Technical Thuggery

Well, when I saw this headline, I thought “Wow, this must be pretty bad, considering their history.”

One of the worst things ATF has ever done

And it was.

Not one of the guns or gun parts the ATF seized from former sailor Patrick Tate Adamiak was illegal. Not a single gun or gun part required any additional paperwork beyond a Form 4473, and most didn’t even require that. Adamiak was always extremely careful and did absolutely nothing wrong. 

Every single item that the ATF seized from Adamiak’s home is still sold to anyone who wants one. Most don’t even require an FFL for the transfer since they’re not even firearms but are instead legal gun parts. 

So, why is Adamiak serving 20 years in a federal prison?

Good question.  Here’s why:

(ATF Agent) Bodell’s incredible deceptions have become almost legendary. He actually turned toys into firearms and legal semi-autos into machineguns.

    • Bodell inserted a real STEN action and a real STEN barrel into Adamiak’s toy STEN submachinegun and got it to fire one round, even though the toy’s receiver wouldn’t accept a real STEN magazine. Bodell actually classified the toy, which are very popular, as a machine gun.
    • Bodell fired five of Adamiak’s very expensive and extremely collectible legal semi-autos, which fire from an open bolt. All the ATF technician could achieve was semi-auto fire, but that didn’t stop him. He classified all five highly sought after firearms as machine guns.
    • Bodell ruled that several receivers that had been cut in half were actually machine guns. The same receivers are still legally sold online and do not require an FFL or any paperwork.
    • Bodell actually rebuilt three inert RPGs, which had holes drilled into their receivers and were stripped of internal parts. ATF’s “expert” added parts from real RPGs until they would fire a single subcaliber 7.62x39mm round. As a result, he classified the RPGs as destructive devices.

So the ATF took Adamiak’s toys, turned them (partially) into (sorta) weapons, and had him sent to jail.  For 20 years.

Somebody explain to me why this cocksucker Bodell shouldn’t be swinging from a lamp post?  And ditto the fucking judge who allowed this bullshit to be taken as “evidence”?

Note to President Trump:   Pardon Adamiak yourself, and have Kash Patel take action against Bodell, just prior to closing down the entire ATF.  If you don’t, then why did we elect you?

Surveillance

Seems as though you can’t do anything these days without being spied on by the fucking Government:

Recent revelations confirm that the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives has been aggressively expanding its use of facial recognition technology, raising significant concerns about mass surveillance and unconstitutional tracking of law-abiding gun owners.

For years, gun rights advocates have warned that the ATF’s use of facial recognition would lead to mass surveillance of American citizens—particularly those who exercise their Second Amendment rights. Despite repeated claims that the ATF doesn’t engage in biometric tracking, a 2021 Government Accountability Office report revealed that between October 2019 and March 2022, the ATF conducted at least 549 facial recognition searches.

Of course, it’s not actually the ATF doing this (a.k.a. plausible deniability):

The technology was largely powered by third-party vendors, including Clearview AI and Vigilant Solutions, both of which have amassed vast databases of billions of images scraped from social media, DMV records, and security footage. This means the ATF has been leveraging private sector databases to track and identify gun owners without their consent.

The full scale of this surveillance remains unclear, but newly surfaced documents indicate that the ATF has been working with FBI fusion centers, state and local law enforcement, and even foreign intelligence agencies to develop more comprehensive tracking capabilities.

Here’s the thing:  I don’t want to be spied on by anyone, let alone these government thugs.

I don’t care that it helps “security” or any other such panacea.  Take your snooping devices and go fuck yourselves.

That said:

Oh, and new-FBI Director / ATF Acting-Director Patel?  Take a long, hard look at those “FBI fusion centers” and make them less malevolent — lest you too be labeled as just another government thug.

Information, we’re always being told, is power.  And I want the government to have a lot less of both.

Not Revenge; A Reckoning

That lovely quote from the movie Tombstone  came to mind when I read that Kash Patel was confirmed as FBI Director by the Senate.

I hope, nay even expect that there’s going to be some kind of Mass Resignation Event among the Fibbie senior management — and there fucking well should be.

There has been a lot wrong with the various alphabet agencies who are nominally charged with looking after the American people, in that they seem to have misinterpreted their remit as “looking at” the American people, much in the way that an owl looks at a mouse.

The FBI has proven itself to be particularly at fault because they’ve gone after concerned parents, Catholics and who knows who else in a totally misdirected — and I use the word advisedly — identification of harmless folks like these as “enemies of the nation”.

How they might regard gun owners like myself we will not speak, because the actions of their vaunted SWAT teams speak for themselves.

So Kash, ol’ buddy, get in there and start rooting out the assholes — I’m pretty sure you know who they are — and don’t content yourself with just firing them;  prosecute all those worth prosecuting, just as they have unjustly done to otherwise-innocent people in the past.  (Ask the President how it feels.)

And while you’re there, shut down the stupid departments like Human Rights, not because the motives behind their creation were incorrect, but because the people managing them ended up using those motives as a pretext for harassing and indicting people in the most aggressive and venal manner.

It’s called “turning the tables”, and I can think of no worthier targets than the people who initiated and carried out those actions.  They have, in short, betrayed their public trust and caused the public to fear, loathe and despise them, and they deserve to be severely punished in consequence.

More Savings

Ah, it’s okay if they do it:

Representative Val Hoyle (D-OR) said on Monday on CNN’s “News Central” that Democratic lawmakers will not vote to fund the government if Republicans are advancing President Donald Trump’s agenda.

Wait, does that mean that the entire Feddle Gummint will shut down and won’t be paid?  Including Congress?

Oh, please let it be so.

And by the way, you little pinko pustule:  maybe the voters in your Commie district didn’t vote for Trump’s agenda, but the rest of us sure as hell did.

Now get out of the way so the adults can do what we sent them to D.C. to do.

Over The Line

 I see that Tulsi Gabbard made it over the NO vote of soon-to-be-gone Mitch McConnell and was conformed as Director of National Intelligence (DNI).  Excellent.

Now I’m wondering:  who, exactly, approved the action which placed her on a “security risk” (SSSS*) list last year after she switched parties and became a Trump supporter?

If it was her predecessor, then he’s gone, no big deal.  Then we have to ask:  who  motivated the action, if it wasn’t him?

Either way, I hope that Gabbard goes after the asshole — because if a former member of Congress can get blacklisted that way by the government, who is safe?

(Oh, and one last thought:  I just hope that in her new positions she leaves behind all her earlier anti-2A bullshit.)


*SSSS:  the code letters printed on your boarding pass that cause an “enhanced security check” when you check in.  (FYI:  it once happened to me too, for reasons never specified.)