Marine Expeditionary Unit Being Deployed To Middle-East

The Daily Mail is reporting that "Secretary of War Pete Hegseth approved a request by US Central Command for the deployment of a Marine expeditionary unit, typically including several warships and 5,000 troops, three officials told the Wall Street Journal." "The Japan-based USS Tripoli, an amphibious assault ship, and its attached Marines are now headed for the Middle East," the article adds.

Weekend Reading #47

 Some longer and more involved reading for weekend:

•  Up first, as is generally the case, is Greg Ellifritz's Weekend Knowledge Dump. Lots of good stuff, but here are some articles/topics that in particular caught my attention:
• "30 Facts About Childhood Today that Will Terrify You." A brief overview of troubling statistics and trends among our children, most of which derive from too little outdoor activity and too much screen time.
• "TERMINATING TERRORISTS | The Head-Shot Triad." Where you need to shoot to immediately shut down a bad guy. 
• "Controlling Your Fear." Tips on inoculating yourself to the fear that you will have in a violent confrontation. 
• "How to Survive a Mass Shooting While Unarmed." 
• "Tourniquets Can’t Fix Everything. Why You MUST Learn Wound Packing." 
• "Small Unit Tactics for Patrol." This is written for police officers, but discusses some military tactics that are adaptable to use by police. I think this has relevance to preppers in that it teaches different types of movement under fire or in areas of potential ambush.  

• "F&S Classics: The Wire"--Field & Stream. A big-game hunter and guide try and track down a Cape Buffalo that had been caught in a poacher's snare and somehow amputated its leg. A good reminder why Cape Buffalo are considered one of the most dangerous game animals in Africa.
• "The Wendigo and 6 Other Ancient Monsters From Indigenous Folklore"--Atlas Obscura. 
• More: "Beware the Wendigo, the Frostbitten Flesheater of North America’s Chilly Heartland"--Atlas Obscura.  
• "Academia is Women’s Work"--Postcards from Barsoom. Discussing the reason (a reason) men are abandoning academic work:

    Men are constantly on the lookout for arenas in which they can prove their worth, and thereby attract a mate or, more accurately, as many mates as possible. Across the myriad competitive arenas that men have invented, there is one common element shared by all of them, which both men and women are exquisitely sensitive to:

    An arena cannot be dominated by women.

    The reason for this is obvious. The purpose of the arena, from the male point of view, is to demonstrate his worth relative to other men. To enter an arena filled with women is to engage in a lose/lose proposition: if one does poorly, one has been beaten (up) by girls; if one does well, one has beaten (up) girls. Neither outcome is going to impress the girls. Or, for that matter, the guys.

    For this reason, men who enter a social environment in which women predominate will tend to make a hasty exit. There is nothing for them there.

•  "The Deep Rabbit Hole of Israel Spying on America"--Aletho News. This 2015 article is not particularly long, but it has a fair number of links to other sources including a lengthy Newsweek article. It is not just spying on the U.S. that is discussed, but also the disproportionate amount of foreign aid that has gone to Israel, and the suspicion that Israel stole 100 kg. of weapons grade uranium to jump start their nuclear weapons program. Unmentioned is their extensive industrial espionage. And, obviously coming after 9/11, there is no discussion of the extensive Israeli intelligence ring that was discovered in the aftermath which abruptly pulled up stakes and fled the U.S. after the attack. (See my 2023 post, "Dancin' In The Streets: The 5 Israelis Arrested Following 9/11"). Whether or not there was any connection between the Israeli agents and the events of 9/11, one still has to wonder why so many Mossad agents (some 60 were arrested or detained in the aftermath of 9/11) were operating in the U.S. 

• More: "Israeli espionage in the United States"--Wikipedia. 
• More: "Israel’s Covert Economic Espionage Against Its Strategic Ally, US – OpEd"--Eurasia Review.

Terrorist Who Attacked Michigan Synagogue Identified

The terrorist that drove an explosive laden truck through the front of a synagogue/school in Michigan has been identified as Ayman Mohamad Ghazali, a 41 year old Lebanese-born restaurant worker. The Daily Mail reports:

    It has since emerged that Ghazali was a naturalized US citizen from Lebanon who worked at a restaurant in the Detroit suburb of Dearborn Heights, where FBI agents were seen searching his home.

    The suburb's mayor, Mo Baydoun, said Ghazali 'lost several members of his own family, including his niece and nephew, in an Israeli attack on their home in Lebanon'.

    An unnamed source told CBS News the attack by Israel was ten days ago, and that two of Ghazali's brothers were also killed. 

 [snip]

    Ghazali was born in Lebanon in 1985 and entered the United States through Detroit Metropolitan airport on May 10, 2011, after alien relative and fiancé petitions filed in December 2009 were approved in April 2010, according to the New York Post.

    He then applied for naturalization on October 20, 2015, and became a citizen on February 5, 2016, under the Obama administration, the outlet said.      

This is a little discussed problem with having large populations of foreigners is that they bring their animosities toward other nations with them. 

    Also, how come there is no discussion of how and where this guy got his explosives and mortar shells?  

Old Dominion U. ROTC Instructor Identified

The ROTC Instructor shot to death in a terrorist attack at Old Dominion University has been identified as  Lt. Col. Brandon Shah who had been a pilot flying helicopters over Iraq, Afghanistan and Eastern Europe. "Shah attended ODU as an ROTC student, according to his biography on the university’s website, and had returned in 2022 as a leader for the program." 

    The Reserve Officers' Training Corps students showed 'extreme bravery and courage' and prevented further loss of life by stopping the suspect, identified as Mohamed Bailor Jalloh, FBI spokesperson Dominique Evans said.  

    The ROTC students subdued him and 'rendered him no longer alive,' Evans added. 'I don't know how else to say it.'

How about saying the ROTC students beat the terrorist to death. It's more to the point and acts as a deterrent. 

Artemis Cleared for April Launch

The AP reports that "[t]he 322-foot (98-meter) rocket will roll out of the hangar and back to the pad next week at Florida’s Kennedy Space Center, leading to a launch attempt as early as April 1." 

Diversity Strikes Old Dominion University

From the Daily Mail: "National Guardsman turned ISIS terrorist named as gunman shot dead after opening fire at Old Dominion University." 

    Mohamed Bailor Jalloh, 36, opened fire inside the Norfolk, Virginia, school on Thursday morning, sources confirmed to several news outlets.

    Jalloh, a former National Guard soldier, stormed into a classroom and asked if it was an Reserve Officers' Training Corps (ROTC) class, The New York Post reported.

    After a person in the room confirmed that it was, he opened fire on the professor, sources told outlet. A student then stabbed Jalloh to death. 

    Sources told the post that the professor, a retired military officer, was rushed to hospital where he later died. 

    Jalloh, a U.S. citizen originally from Sierra Leone, was released from prison in 2024 after being caught attempting to hand information to ISIS and ISIL in 2015. 

    He was sentenced to 11 years behind bars in 2017 which was to be followed by five years supervised release.      

 Why wasn't his citizenship revoked and he deported?

Transmitting Data In A Negative Light

From Live Science: "Scientists use 'negative light' to send secret messages hidden inside heat." The article reports that "Researchers have developed a technology to invisibly transmit information disguised as background thermal radiation. Using a phenomenon called 'negative light,' they transferred 100 kilobits of data per second in a way that was completely undetectable to outside observers." 

    Using devices called thermoradiative diodes, the team created patterns of brighter- or darker-than-usual states that blended into typical infrared background "noise" but that can be read as data by specialized receivers.

    The thermoradiative diodes were born as part of another project, in which the team proved that it was possible to generate solar power even after the sun had set. This "night-time solar" tech captured infrared radiation that Earth had absorbed during the day and was releasing at night as it cooled. The team then used thermoradiative diodes to generate a small amount of power.

    While the initial transfer rate of 100 kbps is quite modest, Nielsen said higher speeds are achievable. The main hurdle was the availability of some of the sophisticated electronics the team required. In principle, there's nothing stopping this method from transferring tens of megabits per second with existing devices, with better devices and detector design pushing the speed to gigabits per second, the team said. 

