"U.S Troops Rage at their Leaders will grow unless there is deep reform"

This ties in with my rant that posted Thursday evening.  I saw this on the "New York Post" I'm kinda shocked actually.  The images are from my collection of pics on my laptop. 

 

Our military’s civilian leadership is corrupt and incompetent. The brass commands respect neither among the citizenry nor the forces it commands. Mid-level officers are in a rage — a dangerous phenomenon that in many other nations triggers insurrections and coups.

Blessedly, our institutions retain enough strength to prevent such outcomes here. That said, we need to tend to those institutions more carefully, if we want them to continue to work.

According to Rasmussen, more than half of Americans rate President Biden’s handling of Afghanistan as “poor.” His approval numbers have plummeted, and a majority of voters don’t trust administration reports on Afghanistan.

The Taliban and their Chinese allies have been mocking the United States on social media, while Beijing also openly threatens Taiwan, gloating that after the military humiliation of Afghanistan, Washington wouldn’t dare defend that island nation against invasion.

Biden’s stilted, disjointed speeches and clumsily scripted meetings with the families of dead service members haven’t helped. Nor has Vice President Kamala Harris impressed, with an awkward mission to Southeast Asia that merely underscored her unfitness to take over as president, if needed.

Meanwhile, the military command has failed miserably. Gen. Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, has become the butt of jokes. A group of retired senior officers has called on him, and on Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, to resign. Milley, who found time to lecture us on the dangers of “white rage” last summer, has lately vanished from sight.

Dem senator slams Biden for delay in freeing Americans

Meanwhile, the officers who actually do things are furious. A series of encrypted messages leaked to the media shows officers on the ground in Kabul blasting their orders, complaining that they were being forced to leave Americans behind. “We are f–king abandoning American citizens,” wrote a colonel with the 82d Airborne detachment there. Regular troops were reportedly apoplectic that they weren’t allowed to go rescue US citizens, as British and French forces did.

As this debacle unfolds, the field- and company-grade officers — captains through colonels — are complaining about a double standard in military management: If they screw up even a little, their careers are over. But when the generals screw up, there are no consequences, even when lives or billions of dollars are wasted; then they retire to fat contractor paychecks.

Marine Lt. Col. Stuart Scheller resigned his commission after Kabul to demand accountability from his superiors. He couldn’t stay, he said, because he had lost trust and confidence in them. His words have been echoed, publicly and in private, by many others of similar rank. (I received an email from a serving general making the same points.)

This is against the background of endless loose talk by our high political leaders about “coups,” “insurrections” and “sedition.” The laughable Capitol “riot” certainly didn’t rise to that level, but in a show of insecurity, the Capitol was ringed by 25,000 troops, several times as many as were sent to rescue Americans from Kabul. Banana republic stuff.

Generally speaking, a nation where the civilian leadership fears its citizens and has lost the nation’s confidence, and where the senior military leadership has lost the confidence of those down the chain of command, is a nation in trouble.  

Elsewhere, such circumstances would supply the dry tinder for a military coup. Fortunately, the United States is a bit more resistant. With so much of our government, and even our domestic military force, divided up among the states, a coup is much harder to pull off. And with our institutions, weakened as they are, still comparatively strong, we aren’t likely to see a “Seven Days in May” scenario in the near future.

But while unlikely, that scenario is now more likely than it used to be. And that’s because the people responsible for our great institutions, civilian and military, aren’t doing their jobs. In particular, they aren’t keeping faith with the people they are supposed to serve.

Afghanistan collapsed overnight, because its people lacked faith in its institutions and in those who led them. And no nation is immune to that collapse, if run badly enough for long enough.

 

The 20th Anniversary of 9-11-01

 I set to post this on the scheduler thingie to drop on Sept 11, 2021.  I wrote this post back in November of 2018,  I have blogged before about Rick Rescorla, to me he went to Valhalla on the wings of Valkyries.  To use a phrase that isn't used much anymore, "He died Well".  Everyone dies, that is the truth of our existence, but some choose to run forward despite the almost certainty of death to make a difference.

 

 

 

The Battle of la Drang Valley was the first major battle in the Vietnam War. 36 years later, the first major battle of the War on Terror was the bombing of the Twin Towers.

There are many people who remember both events, but Rick Rescorla is the only person who was at the heart of both.
Rick Rescorla was born in Cornwall, United Kingdom, but was one of the most distinguished heroes in the initial battle of Vietnam. He gave his life on September 11, 2001.
 

 

Just before the collapse of WTC 2. You can see all floors fully involved with fire and         structural failure is imminent

Rescorla’s career in the military started at the age of 17 when he joined the British military. There he trained as a paratrooper and would later serve in Cyprus. At the end of his Short-Service Commission, he joined the Northern Rhodesia police before returning to London to join the Metropolitan Police Service.
Rescorla’s tenure with the Met police was short-lived and he soon emigrated to the United States where he lived in a hostel in Brooklyn. He stayed there until he was able to enlist in the United States Army. He completed basic training at Fort Dix.

After basic training, he completed Officer Candidate School and airborne training, graduating with the assignment of platoon leader.
He became infantry leader of Company B, 2nd Battalion, 7th Cavalry Regiment, 1st Cavalry Division. Rescorla and his men were one of the first combat units on the ground in Vietnam.
In November 1965, he and his unit were involved in the battles in the la Drang Valley. One of the moments from these battles was captured by a war correspondent and appears on the cover of We Were Soldiers Once And Young. This iconic image is of Rick Rescorla holding his rifle with bayonet attached and marching forward into battle.

