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Thanks. There will undoubtedly be more from other sources.
I just posted the "copy image link" , like I usually do.
https://media.npr.org/assets/img/2022/06/11/ap221626386713061_custom-71565bcdc99200b7491570cf5c5e090cb133078b-s1000-c85.webp
Photos: See the March For Our Lives across the country
June 11, 20223:58 PM ET
NICOLE WERBECK
Hundreds of rallies were planned today across the country to push for gun safety laws.
Jose Luis Magana/AP
Thousands of protesters from across the country are marching through Washington, D.C. today for the second March For Our Lives.
The march comes in the wake of the mass shooting in Uvalde, TX last month that killed 19 children and 2 teachers. Demonstrators are calling on lawmakers to pass stricter gun safety legislation.
Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C.: People march at the March for Our Lives 2022 rally.
Here are some scenes from the protest.
Buffalo
https://www.npr.org/sections/pictureshow/2022/06/11/1104391490/photos-see-the-march-for-our-lives-across-the-country
=============================
Student-led March for Our Lives rally pushes for action on gun violence
By Paul LeBlanc and Sarah Fortinsky, CNN
Updated 4:22 PM ET, Sat June 11, 2022
https://www.cnn.com/2022/06/11/politics/march-for-our-lives-dc/index.html
Photos: See the March For Our Lives across the country
June 11, 20223:58 PM ET
NICOLE WERBECK
Hundreds of rallies were planned today across the country to push for gun safety laws.
Jose Luis Magana/AP
Thousands of protesters from across the country are marching through Washington, D.C. today for the second March For Our Lives.
The march comes in the wake of the mass shooting in Uvalde, TX last month that killed 19 children and 2 teachers. Demonstrators are calling on lawmakers to pass stricter gun safety legislation.
Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C.: People march at the March for Our Lives 2022 rally.
Here are some scenes from the protest.
Buffalo
https://www.npr.org/sections/pictureshow/2022/06/11/1104391490/photos-see-the-march-for-our-lives-across-the-country
=============================
Student-led March for Our Lives rally pushes for action on gun violence
By Paul LeBlanc and Sarah Fortinsky, CNN
Updated 4:22 PM ET, Sat June 11, 2022
https://www.cnn.com/2022/06/11/politics/march-for-our-lives-dc/index.html
Gas Prices Around the World
by: Elaine Silvestrini
June 7, 2022
. . .
Country Price as of May 30 in USD per gallon
Australia $5.45
Belgium $8.10
Benin $3.73
Brazil $5,78
Canada $6.49
China $5.50
Denmark $10.02
France $8.06
Finland $9.64
Germany $8.80
Greece $9.29
Hong Kong $11.21
Iceland $9.47
India $5.09
Ireland $7.91
Israel $8.24
Italy $7.78
Japan $4.85
Jordan $6.30
Kuwait $1.30
Madagascar $3.84
Malawi $6,32
Mexico $4.55
Mozambique $4.59
Netherlands $9.20
Norway $10.70
Pakistan $3.43
Poland $6.52
Qatar $2.18
Russia $3.03
Saudi Arabia $2.35
Sierra Leone $4.34
Singapore $8.76
Sweden $9.05
Turkey $5.80
Ukraine $6.51
United Kingdom $8.17
United States $4.79
Zimbabwe $5.46
https://www.kiplinger.com/personal-finance/shopping/cars/604410/gas-prices-around-the-world
======================================
Gas Price Map
USA National Gas Station Price Heat Map
Search map by City, State or Zip
https://www.gasbuddy.com/gaspricemap?lat=38.822395&lng=-96.591588&z=4
EXPLAINER: Hundreds charged with crimes in Capitol attack
By ALANNA DURKIN RICHER June 7, 2022
3 of 4
FILE - In this Wednesday, Jan. 6, 2021 file photo, supporters of President Donald Trump, including Jacob Chansley, right with fur hat, are confronted by U.S. Capitol Police officers outside the Senate Chamber inside the Capitol in Washington.
More than 800 people across the U.S. have been charged in the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol, which left officers bloodied and sent lawmakers into hiding, and federal authorities continue to make new arrests practically every week.
The charges against members of the angry pro-Trump mob range from low-level misdemeanors for those who only entered the Capitol to felony seditious conspiracy charges against far-right extremists.
It’s the largest prosecution in the history of the Justice Department, whose leader, Attorney General Merrick Garland, has vowed to hold accountable “all January 6th perpetrators, at any level.”
As the U.S. House committee investigating the attack prepares to hold a series of public hearings to detail its findings, here’s a look at where the criminal cases stand:
____
WHO HAS BEEN CHARGED?
Authorities have arrested people in practically all 50 states in connection with the riot. They include former police officers and U.S. military veterans, a five-time Olympic swimming medalist and the son of a New York City judge.
Hundreds of people who went inside but didn’t take part in any destruction or violence are facing only misdemeanor crimes like illegal entry, picketing in the Capitol and disorderly conduct that call for up to a year behind bars.
More than 250 people have been charged with assaulting or impeding law enforcement who were trying to protect the Capitol, including more than 85 accused of using a deadly or dangerous weapon or causing serious bodily injury to an officer. Others have been accused of assaulting members of the media — one an Associated Press photographer — or destroying media equipment.
One year later, Capitol rioters face legal fates
Track the legal paths of the people arrested in the wake of the Jan. 6, 2021 U.S. Capitol attack.
There have been 824 people charged with offenses related to the attack on the U.S. Capitol.
detailed Graphics ...
Restitution 185
Probation/Supervised release 149
Community service 97
Imprisonment 81
Home confinement 62
Fine 58
--------
Note: Most defendants have received more than one type of punishment.
Note: AP is only listing charges in cases that have been resolved.
Credit: LINDA GORMAN, MICHAEL KUNZELMAN, SETH RASMUSSEN and KEVIN VINEYS
-------
The most serious cases have been brought against members of two far-right extremist groups, the Oath Keepers and Proud Boys.
The leaders of both groups have been arrested and remain locked up while they await trial later this year for seditious conspiracy, which alleges a plot to forcibly oppose the lawful transfer of presidential power. The rarely used Civil War-era charge calls for up to 20 years in prison.
____
WHO HAS BEEN CONVICTED?
More than 300 people have pleaded guilty to a slew of crimes, including conspiracy and assault. Among them are three Oath Keepers who have admitted to seditious conspiracy, are cooperating with investigators and could testify against their fellow extremists at trial.
There have been seven trials so far in the District of Columbia’s federal court. The first five juries convicted the riot defendants of all charges.
