In the U.S., spikes in gun purchases are often driven by fear. But in past years that anxiety has centered on concerns that politicians will pass stricter gun controls. Mass shootings often prompt more gun sales for that reason, as do elections of liberal Democrats.
Many gun buyers now are saying they are motivated by a new destabilizing sense that is pushing even people who had considered themselves anti-gun to buy weapons for the first time — and people who already have them to buy more.
The nation is on track in 2020 to stockpile at record rates, according to groups that track background checks from FBI data. Across the country, Americans bought 15.1 million guns in the seven months this year from March through September, a 91% leap from the same period in 2019, according to seasonally adjusted firearms sales estimates from The Trace, a nonprofit news organization that focuses on gun issues. The FBI has also processed more background checks for gun purchases in just the first nine months of 2020 than it has for any previous full year, FBI data show.
TV show Dallas was the main reason behind the collapse of communism in the Soviet Union, it has been claimed.
Eurythmics co-founder Dave Stewart said that former Soviet Premier Mikhail Gorbachev told him that the 1980s soap opera ‘had more effect’ in ending the Cold War than anything else.
Mr Stewart, 68, said the Gorbachev admitted an illicit broadcast of the US show in Russia had opened his people’s eyes to Western life, and the Texas-based show ‘brought down’ the communist superpower.
[…]
Mr Stewart said it had taken place in the early 1990s just as the Soviet Union was starting to open up. Before then, the Russians had been stopped by the government from listening to Western music or watching TV shows.
He said: ‘He was saying what brought Russia down was they weren’t allowed to see any shows from anywhere and they had in the churches they had giant blockers of signals so they’d only get fed the information from the government.
[…]
‘What Gorbachev was saying it was Dallas the TV show, somebody managed to get a VHS to work and broadcast it to part of Russia and they thought, ”Hang on, that’s how people live in America?”
‘He said that had more effect, that half an hour, than anything else.’
My column for the Washington County Daily News is online and in print. Here’s a taste:
In any civic society, the stability and success of the government requires that the vast majority of the people consider the government to be legitimate, but legitimacy is an elusive concept that is largely in the mind of each citizen. Some argue that democratic governments are inherently legitimate because democracies are designed to enact the will of the majority of the people. Democracy, however, is a method of making decisions. It is not, in and of itself, a basis of legitimacy.
Thomas Jefferson got to the root of it in the Declaration of Independence when he echoed John Locke’s contention that governments are instituted, “deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.” The word “consent” is the basis of legitimacy and can be just as easily given or withdrawn in a democracy as in an autocracy. A relatively free society like ours relies on almost everyone agreeing to abide by the laws enacted by government of their own free will — even when they disagree with the law or the means by which it was enacted. Unlike a totalitarian government, democratic societies purposefully lack the police power to enforce widespread disobedience and face stiff resistance when they try. For order and stability to prevail, almost everyone must generally consent to the laws. They will only do so when they think that the government is legitimate and that there is a general sense that we are all in this together.
There are many things that can rend the sense of legitimacy in a democracy. Marxists rely on dividing people by class and race to delegitimize the government by convincing people that the government is not working for them. Democracies can devolve into mob rule where a substantial minority is subjugated to the majority. Technocracies can develop in democracies where the public will is subverted by unelected experts. Human history is replete with the rise and fall of governments. They always fall when the people no longer think they are legitimate and, therefore, no longer feel a need to obey them.
Between the end of the 18th and 19th centuries, the number of Jews in the world rose to more than 10 million, and climbed further to 16.5 million on the eve of the second world war. Most of the growth was in eastern Europe, then America and then Palestine and Israel.
The murder of 6 million Jews in the Holocaust reduced the global population to around 11 million, “radically disrupt[ing] what had been up to that moment the continuous build-up and transformation of European Jewry”.
In 1880, 88% of the world’s Jews lived in Europe. By 1945, this share had fallen to 35%, then to 26% in 1970 and to 9% in 2020. Most of this decline happened in eastern Europe, where the share of the global total fell from 26% in 1945 to 2% in 2020.
