Month: August 2016

Trump’s Clinton Campaign

I haven’t written much about this year’s presidential race because there isn’t much to say about a dumpster fire. It’s a dumpster. It’s on fire. But one theory I have been entertaining is that Trump is actually part of Clinton’s campaign. He’s been a buddy of the Clintons for years and he’s a New York Democrat himself. His entire campaign can be defined by his constant attempts to outdo the dumb shit he’s said with even dumber shit. It’s like he wants to lose so his friend can win.

But now the evidence in support of my theory is piling up. Case in point, Bill Clinton actually called Trump and encouraged him to run for president. And the Republican Party is seriously worried about Trump dropping out before the election.

I really hope Trump drops out and my theory is proven correct. I say this not because I care about the election but because it would create so much political drama that I’d have no shortage of material for this blog for the remainder of this election season. And it would seriously piss off the alt-right, which is always a goal to strive for (albeit an easy goal since they’re such a sensitive bunch).

An Upcoming Source of Cheap Guns

Are you a Minnesotan looking to buy a gun but don’t have a lot of money? I have good news for you! On August 27th Pillsbury United Communities and the City of Minneapolis will be operating a gun buyback. Here are the prices you’ll need to beat:

People turning in firearms can do so anonymously, and will receive $25 to $300 Visa gift cards, depending on the type of firearm. Authorities from Minneapolis Fire Department and the Minneapolis African American Professional Firefighter Association will be on hand to accept the surrendered weapons at two local fire stations.

If you’re looking for some cheap guns bring cash to either of the two fire stations and beat the government’s offer. You might not even have to beat the government’s offer since cash is more valuable than gift cards. Minnesota still allows private transfers so you won’t even have to drag the person you’re buying from to a federally licensed dealer.

Another thing you might consider doing is heading over to your local hardware store and buying up supplies to build cheap zip guns. For $7 you can build a little 12 gauge shotgun:

That’s a potential $18 of profit in your pocket. Since the buyback is anonymous you and your friends can keep coming back with more zip guns to trade up for gift cards. Then you can use your profits to buy yourself a decent gun.

Buying Guns on the Black and Grey Markets

Gun rights activists are riled up since it looks like we’ll be under a Hillary regime for the next four years (strangely enough, they don’t seem to be worried about Trump even though he has historically been a friend of gun control). As a service I like to provide practical solutions to problems. The Conscious Resistance is putting together a three part guide on buying weapons on the black and grey markets:

Buying firearms is a potentially risky endeavor. If you are reading this article at the original source, you probably already understand that there is a defacto registration system in place on the federal level. This is not supposed to be the case, but most people wouldn’t doubt the inability of the federal government to let go of a voluntary data collection system that by law requires a purge after 24 hours, especially regarding something as potentially dangerous to their power structure as firearms in the hands of ordinary citizens.

The first part, which is the only part posted so far, just explains some of the things to avoid when privately purchasing a firearm. But guides like this will likely become more valuable as the State continues to tighten its grip on society. While the laws may shift more against gun owners at some point that doesn’t mean gun owners will actually be restricted. Laws are only shackles insomuch as you allow them to be. A prohibition against buying a firearms is meaningless on the black market.

Politically there is no way for gun owners to win this election. Both presidential nominees have a history of opposing gun rights. But there are still things gun owners can do to protect their right to self-defense. Focusing on those efforts will offer far greater returns in the long run than getting the slightly less anti-gun president elected.

You Ought to Trust the Government with the Master Key

The Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) director, James Comey, has been waging a war against effective cryptography. Although he can’t beat math he’s hellbent on trying. To that end, he and his ilk have proposed schemes that would allow the government to break consumer cryptography. One of those schemes is call key escrow, which requires anything encrypted by a consumer device be decipherable with a master key held by the government. It’s a terrible scheme because any actor that obtains the government’s master key will also be able to decrypt anything encrypted on a consumer device. The government promises that such a key wouldn’t be compromised but history shows that there are leaks in every organziation:

A FBI electronics technician pleaded guilty on Monday to having illegally acted as an agent of China, admitting that he on several occasions passed sensitive information to a Chinese official.

