summer patriot, winter soldier

a bitter pill for the dem's & progressives ..... you have "wasted" your theft of the presidency*** on an idiot .....

***** i am referring to "the steal" in the election of 2020, in which you committed treason by fraudulently massaging the popular vote in favor of your candidate.

now, there needs be no explanation of to whom i am referring, when i used the word "idiot."   that is, of course, none other than the idiot biden.   now, some of you democrats, socialists, progressives, marxists and or communists following the chinese line may feel that this has been just bad luck in choosing biden.

"luck," has nothing to do with it.  you are simply getting a little bit of what you deserve for your deception, fraud and illegality.  you chose the particular idiot, among any number of other idiots who might have volunteered, to include barack obama, who i think behind the whole thing: he simply backed biden, because he figured he could control him, and that he would remain de facto president after the coup.

you thought that you would solidify a permanent control of american politics, but it looks more and more each day that you have destroyed the democratic party, and forever sullied the reputation of the media which has emerged as simply your partner in crime.

you sought power.   instead, you have invited ruin, and violence.

i give you fair warning .....  there are a number of people, to include me, who think your reward should have been an armed insurrection and real live shooting warfare in the streets the day after the election.   we held off, chiefly on the advice of more sober heads who probably foresaw the travesty your efforts have become.  

we will not forebear again.   to coin a phrase, "fuck joe biden," and all of his henchmen.    dump the silly bastard now, dump kamala harris who is equally incompetent, resign your offices and agree to an emergency election in which no election fraud will be allowed to happen.

dump pelosi.   dump schumer.

our patience is wearing thin, as you drive the republic into the ground, with failure compounded by ignorance multiplied by arrogance.   dump the thieves, those who engineered the fraud, and those who sell their country down the shitter.

the very real probability of civil war over this has not gone anywhere.   it is still there.   and, is increasing.

fuck joe biden.  fuck the usurpers.

john jay @ 10.13.2021

p.s.   and, if civil war happens, john brennan and the dipshit who ran the f.b.i., will die in the street tied to posts, and be left to rot.   we have not forgotten.

speaking of idiots ..... this is what happens when you leave an idiot minding the store .....

hunter.  sexual escapades and influence peddling, a family rife with the virtues of crime and lying.

the debacle of a "withdrawal" from afghanistan.  "managing" covid.   the stock market plunging into chaos, and collapse a very real possibility.   ("fergitaboutit" for "bitcoin.")   biden stumbling into war with russia over the ukraine and china with taiwan, all of this looming with a worthless military that has been politicized and feminized, concerned with social issues and not the business of killing our enemies and/or defending our shores.*****

bumbling chaos at every turn, a nation run by "the _____ stooges."   (fill in the numbers, it is very demoralizing, to say the least.)

this is what happens when you leave an idiot, surrounded by other idiots, in charge "of the store."

we are governed, if "governed" is the right word, by incompetent boobs, who are simply not equipped to deal with the likes of dictators who have survived in a very hostile world for many years.  these fellows are trained to recognize weakness and stupidity, venal corruptness, and they see it in spades with biden and his gang of boobs.   and, they are not gonna stand idly by as we sort out our mess, they are going to act and act decisively in a real world of real politics.

they do not fear biden.   nor anything he says.   they have looked at things, and they know the u.s. military is full of sissies and pussies, and not blessed with the likes of american soldiers from days long gone by, who shot straight and fought hard.

all of this has come to pass in a little over a year.

we are paying now, in spades, for allowing trump's presidency stolen by fraud, and not have taken to the streets and strung those responsible up on gallows, poles, yardarms, and anything else suitable for a hanging.

tomorrow morning, bright and early, i go to the bank to get what little money i have out of the bank, before the currency crashes and is worthless.

these are dark days, and it is going to get a lot worse, very quickly.   it doesn't take a prophet to figure all of this out.

john jay @ 01.24.2022

*****  need i mention the gang of fools at pbs, and the n.y. & washington times who have covered up biden's failures, and apologized for his stupidities, and who enable and encourage him.   when and if a reckoning happens for the wreaking of this country they should share space on the gallows with the idiots who got us here.  it started with lying about "the steal," and joining in the attacks on trump with covid, and it did everything possible to deliver the idiot democrats into permanent power.

well, now we pay.

my little carcano rifle ..... an idiot's love song .....