Rick Rescorla during the war, 1965

Rescorla and his unit fought at Landing Zone X-Ray before being extracted and provided with a brief rest. They were then instructed to return to the valley and reinforce another unit. The battles lasted three days, during which time the companies faced superior numbers but were able to hold off and drive the enemy forces back.
For his part in the war, Rescorla was honored with the Vietnamese Cross of Gallantry, a Purple Heart, a Silver Star, and the Bronze Star with Oak Leaf Cluster.

Some U.S. Army soldiers air-lifted into LZ X-Ray.

After leaving active duty, Rescorla remained a reserve, retiring with the rank of colonel. He used his military benefits to study creative writing and eventually earned a law degree from the Oklahoma City University School of Law.
He would go on to teach criminal justice for three years and publish a textbook on the subject.
His teaching career was short-lived and he moved on to the world of corporate security, joining Dean Witter Reynolds at their office in the World Trade Center.
It was during his time there that Rescorla became concerned with the security of the towers. This was prompted by the 1988 bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie in Scotland.

The remains of the forward section from Clipper Maid of the Seas (Pan Am Flight 103) on Tundergarth Hill, Lockerbie Scotland, 21 December 1988

The bombing pushed Rescorla to invite his old friend, Daniel Hill, to assess the security of the World Trade Center. Hill was trained in counterterrorism and determined that the basement would be the easiest target for a terror attack.
The two of them used the findings to write a report to the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey insisting that more security be added to the parking garage. Their recommendations were ignored due to the costs, leaving the building open to the 1993 terrorist attack.
During the 1993 attack, Rescorla was upset by the poor evacuation of the building and vowed that it would never happen again. In 1997, he became the director of security for Dean Witter/Morgan Stanley and was able to make some of the changes he wanted.

Procession of emergency vehicles at the World Trade Center bombing on February 26, 1993. The Tower is on the far right of the frame. Photo taken by Eric Ascalon from an adjacent pedestrian walkway. 

Rescorla did recommend that the company find different office space due to the vulnerability of the building, but lease obligations made this impossible. This left Rescorla to create an emergency evacuation plan that all employees had to practice again and again.
The emergency plan ensured that Morgan Stanley employees were ready for any attacks. On the morning of September 11, 2001, Rescorla heard the explosion from the North Tower and saw it burning from his office window on the 44th floor of the South Tower.
An announcement from Port Authority came over the PA system telling people to remain at their desks. Rescorla ignored the announcement, grabbed his bullhorn and ordered Morgan Stanley employees to start evacuating.

The north face of Two World Trade Center (south tower) immediately after being struck by United Airlines Flight 175

He directed the employees down the staircase and continued to encourage them when the building lurched as the second plane hit. To keep everyone calm, Rescorla started to sing as he had done for his platoon in Vietnam.

 Rick pushing people out of the building in Sept 11, 2001 saving their lives, this was the last pic that was taken of that man.

2,687 employees of Morgan Stanley owe their lives to Rick Rescorla as they were successfully evacuated. After seeing to this, Rescorla returned to the South Tower to ensure that everyone was out.
He was last seen on the 10th floor heading up shortly before the tower collapsed. His remains were never found and he was declared dead three weeks later.

The exterior support columns from the lower level of the South Tower remain standing after the collapse of the building.

Rick Rescorla was a man who saw battle with two armies and the start of the War on Terror. All but 13 employees of Morgan Stanley were able to exit the South Tower safely because of his leadership and foresight.

 Rescorla's name is located on Panel S-46 of the National September 11 Memorial’s South Pool

One of my favorite pics, it shows the indomitable spirit of the American People.

9-11-2002

Musings and Rants

 

 I have calmed down from the debacle called "The Afganistan Withdrawal".  My emotions are no longer hot, they are cold furious at the total ineptness of the Xiden Whitehouse.  Hell even kids know to take their toys home with them.  Instead we leave Americans over there trapped and the Xiden State Department are playing games with the private flights trying to get the rest of the Americans and any Afgani allies that haven't been killed by the Taliban, you know the ones that American Military left because they were under orders by Xiden and Milley not to go get them and then had them interfere with the Polish, French, British and anybody else that was trying to get any westerners out because it was making the Xiden administration look bad after Xiden went on Television and said that "there will not be no Saigon".  Funny that having Kabul fall in a weekend and now that the Taliban are in charge of Afghanistan, and there was a few provinces that were holdouts that were captured with the overt help of the Pakistan ISI and their Helicopters....You know the same Pakistan that sheltered OBL and we just conveniently "glossed" over that fact for the past 15 years. WTF?!!.  And what is Xiden administration "Deeply concerned about? "Lack Of Diversity" from the Taliban in Afghanistan ....Really?   What kind of make believe dreamland are these people living in?  The Taliban follow the edicts of a 7th century century death cult where women are chattel.  Jeez.

 

         Meanwhile all that equipment that the ineptness of the Xiden administration allowed to fall into the hands of the Taliban have allowed their sponsors, the Pakistani's, the Iranians, and the Chinese to allow the latest in western technology with is a boon to their R&D efforts to develop counter measures to our ways of war.  The Same administration that has issues with us American citizens owning firearms but yet have no problems turning over 600,000 actual assault rifles, millions of rounds of ammo, machine guns, MRAPS, Helicopters, airplanes, Drones, night vision gear and a myriad of other items of a modern Army but yet they talk tough to American citizen and act like pussies on the world stage.

