So it turns out that those who own the most guns are under educated white men who are afraid of minorities. You know I think I knew that.

Courtesy of Scientific American: 

Since the 2008 election of President Obama, the number of firearms manufactured in the U.S. has tripled, while imports have doubled. This doesn’t mean more households have guns than ever before—that percentage has stayed fairly steady for decades. Rather, more guns are being stockpiled by a small number of individuals. Three percent of the population now owns half of the country’s firearms, says a recent, definitive study from the Injury Control Research Center at Harvard University. 

So, who is buying all these guns—and why? 

The short, broad-brush answer to the first part of that question is this: men, who on average possess almost twice the number of guns female owners do. But not all men. Some groups of men are much more avid gun consumers than others. The American citizen most likely to own a gun is a white male—but not just any white guy. According to a growing number of scientific studies, the kind of man who stockpiles weapons or applies for a concealed-carry license meets a very specific profile. 

These are men who are anxious about their ability to protect their families, insecure about their place in the job market, and beset by racial fears. They tend to be less educated. For the most part, they don’t appear to be religious—and, suggests one study, faith seems to reduce their attachment to guns. In fact, stockpiling guns seems to be a symptom of a much deeper crisis in meaning and purpose in their lives. Taken together, these studies describe a population that is struggling to find a new story—one in which they are once again the heroes.

But wait, there's more.

When Northland College sociologist Angela Stroud studied applications for licenses to carry concealed firearms in Texas, which exploded after President Obama was elected, she found applicants were overwhelmingly dominated by white men. In interviews, they told her that they wanted to protect themselves and the people they love. 

“When men became fathers or got married, they started to feel very vulnerable, like they couldn’t protect families,” she says. “For them, owning a weapon is part of what it means to be a good husband a good father.” That meaning is “rooted in fear and vulnerability—very motivating emotions.” 

But Stroud also discovered another motivation: racial anxiety. “A lot of people talked about how important Obama was to get a concealed-carry license: ‘He’s for free health care, he’s for welfare.’ They were asking, ‘Whatever happened to hard work?’” Obama’s presidency, they feared, would empower minorities to threaten their property and families.

Well that helps to explain a lot of things.

Why gun sales spiked during Obama's presidency.

Why so many mass shooters are white males.

And why Trump embraced the NRA so hard during the run up to the election.

Clearly this is a group of dimwitted cowards who substitute gun ownership for their perceived inadequacies, and voted for a thrice married bullshit artist to help protect them from the brown people.

Jesus Christ! They are not only "deplorable" they're pathetic.

White men having trouble economically are more likely to become emotionally attached to their guns and consider using them against the government.

Courtesy of Baylor Media Communications:  

White male gun owners who have lost, or fear losing, their economic footing tend to feel morally and emotionally attached to their guns, according to a Baylor University study. 

This segment of the population also is most likely to say that violence against the United States government is sometimes justified, reported researchers F. Carson Mencken, Ph.D., and Paul Froese, Ph.D., professors of sociology in Baylor’s College of Arts & Sciences. 

“This speaks to the belief in some ‘dark state’ within the government which needs fighting,” Froese said. 

“What’s paradoxical is that white male gun owners in the U.S. see themselves as hyper-patriotic, but they are the first to say, ‘If the government impedes me, I have the moral and almost patriotic right to fight back.’” 

In contrast, nonwhite gun owners who have faced or may be coping with financially difficult times do not place as much importance on the gun, researchers found. They also are much less likely to approve of violence against the federal government even if they feel high levels of economic stress.

And that my friends is why domestic terrorism is far more concerning than anything that may come at us from a foreign land.

White men, heavily armed, and terrified that they are losing their place of prominence in society, are essentially a powder keg just waiting for a spark to set them off.

They may have believed that by voting Donald Trump into office that they would no longer have to worry about women, minorities, and immigrants negatively impacting their ability to find work, but when they discover that nothing of consequence has changed they may become even more radicalized and potentially dangerous.

Donald Trump just received an endorsement from the KKK' official newspaper. Well of course he did.

"The Crusader" is the official newspaper of the KKK. #MAGA #DonaldTrump pic.twitter.com/mBTvLOFU9u

— Billy Gee (@billygee12) November 1, 2016

Courtesy of the Washington Post:  

Among the small number of American newspapers that have embraced Donald Trump’s campaign, there is one, in particular, that stands out. 

It is called the Crusader — and it is one of the most prominent newspapers of the Ku Klux Klan. 

