Entries by tag: guns
I've been interested in human xenophobia (which I think is instinctive) and race and class warfare since I become politically aware some time in my 20's. The more I study the less I know, other than that people naturally cling to those who are like them and mistrust those who are different. Other than that humans are more emotional than rational.
Human xenophobia is functional in an evolutionary sense: members of a tribe are far more likely to have survived in the past, hence we are biologically wired to be tribal in this way. Without even knowing we do it, we will dehumanize those who we do not like or trust, those who look and sound too different. Once we have placed someone in a "not like me" category, it becomes OK to treat them badly, even kill them. This instinct is difficult to manage in modern society. Our founding documents speak of "domestic tranquility" but we have precious little of that in these interesting times.
The Wolverine Watchmen is a newer group that became active in response to efforts to flatten the pandemic curve in Michigan, and in response to the president's exhortations to "liberate Michigan" from the Covid-19 sparked lockdown. Trump has repeatedly attacked Michigan's Governor in speech and writing, making the target quite clear.
The Wolverine Watchmen of Michigan intended to kidnap the Governor Gretchen Whitmer, and to put her "on trial" for treason. How they think that their version of a trial will be more just than that agreed upon by broader society speaks to their ignorance and isolation. They want to form "a society that followed the U.S. Bill of Rights and where they could be self-sufficient". I can understand that, though their methods leave a great deal to be desired.
The WW website has been deleted. Their social media activity revealed particular concern about taxes, gun control and the "Deep State". Michigan is also home to the Boogaloo Bois who, like other Boogaloo groups are focussed on fomenting civil war.
Thirteen people were arrested by the feds for two separate plots on the Governor. The arrests include 7 members of the WW. They wanted to use bombs to blow up police vehicles and storm the Capitol with 200 men. The militia leader and others were charged with "threat of terrorism, gang membership, providing material support for terrorist ats, and possession of a firearm in the commission of a felony". I presume that the feds waited until they had ample evidence to bust the militia because the last federal case again a militia in Michigan ended poorly for the feds in 2012 when all seven defendants were cleared.
One young member of the arrested WW group talked about sending a bomb to the governor, saying "I just wanna make the world glow, dude," "we're just gonna conquer" everything and it will all "have to be annihilated". Comments like this do not suggest that this young man in particular has any ability to think critically or to comprehend what the law or the rest of society might have to say about his ideas.
An expert named Amy Cooter (Vanderbilt U) estimates that there are 24-36 similar militia groups in Michigan with the potential for violence. Michigan's militias are the envy of armed groups nationwide. Most of them are law abiding and predominantly interested in protecting what they believe are constitutional rights. They may not start out racist but they could easily end up that way in an environment of racial tension and with the influence of social media, which has increased collaboration between white supremacy and conspiracy groups. Talk of inciting a civil war is becoming more common especially by the militarized portion of Trump's base.
Meanwhile the president has been stoking fear about the next election. I suspect that when he loses he'll do his best to invalidate the election. He'll use these thugs to tie up law enforcement efforts, and sue to stop a vote count in some battleground state. From there he expects that a conservative-stacked supreme court will make him POTUS for a second term, from which platform he'll be trying to keep the office for life.
This story is just the beginning of the intended violence, and it is not the anti-fa that is plotting it.
Interesting times, indeed.
https://www.thedailybeast.com/what-we-know-about-wolverine-watchmen-accused-of-terror-kidnap-plot-against-michigan-gov-gretchen-whitmer
Betsy Ross Flag (flying at ringleader's house) significance: https://www.rollingstone.com/culture/culture-features/betsy-ross-flag-nike-colin-kaepernick-patriot-movement-ku-klux-klan-854612/
https://www.refinery29.com/en-ca/2020/10/10085589/wolverine-watchmen-michigan-militia-history-boogaloo
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boogaloo_movement
Human xenophobia is functional in an evolutionary sense: members of a tribe are far more likely to have survived in the past, hence we are biologically wired to be tribal in this way. Without even knowing we do it, we will dehumanize those who we do not like or trust, those who look and sound too different. Once we have placed someone in a "not like me" category, it becomes OK to treat them badly, even kill them. This instinct is difficult to manage in modern society. Our founding documents speak of "domestic tranquility" but we have precious little of that in these interesting times.
The Wolverine Watchmen is a newer group that became active in response to efforts to flatten the pandemic curve in Michigan, and in response to the president's exhortations to "liberate Michigan" from the Covid-19 sparked lockdown. Trump has repeatedly attacked Michigan's Governor in speech and writing, making the target quite clear.
