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Senate Intel Republicans concluded FBI was justified in investigating Trump-Russia, DOJ Inspector General concluded FBI was justified in investigating Trump-Russia, Durham concluded FBI should have done a Preliminary Investigation before considering investigating Trump-Russia https://t.co/6PTfMoVQkD
— Hugo Lowell (@hugolowell) May 16, 2023
Crockett: Just recently we received reports that there is a staff member who is working for a Republican on this committee who supports a white nationalist… pic.twitter.com/teyC5T7YMM
— Acyn (@Acyn) May 16, 2023
The House Oversight Committee loves to talk about crime in the District of Columbia. You know what crime they don’t love to talk about? Gun violence. pic.twitter.com/mvspvadsxH
— Congressman Jared Moskowitz (@RepMoskowitz) May 16, 2023
From the latest Moody's weekly outlook 5/11/23 lowering the average ng price outlook. May change again up on this weeks outlook Thurs, Fri, not sure what they are pricing in on reduced production.
https://www.moodys.com/research/doc--PBC_1368048?
Energy
Just sold my pre 3.20s for 3.45. Have been focusing more on my trading than posting. I do a lot better that way. Trade 3-4 stocks at a time during day, no groupie here, gave up marrying any stock a long time ago.
🚨🚨🚨 Holy shit: A group of parents in Tennessee are OUTRAGED that a local school board caved to a conservative group and cancelled a librarian’s Mother's Day lesson inclusive to kids without moms.
— CALL TO ACTIVISM (@CalltoActivism) May 15, 2023
The parents boldly confronted the Hamilton County School Board and held nothing… pic.twitter.com/wXTNkZOQDF
#BreakingNews Rudy Giuliani is being sued by Noelle Dunphy for sexual abuse claims and failure to pay her while she worked for him. According to the lawsuit, she has hundreds of emails and recordings. pic.twitter.com/AzeQST0Rlg
— Ford News (@FordJohnathan5) May 15, 2023
The "Aquaman" movie was really a documentary and the MAGA speaker's "truth" was out of the script in a "Wakanda Forever" plot. lol
A MAGA speaker at Trump’s hotel is warning of “highly technologically advanced mermaids and water people” spreading “wickedness.” She calls for “hand-to-hand combat.” (@patriottakes) pic.twitter.com/1R5Wy677Lw
— No Lie with Brian Tyler Cohen (@NoLieWithBTC) May 14, 2023
They invent documents and whistleblowers, then pretend the imaginary stuff is being “withheld” or their fake whistleblowers have been kidnapped. It’s a conspiracy theory factory, and the dum dums eat it up. https://t.co/be4Cm3RvtH
— Mueller, She Wrote (@MuellerSheWrote) May 15, 2023
I’ll explain for you.
— Mueller, She Wrote (@MuellerSheWrote) May 15, 2023
1. The FBI didn’t ignore it. They answered it. The FBI doesn’t confirm or deny the existence of documents, nor do they hand over anything that’s part of an ongoing probe
2. If you DO ignore a subpoena, a referral can be made to DoJ. See Bannon/Navarro https://t.co/E4LjmZL7eH
Rep. James Comer is looking for anti-Biden evidence. Also, his informant.
Allegations that energize Fox News and the New York Post weaken his argument everywhere else.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2023/05/15/comer-biden-allegations/
Analysis by Philip Bump
National columnist
May 15, 2023 at 10:40 a.m. EDT
House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer (R-Ky.) in front of a newspaper page with a photograph of Hunter Biden and his father President Biden on Feb. 8 in Washington, D.C. (Matt McClain/The Washington Post)
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Soon after the 2020 election, a senior vice president at the Fox Business Network sent a warning to the network’s president that neatly distilled the recent trajectory of host Maria Bartiromo’s career. Bartiromo, he said, has “GOP conspiracy theorists in her ear and they use her for their message sometimes.”