just hear me out.--

my little carcano came to me by an odd route, even though i was aware of its odious reputation.   but, it was just irresistible to an inveterate tinkerer like me.   it all started with an advertisement posted by sarco, the well known liquidator & purveyor of all sorts of things.   sarco had for sale a bare receiver, and i mean bare, except for having an 8x57 mauser barrel attached to it.***   the action had no trigger, no ejector, and most importantly, no bolt.  i bought it anyway  ...  who can resist a bargain.

and, oh yes, it had no stock, nor action screws, no any stripper clips.  who says i am not an idiot?

so, from various sources, i got all the little things that come with a complete rifle.  a bolt, bottom metal complete with the cartridge feed system, screws, ... , etc., etc.

there remained the little matter of making the rifle work with 8x57 ammo.   the obvious course would have been to get a 6.5mm carcano barrel, and to fit it to the action, now more or less complete.  i figured this would be the act of a coward, as i purchased an 8x57mm chambered rifle.  (and, yes, deep within the confines of a basement bedroom, i have the spare 6.5mm carcano barrel.  laughing.)

to me, the only route was to make the little dear a shooter, w/ the 8x57mm barrel.   and, the only obvious course was to make the 8x57mm feed from the clips required to make the rifle function as designed, e.g., a bolt action repeater, and the only way i could figure out how to make that work was to rebate the rim diameter and rim thickness of the ammunition fit the gun.

i am not a machinist.  i don't have a lathe and mill in the basement.   all i have is an odd assortment of files, some sharp and some dull, and an old bench grinder that a friend gave me when the worm gear for the big wheel gave out.  well, you use what you have.  a little time passed, and a little work transpired, and pretty soon i had a small supply of 0.473 to 0.476 diameter cases with the rims filed down by hand at the bench grinder, and thinned, and smoothed out by twirling in 150 to 400 grit sandpaper, such that they would fit the bolt face of the carcano bolt.

o.k., so where do you go to get carcano clips?  well, the internet, of course.   i found a seller selling brass and steel carcano clips.  so i bought two (2) of each, and found the brass clips the best.    and, i got the buggers to accept my "home-rebated" cases.

the rest was easy, sorta.

a friend gave me some 8mm cast bullet molds, and i melted lead and cast the bullets, coated by a plastic/epoxy/god knows only what stuff, and loaded the bullets up.  with a very mild load, courtesy of some reading and the older reloading manuals on hand.  (it seems that the new manuals are more directed to the mainstream shooters these days, while the old manuals were more directed toward those with an "experimenters outlook" on life.

now, to the point of this whole exercise.--   all of the components to my rifle were mixed in origin, and as a direct result were subject to a bit of "oxidation," and were also made by a bunch of people not working to the same operating tolerances and mechanical dimensions as would be deemed desirable.

the only recourse was files and sandpaper.  i cannot tell you the hours and moments i have spent sanding down scuff marks and burnishes on the bolt to get it to work properly, and how much mischief a little high spot here and there can cause in the proper cycling of a rifle action.  as it turns out, the biggest impediment to proper cycling was the carcano cartridge ejector, which "glides" in a recess cut into the bottom of the bolt ...  it was like trying to make progress in a boat with the anchor dropped.

but, finally, after much work, and a judicious application of a lithium based lube, i have the action working just about as smooth as a nice commercial action of recent vintage.  (and, don't forget to spend a little time on the compound curve and angle of the pathway cut into the bolt for the cocking piece.  if you follow that, you understand the issues involved.  laughing.)

what started out with an action that would barely open i have an action that works pretty smoothly, and with a modicum of effort required to operate.   and, oh yeah, i have it to the point where it feeds quite nicely, and reliably, to the point why you could understand why a modern industrial society would choose such an arrangement for an infantry rifle.  (if you think the italians singularly obtuse in choosing the action, you should take a look at the german model 88 action, and the austrian military action of the same vintage, both of which have the same sort of cartridge feed system.  the austrian action has gone on to assume a beloved status amongst civilian bolt actions.  you look it up.)

and, the stock.   the action now resides in a stock built for the 1903 springfield action, and i purchased it for $7.00 from sarco.  (actually, 4 stocks for $28.00 .  so grime and dirt coated that they were all black, and required hours to get to the wood.   but, a very nice piece of walnut in each of them, with "generous" allowances in dimension.  a separate story, indeed.)

well, that's it.   i have now a very trim outfit, with a short and compact action in a short and compact stock, fitted w/ rudimentary "iron sights," and someday if i live long enough, i will take it deer hunting where they grow stupid deer which allow you to get very close to them, to see how the entire contraption works.  i am positive that it will work just as it would have in the 1890's as first built, and in circa 1943 when the germans grabbed everything they could get their hands on.****

john jay @ 01.24.2022

 

