Time to rip off the Band-Aid — or, in this case, the masks.
Eliminate the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. Period. It was a bad idea from the get-go — “homeland” me bollocks, leave that fascist shit in 1933 Berlin where you found it — and it hasn’t aged at all well.
Anyone who’s serious about shrinking the federal government should start with DHS. Tear down the superstructure and let’s see whether any of its components can be salvaged.
One should go straight to the trash: Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). Shitcan the whole shitshow. Anyone who hasn’t already resigned in horror is part of the problem. Anyone who still wants to work there should be encouraged to emigrate (I hear Hell isn’t half full).
Anyone still on the job? Off you go. Lt. Aldo Raine, U.S. Army (ret.) will escort you off the premises after presenting you with a small memento of your service.
Mad Blog Media 
“Your papers please”. That’s what you hear in every movie about an oppressive regime.
Shit, they don’t even say “please” anymore. The New Mexican recently sent a reporter and photographer to the “National Defense Area” down by Sunland Park and they were not greeted with the usual courtesy.
Just [expletive] back up,” yelled a Border Patrol agent out of the window of his truck.
“Please”?
ICE is dumpster’s personal army. His ticket to martial law and messing with the midterms. Everything going according to his plan except people paying more for everything. And, hopefully American greed will be his downfall. Ironic, but I don’t think it will happen soon enough. He knows that a democratic congress leads to wearing an ankle bracelet the rest of his life at mar-a-lardo. He will sell us all to putin to prevent it. Miller is driving the train, and his hatred know no limit.
I don’t imagine this den of thieves will be eager to see voters expressing themselves without interference at the polls. I’m hoping it doesn’t all boil down to a Second Amendment exercise. The People are a wee bit short on air cover and arty support.
Oh, and the Second Amendment shitfest going on right now is amazing, with DHS and DOJ honchos sounding like Everytown for Gun Safety flaks, and major gun organizations ripping the administration honchos a new asshole.
I really doubt most of the gun culture right wing really sees the handwriting on the wall, though. Political blindness.
Sad shit for sure. Great movie scene from a classic film. Not sure why he was carrying at an ICE event. I understand the protect the people part of social norms, I also understand provocation. Avoiding these scenes makes one sound like some of the naZi’s in Germany oh we didn’t know what was going on vs. stop this BS now and return to a civilized law and order system outlined in the Constitution? I dunno. I am not bringing myself armed or otherwise to any local ICE event based upon their blanket of protection from above. Suxx I know. Suxx worse to die in the streets and miss your opportunity for life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
Herself and I have attended the No Kings! things and other rallies over the years. I never carry. The old S&W hand cannon weighs a ton and only contains six arguments. Eighteen if I pack the speedloaders.
Mao Zedong was wrong about many things, but was spot on when he said, “Political power grows out of the barrel of a gun.” He was thinking of more than one gun, of course. A solitary elderly blogger with a 46-year-old wheelgun does not a revolution make. What that makes is a three-graf story in the Metro section.
“He spent a lot of time riding his bicycles. He had a lot of bicycles.”
Riding a bicycle is not a revolutionary act, of course. Again, Mao: “A revolution is not a dinner party, or writing an essay, or painting a picture, or doing embroidery; it cannot be so refined, so leisurely and gentle, so temperate, kind, courteous, restrained and magnanimous. A revolution is an insurrection, an act of violence by which one class overthrows another.”
Are we on the cusp of such a thing? Let’s hope not. Frankly, I’d rather be riding my bicycle(s).
Here’s an interesting piece (gift link) from a Second Amendment enthusiast writing for The Atlantic. He, too, is not carrying, but for different reasons.
Here’s a snippet:
That was a good Atlantic piece. Read it last night as it was linked to a different Atlantic piece.
Gotta wonder …. at what point does the frog start shooting back? There could not be a more crystal clear example of “tyrannical government” than what we are seeing right now in the streets of Minneapolis.
Previous thoughtful commentor (and snippet) aside, the only reason I own guns is because of the (not-thoughtful) gun nuts.
Yeah, I wish I didn’t feel obliged to own guns, but here we are, gun owners, like it or not.
They’re like evil children, hard to cast aside once you’ve brought them into your home.
If only the Second Amendment had had a better copy editor, we might all of us have done a stint in our local/state militias and brought our M4s home, and the feds would know that they weren’t trying to push around a bunch of hippies who never held anything deadlier than a one-hitter. Might be a little less dancing in the streets these days.
The idea of armed citizens taking on a professional and experienced Army is obsolete. What to you think would have happened if the January 6th rioters met up with the current BP or ICE forces in Minnesota? Oh yea, the current leadership says ignoring an officer or assaulting them is domestic terrorism. The hypocrisy is breathtaking. The guy with the spear should thank the Capitol police officer that didn’t double tap his ass when he could have.
My thoughts on the matter are strictly academic, since I’ve never been in combat; never even served.
