Palestinians Outraged That U.S. Has Cut Back On Its Jizya

Jizya document from the 17th Century Ottoman Empire (Source)

         The actual headline from The Independent is "'Trump - he wants us to die': Palestinians fear US aid cuts could ignite Gaza tinderbox." And, rather melodramatically, the author writes: "Aid workers have stark warnings for the US President, after he slashed American funding for the UN agency here. 'They have seen the peace efforts fall apart and their own leadership divided. But nobody has ever taken away their bread'." The cut of which they are complaining is a reduction of U.S. aid to the UNRWA, the UN agency responsible for Palestinian "refugees." The U.S. had initially promised $195 million in aid for the first quarter of 2018, but that amount was cut to only $60 million. So they are still getting $60 million they don't deserve (plus whatever other nations contribute to the fund).

       The article goes on to report:

        With their horses and carts and beaten-up cars, the refugees of Gaza’s Beach camp arrived early on Monday for their quarterly food boxes, given out on a rota system by UNRWA, the UN agency responsible for Palestinian refugees. 

          Some had come several days before their designated pick-up day, fearing that soon the free flour, lentils, sardines and oil on which their lives depend, would be gone.

           “Trump – he wants us to die,” they cried angrily, as huge flour sacks thumped on the ground. They were talking of the US President’s shock decision last week to slash US funding to UNRWA by more than half, a move which threatens food aid to Palestinian refugees not only in Gaza but in camps in the West Bank, Lebanon, Syria and Jordan – where five million refugees rely on UNRWA for basic services, including health and education. 

          “They have tried with the bombs and now they want us to starve,” said Rihab Abu Sharifa, a 45-year-old widow, who shares her breeze block and asbestos home with 18 others, including her 12 grandchildren.

           Anger about Mr Trump’s cuts to UNRWA spilled out in Gaza on the same day as Mike Pence, the US Vice President, held talks in Jerusalem with Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli Prime Minister, about a new “peace plan”.

      This reaction evidences an entitlement mentality. These people have never expressed thankfulness for the food and money provided by the United States; on 9/11, they danced in the street and gave out candy to celebrate the deaths in America. Many of their political parties, including Hamas, are terrorist groups, and although Famas claims to have forsaken terrorism, the Palestinian Authority continues a practice of paying stipends to terrorists or their families--and it seems clear that the money for these stipends comes from U.S. aid. I'm not aware of the United States having ever bombed Palestinian territory, as one woman states in The Independent's article, but Palestinian terrorists certainly have killed their share of Americans. (See, e.g., this article). And now they are angry at the United States, and threatening that the result of the cuts will be another Palestinian uprising and children pushed out of schools onto the street. Basically, they want to blackmail the United States into continuing the same level of aid.

       There is the saying to avoid throwing good money after bad. This seems appropriate to the issue of U.S. aid to the Palestinians.

January 23, 2017: A New Woodpile Report is Out

Link here. Enjoy.

Secret Combinations: Was There An FBI "Secret Society" Working to Bring Down Trump?

From PJ Media:

            There is serious talk on Capitol Hill about the appointment of a second special counsel amid several new bombshell revelations swirling around the Trump/Russia probe. First, there are the allegations of shocking and substantial government surveillance abuses under President Obama outlined in the FISA abuse memo. Secondly, the FBI lost five months of key text messages between the anti-Trump/pro-Clinton FBI officials Peter Strzok and his mistress Lisa Page. And now there's talk of a "secret society" of officials within the FBI that apparently met the day after the election of Donald J. Trump to plot against the president-elect.

* * *

           Ratcliffe went on to mention one particular text message that referenced a "secret society" at the Bureau. "We know about this insurance policy that was referenced in trying to prevent Donald Trump from becoming president," he began. "We learned today about information in the immediate aftermath of his election that there may have been a 'secret society' of folks within the Department of Justice and the FBI to include Page and Strzok that would be working against him." 

            McCallum's interest was piqued. She asked Gowdy for additional details. 