On Sunday, Bartiromo lived up to that reputation. To introduce her show on Fox News, she promised viewers that she would be covering “the most serious allegations ever leveled at a president” — claims made by House Republicans and, specifically, House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer (R-Ky.) that members of President Biden’s family had taken millions of dollars from foreign nationals.
Not Biden himself, mind you, though Bartiromo and Comer like to identify the recipients of that money as “the Biden family” to imply that somehow it trickles back to Biden through an unidentified conduit. But, nonetheless: She asserted that this money, sent to people like Biden’s son Hunter mostly in the period when Joe Biden was out of government, marked more serious allegations than, say, Watergate or withholding aid to Ukraine to boost a presidential campaign or millions raised by a sitting president and his family.
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Comer was Bartiromo’s first guest. He was arriving fresh off of a midweek news conference that he’d pledged to Fox viewers beforehand would be “judgment day for the Biden administration” but that resulted mostly in non-Fox-News headlines about his failure to connect any of the wan allegations his committee presented back to Biden himself.
Bartiromo’s first question dealt not with the underwhelming news conference — one she instead pretended was subjected to a coverup by traditional media outlets — but by presenting a conspiracy theory for Comer to riff on.
“As soon as Joe Biden entered the White House, when he started his term as president,” she asked, “he canceled what was the China Initiative, an initiative that happened under Trump and Secretary [Mike] Pompeo. Did he, did he get paid for canceling the China Initiative?”
Bear in mind that there’s no evidence Biden got paid for anything. But that’s not the actual problem with this question. The actual problem with the question is that this initiative was ended in February 2022, well over a year into Biden’s presidency. Despite Bartiromo’s — and, subsequently, Comer’s — effort to cast this as “one of the first things [Biden] did” (in the latter’s words), it very much wasn’t. But if you’re alleging a quid pro quo, you gotta have a quo. You should have a quid, too, really, but that ship was already well out of port.
Now we come to Bartiromo’s second question. It dealt with a subpoena issued by Comer and Sen. Charles E. Grassley (R-Iowa), ranking member on the Senate Budget Committee.
“You have spoken with whistleblowers. You have spoken — you also spoke with an informant who gave you all of this information,” Bartiromo said. “Where is that informant today?” she asked. “Where are these whistleblowers?”
This is an odd question! Why would a reporter care where an informant was instead of the status of the investigation into what they said? Well, what if someone was whispering in the reporter’s ear about a conspiracy theory?
“Unfortunately, we can’t track down the informant,” Comer replied. “We’re hopeful that the informant is still there. The whistleblower knows the informant. The whistleblower is very credible.”
Let’s interject here to explain the past two weeks of this reality show. Earlier this month, Comer and Grassley sent that subpoena to the FBI, seeking “[a]ll FD-1023 forms … created or modified in June 2020, containing the term ‘Biden.’ ” In an accompanying letter, they told the FBI (and those in the media for whom they knew the allegation would be catnip) that a whistleblower had informed them of “an alleged criminal scheme involving then-Vice President Biden and a foreign national relating to the exchange of money for policy decisions.” The FD-1023 they sought, the letter stated, “includes a precise description of how the alleged criminal scheme was employed as well as its purpose.”
The New York Post went wild, putting the allegation on its front page the following day with the wood “JOE BRIBIN'.” The story inside the paper focused not on what that alleged bribe constituted but, instead, on how lots of people were trying to figure out what it might be.
A few days later, the FBI responded.
“An FD-1023 form documents information as told to a line FBI agent,” it explained in a letter. “Recording the information does not validate the information, establish its credibility, or weigh it against other information known or developed by the FBI.”
In other words, the form Comer and Grassley sought was simply the documentation of the allegation of an informant in the first place. The FBI therefore declined to provide it.
