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Sunday, August 16, 2020

A Quick Run Around the Web (8/16/2020)

"The F.A.S.T. Pistol Test - Start Shooting Better Episode 14"--Lucky Gunner (10 min.)

  • Could be. "Lasers: Are They A 'Deadly Force Event'?"--Gabe Saurez. He writes: "Would you use deadly force to protect your sight? I would. Would you use deadly force to protect the sight of a brother or loved one? I would as well." Self-defense is justified to protect yourself (or another) from bodily harm.  While the specific phrasing may change depending on the jurisdiction, deadly force can generally be employed in self-defense when necessary to prevent imminent death or great bodily harm to yourself (or another). I'm not aware of any cases specifically holding that using a laser to try and blind someone is an act expected to cause great bodily harm. But there are some cases holding that other types of acts that caused blindness or could have caused blindness were acts that did cause or could cause "great bodily harm." See, Ford v. State, 249 Ark. 695, 700, 460 S.W.2d 749, 752 (1970) (shooting shotgun not at, but near someone, had threat of great bodily harm because it could have blinded victim or pierced skin); State v. Seipold, 190 Wis. 2d 469, 528 N.W.2d 91 (Ct. App. 1994) (potential for great bodily harm because pellet gun could have deafened or blinded victim); Com. v. Barrett, 386 Mass. 649, 655, 436 N.E.2d 1219, 1223 (1982) (potential for great bodily harm where driver of car was sprayed in eyes and temporarily blinded by spray); State v. Miller, 2002 WI App 1, ¶ 3, 249 Wis. 2d 488, 639 N.W.2d 223 (victim suffered great bodily harm when punched because it left her temporarily blinded until surgery corrected torn retina). I don't know if a standard laser pointer of 500 mW or less would cause blindness (see this article from the Captain's Journal discussing goggles/glasses to use with lasers), but from what I've observed from videos of the demonstrations, the rioters are using more powerful lasers, probably of several Watts in power, such as offered by sites like this and/or using multiple lasers on a single target. 
  • "Review: The Colt Night Cobra"--Revolver Guy. Overall, he liked it:
       The new (2017) Cobra differed from the old in several meaningful ways. To begin with, the new Cobra featured a frame and cylinder made from stainless steel, which bumped the weight up about 10 ounces, to a nominal 25 ounces curb weight (vice 15 for the original). It also featured a replaceable front sight (secured with an Allen screw, and easily removed with a wrench—thank goodness they didn’t use a pin that had to be drifted!), instead of an integral one milled as part of the barrel.

      The new Cobra had a redesigned grip frame and trigger guard, as well. On the new Cobra, the trigger guard was both larger and elongated, to provide more clearance inside (a help for gloved fingers). The grip frame was slightly reshaped to alter the angle that the trigger finger approached the trigger face, allowing the trigger finger to move to the rear in more of a straight line.  Additionally, there was more space between the front of the grip frame and the rear of the trigger guard.
      1. Small woodlots and/or major funnels. Deer drives work well if you can push deer from one small woodlot, say 20-40 acres, into a nearby woodlot. Yes, deer will flee from woodlot A when pushed by drivers, but that’s okay because posters should be waiting in strategic locations in woodlot B, which might be 200 yards across an alfalfa field. As whitetails enter woodlot B, they will stop running and begin to feel comfortable again. This is when posters can take advantage. The same is true in larger woodlots with major funnels. Have posters positioned in or near pinch points (funnels). 
      2. Limited thick cover. Drivers can push deer out of small woodlots or toward funnels in larger woodlots only if thick cover is manageable, meaning deer have to leave if drivers enter the same cover. For example, trying to drive whitetails out of a thick, 200-acre cattail swamp with three or four drivers won’t move many deer. If deer can hide, they will. This is especially true for mature bucks. 
      3. Posters sneak into position downwind of deer. Trying to push/drive deer upwind into the human odor of posters is a recipe for failure. It’s better to push whitetails with the wind at their backs, or at least crosswind, so deer can’t smell what’s in front of them. 
      4. Drivers move slowly, pushing deer with scent and sound. After posters are set up, it’s time for drivers to move into position, either upwind or crosswind of deer. If the push is conducted straight downwind, it takes fewer drivers because each person can zigzag and spread his or her human odor throughout the woodlot. As deer smell — and eventually hear — the approaching danger, they’ll move to get out of the way, hopefully leaving toward the awaiting posters.
            An attractive advantage of striker-fired pistols is how easy the guns are to shoot. Most of the popular models fire with the firing mechanisms pre-cocked, requiring lighter pressure on and little movement of the triggers to discharge the pistols. This, combined with short trigger reset for follow-up shots, makes for extremely efficient handguns. Fitting a gun to a shooter can be easier because the trigger stroke is short and the reach for trigger-finger placement remains consistent for each shot.