          "You have this insurance policy in the Spring of 2016 and then the day after the election  ... there's a text exchange between these two FBI agents -- these two (supposed to be objective, fact-centric) FBI agents saying, 'perhaps this is the first meeting of the secret society,'" Gowdy explained. "So of course I'm gonna want to know what 'secret society' are you talking about -- because you're supposed to be investigating objectively the person who just won the Electoral College."

           He added, "Yeah, I'm gonna want to know."

The (In)tolerance of the Left: Cathy Newman's Interview of Jordan Peterson

        You've most likely heard or read of this already, but in case you haven't, there has been much schadenfreude on the right over Dr. Jordan Peterson's excoriation of Cathy Newman over issues of gender differences and whether there is a right not to be offended. I have linked to the video of the interview below.

         Newman is the host of a news program on the UK's Channel 4, and, as you can see in the video, she constantly and deliberately misstates everything that Peterson says, so that he has to spend half of the time correcting her. Although the actual "interview" didn't have this exchange, I saw a meme that was actually a good illustration of Newman's tactics:

        Peterson: "I had eggs and bacon for breakfast."

       Newman: "So what you're saying is that we should kill all vegans."

Watch the whole thing; it is worth your time.

"Jordan Peterson debate on the gender pay gap, campus protests and postmodernism"--Channel 4 (30 min.)

Franklin Armory's Reformation Revealed

Recoil Magazine has the details. But the workaround to avoid being classified as an SBR was to use a barrel with straight lands and grooves. According to the article, the ATF indicated that the straight grooves and lands were not "rifling", but neither is it a smoothbore. Models will be released with and without Franklin Armory's binary trigger.

January 22, 2017 -- A Quick Run Around the Web

"Top 7 Guns I Wish I Didn't Buy"--Honest Outlaw Reviews (9 min.)

I have to agree with the Kahr pistol. I have an acquaintance that purchased a small 9 mm Kahr concealed carry pistol several years ago. She almost immediately started having malfunctions--failures to feed, mostly. The problem is that part of the feed ramp was polymer, and bits of it were being scratched or melted loose (it wasn't clear what the immediate cause was), and catching on the cartridges as they were being cycled. 

