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Tuesday, January 21, 2020

A Quick Run Around the Web (1/21/2020)

"50 Years of Failed Apocalyptic Predictions"--Prepper Logic (6 min.)
Primarily looking at the predictions of over-population and climate change (via an ice age) that were forecast in the 1970s and 1980s.
Provided you use real hard cast bullets, that are properly sized and utilize good lube, you can shoot them all you like in polygonal barrels without causing lead fouling deposits at the front of your chamber or anywhere else in the barrel. I have fired literally thousands of properly alloyed, lubed and sized hard cast bullets from my various Glock pistols and have never experienced any metallic fouling build-up of any consequence. If I did that same amount of shooting with cheap pure lead swaged bullets of unknown origin, I could have severely lead fouled my barrels, to the point of creating a bore obstruction and possible cracking or bursting a barrel. However, in my experience, quality hard cast bullets won't foul a Glock polygonal barrel or any other type of barrel but lead bullets normally will.
  • Not as much as you might think: "Snubnose Revolver Velocity: How Much Do You Lose?"--Shooting Illustrated. Comparing loads shot through a revolver with a 4-inch barrel versus one with a 1.9-inch barrel, the author found that "[o]n average, with the shorter barrel there was a 12-percent reduction in velocity (100 fps)." Of course, if you are using ammo that is already on the bleeding edge of that necessary for expansion, this might be enough to not reliably expand. But the author also tested the round against ballistic gelatin and reported that "[t]he average penetration depth for the nine loads fired from both barrel lengths was 14.28 inches. The average penetration variation between barrel lengths was only 0.80 inch." The best performer was the Speer 135-grain Gold Dot Short Barrel load, although the author seemed to have good performance from the Winchester Silvertip bullet which did well from the short barrel, but not the longer barrel.
  • "New for 2020: Federal Hydra-Shok Deep in .380 ACP"--Shooting Illustrated. This is a 99 grain bullet, and Federal reports very good performance:
Testing done by Federal ammunition engineers in their Anoka, MN, facilities showed typical results of 13 to 13 1/2 inches of penetration in bare gel and 13 1/4 to 14 inches through heavy clothing. Test gun barrel lengths were from common, compact handguns ranging from 2 3/4 to 3 1/2 inches. The bullet and load are also fine-tuned to ensure delivery of consistent performance across all handgun platforms, including ones with longer barrels, to stay within that 13- to 14-inch goal range.
      Six feet is about as close as you can get to a hanging paper target without the muzzle blast from normal self-defense rounds moving the paper too much. Six to 10 feet is close enough that any gun/ammo combination can shoot 1” or better groups.
         Drilling holes flat footed at the six- to 10-foot range is an indication that you can align the muzzle properly and press the trigger without disturbing muzzle alignment.

      * * *

             This seems like it should be simple, but what I’ve found over time is that only about 10% of shooters who carry regularly…including military, law enforcement, competition, and concealed carry permit holders…can actually shoot a five-round 1” group at 6-10 feet with perfect lighting and no time constraints.
               If you’re in the 90% who throw an occasional shot at six to 10 feet, it means is that you’ve got some of what I call “low-hanging opportunities for improvement” that will be magnified with speed, distance, movement and stress. Work that you do here gets incredibly high leverage results and will impact all shooting that you do, regardless of the gun, distance, or speed.
          Weapons manipulations are mastered through repetition. Once basic skills are properly learned, they must be repeated to improve. And most of the things you do with a firearm do not involve firing, like reloading, aiming, running the bolt, loading and unloading as well as refining your stance, grip, position, presentation and even movement. If recoil or accuracy is not a requirement, then the skill can be practiced without ammunition, or at least without live ammunition. Most drills can be practiced with dummy rounds in your living room or basement. Add lasers and other training devices and you can even practice trigger manipulations in some cases. Generally, dry firing is a far better way to practice these skills, and it sets you up to apply them on the range so you can make the most of your limited time and availability.
          Such a high approval rate reflects the due process problems with red flag laws, which take away people's Second Amendment rights for a year or more based on vague standards and dubious evidence that judges are not inclined to question because they worry about the potentially deadly consequences of rejecting petitions. 
          • "A Looter’s Tale: A Thief’s Guide to Stealing from Preppers"--Tim Makay at Modern Survival Online. The author suggests that criminals may actually target preppers in a SHTF contingency and that we preppers are softer targets than we may realize.
          • "REVIEW: GET A SLED FOR BIG GAME HUNTING SAFETY AND EFFICIENCY"--Survival Common Sense. Whether you are in the back country, or a couple hundred yards from your truck, getting a deer or elk out of the woods can be an arduous task.  The author reviews the Eagle Claw JS1 Utility Jet Sled for pulling or skidding a carcass out of the woods and found it worked well. It can also be useful for yard tasks such as moving piles of leaves to a different location for mulching.
          • Or you could get hit by a bus tomorrow: "The next mega disasters that could happen at any moment (and kill us all)"--Fox News. Topics cover super-volcanoes, the Hilina Slump on the Island of Hawaii that could slide off and cause a mega-tsunami, mega-hurricanes, "The Big One" in California, a Chilean megathrust that could cause a mega-tsunami, rising oceans (although I would note recent research that indicates that this would be offset by compression or forcing down of the ocean floors from the increased weight), a Caribbean tsunami, a major solar storm, an asteroid striking the Earth, or some unstoppable contagion.