           The downside of striker-fired triggers is that many of these guns lack the external manual safeties like those on hammer-fired pistols. This makes trigger-finger discipline paramount, especially when drawing and reholstering.

            A continuing argument among some trainers is that the light, short triggers on these guns can be too easy to accidentally manipulate and cause discharge at inappropriate times, especially while under stress. Weigh the facts and draw your own conclusions. Stress or no, if the shooter never places the trigger finger anywhere but straight alongside the frame until he or she is ready to shoot, such problems can be readily avoided.
    • "Why I have Laser Sights on All My Carry Guns"--Range 365. The author lists X reasons: (i) low light shooting; (ii) "aging eyes"; (iii) ease of aiming; (iv) compliance; (v) safety for the bad guy; (vi) shooting from cover without exposing yourself; and (vii) size. My experience with lasers is limited--my wife has a couple guns with lasers (including one that I carried for a while) so I've used them, but not to any great extent. But one thing I've noted that small lasers are a great boon for someone wanting to accurately shoot a small handgun--particularly inexperienced shooters using pocket pistols with vestigial sights. My wife, using a small KelTec P3AT (her choice over my advice against it), could shoot it almost as well as I could a shoot a larger pistol with decent sights ... at least at distances where you can still use lasers. I've a couple friends who had the same experience with their wives when their wives first started shooting. So, my take is that a laser can make it a lot easier for an inexperienced shooter to accurately shoot his/her weapon.
    • "Firearms And Fingerprints In The Crime"--Bev Fitchett's Guns. This is an interesting article about fingerprints and criminal forensics, but for those interested in evidence left after a shooting, this is the key part:
           Contrary to portrayals in the movies and on television, fingerprints are not always easy to find on certain items of evidence. In the author's experience identifiable fingerprints are found on guns, knives, clubs, and the like in less than 10 percent of the cases. This is due to a number of factors including the surface characteristics of the weapon and the way in which the weapon was handled. On the other hand it is not uncommon to find some evidence of the handling of weapons in the form of partial fingerprint impressions, even though these partial impressions usually fall short of being identifiable to a specific individual.

