VICTORVILLE, Calif. — Ever since it became clear that Barack Obama would be our next president, there’s been an unprecedented run on guns ‘n ammo in America. Partly this is fueled by fears, some justified, some not, that Obama will outlaw a broad range of assault weapons; partly it’s fueled by socioeconomic factors, racism and right-wing hate.
Nowhere is this phenomenon more evident than in Victorville, a desert exurb of Los Angeles that boomed faster with the subprime craze than just about any city in the country and fell harder when it all collapsed. Today, guns and ammo are in short supply here in Victorville. But there is an abundance of despair and paranoia.
There are a lot of guns around these parts, too. The barren desert surroundings are a perfect setting for gun enthusiasts of all stripes, and it feels like most everyone here owns a weapon or two. And why not? You can drive 15 minutes beyond city limits, turn off onto a back road and start unloading to heart’s content. That is, if you are able to get your hands on some ammunition.
In Victorville, every single gun store is out of all types of ammo, all the time. I know from personal experience. I’ve been popping into the local stores to replenish my .357 and .22 ammo supply for about once a week ever since I moved out to Victorville a month ago. And every time, I have been greeted with empty shelves and apologetic salesmen.
“I went through 11,000 of 9mm rounds in two days. That’s an awful lot for a little shop like this. I would never, ever stock that much,” an owner of a gun shop tucked away in a corner of a strip mall told me. “All the people that make ammunition are making more than they have in any other year, but they are still running out.”
Excessive target practice did not even come close to explaining the insatiable demand for ammo. Even the local Wal-Mart, the pioneer in demand-driven distribution, can’t keep up, selling out as soon as soon a new shipment comes in.
Rumor on the street has it that Wal-Mart has sold more ammo year-to-date than any other year in its history. And while Wal-Mart’s media relations department would not confirm or deny that information, citing proprietary concerns, all one has to do is visit their two stores in the area.
Aside from a couple of boxes of buckshot, shelves in the guns-and-ammo department stand perpetually empty — a weird sight in a store otherwise overflowing with goods. According to a salesperson at their Victorville location, ammo that arrives overnight will be picked clean long before lunch hour rolls around. The only sure way to buy is to call as soon as the store opens at 9 a.m. and put what you want on hold. That is, if a shipment comes in that day at all.
Charles Drew, owner of a gun store in Victorville, told the press that even people that don’t own guns are hoarding ammunition “just in case.” It is a trend recorded nationwide.
The Outdoor Wire, a news service for the outdoor industry, has named Obama its “Gun Salesman of the Year.” Mandatory FBI background checks for firearms sales have jumped by 50 percent in recent months, while ammunition manufacturers have seen record sales. Olin Corp., maker of Winchester ammunition, upped its first-quarter sales this year from $110 million to $133 million, giving it a much-appreciated 20 percent boost in profits.
Ammunition has been so scarce lately that some police departments have been forced to scale back on target practice, fearing that they won’t have any bullets left for real police work.
And the thing to remember is that bullets aren’t cheap. A box of 25 9mm rounds sells for about $25. More specialized ammo easily sells for $2 a bullet or more. But in these difficult times, cost does not appear to be an issue, even in the flat-broke city of Victorville.
Victorville is set on a flat stretch of the Mojave Desert among Joshua trees and tumbleweeds 100 miles east of Los Angeles. Fertilized by land speculation and the riskiest of loans, blocks and blocks of beefy McMansions started sprouting here in the last decade, baiting low-income families with the glorious dream of home ownership.
Priced just right, Victorville was a testament to the accessibility of the American Dream for all, regardless of wealth. And in 2007, it became America’s second-fastest growing exurb, doubling its population to just over 100,000 in six short years.
There was no local industry to support such growth, and despite the two-hour average commute, each way, people flocked here from all over Southern California, eventually making Victorville more ethnically diverse than Los Angeles.
But the egalitarian dream didn’t last. Prices have now dropped to pre-2000 levels. Whole neighborhoods of beefy homes, some of them half-built, now stand abandoned, eerily blending in with the barren desert landscape.
The unemployment rate in Victorville doubled in the past year, spiking way above the national average to between 12.5 and 18.5 percent (the national and state averages are 8.5 and 11.2 percent, respectively).
Violent crime is on the rise, too. Victorville saw a 7 percent jump in 2008, while some surrounding areas clocked as much as 13 percent more homicides, rapes, robberies, assaults and motor vehicle theft.
There are two sides to Victorville, the old and the new. Before its stint as a dirt-cheap suburban paradise, Victorville was a tiny God-fearing community populated by white conservatives living an isolated frontier lifestyle with heavy military overtones.
One of the local World War II-era bases had shut down more than a decade ago, but a Marine Corps base remains operational and is still one of the biggest employers in the area. Until the housing boom flooded the area with urban homeowners, 1 out of every 6 adults here was a veteran.
The influx of new — and mainly nonwhite — homeowners has been a cause of racial tensions here for more than a decade.
“The chemistry out here is perfect for more and more racism,” said Tom Metzger, the infamous leader of the white supremacist hate group White Aryan Resistance who lives in Southern California, about the Inland Empire back in 2005. “You’ve got all these nonwhites moving here from Orange County and Los Angeles trying to flee the crime perpetrated on them by their own kind in their ghettos, and when they come out here, they’re basically shoving forced integration down the throats of the whites who have traditional claim to this area, and that is provoking a negative racist reaction among whites, as it damn well should. It’s great!”