Attack On Synagogue A Car Bombing Attempt

The New York Post reports: "The driver — found dead inside the car and burned beyond recognition — was armed with a rifle, and mortar shells were discovered in the vehicle’s rear, sources told The Post." The article notes that nearby schools went into lockdown, as if that would keep kids safe from a car bomb attack like this. 

Update: Although the attacker still has not been identified, "[t]he truck that rammed Temple Israel in Michigan on Thursday morning is said to have been registered to a driver from Lebanon."

I'm Not Saying It's Aliens ... Planetary Collision Causing Star To Dim

Scientists noticed that Gaia20ehk, a “main sequence” star similar to our sun but 11,000 light years distant, had three dips in brightness in 2016, but more dramatic changes in 2021 when its brightness became erratic, which is strange because main sequence starts do not normally vary in their brightness. But while the visible light dimmed, the infrared emissions spiked, indicating that whatever was blocking the light from the star was so hot that it glowed. Researchers hypothesize that the material must have come from a planetary collision which has spewed hot debris around the star. I would like to think, instead, that it is the heat from a Dyson sphere. 

More interesting stuff:

•  "The Sun Is Stranger Than Astrophysicists Imagined"--Quanta Magazine. Noting that the sun radiates far more gamma rays than expected, raising questions about unknown features of the sun’s magnetic field and the possibility of even more exotic physics. 
• "Rapid Thunderstorm Charging Produces Strong Gamma‐Ray Glows"--Eos.  

Attack On Detroit Area Synagogue

Not much in details yet, but it appears someone rammed a vehicle into a Jewish synagogue and preschool in West Bloomfield, Michigan (about 20 miles north of Dearborn, which has the largest Muslim and Arab population in the U.S.). The AP is reporting that the shooter is dead. According to USA Today, the attacker was shot dead by security staff and found dead inside his vehicle.

VIDEO: What Was The Purpose Of The SKS?

The video basically matches with what I'd read in various sources. Essentially, though, by the close of the Second World War, the Soviet Union was making substantial use of the submachine gun as a weapon for its assault troops--in fact, whole companies would be armed with submachine guns. But the Soviets were very impressed with the German Stg. 44 both because of the lighter (and less expensive) intermediate cartridge compared to the full power cartridges used in most rifles in WWII; and that it could essentially fill the same role as the submachine gun but with a superior cartridge. Thus, the Soviets developed their own intermediate cartridge and started development of weapons to use them. 

    As the Soviets started into this development program, they envisioned the same mix of weapons as they had used so successfully in WWII: a standard issue infantry rifle, a submachine gun like weapon for assault troops, and a sniper rifle. The SKS, then, was to replace the Mosin-Nagant as the infantry rifle; the AK was to replace the submachine gun; and the Dragunov rifle would replacing the bolt action sniper/marksman rifles. But as the video points out, once the AK-47 began entering service, the Soviets quickly realized that it could do everything the SKS could do--or, from a different perspective, the SKS couldn't do anything more or better than the AK--so the Soviets decided that the AK would become their standard infantry rifle. Thus, when the modernized AK (the AKM) came out, SKS production ceased in the Soviet Union and Warsaw Pact nations. 

    The video also addresses why China continued to produce and use the SKS after the AKM came out, which was that the Soviets did not want to give the Chinese the technology for the AKM, so the Chinese continued using the SKS until they could figure out their own version of the AK system.   

 VIDEO: "What is the Point of the SKS?"
Cut-Rate-History (11 min.)

Is This The Reason The Media Attacked Hegseth For The Steak And Lobster?

Alladin on X relates:

I did a little digging. It seems the two vendors who had a monopoly on DOD food supply lost their contracts: VAL-PRO, INC. (located in California) and CHICO PRODUCE, INC. (also based in California). The new vendor setup is now open to multiple vendors (see the last picture).    

VAL-PRO had been awarded a nearly $1 billion 5-year contract in 2024 to provided food for then DoD and USDA schools and reservations. 

Racial/Ethnic Disparities In Police Shootings

Phys.org reports on a study that shows that "Racial/ethnic disparities among people fatally shot by U.S. police vary across state lines." It seems on par with "the sky is blue" type of observation, but researchers have "discovered" that police do not uniformly shoot black criminals at the same rates across all 50 states. The article states that police shoot about 1,000 people annually in the United States, and blacks are about twice as likely to be killed by police as Hispanics, and about three times as likely as whites. But the researchers decided to see if there was variance between states.

    The analysis revealed that, while a larger proportion of Black people than white people were fatally shot by police in every state, Black-white disparities varied significantly between states. For instance, in Mississippi, the difference between the number of fatal shootings by police of Black residents versus white residents was 0.5 per 100,000 residents, while that difference was 6.72 in Utah.

    The five states with the largest disparities, in order, were Utah, Oklahoma, West Virginia, Colorado and Missouri. The five states with the smallest disparities were Mississippi, South Carolina, Alabama, North Carolina and Georgia. 

 And here is the graphic that accompanied the article:

 

The article continues, explaining why it is woke B.S.:

    Further statistical analysis showed that states with higher firearm ownership rates had higher rates of fatal shootings by police for all racial/ethnic groups. However, the researchers found that higher firearm ownership rates do not explain why certain states had much wider racial/ethnic disparities than others.

    These findings could help illuminate paths toward policies aimed at reducing racial/ethnic disparities in fatal shootings by U.S. police.

You see the logical flaw behind this, which is the assumption that the percentage of people needing to be shot should be equal across the races and, therefore, that racial/ethnic disparities in police shootings is something that needs to be corrected. 

    As was noted in my 2016 post on crime statistics, "The Color Of Crime," black crime rates are far higher than whites and significantly higher than Hispanics. The paper I cited in that post noted, for instance: "There are dramatic race differences in crime rates. Asians have the lowest rates, followed by whites, and then Hispanics. Blacks have notably high crime rates. This pattern holds true for virtually all crime categories and for virtually all age groups." As a rather dramatic example, that same paper pointed out: "If New York City were all white, the murder rate would drop by 91 percent, the robbery rate by 81 percent, and the shootings rate by 97 percent." As another example, the FBI report on crime in the United States in 2013 showed that 44% (2,491) of homicides that year involved black victims. But of those, 90% (2,245) where killed by other blacks. 

    If blacks commit violent crimes at higher rates than whites or Hispanics they will, of course, be shot by police at higher rates as well. If the researchers cannot understand this, they are too stupid to have advanced degrees and should be stripped of those degrees, given crayons, and made to repeat kindergarten until they can demonstrate basic cause and effect reasoning.

The Iranian Conflict Spreads

The New York Post reports that Hezbollah launched 100 rockets at Israel that so overwhelmed the Iron Dome defense system that only half were shot down. Consequently, the IDF is preparing a ground invasion into Lebanon according to sources. 

    An Israeli official described the Wednesday Hezbollah strikes as a “suicide mission” on their behalf — knowing that the IDF would retaliate. Iran’s weapons supplies have run low from both launches on Israel and destruction by US and Israeli forces over the past 12 days.

    So far, the Houthis have not fired at Israel in the current war — leading Israelis to worry the Iranian proxy group is saving its weapons supply for a massive barrage all at once.

    While Iran has launched counterattacks since the Feb. 28 war began against at least 10 Gulf nations – including US military stationed there – Iran has excluded Yemen, the home base to the Houthis.

    While the Houthis so far have not joined the war, they have warned in official messages that their “finger is on the trigger,” according to a Thursday report by the Atlantic Council.

 Meanwhile, Anonymous Conservative linked to a post on X with a video of an interview with former Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett suggesting that Israel may have to wage a war against Turkey if Turkey tries to create an Islamic alliance.

     I have seen a lot of videos show up on my YouTube feed suggesting that this war could turn into the War of Armageddon, usher in the Second Coming, etc. I haven't commented before on this, but I think not for a couple primary reasons. 

    First, there is still a lot to happen prior to the Second Coming that cannot happen if this were to be the war of Armageddon. The two main ones I look at is that the Gospel has not yet been spread to all peoples yet; and we have not seen the rise of the Anti-Christ/Gog. 

