The Cloud

In Missouri, a 16-year-old sent to pick up his younger brothers rings the wrong doorbell and is shot through a glass door in the head and arm. Thankfully, the boy, who is black, will survive. The homeowner is white.

In New York, a 20-year-old woman riding in a car that turned into the wrong driveway is shot and killed.

In Alabama, four young black people are killed and 32 others injured at a “sweet 16” birthday party. 

In Tennessee and Kentucky, communities are trying to recover from recent mass shootings and politicians are struggling to react to public demands for more gun control. Two black legislators are reinstated after being expelled from the Tennessee statehouse by white leaders for loudly joining the protesters.

There have been at least 160 mass shootings already this year in the U.S. and it’s only spring. Uncounted other deaths and injuries like those in Missouri and New York continue as well.

Race sometimes is a factor, sometimes not. Guns are the common element here. And you better not get the address you’re looking for wrong.

Florida, meanwhile, has a governor who would like to be president, opposes gun control and wants to whitewash (literally) the history taught schoolchildren by omitting mentions of slavery and the resulting legacy of racism from school textbooks.

This toxic mixture of guns and race continues to tear America apart. There seems to be little hope for meaningful reforms at any level of government in the “red” states, and so the slaughter will continue into the future.

And if leaders like DeSantis have their way, the ignorance that fuels fear, violence and racism will only intensify and deepen, making everything worse.

At sunrise it was a beautiful day here on the west coast, but early on a dark cloud appeared, hiding the sun away. Before long, it stretched from coast to coast over a land that refuses to come to grips with the most difficult and uncomfortable parts of its past.

LINKS:

• Google CEO says he doesn't 'fully understand' how new AI program Bard works after it taught itself a foreign language it was not trained to and cited fake books to solve an economics problem (Daily Mail)

• You Can’t Regulate What You Don’t Understand (O’Reilly)

• Elon Musk agrees A.I. will hit people ‘like an asteroid,’ says he used Obama meeting to urge regulation (Fortune)

• What’s new in the world of generative AI? (TechCrunch)

• OpenAI’s CEO Says the Age of Giant AI Models Is Already Over (Wired)

• Google faces A.I. threat: The tech giant is sprinting to protect its core business with a flurry of projects, including updates to its search engine and plans for an all-new one. (Cal Today)

• ChatGPT Can Decode Fed Speak, Predict Stock Moves From Headlines (Bloomberg)

• How AI Is Building the Next Blockbuster Videogames (WSJ)

• F.B.I. Arrests Two on Charges Tied to Chinese Police Outpost in New York (NYT)

• Fiscal crisis nears as McCarthy takes debt ceiling plan to Wall Street (WP)

• Democratic senators favor forcing House vote on debt limit increase (The Hill)

• Pentagon, Intelligence Agencies Face Calls for Details on Leak Probe (WSJ)

• A 20-year-old woman was shot and killed after accidentally turning into the wrong driveway in upstate New York, officials say (CNN)

• Rep. Nancy Mace (R-S.C.) called out her fellow GOP members for their “silence” on gun violence and “extreme” positions on abortion. "There are plenty of things that we can be doing besides offering prayers and silence," Mace said, but stopped short of calling for gun control beyond tightening background checks for gun buyers. [HuffPost]

• Trump’s House GOP allies take fight to Manhattan DA’s turf (AP)

• Trump’s Fund-Raising: From Sluggish to Surging After Indictment (NYT)

• Republican donor pauses Ron DeSantis funding over abortion and book banning. (Guardian)

• Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas now reportedly plans to amend his financial disclosure forms to include a 2014 deal to sell properties in Georgia to his billionaire friend Harlan Crow after a ProPublica report revealed the undisclosed transaction. [HuffPost]

• Sudan Fears ‘Ghost of Civil War’ as Explosions Rock Capital (NYT)

• Rival armed forces intensify battle for control of Sudan as civilian death toll rises (NBC)

• Ukraine seeks re-opening of grain transit via Poland as import bans mount (Reuters)

• Ukraine’s counter-offensive is drawing near (Economist)

• U.S. Ambassador Visits WSJ Reporter for the First Time in Moscow Prison (Daily Beast)

• In Pakistan, Economic Crisis Mutes Ramadan Celebrations (NYT)

• In Japan, the Group of Seven rich nations set new collective targets for solar power and offshore wind capacity, agreeing to speed up renewable energy development and move toward a quicker phase-out of fossil fuels. (Reuters)

• The 100-year-old-mistake that’s reshaping the American West (Vox)

• Ancient DNA reveals secrets of empire that pushed China to build its Great Wall (CNN)

• Researchers released robot trash cans in NYC to see how people would react (NPR)

• Writers strike looms after members vote to shut down film and TV production (CNN)

• JUICE spacecraft launched to investigate the habitability of Jupiter’s icy moons (Verge)

• Covid is still a leading cause of death as the virus recedes (WP)

• McDonald’s is upgrading its burgers (CNN)

• Conflict-Avoidant Vending Machine Accepts Canadian Coin (The Onion)