A Quick Run Around the Web (3/29/2020)

"Polar Wind & Magnetic Reversal, Tornado & Volcano | S0 News Mar.29.2020"--Suspicious Observers. I've set this video at the beginning of a brief discussion of how you could get flash freezing in northern climes during a solar event (e.g., the flash frozen mammoths that have been found)

• Evolution in action: "Industrial alcohol coronavirus ‘cure’ kills hundreds of Iranians"--New York Daily News. I could understand this happening a hundred years ago, but there really is no excuse for any mentally competent adult to not know that methanol is poisonous.
• More evolution in action: "Coronavirus infections in Africa are rapidly rising. Its weak health systems may buckle"--USA Today. Key part:

After President Donald Trump touted an anti-malaria drug called chloroquine as a possible treatment for coronavirus, thousands of Nigerians started taking the medicine, some of them overdosing in a rush to "prevent" infection.

• What we call "states" in the United States ceased to be "states" following the civil war, and merely became provinces or prefectures of the central government. So it is interesting to see states start acting like ones again:

• "Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis Expands Quarantine to Louisiana Travelers, Installing Checkpoints on Roads"--Breitbart. As you know, because New Orleans went ahead with Mardi Gras celebrations this year, Louisiana was one of the states hardest hit by the Wuhan virus. The article relates: "Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) is requiring travelers from Louisiana to self-isolate for 14 days and said the Florida Highway Patrol will install checkpoints on major roads to screen travelers from that area, he announced on Friday."

• "Rhode Island Police to Hunt Down New Yorkers Seeking Refuge"--Bloomberg. This article which was from this past Friday reported that "Rhode Island police began stopping cars with New York plates Friday. On Saturday, the National Guard will help them conduct house-to-house searches to find people who traveled from New York and demand 14 days of self-quarantine." Here's another article on the topic from NBC News. 

• "Cuomo Threatens to Sue Rhode Island For Crackdown on New York Visitors"--PJ Media. Per the article, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo "believes that Rhode Island Governor Gina Raimondo's actions in calling out the National Guard and setting up checkpoints on highways is 'absurd'" and is threatening to sue Rhode Island. I'm not sure that New York State would have standing to maintain such a suit, but, hey, anybody with $350 can bring a lawsuit in federal court.

• "Texas orders 14-day quarantine of air travelers arriving from NY-NJ-CT, New Orleans"--Dallas Morning News. 

• "Governor Cuomo: Trump Quarantining New York To Stop Coronavirus Is ‘Declaration Of War’ On New York"--Daily Wire. Cuomo sure likes to throw around the word "war" when he means lawsuit. Anyway, from the article:

      New York Democratic Governor Andrew Cuomo told CNN on Saturday that if President Donald Trump put a quarantine on New York to stop the spread of the coronavirus that it would be a “federal declaration of war” on the state.

      “Look, if the president was considering this, I guarantee he would have called me. I mean, we talk about relatively trivial matters when it comes to dealing with this situation,” Cuomo said. This is a civil war kind of — this is civil war kind of discussion.”

      “I don’t believe that he could be serious, that any federal administration could be serious about a physical lockdown of states or parts of states across this country,” Cuomo continued. “I don’t believe it is legal. I think it would be economic chaos. I don’t think the American people would stand for it. It’s just a question of time before you see the numbers growing in hot spots across the nation. So, I think it makes absolutely no sense and I don’t believe any serious governmental personality or professional would support it.”

      “I’ve sued the federal government many times by the way over the past few years, we’ve had quite a number of policy decisions,” Cuomo later added. “I do not believe it’s going to come to that on this. Again, I have been speaking to the president. This would be a declaration of war on states, a federal declaration of war, and wouldn’t just be New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, next week it would be Louisiana with New Orleans, and week after that Detroit, Michigan, and it would run across the nation. I don’t think the president is looking to start a lot of wars with states just about now for a lot of reasons.”

Trump has made no such quarantine, but a friend notified me that the CDC has issued a domestic travel advisory for New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut. It leaves the decision to enforce the advisory up to the individual states.

• Even other parts of New York want nothing to do with New Yorkers at the moment: "Hamptons seek travel ban on corona-fleeing New Yorkers"--New York Post. From the article:

      The Hamptons are so over-run with wealthy New Yorkers panic-buying food and stretching medical supplies that local leaders are now asking Gov. Andrew Cuomo to issue a travel ban from the city.