It appears, based on what Comer told Bartiromo, that the claims made to the FBI come from the same informant that Comer can no longer find. He waved this away, saying that “these informants are kind of in the spy business so they don’t make a habit of being seen a lot or being high profile or anything like that.” But he also hinted that maybe something nefarious was afoot.
“Nine of the 10 people that we’ve identified that have very good knowledge with respect to the Bidens, they’re one of three things, Maria,” he said. “They’re either currently in court, they’re currently in jail, or they’re currently missing.”
This is very vague, certainly. To an objective observer, it also immediately introduces questions: how credible are a cadre of informants, at least one of whom is in jail, and another of whom has gone radio silent? The phrasing, of course, implies that maybe seven of them are facing lawsuits … or maybe seven of them were abducted by men in vans with blacked-out windows!
Comer knows what he’s doing here. It’s been a baseless trope since at least the Clinton administration that powerful Democrats disappear their enemies. His role here is providing grist. It’s up to others to operate the mill.
Bartiromo — who, remember, had asked that weird “where is the informant” question in the first place — summarized her conversation with Comer by calling it “a stunning breaking news story this morning that some of these people now may be missing.” Some of.
Again, all of this is apparently based on a now-vanished informant’s claims that may also have been made to the FBI. Bartiromo’s track record for evaluating similar claims is not strong; documents made public in March show her credulous acceptance of claims about election fraud from President Donald Trump’s attorney Sidney Powell.
In the abstract, it seems odd that Comer would push forward so eagerly with wispy or dubious assertions about Biden that almost necessarily erode the credibility of himself and his committee. Yes, it generates energy and enthusiasm on Fox News and in the New York Post, but it also raises the bar for objective media outlets to take his claims at face value. The boy who called bribe and all that.
It’s also useful to note Comer’s words during his news conference last week.
“We will report to you only facts when they are verified and indisputable,” he said. “This committee will not pursue witch hunts or bring the American people along for years with false promises of evidence that is beyond circumstantial evidence, as Rep. Adam Schiff and the Democrats did for years.”
Publicly alleging criminal bribery schemes from vanished informants would seem not to comport with that pledge. “Good enough for Maria Bartiromo” is somewhat less than an impressive standard.
At least this little fellow doesn't have to worry about being shot. The GOP weapons of choice only hunt humans. How armadillos gather foliage for their nests pic.twitter.com/Rzl1ta2kCK
George Conway
@gtconway3d
what the Flintstones used in lieu of today’s insanely loud fossil-fuel-powered leaf blowers
Or maybe one of these folks. Wasted no time using the new cruise missiles.
Incoming reports about Ukraine using the Storm Shadow cruise missile for the first time today.
— Visegrád 24 (@visegrad24) May 12, 2023
Something struck a factory in the city of Luhansk, more than 100 km away from the frontlines.
Many Russian soldiers are said to have been in the factory.https://t.co/lpuDTwYLsX
Then they will be like this guy;
Crazy video of a Russian soldier pleading to a Ukrainian drone not to kill him.
— Visegrád 24 (@visegrad24) May 10, 2023
The Ukrainian have mercy & send another drone with a written message, telling him to walk to their lines and surrender
The Russian obeys, but other Russians try to shell him pic.twitter.com/cgmizL2gMt
Major traffic jams this afternoon on road leading from Mariupol to Novoazovsk.
— Visegrád 24 (@visegrad24) May 11, 2023
The Russians who have been resettled in Mariupol are afraid of a Ukrainian counteroffensive and are fleeing back to Russia.
Panic in the air… pic.twitter.com/GBco89Joqy
The American pop-rock band Imagine Dragons released a new music video on May 10 that was shot on the front line in Ukraine.
"This is a dedication to Ukraine and support for United24. We will tell a lot more about this work. For now, just watch. And listen," Digital Transformation Minister Mykhailo Fedorov said.
Imagine Dragons also called on people to donate to United24, for which they serve as ambassadors. United24 is a Ukrainian government-run platform to support the war effort.
