The new, and dangerous, ‘greatest possible threat to our Republic’

It’s not Hamas, it’s not ISIS, it’s not China and it’s not Russia.

It’s not even the fact that Americans now have widely divergent views on the direction the nation should be going.

It’s that the trust in the Constitution is gone, and now an “increasing number of citizens … view violence as warranted to silence those with opposing views.”

That is, in fact, the “greatest possible threat to our Republic,” according to George Washington University law professor Jonathan Turley, who has not only testified on the Constitution before Congress but has represented members in court.

He cited a recent University of Virginia Center for Politics poll that delivered astounding results: “Fifty-two percent of Biden supporters say Republicans are now a threat to American life while 47 percent of Trump supporters say the same about Democrats. Among Biden supporters, 41 percent now believe violence is justified ‘to stop [Republicans] from achieving their goals.’ An almost identical percentage, 38 percent, of Trump supporters now embrace violence to stop Democrats. … Some 31 percent of Trump supporters believe that the nation should explore alternative forms of government. Roughly a quarter (24 percent) of Biden supporters also question the viability of democracy.”

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Chicago Woman Fatally Shoots Knife-Wielding Man in Morgan Park

A woman fatally shot a knife-wielding man early Sunday in Morgan Park on the Far South Side.

The shooting happened around 12:45 a.m. when a 41-year-old man who the woman knew approached her with a knife inside her home in the 11500 block of South Vincennes Avenue, Chicago police said.

The woman then pulled out a gun and shot the man four times in his torso, police said.

He was taken to Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn, where he was pronounced dead, officials said.

The woman wasn’t injured and a handgun was recovered at the scene, officials said.

Area detectives were investigating.

Squad of female IDF combat troops eliminated nearly 100 Hamas terrorists.

Only a few have had the chance to witness the extraordinary actions of the Caracal Battalion during their battle against Hamas terrorists.

Lt.-Col. Or Ben-Yehuda, the commander of this unit, now recounts her experiences in the southern Gaza Strip, where her battalion eliminated approximately 100 terrorists. She also has a clear message for those who question the capabilities of female fighters in the Caracal (Desert Lynx) and Tank Battalion.

As the assault on the Gaza border area began, Ben-Yehuda swiftly moved from the battalion headquarters in Nahal Raviv to a post on the Egyptian border with armored personnel carriers. Rockets were raining down, and warnings arrived regarding potential terrorist infiltration in the Shlomit and Bnei Netzer towns.

In the midst of this chaos, she received a message from Lt.-Col. Yonatan Tzur, the commander of the Nahal Brigade’s patrol battalion, who was later tragically killed in an encounter with terrorists. He reported an infiltration near Sufa and Nirim, saying, “There are several terrorists there… They’re heavily armed!”

Ben-Yehuda summoned troops from the mixed-gender, infantry combat Caracal Battalion and made her intentions clear: “We are going out to eliminate terrorists. Infiltration into Israel is happening, and it’s spreading. Stay alert. We might cross paths. We are a strong squad.”

During the fast-paced journey, Ben-Yehuda began to understand the scale of the terrorist incidents in the region. Arriving at Sufa, she received a report from a sergeant from the guards at the entrance to the military base, indicating that terrorists were inside with at least three wounded.

Information revealed that the military post contained around 40 combat soldiers from the Nahal patrol, a mix of Nahal, mortar soldiers from the 50th battalion, other soldiers, military drivers operating in high-risk areas, and numerous terrorists. It was apparent that most of the combatants were in the dining room, armed with anti-tank missiles. It became clear that this was not a typical terrorist infiltration.

Approaching the base from all angles, they identified at least seven terrorists, and more from the nearby dirt embankment were starting to climb up. Suddenly, a convoy with almost 50 terrorists and snipers charged toward the squad of 12 at breakneck speed. They responded with gunfire. Terrorists were eliminated, and the others dispersed.

In a harrowing moment, a terrorist advanced on Ben-Yehuda at point-blank range, but her quick reaction saved her from harm.

Lt.-Col. A from the Magic Touch Squadron (190) arrived and identified the terrorists inside the base. He suggested taking action but Ben-Yehuda insisted on avoiding harm to the soldiers inside. Instead, bursts of fire were directed at the surrounding earthen embankments, killing terrorists and preventing further attacks on the squad.