          "Jeff Beck and ZZ Top - Ernie Ford's SIXTEEN TONS" (6 min.)

                ... the Left hates everything good, and pure.  It hates the family.  It hates the way the wind would blow through my long locks of shiny hair, I mean, if I had hair.  And, even though the United States has done plenty wrong in its existence, it’s a shining beacon of hope that people risk their lives to get to.  Leftists hate the heritage of America.  They hate Western Civilization.  They hate tradition.  They hate rationality.  As I discussed last week, the Left idolizes the profane, and treats it as if it were sacred (Why The Left Can’t Handle Reality).
                   Individualism and individual achievement is their kryptonite®.  Why?  They are afraid that they are inferior, afraid that they cannot compete.  Bernie has to solve these problems, because our typical Leftist doesn’t think they can help themselves because he is a loser.  He also thinks that the Identity Groups are inferior, and could never compete.  Leftist philosophy is built on envy of those who are strong, and greed to take what they have made.
                     And Leftists are sure that they will be found wanting if judgement is ever made.  Why?  Because they feel they are inferior and are of no real value to society.  Thus reason, science, grades, objective tests (like I.Q. and SAT tests), and norms of behavior are to be avoided in schools.  If a child acts out in school?  It’s not because of lousy parents.  It’s not because the child has a mental or genetic defect that makes self-control impossible.  No.  It’s society’s fault.
                     ... Everything today and for the immediate future is actually about the other guys: it is about progressivism’s collapse. Neither side can fully comprehend this intellectually—indeed progressives are still convinced they are the future and conservatives worry they may be right. But emotionally progressives sense great danger, and they do not like it one bit, expressed by their extreme passion for impeachment, from the very day Mr. Trump was sworn in as president.
                * * *
                      ... It was all about the end of progressivism and the panic by its leaders that they were losing control of the communication media and political machinery they had mostly held for more than a century. One of the earliest to see the fundamental change was the very sensible progressive Wall Street Journal columnist William Galston, who could write what he and his fellow progressives had felt deep down about the arrival of Donald Trump:
                  We had assumed that some beliefs had moved so far beyond the pale that those who continued to hold them would not dare to say so publicly. Mr. Trump has proved us wrong. His critique of political correctness has destroyed many taboos and has given his followers license to say what they really think. Beliefs we mocked now command a majority in one of the world’s oldest political parties, and sometimes in the electorate as a whole. Nowhere is that truer than in gender relations.
                    Because no one dared speak publicly, progressives had assumed their education and mainstream media “mocking” of traditional values had turned America progressive and now Donald Trump had proven they had not.
                    • Related: "Nolte: U.S. Movie Ticket Sales Hit Near 25-Year Low"--Breitbart. He is looking at the number of movie tickets sold. And to put this in perspective, he notes that in 1995 the population was 265 million, whereas it is now 330 million, so the drop off in sales is actually worse than the bare statistics would indicate. Money quote: "We used to be surprised when we came out of a movie disappointed. Now we’re pleasantly surprised when the movie doesn’t suck."
                    • Related: "Ex-FEMA Officials Arrested for Allegedly Taking Bribes in Aftermath of Hurricane Maria"--Law & Crime. The article reports that "The wide scale federal corruption investigation found that former FEMA deputy administrator Ahsha Tribble took multiple bribes from Donald Keith Ellison, the former president of Cobra Energy, a company that received federal contracts to repair Puerto Rico’s electrical grid worth approximately $1.8 billion, according to the indictment. The second FEMA official, Jovanda Patterson, was formerly employed by the agency as Tribble’s deputy chief of staff before taking a job with Cobra Acquisitions."
                            Nazi Bund rallies in New York City in the late 1930s created a terrible dilemma for the city’s Jewish leaders. With 20,000 members, the Nazi Bund was the largest anti-Semitic group in the nation. They organized large public rallies and marched to drumbeats wearing brown shirts and swastikas, and carrying Nazi flags. Jewish leaders wanted the meetings stopped, but could not do so legally. Nathan Perlman, a judge and former Republican congressman, was one Jewish leader who believed that the Jews should demonstrate more militancy. In 1935, he surreptitiously contacted Meyer Lansky, a leading organized crime figure born on the 4th of July, and asked him to help. Lansky related to me what followed.