What has been a simmering conflict may soon be bubbling over the edge. There is almost a sense of inevitability of a spike in hate crimes.
“In the past month, there was only one reported hate crime. But you have to wonder how many go unreported. I think a lot, ” a local crime beat reporter told me. “Just go to our comments section and read what people are saying. There is definitely a perfect storm building.”
In October 2008, two teenagers belonging to a local hate group shot a black man in a liquor store parking lot. Schools have been dealing with an uptick in race-based conflicts and shooting threats. Earlier this month, one of the cars of a Jewish family was trashed inside and out, its engine destroyed and swastikas painted on its doors and hood.
As I’m writing this, news is coming out that police arrested a group of six local skinheads from Hammerskin Nation for attempted murder, witness intimidation, conspiracy to commit murder and assault with a deadly weapon.
According to the Southern Poverty Law Center, Hammerskin Nation has been stepping up recruitment lately, as has every other known extremist group across the nation.
On April 15, about 200 people, mostly white, showed up at Victorville’s Tea Party. Some were not hesitant to vow that they’ll take violent action if “Osama’s” socialist policies continued unabated.
To the protesters, the economic crisis had exposed what their government had become: a big, meddling bureaucracy that had little regard for personal liberty. Socialism was a’coming to the USA, and it was hell-bent on exploiting honest, hardworking people like themselves — whether it’s being forced to bail out delinquent homeowners or having your jobs given to illegal immigrants.
While President Obama was talking about raising taxes, redistributing wealth and carelessly spending hundreds of billions of dollars on his banker buddies, their boys were coming back home from Afghanistan and Iraq thankless and jobless. Much of their anger was aimed at new residents: Hispanics, Asians and blacks.
Nowhere is this animosity more visible than on the local Internet forums. Here are just two of dozens of similar comments posted by readers on an article about Victorville’s spike in crime rates by the Daily Press, a local daily:
married wrote:
Sheriff’s can’t pinpoint why there’s an increase in crime? Geez even an idiot can tell you what the problem is – low-income housing, Juan and Shanana moving up here to get little Julio and Tyron away from the gangs, but not realizing they are the gang, and welfare money running out in the middle of the month. I can’t wait to hear the remarks I’m gonna get on this comment. 5/2/2009 7:59:03 PM
sandynator wrote:
No surprise here, what do you expect with all the social engineering we had via Barney Frank and the dems, too many gangbangers got loans and moved on up to the high desert. Now we the citizen pay the price while the fat cats like Barney Frank, Nancy Pelosi and BO laugh themselves silly. 5/2/2009 9:59:36 PM
The day after the nationwide Tea Party protests, channeling the spirit of Timothy McVeigh, the Department of Homeland Security released a perfectly timed report warning law enforcement agencies that America’s shifting political landscape, the economic downturn and influx of returning vets all combined for a perfect storm likely to cause a swell in right-wing extremist organization activity.
The report cited evidence that extremist groups are stockpiling weapons and ammo in preparation for … something.
Republicans went on a partisan offensive, slamming the report as an affront against our troops, but even a cursory look at Victorville shows how close to the bone the report really gets.
This article was first published on Alternet.org.
Yasha Levine is a gun-ownin’ editor of eXiledOnline. He is currently stationed in Victorville, California, working on a book about the end of the American Dream. You can contact him at levine@exiledonline.com.
Read more: .22, .357, ammo, gun, guns, Obama, rightwing, victorville, Yasha Levine, Dispatch
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78 Comments
Add your own1. aleke | May 7th, 2009 at 10:20 pm
Hmmm… I don’t know who to join up with, all the militias and gangs are either rightwing and/or ethnic-tribal. We ought to start our own, or nothing will get done around here!
2. 1of6billionSheeple | May 7th, 2009 at 11:43 pm
The first gun laws were made by racist southern whites in order to prevent African Americans from owning guns. Now they are allowed to own fire arms.
3. nikke | May 8th, 2009 at 1:09 am
A very interesting and well written article, thank you, Yasha.
4. Spinneyhead | May 8th, 2009 at 1:46 am
Sieze the moment by setting up a business teaching people how to cast and pack (is that the right terminology?) their own bullets and/or making and selling them for yourself.
Of course, then you’ll have to turn your workshop and storage into a fortress, cutting into your profits because of the number of bullets you have to hoard for self defence.
5. coldequation | May 8th, 2009 at 3:45 am
Could use a little bit of analysis: does the data back up “married” and “sanydnator” or doesn’t it? Who is, in fact, responsible for this crimewave? Did it only start with the recession, or did it start with the influx of new residents?
6. Tommy | May 8th, 2009 at 4:18 am
The irony is that all this hoarding gives us the very reason to shut those fuckers down! Bwaa-ha-ha!
7. geo8rge | May 8th, 2009 at 4:42 am
So Levine, no mention of those skinheads we all read about when we google Victorville. Do the “Inland Empire Skinheads” exist or are they WMD?
8. Bert | May 8th, 2009 at 5:33 am
Yasha, I can still buy 9mm for about $11.00 for a box of 50 FMJ practice rounds. You’re being gouged out there in CA if you’re paying $25.00- Try A1 ammo on google… And for .22, got to Walmart in an area where they still sell shooting supplies. Only thing I buy there anymore.
9. isamu | May 8th, 2009 at 7:38 am
Right, guns are all about racism and right-wing hate because there are no minority gun-toting gangs for white people to worry about.
