Today is Thursday, October 5, 2023. Since this is October, CNN has stated that it will be profiling some of the children and teens who have died from gun violence this year, so I’ve decided to highlight one of those articles that pays tribute to our youngest victims of senseless gun violence. The headline from this online article is gruesome and this is the kind of violence that this country has tolerated for a very long time without doing anything consequential about it. The article is entitled “More than 1,300 children and teens have been killed by guns so far this year. Here’s why we’re telling you some of their stories,” by Josh Freedom du Lac.

According to the article, the first tragic tween to die was Ameythst Sistine Silva, an 11-year-old, who was killed in front of her apartment on New Year’s Eve, 2023, who died from bullets ricocheting outside her apartment that struck her by accident. She died around midnight, as she was the first victim to die by gun violence in 2023. She was, according to her grieving father, obsessed with the Netflix series Stranger Things and was a lover of animals who hadn’t aged out of clasping her mother’s hand in public.

According to the Gun Violence Archive, Ameythst was only one of the startling 1,300 children and teens who were killed by firearms. Death by firearms has now become the leading cause of death among America’s youth until 2020.

Even as cars and roads have become safer, guns were killing more and more kids in America: Federal data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) shows the number of gun deaths among U.S. children and teenagers rose 50 percent between 2019 and 2021. As these statistics serve to numb us, there is another story that they fail to tell: the numbers of stolen futures and shattered families, of loving memories and incalculable loss.

One of those stories is that of King, the Georgia 9-year-old who slept with Lily and Stitch bedcovers and a Space Jam blanket until he was killed by another child who was handling an unsecured gun.

Another story is that of Frankie, the 10-year-old from California, who was playing with his cousins when he was killed in a drive-by – a bullet bouncing off the front door, then a ping-pong table before becoming lodged in his stomach.

“One other victim who died too young was Izaiah, a Maryland 16-year-old empath with a musician’s ear who was gunned down near his high school.”

“CNN is publishing a series of profiles of these and other gun victims – a daily reminder of some of the many young lives lost this year, and every year, in America.”

The project aims to focus on the people, not policy debates. To me, the message is loudly clear: do something about the innumerable lives lost senselessly to gun violence every day.

The article concludes with this quote: “I want people to know that Izaiah was your kid – your daughter, your son,” the teen’s mother said. She adds, “Izaiah was your child.” Isaiah could have been anyone’s child is the underlying message behind his senseless death brought on by another licensed or unlicensed firearm.

A new bombshell report about the fake bronzer of an ex-president appeared today in an online article for Raw Story by Matthew Chapman entitled ‘Sick to my stomach’: Ex-Pence aide aghast Trump shared nuclear info with foreign national.”

So far, this story has not gotten too much traction yet, and it deserves all the attention from the “fourth estate” as much as possible, and that is, it was revealed today that former insurrectionist Dumpf discussed U.S. nuclear submarine secrets with an Australian billionaire who happened to be a member of Chump’s Mar-a-Lago country club. If this can be verified, this is downright shocking, to say the least, but nothing about the Donald shocks anyone anymore, unfortunately.

Former Mike Pence national security aide Olivia Troye, a frequent critic of Trump’s conduct, expressed her horror at the news during a CNN interview that evening.

Talking to Wolf Blitzer, Troye said she was sick to her stomach after reading and learning this news exactly of what it was they believe it was that he shared with someone unauthorized to receive that information. Troye pointed out that Dumpf’s actions jeopardized some of the most vital people in service to government.

She said, “I think about just what a betrayal to have a former president of the United States sharing this information that could be easily given to foreign adversaries who are eagerly – like, eagerly seeking this type of information that could put all of our national security at risk. It is beyond disgraceful. This is awful.”

This devastating story appears to have gotten lost in all of the cacophony surrounding the Don’s latest civil fraud trial in which Chump’s lawyers are pulling out all of the stops in trying to delay the inevitable. It’s just appalling and epitomizes the baseness of this little worm of a creature.

Three days to go before Elliot and I journey to the Land of the Rising Sun. We’ve watched both episodes now of James May’s travel series involving his meanderings in the populous country. We actually knew most of the material included in both episodes, so I think we’re as prepared as we can be in journeying to this East Asian land of shrines and temples. Of course, Japan is also known as the epicenter of the manga, anime, and video game industries.

Oh, the news about Chump sharing nuclear secrets is now the lead story on Lawrence O’Donnell’s The Last Word, which is the attention the story really needs to receive from the more balanced news outlets. I don’t think Fox News will lead with this story on their show, regrettably.

This new bombshell should really open people’s eyes to the obvious danger still posed by this walking security leak. But it will not have any sway over his millions of stupefied supporters, I’m afraid. They will never be convinced he’s a monster!

Stay safe and be well.