Source: (Italics and Bold in the original)

Events may show that there are no winners, only survivors and those who failed to adapt.

Some recessions are brief, necessary cleansings in which extremes of leverage and speculation are unwound via painful defaults, reductions of risk and bear markets.

Some are reactions to exogenous shocks such as war or pandemic. The uncertainty triggers a mass reduction of risk which recedes once the worst is known and priced in.

Far less frequently, structural recessions are lengthy, tumultuous upheavals that can set the stage for excellent long-term expansion or unraveling and collapse. In these structural recessions, 10% to 20% of the workforce loses their jobs as entire sectors are obsoleted and jobs that depend on excesses of debt and speculation go away.

In the U.S. economy of today, this would translate into a minimum of 14 million jobs vanishing, never to return in their previous form and compensation.

The old jobs don’t come back and new jobs demand different enterprises, training and skills. Unemployment remains elevated, spending is weak and productivity is low for years as enterprises and workers have to adjust to radically different conditions. If the economy and society persevere through this transition, the stage is set for the reworked economy to enjoy an era of renewed prosperity and opportunity.

If an economy and society can’t complete this transition, stagnation decays into collapse.

I’ve annotated a St. Louis Federal Reserve chart of U.S. recessions since 1970 to show the taxonomy described above.

The drive to never have any pain through natural times of pruning economic inefficiencies will cause the final and total collapse of the system. This article is a pretty good background as a way to understand the economic environment, the crises created by trying to fix problems, and the worse pain of never wanting any difficulties. Of course, we’re a little more jaded about the motivations of those claiming they are just trying to help. You can see the chart and analysis on that website.

This is an interesting project, and it goes to show that if you’re good with the mechanics, you can shoot any firearm well and accurately, even at distance.

I don’t believe there are many bolt action 45-70 firearms out there.  There are many lever actions, but the single shot tube loading rifles tend to go at auction for high prices.  The demand is so high that even the newer lever action rifles are sometimes sold at auction.

This is likely a one-of-a-kind build.

Source.

JACKSON, Miss. (WLBT) – Some of the state’s religious leaders are going beyond church policy and asking for action on gun control from lawmakers.

This resolution from the state’s largest African American denomination may seem like it blurs lines of politics and religion, but Dr. CJ Rhodes explains it this way.

“One way you can look at it is this is an act of pastoral care. We shepherd people in our pews and our communities that are impacted by this, not just in terms of their physical well-being but mental, spiritual, [and] social well-being,” described Rhodes, Third Vice President of the General Missionary Baptist State Convention of Mississippi.

The General Missionary Baptist State Convention of Mississippi wants lawmakers to repeal the state’s open carry laws.

“There are a lot of sane gun owners out there,” said Rhodes. “And of course, living in, you know, Jackson, you know, you got to make sure you got something out you sometimes. But the fact of the matter is, so many of our people are being terrorized in our communities. We’ve got to do something about that as well. So, yes, I understand the Second Amendment. I understand, you know, bearing arms, but we also need to make sure that we can ensure that folks feel safe in their communities.”

Regarding the bit in italics, what?  What did he say?  Does he even know?

However, the Mississippi Justice Institute says that’s a complicated request.

“The first problem I see is that these advocates would have in trying to do this is that the Mississippi Constitution, in fact, protects the right to openly carry a firearm,” said MJI Director Aaron Rice.

And right now, there’s not a process for a constitutional amendment to be filed. MJI Director Aaron Rice says the resolution raises a similar concern for him as the Jackson mayor’s attempted order to ban open carry during the pandemic.

“Which is to point out that there’s high violent crime, and then to kind of make a boogeyman of open carry laws and making no attempt to actually link that high rate of violence to the open carry laws,” noted Rice.

They’re fake pastors.  They should be teaching theology to their congregants.  Instead, rather than connecting even a single crime to open carry, they’re out in public making things up, which of course is called lying in the Holy Writ.

Rice is right.  Open carry is protected by the Mississippi constitution according to OpenCarry.org.  Specifically, the constitution says as follows.

The right of every citizen to keep and bear arms in defense of his home, person, or property, or in aid of the civil power when thereto legally summoned, shall not be called in question, but the Legislature may regulate or forbid carrying concealed weapons.

Of course I don’t agree with regulating any carry at all, but if we’ve got to throw them a bone until passing constitutional carry, I’d actually prefer this scheme over regulating open carry.

As the saying goes, fine and well-ordered gentlemen openly display their weapons, while criminals hide them.

First, how not to do it.

FBI training ? pic.twitter.com/128RmDvBkA

— Víctor (@raqrockyjones) August 10, 2022

Now for how to do it the right way.

American Excellence pic.twitter.com/IdrH7qyc9j

— Citizen Free Press (@CitizenFreePres) August 7, 2022

This is an extremely well-done video presentation.

