Tuesday, May 31, 2022

And another day of no longer cooperating, 46% of firearms, Canada’s gun plan, making maternal mortality worse, racist Star Wars fans, the tobacco industry, SCOTUS blocks TX social media law, Canada to decriminalize hard drugs, and your walking speed comes to a close:

"Nothing strengthens authority so much as silence." -- Leonardo da Vinci

“I'm scared that we're just going to let another mass shooting go by without any change and it already feels like that's happening.” — Geraldine

Deaths

US: 1,031,613

World: 6,313,694

Cases

US: 85,901,797

World: 532,804,371

After Uvalde, holiday weekend sees shootings nationwide. Even as the nation reeled over the massacre of 19 children and two teachers at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas, multiple mass shootings happened elsewhere over the Memorial Day weekend in areas both rural and urban. Still, single-death incidents accounted for most gun fatalities.

Uvalde police, school district no longer cooperating with Texas probe of shooting. According to sources, the decision to stop cooperating occurred soon after the director of DPS, Col. Steven McCraw, held a news conference Friday during which he said the delayed police entry into the classroom was "the wrong decision" and contrary to protocol.

Texas school police chief hasn't responded for days to state investigators about Uvalde shooting. Peter Arredondo, the police chief of Uvalde Consolidated Independent School District, participated in an initial interview two days ago but has not yet answered requests for follow-ups, a spokesman for the Texas Department of Public Safety said.

“Uvalde PD totally botched their response to the shooting, they repeatedly lied about what happened, and now they’re not cooperating with the investigation? Nothing to see here.” -- Ahmed Baba

Texas police: Teacher closed propped-open door before attack. The Robb Elementary School teacher who propped open an exterior door that law enforcement said a gunman used to get inside and kill 19 students and two teachers had closed the door but it did not lock, state police said Tuesday.

The U.S. holds just 4% of the world's population. But Americans own nearly 46% of the world's estimated 857 million civilian-held firearms.

Uvalde shooting pushes Texas teachers to breaking point. Tuesday’s school shooting is a tragic end to a terrible year for Texas teachers who faced two COVID-19 surges, staffing shortages, school boards fights, book bans. “People who have never taught before, make policies that affect every moment of my day.”

Triple shooting leaves elderly woman dead outside Morris Jeff High graduation at Xavier University. An elderly woman was fatally shot and two men wounded Tuesday (May 31) when an argument escalated into gunfire in a Xavier University parking lot after a graduation ceremony for Morris Jeff High School, New Orleans police said.

A Republican Tried to Introduce a Commonsense Gun Law. Then the Gun Lobby Got Involved. In those circles, even being open to conversations about gun policy or gun safety legislation creates risk for folks in Republican circles here. So, if your objective is to stay in office for a long time and continue to get reelected … you don’t cross that line. —The only way to stop the cycle of violence is to stop voting Republicans into office. 

Canada's Trudeau announces bill to cap sales, transfers and imports of all handguns in the country. "What this means is that it will no longer be possible to buy, sell, transfer or import handguns anywhere in Canada," Trudeau said in a news conference. "In other words we're capping the market," he added.

Overturning Roe v. Wade Could Make Maternal Mortality Even Worse. For example, in 2012, doctors in Ireland refused an abortion to Savita Halappanavar because the baby she was miscarrying still had a fetal heartbeat. In the time it took for cardiac activity in the fetus to stop — and the doctors to then be confident an abortion would conform with the country’s laws — Halappanavar developed the infection that killed her. The case ultimately led to the repeal of many abortion restrictions in Ireland. — Read the rest. There’s a lot of good information.

Iran has enough uranium to build an atomic bomb, U.N. agency says. The International Atomic Energy Agency also said in a separate report that Iran has failed to provide credible explanations about nuclear material found at several sites in recent years, raising questions about the nature of its nuclear work.

Star Wars Calls Out Racism Against Moses Ingram. “There are more than 20 million sentient species in the Star Wars galaxy, don’t choose to be a racist.” — Fucking racist assholes.

Europe's lost 'breadbasket': How Russia's war in Ukraine is stoking a global food crisis. “We’re not talking about profit anymore,” said Skornyakov, who added that his company had also tracked farm equipment stolen by Russian forces via GPS to mainland Russia and annexed Crimea. “We’re talking about survival.” Ukrainian farmers now have an estimated 22 million metric tons of grain stuck in storehouses. Their race to plant new crops while also shipping this vast contribution to global food supplies has become a matter of urgency for officials from Europe to Africa, fearing that Russia may not just have struck at the heart of Ukraine’s economy but might be weaponizing food to help fuel a worldwide hunger crisis.

Tobacco industry causing huge environmental damage, WHO warns. It found that the tobacco industry is responsible for the annual loss of eight million human lives, 600 million trees, 200,000 hectares of land, 22 billion tonnes of water, and releases about 84 million tonnes of CO2 into the Earth’s atmosphere. The report found that the carbon footprint from production, processing and transporting tobacco is equivalent to one-fifth of the CO2 produced by the commercial airline industry each year, further contributing to global warming.

Supreme Court blocks Texas law intended to restrict social media site blocking. Under the law, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Instagram and other sites would be unable to block content based on its viewpoint. Gov. Greg Abbott, a Republican, said the law was a response to “a dangerous movement by social media companies to silence conservative viewpoints and ideas.” But two big tech trade groups said it was an attempt to censor the content of private social media sites. The state could no more dictate the content of Twitter than it could tell newspapers what they can publish, their lawyers told the Supreme Court.

Canada province to decriminalize hard drugs in small amounts. Canada announced Tuesday the decriminalization of hard drugs in small quantities in a British Columbia pilot project aiming to tame an opioid crisis that has killed thousands -- by treating addictions rather than jailing users for possession. Responding to a request by British Columbia, federal Mental Health and Addictions Minister Carolyn Bennett said an exemption from the criminal code to allow for personal possession of opioids, cocaine, methamphetamine and other hard drugs would kick in on January 31, 2023 and last three years. Adults in the Pacific coast province will not face arrest or charges for possession of up to 2.5 grams of hard drugs, nor will their drugs be seized by police.

Your walking speed could indicate dementia. A slower walk as you age has always been a warning sign of increasing frailty that could lead to falls and other disabilities, experts say. Emerging research in small groups of elderly subjects has also found that a slower gait from year to year may be an early sign of cognitive decline.

Life’s short. Live, love, create, and help others.

Until next time, my friends. Stay safe and stay sane. Good night.