The convicted include Thomas Webster, a 20-year New York Police Department veteran who attacked an officer during the riot. Webster claimed he was defending himself when he tackled the officer and grabbed his gas mask.
Jurors also rejected the defense of an Ohio man who claimed he was only “following presidential orders” from former President Donald Trump when he stormed the Capitol. Dustin Byron Thompson was convicted of obstructing Congress from certifying the electoral vote and other charges.
A judge decided two other cases without a jury, acquitting one of the defendants and partially acquitting the other.
U.S. District Court Judge Trevor McFadden, who was appointed by Trump, convicted Otero County, New Mexico, Commissioner Couy Griffin of illegally entering restricted Capitol grounds, but acquitted him of engaging in disorderly conduct.
In the other misdemeanor case, McFadden found Matthew Martin of New Mexico not guilty of charges that he illegally entered the Capitol and engaged in disorderly conduct, saying it was reasonable for Martin to believe that outnumbered police officers allowed him and others to enter through the Rotunda doors.
WHAT ABOUT THE PUNISHMENTS?
Nearly 200 people have been sentenced so far.
The punishments have ranged from probation to more than five years behind bars. About 100 people who were charged with lower level crimes have avoided going to prison, although some of those received time in home detention.
The longest sentence — more than five years — was given to Robert Palmer of Largo, Florida, who threw a wooden plank and sprayed a fire extinguisher at officers before hurling the fire extinguisher at them.
Others who received lengthy sentences include Jacob Chansley, the spear-carrying rioter whose horned fur hat, bare chest and face paint made him one of the more recognizable figures in the attack. Chansley, who called himself “QAnon Shaman,” got about 31/2 years behind bars after admitting to entering the Senate chamber and writing a note to Vice President Mike Pence that said: “It’s only a matter of time, justice is coming.”
WHAT’S NEXT?
The two most high-profile trials — involving the Oath Keepers and Proud Boys — are expected to take place this summer and fall.
Henry “Enrique” Tarrio, who was once the Proud Boys’ top boss, and four others linked to the group were charged on Monday with seditious conspiracy after previously facing other conspiracy counts. They are scheduled to stand trial beginning Aug. 9.
Tarrio, who has since stepped down from his post as the group’s chairman, was arrested in a separate case two days before the riot and was not at the Capitol on Jan. 6. But he is accused of helping put into motion the violent attack.
The trial for the Oath Keepers leader, Stewart Rhodes, and four other members and associates the group is scheduled to start Sept. 26. Prosecutors say the Oath Keepers plotted for weeks to try to overturn the election results and prepared for a siege by purchasing weapons and setting up battle plans.
Authorities are still searching for many suspects, including the person who planted two pipe bombs outside the offices of the Republican and Democratic national committees the night before the melee.
https://apnews.com/article/capitol-siege-merrick-garland-government-and-politics-conspiracy-crime-c2e427dc0fa16077d7fb98c06e61149f
Yes... The Truth About January 6th”
Tear gas swirls around a mob of Trump supporters at the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. Inspired by the president’s false claims of election fraud, they sought to disrupt the vote certification process in Congress. (Evelyn Hockstein for The Washington Post)
Trump supporters climb the walls on the Senate side of the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. Later, the Republican National Committee would call the protest “legitimate political discourse.” (Michael Robinson Chavez/The Washington Post)
borrowed from: https://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=169074368
Exclusive: Michigan widens probe into voting system breaches by Trump allies
June 6, 2022 1:13 PM CDT Last Updated 4 hours ago
By Nathan Layne and Peter Eisler
LANSING, Michigan, June 6 (Reuters) - State police in Michigan have obtained warrants to seize voting equipment and election-related records in at least three towns and one county in the past six weeks, police records show, widening the largest known investigation into unauthorized attempts by allies of former President Donald Trump to access voting systems.
The previously unreported records include search warrants and investigators' memos obtained by Reuters through public records requests. The documents reveal a flurry of efforts by state authorities to secure voting machines, poll books, data-storage devices and phone records as evidence in a probe launched in mid-February.
The state’s investigation follows breaches of local election systems in Michigan by Republican officials and pro-Trump activists trying to prove his baseless claims of widespread fraud in the 2020 election.
The police documents reveal, among other things, that the state is investigating a potential breach of voting equipment in Lake Township, a small, largely conservative community in northern Michigan's Missaukee County. The previously unreported case is one of at least 17 incidents nationwide, including 11 in Michigan, in which Trump supporters gained or attempted to gain unauthorized access to voting equipment.
Many of the breaches have been inspired in part by the false assertion that state-ordered voting-system upgrades or maintenance would erase evidence of alleged voting fraud in 2020. State election officials, including those in Michigan, say those processes have no impact on the preservation of data from past elections.
The search warrants also authorized state police to seize election equipment in Barry County’s Irving Township and have it examined. Local officials acknowledged publicly last month that state police raided the township office on April 29, a day after the warrant was issued.
Additionally, the records shed new light on election-equipment breaches in Roscommon County. One official in the county’s Richfield Township told investigators that he gave two vote-counting tabulators to an unauthorized and unidentified "third party," who kept them for several weeks in early 2021. The county’s clerk acknowledged that she, too, handed over her equipment to unauthorized people.
Taken together, these documents depict a statewide push by pro-Trump activists to access election machinery in search of evidence for debunked theories that equipment was rigged in a crucial swing state that voted for Trump in 2016 and for Democrat Joe Biden in 2020.
Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson told Reuters that the state is investigating whether the election-system breaches are coordinated.
“If there is coordination, whether it's among those in our state or reaching up to a national level, we can determine that and then we can seek accountability for all involved," Benson, a Democrat, said in an interview.
On Feb. 10, Benson announced that she had asked Michigan's attorney general, Democrat Dana Nessel, to begin a criminal investigation, citing information that state authorities had received about unauthorized access to voting machines and data in Roscommon County. In separate inquiries, state or local law enforcement officials have investigated security breaches involving voting equipment in Cross Village Township in Emmet County and Adams Township in Hillsdale County last year.
Representatives of the state police and attorney general’s office declined to comment on the investigations detailed in this story.
Trump won all of the counties where breaches or attempted breaches in Michigan have been alleged. The results in those jurisdictions were affirmed by multiple audits and an investigation by the Republican-controlled state senate, which found no evidence of widespread fraud. But some activists and officials pushing election-fraud conspiracy theories claim that Trump’s margin should have been larger in these areas, and their efforts are roiling communities across the state.
