80% Lowers & Kit Sales Spike in 2021

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I don’t think that anybody would argue that the past year and a half has been absolutely insane for gun sales.

I mean, seriously, we should all make congratulatory t-shirts or something. Part of the chaos of 2020-2021 has revolved around the gun industry as well.

Food TP Bullets
This just about sums up 2020 and 2021.

We all know that firearms, ammunition, black powder, and other components have virtually disappeared from shelves throughout the nation.

And President Biden has positioned the Department of Justice to tackle topics like pistol braces and 80% receivers.

Older AR-15 Pistol Braces
Pistol braces also came under fire.

But we wanted to know what kind of impact the past year and a half has had on the world of 80% receivers.

So, if you’ve been curious about how 80% receivers have fared recently, keep reading to learn more.

80% Arms GST-9 Parts
GST-9 Parts

80% Receiver Sales Spike

Since 2020 when guns began disappearing off gun store shelves, more Americans began turning to 80% receivers as it was one of the few options available.

As a result, people began buying them in droves. While Pennsylvania-based JSD Supply was already planning on expanding their capabilities before 2020, last year pushed them into expansion even further – almost accidentally, CEO and owner Jordan Vinroe stated.

Starting Pilot Hole, 80% Arms
Starting Pilot Hole

JSD Supply is primarily geared towards the do-it-yourself firearm maker, with a host of products revolving around the DIY sector — including 80% AR-15 lowers, AR-10 lowers, and the like.

Vinroe said business was booming. But what caused this increase?

Executive Actions

“It’s most certainly due to government overreach. Anytime people try to restrict a right, people exercise that right as much as they can.”

Vinroe noted that when politicians talk about guns, gun sales always increase exponentially. History has proven that politicians often make the best gun salesmen.

In April, President Biden issues several Executive Actions targeting both braces and 80% kits. (You can read more about that here.)

Biden Signs
President Joe Biden, joined by Vice President Kamala Harris, signs the American Rescue Plan Thursday, March 11, 2021, in the Oval Office of the White House. (Official White House Photo by Adam Schultz)

“We’ve been expecting (and preparing) for legislation and regulation to come to the national stage for a while now, and today’s press conference from the White House confirms it. 80% Lowers are the main target of an aggressive executive push to undermine the community of home builders,” 80% Arms said in a statement shared with Pew Pew Tactical at the time.

“We believe the best way to ensure 2nd Amendment rights is to provide a method that allows citizens to manufacture their own firearms at home,” the company added.

80% Arms GST-9 Parts

Following the Executive Actions, the ATF issued a 115-page set of proposals attempting to reclassify a firearm’s “frame or receiver.” You can read more about that in our ATF’s Proposed Rules on Firearms, Receivers [Guide].

Nathan Deters of Anderson Manufacturing explained his company saw a significant increase in 2021 in 80% lower purchases. He said it was “definitely due to the recent ATF proposed rule changes on 80% lowers.”

Best Value
50

at Brownells

Prices accurate at time of writing

Prices accurate at time of writing

Demand for 80% lowers reached such heights in 2021 that Anderson Manufacturing moved some production capacity over to 80% lowers.

Anderson Manufacturing also noted an uptick in jig kits and complete lowers as well.

Ghost Gunner also saw a massive spike starting in April 2021. Cody Wilson attributes this to when “Biden made his ghost gun rule press conference.”

80% AR-15 Lowers, All Sides
80% AR-15 Lowers, All Sides

As a result, the company struggled to keep enough .308 and AR-15 style receivers in stock. They’re flying off shelves as soon as they get them in.

“We sell every Polymer80 frame we can get in stock. People are aware of the state and federal doors closing on this activity,” Wilson stated, as well as noting that they’re seeing a spike in the sales of jigs for 80% lowers as well.

80% Arms GST-9 Complete
GST-9 Complete

Akin to the other manufacturers I contacted, Ghost Gunner has also seen certain areas ordering more products than others.

Wilson noted that the demographics for sales have largely remained the same for the past five years. But said that California and cities such as Baltimore are overrepresented within his business.

30

at 80% Arms

Prices accurate at time of writing

Prices accurate at time of writing

Riots & Unrest

JSD Supply’s Vinroe explained that in addition to politics, cities hit with riots often saw customers calling JSD Supply “almost frantic” due to their inability to find a gun in local stores.

Missouri, in particular, saw an uptick in sales after riots broke out.