 

  It is the same thing when Barky Lightbringer was in charge, he was a wimp to the world, but to the GOP and to conservatives he was confrontational, and the complicit Mainstream media would cover for him and sing his praises.  

    Meanwhile the Xiden ardent supporters a trying to blame the debacle on the former President Trump's administration saying "We were following his plan, so it is his fault" Well there is a couple of things wrong with that assertion...

   1. As soon as Xiden came into office, he immediately reversed as many of "Orange Man Bad" policies as he could, to somehow stick with this one thing kinda flies in the face of that.  

   2. And this is the most important part, he is the President, his handlers stole the election, he wanted the job, so as President Truman said whom is a fellow democrat(although I'm sure that he wouldn't recognize the current crop of donks as being anywhere near "his" party of democrats back in the day.) "The Buck Stops Here".  You saw that the situation was going pear shaped and did nothing, YOU OWN IT.

     My rant isn't done, Not only am I pissed at the Xiden Whitehouse, I am really pissed at the Military, what General thought this was a good idea? First off to Give up Bagram?  That huge base 1 hour outside of Kabul?  What genius thought it was smart to sneak away in the middle of the night and leave a bunch of equipment for the Taliban?   It was all over social media the supplies and munitions that were left when we snuck out of there?  Somebody wasn't verifying stock or rendering it inert? WTF, but this was a portent of the bigger goatrope when the government fell and Taliban just walked into Kabul over a weekend 

     What I am really angry about is the sheer arrogance, it is like the 5 sided Puzzle palace forgot the lessons of Vietnam, Oh Yeah, the Officers and men that were around and experienced that loss and swore that we wouldn't EVER do it again.  They rebuilt the Military from the bad days of the Carter White House, Revamped doctrine, developed AirLand Battle, and totally changed our way of war, they saw what had happened in Vietnam and didn't want to have it happen again. So we had "Desert Storm" which was a war like no other, and I was part of that and I am proud to be part of that, we liberated a country that was attacked and seized by a bully so to speak and we went in and freed Kuwait and kicked their asses and now Kuwait is doing really well and I am proud of that, but it was built on the lessons of Vietnam by the guys that were there before me.  

    But the new breed of Officers all they had was the hubris of "We won" and that was it....Really?  Only a fool forgets the lessons of the past.  Hell us enlisted and lower grade officers officers knew what the hell was going one, but for some reason once you got those stars, you got a partial lobotomy and forgot everything that they taught at those service schools except "CRT" and "White Fragility" instead of warfighting. You saw a piece of it a few years ago when the Navy had a couple of ships damaged in collisions, and the root cause was that they had people unqualified running the bridge.  Apparently Diversity and inclusion are more important than learning how to crew a ship.  I blame some of this on President Obama, but the rot had started before then during the Clinton administration. But what really gets me..there were no resignations from the 5 sided Puzzle palace, no resignations from the clowns from foggy bottom.  the only person that has resigned was a Lt Colonel from the Marines who resigned because he demanded accountability from his chain of command for this and they are all cowards and stayed silent in their shame.  They knew it was a bad idea, they knew it was a bad call and nobody was man enough to throw their stars on the table and tell the "National Command Authority" that he is fucked in the head.  No they stayed silent to preserve their position and power and consulting gigs after they hang up their suits,  what the hell happened to integrity? what happened to Honor? what happened to Duty?   like craven chicken shits they stayed silent and let the United States get humiliated like nothing in recent history.  The Officers of Old would have resigned, or ate a bullet for the shame that they brought on this country, but these clowns?  Jeez I am still pissed.  

      North Vietnamese Tank driving through the gate of the Presidential palace in Saigon in April 1975
 

     I remember as a kid watching my Dad glued to the TV in April of 1975 and I couldn't understand why he was so angry, hey I was a kid you know.  When I got older I better understood the significance of that date.  I later asked him and he told me that he was ashamed that all their sacrifice and loss was for nothing.  Granted the South Vietnamese stood for 2 more years but after their supplies and support was cut by the democratic congress what was full of supporters for North Vietnam and they enjoyed shanking South Vietnam and President Ford had no political capital left after pardoning Nixon.  Granted it was the right thing to do, and it probably cost him the presidency in 1976 and gave us the now 3rd worst president in modern history.

      Besides that circus, we have America splitting up into "Vaxxed" and Unvaxxed" camps and the liberals are in the "vaxxed camp and they believed that anybody that doesn't accept the holy sacraments of "The Jab" .are subhuman and should be treated like vermin,, herded into camps and ostracized from society as a threat to society.   I recall version 1.0 of this circus and 6 millions Jews plus other "Undesirables" were herded into camps because they were viewed as a "threat to Order, threat to Society, Threat to Health", and other reasons and a  certain modern  20 century European country after stripping them of their rights including firearms via the "Nuremberg Laws" and stripped them of their citizenship  then herded them into ghetto's after seizing all their property for "the Good of the State".  Now there is a new generation of the same kind statist trying the same thing here, they have already starting the ball rolling by segregating people in their houses, isolation certain groups and if you think your neighbor won't fink on you...Guess again,  once your status comes out that you refuse to accept the "Holy Jab", you will be considered a "NonBeliever" and cast out of Mainstream society. 