           Some types of evidence simply do not tend to retain any evidence of fingerprints, even when touched. Textured surfaces such as vehicle steering wheels, plastic milk jugs, and suitcase handles seldom show any sign of even having been touched. Other problems can include intense heat, humidity, and/or precipitation, which effectively destroy the fingerprints. Thus the probability of finding identifiable fingerprints on fired cartridge cases left at the crime scene, for example, is remote; the combination of the curved surfaces and the heat produced upon discharge tends to vaporize the fingerprints.
    • "Your Tactical Training Scenario- Racking a Shotgun"--Active Response Training. Greg Ellifritz takes a look at whether the idea of racking a shotgun to scare off a criminal is a myth. As with most things in this world, the correct answer is: "it depends." If the criminal is intent on attacking, the noise of the shotgun racking and even the presentation of the firearm won't dissuade them. For other criminals, it may give them an opportunity to reevaluate their decision. The lesson is that it could work but it is not something upon which you can depend.
    • "Threat: Fleshing The Picture Out"--Lizard Farmer. The author begins by answering the question of "[w]hat is a Threat?  Simply put the Threat is any element with ill intentions toward any part of your tribe or families, friendly tribes or entities, or even the outside world.  In this entry we’re going into the Who and Where part of identifying the threat." The threats that he then focuses on are gangs, serious criminal enterprises, radical groups, organized forces (i.e., forces with military training/discipline). An important point is that even just one person from one of these groups in your operating area it is a threat, because that one might become a group.
    • "THE EFFICACY OF TRAINING VIDEOS"--Civilian Gunfighter. The primary reason to use a video, according to the author, is to review something that you learned in a hands-on class; a related, but secondary reason, is to preview what you will be trained in at a class. (I assume that the author is discussing videos actually from the instructor whose class you will be attending). But he also admits it is a good way to get instruction from someone you otherwise would not be able to received training. Of course, the biggest problem is that there is no feedback. He has some other points as well. 
    • Blue Collar Prepping has had a series of articles on body armor. Basic stuff, but if you are new to the topic:
    • "How to Develop Fighting Skills" by Sheriff Jim Wilson at Shooting Illustrated. Wilson urges readers to learn unarmed fighting skills in addition to their firearms skills. 
    • "WHAT SCOPE DO I NEED?"--Art of the Rifle. The author writes:
            It must be human nature to want to have it all. It 1 power scopes exist and are fast, I want that. If 25 power scopes exist and allow you to see and shoot things that are too far away to see, I want that too. The problem comes when we want it all at the same time. This tends to be more of a problem with people with fewer guns. So I guess one option is to have a complete set. And a rifle caddy to hand me the right one.  

             Before we were so good at demanding the best and having everything, choices were simpler. The common man probably settled for just a few rifles at most. But real versatility meant having a fixed 4 power scope on a Mauser or Model 70. You went down to the store and chose from what was available, maybe even just one choice.

             As an aside, you could really do a lot with a fixed 4 power. It offers speed, likely easy sight acquisition, and sufficient magnification for big game hunting at distances afforded by most terrain. But perhaps the greatest benefit it offers is taking away an abundance of choices.

             Why would removing choices be advantageous? Every looming choice in your field of awareness carries a certain weight. Even those choices in the periphery of your mind have impending implications. ...


    "Owning A Firearm Comes With Great Responsibility"--Active Self Protection (6 min.)
    This video discusses an incident where a store clerk shot at someone for stealing some bags of chips (and ended up striking someone else). The clerk is facing some serious prison time. But, whether you agree with it or not, the law generally does not allow you to use deadly force simply to protect property. 
           Biden plans to use the National Firearms Act to regulate possession of [so-called "assault weapons"]. His language on his website is vague and this is probably intentional. “Regulate” can mean just about anything, allowing him to either do something minor and claim victory or to enact sweeping changes without the hurdle of legislative approval.

          When it comes to buybacks, his language becomes more clear: Those who now own “assault weapons” – whatever that means, either under newly passed legislation or executive fiat – will have to either sell them back to the government or register them with the ATF under the National Firearms Act....

    Also:

    Even if a President Joe Biden cannot get a new “assault weapons” ban to be passed, he plans to use an executive order to ban the importation of such weapons into the United States. 

     Biden also plans to ban the sale of firearms, ammunition, kits and parts over the Internet. And a lot more. Read the whole thing.

    • Instapundit noted yesterday that the Ninth Circuit has ruled against California as to its "high-capacity" magazine ban, linking to a PDF of the decision. Two key points from the ruling: first, that such magazines are protected under the Second Amendment; and, two, that the appropriate level of scrutiny to apply was strict scrutiny to determine whether California could, nevertheless, legislate magazine capacity. This is the strictest or highest level of scrutiny, and very difficult for a government entity or agency to meet; and which California failed to do in this case. Namely, the court held that California's banning of the magazines, even in a person's home, was a substantial burden on Second Amendment rights and was not the least restrictive method of reducing crime. Nevertheless, the Court of Appeals also considered the issue under intermediate scrutiny and still found that California's law was unconstitutional, again because the law was overbroad relative to the State's goals. Now keep in mind that this decision comes from a 3-judge panel as is typical with circuit court appeals. California could move to have the case reconsidered by an en banc panel (in most circuits, all of the judges, but because the Ninth Circuit is so large and has so many judges, about half).  California could also file a petition for certiorari requesting that the U.S. Supreme Court hear the case. 
    • "Xi calls on Chinese not to waste food as crop shortage fears grow"--Nikkei Asian Review. Although China has been struck by various disasters and is likely importing more foodstuffs than normal, so an absolute food shortage is unlikely. Rather, the issue will be whether people--especially those whose employment has been impacted by lockdowns or disasters--can afford it. "Purchasing capacity, not food availability, seems to be the biggest threat to food security," the International Fund for Agricultural Development said in a May report. Gee, where have I heard that before?

