Samantha Bee on the degeneration of the NRA

She discusses how the National Rifle Association began as a movement to support safe and responsible gun ownership and usage and then became a lobby to prevent any and all restrictions on the ownership and usage of any almost kind of weapon, however deadly, and how so many politicians now grovel before it.

Correspondent Amy Hoggart went to the NRA’s convention last weekend in Houston. Texas, just 300 miles away from the recent massacre in Uvalde, to talk to the attendees about the spate of mass shootings and she had to endure the usual evasive, obfuscatory, excuses from them as to why these repeated tragedies do not reveal what is so obvious to everyone else, that the US just has too many damn guns that serve no purpose than allow some murderers to kill large numbers of people in a very short time.

Ricky Gervais is being himself again: a mean-spirited, transphobic jerk

Gervais has a new Netflix special. I will not watch it (or indeed watch anything by him anymore) because I was so disgusted with his earlier one with its rampant transphobia and the smug, preening, overweening sense that he was being ever so edgy and clever. But according to what I read, rather than learn from feedback from that first show, he seems to have doubled down.

Aja Romano writes about all that is wrong with Gervais and others of his ilk like Dave Chappelle who seem to think that making the trans community the target of ridicule is somehow acceptable.
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Defenders of unlimited access to guns get desperate

There have been 18 mass shootings in the US so far just this year where a mass shooting is defined as one in which at least four people are shot, including survivors. This does not include the at least 60 shootings that left three people dead but don’t technically count as mass shootings. If those are included, we have at least three such shootings per week, a horrifying statistic.

After the recent wake of mass shootings, there seems to be a sense of desperation among those politicians who are subservient to the NRA about how to deflect attention away from the obvious problem, that “It’s the guns, stupid!” Their previous attempts at deflection, such as stationing armed guards have failed repeatedly and now they are flailing away by suggesting even more outlandish solutions.
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A tale of two airports

I returned late Tuesday night from visiting with my grandchildren and I had an absolutely wonderful time. The two boys are 5 and 2 ½ and a lot of fun, curious and energetic. The only downside was that on the morning after my return I threw up and had a slight fever. Naturally, my first thought was that I had got covid but the test turned out to be negative. Then the following day, my temperature was back to normal and a second covid test also showed negative. Since I had no other symptoms at all, I think I had got food poisoning on the trip home.

It was my first flight in over two years thanks to the pandemic and I was reminded once again what a terrible experience flying is.
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It’s the guns, stupid!

In trying to decide who is guilty of a murder, investigators look for three factors that converge on the culprit: motive (a reason why the murder was committed), opportunity (the killer had to be in the place and time to carry out the plan and not have an alibi), and means (the killer needs to have access to whatever method was used for the murder). In the case of these mass murders in the US, the motives range all over the place including but not limited to racism, jealousy, anger, frustration, seeking fame, and mental breakdown. Opportunities are also plentiful, especially if you do not care about getting caught and your targets are not specific individuals. You can just wander into a mall, cinema, school, or anywhere large numbers of unsuspecting people are gathered.

But when it comes to means, a single common factor immediately jumps out and that is that these mass murders are possible because the killers had access to a powerful, military-grade assault weapons that enable the killing of large numbers of people in a very short time, so that however quickly the so-called ‘good guys with guns’ respond, it will not be quick enough to prevent a large number of casualties. We saw this in the two recent shootings where armed security were actually around and yet could not prevent the carnage.

Evidence for means as the main factor responsible for these tragedies is plentifully available. In the most recent case in Texas, the gunman legally purchased two rifles and 375 rounds of ammunition just last week, just days after his 18th birthday.
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No, this is not at all ‘incomprehensible’

Another mass shooting in the US, this time at an elementary school in Texas, has resulted in 21 people, including 19 children, dying. The governor of Texas Greg Abbott has reportedly called the shooting ‘incomprehensible’. It is only so to those who refuse to see the glaringly obvious, that if you allow powerful weapons to be obtained much more easily than a driver’s license and vast numbers of people have them, then someone will, for various reasons, inevitably end up killing huge numbers of people. It has happened time and time again, so anyone who expresses surprise is being utterly disingenuous.

Abbott continued to mouth the tired platitudes that people like him do after such tragedies.
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Back to the future in Sri Lanka

The standoff in Sri Lanka as a result of the ongoing crisis continues even though there have been some developments. The economic situation is dire and it was even announced last week that they had only enough petrol (gasoline) for just one day. That has eased very slightly. After the prime minister Mahinda Rajapaksa was sacrificed by his brother the president Gotabaya Rajapaksa in response to popular demands that both should leave office, a new prime minister and cabinet had to be appointed, since the cabinet automatically gets dissolved when a prime minister leaves office.

Gotabaya R picked as the new prime minister Ranil Wickremasinghe. To understand how bizarre this choice is, you need to know a little Sri Lankan political history. Wickremasinghe is the leader of the United National Party. This party was a dominant force before and after independence in 1948 and reached the pinnacle of power in 1977 when they were swept into power with a very large majority. The then party leader J. R. Jayawardene proceeded to institute massive changes that were designed to cement his party in power and keep their policies intact for decades to come, including changing the constitution to create the powerful post of executive president that he held and used to set in motion sweeping pro-business, pro-western, economic policies, as well as fanning anti-minority sentiment. It was during his presidency that the government-backed anti-Tamil pogrom of 1983 took place that resulted in my decision to leave Sri Lanka and come to the US with my family.
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