 You doubt me? Go check on Twitter and see what the average liberal thinks of you.  People wondered how Anne Franks wound up dead in a Nazi Death Camp?  Her family neighbors may have squealed on them, Your neighbors may be encouraged to squeal on you.  in East Germany, 1out of 7 "Osters" were informants for the "Stasi" whom helped the German Communist Party remain in power.  The Stasi were better secret policeman than the KGB.

  

     I don't know what the next 3.5 years will bring, I am not sure if we can vote our way out of it, the Donks stole the 2020 election and I believe that they will try even more crap in 2024.  They will use the excuse of another variant to keep scaring the crap out of people and when people are scared, they use emotions and emotions are a bad things and their media sycophants will keep  the fear drummed up so they can use the emergency power to keep themselves in power and they will push it as long as they can until the country implodes or explodes. 

The Germans "People's Storm Rifle" of WWII fame

 Some background, I have blogged quite a bit about WWII and Germans and the Prewar and postwar era of Germany, I was stationed there in the mid 80's for 5 years and returned "Back to the World in 1991" after the Gulf War.  Germany at the point of WWII was losing and losing badly, they had suffered reverses on all battlefields and they had lost a lot of resources that was recaptured or flat out captured by the various allies and raw material was getting more difficult to get.  Manpower was also an issue, by this stage of the war, Germany was scraping the bottom of the manpower barrel, they had lost millions of their men in war, plus they had a huge number of their men captured by the allies and with the case of the Soviets, few would ever return from the Gulag system in the mid 50's.  The Nazi government decided to form the "Volksturm" or Peoples Army as a last ditch effort to fight off the Allies closing in on the homeland, it also goes in with the Nazi belief in "Gotterdammerung" the end of the world according to Nordic belief.  Remember the Volksturm was formed by the Nazi Party, not the German Military and this ties in their mythos and belief system. I snagged the following article off "American Rifleman", it is a damm good article and it had some good info in it,

 The Iconic picture of the "Volksturm" or German Militia going to defend Berlin as the Soviets approach, You notice at this point, most of them wore "Civilian Clothes" and all they got was an "Armband" to signify that they were in the "Volksturm" that was worn on the coat of their left arm on the lower part of the sleeve a few inches above the cuff.

The military firearms produced for the government of the Third Reich are generally recognized as being some of the finest of World War II. On the one hand, that is certainly true when you consider German innovations like the general-purpose machine gun, the intermediate cartridge, and the roller-delayed blowback operating system. But when the demand for resources began to outpace the available supply, Germany eventually had to cut corners like everybody else.

The ongoing development of small arms over the course of the conflict therefore became a process of not just building better guns, but also building them as economically as possible. By late 1944, the Third Reich had to confront certain emerging realities about manpower as well. After staggering battlefield setbacks in North Africa and the Soviet Union in 1943, and the retreat on all fronts that began during the summer of 1944, the time had come to mobilize the element of Germany’s male population that was not already in uniform.

Left-side view of Gustloff-Werke VG1-5 Th 8895. Photograph by Jeff Hallinan of Collectors Firearms in Houston, Tex.

Accordingly, in September 1944, Adolf Hitler authorized the establishment of a national militia called the Volkssturm, and he did it just as the U.S. 12th Army Group began its attack on the Siegfried Line. German boys and men between the ages of 16 and 60 years were conscripted into the Volkssturm–some of them having been previously rejected for military service, and many of them being convalescent veterans. They were organized into battalions and lightly armed with the infamous Panzerfaust to fight Allied armor and an assortment of substitute standard small arms to fight Allied infantry.

A closer left-side view of Gustloff-Werke VG1-5 Th 8895. Photograph by Jeff Hallinan of Collectors Firearms in Houston, Tex.

Although Germany maintained a significant stockpile of older service rifles like the Gew 98, as well as battlefield-captured foreign rifles, a need still existed to arm Volkssturm troops, so the Primitiv-Waffen-Programm was created. This program developed the kind of simplified firearms needed at this late stage of the war, including a German copy of the STEN submachine gun designated MP3008 Volksmaschinenpistole. In addition to conventional “last ditch” type bolt-action rifles, the Primitiv-Waffen-Programm also introduced a decidedly unconventional self-loading rifle designated the VG1-5. 

Right-side view of Gustloff-Werke VG1-5 Th 8895. Photograph by Jeff Hallinan of Collectors Firearms in Houston, Tex.

Designed by Karl Barnitzke of Gustloff-Werke in Suhl, Thuringia, the Volkssturmgewehr 1-5 was assembled using just 39 metal parts, only 12 of which required milling. Aside from a few rivets and screws, everything else on the gun was either sheet metal or springs, and that made it comparatively inexpensive and simple for a self-loading rifle. What makes Barnitzke’s design unconventional though is the use of a delayed-blowback action, whereby gas pressure vented into the operating slide briefly delays its rearward movement just long enough for the bullet to leave the 14.9" barrel.

A closer right-side view of Gustloff-Werke VG1-5 Th 8895. Photograph by Jeff Hallinan of Collectors Firearms in Houston, Tex.