          5 And when he had opened the third seal, I heard the third beast say, Come and see. And I beheld, and lo a black horse; and he that sat on him had a pair of balances in his hand.

         6 And I heard a voice in the midst of the four beasts say, A measure of wheat for a penny, and three measures of barley for a penny; and see thou hurt not the oil and the wine.

    Rev. 6:5-6. The "penny" refers to an amount equal to the daily pay for a laborer, indicating that a full-day's wages would be needed to purchase food for a single person for a single day.

    • You would think this would have been one of the top stories of this past week: "Hurricane-force storm in Iowa flattens 10 million acres of crops"--The Week. According to Iowa's governor, that represents a loss of 1/3 of the state's entire crops. Expect food prices to shoot up in the United States as a consequence. Crop insurance will save the farmers, but not consumers.

    Some idiot actually paid to have this put up here in Boise, Idaho. Needless to say, the billboard company took it down within hours. However, according to the news article, "activist/organizer Tanisha Jae Newton said they are radically unapologetic about it." Besides the fact that the billboard is blatantly false, its disgusting to see someone come into probably one of the least racist communities in the country and then try to interject racism in order to divide people. (Source: "Company pulls provocative Boise billboard less than a day after it went up"--KTVB).
     

    • "Amazon Considers Relocating Some Employees Out of Seattle"--Bloomberg. Per the article, "Amazon.com Inc. is offering Seattle-based employees a choice of smaller offices outside the city, suggesting the Covid-19 outbreak and a new local employers tax have pushed the e-commerce giant to consider alternatives to its hometown." I don't get it. Amazon is packed to the gills with liberals and other leftists. Why don't they want to live where liberal policy choices have been so fully implemented?
    • "Would the Military Side with Leftist Tyranny or with America?" by Kurt Schlichter at Town Hall. The lower ranks and file are a big question, but not so much for the upper-echelons according to Schlichter, who believes that the career military officers would side with the Swamp. "Though the Democrats have moved left, they maintain a headlock on the institutions, and the institutions are what the generals [ed: Schlichter includes Colonel/Captain O6 and up in this category] are loyal to even if the leaders of those institutions have morphed into rabidly anti-American aspiring dictators. To embrace Trump and populism is to repudiate the whole establishment hothouse that grew their power and prestige. They would be opposing themselves."
           With 80 days left before the presidential election, a new and dangerous rhetoric has emerged from some corners of the Resistance. A number of President Trump's most implacable critics are fantasizing about deploying the U.S. military to remove him from the White House on Jan. 20, 2021, based on their assumption that a.) he will lose the election, and b.) he will refuse to leave office on his own.

           Recently, two retired Army officers speculated about deploying a brigade from the 82nd Airborne Division to overpower Trump's "private army" that they believe the defeated president will use to try to cling to office. Another retired officer, a former chief of staff to Secretary of State Colin Powell, imagined the military in battle with armed Trump supporters, the result being that "all bets are off as to how much blood might flow." In addition, a group of former government officials, political operatives, and journalists concocted a scenario in which Trump actually won reelection but Democrat Joe Biden refused to accept the result in hopes that the military would side with him against the president.
           Former FBI lawyer Kevin Clinesmith was charged Friday with a felony and has agreed to plead guilty to altering a document in the Russia collusion probe, the first criminal case to be brought in the investigation of U.S. Attorney John Durham, according to officials and a court document. 

           Ahead of his plea, Clinesmith was charged in federal court in Washington D.C. with one count of making a false statement for altering information he had received from the CIA in June 2017 to hide the fact that Trump campaign official Carter Page was a source for the Agency.

