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.

Congress Playing Their Part

Hey, how can you argue with proposed legislation to rein in the jack-booted thugs of the ATF — especially when it’s known as the RIFLE Act?

Under the Biden Administration, ATF’s zero tolerance policy forced small and mid-sized gun stores out of business. The agency revoked Federal Firearm Licenses due to minor clerical errors like missing a customer’s middle initial or using a state’s abbreviation rather than the state’s full name. In 2024 alone, ATF saw the highest levels of gun store license revocations in 20 years—the third consecutive year of increased license revocations under President Biden’s leadership. Last week, the Biden Administration claimed it reversed its zero tolerance policy. Upon further review of the updated enforcement guidance, it appears to remain fully in effect.

Rep. Mann (R-KS) told Breitbart News, “President Biden did everything in his power to weaponize the federal government against gun store owners in the Big First District of Kansas and across the country. His zero tolerance policy undermined the Second Amendment and trampled on the constitutional rights of law-abiding citizens. Since day one, I have rigorously pushed back against this unconstitutional policy and fought for more oversight to rein in ATF’s abuse.”

He added, “On November 5, 2024, the country made it clear—our constitutional rights are not up for grabs. My bill makes that crystal clear by fortifying the Second Amendment rights of local gun stores and seeking to restore a degree of wholeness to individuals whose livelihoods were destroyed by this federal abuse. I look forward to working with President Trump to further strengthen the protection of the Second Amendment, deliver justice for our FFLs, and get our country back on track.”

Who’s the new head of the ATF, again?  (I know, I know:  a decent head of the ATF would rescind the enforcement instructions off his own bat — I know I would, if my application to head up the ATF had been successful.  But then again, considering that I’d have started shutting down the entire agency from Day 1 of my appointment, the whole issue would have been moot.)

Aarfy IRL – AGAIN

I cannot count the number of timers I’ve written about this scenario:

One of my favorite-ever literary passages is in Joseph Heller’s Catch-22, when Yossarian walks into a bedroom to discover that his lunatic navigator Aarfy has just murdered a prostitute by throwing her out the window.  While he’s remonstrating with Aarfy, the military police burst into the room — and arrest Yossarian for being AWOL.

The same thing has happened time and time again*.  And here’s yet another one to make your blood boil (as it did mine):

British police were called to a house after a neighbor heard screams. They found a young girl naked & drunk with 7 Pakistani men.

They arrested the girl for being drunk & convicted her. They reportedly didn’t even question the men.

Every single one of those cops should be taken to a windowless cell, tied to a chair and beaten with chains.  Followed by the same treatment for those seven asshole Pakis**.

This should also be seen in its larger context.  (Warning:  it’s really hard to read without an extreme RCOB*** occurring.


*Here. here and here are just three examples where I’ve written about this foul nonsense.

**I know very well that the term “Pakis” is offensive.  When it comes to these pedophiles, however, no descriptor is offensive enough.  Fuck ’em.

***Red Curtain Of Blood, which comes over your eyes when discovering massive bastardy and injustice.

Dept. Of Righteous Shootings

except, it seems, in Honolulu.

Three people were killed and two others injured in a shooting at a home stemming from a dispute between neighbors on Saturday night in Waianae, a west Oahu community. The shooter was also fatally shot by a resident…

So far, so good.  But

…who was then arrested on a second-degree murder charge, police said.

And the cops’ response?

“In Hawaii, we are a non ‘stand your ground’ state. Even if you have a license to carry, if you’re an individual that discharges a firearm that is involved in injuring another person, … you’re going to be arrested.”

As RedState’s Jim Thompson points out, that’s not what Hawaii’s actual law states.  Looks like this asshole cop needs a swift ball-kicking  some education on the law.  Or maybe he just thinks he’s British.

At least Our Hero has since been released, but there’s no telling what will happen to him next.

Where’s the Imperial Japanese Navy when you really need them?

“Come See The Violence

…inherent in the system!” is Eric Idle’s iconic wail in the Monty Python And The Holy Grail  movie, when King Arthur finally loses his patience and pushes the mouthy peasant to the ground.  Funny as hell.

And then we have this:

Enoch Burke has been at the centre of a trans right row in Ireland for over two years now – but he’s not the only member of his family facing endless legal woes.

In May 2022, the former history teacher told the headteacher at his school in County Westmeath that his Evangelical Christian beliefs meant he ‘opposed transgenderism’ and later criticised his boss’ ‘demand’ to use the child’s new name in front of staff and students.

It sparked a chain of events that has led to him being jailed for repeatedly showing up at Wilson’s Hospital School in County Westmeath after being sacked, and entering the staff room saying he was there to do his job. 

Enoch has spent over 300 days in Mountjoy Prison in Dublin and has no prospect of release because he refuses to comply with a court order to stay away from the school premises. Earlier this year, he refused a High Court offer to spend Easter out of prison and accused the judge of colluding with the school. 

Earlier this week, Enoch’s sister Ammi lost an unlawful dismissal appeal at the Court of Appeal and was criticised for her ‘utterly appalling and egregious’ behaviour during proceedings.

In May this year, Ms Burke was also found guilty of obstructing a garda during a ‘commotion’ on 7th March last year at the Four Courts. 

During the incident, her father ‘flung’ a female garda to the ground behaving ‘like a red rag to a bull’ after his wife was escorted out of court.

Mind you, it should be said that the entire family in question seems to be a bunch of raving nutcases (although this is not too uncommon in Ireland), but note how the whole thing has snowballed into some serious shit, all from something completely innocuous:  because a man refused to use someone’s “proper” name.

That’s almost as bad as calling an anarcho-syndicalist a “bloody peasant”.