RPG Saturday - Mongoose Traveller Skill Mechanics

This is the third video in Seth Skorkowsky's series reviewing and explaining the skill mechanics of the Mongoose edition of the Traveller core rules. 

 VIDEO: "Traveller: Part 3 - Skill Mechanics"
Seth Skorkowsky (22 min.) 

The S&W Model 22 - The Good And The Bad

Smith & Wesson has released a couple of new revolvers in their classic series, one of which is a new version of the Model 22 chambered in .45 Colt but also able to shoot .45 ACP with the use of moon-clips. The good about this new model is that it is apparently well made and, after removing the side plate and cleaning the action, reportedly the best out of the box action that the host had shot from S&W in decades. And it was very accurate when shooting .45 Colt even out to tested distances of 100 yards.

The bad news is for those shooting .45 ACP. The hosts reported issues with most moon-clips being too thick, resulting in drag when turning the cylinder. The other issue--and this is common to other revolvers intended to shoot both .45 Colt and .45 ACP from the same cylinder such as the Ruger Redhawk model released years ago--is that the short case of the .45 ACP compared to the .45 Colt results in relatively long space in the cylinder where there is gap between the bullet and the walls of the cylinder. This has two effects, the video explains: (i) gas is able to go around the bullet, resulting in lower muzzle velocities; and (ii) because the bullet can shift around in the cylinder bore before it narrows, it results in significantly degraded accuracy. The hosts explain that if you are only shooting out to 25 yards, the accuracy will probably be sufficient for self-defense purposes but will be too poor to use at longer distances. Thus, if you are getting this revolver with the intention of primarily shooting .45 ACP, they say you will be disappointed. 

So, short take is that this is one of the best revolvers released by S&W in decades and you will probably be happy with it if you stick to .45 Colt. But if you are shooting .45 ACP, you will find the accuracy disappointing.  

 VIDEO: "The Good, The Bad and The Ugly of the Smith & Wesson Model 22 45 Colt & ACP!"
Pearce Brothers Gear Guide (45 min.)

There Is Something Really Wrong With Leftists

"Progressive podcaster Jennifer Welch jokes about 'digging up Charlie Kirk and doing it again' in wake of Democrats' huge midterm victories"--Daily Mail.

    The moment quickly went viral across social media as Welch's remarks were met with fierce backlash. 

    Turning Point USA spokesperson Andrew Kolvet, a close friend of Kirk's, responded on X: 'I don't know where, when, or how, whether in this life or the next, but Jennifer Welch will regret being an ugly, demonic witch who laughs at the murder of an innocent man.'   

The Left Just Won't Give Up

The Daily Mail reports: "Secret Service stop attempted assassination of Trump as Venezuelan national arrested outside White House with car full of guns." From the lede:

    A Venezuelan man who claimed the voices in his head told him to travel to Washington to kill Donald Trump was arrested in a stolen car with multiple firearms near the White House Thursday.

    Ronny Yordrix Guanipa Chrinos was previously subject to the catch and release policy of the Biden administration at the Texas border in March 2024, a Department of Homeland Security spokesperson told the Daily Mail.    

I doubt the voices in his head bit--probably just to establish the grounds for an insanity defense. But maybe he was hearing voices in his head? It could be schizophrenia, but...

• "The US Military Is Making Lasers That Create Voices out of Thin Air"--Defense One (2018). 
• "Hearing Voices? You May Not Be Nuts…"--IRD Glass.
• "Traditional Loudspeakers vs. Directional Audio"--Holosonics.
• And getting into the more theoretical: "Can the Microwave Auditory Effect Be 'Weaponized'?"--Front Public Health.

Weekend Reading #79

Some longer or more involved reading:

• First up this week is the most recent newsletter from Jon Low's Defensive Pistolcraft. The first thing I will bring up are comments regarding the videos on cut shotgun shells I had posted recently. You might remember that in one of the videos, the host quickly mentioned that using a cut shell was for emergency exigencies or something like that. Jon reached out to Greg Ellifritz about his thoughts about cut shells, and Greg responded:

     Thanks for thinking of me, but those things are worse than useless.  I got introduced to them almost 30 years ago.  Local ATF agents were encountering them during warrant service attempts and they wanted to see how well they worked.  

     The local ATF firearms instructor used my range to test them.  I was there when he did it.  Results:  
- Didn't reliably feed in pump or semi autos
- Horrible accuracy beyond about 10 yards
- Only penetrated about 6" in gelatin

     After shooting a couple dozen of them with the ATF agents, I came to the conclusion that I would rather shoot someone with birdshot, even at longer ranges where it is ineffective.  The cut shells are nowhere close to the ballistic capability of slugs or buckshot.   

So there you go, in case you were thinking of experimenting with them.

Some other items to look for:

• Jon has collected quite a few comments, links to articles, and offers some of his own comments regarding the recent Silver Rail Elementary School shooting in Oregon. Check it out.
• You've probably all heard some formulation of the observation that you will react under stress the way you have trained. Thus, Jon warns against training to automatically aim and fire your weapon upon drawing it:

     No, you don't need to aim at the target.  No, you don't need to take the slack out of the trigger.  No, you don't need to fire.  Those are all actions based on decisions, that you make, based on what you see.  To automatically shoot as part of your presentation from the holster to the target is WRONG!  If you practice shooting on every presentation, engraining that behavior, striving to achieve a sub-second to first shot, you will be shooting faster than you can think.  You need time to abort the shot when you recognize the silhouette is your teenager sneaking back into your house in the middle of the night.  Oh yes, lots of documented cases.  Tragic. Due to incorrect training.   

In a similar vein, he includes the following quote from Tim Larkin:

     "When you're training to protect yourself and others, speed always comes last. In the more than twenty-five years I've been training people in self-protection, I've never heard from someone who used self-protection tools in the field and felt like they suffered from a lack of speed at the moment of truth.  In fact, I usually hear the opposite:  it's much more common to suffer from a lack of accuracy or force." 

• Jon provides a link to a series of videos under the general heading "Jeff Gonzales Concealed Carry Manual" with each video covering a different topic knowledge, training, holsters, marksmanship, etc.
• Another video he links to is "How to Grip a Pistol So You Stop Re-Aiming Every Shot" with Jon adding:

     The low-left scattering for right-handers, and low-right scattering for left-handers is caused by anticipating the recoil and pushing against the anticipated recoil.  Calling it a flinch is not technically correct.  The solution is the surprise trigger break, as taught by Jeff Cooper and his disciples.  

     When using iron sights, the left-right scattering can also be caused by the rear sight notch being too narrow, making it difficult to center the front sight in the rear sight notch.  The solution is to widen the rear sight notch by about 2 hundredths of an inch (machine out 1 hundredth on each side).  

• Jon has some advice as to a defensive pistol, including that your pistol:

   Must NOT have a compensator, ported barrel, muzzle break, or anything that directs the hot gasses and burning powder in any direction other than straight head.  

You will be firing from a close contact position, because combat is usually close contact.  If your pistol blows hot gas and burning power into your eyes, or if the 
concussion causes you traumatic shock or breaks your ear drums, you will disable yourself.  

     If you think you will be shooting from your isosceles position at full extension, you're delusional.  Ask Jared Reston.  Ask George Zimmerman.  Just because you have a warped perception of reality doesn't mean reality is going to accommodate you.  Instructors who advise you to use a compensator are doing you a grave disservice.   

