US Politics

Abortion and guns may awaken a slumbering giant for DemocratsRobert ReichA mobilisation such as America has rarely seen could propel Democrats to larger majorities this November Two of the most basic human aspirations are making one’s own decisions about whether or when to have a child, free from government interference, and keeping any child one does have out of harm’s way, secure against random violence.Yet both aspirations have been fiercely resisted in the United States – the first by many evangelical Christians, the second by the gun lobby.Republican lawmakers are in the pockets of both. Democratic lawmakers are on the side of reproductive freedom and gun control.It has become the sharpest divide in contemporary American politics.The American people are not evenly divided on these issues. A large majority wants to maintain access to abortions during the first trimester of pregnancy, which has been the rule since the supreme court decided Roe v Wade in 1973.An even larger majority (including many Republican voters) support requiring universal background checks for would-be gun buyers, and most favor banning high-capacity magazines and the sale of assault weapons.Do the opinions of the majority matter on these two issues, where politically potent minorities have demanded the opposite? At first glance, it seems not.After the 2 May leak of a draft opinion in the case of Dobbs v Jackson Women’s Health Organization, written by Samuel Alito and evidently joined by four other Republican-appointed justices – which argues that no right to abortion can be found in the constitution and that, therefore, no such right exists – Senate Democrats tried to codify a national right to abortion.But on 11 May, the Women’s Health Protection Act failed in the Senate, by a vote of 49 to 51. That was short not only of a simple majority but, more importantly, of the super-majority of 60 votes required to overcome the inevitable filibuster. (Only the West Virginia Democrat Joe Manchin crossed party lines.)Now, in the wake of last week’s massacre of 19 children and two teachers in Uvalde, Texas, Congress is about to vote on regulating guns. Almost no one believes there are 10 Republican senators who will support any form of gun control, even after last week’s horror.While steadfastly refusing to maintain access to abortion services and refusing all recent attempts to control guns, Republican lawmakers at the federal and state levels also remain opposed to government funding for childcare, parental leave, sex education and contraception, and for reproductive, maternal, neo-natal and pediatric health services.It takes a great deal to awaken the slumbering giant of American voters. Most do not belong to either major political party. Many are turned off by politics. In the typical midterm election, only about half of those who are eligible to vote do so.Yet every so often the slumbering giant awakens – and with a swoop of its huge arm at the ballot box remedies the growing disconnect between what voters want and what politicians do (or fail to do).In the 2014 midterms, only 20% of young people between the ages of 18 and 29 went to the polls.But in the 2018 midterms, after two years of Donald Trump and congressional Republicans trampling on issues young people cared about – such as the environment, education and protection for undocumented immigrants who came to America as children – young voters were stirred to action: 36% of them voted. That was enough to switch control of the House to the Democrats.Most pundits are convinced that the Democrats are doomed to lose the House and Senate in the upcoming midterms. They point to the fact that after 15 months in office, Biden is polling badly, at about 40%.But the punditocracy is ignoring the disconnect between what most Americans want on abortion and guns and what Republican lawmakers are doing.The two issues of abortion and guns may have a larger impact on Americans together than they have had separately because of the moral relationship between them – being free to decide whether and when to have children and keeping children safe from gun violence.(The pundits also forget that at the same point in his presidency, Ronald Reagan was polling at about 40%. But as inflation declined, Reagan ran for re-election against Walter Mondale and won 49 states.)If the slumbering giant does awaken, a mobilization such as America has rarely seen could propel Democrats to larger majorities in the House and Senate this November – giving them enough votes in the Senate to eliminate the filibuster and consigning Republicans to a near permanent minority.
Robert Reich, a former US secretary of labor, is professor of public policy at the University of California at Berkeley and the author of Saving Capitalism: For the Many, Not the Few and The Common Good. His new book, The System: Who Rigged It, How We Fix It, is out now. He is a Guardian US columnist. His newsletter is at robertreich.substack.com
TopicsRepublicansOpinionUS politicsAbortionUS gun controlcommentReuse this content More

BTS visited the White House to discuss hate crimes targeting Asians with the US president.
The band members J-Hope, RM, Suga, Jungkook, V, Jin and Jimin joined the White House press secretary, Karine Jean-Pierre, at her briefing with reporters before their meeting with Joe Biden.
Jimin said the group had been ‘devastated by the recent surge’ of hate crime and intolerance against Asian Americans and others that has persisted since the start of the coronavirus pandemic.
