This ain't Hell, but you can see it from here

Author: Jonn Lilyea

  • LTG Mark Hertling on the AR-style rifle

    LTG Mark Hertling on the AR-style rifle

    CNN decided to take retired Lieutenant General Mark Hertling to the range. LTG Hertling was an armor officer, also trained in Air Defense Artillery. He has six Bronze Star Medals (all for merit, not a one for valor). He was awarded a Purple Heart in Desert Storm according to Wiki – I don’t know how that happens to a major who is the Squadron S-3 in a Cavalry unit, but there it is.

    Somehow he earned a Combat Action Badge while he was the Commanding General of the 1st Armored Division in Iraq. If your commanding general is involved in a combat action, something has gone wrong.

    You can tell by his shooting stance that he’s not real familiar with firing an AR style rifle. He’s pretty dramatic at making the recoil look stronger than it really is.

    I’m at a loss to explain what “full semi-automatic” means.

    I don’t own AR-style rifles to look “cool” or “look like a soldier”, General. I was cool before I owned one and I was a soldier while you were still a cadet.

    He says some ignorant bullshit about people who want should be able to buy them, but the rifle should be kept out of the “wrong hands”. I guess he wants to be on the council that determines “wrong hands”.

  • On “Take the guns first”

    According to The Hill, President Trump seems to want to forego Fourth Amendment protections “against unreasonable searches and seizures” in dealing with guns;

    President Trump on Wednesday voiced support for confiscating guns from certain individuals deemed to be dangerous, even if it violates due process rights.

    “I like taking the guns early, like in this crazy man’s case that just took place in Florida … to go to court would have taken a long time,” Trump said at a meeting with lawmakers on school safety and gun violence.

    “Take the guns first, go through due process second,” Trump said.

    Trump was responding to comments from Vice President Pence that families and local law enforcement should have more tools to report potentially dangerous individuals with weapons.

    Yeah, no. It happened to me a few years ago when the now deceased Dan Bernath filed a restraining order against me, claiming that my wheelchair-bound ass was spotted outside his home in Oregon harassing him, on a day that I was actually on the other side of the country in the White House at a Medal of Honor ceremony.

    Bernath called ahead to the local constabulary and convinced them that I was a dangerous and armed veteran likely to shoot them when they served me on the RO. None of that was true. But, because the RO was out of Oregon, I had no way to recover my weapons through due process.

    Luckily, the local sheriff agreed and returned my rather large collection of guns and ammunition to me after being prompted by my state legislature delegate. The restraining order was vacated eventually, because an Oregon judge has no jurisdiction over a citizen of West Virginia when he’s never been in Oregon.

    Now, if law enforcement had brought me in front of a judge before they took my weapons, that would have satisfied my 4th Amendment protections. It would have been a pain in my ass, but at least my rights wouldn’t have been violated.

    By the way, anyone thinking that they can put me through that again have another think coming. I’ve discussed it with local officers and we have an understanding.

    But, taking guns without due process can lead to harassment of gun owners by gun grabbers. The president and his advisors should put more thought into this.

  • Pentagon gets marching orders

    According to CBS News, the Pentgon received instructions from the White House to prepare for a military parade on November 11th to commemorate both Veterans’ Day and the 100th anniversary of the end of World War One;

    The president told Fox News’ Jeanine Pirro Saturday night in an interview that a parade would have lots of plane flyovers. Mr. Trump suggested either Veterans Day or July Fourth.

    Mr. Trump has said he was inspired while he was in France last year and observed the Bastille Day parade.

    “The generals would love to do it, I tell you, and so would I,” he said.

    The generals love parades because they don’t have to do anything – it’s all up-side for them. They get to look good while everyone else does the work. Right down to their aides setting up their uniforms.

  • Thursday morning feel good stories

    Thursday morning feel good stories

    From San Antonio, Texas;

    Early reports from the scene indicated the store’s owner was the shooter, and that the customer was accused of robbing the store at the time of his death.