Lots more, so be sure to read the whole thing. 

• Greg Ellifritz has his latest Weekend Knowledge Dump at Active Response Training. Some links that stood out in particular to me:
• An article by Massad Ayoob on drawing with the weak hand from a holster set up for your dominant hand.
• Links to a couple articles on ambushes. The articles are intended for a law enforcement audience, but have obvious application to armored car drivers as well. But I think there are lessons here for the average citizen, particularly as to car jackings or civil unrest.
• The article "Recognizing and Controlling Courtroom Tricks" was written to help police officers giving testimony in court avoid tricks that a criminal defense attorney might try, but these also have application to things a prosecutor or plaintiff's attorney might also use.
• A good prepping article with the strange title, "Dragging The Futon Mattress Into The Closet." He links to other resources, so pay attention to the links. 
• A fairly detailed article on "How To Track A Human". Greg points out that it has good tips on searching and observation, which it does, including some tips for looking for stuff when it is dark.
• An American Partisan article on the bullet resistance of the average American home, which is pretty much none you can depend upon. There are also plenty of videos on YouTube testing the bullet resistance of different types of walls and appliances. Strangely, though, tightly packed books in a bookcase works pretty well for most small arms (assuming the bullets strikes the books rather than passing through a gap). 
• An article on the differing bullet nomenclature for various handgun rounds, with a particular emphasis on the various .38 handgun rounds used in the latter part of the 19th Century and early 20th Century. Someone once showed me a Colt revolver they had inherited from their grandfather that was simply marked ".38" so it behooves you to know that there are other .38s out there other than .38 Special. 
• And on that same note, Greg linked to a piece discussing the various .32 handgun calibers.
• And, finally, I found the article on why cartridges "nose-dive" in single stack magazines to be interesting. 
• John Wilder's latest, "What Is Your Profession?," looking at where we are, politically, in this country and where we are headed. An excerpt:

    Remember Leonidas in the movie 300, when he asked the Athenians what their profession was, and he got back an accountant and a project manager (or whatever it was)?  What was the profession of the Spartans?

    War.

    That’s where we are today.  The TradRight has to create value in the world to make money, and hires based on merit.  The GloboLeft hires GloboLeftists so that its ideological army is funded.  The politicians go along with this, and if D.O.G.E. tries to shut it down?

    Some GloboLeftElite federal judge will keep the money flowing, while they rule that TradRight words are violence, and GloboLeft violence isn’t punishable.

    The money must flow. 

•  This was interesting: "Male students show more tolerance for political enemies than females show for their own allies"--Expression. The article explains:

    The data, taken from FIRE’s annual College Free Speech Rankings, reveals that overall tolerance for opposing views is low among both male and female students — but the males consistently display far more tolerance than females, regardless of their politics. In fact, with the exception of male libertarians, who are slightly more tolerant, men of all political ideologies have roughly the same level of tolerance as each other. The same is true of women.

    In other words, it’s not that liberals are more tolerant than conservatives, or vice versa. Liberal and conservative men are more or less equally tolerant, as are liberal and conservative women. It’s being a man, liberal or conservative, that makes the difference. 

It brings to mind that famous quote from George Orwell in his novel, 1984:

“It was always the women, and above all the young ones, who were the most bigoted adherents of the Party, the swallowers of slogans, the amateur spies and nosers-out of unorthodoxy.” 

Orwell knew. 

•  "The self-making world"--Aeon. A look at the ideas of French naturalist Jean-Baptiste Lamarck, who hypothesized that "all living beings are constantly transforming themselves, from the tiniest microbes to the most complex mammals, gaining new forms and new abilities." 

It wasn’t the bodily structures of organisms that determined their ways of life, Lamarck said, but just the opposite: their ways of life in response to their circumstances gave rise to their changing bodily forms. ‘Can there be any consideration in natural history more important,’ he demanded, ‘or deserving of greater attention, than the one I have just set forth?’ (My translation.) 

Although Lamarck influenced Darwin, his ideas were later ridiculed and dismissed. But, as the article continues, Lamarck's ideas are making a comeback. 

    Lamarck’s ideas have been making a comeback in several areas of biology. For instance, the study of epigenetic inheritance – involving structures outside the DNA that influence gene expression – has demonstrated, throughout every kind of organism, that characteristics acquired in an individual lifetime can indeed be inherited. Many of the examples that scientists have been finding involve the responses of various kinds of animals to climate change. An example is the spiny chromis, a slender damselfish inhabiting the coral reefs of the Pacific. In 2015, marine biologists showed that its metabolism responds to the higher water temperatures brought on by climate change by transforming in myriad ways, and that these changes are inherited from generation to generation. The spiny chromis isn’t alone. In 2020, scientists found that the reef-building coral that provides the damselfish’s home also responds to changing ocean temperatures and salinity with epigenetic changes that it passes on to its offspring.

    German evolutionary geneticists have found that wild guinea pigs subjected to heat-stress show heritable alterations in their livers, which play a crucial role in metabolic regulation; and biologists in the United States and Kenya have shown that the metabolisms of baboons also heritably change in response to differences in their food supply. In fact, it seems increasingly apparent that all kinds of living beings respond to their changing environments with heritable epigenetic transformations. These might provide means of rapid adaptation that precedes, and perhaps shapes, slower genetic changes. 

There's more, so read the whole thing.

VIDEO: Mark Dice Talks About The MIGA Pundits

He begins his video by observing: "The same exact people who had been claiming for eight months that the regime change war in Iran would have no negative effects whatsoever on Republicans in the midterm elections are now claiming that if you point out that fact, you are an anti-semite."

 VIDEO: "THEY KEEP LYING - BUT THE RECEIPTS ARE ALL SAVED"
Mark Dice (15 min.)

Indy Neidell Will Be Doing A Series On The Roman Empire

Indy Neidell has done some great week-by-week history series on YouTube starting with The Great War, and continuing with World War II, and the Korean War; as well as shorter series such as his Between Two Wars series on the Time Ghost channel and his Cold War series. 

Now he has announced that starting in February 2027, he will be releasing a video series on the Roman Empire, including a short 4 min. introduction video that dropped yesterday. 

Texas Went Blue Because The Voters Went Brown

Vox Day notes that in Texas, whites voted Republican by a significant margin, while Latinos, blacks, and other races went heavily for the Democrats. From this, he observes: "Politics proper can only function in the homogenous polis. Once different religions and ethnic groups live in the same government structure, all the ideological disagreements vanish and only the raw struggle for power between the different groups remains." 

But it isn't a complete picture, either, because the margin of white women voting Republican was much less than the margin of white men; and the margin of Latina women voting Democrat was much larger than the margin of Latino men voting Democrat. Similar among blacks.  

Lessons On School Security From Oregon

An interesting piece from Tactical Science entitled "The Lock Held. The Glass Didn't." It discusses how the active shooter at Silver Rail Elementary was still so easily able to gain entry despite the physical security measures. An excerpt:

Key points

• Early reports said the Silver Rail shooter shot his way through locked doors. That is not quite what happened. He fired into the glass panes of a locked set of exterior double doors and went through the opening. The lock held. The glass did not.