‘It’s not wrong to be different,’ Suga said through an interpreter. ‘Equality begins when we open up and embrace all of our differences’ 

BTS-mania sweeps the White House as band speaks on anti-Asian hate More

Herschel Walker ‘mad’ at Trump for taking credit for ex-NFL star’s Senate bid‘President Trump never asked me … So, I’m mad at him,’ Georgia primary winner tells rapper and Revolt TV host Killer Mike The Georgia US Senate candidate Herschel Walker has said he is “mad” at Donald Trump because the former president has claimed credit for asking the former NFL star to enter national politics.Walker told the rapper and Revolt TV host Killer Mike: “President Trump never asked me … So, I’m mad at him.”Herschel Walker: the ex-football star running for Senate in Trump’s shadowRead moreTrump championed a Walker run for the Republican nomination for US Senate before Walker announced it and then endorsed him. Walker went on to win in a round of primaries which saw other Trump-backed candidates struggle, including in Georgia where Brian Kemp dismissed a challenge from David Perdue for governor.Walker, 60, was a running back who won the Heisman Trophy for best player in college football while at the University of Georgia, then played for the Trump-owned New Jersey Generals in the USFL before making his name in NFL with the Dallas Cowboys.But his move into politics has stoked considerable controversy. Amid questions about his business record, his widely documented mental health struggles and his all-round suitability for a Senate seat, Walker skipped debates in the Georgia primary but won easily all the same.In the aftermath of his win, CNN published a fact check of one of the many controversies surrounding the candidacy. Its headline: Herschel Walker falsely claims he never falsely claimed he graduated from University of Georgia.Trump has helped steer a big football name into the US Senate before, championing the college coach Tommy Tuberville as he beat Doug Jones, a federal prosecutor and sitting senator, for a seat from Alabama in 2020. Tuberville then supported Trump’s attempt to overturn his defeat by Joe Biden.Speaking to Killer Mike, Walker said: “One thing that people don’t know is President Trump never asked me. I need to tell him that he never asked. I heard it all on television that, ‘He’s going to ask Herschel,’ saying Herschel is going to run. President Trump never came out and said ‘Herschel, will you run for that Senate seat?’“So, I’m mad at him, because he never asked, but he’s taking credit that he asked.”Trump did not immediately respond. The question of to what extent the former president still controls the Republican party is a live one among observers and GOP power brokers, as Trump considers another run for the White House in 2024.Walker continued: “Before all this coming about, my wife and I … we went into prayer and I prayed about it. And to be honest with you, I was praying to God to bring somebody else. ‘Oh my God, I am happy, my life is doing well …’ But I love the Lord Jesus.”Walker’s opponent in the election in November will be Raphael Warnock, formerly a pastor at a church once home to the civil rights leader Dr Martin Luther King.Warnock won the seat in a run-off in 2021, beating the Republican sports executive Kelly Loeffler to become the first Black Democratic senator from a southern state and the first Black senator of any party from Georgia.Warnock’s win and that of Jon Ossoff over Perdue were crucial to Democrats regaining control of the Senate. Control of the chamber, and with it the Biden administration’s chances of any further legislative success, is in play again in the November elections.TopicsRepublicansDonald TrumpUS midterm elections 2022US politicsnewsReuse this content More

Peter Navarro subpoena suggests DoJ may be investigating TrumpJustice department seeks former aide’s communications with ex-president and his attorneys Peter Navarro, a top White House adviser to Donald Trump, is being commanded by a federal grand jury subpoena to turn over to the justice department his communications with the former president, the former president’s attorneys and the former president’s representatives.The exact nature of the subpoena – served on 26 May 2022 and first obtained by the Guardian – and whether it means Trump himself is under criminal investigation for January 6 could not be established given the unusually sparse details included on the order.But certain elements appear to suggest that it is related to a new investigation examining potential criminality by the former president and, at the very least, that the justice department is expanding its inquiry for the first time into Trump and his inner circle.The subpoena compelled Navarro to either testify to a grand jury early next month, or produce to prosecutors all documents requested in a separate congressional subpoena issued earlier this year by the House select committee investigating the January 6 Capitol attack.