In rural Barry County, Republican Sheriff Dar Leaf has teamed with proponents of the debunked claim that voting machines were rigged against Trump. Leaf is pursuing his own investigation, despite being urged last year by the Republican county prosecutor to suspend it for lack of evidence. Trump won the county by a 2-1 margin.
In recent weeks, Leaf’s office has sent expansive public records requests to the county's township and city clerks, seeking an array of election-related records. The requests were condemned by clerks and local officials in Reuters interviews and public statements as baseless and burdensome. An editorial in the local newspaper, The Hastings Banner, called Leaf’s probe “a waste of time and an affront to our citizens.”
Leaf did not respond to requests for comment. In an interview with Reuters in February, he defended his investigation. He said he was “concerned” by theories that voting machines nationwide were rigged to favor Biden, and “we need to know if that happened in Barry County.”
‘INAPPROPRIATE ACCESS’
The records obtained by Reuters show that in Lake Township, a community of about 2,800 people in Missaukee County, state police obtained a warrant on April 22 to search the clerk's office for evidence of potential violations of election law.
Township Clerk Korrinda Winkelmann, an elected Republican who oversees local voting, declined to comment.
Missaukee County, where Trump won in 2020 with 76% of the vote, is home to Daire Rendon, a Republican state lawmaker who has embraced the bogus claim that widespread fraud robbed Trump of victory in 2020. Rendon approached multiple clerks in her district, which includes Missaukee, Roscommon and other counties, asking them to give people seeking fraud evidence access to their voting equipment, Reuters previously reported.
In December 2020, Rendon was one of two Republican members of Michigan's House of Representatives who joined an unsuccessful federal lawsuit seeking to overturn Biden’s victory in five battleground states.
Rendon did not respond to requests for comment. In a May 25 interview with the Cadillac News, a local newspaper, she acknowledged contacting clerks but said she "never touched a voting machine" and did nothing wrong.
State police are also stepping up an examination of alleged breaches in Roscommon County. In February, Secretary of State Benson said unauthorized people "gained inappropriate access to tabulation machines and data drives” used in the county and in one of its townships, Richfield. Benson, however, didn’t name any suspects or provide other details.
The state police records show that investigators are probing allegations that the Richfield Township supervisor allowed a “third party” to take possession of the town's two ballot tabulators for several weeks in early 2021. The records identify the supervisor only by title, not by name, but the county only has one person in that position, Republican John Bawol.
The records detail an interview with a "suspect." The name and title is redacted but the suspect is described as an elected township official. The official told investigators he believed the tabulators were taken to "the northern suburbs of Detroit" in early February by an unidentified group of people driving a small SUV. The tabulators were not returned until March, the official added. The official said at one point he checked in with a woman, whose name is redacted, about when the machines would be returned, and “she advised they were almost done.”
State police found that both security seals on one machine indicated that it had been tampered with, the records show. The seals were intact on the other machine.
Greg Watt, the township clerk, whose job includes safeguarding election equipment, told investigators that he did not know the identity of the third party who accessed the voting machines, according to the records. Police documents identify Watt by name and call him a witness in the case.
Watt and Bawol did not respond to requests for comment.
The breaches are costing taxpayers money. The Richfield Township Board voted on May 25 to purchase two new vote tabulators and three memory devices at a cost of $8,763. The move was necessary to "ensure election integrity," Watt said at the board meeting, according to an audio recording reviewed by Reuters.
State police have also sought to question the Roscommon county clerk in connection with a separate alleged voting system breach, the police records reveal. The county clerk, whose name is redacted in the documents, is Michelle Stevenson, a Republican.
In February, the county clerk acknowledged to a state election official that she had provided a data storage drive containing election information “for one or both” of Richfield Township's vote tabulators to an unidentified third party, according to an email from the official to police, in which the name of the clerk was also redacted. She also gave the person access to one of Roscommon County’s vote-tabulating machines, according to the email.
When state investigators attempted to interview the county clerk on Feb. 17, she indicated a willingness to speak with police but declined to discuss the matter at that time, the police records show.
Two weeks later, on March 2, investigators executed a search warrant on Stevenson's office, accompanied by representatives of Election Systems & Software LLC, the Nebraska-based manufacturer of voting machines used in Roscommon County, the records show.
Stevenson declined to comment. Election Systems & Software did not respond to requests for comment.
https://www.reuters.com/world/us/exclusive-michigan-widens-probe-into-voting-system-breaches-by-trump-allies-2022-06-06/
Crowds honor WWII veterans at Normandy D-Day celebrations
World War II reenactors gather on Omaha Beach in Saint-aurent-sur-Mer, Normandy, France
Monday, June 6, 2022, the day of 78th anniversary of the assault that helped bring an end to World War II.
(AP Photo/Jeremias Gonzalez)
6 Jun 2022
Associated Press | By Sylvie Corbet and Jeff Schaeffer
COLLEVILLE-SUR-MER, France — When D-Day veterans set foot on the Normandy beaches and other World War II sites, they express a mix of joy and sadness. Joy at seeing the gratitude and friendliness of the French toward those who landed on June 6, 1944. Sadness as they think of their fallen comrades and of another battle now being waged in Europe: the war in Ukraine.
As a bright sun was rising over the wide band of sand of Omaha Beach on Monday, 78 years on, U.S. D-Day veteran Charles Shay expressed thoughts for his comrades who fell that day. “I have never forgotten them and I know that their spirits are here,” he told The Associated Press.
02:59
The 98-year-old Penobscot Native American from Indian Island, Maine, took part in a sage-burning ceremony near the beach in Saint-Laurent-sur-Mer.
Shay, who now lives in Normandy, was a 19-year-old U.S. Army medic when he landed on Omaha Beach on June 6, 1944.
He said he was sad to see war in Europe once again, so many years later.
“Ukraine is a very sad situation. I feel sorry for the people there and I don’t know why this war had to come, but I think the human beings like to, I think they like to fight. I don’t know," he said.
"In 1944 I landed on these beaches and we thought we’d bring peace to the world. But it’s not possible.”
This year, Shay handed over the remembrance task to another Native American, from the Crow tribe, Julia Kelly, a Gulf War veteran, who performed the sage ritual. “Never forget, never forget,” she said. “In this time, in any time, war is not good.”
Shay's message to young generations would be “to be ever vigilant.”
“Of course I have to say that they should protect their freedom that they have now,” he said.
For the past two years, D-Day ceremonies were reduced to a minimum amid COVID-19 lockdown restrictions.
This year, crowds of French and international visitors — including veterans in their 90s — are back in Normandy to pay tribute to the nearly 160,000 troops from Britain, the U.S., Canada and elsewhere who landed there to bring freedom.