      The move comes after Dr. Deborah Birx, of the White House coronavirus response team, said at a press conference this week with President Donald Trump that cases of the virus were spreading from New York City with people trying to flee the epicenter of the virus.

     Southold Town Supervisor Scott Russell said, “A new trend is taking place that puts our residents at further risk — people seeking refuge from the metropolitan areas. It is simple math: the more people that come, the greater the spread and the greater the confirmed cases.”

      Amid alarming scenes of empty shelves in Hamptons stores and people lining up at 6 a.m. to grab basic supplies as deliveries arrive, he said, “We have a limited number of stores trying to keep their shelves stocked and ration out supplies as best they can. Local residents are finding it difficult to meet even their most basic needs. Unnecessary hoarding and the recent, sudden expansion of the population by those who come are making it far worse.”

• "An MD in New Orleans"--Vox Day. Day quotes from a forum post by a doctor:

       I am an ER MD in New Orleans. Class of 98. Every one of my colleagues have now seen several hundred Covid 19 patients and this is what I think I know.

      Clinical course is predictable.

       2-11 days after exposure (day 5 on average) flu-like symptoms start. Common are fever, headache, dry cough, myalgias(back pain), nausea without vomiting, abdominal discomfort with some diarrhea, loss of smell, anorexia, fatigue.

      Day 5 of symptoms- increased SOB, and bilateral viral pneumonia from direct viral damage to lung parenchyma.

      Day 10- Cytokine storm leading to acute ARDS and multiorgan failure. You can literally watch it happen in a matter of hours.

      81% mild symptoms, 14% severe symptoms requiring hospitalization, 5% critical.

He/she goes on to briefly mention some of the other complications, including heart and pericardium issues.

• Related: "The coronavirus can damage the heart, even in people with no history of heart disease, new research suggests - showing it doesn't only affect the lungs"--Business Insider. 

• "Experts say face masks can help slow COVID-19, despite previous claims"--New York Post. Talking about surgical masks;

      “This virus is transmitted by droplets and close contact. Droplets play a very important role —you’ve got to wear a mask, because when you speak, there are always droplets coming out of your mouth,” the Chinese Center’s George Gao told the magazine.

      “Many people have asymptomatic or presymptomatic infections. If they are wearing face masks, it can prevent droplets that carry the virus from escaping and infecting others,” he said.

       KK Cheng, a public health expert at the University of Birmingham in the UK, put it bluntly:

       “It’s not to protect yourself. It’s to protect people against the droplets coming out of your respiratory tract… I don’t want to frighten you, but when people speak and breathe and sing —you don’t have to sneeze or cough — these droplets are coming out,” he said.

• Another report of Hydroxychloroquine and Azithromycin being effective in treating the Wuhan virus: "Coronavirus cure: French researchers completed new additional study on 80 patients, results show a combination of Hydroxychloroquine and Azithromycin to be effective in treating COVID-19"--Techstartups.com. Soros and his ilk must be sorely vexed that this may undermine their sale of an expensive cure.

• Related: "Italy and France are now prescribing hydroxychloroquine and chloroquine as treatments for coronavirus patients"--Techstartups.com.

• Related: "Trump says this drug has 'tremendous promise,' but Fauci's not spending money on it"--CNN. The article reports: "Despite President Donald Trump's enthusiasm for the drug hydroxychloroquine to treat coronavirus, the federal funding powerhouse led by Dr. Anthony Fauci isn't spending any money on it, and clinical trials for it are lagging behind other drug studies, according to a CNN investigation."

• "Israeli doctor in Italy says innovative treatments offering hopes of recovery"--Times of Israel. From the article:

      In Padua, the autoimmune medicine Tocilizumab has proven effective, but can only be used once it is established that no other viruses or bacteria are present in the patients’ bodies, he said. The hospital where he works has also seen positive results from the antiviral drug Remdesivir, he added.

      He said medics have been forced to be creative, giving an example from the city of Parma where patients who couldn’t be put on a respirator using a tube were attached to it using a snorkeling mask, with a part that connects it to the machine being printed in a 3D printer.

* * *

      One technique he said had yielded dramatic results was to have patients lie on their stomach instead of on their back while on a ventilator. “Suddenly the oxygen level in the blood jumped by hundreds of percents,” he said.