“All documents relating to the subpoena dated February 9, 2022, that you received from the House select committee,” the justice department says in the subpoena, “including but not limited to any communication with former President Trump and/or his counsel or representatives.”The existence of the federal subpoena was revealed in a lawsuit filed by Navarro that sought to declare the congressional subpoena unlawful. It remains entirely possible, given the explicit reference to the select committee, that the grand jury subpoena indicates the US attorney for the District of Columbia, Matthew Graves, is building a criminal contempt of Congress charge against Navarro.Trump aide Peter Navarro ordered to testify before grand jury over January 6Read moreThe assistant US attorney listed on the subpoena, Elizabeth Aloi, is also listed as working in the office of the US Attorney for the District of Columbia that handles contempt of Congress cases – though that is not necessarily indicative of the kind of investigation involved.The confounding aspect of this grand jury subpoena, according to three former assistant US attorneys who spoke on the condition of anonymity, is that targets of investigations are rarely subpoenaed. And “process” charges such as contempt do not require subpoenas for documents.But the fact that Trump is specifically named in the subpoena – a reference that the justice department would not have made lightly – and the specific requests for Navarro’s communications with Trump could indicate that this is a criminal investigation examining Trump.The internal US attorney’s office number and the ID number of the grand jury subpoena to Navarro suggests that the investigation is a new line of inquiry for the justice department. Variants of #GJ2022052590979 or USAO #2022R00631 have not surfaced on other subpoenas.At least four separate grand juries are now examining events related to the January 6 Capitol attack.One grand jury was impaneled last year for a contempt charge against Trump’s strategist Steve Bannon. A second is examining organizers of pro-Trump rallies, a third is looking at Trump lawyers in a scheme to falsify slates of electors, and now a fourth concerns Navarro.Navarro was not told when he was served with the grand jury subpoena whether he was a target or a subject of the investigation. If he was a target, that might indicate the subpoena was related to a contempt case. If he was a subject, it could make him part of a wider inquiry.The distinction also raises a third possibility, according to the former assistant US attorneys: he may be a target for a contempt case, and also a subject in a different case – and prosecutors might use the contempt case as leverage to gain cooperation for the other.A spokesman for the justice department and the US attorney’s office did not respond to requests for comment.In his lawsuit, Navarro is challenging both the validity of the congressional subpoena as well as the federal grand jury subpoena. Navarro argues the federal grand jury subpoena is invalid since it requests materials demanded in the congressional subpoena, which he argues is also invalid.“The US Attorney cannot issue a Grand Jury Subpoena deemed to be lawful and enforceable that is derivative of a fruit of the poisonous tree ultra vires, unlawful, and unenforceable subpoena issued by the Committee,” Navarro writes in the 88-page filing.Navarro also contends that by demanding his communications with Trump, the justice department is improperly asking him to violate executive privilege – privilege that he says has not been waived by the former president.TopicsTrump administrationDonald TrumpUS politicsBiden administrationnewsReuse this content More

A lawyer for Hillary Clinton’s 2016 presidential campaign was acquitted Tuesday of lying to the FBI when he pushed information meant to cast suspicions on Donald Trump and Russia in the run-up to the 2016 election.The jury in the case of Michael Sussmann deliberated on Friday afternoon and Tuesday morning before reaching its verdict, the Associated Press said.The case was the first courtroom test of special counsel John Durham since his appointment three years ago to search for government misconduct during the investigation into potential ties between Russia and Trump’s 2016 campaign.Michael Sussman not guilty — eminently predictable, given Durham’s desperate stretching of the law and facts.I wrote this back in September:https://t.co/EUWxptnMYd— Elie Honig (@eliehonig) May 31, 2022
The verdict represents a significant setback for Durham’s work, the AP says, especially since Trump supporters had looked to the probe to expose what they contend was sweeping wrongdoing by the FBI.In the indictment filed in September 2021, Sussmann was accused of falsely telling FBI general counsel James Baker in September 2016 that he did not represent any client when he met him to give the bureau white papers and other data files containing evidence of questionable cyber links between the Trump Organization and a Russia-based bank.The indictment alleged that in fact Sussmann had turned over this information not as a “good citizen” but rather, as an attorney representing a US technology executive, an internet company and Clinton’s presidential campaign.Trump is suing Clinton, the Democratic National Committee and other people and entities tied to the investigation of Russian election interference in 2016, claiming they attempted to rig the election he won.Read more: Trump sues Hillary Clinton, alleging ‘plot’ to rig 2016 election against himRead moreThank you for reading the US politics blog today. We’ll be back on Wednesday.For all the detailed news on Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, please consult our global war blog here.Here are the main events that occurred today:
The White House is making efforts to communicate that Joe Biden and Mitch McConnell may disagree on what the problems are at the root of America’s repeated mass shootings, but the US president can still call the Senate majority leader a “rational Republican” and try to find common ground on gun violence.
US supreme court clerks may be required to release their phone records as the investigation into who leaked the Roe v Wade opinion draft widens.