Fucktard.
yours in Christ,
isamu
10. Adolf 'Shooting Star' Bloom | May 8th, 2009 at 8:56 am
Fellows, remember: whatever a Jew is writing about he is writing about himself.
11. Sk | May 8th, 2009 at 9:26 am
You talk about hate almost like its a bad thing.
12. CapnMarvel | May 8th, 2009 at 10:11 am
Good article. Keep it comin’.
13. will | May 8th, 2009 at 10:30 am
geo8rge you didn’t find them on google because you got their name wrong. they’re called the Inland Empire Skins, or IE Skins. not Skinheads.
Also Yasha you should check out this article on the Daily Press about a local mother who suffered a psychotic break and took her kids on a police chase out into the middle of the desert because she thought the world was ending that day.
Immediately the response from the commenters was to declare that she is probably a hispanic Welfare Queen even though the article clearly stated that she lived in the upper-class Spring Valley Lake suburb and drove an Escalade.
http://www.vvdailypress.com/news/driver-11350-chase-victor.html
14. Tits & Ammo | May 8th, 2009 at 11:22 am
Anyone else get les boners from the photo?
15. Allen | May 8th, 2009 at 11:40 am
Let’s all get guns and confront our local gangs. It is always safer to engage criminals in a firefight rather than just run away. In fact why run? That’s cowardly, no? An armed an active citizenry can protect itself and local businesses. In fact, it’s a great idea … and those local businesses should have to pay for the protection, because it’s only fair; and anyway why not make a little money while we’re playing at being an armed militia?
While we’re at it we can deal a few drugs. I mean what’s wrong with a little pot? Personal choice, right? Our militia will need funding to really beat the gangs/minorities anyway. So it’s justified; our communities must be safe … Come to think of it does it really matter if we move a little coke? Just think of the money … I mean … ah … what were we talking about again?
16. zealot | May 8th, 2009 at 12:31 pm
Dig deep anough and we all prove to be perfect little nazis. Could we please hurry up with that extinction thing?
17. Requia | May 9th, 2009 at 3:17 am
FFS people, if you’re worried about the skinheads and the religious wackos shouldn’t you be out there buying guns too? Don’t let the wackjobs be better armed.
18. dresden | May 9th, 2009 at 4:12 am
The DHS report citing Veterans as a possible home-grown terrorist threat was pure political bullshit doled out by the military-hating left. Timothy McVeigh learned how to build the fertilizer bomb on his own, well after he left the army, which he was in for only a few months anyway. DHS citing him as an example was pathetic and embarrassing.
I’m a Veteran myself, and the DHS report did a good job of alienating every one of us. If Obama pisses us off a little more, maybe the report will be a self-fulfilling prophesy.
But as far as of your gun-clinging semi-paranoid article…do you blame Veterans and Conservatives for stockpiling ammo after the economy went into the tank in October? And do you blame them for continuing to stockpile after this country elects the most liberal President since Woodrow Wilson?
The Left was given a golden ticket with the sub-prime mortgage meltdown that it successfully blamed on the Right, and now, as usual, they are overplaying their hand. The real story is the gullibility of the American people due to their incredibly limited knowledge of economics. It’s amazing that the average American thinks a politician is supposed to understand derivatives made up of CDO mortgage-backed securities propped up by credit-default swaps.
If you asked most Americans the simplest question about the stock market, such as, “What is a stock?”, could they could give you a coherent answer? The real story is the vast divide of economic knowledge between the people who caused this economic crisis, and those who are victims of it. One or two required classes of high school economics might have prevented the whole mess.
19. Realist | May 9th, 2009 at 10:30 am
A litte help from “Old Europe”:
This liberal Woody Wilson signed the Federal Reserve Act of 1913. He did not understand what he had done until years later. This conservative Nixon closed the gold window in 1971 and opend the door for Mugabe economics. He had no clue either. Reagan fucked up the trade balance and spent like drunk sailor. Volcker made derivatives possible.
Put down your liberal/conservative crackpipe and face the music: The banking establishment runs America. It runs Britain. It runs Europe. You are witnessing the worst looting operation ever.
20. captain america | May 9th, 2009 at 10:30 am
what bert said. over here in denver, handgun ammo has gotten a little harder to find at walmart, but they always seem to have plenty of shotgun and rifle ammo, and .22lr. nevertheless, you stil get lucky sometimes…i scored low-priced boxes of 9mm and 357SIG at walmart a week or two ago.
the gun shops around here still seem well stocked on ammo (although they do seem to be running low on handguns themselves lately). prices are higher than walmart, but nowhere near the “$2 a round” you’re quoting here.
another reason to avoid california, i guess.
21. aleke | May 9th, 2009 at 11:59 am
First of all, who let all these rightwing nutjobs to this website?
Anyone who thinks of Obama as “liberal” has no historical perspective, much less an economic historical perspective (no wonder they dont require history of economic thought even for economics majors in american universities). Silly as hell.
Like calling Clinton liberal. Liberal what? Because he was more effective at giving bread and circuses to uppity poor people and single mothers and didn’t drain the middle class quite as fast as everyone from about 1969 onward? You’re not really considering Clinton liberal because he let black mothers have more abortions and teenagers more contraceptives, are you? Or do all of you “in Christ” not have any sort of grasp on just exactly what Clinton actually did with his euphemistically “business-friendly” approach. Or what Nixon was doing when he took us off the gold standard. Or why his wonderful, conservative administration actually told OPEC to go ahead and increase those oil prices to squeeze average Americans. Or how and why the IMF still operates after the fall of Keynesianism in the 1970’s made it obsolete?
