"An ATF Official on How Trafficked Guns Are Like Cockroaches."

Imagine the United States is an apartment building with a cockroach problem. Some residents, unsettled by the creatures, hire exterminators to end the infestation in their units. Others, however, are ideologically opposed to pesticides, and refuse to take action. In the near-term, a portion of the roaches die off, but in the untreated parts of the building, the colonies multiply. One morning, the guy who paid the exterminator $200 wakes up with a roach on his forehead, and sees several more crawling along the baseboards of his bedroom.

David Codrea's first Ammoland column: IFOA Offers Concessions on Guns Following Roanoke Murders.

Latest from IFOA, one of the ghetto Judenraten of "gun rights groups."

VDH: How Illegal Immigration Finally Turned Off the Public

"If there were not a Donald Trump, he would likely have had to have been invented."

Busy day ahead.

Hoping to get the A/C fixed by an expert today and still have time to get to the oncologist's to get my blood drawn to determine when I'm going to get a blood transfusion for my anemia. If everything works right, I'll have more later.

Kurt Schlichter: "Anti-Gun Rights Fascists Fail Again."

Then Hollywood moguls weighed in with their insights from behind their phalanxes of armed guards. A producer of Modern Family began demanding mass gun confiscation, not answering the begged question of whether the soft, sheltered affluent liberals his cute show depicts plan to strap on their Kevlar vests and go kick down the doors of gun owners who might not share Hollywood’s willingness to ignore the Second Amendment. . .

Obama has called his inability to massively infringe upon the constitutional rights of the American people his greatest disappointment as president, and it no doubt is. The idea that hundreds of millions of Americans are able to protect themselves without government assistance, like proud, independent citizens, must gnaw at him. But even more distressing to Obama and his coterie of liberal fascists is the knowledge that the presence of 300 million guns out there means that the American people retain their own absolute veto power.

Sure, liberals never met a civil right that actually exists in the Constitution that they didn’t want to violate, but they have a special hatred for the Second Amendment. That our citizenry is armed constrains the progressives in a way that their acknowledged (or, at least, not denied) heroes like Castro and Chavez, and their unacknowledged role models like Hitler and Mussolini, were not constrained. Without a liberal government monopoly on force, this country can only tilt so far to the left before a critical mass of Americans says, “Nah, I don’t think so,” and the progressives have to convince some group of suckers to don the uniforms that our Constitution-loving military would largely abandon and go risk dying to force faculty-lounge fantasies upon a rebellious and deadly citizenry. . .

And, most decisively, the left has lost practically – Americans have decided that we’re going to keep our guns because the alternative is to submit completely to the likes of Obama and his fascist friends. If they want to live the Aussie dream of confiscating our guns they’ll have to talk millions of Democrat constituents into training and arming-up to do it, and that’s not happening. Not only would it be super dangerous, but it seems like hard work. Liberals are putting gun control on the back burner for now, but they have not forgotten it. Their inability to disarm the American people and render them servile subjects unable to protect themselves and their rights remains liberalism’s most profound disappointment. They will try again. Which is why we Americans must remain ever locked and loaded.

Well worth the hour: Wargaming and the Pacific War by Norman Friedman.

Sweltering through the weekend without A/C (they're supposed to be here today) I spent two hours (I saw it twice through) watching a fascinating presentation by naval historian Norman Friedman on the subject: "'Visualizing a Future War: Wargaming at Newport and the Pacific War' was a portion of “Endgame: August 1945 in Asia and the Pacific,” a symposium hosted by the Institute for the Study of Strategy and Politics."

Here's his bio from the U.S. Naval Institute.

This presentation not only tells you specifics about the strategy and tactics of the Pacific naval war, but is very thought-provoking about the importance of war gaming ahead of conflict that is realistic enough to force you to think through and overcome the challenges. This is especially true of thinking through to the end state that you want to accomplish. The Japanese, Friedman points out, did not do the same sort of war gaming as we did, and consequently failed to anticipate things like battle wastage of ships and pilots (leading them to face critical shortages of both quite early on) as well as failing to learn how to maximize battle damage repair, how to speed up the deck turn-around time on carriers, etc. But most importantly was their strategic failure to grasp the consequences (and clearly state them) of what the end state they sought was and whether it was attainable. Lessons here for all of us, students of history and future combatants as well.

Four from Herschel Smith.

MBV NOTE: Please keep Herschel's son Joshua in your prayers. He has just gone through some major back surgery.

Adam Gopnik On Guns As Symbols

The Second Amendment And Illegal Aliens

Here Is Your War On Drugs

The Fargo Police Are Imbeciles

Invisible Cloak for Military UAV’s

Scientists are working on creating a new design for a technology that redefines what the public views as imaginary. Inspired by the well-known Invisibility Cloak from Harry Potter, electrical engineers at the University of California, San Diego have created a new design for their cloaking device, using a Teflon substrate, studded with cylinders of ceramic, that is thinner than any prior development and does not alter the brightness of light around concealed objects. The Teflon has a low refractive index, while the ceramic’s refractive index is higher, which allows light to be dispersed through the sheet without any absorption. Compared to an invisibility cloak, this technology has not only the ability to conceal, but the ability to increase optical communication signal speed and to collect solar energy.

Smith & Wesson investors are celebrating.

Riding the wave of the Law of Unintended Consequences.

Central banks can’t save the markets from a crash. They shouldn’t even try

Alarming data from China was met with a soothing hint about monetary policy. But treasuries cannot keep pumping cheap credit into a series of asset bubbles.

"And the truth shall set you free." For those of you interested in the latest episode in the Kerodin soap opera: "George Patton" pulls Kerodin's fiscal shorts down around his ankles. What's exposed ain't pretty.

I got a phone call this afternoon, asking me "Have you seen what 'George Patton" is doing to Kerodin? Who is he?" I had to admit that I hadn't looked beyond the reference to him at Kenny Lane's site the other day and I had no idea who 'George Patton' might be. After sketching out in brief some of what George Patton had done, my caller asked, "Has anybody heard of a low-yield atomic explosion in Idaho?" I had to agree that Christian Hyman, aka Sam Kerodin, probably wasn't going to take this well at all. No doubt the mighty K will have his own informed guess about who General Patton is. It is evident that whoever he is, the new incarnation of GSP doesn't know how to spell my name. See "Why Miller and Why Now."

The attacks by the Kerodins centered on five people: Kenny Lane, JC Dodge, Mike Vanderbough, Jim Miller (and) Sam Culper.

It turns out that over the past two days 'George Patton' has been subjecting Hyman/Kerodin to a rolling artillery barrage of specific details and analysis (as well as some pointed ridicule). See, in addition to the link above:

Who Benefits Part 1

Who Benefits Part 2

Who Benefits Part 3

In addition, he has posted some Downfall Fuhrer Bunker send-ups: here and here. Part One:

Here is Part Two:

Given such creativity, I believe I can find it in my heart to forgive General Patton for getting my name wrong. Heck, everybody else does. And like those of you who have been following this story since H/K began attacking me with a view to hijacking the Three Percent philosophy, I'll just get me some popcorn and watch what happens next. (Well, I would if I could still eat popcorn, maybe just a cup of hot Earl Grey tea.)

LATER: Other than a mild case of vicarious schadenfreude over all these chickens coming home to roost (and defecate) upon Christian Hyman's head, there is one question that I am seriously wanting to hear the answer to. This business cost me my then best friend, Peter White of WRSA. That still hurts deep down in a place I cannot reach. The only thing I am keenly interested in knowing is when will even Pete reach his gag reflex? Everyone else who followed Pete over to Kerodin's dark side has contacted me to apologize, but as I have written before no apologies are necessary, and that includes Pete. But I am interested in when he too will have finally had enough of the unrepentant federal extortionist ex-con. When will enough be enough?

