That second mass shooting yesterday (I reported on the Atlanta killings yesterday--scroll down to the next posting) could well trigger significant progress in gun legislation. For the first time in a long time, Democrats are in control of all three, the Senate, House and White House, when significant incidents of this type previously occurred.
The shooter was Ahmad Al Aliwa Alissa, 21, who was born in the USA. He killed ten, including a police officer. He was captured alive, so we'll know why soon.
Boulder is around 38 miles from Columbine. It was almost 22 years ago that 12 students and a teacher were murdered by fellow students at Columbine High school. Eric David Harris and Dylan Bennet Klebold both committed suicide that day
As you know, there was an assault rifle ban in 1994 during a Democratic White House, but expired in 2004 when a Republican was president. Gun control was on President Joe Biden's priority list, and these two shootings mean one of two things could happen. Both background checks and a permanent assault rifle ban could well be adopted. The other option is that nothing much will be enacted, which will mostly mean that Republicans will be made to look as guilty as possible for the 2022 mid-term election. The National Rifle Association is about as weak as it has been in a long time.
Changing subjects to another form of mayhem, war, I was shocked to learn how many submarines are plying our oceans. Watch this:
I thought that there might be maybe 25, at most, plying our seas. THERE ARE MORE THAN 500!!! Well, 32 countries have them, and another 11 are negotiating for submarines. Saudi Arabia has zero, but plans to buy 5 from Germany, and two dozen more in the future. Here is just a select list from the 32:
- Malaysia: 2
- Taiwan:4
- Israel: 5
- Germany: 6
- Greece:11
- South Korea: 15
- Iran: 40
- Russia: 59
- USA:71
- North Korea: 75
- China: 76
How many of them are nuclear-powered? Wikipedia doesn't know for sure, but you count the number...if you have the time. Could well be a hundred or more still operating. The Soviet Union/Russia just by themselves built 245 nuclear submarines. All 71 of the U.S.'s are nuclear, and the next one will cost $7 billion. Add the annual operational cost for all of them. Oh, China, has only six nuclear subs.
Fourteen countries have 43 active aircraft carriers:
- USA: 11
- Italy: 2
- India: 2
- China, Spain, France, UK, Thailand, Russia and Brazil: one each
That only Chinese aircraft carrier in operation was actually built, but not finished, in Ukraine, and was towed to be outfitted in China. They do have two others now in construction. But they've never done this before.
Our latest aircraft carrier cost more than $13 billion, but when you count all the planes and other ships in the battle group, the price jumps to $30 billion. Then, they are budgeted at $2.5 billion/year to operate. Of course, we have eleven such strike teams. You can do the math. Seems like we should be able to cover any world situation with just six of them.
I keep bringing up the matter of national defense and the bloated budget because, let's face it, we today don't have a mortal enemy that is dedicated to conquer us. So why then are we spending so much money on destruction, which can better be applied to social and environmental priorities? Freedom, you say? Today, we can protect ourselves and rest of the world without having to spend as much as the next ten nations.
The answer? The Military-Industrial Complex. That's enough for now.
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