These are tough, complex issues that need to be contextualized with knowledge of history and economics that extends past the last 20 years, which seems impossible for americans (not to mention American conservatives, who, along with the neoconservatives, must be the dumbest political class since European aristocrats). That’s okay, it’s actually the educational system doing this to you, but it seems like you’ll never figure that out.
Let me give you guys some advice on succeeding in debate. Stick with what you know. And not what betrays you as an idiot. Anti-intellectualism may fly in American media, but here you’re just embarassing yourself. So, instead of assuming that because your lower class ass is racist, that means that everyone should bandy up and join the Skin Guild, or that any of the past three Democrat presidents are actually liberal instead of neoliberal (like, you know, the entire Republican party from Nixon onward), why don’t you stick to gun talk. Because that’s the only thing that crazy conservatives get right.
22. Jumping creature | May 9th, 2009 at 12:48 pm
Is it difficult to start gun import business with the U.S.? I heard it’s legal for an american to keep functioning old artillery weapons, and airplane machine-guns, etc in general everything except bazookas, because b. can already be really dangerous to the titanium-plated Airforce-1 helicopter.
23. eric | May 9th, 2009 at 1:43 pm
The powerful are playing us off against each other again … white vs. black, middle class vs. lower class. America needs a revolution, and the only way that will happen is if we work together.
24. Los Despermados | May 9th, 2009 at 2:01 pm
Yasha, thanks for posting our comments. Gentlemen you would be shocked to find out how little valuebale comment information regarding U.S. weapon business is posted on the internet. But The eXiled is posting it, so I want to thank you. Sometimes, by the way, I like to suck on my weapon barrel, just for practice. Does that make me weird?
25. az | May 9th, 2009 at 2:37 pm
Who cares. Fat doesn’t translate into body armor. This article makes it more alarmist like it’s going to be the Red Summer of 1919 or something. It won’t make lynch mobs and it won’t make a Chechnya as both sides are too weak to do anything that big. Oh and all (neo-) nazis are gay and would rather blow each other all day than face a war nowadays anyway.
26. ben housouer | May 9th, 2009 at 3:56 pm
Eric…you are right on brother!…maybe if you and a few like you were at the Battle of Golden Pond maybe Ames wouldn’t have lost his balls and we could have started the ball rolling!
27. Galleon | May 9th, 2009 at 4:06 pm
Az, leave your email – if you want we could talk about Chechnya
28. Mark in Ark | May 10th, 2009 at 7:52 am
Muddle-headed leftists like Aleke are our sworn enemy.
Justice is coming.
29. John | May 10th, 2009 at 8:26 am
It’s the “barrackalypse” you idiot.
30. Timmy | May 10th, 2009 at 10:13 am
McVeigh wasn’t in the army for a few months – he was in the army for over three years and received a bronze star in desert storm.
31. leipzig | May 10th, 2009 at 1:19 pm
Hey, dresden, you do a pretty good job of demonstrating why most thinking people hate the military. You got in, got brainwashed, and now you fancy yourself some kind of “wake up, people!” intellectual. Damn straight we should fear veterans. They are desensitized from killing, and the PTSA-addled (just don’t call it that, doesn’t exist! nothing to see here folks) soldiers returning from Iraq have been so royally fucked by their government that they are on the verge of snapping.
32. aleke | May 10th, 2009 at 3:04 pm
Awww, Mark in Ark, did i hit a nerve? :'( Truth stings
33. dresden | May 10th, 2009 at 5:17 pm
aleke, you said, “Who let all these ringwing nutjobs on this site?” I’m sure you call anyone a “rightwing nutjob” if they dare to have a different opinion than you do, correct? Anyone who doesn’t agree with you is to be demonized and called an idiot, because as a glorified enlightened Obama-loving lemming, it’s your job to tell the rest of us how to think…right????
Thank you so much for your dissertation on what is and isn’t liberal. So according to you, Obama “isn’t” a liberal? Huh??? The term “liberal,” in the current political sense, is applied to anyone who wants to turn the Federal Government into a nanny state, and continually raise taxes on individuals and businesses who are considered “rich,” which could be any amount of money you want it to be. And since Hillary Clinton referred to herself as a “Modern Progressive” in the spirit of the 1920s (Teddy Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson), I consider anyone who thinks the Constitution should “evolve” and be superseded by international law, to be a Collectivist parading as a Liberal. It’s obvious, especially in the last few years, that most people on the extreme left are moving toward Collectivism.
A Conservative (forget about abortion and the religious bullshit) is someone who is favors limited government, lower taxes, and a strong military. If you’re a pacifist, please spare me the Kum By Ya. I believe in a strong military, and if you don’t, then you’re entitled to your opinion, however impractical it is. I consider myself to be conservative in this sense. If you want to call me “rightwing” for having these views, go ahead.
Clinton was a moderate liberal, and somewhat tolerable, except that he foolishly took credit for the tech boom of the late 1990s. I’ve been involved in equities trading for the last 20 years, and seeing Clinton try to take credit for the economic activity created by the Internet build-out was ridiculous. Obama is a fairly nice, but totally naive fellow who will be led by his far-left handlers until he alienates anyone who is not “far left.” Of course, he’s spending so much money on the so-called “stimulus” that we’ll be buried in debt and not able to pay the interest before he ends his term in 2012. And yes, I know…the Repubs spent too much money also…Pubs and Dems all spend like drunken sailors.