For nearly four hours, terrorists attempted to outflank Ben-Yehuda and her team, engaging them in firefights. More vans arrived, but the Caracal Battalion commander effectively thwarted them. Additional Light Anti-Armor Weapon (LAW) missiles were launched, further eliminating terrorists: Some were killed, and others retreated.

Despite wounds to some of her soldiers, they persevered.

After hours of intense combat, soldiers from the Shayetet (flotilla) 13 Navy Special Forces unit arrived to clear the base of terrorists. Drones were launched to assist them. The firefights continued, and wounded soldiers were evacuated. They remained at the base for a total of 14 hours until it was fully secured.

Ben-Yehuda emphasized the significant contributions of the female soldiers under her command, who saved many lives through medical care and even daring helicopter landings under fire. Their remarkable performance under the extreme pressure of war highlighted their capabilities.

She also acknowledged the tank soldiers under her command, who played a vital role in defending towns and decisively impacting the battle in Holit, a kibbutz near the southwestern-most border of the Gaza Strip where at least 11 of its members were killed along with two migrant workers.

In total, her battalion eliminated around 100 terrorists. She hopes this serves as proof that there should be no more doubts about female combat soldiers. “Their training and performance on the battlefield have erased any doubts. They fought bravely, saved lives, and emerged as heroes,” she said.

Ben-Yehuda also highlighted the dedication of the commanders who rushed from home to join the fight.

She concluded: “There are no more doubts about female combat soldiers, who have triumphed in every encounter with terrorists. At present, we are responsible for 11 towns and are preparing for any potential ground maneuvers to ensure the safety of the southern Gaza border area and the Egyptian border.”

As I understand it, the ‘gray area’ law letters got the ATF bureaucrap’s attention and the destroyed Russian AK-12 ‘parts kits’ were the cherry on top of the sundae.
Trying to play fast and loose with U.S. code and regulation can be hazardous, as the federal bureaucraps do not like the peasantry devising ‘inventive’ ways to circumvent their restrictive regulations

United States of America v. Larry A. Vickers
Famed Delta Force veteran faces 25 years in a federal prison.

Special operations combat veteran, firearms industry consultant, tactical instructor and YouTube personality with more than a million loyal followers, Larry Allen Vickers, pleaded guilty last week to a multi-count federal indictment that accused him of conspiring to illegally import and obtain machineguns and other restricted firearms, and conspiring to violate U.S. sanctions against a Russian arms manufacturer.

Vickers, 60, faces up to 25 years in prison, according to a press release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Maryland. The judge overseeing the case has not yet scheduled a sentencing date.

Vickers’ influence on the firearms industry was massive — especially for all things tactical — because he had the right combination of training, real-world experience and business acumen. Vickers and other operators participated in Operation Acid Gambit — a hostage rescue operation to free American Kurt Muse, a CIA operative who was being held in a Panamanian prison. Today, actual hostage-rescue missions are rare, even for Tier One operators.

Vickers’ expertise was much sought after by small arms manufacturers. He developed improvements, innovations and accessories for Wilson Combat, Aimpoint, Glock and most notably, Heckler & Koch. He helped the German firm with their redesign of the M16, which led to the HK416 — the rifle of choice for special operations units around the world.

Vickers was also a firearms historian and scholar. His Vickers Guide series offered unique insight into the 1911, German small arms of World War II, the AR-15 and he wrote two volumes about the AK-47. He became a voice for AK proponents, and his advocacy led to new design features that improved the rifle’s ergonomics.

Vickers was one of the country’s most successful firearms instructors. A series of television shows and YouTube videos helped reinforce this brand. Although some will say much of his training was pre-9/11, he was one of the first Delta Force retirees to train civilians and law enforcement. His classes almost always sold out.

Vickers high profile and service to this country did not go unnoticed by federal law enforcement, especially the ATF.

The defendants    

Federal agents first raided Vickers’ home in October 2021, while Vickers was battling cancer. They seized 245 NFA weapons from his personal collection, including museum pieces some described as “priceless.” Many of the rare guns baffled ATF investigators, who referred to them on forfeiture paperwork as “unknown machinegun,” which they then valued at $1,000.