Under the banner "Make America Great Again," the entire front page of the paper's current issue is devoted to a lengthy defense of Trump’s message — an embrace some have labeled a de facto endorsement. 

"'Make America Great Again!' It is a slogan that has been repeatedly used by Donald Trump in his campaign for the presidency," Pastor Thomas Robb wrote in the Crusader. "You can see it on the shirts, buttons, posters and ball caps such as the one being worn here by Trump speaking at a recent rally. … But can it happen? Can America really be great again? This is what we will soon find out!" 

"While Trump wants to make America great again, we have to ask ourselves, 'What made America great in the first place?'" the article continues. "The short answer to that is simple. America was great not because of what our forefathers did — but because of who our forefathers were. 

"America was founded as a White Christian Republic. And as a White Christian Republic it became great."

Apparently the Trump campaign issued a statement rejecting the endorsement and renouncing "hate in any form," but let's face it these white supremacists recognize a fellow Klan member when they see one.

Trump's entire campaign is based on white men feeling oppressed in this society and terrified that they are losing their place at the top of the food chain.

All I can say is "If the pointy white hood fits, wear it."

The reason so many white men are dying might be directly tied to the 2nd Amendment that they believe in so fervently.

I found this to be a very interesting, and very informative video.

It is also just another example to prove that easy access to guns means death is always just moments away.

Oath Keepers show up in Ferguson after protests cause the authorities to declare a "state of emergency."

Police left and "Security detail" just strolled thru #ferguson #unitedwefight #whichemergency https://t.co/aodol8oLwt

— Ryan Herring (@infiniteideal) August 11, 2015

Courtesy of NBC News:  

Oath Keepers Defend Right to Bear Arms Ferguson's Streets 0:52 Heavily-armed members of a controversial patriot group added an extra dose of unease to protests in Ferguson, Missouri, early Tuesday. 

The Oath Keepers organization says its members — all former military, police and first responders — pledge to "defend the Constitution against all enemies, foreign and domestic." 

However, St. Louis County Police Chief Jon Belmar described their presence as "both unnecessary and inflammatory." 

Protesters and police confirmed that a handful of Oath Keepers with assault rifles, bulletproof vest and camouflage gear were seen early Tuesday on the streets of Ferguson, which was under a state of emergency following demonstrations pegged to the anniversary of Michael Brown's death. 

Several protesters confronted members of the group, asking why they were allowed to openly carry weapons. 

"I'm happy that we're able to defend ourselves," one Oath Keeper replied in footage from NBC station KSDK. "It's been our right for a long time." 

Apparently after being confronted some of the so-called Oath Keepers suggested they were there to protect the protesters from the police, but nobody was buying it. Especially the police who would have undoubtedly disarmed the men and sent them packing.

Oh I forgot these are white men.

Which is a difference that did not go unnoticed by the locals, one of whom tweeted:

"Black people are killed for carrying toy guns in an open carry state. White men come armed with assault rifles to a protest and nothing."

It really seemed that the Oath Keepers came to rub protester's noses in the fact that THEY could walk around heavily armed, while black folks were getting killed simply for jaywalking.

I guess there wasn't already enough racial tension for their liking.

Revisiting Canada's (And Alaska's) cultural genocide.

If you are disturbed by that video, you should probably know that the exact same destruction of the native culture happened right here in Alaska:

Several generations of Native people — many of whom are still alive today — would become targets of a tragic, frequently successful campaign of cultural elimination. Demanding that Natives abandon the cultures and languages of their grandfathers and grandmothers, Natives were given a clear message that one way of looking at the world was superior to the other. That the survivors did as they were told — abandoning their feasts and ceremonials, their dances and even their languages — is testament not to the correctness of the Western message but to the survivors' states of mind. Having lost multitudes of spiritual and political leaders, artisans, historians, and elders, those who were left were orphans — spiritually as well as physically — destined to live in a world of emotional and material poverty. 

In the schoolhouses and boarding schools, in the churches and in the orphanages, Native children would learn how to become good Christians and good Americans. 

What they really learned was to be ashamed of their language, they were often beaten for using it, and to become reliant on the whites that invaded their lands and stole from them their way of life, self reliance, and sense of pride. 

The federal government also restricted when they could fish and hunt, making their traditional subsistence lifestyle all but impossible.

When you see a homeless native on the streets of Anchorage, you have to realize that that is not a choice they made for themselves. That was what they were reduced to after their culture was all but destroyed, and alcohol and drugs were the only things that seemed to ease their pain.