And I can’t help but comment on your statement, “Let me give you guys some advice on succeeding in debate”…you’ve got to be kidding, right? Is your ego really that overblown? Is there an Egomaniac Management Class available for you to attend? Check the Yellow Pages, I’m sure they’ve recently created a class just for you.
Here, I’ll give “you” some advice on how to succeed in debate: If you don’t act like an insulting, arrogant know-it-all then someone might actually take you seriously. And as for Exiled letting myself and others on this site…I guess you don’t believe in the First Amendment either (it seems Exiled “does” believe in it). Last time I checked, we all have the right to free speech and free expression. If people like you were in charge, only those who agree with your viewpoint would be allowed to open their mouths. In fact, why should anyone speak at all, when we have you to tell us how it is? From now on, I’ll just sit at your feet and “listen.”
34. dresden | May 10th, 2009 at 5:30 pm
Timmy, I stand corrected, McVeigh was in the army for more than a few months. But he didn’t learn to build a fertilizer bomb from military training he received. DHS using him as a reason to paint Veterans as potential terrorists was poorly thought out. Military members have a much lower crime rate than the overall population, and extreme environmental and anti-abortion groups account for most of the domestic terrorism for the last thirty years.
35. dresden | May 10th, 2009 at 5:36 pm
leipzig, so most “thinking people” hate the military, huh? Your comment clearly demonstrates why you are “not” a “thinking” person.
36. leipzig | May 10th, 2009 at 7:44 pm
“Thinking” people do “not” use unnecessary quotation “marks” all over the fucking place, so “bitch, please.”
37. dresden | May 10th, 2009 at 8:21 pm
Leipzig, you really “slayed” me by criticizing my “quotation” marks. It’s hard to top that one…
38. aleke | May 10th, 2009 at 11:47 pm
Listen, dresden doll, honey, just because you feel strongly about your crazy notions of what is and isn’t coherent in your illogical smatterings, doesn’t mean you should parade them about. Maybe you ought to try, you know, addressing any of the points that were outlined, instead of frothing at the mouth.
Do you know what a “nanny state” is? Do you have any handle on the Limbaughist buzzwords you are attempting to invoke? Maybe you ought to not dip into the world of politics, ya know? Stick to your superstitious gibberish and rabid gambling, err, “equities trading.” Maybe those mysterious and unnamed “far-left” handlers of Obama could lead you back into the trading pen, where you can indulge yourself in betting against the very fundaments of probability and reason, yapping stupid euphemisms the whole time.
And that also goes to all you idiots that think dropping the “First Amendment” in an argument means that not only should you be heard, but you should be respected, and then idolized. No one’s shutting you up, they’re just shutting you down. Keep writing stupid bullshit, and you’ll keep getting called out on your idiocy. Seriously, anytime someone drops that line, it’s as if they’re convulsing in retard rage at their computers, trying to find some sort of legitimate line of attack. Of course that argument never, ever, ever has any relevance to the points that have been outlined.
39. Realist | May 11th, 2009 at 12:12 am
With the exception of dumb New Yorkes, everybody sees where this is heading. After 40 years of fucking and robbing the middle class, its about endgame. The whole community policing and federalisation of law enforcement went airborne under Clinton, after previous administrations gave some serious thought about the whole “continuity of government” idea. Hence the slow integration of the military into law enforcement.
DHS was meant to be the American Stasi from day one. Why do you think there are hardcore active army units on Homeland Tours?
Now the homes are gone, the pension have vanished, the jobs disappeard. Its not coming back. Guess what: Its not crime or racism the management class cares about.
40. Kepler | May 11th, 2009 at 1:30 am
I probably added to those “hoarding” numbers this year by buying a pistol and taking up shooting. I was only made aware of the menace the administration represents to these gun nuts when the guy I bought it from said, “They’re flying off the shelves since Obama was elected!” I had the more paranoid interpretation, and took it to mean there’d be a lot more would-be assassins roaming his itinerary. Not that the two are mutually exclusive statistics.
Any more pictures of that chick?
41. Carlito | May 11th, 2009 at 2:55 am
Yasha, I am not sure what your point is. Are you saying the skinheads are buying up all the ammo?
It seems to if the crime is on the rise to such a big extent people are doing well to get a hold of some ammo.
If the cause is right-wing racist paranoia, does that mean the blacks are buying less ammo than the whites?
42. dresden | May 11th, 2009 at 3:03 pm
aleke, is calling me, “doll, honey,” another example of your tactics in “how to succeed in dabate”? When you call me, “doll, honey,” do you think I’m going to skulk over to the corner and think, “Wow, that aleke guy is really a sharp one! Now that he’s called me, ‘doll, honey,’ I think I’ll go home and never try to face the likes of him again!!” You’ve hurt my feelings so badly with your scalpel-like rhetoric.
And isn’t it amazing, Exiled “let” me back on their site again…despite my “crazy” notions. How can such an outrage continue?! I notice you have nothing coherent to say…only insults and condescension. In fact, it seem the only way you can address someone you disagree with is to belittle and insult them, right? You rely on arrogance to beat others down, because God forbid you actually have to listen to a different point of view. So tell me…how has that been working for you?
You described yourself perfectly in the beginning of your comment:
“just because you feel strongly about your crazy notions of what is and isn’t coherent in your illogical smatterings, doesn’t mean you should parade them about.”
I think you nailed yourself there, aleke. It seems you see in others what you know to be true of yourself.
