*1. "Y'all Qaeda" or "Vanilla ISIS"
Evidently, "Y'all Qaeda" or "Vanilla ISIS" is what some opponents call members of the rapidly growing anti-government movement popping up around the country (that's kind of funny). This WaPo article is a pretty good rundown on one of these groups. It's kind of scary, but these folks truly think they must take up arms against the government to protect their constitutional rights.
"But a bedrock of their mission is to be an armed and trained paramilitary force. Soper said group members train on “basic infantry” skills: “working a patrol, patrolling with a vehicle, arriving at ‘contact’ and how to protect yourself and escape from that.'"
Another trend is that these groups are political outliers who disassociate with mainstream politics, so they are trending towards Donald Trump's aggressive message.
"MacNab, the George Washington University researcher, said Trump has been a powerful recruiting tool for groups angry at the government. 'The tea party built little bridges between the fringe and the mainstream,” she said. “With Trump, it’s an 18-lane superhighway. He’s literally telling them they’re right.'"
Unfortunately, for the groups that actually do end up fighting the government, it almost never ends well for them.
+ This WaPo opinion piece (This is how fascism comes to America) from Robert Kagan raises some good points that align with the above article. I focussed more on the tie to the anti-government groups than the fascism angle.
"What he [Trump] offers is an attitude, an aura of crude strength and machismo, a boasting disrespect for the niceties of the democratic culture that he claims, and his followers believe, has produced national weakness and incompetence. His incoherent and contradictory utterances have one thing in common: They provoke and play on feelings of resentment and disdain, intermingled with bits of fear, hatred and anger."
"But the phenomenon he has created and now leads has become something larger than him, and something far more dangerous."
"And is a man like Trump, with infinitely greater power in his hands, likely to become more humble, more judicious, more generous, less vengeful than he is today, than he has been his whole life? Does vast power uncorrupt?"
*2. Gun Safety?
And this keeps happening...
'My sister shot herself': 5-year-old dies playing with father's unsecured handgun
"So far in 2016, at least 94 children younger than 18 have picked up a firearm and accidentally shot themselves or someone else, according to data from Everytown for Gun Safety, a gun-control group funded by former New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg. The advocacy group, which compiles shooting data using news reports, found that 278 such shootings occurred in 2015."
Some will read the above quote and say, "Ahhh, that's Bloomberg's data. He's against my constitutional rights to bear arms," or say the article is from the left-leaning Washington Post, so the headline and content is anti-gun. I really don't care whose data it is, or the politics of the news source, there is a dead child and the cause of that death is unacceptable.
"She [neighbor] told the Times-Picayune that Moore [father of the child] is a responsible parent who took gun safety seriously. She told WDSU that Moore’s children were “aware” of their father’s guns but that anytime they were in his home, he put the firearms away."
Evidently, "Y'all Qaeda" or "Vanilla ISIS" is what some opponents call members of the rapidly growing anti-government movement popping up around the country (that's kind of funny). This WaPo article is a pretty good rundown on one of these groups. It's kind of scary, but these folks truly think they must take up arms against the government to protect their constitutional rights.
"But a bedrock of their mission is to be an armed and trained paramilitary force. Soper said group members train on “basic infantry” skills: “working a patrol, patrolling with a vehicle, arriving at ‘contact’ and how to protect yourself and escape from that.'"
Another trend is that these groups are political outliers who disassociate with mainstream politics, so they are trending towards Donald Trump's aggressive message.
"MacNab, the George Washington University researcher, said Trump has been a powerful recruiting tool for groups angry at the government. 'The tea party built little bridges between the fringe and the mainstream,” she said. “With Trump, it’s an 18-lane superhighway. He’s literally telling them they’re right.'"
Unfortunately, for the groups that actually do end up fighting the government, it almost never ends well for them.
+ This WaPo opinion piece (This is how fascism comes to America) from Robert Kagan raises some good points that align with the above article. I focussed more on the tie to the anti-government groups than the fascism angle.
"What he [Trump] offers is an attitude, an aura of crude strength and machismo, a boasting disrespect for the niceties of the democratic culture that he claims, and his followers believe, has produced national weakness and incompetence. His incoherent and contradictory utterances have one thing in common: They provoke and play on feelings of resentment and disdain, intermingled with bits of fear, hatred and anger."
"But the phenomenon he has created and now leads has become something larger than him, and something far more dangerous."
