If they can keep books out of school, they can keep guns out of school

I downloaded Michigan’s COVID data, updated Wednesday. The number of new cases per day for the state continues to trend downward, though I heard in the news that for about ten counties (including several in the Detroit metro area) still get a mask advisory. The peak four weeks ago was adjusted up by 400 to 4473. The following two weeks were also adjusted up to 4092 and 3979. The peak this week was 2923. For last week and most of the week before the deaths per day have been in the single digits. Mark Sumner of Daily Kos reviewed Russia’s losses in both men and equipment in Ukraine, which are quite high. Sumner wrote:

With all that in mind, how in the seven hells can Russia still have a “superiority in manpower, heavy weapons and air support”? Well, they started with more. And for all Russia’s much-deserved reputation ...

for not being able to handle logistics, for old equipment, for poor maintenance, for an air force that stays over Russia, they still have enough to cause considerable damage. Also, Ukraine is suffering heavy losses, though not as bad as Russia. This isn’t over yet. NATO assistance is still needed. From a report posted a week ago Sumner explained that Russia has a big advantage in one area – their navy, in particular the Black Sea Fleet. And that fleet is doing a good job of blockading Ukraine’s Black Sea coast and Odesa in particular. That’s a world wide problem because much of Ukraine’s wheat had gone through Odesa. There are 20 millions tons of wheat trapped in Ukraine. Russia’s artillery is targeting grain warehouses for destruction or theft. Ukraine and the world are looking for alternate ways to get the grain to where it is needed. Countries without it could be destabilized by hungry citizens. Said European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said Russia is doing this destruction and theft

as a form of blackmail, holding back supplies to increase global prices, or trading wheat in exchange for political support. This is using hunger and grain to wield power.

Rebekah Sager of Kos reported that DeSatan of Florida is reviving the Floridan Defense Force, renamed the Florida State Guard (FLSG). The FDF was authorized in 1941 under the command of the governor to fill in for the National Guard while they were fighting Nazis. The FDF was disbanded in 1947. DeSatan declares the FLSG will only be used for “emergencies” – as in helping out before and after a hurricane. But many Florida Democrats don’t trust him and have good reason. They see the governor assembling a private militia. Dems are afraid an emergency might include controlling voter turnout and blocking protests. Nikki Fried said too many Florida residents know what it is like to live under an authoritarian regime and came here to escape them. Want to find election fraud? Look at Republicans. There were ten candidates for the Republican nomination for governor of Michigan. The primary is in August. The ballot was finalized today. From a post ten days ago Joan McCarter of Kos reported five of those candidates were not certified for the ballot because they did not obtain enough legal signatures from citizens. Sheesh, they only needed 15,000 and they couldn’t do even that. The reason was the large number of fraudulent signatures. These five all used the same company to gather signatures. The head of that company, Shawn Wilmoth, was convicted of two counts of election fraud in 2011. Wrote McCarter:

The petition circulators apparently used outdated voter lists to find names, meaning that there were lots of dead voters on the petitions, as well as outdated addresses for voters. The elections board also noted that many of the sheets were too pristine, showing no signs of being exposed to weather, folded, scuffed, or passed among hundreds of hands. Some sheets looked like they had been “round-tabled,” or passed around a group of individuals with every person signing one line on the sheet “in an attempt to make the handwriting and signatures appear authentic and received from actual voters.”

The petitions went before the staff at the Bureau of Elections. One of the other candidates challeneged the signatures so the BoE investigated and found the fraud. They recommended the five be dropped from the ballot. Between the Lines reported on how the fraud was uncovered. A big clue was the Michigan town of Berkley was frequently misspelled. It is a suburb of Detroit, not of San Francisco. Several of these candidates said they were not responsible for the fraud and should be on the ballot. The state Board of Canvassers took up the matter. The Democrats on that board blocked them from the ballot. A candidate is responsible for the accuracy of the signatures collected for them. Of the five, one dropped out. The other four sued. John King of Michigan Advance reported that today, the date the ballot is to be finalized, the Michigan Supreme Court, in s 6-1 ruling, favored the Bureau of Elections in three of the cases. They haven’t yet ruled on the fourth. The presumed front runner will not be on the ballot. The process worked as intended. Adam McKay tweeted with a link to the study he mentions:

The famous Princeton study from ‘14 showing the people’s will has near zero effect on what government does & that outcomes r almost entirely driven by big $ & private interest groups is the skeleton key that explains EVERYTHING going on in America right now. And knowing that, it’s stunning to watch how little our news covers money in government. It should be close to all they do. But it’s what they pretty much never do.