           The alteration caused the Justice Department to make a false representation to the FISA Court that approved surveillance of Page for nearly a year, the criminal information filed by Durham states.

    ... Democrat leaders like Pelosi call Republicans Nazis, Russian agents, traitors. And Republicans respond: “Democrats are playing politics.” No they’re not. This is not the language of politics; it’s the language of war. It’s designed to destroy you. From the moment Trump emerged as victor in 2016, Democrats declared war on the president and therefore America, whose duly elected commander-in-chief he was. They also declared war on everyone associated with the White House and supporting its agendas. Republicans need to wake up. The most important decision they can make as we approach the November elections is to end the charade, accept that it is a war we are facing, and return the Democrats’ fire with fire.

          Black Lives Matter protests led many people to want to do something useful to reduce racial injustice. Racial justice groups are being flooded with money.

          Big companies made multimillion-dollar donations.

          “Bad idea,” says black radio host Larry Elder in my new video.

           “It is condescending… and not helpful. I urge white people to chill. Stop helping us, because you’re making things worse!”

           Making things worse, he says, because it supports the activists’ claim that “Blacks are victims of racism. (But) if racism were in America’s DNA, Obama never could have got elected. Racism has never been more insignificant a factor in one’s success than right now.”

           I push back. “It must be a huge problem or there wouldn’t be all this protest!”

           “Well, they’re being lied to,” Elder responds. Teachers, black activists, and the media give “young people the impression that racism remains this huge problem in America when it is not.”

           It’s not, he says, because today any person who does three things can succeed: “Finish high school, don’t have a kid until you get married, get a job. Do those things, you will not be poor.”

          The biggest problem facing the black community today, says Elder, is the absence of fathers. In the 1960s, most black children were raised in two-parent households. That changed when our government’s War on Poverty began.

           The handouts sent the message that it’s the government’s job, not your responsibility, to take care of you and your kids. “A mother with two children makes more money than she would make on minimum wage because of all the goodies she gets through the welfare state!”

           Now, he says, Black Lives Matter actually encourages the breakup of families. Their website does say, “disrupt the Western-prescribed, nuclear family.”

           That’s a Karl Marx idea straight from “The Communist Manifesto.” Black Lives Matter co-founder Patrisse Cullors proudly describes herself as a “trained Marxist.”

           Elder calls her and the anti-capitalist protesters “phonies.”

           “Do they really want socialism?” Elder asks. “Do they really want inferior products? They are all wearing Nike and using Apple products. They’re hypocrites.”

    * * *

           “Black Lives Matter leaders don’t really want the vision of MLK,” says Elder. “They want a color-coordinated society—as long as they’re the ones who do the coordinating.”


    Seen on the Internet
    • Crying "wolf" one too many times: "What Will Not Recover: Government" by Jeffrey A. Tucker at American Institute for Economic Research. Tucker argues that the knee-jerk totalitarian response to COVID-19 has irreparably wounded government credibility. Worse, because of their pride, government officials have no path out of this mess. Tucker writes:
    We are besotted with these public health authorities and government officials who made a terrible, life-wrecking error. They can’t admit it because the devastation has been so complete. It’s no easier to dial that back than it was for the US government to admit their terrible mistakes in Iraq and Afghanistan. They keep having to do the stupid thing – whether keeping troops in for 20 years or maintaining travel restrictions and mask mandates in the present case – in order to pretend as if they were right all along. 

    Notwithstanding the hysteria from some quarters, this pandemic was not much worse than seasonal flu. Someday, however, there will be a serious disease. And because of the incompetence shown here, people are going to be less willing to comply with health orders when the next one comes. 

    Grace Community Church and MacArthur claim that California and LA’s double standard violates the state’s constitution in six different ways. It violates the church’s free exercise of religion, its due process rights, its free speech rights, equal protection under the law, and two kinds of separation of powers issues. According to the lawsuit, the restrictions are not narrowly tailored to meet a compelling state interest, so they do not satisfy “strict scrutiny” and therefore fall outside the purview of an executive order. The restrictions also violate the California Constitution’s separation of powers because the underlying law behind the orders is unconstitutional.