Once that has happened, residual gas pressure eventually overcomes the mass of the slide, sending it rearward into an operating cycle that extracts the spent cartridge case, ejects it and then feeds a fresh cartridge out of the magazine. The gun’s chamber is fluted to assist with extraction. This system only works in the VG1-5, because it is chambered for the intermediate 7.92x33 mm Kurz cartridge – the same cartridge used in the MP44 Sturmgewehr. Such an operating system would never work with the 7.92x57 mm Mauser cartridge, but with the less powerful 7.92 mm Kurz, everything is in balance. 

Top view of Gustloff-Werke VG1-5 Th 8895. Photograph by Jeff Hallinan of Collectors Firearms in Houston, Tex.

A further economizing practicality of the Volkssturmgewehr design is that it uses the same detachable box magazine as the MKb42, MP43 and MP44 – an important part of the weapon system already in operational use when VG1-5 production began in late 1944. With a mass of just over 10 lbs., its weight is about the same as the Sturmgewehr, but the similarities end there. The two guns produce totally different recoil impulses because of their different operating systems, and they feature very different sighting systems.

Bottom view of Gustloff-Werke VG1-5 Th 8895. Photograph by Jeff Hallinan of Collectors Firearms in Houston, Tex.

While the MP44 is equipped with a rear sight assembly adjustable out to 800 meters and a drift-adjustable front sight, the VG1-5 is equipped with a fixed U-notch rear sight set for 100 meters and a simple post front sight. Another big difference is that the Sturmgewehr is select-fire, while the Volkssturmgewehr is capable of semi-automatic fire only. Anyone with an interest in German small arms from World War II will stop and take notice if they ever encounter a VG1-5, but they will also quickly observe that something is conspicuously missing.

View of the serial number markings of Gustloff-Werke VG1-5 Th 8895. Photograph by Jeff Hallinan of Collectors Firearms in Houston, Tex.

Since the German military did not adopt the Volkssturmgewehr, there are no Waffenamt acceptance marks on it. For that matter, there is not even a model designation roll stamped on the receiver. In fact, the only markings to be seen on the gun will be a serial number on the left side of the beechwood buttstock with the letters “Th” as a prefix. Since the Gauleiter of the state of Thüringia ordered the guns, not the Wehrmacht, the “Th” constitutes the only indication that the government of the Third Reich had anything to do with them. 

Volkssturm soldiers in an emplacement along the Oder River on Feb. 12, 1945. The man on the left is armed with a Gustloff Volkssturmgewehr. Bundesarchiv, Bild 183-J28787 / CC-BY-SA.

With a dull phosphate finish on its metallic parts and an overall crude appearance, the VG1-5 is not an elegant-looking firearm, but it was never intended to be that. It was intended to be functional, and that is well-illustrated by several of its design features: the forward handguard and buttstock are permanently riveted to the receiver, a webbed gas-mask canister strap attached to them functions as a sling, the gun’s safety selector also serves as one of its two disassembly pins, the cocking handle is a strip of sheet metal bent into the shape of a hook, and the trigger group’s stamped dust cover also secures the rear end of the operating slide to the receiver.

It is utilitarianism in its purest form, and it is the culmination of the same industrial design considerations that also produced the U.S. M3 "Grease Gun." In the end, Gustloff-Werke produced only 10,000 examples of the Volkssturmgewehr and, although it was a clever design for its time, it did not meaningfully influence the outcome of the war. Neither did the battalions of Volkssturm militiamen who carried it in combat during the closing months of the "thousand-year Reich."

Monday Music "Allentown" by Billy Joel a Labor Day Special

 

I am continuing to give the "Bugaloo" meme a break for a few more weeks. Now because it is a Major Holiday. Labor Day,  On this  Monday Music. I am going with "Allentown" from Billy Joel, I remember a line from the song, "The jobs went away and the union people crawled away" this happened when in the video it showed a worker getting his pink slip while in the shower.  I thought about this when my job went away at Ford Motor Company. it still gives me bad feelings to see that.

 Inside the door of my toolbox at home now, I kept my

Old Ford Toolbox and modified it for work until I had to take it home 

because we have tool control now*Mutter,spit*

 

The pictures were inside the lid that was featured in the beginning of the article.

   This is what it looked like after I modded it and repaired the toolbox and built a Sidebox

Don't get me wrong, I understand why Ford did what they did and they treated us good in a really bad situation.  I was the only republican to hold union office, I was a heck of a good shop steward.  The rank and file knew it, I didn't hide it, and half of them voted for the GOP despite the union recommending anybody democrat.  I had my own issues with the democratic party, even back then, they treated the UAW as an ATM, mention "worker platitudes" and they would take our money, but they were beholding to the environmental movement.  and I knew if the environmental groups had their way, my job would be gone.  Well it went away anyway. but it was for different reasons.

Stickers on my old gun safe.

 

        I got lucky, I got hired by a local airline and am a chemtrail technician now and doing very well, unlike many of my Ford peeps who didn't transfer to another Ford plant,  they didn't do so well.  It was difficult making the adjustments.  Even now I am sensitive to the subject of "Outsourcing". 

.