• "1984 COMES TO BRITAIN"--Powerline. The author notes one town that has set up a website to make it easier for residents to turn in their neighbors breaking the quarantine by going for a walk. Another town is using drones to try and catch people on unauthorized walks. Here in Idaho, although the state issued an isolation order, it specifically permits people to leave their house to walk or engage in other outdoor activities, and the governor even encouraged such activities when he held a press conference announcing the order.
• Aw: "Senate's $2 Trillion Coronavirus Relief Plan Leaves Out Undocumented And Their Families"--Gothamist. 

• Related: "Coronavirus: Illegal Aliens Demand $1.2K Each in Taxpayer-Funded Checks"--Breitbart. From the article: 

       Open borders organizations like the George Soros-funded United We Dream, the National Immigrant Justice Center, and the National Immigration Law Center — all of which represent the roughly 11 to 22 million illegal aliens living in the United States — are pleading with the federal government to cut federal checks to illegal aliens who have Individual Tax Identification Number (ITINs).

      Currently, Trump’s coronavirus relief package includes $1,200 federal checks for American citizens with Social Security Numbers (SSN) or those considered “resident aliens,” like permanent lawful residents in the U.S. on green cards.

      Illegal aliens, therefore, are excluded from receiving the federal checks, a provision that has outraged the open borders lobby.

• Some Diversity + Wuhan Virus News:

• "The End of New York"--Tablet Magazine. From the article:

Cities like New York pay a price for being both dense and cosmopolitan. As a new study from Heartland Forward reveals, the prime determinants of high rates of infection include such things as density, percentage of foreign residents, age, presence of global supply chains, and reliance on tourism and hospitality. Globally, the vast majority of cases occur in places that are both densely populated and connected to the global economy. Half of all COVID-19 cases in Spain, for example, have occurred in Madrid, while the Lombardy region in Italy, which includes the city of Milan, accounts for roughly half of all cases in the country and over 60% of the deaths.

(Underline added).

• "Spain: ‘Youths’ Attack Ambulances Transporting Elderly Coronavirus Patients"--Breitbart. The article relates:

      A number of youths in southern Spain attacked a convoy of ambulances carrying elderly patients with coronavirus, throwing rocks at the vehicles.

      The attack took place in the city of La Línea de la Concepción, which lies on the Spanish border with the British territory of Gibraltar, and saw the youths prevent the passage of the convoy of medical vehicles that were carrying 28 elderly infected with the Wuhan coronavirus.

     Local police arrested two people  — a 25-year-old and a 32-year-old — but said that a total of 50 young people were involved in the incident, which also saw officers attacked with two homemade explosive devices, according to Sud Ouest.

      “Several youths gathered at the entrance to the town and threw stones at the ambulances as well as leaving a vehicle across the road to try to prevent it reaching its destination,” a police spokesman confirmed in comments reported by the Daily Mail.

      “Officers arrested the two occupants of the vehicle, two men aged 32 and 35. Once the elderly people were taken into the home, police had to establish a security cordon around the residence as around 50 people outside threatened to cause problems,” they added.

      Other acts of vandalism occurred later on in the town.

"Youths" is often used as a code-phrase for young (or youngish) Muslim or African criminals and gangs.

• "French Official Says Quarantine Should Not be Enforced in Migrant Areas to Avoid Riots"--Summit News. 

      In a letter leaked to magazine Le Canard Enchaine, French Secretary of State to the Ministry of the Interior Laurent Nunez advises, “It is not a priority to enforce closings in certain neighborhoods and to stop gatherings.”

      In a separate video conference call, Nunez told other officials that restricting movement and shutting down shops in France’s infamous banlieues risks igniting violent social disorder if enforced too rigorously.

      A regional defense zone prefect who was in on the call agreed that businesses that had been closed down in other areas of France should remain open in poorer neighborhoods in order to help with “social mediation.”

• "Sweden Health Board Says Elderly Can Be Given Lower Priority, But Not Illegal Migrants"--Breitbart. 

• The laws of economics in action: "Coronavirus pandemic drives up price of heroin, meth and fentanyl"--New York Post. "The coronavirus pandemic is driving up the price of heroin, methamphetamine and fentanyl as Mexican cartels scramble to get their hands on Chinese-manufactured chemicals now in short supply."
• "Trump Admin Names Gun Makers, Retailers Essential Businesses Nationwide"--Breitbart. The article reports: "President Trump’s Department of Homeland Security released updated guidelines naming gun manufacturers and retailers as essential on Saturday, which means they are to stay open and operational nationwide during a Chinese coronavirus shutdown."