    Second, end-time prophecy indicates that the war that culminates in the Battle of Armageddon  commences when Israel is attacked in the midst of a 7-year peace treaty. In Daniel 9:27 it indicates that "the prince that shall come" "shall confirm the covenant with many for one week: and in the midst of the week he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease, and for the overspreading of abominations he shall make it desolate, even until the consummation, and that determined shall be poured upon the desolate." And in Ezekiel 38, verses 11 and 12, the angel of the Lord reveals a plan hatched by Gog, the king of Magog,:

You will say, ‘I will go up against a land of unwalled villages; I will go to a peaceful people, who dwell safely, all of them dwelling without walls, and having neither bars nor gates’— to take plunder and to take booty, to stretch out your hand against the waste places that are again inhabited, and against a people gathered from the nations, who have acquired livestock and goods, who dwell in the midst of the land. 

Again indicating that Israel will believe itself in a period of peace and security when it is attacked. A reasonable conclusion is that the peace described in Ezekiel is the result of the 7-year treaty described in Daniel. But we have seen no such treaty--nor even any person with the authority to enact such a treaty that would include all the nations around Israel. My guess is that such a treaty would be the result of a successful war waged by Israel or some other power which forces the surrounding states to accept such a covenant (to give them time to rearm). It is possible that this conflict might result in that treaty, but this is not the conflict that arises when Gog and his allies breach the treaty. 

FBI Issues Warning Of Possible Drone Attacks On California

The New York Post reports that "[t]he FBI issued an urgent warning to cops across California of a potential Iranian drone strike on the Golden State." "The Bureau said in early February," the article continues, "agents had intelligence that drones could be sent from an unidentified vessel off the American coastline." 

The FBI alert said: “We recently acquired information that as of early February 2026, Iran allegedly aspired to conduct a surprise attack using unmanned aerial vehicles from an unidentified vessel off the coast of the United State Homeland, specifically against unspecified targets in California, in the event that the US conducted strikes against Iran.” 

War, Oil Prices And Insurance--How The Real World Works

From Hot Air: "Price of Oil Has Dropped Like a Rock, Democrats Hardest Hit." Although Democrats have pushed for decades to increase the price of oil and gasoline, they couldn't resist attacking Trump when oil prices crept up to prices you would normally only see under a Democrat controlled Administration. But in a lesson of how the real world works:

The spike in oil prices was driven by a decision made by Lloyd's of London to cancel war insurance for tankers that had to cross through the Strait of Hormuz. Iran had threatened to shut the Strait down, but has not been able to do so, so Lloyd's had to step in to give them a hand.     

However, that description is not quite accurate. Lloyd's is not an insurance company, but an insurance market (sort of like a stock market) where members (companies and private individuals, called "names") form syndicates offering specific types of insurance and/or reinsurance to insurance buyer's including for risks not normally covered by traditional insurers. This includes maritime insurance. (And this is nothing new--there is evidence of insurance on shipping going back to the classical period). So it was not Lloyd's per se that was refusing to insure ships, but the members of Lloyd's. 

    Lloyd's members are immensely wealthy and can exert substantial influence. For instance, one of the reasons that the U.S. "won" the war of 1812 was because American privateers were capturing or sinking so much of Britain's shipping that Lloyd's (i.e., the wealthy members of Lloyd's) was screaming at Parliament and the King to end the war.    

    But back to this story. Whether out of malice or risk aversion, the Lloyd's members that would normally insure the oil tankers refused to provide coverage for the vessels using the Strait of Hormuz, which essentially shut down oil transportation through the straits. Trump sidestepped this issue by ordering the U.S. Development Finance Corporation (DFC) to provide political risk insurance and financial guarantees for maritime shippers in that region, and indicated that the U.S. Navy would begin escorting ships through the Straight of Hormuz. And, thus, the Lloyd's blockade was lifted.  

    The article also notes that Saudi Arabia had been planning for this type of contingency, constructing an east-west pipeline across the peninsula in order to bypass Iranian attempts to shut down the Straits. It currently transports 1 million barrels of oil a day to a port on the Red Sea, but the Saudi government is working on ramping capacity up to 7 million barrels per day. 

More:   

• "US destroys Iranian navy vessels — including 16 minelayers — near Strait of Hormuz"--New York Post.
• "Three vessels struck in Strait of Hormuz as Iran vows to launch its ‘most intense’ assault so far"--New York Post.
• "US has destroyed entire class of Iranian warships, CENTCOM commander says"--Army Times. 
• "Is The US Considering Seizing Iran's Kharg Island?"--Radio Free Europe.  
• "Why the Iran war may come down to the control of one tiny island"--New York Post. 

Wilder: The Fourth Turning And Printing Money

John Wilder's latest is "The Fourth Turning: Things Stay The Same Until They Don’t, or, Markets, Money Printing, and Earthquake Faults" in which he points out the unnatural situation of all this crazy stuff going on but the stock market remains strong and steady. "Wall Street acts like it’s business as usual," he writes. "That’s not resilience.  That’s a managed decline wearing a happy face." One of the examples he gives is that BlackRock recently capped money withdrawals from a private credit fund. I guess that is one way to stop a bank run. Read the whole thing. 

Diversity Is A Strength: Migrant Pushes Two People Onto Subway Tracks Critically Injuring One

The New York Post reports that "[v]ideo obtained by The Post shows Honduran national Bairon Hernandez, 34, strolling along the platform after allegedly pushing an 83-year-old man and a second younger man onto the tracks at a station on the Upper East Side at around noon on Sunday." The article describes Hernandez's demeanor as "calm" as he walked away. The footage also showed that Hernandez did not interact with the two prior to pushing them onto the tracks. "Grandfather and Air Force veteran Richard Williams, the older of the two victims, is still fighting for his life at New York-Presbyterian Hospital Weill Cornell."

Shooting Left And Low? How "The Three Amigos" Ruin Your Accuracy

This video offers advice to help those shooting low and left with a handgun, noting that the most likely problem is pulling the handgun slightly with the lower three fingers ("the three amigos") as those fingers tighten when firing the weapon. The host of this video focuses on correcting this by isolating the trigger finger from the other three fingers and suggests a course of dry fire practice and live practice. 

 VIDEO: "Your Bottom 3 Fingers Are Destroying Your Accuracy"
Make Ready Firearms Training (7 min.)

The Barbarians Within The Gates

The New York Post reports that "[a] mob tied to a late-night street takeover stormed the lobby of a luxury downtown Los Angeles apartment tower and brawled with staff — leaving smashed glass and overturned furniture in their wake, shocking [video?] shows." The incident occurred during the early morning hours this past Sunday at the Circa LA Apartments on South Figueroa Street in Los Angeles. The mob forced its way inside the building, although "[s]ome members of the group remained outside smashing the building’[s] glass doors and windows, including one person who hurled a metal barricade at the entrance." Those inside "could be seen flipping over furniture and running through the building as chaos erupted." From the few photos, it appears that the mob was a diverse group of POC. According to another report on the incident, only one person was arrested for assault with a deadly weapon. And in a display of the prowess of LAPD investigators, the latter article also reports: "The Los Angeles Police Department said it has not seen the video that is circulating online." 

• Related: "LA cops thwarted by woke reforms blocking them from tracking 80,000 gang suspects"--New York Post.  

A Very Short "War Machine" Review

War Machine is a sci-fi action flick staring Alan Ritchson (of "Reacher" fame) starring as an Army grunt going through Ranger selection in order to keep a promise to his brother who was killed in a Taliban attack in Afghanistan. Although there is some background drama regarding Ritchson's character and his inner demons, the film fairly quickly moves to its core premise: Ritchson's unit being attacked by an alien battle robot while on their final field drill/test before becoming rangers.

    If I were to give a short description of the film, it would be that it is a cross between the table-top miniatures game Battle-Tech (at least the version I played in high school back in the 1980s which was as much about managing your Mech's resources as shooting weapons at the enemy) and the original Predator movie. While I don't believe it is as good as the original Predator, it was an enjoyable action film hearkening back to the action films of the 1980s and '90s. It is currently streaming on Netflix.  

Flying Taxis May Be Coming To A City Near You

 From Wired: "‘Flying Cars’ Will Take Off in American Skies This Summer." Notwithstanding the title, the article is not discussing flying cars (vehicles that could be used both as aircraft or automobiles) but flying taxis that have VTOL or STOL capabilities allowing them to take off or land in small areas without the need of airport facilities. The article relates:

    Eight regions across the US, including New York and New Jersey, Texas, Florida, and Albuquerque, New Mexico, will take part in a three-year pilot program that will see new aircraft designs ferrying people and cargo around the country even before they formally receive full certifications from the Federal Aviation Administration.