                              Perlman assured Lansky that money and legal assistance would be put at his disposal. The only stipulation was that no Nazis be killed. They could be beaten up, but not terminated. Lansky reluctantly agreed. No killing. Always very sensitive about anti-Semitism, Lansky was acutely aware of what the Nazis were doing to Jews. “I was a Jew and I felt for those Jews in Europe who were suffering,” he said. “They were my brothers.” Lansky refused the judge’s offer of money and assistance, but he did make one request. He asked Perlman to ensure that after he went into action he would not be criticized by the Jewish press. The judge promised to do what he could.
                                In 1945, the Jewish Agency, the pre-state Israeli government headed by David Ben-Gurion, created a vast clandestine arms-purchasing-and-smuggling network throughout the United States. The operation was placed under the aegis of the Haganah, the underground forerunner of the Israel Defense Forces, and involved hundreds of Americans from every walk of life. They included millionaires, rabbinical students, scrap-metal merchants, ex-GIs, college students, longshoremen, industrialists, chemists, engineers, Protestants and Catholics, as well as Jews. One group, who remained anonymous and rarely talked about, were men who were tough, streetwise, unafraid, and had access to ready cash: Jewish gangsters.
                                  The arms-smuggling operation was centered in a rented two-room suite in the Hotel Fourteen, located at 14 East 60th Street in New York. Teddy Kollek, who later became the popular longtime mayor of Jerusalem, ran the day-to-day operations of the arms procurement efforts, kept tabs on everything and oversaw all the comings and goings. Kollek was careful that those who visited the office not be people who would attract the attention of law enforcement agencies, especially the FBI.
                            • "Grandpa was a gangster"--The JC. An article about Meyer Lansky who was known as the mob's accountant. "... Grandpa Meyer was part of the Jewish mafia that ran hand-in-hand with the Italian mob in the US in the first half of the 20th century," and "along with another infamous Jewish gangster, Bugsy Siegel was credited with 'creating Las Vegas'."
                                    Headlines and photos in the mainstream media shocked readers on July 24, 2009: “Rabbis, Politicians Snared in FBI Sting." Scenes of agents rounding up manacled suspects, including five black-clad rabbis, three New Jersey mayors and two state assemblymen, ran for a day—then the story mostly dropped out of sight, except in local papers or the Jewish press.
                                     Those newspapers, including the New York Daily News, took to task the FBI’s informant, the son of a prominent New Jersey rabbi, a “Syrian Jew" named Solomon Dwek, who was arrested in 2006 for trying to cash $50 million in bad checks from the PNC Bank.
                                        Dwek, a major real estate developer and gambling boat owner, helped set up stings for the FBI and IRS initially to help expose international money-laundering in Brooklyn and New Jersey, authorities said. The five rabbis, including one octogenarian, were charged with laundering “tens of millions of dirty money" they received from Dwek through nonprofit charities, yeshivas and synagogues they ran. Prosecutors say Dwek told the rabbis the money came from illegal sources, including fraudulent bank loans and sales of knockoff designer handbags. The religious leaders would allegedly deposit Dwek’s cashiers checks as charitable contributions. In return the rabbis gave Dwek “clean cash," keeping anywhere from 10 to 15 percent for themselves or their charities.
                                          Dwek also “led the feds to a Brooklyn rabbi, Levy Izhak Rosenbaum, who allegedly boasted that he had been helping to peddle human organs on the black market for a decade," according to a New York Post article published July 28. “On tapes, Rosenbaum allegedly refers to himself as a ”˜matchmaker’ who could find an Israeli donor for a ”˜schmear,’ or money—specifically willing to trade a kidney for $160,000." (This raises more questions, since for religious reasons many Jews are averse to donating their own body parts.)
                                           Solomon Dwek’s undercover work also spotlighted what has become business as usual in American politics. “Dwek and his wife made more than $190,000 in campaign contributions from 1998 through 2006 to a broad array of political leaders, including Democratic members of Congress, Republican state senators, and both parties’ state committees," according to The Record, a Bergen County, NJ publication.
                                             The presumably corrupt politicians accepting outright bribes during this particular FBI sting include the mayors of Hoboken, Secaucus and Ridgefield, NJ, as well as the Jersey City council president. Hoboken Mayor Peter Cammarano was caught on tape bragging, “I could be indicted and still get 85 to 95 percent of the vote," according to officials.