Joan McCarter of Kos reported that the Austin, Texas City Council is preparing a local ordinance to shield from prosecution its residents who have an abortion. It is the first major city in a red state to declare itself a safe haven. The law may say an abortion is a felony, but Austin won’t prosecute it. McCarter listed several other places taking a similar stand. One of those is Wayne County, Michigan where Prosecutor Kym Worthy has said she won’t prosecute people who have abortions. Kos of Kos does a weekly podcast titled The Brief. I don’t listen because I usually don’t want to spend another hour delving into the kinds of topics that are on Kos. I’m mentioning this one – a discussion with Elie Mystal talking about a black guy’s guide to the Constitution – because Mystal has a couple related Twitter threads. The first is about the New York State ban on rifles.

The fact that the Court doesn't have any opinions ready this week is all the proof I need that SCOTUS was absolutely going to release its horrible pro-gun opinion in NYS Rifle today, and then balked because of all the mass shootings they are helping. They've got 33 opinions to go, NYS Rifle is the oldest case they have (argued in *November*) and they skipped a whole week of opinions? It's not like Kavanaugh just got drunk and forgot to file. That's SCOTUS not wanting people to notice what they're doing.

The second:

It's really amazing to me how thoroughly the Democratic ruling establishment has convinced the center mass Democratic voter that the DOJ and FBI are basically powerless institutions which can't really do much of anything. Republican Presidents use the DOJ as their goddamn VANGUARD, and federal law enforcement as their storm troopers for whatever jackboot evil s--- they can come up with. But Dems have convinced their own voters that these institutions are slow and toothless. MOST of the s--- I get from "Democrats" on this stupid app I get because I happen to understand what the DOJ *could* do, and do not agree with the f---ing "Tryhardy Boys" version of the DOJ Democrats would have us accept.

And a couple single tweets Kos quoted:

Police claim they shoot unarmed black children because they "fear for their lives" but police also claim they do not shoot armed gunmen killing children because they "fear for their lives." There is NO WAY the Uvalde police would have let me storm an elementary school and teach the 1619 Project for an hour.

Sager reported that Canada is done with “Thoughts and Prayers” and is moving on to action. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has introduced legislation to halt the sale, transfer, or import of handguns in Canada. There are increased penalties for smuggling guns. Rifle magazines will be altered to limit the number of rounds to five. Canada already banned assault weapons a couple years ago. Yup, conservatives are against it, claiming the root problem is illegal gun smuggling that Trudeau isn’t doing anything about. Trudeau said:

We need less gun violence. We cannot let the gun debate become so polarized that nothing gets done. We cannot let that happen in our country. This is about freedom. People should be free to go to the supermarket, their school, or their place of worship without fear.

That would be so nice. Greg Dworkin, in a pundit roundup for Kos, quoted Elizabeth Dias of the New York Times:

A man is shot with a poisoned arrow, Ms. Han recounted as she drove a group of high school seniors to visit a Thai temple in Massachusetts. The arrow piercing his flesh, the man demands answers. What kind of arrow is it? Who shot the arrow? What kind of poison is it? What feathers are on the arrow, a peacock’s or a hawk’s? But all these questions miss the point, the Buddha tells his disciple. What is important is pulling out that poison arrow, and tending to the wound.

Bill in Portland, Maine, in a Cheers and Jeers column for Kos, quoted late night commentary:

Look, I get that people need hobbies. But if my hobby caused over 45,000 deaths per year, I might think: Hmm, my full unfettered access to the tools of my hobby seem to be hurting people. Maybe I could handle a few extra guardrails. Look, I know nobody's listening to me. But responsible gun owners? Where the f*ck are you??? … If motherf*ckers like Greg Abbott and Ron DeSantis can keep books out of school, they can keep guns out of school. —Samantha Bee

That implies they don’t want to keep guns out of schools.

The school in Uvalde already had heavy locking doors, and that's how the killer kept the police out. The police had to get the janitor to give them the key to unlock it. Any other bright ideas, dumbass? Wouldn’t it be a shame if people started piling their old doors up on Ted Cruz's lawn? Oh, man, I'd hate to see that. Imagine if there were so many doors in front of his door he couldn’t get out of the door. —Jimmy Kimmel, on Ted Cruz's obsession with doors after the Uvalde massacre There wasn't just an armed resource officer on the scene, there was a whole platoon of police officers who responded to the shooting but didn't do s--- to stop it while it was still going on. I'm willing to guess it's because they were s--- -scared of a gunman armed with an AR-15. That's where we have to ask ourselves: do we really want to live in a society where anyone can legally buy weapons that the police are scared of? —Trevor Noah

Bill also included a photo of a tank in a pond on a farm. Only the tank’s gun is above water. The caption said,

The little tank was sure, that if he just stayed really quiet, the tractors would not notice him.