• Related: "LA County Sheriff halts efforts to close gun stores after county counsel intervention"--Fox 11 Los Angeles. "Sheriff Alex Villanueva told FOX 11 reporter Bill Melugin that county counsel Mary Wickham issued an opinion that gun stores can be classified as essential businesses under the Governor’s statewide executive order."

• Related: "Texas AG: Counties Can’t Restrict Gun Sales During Coronavirus Emergency"--Breitbart. 

"Rebuttal"--Paul Harrell (66 min.)

Harrell rebuts some critics and, doing so, covers a lot of topics. A couple comments of mine on topics he discusses.  One of the topics he discusses is the accuracy (or lack thereof) of autopsy and police reports. All I can say is that according to a police report of a motor vehicle accident in which I was involved, I died at the age of 18.

• Since we are on the topic of rebuttals and pet peeves, one of mine has to do with the pronunciation of "Garand" as in the M1 Garand. Most people pronounce it /ɡəˈrænd/ (similar to the word "grand"), but there are some in the gun community that are pushing the pronunciation /ˈɡærənd/ (similar to "errand"). I understand that the latter pronunciation is how the inventor John Garand pronounced his name, but the former--sounding like "grand"--is how people (including the members of the military that used the rifles) actually referred to the rifle. And the common pronunciation is what matters and is the correct one when referring to the weapon. As an example, I live in the Boise, Idaho area. Boise as in an "s" sound (boy-see), but for some reason, outsiders generally pronounce it with a "z" sound (boy-zee). Which one is correct? The "s" because that is the historic pronunciation. 
• If you haven't already done so, be sure to check out this past weekend's "Weekend Knowledge Dump" from Active Response Training. Lots of good links and commentary as always, but a couple articles in particular you should check out: one on using a handheld flashlight and handgun at the same time; and an analysis of a family invasion--the Coker Family Incident. As to the latter, Greg Ellifritz comments: 

The more of theses scenarios I read about and experience at work, the more I recognize the value of training to stay calm in absolutely chaotic situations. All the shooting training in the world wouldn’t prepare most people for this event. An attack like this requires adaptability and transcendence of chaos more than any single skill set.

• "Armed Citizen Shoots, Kills Active Shooter At Tulsa Shopping Center"--Bearing Arms. The author relates that "the woman’s rampage was apparently stopped by a concealed carry holder before she was able to inflict any injuries." He adds:

Who knows how bad this could have been had an armed citizen not been around to stop the shooter before she actually hit anyone? Sadly, because she didn’t actually kill or injure anyone, this story isn’t of nearly as much interest to the media as it would be otherwise, and this story will get virtually no national news coverage because there wasn’t enough carnage inflicted. The media would much rather talk about lives lost than lives saved.

• "Concealed Carry Corner: 3 Different Perspectives on Carrying"--The Firearm Blog. The author prefaces his article: "Over the past year, I’ve written all about different ways to carry handguns and the benefits of various setups. I thought it would be interesting to take three different concealed carrier’s gear and look at what they carry on a daily basis. These are various people I have either met at gun ranges or know personally who conceal carry daily."
• "Unique, the Powder That Really Is"--A Tale of Two Thirties. I've long used Unique for most of my loading of handgun cartridges, but didn't know much about the history of it until coming across this article. Apparently the powder dates back to the early years of the 20th Century. For those not familiar with Unique, it is a shotgun and handgun powder that is actually very versatile--I've even read articles and forum posts from people that have used it for rifle ammunition. On this point, the author writes:

      Unique can be used to boost pistol bullets, rifle bullets, or shot charges out the barrel of your chosen boomer. Sound versatile?  Yes, Allliant calls Unique the most versatile of powders, and that is perhaps the ground of its uniqueness.

      That is not to say it is a top performer in all of those applications. I believe most shooters consider it to have greatest applicability for handgun reloading, and I agree.  It is my handgun projects that would suffer most if Unique were to disappear.  It is, however, also very good for 1-1/8 and 1-1/4 oz. loads in the twelve gauge shotgun and it may be used with smaller gauges.  With rifles, it must be confined to light charges with cast bullets.  Such loads often give excellent accuracy for plinking and small game applications.

       It is the moderate burning rate of Unique that gives it great success with handgun cartridges. You can use it to load the .32 S&W, and you can use it to load the .45 Long Colt, and you can use it to load everything in between those case capacity extremes.  Now that is real versatility.  With 3.5 grains you can push a 95-gr bullet at about 1000 fps from a 4-in .32 S&W Long.  Regular and +P loads to 920 fps are possible in the .38 Special and.44 Special.  Use 10 grains to kick a .45 Colt 255 grainer out at 950 fps, maybe a little more from the strong Ruger Bisley or Super Blackhawk.  Eleven grains will give about 1200 fps of scoot with a 240-grainer in the .44 Magnum.  These are all serious, effective loads for hunting or self defense, achieved with modest charge weights.

