And another day of comparing gun cultures, confrontations, secret NRA tapes, ‘everyday horror,’ the leading cause of death for kids in America, the worst lawyer in TX, long Covid affects more older adults, protesting Don’t Say Gay without saying gay, and finally surveying women who watch porn comes to close:
“The fact that some people are literally calling for bulletproof blankets in schools, rather than serious gun control demonstrates why this is a broken country. Too many people love their guns more than their children--or at least, other people's children.” — Tim Wise
If guns are the solution, then America should be the safest nation in the world, and Texas the safest state. Arming teachers is not the fucking answer, Ken fucking Paxton and the rest of you fucking Republicans.
“I mean if the police who are trained in the use of firearms could not bring down the Uvalde shooter when they engaged him, how could one petite female teacher with a 38 bring down such a man? How?!! This is all wrong.” — Sophia A. Nelson
“You can’t use reason to convince anyone out of an argument that they didn’t use reason to get into.” — Neil deGrasse Tyson
“If you're not scalding with outrage at America's gun epidemic and the Conservative's war on women, LGBTQ people, and people of color, your empathy is busted. For the rest of us—we have to vote like we've never voted before. We have to save ourselves.” — John Pavlovitz
Deaths
US: 1,030,415 (+891)
World: 6,306,199 (+2670)
Cases
US: 85,440,340 (+199,324)
World: 529,701,594 (+738,854)
See how US gun culture compares to the world in 5 graphics.
How firearm ownership compares globally
The US has the highest firearm homicide rate in the developed world
The US was home to 4% of the world’s population but accounted for 44% of global suicides by firearm in 2019
No other developed nation has mass shootings at the same scale or frequency as the US
Gun-related deaths reduced after the introduction of stricter laws in these countries
All of these graphs are fascinating. Check them out. And don’t believe the Republican mantra that nothing can be done; that we just must learn to live with mass shootings. Never forget Republicans proudly enable mass shootings. If you really want mass shootings to decrease, then you must stop voting for Republicans. They are literally trying to kill you.
‘No Way To Prevent This,’ Says Only Nation Where This Regularly Happens. -- Will they ever be able to stop publishing this fucking story?
Onlookers urged police to charge into Texas school. Onlookers urged police officers to charge into the Texas elementary school where a gunman’s rampage killed 19 children and two teachers, witnesses said Wednesday, as investigators worked to track the massacre that lasted upwards of 40 minutes and ended when the 18-year-old shooter was killed by a Border Patrol team. -- WTAF?
Guns are banned during Trump's upcoming speech at the NRA conference. Former President Donald Trump is scheduled to speak at the National Rifle Association's Annual Leadership Forum on Friday. But audience members at the group's annual meeting, being held this year in Houston, won't be able to carry guns during his address...According to the NRA, the Secret Service is taking control of the hall during Trump's speech and is prohibiting attendees from having firearms, firearms accessories and knives. Ammunition, laser pointers, pepper spray, toy guns, backpacks and other items also won't be allowed. -- Why doesn’t the NRA fight this? Texas is an open carry state. It’s almost like they know freely having guns everywhere is not really a good idea. Even the NRA knows this.
27 school shootings have taken place so far this year. There were 27 school shootings with injuries or deaths this year. The organization tracks shootings where a firearm was discharged and where any person (other than the suspect) has a bullet wound resulting from the incident. Education Week also includes only incidents that happen on a K-12 school property or on a school bus and that occur when school is in session or during a school-sponsored event. It doesn't track cases in which the only shots fired were from a school resource officer or police officer.
Editorial: According to Republicans, learning about history or empathy or social justice is more deadly to school children than being killed by guns.
Beto O’Rourke disrupts news conference on shooting. Beto O’Rourke interrupted a press conference Wednesday about the shooting at a Texas elementary school and blamed Republican Gov. Greg Abbott for inaction. As Abbott was finishing his remarks about the shooting, O’Rourke approached the stage, pointed to the governor and said, “This is on you.” O’Rourke, a Democrat, is challenging Abbott for the governor’s office this year. -- Evil must always be confronted.
“In a world of Greg Abbotts, be a Beto O'Rourke.” — Jeff Tiedrich
School massacre continues Texas' grim run of mass shootings. Once again, one of America's deadliest mass shootings happened in Texas. Past shootings targeted worshippers during a Sunday sermon, shoppers at a Walmart, students on a high school campus and drivers on a highway. — Texas is quickly becoming one of those ”shithole” countries.