Went out 82.63. I got a small painting project my wife wants done. I'll go do that a watch the paint dry. Then I'll go work in the garden and watch the squash grow. More entertaining than this. The market acting like it's still waiting for the CPI. lol
Went in the kold side 80.51 trying to get another buck or two.
Army sergeant who killed a Black Lives Matter protester in Texas sentenced to 25 years in prison
Eric Levenson
By Eric Levenson, Lucy Kafanov and Nouran Salahieh, CNN
Updated 12:14 PM EDT, Wed May 10, 2023
https://www.cnn.com/2023/05/10/us/daniel-perry-texas-sentencing-wednesday/index.html
All out 2.87 still not in kold side at the moment.
Well just took out a sell 2.85 all of a sudden. Got a few more left, looking at the kold side for maybe a dump after this spike is done. The rs is WAY overdue.
Something you don't see everyday.
Possible meteorite crashes into bedroom in New Jersey
Residents were not at home in Hopewell Township when rock appeared to hit house on Monday
Lauren Aratani in New York
Wed 10 May 2023 10.09 EDT
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/may/10/new-jersey-meteorite-bedroom
This image provided by Hopewell Township police department shows a metallic object believed to be a meteorite. Photograph: AP
A possible meteorite crashed into a bedroom of a New Jersey home, puncturing a hole into the roof and leaving residents rattled, though they were not home at the time.
The metallic object in the Monday incident looks like a shiny rock, about 4in by 6in, police in Hopewell Township said.
The rock appeared to crash through the house, hit a hardwood floor then “ricochet up” to the ceiling, where it created another hole before falling back to the ground.
Suzy Kop said the object fell through the roof of her father’s bedroom around 1pm.
“I did touch the thing because it was a random rock, and it was warm,” Kop told a local CBS-affiliate KYW-TV, adding that emergency responders checked on those who came into contact with the possible meteor.
“They were afraid that because it fell from the sky, was it radioactive? Could we have a type of residue on us? So they scanned us and everything came back clear.”
Police said they contacted several other agencies to help confirm the object is a meteorite. The College of New Jersey will work to determine whether the object is from Earth or space.
In a Facebook post, the town encouraged residents to check their yards for possible fragments.
The rock could be a fragment from the Eta Aquarid meteor shower, made up of pieces from the famous Halley’s Comet, which can be seen from earth every 75 years.
About 500 meteorites hit Earth each year, but fewer than 10 are recovered as most fall into the ocean or hit remote areas, according to the Planetary Science Institute, making appearances in urban settings rare opportunities for scientists to research them. Due to the velocity of meteorites falling through Earth’s atmosphere, many break into fragments that are even harder to find.
In October 2021, a meteorite crashed into a home in British Columbia, Canada, barely missing a sleeping woman.
Kop said she was grateful no one was home when the object hit her father’s home.
“I thank God that my father was not here, no one was here, we weren’t hurt or anything,” she said.
same here, some out 2.82 A nickel is better than not I guess. Too slow here for me lately, spending more time on other things.
Finally started 2.75-76 ended the kold side for about 3 bucks gain. That was long delayed trading for ng this morning. Unusual.
Project Veritas Settles Suits That Portrayed It as Mistreating Its Employees
Not paying the employees and having sex with them. That's really bad. The GOP funding has already paid them multiple times more than any settlement I'm sure.
Project Veritas, a conservative group known for using covert recordings to embarrass its political opponents, has agreed to settle two federal lawsuits that accused it of underpaying employees and having a “highly sexualized” work atmosphere. https://t.co/DW7pAHKvtQ
— The New York Times (@nytimes) May 9, 2023
I hear you there and agree. Just putting out the info. Thanks again for the input.