So let’s review aleke’s “Advice on How to Succeed in a Debate”:
1. Insult, ridicule and belittle those you disagree with.
2. Call your opponent pet names like, “doll” or “honey.”
3. Invoke stereotypes like, “Limbaughist” to describe anyone who you consider to be “rightwing.”
4. Hope and pray your browbeating will eventually shut the other person down.
Really, aleke, you actually threw a Rush Limbaugh reference out there? Yeah, everyone who believes in limited government worships Rush Limbaugh. And of course, he’s also the new head of the Republican Party. I’m not a Repub, and I don’t listen to Limbaugh. You’re really grasping when you sink to such pathetic stereotypes.
And you told me, just because I believe strongly in my crazy notions, I shouldn’t “parade them about.” Oh, you mean exactly like you do???? It’s okay for you to parade your notions about, but not others? Could you be any more of a hypocrite if you tried? Just admit it, aleke, you don’t believe anyone has the right to state their opinion unless they agree with you…because, of course, you are the only one who knows the truth. Everyone else who believes differently is an idiot to be demonized and slandered.
I mentioned the First Amendment because it was you who first said, “who let these righwing nutjobs on this site.” Obviously, you seriously think that anyone who doesn’t have leftwing opinions shouldn’t be allowed to post here. Those were your words…right, aleke?
You said no one is shutting me up, they’re just shutting me down. Well, there’s that overblown ego again. So, tough guy, you really think you’re shutting “anyone” down? Just admit it, you’d do anything to shut guys like me up (not down), because we threaten your precious liberal bastion. Shinning a light into your hate-filled cellar makes you squirm, doesn’t it?
So I’ll always invoke the First Amendment when any lefty tries to say I shouldn’t be “let” on a website. I know exactly what you’re saying, and so do you. But people like you won’t ever be able to limit my freedom of expression, because you’re too much of a coward to come out and admit that’s exactly what you want to do.
You asked if I know what a nanny state is? Really? Huh??? Yeah, it’s a state that acts like a nanny. Any other probing questions you have for me? But I’m sure you have some esoteric alternative meaning for it based on your “historical perspective,” right? If you have some off-the-wall definition for it, that’s your world, not mine. When I mentioned the nanny state, you knew exactly what I was talking about, and the creation of a nanny state is exactly what you want.
Why don’t you come out and admit what your true political leanings are? From what you’ve written, it doesn’t take a detective to figure out that you’re as far left as it gets…and you and I both know what that means.
You’re the classic bully who haunts blogs like this and you think anywhere you hang-out is your own personal pedestal. Anyone who invades your he-man rightwing-hating hit-club should be drummed right out of town. Well, aleke, the Internets a pretty big town. Do you really think you’re going to win that battle?
43. poser | May 11th, 2009 at 4:46 pm
Oh lord.
Obama is a liberal leftist? Who the hell says this? Like most other successful politicians, Obama’s biggest contributors come from the usual suspects. I.E. finance, pharmaceutical, insurance, defense, etc. industries. It’s not as if they’ll give political contributions to someone who works against their selfish interests.
Now you can say he’s a liberal leftist because he’s black and pays lip-service to some token left liberal social concerns. But the crux of his policies are a continuation of the past few decades of our market-driven, neoliberal administrations; Obama serves the corporate and financial elites. If Obama were being bankrolled by the ghosts of the Rosenbergs and Che Guevara, THEN you’d have a point.
Thus… it’s hard to take you seriously when you’re just parroting the visceral rantings of Limbaugh and Hannity.
44. dresden | May 11th, 2009 at 7:27 pm
Oh Lord…you ever heard of Frank Davis? Ever read about Obama’s years at Columbia University? Poser, do some research…
45. poser | May 11th, 2009 at 10:29 pm
Do your own research about who the government answers to. It’s funny how you sell yourself as an intellect, yet you’ve soaked up the kool aid regarding idiotic concepts like the ‘nanny state’ scourge. The neoliberal era has seen the dismantling of both antitrust and regulatory oversight. The banks spent billions lobbying for deregulation, which ultimately led to the financial meltdown afflicting us today.
You’ve written multiple posts with little to no substance, apart from the typical fire and brimstone “right wing idiot radio” soundbites.
It’s embarrassing… really.
46. aleke | May 12th, 2009 at 1:26 am
Hahhaah dresden doll, honey, baby! Busting a ventricle over your plummeting portfolio and worthless holdings? You’re gonna go hoarse from all that desperate screeching. It ain’t gonna bring back any of the money you are losing and will continue to lose. Ex-wifey will smell weakness and demand more alimony payments before you’re broke and worthless in the Depression Dust.
Maybe instead of spending all your time writing out fallacious little diatribes on the internet, you go sell all your assets and flee to Somalia, heard there was small government and a good army there (kicked the American-funded Ethiopians out, didn’t they?). Maybe too many “he-man hating” blacks there, or whatever Hannitian code you wanna to use. How about Iraq, they have a nice little government with BIG oil dollars being banded about on the back of militia Nissan trucks.
No one wants you here, and your opinions and coded language best be “LEFT” to some paranoid-schizophrenic corner of the internet such as Free Republic or maybe Conservopedia. See how I did that? I debate in style. And I think not only am I going to win this battle by outliving you, I think you’ll have a stroke before this country goes really “far leftwing.” Give the Invisible Hand a kiss up for me in the Great Big Free Market in the Sky, buddy! Do us all a favor and turn on CNBC and Youtube QuickCapture, I wanna see those brain vessels pop on my own computer widescreen!