“The best way to address gun violence in America is to vote Republicans out of office and elect Democrats who will pass laws to restrict guns. Full stop. People react to mass shootings by throwing up their hands and acting as if there's no solution, but that's not the case.” — Aaron Rupar
"Who cares how the kids feel?" -- Fox News host on placing armed cops in every school.
A secret tape made after Columbine shows the NRA's evolution on school shootings. Soon after the Columbine High School shooting in 1999, senior leaders of the National Rifle Association huddled on a conference call to consider canceling their annual convention, scheduled just days later and a few miles away…And in those private moments, the NRA considered a strikingly more sympathetic posture toward mass shootings than the uncompromising stance it has taken publicly in the decades since, even considering a $1 million fund to care for the victims. NPR has obtained more than 2 1/2 hours of recordings of those private meetings after the Columbine shooting, which offer unique insight into the NRA's deliberations in the wake of this crisis — and how it has struggled to develop what has become its standard response to school shootings ever since…In addition to mapping out their national strategy, NRA leaders can also be heard describing the organization's more activist members in surprisingly harsh terms, deriding them as "hillbillies" and "fruitcakes" who might go off script after Columbine and embarrass them. And they dismiss conservative politicians and gun industry representatives as largely inconsequential players, saying they will do whatever the NRA proposes. Members of Congress, one participant says, have asked the NRA to "secretly provide them with talking points."…The NRA ultimately decided to hold its convention in Denver after the shootings, albeit vastly scaled down in size. It was met by thousands of protesters. And inside, then-NRA President Charlton Heston delivered the defiant message that its leaders had planned out in their private calls — a message very similar to the group's position on mass shootings today: The national media is not to be trusted, and any conversation about guns and the NRA after mass shootings is an untoward politicization of the issue. "Why us? Because their story needs a villain. They want us to play the heavy in their drama of packaged grief, to provide riveting programming to run between commercials for cars and cat food," Heston said at the time to applause. "The dirty secret of this day and age is that political gain and media ratings all too often bloom on fresh graves." Over the next two decades, this unapologetic message would come to define the NRA's tone in the wake of mass shootings at American schools. After 32 people were killed at Virginia Tech in 2007: "This is a time for people to grieve, to mourn, and to heal. This is not a time for political discussions or public policy debates." After the 2012 shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School: "The only thing that stops a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun." And after the 2018 shooting at a high school in Parkland, Fla., the NRA's spokesperson said bluntly, "Many in legacy media love mass shootings." — The NRA is a terrorist organization.
After previous mass killings during his more than seven years in office, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott has pledged that lawmakers and his administration would search for solutions. He made no substantive suggestions Wednesday.
Texas school massacre latest ‘everyday horror’ in U.S. that would be unthinkable abroad. Other nations have suffered devastating mass shootings like the one in Uvalde on Tuesday, but those examples largely exist as unique stains on places that were galvanized into action. -- You must stop voting for Republicans. That’s it. That’s the fucking solution. They don’t compromise; they don’t negotiate in good faith; they obstruct every effort to address a problem; and they literally don’t give a shit about any of you. You’re fodder in their quest for power. Stop giving it to them.
The Far Right Is Falsely Blaming a Trans Woman for the Texas School Shooting. “It tracks with their policies which vilify and harm trans people in the USA. The problem is never gun safety—it’s always something else.”
“So the Republican line now is ‘violate fire codes with a single point of entry and exit at schools so we can keep our assault weapons?’“ — Elizabeth Spiers
Texas shooting highlights how guns are the leading cause of death for US kids. It's unclear what's behind the spike, but the data is consistent with other recent studies showing the increase in firearm-related injuries at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. "If you look at the trajectory over the last several years, that should raise alarm," said Goldstick, who is also a member of the university's Institute for Firearm Injury Prevention. "The fact that this is the leading cause of death among kids is obscene." It also marks the first time since the CDC started recording leading causes of death among children that firearm-related injuries overtook motor vehicle crashes as the No. 1 cause.
Student arrested after pistol found in car near Richardson ISD school. The suspect was located but no weapons were found. Police located the suspect's vehicle in the parking lot of 1551 East Spring Valley Road and inside, officers found what appeared to be an "AK-47 style pistol" and a "replica AR-15 style Orbeez rifle." The student was arrested and charged with unlawful carrying weapons in a weapon-free school zone.