Trump Legal Dream Team
Michael Cohen: not paid
Rudy Giuliani: not paid
John Eastman: not paid
Kraken Lady: not paid
Evan Corcoran: not paid
Christina Bobblehead: not paid
Jenna Ellis: farted upon & not paid
Jeff Clark: lost his pants & not paid
Joe Tacopenis: will not be paid
Trump: first President to be impeached twice
First President to launch an insurrection against the US
First President to be caught hiding classified documents at his home
First President charged criminally (on 34 counts)
and
First President found by a jury to be a sexual abuser
Haven't been following it, just came across it. CWH has been hitting around the 200 day and then retracing ever since their high of 48.98 a couple of yrs ago. They are at it again now, Might have a push this time, who knows, the trend is up, but it was before with previous 200 hits. Although the 200 may be turning up. JP Morgan, Stephens & Co, and KeyBanc maintained their overweight after the last earnings with price range of $27-33. Just getting into the Montana market which is a popular market for "getting away".
Thanks for the input, just looking right now. May make a bet after the next divy, not sure.
They should make Traitor Trump register as a sexual predator. Along with Insurrectionist, traitor, tax evasion criminal , mass murderer, and slew of other labels. But make all the labels official and legal.
Not really, his GOP and Magots will pay for it.
Jury finds Donald Trump sexually abused columnist E Jean Carroll
Verdict for first time brands a former US president as a sexual predator but as case is civil he will only face financial punishment
Jury finds Trump sexually abused E Jean Carroll – live updates
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/may/09/e-jean-carroll-wins-trump-trial-verdict
What? Can't break out the party hats? lol
That's a pretty quick jury. Unanimous.
emptywheel Retweeted
NEW: Milo Yiannopoulos used Marjorie Taylor Greene’s campaign credit card to buy a Kanye West campaign web domain, then transferred it to Ye the same day for $3,000 above cost, according to receipts & a person with knowledge. Me @thedailybeast https://t.co/eBriDWjZRJ
— Roger Sollenberger (@SollenbergerRC) May 9, 2023
The transactions occurred the same day Ye dined at Mar-a-Lago with Trump & white supremacist Nick Fuentes—a meeting Milo claimed credit for. Ye later reportedly fired him. But when Ye re-hired Milo last week, his campaign treasurer quit, citing potential criminality
— Roger Sollenberger (@SollenbergerRC) May 9, 2023
Proud to show their sponsorship of death. Making millions on the dead.
.@Rep_Clyde is a marketing genius!
— Donald J. Drumpf (@RealDonalDrumpf) February 16, 2023
His lapel pins got millions in free media.
And with all the mass shootings he's inspiring, his $25 million stake in a company that makes assault rifles is really paying dividends! pic.twitter.com/prBVRmu64j
Liz Cheney's new ad.
Gone to dead slow again. Like the whole market waiting for the CPI, not enough money flow. Lucky to get even a nickel or a six bits here depending which side. This morning might of been it. Now we all are just waiting.
GOP Gov Abbot frothing at the mouth to pardon this criminal murderer. Then the GOP will submit him for a congressional medal. Also frothing at the mouth to convict a doctor that saves the mothers life by an abortion.
Daniel Perry, convicted of murder for shooting a protester at a Black Lives Matter rally, appears for sentencing
By Nouran Salahieh, CNN
Updated 10:18 AM EDT, Tue May 9, 2023
https://www.cnn.com/2023/05/09/us/daniel-perry-texas-sentencing/index.html
A US Army sergeant convicted of murdering a protester at a Black Lives Matter rally is set to be sentenced Tuesday morning – even as Texas’ governor has expressed plans to pardon him.
Daniel Perry shot and killed 28-year-old Garrett Foster in July 2020 at an Austin racial justice rally held following the murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis, which triggered nationwide protests against police brutality. Perry and Foster are White.
Prosecutors said Perry – who was stationed at Fort Hood and working as a rideshare driver to make extra money – initiated the encounter by running a red light and turning his vehicle into a crowd gathered at the protest. Foster was openly carrying an assault-style rifle and approached Perry’s car and motioned for him to lower his window, at which point Perry fatally shot him, prosecutors said.
