootings into rare events. John Cassidy (N/Y.) gives us a history of these turn-arounds and ends with the U.S. once again unable to do the same.
https://www.newyorker.com/news/our-columnists/how-to-prevent-gun-massacres-look-around-the-world

[Akhilleus]

Baby Killer Abbott was forced to admit that the GOP approved killer had no history of mental illness, but he immediately reversed that position by asserting that anyone who kills another person simply has to be mentally ill.

Again, facts never matter. If the facts don’t fit the GOP talking points (ie, guns aren’t the problem, mental illness is) then simply assert your right to invent new “facts”, alternative facts, as Trump stooge and fan-gurl Kellyanne Conway used to say.

Oh, and while Abbott is in his Dr. Phil mode, averring that someone who kills another person must be mentally ill, that means Fatty and every single GOP sycophant who supported his murder of hundreds of thousands of Americans via the Trump Virus, including Dr. Phil there, must be categorically bonkers.

Guv, the men in the white coats are here to take you to the funny farm. Don’t forget to pack your straight jacket. You sick fuck.

[Patrick]

I've seen a number of items in the past few days in which people say that it is too late to address the gun problem, too many guns and especially too many semi-autos are in the hands of too many sketchy people.

Contra that, I expect shortly we will see more references to this quote by Der Max:

“Politics is a strong and slow boring of hard boards. It takes both passion and perspective. Certainly all historical experience confirms the truth - that man would not have attained the possible unless time and again he had reached out for the impossible. But to do that a man must be a leader, and not only a leader but a hero as well, in a very sober sense of the word. And even those who are neither leaders nor heroes must arm themselves with that steadfastness of heart which can brave even the crumbling of all hopes. This is necessary right now, or else men will not be able to attain even that which is possible today.”

― Max Weber

There were "too many guns" and "too much money in politics" forty years ago. Efforts to whittle down those problems have not succeeded.

But if you are not dead you don't quit.

And there's Browning: "A man's reach should exceed his grasp, or what's a heaven for?"

[P.D. Pepe]

Patrick: great quotes–-thanks–-let's hope our heaven here on earth will overcome the hell.

[Marie Burns]

I was surprised by one of "proofs" prosecutors gave in their successful prosecution of Nancy Brophy, the Portland, Oregon, woman who murdered her husband, years after she wrote a blogpost titled "How to Murder Your Husband." According to the NYT report, she "moved to collect on lucrative life insurance policies in the days that followed."

Of course I have no idea what else she did in the days following her husband's murder, but I do know this: within days of my husband's death, I began contacting banks, investment funds, Social Security & the universities that were paying my husband benefits to notify them of his death. In a few cases, I inquired as to what, if any, benefits would continue in whole or in part after his death. I also requested death certificates that some of the entities required. I saw nothing wrong with that, and I certainly didn't murder my husband.

I'm sure widows & widowers, or whoever might be helping them, are supposed to do that. In fact, it may be illegal to draw on funds that are due the decease spouse but not you. So if Mrs. Brophy asked about insurance payouts within the context of "getting her house in order," that seems perfectly appropriate to me.

[NiskyGuy]

I know the timeline in Uvalde is not completely clear, but my reading indicates that the murderer encountered not just one, but three "good guys with guns" in the early part of his invasion.

The first was the schools armed guard, who was taken by surprise. He didn't stop the murderer.

The next two were members of the Uvalde Police Department. They arrived knowing the were going to encounter a murderer with a gun. They were both shot, and they didn't stop the murderer.

Here we have a real example of three good guys with guns unable to stop a murderer. The theory fails.

The guns have to go away.

Arm the teachers? A good teacher is concentrating on helping the students learn, and that's hard, multiprocessing work. That teacher is not going to do better than the Uvalde Police Department officers.

Reduce the access to a single door? One classroom escaped to safety by climbing out the window. Reducing the access to a single door means putting every escape route into a single line of fire. Brilliant. Just fucking brilliant.

The guns have to go away.

[Marie Burns]

@Nisky Guy: I agree. And I don't see that happening for generations. Even if the Congress were to turn 75 percent Democratic and vote in a slew of gun safety laws, the states would immediately sue over Second Amendment rights, and the Six Dancing Supremes would rule for the states nearly every time. As Amanda Taub wrote (linked above, "Unless Supreme Court precedents like District of Columbia v. Heller get overturned, it would be difficult for the government to enact broad gun control measures.”

On another note, I got a message today from the local Episcopalian priest, and he -- like Alyssa Rosenberg of the WashPo -- likened the gun huggers' policies to child sacrifice. He of course quoted scripture & not Euripides, but the point was the same. If anti-abortion activists are going to accuse liberals of murdering babies (when they're not), I see nothing wrong with repeatedly calling the gun nuts promoters of child sacrifice.

[unwashed]

Here's a rather poignant video, sent by friends, of a song by Drive-By Truckers about "Thoughts and Prayers". Try not to cry. Instead, get mad and vote the f**kers out!