47. aleke | May 12th, 2009 at 1:33 am
I have 20 currency baskets on “dresdendoll1488” bursting a blood casket on the FAR LEFT side of his brain.
48. perlhaqr | May 12th, 2009 at 6:24 am
Girl needs to keep her finger off the trigger until she’s ready to fire.
49. John S | May 12th, 2009 at 8:00 am
@aleke
You’re an embarrassment. To yourself and this site.
50. dresden | May 12th, 2009 at 9:32 am
Actually, aleke, I’m still worth quite a bit. If I told you how much I was worth, you wouldn’t believe me. I went mostly into cash about 2 years ago, and now I’m back in the market doing quite nicely again. But I’m sure you hate anyone who is worth more than a few pennies, right? If only we’d all read those Marxist tribes that you love so dearly, then we could call each other comrade and pray to the worker’s paradise. As for the whole country going “far leftwing”…it isn’t going to happen. Most people, like myself, are somewhere in the middle, and that’s the way it will always be. And as for the Free Market dying, and American turning into a Collectivist state, that isn’t going to happen either.
Would you like to make a little wager on the future? We can place that bet between us. What do you say we bet $10k that the Free Market is still in place 5 years from now? Or how about $20k? If you want to chat directly, that can be arranged…if you’re up to it. Any time you want to put your money where your mouth is, let me know….
51. female | May 12th, 2009 at 9:59 am
a question. is everyone posting to this site male?
52. dresden | May 12th, 2009 at 11:00 am
Poser, you said Obama isn’t a liberal leftist, except that he’s black and pays lip service to some token left liberal social concerns. That just simply isn’t true. Obama does far more than pay lip service to leftist concerns. And if you take some time to research his younger years, calling him liberal is an understatement, to say the least.
And why would you say I’m selling myself as an intellect? I don’t sell myself as anything. It’s amazing how some of the people on this site always stoop to insults to get their point across. Have I insulted your character in any way? I simply disagreed with you and told you to do some research about Obama’s past.
And I don’t know why you veered off into who the government answers to, or bank deregulation, or antitrust oversight. Did I say anything about those subjects? As for regulation…mortgage regulations were ignored. The mortgage brokers didn’t verify proof of income, and gave loans to anyone who walked through the door.
And of course, most everyone in Wash D.C. answers to lobbyists and other identity groups. Campaign contributions have played too large a role in politics for many years. What else is new? Again, I only responded to your statement about whether Obama is far left. And if you look at his cabinet appointments, and which groups he answers to, then he’s obviously catering to far-left concerns.
In fact, forget the labels…he wants to grow the size and scope of government, and he wants raise taxes. We all pay enough taxes to the government — Federal, State and Local — as it is. Spending should be cut, and the scope of government should be reduced.
53. dresden | May 12th, 2009 at 11:10 am
John S., yes, aleke is an embarrassment, to himself and “any” website.
54. Assrot | May 12th, 2009 at 11:39 am
Excellent article Yasha. You go girl. It’s my first time here. I’ll be back. I do love women with guns.
Nice picture. I’d fall in love with you but from the looks of you I could almost be your grandpa. Sorry. I don’t do the “dirty old man” thing. I have daughters and granddaughters.
🙂
Joe
55. ben housouer | May 12th, 2009 at 7:41 pm
re assrot’S COMMENT…are you shitting me?,….you mean yasha’s a woman…i had no idea…this needs cleared up….is that her picture that adorns this posting…i need to know!… oh, by the way, dresden,aleke,poser,zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz!
56. slather | May 12th, 2009 at 10:33 pm
ben….next time…keep sleeping…..
57. ben housouer | May 13th, 2009 at 3:29 pm
oh c’mon slather, wouldn’t it be great if yasha was a big titted ak-47 toting victorville bitch…i think assrot is really on to something here, i dont know why i didn’t see it before
58. aleke | May 13th, 2009 at 5:45 pm
Tick, tock, tick tock
Stroke’s a comin
blood pressure’s gonna drop!
59. cobblers | May 15th, 2009 at 4:06 am
Sure, Yasha is a woman. I know lots of women named Jacob.
60. dresden | May 15th, 2009 at 11:04 am
A little late to the punch there, comrade…
61. AR | May 16th, 2009 at 3:59 pm
Everything is whitey’s fault.
Yet, white people don’t exist as a distinct group and saying that they do is HATE
62. ben housouer | May 17th, 2009 at 8:52 am
yeah i guess the fact that this nation has the highest standard of living while safeguarding the rights of its minority citizens is whiteys fault
63. Tammy Dawson | May 19th, 2009 at 5:25 am
Rightwing hate, hatemongers, racists, neonazis, antisemite, yada yada yada = jewspeak. When there’s an ulterior motive to defame or besmirch decent patriotic white people, take whatever they say with a grain of salt.
64. leipzig | May 19th, 2009 at 6:37 pm
Oh Tammy, you’re really not doing much to help the “white cause” with such an easy-to-hate, incoherent paranoia bonbon. Yeah, whitey’s soooo disadvantaged in America!
I’m not Jewish, but I hate your bigot ass! Don’t you have to go fight godless evolution teachin’ somewhere?
65. ben housouer | May 20th, 2009 at 4:50 pm
give him hell tammy
66. aleke | May 22nd, 2009 at 11:11 am
Lol white people gave the rights that minorities enjoy TO them! They didn’t work and fight for em! It’s just like what us good White Christian Folk are gonna do for the gay people soon. Soon we’ll just do it on our own!