*** to make a long story short, at about the time nazi germany began to be very hard pressed during wwii, they suffered a serious shortage in small arms.   as they were being evicted from italy by the allies, they prevailed upon several italian gun makers to chamber the carcano rifle in the german service round, the 8x57mm.   this was not a marriage made in heaven, as the carcano bolt face was not large enough to accommodate the case rim diameter of the 8x57mm, and the cartridge clips needed by the carcano to be a repeater were not large enough to handle the german round:  nonetheless, the germans had the guns made.

 

****  btw, the carcano's so described were used in battle by the finns against the russians, until such time as the russians, soldier by soldier, died in battle discarding his weapon on the ground.   there & then, rumor has it, the finns promptly assumed ownership of the russian rifle (the previous owner having no need for it), and left their carcano's on the ground in fair trade.   it was not, needless to say, as beloved by the finns as it might have been.   perhaps they needed some lithium?

i have never read just exactly how the germans, or finns, or anyone else for that matter, addressed the dimensional problems associated with the 8x57mm mauser case heads and the obviously much smaller bolt faces of the 6.5/7.35mm manufactured carcano rifles.    anybody out there have any ideas, or recourse to historical writings which addresses this issue?   it would be much appreciated by me to be informed about it.  well, ttfn.   fini.   as they say.

a modest proposal .....

i suggest, in the spirit of calling a spade a spade, that the democratic party change its name to the communist party of north america.   there will be, of course, no need for states any more, as power will be consolidated to a central committee of self-described "really smart people who know best."  and, there really isn't much need for canada and mexico, either  ....   they will just become separate directorates.   and, like the rest of us, will simply have to do as told to do by "the really smart people."

or, if you insist, "the really really smart people."   you know, like anthony "tony" fauchi.

i am assuming that a.o.c. has no objections to my proposal.  (she being, of course, a self-described "really really smart person.")   i see no reason for adherence to antediluvian nomenclature given the left's progressive movement toward the left.

"truth in advertising," and all of that.

john jay @ 01.22.2021

yeah, let's just have it out .....

democrats in general and the biden administration think that republicans are "domestic terrorists."  and, biden & his gang are working with the big corporate techies to surveil republicans to look for "conspiracy."  and, "domestic terrorism."  they are spoiling for a fight, and looking to "suppress" this "domestic terrorism."

if that's the case, (and it sure looks like it is), i don't see much point in dicking around with the assholes, being all nice and nice and such.

let's just have it all out.  

"baghdad rules" and all that, and just get the spleen worked out of everyone's systems.  as jefferson noted, "the tree of liberty" has to be blooded just every now and again, and this is as good a time as any.  i suggest a start in mid-april, to have some seasonable weather to fight in.  

they want to fight, let's give it to 'em.   i really don't see much around it, to tell the truth.  if they are going to be sending people out in the dead of night to round up the insurgents, and that looks to be the case, ... , well it's time to respond appropriately.

john jay @ 01.02.2022

guy arrested for a traffic stop in iowa says he was on his way to shoot joe biden ....

apparently, in conversations with the cops, this guy told them that he was going to washington, d.c., was going to climb the white house fence and shoot joe biden and some other people on "his list."  (i don't know if he had information suggesting they would all be there w/ biden in some sort of confab.  who knows?)

of course, when he comes before the presiding judge on some sort of bail hearing, his trusty old defense lawyer is going to suggest to the court that he cannot be held on criminal charges because he is obviously quite looney tunes, which is "lawyer talk" for suggesting that he cannot be held because mentally incompetent.

judges in iowa are pretty much "steady at the helm" sorts of guys/gals, or so i've been told, and i could just see a judge replying to the defense lawyer's pleadings, "well, what's so crazy about that?  i've kind of thought of doing that myself!!"

well, the whole deal is kind of a reflection upon the state of the country right now, ain't it?

john jay @ 12.30.2021

 

"free the 6'ers!!"

poll, "do you approve of joe biden?" ... apparently paid for by the democratic governor's association ...

i was a bit disappointed by the answers supplied, which were "no" and "yes."   i was hoping that they would have a choice which stated, "no, and fuck no!!"

well, maybe next time.

john jay @ 12.30.2021

p.s.  it is almost a year from 01.06.2021, the spontaneous demonstration against "the steal," the theft of the presidency from president donald trump.   it is a national disgrace the way those persons arrested for their involvement in the "occupation" of the capital grounds are being treated, incarcerated in cages without bail and without adequate access to counsel.  this, in and of itself, is worthy of another anniversary occupation of the capital grounds, now controlled by the pretender president.

