‘I need to protect myself in case there is a civil war’: Why middle-class America is arming up

Brad Vercosa has passed Jimmy’s Sport Shop in Mineola, Long Island countless times, but last Thursday he approached the counter, still in his slippers, to buy his first gun. The construction company owner is one of nearly five million Americans who have purchased their first firearm over the past 12 months, driving what analysts are calling the greatest gun-buying spree in the country’s history. The seeds were sown with the onset of the pandemic last spring, and grew in response to Black Lives Matter demonstrations and pro-Trump rallies over the summer. But for many of Jimmy Gong’s customers in Mineola – a suburban village 20 miles east of the skyscrapers of Manhattan – the storming of the Capitol by pro-Trump demonstrators on January 6 was the inflection point. The following day is one of the busiest Gong, 46, can remember, even accounting for a 150 per cent rise in demand. And he expects business to keep booming. After Donald Trump’s impeachment on Wednesday, the FBI warned of possible armed protests and “domestic terrorism”, amid reports of armed far-Right groups planning to gather at all 50 state capitals and in Washington DC in the run-up to Joe Biden being sworn in as president.

The post-Trump Republican Party has been gutted in almost every way imaginable

Republicans will emerge from the Trump era gutted financially, institutionally and structurally.The big picture: The losses are stark and substantial.Get smarter, faster with the news CEOs, entrepreneurs and top politicians read. Sign up for Axios Newsletters here. * They lost their congressional power. * Their two leaders, Mitch McConnell and Kevin McCarthy, are hamstrung by corporate blacklisting of their election-denying members. * The GOP brand is radioactive for a huge chunk of America. * The corporate bans on giving to the 147 House and Senate Republicans who voted against election certification are growing and virtually certain to hold. * The RNC is a shell of its former self and run by a Trump loyalist. * Democrats crushed them in fundraising when they were out of power. Imagine their edge with it. * Sheldon Adelson, the party's biggest donor, died Monday. * The NRA is weaker than it has ever been, after massive leadership scandals. * The U.S. Chamber of Commerce, once controlled by rock-ribbed Republicans, also gave to Democrats in 2020. * Rank-and-file Republicans are now scattered on encrypted channels like Signal and fearful of Big Tech platforms. What to watch: Conservatives hold power in the courts and state legislatures, two foundational pieces to rebuilding their party. But they likely will face a raging internal war over policies and political leaders as they grapple with a post-Trump world — whenever that might be.Be smart: sign up FREE for the most influential newsletter in America.

House arrest plan for invader of Pelosi's office halted

A federal judge in Washington on Friday night halted a plan to release and put on house arrest the Arkansas man photographed sitting at a desk in House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's office during last week's riot at the U.S. Capitol. Richard Barnett will instead be brought to Washington, D.C., immediately for proceedings in his case, Chief U.S. District Judge Beryl Howell ordered Friday night, staying a decision by another judge to confine Barnett to his home in Gravette, Arkansas, until his trial. Howell's ruling came hours after U.S. Magistrate Judge Erin Wiedemann in Arkansas set a $5,000 bond for Barnett and ordered that a GPS monitor track his location.

Joe Biden's $1.9 trillion stimulus plan could wreck Wall Street's favorite money-making trade

Trump Calls in Pillow Salesman to Discuss Possibility of Instituting Martial Law

Turns out you can have good ideas for pillows and still have bad opinions about fascism

Dustin Diamond diagnosed with stage 4 cancer