Thursday, December 29, 2016
Another "bad apple"? Where's all the good cops speaking out.
https://mojavedesertpatriot.wordpress.com/2016/12/29/aggravated-assault-on-a-public-servant/#respond
Nevada AG Will Not Enforce New Law-FBI Declines Question 1 Background Checks
http://www.ammoland.com/2016/12/nevada-ag-will-not-enforce-new-law-fbi-declines-question-1-background-checks/#axzz4UEW4hndT
Wednesday, December 28, 2016
Cops to use Mental Health Screenings on Everyone
http://massprivatei.blogspot.com/?m=1&utm_source=The+Rutherford+Institute&utm_campaign=07dc3c8c88-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2016_12_27&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_575dd19741-07dc3c8c88-41948021#!/2016/12/new-years-2017-cops-to-use-mental.html
Tuesday, December 27, 2016
Putting The POS In POTUS
http://hopenchangecartoons.blogspot.com/2016/12/putting-pos-in-potus.html?m=1
Monday, December 26, 2016
So, You Think You're Gonna "Live Off The Land?"
http://woodtrekker.blogspot.com/2013/09/living-off-land-delusions-and.html?m=1
Thursday, December 22, 2016
For All You Guys Who Voted For Hillary...
https://eatgrueldog.wordpress.com/2016/12/22/for-all-you-guys-who-voted-for-hillary/
Wednesday, December 21, 2016
Coming to America-I Will Kill You Because You Are An Infidel
https://mojavedesertpatriot.wordpress.com/2016/12/21/coming-to-america-i-will-kill-you-because-you-are-an-infidel/
How to Sharpen a Knife in the Field
http://www.fieldandstream.com/how-to-sharpen-knife-in-field?cmpid=enews122116&spMailingID=27374091&spUserID=ODY3ODQ4ODgxMDkS1&spJobID=944023411&spReportId=OTQ0MDIzNDExS0
Pot Use Disease
http://missoulian.com/news/state-and-regional/wrong-diagnosis-of-emerging-pot-disease-can-leave-patients-sick/article_aede7212-9ccf-5c2e-8a6e-44555010f073.html
Monday, December 19, 2016
Viktor Orban- 2017 will be thr year of revolts
https://westernrifleshooters.wordpress.com/2016/12/18/viktor-orban-2017-will-be-the-year-of-revolts/
Sunday, December 18, 2016
Svientists find 57 million year old "hero bug" in deep cave
http://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2016/12/10/504691357/million-year-old-hero-bug-emerges-from-cave?utm_source=npr_newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_content=20161218&utm_campaign=bestofnpr&utm_term=nprnews
Friday, December 16, 2016
Change of Command Ceremony,DOD
https://westernrifleshooters.wordpress.com/2016/12/15/change-of-command-ceremony-dod/#respond
What We Want -vs- What We Have
https://westernrifleshooters.wordpress.com/2016/12/15/what-we-want-versus-what-we-have/
Tuesday, December 13, 2016
Viva Counterrevoluccion
http://raconteurreport.blogspot.com/2016/12/viva-counterrevoluccion.html?m=1
Wednesday, December 7, 2016
Monday, December 5, 2016
Today the FBI Becomes the Enemy of Every Computer User and Securiy Professonal Worldwide
https://www.privateinternetaccess.com/blog/2016/12/today-the-fbi-becomes-the-enemy-of-every-computer-user-and-every-security-professional-worldwide/
Friday, December 2, 2016
Monday, November 28, 2016
¿Armas para que?
http://www.ammoland.com/2016/11/castros-legacy-summed-three-word-question-arms/#axzz4RIyIirvM
The Left's Appalling Whitewashing of Castro's Legacy
http://dailysignal.com/2016/11/26/the-lefts-appalling-whitewashing-of-castros-legacy/?utm_source=TDS_Email&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=MorningBell&mkt_tok=eyJpIjoiTVRNd05tRmtPVEV6WVRKbSIsInQiOiJLa3JsTkwrRUZlMG9lU3ZSQnV2NUZYbkNOQ2p5T2NRZ1wvMVFyUnVWc2YyaFc4MHNaMGF3a0NiOXViZlwvMlNRQ1UxYmg3bFRSeGpYXC9aQlNzdUV0S0F0K3prelpmaVBYRmNzWHR4MG1GcEJaMD0ifQ%3D%3D
Sunday, November 27, 2016
Fake News and How to Fight It
http://christianmerc.blogspot.de/2016/11/fake-news-and-how-to-fight-it.html?m=1
Saturday, November 26, 2016
An A-R-15 In Every Home-Cody Wilson
http://reason.com/reasontv/2016/11/23/3d-gun-printer-cody-wilson-on-the-right
Obama's Medal Of Freedom Picks Show Opposite Intent
http://waronguns.blogspot.com/2016/11/obama-presidential-medal-of-freedom.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed:+TheWarOnGuns+(The+War+on+Guns)&m=1
Wednesday, November 23, 2016
Ohio Deer Hunting Regulations
http://wildlife.ohiodnr.gov/hunting-trapping-and-shooting-sports/hunting-trapping-regulations/deer-hunting-regulations?utm_medium=email&utm_source=strongview&utm_campaign=OHhunterupdate_112216&utm_content=regulations
Social Media Monitoring by Police
https://www.brennancenter.org/analysis/map-social-media-monitoring-police-departments-cities-and-counties?utm_source=The+Rutherford+Institute&utm_campaign=db3d93f192-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2016_11_22&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_575dd19741-db3d93f192-41948021
Tuesday, November 22, 2016
Green Incoherance
https://wattsupwiththat.com/2016/11/21/green-incoherence-reaching-out-to-the-deplorables/
Monday, November 21, 2016
John Lott-Why An Armed Citizenry Is Crucial
http://savannahnow.com/opinion-opinion-columns/2016-11-18/john-lott-why-armed-citizenry-crucial#
Survival Medicine
https://www.oathkeepers.org/the-survival-medicine-handbook-a-guide-for-when-help-is-not-on-the-way/
Friday, November 18, 2016
Wednesday, November 9, 2016
Breathing Room
November 9, 2016
- About 60 million Americans looked at Hillary, knew her crimes, perversions, volatile temperament and physical incapacity and said, “sure, why not?”
- Only about 60 million Americans bothered to get in the way. Less than 20%, barely enough, at that. As of this writing, fewer than the above.
- Because vagina. Had the Democrats run any less of a rotting soul, encased in female form, they would have won in a landslide. This lesson was not lost, I am sure.
- Because vagina. Had the Republicans run any female they would have won in a landslide. This lesson was not lost, I am sure.
- Read the whole thing @ Starving the Monkeys here
‘We the People’ Against Tyranny: Seven Principles for Free Government
By John W. Whitehead
Precisely because Americans are easily distracted—because, as study after study shows, they are clueless about their rights—because their elected officials no longer represent them—because Americans have been brainwashed into believing that their only duty as citizens is to vote—because the citizenry has failed to hold government officials accountable to abiding by the Constitution—because young people are no longer being taught the fundamentals of the Constitution or the Bill of Rights, resulting in citizens who don’t even know they have rights—and because Americans continue to place their trust in politics to fix what’s wrong with this country—the American governmental scheme is sliding ever closer towards a pervasive authoritarianism.
This steady slide towards tyranny, meted out by militarized local and federal police and legalistic bureaucrats, has been carried forward by each successive president over the past fifty years regardless of their political affiliation.
Big government has grown bigger and the rights of the citizenry have grown smaller.
However, there are certain principles—principles that every American should know—which undergird the American system of government and form the basis for the freedoms our forefathers fought and died for.
The following seven principles are a good starting point for understanding what free government is really all about.
First, the maxim that power corrupts is an absolute truth. Realizing this, those who drafted the Constitution and the Bill of Rights held one principle sacrosanct: a distrust of all who hold governmental power. As James Madison, author of the Bill of Rights, proclaimed, “All men having power ought to be distrusted to a certain degree.” Moreover, in questions of power, Thomas Jefferson warned, “Let no more be heard of confidence in man, but bind him down from mischief by the chains of the Constitution.” As such, those who drafted our founding documents would see today’s government as an out-of-control, unmanageable beast.
The second principle is that governments primarily exist to secure rights, an idea that is central to constitutionalism. In appointing the government as the guardian of the people’s rights, the people give it only certain, enumerated powers, which are laid out in a written constitution. The idea of a written constitution actualizes the two great themes of the Declaration of Independence: consent and protection of equal rights. Thus, the purpose of constitutionalism is to limit governmental power and ensure that the government performs its basic function: to preserve and protect our rights, especially our unalienable rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, and our civil liberties. Unfortunately, the government today has discarded this principle and now sees itself as our master, not our servant. The obvious next step, unless we act soon, is tyranny.
The third principle revolves around the belief that no one is above the law, not even those who make the law. This is termed rule of law. Richard Nixon’s statement, “When the President does it, that means it is not illegal,” would have been an anathema to the Framers of the Constitution. If all people possess equal rights, the people who live under the laws must be allowed to participate in making those laws. By that same token, those who make the laws must live under the laws they make. However, today government officials at all levels often act as if they are royalty with salaries and perks that none of the rest of us are afforded. This is an egregious affront to the citizenry.
Fourth, separation of powers ensures that no single authority is entrusted with all the powers of government. People are not perfect, whether they are in government or out of it. As history makes clear, those in power tend to abuse it. The government is thus divided into three co-equal branches: legislative, executive and judicial. Placing all three powers in the same branch of government was considered the very definition of tyranny. The fact that the president today has dictatorial powers would have been considered a curse by the Framers.
Fifth, a system of checks and balances, essential if a constitutional government is to succeed, strengthens the separation of powers and prevents legislative despotism. Such checks and balances include dividing Congress into two houses, with different constituencies, term lengths, sizes and functions; granting the president a limited veto power over congressional legislation; and appointing an independent judiciary capable of reviewing ordinary legislation in light of the written Constitution, which is referred to as “judicial review.” The Framers feared that Congress could abuse its powers and potentially emerge as the tyrannous branch because it had the power to tax. But they did not anticipate the emergence of presidential powers as they have come to dominate modern government or the inordinate influence of corporate powers on governmental decision-making. Indeed, as recent academic studies now indicate, we are now ruled by a monied oligarchy that serves itself and not “we the people.”
Sixth, representation allows the people to have a voice in government by sending elected representatives to do their bidding while avoiding the need of each and every citizen to vote on every issue considered by government. In a country as large as the United States, it is not feasible to have direct participation in governmental affairs. Hence, we have a representative government. If the people don’t agree with how their representatives are conducting themselves, they can and should vote them out. However, as the citizenry has grown lazy and been distracted by the entertainment spectacles of modern society, government bureaucrats churn out numerous laws each year resulting in average citizens being rendered lawbreakers and jailed for what used to be considered normal behavior.
Finally, federalism is yet another constitutional device to limit the power of government by dividing power and, thus, preventing tyranny. In America, the levels of government generally break down into federal, state and local branches (which further divide into counties and towns or cities). Because local and particular interests differ from place to place, such interests are better handled at a more intimate level by local governments, not a bureaucratic national government. Remarking on the benefits of the American tradition of local self-government in the 1830s, the French historian Alexis de Tocqueville observed:
These seven vital principles have been largely forgotten in recent years, obscured by the haze of a centralized government, a citizenry that no longer thinks analytically, and schools that don’t adequately teach our young people about their history and their rights.
Yet here’s the rub: while Americans wander about in their brainwashed states, their “government of the people, by the people and for the people” has largely been taken away from them.
The answer: get un-brainwashed.
Learn your rights.
Stand up for the founding principles.
Make your voice and your vote count for more than just political posturing.
Never cease to vociferously protest the erosion of your freedoms at the local and national level.
Most of all, do these things today.
If we wait until the votes have all been counted or hang our hopes on our particular candidate to win and fix what’s wrong with the country, “we the people” will continue to lose.
Whether we ever realize it not, the enemy is not across party lines, as they would have us believe. It has us surrounded on all sides.
Even so, we’re not yet defeated.
We could still overcome our oppressors if we cared enough to join forces and launch a militant nonviolent revolution—a people’s revolution that starts locally and trickles upwards—but that will take some doing.
It will mean turning our backs on the political jousting contests taking place at all levels of government and rejecting their appointed jesters as false prophets. It will mean not allowing ourselves to be corralled like cattle and branded with political labels that have no meaning anymore. It will mean recognizing that all the evils that surround us today—endless wars, drone strikes, invasive surveillance, militarized police, poverty, asset forfeiture schemes, overcriminalization, etc.—are not of our making but came about as a way to control and profit from us.
It will mean “voting with our feet” through sustained, mass civil disobedience.
As journalist Chris Hedges points out, “There were once radicals in America, people who held fast to moral imperatives. They fought for the oppressed because it was right, not because it was easy or practical. They were willing to accept the state persecution that comes with open defiance. They had the courage of their convictions. They were not afraid.”
Ultimately, as I make clear in my book Battlefield America: The War on the American People, it will mean refusing to be divided, one against each other, by politics and instead uniting behind the only distinction that has ever mattered: “we the people” against tyranny.
source
“As I look at America today, I am not afraid to say that I am afraid.”—Former presidential advisor Bertram GrossAs history teaches us, if the people have little or no knowledge of the basics of government and their rights, those who wield governmental power inevitably wield it excessively. After all, a citizenry can only hold its government accountable if it knows when the government oversteps its bounds.
