SCOTUS To Hear Challenge To NY Gun Carry Laws

 I can hear Mike Bloomberg and all the other Anti-Gun groups gnashing their teeth already!

https://apnews.com/article/us-supreme-court-new-york-violence-los-angeles-gun-politics-10145dcf18c16614922e5b5d73907eeb

Made In China

 Oh Yeah, you can't make this shit up!

The Daily Situation for 10-28-21 from Forward Observer - And Ed Calderon On The Santa Muerte (Saint Death) Cult and The Mexican Cartels

So today, we have "Skynet Is coming", DOJ to ramp up investigations of "Domestic Extremism" and DHS no longer looking for MS-13 members sneaking into the U.S. along with other illegal border migrants.

"Thanks Uncle Joe" !

https://forwardobserver.com/daily-sa-us-developing-skynet-ai-for-homeland-defense/ 

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 Ed Calderon (Of Ed's Manifesto) on the influence of "Santa Muerte" as regards the Mexican Crime Cartels. Strange stuff indeed.

An Interview by Scott Baab

"Mother the mercifuI bless our firearms with your hand, our knives with your foot, and guide our bullets and stabs with the finger that is closest to your heart. May we earn your need and be your wrath."
 
— A Santa Muerte Prayer
 
 Years ago, along the outskirts of the sprawling urban wasteland of Baja California — or as Ed Calderon refers to it: The Upside Down . . .
 
A black weathered shrine, box-shaped and adorned with a pair of meek columns, sits under an imposing cement slab. Cheap fake vines, emerging from an outcropping of flowers at the pillars base have been carefully manipulated by devotees to appear as if they are climbing the poles. Baskets of flowers adorn the humble structure — offerings from her followers. Behind a glass door on the front of the shrine sits a statue of their beloved saint. A sad string of Christmas lights dangles from the roof; precariously entangled amongst them is a severed human foot.

The shrine belongs to Santa Muerte, or "Holy Death". She is one of many non-canonized folk saints who, though officially disavowed by the Catholic Church, are worshiped by Catholics and non-Catholics alike south of the border.
 
Her image takes many forms there, from the horrifying to the strangely beautiful — but always as some form of the Grim Reaper. She is presented in many colors — white, red, black, gold, blue, yellow, and green, sometimes all in a single icon. Each color represents a different facet of the dark saint, one of many aspects of a complex and ever-evolving iconography.
 
The shrine sits along the edge of a lush overgrown field, at some remove from a handful of dismal shanty-houses hiding in the darkness. It was here that a scene so disturbing unfolded, that the aftermath called to mind the absurd gruesomeness of an eighties-era slasher movie.
 
"We learned they were low-level cartel affiliates who were stealing and got discovered," Ed recalls. "They went into hiding, but the cartel knew that this particular shrine was where they prayed, so it wouldn’t be long before they turned up there."
 
Oral tradition holds that in days past cartel members would have the Virgin of Guadalupe tattooed on their back, knowing that she was held in such reverence by the Mexican people that not even a rival cartel member would deface the image by putting a blade through it. Protection, they felt, from being attacked from behind should they ever find themselves incarcerated. However, as the fall of the old guard empowered new players in the drug trade, the rules started to change.

The Virgin of Guadalupe had not exactly fallen from grace in the eyes of these hardened criminals, but she was not revered in the same way that she once was either. Because of this, her image was no longer powerful enough within the criminal subculture to ward off another prisoner’s shank.
 While love for the Virgin no longer provided the protection it once did, fear of Santa Muerte started to hold them in check. So powerful was the legend of Santa Muerte, that even those who no longer hesitated to deface the Virgin wouldn’t dare risk doing the same to the image of Holy Death when branded on an enemies back — Holy Death is notoriously protective of her followers.
 
"There were three bodies there, all dismembered," Ed continues. "There was a leg in a tree, their heads were on the roof. Their hands were duct taped behind their backs, and there were deep slashes all over their bodies. The investigation showed that the slash wounds occurred while they were still alive."
 
When asked if the murderers, who were likely devotees of Holy Death themselves, would have hesitated to slaughter fellow devotees at her shrine, Ed dismissively shakes his head. "In their faith, that shows that they were more devoted than their enemies. It’s a weird thing."
 