          The agreement brokered by the Trump administration for the United Arab Emirates to establish full normalization of relations with Israel, in return for the Jewish state forgoing, for now, any annexation of the West Bank, was exactly what Trump said it was in his tweet: a “HUGE breakthrough.”

          It is not Anwar el-Sadat going to Jerusalem — nothing could match that first big opening between Arabs and Israelis. It is not Yasir Arafat shaking Yitzhak Rabin’s hand on the White House lawn — nothing could match that first moment of public reconciliation between Israelis and Palestinians.

          But it is close. Just go down the scorecard, and you see how this deal affects every major party in the region — with those in the pro-American, pro-moderate Islam, pro-ending-the-conflict-with-Israel-once-and-for-all camp benefiting the most and those in the radical pro-Iran, anti-American, pro-Islamist permanent-struggle-with-Israel camp all becoming more isolated and left behind.

         It’s a geopolitical earthquake.

    * * *

          So what Trump, Kushner, Prince Mohammed bin Zayed, the de facto leader of the Emirates, and Netanyahu did was turn lemons into lemonade, explained Itamar Rabinovich, one of Israel’s leading Middle East historians and a former ambassador to Washington.

          “Instead of Israeli annexation for a Palestinian state, they made it Israeli non-annexation in return for peace with the U.A.E.,” said Rabinovich in an interview. Kushner, he added, “basically generated an asset out of nothing, which Israel could then trade for peace with the U.A.E. It was peace for peace, not land for peace.”

          This process apparently started after the U.A.E.’s ambassador to Washington, Yousef al-Otaiba, published a letter in Hebrew in the Israeli newspaper Yediot Ahronot in June directly warning that Israeli annexation of the West Bank would undermine the quiet progress Israel had made with the gulf Arabs.

          The U.A.E. had been mulling going for more open diplomatic ties with Israel for a while, but it was the discussions over how to stop annexation that created a framework where the U.A.E. could be seen as getting something for the Palestinians in return for its normalization with Israel.

    * * *

           This deal will certainly encourage the other gulf sheikhdoms — Bahrain, Oman, Qatar, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia — all of which have had covert and overt business and intelligence dealings with Israel, to follow the Emirates’ lead. They will not want to let the U.A.E. have a leg up in being able to marry its financial capital with Israel’s cybertechnology, agriculture technology and health care technology, with the potential to make both countries stronger and more prosperous.

    I see this about-face on the part of the Arab states to be the result of pragmatism--realpolitik, if you will. They are contemplating a future where the United States will be unable or unwilling to assist them against Iran (or, in their darkest nightmare, Turkey). That leaves Israel as the only nation with the warfare capabilities and temperament to help them and counterbalance Iran and/or Turkey.
            The coronavirus pandemic has made little liars out of our Sunday school selves. “This little light of mine, I’m gonna let it shine,” we sang. “Hide it under a bushel? No! I’m gonna let it shine. Don’t let Satan blow it out, I’m gonna let it shine, let it shine, let it shine.”

            Instead of shining amid fear and uncertainty, churches have closed their doors, trading cowering under a bushel for hiding behind a mask, and allowing anti-religious government tyrants and their petty orders to blow out the lights. For a time, compliance was warranted as we learned more about whether coronavirus is as lethal as some feared, but not anymore. Some churches have decided it’s time to shine again, and they’re right. It’s time to open the doors.
            One of the points I’ve made to anyone who will listen is that the Antifa and Black Lives Matter insanity we’re seeing is a purely leftist phenomenon.  This leftism is not just because of the obvious fact that the activists are leftists; it’s also because the cities that host their often theatrical violence are leftist, too.  The truth is that, over the last two months, most American cities and towns have been peaceful, and most Americans are hostile to this street theater.

            I’ve also been arguing that, after having their spirits battered by the one-two punch of (arguably unnecessary) lockdowns and the leftist attacks on America’s Democrat-run cities, Americans are coming back.  The latest resurgence of the American spirit took place in Fort Collins, Colorado.

            Although some of the facts around this event are contested, there are a few clear things.  On Saturday, hundreds of people attended a “Back the Blue” rally to support their local police.  Black-clad people, whose clothes identified them as Antifa, showed up as a counter-protest.  Their presence did not sit well with some of the attendees at the pro-police rally.