    However, SAPD later said the employee has had issues with the customer involved in the past, and that the customer has previously threatened to rob the store.

    Police said the employee and the customer got into some sort of argument Tuesday, and the employee told the customer to “back away multiple times.” When the employee was “backed into a corner,” police said he shot and killed the customer.

    From Buffalo, New York;

    According to a Buffalo Police source, a parole officer shot a suspect in the leg. This happened around 9:20 p.m. on the 300 block of Northumberland Avenue.

    The suspect is in custody, there’s no word on their condition. It’s believed police caught up with the suspect near Stevenson Street and North Legion Drive.

    From Altavista, Virginia;

    On February 24 at approximately 1:30 a.m., the Campbell County Sheriff’s Office received numerous calls on Ventura Drive in reference to an unknown subject banging on windows and attempting to break into residences.

    The Sheriff’s Office received an additional call from a homeowner stating that a male subject was breaking windows and now entering their residence through a window. The homeowner fired one shot, striking the subject, who then fled on foot. The subject was later located had sustained a single gunshot wound to the upper chest.

    Low rent criminal in Bonita Springs, Florida;

    A man who pointed his finger in lieu of a firearm at a convenience store clerk in an attempted robbery had to leave empty-handed when the employee refused to comply Wednesday morning.

    Southwest Florida Crime Stoppers is asking for the public’s help identifying and tracking down the young man who attempted to rob a Bonita Springs 7/Eleven shortly after 2 a.m.

    A young male walked into the 7-Eleven, located at 4520 Bonita Beach Road.

    The suspect, who covered his face with a red shirt, approached the store clerk with a pointed finger and demanded all the cash from the register.

    When the clerk refused, the man ran out of the store empty-handed and rode a white mountain bicycle northbound on Imperial Shores Boulevard.

  • Jose Alvarez; phony Green Beret

    Jose Alvarez; phony Green Beret

    Our partners at Guardians of the Green Beret share their work on this fellow, Jose Igor Alvarez aka Igor Gretaldezky. He claims to be a special forces warrior, but his uniform says differently;

    When the GB who sent him to us did a short recon on his FB profile, he saw a picture of him with a Combat Infantry Badge with a star, an Ranger and SF tab, Purple Heart and some comical SF crest on his black beret.

    Wrong unit insig on shoulders, MP brass with Infantry blue disks, No Airborne Tab with SF unit patch (That’s part of the patch).

    We reached out to ask him to remove his bogus pictures and were immediately blocked from further contact. The pictures remained.

    In fact, the pictures are still there in spite of the egregious errors;

    CIB w/ Star False

    Special Forces Tab False

    Ranger Tab False

    Purple Heart False

    Good Conduct Medal False

    National Defense Service Medal False

    Kosovo Campaign Medal False

    Afghanistan Campaign Medal False

    Global War on Terrorism Service Medal False

    Humanitarian Service False

    Armed Forces Reserve Medal False

    NCO Professional Development Ribbon False

    Army Service Ribbon Earned Earned

    Kuwait Liberation Medal (Saudi Arabia) Service must have been performed in support of Operation Desert Storm and the liberation of Kuwait, between 17 January 1991 to 28 February 1991 False

    Senior Wings False

    Air Assault False

    He had less than three years of service in the Texas National Guard, discharged as an E-2 Private petroleum specialist with only the Army Service Ribbon;

  • Oath Keepers on guard at school

    Oath Keepers on guard at school

    The Tribunist reports that an Oath Keeper, Mark Cowan, who claims to be an Army veteran, is on guard at a Fort Wayne, Indiana school with his AR-style rifle;

    Cowan isn’t technically on school grounds, but he is close enough to monitor the premises.

    He explained to WANE “that he is there to protect the students and ward off anyone who would pose a threat to their safety.”

    […]

    Opinions on the Oath Keepers seem to be split along partisan lines. Cowan’s presence at the school hasn’t made everyone happy, either.