Portland Riot Police 2
Portland Riot Police

As far as customers themselves, JSD Supply said a large number of first-time gun owners purchased products and a significant number of burglary victims who believe that their homes were targeted as a result of local riots as well.

According to Vinroe, every product JSD Supply offers experienced an increase in sales over the past year and a half.

Conclusion

It should come as no surprise that 80% receiver sales are up. Virtually every item within the entire gun industry has seen spectacular sales for the past year and a half.

CMMG Lower Parts Kit and 80% Arms Completed Receiver
CMMG Lower Parts Kit and 80% Arms Completed Receiver

Driven both by civil unrest and politics, it seems as if the 80% trend isn’t slowing down anytime soon.

What do you think about 80% kits and lowers? Let us know in the comments below. Read up on 80% kits at What Are 80% Lower Receiver Kits and the Best 80% Receivers, Jigs & Frames.  

The post 80% Lowers & Kit Sales Spike in 2021 appeared first on Pew Pew Tactical.

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The 6 Best Open Source Lightroom Alternatives

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Adobe Lightroom is a non-destructive photo editing software. It’s part of the Adobe ecosystem and comes with great photo editing features. However, it doesn’t come cheap.

Its price tag is a bit off-putting if you’re looking for affordable editing software, but don’t worry. There are several free, open source alternatives that you can use to edit your images.

1. GIMP


GIMP is a free and open source bitmap graphics editor that’s excellent for retouching and editing photos, as well as image enhancement.

Developed by the GIMP Development Team, this software contains powerful photo manipulation features suitable for professional creators. It’s also considered one of the best alternatives to Photoshop.

When to Use It: GIMP is best used for basic graphic design needs and image editing. It’s especially great if you don’t have a lot of experience with advanced image editing and manipulation.

Features:

  • Free
  • Excellent image manipulation tools
  • Extensive graphic design toolset
  • Comes with color management features
  • Supports third-party plugins and customization options

Pros:

  • High-quality framework
  • Comes with tutorials and guides
  • Small learning curve
  • Multi-computer language support
  • Outstanding color reproduction
  • High customization levels
  • Has all the essential editing tools
  • Supports multiple file formats

Cons:

  • The selection tool isn’t precise
  • Lack of customer support
  • A limited number of layers

Download: GIMP for Windows, Mac, and Linux (Free)

2.DigiKam


DigiKam is an intuitive, open source photo management software that focuses on image organization and tag editing. The app comes with an editing package designed for importing, exporting, editing, and managing RAW images.

It also has powerful tagging tools and filtering functionality. Photos are also put into albums, allowing you to quickly search for and find items.

When to Use It: DigiKam is best for organizing and comparing photos, or when preparing your pictures for publishing.

Features:

  • Supports all primary image file formats (JPEG, PNG, and RAW)
  • Add captions and ratings to images
  • Filter and sort photos into albums and sub-albums
  • Lets you easily export albums to social platforms
  • Light Table lets you compare images
  • Advanced image editing tools

Pros:

  • Free
  • Supports a large number of digital camera models
  • Supports USB storage devices
  • Is great for batch image editing

Cons:

  • Software is slow at times
  • Sophisticated interface
  • Has a complex image export process

Download: DigiKam for Windows, Mac, and Linux (Free)

3. PhotoFlow


PhotoFlow is an open source and non-destructive photo editing program that supports RAW images. It specializes in image retouching, but also has several tools that let you perform basic edits.

When to Use It: Use PhotoFlow when you want to manipulate RAW images using advanced non-destructive tools, such as HDR tone mapping.

Features:

  • Supports all major image formats
  • Real-time image previews
  • Freehand drawing
  • Basic editing tools
  • Color-correction features
  • Color space conversions

Pros:

  • Free
  • Non-destructive editing
  • Available for Linux, Windows, and macOS

Cons:

  • Rugged interface
  • Software doesn’t provide descriptions for editing tools

Download: PhotoFlow for Windows, Mac, and Linux (Free)

4. LightZone

LightZone is a free, open source editing software initially developed for commercial editing. However, it is now open to all users. It supports non-destructive editing, which allows you to edit an image without overwriting the original image data.

When to Use It: LightZone is best for editing RAW images, as it produces high-quality JPEGs.