    The companies building the tech say their aircraft are quieter, cheaper, and release fewer emissions than helicopters or airplanes. Some promise totally autonomous trips. Many involved in the project, including electric vertical takeoff and landing aircraft, or eVTOLs, and ultra-short takeoff aircraft, require way less space to operate, landing and taking off outside of traditional airports and closer to where people live and work. The companies outline futures in which regular people can zip between neighboring cities in a matter of minutes, sailing above traffic and reordering the economy as they go.

[snip]

    Because eVTOLs are new, it has taken years for the companies that build them to receive full certifications from the federal government. The novel aircraft need new rules and safety standards, and have to go through several rounds of certifications before they can begin to carry paying passengers. None of the companies involved in the pilot projects have completed the full certification process.

    The pilot program “is focused on informing standards and future policy development and is not a mechanism to bypass certification requirements,” FAA spokesperson Donnell Evans wrote in a statement to WIRED. “Aircraft included in the partnership must already be going through the FAA’s formal type certification process.”

    The US aviation industry is trying to pull even with China, where the government has given homegrown firm EHang certifications to operate autonomous eVTOLs. The company says it will start by operating sightseeing flights in a few Chinese cities. Dubai plans to start providing air taxis in eVTOLs with Joby Aviation as early as this year.

Elderly White Man Attacked, Beaten By POC Teens

No doubt you have seen the social media post on Western Rifle Shooters Association showing an elderly white man in Repentigny, Quebec--a monitor/security guard at a convenience store near a school--being knocked to the ground and beaten by immigrant and minority teens. Latest news is that the kids have been suspended from school--in other words, the police are afraid to arrest black and brown kids for crimes. 

    This is all part-and-parcel of Canada's decline into barbarism. In another example, it is been known since the end of 2024 that by that time 1 in 20 of deaths in Canada were due to state assisted suicide. A more recent report from the Canadian government reveals that, based on the data available, "[t]he vast majority (95.6%) [being euthanized] identified as Caucasian (White)." Due to the number dying under the assisted-suicide program--termed Medical Assistance in Dying (MAID)--Canada's health minister argues that "the number of MAID provisions should not be compared to cause of death statistics in Canada in order to determine the prevalence (the proportion of all decedents) nor to rank MAID as a cause of death." In other words, they don't want the public to know that MAID is now one of the leading causes of death, which makes one suspicious about how far they are going to expand the program. It's a bad sign anytime a government says it doesn't want the public to know how many people the government is killing. Especially given a recent case where a woman was killed under the program against her will. 

Snow Shite Actress Unrepentant

Rachel Zegler who played Snow Shite in the woke Disney live-action remake of its classic Snow White animated film appears to be unrepentant. She recently discussed the backlash she faced for starring in the film, stating: "I refuse to assimilate for anybody else’s comfort." Yet, in the end, isn't it the job of the actor or actress to assimilate into a role? 

VIDEO: Attach A Sling Without Without Swivels Or Clips

The author demonstrates how to make loops using paracord to which you can attach you sling. Cheap and easy. And it doesn't rattle.  

 VIDEO: "An Old School Way to Attach a Sling Without Swivels or Quick Detach"
Reid Henrichs (10 min.)

VIDEO: Hat Weight--Turning Your Hat Into A Weapon

If you wear a ball cap, trucker's cap, or similar, with an open band in the back for adjusting the hat size, this might be something you can use. It is a weight that fits over the adjustment band allowing the hat to be used somewhat like a sap or slungshot.  

 VIDEO: "Government hates this, it's a hat weight"
CarryTrainer (4 min.)

Israel Is A Frenemy Not An Ally

"Trump furious at Israel for destroying Iran oil fields as crude surges and planned summit collapses"--Daily Mail. The article reports:

    Donald Trump is furious after Israel targeted Iran's oil depots in a blitz that shocked the White House amid soaring oil prices.

    A planned summit between the US and Israel was scrapped on Monday in the first open disagreement between the allies since the war broke out.

    Thirty Iranian fuel depots were obliterated over the weekend with apocalyptic images showing fires leaping into the sky, huge columns of smoke, and black oily rain falling from the sky.    

    White House officials were stunned by the scale of Israel's bombardment and concerned that images of burning oil would anger Americans facing increased gas prices - up to $3.4 per gallon on average compared to $2.9 before the war started. 

    'The president doesn't like the attack. He wants to save the oil. He doesn't want to burn it. And it reminds people of higher gas prices,' a Trump adviser said to Axios. 

    An Israeli official said the message from the US was stark: 'What the f***'.     

The Past Is A Foreign Country

The AP has a couple good stories to contrast. First up is "New footage raises likelihood the US struck an Iranian school where a blast killed at least 165," reporting:

 New footage shows what an expert investigative group says is likely an American Tomahawk missile hitting a compound in southern Iran, meters from the school where a deadly unclaimed blast killed over 165 people at the start of the war raging in the Mideast. 

But the AP also notes in their "Today In History" column: "On March 9, 1945, during World War II, over 300 U.S. B-29 bombers began Operation Meetinghouse, a massive firebombing raid on Tokyo. The raid killed an estimated 100,000 civilians, left 1 million homeless and destroyed 16 square miles (41 square kilometers) of the city." 

Wilder: New Civil War 2.0 Weather Report

There is a new Civil War 2.0 Weather Report up at the Wilder, Wealthy & Wise.  Topics include the risks of gerrymandering House districts to pick up more seats (it could backfire in an off year for Republicans); leftist continue to show that they are the real tyrants they've been looking for as they increasingly push censorship. And while the misery index has been much lower with Trump than under the Biden regime, there is the looming housing bubble ....

    On a related note, this past Saturday, "two pro-Muslim fanatics – Ibraham Kayumi, 19, and Emir Balat, 18 – both self-radicalized in recent years and traveled to Turkey and other terror-training hot spots," "tossed [a] bomb at right-wing agitators because they felt the agitators insulted their religion," the New York Post reports. "The homemade device consisted of sports drink bottles filled with triacetone triperoxide, or TATP" with shrapnel taped around it. Fortunately, the device failed to detonate. 

    The incident unfolded during a planned anti-Muslim protest organized by right-wing agitator Jake Lang outside Gracie Mansion — which sparked a rowdy confrontation with counter protesters that quickly turned violent.

    Video footage shows several scuffles that led to six arrests — including the two accused wannabe bombers.   

"Ammunition Feeders"--Are They Like Bird Feeders?

The New York Post reports that a "Long Island man arrested after 22 guns found behind ‘false wall’ in basement closet." The man arrested was on parole so possessing the firearms was a big "no-no". But what caught my eye was this sentence (emphasis added): "The cache included 14 handguns and eight assault rifles, along with ammunition feeders, ABC 7 reported." I went to the ABC 7 story, and it reported (bold added): "Officers found eight assault rifles, 10 semi-automatic handguns and four revolvers. They also discovered ammunition feeding devices." Is this to feed the baby .22LR ammo so it can grow into larger calibers like .50 BMG?

Havana Syndrome: Another Conspiracy Theory Proven Correct?

 From the New York Post: "US military tests on secret weapon bought from Russian criminal network reveal Havana Syndrome-like symptoms: report." The article relates:

    Undercover US agents obtained a mysterious Russian weapon that could finally explain a baffling cluster of brain injuries suffered by American diplomats, spies, and military officers for nearly a decade that’s been deemed “Havana Syndrome,” according to a report.

    The miniaturized microwave device was allegedly secretly purchased from a complex Russian criminal network for about $15 million in a Pentagon-funded operation by undercover Department of Homeland Security agents, confidential sources told CBS News’s “60 Minutes.”

    The programmable weapon is designed to be concealed and silent, but doesn’t create heat like a traditional microwave oven. It can be controlled remotely and can penetrate several hundred feet through windows and drywall, according to the outlet.  

[snip]

    The still-classified stealth weapon has been tested at a US military lab for more than a year — with tests on rats and sheep showing injuries similar to those of people with Havana syndrome, three sources told the outlet.     