At the time, multiple sources said Vickers let his Special Operation Tax (SOT) payment lapse, which prompted the raid. But the federal indictment unsealed last week draws this conclusion into question.

“That indictment alleges that beginning in June 2018 to March 2021, the defendants conspired to acquire machineguns and/or other restricted firearms, such as short-barreled rifles, by falsely representing that the firearms would be used for demonstrations to law enforcement agencies, including the Coats Police Department and the Ray Police Department.

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The Day the Delusions Died 

A lot of people woke up on October 7 as progressives and went to bed that night feeling like conservatives. What changed?

When Hamas terrorists crossed over the border with Israel and murdered 1,400 innocent people, they destroyed families and entire communities. They also shattered long-held delusions in the West.

A friend of mine joked that she woke up on October 7 as a liberal and went to bed that evening as a 65-year-old conservative. But it wasn’t really a joke and she wasn’t the only one. What changed?

The best way to answer that question is with the help of Thomas Sowell, one of the most brilliant public intellectuals alive today. In 1987, Sowell published A Conflict of Visions. In this now-classic, he offers a simple and powerful explanation of why people disagree about politics. We disagree about politics, Sowell argues, because we disagree about human nature. We see the world through one of two competing visions, each of which tells a radically different story about human nature.

Those with “unconstrained vision” think that humans are malleable and can be perfected. They believe that social ills and evils can be overcome through collective action that encourages humans to behave better. To subscribers of this view, poverty, crime, inequality, and war are not inevitable. Rather, they are puzzles that can be solved. We need only to say the right things, enact the right policies, and spend enough money, and we will suffer these social ills no more. This worldview is the foundation of the progressive mindset.

By contrast, those who see the world through a “constrained vision” lens believe that human nature is a universal constant. No amount of social engineering can change the sober reality of human self-interest, or the fact that human empathy and social resources are necessarily scarce. People who see things this way believe that most political and social problems will never be “solved”; they can only be managed. This approach is the bedrock of the conservative worldview.

Hamas’s barbarism—and the explanations and celebrations throughout the West that followed their orgy of violence—have forced an overnight exodus from the “unconstrained” camp into the “constrained” one.

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October 24

1590 – John White, the governor of the second Roanoke Colony, returns to England after an unsuccessful search for the “lost” colonists.

1596 – The second Spanish armada sets sail to strike against England, but is smashed by storms off Cape Finisterre, off the northwest coast of the Iberian peninsula,  forcing a retreat to port.

1861 – Western Union, a combined partnership of the Pacific Telegraph Company and Overland Telegraph Company, completes construction of the first transcontinental telegraph line across the United States.

1900 – The U.S. government announces plans to buy the Danish West Indies islands of St. Thomas, St. John, St. Croix and later Water- now called the Virgin Islands – for $7 million

1901 – Annie Edson Taylor becomes the first person to go over Niagara Falls in a barrel.

1911 – Orville Wright remains in the air 9 minutes and 45 seconds flying a glider at Kill Devil Hills, North Carolina.

1912 – During the First Balkan War, Bulgarian forces near modern Kırklareli, Turkey and Serbians near modern Kumanovo, North Macedonia, are victorious against those of the Ottoman Empire.

1929 – The Dow Jones Industrial Average on the New York Stock Exchange crashes  12.82% (38.33 points) marking the beginning of a world wide economic crisis.

1930 – A coup d’état in Brazil ousts President Washington Luis, ending the First Republic

1931 – The George Washington Bridge opens to public traffic over the Hudson River.

1944 – Off Leyte Gulf, the Japanese naval force attacked earlier by U.S. submarines is engaged and repulsed by U.S. naval surface forces in the Sibuyan Sea

1945 – The United Nations Charter comes into effect.
Vidkun Quisling is executed by firing squad at Akershus Fortress, Oslo, Norway for high treason against the Norwegian state

1946 – A camera on board the V-2 No. 13 rocket, launched from White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico, takes the first photograph of earth from outer space.

1947 – United Airlines Flight 608, a Douglas DC-6, crashes over the Bryce Canyon National Park in Utah, killing all 52 passengers and crew onboard.

1954 – President Eisenhower pledges United States support to South Vietnam.