A lawyer for Hillary Clinton’s 2016 presidential campaign, Michael Sussmann, was acquitted Tuesday of lying to the FBI when he pushed information meant to cast suspicions on Donald Trump and Russia in the run-up to that election.
Joe Biden has been speaking at the White House with Jacinda Ardern, the New Zealand prime minister, ahead of their mini-summit.
The US president is meeting with Jerome Powell, chair of the Federal Reserve, today to discuss the economy in the US and globally, and what steps can be taken to ease inflation and lower prices. Biden is calling the issue his “top domestic priority”.
An emergency gun reform package, the Protecting Our Kids Act, will be presented to the House judiciary committee on Thursday as politicians grapple with the aftermath of mass shootings in New York and Texas this month that killed 31 people, including 19 elementary school children.
The White House is making efforts to communicate that Joe Biden and Mitch McConnell may disagree on what the problems are at the root of America’s repeated mass shootings, but the US president can still call the Senate majority leader a “rational Republican” and try to find common ground on gun violence.Kentucky Republican McConnell, and many Republican leaders, including in Texas where the small city of Uvalde is devastated by last week’s school shooting, continually hone in on mental health issues and a need for more school security.White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre noted that: “We are the only country that is dealing with gun violence at the rate we are, so what’s the problem here? The problem is with guns and not having legislation to deal with something that’s a pandemic here.”Biden spoke at length yesterday outside the White House, as he returned from Delaware the day after he’d visited Uvalde, about how the idea of 18-year-olds legally being able to buy military-style assault rifles in the US – the weapons used in the Uvalde massacre and the racist attack on a supermarket in a majority-Black neighborhood of Buffalo, New York, days before – made no sense.Jean-Pierre noted that Republicans’ insistence on mental health and “hardening schools” and away from great gun control are “two things he [Biden] does not agree on [with McConnell].”But she added: “But I think there is a way potentially for the Senate to come together and legislation to come together, they need to.”A group of Senate Democrats and Republicans are currently discussing on Capitol Hill the potential for a bipartisan “significant package” of measures, according to Connecticut Democrat Chris Murphy.But indications are that any such bill will include a collection of more minor measures, not sweeping change such as an assault weapons ban, freshly urged upon by US vice president Kamala Harris on Saturday when she attended the last funeral for the 10 people killed in Buffalo.‘America is killing itself’: world reacts with horror and incomprehension to Texas shootingRead moreKarine Jean-Pierre says Biden is “considering” more executive actions on gun reforms following the mass shootings in Buffalo, New York, and Uvalde, Texas, but did not give details of what they might be.She confirmed that the president, and a White House team, is also discussing legislation with lawmakers:.css-knbk2a{height:1em;width:1.5em;margin-right:3px;vertical-align:baseline;fill:#C70000;}He’s calling on Congress to act. He’s hopeful, he wants to make sure there’s action.
The President has done everything he can from from the federal government. We are looking at other executive actions that we could possibly do. But it’s not up to him alone. He cannot do this alone. Congress needs to act.White House economic adviser Brian Deese followed the band to report on Joe Biden’s lunchtime meeting with the Federal Reserve chair, Jerome Powell, and treasury secretary, Janet Yellen.“I get to go home and tell my kids that BTS opened for me,” he jokes.Deese says Biden underscored that he respects the independence of the federal reserve and will give the fed the space and independence it needs to tackle inflation.“It’s a global challenge,” Deese says of inflation.“It’s hitting American families and creating anxiety and economic hardship. He [Biden] gets this”.But he says because of Biden’s economic achievements, and US economic strengths including a robust jobs market, few countries are better placed for the challenge ahead.He predicts the recovery moving forward will look different than it has so far. “It’s a marathon and we have to move and shift to stable and resilient growth,” Deese adds, noting that the recovery since the Covid-19 pandemic has been at a furious pace.Soaring gas and food prices remain Biden’s top economic priority, Deese says.