Why N.Korea Caved On War Threat: China Warned, 'Don't Rain On Our Parade'

U.S. army Sergeant Eric Flynn knew what he was talking about when I encountered him behind an M2A3 Bradley — a “fighting vehicle” that looks like a tank – at a live-fire drill before thousands of mostly South Korean spectators about 20 miles below the Demilitarized Zone between North and South Korea. “We’ll see if war pops up,” he remarked laconically as U.S. and South Korean warplanes bombed targets in the Seung-jin fire drill field, a vast playground for war games in which tanks rumbled and roared and 150-mm cannon boomed on cue. He wasn’t worried — “not with China telling everyone to back down.”

File this under "Things that make you go "Huh."

Clinton secrets hacked by spy in bag

“Cause we already roll up in gangs anyway. There should be six or seven black mother f**ckers, see that white person, and then lynch their ass. Let’s turn the tables. . . We are already getting killed out here so what the f**k we got to lose?”

And we are here as on a darkling plain

Swept with confused alarms of struggle and flight,

Where ignorant armies clash by night. -- Dover Beach by Matthew Arnold.

What have you got to lose? More than you can possibly imagine, you ignorant ass. File this under: "Be careful what you wish for, you may get it." "Black Activists Call for Lynching and Hanging of White People and Cops."

Some hghlights: “Find a mother f**ker that is alone. Snap his ass, and then f***in hang him from a damn tree. Take a picture of it and then send it to the mother f**kers.”

"We “just need one example,” and “then people will start watchin’.” This will turn the tables on s**t, he said. He said this will start “a trickle-down effect.” He said that when one white person is hung and then they are just “flat-hanging,” that will start the “trickle-down effect.” He continued, “Black people are good at starting trends.”

So, I wonder, are they going to be wearing black sheets instead of white sheets?

Praxis: Magpul’s New Double-Duty Front Sight Post

Magpul has a new sight post upgrade for its MBUS Pro front-sight line that allows the shooter to choose between standard and match-level shooting.

"Injun Country." More along the lines of "Black Lives Don't Matter (in fact they don't mean sh-t to other black folks)."

"Injun Country" -- a black or hispanic ghetto area off-limits to white people for safety reasons, as in "He's going to Crown Fried Chicken at this hour? Yo, that's injun country..." -- Urban Dictionary.

"A summer so lawless in D.C., it feels like the Wild West."

For a while there, the spirit of the Wild West returned to our nation’s capital in the guise of the stagecoach. In its day, the stagecoach epitomized the Wild West. It traveled difficult and dangerous routes transporting drivers and passengers, many of whom were worried sick about whether they would make it home to their families. At times, the threat was so great that stagecoach owners avoided stops where safety was jeopardized. This week, the District’s stagecoach went down that path.

On Monday, Metro announced that buses would avoid nighttime stops for one week in the 2400 block of Elvans Road SE because someone had fired at the W8 bus the previous Friday night, striking a passenger. Last month, a Metro bus driver was threatened at Savannah and 19th streets SE. Andre Nickens, who was waiting at the bus stop in the Elvans Road cul-de-sac, told WUSA (Channel 9) that “it’s the danger zone right here. This whole neighborhood is dangerous.” On Sunday and Monday, WUSA reported, the W8 bus did not travel down the dead-end street after 7 p.m.

"Nutters."

Another offering in the argument of insanity vs. evil as an explanation for murderous acts.

Vester Lee Flanagan, who wore an Obama sticker while covering the elections in 2012, never got the memo that becoming the story serves as the journalist’s nightmare, not his dream. Flanagan offered political, racial, and even divine motivations for shooting two former colleagues to death live on local television on Wednesday. The reasons read more like rationalizations. Crazier than crazy projects reason upon unreason. One of the healthiest developments in America’s collective mental health involves society’s increasing rejection of the stated, often hifalutin, causes for murderous acts in favor of an acceptance of the explanation articulated by a drooling, shiny-eyed nutter’s stare.

Bryan Burrough’s Days of Rage: America’s Radical Underground, the FBI, and the Forgotten Age of Revolutionary Violence digs up America’s buried delusions about the delusional. In truth, even in the 1970s just a small number of people regarded mad bombers and cop killers as righteous revolutionaries. But the default response from the ideological press, at least, relied on the professed motivations of the purveyors of violence to explain their actions rather than the simplest, most obvious answers to decipher why. The organized terrorists then and the lone-wolf loonies now share much.

"The optimists study English, the pessimists study Chinese, and the realists study the Kalashnikov rifle."

"TV series about Russian occupation of Norway sparks furor."

A new TV series in which Russia occupies Norway and seizes its oil fields has been criticized by the Russian Foreign Ministry, with the Russian embassy in Oslo labelling it as reminiscent of the "worst traditions of the Cold War."

This story is interesting, but my favorite takeaway is from a comment by one "Moefo Schmoe" of the "Hard Knocks University":

"The optimists study English, the pessimists study Chinese, and the realists study the Kalashnikov rifle."

2nd Annual Ferguson Games

Contestants for "Rioter of the Year."

Go ahead, Euroweenies, make our day. Collectivist propagandist wants Europe to commit more economic suicide in the mistaken belief that it will hurt us.

Euroweenie -- A European, or American who wishes he/she were European, with an ultra-liberal view of the world, who believes that the United States should roll over like a bunch of pussies and become testicle-less Socialist wimps like they are. As in "John Kerry is a Euroweenie." -- Urban Dictionary.

Should European Gun Companies Stop Exporting to the US?

In a country where guns are ubiquitous, and the right to bear arms is firmly enshrined in its constitution – there are 310 million guns in circulation – American gun violence seems inevitable. Europe boasts a very healthy gun industry, one that certainly profits from America’s love affair with the gun. In 2012, EU countries exported small arms and ammunition to the value of more than three-quarters of a billion dollars there.

Go ahead. The companies will just shift their production to the United States. Mo' better for us. And then watch and see if the Russians go along with it. And the Serbs. And the Turks. And the Croats.

"Either a person is evil or he is 'mentally ill.' He can’t be both. Either his actions are evil, or they are symptoms of an illness. They can’t be both." Deliberately mischaracterizing the evil as mentally ill.

(A)llusions to “gun violence” and “mental health” are especially pernicious inasmuch as they obscure the evil nature of the deed being explained. To see just how egregious an offense this is, consider some analogies. Imagine if, while discussing the Holocaust, we spoke about “gas chamber violence,” or while discussing Islamic State mass beheadings, we talked instead of “machete violence.” Or suppose that discussions of the lynching of blacks were peppered with references to “rope violence.” None of this would sit well with decent human beings, for it is clear, or at least it is thought that it should be clear, that such descriptions miss entirely that which is fundamental to the phenomena being described—the perpetrators responsible for these wicked deeds.

Of course the reason the collectivists blame "gun violence" and seek to expand the definition of "mentally ill" as pertains to restricting the availability of firearms is the traditional method of such people to win the argument -- citizen disarmament -- by framing the question and corrupting the language. Buy into that, and they've won the argument already -- an old Communist trick. Remember, they think anybody who resists them is, ipso facto, mentally ill. Why do you think they call us "gun nuts"?

Besides, admitting that there is unrelenting evil in the world leads back to the Devil which leads back to God, and overarching moral authority other than their own cannot be conceded or tolerated. It was not accidentally that Obama criticized people who "cling to their Bibles and their guns." Collectivists view both as deadly dangers to their appetites.

