Category: Uncategorized

A review of the various accounts of the mass murder of nineteen elementary school students and their two teachers in a classroom in Uvalde, Texas shows significant breakdowns in the reaction to armed law enforcement officers, the Associated Press reports.

In one of the most astounding issues, it took police between 40 and 60 minutes for police to go into the classroom where the shooter had locked himself in with the people who would be his victims.  The shooter had locked the door behind him, and police had tried breaking into the room unsuccessfully.  Only after getting a key from a school employee did the police get in; why they didn’t request a key earlier is unknown.

Texas Department of Public Safety Director Steve McCraw characterized the fact that the shooter locked himself in the classroom where he slaughter more than twenty people as a victory for law enforcement:  “The bottom line is law enforcement was there,” McCraw said. “They did engage immediately. They did contain (the shooter) in the classroom.”

Republican Ohio Congressman and man who would be compelled to hold Congressional hearings if 17 fetuses were killed in Benghazi Jim Jordan sent a six-page letter with 36 footnotes to the House Select Committee investigating the January 6th domestic terrorist attack on Congress, telling the committee he will not testify.

Obviously trying to find something that makes sense, Jordan claimed everything from the committee being improperly seated, to the investigation being a partisan witch hunt, to the lie that he really doesn’t know any pertinent to the investigation.

Jordan is likely simultaneously hurt and scared.  Hurt, because he was blocked from sitting on the committee where he could have used his jacketless presence to throw the investigation into chaos and snitched on its working to Donald Trump.  And scared because he actually *does* have pertinent information for the committee, such as how much House Republicans coordinated with the White House on the insurrection and the attempt to overthrow the Constitution of the United States.

Oh, lordy, the NBA is lookin’ to piss off conservatives!  Prior to Wednesday’s playoff game between the Boston Celtics and the Miami Heat in Miami, the arena announcer called for a moment of silence in memory of the 21 victims of the Uvalde, Texas school massacre, the survivors, their families and the community.  At the end of the moment of silence, the announcer urged league fans to call their Senators to demand “their support for common sense gun laws,” and also to vote for change at the ballot box.

In a classic Streisand Effect reaction, Florida Republican Senator (and marionette who just wants to be a real boy) Marco Rubio felt compelled to tweet it out, saying, “The @NBA doesn’t like to talk about the billions they make from a China that enslaves Uyghur Muslims and harvests their organs.  But they have no problem politicizing a horrific tragedy in America.” … because the GOP will stoop to the lowest depth to avoid people voting or letting them know how they feel about the deaths of 19 children killed by an unhinged person with an assault rifle they think is for “personal protection.”

Russia has fired more missiles in the first three months of its invasion of Ukraine than any army since World War II, but the accuracy of those munitions are so poor, they’re hitting fewer than half of their targets an analysis of data by Newsweek shows.

According to Ukrainian defense officials, Russia has fired a little less than 2,300 “smart” cruise missiles in the last three months, equal to the amount the United States has launched since it introduced the cruise missile in 1990.  Each missile–either Russian or American version–costs about $1 million each.

However, the various sea-, air- or ground launch missiles fired by Russia have largely proved ineffective for various reasons:  many have failed to launch; others have gone off-course in flight.  When they have hit at or near their targets, they’ve inflicted lighter damage than expected. 

In the completion of an important test, the Boeing Starliner returned to Earth Wednesday afternoon, landing under three parachute canopies to settle on the dirt of the White Sands missile testing range in New Mexico, the Washington Post reports.

The un-crewed vessel completed an automated trip to the International Space Station and returned on schedule, demonstrating to both Boeing and NASA the craft was capable of making unmanned supply missions.

Boeing announced that the vessel, cushioned by air bags on the landing, came down just three-tenths of a mile, about 1,500 feet, from the calculated landing spot.

“Do you want to talk about how we could have prevented the horror that happened across the street,” a melodramatically angry for the cameras Senator Ted Cruz (R-Quintana Roo) speechifies as he gesticulates dramatically as he seems to blame the school for allow the shooter to shoot his way into the school.  “Look, the killer entered here the same way the killer entered in Sante Fe, through a back door, an unlocked back door.  I sat down at roundtables with the families from Sante Fe.  We talked about what we need to do to harden schools, including not having unlocked back doors, including not having unlocked doors to classrooms.  Having one door that goes in and out of the school.  Having armed police officers at that one door.”

For the record, Cruz has sponsored or co-sponsored 45 bills that became law since he’s been in the Senate.  About 20 of them were to issue Congressional Gold Medals, approve stamps, or name post offices.  None of them had to do with school safety.  If his legislative record is any measure–and it is–he’s more concerned about Uyghurs than schoolchildren.

