Little girl who survived Uvalde shooting counts exits because she doesn’t trust cops to save her

Stephan: 

Here is one reason American children are so scared and depressed. Given the school massacres and the fact that as of today 2,411 young people have been shot, and 693 have been murdered by a gun since 1 January can you blame them? Oh, did I mention that as of two days ago in Florida DeSantis and his Republican legislature just passed a new law giving untrained, unlicensed, individuals the right to carry concealed weapons, and multiple groups are warning Black Brown, and LGBTQ against traveling to Florida? Do you think that might have a negative effect on a young person’s sense of wellbeing?

Khloe Torres after Uvalde massacre Credit: Photo screen capture

Khloie Torres was the 10-year-old who repeatedly called 911 on the day of the Uvalde mass shooting, saying”Please hurry. There is a lot of dead bodies,” she told the dispatcher.She took blood from some of the other students and smeared it all over herself to make it seem like she was already dead.

CNN reporter Shimon Prokupecz spoke to Khloie’s mother who told him, “Knowing the police didn’t do anything, it’s just crazy. It doesn’t make any sense.”

“Does she ever ask you why the police took so long?” Prokupecz asked.

“She does. She’s like, Mom, why did it take police so long to come in here? I don’t even know what to say to her. She don’t (sic) trust any police now,” the mom, Jamie Torres, explained. “They let everybody in those conjoined rooms down. The families have changed forever because they were too weak to go in the room, but my 10-year-old sitting across the door was offering to […]

Read the Full Article

1 Comment

America’s Poverty Is Built by Design

Stephan: 

For over two decades, I have been telling SR readers about America’s wealth inequality, the worst in the developed world, and how it is the product of intentioned design developed by Republicans over years. Well, others are beginning to see the same trends, and have reached the same conclusions, and this article is one example of that.

A man smokes inside a tent on skid row. How did America become a land of economic extremes, with entrenched, grinding poverty for those struggling at the bottom — even as most poor adults who are not seniors are working? Credit: Marcio Jose Sanchez / AP

In late 2020, a crowd of mostly Black and Hispanic workers rallied outside the statehouse in Albany, New York to gather support for a $15-an-hour minimum wage for tipped workers. A group of white people wearing red MAGA hats approached. Coincidentally, the protest was taking place the same day the state legislature was meeting to certify the results of the 2020 presidential election — and MAGA protesters had gathered to challenge the count. You’d expect clashes to ensue. But when some Trump supporters stumbled upon the workers of color pushing for higher wages, they shook hands and joined their protest.

Matthew Desmond recounts this story in the epilogue to his ground-breaking new book, Poverty, By America to suggest that a movement to abolish poverty could transcend our […]

Read the Full Article

2 Comments

World’s Biggest Polluters Responsible for a Third of Forests Burned in Western North America

Stephan: 

Because the American government is essentially owned by the rich, and the corporations they control, carbon emitting companies literally get away with murder, as their policies destroy the environment and kill people, animals, birds, fish, and reptiles, thus destabilizing the earth’s matrix of life. We are a society that places profit and greed above all other considerations.

It’s impossible to ignore the impact of climate change as early-season fires rage in western Canada right now. And scientists are getting better and better at calculating the likelihood of a specific event happening because of climate change—such as a drought or heat wave that can exacerbate fire conditions. Now, scientists are also able to pin-point just how responsible the top polluters are for the impact of these wildfires.

According to a new study published May 16 in Environmental Research Letters, 37% of the total area of forest burned in the western U.S. and Canada since 1986 can be linked to the emissions released by the world’s 88 biggest fossil fuel producers and cement manufacturers.

The researchers determined this by looking at the role these companies’ pollution played in creating an ever-hotter world that dries-out vegetation to create tinder-box forest conditions. In the past several decades, everything about wildfires has increased: the amount of land burned, the severity of the burn, the number of large fires, the length of the fire season, and […]

Read the Full Article

1 Comment

Biden is Fulfilling Trump’s Cruel Policy on Wild Horses

Stephan: 

The Biden Administration is far from perfect, it is only marginally at the level of good, and nowhere is that made clearer than in environmental issues. What is worse agencies like the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) seem to have been corrupted into near uselessness when it comes to environmental protection. Here is a sad and pathetic example of what I mean. And of course since most of this takes place in Republican controlled states, they do nothing to help these poor animals. You could do something by writing Biden and telling him of your concern over his lack of living up to his public commitments.

A helicopter pushes wild horses during a roundup on July 14, 2021, near U.S. Army Dugway Proving Ground in Utah. Credit: Rick Bowmer / AP

The Biden Administration was supposed to have been a reprieve from the Trump years, but for conservationists who want the wild horses of the American West to live long and prosper, this didn’t happen. The anti-horse policies formulated under Donald Trump have been dutifully carried out by his liberal successor.

“We feel betrayed, because we thought this was an administration that really believed in wildlife protections,” Manda Kalimian, president of the wild horse and environmental advocacy group Cana Foundation, told me recently. “For all the hope we placed in Biden, it turns out he’s almost worse than Trump when it comes to wild horses.”

The protections for horses are enshrined in federal law. The 1971 Wild Free-Roaming Horses and Burros Act mandated that the animals “are to be considered … as an integral part of the natural system of the public lands,” and as such, they “shall be protected from capture, branding, harassment, […]

Read the Full Article

1 Comment

World Cup 2026 fans told ‘don’t travel to USA’ over mass shootings and ‘killing sprees’

Stephan: 

This is how the world increasingly views America. Meanwhile, in Florida, they have just passed a law permitting unlicensed concealed carry of guns, thus, joining Texas and other Republican controlled states. As of 21 May 2023, according to the Gun Violence Archive (the gold standard source for such data) 16,434 men, women, and children have been killed by guns. The United States has become a war zone.

World Cup fans told US is ‘domestic terrorists’ and partial to ‘killing sprees’ as governments caution extra vigilance 
Credit: AFP / Getty

After 226 mass shooting in America this year alone, governments are urging football fans to avoid travelling Stateside for the 2026 FIFA World Cup due to risk of “killing sprees”.

Some nations hoping to participate in the 2026 FIFA World Cup have issued a stark warning to fans over travel to America due to lax gun laws and the threat of “killing sprees”.

A number of governments have raised concerns after the steep rise of mass shootings in the country, and have issued advice to would-be tourists, with one South American nation even going so far as to recommend that fans don’t travel.

Already this year, there have been a staggering 226 mass shootings in 138 days, according to the Gun Violence Archive.

The US, Canada and Mexico are set to host the football World Cup in 2026, which will see 48 teams play 104 matches.

But before heading to the States to watch the most […]

Read the Full Article

1 Comment