Perry’s legal team argued his actions were justified as self-defense.
The jury convicted Perry of murder but found him not guilty on a charge of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, and a deadly conduct charge is still pending.
Daniel Perry vpx
Judge denies new trial for Texas man convicted of fatally shooting a protester at a 2020 Black Lives Matter rally
Shortly after Perry’s April 7 conviction, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott said he wanted to pardon Perry and issued an unusual request for the state Board of Pardons and Paroles to expedite a review of the case before a sentence was handed down.
“Texas has one of the strongest ‘Stand Your Ground’ laws of self-defense that cannot be nullified by a jury or a progressive District Attorney,” the governor said in a statement on Twitter.
The governor can only pardon Perry if the Board of Pardons and Paroles recommends it, according to Texas law.
“The board will be commencing that investigation immediately” and will report to the governor with recommendations when it’s done, board spokesperson Rachel Alderete said following Abbott’s request. She didn’t specify how long the review would take.
Perry made comments about killing protesters on social media, documents show
Garrett Foster, left, pictured with his fiancee Whitney Mitchell, was fatally shot at a Black Lives Matter protest in July 2020.
Garrett Foster, left, pictured with his fiancee Whitney Mitchell, was fatally shot at a Black Lives Matter protest in July 2020.
From Gofundme
Documents related to the case that were unsealed by a Travis County judge following Perry’s conviction show he had a yearslong history of making racist comments in messages and social media posts.
In a Facebook message from May 2020, just weeks before the shooting, Perry told a friend he “might have to kill a few people” who were rioting outside his apartment.
The documents also contain a May 2020 text sent by Perry that said, “I might go to Dallas to shoot looters.” Some messages included “white power” memes.
Daniel Perry walks into the courtroom moments before he was convicted of murder in the July 2020 shooting death of Garrett Foster at a Black Lives Matter protest, at the Blackwell-Thurman Criminal Justice Center in Austin, Texas, U.S. April 7, 2023. Jay Janner/USA Today Network via REUTERS
NO RESALES. NO ARCHIVES. MANDATORY CREDIT
Unsealed documents from the Daniel Perry case show he made comments on social media about killing protesters and Muslims
Perry wrote in a 2019 message that it was “to bad we can’t get paid for hunting Muslims in Europe.”
In a June 1, 2020, social media comment, Perry compared the Black Lives Matter movement to “a zoo full of monkeys that are freaking out flinging their sh*t,” the documents show.
Clint Broden, Perry’s attorney, criticized the release of the documents in a statement to CNN, calling it a political decision by prosecutors.
Broden said Foster also made social media posts advocating for violence and supporting riots, most of which can’t be made public due to Texas discovery rules.
A few posts are public, however, including a post praising the burning down of a Minneapolis police station in 2020.
CNN reached out to the governor’s office for comment on the social media posts. An attorney for the Foster family declined to comment on the unsealed documents.
CNN’s Rosa Flores, Andy Rose and Alisha Ebrahimji contributed to this report.
That was great, I got caught in the kold. Good times. Out of both this moment, determining which way it's going to go. Hope this action continues. Yesterday was pretty slow except for just a couple of half way hills.
Part of owning a gun should be the requirement to be in a trauma center/emergency room when they come in with torn up bodies and medical personnel trying many times unsuccessfully to save the masses. See if most of these gun right yahoos can be in there even 15 minutes.
I was once picking up my sister, we were going to do some errands and a gang shooting victims came in with adults and children. Many years ago and don't know the calibers, but less than 5 minutes being caught in the middle of it gave me memories that I've never forgotten. A new increased respect for my sister and the entire medical community that day. Needless to say, my sister worked 4-5 hrs over her 10 hr shift she was just finishing.