Anyone who has met the mad genius behind the famed Ed’s Manifesto knows that you can’t put him in any one box. Though seemingly never entirely removed from his ever-expanding social media audience, he still manages to remain a mysterious figure. Warm and friendly, he carries himself with an inviting charm, but bubbling just beneath the surface a dark and wickedly devious mind is constantly inventing and re-evaluating, creating and and refining, honing his own approach to all manner of nefarious deeds.
 
After a bloody law enforcement career he turned to the private sector, teaching courses throughout the United States and Mexico on a wide array of topics, spanning the gamut from escapology and counter-custody, to urban movement, to one of the most innovative knife courses in the world today — a particularly hands-on class where students systematically plunge knives into dead swine and experience first-hand the nuances of piecing flesh.
 
Outside of his grueling seminar schedule, he is also an accomplished freelance author and more quietly, a consultant for movies, private organizations, and government entities on a wide array of topics related to criminality and survival south of the border.
 
One of Ed’s lesser known areas of expertise, however, is his expansive knowledge regarding the occult practices of Mexico’s criminal underworld. A topic he has explored so deeply that he once allowed himself to undergo ritual induction into the true cult of Santa Muerte.
 
SB: Can you give us a brief overview of what Santa Muerte is exactly?
 
Ed: It has been through many evolutions since its origins in pre-Colombian Death worship by the Mexicans. The goddess name was Mictecacíhuatl, she was the wife of the Lord of the underworld in Aztec culture. She guards over the bones of the dead and festivals related to the dearly departed. She was also believed by some to be a vengeful spirit of sorts that you could call on if in a desperate situation.
 In Oaxaca for example her name was changed to Matacihua ("the one who binds" or "the huntress"). She appears at night as a beautiful woman dressed in white and leads drunk people or people cursed, to fall in the thorned plants or to commit suicide.
All of these beliefs were banned by the Catholic church. And like most places where Catholicism was forced on to a native population, her devotion was mixed with Catholic iconography and hidden in plain sight by her followers.  With some shrines built for her hidden behind a Virgin Mary facade. In short, Santa Muerte at it's core is a cult dedicated to the veneration of a pre-Colombian death goddess that has lived in the underground of Mexico for hundreds of years despite the best efforts of the church to eradicate it.  In it's older and more authentic forms, it's probably the only uninterrupted Aztec faith that has survived to this day.
 
SB: What motivated you to explore the Santa Muerte culture so deeply?
 
Ed: It was everywhere in my environment, along with a few other cryptic criminal cults, that seemed to blur the lines between the good guys and the bad guys. At least from my perspective back then.
 
Cops and criminals made offerings to the same death goddess. This was interesting to me and in many ways I took the old approach of "know your enemy." Many of my co-workers also were in the cult. So I needed to get to know it in order to belong and just to be in the know regarding some things. People opened up to you if they knew you where one of her followers. It was a bizarre environment and it's following acted much like the Freemasons did way back in the day. So I decided to follow it and learn what I could from it, going as far as getting initiated in to one of its oldest strains.
 
SB: Knowing that you took an oath not to provide details, in a broad sense, what is the difference between the "old" Santa Muerte sect that you were initiated in to and the street-level Santa Muerte that is more commonly practiced?
 
Ed: The older forms of it are very simple and straight to the point in what they believe and how they go about their faith. It has concealment and secrecy built in to it's very foundations. You see traces of its probable influences from the turn of the century like Aleister Crowley and occultism in general with a western ritual magic flair to it. It's hard to find and harder to learn about with out being sponsored by someone already inside. Some of the more public street forms of its veneration you see now, especially in the US, are only a shadow of what it's older forms are, or are just appropriated and made up. The main thing to realize is that it's true form is female-centric so any church dedicated to her with a man in front of it is outside any true Santa Muerte faith. Also, the Catholic iconography and faith elements were meant to hide the faith not blend with it.
 
SB: Santa Muerte was perhaps most notably depicted in popular culture in the television series Breaking Bad, where devotees where shown approaching a shrine by crawling through a village on their bellies. Was this an accurate portrayal of the faith? And if so, can you explain to us what was happening there?
 