            A video emerged showing a Back the Blue contingent slow-marching the Antifa crowd out of the neighborhood.  As the Back the Blues march forward, the Antifa members walk backward.  It’s rather like a stately dance.  One member of the Back the Blue contingent uses a wheelchair, which matters, because he shows up later.

            As the walk continues, the Back the Blues are not violent, but they are angry, accusing the Antifa horde both of being disrespectful to veterans and being communists.  Significantly no Back the Blues are making racist comments.  Their anger is entirely about their disdain for the counter-protesters’ political ideology.
           Racism is a lot of things. One thing it is not:

          A white child, aged five, executed by a black man with a shot to the head, as the tyke rode his bike. Ask the cultural cognoscenti. They’ll tell you: That’s never racism.

          Otherwise, almost anything involving the perpetually aggrieved black community counts as racism.
           Leftism is entropy in the apparatus of state. Leftists ally with far against near, in the struggle within the state.

           The driving force of leftism is a holiness spiral. The state is a synthetic tribe, so the state always has, furtively or openly, a state religion, so leftists struggle for power by endlessly adding new, ever holier, stuff to the state religion, and eliminating the unprincipled exceptions and theological inconsistencies that made earlier forms of the state religion workable and practical.

          Thus leftism goes ever lefter. And the more disordered the state becomes, the faster it goes left, and more left it becomes the more disordered it becomes.

          Every day the left gets lefter.

          As we approach the left singularity, as the left goes faster and faster leftwards, tidal forces increase, with the left most part of the left moving left faster than the not so left part of the left, the leftmost become increasingly dangerous to the not quite so left.

           The radical left is purging the less radical left, purging the Haidt / Mounck / Pinker axis. They probably will not purge Biden, since more and more often, he no longer knows where he is, what year it is, and fails to recognize family, but Pelosi is headed for removal soon enough, finding it increasingly difficult to control the radicals, and increasingly making self destructive concessions to them.

           These fractures within the left eventually result in the left singularity being halted short of infinite leftism, as sooner or later, someone important decides “Yes, I do have enemies to the left and I have no choice but do whatever it takes to stop them.” 

    There is a lot more, so be sure to read the whole thing.

     

    "Mormon racism"--Ramsey Dewey (45 min.)
    I subscribed to Dewey's YouTube channel because he has some of the best videos and commentary out there on the subject of mixed martial arts. I had no idea he was a coreligionist until this video. In any event, one of his viewers sent him a question asking him to explain how the Church's prohibition on blacks holding the priesthood came about and how it ended. Along the way, he explains a lot about the Church and its beliefs.
    It is the goal of Satan--and, by proxy, Marxists--to destroy the family and contaminate and ruin children. Remember when I wrote recently that I believed that the destruction of Sodom was because they were forcing their evils on everyone--there was no escaping it. We increasingly live in a society where there is no escaping it. 
           CGN was formed in 2014. One of its cornerstone investors was the private equity firm BHR Partners, headed up by Vice-President Biden’s son, Hunter Biden. The company put $10 million into the initial public offering for CGN. BHR Partners was a joint venture between Rosemont Seneca Partners, an investment fund founded by Hunter Biden, Secretary of State John Kerry’s stepson in 2009, and the state-owned Bank of China.
     
           This billion-dollar fund came into existence less than two weeks after Hunter Biden accompanied his father on a state visit to Beijing. The money to create the fund came from the Chinese government.
               The rest of the article explains how CGN was involved in stealing nuclear technology from the United States, as well as noting other companies to which Binden and his son have ties which companies have also engaged in espionage.  
         