"The ‘Snatch Method’ Was One Crazy Way to Make a Glider Fly"

I have a copy of the original U.S. Army Air Force training film on glider snatches. It is narrated by an obscure Hollywood actor then in uniform -- Ronald Reagan. I've also interviewed glider pilots who participated in "snatches," including one who flew out of Yugoslavia on a mission to bring two Soviet colonels to SHAEF headquarters in an operation that is still classified. Socked in by weather overnight, the glider pilot recalled with fondness the hospitality shown him by the Partisans. He wasn't much for specific details of that night, but he did comment, "Oh, those Partisan women!"

“Wars are still fought on little bits of bloody earth, and they are ended when the enemy’s will to resist is broken, and armed men stand victorious on his home soil.”

Another reminder that there is nothing really new under the sun.

A reminder that inattention to detail can get people killed.

Loose nut costs Air Force $62.4 million in accident

Kenny Lane presents a "Kerodin must read."

The details -- and the acrimony generated by Hyman/Kerodin attacking his former followers -- continue to spill out. "Sam and Holly have been some of the bigger supporters of Legal zoom over the years! They currently have no less than 15 businesses registered in Idaho. If you count the ones that have been forfeited or dissolved just in the past three years, it goes up to 26! The big business seems to be III Percent LLC. It has six additional 'Doing Business As' (DBA) listings registered, to include MacGregor and Grey, America 527, Samuel White, Spartan MMA Academy, Light Warrior Fitness, and Studio III."

All things old are new again. Now all they need is a reincarnated Leon Trotsky.

Trotsky on his train near the front-lines c.1919-1921

Russia To Revive Soviet-Era Armored Trains As $400B Military Modernization Continues

Bundeswehr replaces G36 with HK417

Some German soldiers will be carrying different weapons within a year as the Defence Ministry scrambles to replace standard rifle which loses accuracy under hot temperatures.

Praxis: Bringing back the bicycle infantry. Special Operators Interested in ‘Motoped’

U.S. commandos are interested in a new dual-mode bike that that can be propelled by a motor or human peddling, said a member of the defense industry. The Motoped Survival Bike was delivered to the special operations community for testing on Aug. 8, according to Jeffery Givens, president and CEO of Graystone Defense LLC. Givens is a consultant who works with the American Performance Technologies Group, which designed the vehicle. “It’s simply a ruggedized downhill racing mountain bike with a motor on it,” he said Aug. 26 at the National Defense Industrial Association's Joint Service Power Expo in Cincinnati, where the motoped was on display. The bike is designed for off-road travel and is equipped with six-inch shock absorbers similar to those on professional Motocross motorcycles, Givens said. The vehicle weighs 132 pounds and can carry a 300 pound load, including the weight of the driver. In testing it has reached speeds of more than 45 miles per hour, he said.

Rough day and night.

The guy to fix the A/C may be here today, but then again, maybe not. If not it will be on Monday. I have some more bloodwork scheduled for Monday to nail down when my blood transfusion for the anemia might happen. I'm sorry for the lateness of the posts today, but Rosey didn't have the money to pay the Internet bill until this morning, so we were temporarily cut off. Back on line now though. More later.

OMG! Bob Owens flirts with the idea of 4th Generation Warfare! OMG!

Vox “Smart Take” Pushes Gun Confiscation. Here’s What Would Happen If They Tried.

Well, at least he's writing about the POSSIBILITY of it.

If the government is actually dumb enough to try to start confiscation, they will trigger a new kind of war on the North American continent, a fourth generation war most Americans have only seen on television. Most of the nation’s 800,000 law enforcement officers and 2 million-man military will side with the people, and they will either simply refuse to enforce the buyback/confiscation scheme, or will actively switch sides to join the rebellion.

The tiny federal force tha(t) remains will get a taste of what fourth generation warfare looks like when it is applied domestically in an urban and suburban environment where bombers, tanks, and long-range missiles are practically inept and politically impossible.

Ambushes, infrastructure sabotage of government installations, and assassination would be the order of the day on a grand scale. Expect dozens of attacks a week by so-called “lone wolves” and small units.

Lawmakers would be in hiding or would flee the country. Federal agencies would shut down, as employees feared being targeted and refused t come to work. A President presiding over such fiasco might be temporarily safe inside the White House, but only until the 1,100 Green Berets who warned Obama in January of 2013 decided to act.

"Yes, Gay Black Men Can Be Killers, Too."

In the Left’s upside-down fantasy, proven solutions become part of the problem: Somehow, the world is safer with fewer Confederate flags flying, more criminals on the streets, and fewer opportunities to defend ourselves against them.

C'mon, gun grabbers, quit boring us and get started. What are you waiting for, collectivist pricks?

Gun control is a dead issue

An Open Rant Aimed at Those Who Would Repeal the Second Amendment

"America Is So in Play."

The people hate the elites, which is not new, and very American. The elites have no faith in the people, which, actually, is new. Everything is stasis. Then Donald Trump comes, like a rock thrown through a showroom window, and the molecules start to move.

There is one other reason he probably won't run: mutual assured destruction.

Democratic insiders: Joe Biden won't run

The Clinton's will not go gently. And as SOS, Hillary had access to all the email traffic on Fast and Furious, a scandal that did not originate with her, but in the East Wing of the White House. It's called mutual assured destruction.

See also: Clinton Camp Says One-Fifth of Delegates Secured for Nomination

And: Clinton aims to end Biden talk

Attack Thwarted by Servicemen Highlights Futility and Evil of French ‘Gun Control’

In other words, “gun control” doesn’t stop the bad guys and only serves to give them a killer advantage over the “law-abiding”? Who knew?

Report from yesterday.

Unable to do the scan that required the contrast dye (my creatinine was too high and I have no particular desire to have to start going to dialysis) they decided to substitute an MRI. The only problem was that they couldn't find an open slot in the schedule for the MRI, so I will have to go back -- probably next week. Keep me in your prayers. Headed off to the wound doc now. More later.

"Resistance to Oregon’s Universal Background Check Law Grows Stronger."

But why would they feel the need to dump millions into ads for a bill they have already passed?

Apparently only black, gay lives matter. Funny, I didn't hear anything about the shooter being a gay Obama supporter in the American mainstream media today. Wonder why?

Revenge race murder: Bitter black reporter who gunned down white ex-colleagues live on air and posted the video online blames Charleston shootings and anti-gay harassment in manifesto.

'As for Dylann Roof? You [redacted]! You want a race war [redacted]? BRING IT THEN YOU WHITE …[redacted]!!!” At the same time, he professes a deep respect for other mass shooters like Virginia Tech gunman Seung-Hui Cho. 'Also, I was influenced by Seung–Hui Cho. That’s my boy right there. He got NEARLY double the amount that Eric Harris and Dylann Klebold got…just sayin’. He goes on to say that he has faced both racial and sexual discrimination as a black, gay man and that he was just waiting to explode. . .

Flanagan was also once reprimanded by WDBJ editors for wearing an Obama campaign sticker on his jacket while reporting from an election booth in 2012, saying it 'demonstrated a basic lack of understanding of your role as an on-air journalist' and was a clear breach of impartiality rules.

But, hey, he passed a background check so I guess the gun control crowd got what they wanted.

That fact doesn't keep them from demanding more gun control of the peaceable, starting even before the bodies were cool.

As John Hinderaker at PowerLine blog says: "The Facts Don’t Matter, the Answer Is Always Gun Control."

One thing we have learned is that some murders are important and others aren’t. White policeman kills black person: important! Black person kills white policeman: unimportant. White lunatic kills black people in South Carolina: important! Gay black lunatic kills white people in Virginia: something tells me this one is going in the “unimportant” column. It doesn’t advance the narrative. Except, of course, the gun control narrative.

