July | 2016 | Praxis

Last Known Maker of VCRs Is Calling It Quits

40 years after the first VHS video cassette recorder rolled off the production line, the last known company making the devices is ceasing production. According to Japanese newspaper Nikkei, Funai Electric, a Japanese consumer electronics company, will give up on the format by the end of the July after 30 years of production. Declining sales, plus a difficulty in obtaining the necessary parts, prompted Funai Electric to cease production. While the Funai brand might not be well-known in the west, the company sold VCRs under the…

Republicans Ignored Average Joes for So Long, They Turned to Donald Trump

But if Trump’s working-class supporters were voting as much for the man as for his message, they were also clearly voting against a party leadership that pays them lip service while ignoring their concerns. Some of these concerns are rooted in racial anxiety, and an older generation’s inevitable fear of change. But many of them are rooted in basic human vulnerability — a very personal exposure to stagnant wages, family breakdown, military quagmires (America’s wars are disproportionately fought by volunteers from downscale Red America) and…

People Who Don’t Like Clinton or Trump Don’t Really Vote Anyway

One in four Americans have an unfavorable opinion of both Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton, more than double the rate who disliked both candidates in 2012 and about four times higher than in 2008. This high level of joint unpopularity could foreshadow low voter turnout or the rise of a third-party candidate, but there are reasons why these outcomes are by no means sure things at this point. Overall, 35% of U.S. adults interviewed over the course of June had a favorable view of the…

Ted Cruz Just Made the Same Mistake Ted Kennedy Did in 1980

After a long and bitter primary battle, businessman Donald Trump is now officially the Republican nominee for president. Despite promising to support whoever the eventual nominee was, many of his vanquished opponents stayed home instead of attending the GOP’s national convention in Cleveland. That reaction is not exactly a surprise considering that Trump essentially used an insult comic shtick as one of his prime arguments against his competitors. Given Trump’s constant lying and his continual reversals of his own positions, refusing to endorse him is…

BlackBerry CEO Blasts Apple, Says Tech Companies Should Provide Data Under Subpoena

BlackBerry CEO John Chen has said he is “disturbed” by Apple’s tough approach to encryption and user privacy, warning that the firm’s attitude is harmful to society. Now, we already know that Chen and Apple don’t see eye-to-eye on security. In December, Chen waded into Apple’s FBI encryption battle in which the iPhone maker resisted government demands to unlock a device because it would be an “unprecedented step which threatens the security of customers”. Chen remarked: “We are indeed in a dark place when companies…

Just 58 Percent of Americans Think Churches Can Help Solve Social Problems

Religious leaders and institutions have taken part in efforts to address important social issues throughout American history, from slavery to civil rights to today’s advocacy in areas such as reducing poverty. But Americans appear to be growing more skeptical of how much of a difference churches and other houses of worship make in tackling social concerns. A majority of U.S. adults still say religious institutions contribute either “a great deal” (19%) or “some” (38%) to solving important social problems. But the combined figure of 58%…

‘Communist’ China Is Going to Ban Ad Blocking Software

There are apparently 159 million people who block ads on their mobile devices in China. Desktop numbers are relatively low by comparison. All of them, though, are going to have a fundamental right snatched from them come September, when their government will take away their right to block ads. That’s because just last week China issued its Internet Advertising Interim Rules, Article 16 of which will place a ban on ad blocking. Aside from the oppressive part, the new regulations will seek to define what…

Donald Trump and the Twilight of the Religious Right

The evangelical divide over Trump has been widening for months, but it was only in recent weeks that the pro- and anti-Trump camps definitively split, with an increasing number of conservative evangelicals coming out forcefully against the candidate whom GOP consultant Rick Wilson once called “Cheeto Jesus.” The breaking point came on June 21, when Trump—ironically in an effort to appease the religious right—met with nearly a thousand evangelical leaders and announced a 25-person “evangelical advisory board” to help him reach conservative Christian voters. Almost…

Steve King Isn’t Just a Racist, He’s Completely Ignorant of the History of Western Civilization

Following a Monday appearance on MSNBC, Iowa Congressman Steve King is finally getting some of the attention he deserves. Although he supported Ted Cruz in his state’s caucuses, King is in many ways a forerunner of Donald Trump. During a panel discussion segment led by MSNBC host Chris Hayes, King was challenged by Esquire writer Charlie Pierce about the fact that delegates at the Republican National Convention were overwhelmingly older and white. The congressman took umbrage at and mounted a strange and irrelevant defense over…

Fox News Will Be Better Off Without Roger Ailes

Several news outlets have reported that Roger Ailes will be or already has been terminated from his position as chairman of the Fox News Channel. On Tuesday, Matt Drudge reported it as fact and a Fox representative initially confirmed the report to the Daily Beast before retracting the confirmation. Drudge even provided a copy of what he said was the legal separation agreement between Ailes and FNC’s parent company, 21st Century Fox. (Drudge later removed the document and his headline touting it, however.) The writing…

Understanding the present is the key to the future