Precisely because Americans are easily distracted—because, as study after study shows, they are clueless about their rights—because their elected officials no longer represent them—because Americans have been brainwashed into believing that their only duty as citizens is to vote—because the citizenry has failed to hold government officials accountable to abiding by the Constitution—because young people are no longer being taught the fundamentals of the Constitution or the Bill of Rights, resulting in citizens who don’t even know they have rights—and because Americans continue to place their trust in politics to fix what’s wrong with this country—the American governmental scheme is sliding ever closer towards a pervasive authoritarianism.
This steady slide towards tyranny, meted out by militarized local and federal police and legalistic bureaucrats, has been carried forward by each successive president over the past fifty years regardless of their political affiliation.
Big government has grown bigger and the rights of the citizenry have grown smaller.
However, there are certain principles—principles that every American should know—which undergird the American system of government and form the basis for the freedoms our forefathers fought and died for.
The following seven principles are a good starting point for understanding what free government is really all about.
First, the maxim that power corrupts is an absolute truth. Realizing this, those who drafted the Constitution and the Bill of Rights held one principle sacrosanct: a distrust of all who hold governmental power. As James Madison, author of the Bill of Rights, proclaimed, “All men having power ought to be distrusted to a certain degree.” Moreover, in questions of power, Thomas Jefferson warned, “Let no more be heard of confidence in man, but bind him down from mischief by the chains of the Constitution.” As such, those who drafted our founding documents would see today’s government as an out-of-control, unmanageable beast.
The second principle is that governments primarily exist to secure rights, an idea that is central to constitutionalism. In appointing the government as the guardian of the people’s rights, the people give it only certain, enumerated powers, which are laid out in a written constitution. The idea of a written constitution actualizes the two great themes of the Declaration of Independence: consent and protection of equal rights. Thus, the purpose of constitutionalism is to limit governmental power and ensure that the government performs its basic function: to preserve and protect our rights, especially our unalienable rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, and our civil liberties. Unfortunately, the government today has discarded this principle and now sees itself as our master, not our servant. The obvious next step, unless we act soon, is tyranny.
The third principle revolves around the belief that no one is above the law, not even those who make the law. This is termed rule of law. Richard Nixon’s statement, “When the President does it, that means it is not illegal,” would have been an anathema to the Framers of the Constitution. If all people possess equal rights, the people who live under the laws must be allowed to participate in making those laws. By that same token, those who make the laws must live under the laws they make. However, today government officials at all levels often act as if they are royalty with salaries and perks that none of the rest of us are afforded. This is an egregious affront to the citizenry.
Fourth, separation of powers ensures that no single authority is entrusted with all the powers of government. People are not perfect, whether they are in government or out of it. As history makes clear, those in power tend to abuse it. The government is thus divided into three co-equal branches: legislative, executive and judicial. Placing all three powers in the same branch of government was considered the very definition of tyranny. The fact that the president today has dictatorial powers would have been considered a curse by the Framers.
Fifth, a system of checks and balances, essential if a constitutional government is to succeed, strengthens the separation of powers and prevents legislative despotism. Such checks and balances include dividing Congress into two houses, with different constituencies, term lengths, sizes and functions; granting the president a limited veto power over congressional legislation; and appointing an independent judiciary capable of reviewing ordinary legislation in light of the written Constitution, which is referred to as “judicial review.” The Framers feared that Congress could abuse its powers and potentially emerge as the tyrannous branch because it had the power to tax. But they did not anticipate the emergence of presidential powers as they have come to dominate modern government or the inordinate influence of corporate powers on governmental decision-making. Indeed, as recent academic studies now indicate, we are now ruled by a monied oligarchy that serves itself and not “we the people.”
Sixth, representation allows the people to have a voice in government by sending elected representatives to do their bidding while avoiding the need of each and every citizen to vote on every issue considered by government. In a country as large as the United States, it is not feasible to have direct participation in governmental affairs. Hence, we have a representative government. If the people don’t agree with how their representatives are conducting themselves, they can and should vote them out. However, as the citizenry has grown lazy and been distracted by the entertainment spectacles of modern society, government bureaucrats churn out numerous laws each year resulting in average citizens being rendered lawbreakers and jailed for what used to be considered normal behavior.
Finally, federalism is yet another constitutional device to limit the power of government by dividing power and, thus, preventing tyranny. In America, the levels of government generally break down into federal, state and local branches (which further divide into counties and towns or cities). Because local and particular interests differ from place to place, such interests are better handled at a more intimate level by local governments, not a bureaucratic national government. Remarking on the benefits of the American tradition of local self-government in the 1830s, the French historian Alexis de Tocqueville observed:
Local institutions are to liberty what primary schools are to science; they put it within the people’s reach; they teach people to appreciate its peaceful enjoyment and accustom them to make use of it. Without local institutions a nation may give itself a free government, but it has not got the spirit of liberty.Unfortunately, we are now governed by top-heavy government emanating from Washington DC that has no respect for local institutions or traditions.
These seven vital principles have been largely forgotten in recent years, obscured by the haze of a centralized government, a citizenry that no longer thinks analytically, and schools that don’t adequately teach our young people about their history and their rights.
Yet here’s the rub: while Americans wander about in their brainwashed states, their “government of the people, by the people and for the people” has largely been taken away from them.
The answer: get un-brainwashed.
Learn your rights.
Stand up for the founding principles.
Make your voice and your vote count for more than just political posturing.
Never cease to vociferously protest the erosion of your freedoms at the local and national level.
Most of all, do these things today.
If we wait until the votes have all been counted or hang our hopes on our particular candidate to win and fix what’s wrong with the country, “we the people” will continue to lose.
Whether we ever realize it not, the enemy is not across party lines, as they would have us believe. It has us surrounded on all sides.
Even so, we’re not yet defeated.
We could still overcome our oppressors if we cared enough to join forces and launch a militant nonviolent revolution—a people’s revolution that starts locally and trickles upwards—but that will take some doing.
It will mean turning our backs on the political jousting contests taking place at all levels of government and rejecting their appointed jesters as false prophets. It will mean not allowing ourselves to be corralled like cattle and branded with political labels that have no meaning anymore. It will mean recognizing that all the evils that surround us today—endless wars, drone strikes, invasive surveillance, militarized police, poverty, asset forfeiture schemes, overcriminalization, etc.—are not of our making but came about as a way to control and profit from us.
It will mean “voting with our feet” through sustained, mass civil disobedience.
As journalist Chris Hedges points out, “There were once radicals in America, people who held fast to moral imperatives. They fought for the oppressed because it was right, not because it was easy or practical. They were willing to accept the state persecution that comes with open defiance. They had the courage of their convictions. They were not afraid.”
Ultimately, as I make clear in my book Battlefield America: The War on the American People, it will mean refusing to be divided, one against each other, by politics and instead uniting behind the only distinction that has ever mattered: “we the people” against tyranny.
source
Reactions - by Wirecutter
Horror and fear swept through Muslim countries after Donald Trump was
confirmed as President of the Unites States after months of
anti-Islamic rhetoric.
The Republican made his most controversial remarks about Islam in December last year, sparking anger among the world’s 1.5 billion followers of Islam when he called for a ban on Muslims entering the U.S. after a mass shooting in California.
Muslims across Asia were struggling this morning to accept the news the populist candidate will take office in the White House, saying that ISIS would be happy he won the presidency race.
MORE
Advocates for illegal immigrants sounded the alarm Wednesday morning as Donald Trump was poised to claim the White House, vowing to resist an expected crackdown and calling on localities to declare themselves sanctuary cities, resisting the federal government.
They also demanded President Obama halt all deportations for the rest of his tenure.
“Immigrants are declaring a state of urgency and resilience. Over the coming weeks, our families and community members will need to tap into the incredible strength that brought us to this country and which we use to survive,” said Cristina Jimenez, co-founder of United We Dream, an advocacy group.
She also called Border Patrol and Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents “racist.”
MORE
A stony silence turned to sheer horror early Wednesday for Hillary Clinton’s supporters at what was meant to be her presidential victory party as it became painfully clear she would not close the gap with Donald Trump.
One by one, states turned Republican red on the interactive map of the country. One by one, dejected Clinton fans left in tears without even seeing their beloved candidate.
‘It’s a nightmare,’ said Jeannette Barbasch, a 50-something Clinton backer leaving the cavernous Javits Center on the west side of Midtown Manhattan, which had been decked out in American flags for Clinton’s expected win.
MORE
That massive blue block on the left – encompassing California, Oregon, Nevada and Washington state – stands out quite a bit against all of the red.
So it may not be a huge surprise that people living in that Democrat-voting block are now looking at other options – specifically, secession.
Since Donald Trump’s electoral victory was first announced, #Calexit has been trending on Twitter, with distraught Californians looking to form their own state.
MORE
Originally posted on Knuckledraggin My Life Away here
The Republican made his most controversial remarks about Islam in December last year, sparking anger among the world’s 1.5 billion followers of Islam when he called for a ban on Muslims entering the U.S. after a mass shooting in California.
Muslims across Asia were struggling this morning to accept the news the populist candidate will take office in the White House, saying that ISIS would be happy he won the presidency race.
MORE
Advocates for illegal immigrants sounded the alarm Wednesday morning as Donald Trump was poised to claim the White House, vowing to resist an expected crackdown and calling on localities to declare themselves sanctuary cities, resisting the federal government.
They also demanded President Obama halt all deportations for the rest of his tenure.
“Immigrants are declaring a state of urgency and resilience. Over the coming weeks, our families and community members will need to tap into the incredible strength that brought us to this country and which we use to survive,” said Cristina Jimenez, co-founder of United We Dream, an advocacy group.
She also called Border Patrol and Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents “racist.”
MORE
A stony silence turned to sheer horror early Wednesday for Hillary Clinton’s supporters at what was meant to be her presidential victory party as it became painfully clear she would not close the gap with Donald Trump.
One by one, states turned Republican red on the interactive map of the country. One by one, dejected Clinton fans left in tears without even seeing their beloved candidate.
‘It’s a nightmare,’ said Jeannette Barbasch, a 50-something Clinton backer leaving the cavernous Javits Center on the west side of Midtown Manhattan, which had been decked out in American flags for Clinton’s expected win.
MORE
That massive blue block on the left – encompassing California, Oregon, Nevada and Washington state – stands out quite a bit against all of the red.
So it may not be a huge surprise that people living in that Democrat-voting block are now looking at other options – specifically, secession.
Since Donald Trump’s electoral victory was first announced, #Calexit has been trending on Twitter, with distraught Californians looking to form their own state.
MORE
Originally posted on Knuckledraggin My Life Away here
Wednesday, November 2, 2016
Christian Mercenary: More Than Arrogance
Christian Mercenary: More Than Arrogance: Forget Trump, he is not the issue, because the issue is bigger than the election that is driving it. There is only one true candidate in thi...
Rutherford Institute Asks Third Circuit Court of Appeals to Protect First Amendment Right of Citizens/Journalists to Record Police in Public
November 02, 2016
PHILADELPHIA, Pa. —The Rutherford Institute has asked a federal appeals court to safeguard the right of citizens and journalists to record police in public without fear of retaliation. In a friend-of-the-court brief filed with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit, Rutherford Institute attorneys argue that the First Amendment protects the right of citizens to make audio or video recordings of public law enforcement activities.
The brief was filed in a consolidated appeal of two cases in which a federal district court ruled that police and the City of Philadelphia could not be sued by persons who were arrested or physically assaulted by officers allegedly because they had made video recordings of police engaged in quelling disturbances.
“Police body cameras will never serve as an effective check on police misconduct as long the cameras can be turned on and off at will and the footage remains inaccessible to the public. However, technology makes it possible for Americans to record their own interactions with police and they have every right to do so without fear of arrest or physical assault,” said constitutional attorney John W. Whitehead, president of The Rutherford Institute and author of Battlefield America: The War on the American People. “The ability to record police interactions in public provides for greater accountability when it comes to police interactions with the citizenry and should be preserved as a necessary right of the people.”
In September 2012, Amanda Geraci, a legal observer who monitors police interactions with citizens at protests or demonstrations, attended a protest against fracking at the convention center in Philadelphia. When police arrested one of the protesters, Geraci moved to a spot where she could better observe and make a video recording of the incident. According to Geraci, a city police officer subsequently attacked her by physically restraining her against a pillar and preventing her from videotaping the arrest.
In a separate incident, Temple University student Richard Fields was walking on Broad Street in Philadelphia when he saw about 20 police officers standing outside a house that was hosting a party. Fields took a photograph of the scene with his cell phone. An officer then approached Fields, asked if Fields “likes taking pictures of grown men,” and ordered him to leave. When Fields refused, the officer handcuffed and arrested him, searched his belongings, and charged him with obstructing a public passage. That charge was eventually dropped. Both Geraci and Fields filed lawsuits asserting that the police retaliated against them for exercising their First Amendment right to record police activities in public.