“I can buy 10,000 rounds of ammo and there is no background check, but if I buy 1 box of Sudafed my info goes into a national database.” -- Irishrygirl
Oklahoma governor signs the nation’s strictest abortion ban. Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt on Wednesday signed into law the nation’s strictest abortion ban, making the state the first in the nation to effectively end availability of the procedure. — Abirtions in Oklahoma are now banned at conception. The only way out of this mess is to stop voting for Republicans. They aim to control you, not allow freedom.
Trump reacted with approval to ‘hang Mike Pence’ chants from rioters on January 6. A former aide to Trump White House chief of staff Mark Meadows told the House January 6 committee that then-President Donald Trump had suggested to Meadows he approved of the “hang Mike Pence” chants from rioters who stormed the US Capitol, two sources familiar with the matter told CNN. Cassidy Hutchinson, the former aide, also testified that Trump complained about his then-vice president being hustled to safety while Trump supporters breached the Capitol, the sources said.
The worst lawyer in Texas just put an end to the Bush dynasty. It’s Ken Paxton’s party now. Paxton’s biography is a sort of amalgamation of all the kinds of things that tend to cost public officials their jobs. He has been under indictment since 2015 for alleged securities fraud. Much of his staff quit en masse in 2020 and accused him of abusing his office to help a campaign donor whose home had recently been raided by the FBI. He allegedly cheated on his wife with a state-senate staffer who went on to work for said donor. And he is a bad lawyer. His lawsuit attempting to overturn the results of the 2020 election was so error-strewn and poorly argued that the state bar is now suing his deputy over it. It was also so nakedly cynical that it earned Paxton an invite to the Ellipse on January 6th. But rather than being run out of the party, Paxton has now found an enduring place in it, in part because of that same shamelessness that’s characterized his personal and professional dealings. State attorneys general are a huge nexus of power for a political project that has achieved many of its greatest successes by aggressively working the legal system. If your movement is going to be built around chipping away at individual rights and Democratic power via the courts, if it is going to turn every ballot or enacted law into a legal battle, then you need people like Paxton to keep churning out briefs. And he has done that, tossing pitch after pitch at the Supreme Court, waiting for them to take a swing. Sometimes the Supreme Court dismisses your Electoral College lawsuit. Sometimes it tells you you’re right about “Remain in Mexico.”
Long COVID affects more older adults; shots don’t prevent it. New U.S. research on long COVID-19 provides fresh evidence that it can happen even after breakthrough infections in vaccinated people, and that older adults face higher risks for the long-term effects. In a study of veterans published Wednesday, about one-third who had breakthrough infections showed signs of long COVID. A separate report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that up to a year after an initial coronavirus infection, 1 in 4 adults aged 65 and older had at least one potential long COVID health problem, compared with 1 in 5 younger adults. Long COVID refers to any of more than two dozens symptoms that linger, recur or first appear at least one month after a coronavirus infection. These can affect all parts of the body and may include fatigue, shortness of breath, brain fog and blood clots. -- And you wonder why I don’t want to be around most of you mofos.
Florida student gives epic speech tearing apart Don’t Say Gay law – without saying gay. Ahead of the speech, Moricz revealed on Twitter that he had been told by school officials that “if my graduation speech referenced my activism or role as a plaintiff in the lawsuit, school administration had a signal to cut off my microphone, end my speech, and halt the ceremony”. But as the state becomes increasingly hostile towards LGBTQ+ youth, Moricz couldn’t leave the topic out of his speech. Instead, he managed to give his classmates a moving and powerful call to action, without ever saying “gay”. — And it was brilliant.
Someone Finally Surveyed Women Who Watch Porn. The January study found that survey subjects said sexual “authenticity” was an important aspect of what the women found most enjoyable, and they defined authenticity “in three primary ways: [by] analyzing appearance, performance, and intimacy.” Study subjects also said that, while they still felt shame and guilt associated with viewing sexual content, their negative feelings could be mitigated if they watched content that actually turned them on. So, what turned them on? They enjoyed watching performers with more natural body types that could portray a sense of intimacy and pleasure, and stories that included more LGBTQ+ performers and diverse scenarios, but with less formulaic portrayals of actual sex acts. They also preferred scenes and storylines that, in some way, might mirror their own erotic experiences. Such refined views on adult content may come as a revelation for the stereotypical viewer, who’s probably wondering, Well, where do you even find porn like that?
Life’s short. Live, love, create, and help others.
Until next time, my friends. Stay safe and stay sane. Good night.
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