• We have seen this before, every time. Across 54 K-12 active shooter events from 2000 to 2025, every attacker who forced his way past a locked door did it through glass. Not one defeated the lock itself.

• Better hardware will not fix a glass problem. If a school's entry is mostly standard glass, the lock on it matters much less than we tend to assume.

And more detail:

    We coded every K-12 active shooter event in the FBI's data from 2000 to 2025, 54 events in all, and documented 66 doors that attackers interacted with. For each one we used records requests, after-action reports, and interviews with schools and agencies to work out what the door was made of, how it was locked, and what the attacker did to it.

    Attackers tried to force their way through a locked or barricaded door nine times and got through six times. All six went through glass. They shot out a glass panel in the door, a glass panel beside it, or a sidelight, and stepped or reached through the opening. Not one of them got past the lock itself.

    The three failed attempts point the same way. In each, the attacker shot at the door or the lock itself, and the door held. Solid doors with working locks were never breached.

    The 2023 attack at The Covenant School in Nashville, Tennessee, shows both halves in one building. The attacker got in by shooting through the glass entry doors, then went upstairs, fired at secured classroom doors, and couldn't get into any of those rooms.

    What this means for your school. When someone with a gun meets a locked door, the weak point hasn't been the lock. It's the glass in or beside the door. So the question to ask isn't only about hardware. If someone shoots out the adjoining glass, can they get in?

 Something you should also consider as you look at your home security measures. 

Repurposing SSD Cards

This article--"Don't throw away your laptop's old SSDs — do this instead"--from Engadget explains how to convert old SSD cards to function as external storage devices. 

If you're planning to extract the SSD out of your older laptop, it's worth checking if it's even possible since some ultra-thin laptop makers, like Apple and its MacBooks, solder storage directly onto their logic boards. If your SSD can be removed, you just need to pair it with an external shell. There are fairly affordable enclosures on Amazon, but make sure you have the right one to match your SSD's form factor, whether it's the larger 2.5-inch SATA or the much faster and compact M.2 NVMe. 

Matt Walsh Delivers A Postmortum

 VIDEO: "The Truth Hurts"
Matt Walsh Clips (11 min.)

I believe that this is an excerpt from a longer video, but here Matt Walsh focuses on the economic factors that brought about the Republican loss--especially high fuel prices (Trump's popularity ran lockstep with gas prices). And those high gas prices was a direct result of the war with Iran. But he also notes that the Republicans in Congress were never on board with Trump's plans. And this is something I'm seeing from other writers as well: the Republican Congress refusing to follow through on the cuts recommended by DOGE, failing to codify the changes to immigration that Trump has been trying to carry out by executive order, failing to enact the SAVE Act, and on and on. 

Vice President JD Vance also didn't mince words. He wrote on X:

Another pollster—one of the smartest people I know in politics, told me yesterday we’d lose the generic ballot by 13 points. I felt negative going into Tuesday, but even I was shocked by this. In his polling, he saw that a lot of Trump 2024 voters were angry and planning to vote for Democrats. He asked those voters who had abandoned us what would cause them to come back on our team. The top four answers, accounting for nearly all of the responses were:

1) End the war
2) Focus on cost of living/inflation
3) Put America First
4) Change our relationship to Israel

Our voters showed up. And the above four reasons are why many of them voted for Democrats. This is according to a pollster who nailed the results. ...

A lot of conservatives who voted for Trump have been pointing this out in subtle and not-so-subtle ways for a long time, urging the President to keep his campaign promises of no new Middle-East wars, putting America's interests first (including above that of Israel), building the economy, mass deportation, and prosecute those that used Epstein's services, those responsible for the massive fraud, those espousing violence on the Left, etc.  Mike Dice has more thoughts on that in the video below:

 VIDEO: "President Trump Finally Admits It"
Mark Dice (15 min.)

 It will be interesting what comes next. I remember that the Tea Party was a polite, activist movement concerning about taxes and the economy, and they were roundly ridiculed by the Left and ignored by politicians on the right. That produced MAGA. 

MAGA was more blunt. It wanted a president and other politicians that would eschew the milquetoast attitudes of the old Republican party and actually fight for the American people. Trump started out his second term doing pretty well, but he was sidetracked by the siren song of Israel; and the Republicans in Congress still ignored MAGA. 

So what comes next? Will the Republican leadership go on ignoring the concerns of the average Americans? Will MAGA come back in some new form, more lean and extreme in order to better fight the Left? My guess is that the Democrats will fail to read the room and think that they have some mandate from hell (because they don't believe in heaven) that will allow them to run roughshod over the American people.  

VIDEO: The 1911 Is Obsolete For Military And Police Use

This is a lengthy discussion of the history of the 1911 pistol and its cartridge, the developments in handgun design that followed its adoption, the efforts to try and modernize the 1911, and the host's final conclusion to the question posed by the video: is the 1911 obsolete for military and police use? And the short answer to that question is "yes" according to the host. In fact, he believes it was obsolete by the 1950s, and certainly by the 1970s. 

Looking at the original M1911 or M1911A1 designs, there is no question but that the design has been obsolete for quite a while. But neither has the 1911 sat still in its design and features, anymore than the AR15 has. The sights on the original were terrible, but that has been addressed in more modern variants. The drop safety issues have been addressed with more modern variants. You can buy versions sporting accessory rails and optic cuts. The heavy steel frame can be replaced with a lighter alloy or polymer frame. Issues with feeding hollow points were addressed with changes to the feed ramp. Even the limited magazine capacity has been addressed with double stack versions (commonly termed the "2011"). 

But even with all that, I would probably still agree that it is obsolete for standard military or police use.  The complex design and number of parts is one item, but primarily it is the single action design that favors the weapon being carried cocked and locked (Condition 1) for quick use and the lack of a decocker. Historically, the 1911--particularly carrying in Condition 1--has been viewed as an expert's pistol because most people will not practice to a level allowing them to safely carry and operate it in Condition 1. (Even when it was issued to troops, they were supposed to carry it hammer down on an empty chamber). And that is why, IMHO, it is unsuited as a general issue weapon for the military and police. 

VIDEO: "Is the M1911 Obsolete for Military and Law Enforcement Use Today??"
SmallArmsSolutions (53 min.)

Advice I Hope You Never Need: How To Survive A Mugging

 A few articles on surviving muggings:

• "Here’s How to Survive a Mugging" by Tim Makay at Stillness In The Storm. 
• "I’m a Mugger—Here’s How to Outsmart Me" by Lauren Cahn at Reader's Digest.
• "What A Convicted Mugger Can Teach You About Personal Safety"--Defense Divas.

As Makay explains in his article, "[a] mugging is a type of robbery where the perpetrator demands money or other valuables from the victim with the use of force or intimidation." But, he notes, "[t]he difference between a mugging and a truly murderous, predatory attack is that a mugging is a crime conducted with an expectation of compliance on the part of the victim." 