In ruling on the lawsuits, a federal district court declared that there was no clearly established right under the First Amendment to record police activities and that a person only has the right to record police in public if they can assert there was some “expressive” purpose for the recording. In weighing in on the cases before the Third Circuit Court of Appeals, Rutherford Institute attorneys point out that the district court’s decision conflicts with numerous rulings from other courts that have affirmed a First Amendment right to collect information about government activities, and specifically to record police carrying out their duties in public.
In ruling on the lawsuits, a federal district court declared that there was no clearly established right under the First Amendment to record police activities and that a person only has the right to record police in public if they can assert there was some “expressive” purpose for the recording. In weighing in on the cases before the Third Circuit Court of Appeals, Rutherford Institute attorneys point out that the district court’s decision conflicts with numerous rulings from other courts that have affirmed a First Amendment right to collect information about government activities, and specifically to record police carrying out their duties in public.
Affiliate attorneys Jason P. Gosselin and Christopher F. Moriarty assisted The Rutherford Institute advancing the arguments in the Fields and Geraci brief.
Via The Rutherford Institute here
PHILADELPHIA, Pa. —The Rutherford Institute has asked a federal appeals court to safeguard the right of citizens and journalists to record police in public without fear of retaliation. In a friend-of-the-court brief filed with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit, Rutherford Institute attorneys argue that the First Amendment protects the right of citizens to make audio or video recordings of public law enforcement activities.
The brief was filed in a consolidated appeal of two cases in which a federal district court ruled that police and the City of Philadelphia could not be sued by persons who were arrested or physically assaulted by officers allegedly because they had made video recordings of police engaged in quelling disturbances.
“Police body cameras will never serve as an effective check on police misconduct as long the cameras can be turned on and off at will and the footage remains inaccessible to the public. However, technology makes it possible for Americans to record their own interactions with police and they have every right to do so without fear of arrest or physical assault,” said constitutional attorney John W. Whitehead, president of The Rutherford Institute and author of Battlefield America: The War on the American People. “The ability to record police interactions in public provides for greater accountability when it comes to police interactions with the citizenry and should be preserved as a necessary right of the people.”
In September 2012, Amanda Geraci, a legal observer who monitors police interactions with citizens at protests or demonstrations, attended a protest against fracking at the convention center in Philadelphia. When police arrested one of the protesters, Geraci moved to a spot where she could better observe and make a video recording of the incident. According to Geraci, a city police officer subsequently attacked her by physically restraining her against a pillar and preventing her from videotaping the arrest.
In a separate incident, Temple University student Richard Fields was walking on Broad Street in Philadelphia when he saw about 20 police officers standing outside a house that was hosting a party. Fields took a photograph of the scene with his cell phone. An officer then approached Fields, asked if Fields “likes taking pictures of grown men,” and ordered him to leave. When Fields refused, the officer handcuffed and arrested him, searched his belongings, and charged him with obstructing a public passage. That charge was eventually dropped. Both Geraci and Fields filed lawsuits asserting that the police retaliated against them for exercising their First Amendment right to record police activities in public.
In ruling on the lawsuits, a federal district court declared that there was no clearly established right under the First Amendment to record police activities and that a person only has the right to record police in public if they can assert there was some “expressive” purpose for the recording. In weighing in on the cases before the Third Circuit Court of Appeals, Rutherford Institute attorneys point out that the district court’s decision conflicts with numerous rulings from other courts that have affirmed a First Amendment right to collect information about government activities, and specifically to record police carrying out their duties in public.
In ruling on the lawsuits, a federal district court declared that there was no clearly established right under the First Amendment to record police activities and that a person only has the right to record police in public if they can assert there was some “expressive” purpose for the recording. In weighing in on the cases before the Third Circuit Court of Appeals, Rutherford Institute attorneys point out that the district court’s decision conflicts with numerous rulings from other courts that have affirmed a First Amendment right to collect information about government activities, and specifically to record police carrying out their duties in public.
Affiliate attorneys Jason P. Gosselin and Christopher F. Moriarty assisted The Rutherford Institute advancing the arguments in the Fields and Geraci brief.
Via The Rutherford Institute here
Monday, October 31, 2016
Hope n' Change Cartoons: Happy HumaWeiner!
Hope n' Change Cartoons: Happy HumaWeiner!: Now, now - don't get so excited. It's bad for your head trauma. Even for Halloween, there was no need for FBI Director James Com...
Thursday, October 27, 2016
Wednesday, October 26, 2016
ClubOrlov: “Oops!”—A World War!
ClubOrlov: “Oops!”—A World War!: Over the past week or so I’ve been receiving a steady stream of emails demanding to know whether an all-out nuclear war is about to erupt ...
Liberty's Torch: Pat Condell On “America’s Moment of Truth”
Liberty's Torch: Pat Condell On “America’s Moment of Truth”: The following video is only eight minutes long. Please watch it. It cannot be put any better than that...even by an American.
Tuesday, October 4, 2016
Aesop - A Few Words On Caching
Some great pointers on stashing supplies...
You shouldn't depend on all your goodies not getting found, confiscated, or ever needing replacing, and you never know when you'll need to rely on the Bank Of Foresight to make a withdrawal that might very well save your life.
Having noted that a spare or three is a good idea, while you might have just provided yourself the bare essentials, as in the pic above, better still is a cluster of such.
Once you pick your spot, do what surveyors do: make yourself a benchmark:
Read the whole thing @ Aesop's place - ( Raconteur Report ) - here
You shouldn't depend on all your goodies not getting found, confiscated, or ever needing replacing, and you never know when you'll need to rely on the Bank Of Foresight to make a withdrawal that might very well save your life.
Having noted that a spare or three is a good idea, while you might have just provided yourself the bare essentials, as in the pic above, better still is a cluster of such.
Once you pick your spot, do what surveyors do: make yourself a benchmark:
Read the whole thing @ Aesop's place - ( Raconteur Report ) - here
Exclusive: Yahoo secretly scanned customer emails for U.S. intelligence – sources
REUTERS
Yahoo Inc last year secretly built a custom software program to search all of its customers’ incoming emails for specific information provided by U.S. intelligence officials, according to people familiar with the matter.The company complied with a classified U.S. government demand, scanning hundreds of millions of Yahoo Mail accounts at the behest of the National Security Agency or FBI, said three former employees and a fourth person apprised of the events.
Some surveillance experts said this represents the first case to surface of a U.S. Internet company agreeing to an intelligence agency’s request by searching all arriving messages, as opposed to examining stored messages or scanning a small number of accounts in real time.
It is not known what information intelligence officials were looking for, only that they wanted Yahoo to search for a set of characters. That could mean a phrase in an email or an attachment, said the sources, who did not want to be identified
Reuters was unable to determine what data Yahoo may have handed over, if any, and if intelligence officials had approached other email providers besides Yahoo with this kind of request.
According to two of the former employees, Yahoo Chief Executive Marissa Mayer’s decision to obey the directive roiled some senior executives and led to the June 2015 departure of Chief Information Security Officer Alex Stamos, who now holds the top security job at Facebook Inc.
“Yahoo is a law abiding company, and complies with the laws of the United States,” the company said in a brief statement in response to Reuters questions about the demand. Yahoo declined any further comment.
Through a Facebook spokesman, Stamos declined a request for an interview.
The NSA referred questions to the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, which declined to comment.
The request to search Yahoo Mail accounts came in the form of a classified edict sent to the company’s legal team, according to the three people familiar with the matter.
U.S. phone and Internet companies are known to have handed over bulk customer data to intelligence agencies. But some former government officials and private surveillance experts said they had not previously seen either such a broad demand for real-time Web collection or one that required the creation of a new computer program.
“I’ve never seen that, a wiretap in real time on a ‘selector,'” said Albert Gidari, a lawyer who represented phone and Internet companies on surveillance issues for 20 years before moving to Stanford University this year. A selector refers to a type of search term used to zero in on specific information.
“It would be really difficult for a provider to do that,” he added.
Experts said it was likely that the NSA or FBI had approached other Internet companies with the same demand, since they evidently did not know what email accounts were being used by the target. The NSA usually makes requests for domestic surveillance through the FBI, so it is hard to know which agency is seeking the information.
Alphabet Inc’s Google and Microsoft Corp, two major U.S. email service providers, separately said on Tuesday that they had not conducted such email searches.
“We’ve never received such a request, but if we did, our response would be simple: ‘No way’,” a spokesman for Google said in a statement.
A Microsoft spokesperson said in a statement, “We have never engaged in the secret scanning of email traffic like what has been reported today about Yahoo.” The company declined to comment on whether it had received such a request.
CHALLENGING THE NSA
Under laws including the 2008 amendments to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, intelligence agencies can ask U.S. phone and Internet companies to provide customer data to aid foreign intelligence-gathering efforts for a variety of reasons, including prevention of terrorist attacks.
Disclosures by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden and others have exposed the extent of electronic surveillance and led U.S. authorities to modestly scale back some of the programs, in part to protect privacy rights.
Companies including Yahoo have challenged some classified surveillance before the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, a secret tribunal.
Some FISA experts said Yahoo could have tried to fight last year’s demand on at least two grounds: the breadth of the directive and the necessity of writing a special program to search all customers’ emails in transit.
Apple Inc made a similar argument earlier this year when it refused to create a special program to break into an encrypted iPhone used in the 2015 San Bernardino massacre. The FBI dropped the case after it unlocked the phone with the help of a third party, so no precedent was set.
“It is deeply disappointing that Yahoo declined to challenge this sweeping surveillance order, because customers are counting on technology companies to stand up to novel spying demands in court,” Patrick Toomey, an attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union, said in a statement.
Some FISA experts defended Yahoo’s decision to comply, saying nothing prohibited the surveillance court from ordering a search for a specific term instead of a specific account. So-called “upstream” bulk collection from phone carriers based on content was found to be legal, they said, and the same logic could apply to Web companies’ mail.
As tech companies become better at encrypting data, they are likely to face more such requests from spy agencies.
Former NSA General Counsel Stewart Baker said email providers “have the power to encrypt it all, and with that comes added responsibility to do some of the work that had been done by the intelligence agencies.”
SECRET SIPHONING PROGRAM
Mayer and other executives ultimately decided to comply with the directive last year rather than fight it, in part because they thought they would lose, said the people familiar with the matter.
Yahoo in 2007 had fought a FISA demand that it conduct searches on specific email accounts without a court-approved warrant. Details of the case remain sealed, but a partially redacted published opinion showed Yahoo’s challenge was unsuccessful.
Some Yahoo employees were upset about the decision not to contest the more recent edict and thought the company could have prevailed, the sources said.
They were also upset that Mayer and Yahoo General Counsel Ron Bell did not involve the company’s security team in the process, instead asking Yahoo’s email engineers to write a program to siphon off messages containing the character string the spies sought and store them for remote retrieval, according to the sources.
The sources said the program was discovered by Yahoo’s security team in May 2015, within weeks of its installation. The security team initially thought hackers had broken in.
When Stamos found out that Mayer had authorized the program, he resigned as chief information security officer and told his subordinates that he had been left out of a decision that hurt users’ security, the sources said. Due to a programming flaw, he told them hackers could have accessed the stored emails.
Stamos’s announcement in June 2015 that he had joined Facebook did not mention any problems with Yahoo. (bit.ly/2dL003k)
In a separate incident, Yahoo last month said “state-sponsored” hackers had gained access to 500 million customer accounts in 2014. The revelations have brought new scrutiny to Yahoo’s security practices as the company tries to complete a deal to sell its core business to Verizon Communications Inc for $4.8 billion.
(Reporting by Joseph Menn; Editing by Jonathan Weber and Tiffany Wu)
source
Wednesday, September 7, 2016
Government Dismisses Conspiracy Charge Against Radio Shock Jock Pete Santilli, Arrested for First Amendment Activities Relating to Oregon Standoff
Via THE RUTHERFORD INSTITUTE
In coming to Santilli’s defense, Institute attorneys warned that Santilli’s case followed a pattern by the government of intimidating journalists whose reporting portrays the government in a negative light or encourages citizens to challenge government injustice and wrongdoing.
The Rutherford Institute’s memorandum on the First Amendment rights of journalists and the government’s complaint regarding Santilli are available at www.rutherford.org.
PORTLAND, Oregon — Citing a
lack of evidence, federal prosecutors have dismissed the government’s
conspiracy charge against radio shock jock Pete Santilli, a new media
journalist who was arrested and charged in connection with his reporting
on the 41-day occupation of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge in
Burns, Oregon. The dismissal came on the eve of Santilli’s trial.
Attorneys for The Rutherford Institute advised Santilli’s
court-appointed attorney, Thomas Coan, on the First Amendment
protections for Santilli’s activities as a journalist. Santilli is the
only journalist among those who were charged with conspiracy to impede
federal officers from discharging their duties by use of force,
intimidation, or threats. However, Santilli was charged solely as a
reporter of information and not as an accomplice to any criminal
activity.In coming to Santilli’s defense, Institute attorneys warned that Santilli’s case followed a pattern by the government of intimidating journalists whose reporting portrays the government in a negative light or encourages citizens to challenge government injustice and wrongdoing.
The Rutherford Institute’s memorandum on the First Amendment rights of journalists and the government’s complaint regarding Santilli are available at www.rutherford.org.
“The FBI’s prosecution of
this radio shock jock has been consistent with the government’s ongoing
attempts to intimidate members of the press who portray the government
in a less than favorable light,” said constitutional attorney John W.