67. slather | May 24th, 2009 at 9:21 pm
leipzig = missed the point, again
68. slather | May 26th, 2009 at 12:26 pm
aleke = missed the bus, the short bus
69. aleke | May 30th, 2009 at 12:24 pm
slather = missed the decline in use of this generic form, this bland insult
is the ‘short bus’ a permanent geographical fixture in the minds of idiots? is the moniker `slather` some sort of subconscious self-deprecation and penitence for real life slime? Next week on: Inconsequential Affairs
70. slather | June 4th, 2009 at 3:42 pm
slather
noun (informal) – a large amount
verb (trans) – spread or smear with a thick substance.
I forgive your confusion.
I wasn’t aware that you are in charge of marking the decline of insults. For you, short bus will never go out of style.
I also wasn’t aware that you host the show, Inconsequential Affairs. Good luck with that.
71. leipzig | June 5th, 2009 at 11:07 pm
^
|
douche
72. delete the borders | June 8th, 2009 at 8:47 am
I <3 it when Sandy(nator)Brogan has all her sock puppets start an echo chamber on the vvdailypress comment forums.
http://c2.ac-images.myspacecdn.com/images02/86/l_4fffdce5a8f54b3da08901f822e422a9.jpg
http://c2.ac-images.myspacecdn.com/images02/86/l_4fffdce5a8f54b3da08901f822e422a9.jpg
73. Carpenter | July 11th, 2009 at 5:30 pm
“Racism and hate.” Yasha Levine. I’m going out on a limb here: you are a Jew, right? Is it possible for you guys to write a story without including the word “racism”? And why is it only used in reference to white people? Interracial rape in the U.S. is almost entirely black men raping white women, according to the FBI statistics. And still you see no reason why law-abiding citizens would buy guns other than “racism and hate.”
I am glad I don’t live in the U.S., with crime bound to be on the rise when the economy crashes, in part because of Obama depleting the public treasury so that there is no reserve money. There could be riots and looting, LA-style, everywhere. But when people are aware of this and try to prepare to defend themselves, it is “racism and hate.” Is the Exile turning into CNN?
74. delete the borders | July 20th, 2009 at 9:20 pm
“according to the FBI statistics.”
Cite the source or STFU.
75. Hersh | September 21st, 2009 at 7:26 am
who gives a crap! i need to know who that girl in the pic is!
76. dude | October 28th, 2009 at 5:13 am
Obama is clearly a liberal socialist. Did you not see the first ten pages of his college termpaper. It had redistribution all over it. He was afraid to show us the last few pages. In his books he wrote about cultivating marxists as friends. I suspect the last few pages probably paid homage to a few marxists by name such as Karl Marx. His green advisor is quoted as saying “after rodney king I became a communist.” His new Czar (Anita Dunn) praised Mao. You know that communist that said power came from the barrel of a gun and caused the most recent mass starvation of China with his collectivist policies. Obama is clearly a socialist. In fact a good argument can be made (by reading what he wrote and what others have wrote or said about themselves with whom he associates) that he is a communist. I can’t believe the people on this site who claim Obama is not a socialist. You have not read his works nor have your seen the written quotes (not disputed) of his green czar, Anita Dunn, and whoever that guy was from the weather underground, as well as his preacher for the last 10 years. I don’t remember all their names but I am sure all their quotes will be on political advertisements in 2010 to remind me.
77. Steve | February 27th, 2010 at 8:40 am
That’s why I buy my ammo online. My gun could take a Grizzlys head off, but it’s much cheaper and easier to find online.
78. cih | January 4th, 2012 at 1:23 am
A very anti-white piece; along with the typical sexist crude photo of the woman (ironic?). The mention of “southern poverty law center” immediately set off a red light. Anyone can write about this stuff and fill their article with details and many incidence, which seems to have an agenda to produce in the reader a sense that this is rampant. It’s not. At least not now anyways, but I’m sure if these types of articles continue it will help stir up anger and fear in enough people that they will be under the illusion that other races are out to get them.
I’m actually part of the white minority where I live, and I can assure you that there is tons of hate and racism against whites. The whites largely just ignore it because they know there is nothing they can do about it. I can’t get medical help I need, yet in my state an illegal alien can because our state has a medical program, compliments of the taxpayer, for illegals. It’s right on their website. All US citizens, whether white or not, have legitimate concerns about illegal immigrants pouring in. I was just in the grocery store and was behind some Mexicans who had two carts of groceries overflowing. They whipped out their Food Card to pay for it, yet could barely understand and communicate with the cashier. This is really a form of theft.
Imagine going to live in Mexico without official documents saying it was ok to be there. Then consider demanding that the Mexican people pay for your food, housing, and medical care; for your family too. Canada does not allow it; Mexico doesn’t allow it. Yet anyone in the US that complains about this is “racist”.
I don’t know any white’s like this article is depicting, although I’m sure there are some. But it is not the majority. This is a typical propaganda article that I predicted would increase in frequency as the economy unravels. It is designed to get the middle and working class people distracted from the biggest criminals in this nation; central banks, politicians with full pockets of cash, wars, and the exact amount paid for wars and all the “accessories” that come with war.
You don’t fool me. Yep…this Yasha Levine character, who lived in Victorville to understand Wall St’s real estate swindle from the inside and who constantly risks life and limb reporting on the darkest, most sinister exploits of our oligarchy’s destruction of everything that’s good about the US, yep he’s distracting concerned white folks like me from looking at the Federal Reserve.
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