During a conversation, Artappraiser took note of the fact that everything going on in Ukraine reinforces the need for people to have firearms in order to defend themselves or a community. I retorted by saying that the weapons there are only accessible by militia members, who get them after an application process.

I had to post about this.

Artappraiser inspired this with her post about "the fall of Seattle" and how the George Floyd protests made them especially harmful for the Pacific Northwest.

EVERYONE: FEEL FREE TO USE.  Part I is here, Feb. 28 thru March 24

Exclusive: Inside a rare US meeting with a Russian general in Moscow. By Barbara Starr and Jeremy Herb, CNN, Updated 1:16 AM ET, March 24

They say that history doesn't repeat itself, but it sure does rhyme. As I've seen Volodymir Zelensky be venerated by various liberals of the world for standing up against Russia, I kept thinking of another prominent Jewish Ukrainian who took a similar stand over a century ago:

I was reading through the devastating wave of gun violence that, once again, is ripping through American society. Guns are so part and parcel of American life that it's hard to imagine life without them. You end up having to go through gun channels if you work security, law enforcement or are a hunter, even if you yourself are not a gun owner.

I am trying to catch up on world events because ... Ukraine and will use this thread to stash some interesting (to me)  things I happen upon. There may be some duplication of things already posted here. Sorry about that but they will be easier for me to find again. I've never mastered navigating here. 

When I first started at Dagblog, I was invited here by Michael Maiello.

Maiello did a lot of blogging about professional wrestling. At the time, WWE was the only game in town and what was going on there wasn't all that interesting. WWE now has its own subset competition called NXT, along with a competitor called AEW (All Elite Wrestling).

I have a lot to say about it, but I have to know if Dagblog readers are interested in such a thing first. Let me know!

Part I is here, starting with Omar Wasow's excellent quote from a NYTimes article 

“Focus on conflict. Feed the algorithm. Make sure whatever you produce reinforces a narrative. Don’t worry if it is true.”

with many excellent examples through Nov. 2021. This is for new ones!

continued after the jump

There is a very famous conservative book called Quest for Community. Written during the 1950s by Berkeley academic Robert Nisbet, the book makes an assessment about why fascism and communism happened. Totalitarianism addressed the longing that all human beings have for community. As modern industrialism shook up the bonds that humans developed slowly over thousands of years, anxiety and fear settled in and dictators offered a relief.

I'm posting this one in lieu of the story about Jeffrey Epstein and his associates. A lot of conservatives go and on about "Jeffrey Epstein Didn't Kill Himself," as if, if they were right, it's a consequence of a vast conspiracy. This monstrous man was attacked in his home (although not injured). It's just what happens to people like this, universally, all over the world.