• Shot Show 2018 has begun, which means that firearms news this week will be dominated more than usual by new products (although a few companies were releasing new products ahead of Shot Show in an attempt to steal some of the thunder). One of these is Mossberg's response to the Remington 870 DM: the Mossberg 590M which also uses detachable magazines. In this case, however, Mossberg has used a double-stack magazine in order to squeeze more rounds into the same length of magazine. 
• We knew this was coming: "Honor Defense Offers Voluntary Upgrade for Honor Guard Pistols"--The Truth About Guns. To fix the risk of discharge if the pistol is dropped so that the rear of the slide strikes the ground.
• For want of a flashlight: "'I was in the middle of this rock with no way to get off': Injured hiker missing for THREE days on California trail recounts his harrowing experience after he slid down a cliff and fractured his shoulder"--Daily Mail. The guy is lucky. He had an opportunity to be rescued earlier, if he'd had a flashlight with which to signal a search plane. But he didn't have a flashlight.
• "Ruger Security 9 | First Shots"--The Firearms Rack. An initial review and impressions of Ruger's new budget 9 mm pistol. Daniel R. didn't think it was perfect, but thought it was a pretty solid pistol overall--especially considering the price-point: the MSRP is $379. It seems to fill basically the same niche as Ruger's P-series of handguns in the 1980's and early 1990's which were good basic firearms, even though there was little after-market support for them.
• "Gun Review: Ruger PC Carbine"--The Truth About Guns. This is the most talked-about firearm over the last couple of months. It seems that every firearm magazine, blog, and YouTube channel has been reviewing or discussing this weapon. Pistol caliber carbines were the hot topic this past year, and Ruger has offered pistol-caliber carbines in the past. However, Ruger has learned its lesson from past releases, offering this firearm with different magazine well inserts to accept magazines from different manufacturers. For instance, the weapon ships with not only the insert for Ruger proprietary magazines, but also an insert that accepts Glock magazines. (Imagine how much more popular the Mini-14 would be if it had been designed to accept AR magazines). I expect that these will sell like hotcakes, and I anticipate that we will soon see a .45 ACP version. The question is whether we will see a .40 S&W or 10 mm version. Right now, .40 S&W's star is waning, while 10 mm is seeing a resurgence. Thus, if we see this carbine offered in any of the latter calibers, I'm guessing that it will be 10 mm over .40 S&W.
• "Loading Down the .44 Magnum Safely"--Shooting Times. The seemingly obvious solution would be to use .44 Special. But .44 Special ammunition and brass is generally hard to find; although the price per case appears to be the same at Star-Line Brass. The author seems to like Trail Boss powder (which I have not used), although he includes a couple other powders (including Unique, which I have used extensively). Unique is a flake shaped powder that can be difficult to get consistent feeds from a powder measure (I have found that +/- 0.1 or even 0.2 grain variance is not uncommon). It also does not fill up the case very much on the longer revolver cases, which can lead to variances in velocity and pressure depending on how the powder is distributed within the case at the time of firing. While I like Unique for semi-auto rounds, I think other powders work better in the longer revolver cases. I (and many others) prefer 2400 for the .44 Magnum because it is fills up the case to a better extent, and is easier to consistently measure.
• "AR trigger upgrade: The ALG Defense Advanced Combat Trigger"--Loadout Room. The ALG trigger reviewed here comes with springs so you can set it up at about 6 pounds pull, or 4.5 pounds pull (the latter is probably about right for a combat trigger, but is a little heavy for a target trigger). The price is, according to the author, $70 at Brownells, which is substantially less than most substitute triggers. 
• "Five hikers stabbed at Silvermine"--Cape Times. This article reports on the stabbing of 5 hikers on a popular hiking trail outside of Cape Town, South Africa. Per this report (and others--here, here, and here), a group of hikers was moving along the trail when they were joined by two men. The men hiked along for a short while, then suddenly attacked the other hikers--one was armed with a knife. A few of the hikers were severely injured. Although the attackers stole items, it is not entirely clear that the motive was wholly theft. It is also suspicious that, although the articles indicate that the police wanted people to watch out for the suspects, no description beyond the attackers' gender have been provided. Given the propensity for violence against whites in South Africa--particularly the Boer--it leaves me suspicious that the attack may have been at least partially based on race. In any event, it illustrates that numbers may be an insufficient deterrent to an assault (although if we all wore stripped clothing, like a zebra's hide, we might be able to confuse the attackers as we race about trying to escape). 
• Only police should have firearms (sarc.): "French Presidential Palace Guard Wounded in Apparent Negligent Discharge"--The Firearms Blog. The article briefly describes three incidents: two that only resulted in bullets fired into walls, but one where the officer shot himself in the leg. The excuse is that the officers are transitioning to a new submachine gun, and aren't yet used to its lack of passive safety features. Hopefully they won't be issued Glock pistols.
• Cultural enrichment: "Charges: Former student set fires on St. Catherine campus in retaliation against U.S. military intervention"--Star Tribune. The perpetrator, Tnuza Hassan, told police that "You guys are lucky that I don't know how to build a bomb." She also stated that the attacks were in retaliation for U.S. military action in Afghanistan and Iraq against Muslims. Although no nationality is given for Hassan, the article indicates that she had been a student at St. Catherine's but left because her parents were planning on vacationing in Ethiopia.
• The (in)tolerance of the left: "Justin Trudeau Puts Pro-Lifers on Notice that Their Views Won't Be Tolerated in Public"--PJ Media. 
• Refugees welcome! "Subway Drivers Passing Violent Stations In France"--Anonymous Conservative. AC comments on news reports that subway operators in France, for their own safety and the safety of passengers, are no skipping stops where there is too much cultural enrichment. AC observes:

       Separation is the first step in splintering. Already France has begun the process of splintering.