“He’s focused on the right policy decisions and choices. We have to address this issue, we need some help working with Congress”. An interpreter has now kindly informed us what the BTS band members were saying.Jungkook, although it might have been J-Hope, said: “Today is the last day of AA and NHPI heritage month (Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander), we join the White House to stand with the AA and HPI community and to celebrate”.The interpreter has raced through the names, and this blogger can’t determine if he said Jimmy or Ji-min, so either Kim Seok-jin (known as Jinny) or Park Ji-min said: “We were devastated by the recent surge of hate crimes, including Asian American hate crimes, [it’s time] to put a stop on this and support the cause. We’d like to take this opportunity to voice ourselves once again”.Another band member who probably was Jungkook said: “We still feel surprised that music created by South Korean artists reaches so many people around the world, transcending languages and cultural barriers. We believe music is always an amazing and wonderful unifier of all things”.The band were hustled out as reporters shouted questions to them in vain.The seven members of K-pop band BTS are flanking White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre, wearing black suits and looking more like a security detail than pop stars.“It is a great honor to be invited to the White House to discuss important issues of anti-Asian hate crimes, Asian inclusion and diversity,” the first band member says in perfect English.A second band member steps up and speaks in Korean, as do the others, one by one. There seems to be no interpreter, but they look very earnest in what they’re saying.The English-speaking band member returns:.css-knbk2a{height:1em;width:1.5em;margin-right:3px;vertical-align:baseline;fill:#C70000;}We thank President Biden and the White House for giving us this important opportunity to speak about these important causes and remind ourselves of what we can do as artists.One of the most extraordinary White House press briefings in recent memory is about to get under way, with South Korean K-pop band BTS set to take the podium with press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre.The popular music combination is in town to meet with Joe Biden and discuss “the need to come together in solidarity, Asian inclusion and representation, and addressing anti-Asian hate crimes and discrimination”. You can watch it live here.There’s been reaction to the acquittal earlier today of Michael Sussmann, a lawyer for Hillary Clinton’s 2016 presidential campaign, who was accused of lying to the FBI.Speaking to reporters outside the courthouse in Washington DC, Sussmann said he “told the truth to the FBI, and the jury clearly recognized that with their unanimous verdict today”.Sussmann was accused of concealing from the FBI that he was working for the Clinton campaign when he met with the bureau’s general counsel James Baker in September 2016 and handed over documents purporting to show links between the rival campaign of Donald Trump and Russia.Sussmann added: “Despite being falsely accused, I am relieved that justice ultimately prevailed in this case”.In a statement, special counsel John Durham, who was appointed three years ago to search for government misconduct during the investigation into potential ties between Russia and Trump’s campaign, effectively investigating the investigators, said he and his team were “disappointed” by the verdict.“While we are disappointed in the outcome, we respect the jury’s decision and thank them for their service,” Durham said.“I also want to recognize and thank the investigators and the prosecution team for their dedicated efforts in seeking truth and justice in this case”. Read more:Hillary Clinton campaign lawyer acquitted of lying to the FBIRead moreAs the first of the funerals takes place on Tuesday for the victims of last week’s elementary school shooting in Uvalde, Texas, local media outlets are casting a spotlight on a company that worked with families to create 19 custom-made children’s caskets to honor their lives.Trey Ganem, his son Billy and their team at SoulShine Industries of Edna, Texas, donated, constructed and painted 19 caskets in three days.“We’re creating the last thing that the parents can ever do for their child,” Ganem told NewsNation. And we’re making it with passion and purpose. We put all of our heart and soul into this thing”. Meet the TX man who’s making customized caskets for each of the 19 young victims and two teachers from the school shooting in #Uvalde. Trey Ganem visited with the families last week so each casket is personalized to include each child’s interests.📷: SoulShine Industries pic.twitter.com/eeoOZHcrfF— John-Carlos Estrada (@Mr_JCE) May 31, 2022
Read more:First funerals of Uvalde school shooting victims to beginRead moreIt’s been a lively morning in US politics news, do stay tuned as we take you through the next hours with fresh updates as they happen.For all the detailed news on Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, please consult our global war blog here.Here’s where things stand in the US:
US supreme court clerks may be required to release their phone records as the investigation into who leaked the Roe v Wade opinion draft widens.
A lawyer for Hillary Clinton’s 2016 presidential campaign, Michael Sussmann, was acquitted Tuesday of lying to the FBI when he pushed information meant to cast suspicions on Donald Trump and Russia in the run-up to that election.
Joe Biden has been speaking at the White House with Jacinda Ardern, the New Zealand prime minister, ahead of their mini-summit.
The US president is meeting with Jerome Powell, chair of the Federal Reserve, today to discuss the economy in the US and globally, and what steps can be taken to ease inflation and lower prices. Biden is calling the issue his “top domestic priority”.