Features:

  • Elegant user interface
  • Supports both JPEG and RAW image formats
  • Non-destructive RAW editor
  • Compatible with multiple operating systems
  • Great for batch processing
  • Advanced image adjustment settings

Pros:

  • No-fuss photo editing tools
  • Non-destructive editing
  • Has a community forum for technical assistance

Cons:

  • Lack of documentation
  • Difficult to use for beginners

Download: LightZone for Windows, Mac, and Linux (Free)

5. Photivo

Do you want to get the most out of your photos? Photivo is a great open source image editor that comes with a variety of filters and a large library of features.

And if you’re a fan of GIMP, Photivo comes with a button that lets you easily export your images to GIMP for further editing.

When to Use It: It’s best for editing high-quality RAW and bitmap files that require high attention to detail.

Features:

  • Supports bitmap images and RAW files
  • Elegant and straightforward interface
  • Advanced settings and adjustments
  • Channel mixer support
  • 16-bit internal processing
  • Batch mode
  • Multi-lingual support
  • Allows for cross-processing

Pros:

  • Feature-rich
  • Powerful internal processing
  • Supports multiple image formats
  • Batch processing capabilities

Cons:

  • Sophisticated
  • Requires image editing experience to use
  • Needs a powerful computer to run

Download: Photivo for Windows | Mac | Linux (Free)

6. BitMappery


Don’t want to download image editing software to your computer? Well, with Bitmappery, you can do all the editing from your web browser.

Bitmappery is a free, open source photo editing software that’s also web-based. It integrates with Dropbox, letting your easily import and edit images from the cloud. Bitmappery presents a quick solution for any editing project that needs to be done in a timely manner.

When to Use It: Bitmappery is great for quickly editing photos that are stored in Dropbox.

Features:

  • Layer management
  • Dropbox integration
  • Offline support
  • Keyboard shortcuts for faster editing
  • Transformation options

Pros:

  • Accessible on any device, since it’s web-based
  • Non-destructive editing
  • Only needs a web browser to run

Cons:

  • Limited editing options
  • Less refined than other software

Related: The Best Free Photo Editing Software to Try Today

Adobe Lightroom vs. Open Source Photo Editing Software

If you are looking to edit your photos, Adobe Lightroom is a great option. It is a non-destructive photo editor, and all edits are kept in your Lightroom catalog. It’s also much easier to use than Photoshop and has great photo management tools.

Open source photo editing software, on the other hand, can be up to par with the paid options. Most of the software above offer the same features as Adobe Lightroom. Some, like GIMP, have more features than Lightroom.

If you are looking for free-to-use photo editing software, be sure to check out the above. You can even use them to learn about photo editing before committing to a paid photo editing software.

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The Wheel of Time’s First Trailer Brings Robert Jordan’s Fantasy World to Life

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Look what’s rolled into town! Why, it’s the first trailer (finally) for Amazon’s much-anticipated fantasy television series The Wheel of Time. It’s later than we expected, given the show is currently set to premiere on November 19, but was it worth the wait?

Based on Robert Jordan’s massive, best-selling, 15-book fantasy series (the last few of which were co-written by author Brandon Sanderson after Jordan’s death in 2007), The Wheel of Time serves as the “connective tissue between Lord of the Rings and Game of Thrones,” as showrunner Rafe Judkins put it at San Diego Comic-Con. We have been anxiously anticipating the trailer after a few very tiny teases and the first images being released just earlier this month. Well, what are you waiting for? Give it a watch!

The trailer delves into the bare bones of The Wheel of Time’s giant, sprawling tale: In a fantasy world where only women called Aes Sedai are allowed to use magic, the powerful sorcerer Moiraine (played by Rosamund Pike) comes across three boys and two girls—Rand al’Thor (Josha Stradowski), Mat Cauthon (Barney Harris), Perrin Aybara (Marcus Rutherfort), Nynaeve al’Meara (Zoë Robins), Egwene al’Vere (Madeleine Madden)—one of whom she suspects might be the reincarnation of the legendary Dragon, an entity so powerful he could destroy the world.

If you’re a lover of the books, you’ve likely immediately noted a discrepancy in the show. Originally, only the three male characters were seen as candidates to be the magic-wielding Dragon Reborn, as a sort of yin to the Aes Sedai’s yang. But the official synopsis makes it sound like Nyneave and Egwene are contenders as well: “Set in a sprawling, epic world where magic exists and only certain women are allowed to access it, the story follows Moiraine (Rosamund Pike), a member of the incredibly powerful all-female organization called the Aes Sedai, as she arrives in the small town of Two Rivers. There, she embarks on a dangerous, world-spanning journey with five young men and women, one of whom is prophesied to be the Dragon Reborn, who will either save or destroy humanity.”