The article mentions that the government also has obtained video footage of the weapon being used against Americans, citing one specific instance of it being used against two FBI agents on vacation in Istanbul while eating at a restaurant with their families. The Biden Administration, however, wanted to downplay the incidents as merely being due to atmospherics or weather. 

    Anonymous Conservative has a lot more on this story.  

Gun & Prepping News #71

 Just some gun and prepping related links that I thought interesting or useful:

• "Essential Pieces of Gear to Bring to the Range"--Guns & Ammo.  An excerpt:

If you have a giant range bag, then it’s going to get filled. I learned quickly that it’s not nearly as efficient to keep every piece of range gear I like in one bag. My range time goes smoother when I bring a small bag with exactly what I need. With a huge bag, I waste time looking for and reorganizing gear. Most of what I carry fits within a Storm Range Bag I sourced from Full Forge Gear. It doesn’t have more pockets than I need, and the pockets it does have are rarely used. Large bags hold a lot more, but contents get jumbled in the middle due to the soft base. The best feature of the Storm Range Bag is the hard bottom shell, preventing the bag from sagging in the middle. There may be no wrong answer when deciding on a useful range bag, but a hard base makes a difference. Full Forge Gear’s Storm Range Bag supports my needs to test firearms, including several pounds of ammo. The bottom has yet to collapse from the weight.  

• "Kit and Gear Selection Part 1: Choosing the Right Tool for the Job"--The Firearm Blog. Advice on selecting gear for a mission. For instance: 

    ... The infantry standard across most modern militaries has come out to 7 mags. In my time conducting direct action or hostage rescue missions (training or real), I can say I never needed that much ammunition for direct action. In most CQB (close quarters battle), I would rarely go past 2 AR15 magazines. Part of the reason for this is training to have first-round hits, shooting only at a perceived target (this requires discipline and experience); there is no endless supply of bad guys, and speed is security at this point.

    In the realm of short-duration missions, what can a civilian or LEO expect? For a police officer, you will have civil unrest with riots, active shooter(s), and warrants. The historical data with all three is limited to timeframes, and most of the individuals are not a direct threat, so kinetic engagements are highly limited. For the civilian, it's going to primarily be home defense. You may hear something in the early AM, maybe you are defending property, or patrolling your homestead and farm. Regardless, both will likely have limited engagements. In countless cases, when rounds are exchanged on the two-way range, engagements are short-duration and historical data shows the threat normally retreats. 

• "What Is the Best Suppressor for 45 ACP?"--The Truth About Guns.  The article begins with a discussion of why the .45 ACP is so easy to suppress, with the author noting that:

At subsonic velocities right out of the box, .45 ACP is one of the most naturally suppressor-friendly handgun cartridges ever developed. You don’t need special ammo. You don’t need to worry about breaking the sound barrier. You just thread on a can, press the trigger, and enjoy the kind of quiet shooting most calibers can only dream about.   

  

The article then discusses some specific suppressors. 

• "Off-Body Carry for Women"--The Truth About Guns. Rather than discuss the concept generally, the author focuses on some specific products she has used: the 5.11 Tactical LVC6 Waist Pack;  Gun Tote’n Mamas Crossbody Mail Pouch Concealed Carry Bag; Phoenix Ukoala Bag; Zendira The Friday Concealed Carry Crossbody; and the Vertx Everyday Fanny Pack 2.0.
• "The Role of the Pocket Pistol"--American Rifleman.  Jeff Gonzales begins:

 I’ve carried a pocket pistol for years, but rarely as my primary defensive tool. For me, it’s always been more of a backup—the kind of firearm that lives quietly in the margins of a daily carry system, present but never the centerpiece. It’s there for when the fight is closer than comfort, when my strong hand is tied up or when my primary handgun is no longer an option.

He then goes on to set out his own pointers and advice for selecting a pocket pistol and addresses some downsides or complications with shooting and carrying a pocket pistol. 

    I would add a few caveats to the article. First, although the photographs accompanying the article show someone drawing from the strong side front pocket, the author's experience mostly relates to carrying a pocket pistol in the back pocket--something that is probably pretty rare among those who pocket carry. 

    Second, the author states that "Even in the best-case scenario, a pocket draw will almost always be slower than a strong-side IWB holster draw." That is true if you are running a BUG match. But one of the advantages of pocket carry is that if find yourself in sketchy situation you can unobtrusively put your hand in your pocket and get ready to draw the handgun. In that case, the pocket draw can be faster than many other methods of carry. 

     Third, the whole point of pocket carry is to have a weapon small and light enough to carry in the pocket. The author recommends a pistol in 9mm, but because of the pressures involved and the size of the cartridge, 9mm pistols are tend to be larger and heavier than .380 pistols. Thus, even the smallest 9mm pistols tend to be on the margin of being too large for pocket carry and may be too large for your needs. For instance, I often see the Sig P365 and Glock 43X described as pocket pistols, but they are not unless you have some truly capacious pockets. 

• "3 Drills With The Glock 43x"--Primer Peak. The three drills are: (i) the Vickers Test; (ii) the Low-High Reload; and (iii) the Bill Drill. The author describes the drills so you can do them yourself (as well as describing his results) and includes a link to a PDF of the B8 target that you will use in the Vickers Test.
• "We Tested Six Hunting Rifles From 100 Years Ago"--Guns & Ammo. Notwithstanding the title, this is more of a review of firearms developments in the early 20th Century and an overview of rifles and cartridges representative of what would have been popular in the mid-1920s for deer hunting. I suspect that the "testing" part was probably omitted from this online article but could be found in the print edition. 
• And on the topic of old firearm designs: "Cimarron Model 3 American Top Break Reviewed"--Guns America. This is Cimarron's take on the Smith & Wesson Model 3 American top-break revolver, with the author also including some history on the particular firearm. Being top-break makes it far faster to unload than a Colt SAA and quit a bit faster to reload. 

The Cimarron version is produced by Uberti to Cimarron’s specs and is a very close replica of the original, except for a few new elements. New to the Cimarron American is the ability to fire .45 Long Colt. Originals were cambered in .44 Henry Rimfire, .44-40, .32-44, .38-44, and .45 Schofield, all shorter cartridges. The modernized Cimarron version also incorporates a hammer block safety. Pull the hammer back until you hear the first click, and a steel insert moves between the hammer and the frame to prevent the gun from accidentally firing if dropped. 

•  "Gun Disarms: It’s Not Over Just Because You Said Its Over"-- Schafer's Self-Defense Corner. An excerpt:

       I was training with another instructor years back and he wanted to show me his favorite disarming technique (the one where you slap the gun and his wrist to make the gun fly across the room).  I held the gun out for him several times while he demonstrated and then he asked me to try to shoot him before he moved and sure enough he was so fast he disarmed me every time.  I then asked him if we could go a turn where I acted like a real criminal; after he said he was ready I stepped in between his legs, grabbed him by the throat with my left hand, pressed the gun into his left temple, drove him backwards and screamed “GIVE ME YOUR…(you can probably guess)!” 

         Needless to say not only was he not able to do the technique but he nearly defecated himself.  Static training where you just stand there is all fine and dandy but a criminal just doesn’t appear out of thin air ready to shoot you if you breathe wrong; something always leads up to it and happens after it.  It also doesn’t teach you to deal with what I call the “Oh Shit Factor” where your brain suddenly falls out your butt when surprised with sudden violence.  

         Sure, the criminal may be standing there just holding out the gun and not moving, it happens all the time; but he also might be pushing, punching, choking, or grabbing you with his free hand while he screams and the gun could be held back, shoved right in your eyes, or who knows what else.  The point is after you have the technique down you should simulate a real robbery while you have to do your disarming technique in that fast and dynamic situation.     

• "Best Backpacking Gun?"--Active Response Training.  Ellifritz states that he uses an 8-shot Smith and Wesson model 317 .22 revolver. His choice is based on the fact that the area he backpacks lacks large predators, is remote enough not to worry about human predators, the revolver is lightweight and reliable, and he can use it to signal for help or take out snakes or small game ... and, if necessary, it is accurate enough for him to put all 8 rounds into an attacker's head. 

The gun holds eight shots, is essentially immune to cold or wet weather, and weighs 12 ounces when loaded.  Carrying three spare Quick Strips loaded with 10 rounds each of CCI’s excellent Velocitor ammunition gives me 38 rounds of ammunition in a package that weighs about a pound.  It’s ideal for my backpacking needs.