1960 – A prototype of the R-16 ICBM ballistic missile explodes on the launch pad at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in the Soviet Union, killing over 100 people.

1963 – An oxygen leak from an R-9 Desna missile at the Baikonur Cosmodrome triggers a fire that kills 7 people.

1992 – The Toronto Blue Jays become the first Major League Baseball team based outside the United States to win the World Series.

1998 – NASA’s probe, Deep Space 1 is launched to explore the asteroid belt and test new spacecraft technologies.

2002 – Police arrest spree killers John Allen Muhammad and Lee Boyd Malvo, ending the Beltway sniper attacks in the area around Washington, D.C.

2003 – The Aérospatiale/BAC Concorde makes its last commercial flight.

2005 – After earlier crossing the Yucatan peninsula at category 5 power, Hurricane Wilma, at category 3 power, strikes Cape Romano, Florida, resulting in 35 direct and 26 indirect fatalities and causing over $20 billion in damage.

2008 – Many of the world’s stock exchanges experience the worst declines in their history, with drops of around 10% in most indices while the Dow Jones Industrial Average on the New York Stock Exchange drops 3.6%. (312 points)

2015 – A driver intentionally crashes into the Oklahoma State Homecoming parade, killing 4 people and injuring 34. The murderer is later convicted  and sentenced to life imprisonment.

Troubled Times Part II: There’s more to being prepared than just guns and ammo.

Last week I talked about safety measures during times of civil unrest. Most recently, the FBI is warning of the possibility for terrorist activity in this country and suggesting that folks shelter in place. As I mentioned, this shelter-in-place idea is not a bad one because the defender nearly always has the advantage.

Too often, in times like these, people focus on their choice and selection of guns and ammunition. While there is nothing wrong with this, I would suggest that it is only one of several considerations for keeping you and your family safe until things can be straightened out.

A decent medical kit would also be an excellent addition to your home defense plan. And, along with that would also go some first aid training. It could be extremely important to know how to stop bleeding, treat certain wounds and deal with the effects of shock. It is a really good idea for the entire family to have this training since you never know who will need the treatment and who will be available to apply it. Right in line with that is to make sure that there is an adequate supply of prescription medicines that the family members might need. Civil unrest is not the time to run out of blood pressure medications for example.

It also might be that you have to wait out a few days with your power cut off. Do you have enough non-perishable foods to get you by? How is your supply of extra batteries? When you think of just getting by for a few days until order can be restored, your list might get longer than you expected.

Mind you, I am not predicting some sort of doomsday event. However, we need to realize that there are people in this world who would like nothing better than for that to happen to us. I don’t think there is a need to start digging a bunker in your back yard or to build a survival camp in some wilderness area. But it is time to consider that you might just have to stay home for a few days while our police and other officials get order restored (or even recovering from a weather event like a hurricane, tornado or snowstorm).

So look beyond your guns and ammo and try to focus on the big picture. Start making that list of necessary items and give some serious thought to all of the ways you will need to protect yourself and your family.

Why Biden Wants SCOTUS To Rule Agains Rahimi

I’m going to start this off by saying what we almost have to say when talking about the Rahimi case, that the plaintiff in this case is not a good person. By all indications, he’s a terrible human being and not someone I’d want as part of my life.

But, our rights don’t exist only for those we approve of. They have to be protected for everyone, regardless of whether they’re a good person or not.

And Zachey Rahimi is such a person.

Now, his case is going to the Supreme Court, and a lot of people are blatantly misrepresenting it. They’re saying it’s about keeping domestic abusers disarmed, all while ignoring that the case doesn’t try to take on laws that rule those convicted of such offenses are prohibited from owning guns.

Because Rahimi wasn’t convicted of any such thing when he was charged with illegally possessing a gun. He just had a restraining order against him.

Over at The Federalist, John Lott gets into the real reason the Biden administration is fighting this so hard.

