Warning Label

Political Cartoon is by Patrick Chappatte in The Boston Globe.

Canada Does What U.S. Refuses - Bans Assault Weapons

In spite of many mass shootings in this country where the primary weapon used was a military-style assault weapon, the federal government (primarily Republicans) has absolutely refused to ban them.

Many of those Republicans will say that they don't want to violate the Constitution with such a ban. But that argument is a lie. The Supreme Court has ruled that it is constitutional for the government to ban military-style weapons -- and when the assault weapons were banned in the past, they specifically said that ban was constitutional. The truth is that those GOP congressmen have been bought and paid for by the NRA and the gun manufacturers through campaign donations -- and they consider those donations more important than saving American lives (which aa assault weapons ban would do).

But Canada does not have the same disingenuous stance. After a recent mass shooting spree in that country, the Canadian government has acted. They are banning all military-style assault weapons in their country.

Here is how Amanda Coletta reports it in The Washington Post:

The Canadian government on Friday announced an immediate ban on some 1,500 makes and models of “military-grade” assault weapons, including two weapons used by the gunman who killed 22 people in rural Nova Scotia during the country’s deadliest mass shooting last month.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said there will be a two-year amnesty period for current gun owners to comply with the prohibition. He said legislation will be drafted in the coming months to provide “fair compensation” to them.

“There is no use and no place for such weapons in Canada,” Trudeau said in a news conference in Ottawa on Friday that began with him listing several mass shootings in the country’s history.

He said that while most firearms owners are law-abiding citizens, “you don’t need an AR-15 to bring down a deer.”

Pre-Existing Conditions

Political Cartoon is by John Darkow in the Columbia Missourian.

Pants On Fire!

It Is A Myth (Invented By The Rich To Control Workers)

Texas Reopens Today (But It is NOT Ready)

(This chart uses figures from The COVID Tracking Project.)

Governor Abbott is taking this first steps to reopening the Texas economy today. At 12:01am, he is ending the stay-at-home orders and the mask wearing orders in many Texas cities (and those activities will now be voluntary), and is letting restaurants, malls, movie theaters, churches, libraries, museums, and retail stores reopen for business (at 25% capacity). In about two weeks, he will let them go to 50% capacity (and counties with less than 5 Coronavirus cases can reopen now at 50%).

But he is jumping the gun. The chart above shows the number of deaths due to the virus for April. Note that the deaths continue to rise, with no flattening. He is playing to the wishes of Donald Trump, and in doing so, he's putting money over the lives of Texans.

NOTE -- The state of Texas has a population of 29,000,000. About 314,790 tests have been done for the Coronavirus. That's 1.085% of the population. In other words, the governor doesn't have any idea how widespread the virus is among the Texas population -- and neither does anyone else.

Nothing For The Little Ones

Political Cartoon is by Arend van Dam at Cagle.com.

Over 3.8 Million Workers Filed For Unemployment Last Week

The Labor Department has released its statistics for the number of workers who applied for unemployment in the week ending on 4/25/20. It shows another 3,839,000 applied. That is lower than the number who applied in the previous four weeks, but still far higher than the number applying each week in January or February of this year.

That brings to total unemployment claims for the last six weeks to 30,307,000 workers. That is 18.6% of the civilian workforce of 162,913,000. And we haven't seen the end of those filing for claims because they are out of a job. There will be millions more in the coming weeks.

Here is the official statement from the Labor Department:

In the week ending April 25, the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims was 3,839,000, a decrease of 603,000 from the previous week's revised level. The previous week's level was revised up by 15,000 from 4,427,000 to 4,442,000. The 4-week moving average was 5,033,250, a decrease of 757,000 from the previous week's revised average. The previous week's average was revised up by 3,750 from 5,786,500 to 5,790,250.

Priorities

Political Cartoon is by Dave Granlund at davegranlund.com.

New Poll Shows Texas Voters Split Between Biden & Trump

The chart above reflects the results of a new Public Policy Polling survey -- done on April 27th and 28th of 1,032 Texas voters.

The survey shows Joe Biden with a 1 point edge over Donald Trump in Texas. Another poll released a few days ago (the UT / TT Poll) had Trump ahead by 5 points.

It's anyone's guess as to which poll is right (if either). But one thing they show is that Democrats in Texas are closer than they have been in many years. The state is in play for the 2020 election.

It's all going to come down to who shows up to vote in November. And if the Coronavirus is still around in November, that will be unpredictable.

Testing

Political Cartoon is by Matt Wuerker at Politico.com.

Pandemic Slides A Half-Billion People Into Poverty Worldwide (But Billionaires Are Doing Very Well)

(This image of rich and poor is by Rogelio Naranjo, and was found at Phawker.com.)

It would be a huge understatement to say the  billionaires are doing well. Between 1990 and 2020, the wealth of U.S. billionaires climbed by 1130%.

And they have not been hurt by the pandemic. Between March 18th and April 10th (as over 22 million workers lost their jobs), the wealth of U.S. billionaires increased by 10%.

But the same cannot be said of the middle and working classes. They are struggling just to maintain their economic state, and many are sliding into poverty because of lost jobs. And this is a worldwide phenomenon.

The pandemic may not be affecting the rich, but it is causing as many as a half-billion people to slide into poverty worldwide.

Consider this small part of an article in The New York Times by Maria Abi-Habib:

The World Bank says that for the first time since 1998, global poverty rates will rise. By the end of the year, 8 percent of the world’s population — half a billion people — could be pushed into destitution, largely because of the wave of unemployment brought by virus lockdowns, the United Nations estimates. . . .

While everyone will suffer, the developing world will be hardest hit. The World Bank estimates that sub-Saharan Africa will see its first recession in 25 years, with nearly half of all jobs lost across the continent. South Asia will likely experience its worst economic performance in 40 years.

Most at risk are people working in the informal sector, which employs two billion people who have no access to benefits like unemployment assistance or health care. . . .

The financial shock waves could linger even after the virus is gone, experts warn. Countries like Bangladesh, which spent heavily on programs to improve education and provide health care, which help lift families out of destitution, may now be too cash-strapped to fund them. . . .

The gains now at risk are a stark reminder of global inequality and how much more there is to be done. In 1990, 36 percent of the world’s population, or 1.9 billion people, lived on less than $1.90 a day. By 2016, that number had dropped to 734 million people, or 10 percent of the world’s population, largely because of progress in South Asia and China. . . .

But that progress may be reversed, experts worry, and funding for anti-poverty programs may be cut as governments struggle with stagnant growth rates or economic contractions as the world heads for a recession.

Coronavirus Companions

Political Cartoon is by Paresh Nath at Cagle.com.

He IS Responsible