"By shoehorning these attacks into familiar narratives — gun violence, homophobia, jihadism — we can make sense of them, helping us to grieve, and also to process the danger and how to respond to it. Even more, it allows us to validate a pre-existing worldview or belief whose truth we feel has gone unacknowledged." I say name it a mass murder and call it a day. From NYT - Gays, Guns and Jihad: Motives Blur on Closer Scrutiny
+ "Another possibility is that the internal forces that led Mateen to his deadly attack...accelerated quickly. With the gun buys being made in the past two weeks, Mateen's earlier talk of radicalism may have been just talk, with the seriousness developing later." Any way you slice it, without significantly trampling on everyone's civil liberties and privacy, ferreting out these guys is very difficult. "How individuals get to this point is really complex, and if we try to boil it down to one factor we're going to miss a lot of that complexity." From Politico - For FBI, another set of 'what ifs'
*2. A TYPE OF LETHAL ERECTER SET
"The type of rifle used to kill 49 people and injure 53 at an Orlando nightclub Sunday — in the worst mass shooting in U.S. history — is as American as baseball cards and apple pie. The AR-15 is synonymous with the shootings in San Bernadino, Calif, Auroroa, Colo, and Newtoen, Conn. From WaPo - The history of the AR-15
+ "The 10 Newtown plaintiffs argue that the AR-15 is a weapon of war...and therefore should never have been marketed to civilians. They say, in effect, that the availability of a high-velocity weapon capable of inflicting such rapid carnage constitutes such negligence. The plaintiffs’ lawyer, Joshua D. Koskoff, contends that the AR-15’s overwhelming firepower makes it a poor choice for home defense, hunting and recreation. 'But there is one civilian activity in which the AR-15 reigns supreme: mass shootings,' the lawsuit said." From NYT - Surprising Progress in Newtown Families’ Suit Against Maker of the AR-15 Rifle
+ "How do I tell my son that 49 people all died the way his sister did? And in one of our favorite places: Orlando, Florida?" From Vox - My 6-year-old daughter died at Sandy Hook. You never move on.
+ "According to an analysis of 2010 data by the Urban Institute, a nonpartisan think tank, the price tag was $669 million in direct hospital costs for just that year and $174 billion in larger societal costs, which includes disability, effects on employment, and other longer-term factors." From Fortune - The Astronomical Costs of America’s Gun Epidemic — In One Chart
*3. HACK-A-TRUMP
"The purpose of such intelligence gathering is to understand the target's proclivities. Trump's foreign investments...would be relevant to understanding how he would deal with countries where he has those investments." This would be more fun if the Russians sold the information to Trump. From NYT - D.N.C. Says Russian Hackers Penetrated Its Files, Including Dossier on Donald Trump and from WaPo - Russian government hackers penetrated DNC, stole opposition research on Trump
*4. IT'S A UTILITY, NOT A LUXURY
"High-speed internet service can be defined as a utility, a federal court has ruled.The decision affirmed the government’s view that broadband is as essential as the phone and power and should be available to all Americans, rather than a luxury that does not need close government supervision." From NYT - Court Backs Rules Treating Internet as Utility, Not Luxury
*5. HOW ABOUT GLOBAL THERMALNUCLEAR WAR
"What would it mean to have Trump’s fingers on the nuclear button? We don't really know, but we do know this: In the atomic age the presidency has evolved into something akin to a nuclear monarchy. With a single phone call, the commander in chief has virtually unlimited power to rain down nuclear weapons on any adversarial regime and country at any time. You might imagine this awesome executive power would be hamstrung with checks and balances, but by law, custom and congressional deference there may be no responsibility where the president has more absolute control." From Politico - What Exactly Would It Mean to Have Trump’s Finger on the Nuclear Button?
*BOTTOM OF THE NEWS
- Is Stephen Curry Changing Basketball, or Just Owning It? From NYT
+Steph Curry Literally Sees the World Differently Than You Do - From NYMag
- Welcome to the Most Productive Place on the Planet - From Ozy
- Tesla Plans to Sell Its Electric Cars At Nordstrom - From FastCompany
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