Blowback due in charges vs. Missouri couple

By now all America knows Mark and Patricia McCloskey from the video showing the St. Louis couple holding legal firearms as they defended themselves and their home from a crowd of protesters trespassing on their property. A politically motivated prosecutor has charged the couple with unlawful use of a weapon.

The felony count is because they pointed their weapons at protesters. McCloskey said he did so because he was “scared for my life,” and that of his wife. No shots were fired. Yet now prosecutor Kim Gardner is charging them on grounds they made the trespassers fear for their safety.

The good news is that there’s been plenty of official blowback. Missouri Gov. Mike Parson tweeted that “We will not allow law-abiding citizens to be targeted for exercising their constitutional rights.” He has promised a pardon if they’re convicted.

Attorney General Eric Schmitt is working to get the case dismissed, noting that, in addition to the U.S. and Missouri constitutions, Missouri law recognizes the “castle doctrine.” This allows residents to use force against intruders, including deadly force, based on self-defense and the notion that your home is your castle.

Gardner contends that those who surrounded the McCloskeys were “peaceful, unarmed protesters,” and the couple were therefore interfering in the crowd’s First Amendment rights. It doesn’t seem to have occurred to Gardner that the guns they carried may be a reason events didn’t turn violent.

“I really thought it was Storming the Bastille, that we would be dead and the house would be burned and there was nothing we could do about it,” McCloskey told KSDK in an interview.

Even if the charges are dismissed, or the McCloskeys are pardoned after being convicted, again we have a public official responsible for upholding law and order wink at a mob while treating law-abiding citizens as criminals. If police cannot be counted on to deal with mobs, it’s even more vital that law-abiding Americans are free to exercise their Second Amendment right to protect themselves.

Congress awards its highest honor to WWII crew of USS Indianapolis

WASHINGTON — Congress has awarded the Congressional Gold Medal, its highest honor, to surviving crew members of the USS Indianapolis, the ship that delivered key components of the first nuclear bomb and was later sunk by Japan during World War II.

The ship, with 1,195 personnel aboard, delivered enriched uranium and other parts of the atomic bomb ‘‘Little Boy” that was later dropped on Hiroshima, Japan, in August 1945.

Four days after delivering its top secret cargo, the ship was sunk by Japanese torpedoes on July 30, 1945. Of nearly 900 men who went into the Philippine Sea, just 316 survived before being rescued nearly five days later. The death toll of 879 was the largest single disaster at sea in U.S. Navy history. Continue reading “”

I don’t think the demoncraps have a clue what they’d be walking into. 4th Generation and Asymmetrical warfare along with the use of Bill Clinton’s rules of engagement that he used against the Serbs back in ’99 might not be to their liking.

Top Democrats contemplate civil war if Biden loses
Yet the media still only talks about Trump not accepting the result.

The chattering caste of Washington DC has spent much of the summer obsessed with the idea that Donald Trump will refuse to leave office if he loses in November, as Cockburn has already noted.

This perennial topic was silly enough when it was restricted to Nancy Pelosi making awkward assertions on cable television. But in the last two weeks, like QAnon, the fantasy has become substantially more elaborate, and less healthy. Numerous outlets, led by the Boston Globe, have showered attention on an endeavor calling itself the ‘Transition Integrity Project.’ The project brought together…well, not exactly big names in American politics, but certainly many people who would like to think they are big names: former Scott Walker aide Liz Mair, ex-Bush speechwriter David Frum, former DNC chair Donna Brazile, and so forth. Once assembled, these sort-of-distinguished personages played out simulations (‘games’) of four possible 2020 election outcomes: a large Biden win, a narrow Biden win, a narrow Trump win (while losing the popular vote), and an election with no real clear winner at all.

The headlines, and the Transition Integrity Project, all emphasized that the simulations showed the threat posed to democracy by the Apricot Adolf.

‘We…assess that President Trump is likely to contest the result by both legal and extra-legal means, in an attempt to hold onto power,’ the project’s final report says.

But Cockburn has a quibble. Though labeled ‘bipartisan’, the simulation seems to be entirely the work of Democrats alongside anti-Trump Republicans. Nobody actually allied with the President appears to have played a role in the simulations. Cockburn isn’t always the smartest but, saying that President Trump is ‘likely’ to contest an election result, simply because his enemies think he wants to, doesn’t strike him as very newsworthy.

Far more interesting, and totally unnoticed, is the behavior of former Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta. Podesta also took part in the simulations, and unlike the anti-Trump Republicans, he wasn’t pretending to be someone he hates. Instead, organizers did the sensible thing: they had an anti-Trump Democrat portray an anti-Trump Democrat. Because the simulation designers apparently wanted to torment him as much as possible, Podesta had to endure an exact 2016 repeat: he played Joe Biden in a simulation where Trump loses the popular vote but wins a close but convincing victory in the Electoral College.