"Allentown" is a song by American singer Billy Joel, which first appeared on Joel's The Nylon Curtain (1982) album, accompanied by a conceptual music video. It later appeared on Joel's Greatest Hits: Volume II (1985), 2000 Years: The Millennium Concert (2000), The Essential Billy Joel (2001), and 12 Gardens Live (2006) albums. Also, it was featured in Hangover II (2011) "Allentown" is the lead track on The Nylon Curtain, which was the seventh best-selling album of the year in 1982. The song reached #17 on the Billboard Hot 100, spending six consecutive weeks at that position and certified gold. Despite the song placing no higher than #17 on the weekly Billboard Hot 100 chart, it was popular enough to place at #43 on the Billboard year-end Hot 100 chart for 1982.
Upon its release, and especially in subsequent years, "Allentown" has emerged as an anthem of blue collar America, representing both the aspirations and frustrations of America's working class in the late 20th century.

The song's theme is of the resolve of those coping with the demise of the American manufacturing industry in the latter part of the 20th century. More specifically, it depicts the depressed, blue-collar livelihood of residents of Allentown, Pennsylvania and Bethlehem, Pennsylvania in the wake of Bethlehem Steel's decline and eventual closure. Joel witnessed this first-hand while performing at the Lehigh Valley's numerous music venues and colleges at the start of his career in the late 1960s and early 1970s.
The introductory rhythm of the song is reminiscent of the sound of a rolling mill converting steel ingots into I-beams or other shapes. Such a sound was commonly heard throughout South Bethlehem when the Bethlehem Steel plant was in operation from 1857 through 1995.
     When Joel first started writing the song, it was originally named "Levittown", after the Long Island town right next to Hicksville, the town in which Joel had grown up. He had originally written a chord progression and lyrics for the song, but struggled for a topic for the song. Joel remembered reading about the decline of the steel industry in the Lehigh Valley, which included the small cities of both Bethlehem and Allentown. While the steel industry was based in Bethlehem with none of it in Allentown, Joel named the song "Allentown" because it sounded better and it was easier to find other words to rhyme with "Allentown." Although Joel started writing the song in the late 1970s, it wasn't finished until 1982.

A year after the song was released, the mayor of Allentown sent a letter to Joel about giving some of his royalties to the town. Mayor Joseph Daddona, who sent the letter, said it would help for scholarships for future musicians. On January 20, 1983, the letter was mailed to Joel, and a local paper published an article on the subject the next day, quoting Daddona as saying: "Not only would this fund be a great way to share a tiny part of your good fortune to others in Allentown, it would also help keep alive the 'Allentown' song and the Billy Joel legend (which you've already become here)."
When Joel performed the song in Leningrad during the concert recorded and later released as Концерт, he introduced the song by analogizing the situation to that faced by Soviet youths: "This song is about young people living in the Northeast of America. Their lives are miserable because the steel factories are closing down. They desperately want to leave... but they stay because they were brought up to believe that things were going to get better. Maybe that sounds familiar."

The video, directed by Russell Mulcahy and featuring choreography by Kenny Ortega, was in heavy rotation on MTV during 1982 and 1983. The original version of the video features partial male nudity when male coal workers are taking a shower at the beginning, but that part was edited when it aired on MTV. (Although it has aired uncut on both VH1 Classic and MTV Classic in recent years.)

 

"The Day America Died..."

 I clipped this from "American Patriot.  I am still so pissed, so disgusted, so embarrassed, so ashamed and just angry on how this went down, and how totally unnecessary it was.  I will probably "do" a rant next week when my hot emotions have calmed down and my logic and common sense can once use the keyboard without using a bunch of invective's and throwing things.

Biden's AFG Retreat Complete — The War Is NOT Over

What Milley, Austin, and the other Beltway high command failed to see was the red flag right in front of them.

Mark Alexander

Amid all the exit fanfare yesterday from feckless Joe Biden and his inept senior military and diplomatic cadres, I was deeply moved by a single sentence that sums up what was conceived as an orderly troop drawdown under Donald Trump, but devolved into a disgraceful retreat under Biden.

"In what f***ing world was it a good idea to just hand over a country to these people."

Those words were from Operation Enduring Freedom combat veteran and former Navy SEAL Dan Crenshaw (R-TX). That post was over a video of a seized Blackhawk helicopter being flown by Taliban militia over an Afghan town — lumbering low over rooftops with one of our former Afghan allies dangling lifeless, hanging by the neck, under the aircraft.

Despite the assertion by Biden and his Leftmedia parrots that our AFG mission is over, take no comfort — this was NOT the end of the war. It is the beginning of a violent purge of those Joe Biden just abandoned — our allied Afghans and their wives and children, along with hundreds of American citizens who were seeking to exit but were left behind. It is the beginning of the rise of a new age of terrorism — Biden has reseeded al-Qa'ida's turf, and demonstrated to far more powerful tyrants in China, Russia, Iran, and North Korea that they have nothing to fear from Biden.

For Biden's boundless ineptitude, we will pay a price much heavier than the disaster we left in Afghanistan. Brace yourself, America.

We disgracefully abandoned our citizens after Biden's commitment not to do so. We also abandoned more than 80,000 Afghan "Special Immigration Visa" holders — those who were already vetted as being clearly allied with our military and now marked for death — along with tens of thousands of others who were waiting on visas. That disgrace was captured by these words from our national security analyst, Gen. B.B. Bell, U.S. Army (Ret.), who described the circumstances as "the single most dishonorable act by my country that I have witnessed since my first day of military service on 5 June 1969." Gen. Bell added: "Today I am ashamed of my country. I am ashamed of my country's political leadership. I am ashamed of our military leadership. Today, in my heart, America died. I hang my head in shame. I'm so very sorry for those Americans and our Afghan allies we have abandoned. May God protect them as we have not."