The Wolverine Watchmen of Michigan intended to kidnap the Governor Gretchen Whitmer, and to put her "on trial" for treason. How they think that their version of a trial will be more just than that agreed upon by broader society speaks to their ignorance and isolation. They want to form "a society that followed the U.S. Bill of Rights and where they could be self-sufficient". I can understand that, though their methods leave a great deal to be desired.
The WW website has been deleted. Their social media activity revealed particular concern about taxes, gun control and the "Deep State". Michigan is also home to the Boogaloo Bois who, like other Boogaloo groups are focussed on fomenting civil war.
Thirteen people were arrested by the feds for two separate plots on the Governor. The arrests include 7 members of the WW. They wanted to use bombs to blow up police vehicles and storm the Capitol with 200 men. The militia leader and others were charged with "threat of terrorism, gang membership, providing material support for terrorist ats, and possession of a firearm in the commission of a felony". I presume that the feds waited until they had ample evidence to bust the militia because the last federal case again a militia in Michigan ended poorly for the feds in 2012 when all seven defendants were cleared.
One young member of the arrested WW group talked about sending a bomb to the governor, saying "I just wanna make the world glow, dude," "we're just gonna conquer" everything and it will all "have to be annihilated". Comments like this do not suggest that this young man in particular has any ability to think critically or to comprehend what the law or the rest of society might have to say about his ideas.
An expert named Amy Cooter (Vanderbilt U) estimates that there are 24-36 similar militia groups in Michigan with the potential for violence. Michigan's militias are the envy of armed groups nationwide. Most of them are law abiding and predominantly interested in protecting what they believe are constitutional rights. They may not start out racist but they could easily end up that way in an environment of racial tension and with the influence of social media, which has increased collaboration between white supremacy and conspiracy groups. Talk of inciting a civil war is becoming more common especially by the militarized portion of Trump's base.
Meanwhile the president has been stoking fear about the next election. I suspect that when he loses he'll do his best to invalidate the election. He'll use these thugs to tie up law enforcement efforts, and sue to stop a vote count in some battleground state. From there he expects that a conservative-stacked supreme court will make him POTUS for a second term, from which platform he'll be trying to keep the office for life.
This story is just the beginning of the intended violence, and it is not the anti-fa that is plotting it.
Interesting times, indeed.
https://www.thedailybeast.com/what-we-know-about-wolverine-watchmen-accused-of-terror-kidnap-plot-against-michigan-gov-gretchen-whitmer
Betsy Ross Flag (flying at ringleader's house) significance: https://www.rollingstone.com/culture/culture-features/betsy-ross-flag-nike-colin-kaepernick-patriot-movement-ku-klux-klan-854612/
https://www.refinery29.com/en-ca/2020/10/10085589/wolverine-watchmen-michigan-militia-history-boogaloo
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boogaloo_movement
An atom-blaster is
a good weapon, but
it can point both ways.
--Isaac Asimov in Foundation
a good weapon, but
it can point both ways.
--Isaac Asimov in Foundation
"Assault rifles aren’t hunting tools, but many of their owners absolutely are."
--Teresa Rogerson
--Teresa Rogerson
"While we are quick to judge the human rights record of every other country on earth, it is we civilized Americans whose murder rate is ten times that of other Western nations, we civilized Americans who kill women and children with the most alarming frequency. In (sad) fact, if a full jumbo jet crashed into a mountain killing everyone on board, and if that happened every month, month in and month out, the number of people killed still wouldn't equal the number of women murdered by their husbands and boyfriends each year."
-p7 in The Gift of Fear by Gavin De Becker
-p7 in The Gift of Fear by Gavin De Becker
I am not anti-gun. I'm pro-knife.
Consider the merits of the knife.
In the first place, you have to catch up with someone
in order to stab him.
A general substitution of knives for guns would promote physical fitness.
We'd turn into a whole nation of great runners.
Plus, knives don't ricochet.
And people are seldom killed while cleaning their knives.
- Molly Ivins
Consider the merits of the knife.
In the first place, you have to catch up with someone
in order to stab him.
A general substitution of knives for guns would promote physical fitness.
We'd turn into a whole nation of great runners.
Plus, knives don't ricochet.
And people are seldom killed while cleaning their knives.
- Molly Ivins
For all of you who aren't sure, it is possible to be gay and Christian. It's also possible to believe in God and science. It is possible to be pro-choice and anti-abortion.
It is equally possible to be a feminist and love and respect men. It's possible to have privilege and be discriminated against, to be poor and have a rich life, to not have a job and still have money. It is possible to believe in sensible gun control legislation and still believe in one's right to defend one's self, family, and property, it's possible to be anti-war and pro-military.
It is possible to love thy neighbor and despise his actions. It is possible to advocate Black Lives Matter and still be pro police. It is possible to not have an education and be brilliant. It is possible to be Muslim and also suffer at the hands of terrorists. It is possible to be a non-American fighting for the American dream.