Buried at the bottom of a New York Times article, the paper describes what Podesta did:

‘Mr Podesta, playing Mr Biden, shocked the organizers by saying he felt his party wouldn’t let him concede. Alleging voter suppression, he persuaded the governors of Wisconsin and Michigan to send pro-Biden electors to the Electoral College.

‘In that scenario, California, Oregon, and Washington then threatened to secede from the United States if Mr Trump took office as planned.’

This was so astonishing that Cockburn’s monocle nearly popped off reading it — and he doesn’t even wear one. The actual text of the final report is even more jarring. According to a summary of the game, while acting as Biden — rather than accept defeat — Podesta actively instigated secession, and then issued an ultimatum: Trump could only begin his second term if Puerto Rico and DC became states, California was cut into five pieces, and the Electoral College was abolished. When the ultimatum was refused, Podesta got the Democratic House (played by other Democrats) to declare Biden the president, and then watched to see how the military would react. If you think Cockburn exaggerates, here’s what the document says about ‘Game 3: Clear Trump win’ (a scenario in which Trump wins the Electoral College and the popular vote) Continue reading “”

The humiliation of Western history.
Those who zealously seek to pollute the past are very much devoted to gaining total cultural hegemony in the present.

The most important issue at stake in the culture war is who controls the narrative through which society understands itself. At present, those controlling the narrative appear to be committed to reorganising society’s historical memory, and disputing and delegitimising its ideals, from liberty to equality. Take Netflix, for example. It is dominated by programmes, like Dear White People and Explained: The Racial Wealth Gap, that recast the Western way of life and Western history as irredeemably malevolent……….

Unlike previous initiatives designed to encourage people to look critically at uncomfortable truths about their past, the 1619 Project offers a ‘take it or leave it’ version of history. Its aim is not to criticise existing historical narratives about the US. It is to negate and even morally annihilate the very foundation on which the US was built. As the NYT put it: ‘Our founding ideals of liberty and equality were false when they were written. Black Americans fought to make them true. Without this struggle, America would have no democracy at all.’

In rejecting the founding ideals of liberty and equality as false, the 1619 Project strips America’s founding document, the Declaration of Independence, of every shred of moral authority. It also erases the profound contribution the American Revolution made to the development of the Western ideal of freedom.

The 1619 Project does not offer any new insights into the past. Rather, it seeks to contaminate the past and render it toxic. Indeed, one of the main contributors to the project, Nikole Hannah-Jones, admits that its principal objective is not to shed light on the past, but to undermine the moral authority of the present. ‘I’ve always said that the 1619 Project is not history’, she writes. ‘It is a work of journalism that explicitly seeks to challenge the national narrative and

Just more ‘Rules for Thee, but Not for Me‘ hypocrisy

Anti-gun “celebrity” raided by FBI and SWAT, guns found

From the LA Times:

A SWAT team was on hand Wednesday as the FBI served a search warrant at the Calabasas mansion of controversial YouTube influencer Jake Paul, sources confirmed to the Los Angeles Times.
“The FBI is executing a federal search warrant at a residence in Calabasas in connection with an ongoing investigation. The affidavit in support of the search warrant has been sealed by a judge and I am, therefore, prohibited from commenting as to the nature of the investigation. No arrests are planned,” an FBI representative said in a statement.
Details about the investigation were not released.
A SWAT team was used to make entry to Paul’s home, sources told The Times. Agents trained to make high-risk entries are used when intelligence suggests there are weapons or people who authorities believe could become violent on the premises.
Sources said multiple firearms were found on the property. Video showed Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputies carrying at least five long guns to a cruiser parked in front of the mansion and securing the weapons inside the vehicle.

Oh Jake…….

Violence Spikes in Washington’s King County, Bastion of State Gun Control

King County, Washington is in the midst of a violent crime spike as the office of Prosecutor Dan Satterberg is reporting the first six months of the year saw more people shot than in any of the previous four years over the same time period.

There is no small irony in this, because King County, which encompasses Seattle—headquarters to the billionaire-backed Alliance for Gun Responsibility, a gun prohibition lobbying group—is something of the bastion of Pacific Northwest gun control. Continue reading “”

Pulaski man cleared of murder, attempted murder

PULASKI COUNTY, Ky. (WTVQ) – A Grand Jury decides a Pulaski County man acted in self defense when he fatally shot one man and wounded another during an altercation on his property in the Sloans Valley community in the southern part of the county on July 2.