Recoil.

Before September 16, 2007, Slatten was just another one of the nameless and faceless “one percenters,” serving, living, and dying in some of the most dangerous spots on Earth.

“2007 was the deadliest year of the war,” Slatten told me, “I saw far more combat that year with Blackwater than I ever did in the military. You got shot at every time you went out. There was an average of 180 firefights every day that year. It was turned all the way up.”

Yes, it was like that in Fallujah too.  My son was there.

Everything changed when Slatten’s four-vehicle Blackwater Tactical Support Team, callsign Raven 23, responded to a car bomb attack on a diplomatic security detail in Baghdad. “There was a huge explosion at lunchtime; we dropped our food and ran for the trucks.”

They took small arms fire from multiple positions around the traffic circle at Nisour Square and responded in kind. “It was a bad situation; the Iraqi police were shooting at us, and vehicles became involved. There were civilians intermixed with the people shooting at us. My brothers did the best that they could do in an impossible situation.”

Slatten fired two rounds at a pair of armed individuals maneuvering against the team’s position — killing one of them.

While Slatten’s account of his actions signifies an appropriate application of force with restraint, there are conflicting reports that other members of the team did not.

The M240 gunner in Slatten’s BearCat armored vehicle fired dozens of rounds at a white Kia that matched the description of a suspected vehicle-borne improvised explosive device (VBIED).

The vehicle, which was occupied by innocent civilians, had failed to stop despite the team’s repeated warnings. He continued firing, resulting in numerous casualties. “Some guys on the team had a problem with what the machine gunners were doing. They thought they shot too much in a crowded circle.” Slatten, however, doesn’t share that view: “I think they didn’t shoot enough. If you’re getting shot at, you’re supposed to shoot back. They used discretion.”

According to the U.S. Department of Justice, 14 civilians were killed during the firefight and another 17 were wounded. Those specific numbers have been contested by some, but it was, by any measure, a tragic incident.

After the fight, Slatten and his teammates figured this was just another day on the job in an active war zone. They were wrong. Not long after they pulled into their Green Zone compound, their vehicles peppered with bullet impacts, an investigation into the Nisour Square event began to unfold.

[ … ]

“We reported to the investigators where the fire was coming from, and they found expended AK-47 shell casings in those locations,” Slatten remembers. “The State Department said it was a ‘good shoot’ and cleared us. Then, the FBI picked it up, and it got all sideways.”

But the case was thrown out by Judge Ricardo Urbina, who said the case was a nonstarter, rife with prosecutorial misconduct, and a total lack of evidence. He dismissed the case on New Year’s Eve 2009, saying: “The court declines to excuse the government’s reckless violation of the defendants’ constitutional rights as harmless error.”

Then-prime minister candidate Nouri al Malaki demanded “American justice” for his people — namely, a public trial for those involved in the Nisour Square incident.

Then-Vice President Joe Biden flew to Iraq, publicly apologized on behalf of the United States and vowed to appeal Judge Urbina’s decision, while then- Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, in an email from her private server asked “… what can we do about Judge Urbina’s ruling example, what is the likelihood of success on appeal? Can the U.S. file a civil action against the company? Pay compensation to the victims? What other options do we have?” It was clear the executive branch was interfering in the role of the judiciary.

[ … ]

Slatten was charged with a single count of murder, for killing the Kia driver — a shot that Slough said in multiple sworn statements that he had taken. The Kia driver’s father repeatedly refused to testify against Slatten, saying that the FBI had always told him that Slough killed his son.

The lead investigator was an Iraqi police colonel with definite ties to Iranian-backed insurgent groups. There were no autopsies conducted, and no forensic evidence utilized by the prosecution to build their case.

You can read the rest at Recoil.  But there you have it.  The FBI, Hillary Clinton, Maliki and Joe Biden.  That’s where the problem began.

I wish I was that good.

Source.

(Reuters) – A federal appeals court on Tuesday upheld a 2019 federal rule banning so-called “bump stocks,” a rapid-fire gun attachment that was used in the deadliest mass shooting in modern U.S. history.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit ruled that guns equipped with bump stocks qualify as machine guns, which federal law almost entirely bans. The decision was a setback for the Sacramento, California-based non-profit Firearms Policy Coalition and other gun rights advocacy groups that had sued to challenge the rule.

My understanding is that when a case will impact every circuit court, the appeal goes to D.C. circuit.

What a shame.  Never forget what happened (the executive branch literally made law in lieu of the Legislative branch doing it), where this rule came from (ATF), who recommended it (NRA), and who ordered the ATF to do it (Trump).

And to think, all of this was to cover up a running gun battle for miles and miles down main street in Las Vegas, perpetrated by someone other than the stated culprit.

Community caretaking should be left up to families and churches.  The state has no business involved in such affairs.