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It bears repeating that my first squad leader was a font of practical wisdom, usually doled out in pithy maxims. One I already knew, but liked how he put it was:
“I’ve found that experience is the best teacher, and the best experience is someone else’s as it’s usually less expensive and less painful.”
A word to the wise should be sufficient

What we Should Learn from the Attack on Israel

Terrorists attacked innocent victims in Israel. This is a war of ethnic cleansing. The victims were chosen precisely for their innocence. The murdering terrorists sought out the vulnerable and the harmless. This attack was a show of force, a show of violence, and a show of brutality. It was Hamas and their Iranian enablers saying that they are willing to be barbarians. They wanted other nations to hold them in awe. I don’t think it will work out that way. An Israeli politician said you can’t negotiate peace with someone who has come to kill you. Here in the United States, there are things we can learn from both the Israeli civilians and from the Israeli government.

We watched over a thousand of Israelis die at the hands of armed terrorists. Many more were wounded. Women and children were murdered or kidnapped. Those are exactly the results you would expect. The point is not that the attackers were some type of super-warriors. Those are simply the results that any trained combatant would expect when disarmed victims face armed attackers. It didn’t need to unfold that way.

Let me resize the attack so US readers have a sense of proportion. Keeping the percentages the same and with its larger population, this attack would have killed almost 60-thousand US citizens. That is about twenty times the number of people who were killed at Pearl Harbor in 1941, or during the attack on September 11th in 2001.

Where Israelis were armed and on alert, they defended themselves very well. Examples include Kibbutz  Nir Am and Kibbutz Mefalsim. There we also saw the sort of results we expected. Attackers need to outnumber defenders by a ratio of over six-to-one in order to advance. The terrorists did not bring that number of attackers to bear so the defenders prevailed.

In the United States of America, I noticed that another million of us went out to buy guns and ammunition in the week after the attack. Most of these were first time gun buyers. Again, ordinary citizens like us came to some far-reaching conclusions. They recognized that the world is not safe. People who look just like them are capable of horrific acts of violence. Law enforcement and other government authorities will only arrive long after the attack is over. Far from being conclusions drawn from worse case estimates, I think those conclusions are simply a sober evaluation of the truth.

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Middle class America is no less violent than any other people.
They seem passive because they’re results oriented. They rise not out of blood frenzy but to solve the otherwise insoluble.
Their methods of choice are good will, cooperation, forbearance, negotiation and finally, appeasement, roughly in that order.
Only when these fail to end the abuse do they revert to blowback. And they do so irretrievably.
Once the course is set and the outcome defined, doubt is put aside.
The middle class is known, condemned actually, for carrying out violence with the efficiency of an industrial project where bloody destruction at any scale is not only in play, it’s a metric.
Remorse is left for the next generation, they’ll have the leisure for it.
We’d like to believe this is merely dark speculation. History says it isn’t.
-‘ol Remus

October 23

4004 BC, 1800 hours Coordinated Universal Time– The Earth is created according to calculations of Irish Archbishop James Ussher in 1650

42 BC – Marcus Junius Brutus, one of the assassins of Julius Caesar, commits suicide instead of being captured after his army is defeated by that of Octavian and Mark Antony near Philippi in Macedonia.

1086 – During the Spanish Reconquista the Almoravid army of Yusuf ibn Tashfin defeats the Castilians of Alfonso VI, at Sagrajas, but are unable to take advantage of their victory.

1850 – The first National Women’s Rights Convention begins in Worcester, Massachusetts.

1864 – During the Civil War, the Battle of Westport in what is now Kansas City, is the last significant engagement west of the Mississippi River.

1911 – The first use of an airplane in combat occurs when an Italian pilot makes a reconnaissance flight during the Italo-Turkish War.

1912 – During the First Balkan War, Serbian forces engage and are victorious over the  Ottomans in battle near Kumanovo in the Kosovo Vilayet.

1942 – On Guadalcanal, Japanese forces begin what will turn out to be their last major offensive action to retake Henderson Field from American forces.

1944 – During World War II, in Leyte Gulf of the Philippines, the U.S. submarines USS Darter and USS Dace sight and attack a large Japanese naval force as it passes Palawan island to attack the U.S. landings on Leyte island.

1965 – During the Vietnam War, the 1st Cavalry Division (Airmobile), combined with forces of the Army of the Republic of Vietnam, launch an operation to destroy Communist forces besieging Special Forces Camp Plei Me, 25 miles south of Pleiku, under command of Colonel Charles Beckwith.

1970 – Gary Gabelich sets a land speed record of just over 622 miles per hour, driving the rocket powered Blue Flame automobile on the Bonneville Salt Flats.