    Some of the tips for avoiding a mugging offered in the articles include:

• Don't walk around alone--especially when intoxicated--but walk with someone else and stick to areas with other people around.
• Avoid desolate places such as empty subway platforms and residential driveways. Makay also notes other danger zones: "Bad parts of town, prosperous shopping and other commercial areas, parking lots, transitional points, choke points for foot traffic and ATMs are all danger zones."
• Don't look "flashy"--e.g., avoid expensive designer clothes, don't show expensive watches or jewellery or other signs you have money. 
• Maintain situational awareness--e.g., don't get distracted with phones or other devices and pay especial attention to "[a]nyone who is giving you a hard stare down, appearing nervous, glancing around for witnesses or keeping their hands hidden for seemingly no reason[.]"
• Don't take chances with people that invade your personal space, such as people asking for the time or directions; and if a person persists in approaching your or invading your personal space, don't be afraid/embarrassed to create space by step away, change directions, crossing the street, moving toward other peoples, etc., or using a strong command such as "stop" or "stay back". 
• Have a plan or escape route.
• Don't look like an easy target: walk confidently with your head up and acknowledging the other people around (i.e., not ignoring other people). Muggers tend to target people that are distracted, moving slowly or uncertainly, look frightened, or seem frail (such as the elderly or injured people). Surprisingly, one of the articles mentioned that muggers prefer targeting men over women because women are more likely to scream or use a whistle.  A couple of the articles also mention that muggers will avoid people they see carrying pepper spray or they believe to be armed.

The consensus is if you do get mugged--particularly if they strike first or are displaying a weapon--is to comply: the valuables that the mugger might demand are not worth your health, safety, or life. But if compliance does not stop the attack or satisfy the mugger, you may need to distract the mugger and fight back, yell/scream/use a whistle or alarm, or run away. Makay's article has much more detail on this, so be sure to read it. But I will include this from his article about fighting back (bold added):

    Keep in mind that you are likely to be facing more than one attacker, attackers that will likely be armed, and are also likely to be far better acquainted with violence than you are.

    Ask yourself, sincerely, if you are good enough, fast enough and strong enough to incapacitate or kill them in time to save your own life before you are gravely wounded or killed in turn?

    You must also be cautious of the notion that they could have weapons ready for near immediate use, but you just might not see him.

    Many skilled teams of muggers are likewise using their own overwatch or cover elements who aren’t at near distance with the victim.

    One of the worst possible things you can do is fight back and fail to win.

    The punitive measures that your attackers will employ in such a case will be quite severe, and may end with your death.

    That being said, you must know what your red line moment is. This is something that you simply will not tolerate under any conditions. 

 And, he adds:

    The most important thing you can know considering fighting back to protect yourself is that when the time comes to fight, you must fight like the devil himself.

    Ultraviolet, maximum speed and not stopping until your attacker is utterly incapacitated or you are. 

Related:

•  "Self-Defense Against Multiple Attackers"--US Concealed Carry. 
•  "How to Defend Against Multiple Attackers"--Mindful Defense. 

The Elections ... Well That Sucked

As far as state wide elections went, Idaho went okay: a referendum to make it easier to kill babies was shot down by nearly 2:1; voters approved an amendment to the Idaho Constitution making English the official language in the state; and voters rejected an amendment to the Idaho Constitution that would have taken power from voters to hold a ballot initiative on whether to legalize marijuana. I voted against the latter as well, not because I want to see marijuana legalized but because I don't like being asked to give up power as a voter. Unfortunately, I live in a county that has increasingly turned Democrat and liberal due to migration from failed states such as California, Oregon, and Washington, who have brought their failed politics and policies with them. 

Looking at the nation as a whole, we saw the Democrats take comfortable majorities in the House and Senate, and Texas flip blue, which has been a priority for the Democrats for a long time. Open borders work in the Democrats' favor and it showed in Texas. 

Pres. Trump and JD Vance are blaming the loss on the war with Iran. The general explanation for the election results was because voters were unhappy with the economy (which is really the same as blaming it on the war): the high gas prices, expensive housing, etc. This is probably mostly true, although specific state races revolve can turn on issues not tied to the nation as a whole. 

But to the extent  the economy explains the voting pattern, the voters did not do themselves any favors. There was no war with Iran under Biden and there was still high inflation, high fuel prices, and rising housing prices. Under Democratic leadership, Congress will double down on deficit spending and restricting oil production, which will drive inflation. Even though Congress does not directly control federal agencies, it can cut funding for agencies or programs, such as ICE, or pass laws making it easier for foreigners to enter the country. Thus, jobs will still go to foreigners over Americans, and the influx of migrants will continue to drive up housing prices and crime.

DEI and all the perversions that the Left support will come back except turned up to 11. And USAID and all the other ways that Democrats siphoned off American tax dollars will come back stronger than ever, as well. More "Learing Centers" and other forms of foreign fraud.

We will, of course, see the Democrat Congress move quickly to attack the President and his cabinet. So expect a repeat of Trump's first term with endless news of Congressional investigations, hearings, and probably attempts to impeach Trump (all eventually doomed to failure since the Democrats do not have the necessary supermajority in the Senate to actually convict the President).  

Even though I haven't been in a financial position to take advantage of it yet, the brief time we had to purchase silencers and short barreled weapons outside the NFA was nice, but I would expect that Democrats will swiftly move to close those options either by putting the NFA tax back into place (maybe even raise it) or just outright banning them under their Commerce Clause authority. Ditto for forced reset triggers. Elections have consequences.  

Halloween and the Low Trust Society

I shouldn't anymore have to bring up Robert Putnam's research showing the relationship between higher ethnic diversity and declining social trust. But here is another example of it in action: a collection of videos of houses where treats had been left outside in bowls for the kids while the owners were away, and certain demographics showing up to take as much of the candy as possible and, sometimes, even the bowls or decorations. 

 VIDEO: "Nobody's Playing Along Anymore"
Black Pigeon Speaks (8 min.)

A Three Hour Tour...

 Well, actually a one hour trip between islands in Micronesia turned into this: "5 people rescued in South Pacific after months adrift at sea, 4 others missing." From the article:

    Villagers rescued the group Sunday off Fanning Island in Kiribati, the Australian Broadcasting Corp. reported, after they had drifted an estimated 3,355 miles east from the Federated States of Micronesia. 

    The U.S. Coast Guard in Guam on Tuesday confirmed that the skiff with nine people aboard had been reported missing after it failed to return to Ruo Island in Micronesia on July 30. The group had been making a one-hour crossing between the islands of Murilo and Ruo at the time, ABC reported. 

    A 10-day search covering 33,000 square miles followed without any sign of the missing boat or those aboard, it said.   

No information on how the five survived or what happened to the four missing individuals.  

A Note For All Those Choosing To Sit Out This Election Cycle

I've often noted that Democrats are evil and stupid and this seems borne out by their wish list of things to do once they return to power. First up, from Christopher Rufo's article at City Journal, "Reprisals Are Coming":

    In a recent address, Michigan Senator Elissa Slotkin, a former CIA agent, indicated that she would use the power of the Congress to investigate White House officials. She hoped that the threat of prosecutions would send a “deterrence message” to any college graduates considering a career in the Trump administration.

    Other left-wing figures set their sights on Elon Musk. Vox Media podcast host Kara Swisher suggested that the technologist was destined for prison. “Under Kamala Harris, he might be in jail right now,” she said. “He has a very big sense of fate, and I think it’s coming for him.” Jonathan Last of the Bulwark made the same point in more vulgar language: “We start with the U.S. Congress, and it ends at the fucking Hague for Elon Musk.”