* * *

       At this point, war is inevitable. The French right needs ... to make sure their people can get weaponized and arm up now, because you know the Muslims will be heavily armed when it goes down.

• A sign of the coming K-shift: "Why some African Americans are moving to Africa"--Al Jazeera. The excuse is that they felt like second class citizens in America. 
• "Lawyers: Firing squad must be option for condemned killer"--WISTV 10. The killer was supposed to be executed via lethal injection, but doctors spent 25 minutes unsuccessfully attempting to find a vein in which to insert the needles. Now his lawyers are arguing that his execution be carried out by firing squad.

A firing squad wouldn't cause severe suffering, doesn't require drugs Campbell might be allergic to or the need to find a vein. It also doesn't require the involvement of a doctor, the attorneys said in a 533-page filing.

• For anyone that thinks that North Korea could prosecute a war: "North Korean officials ransacking farmers' homes to find food for Kim's hungry army, report says"--Fox News. From the article:

         North Korean officials desperate to feed Kim Jong Un’s hungry army are ransacking the homes of drought-stricken farmers to collect every last grain of food inside, according to a report that highlights rising tensions between the regime and the public.

        The raids come weeks after news surfaced that soldiers in Kim’s army are being given months off at a time to scrounge around fields to find food.

The Norks don't have the logistic capability to fight a war, even if only for a few days. If they can't "win" within 24 to 48 hours, they won't win. 

• While we are on the topic of the wages of sin socialism: "Venezuela's economic collapse, by the numbers"--Axios. Short version: hyperinflation.

• Related: "Corporate America's nightmare in Venezuela is getting worse"--CNN Money. Venezuelan oil production continues to decline--notwithstanding an increase in oil prices--because the country (which had nationalized its oil industry) has not been paying the companies that provide maintenance and supplies for its oil infrastructure, and these companies are cutting their losses and stopping delivery. Venezuela has run out of other people's money.

• The wages of sin socialism (U.S. edition): "REPORT: New England Faces A Future Of ‘Rolling Blackouts’ As Power Plants Close"--Daily Caller. New England states have been closing older power plants and relying more heavily on natural gas powered electrical plants. However, environmentalists have successfully stopped dead any new pipelines to bring natural gas into the region. Democratic New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo has been particularly opposed to any new pipelines. The consequence is that there is insufficient pipeline capacity for periods of peak natural gas usage, such as the recent cold snap that hit much of the East Coast. This should become more interesting as we progress deeper into the solar minimum over the next decade. Cuomo and his ilk probably believe that "global warming" obviates any need for new pipelines. I suspect that as the lie of "global warming" becomes irrevocably plain, it will engender a significant loss of trust in government and science.
• Evidence that discrimination in employment is dead--blacks can't even meet the minimal requirement to show an adverse employment action was in any minuscule part due to racial animus: "Being black in America is a ‘disability,’ black law professor argues"--The College Fix. The article indicates: "A black law professor argues that African Americans should embrace the notion that being black in America is a disability as a new legal strategy toward enacting protections for the black community against unconscious bias, stereotyping and structural inequality."
• And the land grab over Syria begins: "Turkey warned US ahead of Syria airstrikes, report says"--CNN. The Turks have launched air strikes and moved troops across the border into Syria, ostensibly to fight the U.S. backed Kurds. 