Whitehead, president of The Rutherford Institute and author of Battlefield America: The War on the American People.
“This is not a new tactic. During the protests in Ferguson, Missouri,
and Baltimore, Maryland, numerous journalists were arrested while
covering the regions’ civil unrest and the conditions that spawned that
unrest. These attempts to muzzle the press were clearly concerted,
top-down efforts to restrict the fundamental First Amendment rights of
the public and the press. Not only does this tactic silence individual
journalists, but it has a chilling effect on the press as a whole,
signaling that they will become the target of the government if they
report on these events with a perspective that casts the government in a
bad light.”
In early January 2016, a
group of armed activists, reportedly protesting the federal government’s
management of federal lands and its prosecution of two local ranchers
convicted of arson, staged an act of civil disobedience by occupying the
Malheur National Wildlife Refuge in Burns, Oregon. Broadcaster Pete
Santilli, who has covered such protests in the past, including the April
2014 standoff in Nevada between the Bundy ranching family and the
federal government over grazing rights, described himself as an embedded
journalist reporting on the occupation in Burns. Santilli did not
participate in the takeover of the refuge, nor did he reside on the
grounds of the refuge.
However, as a self-described “shock jock” who uses “colorful
language,” Santilli was vocal about his commitment to exercising his
First Amendment rights in a nonviolent, peaceful fashion and the need
for others to do so as well. When asked to clarify his role in relation
to the occupation, Santilli declared, “My role is the same here that it
was at the Bundy ranch. To talk about the constitutional implications of
what is going on here. The Constitution cannot be negotiated.” Santilli
also took pains to emphasize during his broadcasts that the only weapon
he is using is the First Amendment: “I’m not armed. I am armed with my
mouth. I’m armed with my live stream. I’m armed with a coalition of
like-minded individuals who sit at home and on YouTube watch this.” In
the wake of a roadblock that resulted in the arrests of several key
leaders of the occupation and the killing of another, Santilli was
arrested and eventually indicted with conspiracy to impede federal
officers.Sunday, August 28, 2016
How to Choose Locations of Your Deer Hunting Blinds/Treestands,and When to Hunt Them
As I said in my last deer hunting post,there is no substitute for boot leather in the field,you have to get out there and scout,you have to locate bedding areas,water sources, food sources,and deer trails.
You also have to plan ahead because ag fields get harvested,and the summer/early fall food sources change. What deer are feeding on now,and in the opening weeks of bow season will change as soon as local ag fields are harvested.
Once acorns drop-that's the primary food source,deer will eat white oak acorns above all other foods in fall. Apples are a close second. In NE Ohio,the crabapple becomes a food source when other foods aren't available.
When you pick your stand/blind sites,you have to consider multiple things,first are bedding areas and water sources,then food sources,then comes trails leading to and from these areas.
You have to be able to get to your stand/blind without spooking bedding deer,there are two ways of doing this,first is to get to your blind long before deer return to the bedding area-which means in the dark,at least an hour before legal shooting light.
Second is to locate your blind/stand far enough away from the bedding areas,that you don't spook deer.
This approach is best for afternoon/evening hunts,as the idea is to catch the deer leaving their bedding areas to drink water and feed.
You may have to go to your blind on one trail,and leave on another to avoid spooking deer-figure this out now.
It's best to pick several sites,so you can hunt no matter which way the wind is blowing.
If you are hunting on a ridgeline/rise in the land,remember that in the morning,as it warms up,air moves from low to high,it does the opposite in the evening,so pay close attention to the wind direction,if it's parallel to the ridge/rise it's okay to hunt,if the wind is blowing at your back-pick another place to hunt,wind in your face means the wind will carry your scent over the ridge,and it will go to the bottom behind you,and not the bottom if front of you,so you're good to hunt that site.
Same with any other blind site-keep the wind in you're face,so it's carrying you're scent away from any approaching deer.
While you are hiking through the woods now and in early Sept,take binoculars with you,and scan the tops and branches of the oak trees,find a few with more acorns than the rest,and use these trees to set up your stand/blind near.
Another great stand/blind location is what is known as edge cover- the brushy areas between woods and fields. This is where bucks make rubs year after year,look around and you should be able to spot last year's rubs. If there's a lot-put a stand/blind near the edge cover,preferably just inside the woods,where there are known buck trails.
Locate another stand right on the field edge,pick a spot where there's a few small trees with branches about the height of a deer's head,then pick a couple more so you can hunt the edge cover from either the field side or the woods side in any wind direction.
Once you've got your blind/stand sites picked out- take a small rake,a folding saw,and a pair of hand pruners with you into the woods. Clear any branches that you would brush against,or snag your pack,bow,or clothing on. then rake the leaves and debris from the trail. You'll have to do it again after the leaves drop,but it's much easier to rake the leaves away if you've already cleared your trails.
Do this now,or real soon,as deer notice changes in the woods.
Starting the last week of October,make a two or three fake scrape lines,pick small trees with a branch the bucks can reach that's toward the open area/field.
Rake away all the dead grasses,leaves and debris in about a 3' semi-circle under the trees,use a stick,or old deer antler to make marks in the dirt like a deer was scraping it's antlers to clear debris from the scrape.
Make a line of these,4-6 to a line,and either use a scent like Active Scrape,or drink a lot of water before you head into the woods and piss in the scrapes yourself-I've done it for years,and it works just fine.
Starting the last week of October/first week of November,hunt the scrape lines every evening hunt.
I'll start hanging scent wicks with doe in estrous scent near the scrape lines starting the first week of November. I do not leave them out-I use bottles with a wick that can be re-capped and reused all season,you just have to add more estrous urine every so often.
These are what I use...
Tink's reusable scent bottles
The whitetail rut in NE Ohio hit's the peak around the 15th of November every year,breeding starts around the first of November. This is when you want to hunt for a big buck,if that's what you're after.
The last week of Oct. until the last week of Nov. is the time to rattle and use a grunt tube and estrous bleat call.
Pay attention to the rut,because any does not bred in Nov. will cycle back into estrous 28 days later-in Dec. then in Jan. there's a much smaller period of breeding.
I'll do a post on rattling and using grunt tubes doe and fawn bleats and estrous bleats before the rut hits.
The guys who get a deer every year are the guys who get out there and scout,get their hunting spots picked out/set up long before the rut hits,and stay in their blind/stand once they get to it.
So get out there,find your stand/blind sites,get your shooting lanes cut now,clear your trails to and from your blinds now and you'll be way ahead of most deer hunters.
You also have to plan ahead because ag fields get harvested,and the summer/early fall food sources change. What deer are feeding on now,and in the opening weeks of bow season will change as soon as local ag fields are harvested.
Once acorns drop-that's the primary food source,deer will eat white oak acorns above all other foods in fall. Apples are a close second. In NE Ohio,the crabapple becomes a food source when other foods aren't available.
When you pick your stand/blind sites,you have to consider multiple things,first are bedding areas and water sources,then food sources,then comes trails leading to and from these areas.
You have to be able to get to your stand/blind without spooking bedding deer,there are two ways of doing this,first is to get to your blind long before deer return to the bedding area-which means in the dark,at least an hour before legal shooting light.
Second is to locate your blind/stand far enough away from the bedding areas,that you don't spook deer.
This approach is best for afternoon/evening hunts,as the idea is to catch the deer leaving their bedding areas to drink water and feed.
You may have to go to your blind on one trail,and leave on another to avoid spooking deer-figure this out now.
It's best to pick several sites,so you can hunt no matter which way the wind is blowing.
If you are hunting on a ridgeline/rise in the land,remember that in the morning,as it warms up,air moves from low to high,it does the opposite in the evening,so pay close attention to the wind direction,if it's parallel to the ridge/rise it's okay to hunt,if the wind is blowing at your back-pick another place to hunt,wind in your face means the wind will carry your scent over the ridge,and it will go to the bottom behind you,and not the bottom if front of you,so you're good to hunt that site.
Same with any other blind site-keep the wind in you're face,so it's carrying you're scent away from any approaching deer.
While you are hiking through the woods now and in early Sept,take binoculars with you,and scan the tops and branches of the oak trees,find a few with more acorns than the rest,and use these trees to set up your stand/blind near.
Another great stand/blind location is what is known as edge cover- the brushy areas between woods and fields. This is where bucks make rubs year after year,look around and you should be able to spot last year's rubs. If there's a lot-put a stand/blind near the edge cover,preferably just inside the woods,where there are known buck trails.
Locate another stand right on the field edge,pick a spot where there's a few small trees with branches about the height of a deer's head,then pick a couple more so you can hunt the edge cover from either the field side or the woods side in any wind direction.
Once you've got your blind/stand sites picked out- take a small rake,a folding saw,and a pair of hand pruners with you into the woods. Clear any branches that you would brush against,or snag your pack,bow,or clothing on. then rake the leaves and debris from the trail. You'll have to do it again after the leaves drop,but it's much easier to rake the leaves away if you've already cleared your trails.
Do this now,or real soon,as deer notice changes in the woods.
Starting the last week of October,make a two or three fake scrape lines,pick small trees with a branch the bucks can reach that's toward the open area/field.
Rake away all the dead grasses,leaves and debris in about a 3' semi-circle under the trees,use a stick,or old deer antler to make marks in the dirt like a deer was scraping it's antlers to clear debris from the scrape.
Make a line of these,4-6 to a line,and either use a scent like Active Scrape,or drink a lot of water before you head into the woods and piss in the scrapes yourself-I've done it for years,and it works just fine.
Starting the last week of October/first week of November,hunt the scrape lines every evening hunt.
I'll start hanging scent wicks with doe in estrous scent near the scrape lines starting the first week of November. I do not leave them out-I use bottles with a wick that can be re-capped and reused all season,you just have to add more estrous urine every so often.
These are what I use...
Tink's reusable scent bottles
The whitetail rut in NE Ohio hit's the peak around the 15th of November every year,breeding starts around the first of November. This is when you want to hunt for a big buck,if that's what you're after.
The last week of Oct. until the last week of Nov. is the time to rattle and use a grunt tube and estrous bleat call.
Pay attention to the rut,because any does not bred in Nov. will cycle back into estrous 28 days later-in Dec. then in Jan. there's a much smaller period of breeding.
I'll do a post on rattling and using grunt tubes doe and fawn bleats and estrous bleats before the rut hits.
The guys who get a deer every year are the guys who get out there and scout,get their hunting spots picked out/set up long before the rut hits,and stay in their blind/stand once they get to it.
So get out there,find your stand/blind sites,get your shooting lanes cut now,clear your trails to and from your blinds now and you'll be way ahead of most deer hunters.
Saturday, August 27, 2016
Deer Archery Season Less Than a Month Away in Ohio- Some Deer Hunting Basics
First-
Now's the time to step up your target practice.
I go from my 18-36 arrows a day all summer,to shooting 36 arrows twice a day,morning and close to last legal shooting light,which is one half hour after sunset here in Ohio.
You have to go by the ODNR's sunrise-sunset tables-not other sources,their tables are the legal hunting times,if you use the times in the newspaper,or online sources,then you may be off by several minutes.
That could lead to large fines and/or suspension of hunting license/right to hunt.
Plus,if your hunting privileges are suspended in Ohio-they are also suspended in the rest of the U.S. except for two states-New Jersey and Nebrasaka- due to the Interstate Wildlife Violater Compact
Your blind or stand should be already set up if you hunt private land,shooting lanes cut,and blind/stand "brushed in" using the branches you trimmed for your shooting lanes.
Now is also the time to start putting out corn if you feed the deer where you hunt.
You should have had mineral blocks out since early spring,as it helps with antler growth,and provides deer nutrients that are lacking in the natural foods available.
I keep blocks out all year,in spring I put out one of the "rack rock" type blocks made for antler growth. In fall,I put out apple,sugar beet, and acorn scented blocks. Once the rut is over,I add blocks as needed,but switch to stockman's blocks available at your local feed store-or farm supply,Tractor Supply,etc. This helps provide the newly pregnant does with a boost in nutrients.
If you put out corn,and don't use a feeder,spread it out,rather than make one big pile,as it will help prevent deer from passing diseases to other deer when spread out. If you just dump corn in a big pile,the deer can transmit diseases to other deer.
I hunt a 70 acre or so private property,and we do mange the deer as much as possible,which is why we put out food and mineral blocks. Over the years,there have been some monster sized deer taken there,both in body size,and antler size. There's only 4 people who regularly hunt the property,and another 4 guys we let hunt gun season. Usually it's no more than 4 people hunting on any given day of the season.
The property is surrounded by ag fields-most years it's about half corn,half soybeans-this year for some reason,it's all soybeans.
That's good for us-the beans will be off the fields before the rut kicks in,and there will be no standing corn during gun season.
I also put out apples from the time they start dropping off the trees,up until the end of muzzleloader season in Jan. since I get them for free from a neighbor. If you have local apple orchards,ask the owners,they'll usually give you extra or bruised,wormy,etc apples for free or a really reduced price.
I freeze a bunch for use later in the season,the deer still eat them,and when there's snow on the ground,some apples spread around 30 yards or so from your blind will draw hungry deer in from all over the area.