But I wonder how motivated regular Army types would be when it came to making war on their fellow citizens, maybe even their neighbors and kinfolk. A determined Resistance might be able to peel away a few of the doubters — some of whom are almost certainly already in our camp, at least in spirit — and then you have some pros in your corner.
Obviously the Resistance couldn’t fight toe to toe with the State. Average Joe and Jane going up against G.I. Joe and Jane is a seriously unequal contest. So you’re talking asymmetrical warfare — IEDs, snipers, kidnap/assassination squads, drones, cheap ways to make things irksome, scary and expensive for the federales. Tech types to shit in their comms, free-range media types to spread the word, etc., et al., and so on and so forth. Become the “terrorists” they already say we are. One man’s terrorist is another’s freedom fighter.
But, as I said, this is all academic. It’s tough enough to get the average American to the polling place. S/he ain’t nearly radicalized enough to go all Ho Chi Minh on the Green Machine. Too much good shit on TV.
Bet you wish you had not parted with that Mini-30.
Talk about heavy. Jeezo. Fun to shoot, but it weighed a ton, ammo was expensive, and I was feeling seriously overgunned. Something had to go away, and the Mini-30 was it.
I love my old Ruger 10/22 and often wish I’d gotten the Mini-14 instead of the -30.
Sadly, we are way past the point of any gun reform legislation. Time for a double barrel shotgun for the home arsenal. Any recommendations on a reliable and lighter weight option? We’ve lipped off at many a local and state government meeting/event showing our “libtard stripes” so we’re surely on the Gestapo list. That and the fekkers know full well how we vote .
Like Pat said, a Remington 870. 20 Ga to minimize recoil. Mossberg makes a pump shotgun that is quite a bit cheaper and allegedly quite reliable. Plus, so far, no one is trying to ban them.
I’d personally prefer my AR or Mini-14 as they are far easier to shoot without knocking my arm out of its socket, though. But this is all academic.
That Federalist papers that talked about preventing a rogue President from using the army to overthrow the government assumed a small standing army and a large armed citizenry almost as well trained. I think we have that bass-ackwards these days. as O’G said, it is hard enough to get people to cast ballots, not to mention bullets.
So here we are. I feel like lighting a candle for the Republic.
When I worked at the gun shop, we had an 12 gauge 870 with a 18 inch barrel and a big brass bead. It hung on hooks with the slide back and a shell on the carrier below the cash register out of sight of customers. One evening we had three guys walk in when Jon and I were working. One went to the cigars, the shop was Schrank’s Smoke and Gun, and one went to the handgun case. They tried to split us up, and I noticed one was carrying under his coat. I gave Jon a nod, and he excused himself, went to register, and chambered a shell in the 870. It is a very unusual and unmistakable sound. The third guy bought a pack of cigarettes, and they walked out. Can’t be sure, but we think they had other plans and the 870 changed their mind. We were both carrying openly, at that time I carried a Browning Hi-Power, but they could have surprised us.
I passed on a Browning Hi Power back when it was affordable. Not that I needed one, but I think they are neat pistols. Wish I had bought it. Not to shoot someone, as I am not that kinda guy, but just to own one.
This place?
https://www.smokengun.org/
That’s the one. I visited it in the late 90s after Mike died when Mike’s son and his mom were running it. Jon, Mike’s younger brother, died very young, before Mike, from a heart attack. The incident I subscribed was at the Genesee Street store before they moved to the Washington street store. I worked part time there twice, once in 1972/73 and again in 1979.
It was a large combination gun, outdoor, and tobacco store with all the top brands. That Hi-Power was a FN Belgium made beauty in a Safariland suede lined thumb break holster. I also carried a Colt Combat Commander and a S&W Combat Masterpiece. The days of mirror polished blueing and Circassian walnut instead of plastic parkerized ugly.
I first lusted for the Browning Hi-Power after reading “Serpico” by Peter Maas, later adapted into the movie starring Al Pacino.
Alas, I couldn’t afford one, and so acquired a cheap Llama .380 semiauto that jammed on me the only time I thought I might actually need it, when a police chase ended outside the front door of the old Victorian pile in which I had an apartment and the suspect ran up the fire escape onto the roof.
I got rid of the Llama and bought a blued-steel S&W Model 19-4 with the 4-inch barrel, which I still have. An awful lot of boom, and heavy as hell, but as Boris “The Blade” said in “Snatch”: “Heavy is good, heavy is reliable. If it doesn’t work you can always hit him with it.” Just don’t have one in the pipe when you use it as a hammer.
Remington 870 Home Defense in 20 gauge.
What do I have? A large Sabre Red brand pepper gell and 21 inch ASP steel baton.
Enough chump doom and gloom. I gotta jam session at 3PM, and
I need to be in the mood to drink beer, play a guitar, and sing some John Prine songs! I have to play in public in Tombstone on Feb 6th. Charity thing, of course, since nobody would pay me to do it. Probably pay me not to do it!