Ed: It was in many ways. Specifically, the silver skulls. Silver is the preferred currency in Santa Muerte’s older forms. True sicarios under her protection would never wear gold. The dragging is taken from Catholics veneration of La Virgen de Guadalupe in Mexico City. They crawl to her church as a form of sacrifice and veneration. It isn't uncommon for the same type of devotional expressions to be done by Santa Muerte followers, but not for pure faith-based devotional reasons, but to ask protection when seeking vengeance or looking to curse someone.
 
SB: Santa Muerte has started to find its way into the United States as well, is the Santa Muerte in the United States practiced differently?
 
Ed: I have yet to see any authentic form of it that is like what I have experienced down south. It's mostly interpretations of what people assume it is, flights of the imagination and/or cultural appropriation. It's like what westerns have done to Buddhism in a lot of ways. It's unrecognizable to people from where originated.
 
SB: In Mexico, Santa Muerte isn’t exclusive to the criminal underworld. Cops, cab drivers, prostitutes, dock workers, and many other groups gravitate towards this faith as well. What is the common thread amongst them?
 
Ed: Desperation and absolution. People that work in professions where homicide, crime, and prostitution are part of the job description don’t usually find solace in the Catholic church. But she welcomes all and forgives all as long as you pay for her protection.
 
SB: What do you think the biggest misconception about Santa Muerte is?
 
Ed: That it's meant to be known or be out in the open. The main reason for the survival of the faith is it’s ability to hide within other faiths and be practiced in secret by people whose lives are mostly spent working in the shadows of society.

 

The Daily Situation For 10-26-21 From The Forward Observer Website

The news that you should be reading about, and which neither the Mainstream, Left Wing or Right Wing Media covers.

https://forwardobserver.com/daily-sa-dark-money-groups-shipping-caravans-to-u-s-border/

As Drone Usage Expands Out Of Just Military and Commercial Applications, And Into Civilian Surveillance

 

Yeah, It's been a while since my last Drone related post. Anybody who's been looking at this blog for any length of time know how many posts and articles I have written about or linked to. 

And this one is a real in-depth yet concise piece of writing. My hat's off to the guy that wrote this article. 

Have at it guys.

https://reason.com/2021/10/12/government-eyes-in-the-sky/

Morning Humor - The 'Daily Situation Awareness from Forward Observer Online - China Suddenly Not So Anxious To Make Inroads Into Afghanistan

 Since everyone today is so quick to redefine what certain words and Phrases mean, I figure it's my turn.

And now we'll take a look at real "One-Stop Shopping"

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And now from Forward Observer Online we have the latest Daily Situation Awareness Report. Let's here it for our Senior  Military leadership regarding their outlook on cyber-warfare in the 21st century, and for  the current Administrations Foreign Policy strategy in terms of containing the Chinese in the Middle East.

https://forwardobserver.com/daily-sa-army-has-no-plan-to-mitigate-cyberattacks/

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 Finally, after everyone wondering how quickly China would move to make political and economic inroads into Afghanistan, it would appear that the current level of violence between the new Taliban government and several competing factions has given them pause. Most notably as a result of a bombing (must be a bitch for the new government to realize that they are no longer the terrorists, but the target of the terrorists) carried out by a Uighur most likely affiliated with ISIS.

Hmmm..., looks like their treatment of the Uighur community is coming around to haunt them.

https://www.usnews.com/news/world-report/articles/2021-10-14/afghanistan-quagmire-threatens-to-lure-in-china

Ever Wonder Who Some Of The People And Organizations Are That Facebook Will Stick you in FB Jail For If You Mention Them?

 Well, essentially you can wonder all you want because FB doesn't want you to know.

But wait! Still want to know?

Well, Thanks to The Intercept online site, now you too can get a copy of the D.I.O.* list.

Here you go, just click the link and download the 100 page list of over 4,000 persons and organizations.

*Dangerous Individuals and Organizations

https://theintercept.com/document/2021/10/12/facebook-dangerous-individuals-and-organizations-list-reproduced-snapshot/

The History Of A WW2 Special Unit You've Probably Never Heard Of, The Alaska Scouts

 

 

 Col. Lawrence Castner

 

Okay, so we all know about The Devils Brigade (FSSF), the Marine Raiders, numerous US Army Ranger units, Even the Alamo Scouts.

