Sam Brinton was fired. It is likely that he will face charges.

Non-binary Biden nuclear official Sam Brinton fired after multiple luggage theft charges: reports

The Department of Energy has fired Sam Brinton, a top nuclear waste official who happens to be non-binary and has been accused in a string of luggage thefts, according to reports.

I’ve had security clearances in the past. The goal of a clearance is to reduce the risk of the person being given a secret from sharing it.

To this end when performing a background check they are looking to see how well you are able to keep your word. In short how trustworthy you are. They are looking for criminal acts which might just disqualify a person as a matter of policy and they are looking for illegal acts (drug use) that might be disqualifying.

Having established if you are trustworthy they next look into how easy would it be to compromise your integrity. A person that is a few thousand dollars in debt is unlikely to betray their country for those few thousand dollars. The same person in debt for the same amount to a lownshark might be willing to sell a little secret in exchange for keeping working kneecaps.

So debt load and who you are in debt to plays a part in whether they feel a person can be trusted. Trustworth is not the same as trusted.

They then look at things that might be compromising. Things that might embarrass you. I knew homesexuals that had security clearances. They were required to out themselves to their parents and family. This is so that no bad actor could say “if you don’t share this small secret with us we will out you to your wife/parents whatever”

In the same way they don’t want you to have any embarrassing secrets from your employer or family/community.

Finally the look for things that might indicate that you have bad judgement or that you do things that might allow you to say things while not fully cognitive. I.e. while drunk or stoned.

The fact that Sam is non-binary and into kink does not instantly disqualify him for a clearance. All of the criminal activity around him does.

For example consider the following exposure of Col. Donnelly and CPT Tenney.

?Military Sickness Exposed??

Identity of @USArmy’s @PupRavage ? is Col. Brian T. Donnelly (ret.) of INDOPACOM

Past @Mdarmyguard CO: 58th EMIB, 1100th TASMG

Posing in uniform w ? mask?

Engaged in ?-play sex w junior @USArmy officer – CPT Dayton Tenney, aka @adjutantpup pic.twitter.com/PlOzWBjQHM

— NOVA Campaigns (@NoVA_Campaigns) December 9, 2022

(H/T to a reader)

My issue with this pair is that there is a level of inappropriate behavior between a superior and his direct report.

In the same way I had no problem with Billy Clinton having sex in the oval office. I didn’t care if it was with his wife or some hooker the SS brought in. I had and have a problem with him having sex with an intern.

If the CEO of some firm had sex with an intern we would have seen him fired and lambasted. Billy doing it was a matter between he and his wife. We know that a CEO would be fired because a CEO for IIRC McDonald’s was fired for exactly this thing shortly after.

At some time in your life somebody–probably your mom–told you that you were a "smart" or "clever" boy.

You believed them.

They lied to you. https://t.co/ttpeuphgIN

— Law of Self Defense (@LawSelfDefense) December 13, 2022

Andrew Branca has done a lot for the gun rights and self defense community.

I was trying to argue a rational point about a shooting I thought was unjustified.

That was how I was trained when I clerk for a lawfirm and thought about going to law school.

Did he respond with a logical counter point?

No, he responded with petty schoolyard bully insults.

It’s actually kind of pathetic when you think about it.

I guess being a lawyer on Twitter has made him succumb to Tyson’s Law of Social Media.

Did the office have to shoot? No, there was no real threat in my opinion.  Yes, a flying hatchet is a danger, but it is also a slow-moving projectile which could have been easily side-stepped at that distance. Is the officer at fault? Legally I don’t think so and probably he did not break department policy or training so he will walk away from this one. His department however should let him walk all the way to the unemployment office or assign him to parking enforcement or gator-crossing duties till he sees the need to relinquish the badge and gun.

The question that should be pertinent is: If we as a civilians take that shot, what would happen to us?

You can bet your ass you’d be trying to raise bail and lawyer money.

This was posted to Twitter:

https://twitter.com/Mrgunsngear/status/1601703906224263168?t=Pkw9iDnJM_MG7JV7ZeirMQ&s=19

I believe this was a bad shoot.

I said so and I have taken a lot of abuse on the bird app for it.

The pro-good shoot people have really settled on three arguments:

The gut refused to drop thr ax after three warnings.

Thr guy could have thrown the ax.  Emphasis on could.

I’m a stupid, pro-criminal, armchair quarterback who is too much of a pussy to be a cop.

The last one seems to have taken over and insults and ad hominem have become their primary talking point.

Regardless, I’m going to explain why I believe it’s a bad shoot.

First, I must acknowledge some points.

I am not squeamish about a cop needing to take a shot when the situation demands it.  Readers of this blog should know how much I critical I was of the Broward County Sheriff and Uvalde Police for not responding immediately.

I have cataloged cases and stated over and over again how the proper response to an active shooter is to go in and take him out as fast as possible.

But that is not this scenario.

The whole situation unfolded in less than a minute.

The man with the ax did not rush as it charge the officer.

Yes, he did say “no” when told to drop the ax, but a verbal refusal of an officer’s order is not justification to shoot.

Yes, the man did raise his arm holding the ax.

It did not appear that he had cocked his arm to throw it.

No “advance” by the aggressor is required in order for someone to lawfully defend themselves against a deadly force projectile. The projectile itself is the imminent “advance.”

You’re not very good at this. https://t.co/875GqMzhNO

— Law of Self Defense (@LawSelfDefense) December 13, 2022

An ax is not a projectile weapon.  It can be thrown, but there has to be a reasonable understanding of the accuracy and distance over which that is a possibility.

What is that distance, 20, maybe 25 yards?

Now I would understand if this man had an ax in a crowded area where there were potential victims in close proximity.  It would have been a good shoot in defense of a third party.