"free the 6'ers!"

oregon doesn't hire justin wilcox ....

big mistake.

oh, well, they'll have another chance when the latest hire cuts and runs in 2 years.   maybe, if wilcox is available.  "sigh."

john jay @ 12.11.2021

 

p.s.   it's a tough lot, being a fan.   very tough, very hard emotionally.   i think that i will take a nap.   in three days, i should live so long, i get to find out whether i need a "pacemaker" or not.   i hope it has a setting for "college football season."  that would be nice.

 

 

final prediction of the year ....

mario "crystal balls" becomes the next lane kiffan, the paragon of loyalty among college football coaches.

"i am yours forever," his undying pledge of fidelity.   as bugs bunny says, "it is to laugh, it is to cry."

john jay @ 12.07.2021

now i know why the oregon ducks football season turned to shit at the end ....

head coach mario "cystal balls" rushed out of eugene to take over as head football coach at the u. of miami.   the team started great.  a signature victory over ohio state on their home field.   and, then, it was downhill as the team played with less and less direction, less drive and comittment.

it seems that the team sensed "crystal balls" enthusiasm was somewhere else, ... , well, because it obviously was.

good riddance to bad rubbish.

who will replace him?   who knows?   it will probably be another (perennial itinerant) coach looking for greener pastures.   maybe justin wilcox at cal.   i know the family, as they sprang from vale, oregon to prominence in oregon.   one, john wilcox won an nfl championship ring his rookie season at philadelphia, then retired.   another, dave, was an all pro defensive line backer for many years with the 49'er's.  (i saw him play a high school playoff game in milton freewater, many many years ago.  he was a piece of work.    and, i took a p.e. class from john at whitman college, who flunked me for skipping class.   badminton, of all things.   he was not apologetic about it, being nice, but very stern.   a good guy.)   and, i taught a couple of wilcox kids in a social studies class as i was doing "studen teaching" getting an education certificate  ....   bright kids.  (one of them might have been justin wilcox, i cannot remember his first name.   nor that of his brother.)

so, i am voting "wilcox."    who knows?   i do know that wilcox's are not bullshitters.   "crystal balls" was a bullshitter from the word "go!"   simple as that.   again, good riddance.

john jay @ 12.06.2021

guitar clearance sale ....

huge "black friday" guitar sale.  friends, (and potential customers  ...   well, of course you are friends, i want your money for my guitars!!), i have found the guitars with which i wish to spend my dotage, and that i enjoy playing.

so, it is time to part with those guitars upon which i honed by soldering skills, by which i learned about the circuitry and other subtleties of the electric guitar.   and, oh yeah, i played them while i became, well,  and enthusiastic & not very skilled guitarist.   i enjoyed my time with these guitars, but it is time to liquidate my joy in them.

pictures --  got a new phone, saving about $45 @ month over the old carrier, but i cannot figure out how to get pictures of the guitars to this post.   i'll get it figured out in a couple of days or so, and i'll get the pictures into this space.  i think, we'll see.

you want more pictures of a particular guitar, then send me your email address, and i can get the pictures to you that way.

 

1.)  an epiphone limited edition custom shop sg look-alike.    serial number 0910180700.   the original pickups were replaced w/ ibanez s-58's, which i took off an ibanez am93 replacing them w/ seymour duncan sh-2 and sh-4 pickups.  i've looked this little jewel up on the net, and the "asking prices" range from cheap to moderately expensive.   quite frankly, i don't know what to make of this guitar, as it does not produce any sound whatsoever that pleases me, and it is quite difficult to tune.   price --  $125.00 and it is yours.

a good first guitar for a kid, who won't care one whit that the tone is, well, not something that would appeal to someone who enjoys jazz guitar.  a distortion pedal of some sort would be a good bet here. 

you had best become accustomed to odd noises if you buy this guitar.