First Lady Dr. Jill Biden and Surgeon General Vivek Murthy met a FedEx plane filled with 120,000 pounds of baby formula that landed at Dulles Airport in Chantilly, Virginia, a suburb of Washington, the Associated Press reports.

The shipment was the second coming from Germany as part of Operation Fly Formula, an effort by the Biden Administration to fill the need for baby formula caused by the failure of free market companies to make enough safe product to meet demand.

“As a mom and a Nana, it’s impossible to hear the stories of children suffering and not imagine your own children in the same position,” Dr. Biden said. “Food is the first and most important way we nurture our children.”

“So the lockdowns dramatically increased the instance of mental illness among young people and in ten days, we’ve seen two mass shootings from mentally ill young people,” Hungary Defense Princess and human polyp Tucker Carlson said on his Fox show.  “Could there be a connection?  Now, that’s not finger-pointing.  [Narrator:  Yes, it is.]  It’s not to blame Fauci for yesterday’s shooting.  We’re not that low.  [N:  Yes.  Yes, you are.]. We’re not Joe Biden.  {N:  See?]. But if people are becoming mentally ill because they’re disconnected from others, what can we do to connect them to others and thereby reduce the incidence of mental illness.  That’s a real conversation.  Is there a more important one?”

I say, Yes, there is a more important one, Tucker, and let’s have it.  Let’s talk about the vile hatred and fear mongering you promote on your show, and how all these mass shooters are disaffected young men who are told they’re going to be replaced, or that they’re not wanted in this country, or that all their rights are being eliminated–none of which is true but it’s been the bulk of your show for four years.

Congressman Paul Gosar (Q-Ariz), along with other far-right individuals, are being accused of intentionally falsely targetting a Georgia trans women they claimed was the shooter who murdered 21 people at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas, NBC News reports.

Gosar and others, particularly users on Reddit, claimed that photos of a 20-year-old trans woman whose first name is Sam–she asked media to withhold her last name for her safety–were actually photos of the Texas shooter.  Gosar et al claimed that the treatments to transition were what drove the shooter to murder people, repeating a conspiracy theory that started on 4chan.  In a tweet featuring Sam’s photo, Gosar wrote, “It’s a transsexual leftist illegal alien named Salvatore Ramos.”

That is all a lie.  The shooter was not trans, nor were the photos posted of the shooter.

New York Attorney General Leticia James will proceed with a civil lawsuit against gun manufacturers over known dangers involving their products after a federal judge dismissed a motion from a gun manufacturing association that claimed the manufacturers were immune from the suit, the Washington Post reports.

Mae D’Agostino, the US District Judge for Northern New York, dismissed a motion by the National Shooting Sports Foundation, one of the plaintiffs in the motion, which sought to invalidate the state law that allows for the civil lawsuit brought by the state government.

D’Agostino’s decision was announced one day after a gunman walked into an elementary school in Texas, shooting and killing at least 21 people, including 19 children, and less than two weeks after a man killed ten Black people during a racially-motivated attack at a grocery store.

The top lieutenant of Republican Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton is being sued by the state’s bar association over claims he made in a motion to the United State Supreme Court that contained obvious fabrications about the 2020 presidential election, the Austin American-Statesman reports.

First Assistant Attorney General Brent Webster is facing a reprimand from the bar association’s Commission on Lawyer Discipline, which writes Webster’s “representations were dishonest. His allegations were not supported by any charge, indictment, judicial finding, and/or credible or admissible evidence,” the lawsuit said, adding that Webster also “misrepresented that the State of Texas had ‘uncovered substantial evidence … that raises serious doubts as to the integrity of the election process.'”

Being a Republican, Paxton responded to the suit by opening an investigation into the bar association, claiming that “liberal State Bar’s handpicked cronies are misusing charitable funds to make the (border) situation even worse,” and the bar association donates money to groups “that encourage, participate in, and fund illegal immigration at the Texas-Mexico border.”

Democratic New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy challenged Republicans in the state legislature to stop kowtowing to the National Rifle Association and pass substantial gun control laws, saying the GOP members are in the pocket of the gun manufacturing lobbyist and thrive off its “blood money,” Politico reports.

“Let’s put every gun bill up, so the people of New Jersey can see, in no uncertain terms, who supports commonsense gun safety and who wants New Jersey’s streets and communities to be flooded with guns,” Murphy said. “Let’s see who the gun lobby banks on with their blood money.”