• Related: "America Sleepwalks Towards a Clash With the Turks in Syria"--American Conservative. Pat Buchanan warns that "[t]he war for dominance in the Middle East, following the destruction of ISIS, appears about to commence in Syria—with NATO allies America and Turkey on opposing sides." The reason for the U.S. being at odds with Turkey is as I noted above: the U.S. is backing the Kurds, which the Turks regard as a mortal peril to Turkey and its security (because of restive Kurds in Turkey's eastern provinces). He also predicts that "[i]f Erdogan is serious, a clash with the United States is coming, as our Kurdish allies occupy most of Syria’s border with Turkey." I think that Buchanan underestimates Erdogan's imperial ambitions, and that any excuse would have been found to try and snatch territory from Syria. It must be remembered that the borders of these Middle-Easter countries are largely arbitrary, drawn up by the winning powers following World War I, and Turkey has long historical precedent for seeking to recover territory it lost after the First World War. However, as I've noted before, the U.S. strategy in the Middle-East for at least two decades has been to keep the region in such turmoil that no single nation can become a regional power. That is, as George Friedman has described, we don't need to win, we simply have to keep anyone else from winning. Thus, we should expect to be ensnared in the Middle-East for some time to come.

• "These Birds of Prey Are Deliberately Setting Forests on Fire"--Science Alert. The author writes:

        According to the team, firehawk raptors congregate in hundreds along burning fire fronts, where they will fly into active fires to pick up smouldering sticks, transporting them up to a kilometre (0.6 miles) away to regions the flames have not yet scorched.

          "The imputed intent of raptors is to spread fire to unburned locations – for example, the far side of a watercourse, road, or artificial break created by firefighters – to flush out prey via flames or smoke," the researchers write.

          This behaviour, documented in interviews with the team and observed first-hand by some of the researchers, sees prey driven toward the raptors by a wall of flame, enabling them to engage in a feeding frenzy upon fleeing or scorched land animals.

• The past is a foreign country, and we don't even have a good map: "Beringians"--West Hunt. Commenting on DNA evidence from the remains of a 11-thousand year old individual in North America, the author states:

        One very important point, naturally mentioned in none of the press accounts, is what they didn’t see: the Alaskan kid didn’t have any of the Australo-Melanesian, Andamanese-like component that exists in Amazonian Indians today. The Clovis-complex Anzick-1 skeleton from Montana, about 12.6k years old, was a member of the southern Amerindian branch – but it didn’t have any Andamanese-like component either.

         So we’re saying that a Beringian population, pretty close to the common ancestors of the Northern and Southern Amerindians branches, didn’t have the Andaman-like admixture.

         The Northern branch doesn’t seem to have it today.

         Only some members of the Southern branch have it today: the earliest known sample from the southern population doesn’t have it.

         Therefore the Southern branch (some of them) very likely picked it up after they left Beringia, also after they split with the northern branch. Which means it was already there before the Amerindians came down from Beringia. Probably in Brazil.

Hollywood's Integrity Problem

        As you know or suspect, one of the news sites I hit most days is the U.K.'s Daily Mail. Today, scrolling through the headlines, I saw this from Piers Morgan's column: "If you think #TimesUp for Hollywood hypocrites like sanctimonious Scarlett, #MeToo." The subject of Morgan's column was actress Scarlett Johansson's public tirade against James Franco for alleged sexual impropriety (allegations he denies, by the way), while professing an open mind as to whether Woody Allen molested his adopted daughter, and appearing to be on at least friendly terms with  Roman Polanski according to Morgan. Of course, Johansson is not the only actress that has selective outrage.

        The point of Morgan's column, though, is that Johansson is being a hypocrite. The antonym of being a hypocrite is integrity. Although integrity has taken on the popular meaning of being honest or moral, the more accurate definition is a bit more nuanced: "the state of being whole and undivided" or "an unimpaired condition; soundness" (as in, a sound piece of wood). In other words, the person is publicly and privately consistent or harmonious in his or her actions, statements and positions.

        The problem that Hollywood--or any of the so-called elites, for that matter--face is that they lack integrity. Their position on moral or social issues changes or varies constantly. Their actions rarely match their words. For instance, Al Gore or Leonardo DiCaprio warn of the need to reduce our carbon footprint even as they fly their private jets to the various mansions and compounds that they maintain. Actresses dress provocatively while complaining about unwanted sexual advances. Et cetera.

