On the picture above, I once worked for Walmart. A young kid was ordered to put heavy grills up on the top of a shelf (riser). I noticed he was struggling to lift these heavy boxes by himself and was struggling. So I took another ladder and started to help him work together. Then this boy had reached his limit, and as he tried to pass a grill box up to me he lost it, his shoulders gave out, he lost the strength in his arms, and the heavy grill came down on him and started to knock him off the ladder. I realized what was happening and pushed out with my arms knocking the heavy grill box out over the boy. Walmart tried to blame me and make me pay for the damaged grill. I quit on the spot. I saved the boy and had a choice: either let the company blame me for their mistake or lose my job. Lucky for me I never took that job out of need, and I never regretted walking away from it. When I got home Ron wanted to sue them. I just never wanted anything to do with a company that would let a kid try to stack very heavy things over his head alone and then when he / his body failed, try to blame the guy who kept him from being knocked off the ladder to the concrete floor with a heavy grill box landing on him. The kid was so grateful to me; I was a decade older than him. I simply told him, if you see someone your age now when you are my age in trouble help them not caring what happens. Like I did you. I simply instinctively moved to use both arms to push the heavy box out over him. I have since learned it caused the damage in my left shoulder to accelerate that took the brunt of the grill box fall. Would I do it again? Oh yes. The local Walmart manager tried to make me pay them for the grill. I told them to sue me for it and we will see how a jury sees what I did. They mailed my last check, and I never saw any of them again. Hugs
“I can’t even imagine walking down the hallway and seeing a peer of mine being electrocuted in a place that is supposed to be a safe space for students.”
Police in Omaha, Nebraska are catching a ton of flak after revealing that they deployed electric shock gloves on two separate students during the 2025-2026 school year. One of the students was enrolled in a special education program.
After the news broke, Omaha Superintendent Matthew Ray pleaded with the city police department to stop using the electrocution gloves against students. Though Omaha police refer to the gloves as their “safest use-of-force option” for subduing suspects, they agreed not to deploy the devices in schools anymore, according to the Associated Press.
Still, questions remain as to how much the district knew about the devices before they were deployed. Though Ray says he only learned about the gloves last week, local station KETV reported that police had informed school administrators about the devices as far back as 2023.
The district’s request comes as outraged parents and students speak out against the extremely controversial devices, which are being procured by local and federal law enforcement agencies at an alarming clip.
“I can’t even imagine walking down the hallway and seeing a peer of mine being electrocuted in a place that is supposed to be a safe space for students,” Nora Wessel, a senior at Omaha Central High School, said at a recent school board meeting, per the AP. “Yet, this is now a very real possibility. These are adults we are supposed to be able to trust, but these weapons create a barrier for our students to turn to resource officers when needed.”
As recently as 2022, the company behind the devices — ominously named “Compliant Technologies” — marketed the shock gloves as a “weapon” in its publicity material. Within the past few years, they’ve shifted, calling them “conductive distraction and de-escalation” devices.
In practice, the shock gloves seem like little more than re-branded tasers, although they’re much more “discreet,” as Omaha Police Chief Todd Schmaderer told Government Technology in a statement.
The devices might be inconspicuous, but that doesn’t automatically make them humane. Or, on a purely practical level, effective tools for solving crime, as experts argue.
Speaking to Mother Jones about the gloves, senior policy analyst at the Center for Victims of Torture Yumna Rizvi referred to the devices as “inherently abusive equipment that facilitates torture,” adding that they have “no legitimate law enforcement purpose.”
Jake Lang — a racist and anti-LGBTQ+ Republican former candidate for Florida’s U.S. Senate seat who was jailed for allegedly assaulting Capitol Police officers during the January 6, 2021, riots — held a hate rally outside of City Hall in Minneapolis, Minnesota, during which he held up a sign that said, “Jake Lang loves Black people but hates [n-words].” Before he left, a counterprotester dressed as Spider-Man punched him in the face, and the punch was clearly captured on video. Lang was arrested soon after.
Lang’s rally was reportedly in response to 37-year-old white woman Shiloh Hendrix being found guilty of disorderly conduct after calling an autistic 8-year-old Black boy the racial slur at a playground in the Minnesotan city of Rochester. Lang appeared at City Hall on Saturday around 11:50 am in the back of a truck, protected by guards and Minneapolis Police and followed by an additional SUV, Newsweek reported.
The rally devolved into violence as counterprotestors attacked Lang and his crew, forcing them to flee City Hall after barely being there for six minutes. Shortly after their escape, police arrested Lang and charged him with inciting a riot; police also impounded the truck and SUV that Lang brought to City Hall.
Police also arrested the man in the Spider-Man costume, later identified as William Nicholas Love, along with 10 others. A GoFundMe crowdfunding campaign for Love’s legal defense has nearly raised all of its $70,000 goal as of Tuesday morning. He has been charged with assault. Meanwhile, Lang remains in jail without bond.
For future history books:Spider-Man punches Republican Christian nationalist racist Trump-pardoned Jan 6er pos Jake Lang.
In that incident, Lang had promised to lead a march through the Cedar-Riverside neighborhood (which has Minneapolis’ highest concentration of Somali-American residents) before burning a Quran on the steps of City Hall. But he reportedly didn’t get to do either because the counter-protestors — who outnumbered the 10 attendees at Lang’s event — cornered him outside City Hall before attacking him and chasing him away.
The anti-racist counterprotestors threw objects and water balloons at Lang before a 30-year-old Black Minneapolis resident named Isaiah Blackwell helped Lang escape.
Trump pardoned Lang after he had served four years in prison for attacking a U.S. Capitol police officer during the January 6, 2021, riots.