But this was a isolated and open area.

There didn’t appear to be anyone else nearby.

There was lots of potential room for the officer to maintain a safe distance, call for backup, and attempt to de-escalate.

This was not a hostage situation, this was not an active shooter, and it was the officer, not the guy with thr ax who closed the distance to danger close.

This officer went in cranked to 11 and shot the guy in the head in under a minute.

From a safe distance, had the man with the ax become aggressive, has he closed the distance with the officer, yes it would be justified and I wouldn’t be arguing against it.

I don’t think I’m the bad guy for believing that police response should be situationally dependent and that SOP should be towards less violent action.

Across the country, there have been a number of tragic cases of police shooting elderly people with dementia or suffering from a diabetic crisis.

Swatting has also been a major concern for the last few years.

In this case, the 911 call apparently included the information that this man was mentally ill.

I’m not in the camp of “defund the police, send in social workers.”

But there has to be a middle ground between an inept response and blowing a guy’s brains out in under a minute.

Yes, police do deserve the right to go home at the end of the day, but so do suspects.

Actually they do, the 4th through 8th Ammendments enumerate the rights of the accused.  Arguably, given that, law enforcement should err on the side of preserving the lives of suspects until absolutely necessary.

I don’t believe that a guy raising his arm holding an ax at 20 yards met that level of necessity.

Do I think this officer will be charged and convicted?  Doubtful.

But it should be a lesson in developing a better SOP and an example of what not to do.

I refuse to accept that I’m the problem because I believe cops should take a few moments and try a little harder to preserve life when they have the opportunity to, instead of going in blasting.

A firey hot redhead with bagpipes.

Nuf said…

My parents brought their children into the world of “Duck And Cover”. They caught the last part of it in highschool. My generation grew up with the fear of nuclear war hanging over us.

Because my father was in the US Navy we lived near Navy bases my entire childhood except for six months while my father was deployed to Vietnam. I was born just miles away from a major navy base. We moved to a major navy training facility. We moved to Norfolk Va, The major navy port on the east coast.

Even when we lived in the boonies, we were still “just across the river” from a Naval Air Station.

My first “real” job was again in Norfolk. The building held a fallout shelter. (Which was so freaking empty and useless as to make my mother’s pantry look like an end of the world stockpile)

I went to University and was lived within 5 miles of a major target. I left University and was living just a mile off a major army post.

It was difficult to ever forget that at any moment we were only minutes away from nuclear annihilation. When Reagan got “won” the cold war, it felt like a great weight was lifted from my shoulders.

I’ve talked about how I and my next door neighbor friend, at 7 or so, had a serious conversation about what we would do when we were old enough to be drafted to go to Vietnam.

When we worried, it was about World War III or being drafted.

The other day I read that one of the gun control sites was blasting out how there had been over 600 mass shootings in 2022 so far. They got that number by including gang shootings AND setting the definition to include “killed OR wounded”.

Not what we think about when we think “mass shootings.” On the other hand, I’m not sure they included the mall shooting where the kid with the Glocked put 8 out of 10 rounds on target at distance within 15 seconds of the asshole opening fire.

My kids are high school age. The schools here spend way to much money on “preventing school shootings.” For some reason they spend more time thinking about keeping people out than in actual protection. Though they have finally figured out how to keep bad guys out. They just don’t let anybody into the building….

I asked my daughter for a song for us today. She provided me a song. It is about a school shooter. According to her it is well known amongst highschool students. School shootings are her generation’s “duck and cover”.

Measure 114

Federal judge issues ruling over Oregon’s strict gun law after police ask for more time

The police agencies tasked with enacting Oregon’s gun control law say they don’t have enough time or resources to create a permit-to-purchase system by the Dec. 8 deadline.

Judge says she’ll decide next week whether to delay new Oregon gun law

The new law requiring a permit to purchase a gun and banning high-capacity magazines was approved by voters in November, but faces multiple legal challenges.

Oregon Measure 114 delay would lead to ‘unnecessary deaths,’ attorney general argues

The attorney general’s office, in its response to the Oregon Firearms Federation’s lawsuit, argued large-capacity magazines that hold more than 10 rounds are not “arms” protected by the Second Amendment and the state’s new requirement for a permit to purchase a gun will withstand constitutional scru…

The four rules!!! Not one, not none!

A Minnesota man who said he was at ‘war’ with squirrels on his property was arrested after missing his target and shooting through his neighbor’s window

Local news reported that the man, identified as Michael James Powers, told police he shot at squirrels a few times in the last two years.

River Bluff teacher arrested after gun found in car

Horton is alleged to have told students in her class she always kept a gun in her vehicle.

There is another story of a teacher in jail after she left her purse behind in the school.  It was found, brought to the office where they looked inside to identify the owner and found a gun.  I don’t have the link to that story.

Foreign News:

Germany to tighten gun laws after suspected coup plot, interior minister says

Germany plans to tighten its gun laws in the wake of a suspected plot by a far-right group to violently overthrow the government and install a minor royal as national leader, its interior minister said in an interview published on Sunday.

Drop your gun: French hand over their unlicensed weapons to police

French gun owners were handing over their weapons at police collection points across the country this week as part of a campaign to round up unlicensed firearms, often heirlooms lying in attics or forgotten at the back of cupboards. Gun ownership in France is nowhere near as prevalent as in the Uni…

The ranting right is winning, from the US to Israel | Simon Tisdall

US Democrats and leftwing parties around the world have failed to come up with a compelling narrative to counter the lies and distortions of extremists

Slamming on SCOTUS

Is Samuel Alito the Biggest Sleazebag on the Supreme Court? A Brief Investigation

On Monday, the conservative justice joked about the KKK and about his colleague using a website that facilitates affairs.