I hunt a lot on public land,where you can't put out any kind of bait,no corn,no apples,no mineral blocks.
No big deal,deer travel the same trails all the time,the key to finding deer on public land is to find the major trails,then find the bedding areas,the water sources,and the food sources. Deer have to drink water at least twice a day,usually soon after they move from their beds,and again after feeding.
When you find the trails,anywhere from 5-15 yards from the main trails-you will find smaller,less used trails.
These are the older buck's trails,yearling bucks usually still travel with the does up until the rut begins.
Find a spot near a water source,a food source,or on the trail the deer use to get to the bedding areas.
Deer feed all night during hunting season,if you set up near a bedding area,and are trying to get a deer heading to bed-you have to be able to get to your blind long before first light,and do it without spooking deer.
I usually use the opposite approach-I set up far enough away from the bedding area that I can get to me blind any time during the day,and try to get the deer as they move out of the bedding area.
If you find the food source,pick a spot that's either still back in the woods a little,or right at the edge of a field.
When there's a lot of acorns on the ground,deer aren't going to eat much of anything else,so concentrate on water sources and trails to and from bedding areas.
The single most important thing you can do is get out in the woods,and see what the deer are doing where you hunt,there's no substitute for scouting-none.
I don't use trail cameras,because unless you own a huge farm/property,and have dozens of cameras,all you'll find out is where the deer were,not where they are,where they're going,what they're eating,where they're bedding-which are the things you need to know to be where the deer will be after you get in your stand/blind.
You have to pay close attention to wind direction-and have more than one stand or blind set up so you have another choice if the wind is not blowing towards your stand or blind. I have 4 locations,so I'm covered every day I hunt. The public land that I hunt-I also hunt different spots when the wind is from different directions. The best public land was hit with a severe EHD outbreak in 2012,we didn't see a single deer hunting that gun season at the Ladue public hunting area,and we hunted it for 5 days. This year should be good there,as the 2013 fawns will be 3 1/2 now,2014 fawns 2 1/2. Next year will probably be better at Ladue,as there should be plenty of 3 1/2 and 4 1/2 year old bucks.
I'll probably hunt there at least 2 days of gun season this year,just to see what the deer numbers are like.
Deer can smell you from a long ways off,unless you are hunting in an area where they are used to people-like the suburbs-they aren't going to come within bow range if they smell you.
Use the wind to your advantage,I also will take a trash bag into the wods with me a couple weeks before hunting season,and pack it full of leaves and twigs from the area I'm going to hunt.
Then I put the leaves into paper bags,and put them in plastic bins with all my hunting gear.
I've been doing this for years-it works,I've had deer walk right by me when I'm in an ground blind and the wind shifted so it was blowing at my back-and they still didn't smell me.
I don't use the scent control clothing or products-my method has worked just fine for over 40 years-why change it now?
I would rather spend the $$$ I save by not paying extra for scent control clothing and products on new broadheads,arrows,and crossbow bolts.
Wear camo that matches your surroundings-wearing solid earth tone colors is better than wearing something like woodland camo in Ohio in November.
Either wear some kind of face mask,or use camo face paint-deer recognize the shape of a human face-so hide your face.
Don't hike around the woods during the day once deer season starts-stay put. As long as you picked a good location,the deer will come to you. If you are hunting public land,there's enough people moving in and out of the woods to push deer right to you,another reason to sit still,stay in your blind.
Pack enough snacks plus a lunch,bring plenty of water,and if you're like me-pack a thermos of coffee.
Make sure you have some surgical gloves,hand soap-I use an empty one of the 99 cents at the qucikie mart hand sanitizer bottles filed with Dial antibacterial hand soap-plus hand sanitizer,and a towel/washcloth to wash your hands after to field dress your deer.
Either buy a deer drag,or make your own-I just use an 18" piece of 3/4" oak dowel rod that I tie my rope to,makes it much easier to drag the deer.
Ohio deer hunting regs/info...
The statewide bag limit is six deer. Only one may be antlered. You cannot exceed an individual county bag limit.
No more than two deer may be taken from a two deer county during the 2016-2017 deer hunting season. Both deer need to be tagged with an either-sex permit. The antlerless permit is not valid in a two deer county.
No more than three deer may be taken from a three deer county during the 2016-2017 deer hunting season. The antlerless permit is not valid in most three deer counties. Check the antlerless permit map on this page to determine if the antlerless permit is valid in the county where you hunt. One deer may be tagged with an antlerless permit in specific three deer counties, and two deer may be tagged with either-sex permits. The antlerless permit is not valid in specific counties after Nov. 27, 2016. Three deer may be tagged with either-sex permits if the antlerless permit is not valid or not used.
No more than four deer may be taken from a four deer county during the 2016-2017 deer hunting season. One deer may be tagged with an antlerless permit and three deer may be tagged with an either-sex permit. The antlerless permit is not valid in specific counties after Nov. 27, 2016. Four deer may be tagged with either-sex permits if the antlerless permit is not used.
I'll do a post on stand/blind site selection in the next day or two.
If you haven't been out in the woods yet,get out there,boot leather in the woods and fields equals venison in the freezer.
Ladue should have decent deer hunting this year for those of you around here...
More info on Ladue here
Now's the time to step up your target practice.
I go from my 18-36 arrows a day all summer,to shooting 36 arrows twice a day,morning and close to last legal shooting light,which is one half hour after sunset here in Ohio.
You have to go by the ODNR's sunrise-sunset tables-not other sources,their tables are the legal hunting times,if you use the times in the newspaper,or online sources,then you may be off by several minutes.
That could lead to large fines and/or suspension of hunting license/right to hunt.
Plus,if your hunting privileges are suspended in Ohio-they are also suspended in the rest of the U.S. except for two states-New Jersey and Nebrasaka- due to the Interstate Wildlife Violater Compact
Your blind or stand should be already set up if you hunt private land,shooting lanes cut,and blind/stand "brushed in" using the branches you trimmed for your shooting lanes.
Now is also the time to start putting out corn if you feed the deer where you hunt.
You should have had mineral blocks out since early spring,as it helps with antler growth,and provides deer nutrients that are lacking in the natural foods available.
I keep blocks out all year,in spring I put out one of the "rack rock" type blocks made for antler growth. In fall,I put out apple,sugar beet, and acorn scented blocks. Once the rut is over,I add blocks as needed,but switch to stockman's blocks available at your local feed store-or farm supply,Tractor Supply,etc. This helps provide the newly pregnant does with a boost in nutrients.
If you put out corn,and don't use a feeder,spread it out,rather than make one big pile,as it will help prevent deer from passing diseases to other deer when spread out. If you just dump corn in a big pile,the deer can transmit diseases to other deer.
I hunt a 70 acre or so private property,and we do mange the deer as much as possible,which is why we put out food and mineral blocks. Over the years,there have been some monster sized deer taken there,both in body size,and antler size. There's only 4 people who regularly hunt the property,and another 4 guys we let hunt gun season. Usually it's no more than 4 people hunting on any given day of the season.
The property is surrounded by ag fields-most years it's about half corn,half soybeans-this year for some reason,it's all soybeans.
That's good for us-the beans will be off the fields before the rut kicks in,and there will be no standing corn during gun season.
I also put out apples from the time they start dropping off the trees,up until the end of muzzleloader season in Jan. since I get them for free from a neighbor. If you have local apple orchards,ask the owners,they'll usually give you extra or bruised,wormy,etc apples for free or a really reduced price.
I freeze a bunch for use later in the season,the deer still eat them,and when there's snow on the ground,some apples spread around 30 yards or so from your blind will draw hungry deer in from all over the area.
I hunt a lot on public land,where you can't put out any kind of bait,no corn,no apples,no mineral blocks.
No big deal,deer travel the same trails all the time,the key to finding deer on public land is to find the major trails,then find the bedding areas,the water sources,and the food sources. Deer have to drink water at least twice a day,usually soon after they move from their beds,and again after feeding.
When you find the trails,anywhere from 5-15 yards from the main trails-you will find smaller,less used trails.
These are the older buck's trails,yearling bucks usually still travel with the does up until the rut begins.
Find a spot near a water source,a food source,or on the trail the deer use to get to the bedding areas.
Deer feed all night during hunting season,if you set up near a bedding area,and are trying to get a deer heading to bed-you have to be able to get to your blind long before first light,and do it without spooking deer.
I usually use the opposite approach-I set up far enough away from the bedding area that I can get to me blind any time during the day,and try to get the deer as they move out of the bedding area.
If you find the food source,pick a spot that's either still back in the woods a little,or right at the edge of a field.
When there's a lot of acorns on the ground,deer aren't going to eat much of anything else,so concentrate on water sources and trails to and from bedding areas.
The single most important thing you can do is get out in the woods,and see what the deer are doing where you hunt,there's no substitute for scouting-none.
I don't use trail cameras,because unless you own a huge farm/property,and have dozens of cameras,all you'll find out is where the deer were,not where they are,where they're going,what they're eating,where they're bedding-which are the things you need to know to be where the deer will be after you get in your stand/blind.
You have to pay close attention to wind direction-and have more than one stand or blind set up so you have another choice if the wind is not blowing towards your stand or blind. I have 4 locations,so I'm covered every day I hunt. The public land that I hunt-I also hunt different spots when the wind is from different directions. The best public land was hit with a severe EHD outbreak in 2012,we didn't see a single deer hunting that gun season at the Ladue public hunting area,and we hunted it for 5 days. This year should be good there,as the 2013 fawns will be 3 1/2 now,2014 fawns 2 1/2. Next year will probably be better at Ladue,as there should be plenty of 3 1/2 and 4 1/2 year old bucks.
I'll probably hunt there at least 2 days of gun season this year,just to see what the deer numbers are like.
Deer can smell you from a long ways off,unless you are hunting in an area where they are used to people-like the suburbs-they aren't going to come within bow range if they smell you.
Use the wind to your advantage,I also will take a trash bag into the wods with me a couple weeks before hunting season,and pack it full of leaves and twigs from the area I'm going to hunt.
Then I put the leaves into paper bags,and put them in plastic bins with all my hunting gear.
I've been doing this for years-it works,I've had deer walk right by me when I'm in an ground blind and the wind shifted so it was blowing at my back-and they still didn't smell me.
I don't use the scent control clothing or products-my method has worked just fine for over 40 years-why change it now?
I would rather spend the $$$ I save by not paying extra for scent control clothing and products on new broadheads,arrows,and crossbow bolts.
Wear camo that matches your surroundings-wearing solid earth tone colors is better than wearing something like woodland camo in Ohio in November.
Either wear some kind of face mask,or use camo face paint-deer recognize the shape of a human face-so hide your face.
Don't hike around the woods during the day once deer season starts-stay put. As long as you picked a good location,the deer will come to you. If you are hunting public land,there's enough people moving in and out of the woods to push deer right to you,another reason to sit still,stay in your blind.
Pack enough snacks plus a lunch,bring plenty of water,and if you're like me-pack a thermos of coffee.
Make sure you have some surgical gloves,hand soap-I use an empty one of the 99 cents at the qucikie mart hand sanitizer bottles filed with Dial antibacterial hand soap-plus hand sanitizer,and a towel/washcloth to wash your hands after to field dress your deer.
Either buy a deer drag,or make your own-I just use an 18" piece of 3/4" oak dowel rod that I tie my rope to,makes it much easier to drag the deer.
Ohio deer hunting regs/info...
White-tailed Deer Hunting
| Species | Opening Date | Closing Date | Daily Bag Limit | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Archery | September 24, 2016 | February 5, 2017 | The statewide bag limit is six deer. Only one may be antlered. You cannot exceed an individual county bag limit . Refer to the Deer Hunting Section for details on zone and bag limits. | |||
| Deer Youth Gun | November 19, 2016 | November 20, 2016 | ||||
| Gun | November 28, 2016 | December 4, 2016 | ||||
| December 17, 2016 | December 18, 2016 | |||||
| Muzzleloader | January 7, 2017 | January 10, 2017 | ||||
The statewide bag limit is six deer. Only one may be antlered. You cannot exceed an individual county bag limit.
No more than two deer may be taken from a two deer county during the 2016-2017 deer hunting season. Both deer need to be tagged with an either-sex permit. The antlerless permit is not valid in a two deer county.
No more than three deer may be taken from a three deer county during the 2016-2017 deer hunting season. The antlerless permit is not valid in most three deer counties. Check the antlerless permit map on this page to determine if the antlerless permit is valid in the county where you hunt. One deer may be tagged with an antlerless permit in specific three deer counties, and two deer may be tagged with either-sex permits. The antlerless permit is not valid in specific counties after Nov. 27, 2016. Three deer may be tagged with either-sex permits if the antlerless permit is not valid or not used.
No more than four deer may be taken from a four deer county during the 2016-2017 deer hunting season. One deer may be tagged with an antlerless permit and three deer may be tagged with an either-sex permit. The antlerless permit is not valid in specific counties after Nov. 27, 2016. Four deer may be tagged with either-sex permits if the antlerless permit is not used.
- OR - Up to three either-sex permits. |
- OR - Up to four either-sex permits. |
||
I'll do a post on stand/blind site selection in the next day or two.
If you haven't been out in the woods yet,get out there,boot leather in the woods and fields equals venison in the freezer.
Ladue should have decent deer hunting this year for those of you around here...