The trailer also leans heavily into the Aes Sedai as wholly virtuous protectors of the world. In the books, while the Aes Sedai certainly saw themselves as protectors of the world, in reality, they were callous, supercilious, and often misandric. I’m not saying they need to be perfect angels in the TV series, but let’s just say Jordan’s portrayal of female characters left plenty of room for improvement, of which hopefully the show has taken advantage. As for the look of the show, the clips are so brief it’s hard to get a good read on it. The vivid colors are wonderful and the CG looks great, but some of the sets…well, they look very much like studio sets to me, as opposed to the beautiful, on-location scenes of Game of Thrones. Still, it’s worth remembering Amazon has liked what it’s seen of The Wheel of Time so much that it’s already filming a second season.

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Great Back-to-School Pick!
Long battery life perfect for students.

That’s good news for the rest of the show’s giant cast, which includes (takes a deep breath): Daniel Henney as al’Lan Mandragoran, Michael McElhatton as Tam al’Thor, Álvaro Morte as Logain Ablar, Priyanka Bose as Alanna Mosvani, Jennifer Cheon Garcia as Leane Sharif, Kate Fleetwood as Liandrin Guirale, Sophie Okonedo as Siuan Sanche, Kae Alexander as Min Farshaw, Clare Perkins as Kerene Nagashi, Orphan Black’s Maria Doyle Kennedy as Illa, and so, so, so many more. Please offer your effusive praise/constructive criticism/infuriated rants about the trailer in the comments. And, uh, don’t forget there’s a separate Wheel of Time movie trilogy also in the works now…


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The tipping point is not far away…

 

I think more and more people are "getting it" with regard to our national catastrophe that is the Biden administration.  It was illegitimate from the start, it’s fouling things up by the numbers in almost everything it touches, and it appears bound and determined to force Americans to obey its dictates – or else.

I present a few comments from others that put things in perspective, because they’ve said it better than I can.  First, friend, author and blogger Larry Correia.

For the first few days of the Afghanistan cluster****, most lefties were keeping their heads down. It was remarkably quiet. Well apparently they got their new download because I’ve seen the same ridiculous narrative suddenly show up a ton over the last 24 hours. Drive bys in nearly every post, all saying the same thing.

"This was all Trump’s plan/fault/date and there was nothing Biden could do."

Okay, let’s destroy this bull**** narrative, because it’s ****ing pernicious.

Did Trump plan on removing the military before the civilians? Did Trump plan on abandoning our secure air base in the middle of the night without even telling our allies? Did Trump’s plan include giving a list of all our friends, allies, and countrymen to the Taliban? Did Trump intend to give the Taliban biometric scanners and records so our friends could be identified? Did Trump plan on leaving our allies hanging so badly that he’d get censored by ****ing Parliament? Did Trump’s plan include leaving billions of dollars of weapons and equipment behind for the Taliban? Did Trump plan on a chaotic cluster**** of an evacuation from an unsecure airport with people falling off of airplanes? Would Trump command our soldiers to stay at the airport while the French, English, Poles, and Hungarians ran rescue missions into the city to get their people? Did Trump plan on trusting airport security to the mother****ing goat raping Taliban so that our people could get killed by suicide bombers?

And if so, if that was Trump’s plan all along… WHY THE **** DID BIDEN NOT COME UP WITH A BETTER PLAN?

Even if these lying *** bastards were right (they aren’t) and the worst foreign policy **** up in our lifetimes was exactly what Trump wanted to do, the fact that the Biden administration didn’t come up with something better would still all be on their heads.

And I’m not saying Trump is blameless, oh no. The blame for this whole thing goes back two decades, republican and democrat, senior military leadership, the state department, and the intelligence community, lots of highly paid experts and PhDs in international relations all covering their ***** together.

However, the blame for this cluster****, this one operation, this infuriating, embarrassing, goat rope of a withdrawal, is all on Joe Biden, his puppeteers, and the people who were gullible/selfish enough to install him into office.

You voted for this ****. We warned you he was corrupt and incompetent, and all the evidence showed he was corrupt and incompetent, but you kicked us off the internet, looked the other way, and now you ****ing own this. Quit making excuses. Quit lying. Own it. Help fix it. Or shut the **** up.