In the latter decades of the 20th century, the “opening of the doors of the Soviet Union” meant that more than 1.8 million Jews left eastern Europe between 1969 and 2020, resulting in “a drastic shift in the Jewish population’s centre of gravity from the east to the west of the continent”.
I bit the bullet and watched the entire debate in full. It was remarkably different from the last one. Biden came off as an empty suit – and angry empty suit, but empty nonetheless. I think the difference on COVID response is stark. My experience with being out in public (I’ve been in 6 or 7 states and multiple cities over the last couple of months) is that people are generally tuning out the politicians and going about their lives. They are wearing masks when seemingly appropriate, keeping distance, washing hands, etc., but getting back to work and life. Specifically in Wisconsin, I’ve been out to 4 or 5 restaurants since the 25% order was implemented and 0% are complying… and nobody cares. Trump has his finger on the public pulse. People don’t want to shut down again and if the politicians try, the people will shrug it off.
In individual closing argument to voters, they offered starkly different visions for the nation on everything from shutting down the country to tackle coronavirus, to shutting down the fossil fuel industry to confront climate change.
Nowhere was the distinction between the two candidates more apparent than in their approach to the pandemic.
Asked about his support for more lockdowns if the scientists recommended it, Mr Biden, a Democrat, did not rule it out.
But Mr Trump, a Republican, said it was wrong to inflict further damage on the economy because of an infection from which most people recover.
“This is a massive country with a massive economy,” said the president. “People are losing their jobs, they’re committing suicide. There’s depression, alcohol, drugs at a level nobody’s ever seen before.”
The company will rearrange its media and entertainment divisions into a single organization responsible for content distribution, ad sales, and Disney Plus.
[…]
“Under the new structure, Disney’s world-class creative engines will focus on developing and producing original content for the Company’s streaming services, as well as for legacy platforms, while distribution and commercialization activities will be centralized into a single, global Media and Entertainment Distribution organization,” the company says.
Watching these stories over the past few months have been some of the most heart-wrenching moments. Isolating the elderly from their families in the waning days of their lives is cruel and accelerates their decline. We don’t want to throw the doors open, but there is a way to allow families to be with their parents and grandparents while mitigating the risk.
Now, a grassroots movement of families is demanding compromise on nursing home lockdowns, arguing that social isolation for nursing home residents is nearly as deadly as the virus that sent their facilities into lockdown. The calls come amid uneasiness from eldercare advocates and as rapid Covid-19 tests are only beginning to reach nursing homes.
“Many of these facilities’ families haven’t been in there in months, and they can see their family members dwindling away, and they’re losing days they can never get back,” said Dave Bruns, a spokesperson for the American Association of Retired Persons (AARP) of Florida. Nevertheless, they face a “lose-lose” proposition.
“Just the isolation caused by the shutdown order is literally killing people,” he said. “If you don’t reopen them, that’s definitely going to kill some people, and if you do open them it’s definitely going to kill some people.”
Window visits and Facetime, caregivers argue, are insufficient and can be actively distressing to some patients. Further, they argue lockdowns have allowed asymptomatic staff members with Covid-19 into nursing homes, but allowed “no room for error” for family members.
Digital TV Research says that U.S. figure will have declined from a peak of $105B in 2015.
And the global number will drop to $152B in 2025 – below even 2010’s $175B. That’s despite the fact that pay TV subscribers will have risen by 345M in that 15-year span.
And the revenue drop despite rising subscribers is due to the declines coming in mature, high-priced markets. The U.S. projected figure of $56B is still far higher than anywhere else.
Thousands of scientists and health experts have joined a global movement warning of “grave concerns” about Covid-19 lockdown policies.
Nearly 6,000 experts, including dozens from the UK, say the approach is having a devastating impact on physical and mental health as well as society.