He has two methods of carrying:  the Wilderness Products Safepacker holster which he describes as "a quick access padded belt holster that looks like an unassuming pouch." But he also a clip draw (a metal clip that attaches to the frame) for when he is not wearing his pack. 

    I also have a 317 that I load up with Federal Punch in .22LR. But after trying a belt holster which I didn't like very well, I switched to pocket carry. The issue is finding a holster that works as my pocket holster for a snubby .38 was not quite deep enough the 317 which has a 3-inch barrel. I wound up purchasing a Barsony Woodland Green Pocket Holster ($19 on Amazon) which comes in a variety of sizes, including for 3" S&W J-frame revolvers. The holster is not as good as a DeSantis Nemesis pocket holster--the fabric is a little thin and the hammer catches a bit--but it works and with practice I was able to get around the issue with the hammer catching. I went with it because I could not find a DeSantis holster of the correct size. 

• "Land Navigation Skills and Techniques" (Part 1) (Part 2)--Badlands Fieldcraft. Part 1 goes over both major and some minor terrain features, and for each showing a photograph of how it appears to the eye and showing a corresponding look at how it is presented on a topographic map. Part 2 discusses some techniques on how to plot routes and know where you once you are in the field, plus a method for determining the location of a structure or feature not show on a map so you can relay the coordinates to someone. 
• More: "Junk On The Bunk: Land Navigation Kit"--Badlands Fieldcraft. 
• "Pimp your Bic for survival use"--Survival Common Sense. Some simple modifications to make your Bic (or similar disposable butane lighter) more useful for survival or camping. 
• "How To Grow A Survival Garden FAST"--Urban Survival Site.

There are many methods in which to grow a garden, such as traditional use of the available land, hydroponics, aquaponics, raised beds, and container gardening. All of these options are fine but for the purpose of this article, we are going to be focusing on raised beds and container gardening. This is because they provide the best overall benefit for beginners wanting to start a garden quickly. 

•  "Death and Burial" (Part 1) (Part 2)--Blue Collar Prepping. In a serious SHTF even, it is possible that no everyone is going to make it and you might have to dispose of a body (or bodies) yourself for reasons of health and hygiene. Part 1 discusses the physical disposal of the body. As the author writes:

     If it appears that “normal” life will resume within a week, your main concern will be how to store the deceased until you can get them to a morgue, mortuary, or coroner's office. If the weather is cold, below freezing, a body can be stored in an unheated building or vehicle until the temperature gets above freezing. If the weather is above freezing you have a limited amount of time before the body starts to decompose, temporary burial may be an option. The amount of time varies roughly with the temperature, along with the condition of the corpse and how they died. If it is warm or hot outside and the person died of a bacterial infection, the body can start to putrefy in as little as twelve hours. More on this in Part 2.

    If your situation is likely to last more than several days, you're going to need to consider how to dispose of the body. Embalming is probably not going to be an option- it requires some pretty nasty chemicals and dedicated facilities - so we're going to want to look into the funeral practices of more primitive times and places. Without freezing or embalming, corpses need to be dealt with rapidly to prevent the spread of diseases and to keep predators and vermin away from where you live. The options boil down to cremation, burial, or entombment. 

Part 2 discusses how to tell if someone is dead, how long they have been dead, and how to handle a dead body. As an aside, I would note that Cody Lundin's book When All Hell Breaks Loose also discusses the topic of storage and disposal of dead bodies, including some of the steps you may need to take to protect yourself legally when law and order return. 

• "Improvised First Aid Techniques for When You’re Caught Short"--My First Aid Course. It is pretty bare bones, but it has ideas for managing cuts and abrasions with improvised bandages; treating burns with cool water and plastic wraps; splinting with improvised materials; using a triangular bandage (or torn sheet); and some improvised transport techniques. 
• "Chemical Toilets for the Home – When the SHTF Good Sanitation is Vital!"--Alpha Survivalist. A quick overview of several portable toilets and then discussion how chemical toilets work and how to safely dispose of waste. 
• "Video: Survival lessons from the 1845 Meek’s Cutoff Wagon Trail through the Oregon desert"--Survival Common Sense.  An illustration of the well known maxim that a short cut is the longest distance between two points (and, in this case, the deadliest). 

Immigrants In The News

• "It Should’ve Been A Defensive Gun Use: Illegals Beat, Sodomized, Ripped Fingernails Off Victim in NC Home Invasion"--Shooting News Daily. 
• "Somali trucker busted driving wrong way down highway failed English test and couldn’t read road signs"--New York Post.  
• "Women smirk, flash symbols and moan about police brutality as they're sentenced for killing veteran"--MSN. 
• "Report: Michigan Cops Nab Another South American Migrant Burglary Gang"--Breitbart.
• "Far-left CA pol Fatima Iqbal-Zubair condemned US strikes — while her husband works for weapons giant"--New York Post. 
• "Columbia University student group demands 'death to America' after Iran strikes"--Daily Mail. 
• "California Elementary School Counselor Accused of Child Sex Crimes Made $70,000 on Paid Leave"--Breitbart.  
• "Cops in lefty DC suburb warned prosecutors 3 times that migrant was a danger before he ‘hacked mom to death’"--New York Post.  
• "Illegal immigrant wearing red winter hat who viciously stabbed woman to death as she stepped off bus in Virginia had THIRTY prior arrests... but was let out of jail every time"--Daily Mail.  
• "Feds bust LA’s most notorious ‘supergang’ in rapid morning raids — The Post watched the whole thing"--New York Post. 
• "Eileen Gu Indicts Birthright Citizenship And Our Entire Immigration Orthodoxy"--The Federalist. About immigrants that come to the U.S., or perhaps their children, that have no loyalty toward the United States but only see it as a place to make money. As the author notes about Gu: "She embodies all the virtues of the post-national 'elite' who view America as a land of economic opportunity and nothing else, an office park where hundreds of thousands of American jobs are happily handed over to H-1B visa holders in the name of Gross Domestic Product."
• "Mexico, China have ‘weaponized migration’ to become ‘political kingmakers’ in US: top author to ‘Pod Force One’"--New York Post.  An excerpt:

    Schweizer noted that several Mexican officials have publicly remarked on how migrants from south of the US border are “reclaiming” territory for Mexico inside America. 

    “We already know that the Mexican population in the United States reaches 39.9 million,” a top aide to Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum said in December 2024, according to Schweizer. 

    “We Mexicans are reclaiming our territory,” the official said.

     Mexican Sen. Felix Salgado also boasted, “Mexicans are in our territory: California, Nevada, Texas, Utah, New Mexico, Arizona, Kansas, Oklahoma, Colorado and Wyoming,” according to Schweizer, citing a report from “just a couple years ago.”

    We’re going to take back the territory that was stolen from us,” Salgado said.

    Schweizer acknowledged that on the surface, the idea of Mexico seizing US territory “sounds ridiculous.”

    But the Mexican government has “erected a political infrastructure in the United States that is geared towards organizing” Mexican migrants “to serve Mexico’s interests in very specific ways,” he insisted. 

Lyme Disease The Result Of Secret Bioweapons Program?

Dr. Robert W. Malone writes that "Declassified Documents Link U.S. Bioweapons Program to Lyme Disease Outbreak." Basic outline:

1. In 1962, the CIA introduced infected ticks into Cuba in an effort to cripple its sugarcane production.
2. Defense Secretary Robert McNamara authorized Project 112 in 1962, creating what researchers describe as a bioweapons program “almost as large and secretive as the Manhattan Project.” The program involved 134 scheduled tests from 1962-1974 with production facilities capable of breeding 100 million infected mosquitoes monthly and 50 million fleas weekly. 
3. Between 1966 and 1969, the U.S. military released 282,800 lone star ticks made radioactive with Carbon-14 across Virginia sites along bird migration routes. 
4.  In 2014, researchers discovered extensive unpublished materials in the garage of deceased scientist Willy Burgdorfer, who identified the bacterium that causes Lyme disease. The materials revealed that Burgdorfer had found a second pathogen called “Swiss Agent” in Lyme patient blood samples from Connecticut and Long Island in the late 1970s but omitted these details from his final research on the Lyme disease bacterium. Burgdorfer insinuated during a 2013 interview that there had been an accidental release of some sort. 
5.  Plum Island Animal Disease Center sits just 13 miles from Lyme, Connecticut, where the disease was first identified. From 1952-1969, the facility was managed by the Army Chemical Corps for biological warfare research before transfer to the Department of Agriculture. The facility often conducted experiments out of doors with acknowledged containment failures, and wildlife regularly moved between Plum Island and the mainland. Richard Endris maintained “over 200,000 soft and hard ticks of varying species in tick nurseries on Plum Island, personally collected from locations as far away as Cameroon, Africa.”
6. The Long Island Sound region experienced an unprecedented outbreak of tick-borne diseases beginning in 1968, with infections concentrated in the area around Plum Island. 
   