Several thousand people were expected Monday at a ceremony later at the American Cemetery overlooking Omaha Beach in the French town of Colleville-sur-Mer. Amid the dozens of U.S. veterans expected to attend was Ray Wallace, 97, a former paratrooper with the 82nd Airborne Division.
On D-Day, his plane was hit and caught fire, forcing him to jump earlier than expected. He landed 20 miles (32 kilometers) away from the town of Sainte-Mere-Eglise, the first French village to be liberated from Nazi occupation.
“We all got a little scared then. And then whenever the guy dropped us out, we were away from where the rest of the group was. That was scary," Wallace told The Associated Press.
Less than a month later, he was taken prisoner by the Germans. He was ultimately liberated after 10 months and returned to the U.S.
Still, Wallace thinks he was lucky.
“I remember the good friends that I lost there. So it’s a little emotional,” he said, with sadness in his voice. “I guess you can say I’m proud of what I did but I didn’t do that much."
He was asked about the secret to his longevity. “Calvados!” he joked, in reference to Normandy’s local alcohol.
On D-Day, Allied troops landed on the beaches code-named Omaha, Utah, Juno, Sword and Gold, carried by 7,000 boats. On that single day, 4,414 Allied soldiers lost their lives, 2,501 of them Americans. More than 5,000 were wounded.
On the German side, several thousand were killed or wounded.
Wallace, who is using a wheelchair, was among about 20 WWII veterans who opened Saturday's parade of military vehicles in Sainte-Mere-Eglise to great applause from thousands of people, in a joyful atmosphere. He did not hide his pleasure, happily waving to the crowd as parents explained the achievements of World War II heroes to their children.
Many history buffs, wearing military and civilian clothes from the period, also came to stage a reenactment of the events.
In Colleville-sur-Mer on Monday, U.S. Air Force aircraft are to fly over the American Cemetery during the commemoration ceremony, in the presence of Army Gen. Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. The place is home to the gravesites of 9,386 people who died fighting on D-Day and in the operations that followed.
For 82-year-old Dale Thompson, visiting the site over the weekend was a first.
Thompson, who traveled from Florida with his wife, served in the 101st Airborne Division of the U.S. military in the early 1960s. He was stateside and saw no combat.
Walking amid the thousands of marble headstones, Thompson wondered how he would have reacted if he landed at D-Day.
“I try to put myself in their place,” he said. “Could I be as heroic as these people?”
____
AP Journalists Oleg Cetinic and Jeremias Gonzalez contributed to the story.
https://www.military.com/daily-news/2022/06/06/crowds-honor-wwii-veterans-normandy-d-day-celebrations.html?ESRC=eb_220606.nl
=======================-------============
Photos from D-Day give glimpse into historic World War II invasion 78 years ago
Wyatte Grantham-Philips USA TODAY
Updated 8:43 am ET June 6, 2022
Monday marks the 78th anniversary of the historic D-Day operation.
In the midst of World War II on June 6, 1944, Allied forces stormed the beaches of Normandy in Nazi-occupied France. More than 156,000 troops, notably from the United States, Britain and Canada, confronted Nazi forces on D-Day forever reshaping the war, according to the Department of Defense.
. . .
...
...
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2022/06/06/d-day-photos-1944-normandy-invasion/7502281001/
Crowds honor WWII veterans at Normandy D-Day celebrations
World War II reenactors gather on Omaha Beach in Saint-aurent-sur-Mer, Normandy, France
Monday, June 6, 2022, the day of 78th anniversary of the assault that helped bring an end to World War II.
(AP Photo/Jeremias Gonzalez)
6 Jun 2022
Associated Press | By Sylvie Corbet and Jeff Schaeffer
COLLEVILLE-SUR-MER, France — When D-Day veterans set foot on the Normandy beaches and other World War II sites, they express a mix of joy and sadness. Joy at seeing the gratitude and friendliness of the French toward those who landed on June 6, 1944. Sadness as they think of their fallen comrades and of another battle now being waged in Europe: the war in Ukraine.
As a bright sun was rising over the wide band of sand of Omaha Beach on Monday, 78 years on, U.S. D-Day veteran Charles Shay expressed thoughts for his comrades who fell that day. “I have never forgotten them and I know that their spirits are here,” he told The Associated Press.
02:59
The 98-year-old Penobscot Native American from Indian Island, Maine, took part in a sage-burning ceremony near the beach in Saint-Laurent-sur-Mer.
Shay, who now lives in Normandy, was a 19-year-old U.S. Army medic when he landed on Omaha Beach on June 6, 1944.
He said he was sad to see war in Europe once again, so many years later.
“Ukraine is a very sad situation. I feel sorry for the people there and I don’t know why this war had to come, but I think the human beings like to, I think they like to fight. I don’t know," he said.
"In 1944 I landed on these beaches and we thought we’d bring peace to the world. But it’s not possible.”
This year, Shay handed over the remembrance task to another Native American, from the Crow tribe, Julia Kelly, a Gulf War veteran, who performed the sage ritual. “Never forget, never forget,” she said. “In this time, in any time, war is not good.”
Shay's message to young generations would be “to be ever vigilant.”
“Of course I have to say that they should protect their freedom that they have now,” he said.
For the past two years, D-Day ceremonies were reduced to a minimum amid COVID-19 lockdown restrictions.
This year, crowds of French and international visitors — including veterans in their 90s — are back in Normandy to pay tribute to the nearly 160,000 troops from Britain, the U.S., Canada and elsewhere who landed there to bring freedom.
Several thousand people were expected Monday at a ceremony later at the American Cemetery overlooking Omaha Beach in the French town of Colleville-sur-Mer. Amid the dozens of U.S. veterans expected to attend was Ray Wallace, 97, a former paratrooper with the 82nd Airborne Division.
On D-Day, his plane was hit and caught fire, forcing him to jump earlier than expected. He landed 20 miles (32 kilometers) away from the town of Sainte-Mere-Eglise, the first French village to be liberated from Nazi occupation.
“We all got a little scared then. And then whenever the guy dropped us out, we were away from where the rest of the group was. That was scary," Wallace told The Associated Press.
Less than a month later, he was taken prisoner by the Germans. He was ultimately liberated after 10 months and returned to the U.S.
Still, Wallace thinks he was lucky.
“I remember the good friends that I lost there. So it’s a little emotional,” he said, with sadness in his voice. “I guess you can say I’m proud of what I did but I didn’t do that much."
He was asked about the secret to his longevity. “Calvados!” he joked, in reference to Normandy’s local alcohol.