They are calling for protection to be focused on the vulnerable, while healthy people get on with their lives.
[…]
But the movement – known as the Great Barrington Declaration – mirrors some of the warnings in a letter signed by a group of GPs in the UK.
Sixty-six GPs, including TV doctors Dr Phil Hammond and Dr Rosemary Leonard and a number of medics who have held senior roles at the British Medical Association, have written to the health secretary, saying there is insufficient emphasis on “non-Covid harms” in the decision-making.
A person reported to be a supporter of the Patriot Muster militia has been shot and killed at a protest in Denver, allegedly by a counterprotester with the BLM-Antifa rally.
The militia supporter maced a counterprotester, who then pulled out his handgun and shot dead the militia supporter, the Denver Post reported.
Rival rallies had been called for Saturday afternoon by the two opposing groups.
In case you were wondering, yes, they are communists and fascists. And yes, they do intentionally put hearts and soup drive BS on their propaganda to fool the stupid. These are violent radicals intent on overthrowing our representative Republic.
Nevertheless, it is valid to ask it about Jews because, if any group should be wary of dismantling a society, especially a decent one, it is the Jews. The moment civilization begins to disintegrate, the Jews are the first victims–never the only, but always the first.
That’s why Jews have so often been likened to the proverbial canary in the mine. Miners take canaries down with them because when there are noxious fumes, canaries die, and when the miners see the dead canaries, they know there are toxic fumes they must fight, or they, too, will die.
That’s why decent non-Jews who don’t fight anti-Semitism are fools. They don’t understand that anti-Semitism represents a mortal threat to them. Tens of millions of non-Jews were killed because decent non-Jews ignored Hitler early on, dismissing him and Nazism as a Jewish problem.
It is often asked how the most culturally advanced country in Europe, perhaps in the world, could produce Nazism and the Holocaust. Or, as it is often put, “How did the country that gave us Bach, Beethoven, Heine, and Schiller give us Auschwitz?”
One answer is that advanced culture and advanced morality are not the same. The Nazis loved classical music.
The other, more important, answer is that civilization is fragile.
(CNN)A Texas teacher was fired for continuing to wear a Black Lives Matter face mask after school officials asked her to stop.
Lillian White, an art teacher at Great Hearts Western Hills, a public charter school in San Antonio, began wearing a face mask that read “Black Lives Matter” and “Silence is Violence” after the charter school reopened in the summer for in-person workdays amid the coronavirus pandemic. At the time, students were not on campus.
White said she wore the mask to demonstrate her support for Black students and faculty, but also to advocate for an anti-racism action plan and a more diverse curriculum.
Great Hearts Texas Superintendent Daniel Scoggin said in a statement to CNN that school policy forbids faculty from displaying messages on their face masks.
“Great Hearts enacted, in this unprecedented pandemic environment, a policy that face coverings have no external messages,” Scoggin said.
The art teacher, who has worked in education for more than 10 years, continued to wear the mask despite receiving multiple requests from school officials to stop.
“I immediately knew it was time for me to make a decision, and I didn’t think twice about it. This is a human rights issue and I did it for my students who experience racial injustice in school. I refused to back down,” White said.
“If you’re scared about what parents are going to say because a teacher is supporting equal rights, you need to reevaluate the kind of people you’re catering to. By staying silent, Great Hearts is only supporting racist parents.”
Three comments…
1) Notice how it wasn’t the message on the mask. It was the fact that there was a message at all. The school’s policy is clear. It is designed to prevent teachers from abusing their position of power to advocate personal opinions and to ensure that the school is a welcoming place for families of all backgrounds and perspectives. This teacher refused to adhere to the policy. The administration worked with her for weeks to get her to adhere to the policy. She left them no choice.
2) Notice the false paradigm. If you don’t support HER political and social views and support HER advocacy of such, then you are a racist. The administration is racist for wanting to keep all messages off of masks. And the parents who might not want to see such messaging on their kids’ teacher’s mask are racists. The teacher has an incredibly selfish and closed mind. It’s a good thing she isn’t teaching kids anymore.