There has been a great effort in the last few decades by Alaska, and its native people, to put things right.

But the reality is that the damage done by the interference of outsiders, first the Russians and then Americans, has caused deep and potentially irreparable damage to the Alaska native culture.

In that way Canada and Alaska have much in common.

Don't think racism is real? Watch this.

Courtesy of Vox:

If systemic racism isn't real, why are black people nearly four times more likely to be arrested for marijuana use than their white counterparts despite using drugs at similar rates, about twice as likely to be pulled over while driving, or half as likely to get a call back after they mail their resume to an employer? 

The video above, by Brave New Films, breaks down these stats and more in a takedown of the idea that systemic racism isn't a real problem in America.

In my opinion if you are still denying racism exists  after what happened to Eric Garner and Freddie Gray then you are a bigot through and through and NOTHING will ever change your mind.

Self taught mapmaker creates the saddest map depicting the fate of the Native Americans ever.

Courtesy of NPR:

Aaron Carapella, a self-taught mapmaker in Warner, Okla., has pinpointed the locations and original names of hundreds of American Indian nations before their first contact with Europeans. 

As a teenager, Carapella says he could never get his hands on a continental U.S. map like this, depicting more than 600 tribes — many now forgotten and lost to history. Now, the 34-year-old designs and sells maps as large as 3 by 4 feet with the names of tribes hovering over land they once occupied. 

"I think a lot of people get blown away by, 'Wow, there were a lot of tribes, and they covered the whole country!' You know, this is Indian land," says Carapella, who calls himself a "mixed-blood Cherokee" and lives in a ranch house within the jurisdiction of the Cherokee Nation. 

For more than a decade, he consulted history books and library archives, called up tribal members and visited reservations as part of research for his map project, which began as pencil-marked poster boards on his bedroom wall. So far, he has designed maps of the continental U.S., Canada and Mexico. A map of Alaska is currently in the works.

These were proud people, living a subsistence lifestyle that was in harmony with the nature around them.

Just imagine how different America would look today if the white settlers had respected their sovereign right to the lands that they had lived on for thousands of years.

But sadly they were non-Christian heathens and were at the mercy of Manifest Destiny: 

The religious fervor spawned by the Second Great Awakening created another incentive for the drive west. Indeed, many settlers believed that God himself blessed the growth of the American nation. The Native Americans were considered heathens. By Christianizing the tribes, American missionaries believed they could save souls and they became among the first to cross the Mississippi River. 

At the heart of manifest destiny was the pervasive belief in American cultural and racial superiority. Native Americans had long been perceived as inferior, and efforts to "civilize" them had been widespread since the days of John Smith and MILES STANDISH. The Hispanics who ruled Texas and the lucrative ports of California were also seen as "backward."

Just another shameful chapter in the book of horrors visited upon those ethnically impure heathens who  dared to stand in the way of the Christian Caucasians who felt duty bound to destroy their cultures and bring them to Jesus whether they wanted it or not.

Leader of KKK group in Virginia says they are simply a misunderstood Christian group. Oh yeah, that's going to fool people.

Courtesy of Raw Story: 

The leader of a Ku Klux Klan group in Virginia says the notoriously racist “Hooded Order” is really just a non-violent Christian organization. 

“We don’t hate people because of their race. I mean, we’re a Christian organization,” Frank Ancona, an Imperial Wizard of the Traditional American Knights of the Ku Klux Klan, told WWBT on Thursday. 

He insisted that the KKK had been unfairly maligned for its acts of violence against black people in the United States. 

“Because of the acts of a few rogue Klansmen our Klansmen are supposed to be murderers and want to lynch black people, and we are supposed to be terrorists, and that is a complete falsehood.” 

Ancona’s KKK group has been tossing racist fliers onto residents lawns in Chesterfield County in the middle of the night. The fliers include a phone number, an email address and information about two websites that claim the KKK is a non-violent group that is not the “enem[y] of the colored and mongrel races.” 

Earlier this month, Ancona told the Richmond Times-Dispatch that “[t]he thing that really gets me is that [people are] saying we’re teaching our children to hate people just because of their race, creed and color, and that’s a complete lie and falsehood.”

That's right and the Nazis never killed any Jews, the Mormons never murdered an innocent group of immigrants during the Mountain Meadows Massacre, and the settlers never slaughtered any Native Americans. It was all a huge misunderstanding.