And Larry again, a few hours later:

On one of my other posts somebody made the old joke about "don’t hold back, tell us how you really feel." and Jack Wylder (who does know me really well in real life) told the guy that I actually was holding back.

Jack’s right, because if I said what I really think right now, I’d probably end up in jail. And I’m not talking facebook jail either. That’s how pissed off and disgusted I am today.

Worst part is, I don’t think most people realize just how terrible it’s probably going to get if we stay on this destructive, foolish, authoritarian path. The people no longer trust any of the institutions that they’re supposed to be able to count on. The "experts" don’t realize how much fury and tension has built up in regular, boring, law-abiding America. And our elite betters just keep telling us we’re stupid, and our concerns don’t matter.

Regular people see the lies, the corruption, and the fact that nobody is ever held accountable, even for things that they’d destroy regular people for. They’re not stupid. They’re just slow to action because of fear or inertia. The state forgets it has the monopoly on force only because the people have delegated that to the state, in the belief that the state would impartially obey the law, but once too much faith in the state is lost, the people can take it back.

We haven’t had record gun sales (especially to new people) because of Americans’ rosy outlook for their future.

Law abiding people are law abiding until they aren’t. I don’t know what stupid bull**** thing is going to finally push a critical mass of people over the edge, but I’m worried that we’re getting closer, and what comes after that terrifies me.

I entirely agree with Larry on this.  I’m seeing people all over the place, not just around me, getting angrier and angrier.  Sooner or later, that anger is going to reach critical mass, and when it does, it’ll be "Katie, bar the door!"  Remember, I’ve seen that dynamic at work in other countries, in actual civil unrest and civil war environments.  I can see it at work right here, right now.

My buddy Lawdog put it in stark terms a few days ago.  I share his memories of Africa, albeit in different countries.  I, too, remember the sights, and the sounds, and the smells.  I, too, felt the need for strong drink when watching events unfold in Afghanistan.  He posted this on MeWe, so I can’t link directly to it:  but he gave me permission to quote it.

My little brother was born in Tripoli, Libya in 1969. September of that year, Gaddafi took control. One of his first pronouncements was that all foreigners needed to leave. Corollary to that was that all children born in Libya were Libyan citizens, and would remain there.

The American Embassy informed us that they were “working on a diplomatic solution” and to be patient.

Dad hired a dhow, and crew, and we got back to Malta. We got a parting gift from the Libyans in the form of several hundred rounds through the hull — I was two years old.

August 15, 1971. We were in Malta. We woke up to discover that President Nixon had “floated the dollar”. I remember picturing a man with a Lincoln beard standing on a dock, throwing dollar bills into the water. Unfortunately, this meant that our US bank account was worthless in Malta. Dad was somewhere in North Africa, and I remember the exhaustion of being dragged all over the island after Mom took us to the US Embassy and was told that “things were fluid” and they’d try to help when things stabilized. It was after dark before Mm found a store that took mercy on a mother with two small children and took American Express traveller’s cheques at face value for food. The Embassy never did get back to us, even after things “stabilized”.

1976. More rounds went through General Murtala Mohammed (and his driver) than the last four James Bond movies. Unfortunately, the rebelling soldiers miscalculated, and the counter-coup by the Army was … enthusiastic. As this wasn’t our first rodeo, as soon as Murtala quit bouncing we loaded up the Land Cruiser, and headed for Port Harcourt, where an oil rig supply vessel was waiting.

Three stewardesses who were visiting their engineer boy-friends headed for the American Consulate in Lagos. Two of them made it back, after being informed that they needed to go to the aeroport and get out of the country. The Nigerian Army had locked down the aeroport, and had twitchy trigger fingers. I sat in the lap of one of the stewardesses on the road to Port Harcourt, and she didn’t stop crying and shaking.

The were more evacs from African countries, and from a couple of Middle Eastern places, but we never approached the US Embassy for help again.

Even later, as a man grown and feral, I knew better than to rely on the Government for help.

Adrenaline and fear add a metallic odour to sweat. Blood is coppery. Someone inevitably loses control of their bladder and/or bowels, but that smell is actually not as bad as the smell of blood and terror.

There’s always dust. And some jackass always sets something on fire, so the smoke coats your mouth, and hangs in your nose.