On D-Day, Allied troops landed on the beaches code-named Omaha, Utah, Juno, Sword and Gold, carried by 7,000 boats. On that single day, 4,414 Allied soldiers lost their lives, 2,501 of them Americans. More than 5,000 were wounded.
On the German side, several thousand were killed or wounded.
Wallace, who is using a wheelchair, was among about 20 WWII veterans who opened Saturday's parade of military vehicles in Sainte-Mere-Eglise to great applause from thousands of people, in a joyful atmosphere. He did not hide his pleasure, happily waving to the crowd as parents explained the achievements of World War II heroes to their children.
Many history buffs, wearing military and civilian clothes from the period, also came to stage a reenactment of the events.
In Colleville-sur-Mer on Monday, U.S. Air Force aircraft are to fly over the American Cemetery during the commemoration ceremony, in the presence of Army Gen. Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. The place is home to the gravesites of 9,386 people who died fighting on D-Day and in the operations that followed.
For 82-year-old Dale Thompson, visiting the site over the weekend was a first.
Thompson, who traveled from Florida with his wife, served in the 101st Airborne Division of the U.S. military in the early 1960s. He was stateside and saw no combat.
Walking amid the thousands of marble headstones, Thompson wondered how he would have reacted if he landed at D-Day.
“I try to put myself in their place,” he said. “Could I be as heroic as these people?”
____
AP Journalists Oleg Cetinic and Jeremias Gonzalez contributed to the story.
https://www.military.com/daily-news/2022/06/06/crowds-honor-wwii-veterans-normandy-d-day-celebrations.html?ESRC=eb_220606.nl
===================================
Photos from D-Day give glimpse into historic World War II invasion 78 years ago
Wyatte Grantham-Philips USA TODAY
Updated 8:43 am ET June 6, 2022
Monday marks the 78th anniversary of the historic D-Day operation.
In the midst of World War II on June 6, 1944, Allied forces stormed the beaches of Normandy in Nazi-occupied France. More than 156,000 troops, notably from the United States, Britain and Canada, confronted Nazi forces on D-Day forever reshaping the war, according to the Department of Defense.
. . .
. . .
...
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2022/06/06/d-day-photos-1944-normandy-invasion/7502281001/
More than 400 million guns, from sea to shining sea
By David Horsey
Seattle Times cartoonist
A racist with an assault weapon slaughtered 10 people at a grocery store in Buffalo, New York, on May 14, but, in the days since, there has been little serious talk about gun control, except from the president and the governor of New York who, because it is their job, are expected to say something.
One reason for this is that the scourge of right-wing terrorism directed at non-white citizens is so appalling that it is hard to focus on anything else. But another reason is that everyone knows the gun debate is effectively over – and the guns have won.
New York state already has some of the toughest firearms laws in the country, but the 18-year-old Buffalo shooter was still able to buy his weapon legally and obtain his ammo clip from out-of-state.
The only way to effectively end gun deaths and gun violence in the United States is to emulate civilized nations, such as Japan, New Zealand, Germany and Great Britain, where national laws severely restrict gun ownership
https://www.seattletimes.com/opinion/more-than-400-million-guns-from-sea-to-shining-sea/
House panel taking up gun bill in wake of mass shootings
By KEVIN FREKINGJ une 2, 2022 GMT
WASHINGTON (AP) — The House is beginning to put its stamp on gun legislation in response to mass shootings in Texas and New York by 18-year-old assailants who used semi-automatic rifles to kill 31 people, including 19 children.
The House Judiciary Committee will hold a hearing Thursday to advance legislation that would raise the age limit for purchasing certain semi-automatic rifles from 18 to 21. The bill would make it a federal offense to import, manufacture or possess large-capacity magazines and would create a grant program to buy back such magazines. It also builds on the executive branch’s ban on bump-stock devices and so-called ghost guns that are privately made without serial numbers.
The Democratic legislation, called the Protecting Our Kids Act, was quickly added to the legislative docket after last week’s school shooting in Uvalde, Texas. A vote by the full House could come as early as next week.
With Republicans nearly in lockstep in their opposition, the House action will mostly be symbolic, serving to put lawmakers on record about gun control ahead of this year’s elections. The Senate is taking a different course, with a bipartisan group striving toward a compromise on gun safety legislation that can win enough GOP support to become law. Those talks are making “rapid progress,” according to Sen. Susan Collins of Maine, one of the Republican negotiators.
But Rep. Jerrold Nadler of New York, the Democratic chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, defends the proposals as popular with Americans. He says it’s time for Congress to act.
“You say that it is too soon to take action? That we are ‘politicizing’ these tragedies to enact new policies?” Nadler said in prepared remarks for Thursday’s hearing obtained by The Associated Press. “It has been 23 years since Columbine. Fifteen years since Virginia Tech. Ten years since Sandy Hook. Seven years since Charleston. Four years since Parkland and Santa Fe and Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh.”
He added: “Too soon? My friends, what the hell are you waiting for?”
Rep. Jim Jordan of Ohio, the ranking Republican on the committee, told Fox News he’ll press his GOP colleagues to oppose the bill.
“I’m going to do everything I can to encourage my colleagues to oppose this … hodgepodge of bills that I don’t think would have made one difference in tragedies that we’ve seen recently,” Jordan said.
Any legislative response to the Uvalde and Buffalo, New York, shootings will have to get through the evenly divided Senate, where support from at least 10 Republicans would be needed to advance the measure to a final vote. A group of senators has been working behind the scenes this week in hopes of finding a consensus.
Ideas under discussion include expanded background checks for gun purchases and incentivizing red-flag laws that allow family members, school officials and others to go into court and secure an order requiring the police to seize guns from people considered a threat to themselves or others.
The broader bipartisan group of almost 10 senators met again Wednesday — “a very productive call,” said Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., in an interview.
“There’s a tenor and tone, as well as real substantive discussion that seems different,” he said.
Blumenthal has been working with a Republican member of the group, Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, on a proposal to send resources to the states for red-flag laws. He said he was “excited and encouraged” by the response from the group.
“It really is time for our Republican colleagues to put up or shut up,” Blumenthal said. “We’ve been down this road before.”
President Joe Biden was asked Wednesday if he was confident Congress would take action on gun legislation.
“I served in Congress for 36 years. I’m never confident, totally,” Biden said. “It depends, and I don’t know. I’ve not been in on the negotiations as they’re going on right now.”
https://apnews.com/article/shootings-new-york-gun-politics-judiciary-violence-18868cbb3652c9e1e92087bc5b7997d2
New York jumps to pass major gun restrictions after mass shootings
The urgency this week comes in part from grief after the shooting in the state’s second largest city, Buffalo, in which 10 people were killed in a racist supermarket attack last month.