1973 – President Nixon agrees to turn over subpoenaed audio tapes of his Oval Office conversations.

1982 – In Miracle Valley Arizona, a gunfight breaks out in the early morning between members of Christ Miracle Healing Church and Cochise County Deputy Sheriffs who had arrived the previous evening to arrest several church members, leaving 2 church members dead and many on both sides wounded.

1983 – In Beirut Lebanon, the building used as barracks by U.S. Marines is hit by a truck bomb, killing 241 Marines. A French army barracks in Lebanon is also hit that same morning, killing 58.

1989 – An explosion at the Houston Chemical Complex in Pasadena, Texas, powerful enough to which register a 3.5 on the Richter magnitude scale, kills 23 people and injures 314 more.

1998 – At the Aspen Institute Wye River Conference Centers, Wye Mills, Maryland, Benjamin Netanyahu and Yasser Arafat negotiate an agreement to resume the implementation of the Oslo II Accord, the 1995 Interim Agreement on the West Bank and the Gaza Strip.

2001 – Apple Computer releases the iPod

2015 – The lowest sea level pressure in the Western Hemisphere, 25.75 inches Hg, and the highest reliably measured non-tornadic sustained wind speed of 215 mph, are recorded in Hurricane Patricia, which strikes Mexico hours later, killing at least 13 people and causing over $280 million in damages.

Will We Survive the Next Intelligence Failure?

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Richard Fernandez

Future economists will ask why land conflicts in MENA [Middle East North Africa] could not be settled by negotiation. The Coase Theorem states that under ideal conditions, parties can negotiate terms that accurately reflect the full costs and underlying values, resulting in the most efficient outcome.
But in a multi-religions region without a consensus on right and wrong and without clear standards of evidence, territorial disputes cannot easily be argued according to accepted law or facts. The historical remedy in such doubtful cases was “trial by combat”.
“Trial by combat (also wager of battle, trial by battle or judicial duel) was a method of Germanic law to settle accusations in the absence of witnesses or a confession in which two parties in dispute fought in single combat; the winner of the fight was proclaimed to be right.”
In cases where the court could not decide who was right, the contending parties could fight it out, in the belief that if no man knew who was innocent, God or the fortunes of war would decide. In way, war is trial by combat when the international order cannot enforce a decision.
MacArthur’s Japanese surrender speech: “We are gathered … to conclude a solemn agreement whereby Peace may be restored. The issues, involving divergent ideals and ideologies, have been determined on the battle fields of the world and hence are not for our discussion or debate.”
Because international diplomacy failed Israel and its enemies are resorting to war, to trial by combat, to settle the issue. This, alas, is how much of the world’s boundaries were drawn throughout history and we are no nearer replacing it than our caveman ancestors.

Oregon removes writing, reading, and math mastery from high school graduation requirements

The Oregon State Board of Education unanimously voted on Thursday to remove proof of mastery in reading, writing, and math in order to graduate from high school until 2029.

The board argued that requiring all students to pass one of several standardized tests or to create an in-depth assignment their teacher judged as meeting state standards was a harmful hurdle for students of color, disabled students, or those learning English as a second language. The standardized tests will still be given but will not play a role in determining whether students receive their diplomas.

“We haven’t suspended any sort of assessments,” state board member Vicky Lopez Sanchez said during the board meeting. “The only thing we are suspending is the inappropriate use of how those assessments were being used. I think that really is in the best interest of Oregon students.”

Opponents of the new order argued that removing the requirement devalues an Oregon diploma. The opponents argued that helping students with low academic skills through extra instruction in writing and math has helped them. However, supporters claim that forcing students to spend extra time on schoolwork eliminates their opportunity to take an elective and does not translate to how they perform after graduation.

“We are unable to ethically make a different decision at this point. It is also unethical for us to continue to require this when we know it can continue to cause harm and has had no change in how students are performing,” Board of Education Chairwoman Guadalupe Martinez Zapata told ABC’s KATU-2.

Hundreds of state residents have filed public comments on the subject, and most are in favor of keeping the requirements. But mastery is not the only graduation requirement. Students also need to earn a certain amount of credits and create an education plan that helps them achieve their goals after high school.

The pause was initiated during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, when schools across the country were forced to shut down