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Tuesday, May 14, 2019

May 14, 2019 -- A Quick Run Around the Web

"Combat Shooting around Vehicle | Cover points & Shooting Techniques"--Tactical Rifleman (11 min.). 

  • Don't forget to check out this week's Woodpile Report. I do want to comment on a couple of the articles to which he cites. The first is "Ammo stockpiling: Four more reasons buying more ammo is one of the smartest things you’ll ever do before SHTF" from Natural News. That article, in turn, quotes from a 2014 TTAG article entitled "Combat Medic’s Advice: 'Shoot the heaviest rifle round…shoot at what (you) can hit, and then shoot it again'" for the proposition that 9 mm is a lousy defensive round because the combat medic had never seen anyone shot with 9 mm that wasn't able to first return fire. However, the context appears to be shootings in a combat zone and, therefore, probably using FMJ ammo. I'm not arguing that you probably have a better chance of surviving a pistol shot to the head than a blast from a land mine, but that is just the nature of under powered pistol ammunition and the widespread trauma caused by blast and shrapnel. The combat medic also denigrates the 5.56 as being effective. Yet I interviewed an Army combat medic that served multiple tours in Iraq, and he said almost the opposite: that the 5.56 was very effective, but if you were shot with 7.62x39 and weren't immediately killed, it is extremely unlikely that you would die from the wound. All I can say is that with any ammo, shot placement is key, and remind you that you may very well need multiple shots to stop an aggressor. 
       The second article is "Amazon's D-Day bestseller 'is a HOAX': Historians claim 'Through German Eyes' book is a fabrication because no soldiers named in it can be traced and its author is nowhere to be seen" from the Daily Mail. Spectacular headlines aside, it sounds like the Daily Mail interviewed three historians, one (Giles Milton, author of D-Day: The Soldiers' Story) of which believed that the book was a hoax because he could not track down the identities of the soldiers listed in the book and he could not find a German language version of the book. Another unnamed "skeptic" said he was keeping an open mind. On the other hand, "Robert Kershaw, who wrote the D-Day book Landing on the Edge of Eternity, said there was enough accuracies in Eckhertz's work to convince him" of its authenticity. Having read both of the books, I can tell you that there is nothing in the books to indicate that they were ever intended to be published in Germany because the author specifically mentioned that the accounts were his translations (into English) of his grandfather's notes. Obviously, if the book was going to be published in German, there would have been no reason for the author to have translated the accounts. That Milton could not find the interviewees via a web search is also not dispositive.
A disturbing story out of Germany, where five people—three of them hotel guests who were impaled by crossbow bolts—have been found dead. A 53-year-old man and two women, ages 30 and 33, checked in to the hotel in rural Bavaria Friday evening and planned to stay three nights. On Saturday morning, a room cleaner found their bodies, with two crossbows nearby plus a third unused crossbow in a bag. Police found the other two bodies, both women, when searching the 30-year-old's home in northern Germany, about 400 miles away, on Monday. Police say they are investigating "possible connections" between the deaths, the BBC reports; relationships between the victims are not yet clear. It's also not clear how the women found in the home died, the Washington Post reports.
  • A reader sends: "WHO Warns Ebola Outbreak Critical As Armed Militants Target Healthcare Workers"--Zero Hedge. The article reports that "[a]s of May 7, there have been 1,600 confirmed and probable cases of EVD (Ebola Virus Disease), of which 1,069 have died - a mortality rate of 67%." However, local militias have been attacking health care workers and treatment centers that have been involved with monitoring and controlling the Ebola outbreak, and fliers believed to have been distributed by Mai-Mai fighters have warned people from cooperating with any of the Ebola health workers, so I would take the figures above as being conservative. WHO has warned that the Ebola virus disease could spread to other parts of the DRC, as well as into neighboring Rwanda, Uganda and South Sudan. 
  • "CACHING WITH PVC"--American Partisan. NC Scout gives tips and pointers on how to do it right. One thing he points out is that PVC tends to collect moisture on the inside, so everything going inside needs to be protected against moisture, whether it is coated in cosmoline or separately sealed. I've also read warnings not to use silicone to seal the tubes as it can off-gas and corrode metals. NC Scout suggests that you might want to try caching these tubes above-ground and has some suggestions. While this is fine with inorganic or dry materials, when I researched this matter, I found a lot of videos where people had failed to bury the tubes below the frost line, and wound up with bulged cans and spoiled food because of the freeze/thaw cycle. The big challenge, though, is finding the tubes again. 
