PAULA BOLYARD: What Were Police Thinking? News About the Uvalde School Shooting Just Keeps Getting Worse and Worse.

Let me preface this by saying two things: First, we still don’t have all the details about the shooting in which an 18-year-old gunman killed 19 students and two teachers and wounded 17 other people at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas. Second, police have incredibly difficult jobs, requiring them to make split-second decisions while under enormous pressure under extremely dangerous and stressful situations.

That said, the latest news from the investigation into the shooting looks very bad for the law-enforcement officials responding to the scene. Tony Plohetski, an investigative reporter for the Austin-American Statesman, tweeted a picture showing police stationed outside the classroom where more than a dozen children were murdered. The officers, armed with rifles and at least one ballistic shield, were in the hallway near the classroom at 11:52 a.m.—58 minutes before they breached the locked classroom, and 19 minutes after the gunman entered the school. At 12:03 p.m. a second officer with a ballistic shield arrived, followed by a third a few minutes later.

“Investigators believe this is significant because it indicates they had more than enough firepower and protection to enter the classroom before they did,” wrote Plohetski. “Officers were growing impatient far sooner: ‘If there’s kids in there we need to go in there,’ one said on body camera video.”

Read the whole thing.

PROFESSOR CARRINGTON, CALL YOUR OFFICE — OR YOUR DOCTOR? Solar storms may cause up to 5500 heart-related deaths in a given year. “In an approximate 11-year cycle, the sun blasts out charged particles and magnetised plasma that can distort Earth’s magnetic field, which may disrupt our body clock and ultimately affect the heart.”

Much more here.

THAT WAS FAST:  Green Aussie PM Caves, Offers Subsidies for Coal and Gas.

OH, POOH!  South China hit by severe summer rains, triggering floods and mudslides.

WE’RE ALL HEADED FOR THE SOCIALISM WEIGHT LOSS PLAN, KIDS:  Grill, please: Skewered wallet is on the menu at your next summer barbecue.

MY FRIEND MARTIN L. SHOEMAKER HAS A KICKSTARTER: Ulla: Martian Song Book 1

I could tell you that since he claims I incited it by getting him to read Jane Austen (he isn’t a fan. Then again, he started with Emma! I could have told him better) I feel responsible. But the truth is that I went to his reading at Liberty con, and I think this project needs the best launch possible.

So, again: Ulla: Martian Song Book 1

What if H.G. Wells was wrong?

 

Once Eugene Hardy was a trailblazer, with a promising future studying law.

But the world outside his small town was cold and unforgiving. By 1907 he has returned home, teaching music at local schools and at his church. His life is quiet now, settled.

Then he encounters the circus train; and he meets the Martian…

The tragedy of London sweeps the world, threatening Martian refugees who never hurt anyone, but who cannot speak for themselves. Suddenly Eugene must stand for individual justice over collective guilt. Only this pacifist musician can protect the last free Martians.

From Martin L. Shoemaker, bestselling author of The Last Dance, The Last Campaign, and Today I Am Carey. Cover by Luca Oleastri.

This book is being produced via a Kickstarter campaign at https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/martinlshoemaker/ulla-martian-song-book-1. Ends June 23.

IN OTHER NEWS, MAN CUTS OFF NOSE; FACE UNIMPRESSED:  Gas station shuts down sales to protest fuel prices.

I WISH TO APOLOGIZE TO P. J. O’ROURKE’S GHOST:  Socialist rag wants to nationalize dating apps.

I really thought he was over the edge when he joked about socialist governments creating a department to manage affairs between middle aged, married people.

I HAVE LONG AGO COME TO SURMISE IT WAS “MISERY LOVES COMPANY”:  The Hill to Die On.

EUROPE COULD DO WORSE, AND USUALLY DOES:  Europe cozying up to Israel out of energy need?

A MOMENT OF SANITY:  Lia Thomas’ Olympic hopes are dashed.

THESE DAYS WE NEED TO READ THE NEWS TO FIGURE WHAT THEY’RE SELLING US:  Uvalde and all the rest: on reading press coverage carefully – ever so carefully.

BEHOLD, MY SHOCKED FACE:  Biden’s Family Pull Him Away From Reporters: “Nope. Like no more. No more questions”.

UNFORTUNATELY NOT THE STUPIDEST THING YOU’LL HEAR THIS YEAR:  Pete Buttigieg’s Plan to End Air Travel Armageddon: Force Airlines to Hire Workers.

THESE PEOPLE REALLY DON’T UNDERSTAND HOW ANYTHING WORKS:  Pete Buttigieg’s Plan to End Air Travel Armageddon: Force Airlines to Hire Workers.

BECAUSE THE WAY THE GERMANS USED IT WASN’T ENOUGH WARNING?   Called It 15 Years Ago – The Use of Race As A Political Weapon “Has Damaged Our Society In Ways We May Not Understand For Years”.

SORRY FOR THE LONG ABSENCE:  I was at Liberty con. (My home con.)

TO BE FAIR, THE NYT THINKS A LOT OF THINGS: Are a Majority of D.C. Circuit Judges Republican Appointees? The NYT Thinks So.

BILL WHO? OH, RIGHT. Bill Nye’s Juneteenth pander tweet backfires spectacularly. “Actually, the final slaves weren’t freed in Kentucky and Delaware (@JoeBiden’s home state) until the 13th Amendment was ratified on December 6, 1865.”

NOTHING TO SEE HERE, MOVE ALONG: JPMorgan economists evoke God (and Samuel L. Jackson) in a chilling research note about central banks.

OPEN THREAD: We are your friends.

NOW OUT FROM ANGELO CODEVILLA: America’s Rise and Fall among Nations.

BUREAUCRATS WITH GUNS: What Were Police Thinking? News About the Uvalde School Shooting Just Keeps Getting Worse and Worse. “Tony Plohetski, an investigative reporter for the Austin-American Statesman, tweeted a picture showing police stationed outside the classroom where more than a dozen children were murdered. The officers, armed with rifles and at least one ballistic shield, were in the hallway near the classroom at 11:52 a.m.—58 minutes before they breached the locked classroom, and 19 minutes after the gunman entered the school. At 12:03 p.m. a second officer with a ballistic shield arrived, followed by a third a few minutes later.”

UPDATE: From the comments: “This is government. Government is a costly, inefficient and ineffective way of organizing human behavior. Government will stand outside the door while innocent children on the other side of it are murdered in cold blood. Any time you are tempted to vote for an expansion of the government’s scope and power, remember Uvalde.”

WE NEED MORE JUNETEENTHS: Anything that gets the federal government to stop ‘working.’

Sunday was Juneteenth, a day named in honor of an event that took place on June Nine-teenth (see what they did there?) but is being observed this year on June Twent-ieth (see what they didn’t do there?).

The name of this holiday is one of its least confusing attributes. Despite being identified as a nearly 160-year-old celebration — it commemorates June 19, 1865, when the last slaves in Texas were informed of their freedom — it was only recognized as a federal holiday last year. By President Joe Biden.

Why making Juneteenth a federal holiday didn’t occur to Barack Obama, our nation’s first black president, and why Biden coincidentally chose to make it one following the 2020 riots surrounding George Floyd’s death, is a mystery for the ages. Though CNN enlightens us, “the Black Lives Matter movement propelled Juneteenth into the national spotlight.”

Still though, there is a downside:

STAY TUNED: The Next War? “It is very likely the case that the next major war has started. No—I don’t mean the Russia-Ukraine War, which could yet spread to the rest of Europe if we’re unlucky. I mean the Israel-Iran War.”