Kun Shan Chun, also known as Joey Chun, was employed by the Federal Bureau of Investigation since 1997. He pleaded guilty in federal court in Manhattan to one count of having illegally acted as an agent of a foreign government.

Chun, who was arrested in March on a set of charges made public only on Monday, admitted in court that from 2011 to 2016 he acted at the direction of a Chinese official, to whom he passed the sensitive information.

If the FBI can’t even keep moles out of its organization how are we supposed to trust it to guard a master key that would likely be worth billions of dollars? Hell, the government couldn’t even keep information about the most destructive weapons on Earth from leaking to its opponents. Considering its history, especially where stories like this involving government agents being paid informants to other governments, there is no way to reasonably believe that a master key to all consumer encryption wouldn’t get leaked to unauthorized parties.

My Completed AR-15 Lower

Here’s what I did last night:

completed-ar-15-lower

I apologize for the shitty photography but photography was never my speciality. Since the election is coming up and that will likely mean a post election panic buy I decided to step up a rifle build that I’ve been planning for a while. It’s nothing fancy, I just want a 5.56mm rifle that is reasonably light and reasonably accurate.

I used a Mega Arms forged lower receiver. The lower components are nothing special. I did go with a Bravo Company lower parts kit mostly because I wanted the grip and the trigger. Because the lip on the Bravo Company grip doesn’t work with the Magpul trigger guard (and I didn’t want a trigger card with “BCM” embedded on it), I ended up using a Magpul grip that I’ve had lying around and will end up using the Bravo Company grip on another rifle that still has a standard A2 grip (which I hate) on it. I’m satisfied with the trigger. It’s basically Bravo Company’s version of the ALG trigger, which is a smoother version of the milspec trigger. The trigger isn’t gritty and has a decent pull weight (I don’t have a gauge to measure it). For the stock I went with the Magpul MOE Rifle Stock. Why didn’t I go with an adjustable carbine length stock? Because I’m a tall guy and have long arms so I always use those fully extended anyways. The A2 stock is actually very comfortable for me so I wanted to go with that kind of setup.

I still have to finish the upper but I dropped an upper from another rifle on this lower and function tested the controls. Everything works, which just demonstrates that any monkey can slap together an AR-15 lower.

To the Gulags, Slaves

The centrally planned paradise of Venezuela is falling apart. People are starving. Animals are starving. And President Maduro keeps making the situation worse by ordering even more central planning. His latest decree, a socialist favorite, is to allow the government to force people to work in the fields:

International human rights activists are complaining that new laws have introduced forced labour in Venezuela.

“A new decree establishing that any employee in Venezuela can be effectively made to work in the country’s fields as a way to fight the current food crisis is unlawful and effectively amounts to forced labor,” Amnesty International said in a statement released on Thursday.

President Nicolás Maduro signed a decree at the end of last week that gives powers to the labor ministry to order “all workers from the public and private sector with enough physical capabilities and technical know-how” to join a government drive aimed at increasing food production.

They can be required to work in the agricultural sector for a 60-day period that can be extended for another 60 days “if the circumstances require it.”

I’m sure mandatory field work can be extended for an infinite number of 60-day periods.

President Maduro is either ignorant of history or a sadistic son of a bitch. The Soviet Union tried collectivizing agriculture and forcing people to work fields and the country never fully recovered from it. Bread lines were the norm until they were replaced by starvation. If you’re a student of history you know that making people slaves does not motivate them to work harder. Instead they work as little as possible to avoid being beaten too severely because they’re not getting anything for their efforts. I guarantee that the poor Venezuelans that are forced to work in the fields will produce very little foodstuff. And why should they? They don’t want to be there, they’re not knowledgable in the skills of agriculture, and they have every right to resist since they’re being coerced.

Venezuela is fucked. It should go down in the history books as yet another demonstration of the futility of central planning.