I guess they didn't have a gun control sign up, or the schmuck wouldn't have been able to kill anybody: "Signs Save Lives."

A long, long way from a Jeep. So what are they going to call it, the "JILTVEE?" "Sun sets on era of the Humvee as US military announces successor."

Symbol of decades of US interventions to be replaced with vehicle more suited to urban warfare environment the US has faced in Iraq and Afghanistan.

That's from the Guardian, the lefty Brit newspaper. Here's a rather more informed article from the Wall Street Journal from yesterday:

Oshkosh Wins $6.75 Billion Job to Replace Aging Humvees.

By Doug Cameron

Oshkosh Corp. on Tuesday won a $6.75 billion contract to build almost 17,000 new light trucks to replace aging Humvees for the U.S. Army and Marine Corps, cementing the future of its defense business.

The Wisconsin-based company was chosen over competitors Lockheed Martin Corp. and AM General LLC to build as many as 55,000 Joint Light Tactical Vehicles, or JLTVs, over the next 25 years to replace part of the Humvee fleet and some larger military trucks.

The JLTV is one of the Army's highest priorities and follows a series of budget cuts and shifting requirements that prompted the Pentagon to cancel helicopter, artillery and communications programs, after investing billions of dollars.

Oshkosh has a long history of producing military vehicles and offered a brand-new design to meet the Army's requirements for a four-wheeled truck to carry two to four personnel that is resistant to mines and roadside bombs but light enough to be carried by air. . .

The new trucks will replace many of the 120,000 Humvee trucks built by AM General that have been worn out by use in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The JLTV program was launched in 2007 and the Army, bruised by a series of cost over-runs and cancelled programs, stuck to its $250,000 price cap for each JLTV. Army officials said all three bids came in below the cap, with the average price of vehicles equipped with communications and other equipment expected to come in under $399,000, taking the total program cost to $30 Billion.

The Army plans to acquire 49,909 of the vehicles alongside 5,500 for the Marines, and has the option to choose another contractor for future production runs. . .

Later -- Here's another link to a WaPo story on the same subject: "Oshkosh Defense wins major Pentagon contract to build Humvee replacement."

Harvey Weinstein Breaks ‘No Violence’ Pledge as Anti-Gun Meryl Streep Project Languishes

“I have to just choose movies that aren’t violent or as violent as they used to be,” Weinstein told Piers Morgan. “And I know for me, personally, I can’t continue to do that. The change starts here. It has already.” That was in response to observations that making millions glorifying simulated “gun violence” for entertainment purposes is hypocritical for someone pledging to make an “anti-NRA movie with Meryl Streep.” Not like the political sentiments of a Hollywood elitist who hosted a $35,000 a plate fundraiser for Obama should be a surprise. ““They are going to wish they weren’t alive after I’m done with them,” Weinstein told Howard Stern about the project. “I don’t think we need guns in this country, and I hate it.”

A short reply to the Prepper Anti-Defamation League complaints.

It seems that I have excited a lot of protest over my comment on this story: "What a crock of crap." The comment not only referred to the "lone survivor" mindset of the preppers described, but to reportage of the writer.

The outrage comes from those who self-identify as "preppers" and believe I am talking about all of them. I am not. As this post makes clear, I am not opposed to preparations: "How's your local supply preparedness? Wargaming the supply challenges of the armed citizenry in a breakdown scenario."

What I AM opposed to is the "hide in the woods until the first two big die-offs happen and then we can emerge and rule the roost" mentality. Back in the day, they used to be called "survivalists." Such people will be met by those survivors of community-based defense with the very real resentments of "where were YOU when we were fighting for our lives and liberty." Again, community based preps are the only ones likely to succeed long term. The resources available to small groups are just too few, and ignoring the plight of your friends and neighbors is, to my way of thinking, simply morally repugnant and a violation of the oath that I took. There is a very decided difference between the "hide in the woods" crowd (which, whether you like it or not, seems to make up most of the current "prepper" crowd, and the folks who are preparing for community based defense.

Big day today.

Between bloodwork, scans and doctors' visits, my day will be full. Keep me in your prayers that I am a good candidate for this new laproscopic procedure to zap my liver tumors. I could use some good news right about now. Tomorrow, after another visit to the wound care doc in the morning, I'm going to try to get an expert to come and take a look at the A/C. Fortunately the nighttime temperatures moderated last night but they're supposed to crawl back up to typical daytime Alabama oven temps in the 90s in a couple of days. I'll have more much later this afternoon, I hope.

"Signs Save Lives"? Really?

Tiny Protest Proudly Boasts Dumbest Gun Control Sign Of All Time

So busy yesterday that I missed this anniversary by a day. 25 August: the 70th anniversary of the murder of CPT John Birch, United States Army, at the hands of the Chinese Communists.

Long-time friends and readers may recall I've had my differences with the spineless mollycoddles who make up the leadership of the society that bears John Birch's name. This largely dates from being denounced by them in the 90s for being a constitutional militia leader, a movement that always gave them the heebie jeebies because it proposed doing more than talk and sell magazines. That said, there is no gainsaying the true spirit of the American hero whose name they adopted:

A Real Man, a Real Hero

Seems like I know a guy who has advocated this from the beginning.

How the West Can Stop Russia's Escalating War in Ukraine

Secondly, the West could deter Russia from constantly transferring military equipment to separatists by compensating Ukraine with defensive weapons deliveries. The Kremlin might lose its eagerness to provide separatists with new battle tanks and APCs if it knew that Kyiv would get an appropriate amount of Javelins to neutralize them. Western counter-battery radars could become a good answer for Russia's supplies of artillery systems. And so on, until Moscow understands that its military transfers are useless.

Helping him make his case against them. The ham-handed little corrupt toadies of the Empire scheme to bring Trump down.

State GOP leaders plot to tie Donald Trump’s hands.

Somebody want to tell me the functional difference between these people and Dr. Mengele?

Planned Parenthood Baby Parts Buyer Laughs About Shipping Severed Heads

Oath to the Constitution? What "oath to the Constitution?" Nothing to see here, citizens. Move along. Don't worry, they'll get around to punishing the whistleblower in short order.

The ring knockers of the West Point Protective Association strike again, proving that the service academies are doing a much better job of churning out lapdog "corporation generals" than they are true military leaders. "Inquiry Weighs Whether ISIS Analysis Was Distorted."

Who among us, observing Jorge Ramos' smarmy moral superiority in action, has NOT wanted to throw him out of the room for grandstanding and preachifying?

In terms of firming up his base, this is one of the smartest things Donald Trump has done so far: "Donald Trump’s newest media brawl."

What a crock of crap.

"'If the internet goes down, half the planet will come to a standstill': why 'preppers' will be the last ones standing."

No, it just means that they'll be the second or third ones eaten when the cannibal biker gang that outnumbers them 100 to 1 comes through.

"The apparent weakness in the Chinese economy is radiating out into the world." Roller coaster on Wall Street

DOW, S&P CLOSE LOWER IN BIGGEST REVERSAL SINCE OCT. 08

See also: From Venezuela to Iraq to Russia, Oil Price Drops Raise Fears of Unrest

Sorry for getting started late.

Didn't get a whole lot of sleep last night due to continuing A/C issues. My visit with the oncologist yesterday, smoothing the way for the testing and second opinion I'm getting tomorrow, went well. Except. . . It seems the anemia is worsening and he suggests that I get a blood transfusion to bring my iron levels up. Fortunately one of my daughters is O Positive so we'll probably arrange for her to give me a pint or two. I'll try to have more later.

