-Herschel Walker, still, somehow, on gun control

Authorities’ muddled and contradictory timelines of the shooting at a Uvalde, TX, elementary school on Tuesday have raised questions about how police actually responded, and the emerging answers are incredibly troubling.
 

• On Wednesday, Gov. Greg Abbott (R-TX) praised the bravery of law enforcement officers on the scene, saying about the violent murder of 19 children and two teachers, “it could have been worse.” It appears that it could have been better. The gunman was inside the school for over an hour, time that police spent massed outside as frantic parents screamed at them to charge into the school and tried to rush in themselves. In response, police put at least one parent in handcuffs. (There’s video of the scene outside the school; be advised that it’s difficult to watch.)
   
• Authorities now say that the shooter did not exchange gunfire with an armed school officer before he entered the building unobstructed, 12 minutes (?!) after crashing his truck nearby. When Border Patrol agents finally arrived and stormed the school, they were unable to break down the door that the shooter had locked, and had to get a staff member to open it with a key. According to a fourth grader who survived the shooting, their incompetence directly led to the death of at least one child. 
   
• The takeaway (beyond, you know, nausea) is that more good guys with guns and traumatizing active shooter drills aren’t the answer to school shootings: Robb Elementary School had all of it, to no avail. Uvalde spent 40 percent of its city budget on its police department last year, and the school district had doubled its security budget in recent years, adopting comprehensive safety plans that still fell short of preventing a massacre.

Nevertheless, Republicans have raced to change the subject of national discussion to anything but gun control.
 

• Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) has been out at the front of the pack, giving the nation’s fire marshalls ulcers by proposing that schools simply need better door control and running away from a Sky News reporter who pressed him on why school shootings are a uniquely American phenomenon. But he’s in good company: Behold this supercut of Fox News hosts and guests spitballing any and every solution except the stronger gun laws that have been proven to reduce deadly violence in other developed countries around the world.
   
• While the GOP does its level best to stall any action through another cycle of grief and outrage, the scope of the tragedy continues to grow. Joe Garcia, the husband of Irma Garcia, one of the teachers killed in the attack, died of a heart attack after going to place flowers at his wife’s memorial on Thursday, leaving behind four children. All 21 victims have now been identified, and their families have begun to share some details of their lives. 

The kids and teachers in Uvalde were failed by every level of leadership, from the Senate to the governor of Texas to the local police, and every bad-faith attempt to distract from that responsibility should be called out as such. If you’re up for a little action, whether it’s supporting affected families in Uvalde or getting Abbott the fuck out of office, here’s where you can help. 

If you have investments, odds are high that your money has been winding up in places you would never put it on purpose. Places like Mitch McConnell’s campaign coffers. Here’s the problem: A lot of Americans own S&P 500 index funds—these are funds made up of the 500 largest U.S. publicly traded companies available, and they collectively contain over $1.5 trillion dollars of Americans’ retirement money.

Unfortunately, when you buy an S&P 500 index fund, you’re buying stock in the following companies:

• First Energy, which just paid a $230M penalty related to a bribery scandal involving Ohio Republicans.
   
• Wynn Resorts, one of the top contributors to Donald Trump, Mitch McConnell, and the GOP.

• AT&T, which is already back supporting the election objectors in Congress, as well as the GOP sponsors of Texas’s abortion ban and voter-suppression law. It’s also a top donor to Mitch McConnell and Lindsey Graham.

• Halliburton, one of the nation’s biggest defense contractors, which has funneled millions to the GOP. 

• Lockheed Martin, which is one the largest weapons manufacturers in the world and one of Lindsey Graham’s top contributors.

The list goes on. But before you stuff all of your savings in your mattress and call it a day, you should know about DEMZ. 

DEMZ is the first investment product that allows you to get similar performance and exposure you would expect from the S&P 500,  without all the Mitch McConnell. It only includes companies who have made over 75% of their political contributions to Democratic causes and candidates. DEMZ has outperformed the S&P 500 since its launch in November of 2020.