In this image taken from video, New York Gov. Kathy Hochul shows bullets similar to those used in the Buffalo supermarket
shooting during a news conference on May 18, in New York. | Office of the Governor of New York via AP
By MARIE J. FRENCH and ANNA GRONEWOLD
06/01/2022 07:07 PM EDT
ALBANY, N.Y. — New York is set to become one of the first states in the nation to pass a package of new gun restrictions in direct response to the shootings in Buffalo and Texas that have rattled the nation and spurred renewed calls for action.
The new laws sought by moderate Democratic Gov. Kathy Hochul and the state’s liberal Legislature would further tighten and strengthen New York’s gun ownership restrictions, including raising the age from 18 to 21 for the purchase of semi-automatic rifles like those used in the recent shootings.
The urgency this week comes in part from grief after the shooting in the state’s second largest city, Buffalo, in which 10 people were killed in a racist supermarket attack last month. But it’s also a response to the failure of the state’s strict background checks and “Red Flag” law to prevent the shooting, Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins told reporters in the Capitol Wednesday, and an attempt to close loopholes in some of the nation’s most stringent gun laws.
“We’ve done a lot. On the national level, they are talking about the things that we’ve already done,” Stewart-Cousins said. “So we continue to lead, and to try to answer the moment as it occurs.”
The leaders plan to pass the package before the state’s legislative session wraps up on Thursday — nine years after Albany enacted a different set of gun restrictions following the Sandy Hook school shooting. Those rules led to strong criticism from Second Amendment advocates, including bumper stickers and protest signs critical of then-Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who pushed the measures, called the SAFE Act, through the then-Republican-led Senate.
The political climate this year offers a more fertile ground for passage in the Legislature’s dual Democratic-controlled chambers.
New York Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins (D-Yonkers) said New York will close loopholes
that will bolster New York's already robust gun-control laws. | Hans Pennink/AP Photo
While lawmakers often hesitate to act on controversial issues during an election year — Hochul and every state legislator are up for reelection this year — they are framing new restrictions as a way to combat rising gun violence and voters naming crime the most important issue as they choose candidates this year.
https://scri.siena.edu/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/SNY0422-Crosstabs.pdf
[...]
https://www.politico.com/news/2022/06/01/new-york-gun-restrictions-00036503
In Britain, it took just one school shooting to pass major gun control
June 1, 2022 5:09 AM ET
Ari Shapiro
Patrick Jarenwattananon,
Manuela López Restrepo
A police officer arranges bouquets of flowers in rows at a side entrance to Dunblane Primary School following a school shooting that left 16 students and one teacher dead.
Lynne Sladky/AP
As Americans continue to reel from the mass shooting in Uvalde, Texas that left 19 students and 2 teachers dead, headlines and commentators repeat a common refrain:
The U.S is the only country where this happens.
Nowadays that may be true, but 26 years ago, it happened in Scotland. In March 1996, a gunman entered Dunblane Primary School, killing 16 students, a teacher, and injuring 15 others.
To this day, it is the deadliest mass shooting in UK history.
https://www.britannica.com/event/Dunblane-school-massacre
But that's where the similarities end. In the aftermath of the shooting, parents in Dunblane were able to mobilize with the kind of effectiveness that has eluded American gun control activists.
By the following year, Parliament had banned private ownership of most handguns, as well as semi-automatic weapons, and required mandatory registration for shotgun owners. .. https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/how-1996-dunblane-massacre-pushed-uk-enact-stricter-gun-laws-180977221/
There have been no school shootings in the U.K since then.
"The comparisons between the U.S. and Britain now should make shocking reading to anyone in America," says Mick North, whose five-year-old daughter, Sophie, was killed at Dunblane. He's one of the founding members of the group Gun Control Network, which advocated for new laws in the aftermath of the Dunblane shooting.
Over the past several years, England, Scotland and Wales combined have seen around thirty gun deaths a year. .. https://www.gov.scot/publications/homicide-scotland-2019-2020/pages/3/
By comparison, according to the CDC, the number of murders involving firearms in the United States in 2020 was 19,384. .. https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2022/02/03/what-the-data-says-about-gun-deaths-in-the-u-s/
"Even setting aside the difference in the size of the country, that is a horrendous difference," says North.
At the time of the Dunblane shooting, he and other activists did face difficulties making their schools safer – including skepticism from members of the Royal Family. In an interview with the BBC, Prince Philip compared the banning of guns to the banning of cricket bats, saying that both had the potential for danger if misused. It's an argument that's similar to those made by the gun lobby in the United States.
"The criticism of others that these people might choose some other means of causing harm doesn't really acknowledge how very dangerous guns are compared with other weapons," says North. "It is too easy for somebody to pick up something like a gun and cause havoc within seconds and certainly within minutes."
The strong heritage of gun ownership in the U.S. – and the Constitutional right to bear arms – is an obstacle that British gun control activists like North didn't have to wrestle with in the aftermath of the Dunblane shooting.
And yet, he sees other countries with similar histories which have successfully passed strict gun control measures.
"Yes, the whole culture around guns is different in the U.S.
But there are other countries in the world where there's a frontier mentality - shall we say, Canada, Australia - who have adopted tighter controls over guns," North says. "So I think America should perhaps be comparing itself not necessarily with Britain alone but with a whole range of countries who have unfortunately experienced mass shootings but only a small number of them."
https://www.npr.org/2022/06/01/1102239642/school-shooting-dunblane-massacre-uvalde-texas-gun-control
In Britain, it took just one school shooting to pass major gun control
June 1, 2022 5:09 AM ET
Ari Shapiro
Patrick Jarenwattananon,
Manuela López Restrepo
A police officer arranges bouquets of flowers in rows at a side entrance to Dunblane Primary School following a school shooting that left 16 students and one teacher dead.
Lynne Sladky/AP
As Americans continue to reel from the mass shooting in Uvalde, Texas that left 19 students and 2 teachers dead, headlines and commentators repeat a common refrain:
The U.S is the only country where this happens.
Nowadays that may be true, but 26 years ago, it happened in Scotland. In March 1996, a gunman entered Dunblane Primary School, killing 16 students, a teacher, and injuring 15 others.
To this day, it is the deadliest mass shooting in UK history.
https://www.britannica.com/event/Dunblane-school-massacre
But that's where the similarities end. In the aftermath of the shooting, parents in Dunblane were able to mobilize with the kind of effectiveness that has eluded American gun control activists.