    In normal times, this kind of loose talk could be dismissed as bluster, but ten years into the Trump era, the evidence demands that we take it seriously. In President Trump’s first term, the Democrats hatched the Russiagate operation and impeached him twice. During Trump’s time in exile, Democrats orchestrated a series of politically motivated prosecutions, which led to nearly three dozen felony convictions. They even put his mugshot in the newspaper.

"But that is just the fevered dreams of a conservative pundit," you say. Okay. Well how about this from the liberal rag, Spiked!, "The Restoration of the Democratic elites" by Joel Kotkin:

It’s unlikely that the oligarchic elites will worry much about future political repression, as long as it doesn’t hurt the bottom line. For all the progressive claims about facing ‘fascists’, the Restoration, like that of the Stuarts in 1660, will have a repressive agenda for its hated opponents. Encouraged by Trump’s own actions, they will wage lawfare against anyone who supported Trump and his policies. Michigan senator Elissa Slotkin has openly threatened retributive action against even young people who might want to work under Trump. Others talk openly about ‘re-education’ camps for Trumpistas and massive new waves of lawfare. The Florida Democratic candidate for the Senate, a DSA member, has suggested the right place for her MAGA opponent is a prison cell. 

 France 24 reports that "Democrats are preparing to launch a flurry of investigations into President Donald Trump’s administration and business dealings if they retake one or both chambers of Congress, devising strategies to circumvent obstruction from the White House and avoid the impeachment deadlock that consumed the US legislature during Trump’s first term in office." How do they plan on avoiding the impeachment deadlock? According to the article:

Democrats have learned from Trump’s first term that impeachment proceedings can consume Congress while allowing the president to cast himself as the victim of a partisan campaign. Some have signalled they may go after top cabinet members instead, including Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, one of Trump’s most stridently loyal officials who has played a key role in the Iran war. 

Mother Jones magazine warns: "Assuming the Democrats gain control of at least the House, they will have to wage and prepare the American public for the subsequent political war, which will be unlike any seen since the days of Abraham Lincoln." You might remember that period as when Democrats plunged the country into civil war. And "[f]ormer Clinton Labor Secretary Robert Reich called on Democrats to target billionaire Elon Musk if they regain control of Congress in the midterm elections, urging lawmakers to investigate the SpaceX founder and lay the groundwork for nationalizing his companies."

    And as the No Pasaran blog points out, "If the Democrats are willing to pick this type of fight with someone like Musk, why would they show mercy to any of the rest of us?" 

VIDEO: Explaining the Polish Coup

A backgrounder on what has been going on in Poland and why. 

VIDEO: "The 'Coup' In Poland"
America Uncovered (13 min.)

Shooting Performance Firearms Training Videos

Shooting Performance Training has a 14-part video series on shooting handguns and rifles. The first video in the series is a short overview of the the basic firearms safety rules. The next six videos pertain to using handguns--using the 5x5 drill to evaluate performance, grip, trigger management, the draw process, emergency reloads, and shooting one-handed. Then six videos on rifles beginning with a skills test, progressing through stance and reloads, and finishing with transitions from long arm to pistols. The videos are not long--generally about 6 to 7 minutes, with the longest being 13 minutes. 

Data Republican On Soros' Shadow Cabinet

 Data Republican's piece on X about "The Shadow Cabinet of Soros" is a must read. A short excerpt:

On January 30, 2017 — ten days into the Trump presidency — Rosa Brooks published an article in Foreign Policy titled "3 Ways to Get Rid of President Trump Before 2020." She outlined four scenarios for removing the new president from office: impeachment, the 25th Amendment, cabinet revolt, and a military coup. Of the last option, Brooks wrote that it was "a possibility that until recently I would have said was unthinkable in the United States of America."

Brooks was a former Counselor to the Under Secretary of Defense for Policy at the Pentagon, where she reported to Michele Flournoy from 2009 to 2011. Before that, she served as Special Counsel to the President at the Open Society Institute — the predecessor name for George Soros's Open Society Foundations. After leaving government, she went to Georgetown Law, where she holds the Scott K. Ginsburg Chair in Law and Policy.

Within the same year of her article, a new organization was quietly incorporated. National Security Action was incorporated in 2017 and launched publicly on February 2018. Its co-chairs were Ben Rhodes, Obama's deputy national security advisor, and Jake Sullivan, who would become Biden's national security advisor. Rosa Brooks sat on its advisory council. So did approximately sixty other people — 88.6% of them Obama administration alumni.

The organization's primary funder was the Open Society Policy Center, a Soros family 501(c)(4). Brooks also served on the board of the Open Society Foundations' US Programs — the upstream grant-making entity within the same Soros network that was financing the organization whose advisory council she had joined.

This is the story of that organization.

Import The Third World...

 ... become the Third World. Including in politics. The New York Post reports: "Campaign to keep Ilhan Omar’s secrets safe includes threats against anyone who speaks out: ‘You’ll be killed … snake’." From the lede:

    Few members of the tight-knit Somali community are willing to talk about Ilhan Omar — due to threats and fear of violence if they do.

    The Minnesota representative is backed by a fiercely protective group, many of whom take it upon themselves to bombard anyone who speaks out with online threats and even physical harm in the US, Europe and Africa.

    The group is not officially connected to Omar, and do not receive instructions from her and it is unclear if she is personally aware of their actions.    

Wink, wink, nudge, nudge. 

Fossilized Dinosaur Blood Discovered

 From the New York Post: "‘Landmark discovery:’ Dinosaur blood found in fossils for the first time — and it could advance search for life in the cosmos." 

    Per the study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the prehistoric plasma was discovered in a 115-million-year-old leg fossil recovered from a mine in Brazil in 2008.

    This limb belonged to a juvenile Aratasaurus museunacionali, a medium-sized theropod that lived during the early Cretaceous period, Popular Science reported.

    The fossils suggest a creature that measured 10 feet long and tipped the scales at 75 pounds, although researchers theorized that the animal grew quite a bit larger based on the relatively young age of the remains.

    Inside the fossils were vascular canals that contained red blood cells. While potential red blood cell fossils had been discovered before, this marked the first study to chemically confirm the presence of hemoglobin-derived molecules.

    By subjecting the sample to highly sensitive chemical analysis, the researchers were able to detect and measure different substances, including high levels of preserved heme — the oxygen-carrying component of hemoglobin.

Gen Z Chooses Empire

This video goes into more detail why Anakin memes have surged in popularity among Gen Z men and why they tend to identify with Anakin. 

 VIDEO: "Yes... we want the Empire" (23 min.)
Julius Perceiver and Julius Perceiver Raw

As Oswald Spengler famously noted: "The coming of Caesarism breaks the dictature of money and its political weapon, democracy." In this context, democracy is not a political system representing the people, but a political tool or mechanism funded and manipulated by money-powers to pass self-serving laws and substitute corporate or financial interests for genuine popular will. But Caesarism is not a revitalization of civilization nor do the strong men that become caesars necessarily represent Thomas Carlyle's "Great Men", either (read "The Coming Age of Caesars"--Spenglerian Perspective). 

