If you work for Starbucks in Pasadena, you’re not earning a living in southern California. Consider the plight of the wait staff, compiled to hand out bullshit “Come Together” cups, in hopes that the fiscal cliff will be avoided or that white guys with AR-15s will stop mass shootings for a week. Or something:
In the spirit of the Holiday season and the Starbucks tradition of bringing people together, we have a unique opportunity to unite and take action on an incredibly important topic. As many of you know, our elected officials in Washington D.C. have been unable to come together and compromise to solve the tremendously important, time-sensitive issue to fix the national debt. You can learn more about this impending crisis at www.fixthedebt.org.
Rather than be bystanders, we have an opportunity—and I believe a responsibility—to use our company’s scale for good by sending a respectful and optimistic message to our elected officials to come together and reach common ground on this important issue. This week through December 28, partners in our Washington D.C. area stores are writing “Come Together??? on customers’ cups.
I don’t drink coffee, I’ve always hated Starbucks, and there are way too many of them Pasadena. People who patronize the place are middle class shit, the firm’s the KFC of the brown stuff.
And the wealthy-beyond-reason CEO wants his minimum wage workers to help us all think about “fixing the debt,” something his serfs have absolutely no stake in. Because going over the cliff or not, nothing will change. They still won’t be able to make ends meet in LA County.
It’s what it boils down to. The last two weeks destroyed all the NRA’s about the goodness of being more heavily armed. Just the opposite — the more heavily armed a certain minority white part of the populace is, one with problems ranging from insecurity over virility, paranoia about the non-white guy living in the White House (and everyone else) and an increasingly toxic ideology in which they see themselves as the last patriots to defend the country, the more certainty there will be slaughters in the future.
The selling and “panic buying??? of Bushmasters has been height of morally reprehensible and irresponsible behavior during the holiday season.
There was a killing in Portland, the big one in Newtown, and the one the day before Christmas in Webster, New York, all employing the same assault rifle. And what happened? Sales of it and huge ammo clips went through the roof because the right-to-be-heavily-armed crowd was most concerned about not having them, not the substantial problem they, the National Rifle Association and manufactures of civilian assault rifles have created for everyone else.
And we know that since the incidence of violent behavior and mental illness is not zero in this gun buying white male part of the populace, somewhere, in the future, perhaps not soon, one or two or perhaps three of the weapons bought in the current surge of “panic buying” will turn up in another mass killing.
Fewer Americans want guns, according to researchers at the University of Chicago’s General Social Survey.
Yet gun sales are sky-high. How can that be? The explanation apparently is that the minority who are gun owners buy ever-more weapons, creating arsenals.
Strangely, some owners think the firepower makes them more manly.
The Duluth News Tribune Reports that Duluth-area firearm dealers are seeing a high demand for Armalite, or “ARs.???
“Every time Obama opens his mouth, I sell more of them,??? said Scott Van Valkenburg, owner of Fisherman’s Corner in Pike Lake, Minn., in a News Tribune article “It’s getting hard to find them, but we still have a few on the shelf. … I know a few distributors who can still get them for me, at least for now. The more they talk about banning them, the more they sell and the harder they get to find.???
Allen said that almost every five minutes his store receives a call about AR-15s. The AR-15 is a common assault weapon, and the federal government has discussed the possibility of banning such weapons and enforcing stricter gun laws. Since the recent attack, the demand for AR-15s have been high across the nation, according to Allen. FMJ does not expect to get anymore in, due to the country’s high demand for them.
Allen does not think that stricter gun laws will have an affect on decreasing gun violence.
“Most crimes are done with illegally obtained guns.??? said Allen. “And if the government takes away guns, people will have no way to defend themselves,
Southern Shooters on New Hutchinson Mill Road has sold about 100 guns since Newtown’s massacre, up drastically from the normal eight to ten guns sold per week. Southern Shooters had sold the last of their five AR-15s between the Dec. 14 attack and last Tuesday.
Concern that tighter gun laws might be on the way is causing already brisk Sacramento-area gun sales to spike.
Within a handful of hours of Christmas, a steady stream of shoppers arrived at Just Guns on Auburn Boulevard and left with bullets and shells by the boxes, pistols, hunting rifles, shotguns and stun guns.
What they weren’t carrying out were AR-15 semi-automatic rifles – akin to the weapon used in the massacre at a Connecticut elementary school – and high-capacity clips.
The store didn’t have them in stock, but people were still asking. And store owner Josh Deaser said the tragedy is causing gun consumers to buy up varieties of firearms they feel might be subject to restrictions.