    Here, let me bust your “partisan lines” for you. I wouldn’t let an Oath Keeper within range of my house for anything. They are a bunch of mouthy little pricks who can’t tell the business end of a firearm from their asshole. Most of them lie about their military service at their dick-measuring meetings and whenever they can get in front of media cameras. This is a recruiting stunt by Cowan, why else would he be wearing the Oath Keeper finery to guard a school? I wouldn’t let him guard my cat’s litter box.

    I don’t know if Cowan is a veteran or not, I only know that I don’t need to belong to an organization to remind myself that I took an oath. Especially an organization so full of valor thieves as Oath Keepers.

    Thanks to AZtoVA for the link.

    Oh, and by the way, Mr Cowan was arrested last year for assault;

  • Germany to prosecute refugee for US soldier’s death in Afghanistan

    Stars & Stripes reports that Germany is planning to prosecute Abdol Moghadas S., an Afghan Taliban deserter for the death of Private First Class Christian Jacob “Jake” Chandler resulting from an ambush in 2014. Abdol was a refugee living in Bavaria when he was arrested for the murder.

    Abdol has been charged under German law with “collaborated murder” and “attempted murder,” among other crimes. The charges stem from a legal change that came after the 9/11 attacks, which allows German authorities to prosecute a foreign combatant. The unprecedented case has lifted the hopes of a dead soldier’s mother eager for justice while shattering the hopes of a refugee seeking a fresh start.

    According to S&S, Christian J. Chandler, 2nd Battalion, 87th Infantry Regiment, 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 10th Mountain Division, died April 28, 2014, in Logar province, Afghanistan, when enemy forces attacked his unit with small arms fire. Abdol was with those enemy forces when Chandler’s death occurred.

    In the early morning of Feb. 17, 2017, in the small Bavarian town of Schnaitsee, German special police forces arrested Abdol, who told authorities he had fled Afghanistan in fear after deserting the Taliban.

    Five months later, German federal prosecutors announced criminal charges against Abdol for his alleged role in two attacks on U.S. soldiers and Afghan government troops as a Taliban member.

    Abdol lived in a three-story refugee home in the town’s center, reported the Sueddeutsche Zeitung, a national daily. He played volleyball at a local sports club and won trophies for kickboxing in the nearby town of Traunreut, the newspaper reported…Thomas Schmidinger, the mayor of Schnaitsee, told Stars and Stripes that he had not met Abdol. Schmidinger said he heard that Abdol did not try to hide his past: “He must have talked openly about the fact that he fled from the Taliban.”

    According to S&S Abdol is charged with being an accomplice to murder and attempted murder in the 2014 ambush. Abdol revealed details of the attack in his asylum application last year. Prosecutors said that Abdol will be tried as a juvenile, so his trial won’t be public and he’s looking at a maximum sentence of ten years.

  • Dick’s Sporting Goods suspends gun sales

    Dick’s Sporting Goods suspends gun sales

    Fortune reports that Dick’s Sporting Goods won’t sell scary-looking black rifles in any of their stores, and they’ve said that they won’t sell long guns to people under the age of 21 years.

    “When we saw what happened in Parkland, we were so disturbed and upset,” Stack told the New York Times Tuesday night. “We love these kids and their rallying cry, ‘enough is enough.’ It got to us.

    “We’re going to take a stand and step up and tell people our view and, hopefully, bring people along into the conversation,” he added.

    Whatever, dude.

    They said they’d stop selling scary-looking black rifles after the Newtown tragedy in 2012, so I guess they started selling again when the discussion faded.

    A statement posted on the company’s website said that “during this time of national mourning,” it had removed all guns from its store nearest to Newtown and “suspended the sale of modern sporting rifles in all of our stores chainwide.”

    That means that in a few months when we’re talking about North Korea or a Veterans’ Day parade, Dick’s will sneak scary-looking black rifles back onto their shelves.

    Thanks to Mick for the link.