       Notwithstanding the example of our so-called "betters," I believe that many, if not most, people strive to have or demonstrate integrity. It was the desire for integrity that Christ exploited to save the prostitute from stoning, when he stated: "He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her." (See John 8). Out of guilt or shame, the accusers left without anyone casting a stone at the woman. And the reason they left is because to have cast a stone would have made them hypocrites, but they strove for integrity, whether actual or perceived. (And our Lord, who has perfect integrity, forgave the woman her sin, but also directed her to "go, and sin no more").

       Let us strive for integrity.

A New Weekend Knowledge Dump for January 19, 2017

Greg Ellifritz (Active Response Training) has a new "Weekend Knowledge Dump" up for this week. Among the various articles to which he links, he also has a link to a free PDF download of Stephen Wenger's Defensive Use of Firearms. Because of Paladin Press closing its doors, Wenger has decided to make his book free for download. Anyway, check it out, as well as all the other great articles.

January 17, 2017 -- A Quick Run Around the Web

From Survival Russia: "Helping Out Survival Lilly With Saws And Safety" (17 min.)

This video is intended as a follow up to Survival Lilly's recent review of different styles of survival or outdoor saws.

• "How to prepare for — and survive — a nuclear bombing"--New York Post. Whereas I posted a link to the "duck and cover" video, which teaches how to survive the blast effects of a nuclear weapon (assuming you aren't in the kill zone), this article describes methods of surviving nuclear fallout and radiation. Not an in-depth discussion, but it provides some of the basics.

• Related: "Pentagon Document Confirms Existence of Russian Doomsday Torpedo"--Popular Mechanics. The weapon is supposed to be able to carry a 100 megaton warhead--nearly twice as large as the largest nuclear warhead every detonated. According to the article:

Kanyon [the weapon's codename] is designed to attack coastal areas, destroying cities, naval bases, and ports. The mega-bomb would also generate an artificial tsunami that would surge inland, spreading radioactive contamination with the advancing water. To make matters worse there are reports the warhead is “salted” with the radioactive isotope Cobalt-60. Contaminated areas would be off-limits to humanity for up to 100 years.

Although the article suggests that development of the weapon system was spurred to avoid any ballistic missile or bomber aircraft defenses that the United States may have, the semi-autonomous nature of the weapon reflects another issue of such a weapon: getting far enough away that the crew delivering the weapon would not be killed by their own weapon, which would be the case if it was dropped from an aircraft.

• "What You Need To Know About The Barrel Break-In Process"--Shooting Sports USA. An excerpt:

Barrels with a very smooth interior tend to foul less than those with a rough interior. The goal for shooters here, is to create a bore condition that will produce less fouling. Accomplish this by micro-burnishing any radial tooling marks left in the barrel in the direction of bullet travel. This is where the “fire, clean, fire, clean” method (for many shots) helps make the barrel smoother.

• A note from the Security & Self-Reliance blog authors: "We’ve Remodeled One of Our Websites.. 24/7 News Headlines for those that prefer the outdoor life." The site in question is their Baugo Blades page, which has news feeds of a whole slew of outdoors/hunting/fishing blogs and sites.
• "SURRENDER Bump Stocks – Massachusetts To Issue Police Destruction Letter"--The Firearms Blog. Looks like a takings matter in the offing.
• Max Velocity discusses "The Warrior Mindset and Firearms Culture." Basically, he describes how the ability to shoot--even if you can shoot well--is insufficient to create a "warrior." But many people delude themselves otherwise.
• A monograph on guerrilla medicine: "The Death of the Golden Hour and the Return of the Future Guerrilla Hospital" (PDF 1 mb). It appears to be more a history and analysis of the place of guerrilla medicine in special warfare operations, rather than a "how-to" on medical care. (H/t Western Rifle Shooters Association).
• Paging Al Gore: "More than 1,200 flights cancelled as 57 million East Coasters - from Florida to Maine - are hit with snow, ice and freezing cold temperatures"--Daily Mail. 
• Failed state alert, and a glimpse at how order might be restored after an apocalypse: "Losing Faith in the State, Some Mexican Towns Quietly Break Away"--Borderland Beat. From the article:

Tancítaro represents a quiet but telling trend in Mexico, where a handful of towns and cities are effectively seceding, partly or in whole. These are acts of desperation, revealing the degree to which Mexico’s police and politicians are seen as part of the threat.