An emergency gun reform package, the Protecting Our Kids Act, will be presented to the House judiciary committee on Thursday as politicians grapple with the aftermath of mass shootings in New York and Texas this month that killed 31 people, including 19 elementary school children. More

‘We have to do something’: calls mount for Texas gun control laws after latest deadly attackAs data indicates state leads the US in mass shooting deaths, Democrats – and some Republicans – demand legislative action Texas leaders are under growing pressure to increase gun control measures in the face of data indicating the state leads the US in mass shooting deaths, while Republicans have steadily eased restrictions on weapons and cut mental health spending.As the funerals of the 19 children and two teachers begin on Tuesday in the tiny, devastated southern Texas city of Uvalde, a week after a shooting at the elementary school, state Democrats – and some Republicans – are demanding a special legislative action.Right-leaning Republican governor Greg Abbott has been asked to convene a special legislative session to weigh legislation, with state senate Democrats calling for increasing the age for buying any gun to 21.They also want to mandate background checks for all gun sales, and regulate civilian ownership of high capacity magazines, the Austin ABC affiliate KVUE reported.They are also calling for “red flag” legislation that would permit the temporary removal of guns from persons who present an “imminent danger to themselves and others” and are urging a law to require a “cooling off” period when buying a gun.“We have to do something, man,” Democratic state senator Roland Gutierrez, whose district covers Uvalde, said to Abbott at a press conference. “Your own colleagues are telling me, calling me, and telling me an 18-year-old shouldn’t have a gun.”The gunman who took a military-style assault rifle and a backpack of ammunition into Robb elementary school last Tuesday and shot his victims in two adjoining classrooms was a local 18-year-old, Salvador Ramos.He reportedly had posted violent threats and boasted about guns on social media, and was shot dead by federal agents after local police waited for more than an hour in the hallway in what state authorities said was “the wrong decision”.“We’ve asked for gun control changes. I’m asking you now to bring us back [for a special legislative session] in three weeks … this is enough, call us back, man,” Gutierrez said.Several Texas Republicans are now also putting pressure on Abbott to act after the shootings in Uvalde. “Governor Abbott should call us into special sessions until we do SOMETHING The FBI or DPS [Texas department of public safety] BELIEVE will lessen the chance of the next Uvalde Tragedy,” Republican state senator Kel Seliger said in a tweet.“We should hope and pray every day, but DO something,” Seliger added, without presenting any specific proposals, the Dallas Morning News noted.Republican representative Jeff Leach tweeted his call for a special session, saying: “Texas lawmakers have work to do. Conversations to engage in. Deliberations & debates to have. Important decisions to make.”Abbott has sole authority to summon lawmakers before the next legislative session starts in January 2023. He has said all options are on the table. But Texas has responded to the many mass shootings to afflict the state in the last 15 years by loosening not tightening restrictions on the use of guns.And data from Everytown for Gun Safety, the gun regulation advocacy, indicate that 201 people have been killed in mass shootings in Texas since 2009, significantly more than any other state.California has suffered 162 such deaths, while Florida, the third most populous state, with 22 million people compared with 29.7m in Texas and 39.6m in California, has counted 135 such deaths, according to Everytown, which defines a mass shooting as one in which four or more people are killed, excluding the shooter.It was not immediately clear whether Uvalde was included in the Texas toll. Texas also leads the US in school shootings, according to US News & World Report.The Texas Tribune reported that state lawmakers relaxed gun laws during the last two legislative sessions, including the approval of permit-less carrying of firearms in 2021. Such easing of gun laws was approved less than two years after the Odessa and the El Paso mass shootings left 30 people dead.Some rightwing Texas Republicans last week called for more guns.“We know from past experience that the most effective tool for keeping kids safe is armed law enforcement on the campus,” US Senator Ted Cruz told MSNBC.Ken Paxton, the Texas attorney general who faces felony fraud charges, voiced similar sentiments and predicted more mass shootings.“People that are shooting people, that are killing kids, they’re not following murder laws. They’re not going to follow gun laws,” Paxton said on the far-right network Newsmax. “I’d much rather have law-abiding citizens armed, trained so they can respond when something like this happens because it’s not going to be the last time.”Democrat Beto O’Rourke, who is running for governor and heckled Abbott at a press conference last week, tweeted about some of Texas’ recent mass shootings, saying: “Abbott should have acted after Sutherland Springs, after Santa Fe, after Midland-Odessa, after El Paso. He refused. Let’s vote him out and get to work saving lives.”He also slammed the weakening of gun restrictions and made a mark during his failed bid for the Democratic 2020 presidential nomination by advocating a ban on assault weapons for the general public.38,000 Texans had their license to carry denied, revoked, or suspended over the last five years because law enforcement deemed them too dangerous to carry a loaded gun in public.But thanks to Greg Abbott’s new law, they don’t need a license to carry anymore.— Beto O’Rourke (@BetoORourke) May 29, 2022