A Pulaski County Grand Jury returned a “No True Bill” Wednesday against 65-year-old Bobby Ross, of Incline Road in Burnside, according to his attorneys, Jeremy A. Bartley and Kerri N. Bartley.

Ross originally was charged with murder, attempted murder, and wanton endangerment in an incident that took place on his property at about 9:20 p.m. on July 2, 2020. In that incident, 47-year-old Estle “Toby” Ridner, was killed, 45-year-old Danny Ridner, of Waynesburg, was wounded and shots were fired in the direction of Sharlene Helton, 46, and Tony Ridner, 43, investigators said at the time. Continue reading “”

JOE BIDEN DOUBLES DOWN ON DESIRE TO REBOOT GUN BAN

Presumptive Democratic Presidential candidate Joe Biden on Wednesday made clear his intentions to reboot an expired ban on popular semi-auto firearms if he moves into the White House.

Biden, a career politician who served two terms as the country’s Vice President and 35 years as a U.S. Senator from Delaware, called back to the days of his key support in Congress of the controversial Federal Assault Weapons Ban of 1994.

“Weapons of war have no place in our communities,” Biden said on his campaign’s social media accounts. “When I was a senator, I took on the NRA and secured a 10-year ban on assault weapons — and as president, I’ll ban these weapons again.” Continue reading “”

Voting With Their Guns

There’s nothing like nationwide protests and a murder surge in major cities to cause a spurt of new gun sales. Gun controllers may want to rethink their 2020 strategy.
The FBI’s most recent gun-sale figures are stunning. They show that in July the bureau carried out 3.6 million background checks, the third highest month on record. Adjusting to reflect checks only for gun purchases, the National Shooting Sports Foundation (NSSF) says this translates to 1.8 million gun sales for July 2020—a 122% increase over July 2019. The 12,141,032 gun sales through this July is just shy of the 13,199,172 sales for all of 2019.
These record sales are best understood as a referendum on the riots, and the growing lack of confidence many Americans have that police will protect them. This is more than National Rifle Association spin. Continue reading “”

You can’t make this up.

Kindergarten Cop 30th-Anniversary Screening Pulled After Complaint That it “Romanticizes Over-Policing”

Northwest Film Center has canceled a planned 30th-anniversary outdoor screening of the 1990 Arnold Schwarzenegger action-comedy movie Kindergarten Cop after a local author complained on Twitter that it “romanticizes over-policing in the U.S.”

In the movie, Schwarzenegger’s police detective character John Kimble goes undercover as a kindergarten teacher to apprehend a drug dealer and realizes his passion for teaching while undercover.

If you believe it was ‘accidentally’, I’ve got a bridge in New York to sell you.

Google accidentally enables Home smart speakers to listen in to everyday house sounds

Google accidentally enabled a feature for Google Home users which let the smart speaker listen to the sounds of objects in your house.

A user on Reddit spotted a notification on his phone from his smart speaker which alerted him to the fact his smoke alarm was going off while he was cooking.

Usually, Google Home devices only respond to its active ‘wake words’ – such as “Ok, Google” or “Hey, Google” – but in this instance the speaker was listening out to a passive sound and make “my dumb smoke detectors smart,” the Reddit user wrote.

Other users reported getting alerts for the sound of glass breaking, popped bubble wrap, an air compressor tank, and other high-pitched noises that sound like alarms.

In a statement to Protocol, a Google spokesperson said that the feature was accidentally enabled through a recent software update which has now been reversed.

Suuuuure it has.

Elderly man shoots woman during burglary

PORTLAND, Ore. — An elderly man opened fire Monday morning on a woman suspected of burglarizing his home in Portland, Oregon, according to authorities.

Police responded to a report of a burglary in progress just before 7 a.m. Monday at a home in the 1300 block of Northeast 81st Avenue.

“Officers were advised an elderly male homeowner was associated with the residence and a female was involved and may still be in the garage,” police said Monday in a news release. As officers were responding, police said they learned that the homeowner had shot the woman.

The woman was transported to a hospital for treatment of her injuries, which did not appear to be life-threatening, according to the Portland Police Bureau.

Authorities said the homeowner, who was not identified, is cooperating with investigators.

Hezbollah Hoarded Fertilizer That Blew Up Beirut, Planned to Use it Against Israel in ‘Nuclear’ Style Attack

Yesterday a massive explosion devastated Beirut, killing at least 100 and injuring thousands. Lebanese officials said the blast came from a 2750 ton stockpile of ammonium nitrate that was stored in the port.

Hezbollah, the Iran backed terrorist organization that has taken over Lebanon, has a history of stockpiling the chemical in different European locations.

