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The president used his constitutional position as Commander in Chief of the Armed forces to restore the rank of three accused military personnel, including the rank of SEAL Eddie Gallagher. His completely out of bounds courts martial was filled with JAG misconduct, including the clearly unconstitutional decision of the prosecutors to electronically spy on his defense attorneys. Beyond this outrage – which no one was prosecuted for – these idiots then used an immunized witness who testified that he killed the alleged ISIS victim, and NOT the accused. Gallagher was acquitted of everything except some piddling charge of taking a selfie with a terrorist stiff, which normally would have been handled with non-Judicial punishment, and still had the book thrown at him.

After the acquittal, the JAGs decided to award each other medals. Medals. Not indictments for their eavesdropping antics. Not letters of reprimand for their staggering incompetence. Medals. President Trump got wind of this and had to personally direct that these defective decorations be withdrawn. Fast forward to the restoration of Gallagher’s rank and what happens next? The Naval Special Forces commander, apparently the next day, initiated a proceeding to take Gallagher’s SEAL trident, his status as a special warfare operator.

Here is the most insidious part- Gallagher had already announced his retirement, and was due to be discharged in November. No matter what, Chief Gallgher was never again going to be on an actual SEAL team. Instead, the initiation of this review means that he could not be discharged until the review and all of the associated appeals were complete. So instead of retiring in November, he would perhaps be retiring next spring.  This was pure retribution for pissing off the Obama-era admirals, another example of Obama and his cronies trying to gum up the works.

President Donald Trump needs to announce a reduction in rank for the admiral in charge of the Naval Special Forces Command, for continuing with the punitive measures against Chief Gallagher against orders to the contrary. Contrary to what the Navy PIO had to say, an order doesn’t have to be in writing to be an order. Had the admiral mentioned that he wanted something done, and one of his subordinates refused to do so until the orders were in writing, that sailor would have been in NJP and reduced in rank within 48 hours. I know, I did 7 years in the Navy myself. Officers are very unforgiving of what they refer to as “sea lawyers.” I think it would be poetic justice to reduce him in rank to Commander, take away his Trident, and then place him in charge of the mess hall at some out of the way jerkwater naval base for the remainder of his career.

Once that is done, Trump needs to demote that Admiral’s boss for failing to maintain control of his subordinate. While he is at it, the PIO of the Navy should be second in command of the aforementioned mess hall, for allowing his command to issue passive aggressive statements disrespectful of the President. The Navy JAG corps likely needs some house cleaning, as well.

If none of that is legally permissible, then they could always convene a GCM for each of the officers above for violating various sections of the UCMJ. Here is an article that kind of touches on the legalities involved.  One thing is for sure- senior military officers are under the mistaken assumption that they have the ability to refuse orders from the chain of command. That is a dangerous state of affairs for a country with a history of a civilian controlled military.

Remember that police are the only ones that can be trusted to own guns, even when they are intoxicated and threatening Lyft drivers at gunpoint. 

I thought that this story about the Voyager probes measurements of interstellar space was fascinating.

Do you know why red flag laws won’t work as they are advertised? Because the government has been collecting too much data, and have not been verifying that what they are collecting is accurate. There is an old saying in computer circles: GIGO- Garbage In, Garbage Out. A computer database cannot be more accurate than the LEAST accurate data it has been fed.

As this unfortunate man found out, the cops are not all that motivated to ensure that the information they are keeping on all of us is accurate. The result is that innocents suffer, and criminals walk free.

The real travesty here is this:

There were discrapancies, but the cops didn’t care:

“It’s up to you guys,” replied the dispatcher. “Everything else that you gave me matches. So I guess he’ll need to get it straightened out at the jail.”

They didn’t care whether or not they got the right guy. Their default is to lock you up, and let YOU figure it out.

Back in 2007, I blogged about how EMS should and does disarm people during an EMS call. The reason has nothing to do with depriving anyone of rights and everything to do with physiology: people who are sick, dying, or having any other serious medical issue frequently lash out. This well known phenomenon is akin to a cornered animal fighting for its life. After all, when you are dying or seriously ill, your hindbrain kicks in and demands that you fight for survival: it is an instinct that has been embedded in our behavior by millions of years of evolution.

