Radical Thought Of The Day

Lawrence Person at his BattleSwarm Blog had some thoughts on the current spate of rioting in cities across the United States. The one that stood out to me was this:

Here’s a radical thought: What if the backers and antifa and #BlackLivesMatter want Trump to win? The insane wing couldn’t get Bernie Sanders the nomination, and they can’t control the Democratic Party if Biden wins and leaves the Clinton hacks in charge of the gravy train for the next 4-8 years. As in the 1960s, looting and rioting boost the chances of law and order candidates, which is clearly Donald Trump this year. They need Trump to win again to completely take over the Party for the radical left.

That is a radical thought that just could be correct. I have yet to come across anyone – right, left, or center – who thought kneeling on George Floyd’s neck was anything other than unconscionable.

What if the radical elements seeking control of the Democrat Party from the Clintonistas are creating their own “Reichstag fire” moment to destroy the Clinton wing of the party. I’m sure that they would be willing to endure another four years of Donald Trump if it meant control of the party.

Weirder things have happened in history.

Raufuss Mk 211

I first learned about the Raufuss Mk 211 .50 BMG cartridge in Stephen Hunter’s Night of Thunder. The book starts out with Bob Lee Swagger’s daughter Nikki pondering the meaning of a scrap of paper with the markings “k 2:11”. She is 24 and a new crime reporter for the Bristol TN/VA Courier-Herald. She had stumbled across it while on a story about meth. Unfortunately, it marked her as an assassin’s target as she was thought to know too much.

Lawrence Person just did an interesting post about this round at his BattleSwarm blog. He has assembled a series of videos showing just what the Raufuss Mk 211 will do to cars, engine blocks, glass, and ballistic gelatin.

He notes:

What happens when this round reaches out and touches something?

Bad things for the recipient. Let’s take a look.

It is worth a look.

A Great Summation Of The NRA’s Problems

Lawrence Person in his Battleswarm Blog does a great job in providing a summation of the issues facing the NRA. I think it is a must read. In full disclosure he does quote me in his post but don’t hold that against him!

As to getting its house in order, he writes:

There are some that claim cleaning up the NRA would offer too much succor to the gun-grabbers. But the organizational dysfunction and self-dealing is already out in the open, and is already hurting the NRA’s effectiveness (and has been for several years). If not now, when? Better to do it now, the year before an Presidential election, with Republicans holding the White House and the Senate able to block gun-grabbing initiatives, than during it.


Other than being a member, I am very far indeed from the center of NRA power. For all the grumbling over the NRA caving over bump-stocks, there’s no other organization with the size, scope and political power of the NRA to protect Second Amendment rights in America. But to do that, the NRA has to be on solid organizational and financial footing, and right now it does not appear to be on either. The NRA has to get its own house in order, this year, or expect forces hostile to it and its goals to do it for them.

Sebastian at Shall Not Be Questioned also links to this blog post. He endorses the idea of an independent outside audit team from one of the Big Four accounting firms to come in and do an audit. He is a bit skeptical that it will happen and that even if it does happen then the results will be kept internally.

But just because its sensible doesn’t mean it will happen. I’ve seen a lot of sensible things fall by the wayside in a non-profit and we don’t have to deal with paid staff who also have opinions, and have a lot more time and incentive to manipulate things to come out in their favor. I’m not holding my breath. Even if it does happen, it’ll probably be kept internal.

I hope he is wrong in his skepticism but he has always had a better feel for the inner workings in Fairfax than most anyone else not named Knox.