               Here is my take on this matter, and a whole slew of similar actors. The United States, during the late 19th Century and first 60 years of the 20th Century developed significant infrastructure and manufacturing capabilities as well as significant knowledge capital. This started to come to an end in the late 1960s and 1970s as American factories became antiquated, unions stymied productivity increases, and competing economies (Japan and Germany in particular) had developed their own manufacturing capabilities that could compete with the United States. It also didn't help that the OPEC oil embargo slammed the brakes on the American economy. The consequence was that the elites in finance and industry began to liquidate America's economy: manufacturing shifted overseas. This was not just a flow of jobs, but literally of equipment. Financiers bought up companies for the sole purpose of selling off pieces to generate short term profits (this is, for example, how Mitt Romney made his millions) without regard to the layoffs that ensued or whether what was left could operate as a going concern. This continues even to today, although not to the degree as we saw in the 1980s and 1990s. Those involved in this process were derogatorily referred to as vulture capitalists.

               But the same thing that has happened to America's physical capital has also occurred with our intellectual and knowledge capital. Companies haven't relocated to foreign markets that already have built manufacturing capacity. No, these companies decide to locate overseas for some actual or perceived benefit (lower wages, lower operating expenses because of the lack of health and safety regulations for workers or the environment, etc.) and take the knowledge and know-how developed in America to that country to build and operate the factory. That knowledge doesn't just stay with that one company or factory but is then transferred to the host country. China is particular adept at this demanding the companies relocating there divulge trade secrets and other intellectual capital. We also see the same process happening at universities where foreign students increasingly fill research positions at elite institutions. They take the knowledge learned and developed there and return it to their home country. 

               But just as there were vulture capitalists that assisted in dismantling America's physical manufacturing capital for short term profit, so there are people that profit from dismantling and shipping America's intellectual capital overseas. That is what Biden and his family are involved with. They facilitate the loss of intellectual capital in order to profit from the pieces with no care of the consequences to the country or the people.   
        • "Some Questions for Kamala Harris About Eligibility"--by John C. Eastman, Professor of Law, Chapman University and Senior Fellow, Claremont Institute. Just as the President, the Vice-President must also have been a natural born-citizen. Harris's claim to being a natural born citizen was that she was an anchor baby: her father was Jamaican and her mother from India. And so Eastman's inquiry goes beyond just Harris's claim she is a citizen by virtue of being born on U.S. soil, but looks at what requirements there are for citizenship under the 14th Amendment. Eastman explains:
              The language of Article II [setting out the requirements to be President] is that one must be a natural-born citizen. The original Constitution did not define citizenship, but the 14th Amendment does—and it provides that "all persons born...in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens." Those who claim that birth alone is sufficient overlook the second phrase. The person must also be "subject to the jurisdiction" of the United States, and that meant subject to the complete jurisdiction, not merely a partial jurisdiction such as that which applies to anyone temporarily sojourning in the United States (whether lawfully or unlawfully). Such was the view of those who authored the 14th Amendment's Citizenship Clause; of the Supreme Court of the United States in the 1872 Slaughter-House Cases and the 1884 case of Elk v. Wilkins; of Thomas Cooley, the leading constitutional treatise writer of the day; and of the State Department, which, in the 1880s, issued directives to U.S. embassies to that effect.

               The Supreme Court's subsequent decision in Wong Kim Ark is not to the contrary. At issue there was a child born to Chinese immigrants who had become lawful, permanent residents in the United States—"domiciled" was the legally significant word used by the Court. But that was the extent of the Court's holding (as opposed to broader language that was dicta, and therefore not binding). Indeed, the Supreme Court has never held that anyone born on U.S. soil, no matter the circumstances of the parents, is automatically a U.S. citizen.
        at

        2 comments:

        1. John WilderAugust 16, 2020 at 9:06 PM

          Once again, I could comment on a dozen of these.

          Lasers are banned by international convention for warfare. I would think being in a class with nerve gas would make them a threat?

          Dune: I am certain I won't go see it. I'm betting it will be full of woke commentary.

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          1. DocentAugust 17, 2020 at 10:27 AM

            I think lasers could give rise to legitimate threat of bodily harm justifying the use of lethal force, but it will come down to the circumstances. One person with a weak (sub-500mW) laser pointer flashing it around? Probably not. Lots of people with weak laser pointers deliberately trying to shine them into your eyes? Probably. One person with a 5W laser trying to shine it into your eyes? Probably.

            As for Dune, I'm hopeful. I hope it succeeds just because it would make it easier to bring other classic SF books to screen.

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