  • All the means to purify water won't amount to anything if there is no water: "Teen Dies After Boy Scouts Run Out Of Water". The article reports:
A 16-year-old died on a Boy Scout hike in Arizona after the group ran out of water. The group hiked the 1,500-foot Picacho Peak last Saturday, officials said, and drank the last of its water at the top, the Arizona Republic reports.
  • "THREE PISTOL BREAKING POINTS"--Force Necessary. By breaking points, the author is referring to critical pistol handling skills and judgments. The first is the operation of the trigger under stress. The second is the decision of whether your assailant is far enough away that you can safely use an extended two-handed grip, or must use a one-handed retention grip on the handgun. The third is the decision on whether you have the time and distance to make a precision aimed shot or must use a quick and dirty aim. An excerpt:
      When possible, in emergencies, I have noticed I did not have the advised fingertip pad on the trigger. My trigger finger was much deeper. And I learned later I could shoot well with a deeper finger. This idea was quietly spoken years ago, because it was taboo to say otherwise. But many big name, super vets have come out in very recent years supporting the realistic “more finger on trigger” idea. And I appreciate the support. It was lonely out here in outer space.  When people like Pat MacNamara and Tom Givens started writing about this finger insert problem, I know it it gave me the confidence to voice my opinions too. And now? I see this idea everywhere. This expression “the size of the gun, the size of your hand” is popping up everywhere.
           Your best squeeze might not be your group’s best squeeze. Your personal achievement is getting that “straight back” pull, with your size hand, your size finger and your size gun, in what you perceive to be a the oh-crap, moment-grip. It might be that, the first “pad” of the finger  squeeze (very unnatural for most folks), might instead be the middle of the finger for you. Or even the bend of your finger. In all the pistol qualifications I’ve done, when at long distances, when trying for higher scores, I always seemed to shoot unnaturally.  How about you?
      Read the whole thing.
             DTG has always recommended the absolute minimum is to have 1,000 rounds per rifle and 500 rounds per pistol owned in reserve, which does not count that which you use to keep your skills honed, which should be about 750 to 1,000 rounds per year with your rifle, and 500 to 750 rounds per year on your pistol.  I’ve upped shooting to 1,000 to 1,500 rounds per year with pistols and kept the rifle the same (I carry every day, and need to ensure I’m efficient, as should anyone who carries IMHO, especially now that ammunition is cheaper than it ever has been).
                You might also throw into the ‘Reserve’ equation replacement magazines for all mag fed weapons.  DTG’s always recommended an absolute minimum of seven magazines for each rifle (7.62NATO will most likely be 20’s/5.56NATO, 30’s) for SHTF preparation and three magazines per pistol.  Dead minimum.  That number doesn’t take into account any you might load for your ruck/resupply, etc. 
            Remember: these are minimum numbers.
            Matt then juxtaposed that info against an article debunking the myth of the single shot kill, a real-life defensive gun use encounter, and academic research published by the Journal of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery, titled, “Unusually Low Mortality of Penetrating Wounds of the Chest,” to surmise that each hit only has a 22 percent chance of stopping the target.
            • "The Understudied Female Sexual Predator"--The Atlantic. The article provides more detailed statistics from various crime surveys and reports, showing that women perpetrate more sexual crimes or assault than commonly believed, but also warns that the actual numbers are underreported. The reason?
                     Stereotypes about women “include the notion that women are nurturing, submissive helpmates to men,” they write. “The idea that women can be sexually manipulative, dominant, and even violent runs counter to these stereotypes. Yet studies have documented female-perpetrated acts that span a wide spectrum of sexual abuse.”
                      They argue that female perpetration is downplayed among professionals in mental health, social work, public health, and law, with harmful results for male and female victims, in part due to these “stereotypical understandings of women as sexually harmless,” even as ongoing “heterosexism can render lesbian and bisexual victims of female-perpetrated sexual victimization invisible to professionals.”
                       To date, no existing clinical studies examine large numbers of female sexual perpetrators. As a result, we understand less than we might of a category of sexual perpetrator that, while not the most common, will still victimize many thousands each year.

