#Ian Frazier, "Guns Down," The New Yorker, April 5. 2021. - ""The New Yorkers Against Gun Violence ( N.Y.A.G.V.) has successfully lobbied the state legislature to pass a major gun-safety measure. A law now requires that all guns in homes with children be under lock and key, thanks partly to the group."
Ian Frazier cites statistics that show "ninety-six per cent of all mass shooters are male; there may be ten million assault rifles in private hands; and seventy-five per cent of gunowners say that owning a gun is essential to their sense of safety."
Ian Frazier writes that James Dobbins III, assistant director of community affairs for a nonprofit called 'Guns Down, Life Up,' "began by telling me two facts: Lincoln Hospital, located in the southwest Bronx, has the busiest emergency room in the city, and people who are shot and survive have a fifty percent chance of being shot again within five years. Of every ten people who present at a hospital with gunshot wounds and don't die, five will eventually be shot again, and of those, two will die."
"In 2020, there were fifteen hundred and thirty-one shootings in New York City, almost twice as many as in 2019. The number of people hit by bullets was eighteen hundred and sixty-eight." "Since before the 2020 election, gun stores nationwide have been over-whelmed."
"Gun deaths of 19,380 in 2020 exceeded the gun deaths in each of the prior six years, when gun deaths were below 15,000, roughly matched 15,000, or were a little above 15,000. Gun injuries were 39,427 for 2020. This figure exceeded each of the prior 4 years, when gun injuries clustered around the 30,000 mark, with a range of possibly 28,000 to 32,000. 2014 saw gun deaths at around 12,000 and gun injuries at around 22,000."
#Ivanka Trump lauded her father before an audience of German women, saying that "I'm very proud of my father's advocacy," calling him "a tremendous champion of supporting families and enabling them to thrive." She was met with boos and hisses.
President Trump signed the Women's Entrepreneurship and Economic Empowerment Act of 2018. The money for it was supposed to be spent on micro, small, and medium-sized enterprises assistance, and was called Women's Global Development and Prosperity Initiative (W-GDP). Ivanka said this program would enable "us to rigorously track the execution and the efficacy of the money that we are spending." She described it as: "The first ever all-of-government approach to unleashing what is unarguably the most under-utilized resource in the developing world: the power, the potential, the grit and the genius of the world's women."
The GAO has found that USAID, which was supposed to carry out Ivanka's program, has not developed a process, and there are three key gaps that impair USAID's ability to carry out such a process. The GAO also said that: "USAID collected and reported incomplete and inconsistent data in the process..."
Once more, Ivanka's father has slashed funding for his daughter's program.
#David A. Bell, "Methods of Power," The Nation, 4 . 19 - 26 . 2021. - "The 'ring the alarm bells' camp has tended to see right-wing authoritarianism as a powerful, malevolent force that can operate in at least partial independence from prevailing social and economic conditions. It can arise and destroy democracy wherever people lack the moral and institutional force to successfully oppose it." " 'The strongmen,' she [Ruth Ben-Ghist, author of 'Strongman: Mussolini to the Present'] insists, 'is a modern political type -- indeed, the modern political type.' 'Ours is the age of the strongman,' she states categorically."
" 'A crucial factor is sheer moral weakness. The same holds true for Trump, as awful as he was as president. Despite his vile language, atrocious norms -- and despite the real harm done by so many of his policies -- does he really rank among the great monsters of modern history?' "
" 'Communist authoritarian have tended to rule differently because the parties to which they belonged often retained considerable power and autonomy. The factors that brought the strongmen to power were an ability to project a charismatic image, an uncanny sense of how to appeal to their followers' basest instincts, and a will to embrace the other elements of the playbook --' 'And as for Trump, the crucial factors highlighted are the United States' deepening inequalities, its deep and toxic heritage of racism, and a political system choked into paralysis by special interests.' "
" 'Mussolini,' she [Ruth Ben-Ghist] keenly observes, 'was an expert student of early cinematic techniques, and who mastered the exaggerated body gestures typical of silent films.' "
ADDENDUMS:
*The Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy found that at least 55 of America's largest corporations paid no taxes in 2020 on billions of dollars in profits -- on reported incomes totaling $77 billion. Many also received millions of dollars in tax rebates.
*Abby Vesoulis, "Will Amazon Workers..." Mother Jones, May + June 2021. "Public support is also growing: according to a September 2020 Gallup report, 65% of Americans approve of labor unions, the highest umber in nearly two decades."