Announcing mission over but certainly not accomplished, Gen. Frank McKenzie, commander of U.S. Central Command, declared: "I'm here to announce the completion of our withdrawal from Afghanistan and the end of the mission to evacuate American citizens, third country nationals and vulnerable Afghans. The last C-17 lifted off from Hamid Karzai International Airport on August 30, this afternoon at 3:29 pm East coast time..." He added, "No words from me could possibly capture the full measure of sacrifices and accomplishments of those who served, nor the emotions they're feeling at this moment."

Well, here are a few words that put numbers to that sacrifice: Over the last 20 years, 2,461 of our military personnel were killed by Taliban militia, the Islamist extremists who invaded Afghanistan in 1996 and became the hosts of terrorist who struck out against the world, including those who perpetrated the 9/11 Islamist attack on our nation. We suffered more than 20,000 injured veterans, many of whom endured life-altering injuries. We spent $824.9 billion on military operations, but we have spent far more than that when considering care for injured veterans. Over the same two decades, our allied Afghan deaths top an estimated 69,000, and an additional 47,000 civilians were killed.

So we leave the AFG theater, and the Taliban thugs are now in a much more powerful position than when we arrived in 2001. They are far more dangerous and deadly because of billions of dollars in U.S. military equipment Biden left behind, and Afghanistan is a fully restored breeding ground for the world's most deadly terrorists.

The catastrophic failure of our mission and retreat was not because of any lack of courage and commitment from our warfighters. As I have noted, the problem was not the plan; it was the man.

According to Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Mark Milley, "There was nothing that I or anyone else saw that indicated a collapse of this army and this government in 11 days." How could that be? As Tucker Carlson noted: "Our intelligence agencies received a combined $85 billion last year. For perspective, that's more money than Russia, Germany, and the UK spent on their entire annual military budgets."

What Milley, Austin, and the other Beltway high command failed to see was the red flag right in front of them the whole time: Joe Biden. And it is because the Taliban had no fear of Biden that this evil overran the Afghan government and people in just days. With Trump gone, the Taliban summarily discarded all the conditions he set for withdrawal and ousted the Afghan government.

After McKenzie's announcement, Secretary of State Antony Blinken's staffers issued notice that our Afghan embassy had suspended all operations.

Biden then delivered a few prepared remarks thanking his commanders for such a fine job. At the same time, the Taliban was taking over Kabul airport and celebrating the additional armaments and aircraft we left there — and all the caged military service dogs.

Even the Washington Post editorial board declared Biden's retreat was a "moral disaster." They are much too kind.

Regardless of how Biden et al. attempt to spin this disaster, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell was clear about the national security threat outcome. He noted, "This is one of the worst foreign policy decisions in American history, much worse than Saigon," because the withdrawal from Vietnam did not signal a significant threat to Americans. To that point, he added: "Just because we decided to stop fighting doesn't mean the terrorists go away. So they're still out there. They're invigorated. They're emboldened. They're excited about the success they see in bringing America to its knees in Afghanistan."

Biden's compressed Afghan exit schedule was motivated by his desire to take a political victory lap ahead of the 20th observance of the 9/11 Islamist attack on our nation. There will be no victory lap. There will be more Islamist attacks against the U.S.

"Time for Straight Talk"

 I snagged this from "Bill O Reilly".  I get emails on a regular basis and this one was a very good email/post from him so I decided to post it on my blog.

 

Time for Straight Talk This column will take no prisoners. Nor will it evacuate anyone. No, what I am writing needs to be said and I will say it. President Biden is not able to effectively run the United States of America. He is directly responsible for the death and destruction in Afghanistan as well as thousands of poor migrants being brutalized in Mexico at this very moment. These are humanitarian disasters on a massive scale. Mr. Biden is a diminished man living in a world of delusion. And now the entire world knows it. No one really understands who, exactly, is running the Executive Branch of the U.S. government. It is certainly not Joe Biden. But the President hired his staff and the cabinet members and the woke Generals, who are embarrassing the military and putting them in grave danger. The corrupt corporate media is also responsible for the incredible mess Biden has caused in seven months. Its destructive hatred of President Trump has led us to this point. The press did everything it could, including peddling rank falsehoods, to demean and destroy Mr. Trump. The result: perhaps the most incompetent leader in American history today works in the Oval Office. Even now, anti-Trump fanatics like Juan Williams and Matthew Dowd spew incomprehensible gibberish about what a great job old Joe is doing. The Democratic Party is also responsible for the madness that’s on vivid display. Speaker Nancy Pelosi will not answer questions about Afghanistan. Why should she? The Congresswoman can’t even explain why her own San Francisco district is overrun with criminality and social chaos. In addition, every single American who voted for Joe Biden is indirectly responsible for America’s dramatic decline. And it’s not just overseas or at the border. Inflation is galloping, the individual work ethic is being destroyed - right along with important American traditions like due process and self-reliance. Yes, most people who voted for Biden did so to get rid of Trump. But casting a ballot on emotion almost always leads to disaster. And that’s what we are now facing as a nation. Like many Americans, I cringe when the President of the United States has to answer questions or read the teleprompter. I’ve been around long enough to know when a person is not able to do a job. There is no debate about this - Joe Biden cannot run the country and the damage he is doing is incalculable. As for a comeback, come on, man (as Biden might say)! Biology is a definite science. Every person ages. All of us are slaves to time. Joe Biden’s time has passed. He is not capable of complicated decision-making. He and his band of enablers are not going to improve. That’s the truth. I’m glad I told it.