                    "Removing the Scammer’s Boot... FAST"--Lock Picking Lawyer (2 min.)

                           Former vice president Joe Biden's son Hunter Biden partnered with infamous mobster Whitey Bulger's nephew and former secretary of state John Kerry's stepson for his lucrative business deal with the Bank of China, according to reporter Peter Schweizer's latest book.
                           Schweizer points to the business deal with state-owned Bank of China, a $1.5 billion private equity investment, as a possible reason why the current presidential candidate has adopted a conciliatory attitude toward China. The lucrative deal between the Bank of China and Hunter Biden's company was inked in 2013 just weeks after Joe Biden brought his son along on an official trip to China.
                             Schweizer also lays out the interesting cast of characters who partnered with Biden for the deal, such as the Thornton Group consulting firm, which is headed by James Bulger. The son of Massachusetts state senator Billy Bulger, James is named after his uncle James "Whitey" Bulger, who was killed in prison late last year after a decades-long career in the mob that landed him on the FBI's Most Wanted list.
                               Also partnered with Biden is Chris Heinz, the stepson of John Kerry. Biden and Heinz control Rosemont Seneca Partners, the private equity firm that received billions of investment dollars from China.
                                 A representative for Heinz says his involvement in the deal has been "misreported." He says that neither he nor his firm, Rosemont Seneca Partners, had any role in the deal. He says an unaffiliated second firm, Rosemont Seneca Bohai, is the firm doing business with Bank of China, and that Heinz is not involved. The representative also says Heinz has never been to China.
                            • More: "Steve Hilton: China Is ‘Funding Biden Family Businesses’ with ‘Billions of Dollars’"--Breitbart. The article reports that "Hunter Biden — Biden’s second son —  secured $1 billion in financing  from the Bank of China — an arm of the Chinese government — for a private equity firm founded by himself and Christopher Heinz, the stepson of former Secretary of State John Kerry. That private equity firm was named Bohai-Harvest RST (BHR)."
                                     ... Because when you encourage women to reject their natural proclivity to build and to invest in marriage and family, there’s a domino effect that extends far beyond where the eye can see.
                                       Thirty years later, here’s what we have to show for this new worldview: an epidemic of guilt-ridden and stressed-out mothers who know very little about how to raise kids; a triple increase in childhood obesity; chronic sleep deprivation for kids and adults alike; defiant schoolchildren who need anti-bullying programs to learn what their grandmothers could have taught them; and a culture that celebrates divorce as a panacea for discontent.
                                        That’s what family breakdown looks like when women are taught to forget about sacrifice and the common good under the guise that doing so is necessary to achieve “equality” with men.
                                  • "The Real ‘Bombshells’ Are About to Hit Their Targets"--American Greatness. The author relates that Inspector General Michael Horowitz is expected to soon be issuing his report on "the potential abuse of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act by top officials in the Obama Administration and holdovers in the early Trump Administration who were overseeing the investigation of Donald Trump’s presidential campaign." 
                                           The application cited the infamous Steele dossier—unsubstantiated political propaganda that had been funded by the Hillary Clinton campaign and Democratic National Committee—as its primary source of evidence. But the specific political origin of the dossier intentionally was omitted in the court filing. (Robert Mueller similarly tap danced around the role of Fusion GPS, the political consulting firm that hired Christopher Steele to create the dossier. Mueller never mentioned the name “Fusion GPS” in the 448-page document, referring to it only vaguely as “the firm that produced the Steele reporting.”)
                                            Former FBI Director James Comey and former Deputy Attorney General Sally Yates signed the original FISA application. It was renewed three times; subsequent signers included former acting FBI Director Andrew McCabe and Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein. If there’s one document that represents the malevolence, chicanery and arrogance of the original Trump-Russia collusion fraudsters, it’s the Page FISA application.
                                      • Related: "Islamic Spain: 'In this pretty world, gallantry took its last bow'"--No Other Foundation. A review of The Myth of the Andalusian Paradise by Dario Fernandez-Morera. The Andalusian Paradise refers to Moor controlled Spain, but the "Myth" part speaks to the fact that the Muslim Moors were not tolerant or benevolent to the Spaniards, particularly the Christians.
                                        As far as tolerance for other faiths was concerned, the Maliki school of law which governed al-Andalus [the Muslim controlled portion of the Iberian Peninsula] was among the strictest. Under it, as in the rest of the Islamic world, the Christian dhimmis were relegated to the very bottom of a heavily stratified social ladder. At the top stood the Arabs, then the Berbers, then freed white Muslim slaves who converted to Islam, and then former Christians who converted to Islam. The dhimmis occupied the bottom rung, and they were never allowed to forget it. They had to pay the jizya tax for their protection, and were subject to a multitude of laws enforcing their fifth-rate status.
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                                        2 comments:

                                        1. John WilderMay 17, 2019 at 9:27 PM

                                          The graphene thing is nice. Here's hoping they can make it useful.

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                                          Replies
                                          1. DocentMay 18, 2019 at 10:48 AM

                                            Since it is graphene rather than some of the exotic alloys used in other high temp superconductors, it should, in theory, be cheaper ... if they can scale it up.

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                                        Weekend Reading -- A New Weekend Knowledge Dump

                                        Greg Ellifritz has posted a new Weekend Knowledge Dump at his Active Response Training blog . Before I discuss some of his links, I want to ...