Meanwhile, a former CIA operative isn’t buying that ammonium nitrate was the only thing behind the massive blast.

Robert Baer, a former CIA operative with extensive experience in the Middle East, said videos of Tuesday’s blast showed that while ammonium nitrate may have been present in the warehouse, he does not believe it was responsible for the massive explosion that ensued.

Baer said he thinks that there were military munitions and propellants present. He speculated it could have been a weapons cache, but it’s unclear who it belongs to.

“It was clearly a military explosive,” he said. “It was not fertilizer like ammonium nitrate. I’m quite sure of that.”

“You look at that orange ball (of fire), and it’s clearly, like I said, a military explosive.”

Baer noted that white powder seen in the videos of the incident before the major blast are likely an indicator that ammonium nitrate was present and burning. He also noticed a lot of munitions going off ahead of the larger explosion.

Yesterday, Senator Ted Cruz held a hearing on the threat antifa  poses to this country.

This is not the first time this bit of information has been noted.

That is 40% of all officer injuries were laser eye injuries.

Laser eye injuries are permanent.  The laser burns the retina, causing partial to total vision loss.  A laser pointer of only a couple of hundred milliwatts can cause permanent eye damage in fractions of a second.

The general standard for the legal use of deadly force is to defend against “death or grave bodily harm.”

I would absolutely consider permanent injury by having your retinas burned with a laser to be grave bodily harm. 

Unconfirmed picture appears to show workers welding door of warehouse filled with chemical; report says authorities warned of dangers for years.

ImageImage

This photo is making the rounds this evening on Telegram. Appears to show numerous parcels of bagged Ammonium Nitrate. Was going to write this off , but those are the exact same warehouse windows.

and also why they store explosives next to a shopping area with no regard for the possible ‘negative’ results.

Why Arabs Lose Wars

Arabic-speaking armies have been generally ineffective in the modern era….

It is a truism of military life that an army fights as it trains, and so I draw on my many years of firsthand observation of Arabs in training to draw conclusions about the ways in which they go into combat…………

Indifference to Safety

In terms of safety measures, there is a general laxness, a seeming carelessness and indifference to training accidents, many of which could have been prevented by minimal efforts. To the (perhaps overly) safety-conscious Americans, Arab societies appear indifferent to casualties and show a seemingly lackadaisical approach to training safety.

AUGUST IS NATIONAL SHOOTING SPORTS MONTH

While many of us practice our Second Amendment right through regular shooting, hunting, reloading and other gun-related fun each month, the National Shooting Sports Foundation (NSSF) established August as National Shooting Sports Month in 2016.

Originally created as a promotion for retailers and ranges to attract new customers during the traditional summer slump, it’s become a celebration among gun owners with an emphasis on introducing new shooters to the industry, teaching firearms safety and sharing a collective love of shooting sports. Continue reading “”

Poll: 82% of U.S. Parents Are Considering Homeschooling Their Kids This Fall

As the school year begins around the country, a recent study has found a shocking 82% of parents are at least considering keeping their children home through 2021.

OnePoll surveyed 2,000 parents as to their choice between open or closed schools, and found that one in four said they would not be sending their children back to classrooms regardless.

Although 81% of those considering homeschooling point to worries over COVID-19 spread as the motivating factor, much of the concern seemed focused less on fears about the precautions taken by schools and more on the personal responsibility of their own children. Nearly 6 in 10 said they do not think their children would properly wash their hands while at school.

U.S. sees fewer than 50,000 new COVID-19 cases for 2nd straight day.

Aug. 4 (UPI) — For the second day in a row, researchers say new COVID-19 cases in the United States have numbered under 50,000.

About 45,400 new cases were recorded Monday, according to data from Johns Hopkins University, the first time since late June with two straight days under 50,000. There were about 47,500 on Sunday. U.S. cases averaged about 60,000 per day in July.

The university has recorded 4.718 million U.S. cases since the pandemic began and 155,400 deaths. Continue reading “”

The long way home: a 2,000-mile road trip in an untested ’79 Pontiac Trans Am

All photos by Mike Musto

The Great American Road Trip is a wonderful thing. It allows you to meet people you’d never otherwise encounter, see things you’d never otherwise see, and experience this great country of ours in ways that only open-road travel can provide.

Today’s new cars are forgettable. They’re roving jellybeans connected to the world via technology that most owners will never understand. They’re tracked by all manner of computer, recording our every moment and location. In short, new vehicles remove the one thing that the automobile was meant to provide from its inception: Freedom. Some will say it’s foolish to run 2,000 miles in an untested classic, but I disagree. In my mind, it’s about the adventure of doing something few are willing to attempt and getting lost in a vehicle that can’t be found.