Indians In The News

As announced by the U.S. Department of Justice: "Indian National Pleads Guilty to $227M Medicare Fraud." From the news release:

According to court documents and statements made in court, Syed Murtuza Kablazada, 36, an Indian national residing in Des Plaines, Illinois, engaged in a scheme to defraud the Medicare program by submitting false and fraudulent claims for over-the-counter COVID-19 test kits that were not requested by beneficiaries or provided to them. Over the course of six months, starting in January 2023, Kablazada and his co-schemers acquired three Chicago-area laboratories, Chicago Care, V Care, and Al-Ameer. Kablazada then paid approximately $11 million to a purported telemarketing company based in Pakistan to obtain personally identifiable information for hundreds of thousands of Medicare beneficiaries. Using those Medicare beneficiaries’ information, Kablazada caused the laboratories to submit $227 million in false and fraudulent claims to Medicare for test kits that he knew were never requested by or shipped to the Medicare beneficiaries, for which Medicare paid approximately $136 million. To conceal their involvement in this scheme, Kablazada and his co-schemers paid themselves through overseas money transfers and unlicensed money transmitters, and they used the proceeds in part to purchase luxury vehicles. 

Another Retail Freezer Cyberattack In Europe

Reuters reports on a "New cyberattack on supermarket fridges sweeps across Europe" "hitting fridges and ​freezers from Sweden to Belgium and forcing stores to throw away food in an incident that echoed a similar attack in France last month." 

At least some of the refrigerator units affected on Monday used temperature control technology from Danish firm Danfoss that was also targeted in the French ​attack. The firm said it had been working with customers to implement fixes. 

VIDEO: "Classic" Books And The Destruction Of Western Civilization

This is a long video but worth the time. The host describes how the original meaning of what constitutes a "classic" work of literature has been twisted over time in order to sell books which dumb down and jettison those thoughts and ideas which form the foundation of Western Civilization. Based on many of the surnames, and the types of books they pushed, the modern enemies of all that is good and beautiful have been at it for over 100 years.  

VIDEO: "'The Classics' Are a Plot to Destroy Western Culture"
The Second Story (1 hr. 16 min.)

Believe It Or Not! German Riots Mostly Immigrants

From Breitbart: "Frankfurt Halloween Riots Mostly Committed by People With ‘Migrant Background’, German Authorities Admit." From the lede:

    German authorities have admitted that the Halloween riots which broke out in Frankfurt were mostly a product of the “migrant community” in conjunction with the far-left.

    The emerging alliance between the radical left and Islamic migrant background youths for the purpose of sowing public unrest, seen in France over the past month, appears to have been replicated on Halloween evening in the multicultural German city of Frankfurt, which has been so transformed by mass migration that it now stands as a minority-majority city.

• Related: "Multicultural Mayhem: Hundreds Arrested, Police Firebombed, Curfews Imposed During French Halloween"--Breitbart. 
• Related: The French are starting to notice: "French Mayor Calls for Discussing ‘Great Replacement’ to Become a Crime"--Breitbart. The article identifies this mayor as "[t]he Moroccan-heritage mayor of the multicultural Paris suburb of Trappes, Ali Rabeh[.]"
• And speaking of the Great Replacement, there is this Oct. 14, 2026, piece from the UK: "Khan to overtake Smith as country’s most common surname among newborns"--The Telegraph. An excerpt:

    In 1996, every name in the top 10 was of established British origin, including Smith, Jones and Williams in the top three.

    By 2025, just three of the top 10 came from this background, with names such as Khan, Ahmed, Singh and Hussain rising into the top 10, reflecting the dramatic increase in migration from South Asia.

    Ibrahim has seen the fastest increase up the rankings, jumping from the 635th most common name in 1996 to 73rd last year.

    Meanwhile, once popular British surnames have seen marked declines. These include Long, which has fallen by 55 per cent since 1996, Potter (-54 per cent), Carr (-52 per cent) and Hammond (-52 per cent).    

• And Eric Florack has some thoughts in his article, "Macron’s Riot Problem Isn’t the Mystery He Says It Is." Key bit:

    The French republican tradition insists on one national identity, so the government largely refuses to sort its citizens by ethnicity, and INSEE, the French statistical agency, operates under real legal restrictions on the subject. A French citizen is French. No hyphens, no ethnic boxes. No worries about who you import and no worries, either, about those who decide they don't want to be French at all, but foreign invaders.

    As ideals go, it's worthwhile, if you ignore reality. Declaring everyone part of the same national community doesn't make them participate in it. You can decree national unity. You can't manufacture social cohesion by pretending the question doesn't exist. And refusing to count makes the hard questions harder, not easier.

Florack goes on to observe:

And if you want to know what those groups stand for, look at what they set on fire tonight: American and Israeli flags. Not even French flags. Ask yourself what American and Israeli flags have to do with French school budgets, or the price of a liter of diesel. Not a blessed thing, of course. But it has everything to do with the worldview of the people throwing the Molotov cocktails. In their eyes, the Judeo-Christian West is the villain. America and Israel are the West at its most confident, so those flags burn first, and the cost-of-living grievances are just the costume. 

Wilder's Latest: Sith-Posting and Signs You Don't Belong Here

I've seen some comments about the surge in memes by Gen Z based around Anakin Skywalker, but John Wilder explains it (and includes some of the memes to boot) in his latest piece: "Sith-Posting And 'You Might Not Be An American If . . .'"

Gun & Prepping News #105

 Some links that may be of interest: 

• "CMP Sets January 2027 for M14 Rifle Sales"--Shooting Sports USA. Price hasn't been set, but the article indicates it will be less than $2,000. Additionally, purchasers will be initially limited to a maximum of two per year. 
• "Self-Defense Against Multiple Attackers"--US Concealed Carry.  The article discusses the dangers posed by a group assault and the importance of situational awareness, but here is probably the meat of the article:

 Key Strategies for Handling Group Assault Scenarios:

1.     Move Constantly: Do not let yourself get surrounded. Keep shifting your position to prevent being boxed in. Side-stepping, circling around obstacles and staying unpredictable in your movements make it harder for attackers to corner you.
2.     Attack and Escape: Target the most aggressive attacker with a decisive blow and then move toward an escape route. Disabling one assailant quickly can create a gap for you to flee before the others react.
3.     Use the Environment: Walls, cars, poles and obstacles can prevent attackers from reaching you all at once. If possible, position yourself in a doorway or narrow space where only one attacker can engage you at a time.
4.     Strike Smartly: Aim for vulnerable areas like the eyes, throat, groin and knees to disable attackers quickly. A well-placed eye gouge or knee strike can incapacitate an attacker long enough to escape.
5.     Stay on Your Feet: Falling makes you more vulnerable. If you do fall, protect your head and attempt to get back up quickly. If trapped on the ground, use your legs to kick attackers away and create space.
6.     Use Improvised Weapons: Items like keys, pens, bags or even dirt can be used as weapons to fend off attackers. A flashlight can be used to blind them momentarily, and a backpack can serve as a shield against incoming strikes.
7.     Identify the Leader and Neutralize the Threat: Many group attackers follow the actions of a dominant leader. If possible, targeting the leader can disrupt the group dynamic and lower morale.
8.     Control Your Breathing and Stay Focused: Panic can lead to exhaustion and poor decision-making. Control your breathing, stay focused and act decisively to break free from the attack.

The article also discusses de-escalation techniques, and training. 

• More:  "How to Defend Against Multiple Attackers"--Mindful Defense. 