More info on Ladue here
Thursday, August 25, 2016
Scammy’s Sleazy Bullshit II
Continuing from comments of mine he refused to post yesterday…
Instead of the comment I posted in yesterdays post-he posted this response…
“No, Larry – it is you. You were told not to bother responding here – go post drivel at your own sites.
Others drew first blood and to this day they have not put forth a single injured person with a valid claim. They have brought this pox upon themselves.
Go away now.”
My response to that was…
No-you post bullshit about me-I’m going to respond-and no its not me-people who had over 10 years in foodservice learned new things in the first 20 minutes of class.
Again-I have verifiable experience.
And you can not tell me what I can and can not do.
Post my comment or don’t-my response will be seen.
Shit I didn’t get to yesterday…
Scammy said this…
“Next time you find yourself lying awake at night thinking of me – which is probably every night – be brave and ask yourself how a supposed ‘Patriot’ as you claim to be, finds so much to admire in state-fed parasites such as those found on Welfare Lane and in Daffy’s Bunker. Don’t bother me with the answer – you’ve been dismissed from consideration as a serious person long ago…”
Bwahahahahahahahaha….Now that’s from a delusional motherfucker right there-
actually,I haven’t thought of him at all-it’s a bad memory-except when posting comments in response to some bullshit he said that was posted on various sites-the owners of which have all denounced Scammy for the scum sucking piece of excrement that he is.
He accuses me of “failures”???!
That’s even more delusional…
There’s no Citadel,there’s zero firearms being produced by III Arms,there’s no land recently purchased in Benewah county by Scammy-or Holly,or the IIIPSFA as Scammy claims,the short bus has never been seen,never “rolled to events like Bundy ranch”-why wasn’t it sent to Malheur? Instead,Scammy did a post about sending maybe $250.00 worth of food and clothes to the people at the refuge. That must have really cut into “his income” from the IIIPSFA dues huh?
The supposed “Dojo” isn’t holding classes-as posted by others many times-wonder how all those who donated shit for the “dojo” feel about that?
There’s been zero “Jedburgh Academy” classes held anywhere,IIIPSFA members get nothing but some cheap assed patches for their monthly dues-oh and get to read Sammy’s increasingly unhinged posts.
Some of us work for a living,some of us work for the fed gov.,or local gov. some of us work in the trades,some of us work in offices-we all still work for our paychecks-unlike Scammy.
Most of us have resumes that show our accomplishments-you know Scammy-that thing that lists all your actual job experience and job descriptions-the jobs that can be verified,because we actually worked for a living,and earned our paychecks week after week,year after year.
Scammy claims to have been a HVAC mechanic-I actually believe him on that one-at some point in time-he worked in the trades,as I recall him making a comment about the older guys telling him to never eat the last bite of your sandwich at lunch.
So that’s one for Scammy-999 for the rest of us.
The sad thing is-Scammy tries to make fun of me for working as a “handyman”-yeah,I do that,it’s part of condo maintenance. I also do/have done, siding,windows,room additions,concrete,stamped concrete,framing custom homes-no roof trusses-we cut rafters,no pre-fab stair stringers-I make my own. I do drywall,trim,painting,plaster and lath repair,plumbing,and all kinds of shit too numerous to list.
Guys who work in the trades don’t fuck with other guys who work in the trades-unless your such a little pink handed troll like Scammy that you do it to try and make yourself feel good because you are such an insignificant,worthless piece of shit that you are an utter,complete failure at all you do-and at life in general.
It fucking makes me sick that I stuck up for Sammy and the Akita whisperer.
Wonder how long ’till I get sued,or the cops show up at my door on some made up bullshit claim.
Instead of the comment I posted in yesterdays post-he posted this response…
“No, Larry – it is you. You were told not to bother responding here – go post drivel at your own sites.
Others drew first blood and to this day they have not put forth a single injured person with a valid claim. They have brought this pox upon themselves.
Go away now.”
My response to that was…
No-you post bullshit about me-I’m going to respond-and no its not me-people who had over 10 years in foodservice learned new things in the first 20 minutes of class.
Again-I have verifiable experience.
And you can not tell me what I can and can not do.
Post my comment or don’t-my response will be seen.
Shit I didn’t get to yesterday…
Scammy said this…
“Next time you find yourself lying awake at night thinking of me – which is probably every night – be brave and ask yourself how a supposed ‘Patriot’ as you claim to be, finds so much to admire in state-fed parasites such as those found on Welfare Lane and in Daffy’s Bunker. Don’t bother me with the answer – you’ve been dismissed from consideration as a serious person long ago…”
Bwahahahahahahahaha….Now that’s from a delusional motherfucker right there-
actually,I haven’t thought of him at all-it’s a bad memory-except when posting comments in response to some bullshit he said that was posted on various sites-the owners of which have all denounced Scammy for the scum sucking piece of excrement that he is.
He accuses me of “failures”???!
That’s even more delusional…
There’s no Citadel,there’s zero firearms being produced by III Arms,there’s no land recently purchased in Benewah county by Scammy-or Holly,or the IIIPSFA as Scammy claims,the short bus has never been seen,never “rolled to events like Bundy ranch”-why wasn’t it sent to Malheur? Instead,Scammy did a post about sending maybe $250.00 worth of food and clothes to the people at the refuge. That must have really cut into “his income” from the IIIPSFA dues huh?
The supposed “Dojo” isn’t holding classes-as posted by others many times-wonder how all those who donated shit for the “dojo” feel about that?
There’s been zero “Jedburgh Academy” classes held anywhere,IIIPSFA members get nothing but some cheap assed patches for their monthly dues-oh and get to read Sammy’s increasingly unhinged posts.
Some of us work for a living,some of us work for the fed gov.,or local gov. some of us work in the trades,some of us work in offices-we all still work for our paychecks-unlike Scammy.
Most of us have resumes that show our accomplishments-you know Scammy-that thing that lists all your actual job experience and job descriptions-the jobs that can be verified,because we actually worked for a living,and earned our paychecks week after week,year after year.
Scammy claims to have been a HVAC mechanic-I actually believe him on that one-at some point in time-he worked in the trades,as I recall him making a comment about the older guys telling him to never eat the last bite of your sandwich at lunch.
So that’s one for Scammy-999 for the rest of us.
The sad thing is-Scammy tries to make fun of me for working as a “handyman”-yeah,I do that,it’s part of condo maintenance. I also do/have done, siding,windows,room additions,concrete,stamped concrete,framing custom homes-no roof trusses-we cut rafters,no pre-fab stair stringers-I make my own. I do drywall,trim,painting,plaster and lath repair,plumbing,and all kinds of shit too numerous to list.
Guys who work in the trades don’t fuck with other guys who work in the trades-unless your such a little pink handed troll like Scammy that you do it to try and make yourself feel good because you are such an insignificant,worthless piece of shit that you are an utter,complete failure at all you do-and at life in general.
It fucking makes me sick that I stuck up for Sammy and the Akita whisperer.
Wonder how long ’till I get sued,or the cops show up at my door on some made up bullshit claim.
Kerodin’s Sleazy Bullshit Continues….
Kerodin’s Bullshit
Since Scammy is too much of a pussy to allow me to respond-here’s the comment he refused to post…
Since Scammy is too much of a pussy to allow me to respond-here’s the comment he refused to post…
“No,It’s not me-I have 22 years of verifiable experience as executive chef.
Those who took my classes all learned a lot-there was a review posted on multiple sites.
I have verifiable experience cooking for outfitters in Colorado and Montana,and verifiable experience working as the cook on fishing boats out of Wanchese N.C.
I learned the carpentry/building trades by working on the family farm,my uncles farm,pounding nails part time for extra $$$ when our kids were growing up,and we needed extra cash-then I learned more by working building custom homes on the N.C. Outer Banks.
That’s all verifiable employment.
I have customers that I’ve done work for for over a decade-“handyman”/condo maintenance pays the bills.
Unlike you who made up a bunch of bullshit to claim you were a counterterrorism expert.
I was one of the last people to stick up for you and Holly-you seem to forget that.
I never directly fucked with you or Holly-I made up my mind by following the hundreds of links that lead to questionable things you have done in your past.
You were asked questions that should have been easy to answer-yet you never responded-other than some BS about an “outside audit” that never took place.
Not answering those questions-and the crap you pulled on Kenny and J.C. Dodge was it for me-and I told you that then.
Those who took my classes all learned a lot-there was a review posted on multiple sites.
I have verifiable experience cooking for outfitters in Colorado and Montana,and verifiable experience working as the cook on fishing boats out of Wanchese N.C.
I learned the carpentry/building trades by working on the family farm,my uncles farm,pounding nails part time for extra $$$ when our kids were growing up,and we needed extra cash-then I learned more by working building custom homes on the N.C. Outer Banks.
That’s all verifiable employment.
I have customers that I’ve done work for for over a decade-“handyman”/condo maintenance pays the bills.
Unlike you who made up a bunch of bullshit to claim you were a counterterrorism expert.
I was one of the last people to stick up for you and Holly-you seem to forget that.
I never directly fucked with you or Holly-I made up my mind by following the hundreds of links that lead to questionable things you have done in your past.
You were asked questions that should have been easy to answer-yet you never responded-other than some BS about an “outside audit” that never took place.
Not answering those questions-and the crap you pulled on Kenny and J.C. Dodge was it for me-and I told you that then.
I never posted any bullshit about you or Holly-now you want to start shit with me?
You are the one who refused to answer reasonable,simple questions,you are the one who started the bullshit with Kenny’s wife,Whitney,and Angel-what did you think they would do-just bow down and think you are the be all end all badass?
Attacking peoples wives,suing people for fictional bullshit,trying to get people fired from their jobs-that’s not how real mean settle their differences-or patriots.
You started the bullshit-you continue the bullshit-you have no one to blame but yourself for anything I have ever posted,or Kenny,or J.C.
They simply asked questions-you started the sleazy,devious underhanded bullshit,and the attacks on people’s wives,careers-if you didn’t expect them to respond-you’re a moron.”
You are the one who refused to answer reasonable,simple questions,you are the one who started the bullshit with Kenny’s wife,Whitney,and Angel-what did you think they would do-just bow down and think you are the be all end all badass?
Attacking peoples wives,suing people for fictional bullshit,trying to get people fired from their jobs-that’s not how real mean settle their differences-or patriots.
You started the bullshit-you continue the bullshit-you have no one to blame but yourself for anything I have ever posted,or Kenny,or J.C.
They simply asked questions-you started the sleazy,devious underhanded bullshit,and the attacks on people’s wives,careers-if you didn’t expect them to respond-you’re a moron.”
Tuesday, August 23, 2016
Stumped by Trump’s success? Take a drive outside US cities
By Salena Zito
If you drive anywhere in Pennsylvania, from the turnpike to the old US routes to the dirt roads connecting small towns like Hooversville with “bigger” small towns like Somerset, you might conclude that Donald Trump is ahead in this state by double digits.Large signs, small signs, homemade signs, signs that wrap around barns, signs that go from one end of a fence to another dot the landscape with such frequency that, if you were playing the old-fashioned road-trip game of counting cows, you would hit 100 in just one small town like this one.
A barn displays a Trump banner in Johnstown, Pennsylvania.Photo: Getty Images
In Ruffsdale, I am pretty sure I saw more than 100 Trump signs.
It’s as if people here have not turned on the television to hear pundits drone on and on about how badly Trump is losing in Pennsylvania.
It’s not just visual: In interview after interview in all corners of the state, I’ve found that Trump’s support across the ideological spectrum remains strong. Democrats, Republicans, independents, people who have not voted in presidential elections for years — they have not wavered in their support.
Read the rest @ NY Post here
Thoughs On Z-Blog’s “On Being Revolting In The Modern Age”
Forgive me for falling off the “no politics” bandwagon. I’m only
human. Tomorrow I’ll go back to home maintenance and firewood. You’re
welcome to tune out in the interim. I won’t mind. Have a nice day.
Still here? OK then I’ll start. The Z-Blog posted wise thoughts in On Being Revolting in the Modern Age:
Still here? OK then I’ll start. The Z-Blog posted wise thoughts in On Being Revolting in the Modern Age:
“Certainly voting for Trump sends a message, but messages need a sender and a receiver. If the people on the other end refuse to acknowledge the message being sent, then it’s not really a message. The Olive Branch Petition was the last ditch effort by the Colonist to avoid a breach with the mother country, but the King’s refusal turned it from a message to him into a message from him. That message was clear to the colonials. They could either submit unconditionally or prepare for war. A Trump win followed by a unified refusal by…
View original post 981 more words
Monday, August 22, 2016
2 Nevada men expected to plead guilty in Bundy standoff
LAS VEGAS (AP) — Two men are expected to plead guilty in Nevada this
week to federal charges stemming from an armed confrontation with U.S.
land management agents over grazing rights near cattleman Cliven Bundy’s
ranch, according to court records and their attorneys.
The charges stem from a tense gunpoint standoff in April 2014 on an
Interstate 15 freeway overpass about 80 miles northeast of Las Vegas.
No shots were fired, and no one was injured. But U.S. Bureau of Land
Management agents retreated at gunpoint and gave up an effort to round
up cattle from public land close to Bundy’s ranch near Bunkerville.