And there is more. (See also "CIA accused of secret bioweapon experiments linked to major outbreak in its own people"--Daily Mail).  

Great News: Brandon Herrera Has Won His Primary

Brandon Herrera is legendary in the gun community (.50 Browning AK, anyone?) and runs a great gun YouTube channel. He was running against U.S. Rep. Tony Gonzales for Texas’ 23rd Congressional District and actually ended up winning more votes than Gonzales. But because neither reached the 50% threshold, they were being forced into runoff. It's now a moot point as Gonzales has dropped out of the race under pressure (including an ethics investigation by the House of Representatives) over his affair with a female staffer who later committed suicide by setting herself on fire.    

Not Good: Post Office Expects To Run Out Of Cash

ABC News reports that the United States Postal Service is expecting to run out of cash unless Congress authorizes it to borrow more money. Postmaster General David Steiner, a former member of the FedEx board of directors, says that the extra cash is needed to enact needed reforms. One source of revenue that the USPS is looking at is expanding the offering of "last mile" delivery to more businesses. "Last-mile delivery refers to the final step of getting a package from a local distribution center to a customer’s door, the most labor-intensive part of the delivery process." I don't know about your area, but I have found the USPS to be more reliable than many other carriers, so I hate to see this happen. Besides which, the Constitution provides for the federal government to run a postal service. 

Questions Asked And Answered

 These are questions that were posed to Anthropic's Claude AI (h/t Instapundit):

 

This Is California: SF Mayor's Security Detail Attacked

The New York Post reports that the San Francisco mayor got to experience some diversity and inclusiveness up close, stating:

    San Francisco Mayor Daniel Lurie’s police security team was attacked Thursday evening near the edge of the Tenderloin, the city’s most infamous drug-plagued neighborhood — leaving an officer bleeding from the back of his head after a chaotic street confrontation.

    The mayor was not hurt in the incident, which unfolded just before 6 p.m. near Cedar Street, according to Mission Local.

    One San Francisco Police Department officer assigned to Lurie’s security detail was left panting and bleeding after he slammed his head during a struggle with a suspect.
    
    Tony Phillips, who was booked on suspicion of murder in 2019 but never faced charges, was arrested in the incident. 

Another article relates that the reason that Phillips never faced charges was because "[t]hen-District Attorney George Gascon tossed out Phillips’ murder case due to a lack of evidence, according to the San Francisco Examiner," even though the fatal stabbing was caught on surveillance video.

    Per Wikipedia, Lurie is an heir to the Levi Strauss fortune, executive director of the Jewish Community Federation of San Francisco, and has an extensive background running charities that take taxpayer money and ... do something with it that supposedly is to help alleviate poverty. (But we know how that system works). One of his key achievements was working to reduce homelessness in San Francisco. After becoming mayor, "On September 30, 2025, Lurie hosted the consul general of China in a flag-raising ceremony and proclaimed October 1, 2025, the National Day of the People's Republic of China, as 'China-US Friendship and Heritage Day.'" And yet he is described as a centrist Democrat. 

Weekend Reading #46

Some longer and more involved reading for weekend:

• Jon Low has a new Defensive Pistolcraft Newsletter. Right at the top, he begins with a series of articles on what the author terms "home defense thresholds"--literal deadlines--legally and defensively sound points at which to use deadly force. The first article discusses several examples: for instance, a man who fired blindly into a darkened garage killing a thief versus those who called police and didn't take any action until a criminal forcibly broke into the home, crossing a threshold. Related to that discussion, Jon links to a 3-part article on the case of Byron D. Smith who, it was alleged, had specifically engineered a situation to lure two repeat burglars into his home where he executed them. He was convicted of murder. Some other notable links:
• On the issue of preventing burglaries, Jon has a lengthy quote from  Joe Shahoud with some burglary statistics, simply advice on dissuading burglars, and a couple security product recommendations (a security system and a quick access gun safe).
• Jon links to several articles on situational awareness and weapons retention (if you are carrying a firearm there is an overlap between these two topics) and includes this quote from Stephen Wenger: "... if the assailant has a gun, it may actually be the easiest 
  gun for you to access, if you know how to take it from him." There are some pistol disarming techniques that end with you in possession of the firearm. 
• Jon links to a lengthy piece entitled "The Final Category Problem" discusses our different memory and learning skills (with a focus on firearms/self-defense skills) with the author noting: "The vast majority of what our eyes and brain need to do during gunfights is not done AT ALL during most firearms training and is completely excluded from all qualifications that we are aware of." Jon also outlines the steps to better learning (applicable to both firearms classes and other types of classes and training). 
• I also liked this bit:

Jeff Cooper gave us the Combat Triad:  mindset, gun handling, and marksmanship.  Three legs that support the entire structure of armed defense.  What makes the presentation from concealment so critical is that it does not live on one leg of that triad.  It touches all three.  The decision to act is mindset.  Getting the gun out efficiently is gun handling.  And establishing a solid master grip during the presentation directly affects the marksmanship that follows.  If the presentation falls apart, the entire triad is compromised before we ever press the trigger.  

     Nothing else we train matters if the gun never comes out.  Or if it comes out too late.

     That is not a ranking of skills or an argument that the draw is more important than shot placement or decision-making.  It is simply a logical reality.  Everything downstream of the presentation depends on it happening.  An efficient, automatic presentation is the gateway to everything else we need to do in a fight.   

• Greg Ellifritz at Active Response Training has a new Weekend Knowledge Dump.  Some notable links:
• A couple shotgun posts: (i) a review of a 20-gauge tactical semi-auto shotgun from Beretta; and (ii) why No. 1 buckshot looks good on paper but is actually inferior to 00 Buckshot. 
• An article on common semi-auto pistol malfunctions and how to clear them.
• A piece discussing some research on why or how someone might shoot the wrong person. One key point is this: "What I find compelling here is that it appears that shooting speed and the ability to stop a response appear to be genuinely separate mechanisms - not two ends of the same dial. That has real implications for how we think about selection and training, because you can’t assume that getting faster makes someone more likely to shoot the wrong person, or that working on restraint slows them down." Greg also comments: "You should also be training yourself to STOP SHOOTING quickly as well.  I would argue that practicing stopping shooting quickly is more important than taking .03 seconds off of your shot-to-shot split.  Very few people are training that skill."
• A link to a piece from Shooting Illustrated entitled "How to Adjust Your Rifle Setup for Body Armor." While this may be more theoretical than practical for most home defenders, there are a significant number of civilians that own Kevlar vests and/or rifle plates and, if the political situation continues to deteriorate, I could see the number of civilians getting body armor increase. 
• Some hard truths about knife fighting and defense against knives. I don't have the statistics to show whether I'm correct or not, but I seem to be seeing more articles about knife attacks--particular mass stabbings--rising in the United States.
• An article on selecting the right weapon light for a handgun. However, Greg relates: "I have a light on my bedside pistol.  I haven’t carried a gun with a light on it since I retired from my cop job more than five years ago." I'm in the same situation: I have a light on my nightstand pistol but none on my carry guns.  
• "How to Take the Best Photos of Your Firearms"--Guns & Ammo.  This article is intended for the general gun owner, not a professional photographer--someone maybe wanting some photographs for purposes of an advertisement to sell a firearm or sharing a firearm on social media. As such, it assumes you will be using a cell phone or basic digital camera and have no other specialized photographic equipment. As such, it discusses in detail how to use a table lamp or natural sunlight to take photographs, some simple DIY methods to diffuse and reflect light, composing the scene, etc. As such, it is longer than your typical gun magazine articles. 
• "Thoughts on our ruling class monoculture" by Glenn Harlan Reynolds. An excerpt:

    Our ruling class is particularly vulnerable to mind viruses for several reasons.  First, it is a monoculture, so that what is persuasive to one member is likely to be persuasive to many.