The author goes on to further discuss reloading and some of the characteristics of the powder.

• "Know The Rules"--Tactical Professor. He begins:

Along with learning gun safety principles and procedures, new gunowners should begin to acquire an understanding of the Rules pertinent to defensive use of firearms. Periodically, long time gunowners should also review them. This is especially true for those who have programmed their Orient Phase with platitudes such as “Better tried by 12 than carried by six, I’ll shoot anyone I find in my home, Don’t draw your gun unless you’re going to shoot,” ad nauseum.

Read the whole thing.

• "A Critical Look at the New York Reload"--Revolver Guy. The author discusses the great, the good, and the bad about carrying a second handgun, but the biggest reason for the New York Reload is generally the speed of getting back into action if your first gun runs out of ammunition. Remember that this was most popular back when most police used revolvers. In any event, the author tested it out and reports:

      ... Out of ten iterations the average was 2.744 seconds. The fastest time was 2.46 seconds, and the slowest was 3.13 (run #6). By comparison let’s look at the numbers from my speedloader comparison article. The average time with a 1911 was 2.13 seconds, and the average time with the fastest speedloader (the S.L. Variant) was 3.684 seconds. The New York Reload comes in somewhere between a good semi-auto reload time and an excellent speedloader reload time.

       So there is some truth to this one. The New York reload can be faster than reloading a revolver. Still, I would have a hard time calling it the “fastest” reload. Keep in mind I was carrying the second revolver in the best possible position. Were I carrying it on an ankle, on my left side, or in a jacket pocket – or had I been sitting – my time would likely have been somewhat slower. ...

• "So You Want to Load Your Own Ammo, But You’re Not Sure if It’s Worth It. Read This First"--The Truth About Guns. A critical look at reloading ammunition and the costs. As the author notes, "[t]he real value in reloading is eliminating the cost of the brass and the declining cost of the reloading equipment." To realize a savings, you have to reload a lot of ammunition to recoup the cost of equipment. In the example that the author uses, he had to reload 4,900 rounds to do so, but he shoots much more than that, so it was worth it to him.
• "AR PISTOL: TUNING THE BUFFER ON A 12.5 IN. BUILD"--The Mag Life. 

     The buffer has an important job. Along with the buffer spring, the buffer provides resistance to the action of the AR as it moves rearward after a shot has been fired. The buffer’s job is to help slow the BCG down so that it doesn’t damage the rifle (in this case, pistol) over time and to help the rifle/pistol feel like a soft shooter.

      If the buffer is too light it can travel to quickly and batter the bolt carrier group and the buffer tube. If the buffer is too heavy, it can slow the BCG to the point where it doesn’t move enough to eject the fired round, scoop a new round from the mag, or press the bolt firmly into battery.

Also:

You have properly tuned your buffer when you observe the following while shooting the first few rounds of a full magazine:

• Your AR15 cycles completely ejecting the spent casing, loading a fresh cartridge and locking fully into battery.

• The spent brass landing between 3:00 and 5:00 if 12:00 is directly downrange.

• Your BCG locks to the rear on empty.

The author then goes on to describe the actual process for tuning your buffer. But the basic process is to start heavy and then lighten the buffer. He recommends starting with an H3 buffer and then replace the buffer or the internal weights to lighten it if it doesn't work.

• "Coupled Rifle Magazines – Still a Good Idea"--Jerking the Trigger. Key part:

       Redundancy, not capacity, is the foremost reason to own at least one coupled magazine set. The additional capacity is just a secondary benefit to coupled magazines. The real benefit is having a spare magazine on the rifle. There is no need to take the time to grab a bag or a chest rig… that spare mag is just there, attached to the first mag, ready to help deal with stoppages.

      The likelihood that your average home defender will need to conduct a reload is quite small. I can’t give you statistics but I would say that experiencing a malfunction is more likely than needing to reload. Using a coupled magazine versus something like a drum or quad stack magazine addresses this reality while also providing additional capacity.

      The above holds doubly true if you live in rural areas with acreage. Checking out that sound in the barn pulls you away from your home and cuts you off from your supplies. Having a spare magazine that comes with you no matter how hurriedly you run out the door could be clutch.