 

2.)a crate guitar, a good solid asian knockoff of a fender strat.  (i think, but i am not sure, that they call it an "electra" model.  this is a guess.) when i got it, i had two single coils and a humbucker in front of the bridge, which i replaced with seymour duncan pickups, 3 narrow humbuckers on a five way switch:  the switch works very well, giving five distinct tones, with clarity and no buzzes.  i haven't played it in a good long while, it's been leaning in a corner in the bedroom, but it was in very good tune.   it's got some used winders, which started life as a good brand (feder), but one winder was a bit weak in the knees so the whole set was "sacked."  the neck is straight.  now, the bad news  ....   when i was replacing the winders i bollixed the whole job, and had to repair the head stock by putting a layer of walnut over the head stock  ...  it looks pretty good to me.  (it may not to you.)   but, if crates ever had any collector cachet, it's gone with this one.   and, it has been repainted, but in a local mechanic's paint room  ....   it is a dark cherry (gm part no. ____ something or other), with bunches of black in it, very nice, but as the context might suggest, it's got some minor pits and dimples where i didn't fill dings in very good.   price --  $250.00, because it is nice, and it sounds and plays very well.

update, 11.23.2021.  i am playing it right now.  it's a nice little guitar, it chimes a bit for my tastes, but no distortion.  you can fix this with some different strings, is my thinking.  but, it plays well, and has good tone.  end update.

 

3. an sx rock & rose guitar (don't ask me where they got the name.)   this guitar, you can pick up brand new on the net for summer's 'round $100.00 .   i am asking for considerably more, namely $250.00 or so.

now, hear me out.   this is a good little guitar, well made, and attractive.   the neck is straight, it has what appears to be rosewood for the fret board.  somewhere i acquired a used set of fender tuners, and they grace the little devil.   and, it is equipped with 3 seymor duncan single coil pickups, with a five way switch.   and, it has a nice solid tone  .....  nothing spectacular, but nice and even.   finally, it plays very easily, and the intonation is solid, with no fret buzz.   i hate to part with it, but, i've nicer guitars now, and what's the point of having it gather dust?

this would be an extremely good kids guitar: a good guitar to start with, with no bad habits, and a good clear tone.   it is smallish, being a strat knock off but with a smaller body and not weighing a little shy of a ton like the crate guitar above.   and, it has a very nice even black finish with little silver sparks, and the pick guard and plate where the neck is attached by screws have nice little red roses on them, very nicely done.

4.)  this one hurts, i hate to part with this guitar, but, it has to go.   it is a schecter diamond series (they don't make them anymore), black hawk model.    it sounds wonderful, and it plays very easily, the neck being "just right" to my way of thinking.  (a relatively deep "c" profile.)  it comes with a hard case.

the body and head stock are a flat black.   all the dials, switches and bells and whistles are black.  i am thinking that maybe that's why is called the "black hawk," eh.

it is not perfect.   somewhere along the line it was owned by someone who attracted sharp corners with the top edges on the guitar, mostly on the bottom bout  .....  don't ask me why.  but, it took divots out of the paint and the body of the guitar.   somewhere along the line, i discovered that black friction tape, (what we call when i was a kid "electrical tape") is a perfect match to schecter guitar flat black.  put a little on the edge, rub vigorously, and after a while you never even notice that it is there.   trust me on this.

and, yes, it has got seymour duncan pickups, the aforementioned sh-2 and sh-4 model, controlled by a volume and tone dial.  neck and bridge "allocation" is controlled by a three way switch.  the price is $350.00.   quite frankly, i really don't care if it sells or not.

it's a nice guitar.  and, keeping it will not be a burden.  it's good insurance for any reversals, and i've experienced those, trust me.

5.) a breedlove discovery concert ce ny, nylon stringed accoustic guitar "with electricity."  the pickup is a  piezo pickup in the bridge.   it is a mahogany body with a spruce top, and it sounds pretty nice.   i am not much into acoustics, but, it looks nice on the wall, and i don't want to part with it very much, as it is only slightly used and looks brand new.

if nothing else, it is a beautiful addition to my "man cave" "decor."   laughing.

price  --  $450.00  .   this isn't carved in stone.   let me know what you are thinking.

 

john jay  @ 11.22.2021

p.s.  i live in n.e. oregon.  the prospect of having to box, ship and insure these items during shipping leaves me a bit cold.   you have to bear the cost, i have to bear the bother.  it's really not a fair trade.   but, shipping and insuring is your dime.   period.   if that is a deal stopper, then, so be it.

if you are nervous about your money (as i would be), i have a lawyer friend or two in two, and we can set up a trust account for you to send your money (it goes into the lawyer's trust account), where it will stay until you approve the purchase/sale of the guitar.  keep in mind, you don't get the guitar until i get the money.