• Interesting: "The Tomb Of The Unknown Soldier: What Guns Do The Sentinels Carry? Part 1: Pistols"--The Truth About Guns. Before getting to the topic of the title, the author gives background on the creation of the Tomb and the history of the sentinels, their training and selection, and more. But in answer to the handgun, the current ones are highly stylized and engraved version of the SIG Sauer P320 M17. 
• "The Mini-14 On Duty"--GAT Daily. A look at the military, paramilitary, and police units that adopted variants of the Mini-14 as duty rifles, including, but not limited to, the French National Police, the Royal Ulster Constabulary, and the Royal Bermuda Regiment.
• "Myths & Misunderstandings About the 'Modern Fighting 1911'."--American Rifleman. The author argues:

 If we are to look at a pistol purely as a self-defense defense tool and not as a status symbol or a more elegant arm from a bygone age, the 1911 begins to struggle. Weight, magazine capacity, magazine reliability, overall reliability, manual of arms and a certain peculiarity of bullet-profile preference all serve to hamper the 1911 in a modern setting.

The problem with 1911s is that there are so many manufacturers that quality and function can vary widely for both handguns and magazines. But a well made 1911 with decent sights can still serve quite well.   

• "Cowboy Action Shooting On A Budget"--Athlon Outdoors. An excerpt:

    Yes, you need guns. Four of them, to be exact. Two handguns, one rifle, and a shotgun. These will be the largest investment. But it would behoove a new shooter to attend an event or two before buying guns.
    
    All CAS events are governed by a stringent set of rules involving firearms. In short, all must be authentic pre-1899 firearms (with some category-based exceptions) or a modern replica thereof.

    At most any event, you will see the breadth and depth of what is allowed for firearms. Some hold steadfastly to the .45 Colt cartridge as the “only cowboy loading,” while others continue to win with .38 Special.

• "Fudd Friday: The State Of The Lever-Action Union"--The Firearm Blog. A look at the ups and downs of the lever action rifle. The author begins:

America is a land of four distinct firearm archetypes: Big-bore handguns, pump-action shotguns, AR-pattern rifles and lever-action rifles. But out of all those Big Four, lever-actions might be the most American of all, due to their association with a generation of Wild West frontier life and then another three generations of sporting use. Far from the decline that we observed over the 1990s and early 2000s, lever-actions are back, in a big way. And while there are good reasons for that to happen, a true revival of this segment to its dominance does seem to be as distant as ever.

The author discusses why the lever action went into decline, the reasons for the resurgent interest,  and a risk for the American manufacturers:

    They’re only just beginning to show up, but pretty soon, you’re going to see Turkish lever-action rifles everywhere; they’re already flooding the Canadian market, which has been buying them to cope with the loss of their ARs. Some shooters might sneer at the idea of a Turkish-built lever gun, but remember that Americans have already been buying lever-action rifles made in Brazil, Japan and Italy, and it has been that way for decades. For now, the Turks appear to mostly be copying the Model 1892 design, but it won’t be long until they’ve blueprinted and reproduced everything else they think they can make a buck off.

    The biggest question is, what happens after they do that? Will they be able to undercut American manufacturers to the point that we see a second massive die-off in lever-action production Stateside? I doubt it; I imagine you’d see tariffs before that happened. But who knows the future for sure? 

• "Start ’Em with Squirrels—The Perfect Hunt for Junior Woodsmen"--American Hunter. Short take:

Let’s be dead honest. Unless you’ve got a junior shooter who is reared on outdoor tales and champing at the bit to get into the woods, it can be a challenge getting kids started with deer hunting. Long sits, low temps and enforced quiet can make even the least energetic child wonder what all the fuss is about, and why he can’t move his foot like that. Not so with squirrel hunting. On a squirrel hunt, the action never stops as you scour the canopy looking for squirrels, and stalking is near mandatory. 

• Related: "Hunting Small Game: An Overview"--American Hunter. Moving beyond the .22 squirrel gun to .17 HMR rifles and shotguns.
• "Winchester Drops New Big Game Ammo 101 Video Series"--The Truth About Guns.  

Winchester Ammunition has launched a seven-part video series called Big Game Ammo 101, aimed at hunters trying to match the right load to the right animal. The first episode, “The Complete Lineup Tested,” is live now on the Winchester Ammunition YouTube channel, with six more installments to follow. 

• "Ballistic Eye Protection for Helmet Setups: Glasses vs Goggles"--Chase Tactical.  An excerpt:

Goggles should sit flat against the face with the strap running around the back of the helmet, not under it. Some helmets have goggle clips or bungees on the rear to hold the strap in place. If the helmet sits too low on the brow, the goggle frame gets pushed down onto the nose, so adjust the helmet harness first. Our guide to NIJ helmet ratings covers how the shell itself is rated. 

• "Best MREs for Overlanding and Outdoor Adventures"--Skill Set Magazine. Unfortunately, the author doesn't seem to understand the concept of an MRE which is that it is ready to eat without having to boil water to reconstitute it. Thus, there is a mix of genuine MRE style meals and freeze dried products. That aside, the author does look at various options from different companies and is worth checking out for that reason. 
• "Survival Tips Every Outdoorsman Should Know"--Athlon Untamed. The tips cover the following categories or topics: 

1. Know your terrain;
2. Staying warm;
3. Food and water;
4. Basic first aid;
5. Signalling and communication; and
6. A list of items to make sure you have in your day pack.  

•  "Winter Gear Picks for Canadian Law Enforcement"--Joint Force Tactical. This article is intended to push the site's products, but it does give an idea of the type of products and clothing you would want for operating in cold weather. 
• On a related note, I tried to find an article on good shooting gloves for cold weather, but surprisingly could not find anything but this article: "10 Top Winter Shooting Gloves for Women"--NRA Women. I'm sure that the brands and products are also available for men as well. Of the 10 recommendations, it was interesting to me that three of them were different styles of the PIG FDT (Patrol Incident Gear, Full Dexterity Tactical) glove line. Orvis and Hatch brands also took two positions each. 
• Related: "11 Best Hunting Gloves for Cold Weather, Bowhunting, Waterfowl & More"--North American Outdoorsman.
• "Here’s How to Pull Out a Rotten Tooth at Home"--Modern Survival Online. The author discusses the medical dangers posed by a rotten tooth. He continues:

 Forget about what you have seen in various forms of media; if you are even considering attempting emergency extraction of a rotten tooth on your own, having the correct tools is a must. Gather the following, or on go on and add them to your stash now:

He then lists the tools, which I won't reproduce here, before going through the various steps and instructions, including sterilization of the tools, disinfecting and rinsing the mouth, gloving/masking up, applying pain killers, detaching ligaments from the tooth, the actual extraction, and inspecting the tooth, finishing up, and after care.  

• "The Lovebugs Say it’s Time to Do These 7 Fall Gardening Tasks"--The Survival Gardner. This article is from September--and the author lives in Florida--so it is probably too late for certain of the tasks. But there is probably still time to mulch the garden beds and use fallen leaves for compost.
• "Be Ready-ish" by James Lileks, National Review.  The author begins by discussing the sudden advice from around the world--from the UK to Japan--warning their citizens to have 72-hours of food and water; and the U.S. military suddenly realizing that its bases need to be self-sufficient for up to 90 days (with Lileks suggesting this is based on a sudden realization that Biden let in lots of hostile peoples that will target infrastructure). But the author then injects some moderation into all of this:

    To all this ambient nervousness [over Russian or Chinese military threats], add to this two strains of modern discourse: The left believes Trump and Musk are going to steal the election by using ICE and Starlink, and the right is poring over plans by vaguely named NGOs to do a Color Revolution Thing and have governors suspend the Constitution. More or less.