It is possible to be different and the same.
We are all walking contradictions of what "normal" looks like. Let humanity and love win.
--Author unknown, taken from facebook on 3.12.17
Cheetah population crashes, raising threat of extinction
The world's cheetah population is crashing, leaving the world's fastest land animal approaching extinction, according to new research published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences on Monday. There are now about 7,100 cheetahs left in the wild, the report said, down from an estimated 100,000 at the end of the 19th century. Cheetahs once roamed Africa and Asia, but they have lost an estimated 91 percent of their habitat. Most of the remaining cheetahs are in Africa, with about 50 remaining in Iran. In Africa, 14 of 18 groups studied were decreasing. Zimbabwe's cheetah population has fallen from 1,200 to 170 in 16 years. [USA Today, CNN]
SOURCE
The Week at http://theweek.com/10things/662478/10-things-need-know-today-december-27-2016
My thought: I'm still reading Sapiens and the first section, about how humans absolutely devastated the megafauna of every continent and island, is still reverberating through my consciousness. The extinction of many species, including the wooly mammoth and the sabre tooth tiger, immediately followed the introduction of our species to a land mass. We are still causing extinctions. You would think that we'd make an effort to sustain at least token populations of the more charismatic species. Instead it appears that the great white hunter would rather have one on his wall than to keep them alive in the wilds. As the political reality in the US turns even uglier, I have less and less respect and care for my own species. We may extinct ourselves, but that would be good for many other species.
Even if
every gun in the world
suddenly disappeared,
there would still be gun violence
--Ben Carson, retired neurosurgeon and Republican candidate for president
Source: Rick Ungar "from the left" at Forbes Magazine
http://www.forbes.com/sites/rickungar/2013/01/16/here-are-the-23-executive-orders-on-gun-safety-signed-today-by-the-president/
President Obama has signed 23 executive orders designed to address the problem of gun violence in America. The following are the items addressed:
Gun Violence Reduction Executive Actions:
1. Issue a Presidential Memorandum to require federal agencies to make relevant data available to the federal background check system.
2. Address unnecessary legal barriers, particularly relating to the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, that may prevent states from making information available to the background check system.
3. Improve incentives for states to share information with the background check system.
4. Direct the Attorney General to review categories of individuals prohibited from having a gun to make sure dangerous people are not slipping through the cracks.
5. Propose rulemaking to give law enforcement the ability to run a full background check on an individual before returning a seized gun.
6. Publish a letter from ATF to federally licensed gun dealers providing guidance on how to run background checks for private sellers.
7. Launch a national safe and responsible gun ownership campaign.
8. Review safety standards for gun locks and gun safes (Consumer Product Safety Commission).
9. Issue a Presidential Memorandum to require federal law enforcement to trace guns recovered in criminal investigations.
10. Release a DOJ report analyzing information on lost and stolen guns and make itwidely available to law enforcement.
11. Nominate an ATF director.
12. Provide law enforcement, first responders, and school officials with proper training for active shooter situations.
13. Maximize enforcement efforts to prevent gun violence and prosecute gun crime.
14. Issue a Presidential Memorandum directing the Centers for Disease Control to research the causes and prevention of gun violence.
15. Direct the Attorney General to issue a report on the availability and most effectiveuse of new gun safety technologies and challenge the private sector to developinnovative technologies.
16. Clarify that the Affordable Care Act does not prohibit doctors asking their patients about guns in their homes.
17. Release a letter to health care providers clarifying that no federal law prohibits them from reporting threats of violence to law enforcement authorities.
18. Provide incentives for schools to hire school resource officers.
19. Develop model emergency response plans for schools, houses of worship and institutions of higher education.
20. Release a letter to state health officials clarifying the scope of mental health services that Medicaid plans must cover.
21. Finalize regulations clarifying essential health benefits and parity requirements within ACA exchanges.
22. Commit to finalizing mental health parity regulations.
23. Launch a national dialogue led by Secretaries Sebelius and Duncan on mental health.
It does not appear that any of the executive orders would have any impact on the guns people currently own-or would like to purchase- and that all proposals regarding limiting the availability of assault weapons or large ammunition magazines will be proposed for Congressional action. As such, any potential effort to create a constitutional crisis—or the leveling of charges that the White House has overstepped its executive authority—would hold no validity.
It's an old western with Lee Marvin, really a wonderful movie about a cowboy who looses everything but maintains his center, his calm and his kindness. It seems to be about the end of the Wild West. There's a fantastic and long riding scene in which the cowboy named Monte "rides the grey down". Humorous too. I liked it. My mom complains that it was slow. She already deleted it from her direct tv.
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