Closer to downtown Sacramento, Broadway Bait Rod and Gun is being inundated with calls about high-capacity rifles.
“It’s been crazy. Every third call is about AR-15s.”
Put on layaway in Sheboygan, the article read.
Many got rides on Xmas eve in Webster, New York, presumably because not enough people had guns to take out the bad guy during a gun ambush/battle, even though the police and a SWAT weren’t sufficient.
Calls for stricter weapons laws after the massacre at a Connecticut elementary school have gun enthusiasts scrambling to buy firearms before they’re potentially restricted or banned outright.
Brownells Inc., which claims to be the world’s largest supplier of firearms accessories and gunsmithing tools, said it has sold 3 1/2 years worth of ammunition magazines in three days …
Northland gun dealers are reporting a spike in military-style gun sales.
Superior Shooters Supply is out of semi-automatic rifles due to people “panic buying,” owner Pat Kukull said. Some buyers are afraid of possible changes the federal government could make to gun laws.
Other guns are selling fast as well and she’s never seen anything like it in her 35 years in business, Kukull said.
Glen’s Army Navy Store in Grand Rapids ran out of the semi-automatic rifles by Thursday morning and operators aren’t sure when more will arrive.
Scott Van Valkenburg, owner of Fisherman’s Corner in Pike Lake outside Duluth, said that semi-automatic rifles are usually about 5 percent of his thriving gun business — but last week those rifles were nearly half his total gun sales.
Panic buying.
Eau Claire:
Many local stores have seen gun sales sky-rocketing. Store owners say people are trying to get their hands on anything they think might be banned.
“We sold a lot of gun accessories. We had over 200 of these PMAGs, which are top of the line magazines. They are all gone now. These are your basic GI version magazines that are used in the military. We went through almost 500 of those,??? said the sales associate at the C&C Pawnbrokers in Eau Claire, Luis Arenas.
“Every law abiding person needs to learn to shoot a gun. It’s their right, as well as their self protection from the drug induced, mental nuts that roam the streets. Don’t worry about the gun laws, worry more about the mental health issues and the lack of them. Unplug and trash the video games. Bring society back to the 1950’s.”
The 1950’s, we remember them fondly, when everyone had a right to buy a semi-automatic assault rifle at Sears. Oh, wait …
Another civil war issue and the divide is unbridgeable.
Right on schedule, Wyane LaPierre of the National Rifle Association showed up on national television to prove he’s every bit the boogeyman one expected.
The only recommendations were to — first — stop making demons of assault gun fetishists and the NRA, and then to use the NRA to train paramilitary defense forces for all schools. Using a task force led by ex-right wing GOP Senator Asa Hutchinson who was last seen trying to get Bill Clinton impeached for having his dick sucked by someone not his wife.
Although LaPierre tried to sound sorrowful, the “put police officers” in every school theme coupled with his introductory tone of “we’re being victimized” made it into a defensive rant.
Some excerpts from transcription:
“There exists in this country a callous and corrupt industry that sells violence against its own people … video games.”
“How come my research staff can find Kindergarten Killer [an online game] but all of your [media research staff] can’t?
“Add another hurricane, a terrorist attack, add another natural disaster
[and the nation will descend into a violent nightmare, or something to
that effect]…
“One thousand music videos portray life as a joke … and they all have the nerve to call it entertainment.
“In a race to the bottom video conglomerates compete … to violate every standard of civilized society.”
[At this point a little old lady, carrying a banner, got in front of LaPierre and started shouting, “The NRA has blood on it hands — ban
assault weapons now!” She was taken off but not before getting it in
a few times.]
“It is now time for us to assume responsibility for our schools … the only thing that stops a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun.”[LaPierre then got querulous about what he knows the reaction to putting more guns in schools will be.]
“I can imagine the shocking headlines you’ll be printing tomorrow…”
Blaming video games and entertainment has been in rehearsal all week. The only problem with the argument is that the country exports the same video games and entertainments to the rest of the developed world where they are met with great consumer relish. But those civilized countries are not ridden with massacres perpetrated by semi-automatic weapons.
And why is that? Perhaps because everyone can’t go to Dick’s or Walmart for the world’s best selection of consumer-tailored assault guns.
As for relying on the National Rifle Association to train the country in the defense of its schools, I rely on Who Is the NRA again to edify:
In the increasingly distant past, the National Rifle Association (NRA) largely advocated for policies related to hunting and marksmanship, but today its leaders are defined by unsavory conduct and the advancement of extreme, anti-government ideology. While the NRA innocuously describes itself as the “nation’s oldest civil rights organization,??? this portrayal serves only as a smokescreen to mask the fact that the organization is a rogues gallery of the most odious voices in the contemporary Conservative Movement.