The U.S. military is experiencing a “beyond critical” shortage of advanced missile interceptors in Europe largely driven by President Donald Trump’s war with Iran, a U.S. defense official in Europe and a NATO official told The Associated Press, raising concerns about vulnerabilities in NATO countries to a potential Russian attack.
The U.S. defense official said the most concerning shortfall involves Patriot missile interceptors, which can shoot down Russia’s high-speed ballistic missiles. The NATO official confirmed the low inventories of Patriots among American and NATO forces in Europe. Both spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive military matters.
In the event of a Russian ballistic missile assault on, for example, a military headquarters or power plant, NATO could be in a similar position to Patriot-starved Ukraine and be forced “to take punch after punch in the mouth,” the U.S. defense official said.
Smoke rises above warehouse stores after a Russian air attack in Kyiv, Ukraine, Thursday, Aug. 27, 2026. (AP Photo/Efrem Lukatsky)
In Europe, the American military “definitely” does not have enough Patriots to stop any possible sustained ballistic missile attack and would have “very limited” capability to defend against a single ballistic missile strike or a stray Russian missile that goes off course, the U.S. official said.
Smoke rises above warehouse stores behind a sunflower field following a Russian air attack in Kyiv, Ukraine, Thursday, Aug. 27, 2026. (AP Photo/Efrem Lukatsky)
US Patriot transfers to Ukraine played a role in the drawdown, but the Iran war wasn’t expected
U.S. Army Col. Martin O’Donnell, a senior NATO military spokesperson, said it is “simply not the case” that the number of Patriot missiles in Europe is beyond critical.
NATO, he said, is able to “block punches” and has enough air defense munitions available to defend itself as well as to donate to Ukraine.
Chief Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell said in a statement Thursday that claims of U.S. munition shortages “are false.”
“We have everything required to strike at the time and place of the President’s choosing,” Parnell said. “Across multiple combatant commands, we have already executed successful operations while maintaining a deep, ready arsenal to defend our people and our interests.”
Officials in Ukraine, however, are begging for more Patriots to defend against Russian missile attacks, while previous U.S. transfers to Ukraine have drawn down some of the American supply of the interceptors.
Kyiv says only U.S.-made Patriots can stop Russia’s advanced ballistic missiles, which increasingly are getting through Ukrainian defenses, including as part of a barrage overnight into Thursday.
The U.S. supplied hundreds of Patriot missiles to Ukraine over the course of the 4 1/2-year-long conflict, but the Iran war was the tipping point for shrinking inventories, said Ed Arnold, senior associate fellow at the Royal United Services Institute, a military think tank in London.
The supply to Ukraine was planned for and reasonably measured, he said, whereas stocks in the Middle East have been unexpectedly and quickly drained, exposing supply chain constraints.
The U.S. military in Europe also is grappling with critical shortages of the Army Tactical Missile System, or ATACMS, a medium-range ballistic missile designed to strike behind enemy lines, the two officials said. But the overall munitions picture in Europe is less dire than on air defenses alone because some European militaries have their own offensive missiles, such as the Taurus and Storm Shadow, which are both long-range air-launched bunker-busting missiles.
Europe has few alternatives while stocks are low
The dearth of Patriot interceptors in Europe would leave few alternatives for shooting down Russia’s more advanced ballistic missiles, which can be combined with swarms of inexpensive drones to overwhelm defenses, experts say.
Ukraine and some allies already use systems that can destroy slower-moving drones without expensive missiles. But ballistic missiles are a challenge because they dive steeply toward targets at more than five times the speed of sound, leaving little time to stop them.
The Patriot system tracks the missile, predicts its path and launches within minutes, all while carrying out complex calculations to ensure the interceptor finds its target. One Patriot battery can only cover a limited area: for example, a small military base but not a whole city.
One alternative could be France and Italy’s SAMP/T NG air defense system. France has promised to speed up the delivery of the system — the upgraded version of the current SAMP/T — to Ukraine, which the manufacturer says is better able to counter ballistics.
The new iteration, however, has not yet been battle tested and the current version of the SAMP/T has a smaller range than the Patriot.
While U.S. and European militaries have warships that can serve as mobile air defense, they may be too far from a target to protect it and could risk getting sunk.
Patriot stocks have plunged during the Iran war
Ukraine has received Patriots from American and European stockpiles since Russia’s 2022 invasion, with the U.S. providing about 600 of the interceptors during the Biden administration, said Mark Cancian, a retired Marine colonel who is now senior adviser at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a Washington think tank.
But the greatest expenditure has been during the Iran conflict, which has used up 65% of U.S. Patriots, amounting to roughly 1,500 of the nation’s 2,330 interceptors, CSIS says. About 600 missiles, including those destined for Europe, should be made this year, with a production goal of 2,000 Patriot missiles a year set for 2030, Cancian said.
NATO says Europe’s first Patriot missile production facility is expected to open in Germany in September, with deliveries possibly beginning early next year. The first deliveries should go to countries that have already placed orders, including Germany, the Netherlands, Romania and Spain, the U.S. defense official said.
But for now, that means some countries, such as Germany, have bought expensive Patriot systems but are in the “ridiculous” position of not having any ammunition to fire from them, said Arnold of the London think tank.
Germany’s defense ministry said it does not comment on stockpiles.
Russia also has limitations
Moscow likely cannot carry out a sustained air assault on a NATO target while it launches almost nightly attacks on Ukraine, Arnold said.
Hello folks! I’ve got big news : my newest book, “Sex Ed for Everyone”, is O U T!
“Sex Ed for Everyone : comics about relationships, identities and puberty” is exactly what it sounds like : two sarcastic queer and trans teenagers being sassy and somehow educational talking about sex education. I’m particularly excited about this book, as it is the type of content I would have needed as a queer and trans teenager. You can get it right here
