April 18, 2016 -- A Quick Run Around the Web

Forgotten Weapons: "Brun-Latrige Model 1900." A video of an interesting design for a pocket self-defense pistol.

Survival/Self-Defense:

• "4 Effective Throws That Every Man Should Know"--Return of Kings. Part of a series focusing on a handful of simple defensive/fighting techniques.
• "ATF Approves Modified X-Products Can Cannon: No Longer a NFA Weapon"--The Truth About Guns. I wonder if it could be used for this.
• "Post Disaster Violence"--SHTF School. The author begins: "You may have experienced bar fights, or home invasions maybe, shooting somewhere and similar, and those events can be life changing situations for sure (or life taking) but I am talking here about violence so large scale and long lasting that it brings something like a ‘new way of living’, overwhelming violence that demands a complete change of mindset." A couple of points: the author emphasizes that you will need to be part of a group to survive, and competition within the group may be intense. Read the whole thing.

• Related: Articles from Lizard Farmer on building and developing tribe.  

• "Strategies for Dealing with Those Who Aren’t Prepared"--Modern Survival Online. The author offers some ideas for encouraging others to prepare before a disaster, and offers four strategies during and/or following a collapse: (1) using force to defend your preps; (2) sharing with others; (3) hiding your preps/supplies; and (4) staying mobile. The fourth strategy, in my mind, should be right out: it requires you to be a refugee with little or no supplies. The other three strategies are not necessarily viable taken individually. I believe that it will take a mixture of these strategies, together with being part of a "tribe." 
• "Survival Supplies: What do refugees need?"--The Modern Survivalist. FerFal provides lists of supplies and materials that have been needed or requested by refugees currently in Greece. Useful information. Obviously, the categories break down into hygiene needs (soap and feminine products, for instance), food and other supplies (including entertainment/distractions for children and access to the internet for news and communications), and medicines. The list of medicines is fairly specific.
• "Bugging Out 101 - 'This boots are made for walking'."--Neo-Survivalist. I (and others) have discussed that the holster and shooting belt are the foundation to a good carry system. The author of this article takes the same approach to bugging out: that the basis of any strategy for bugging out (or even having to walk a lot) are good quality boots. He also gives some ideas and suggestions in that regard.
• "My Mother's Peasant Bread: The Best Easiest Bread You Will Ever Make"--Alexandra's Kitchen. (H/t SHTF Preparedness). Bread is the staff of life.

Other Stuff:

• "Mormon Leader Brigham Young’s Colt Pistol for Sale"--The Truth About Guns. The article is about the sale of a specially engraved Colt open top revolver that had been presented to Brigham Young.  The article indicates that the engraving was executed by Gustave Young, "the most prominent 19th Century firearms engraver." However, it isn't the beauty of the piece or its historical interest that caught my attention, but the anti-Mormon comments to the article made by a few people. Just a reminder to my LDS readers that there is still strong anti-Mormon sentiment out there that will express itself in unpleasant ways when the going gets tough.
• "A funny thing happened on the way to the matriarchy."--Dalrock. A sad commentary: "What Millet’s co conspirators couldn’t have imagined back in 1969 was how eager Christian conservatives would be to assist them in their destruction of the family. Instead of fighting back, conservative Christians jumped on the anti father bandwagon with a zeal that even makes the liberal elite uncomfortable." 
• "How US covered up Saudi role in 9/11"--New York Post (h/t SNAFU!). From the article:

Actually, the kingdom’s involvement was deliberately covered up at the highest levels of our government. And the coverup goes beyond locking up 28 pages of the Saudi report in a vault in the US Capitol basement. Investigations were throttled. Co-conspirators were let off the hook.

Case agents I’ve interviewed at the Joint Terrorism Task Forces in Washington and San Diego, the forward operating base for some of the Saudi hijackers, as well as detectives at the Fairfax County (Va.) Police Department who also investigated several 9/11 leads, say virtually every road led back to the Saudi Embassy in Washington, as well as the Saudi Consulate in Los Angeles.

Yet time and time again, they were called off from pursuing leads. A common excuse was “diplomatic immunity.”

9/11 wasn't a mere crime, it was an act of war against the United States; and those covering up the involvement of Saudi Arabia or any of its rulers or subjects are acting to protect enemies of the United States and are, therefore, traitors (see 18 U.S.C. § 2381, defining "treason").

• "The Spring Offensive"--Richard Fernandez at PJ Media. Our enemies are mustering their forces as we head into the fighting season. The turn to physical aggression may be the loss of financial leverage. In "The Global World Hits A Snag," Fernandez writes:

... Unlike Venezuela or Brazil who are only threatened by financial ruin the Saudis risk physical extinction if the neighboring swathes of terror and war, much of it their own making, are not held back by the United States.

Therein lies the rub.  They don't have the money to buy protection anymore.  The decline in the Saudi bank balance has made them less influential in American political circles.  Faced with a bill that would allow victims to sue the KSA for 9/11 "Saudi Arabia has told the Obama administration and members of Congress that it will sell off hundreds of billions of dollars’ worth of American assets held by the kingdom if " this were allowed.  A threat that once might have stopped Congress cold is as Tim Worstall at Forbes notes no longer important enough to be decisive.

But it's not only the petrostates that are losing their former influence. China announced it will lay off 1.8 million "steel and coal workers" as it "aims to eliminate production capacity of as much as 500 million metric tons of coal and 150 million tons of steel by 2020."  The Chinese are bust too.

That the Saudis are losing their influence over Congress may explain their sudden rapprochement with Israel and strengthening ties with Egypt.

• "The Federal Takeover of State Debt is About to Begin…"--Chicago Boyz. The author observes:

One very subtle item that is about to occur is the nationalization of state debt (and likely debts of individual cities) by the federal government. At the highest level, states and cities have made promises (mainly pensions) to their employees that are un-payable without raising taxes to extortionate rates. Detroit cracked first but since it was a city and there was some state framework they were able to use bankruptcy, but many more are to follow, including Puerto Rico (right now) and soon thereafter likely the City of Chicago or its teachers’ pensions as well as the state of Illinois.