Some people disagree. This firefighter failed to disarm a seizure patient. When that patient came to, he shot and killed the firefighter. This story is the exact reason why this is done. Had that firefighter taken the simple precaution of moving the weapon out of the room, he would be alive and his patient would not be in prison.

I disarmed every patient I had, at least until we had concluded our business. Sometimes, that meant moving the gun to another room. Sometimes I held on to it, sometimes I turned the weapon over to the cops. In a couple of cases, I put the gun in the patient’s bag and placed the bag in the cab of my ambulance with my partner while the patient and I rode to the hospital in the back.

It was temporary, and only because of a medical condition that required it. No different than taking a drunk’s car keys.

I had a defensive gun use three years ago. I have hesitated to use it, until now.

I live in a very quiet community, and many people in the area use neighborhood electric vehicles to get around. Similar to golf carts, they are great for a quick errand to the store. Many areas in Florida are famous for this, and communities frequently include multi-use pathways just for that purpose.

Anyway, I had taken a run to the corner store and was on my way home, when a car backed out of a space in front of me, the driver obviously not bothering to check for cross traffic before backing out. I slammed on the brakes and avoided being hit by only a couple of inches. I gave him a dirty look, swerved around, and kept going. It was a white, two door Pontiac with a large “Punisher” sticker in the back window.

A minute or so later, I see in my mirror that the guy is behind me and honking his horn. As I stop to make the turn into my neighborhood, he jumps out of the car and begins telling me that it is illegal to leave the scene of an accident. I tell him that there was no accident, we never made contact. He tells me that I am a liar, and then says that he is a Navy Special Warfare police officer at the Navy base, and he is placing me under arrest. He tells me to turn around a put my hands behind my back. There are a few problems with that statement:

1. I am not aware of any “Navy Special Warfare Police”
2. Even if they exist, they have no civilian arrest powers
3. The nearest Navy operating base is over 100 miles away. Yes, there is a ‘secret’ Naval research facility about 20 miles from here, but I don’t think that they want their personnel running around in personal automobiles ‘arresting’ people for stupid stuff. The facility belongs to the Naval Research Lab, and they keep a VERY low profile. I don’t even know if there are military people there, it may just be civilians.
4. He is in shorts and a tank top. No identification. No uniform.

At any rate, this smells, so I ask for ID, which he refuses to produce. Right now, the bulk of his car and my NEV are between us, so I just tell him to get back in the car.

He says “What if I don’t want to?” and steps around the car. Now we are separated by about 10 feet and there is nothing between us but air. He takes another step closer.

I felt the hairs on my neck raise, and without even realizing that I had made the decision to do so, I drew my J frame from the pocket holster in my front right pocket. I held it at the low ready, muzzle pointed at the ground between us.

His eyes popped out of his head. I remember thinking that he looked like a cartoon character. He immediately put his hands up and began backing away as he said, “I’m not armed.” Then he ran, jumped in his vehicle, and sped away.

I called the 911, and a Deputy arrived less than a few minutes later. The cop who responded said that they would look for the guy, but they didn’t even take a report. The plate number I gave them was not a valid number. So he either had fake plates, or I simply didn’t give them the correct number.

The one big lesson that I took from this, was that I needed to begin carrying something to bridge the gap between bare hands and lethal force. That was the day that I began carrying Pepper Spray. 

Lake County, Florida has voted to become a Second Amendment sanctuary. Does this mean that the Lake County Sheriff is not going to enforce Federal gun laws?

According to the Sheriff of Fayette County, Georgia, thieves looking for firearms are keying in on pickups with hunting or even patriotic stickers or emblems. They are now targeting pickups at gas stations for smash and grab robberies, hoping to snatch guns from the center console.

This is the reason why my firearm is on me, and when it is not, it is secured in a Gunvault slider safe that is securely bolted to the inside of my truck. It has room for a firearm and a spare magazine. I own two of them.

I don’t have any relationship with Gunvault, other than the fact that I own two of them, and I highly recommend them.

In July, I reported that we had borrowed yet another trillion dollars. We do it so often that trillion just isn’t scary any longer. In this case, here we are just ten months after the last trillion dollar signpost, passing yet another. as we have just hit $23 trillion. 

Yesterday, the dew point was 74 degreesF here in Central Florida. This morning, it is 51 degrees. Fall is here, finally.