By the following year, Parliament had banned private ownership of most handguns, as well as semi-automatic weapons, and required mandatory registration for shotgun owners. .. https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/how-1996-dunblane-massacre-pushed-uk-enact-stricter-gun-laws-180977221/
There have been no school shootings in the U.K since then.
"The comparisons between the U.S. and Britain now should make shocking reading to anyone in America," says Mick North, whose five-year-old daughter, Sophie, was killed at Dunblane. He's one of the founding members of the group Gun Control Network, which advocated for new laws in the aftermath of the Dunblane shooting.
Over the past several years, England, Scotland and Wales combined have seen around thirty gun deaths a year. .. https://www.gov.scot/publications/homicide-scotland-2019-2020/pages/3/
By comparison, according to the CDC, the number of murders involving firearms in the United States in 2020 was 19,384. .. https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2022/02/03/what-the-data-says-about-gun-deaths-in-the-u-s/
"Even setting aside the difference in the size of the country, that is a horrendous difference," says North.
At the time of the Dunblane shooting, he and other activists did face difficulties making their schools safer – including skepticism from members of the Royal Family. In an interview with the BBC, Prince Philip compared the banning of guns to the banning of cricket bats, saying that both had the potential for danger if misused. It's an argument that's similar to those made by the gun lobby in the United States.
"The criticism of others that these people might choose some other means of causing harm doesn't really acknowledge how very dangerous guns are compared with other weapons," says North. "It is too easy for somebody to pick up something like a gun and cause havoc within seconds and certainly within minutes."
The strong heritage of gun ownership in the U.S. – and the Constitutional right to bear arms – is an obstacle that British gun control activists like North didn't have to wrestle with in the aftermath of the Dunblane shooting.
And yet, he sees other countries with similar histories which have successfully passed strict gun control measures.
"Yes, the whole culture around guns is different in the U.S.
But there are other countries in the world where there's a frontier mentality - shall we say, Canada, Australia - who have adopted tighter controls over guns," North says. "So I think America should perhaps be comparing itself not necessarily with Britain alone but with a whole range of countries who have unfortunately experienced mass shootings but only a small number of them."
https://www.npr.org/2022/06/01/1102239642/school-shooting-dunblane-massacre-uvalde-texas-gun-control
Do you think wars should last forever?
Remarks by President Biden on the End of the War in Afghanistan
August 31, 2021 3:28 P.M. EDT
THE PRESIDENT: Last night in Kabul, the United States ended 20 years of war in Afghanistan — the longest war in American history.
https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/speeches-remarks/2021/08/31/remarks-by-president-biden-on-the-end-of-the-war-in-afghanistan/
Congratulations to President Biden for having the courage to do it.
The USA does fight in wars that last forever.
TRUMP WAS WORST PRESIDENT EVER ---- VERIFIED
" Except the country was working and humming under Trump who knew what he was doing " - - - LOL
https://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=164406121
New York subway shooting survivor sues gun manufacturer Glock
Reuters
June 1, 2022 1:43 PM CDT | Last Updated 2 hours ago
NEW YORK, June 1 (Reuters) - A New York woman who was injured during the April 12 mass shooting aboard a New York City subway car has sued Glock Inc, arguing the gun manufacturer should have known its weapons could be purchased by people with criminal intent.
Brooklyn resident Ilene Steur, 49, is seeking to have the Georgia-based company and its Austrian parent, Glock Ges.m.b.H, compensate her for physical injuries and emotional pain she suffered after she was shot on the northbound N train while on her way to work, according to the complaint.
Her lawsuit comes after New York state in 2021 passed a law allowing people affected by gun violence to sue gunmakers for creating a "nuisance" that endangers public safety and health. Steur asked a judge to order Glock to "eradicate the effects" of its marketing practices.
New York police said Frank James used a Glock pistol he bought in Ohio to open fire after setting off two smoke bombs during the rush hour attack, injuring two dozen people, including ten who were shot. James, 62, pleaded not guilty. read more .. https://www.reuters.com/legal/government/accused-ny-subway-shooter-expected-plead-not-guilty-terrorism-weapons-charges-2022-05-13/
"The defendants' marketing and distribution practices made it far more likely that criminals, including Frank James, would obtain their weapons," Steur's lawyers wrote in a complaint filed on Tuesday in Brooklyn federal court.
Last week, a federal judge in Albany threw out a lawsuit by a group of gun manufacturers and others challenging the nuisance law's constitutionality.
read more .. https://www.reuters.com/world/us/gun-makers-lose-challenge-new-york-law-allowing-lawsuits-against-industry-2022-05-25/
Glock did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The suit comes amid a renewed push to reform U.S. gun laws following a string of mass shootings, including the subway attack, a May 14 racist shooting in Buffalo, New York, that killed 10 people, and an elementary school shooting last week in Uvalde, Texas, in which 19 children and two teachers were killed.
read more .. https://www.reuters.com/world/us/biden-says-he-will-meet-with-congress-about-guns-2022-05-31/
Reporting by Luc Cohen in New York; Editing by Aurora Ellis
https://www.reuters.com/world/us/new-york-subway-shooting-survivor-sues-gun-manufacturer-glock-2022-06-01/?utm_source=Sailthru&utm_medium=newsletter&utm_campaign=afternoon-docket
AMERICA'S FLAG LOWERING CALENDAR
On Memorial Day the flag should be flown at half-staff from sunrise until noonu only.....
https://www.va.gov/opa/publications/celebrate/halfstaff.pdf
Republicans are trying to dive for cover under the Second Amendment. Don’t let them.
Like virtually every right and prohibition in the Constitution, the right to keep and bear arms is subject to legislation that defines and regulates its application.
May 25, 2022, 9:49 PM CDT
By Cedric Alexander, MSNBC law enforcement analyst
The first time I chose to swear an oath to preserve, protect and defend the Constitution was in 1977, when I became a deputy sheriff in Leon County (Tallahassee), Florida. Each time I assumed a new responsibility in my 40-year career in law enforcement, I chose to swear that same oath.
I consider the Constitution and my allegiance to it sacred. But I will not use that great document as an altar on which to sacrifice innocent people, like grandparents shopping for food at a supermarket in Buffalo, New York, people gathered in a church in Laguna Woods, California, or second, third and fourth graders attending a public elementary school in Uvalde, Texas.
Such sacrifices have seemingly become a uniquely American blood ritual. And in the lockstep of that ritual, many Republican lawmakers anoint themselves in the Second Amendment and invariably choose to block even the most modest of commonsense gun safety legislation...