How's your local supply preparedness? Wargaming the supply challenges of the armed citizenry in a breakdown scenario.

In closing, I want to emphasize that the fundamental rule of supply preparedness is that stocks plus production must equal requirements. The more we can rely upon production, the less the government has to spend for stocks. In turn, production depends upon the output of the many individual plants making up American industry. The individual plant is therefore eventually the very foundation of preparedness. -- COL James H. Burns, Ordnance Department, AUSA, "Production Is Preparedness: Military Supply Rests Upon the Individual Manufacturing Plant," Army Ordnance magazine, July-August, 1939.

So, how's your local supply preparedness? This is no academic or insignificant question. First, let's talk hypothetical scenarios.

There are three broad threats that the armed citizenry might be called upon to answer. The first is a federal or state militarized police attack upon the liberty and property of the people. Now, here our intelligent response would be Fourth Generation Warfare tailored to American circumstances targeted at the war-makers and decision takers. Of the three scenarios this is least demanding from a supply point of view. After all, one rogue politician, one feral federal police commander, one crony capitalist supporting the enemy war machine, one Julius Streicher in the media or one academic apologist for tyranny such as a Professor Heidegger each require but one bullet fired from a deer rifle per each. There are other challenges of course but supply is not a major one.

The second broad threat, highlighted by the current racial turmoil and the racial collectivists of "Black Lives Matter," is racial conflict, up to and including a three sided race war.

The third is some form of societal breakdown occasioned by economic collapse, widespread natural disasters (CME, New Madrid earthquakes, "Lucifer's Hammer," etc.) or attack by America's traditional enemies including the means of EMP weapons.

In both of these broad threats, the armed citizenry will be called upon to secure the safety of the local populace in their area of operations and LOCAL supply will be critical. You will not be able to count upon outside assistance. It will be a come-as-you-are war with what is in place in stocks locally and what can be manufactured, again, locally. You will not be able to count upon the cavalry riding to your rescue.

Now, let's for the purposes of argument make some assumptions.

First, let's assume that you understand that all survival, and indeed all liberty such as we are able to maintain it, is local and community based. "Preppers" who think they can withdraw from their own communities and keep their heads down by holding out on small retreats while the rest of the world burns (or worse, who envision themselves as existing off the property and resources of neighbors) will end up as food for larger predators. A friend of mine, a retired West Point graduate, refers to such people as "mobile supply pods."

Second, therefore let's assume that (a.) you have seen to your own local unit's organizational, training and supply needs, and (b.) have made the sorts of links within your local community and AO that will strengthen that community's ability to resist outside threats. That is, you have cultivated relationships with your local sheriff, county commissioners, local ministers (think church food bank operators, soup kitchen and emergency housing and clothing assistance) and medical and search and rescue volunteer formations. (Ideally, your unit ought to form the backbone of the local SAR unit.)

Third, let us assume that given all these preparations and linkages, you have done your homework about what your Area of Operations really is in any given scenario. That is, you have looked critically at the community, at the terrain (both topographic and human) and decided upon just what ground it is that collectively, with all local resources mobilized, your community can defend. This may be an entire county, a town, a village, a neighborhood, down to an individual street perhaps.

Fourth, let us assume that you understand that in an emergency, it is the prepared and organized folks to whom other people turn to for help. If you are ready, if you have thought through the problems and come up with plans to meet various scenarios, AND you have made the necessary sorts of relationships with all existing authorities (governmental, private sector and religious) ahead of time, it will ensure that you, the local leader of the armed citizenry, will have input into the community's decisions of how to keep order and protect life. But this will be true ONLY if you are prepared AND competent to do your duty to the community and its people.

All of these, I realize, are pretty big assumptions. So get working on what you lack.

But as part of that process, now that you've defined your community, you need to have an inventory of existing supplies you can tap into immediately and the local industrial and agricultural base you can draw from later for their production to sustain the community in the long term.

What sort of inventory? Well, first let's go back to basics -- Maslow's heirarchy of needs.

We can forget the upper tiers of the triangle. Let's focus on the only two that wil matter to your community in the short and medium term: physiological and safety needs.

Physiological needs are the physical requirements for human survival. If these requirements are not met, the human body cannot function properly and will ultimately fail. Physiological needs are thought to be the most important; they should be met first. Air, water, and food are metabolic requirements for survival in all animals, including humans. Clothing and shelter provide necessary protection from the elements. . . With their physical needs relatively satisfied, the individual's safety needs take precedence and dominate behavior. -- Wikipedia.

Pretty simple, right? Well, take a look at your community map and tell me what you going to need to hydrate, feed,shelter and clothe those folks you call your friends and neighbors and how you're going to defend it from attack. In such broad scenarios it may well be that your local paving contractor or county/state highway department garage has the key to your defenses: concrete dividers, HESCO barriers, and the machines to move them into place to form roadblocks, town walls at vulnerable spots, etc. They also usually have the diesel fuel supplies to run the machines. Salt is a critical need for human existence and most places lack natural supplies. Yet these highway maintenance facilities often have road salt. Do you know if this is just sodium chloride (NaCl)? Does it also have mixed in Calcium Chloride (CaCl2) or even some chemical additives that are supposed to help the salt do its job? You need to know. Can it be chemically reclaimed to separate out the NaCl so that you can use it for human consumption/meat preservation? I don't know the answers to these questions. You need to find out.

And speaking of concrete road dividers and other structures, in the event that you lack ready-made assets, does your local concrete plant have the ability to turn them out?

In all supply categories, especially water and food, start with an estimate of the population you are tasked to protect, multiply by the gallons or caloric intake per day that they need, and figure out what water sources are available. What food sources? Let's say you're exceedingly fortunate and have a grocery distribution warehouse in your community. It will need protecting. Try to think through what arrangements the community will need to make with the owners/managers of that warehouse -- defense, reimbursement (now or in the future) for drawing on their resources which are after all private property. You will need to make the same sort of arrangements for the common folks in the community, (especially farmers, grain elevator operators, gun store owners, reloaders, radio shops, etc.). You must have the ability to defend yourselves without outright banditry. It is a fine line, but for most folks pointing out that a. the community promises to reimburse them and (b.) that if the evil bad guys win they will have nothing including their lives, will suffice to ensure cooperation. For the recalcitrants? Well, if the need is dire enough, you will have to deal with that in some way too. Think it through now so that you will be able to suggest solutions that the community decides upon.

Most folks think immediately of all the firearm that they will need to arm an expanded local militia (using your trained folks and any veteran volunteers who show up as cadre). As I have written in the past, paraphrasing the TV show Jericho, "Guns are easy, logistics is hard."

This is true for rifles, shotguns and handguns. We have a multiplicity of gun collectors in this country (especially in those areas likely to survive by community defense). What we lack in hardware, though, are specific classes of full auto weapons, medium and heavy machine guns, for example. There are few substitutes for a Ma deuce, for example, when dealing with vehicle convoys of predators. However, there are any number of Class III manufacturers these days as well as folks who crank out semi-auto versions of rifles on their CNC machines. Do you have any in your community? Are you on good terms with them? More importantly is the sheriff on good terms with them. Again, reimbursement is an issue, but one that can be overcome according with the entire community in agreement.

What about reloaders or manufacturers of factory ammunition in your AO? Again, guns are easy, ammunition is hard and the expenditure of ammunition in scenarios two and three will be absolutely stunning to the guys who take their rifles out of the closet two times a year for zeroing and for hunting and think that five 20-round boxes of .30-06 ammo is sufficient to their needs. Few of us live next door to the CMP operation in Anniston AL or the Lake City Army Ammunition Plant. Add in the fact that most of your troops will be untrained when you get them and their fire discipline will be shit. Take the army table of fire expenditure and triple it and you might come somewhere close. And since you will be largely staying put, and after the first few tries the evil bad guys will go around you looking for easier prey, you will not be able to count on resupplying from dead men's ammo pouches.