Abbott, meanwhile, placed the blame for the Uvalde carnage squarely on mental health concerns, at his first press conference after the attack.But mental health advocates told ABC News that Abbott has neglected mental healthcare, saying that he moved money out of Texas agencies charged with providing services. CNN also reported on such budget cuts.“We as a state, we as a society need to do a better job with mental health. Anybody who shoots somebody else has a mental health challenge. Period. We as a government need to find a way to target that mental health challenge and to do something about it,” Abbott said last Wednesday, the day after the shooting in Uvalde.Debbie Plotnick, executive vice president for state and federal advocacy at the nonprofit Mental Health America (MHA), told ABC that mental health was a regular scapegoat. “Hate is not a mental illness … having a mental health condition does not make someone violent,” she said.This spring, Abbott switched $210m away from the state agency that oversees public mental healthcare, towards funding a controversial security program at the US-Mexico border.TopicsTexas school shootingUS gun controlTexasUS politicsUS crimeUS school shootingsGun crimenewsReuse this content More

Us older people must fight for a better America, and world, for younger generationsBill McKibbenBaby boomers were complicit in the decay of our civic life and cultural fabric – and we must play a serious role in fixing it I had the chance this month to spend a couple of weeks on an utterly wild and remote Alaskan shore – there was plenty of company, but all of it had fur, feathers or fins. And there was no way to hear from the outside world, which now may be the true mark of wilderness. So, bliss. But also, on returning, shock. If you’re not immersed in it daily, the tide of mass shootings, record heatwaves and corroded politicians spouting ugly conspiracies seems even more truly and impossibly crazy.Camping deep in the wild is not for everyone, but there’s another way to back up and look at our chaos with some perspective – and that’s to separate yourself in time instead of space.Until this past year it had never occurred to me to write anything like a memoir, because memoirs were for the exceptional: people who had overcome some great handicap, dealt with some revealing trauma, experienced something so remarkable that the rest of us could learn from the story.By contrast, I’d had as statistically normal an American childhood as was humanly possible. I grew up in the 1960s and 1970s in Lexington, Massachusetts, emblem of America, at a moment when the suburbs were cresting; I went to fine public schools, and to the kind of mainline Protestant church that then dominated civic life; my father worked at a completely middle-class job, and my mother stayed home with her two sons; my Scout troop raised the flag on the Battle Green to mark the bicentennial. Our house, literally, was on Middle Street. That seemed utterly normal at the time, even boring. But perhaps boring is the new exotic, and that harkening back to those days can provide some interesting lessons.It’s true that America was full of turmoil and clatter in those days, too: the turbulence of the 60s, the tragedy of Vietnam, the two-bit corruption of Watergate. Even so, the world seemed to have momentum, and it was carrying us in the right direction. Voting rights were expanding, thanks to the remarkable activists of the civil rights movement; in the wake of the first Earth Day, which brought 20 million Americans into the streets, we passed landmark legislation to clean our air and water. Women were winning new freedoms, including control over their bodies. If you watched TV at night, you got Walter Cronkite, which is to say we were working with a shared reality.I think it’s pretty clear that the seeds of our current disarray were also sown in those days and often in those suburban places. For one thing, as property values began to take off, those who had made it on the boat were propelled ever higher, and those who had not (often people of color) got left very far behind. Those suburbs helped breed a kind of hyperindividualism, as the Depression and second world war, with their common purpose, receded into the distance. The year I graduated from high school, 1978, was the year of the country’s first tax revolt (California’s Prop 13) and also the year when inequality reached its low point in this country; every decade since the wealth gap has widened. Lexington – which had voted for George McGovern in 1972 – cast its ballots for Ronald Reagan by 1980. We began to believe that government was the problem, that taxation was an imposition, that greed was good. And perhaps lulled by the progress of our early years, we let problems of race, poverty and the environment fester; in the new mythology, markets would somehow take care of them.Forty years later, many of those who remember those times are finally waking up to how much our civic life has decayed. I’ve spent the last year helping to start a coalition of people over 60 to work for progressive change – Third Act, it’s called – and, based on hundreds of conversations, I’d say “gobsmacked” is the operative word for how people feel. We had taken for granted the physical stability of our planet – and now its poles are melting. We had taken for granted the stability of our democracy and now people invade Congress to stop the counting of votes. We had taken for granted the slow but sure scientific progress of our society and now a third of the country does not want to take vaccines. (For those of us who can remember our polio jabs, that’s truly shocking.)Since we’re complicit in this decay (there’s a reason young people started saying “OK Boomer”) we need to play a serious role in fixing it up. It’s been inspiring to watch older people protesting outside fossil-fueled banks, or writing tens of thousands of postcards to high school seniors helping them register to vote or figuring out how to make sure Black voters have access to mail-in voting.But along with that kind of work we have another gift to offer: sufficient perspective to say, loudly and clearly, that what we are living through now is nuts. There’s another kind of society, within living memory, that more or less worked. It had institutions and norms that allowed some kind of common conversation to take place. And saying so is not nostalgia – it’s a highly useful act of witness.