    Second, it suffers from deep and widespread status anxiety – not least because most of its members have status, but few real accomplishments to rely on – and thus requires constant reassurance in the form of peer acceptance, reassurance that is generally achieved by repeating whatever the popular people are saying already.  And third, it has few real deeply held values, which might otherwise provide guard rails of a sort against believing crazy things.

    In a more diverse ruling class, ideas would not spread so swiftly or be received so uncritically.  People with different worldviews would respond differently to ideas as they entered the world of discourse.  There would be criticism and there would be debate.  (Indeed, this is how things generally worked during the earlier, more diverse, era described by Codevilla, though intellectual fads – lobotomy, say, or eugenics – spread then, too, though mostly through the Gentry/Academic stratum of society that now dominates the ruling class.)

    Also, a society in which people hold firm beliefs on important moral and ethical issues is less vulnerable to rapid swings in many areas.  “Guard rails,” as I said.  ...  

• "The Camp of the Living Dead"--Postcards From Barsoom. A review and commentary on Jean Raspail’s 1973 novel The Camp of the Saints, which has been re-released in English. The author believes that this novel would have been more influential--at least in the English speaking world--if English language editions had been available, writing:

One of the reasons that The Camp of the Saints is not actually all that widely read is that the book has been suppressed in the English-speaking world. The book was a bestseller when the first translation was published in 1975, after which there were a few reprintings, but it has been effectively out of print since the mid-90s. This meant that if you wanted to read it, you either had to track down a bootleg pdf (and who wants to read an entire novel in pdf), or pay extortionate prices on Amazon’s secondary market. You’d think that the publisher would see the insane prices used editions were going for and conclude that there was money to be made from unmet demand but, you see, The Camp of the Saints is a xenophobic, racist, sexist diatribe that good people need to protect impressionable minds from reading lest they acquire bad opinions and become bad people. This kind of copyright-squatting is how books are actually de facto banned in the Western world, by the way; those prominent displays of ‘banned books’ assembled by your local libtard bookseller more or less uniformly consist of softcore porn that some school board in the Bible Belt decided were a bit much for the resource library in the elementary school. When the cathedral wants to ban a book, it simply buys up the rights to it, refuses to publish it, and then buries it in obscurity by refusing to talk about it.

The rest of the piece is a review and analysis of the book, comparing it to the zombie genre, and the spiritual ennui that has fallen over the West such that it cannot bring itself to protect Civilization from the hordes coming to its shores. 

VIDEO: 9mm Ammo Quest Roundup

About 6 years ago, now, the YouTube channel ShootingTheBull410 did a comprehensive test of 9mm defensive ammo on the market. His testing was multiple shots for each type of round into calibrated ballistic gel through the heavy clothing barrier instead of the single round we often see in such tests. After his tests he did a "wrap up" video which is the one shown blow. There were a lot of good rounds, but the ones that he felt were the best were the Federal HST 124 grain standard pressure and the Winchester Defender 147 grain. 

    But he had tested the HST in the clear ballistic gel, so he did a showdown between the HST and the Defender in the calibrated organic gel. Out of that round, it was very close between the two, but ultimately he decided that the edge went to the Defender. 

    There are few newer designs that weren't tested. For instance, I don't believe the Federal Punch had released at the time he made his videos, so they weren't included in the tests.  

VIDEO: "9mm Ammo Quest Winner and wrap up"
ShootingTheBull410 (17 min.)

False Flag Attack On British Airbase?

Our NATO allies for the most part, including the UK, don't want anything to do with the war against Iraq, going so far as to prohibit the U.S. from using airbases on their territories and complicating U.S. logistics. And yet this is coming to an end after an Iranian made drone struck a British airbase on the island of Cyprus. The response, per Reuters, was that "Britain, France and Greece are sending air-defence forces to Cyprus after drones struck the Royal ‌Air Force Akrotiri base on the island, prompting a broader regional defence military response on Tuesday from European allies." And other reports indicate that "Italy, France, Spain and the Netherlands will send naval assets to Cyprus." "France also said it would allow US aircraft to access some of its bases in the Middle East during the conflict with Iran," that latter article also reports, adding:

    Starmer initially refused to have any role in the US-Israeli war with Iran but later agreed to a US request to use two British military bases for a "specific and limited defensive purpose".

    Those bases are in Gloucestershire, western England, and the UK-US Diego Garcia base in the Indian Ocean.

    Starmer insisted that the Akrotiri base is not being used by US bombers.

But even that has changed, with the Guardian now reporting:

    Britain has not ruled out joining in future strikes against Iranian ballistic missile launch sites amid concerns that otherwise Iran may be able to deplete allies’ stocks of air defence interceptors, officials have indicated.
    
    US heavy bombers are expected to reach UK bases at Diego Garcia in the Chagos Islands and Fairford in Gloucestershire in the next few days, from where they are expected to attack Iran’s underground “missile cities”.

    In a briefing, western officials did not rule out the possibility that the UK could assist in striking missile depots. “I wouldn’t rule anything out at all because we just don’t know what will happen day to day, week to week as this progresses,” one said.

The bases will be hosting stealth bombers, according to Fox News. 

    The interesting part, though, is that the drone that struck the Cyprus airbase did not come from Iran. Per the Guardian, "Cypriot officials have indicated the drone that struck the runway came from an area of Lebanon controlled by Hezbollah. That has not been confirmed by the UK Ministry of Defence, though a launch from Iran has been ruled out." And a more recent article from earlier today relates:

    A drone which hit Britain's Royal Air Force Akrotiri base in Cyprus was not launched from Iran as many had initially assumed, the Ministry of Defence (MoD) has revealed.

    Officials reportedly believe the "Shahed-type drone" evaded detection by flying low and slow on Sunday. It hit a hangar used by American U-2 spy planes and burst into flames.

    There were no casualties and the MoD said there was "no damage to equipment inside the hangar".

    But the UK has still not confirmed where exactly the drone was launched from – and who was responsible.

    The MoD said it believes the drone was launched by a pro-Iran militia in Lebanon or in western Iraq, but an investigation has proved unable to conclusively establish where.

     There has been speculation that Israel may have been behind the drone attack in order to draw the UK into the conflict (see, e.g., this video from History Debunked), which has worked to some extent since the U.S. now has access to airbases that had previously been denied to it. This isn't as farfetched as it may sound as Israel has done something similar at least once before in 1954 now called the Lavon Affair. As Wikipedia explains (footnotes omitted):

The Lavon affair was a failed Israeli covert operation, codenamed Operation Susannah, conducted in Egypt in the summer of 1954. As part of a false flag operation, a group of Egyptian Jews were recruited by Israeli military intelligence to plant bombs inside Egyptian-, American-, and British-owned civilian targets: cinemas, libraries, and American educational centers. The bombs were timed to detonate several hours after closing time. The attacks were to be blamed on the Muslim Brotherhood, Egyptian communists, "unspecified malcontents", or "local nationalists" with the aim of creating a climate of sufficient violence and instability to induce the British government to retain its occupying troops in Egypt's Suez Canal zone. The operation caused no casualties among the population, but resulted in the deaths of four operatives. The overseer of the operation allegedly informed the Egyptians, after which 11 suspected operatives were arrested. Two died by suicide after being captured, two were executed by the Egyptian authorities, two of them were acquitted at trial, and the remaining five received prison terms ranging from 7 years to life in prison.  

So, on one hand, we know that Israel has carried out these type of operations in the past, and the drone attack (which caused minimal damage) was successful in getting Britain and other European countries to be more supportive of the U.S. air operations than they otherwise have been. On the other hand, with Iranian military leadership destroyed or in disarray, there have been suggestions that the Iranian military and Iranian proxies (such as Hezbollah) would act according to prearranged plans; and an attack on U.S. spy planes housed in Cyprus would certainly seem to fit that bill. But my question is why that particular airbase and not other U.S. assets in the area? Certainly even Hezbollah should have been smart enough to know that an attack against a British airbase had a high likelihood of bringing yet another country into the war as an ally to the U.S. and Israel.