Guns, guns, guns.
The McLeod River Post
Of course, the solution to school shootings in the U.S. is more guns. Armed guards, armed teachers, armed janitors, armed students maybe? It was wasn’t so sickening it would be funny. I was trained in the military as a firearms instructor. Long before that, in my youth, my father taught me to target shoot. I had weeks of familiarising myself with his rifle before I was ever allowed to shoot it. I respect firearms. I know what they can do. I hope that I have instilled that in others that I have taught. That respect and discipline, I believe, must be engrained into everybody that wishes to own or use a firearm. That doesn’t mean that someone is not going to go off the rails sometimes, but it may help, especially with accidental and negligent injuries and deaths.
Talking of going off the rails I read that the Florida shooter, I will not use his name, posted all kinds of weird stuff on social media. If social media was responsibly monitored could this horror have been prevented? Maybe. I heard authorities had a heads up too but didn’t act. We can all have 20-20 vision in hindsight. Turning this shooting, any shooting, for there will be another, into a political maneuvering session sickens me too.
The Russia inquiry goes on. Russians have been indicted and it looks like more charges are pending for people connected with Trump’s team. I’m beginning to think that people that went along with the Russians in their scheme to disrupt may be guilty of naivety rather than deliberate collusion, we’ll see. I still think it may a “me too,” complaint that could ultimately bring the house of cards down. Maybe the Russians have some evidence up their sleeves for the final chapters of this drama as we get ever closer to the U.S. mid term elections?
Closer to home. Justin Trudeau’s visit to India has not gone well. I appreciate that dressing up in Indian national dress may have been a good PR idea bit the visit looked like a holiday and hasn’t, I don’t think delivered in trade terms. India is notoriously a difficult nation to hammer out trade terms with. At the time of writing, Trudeau has not met with many, arguably any, A list movers or shakers. Maybe today. And, to put the tin hat on it an MP invited a guy along to a function with the Prime Minister with a conviction for attempted murder, way to go. When you’re at the top you’re at the mercy of being responsible for other people’s actions that you know nothing about. Be it scandalous, inappropriate or just plain dumb. I think the latter may apply here. In hindsight, wearing a business suit, treating the visit as a professional business trip, or just staying home may have been the better course of action.
The horror that is Syria goes on. Too many conflicting factions with not many, arguably any, of them having the welfare of the poor people caught in the crossfire at heart. Superpowers the U.S. and Russia are operating in the same theatre. It hasn’t got much media attention and Russia has played it down, but I’ve read a unit of Russian mercenaries suffered extensive casualties, 100 or so, through U.S. and artillery strikes when the unit tried to take an oil facility from a U.S. supported group. Worrisome indeed. Events like this can escalate.
Finally, national UK and international news. Kentucky Fried Chicken (KFC) stores, hundreds of them were forced to close over a shortage of chicken. What? Apparently, there was anew delivery regime going into action and the storage facility being used by the contractor (DHL) to store chicken was not registered with the local council to store food. It has since been inspected. I read the GMB union warned KFC last year that there would be problems shifting its logistics contractor from Bidvest Logistics to DHL. I guess there has been a “cock up” and someone or someone’s at KFC may have “egg on their face.” Big losses for franchise owners though and presumably staff at the bottom end of the wage scale.