"A decade of congressional inaction on gun control"
https://apnews.com/article/congress-texas-government-and-politics-gun-violence-shootings-d3485526acd9a04bcdd5b9186557f4cc
It is past time for the GOP to stop acting as though the Second Amendment does not allow for limits on guns. Amid serial mass killings in America, the enactment of gun laws fails year after year. In law enforcement, I have seen the importance of balancing the rights of people with the law. The same is true when it comes to the Constitution.
[...]
https://www.nbcnews.com/think/opinion/gop-hiding-behind-second-amendment-school-shootings-gun-control-rcna30586
Republicans are trying to dive for cover under the Second Amendment. Don’t let them.
Like virtually every right and prohibition in the Constitution, the right to keep and bear arms is subject to legislation that defines and regulates its application.
May 25, 2022, 9:49 PM CDT
By Cedric Alexander, MSNBC law enforcement analyst
The first time I chose to swear an oath to preserve, protect and defend the Constitution was in 1977, when I became a deputy sheriff in Leon County (Tallahassee), Florida. Each time I assumed a new responsibility in my 40-year career in law enforcement, I chose to swear that same oath.
I consider the Constitution and my allegiance to it sacred. But I will not use that great document as an altar on which to sacrifice innocent people, like grandparents shopping for food at a supermarket in Buffalo, New York, people gathered in a church in Laguna Woods, California, or second, third and fourth graders attending a public elementary school in Uvalde, Texas.
Such sacrifices have seemingly become a uniquely American blood ritual. And in the lockstep of that ritual, many Republican lawmakers anoint themselves in the Second Amendment and invariably choose to block even the most modest of commonsense gun safety legislation...
"A decade of congressional inaction on gun control"
https://apnews.com/article/congress-texas-government-and-politics-gun-violence-shootings-d3485526acd9a04bcdd5b9186557f4cc
It is past time for the GOP to stop acting as though the Second Amendment does not allow for limits on guns. Amid serial mass killings in America, the enactment of gun laws fails year after year. In law enforcement, I have seen the importance of balancing the rights of people with the law. The same is true when it comes to the Constitution.
[...]
https://www.nbcnews.com/think/opinion/gop-hiding-behind-second-amendment-school-shootings-gun-control-rcna30586
School Shootings This Year
School Shootings This Year: How Many and Where
January 05, 2022 | Updated: May 25, 2022
https://www.edweek.org/leadership/school-shootings-this-year-how-many-and-where/2022/01
GVA GUN VIOLENCE ARCHIVE 2022
PUBLISHED DATE: May 28, 2022
https://www.gunviolencearchive.org/
School Shootings This Year
School Shootings This Year: How Many and Where
January 05, 2022 | Updated: May 25, 2022
https://www.edweek.org/leadership/school-shootings-this-year-how-many-and-where/2022/01
GVA GUN VIOLENCE ARCHIVE 2022
PUBLISHED DATE: May 28, 2022
https://www.gunviolencearchive.org/
I agree: "It's hard to imagine that a great country like the United States can go on like this..."
The NRA Placed Big Bets on the 2016 Election, and Won Almost All of Them
By Mike Spies and Ashley Balcerzak
November 9, 2016 5:24 pm
OpenSecrets Blog and The Trace partnered on this story; it was published by both outlets.
In North Carolina, the NRA spent $6.2 million on the incumbent Republican Sen. Richard Burr, the most it has ever invested in a down-ballot race. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)
The National Rifle Association took a historic gamble in 2016, and it paid off in a huge way.
The gun rights group placed multimillion-dollar bets on Donald Trump and six Republican Senate candidates locked in highly competitive races. It poured $50.2 million, or 96 percent of its total outside spending, into these races, and lost only one — an open seat in Nevada, vacated by the Democratic Minority Leader, Harry Reid. That race cost the NRA roughly $2.5 million.
The NRA’s big night came as a tidal wave of white voters without college degrees voted overwhelmingly for Trump, leading to one of the biggest election-night upsets in memory. The reasons why this demographic turned out in such high numbers for the GOP nominee will be parsed for years, and it is not at all clear how much of a factor his embrace of the NRA’s hardline position on gun rights played into the outcome.
But the NRA’s investment, which was more than any other outside group, paid for a slew of ads that directly targeted the same voters who propelled Trump to victory. The organization’s radio and television spots sought to cast Hillary Clinton and the Democratic rivals of its preferred Senate candidates as an existential threat to the Second Amendment, and national security. It is a message that resonates in the gun belt, a swath of primarily Southern and Midwestern states where Trump achieved some of his most consequential victories.
In October alone, according to the Center for Public Integrity, roughly one out of every 20 television ads in Pennsylvania was sponsored by the NRA. That same month, the group paid for one in nine ads in North Carolina, and one of every eight in Ohio. The ads imply that Clinton and Democrats would leave law-and-order abiding citizens defenseless. In one spot, a woman is alone in bed when a burglar breaks into her home. The narrator intones, “Don’t let Hillary leave you protected with nothing but a phone.”
Trump won all three states, and the NRA’s preferred Senate candidates also swept to victory.
https://www.opensecrets.org/news/2016/11/the-nra-placed-big-bets-on-the-2016-election-and-won-almost-all-of-them/
==========================================
Posted on Sun, Nov 5th, 2017 by Sean Colarossi
Money Over Lives: The NRA Invested Over $50 Million In Trump And GOP Candidates In 2016
https://www.politicususa.com/2017/11/05/money-lives-nra-invested-50-million-trump-gop-candidates-2016.html
A Proclamation Honoring The Victims Of The Tragedy In Uvalde, Texas
May 24, 2022
• Presidential Actions
As a mark of respect for the victims of the senseless acts of violence perpetrated on May 24, 2022, by a gunman at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, by the authority vested in me as President of the United States by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, I hereby order that the flag of the United States shall be flown at half-staff at the White House and upon all public buildings and grounds, at all military posts and naval stations, and on all naval vessels of the Federal Government in the District of Columbia and throughout the United States and its Territories and possessions until sunset, May 28, 2022. I also direct that the flag shall be flown at half-staff for the same length of time at all United States embassies, legations, consular offices, and other facilities abroad, including all military facilities and naval vessels and stations.
IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this twenty-fourth day of May, in the year of our Lord two thousand twenty-two, and of the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and forty-sixth.
JOSEPH R. BIDEN JR.
https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/presidential-actions/2022/05/24/a-proclamation-honoring-the-victims-of-the-tragedy-in-uvalde-texas/