The question is, who the Hell are the Alaska Scouts?

Apparently they were a small reconnaissance unit that operated in the early years of WW2 in the Aleutian Islands. Once the Japanese were pushed out, the group didn't last long. They were an "interesting and eclectic" bunch of guys to whom military decorum and discipline didn't mean all that much.

The most colorful thing about them was their nickname. They were referred to as 'Castners Cuthroats' due to the fact that their C.O was Col. Lawrence Castner, and the fact that none of these guys wore uniforms and dressed like, well, someone you wouldn't want to meet in a dark alley, hence the 'Cuthroats' portion of their unofficial name.

Anyway, here is a link to the most in depth article about these unsung and essentially unknown American soldiers of WW2.

www.historynet.com/alaskas-cutthroats.htm

And another couple of Follow up articles;

military.wikia.org/wiki/Castner%27s_Cutthroats

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Castner%27s_Cutthroats

One More Take On The Mossberg Shockwave by Clint Smith - And - The Original Birds Head Grip, Sub 14" Barreled Witness Protection Shotgun That Started it All

 Clint Smith is not a tactical "Operator, Operating Operationally". He is simply a retired Marine and former Law Enforcement Officer who gives practical, if currently uncool, advice on gunhandling.

Enjoy the video! (don't forget to click on the video for full size)

 

Next up, in yesterdays Blog Post I mentioned that the Shockwave (and the Remington Tac 14) were both based on a Short-Barreled Shotgun originally designed for Witness Protection by a Federal LEO Agency. I also said I wasn't sure about that, but after a bit of searching, now I am. 

Originally developed for, and used by the U.S. Marshals Service, the article below will give you a good write-up about the history, development, and use of the WP870 from Remington Arms. Happy Reading.

Witness Protection 870: The 12.5-Inch Short-Barreled US Marshals Shotgun  

https://www.tactical-life.com/firearms/wilson-witness-protection-870/

Two Takes On The Mossberg Schockwave

 

Since it came out about 4 or 5 years ago (quickly to be imitated by the Remington TAC 14), the Mossberg Schockwave has been both vilified and praised. My personal opinion is if it's all you've got, make the best of it. I mean, it's light, short, maneuverable and easy to conceal (for a long gun anyway).

On the other hand, recoil control, aiming it (shotgun or no shotgun, you still need to get some sort of reasonable hits on target at the ranges for which it's most useful, ie: really close). Those are all pretty good reasons to pay attention to.

Now the Schockwave is not classified as an actual Short Barrelled Shotgun because the barrel is 14+ inches, and the overall length, with the Birds Head Grip brings the total overall length to over the 26" minimum length for a Shotgun. If I recall correctly, the original idea for this type of Shotgun was for it to be used by one of the Federal LEO organizations as an easily concealed Shotty for witness protection When they were being moved from point to Point B in public.

I could be wrong about that, so don't hold me to it.

Although those models had pistol grips and barrels less than a foot long, a capacity of only 2 or 3 shotshells in the tube, and were well below 26" in overall length. I also think they kind of disappeared sometime round the 1990's or so, but of course the gun manufacturers is always looking to resurrect an old idea, make it marginally legal, and try to market it to people who weren't around 20 or 30 years before, and therefore didn't know anything about the shortcomings or actual niche use of said firearms.

Anyway, you may now read the article below which presents the Schockwave from the "pro" point of view, and then watch the Video that provides the 'con" point of view.

You can then make up your own mind.

Personal Defense World Magazine Article 

https://www.personaldefenseworld.com/2021/09/mossberg-590-shockwave-20-gauge/

 

 

The Lucky Gunner Video Review

 

 

Screw Facebook, And Who Really Cares How Much Money Marky-Mark Suckerberg Loses!!!

 Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha!!!!

  https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/facebook-instagram-whatsapp-experience-global-outages

Well, Here's A Statistic For You...

 .. To brighten your day!

https://www.personaldefenseworld.com/2021/09/fbi-report-armed-citizens/

 Keep it up all you  Legal Gun Owners!