Ancona is right about one thing though, the Klan was made up entirely of white, Anglo Saxon, Christian citizens.

After all, without religion how can true evil really survive?

Racism linked to gun ownership.

Courtesy of Futurity:  

A new study finds higher levels of racism in white Americans is associated with having a gun in the home and greater opposition to gun control policies. 

After accounting for numerous other factors such as income, education, and political ideology, the researchers found that for each one point increase (on a scale from one to five) in symbolic racism there was a 50 percent increase in the odds of having a gun in the home and a 28 percent increase in support for policies allowing people to carry concealed guns. 

Each one point increase in symbolic racism (a modern measure of anti-black racism) was also associated with a 27 percent increase in the odds of opposing bans on hand guns in the home. After accounting for those who already had a gun in the home, the odds were reduced to a non-significant 17 percent increase. However, the authors note that this reduction is unsurprising as opposition to bans on guns equates to self interest on behalf of those who already own a gun and do not wish to give it up. 

And racism was already strongly associated with having a gun in the home.

Cannot say I am surprised by this one.

Considering this is it any wonder that gun sales spiked as soon as an African American moved into the White House?

Awesome new cover from the New Republic.

That pretty much says it all don't you think?

(H/T to Business Insider)

Native Americans rally around President Obama.

Courtesy of  the LA Times:  

At a July fundraiser in the elegant Mandarin Oriental hotel near Washington's Tidal Basin, President Obama met with some of his most steadfast supporters — two dozen political and business leaders eager to write sizable checks to help keep him in the White House. 

All were leaders of Native American tribes, who pressed their issues with a president they say is attuned to their needs. 

Bill John Baker, principal chief of the Cherokee Nation, told Obama his Oklahoma tribe was owed $50 million for its costs of administering federal health services. 

"He said, 'Let me look into this and see what we can do,'" Baker recalled. A week later, he received a letter from the White House pledging to follow up. A White House spokesman said the administration had been reaching out to many tribes on the same issue. 

"President Obama is a promise keeper," Baker said. "He promised that he would work with Indian country, that he would help us, and he has done that at every turn." 

The tribes have shown their gratitude, giving at least $2.5 million to Obama's reelection campaign through the end of July — far outstripping their donations in other recent presidential elections, according to data provided by the nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics.

As some of you know I have written before about the support that the President enjoys from our indigenous population, which I find extraordinarily impressive.

I am not sure I can articulate exactly why, but for some reason the very fact that these people, who have suffered for so many generations at the hands of the white invaders, now feel they have a champion with this much derided half black man, somehow feels like some sort of kismet to me.

It is also, by the way, yet another indication that this President of ours keeps his promises. At least when the Republicans don't block him from doing so.

"Hey White Guys!" Oh you have GOT to watch this!

Didn't I tell you it was awesome?

Well THIS is certainly not going to make the Religious Right very happy.

For those who were not certain that the White House was fully committed to defending the President's newly evolved stance on gay marriage, I believe the fact that you can now find items like the ones below being sold at the Obama Campaign's online store should remove any doubt.

On a personal note I have to share with you that my daughter came flying into my office the other day all jubilant and bouncing around like a hyperactive puppy due to the excitement she felt that Obama had come out in support of same sex marriage.

My daughter tends to like to play it cool, so it is unusual to see her so uninhibited in her enthusiasm.

She said that her gay friends are equally energized and that many of them are volunteering to help with the Obama reelection campaign in response to his historic support of equal rights.

I asked her what it means to her, and she replied that it means that not only does her daddy love and support her just the way she is, but for the first time in history so does the President of the Untied States.

I have to admit that kind of choked me up.

By the way, you can ignore the people on the Right who are saying that Obama is going to lose some of his support from the Black community over this.  The facts are that the African American community is ALL IN for Obama, and are now beginning to follow his lead in accepting gay marriage as well.

So let's take some political inventory shall we?

Right now the President is polling 5at 4% among women to Romney's 34% (And we know that will only go up for the President as we get nearer the election), Blacks support the President 90% to Romney's pathetic 5%, 42% of Independents also favor Obama while only 30% like Romney, and of course the gay vote is now solidly in Obama's corner.

The only place that Romney out performs Obama is with the white male vote, and even that is even higher among white males who did NOT finish college.

In other words Romney has the ignorant Caucasian heterosexual man vote all sewn up. Color me unsurprised.

This is beginning to look like a very interesting election indeed.

Now if you will excuse me I have a t-shirt to buy.