3) Is anyone else amused that her name is Lillian White… Lily White? No? C’mon, man…
When protests turn into rioting and wanton criminal violence, it’s going to turn a few people off. Americans have a very long history of protests – even boisterous protests. We love them. What we don’t love is people burning down our towns, accosting us in our cars and restaurants, and shooting cops.
Support for Black Lives Matter protests is falling across the country after months of unrest that has seen people killed, shops burned, and frequent clashes between activists and police.
A new poll shows that just 39 per cent of Americans now approve of the protests, down from 54 per cent in June, while 44 per cent of now disapprove of them.
University of Michigan political scientist Christian Davenport put the change down to ‘compassion fatigue’, as outrage over videos such as the one of George Floyd has faded, with people now wanting a return to their everyday lives.
The shift also appears to have been driven by perceptions of violence, with almost a third of Americans saying the protest are now ‘mostly or always violent’, up from 22 per cent three months ago.
Meanwhile the number of people who said the protests were ‘always peaceful’ fell from 27 per cent to 23 per cent, and the number who said they were ‘sometimes violent’ also fell, from 51 per cent to 47 per cent now.
I was in downtown Louisville a couple of years ago. It’s a nice city. And now it is being torn apart, police are being shot, and buildings are being torched. These aren’t protests. This isn’t justice. This is insurrection.
One of three Louisville police officers involved in the fatal shooting of Breonna Taylor was indicted by Kentucky grand jury on Wednesday, following a six-month investigation into the case that sparked mass protests nationwide.
Jefferson County Circuit Judge Annie O’Connell read the grand jury’s decision in open court on Wednesday afternoon, charging fired detective Brett Hankison with three counts of wanton endangerment in connection to the police raid on the night of March 13.
Sgt Jonathan Mattingly, Detective Myles Cosgrove, who were also present at the time of Taylor’s death, were not charged.
2. You right-wing constitutional proponents think that you are so righteous defending the Constitution against Evers’ “illegal” orders, but PEOPLE ARE DYING!!!
You, Trump, Sen. Scott Fitzgerald and Rep. Robin Vos, although you might have the “Constitution” on your side legally, are criminally negligent because you have no effective program to stop the pandemic.
So… people are dying so we should just ignore the Constitution and the law? That’s a very disturbing argument that quickly leads to totalitarianism. People like this really live in America.
The Times claimed that only 112 of the 431 House of Representatives members are people of color. It lists Rep. Rashida Tlaib as a person of color, while listing Rep. Justin Amash as white.
Tlaib’s parents and Amash’s father came from Arab towns and neighborhoods in Israel. Amash’s mother came from Syria. They both have traditional Arab names.
How is Tlaib a person of color while Amash is white?
The Amash and Tlaib clans both have a sizable presence in Israel. They’re both Arabs, but, aside from Tlaib being a militant leftist while Amash is an ex-GOP Never Trumper, the only obvious difference is that Amash’s family was Christian while Tlaib’s family is Muslim.
The New York Times’ message is that Muslims are “people of color” and Christians aren’t. It doesn’t matter if their families might have lived some 20 minutes away from each other.
Arab Christians are white while Arab Muslims are a minority group.
The world’s largest money manager has introduced a new policy forcing its 16,000 employees to disclose ‘personal relationships’ with all the company’s clients, in what is being described as the toughest policy yet on office romances.
BlackRock, the New York-based firm which manages $7.4 trillion in assets, introduced the new rules last week.
They are in addition to existing policies which forced the disclosure of relationships with other staff members.
Given that BlackRock, on behalf of the funds it runs, is one of the five largest shareholders in nearly every corporation in the S&P 500, the impact of the new policy is expected to be significant.
[…]
‘It takes the assessment of what is or is not a conflict out of the employees’ hands and puts it into the hands of HR and lawyers — which makes it eminently enforceable,’ the executive said.