Bill McKibben is Schumann Distinguished Scholar in environmental studies at Middlebury College and the author most recently of The Flag, the Cross, and the Station Wagon: A Graying American Looks Back at His Suburban Boyhood and Wonders What the Hell Happened
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Why did the doctor ask if we have a gun in the house at my toddler’s checkup? Because this is AmericaArwa MahdawiAfter taking my daughter to the paediatrician, I was left wondering if I want to raise her in a country obsessed with the right to own deadly weapons A couple of weeks ago, my wife and I took my daughter to a paediatrician in Philadelphia for her one-year checkup. It was all very routine until, squeezed between a discussion about weaning and a question about baby gates, the paediatrician asked if we had a gun in the house. I was so taken aback by the idea that I might casually keep a glock in my knicker drawer that I burst out laughing. “She’s from England,” my wife, also somewhat taken aback, explained. “They’re not used to guns.” The paediatrician gave a sad smile. “I know it’s terrible, but I do have to ask,” she said. “This is America.”Once we got home from the appointment, I looked up whether it really was normal for paediatricians to ask about guns, or if we just had a very vigilant doctor. It turns out that, yes, the American Academy of Pediatrics recommends that firearm safety is discussed with patients and families. Which makes sense in a country where there are more guns than people and where people get accidentally shot by toddlers on a weekly basis. This is the US – where guns are the leading cause of death for children age one and older, and where the state of Texas restricts dildo ownership (it’s illegal to own more than six dildos) but lets people carry a handgun without licensing or training.Also, uniquely American? The fact that some people seem to think that paediatricians asking about guns isn’t an indictment of American values, but an infringement of their liberties. In 2010, a woman in Florida was outraged over her kids’ doctor asking this “invasive” question, and helped set into motion a years-long legal saga known as “the docs versus the glocks”. The National Rifle Association (NRA) lobbied to get Florida to pass a law called the Firearm Owners’ Privacy Act, which prevented doctors from asking about gun ownership except in certain circumstances. If a doctor did raise the gun question, they risked losing their licence, and a $10,000 fine. This turned into a protracted lawsuit (the only thing the US loves as much as its guns is lawsuits), and, eventually, a court ruled that preventing doctors from discussing guns violated their freedom of speech. Which was a small win for sanity: now doctors don’t have to worry about losing their jobs if they tell their patients that keeping automatic weapons in their coat closet might be dangerous.My trip to the paediatrician was obviously not the first time I realised that the US has a dysfunctional relationship with firearms. However, talking about shooting while your toddler is getting their shots made the gun situation suddenly feel a lot more personal; I left that doctors appointment feeling very sick indeed. Did I really want to raise my kid in a country obsessed with the right to own deadly weapons? Was it irresponsible to voluntarily bring a child up in a place where 95% of public (state) schools carry out active shooter drills? A country where kids as young as three rehearse what to do if a gunman bursts into their classroom? The UK isn’t perfect by any means, but at least kids aren’t taught to prepare for the very real possibility their classroom might become a killing field.Because this is the US, those questions didn’t have a chance to recede. Shortly after the appointment, 10 people were murdered at a Buffalo, New York, supermarket, allegedly by an 18-year-old white supremacist. About a week later, 19 little children and two teachers were murdered in their Texas classroom by another 18-year-old. On Sunday, six minors were shot in Chattanooga, Tennessee. On Monday, a 10-year-old boy in Florida was arrested after threatening to shoot up a school. It never stops. And there seems to be no hope that it’s going to stop any time soon, either. The US supreme court is about to issue its first major ruling on gun rights in over a decade – but the conservative court is widely expected to expand gun rights and make it harder for cities and states to restrict the concealed carry of firearms. For the rest of the world, looking on in horror after the Texas massacre, this is insanity. For conservatives, this is the US.
Arwa Mahdawi is a Guardian columnist
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