Then there’s the smell of smokeless powder. And burnt bodies. That’s a smell that sticks in your nose for a while, but it’s not as bad as the smell that comes later, when the bodies have been out for a while.

People get together, huddling out of fear and uncertainty into a big herd of panicky people. Locals herd with locals. Foreigners with foreigners. And once they herd up, the scavengers show up and start picking off the weak.

One will have a brother who knows a way through the jungle, or around the military patrols. It only costs you most of your savings, and as soon as you get out in the boonies, it’s a rifle butt in the teeth and the rest of your savings taken. If you’re lucky. If not, it’s a bullet and a ditch, and they take the savings off of your body.

If you’re a man. Women quickly find out that as soon as things went into the khazi, they go from “person” to “commodity”. And that’s all I’m going to say about that.

As bad as all that is — and it’s way worse than you think — that isn’t the part that’s going to give me nightmares.

Absent sheer bad luck, a smart, prepared, violent man will survive this sort of thing.

And that’s going to give me nightmares.

The President of the United States. the Joints Chiefs of Staff, and the entire State Department can go **** themselves right now.

Anyone who voted to put that muppet in the Oval Office can go **** themselves right now.

I’m headed for the bourbon, and I’m going to hope like **** I don’t have nightmares.

Like Lawdog, I know what those people outside Kabul airport are in for, once the Taliban and their hangers-on decide they’ve played nice for the cameras for long enough and take off the gloves.  How would you feel if you, as you were forced to watch your wife being raped, knowing you would not long outlive her, were told by your captors that your children would be raised by zealots to hate you and everything you stood for?  What if your killers promised you, before you died, that they would see to it your infant son was raised to be a bacha bazi, for the delectation of local warlords?  I’m aware of at least one case where all that happened before rescuers could intervene.  They saved the man and his children, but after her brutalization his wife is now catatonic, unable to respond to anything or anyone.  Whether she’ll ever recover, God only knows.

A lot of those men, women and children are going to welcome death as a blessed release when it finally comes… and that’s on Joe Biden and his administration, because it’s their ideological blindness and mismanagement that’s led directly to what we’re seeing today.

As for supporters of the Biden administration, another author, Michael Rothman, has this to say.  (I can’t provide a direct link to his post on MeWe, because that platform doesn’t provide that facility, but if you search his timeline there for yesterday, August 29, you’ll find it.)

The danger to America is not Joe Biden, but a citizenry capable of entrusting a man like him with the office of the Presidency. It will be far easier to limit and undo the follies of a Biden presidency than to restore the depraved electorate willing to have such a man for their president.

The problem is much deeper and far more serious than Mr. Biden, who is a mere symptom of what ails America. Blaming the prince of the fools should not blind anyone to the vast confederacy of fools that made him their prince.

The Republic can survive a Biden, who after all is merely a fool. It is less likely to survive a multitude of fools, such as those who made him their president.

True dat.  (Of course, they didn’t actually succeed in making him their president through their votes.  It took massive electoral fraud to do that.  The consequences of that fraud prove yet again that a dishonest, criminal beginning cannot lead to a good result.  The end never justifies the means.)  Nevertheless, a whole lot of people will go on voting for Biden and his ilk, because they’re voting in their own self-interest, rather than the interests of the country.  It’s become a matter of "bread and circuses" instead of "duties and responsibilities" – and our nation is poorer for it.

Even the relatively sober, businesslike Wall Street Journal opines:

"President Biden’s conduct of the withdrawal from Afghanistan will be remembered as a defining stupidity of our time … Stupidity is one of life’s big mysteries, like evil, like love, an ineffable thing. You cannot exactly define it, but you know it when you see it … It takes many forms. Stupidity is entitled to no moral standing whatever, and yet it sits in a place of honor at the tables of the mighty; it blows in their ears and whispers promises."

Don Surber puts it in a nutshell.

The last Democrat president to surrender like this was Jefferson Davis.

The survival of America depends on firing them all. The good, the bad, and the indifferent must all go because we must send a clear signal to the mediocrities running the military and the Department of State.

The message must be failure gets you canned.

We failed 20 years ago to do so, and it cost us dearly.

. . .

Everyone must demand accountability.

And that starts by firing every member of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, every secretary of the various services, the Defense secretary, the Secretary of State, the vice president, and the president.

We cannot allow to go unpunished the surrender of billions of dollars in cash, equipment, and military bases to a bunch of goons who posed no threat to our military men and women in Afghanistan.