For all your other preparations may come to nothing if you run out of ammunition. (I will leave the subject of improvised munition substitutes for another post.)

So, do your pre-planning. What is my community? Is it defensible? What is the topography? How can its weaknesses be made strengths? What will it take to keep the population in water? Food? Can we make it through the winter and spring until the crops being growing again? What do we need to do to bridge the gap? what resources does the community have that can be used in, or converted to, our defense and survival. Think it through now, do your community inventories. It may make the difference between success and failure come the Zombia Apocalypse, regardless of what form that takes.

Proof that every now and then Bob Owens has a point.

Anti-Gun Left Gets Butthurt At Reminder of NRA’s Original Mission

One from the dragon, two from the bear.

China's Master Plan to Sink the U.S. Navy

Russia Engages in Military Drills on Europe’s Doorstep

Ukraine's Poroshenko: 'New Russia' is like 'Mordor'

Can we all feel good about ourselves now?

"New boot camp ribbon prompts disbelief, jokes."

Is that all? Oregon Democrats sure are cheap political whores. "Bloomberg Spends $764,232.35 Buying Oregon Background Check Bill."

Of course it might have helped if someone on our side had done something: "How much did ALL the pro-Second Amendment groups spend? Ready? It was a grand total of $88,000."

A Decade Later, Remember New Orleans … Gun Confiscation Can (And Has) Happened In America

Despite their inability to cope with the resulting mayhem, several days after the storm passed New Orleans officials ordered the confiscation of lawfully-owned firearms from city residents. In a September 8, 2005 article, the New York Times described the scene, stating, “Local police officers began confiscating weapons from civilians in preparation for a forced evacuation of the last holdouts still living here… Police officers and federal law enforcement agents scoured the city carrying assault rifles seeking residents who have holed up to avoid forcible eviction.” As reported by the Washington Post, New Orleans Superintendent P. Edwin Compass made clear, “No one will be able to be armed,” and, “Guns will be taken. Only law enforcement will be allowed to have guns.”

No more free Wacos. No more free Katrinas, either.

Go ahead, big boy, try it and watch what happens. "Obama Officials Heading to Mexico to Discuss International Gun Control Via UN Treaty."

Thus, while it will not do away with the Second Amendment on paper, it will subjugate the Second Amendment to the ATT’s gun controls if Obama administration officials return and implement the plans they will discuss in Mexico City.

Yeah, good luck with that. You want to talk about armed civil disobedience. How about armed uncivil disobedience?

Now that's just hysterically funny right there.

Hyman/Kerodin attacks his former friends and allies.

The unrepentant federal extortionist and con man defends himself with the statement, "Being III is about Principle." Coming from someone whose forte is character assassination and whose MO is divorcing other folks from their money in harebrained schemes, well, that's just a scream.

More from the Dragon's Lair. Life imitates comedy: canned food and shotguns.

"Well, it's rather brutal here. Right now we are advising all our clients to put everything they've got into canned food and shotguns." -- Brain Gremlin, Gremlins 2.

China's market Leninism turns dangerous for the world

China censoring Black Monday on country’s biggest search engine, Baidu, stopping citizens looking for information about financial chaos.

China’s ghost towns point to nation’s waning fortunes

Stock up on canned food for stock market crash, warns former Gordon Brown adviser

Canned food and shot guns.

Personally, I have most of my retirement assets in finished brass and copper jacketed lead. Oh, and a little steel core for the raid party.

Red-Green Axis Spells Out Danger Threatening to Destroy the Republic

I can say, without hyperbole, this is a vital report addressing nothing less than the survival of the Founder’s Republic in the 21st Century, one that you ignore at your peril, and at the peril of everyone you love. I cannot urge you in strong enough terms to get it and read it, and to do that without delay. Like now.

For Sale -- A Pride of Place: Rural Residences of Fauquier County, Virginia, Edited by Kimberly Prothro Williams

I have for sale one hardback copy of A Pride of Place: Rural Residences of Fauquier County, Virginia, Edited by Kimberly Prothro Williams. It is a new copy, in the original shrink wrap, unopened, with dust jacket of course. It still has the original price tag on the outside of the shrink wrap from when it was sold new for $39.95. This rare 2004 volume is out of print and has the following Amazon listings, all used, ranging in price from $271 to $423. In the interest of my A/C which has now apparently huffed it, I am selling it for $215.00, shipping USPS book rate prepaid. Here are some reviews. I am not currently set up to EBay items, so respond to my email address, GeorgeMason1776@aol.com.

How Hillary deleted her paper copies of the emails. (They're all about yoga anyway.)

Exclusive link.

Today is the start of a long week.

Many doctors' appointments, much bloodwork and two scans scheduled, so I'll have to get going. As far as the A/C front, I replaced the start capacitor with another, which although it wasn't an exact match as to size (I successfully adapted it to fit the space) seemed to do the job but the unit as a whole continued to underperform all weekend until last night it huffed it and began blowing hot air again. I'll see what I can do about that after I get back from my first appointment today. More later.

Well, of course it does. And you think that is some sort of accident? "On Firearms, Reporting Obscures the Truth."

There is no subject on which reporting is so consistently poor as firearms. Most reporters are anti-gun; as a result, even when reporting is not overtly biased it is generally so murky as to obscure rather than reveal basic facts.

"If only there was a constitutional amendment for that…"

Citizens Must Defend Themselves as Cities Descend into Lawlessness

Kenny Lane explains about his own experiences with Hyman/Kerodin.

Sociopaths are usually extremely charming and charismatic. Their personalities are described as magnetic, and as such, they generate a lot of attention and praise from others. . . . Sociopaths oftentimes feel overly entitled to certain positions, people, and things. They believe that their own beliefs and opinions are the absolute authority, and disregard the opinions of others. Sociopaths are rarely shy, insecure, or at a loss for words. They have trouble suppressing emotional responses like anger, impatience, or annoyance, and constantly lash out at others and respond hastily to these emotions. "How to Determine if Someone Is a Sociopath."

Emails inform me that Kerodin/Hyman is threatening to "tell the truth" about many of his former supporters who he now views as treacherous enemies. If K/H does in fact "tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth" it will be the first time in his sorry life, to my knowledge. Rather than look in the mirror, he blames everyone around him -- and I mean everyone -- for treason to the Great K. In any case, the threat indicates that he does not intend to go gently into the obscurity he has so skillfully crafted for himself and that he so richly deserves. Yet these thrashings of self-justification are the equivalent of the sounds of bulkheads collapsing on a sinking ship as it goes down. Dramatic but futile. In time he will find another con to work and off he'll go. If he hangs around the Three Percent movement it will be because he still sniffs an opportunity for more money and fawning approval, or because some external factor is compelling him to play out the bad hand he has dealt himself.

Successful con artists know how to relate to you on an individual level. They are very intuitive about your weaknesses and insecurities, and they know how to match your interests. Good con men are diversely educated - they read about everything - so that no matter what your professional or personal interests are, he can make you believe he is fascinated by the same things you are, even if he has to run home and study like crazy before your next encounter. A common interest is his foot in your door. -- PROFILE OF A CON ARTIST

Kenny Lane of Knuckledraggin.com explains in this post about his own experiences with K/H: "Why I quit organized resistance in general and the III Percent Society in particular." It makes instructive reading, and might be subtitled "Won't get fooled again."

