The god of Liberty is a hungry god. Child Sacrifice Uvalde edition. [UNLV Update]

It really sounds like the whole police department are just absolutely useless and poorly trained. Fire them all.

Add two more to the casualty list.

One child died of his wounds in the hospital today.

And the husband of one of the slain teachers had a heart attack and died.

Guns are banned at Trump's NRA speech in Houston today (NPR)

I had to do a double-take to make sure that wasn't The Onion.

What a country.

That happens at every one of their events. Each time they claim it’s a requirement of the venue. Funny how they never seem to find one where guns are okay.

When you read the book, he reads a radical right-wing magazine with racist cartoons.
In the TV show, he becomes the hero to a white supremist group who adopt his mask.
Edit- And oh yeah, Storm Rucker still quotes him in interviews, so there's that.
So, hey, good hero choice there.

Put this in the "if you didn't fucking hate Greg Abbott already, here's some more" file:

This is one where it really needs verification before spreading it.

If I'm wrong, I'm wrong, but I have a gut feeling I'm not wrong.
The problem, of course, is verifying it in the first place. The US media is made up of mostly stenographers who nod their heads and write verbatim what any politician tells them. Getting actual investigators to look into it will take time.

For the moment, I haven't the slightest reason to doubt that a politician tried to cozy up to a victim of this tragedy in order to boost their own political position.

Sadly, it doesn't matter. He's playing to his uneducated, redneck base... most of whom have probably never travelled outside the United States (or even their own state).

When I read that my first thought was "fuck, at least one of them shot a child."

Gut feelings just tend to reflect our own assumptions and biases.

Here's a thread breaking down all the things that user claims to have been involved with and done. If he's legit then he's lived a life that makes Forrest Gumps look boring.

How is it punishment?

Is it punishing me that I'm not allowed to own a burning tyre fire in my backyard?

Is it punishing me that I'm not allowed to carry around highly radioactive material?

Is it punishing me that I'm not allowed to own a fully equipped fighter jet?

The government placates the idiots by giving into their fear of losing "freedoms" they don't understand at the cost of security and safety of others.

Dafuq does it matter who the shooter was, you’ve got no justification for going after people who had no connection to the event.

If evil people will wait to get their weapons, what good are waiting periods?

"Lock other people up so I don't have to be momentarily inconvenienced by a waiting period or a training class before buying a high-powered killing machine."

That's true. I have biases, lots of biases, and one of those biases are that US police are a malevolent force. Most of the time, that bias is confirmed easily enough. That does leave me open to trickery, though, I plainly admit that, because you can slip a falsehood into a pile of truths and it will get processed just the same.

This guy could be lying, and if he is, shame on him for manipulating people in the midst of a tragedy. The reason I have no doubt that it is possible Abbott's people were involved is that the man truly is a scumbag who has made threats, in public, to people in the past.

So if he's lying, I hope it comes out and he gets his just desserts, but if he's telling the truth, it's one more damning statement against a man who truly seems to hate people who aren't rich, white conservative men.

UA is the guy who doubled down on the statement that if someone isn't mentally or medically capable of bring allowed to drive they shouldn't be allowed in public unaccompanied.

He's authoritarian as fuck, so long as the authorities aren't pointed at him.

Problem with spreading a claim like that without doing any sniff tests is that it weakens and dilutes the real criticisms.

BTW, we do have an omnibus mass shooting thread (because Amurka!), so maybe the discussion about this most recent massacre of 10-year-olds could be moved there?