Defendant Gerald “Jerry” DeLemus of Rochester, New Hampshire, is
scheduled to enter his plea Tuesday before U.S. District Judge Gloria M.
Navarro.
Blaine Cooper of Humboldt, Arizona, is due in court Thursday for his change-of-plea.
DeLemus and Cooper each pleaded not guilty in March to 11 counts
including conspiracy, obstruction, weapon possession and use,
threatening and assaulting federal officers, and interstate extortion.
If convicted of the charges, the men could face decades in prison.
DeLemus and Cooper are each accused of being “mid-level” organizers,
recruiters and trainers of armed Bundy backers during and after the
confrontation.
The two men will be the first among 19 defendants to enter pleas in
Nevada in the case that involves Cliven Bundy, four of his adult sons
and 14 other men being held in custody following their arrests earlier
this year.
Seven Nevada defendants, including Cooper and Bundy sons Ammon and
Ryan Bundy, were also among 26 people charged in Portland, Oregon, with
conspiracy, weapon, theft and damaging government property counts in a
41-day occupation of a wildlife refuge earlier this year.
Eleven people have taken plea deals in the Oregon case, including
Cooper and three others — Brian Cavalier and Joseph O’Shaughessy of
Arizona, and Ryan Payne of Montana — who each also face charges in the
Nevada case.
In court filings in Las Vegas, Navarro indicated she has signed plea
agreements from DeLemus and Cooper. The documents haven’t been made
public.
DeLemus’ attorney, Brian Smith, and Cooper’s lawyer, Matthew Lay,
declined to comment about terms of the plea deals until they’re entered
in court — including charges and possible sentences.
Smith called his client’s decision to plead guilty “gut-wrenching.”
“He decided it was time to bring this to a close,” Smith said,
DeLemus has been politically active in New Hampshire, where he ran
for Strafford County sheriff in 2014. His wife, Susan DeLemus, is a
Republican state assemblywoman.
The battle with the federal government made Cliven Bundy and his
adult sons well-known as advocates for states’ rights. Bundy maintains
that he has homestead rights to let his cows roam freely over arid
rangeland around his 160-acre cattle ranch.
The government says the cattle are trespassing and that Bundy owes millions of dollars in unpaid grazing fees and penalties.
source
source
Friday, July 29, 2016
Food Safety/Feeding Large Groups Classes
Since there was near zero interest in the August Class,I will no longer be offering the classes.
At this time,I will not be doing video/online classes either,as there is simply not enough interest.
If you have a group of people who are interested in the classes-(at least 12 people) I will still travel to hold classes.
Thank you to those who attended the classes,and those who helped me promote the classes.
At this time,I will not be doing video/online classes either,as there is simply not enough interest.
If you have a group of people who are interested in the classes-(at least 12 people) I will still travel to hold classes.
Thank you to those who attended the classes,and those who helped me promote the classes.
Wednesday, July 27, 2016
How to Improve Your Muzzleloader’s Accuracy
Via Field&Stream
(be sure to read the linked article on firelapping at bottom of post-and RTWT)
Follow these tips to eke out optimum accuracy from your in-line muzzleloader.
1. Fire It Smooth
The barrel is the most important component of a tack-driving smokepole. Any imperfections in the bore will hurt accuracy. So get a fire-lapping kit for muzzleloaders ($50; bear tooth bullets.com) and shoot 15 to 20 of the provided soft-lead bullets as directed. These have various grit compounds that will polish smooth any defects.2. Mount It Right
Once you’ve perfected the barrel, do the same with your scope rings, using a kit like the Wheeler Engineering Scope Ring Alignment and Lapping Kit ($45–$62; midwayusa.com). This will take off any residual manufacturing marks that could allow the scope to shift after a shot. Most kits provide leveling bars that will ensure the scope runs perfectly parallel to the bore.3. Get Loose
Granulated powders can be measured and fine-tuned more precisely than preformed pellets, yielding better shot-to-shot consistency. “Like a handloader developing recipes, a muzzleloader shooter can adjust a loose-powder charge to perfectly match a specific bullet-and-gun combination,” says Chris Hodgdon of Hodgdon Powders (hodgdon.com).4. Find Your Bullet
Pick a few bullets from the top manufacturers, like Barnes, Hornady, PowerBelt, and Thompson/Center, in a variety of weights for the game you’re after. For whitetails, stay in the 250- to 300-grain zone. Shoot each combination of brand, weight, and powder until you hit your smallest groups. Be systematic and clean the barrel after each shot. You may just squeeze MOA accuracy out of that smokepole yet.***Related very long,but very imp0rtant article on firelapping muzzleloaders to greatly improve accuracy,and greatly lessen barrel fouling.***
Be sure to RTWT…
firelapping muzzleloaders
Firelapping can improve accuracy by as much as 50%,so it’s well worth the time and minimal investment.
Pay close attention to the process-and take note-you have to use real black powder-no Pyrodex,no Triple7, and no pellets-good old Goex blackpowder must be used-or whatever other brand you prefer.
The reason is the way black powder burns vs Pyrodex,etc. The Pyrodex,etc. does not reach full pressure until the bullet is well on it’s way down the barrel,so a good part of your barrel will not be lapped unless you use real black powder.
I’m going to firelap my sidelock and my inline in the next month or so,I’ll post before and after targets from 50,75,and 100 yds.
My brother in law firelapped his old CVA sidelock muzzeloader,and went from 6-8 inch groups at 100 yds to 3-4 inch groups at 100 yds. He’s also used the process on a couple centerfire bolt actions-a .243 and a .308 and got even better results.
He’s 100% sold on the process,and he’s a gunsmith,certified armorer,etc,etc.
They also have no kids-so he’s got way more time and $$$ to spend on shooting/firearms.
Read more.
Learn more.
Train more.
Do more PT.
You don’t have enough ammo.
Friday, July 1, 2016
Patriot Knitting Circles
Via SSI
A pre-internet knitting circle. Not much unlike its modern day counterpart.
Two stories were making the rounds this week that have lent credence to the other. One was of UN truck movements around the American South. The other was of a US-Globalist cabal known as the Strong Cities Network.
The first:
The usual "all is well" tripe they roll out when these things pop up. Nothing really to see here.
Launch of Strong Cities Network to Strengthen Community Resilience Against Violent Extremism
“The Strong Cities Network will serve as a vital tool to strengthen capacity-building and improve collaboration,” said Attorney General Loretta E. Lynch. “As we continue to counter a range of domestic and global terror threats, this innovative platform will enable cities to learn from one another, to develop best practices and to build social cohesion and community resilience here at home and around the world.”
So the initiative is backed at the UN and is approved by Lynch and Kerry. That alone should tell you what you need to know about its effectiveness. But let's assume for a moment that it is all true. Blue helmeted Belgians are coming across the Atlantic with murder, rape, and conquest in their hearts.
So. Damn. What.
Read the rest @
Sipsey Street Irregulars
Monday, June 27, 2016
FBI Just Created and Foiled their Own Terrorist Plot to Demonize Those Who Question Government
By William N. Grigg
The FBI once again appears to have averted a terrorist plot of its own manufacture by arresting 57-year-old William Keebler, a man from Stockton, Utah described in press accounts as a militia organizer exhibiting an “extreme hatred” for the federal government. A vociferous critic of the federal Bureau of Land Management who was present during the April 2014 standoff in Bunkerville, Nevada, Keebler was a close friend of the late LaVoy Finicum. FBI agents arrested Keebler in Nephi, Utah Wednesday morning after he allegedly attempted to bomb a vacant cabin owned by the BLM.
According to a federal charging document, for the past several months FBI undercover operatives have been members of Keebler’s militia, the Patriots Defense Force, which met at his home in Stockton, Utah. On many occasions, he expressed the entirely reasonable view that “the BLM was overreaching their authority to implement grazing restrictions on ranchers” and insisted that state and local governments, rather than Washington, should be in charge of public lands in the western States.
Predicting that future confrontations with the Feds might make violent resistance necessary, Keebler reportedly conducted training exercises and “talked about gathering intelligence on potential targets,” such as the BLM office in Salt Lake City. He made it clear, however, that “he didn’t plan on blowing people up for now”; the federal probable cause affidavit characterizes Keebler’s attitude as wanting his group “to be prepared to escalate things, and take people out if necessary.”
Last April, a federal informant “tasked with building Keebler an explosive device” — the charging document, significantly, doesn’t specify by whom the informant had been “tasked” — showed the subject a video of “a 6-inch pipe bomb blowing up some abandoned furniture in the mountains of southern Utah.” That overt act, which was carried out by a federal asset without (as far as the available evidence shows) Keebler’s approval, advance knowledge, or involvement, is described as an act in which he “maliciously damage[d]” and “destroy[ed] … personal or real property.
A few weeks later, Keebler allegedly selected the abandoned BLM cabin in Arizona as a target. The FBI-controlled informant produced what he described as two pipe bombs — one to be placed at the target and detonated via remote control, the other “was to be used against law enforcement” in the event this was necessary. Late Tuesday night (June 21), someone — the document doesn’t specify who it was — placed “an inert explosive device … against the door of one of the BLM cabins in Mount Turnbull. After the device was placed against the door, Keebler was handed a remote detonation device. Keebler then pushed the detonator button multiple times in order to remotely detonate the inert explosive.” He then departed for Utah, where FBI agents arrested him several hours later.
Keebler spent 13 days in Bunkerville and spent time in the company of the late LaVoy Finicum, whose funeral he attended in Kanab, Utah last February. Significantly, Keebler and several members of his militia were in attendance at an April 1 event in Orem, Utah featuring speeches by Finicum’s widow and Shawna Cox, who was an eyewitness to Finicum’s killing. That event was attended by hundreds of people whom the Feds would characterize as “anti-government extremists.”
“Some people who were with [Keebler] were videotaping all of the speakers with very expensive, professional-grade equipment,” a Utah broadcaster who attended the event told The Free Thought Project. “They were walking the room taking note of everybody who was there.”
According to the timeline described sketchily in the federal probable cause affidavit, it was at about this time that the FBI’s Homeland Security Theater Troupe was finishing its scheme to snare Keebler in a bogus bombing plot.
One likely purpose of this FBI-scripted operation is to depict the late LaVoy Finicum — who has emerged as a folk hero for many residents of the rural West — as a would-be terrorist bomber. The arrest affidavit takes great care to accuse Finicum of scouting out the location eventually used in the FBI-controlled false flag attack. That allegation, which Finicum is no longer alive to dispute, is already being retailed by some progressive media outlets.
One’s personal feelings on the unfoldings in Oregon earlier this year are irrelevant when considering the reality of the situation. This attempted ‘bombing,’ like the overwhelming majority of FBI-foiled terror plots, was little more than a staged scene with easily manipulated actors — being entirely scripted, directed, and produced by the federal government. Though this was theater on a virtually fictional scale, the fruits of the federal government’s success in thwarting their own scheme will be the loss of liberty for all — in spite of the current target only being ‘preppers’ and ‘anti-government constitutionalists.’
William N. Grigg writes for TheFreeThoughtProject.com, where this article first appeared.
Tuesday, June 21, 2016
Pro-Clinton College Professor: Repeal Second Amendment
Fairfax, VA -(AmmoLand.com)-
At a time when it’s more important than ever to maintain the right of
the American people to keep and bear arms for self-defense, law
professor David S. Cohen is calling for repeal of the Second Amendment.
“Americans’ rights are in mortal danger,” he says, unless Hillary Clinton is elected president and stacks the Supreme Court with progressive judges.
In the repeatedly discredited rag, Rolling Stone, Cohen writes, “sometimes we just have to acknowledge that the Founders and the Constitution are wrong. This is one of those times. . . . The Second Amendment needs to be repealed because it is outdated, a threat to liberty and a suicide pact.”
By “outdated,” Cohen means that the Framers of the Bill of Rights were unable to conceive of 19th century semi-automatic firearm technology. “When the Second Amendment was adopted in 1791, there were no weapons remotely like the AR-15 assault rifle (sic),” he said.
However, as the late, great Justice Antonin Scalia wrote in the Supreme Court’s decision in District of Columbia v. Heller, “Just as the First Amendment protects modern forms of communications and the Fourth Amendment applies to modern forms of search, the Second Amendment extends, prima facie, to all instruments that constitute bearable arms, even those that were not in existence at the time of the founding.”
And in any case, there is nothing outdated about the underlying principle of the Second Amendment: to prohibit the government from interfering with the ability of people to acquire, possess and develop proficiency with arms they might one day need to defend themselves and their loved ones.
Cohen’s rant is just one example of an astonishing amount of sheer nonsense that has filled the Internet since the terrorist attack in Orlando. Anti-gun politicians, and so-called opinion columnists and TV talking heads – who pretend to be “experts” on every topic under the sun, but who in reality know virtually nothing about even one topic – are confidently calling the AR-15 an “automatic” weapon, a “military” weapon,” and a “weapon of war,” and telling everyone that the most popular rifle in America should be banned.
Of course, the First Amendment protects the right of pundits to demonstrate that the size of their egos are only matched by the depth of their ignorance on firearms and the Second Amendment. And so it should be.