If they continue in office, the message will be that every single one of them is above the law. That they are invulnerable because no matter what disaster they create, they still have a job, a pension, and prestige.

If even arming terrorists does not get you fired, nothing will.

Fire them all.

Our survival depends on it.

Back in 2014, Taxicab Depressions put up a long, very pessimistic article about what would happen if we didn’t do what was necessary to get rid of our ideologically blinkered, incompetent and dishonest leadership class.  If you haven’t read it before, I suggest it’s not a bad idea to do so now.  We didn’t follow his advice then.  Will we do so now, peacefully, before they completely destroy our Republic through their incompetence (if not wilful malice aforethought) and render internecine violence inevitable?

Finally, I quote our second President, John Adams:

Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.

I fear current events, and those of the past few decades, have proved President Adams to be prophetic in his insight.  Speaking as a retired pastor, I think that the broad mass of Americans have ceased to be either a moral and/or a religious people.  We insist on remaking God in our human and humanistic image, instead of seeking to conform ourselves to what He asks us to be.  We judge God’s word by our standards, instead of judging ourselves by the standards laid out in God’s word.  Therefore, our Constitution has ceased to be "adequate" for our governance.

The result has been that there is no longer any conception of "God-given" rights (as described in the Constitution) in our society, except among a relatively small minority.  Since rights are no longer seen as "God-given", why should they be respected?  There’s an alternative approach – "might makes right" (or, as Voltaire put it, "God is always on the side of the big battalions").  That’s what the progressive left clearly believed when they engineered the electoral fraud that stole last November’s elections.  "We have the power to make this happen:  therefore, it’s OK to do so.  Might makes right!"

I rather suspect that as their tainted, corrupt "victory" disintegrates around their ears, along with the entire corrupt, incompetent, feckless Biden administration, they’re going to find out the hard way that they were wrong.  Tragically, that won’t help the rest of us, who are going to have to survive their collapse and rebuild something better out of the ruins it leaves behind.

Our nation deserved better of us:  but we, through our collective failure to stand up and be counted, have allowed it to reach this pass.  We’re going to have to pull ourselves, and America, up by our bootstraps, just as our Founding Fathers did many years ago.

Given recent events, I seriously doubt whether that can be done through the ballot box, or through wholly peaceful means.  Even if it could, our enemies abroad (already preparing to take advantage of the geopolitical power vacuum created by the Biden administration’s stunning incompetence) won’t give us time to do so.  They know they have to take advantage of the window of opportunity created while America is distracted by its internal divisions – and they’re gearing up to do so right now.  In their shoes, I’d do the same thing.

We’re in for a torrid time of it, friends.  The sooner we let the scales fall from our eyes, and see that clearly, and accept its reality, and get down to work, the better for our country.  We can no longer hope to be just "left alone", because those who stole power last November have no intention of doing that.  They mean to rule, whether we like it or not.  If we don’t (and I’m pretty sure most of my readers fall into that category), then passivity is no longer an option for us.  We’re going to have to get involved.

Peter

Bayou Renaissance Man

I can almost hear Bob saying this!

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Readers will recall that in January, Miss D. and I went up to Colorado for the funeral of a good friend, Bob, who’d been our host at our Blogorado gatherings for more than a decade.  He was a no-nonsense, down-to-earth, plain-spoken man, who said what he meant and meant what he said.

I couldn’t help thinking of Bob when I read this piece of folk wisdom at Ace of Spades on Saturday.  I can almost hear his voice in my mind.  It’s exactly the kind of thing he’d have said to the bureaucrats, too!

The Sierra Club and the U.S. Forest Service were presenting an alternative to the Wyoming ranchers for controlling the coyote population. It seems that after years of the ranchers using the tried-and-true method of shooting or trapping the predators, the Sierra Club had a "more humane" solution to this issue. What they were proposing was for the animals to be captured alive. The males would then be castrated and let loose again.

This was ACTUALLY proposed by the Sierra Club and by the U.S. Forest Service .

All of the ranchers thought about this amazing idea for a couple of minutes.

Finally an old fellow wearing a big cowboy hat in the back of the conference room stood up, tipped his hat back and said:

"Son, I don’t think you understand our problem here… these coyotes ain’t ****in’ our sheep… they’re eatin’ them!"

The meeting never really got back to order.

I reckon, somewhere up there, Bob’s laughing his ass off at that one . . .

Peter

Bayou Renaissance Man