Whether the price of these advances was far too dear or a bargain

Walter Einenkel of Daily Kos reported on the latest study into the use of guns. This one is from Rutgers University and shows that

lax gun safety laws leads to more gun violence. ... An increase in concealed carry licenses led to an increase in the number of gun-related deaths the following year.

That means people aren’t using concealed guns to thwart homicides. Rather more guns lead to higher homicide numbers. An increasingly armed society does not make us safer.

Fortunately, more gun-related data became available to researchers after the federal government resumed funding gun-violence research in 2019, over decades-long opposition from right-wing Republicans. The studies all show what was obvious to most of us: Lax gun safety laws and more guns on the streets leads to more gun violence. This proof is what Republicans and Second Amendment fetishists like the NRA want to avoid as they continue to actively try and stop federal funding for these studies.

William Melhado of the Texas Tribune in an article posted on Kos wrote that Baylor University of Texas received an exemption from the US Department of Education over keeping LGBTQ students free from harassment. They argued the university was exempt because otherwise the rules were inconsistent with the university’s religious tenets. Student Veronica Penales was harassed because the is lesbian. She filed a discrimination complaint against the university. The university responded saying because it is a religious university it is exempt from parts of civil rights laws.

“This statement tells me that Baylor cares more about its right to discriminate against queer and other students than it does about the health and safety of its queer and other students,” Penales wrote in her declaration for the discrimination complaint.

Two years later Baylor received notice that its religious exemption includes exemption from sexual harassment prohibitions. Interesting that “in the history of Title IX no other university has requested such an exemption.” Not even Brigham Young in Utah? Hmm. An Associated Press article posted on Kos begins:

Young environmental activists scored what experts described as a ground-breaking legal victory Monday when a Montana judge said state agencies were violating their constitutional right to a clean and healthful environment by allowing fossil fuel development. The ruling in this first-of-its- kind trial in the U.S. adds to a small number of legal decisions around the world that have established a government duty to protect citizens from climate change.

From further down the article:

The state argued that even if Montana completely stopped producing C02, it would have no effect on a global scale because states and countries around the world contribute to the amount of C02 in the atmosphere. A remedy has to offer relief, the state said, or it’s not a remedy at all.

Doesn’t Montana mine a significant amount of coal? The judge rejected the idea that Montana’s greenhouse gas emissions are insignificant and that renewables could replace 80% of the state’s fossil fuel use by 2030. Yeah, it will be appealed. Also...

However, it’s up to the Montana Legislature to determine how to bring the state's policies into compliance. That leaves slim chances for prompt changes in a fossil fuel-friendly state where Republicans dominate the statehouse.

My last update of the war in Ukraine must have been at least ten days ago. I say that because I have an article from nine days ago. As I read it again there isn’t much to comment on. In the article Kos of Kos reported that Ukraine took out a couple bridges that connect Crimea to mainland Ukraine. With the damaged bridge between Crimea and Russia this further reduced the amount of military equipment and supplies Russia can get into its occupied territory and to the battlefront. From four days ago Kos, in a post labeled Ukraine update, discussed the Wagner group in Africa. The Wagner Group, under leader Yevgeny Progozhin, led that coup in Russia several weeks ago. They’ve been in Africa quite a long time and their exploits there paid for their efforts in Ukraine. And those exploits?

Before Russia’s Wagner mercenary group became famous in Ukraine, capturing Bakhmut by throwing wave after wave of prisoners against Ukrainian defenses, it was best known for war criming in Africa, violently propping up the most repressive regimes in exchange for mineral gold and diamond rights. With yet another African government falling to a Russian-backed military coup, a regional armed war in Western Africa may soon break out.

I’ve been hearing a lot about the coup in Niger. This reporting adds the deposed leader was one of the good guys and the coup was supported by the Wagner Group.

Russia may be struggling in Ukraine, but Africa has proven fertile ground to advance its interests. And as much as Russia plays on the West’s colonial history, it is Russia that now wants to plunder the African continent’s riches for itself, just as it’s trying to do in Ukraine.

Yesterday, Mark Sumner of Kos wrote that Ukrainian troops are close to pushing Russia out of the villages of Robotyne, Urozhaine, and Pryyutne.

At any moment, there may be an official announcement that these locations have been liberated. But they won’t be—not in any way that makes sense. There is no one living in these villages. There are few if any buildings still standing in any of these locations. ... No one is being saved in Robotyne. No one is going to line the streets to greet Ukrainian soldiers in Urozhaine. There won’t be many scenes of flags being raised over city buildings. But that doesn’t mean this fight is for nothing. Because it’s for everything. ... Ukraine has sacrificed large numbers of both men and equipment to capture Robotyne. Was it worth it? Absolutely not. Not for Robotyne. But if in taking Robotyne, Ukraine has significantly degraded the Russian army and positioned itself to advance on the defensive lines that prevent rapid movement to the south, then sure. It probably was worth those lost tanks, lost fighting vehicles, and even the irreplaceable men and women who died to make that tiny advance. We don’t really know if it was worth it at this point. Ukraine probably doesn’t know, either. What happens next will tell us whether the price of these advances was far too dear or a bargain.