If history repeats itself, the recent slew of half-baked, culture-war-based, ideologically-motivated, attention-seeking statements against guns will only increase support for the right to arms, and additional support may develop as people increasingly realize that President Obama and Hillary Clinton, who are urging gun bans, are the very politicians most responsible for the rise of overseas terrorist groups who inspire and possibly direct evildoers within our midst.
All the more reason for the American people to protect their right to protect themselves.
“Americans’ rights are in mortal danger,” he says, unless Hillary Clinton is elected president and stacks the Supreme Court with progressive judges.
In the repeatedly discredited rag, Rolling Stone, Cohen writes, “sometimes we just have to acknowledge that the Founders and the Constitution are wrong. This is one of those times. . . . The Second Amendment needs to be repealed because it is outdated, a threat to liberty and a suicide pact.”
By “outdated,” Cohen means that the Framers of the Bill of Rights were unable to conceive of 19th century semi-automatic firearm technology. “When the Second Amendment was adopted in 1791, there were no weapons remotely like the AR-15 assault rifle (sic),” he said.
However, as the late, great Justice Antonin Scalia wrote in the Supreme Court’s decision in District of Columbia v. Heller, “Just as the First Amendment protects modern forms of communications and the Fourth Amendment applies to modern forms of search, the Second Amendment extends, prima facie, to all instruments that constitute bearable arms, even those that were not in existence at the time of the founding.”
And in any case, there is nothing outdated about the underlying principle of the Second Amendment: to prohibit the government from interfering with the ability of people to acquire, possess and develop proficiency with arms they might one day need to defend themselves and their loved ones.
Cohen’s rant is just one example of an astonishing amount of sheer nonsense that has filled the Internet since the terrorist attack in Orlando. Anti-gun politicians, and so-called opinion columnists and TV talking heads – who pretend to be “experts” on every topic under the sun, but who in reality know virtually nothing about even one topic – are confidently calling the AR-15 an “automatic” weapon, a “military” weapon,” and a “weapon of war,” and telling everyone that the most popular rifle in America should be banned.
Of course, the First Amendment protects the right of pundits to demonstrate that the size of their egos are only matched by the depth of their ignorance on firearms and the Second Amendment. And so it should be.
If history repeats itself, the recent slew of half-baked, culture-war-based, ideologically-motivated, attention-seeking statements against guns will only increase support for the right to arms, and additional support may develop as people increasingly realize that President Obama and Hillary Clinton, who are urging gun bans, are the very politicians most responsible for the rise of overseas terrorist groups who inspire and possibly direct evildoers within our midst.
All the more reason for the American people to protect their right to protect themselves.
Monday, June 20, 2016
This is What Happens When California Libtards Invade Colorado
Years ago,a similar attack happened,only it was a bear that attacked a child.
West coast leftists have taken over most of the cities in Colorado,they are all anti-hunting,and they have the numbers in local politics to get hunting bans enacted.
That's why the bear attacked the kid years ago,and it's why this mountain lion attacked a child-hunters used to keep the population of bears and mountain lions down to a reasonable number.
Now,thanks to the California leftists the mountain lion and bear populations are unchecked due to no hunting.
Now,they'll demand the wildlife guys do something about all the mountain lions.
Same thing happened years ago when a bear attacked a child-once one of their pets,or their kids get mauled,then they're going to be all for hunting mountain lions-morons.
http://www.9news.com/news/local/child-attacked-by-mountain-lion-in-pitkin-county/248018831
West coast leftists have taken over most of the cities in Colorado,they are all anti-hunting,and they have the numbers in local politics to get hunting bans enacted.
That's why the bear attacked the kid years ago,and it's why this mountain lion attacked a child-hunters used to keep the population of bears and mountain lions down to a reasonable number.
Now,thanks to the California leftists the mountain lion and bear populations are unchecked due to no hunting.
Now,they'll demand the wildlife guys do something about all the mountain lions.
Same thing happened years ago when a bear attacked a child-once one of their pets,or their kids get mauled,then they're going to be all for hunting mountain lions-morons.
http://www.9news.com/news/local/child-attacked-by-mountain-lion-in-pitkin-county/248018831
Tuesday, June 14, 2016
'Fast and Furious' becomes 'Slow and Tedious'
Since
December 2010 the government program known as Operation Fast and
Furious has morphed into a program that could be accurately labeled as
Operation Slow and Tedious. The objective is to delay exposure of the
truth until that exposure has no political or personal impact on the
various players involved.
Efforts to get at the truth of the scandal got a boost in January when an Obama-appointed federal judge ruled that thousands of documents subpoenaed by congressional investigators could not be withheld under claims of executive privilege. In keeping with the Slow and Tedious strategy, the Department of Justice finally released a large block of the documents three months later on a Friday afternoon in April but continues to withhold many others.
The recent document dump supports speculation that then-Attorney General Eric Holder knew more about the ill-conceived gunwalking operation than he has claimed, and that he and other high-level DOJ officials actively worked to conceal details of the operation from Congress and the public. Emails released earlier in the investigation indicate that White House adviser Valerie Jarrett gave guidance in the coverup, but so far, none of the recent documents provide a direct link to the White House. What they do show is a concerted effort to keep the details of the operation under wraps for political purposes.
Had these documents been made public when they were originally subpoenaed, they could have had a serious negative impact on Obama’s re-election campaign and might have prevented implementation of new regulations requiring gun dealers in border states to report information about purchasers of semi-auto rifles. By delaying the release until now, those political consequences have been avoided, but there are other potential consequences the administration is continuing to try and avoid. Recent criminal charges filed against government officials in the Flint, Michigan, water scandal are a reminder that politicians and bureaucrats might not be beyond the reach of the law. So far, no one has paid a significant price for their roles in Fast and Furious, and the administration clearly wants to keep it that way.
It has been more than five years since the tragic death of U.S. Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry at the hands of Mexican bandits. The bandits were armed with guns acquired with the assistance of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives – the agency tasked with enforcement of federal gun control laws. In January of 2011, just one month after Agent Terry’s death, I asked the question in this column whether the Obama administration had intentionally allowed guns to be smuggled to Mexican drug gangs as a way of boosting the administration’s gun control agenda. That column was based on the investigative reporting of citizen-journalists David Codrea and Mike Vanderboegh, who developed the story from sources within the BATF and worked tirelessly to bring it to the attention of Congress and “mainstream” reporters. The WND column was the first mention of the scandal in a major national media outlet. That was followed in late February with a report by Cheryl Atkisson on CBS News in which she interviewed one of Codrea and Vanderboegh’s BATF sources. After that, other reporters slowly started mentioning the growing scandal, and Congress intensified its investigation.
Fast and Furious was the codename given to a still-unexplained program under which the BATF instructed certain gun dealers to go ahead with firearm and ammunition sales to suspected Mexican arms traffickers. Once the sales were made, BATF agents were ordered to break off surveillance of the suspects, and no effort of any kind was made to track the suspects or the guns they possessed. BATF officials – and the media – continue to refer to the program as a “botched sting,” or a “failed attempt to track guns to Mexican drug cartels,” but those labels don’t come close to fitting the program. The only monitoring that was done – or even possible under the plan – was to trace serial numbers of guns found at crime scenes.
That information provides no actionable intelligence, and only marginally enhances the prosecution of low-level, straw buyers. When Agent Terry was killed, both guns recovered at the scene turned out to have come from the Fast and Furious program. That resulted in the program being quickly shut down and swept under the rug. Had it not been for Vanderboegh noticing an off-hand comment on a BATF employee gripe site, and following up on the comment, the whole Fast and Furious debacle might have never been made public.
Codrea and Vanderboegh never got the credit they deserved for breaking the story, but they weren’t in it for the notoriety; they just wanted the truth to be known. Vanderboegh, a prolific blogger and rabble-rouser, is currently dealing with serious health issues and is sadly not expected to be with us much longer. As cantankerous and disagreeable as he can be, he has done the republic a great service by challenging authority and exposing the threads of truth in this case. Readers are encouraged to remember him and his family in their current struggles.
After the story started gaining legs in 2011, the administration, the Department of Justice and the BATF hierarchy disavowed any knowledge of the program. They pointed fingers at local agents and made some superficial changes. The acting head of BATF was laterally transferred to a new position, as were the supervisory agents in charge of the operation. A politically connected federal prosecutor in Arizona and a DOJ deputy resigned, and the agents who blew the whistle on the operation faced career-ending retribution. No other consequences have resulted from the ill-conceived program except hundreds of dead and injured in Mexico.
For now, Operation Slow and Tedious drags on. Attorneys for Congress continue to battle attorneys for the administration over release of the remaining documents, but the public’s interest is waning, and the trail is growing cold. Slow and tedious is once again proving to be a successful strategy for consequence avoidance in Washington.
©2016 The Firearms Coalition, all rights reserved. Reprinting, posting, and distributing permitted with inclusion of this copyright statement. www.FirearmsCoalition.org.
Efforts to get at the truth of the scandal got a boost in January when an Obama-appointed federal judge ruled that thousands of documents subpoenaed by congressional investigators could not be withheld under claims of executive privilege. In keeping with the Slow and Tedious strategy, the Department of Justice finally released a large block of the documents three months later on a Friday afternoon in April but continues to withhold many others.
The recent document dump supports speculation that then-Attorney General Eric Holder knew more about the ill-conceived gunwalking operation than he has claimed, and that he and other high-level DOJ officials actively worked to conceal details of the operation from Congress and the public. Emails released earlier in the investigation indicate that White House adviser Valerie Jarrett gave guidance in the coverup, but so far, none of the recent documents provide a direct link to the White House. What they do show is a concerted effort to keep the details of the operation under wraps for political purposes.
Had these documents been made public when they were originally subpoenaed, they could have had a serious negative impact on Obama’s re-election campaign and might have prevented implementation of new regulations requiring gun dealers in border states to report information about purchasers of semi-auto rifles. By delaying the release until now, those political consequences have been avoided, but there are other potential consequences the administration is continuing to try and avoid. Recent criminal charges filed against government officials in the Flint, Michigan, water scandal are a reminder that politicians and bureaucrats might not be beyond the reach of the law. So far, no one has paid a significant price for their roles in Fast and Furious, and the administration clearly wants to keep it that way.
It has been more than five years since the tragic death of U.S. Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry at the hands of Mexican bandits. The bandits were armed with guns acquired with the assistance of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives – the agency tasked with enforcement of federal gun control laws. In January of 2011, just one month after Agent Terry’s death, I asked the question in this column whether the Obama administration had intentionally allowed guns to be smuggled to Mexican drug gangs as a way of boosting the administration’s gun control agenda. That column was based on the investigative reporting of citizen-journalists David Codrea and Mike Vanderboegh, who developed the story from sources within the BATF and worked tirelessly to bring it to the attention of Congress and “mainstream” reporters. The WND column was the first mention of the scandal in a major national media outlet. That was followed in late February with a report by Cheryl Atkisson on CBS News in which she interviewed one of Codrea and Vanderboegh’s BATF sources. After that, other reporters slowly started mentioning the growing scandal, and Congress intensified its investigation.
Fast and Furious was the codename given to a still-unexplained program under which the BATF instructed certain gun dealers to go ahead with firearm and ammunition sales to suspected Mexican arms traffickers. Once the sales were made, BATF agents were ordered to break off surveillance of the suspects, and no effort of any kind was made to track the suspects or the guns they possessed. BATF officials – and the media – continue to refer to the program as a “botched sting,” or a “failed attempt to track guns to Mexican drug cartels,” but those labels don’t come close to fitting the program. The only monitoring that was done – or even possible under the plan – was to trace serial numbers of guns found at crime scenes.
That information provides no actionable intelligence, and only marginally enhances the prosecution of low-level, straw buyers. When Agent Terry was killed, both guns recovered at the scene turned out to have come from the Fast and Furious program. That resulted in the program being quickly shut down and swept under the rug. Had it not been for Vanderboegh noticing an off-hand comment on a BATF employee gripe site, and following up on the comment, the whole Fast and Furious debacle might have never been made public.
Codrea and Vanderboegh never got the credit they deserved for breaking the story, but they weren’t in it for the notoriety; they just wanted the truth to be known. Vanderboegh, a prolific blogger and rabble-rouser, is currently dealing with serious health issues and is sadly not expected to be with us much longer. As cantankerous and disagreeable as he can be, he has done the republic a great service by challenging authority and exposing the threads of truth in this case. Readers are encouraged to remember him and his family in their current struggles.
After the story started gaining legs in 2011, the administration, the Department of Justice and the BATF hierarchy disavowed any knowledge of the program. They pointed fingers at local agents and made some superficial changes. The acting head of BATF was laterally transferred to a new position, as were the supervisory agents in charge of the operation. A politically connected federal prosecutor in Arizona and a DOJ deputy resigned, and the agents who blew the whistle on the operation faced career-ending retribution. No other consequences have resulted from the ill-conceived program except hundreds of dead and injured in Mexico.
For now, Operation Slow and Tedious drags on. Attorneys for Congress continue to battle attorneys for the administration over release of the remaining documents, but the public’s interest is waning, and the trail is growing cold. Slow and tedious is once again proving to be a successful strategy for consequence avoidance in Washington.
©2016 The Firearms Coalition, all rights reserved. Reprinting, posting, and distributing permitted with inclusion of this copyright statement. www.FirearmsCoalition.org.
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