See something? DO something!

"Courage is contagious when intended victims thwart would-be terrorists."

Black Monday today? That old loss of the Mandate of Heaven thing is proving contagious.

Angry investors capture head of China metals exchange

China syndrome threatens markets meltdown: Evidence from both shipping and factory activity is that the Chinese economy is in trouble

China’s Xi Jinping at center of concern as markets begin new week.

Record capital flight from China as industrial slump drags on: China's state media decries "unimaginably fierce resistance" to economic reforms, a sign that president Xi Jinping is becoming furious with incompetent party officials

Defiance. Civil disobedience of a federal court order in Mississippi. Take that, you black-robed tyrant.

Crowd sings “How Great Thou Art” after high school band banned

"Death Wish." David Codrea on a probable Bill Nye sighting (not the science guy).

Comment left on this post: The denouement of the Threeper career of one Christian Hyman, aka Sam Kerodin

Although this fellow didn't sign his name this time, I have previously been the target of such death wishes from Hyman/Kerodin's Igor, one Bill Nye. And David Codrea, who has previously stayed out of the Kerodin contretemps, found the above sentiment left as a comment more than he could bear --

The only positive out of this is that no one so twisted in hatred can possibly be happy and whole, and have love in his life. Which means you know that you're a contemptible loser, and have to live with it and seethe in it. No wonder you rage so against those who do not share your self-imposed defects. When Mike dies, as we all will, good men will mourn his passing and continue to benefit from his legacy. When you go, of the few who are even aware of it, the prevailing sentiment will no doubt be "Who cares? The guy was a real asshole."

Racial collectivist Leonard Pitts claims "All Lives Matter" is a statement of "moral cowardice." Wait'll he gets a load of my new hat.

"Why ‘Black lives matter’ resonates." A man may sing in the shower, no matter how poorly, and his voice will "resonate" to him. Pardon me if it doesn't "resonate" with the rest of us beyond the braying of an Animal Farm mule: "All animals are equal but some animals are more equal than others."

BTW, Leonard, here's a photo of the hat I'm wearing these days. I guess in Pitts' worldview that makes me a coward. Try wearing it in the neighborhoods I frequent, though, and I assure you that the exercise is not for the fainthearted. I will admit, however, that it does help that the ground rules for discussion are stated plainly up front.

Peek-a-boo. This cop was a real dick.

"You're under arrest." "No, you're under arrest." "I know you are, but what am I?"

Newton cop, accused of exposing himself during traffic stops, takes plea deal.

He fell into the death ray gap. A typical case of American blind justice. The jury apparently had a much more exalted appreciation of FBI practices than I do.

You folks know how I feel about racial collectivists, but I've got to wonder how much of a fair trial this moke got -- "White supremacist convicted in plot to kill Obama with 'death ray' device."

A New York white supremacist was convicted by a federal jury on Friday of plotting to use a remote-controlled radiation device he called “Hiroshima on a light switch” to harm Muslims and President Barack Obama. After less than three hours of deliberation in US district court in Albany, New York, the jury unanimously found Glendon Scott Crawford guilty of all three charges against him.

"Every Citizen a Sensor." Uh, huh. And for what purpose, exactly?

"NATO needs more tiny technologies for hybrid warfare."

Dismissal of Post-1986 Machine Gun Ban Challenge Appealed

“We are disappointed in the district court’s ruling,” attorney Stephen Stamboulieh tells The Truth About Guns. “However, we look forward to having the Fifth Circuit review the ruling.”

Well, I hit a snag on what I set out to do today, which was rest. So here's some things from my accumulating stack of stuff.

No rest for the weary, either.

I'm taking the rest of the Lord's Day off.

I have a big week scheduled medically, with four doctors' appointments, scheduled bloodwork, and two liver scans already on the plate. So I'm going to to try to rest up today as much as I can. Sorry. Unless the Zombie Apocalypse hits, look for more on Monday.

From Fred Reed last month that I previously missed: “Payback’s a Bitch”: Rural Wisdom and the Gathering Storm

"But it is dangerous. The economy declines, people out of college can’t get jobs, the ghettoes simmer, automation surges across the board, and one day soon we will have cutbacks in the entitlements. When groups begin competing for dwindling resources, things will get ugly. It could explode. It really could. You might be surprised how many people out there think, “Bring it on.” Not a good idea, but we go that way. Tick Tick. Tick."

Two more titles I recall from Dr. Richter's reading list.

Long time readers will recall some of the details of my conversion experience from the dark side of collectivism back into the light of liberty at the hands of Dr. Richter. I have long lamented that I lost both my copy of The Road to Serfdom (an original first English edition from 1943) and more importantly the reading list he gave me to follow up on Hayek's after he returned to Germany. Since the list was tucked inside the Hayek work, I lost both somehow during the divorce from my first wife, Matthew's mother.

Memory is a funny thing, though, and I am still getting random flashes of what titles were on that list. Here are two of them that I chanced to recall in the same week recently. The first is a powerful memoir by Soviet defector Victor Kravchenko, entitled I Chose Freedom. I remember that this had a great effect on me at the time, almost as momentous as Whittaker Chamber's memoir, Witness, which was also on the list. Like Chambers and George Orwell, Kravchenko defected from Communism believing he was choosing death on the losing side but he did so because he thought it to be the right thing to do. This has always seemed to me to have been the very definition of moral courage.

The second title that I recently recalled is a penetrating analysis by Dr. Fred_Schwarz entitled You Can Trust the Communists (to do exactly what they say).

I will continue to work on reconstructing the complete list (there were some twenty titles or more on the page in Dr. Richter's precise handwriting) and I will also throw in some other titles I have found valuable in the almost forty years it has been since he gave it to me.

Something to consider in the event of war with a China-Russia Axis.

It ain't World War II and we don't have the industrial base. How Fast Could America Build More Aircraft Carriers?

See also this: Russia Military Flame-Throwing System Under Development Amid Rising Regional Tensions.

And this: U.S. Told Ukraine to Stand Down as Putin Invaded.

And this: China's Missile Program the Greatest Long-Term Threat to U.S. Security.

No rest for the wicked.

Hillary Clinton Will Interrupt Vacation to Campaign in Midwest

Because she feels Joe Biden's hot breath on her neck: "Biden meets with Warren in Washington."

The denouement of the Threeper career of one Christian Hyman, aka Sam Kerodin

Denouement, noun: the final part of a play, movie, or narrative in which the strands of the plot are drawn together and matters are explained or resolved.

I wasn't going to comment upon it, but a lot of chickens are coming home to roost on Kerodin's head lately with posts and comments at places like Western Rifle Shooters and Knuckledraggin.com. These have been supplemented by a number of offers of apology emailed to me by various folks taken in by him, typical of which is the one below, sent late Thursday night. These have been accompanied by requests that I take a public position on what seems to be the denouement of the Threeper career of Christian Hyman, aha "Sam Kerodin." I can do no better than my reply to that email, which I sent very early Friday morning and which is also reproduced below:

-----Original Message-----

From: REDACTED

To: georgemason1776@aol.com

Sent: Thu, Aug 20, 2015 9:03 pm

Subject: An apology from a former FOKker

Sir,

(MBV: Introductory sentences redacted.) In the past, I've said some pretty nasty things about you, siding with Sam Kerodin when you brought him up.

I owe you an apology, sir. There ain't a thing about Sam that you brought up that hasn't been right. Money, ego, money, ego, and all of it hand in hand. I'm sorry for the things I said and posted in response to your posts and I do hope you realize that I'm sincere. This is really kicking me in the teeth right now because I've never considered myself to be a follower of anyone. I was at your site the other day and saw the III Percenter Catechism post for the first time. Outstanding. That's what it's all about - small localized cells, honor and the moral high road. And it was then that I realized how far Sam has strayed from the original intent of the III Percent.