That goes for all these GOP gun glorifying mf's, anyone of them that would put out their gun memes and gun Xmas cards after meeting that requirement is a really sick bastard and definitely not qualified for any position.
‘Gun-loving’ ex-US army officer calls for gun control after witnessing Texas mall shooting
Steven Spainhouer described rushing to the shopping center after his son called and trying to help a girl who ‘had no face’
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/may/08/texas-mall-shooting-us-army-witness-gun-control-laws
As an ex-police and US army officer, Steven Spainhouer is comfortable around firearms and goes so far as to describe himself as a “gun lover”.
But Spainhouer is now passionately arguing in favor of meaningful gun control after witnessing a rifle-wielding man murder several people before being shot to death by police outside a suburban Dallas shopping mall Saturday.
Texas mall shooting victims include grade-school sisters and young engineer
Read more
“We need some action in our legislatures at the federal and state level for better gun control,” he said in an interview with MSNBC a day after the mass killing outside Premium Outlets in Allen, Texas. “And I’m saying that as someone who loves guns.”
Spainhouer described rushing to the shopping center after his son called him saying he had heard gunfire. He arrived before emergency responders and performed CPR on some of those who had been felled by bullets.
In a separate interview with CBS, Spainhouer recounted the horrors he saw first-hand.
“The first girl I walked up to was crouched down covering her head in the bushes,” he told CBS. “So I felt for a pulse, pulled her head to the side and she had no face.”
Investigators determined 33-year-old Mauricio Garcia had shot eight people to death and wounded seven others outside the mall in Allen. A police officer who had gone to the mall on an unrelated call fatally shot the attacker, and a law enforcement official later told the Associated Press that Garcia had expressed an interest in white supremacist beliefs before carrying out the mass murder.
As of Monday morning, there had been more than 200 mass shootings and 20 mass killings so far this year, according to the Gun Violence Archive.
That online resource defines a mass shooting as one in which four or more victims are either killed or wounded and a mass killing as one in which four or more victims are slain. The pace at which the US was on for the year as of Monday amounted to more than one mass killing weekly, much higher than it has been in recent years.
Spainhouer on MSNBC alluded to the condolences which Texas’s leading Republican politicians offered to the families of the slain. The messages echoed previous ones that came after a racist shooting at an El Paso Walmart left 23 dead in August 2019 and a separate gun attack at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas, last year killed 19 students and two teachers.
US on track to set record in 2023 for mass killings after series of shootings
Read more
Despite those mass killings in Texas as well as others across the US, Congress has been unable to substantially restrict access to high-powered guns. Meanwhile, the Republican-controlled state enacted a law which allowed Texas residents to legally carry guns without a license or training. A federal judge last year struck down one of the state’s few firearms restrictions, which barred people younger than 21 from carrying a gun.
And rather than impose limits on guns, which polling shows Americans generally favor, Texas’s state legislature is considering a bill that would require children in grade school to be given access to battlefield-style tourniquets and to be trained on how to use them to stop bleeding in case a mass shooter targets them.
The state’s Republican governor, Greg Abbott, went on Fox News on Sunday and insisted that the dearth of adequate mental health services was the true culprit for deadly mass violence both in his state and elsewhere.
Abbott’s remarks ran contrary to evidence that fewer than 5% of violent cases have mental health links. And Spainhouer bristled at the notion that anything other than actual gun control policies would curb the pace of mass killings in the US.
“When you get hit with an automatic weapon fire at close range, there is no opportunity for survival,” Spainhouer said to MSNBC. “I don’t know what the gunman’s problem was, but it wasn’t mental health that killed these people. It was an automatic rifle with bullets.”
He added: “I’m a gun lover. I have guns. But these [high-powered rifles] have got to get off the streets, or this is going to keep happening. We’ve got to stop that at some point.”
Maybe, already made some good buck this morning. We'll see if it continues. Of course it may make us think that it will, just to catch us and put us in the red. lol