                                              The man most responsible for the formation of the crime syndicate on the East Coast was the Jewish gambler and financier Arnold Rothstein. Rothstein "fixed" the 1919 World Series by bribing key members of the Chicago White Sox to "throw" games. He also financed the organized illegal importation of liquor from Europe and Canada when prohibition came on the scene in 1920.
                                                 During the 1920's Rothstein's empire grew when he learned to organize thugs to work for him and enforce his policies. He was the first gangster to take full control of an entire city through bribery of public officials and police personnel. It was Rothstein who made the first peace agreement between rival gangs in New York in the 1920s.
                                                   His number one enforcer was a WW I deserter imported from Philadelphia: Jack "Legs" Diamond, another Jew. Diamond served Rothstein well and was eventually "cut in" for a sizable portion of Rothstein's bootleging, gambling and prostitution empire.
                                                     It was about that time that another rising Jewish mobster named Arthur Flegenheimer (Dutch Schultz) along with still another Jew, Louis "Lepke" Buchalter, began to "muscle in" on Rothstein and Diamond. Schultz wanted a bigger cut into the bootleg beer racket, while Buchalter was after New York's garment district extortion racket. In the war that followed Rothstein was killed by "Nigger Nate" Raymond when he welshed on a $320,000 gambling debt in 1928.
                                                       Rothstein groomed Meyer Lansky, a Russian Jewish immigrant, for stardom in organized crime. Lansky along with the aforementioned Bugsy Siegel, teamed up with Italians Charles "Lucky" Luciano and Vito Genovese to help Schultz and Buchalter kill Diamond in 1931.
                                                    The article goes on to describe Jewish mobsters in Chicago and California. Interesting read.
                                                    • "American Pravda: the Power of Organized Crime"--Ron Unz at The Unz Review. This is a long article touching on not only the Jewish membership in organized crime, later downplayed by the main stream media and Hollywood, but also the close political ties reaching all of the way to the presidency that allowed these secret combinations to flourish all across the nation. Worth the read.
                                                    • Related: "The suicide of expertise"--Glenn Reynolds at USA Today. If people are leery of trusting experts it is probably because experts have not proven to be very trustworthy over the last 50 years.
                                                           The massive graffiti which takes aim at people of colour reads ‘it’s ok to be white’ was painted on the side wall adjacent to Bedford Park in Southport overnight.
                                                             Shocked residents in the area said they were appalled to wake up to face the graffiti and have called the police and council to sort it out.
                                                              “I have to confess, I never liked inflation from the beginning,” says Neil Turok, the former director of the Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics in Waterloo, Canada. 
                                                                “The inflationary paradigm has failed,” adds Paul Steinhardt, Albert Einstein professor in science at Princeton University, and proponent of a “Big Bounce” model.
                                                                 “I always regarded inflation as a very artificial theory,” says Roger Penrose, emeritus Rouse Ball professor of mathematics at Oxford University. “The main reason that it didn't die at birth is that it was the only thing people could think of to explain what they call the ‘scale invariance of the Cosmic Microwave Background temperature fluctuations’.”
                                                            • A reminder that we live in the 21st Century: "SpaceX Aces Critical Abort Test"--Silicon Greybeard. The test was a success, and the author reports that "[t]he post-test conference is optimistic that the first Crew Dragon flight from the KSC to the ISS will happen this year, probably in the second quarter of the year; that is, before summer.  That will be the first manned launch from US soil since the final flight of the Shuttle Discovery in 2011." 
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                                                            1 comment:

                                                            1. John WilderJanuary 23, 2020 at 8:00 PM

                                                              Excellent selection. You have a great eye, but these were even better than usual.

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