M1 Garand, History and Disassembly

 I shamelessly clipped this from "American Rifleman".  In honor of my poor departed Garand that I lost in that durn kayak accident *Sniff*Sniff*, Those Kayaks should be registered as "Lethal Weapons". for the havoc they cause to the gun owning community.

A History of the M1 Garand

During World War I, the United States Army experimented with a number of different machine gun designs, and the news reports of the tests got a young inventor thinking about, and eventually designing, a machine gun of his own. His initial attempt was a primer-actuated light machine gun he submitted to the National Bureau of Standards, which had instructed him to make a model of it. That design became the basis for what would, eventually, become the M1 rifle—commonly called the “Garand” after its inventor, John Cantius Garand.

Garand, who became a Springfield Armory employee in 1919, had an extensive background in design and production. Once at Springfield, he was tasked with designing a semi-automatic shoulder rifle based upon his earlier machine gun. He worked on and improved the design for the next 17 years. The now-familiar M1 was finally adopted on January 9, 1936, the rifle was adopted as the “U.S. Rifle, Cal. .30, M1.”

Early production rifles used a “gas trap” instead of the later “gas port” design and initially did not perform as well as expected, but once the “bugs” were worked out, the rifle was favorably received. It was fed by an eight-round en-bloc clip that was ejected along with the last spent casing, locking the bolt back and leaving the receiver open for a fresh clip to be inserted. User-friendly, accurate and chambered for the powerful ​​​
.30-’06 Sprg. cartridge, the M1 gained a reputation as a hardy and well-made service rifle.

World War II was the rifle’s baptism of fire, and it performed admirably. To a man, the G.I.s put their faith in their M1 rifles and took them from North Africa to Okinawa. Along the way, Garand made more improvements to the rifle based upon field experience and soldiers’ comments.

Although late to adopt the rifle, the Marines liked it, too, and found it well-suited for jungle fighting. America was the only country to equip its fighting men with a semi-automatic rifle as a standard shoulder arm. The venerability of the rifle was further established in the Korean War.

The M1 rifle is not without faults. At just under 10 lbs. it is heavy and the en-bloc clip does not allow for easy “topping off.” Because of those drawbacks, America sought a high-capacity, fully automatic rifle for individual soldiers. Reliability and accuracy were paramount, however, and the M1 was the measuring stick. What later became the M14 was based upon the M1.

Combined, Springfield Armory and Winchester Repeating Arms manufactured more than 4 million M1s during World War II. International Harvester and Harrington & Richardson manufactured them as well, and, during the Korean War, more than 500,000 were made.

The rifle is considered one of the finest ever produced by American armories. Its popularity is evidenced by its representation on the firing line at Camp Perry and other highpower rifle matches to this day. It is accurate, robust and its service record speaks for itself.

Disassembly

Disassembly of the unloaded M1 rifle begins by pulling the bolt rearward until it locks back. Visually inspect the chamber to ensure it is not loaded, then press down on the slide and follower while holding the operating rod and ease the bolt forward. Do this carefully or you will end up with a case of “M1 thumb”—a highly unpleasant condition!

Fig. 1

Once this is done, disassembly can begin. Pull rearward on the trigger guard (53) and then out and away from the stock. The entire trigger housing (54) and assembly will separate from the rifle (Fig. 1). Lift the receiver (44) and assembly away from the stock.

Disengage the follower rod (22) from the follower arm (20) by moving the rod toward the muzzle. Remove the rod and operating rod spring (40). Next, push out the follower arm pin (21) from the receiver’s left side. Then lift away the bullet guide (5),

follower arm and operating rod catch (39) (Fig. 2). Reach down into the receiver and lift out the slide and follower (46).

Fig. 2

Continue disassembly by pulling the operating rod (38) rearward until the rear surface of the handle is directly under the forward edge of the windage knob on the rear sight. Disengage the guide lug on the operating rod through the dismount notch on the receiver with upward and outward pressure on the handle of the operating rod (Fig. 3). The rod should now come free from the receiver. Remove the bolt (4) by grasping it and sliding it forward while lifting upward and outward with a rotating motion (Fig. 4).

Fig. 3

 

With a large, blunt screwdriver, unscrew and remove the gas cylinder lock screw (30). Unscrew and remove the gas cylinder lock (29). Next, remove the gas cylinder (28) by sliding it forward and off the barrel. If the gas cylinder is tightly attached, rap on the bayonet stud with a nylon hammer or piece of soft wood to loosen it. Do not burr or damage the internal splines. The front handguard (23) may then be moved forward and off the barrel.

This is all that is needed for basic cleaning. All other bolt and trigger housing disassembly and parts replacement should be done by a competent gunsmith. Reassembly of the M1 is in the reverse order. 

A few precautions: The operating rod for the M1 has a bend that is intentional, and it should never be hammered on or straightened out. The crown of the operating rod should also be kept bright by using a solvent and nylon brush. Do not scrub with a metal brush or other harsh abrasive. The tolerances within the gas operating system are quite close and nothing should be used that can affect the system.

All operating parts should have a light coat of lubrication except the inside of the gas cylinder. This should be free of carbon deposits and other fouling, but should be kept dry