Murphy specifically called out a number of Republicans for their support of gun protections:   Assembly Minority Leader John DiMaio who is co-sponsoring a bill that would eliminate the statutory prohibition against the possession of “hollow point” ammunition; state senator Ed Durr who is sponsoring a bill that would remove capacity limits for ammunition magazines and a measure that would repeal the Extreme Risk Protective Order Act of 2018 or so-called “red flag law,” which prohibits a person from owning or buying a firearm or ammunition if the person is deemed to pose “a significant danger of bodily injury.”

Between the tightening sanctions and losing immense amounts of material, Russia’s ability to replenish the equipment, ammunition and machinery has been degraded to the point that Russian President Vladimir Putin cannot resupply his troops, Foreign Affairs reports.

Russia is also suffering from the shortage of available computer chips, used in precision-guided munitions common on the modern battlefield, which have been in short supply due to manufacturing delays caused by the worldwide coronavirus pandemic.  Prior to its 2014 invasion of eastern Ukraine, Russia was dependent on industry in Ukraine for shipbuilding and other major construction efforts.

However, since the nearly-global boycott as a result of the full-scale invasion of Ukraine started three months ago, Russia has suffered shortages of vital parts, metals and material to rebuild or repair its aging armaments.  Photos of T-62 tanks, originally build in the Soviet Union in the 1960s being shipped into the combat area, demonstrate the desperation of Russian forces.

Evangelical Conservative groomer Josh Duggar, a total pedo who should’ve been tied to chair and locked in a room with some QAnon fans and power tools – sharp ones – was sentenced in federal court Wednesday to 12 years in prison for possessing child pornography, the AP reports.

But yeah, it’s some gay teacher with purple hair on “Libs of TikTok” who’s the danger to children, not a guy who actually admitted to child molestation, then figured out how to get around his wife installing “Covenant Eyes” porn blocker software on his computer to view not just regular porn like a normal pervert, but actual illegal child pornography. Anyway Josh Duggar’s been deleted from MAGA world. He doesn’t count anymore. He’s actually a liberal, technically. The fanboys already have some sort of excuse like that ready. It’ll be in the comments below.

Fat former President Trump won’t worry about some libtard secretly infiltrating the NRA and shooting him in the genitals this weekend, because his speech is in the “NO GUNS ALLOWED” room of the conference center, NPR reports. That’s right! Unlike Robb Elementary 4th grader Amerie Jo Garza or any of her classmates who were killed on Tuesday, Trump won’t face any danger from Texas gun owners. He’ll be protected from harm because guns won’t be allowed anywhere near him. Even though he’s not president anymore and his death wouldn’t affect the government because Joe Biden is President now, he still gets protection Amerie did not get. That’s so MAGA!

“My sniffer smells something rotten in GA”

– The current top comment on the Gateway Pundit article “Most Controversial Republican Politician in the Country ‘Wins’ GOP Secretary of State Primary in Georgia“, posted 9:29 AM EDT Wednesday.

“Democrats should not be allowed to vote in Republican primaries. Ever”

– The current top comment on the Gateway Pundit article “Democrat Voters Pushed Dirtbag Raffensperger Over the Top in Georgia GOP Primary“, posted 11:11 AM EDT on Wednesday.

And you thought getting them to wear masks was a challenge.  People walking on the beaches of North Carolina’s Outer Banks are being warned by officials to wear hard-soled shoes in the sand because of debris coming onto the beach from two houses that collapsed earlier this month and due to other material being exposed due to continuing erosion, the Charlotte Observer reports.

After two homes fell into the surf when their foundations were washed away by the tide earlier this month, the wood, metal, glass and plastics from the structures started to return to the beach, polluting the shoreline and causing potential dangerous material to wash up.  Debris is washing up as far as 15 miles away.

A storm earlier this week also exposed PVC piping and other materials from decommissioned military facilities that were located along the shoreline, causing more hazards during the upcoming Memorial Day holiday.

Texas Dem Gov Candidate and former Congressman Beto O’Rourke rushed the stage during the Greg Abbott and pals press conference in Uvelde, demanding action on gun control. Notice how much tougher Ted Cruz talks when there are stronger men between him and the angry liberal agitator… Abbott being one of those stronger men despite being paralyzed from the waist down.

Cassidy Hutchinson, an aide to former Trump White House Chief of Staff MarkMeadows told the House January 6th Select Committee in her testimony that fat former President Trump “approved” of his MAGA army’s stated intent to hang former Vice President Mike Pence on the day of the insurrection and also that in the months after the 2020 election Meadows would regularly dispose of incriminating papers by burning them in his office’s fireplace, the New York Times reports.