Again, my apologies. I hope you choose to accept them but if not, I'll understand. Regardless, you have my word I'll never publish anything against you again.

My reply:

From: georgemason1776@aol.com

To: REDACTED

Sent: Friday, August 21, 2015 1:48 AM

Subject: Re: An apology from a former FOKker

No apologies necessary. It is no particular shame to be taken in by a con man and Kerodin is an exceptionally skilled con man. We have all made mistakes of judgment, especially as far as errors in choosing our friends and associates. In this I am grateful that I have had the experience of the past twenty plus years in the liberty movement. There is nothing about Kerodin/Hyman that I didn't see in one form or another in different folks during the 90s, but I must say that I had never seen them all wrapped up in quite the same package with quite the same skilled artifice until I experienced K/H. What hurt the most was losing my best friend at the time, Peter White, to the controversy. I never expected that and the memory still cuts deep. I keep wondering when Pete will finally reach his gag reflex with K/H and yet he never seems to.

As far as promising "never publish anything against you again," please don't make that statement. I am as prone to error as any other human and when or if I stray from my declared principles I expect to be held to account by my friends as well as my enemies. If spending the past four years with one foot in the grave and the other on a banana peel has taught me anything it has taught me humility (not that I still couldn't stand some more instruction in that) and patience (ditto) and to listen to what God has in mind for me in whatever form that message takes.

I do appreciate your offer of publishing your mea culpa, but I am loathe to restart that fight right now as I am at a low point healthwise and in other ways and don't need to take on another fight right now (at least until I know how the new liver cancer is going to be dealt with). If you don't mind, though, we'll keep this in the quiver until such time as we need that arrow.

I do appreciate your message, though. It heartens me that others are finally coming to the same conclusions as I did about K/H even though it brings me no joy when I consider all the damage he has done over the years to the brand and the concept.

May God bless you and keep you and yours and permit you to stay strong in the fight. We are going to need every man and woman in the coming maelstrom.

Mike Vanderboegh

III

"One can fool some men, or fool all men in some places and times, but one cannot fool all men in all places and ages." -- Jacques Abbadie in “Traité de la Vérité de la Religion Chrétienne,” 1684. (The origin of the statement "You can fool all the people some of the time and some of the people all the time, but you cannot fool all the people all the time.")

From the posts and comments at the various sites, it is evident that there are charges of gross financial malfeasance and other long-standing character traits on the part of Mr. Hyman that have alienated virtually all of his former support base. With the exception of the unrepentant Bill Nye, who has long repeated his sincere desire that I die a lingering painful death from cancer, it would seem that Hyman/Kerodin has reached his Threeper denouement. No doubt there are other fields of financial opportunity awaiting him elsewhere. As I wrote above, I take no pleasure from this. The damage to my own relationships with men I thought were friends and comrades in arms, as well as the corruption of the Three Percent philosophy and brand, was very real and pains me yet today. As a Christian I can only hope that such people as Hyman and Nye come eventually to their conversion experience, but until then I am reminded of what answer the rabbi in Fiddler on the Roof gave to the question, "Rebbe, is there a blessing for the Tsar?" The rabbi thought for a moment and replied, "May God bless and keep the Tsar -- far away from us."

LATER: I also found it interesting that at Knuckledraggin a commenter just left this link: "How Covert Agents Infiltrate the Internet to Manipulate, Deceive, and Destroy Reputations."

Praxis: In praise of the Woobie.

Why The Woobie Is The Greatest Military Invention Ever Fielded

Couldn't happen to a more deserving RINO.

Chris Christie fades into darkness

What matters?

To quote the Bard: "Who hath measured the ground?" CT rag writes ludicrous "analysis" of "assault weapon" ownership.

Wilton owns 3% of assault weapons in Fairfield County.

What crap. I wrote the following to the editor of this rag:

What a ludicrous self-deception. Measuring the incidence of military pattern semi-automatic rifles by basing it on the number of gutless fools who registered them under the new law is like rating the compliance with prostitution laws by the number of sex workers who turn themselves in for prosecution. Connecticut has something like an 80 to 85 percent noncompliance rate with the new law. Got that? That's hundreds of thousands of CT firearm owners who have refused to comply with this new tyranny. So why hasn't the notoriously anti-firearm governor and his even more notorious thug toady Mike Lawlor started the raids on homes where they KNOW such arms are stored? Because they are afraid of starting an armed resistance that could blossom into bloody civil war. Two years ago in April, I spoke at a huge rally on the steps of the statehouse there in Hartford and urged CT firearm owners that if their state government insisted upon making them criminals then they should accept that fact, embrace it and become the very best criminals they could be. It is evident that they took my advice to heart, yet the CT so-called press has chosen not to see that such tyrannical laws can be nullified by armed civil disobedience. Still, you are able to write such ridiculous "analyses" based upon what is known to be woefully inadequate "statistics." Why is that?

Mike Vanderboegh

sipseystreetirregulars.blogspot.com

Bob Owens does better when analyzing the foibles of the enemy than when he attacks others he claims to represent.

Failed Baltimore Mayor Rawlings-Blake Blames Others For Her City’s Violence

I reject the notion that there was ONE reason the M14 was superceded, but this makes interesting reading.

The United States Army Ordnance Department procurement system has always been its own (and the troops they are supposed to serve) worst enemy: Berlin Crisis, 1961: The Beginning of The End of The M14

Outstanding. "I grabbed the AK and started muzzle thumping him in the head." "And the three of us beat him until he was unconscious." (Updated with better link.)

France train shooting: US soldiers speak of the moment they stopped gunman and 'beat him until he was unconscious'

"We just did what we had to do. You either run away or fight. We chose to fight and got lucky and didn't die."

From the "It Doesn't Rain But What It Pours Department."

Well, the house air conditioner has now huffed it. Fearing that the new dog, whose chewing instinct is prodigious (he previously chewed a couple of boards off the back of the house), had gnawed through the wiring, I went out into the jungle that is my backyard to examine the unit. Nope. Fortunately the rawhide chews we bought seem to have preserved the A/C. But after checking the breakers and fuses, it is obvious that the unit has power, it just won't start up, emitting a click and a low electric whine like the fan is trying to start but is obstructed. However, an inspection of the fan blade/motor revealed no such simple obstruction. Any ideas? Can't call a service guy. They have a distressing habit of wanting a not-inconsiderable amount of money to do their black magic.

Well, have two doctor's appointments this morning, so I'll try to have more later.

Smart. Tell the customer he doesn't want what he says he wants.

Beretta Argues M9 Upgrade Cheaper Than MHS.

Why am I reminded of this?: We're No Angels, "A Gifted Salesman." Unfortunately for Beretta, that only works in the movies.

Regal Cinemas may kiss my cancer-withered ass.

Regal Theaters Checking Purses, Bags to Ensure Law-Abiding Citizens Unarmed.

David Codrea: "Oath Keepers Must Be Force Multipliers to Ensure Truth is Shared."

Countless reports on Oath Keepers involvement as guardians at recruiting centers, at mine operations and in strife-torn neighborhoods provide constant reminders that the media is desperate to portray Oath Keepers as domestic enemies. That in turn colors the way the public perceives the group and its activities. Equally outrageous is how many so-called “conservative” and “pro-gun” bloggers and “pundits” swallow and parrot media lies — a case in point, those who have condemned the Ferguson outreach and propagated the “racism” innuendo, without once looking at what’s really happening there.