You can finally put your money where your vote is, even on Wall Street. Look for the DEMZ ticker wherever you invest, or visit DEMZ.fund to learn more. 

Gov. Kevin Stitt (R-OK) has signed into law the nation’s strictest abortion ban, making Oklahoma the first state to effectively end all abortion access, in anticipation of Roe v. Wade’s imminent demise. The law takes effect immediately, and prohibits nearly all abortions from the point of fertilization, with slim exceptions for abortions that are necessary to save the life of the patient, or in cases of rape or incest if they were reported to law enforcement. Similar to the Texas abortion ban that the Supreme Court let stand, the Oklahoma law will be enforced by private citizens, who can sue abortion clinics or anyone who helps someone get an abortion. The law will make abortion harder to access across the whole region: After Texas enacted its six-week ban, many women traveled to Oklahoma for care. Go ahead and keep it bookmarked: votesaveamerica.com/roe.

• Senate Republicans on Thursday blocked a domestic terrorism bill that Democrats advanced in the wake of the Buffalo shooting, which would have opened debate on gun safety measures. 
   
• A New York appeals court ruled that disgraced former President Donald Trump must testify in Attorney General Letitia James’ investigation into his business practices. Don Jr. and Ivanka will be required to sit for depositions, as well. 
   
• The Michigan Board of State Canvassers has (along party lines) rejected the nominating petitions of five GOP gubernatorial candidates because they included thousands of fraudulent signatures. If the decision survives an absurd legal challenge, it will cut the primary field in half. 
   
• Nine monkeypox cases have been confirmed across seven states, according to the CDC. Some but not all of the U.S. patients had recently traveled to areas with known monkeypox outbreaks, and nearly all cases so far have been among men who have sex with men.
   
• An abortion clinic under construction in Wyoming was damaged in a fire that police believe was set intentionally. 
   
• The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court ruled this week that the state’s lawsuit accusing ExxonMobil of misleading the public about climate change can go forward. 
   
• Speaking of oil companies misleading the public (we can’t believe there are two examples either), Hot Take’s own Amy Westervelt outlined how the fossil fuel industry raced to convince Americans that climate policy was to blame for surging gas prices after Russia invaded Ukraine. 
   
• Actor Kevin Spacey has been charged with four counts of sexual assault against three men in the U.K., though the charges can’t be formally applied unless Spacey enters England or Wales. 
   
• Goodfellas star Ray Liotta has died. He was 67.
   
• Winnie the Pooh entered the public domain this year, so naturally he’s already the protagonist of a horror movie called Winnie the Pooh: Blood & Honey. Enjoy the copyright protection while it lasts, Tigger.

A GOP Wisconsin elections commissioner abruptly resigned on Wednesday, declaring, “I cannot be effective in my role representing Republicans on the commission.” Dean Knudson had been taking flak from other Republicans for refusing to parrot the lie that the 2020 election was stolen from Donald Trump, and said it was “clear” to him that Wisconsin GOP leaders had a “deep desire” that he not become chair of the Wisconsin Elections Commission. This is…pretty bad: By resigning with a big speech about how Republicans need to grow up and accept the 2020 election results, Knudson has allowed himself to be replaced by Wisconsin Assembly Speaker Robin Vos (R), who famously has not accepted the 2020 election results. The commission voted to delay a vote to select its next chair until June, and since state law requires that the next commission head be a Republican, the choice will be between whomever Vos picks and a MAGA freak named Robert Spinell, who was one of the fake Trump electors in the scheme to overturn the election results. Not an ideal state of affairs.

San Diego’s city council has approved a resolution declaring the city a safe haven for access to abortion. 

The DC nonprofit Feed the Fridge has been stocking its network of community fridges with free bottles of baby formula. 

Comfort dogs from across the country have converged on Uvalde, TX, to provide support. 

It’s been a rough week—here’s Capitol grounds staff rescuing some ducklings that fell down a sewer.