One only has to look to the NRA’s leadership to discover that the organization is operated by a group of individuals who promote racism, misogyny, homophobia, anti-immigrant animus, religious bigotry, anti-environmentalism, and insurrectionism … Moreover, while superficially bipartisan, the NRA is closely aligned with the most extreme elements in the Republican Party and has brought a number of the GOP’s most influential operatives into positions of power within the organization. The GOP and NRA are now locked in a symbiotic relationship.
While not a small force, the NRA is in the minority now. Get the pitchforks.
Sen. Jay Rockefeller (D-W.Va.) has introduced one of Congress’ first pieces of legislation related to the tragedy in Newtown, Conn.: a bill to study the impact of violent video games on children.
“This week, we are all focused on protecting our children. At times like this, we need to take a comprehensive look at all the ways we can keep our kids safe. I have long expressed concern about the impact of the violent content our kids see and interact with every day,” said Rockefeller, who is chairman of the Senate Commerce Committee.
Rockefeller’s bill would direct the National Academy of Sciences to lead the investigation on video games’ impact and submit a report on its findings within 18 months.
Reid should have Rockefeller ex-communicated for insulting the intelligence, wasting tax payer money and pissing off scientists. Who won’t want to do this because the already know this is a non-starter requested only for the sake of diversionary theater.
Leading NRA board member and public disgrace Ted Nugent in a snap from his Discovery channel show, just canceled, because even they are afraid of him now.
“The film adopts a fringe conspiracy theory that has long been pushed by a small, right-wing coalition led by Newt Gingrich: that terrorists or a rogue state could devastate America with an electro-magnetic pulse, or EMP,” reads one review.
And boy is the guy who played Thor in The Avengers movie bummed. For Chris Hemsworth it was like being Bela Lugosi in Glen or Glenda.
[North Korea] is a mortal nuclear threat to the United States— right now …
they have a special kind of nuclear weapon that could destroy the United States with a single blow.
In summer 2004, a delegation of Russian generals warned the Congressional Electromagnetic Pulse (EMP) Commission that secrets had leaked to North Korea for a decisive new nuclear weapon — a Super-EMP warhead.
Any nuclear weapon detonated above an altitude of 30 kilometers will generate an electromagnetic pulse that will destroy electronics and could collapse the electric power grid and other critical infrastructures — communications, transportation, banking and finance, food and water — that sustain modern civilization and the lives of 300 million Americans. All could be destroyed by a single nuclear weapon making an EMP attack.
A Super-EMP attack on the United States would cause much more and much deeper damage than a primitive nuclear weapon …
You know the rest of the script from the Cult of Electromagnetic Pulse Crazy.
As with Red Dawn, the part of the country that isn’t rabid ferret Republican Party — which is most of it — isn’t buying.
Roscoe Bartlett was sent home in November and it’s really going to be hard for the Cult to scrape up the same ton of fun they had when he was around.
Which leaves only the newspaper of lunatics and its imitators.
“[Two hundred] million Americans — would probably perish from starvation, disease and societal collapse,” it reads. Did that many people die in Red Dawn?
Although every bit of the stuff I do drips classic rock, I never watch geezer rock anymore. As with WhiteManistan, I’m embarrassed to be related, if only faintly, to the tribe.
When you’re old you oughta be able to rock. To be good at it you have to be willing to be taken for a fool. However, there’s no point in making it harder. And some things you must let go because they’ll sink your ship immediately. (It’s also why I never go out to hear middle and upper-middle aged white guys in blues bands.) Increasing entropy isn’t something money can opt you out of.
I was oblivious to the 12-12-12 concert but the New York Times does a good dissection of embarrassing-looking old rockers.
“I will donate $1,000 to #121212Concert if Roger Daltry buttons his shirt,??? tweeted Alan Zweibel, 62, a comedy writer …
With his shirt thrown open during a rousing rendition of “Baba O’Riley??? Mr. Daltrey — a specimen for his age, to be sure — unfortunately invited comparisons to his groupie-magnet self from the “Tommy??? era. In doing so, he violated an obvious dictum for seniors: keep your clothes on in public.
Then the piece gets to Iggy Pop, a tremendous physical specimen, endurance wise, at 65. He does not, as the New York Times piece insists, look like a Joffrey dancer.
Leading NRA board member and public disgrace Ted Nugent in a snap from his Discovery channel show, just canceled, because even they are afraid of him now.