"And is a man like Trump, with infinitely greater power in his hands, likely to become more humble, more judicious, more generous, less vengeful than he is today, than he has been his whole life? Does vast power uncorrupt?"
*2. Gun Safety?
And this keeps happening...
'My sister shot herself': 5-year-old dies playing with father's unsecured handgun
"So far in 2016, at least 94 children younger than 18 have picked up a firearm and accidentally shot themselves or someone else, according to data from Everytown for Gun Safety, a gun-control group funded by former New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg. The advocacy group, which compiles shooting data using news reports, found that 278 such shootings occurred in 2015."
Some will read the above quote and say, "Ahhh, that's Bloomberg's data. He's against my constitutional rights to bear arms," or say the article is from the left-leaning Washington Post, so the headline and content is anti-gun. I really don't care whose data it is, or the politics of the news source, there is a dead child and the cause of that death is unacceptable.
"She [neighbor] told the Times-Picayune that Moore [father of the child] is a responsible parent who took gun safety seriously. She told WDSU that Moore’s children were “aware” of their father’s guns but that anytime they were in his home, he put the firearms away."
It only took one time for him not to put the gun away.
*4. Supply Side Economics
I always wondered how the supply-side economic theory (the best way to raise more revenue is to cut taxes and stimulate an economy into overdrive) actually worked in practice. Well, if the state of Kansas is any indication, not well.
"He'd [Kansas governor Sam Brownback] been elected in the tea party wave of 2010 and, with the enthusiastic backing of Republican legislative majorities, launched a "pro-growth tax policy" of dramatic cuts for business and high-earning individuals in 2012 that he promised would be a "shot of adrenaline into the heart of the Kansas economy" that would create thousands of jobs and boost funding for schools and local governments."
Here's a couple telling datapoints:
"U.S. Department of Commerce data show that, prior to Brownback's tax cuts, Kansas ranked 12th in the nation in personal income growth; after the tax cuts it fell to 41st."
"A handful of school districts in the state had to close early last year for lack of funds, and the state Supreme Court has had to issue orders requiring Kansas to cough up enough money to pay for K-12 education."
"Residents learn to shop for groceries or do laundry; many come not even knowing how to clean a bathroom."
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*3. Are you crazy?!
According to this article (Most mass shooters aren't mentally ill. So why push better treatment as the answer?), mentally ill people (think schizophrenia and delusions) are not the majority of mass shooters. Those with sociopathic disorders are the problem. What's the difference? The mentally ill do not know what they are doing, but sociopaths know exactly what they are doing.
"While acknowledging that some of the country’s worst mass shooters were psychotic...experts say the vast majority of such killers did not have any classic form of serious mental illness, such as schizophrenia or psychosis."
"Instead, they were more often ruthless sociopaths whose behavior, while unfathomable, can’t typically be treated as mental illness."
"Instead, they were more often ruthless sociopaths whose behavior, while unfathomable, can’t typically be treated as mental illness."
*4. Supply Side Economics
I always wondered how the supply-side economic theory (the best way to raise more revenue is to cut taxes and stimulate an economy into overdrive) actually worked in practice. Well, if the state of Kansas is any indication, not well.
"He'd [Kansas governor Sam Brownback] been elected in the tea party wave of 2010 and, with the enthusiastic backing of Republican legislative majorities, launched a "pro-growth tax policy" of dramatic cuts for business and high-earning individuals in 2012 that he promised would be a "shot of adrenaline into the heart of the Kansas economy" that would create thousands of jobs and boost funding for schools and local governments."
Here's a couple telling datapoints:
"U.S. Department of Commerce data show that, prior to Brownback's tax cuts, Kansas ranked 12th in the nation in personal income growth; after the tax cuts it fell to 41st."
"A handful of school districts in the state had to close early last year for lack of funds, and the state Supreme Court has had to issue orders requiring Kansas to cough up enough money to pay for K-12 education."
*5. Just a taste, man, just a taste...
I'm not discounting the fact that someone can be addicted to the Internet. I think it's possible to be addicted to just about anything. I do call "shenanigans" on the "treatment" being offered. For $25k the "mission is to help detox residents and teach them the basic life skills they need to properly balance their tech use."
Come on, man! Those are life skills! Sounds more like a parenting failure.
BOTTOM OF THE NEWS
Do You Love Music? Silicon Valley Doesn't (Also, see Payola from 20 May, Top of the News)
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