    My personal belief is that none of this is going to happen. All of these tremulous motifs in the zeitgeist will trail off into nothingness, replaced by ones that are similar but different. It’s possible the government told everyone to have three days’ food on hand because 37 percent of the younger generation has nothing but ketchup and a brick of ramen on hand, and if there’s a momentary hiccup in the way things work, people will be staring at their phones, stabbing the DoorDash app and wondering why nothing’s loading, and because they have Anxiety, it is ableist to expect them to boil water. 

Happy Halloween - A Couple Classic Cartoons

 Happy Halloween! 

 VIDEO: "Trick or Treat (1956)"
Kalle Anka & C:o (8 min.) 

 

 VIDEO: "Lonesome Ghosts | Mickey Mouse and Friends: Classic Shorts | ‪@disneykids‬"
Disney Kids (9 min.)

RPG Saturday: The Sinister Secret of Salt Marsh

    The Sinister Secret of Salt Marsh was the first of a series of three interconnected adventure modules for first edition AD&D--the other two adventures being Danger at Dunwater and The Final Enemy. The Sinister Secret of Salt Marsh was first published by TSR's UK division in 1981.  It was resurrected for 5th Edition D&D, together with Danger at Dunwater and The Final Enemy, and collected together with some additional adventures in a volume entitled Ghosts of Salt Marsh. 

    I probably purchased The Sinister Secret of Salt Marsh back in 1981 shortly after it was released. The primary appeal to me was the idea of exploring a haunted house--something very different from the standard delve into abandoned crypts, orc lairs, or fighting giants. In fact, the general setting seems more appropriate for something set in the past few hundred years rather than a Medieval setting.

Adventure Summary 

     The general scenario begins with the character party coming across the sleepy harbor town of Salt Marsh where they hear stories of a haunted mansion atop a seaside cliff outside the town. Either on their own, or with encouragement from the town leaders, the characters will then journey out to the haunted house to explore the house to drive out whatever evil is lurking there.  

  

    In true Scooby-Doo fashion, the mansion is not truly haunted--at least not in the sense that the town folk believe--but is being used by a gang of smugglers who are taking advantage of secret caverns beneath the house that lead to the bottom of the cliff. A ship is used to smuggle goods to just off the coast from the house, and then moved into the caverns by boat before being further distributed and sold off. 

    The characters are intended to explore the house. Unlike a Scooby-Doo mystery, however, there actually are dangerous creatures in and around the house. There is a poisonous snake in a well outside the home, and giant centipedes and large spiders can be encountered in the house; a group of small creatures called stirges lurk in the attic; some animated skeletons are locked in a crypt underneath the house; and, of course, there are the smugglers themselves. And there is the chance of randomly encountering giant rats, goblins, or a few other creatures in addition to those attached to specific locations. Additionally, there is a "prisoner" tied up in one of the bedrooms who actually is an assassin, hired by a merchant who works with the smugglers to infiltrate the adventurer's group to take appropriate action to prevent them from ever escaping the house. 

    And below the house, hidden behind a secret door in the celler, are the tunnels and caverns used by the smugglers, including members of the smuggling gang that are living in the caverns. 

    Whether from prisoners or clues found throughout the house, the characters will learn of the smuggling and the system to signal between the house and the smuggler's ship. This gives the characters the opportunity to then attempt to sneak onto the smuggler's ship and apprehend the leader of the gang and capture the ship and collect a generous reward from a grateful town council (or abscond with the ship and its cargo). 

     Aboard the ship, however, the characters will learn that the gang has not just been smuggling goods to bypass tariffs and taxes, but have been selling weapons to a colony of lizard men that have recently moved into the area. The adventure is continued in the next adventure, Danger at Dunwater. 

Influence

     The general scenario--the haunted house atop a cliff, hidden caverns down to the sea, and smugglers--may see familiar to those of you who were fans of the Hardy Boys mysteries as it is the basic premise used in the second Hardy Boys' adventure, The House On The Cliff. This was particularly apparent to me when I read the original 1927 edition of the book which emphasized the aspect of the house being haunted and decrepit, and I used some of the descriptions from the book when I last ran the D&D adventure. 

Additional Thoughts 

     This is a great adventure for low level characters (levels 1-3) and one of my favorites to run as a Dungeon Master. It is not too long and has a mixture of mystery and action. It also splits neatly into two parts (the house and the ship) so that it can be easily played over multiple evenings. The town can be used as a base of operations for additional adventures--something that naturally results if you use all three adventures in the original trilogy or use the adventures in the Ghosts of Salt Marsh book.

    I will note that the adventure as published in the Ghosts of Salt Marsh is not too different from the original 1981 adventure. The basic scenario is the same, although some of the monsters have been changed and few new surprises have been added. 

    When I purchased The Sinister Secret of Salt Marsh in the 1980s, I did not get the follow up adventures. It may have been because I never saw them or lack of cash--I don't remember. The result is that the follow up adventure created by my friends was much different than that envisioned by the authors. The adventurers, as noted above, will discover on the ship that the smugglers have been selling weapons to the lizard men. If you continue with Danger at Dunwater, you will discover that the lizard men are mostly peaceful, but are under threat from yet a third group of creatures; which is why they need the weapons. Thus, in the final of the trilogy of adventures, The Final Enemy, the characters, the townsfolk and the lizard men all unite to fight this common enemy. 

    But my friends and I didn't know any of that. So we created our own follow up adventure where the lizard men were the enemy, gaining strength in order to attack the settlement at Salt Marsh, and it was up to our characters to stop it.  

    The original adventure booklet can still be found for sale here and there for exorbitant prices. If you don't need an original, you can purchase a PDF copy and/or a print-on-demand copy from DriveThru RPG. Internet Archive also has a PDF of it that you can download.

     If you are playing 5th Edition, you will probably want to track down a copy of the Ghosts of Saltmarsh book (which is apparently out of print, although it is available to purchase in electronic form if you subscribe to D&D Beyond).  

    Additional resources--maps and suggestions for running the adventure--are available from the DM's Guild.

VIDEO: The Future Holds No Place For Ordinary People

Ben Shapiro's video discusses how horses were replaced by tractors, cars, trucks and various engines and motors; and suggests that the coming AI (and robotics) revolution will make most people irrelevant. The horses that remain primarily are used for recreation, which begs the question of whether that will be the fate of humanity absent divine intervention. The host suggest that the difference between the horse and people are that people can have an ownership interest (shares) in the new technology, but in reality what proportion of the population will be in that position? Or will the only "ordinary people" that are allowed to remain be only those for the amusement and recreation of the elites?

We seem headed toward a society similar to that predicted by Isaac Asimov in his novel, The Naked Sun--a world where AI and robotics have replaced all but a small number of elites.  The question is whether the top elites let the population naturally reduce itself, or work to speed up the process. 

 VIDEO: "You Are The Next Horse"
David Shapiro (11 min.)