It goes on:

        It began with an uprising. Townspeople formed militias to eject both the cartel, which effectively controlled much of Michoacán, and the local police, who were seen as complicit. Orchard owners, whose families and businesses faced growing extortion threats, bankrolled the revolt.

        This left Tancítaro without police or a government, whose officials had fled. Power accumulated to the militias that controlled the streets and to their backers, an organization of wealthy avocado growers known as the Junta de Sanidad Vegetal, or Plant Health Council. Citizens sometimes call it the Junta.

        Nearly four years in, long after other militia-run towns in Michoacán collapsed into violence, the streets remain safe and tidy. But in sweeping away the institutions that enabled crime to flourish, Tancítaro created a system that in many ways resembles cartel control.

         Their rule began with a purge. Young men suspected of involvement in the cartel were expelled. Low-level runners or informants, mostly boys, were allowed to stay, though the cartel murdered most in retaliation, a militia commander said.

       Though violence eventually cooled, the wartime power structure has remained. The militias now act as the police, as well as guards for the town perimeter and the avocado orchards.

       Cinthia Garcia Nieves, a young community organizer, moved into town shortly after the fighting subsided. Idealistic but clear-minded, she wanted to help Tancítaro develop real institutions.

        But lines of authority had “blurred,” she said in a cafe near the town center.

        Ms. Nieves set up citizens’ councils as a way for local families to get involved. But militia rule has accustomed many to the idea that power belongs to whomever has the guns.

       She has high hopes for community justice forums, designed to punish crimes and resolve disputes. But, in practice, justice is often determined — and punishments administered — by whichever militia commander chooses to involve himself.

Note that the situation follows the maxim: political power flows from the muzzle of a gun.

• "Armed Antifa Apparently Involved In Charlottesville Death Of Heather Heyer"--Captain's Journal. You remember the infamous Charlottesville rally and the incident where James Fields drove into a crowd of people, killing one protester? There were suggestions at the time that Fields actions were because he was a fleeing a group of protesters that were attacking him and his vehicle. Now Herschel Smith notes an apparent admission by a member of the Redneck Revolt that they had been threatening Fields with a rifle just prior to the incident.
• "Beijing seeks loyalty from ethnic Chinese with foreign passports"--Ejinsight. From the article:

        Much has been said about China’s growing nationalism but little attention has been paid to its increasing assertion of something akin to sovereignty over ethnic Chinese who are citizens of other countries.

         While this is particularly noteworthy in Hong Kong, it is also true in the United States, Australia and other countries.

         What China wants is for foreign citizens of ethnic Chinese background to be loyal to the “motherland” – meaning China – regardless of their citizenship and to work to further the interests of China.

        This was disclosed in the People’s Daily a couple of years ago when it encouraged “more and more overseas Chinese to participate in the local political life”.

        It referred to specifically to Congresswoman Judy Chu of California, who was born in the United States of immigrant parents, as someone “participating in politics in foreign countries”.

        The Chinese government wants to make use of foreign politicians who happen to be of Chinese extraction to support its causes, such as in its territorial dispute with Japan.

         The Chinese consul general in San Francisco, Luo Linquan, at an annual reception last December for American families that had adopted Chinese babies, reminded the young American girls and women that China was the land of their birth and that China would never forget them.

         “You grow up speaking English,” the Chinese diplomat said but then added, “Yet your black eyes, black hair and dark skin all remind you that you are Chinese.”

          He encouraged them to learn Chinese and to develop a “Chinese spirit”.

          Being able to win the sympathy and support of this large group of Americans would be a great boost to Chinese influence in the US. About 100,000 Chinese babies have been adopted by American couples in the last 25 years.

          In Australia, there have been charges that official Chinese propaganda was being used to influence the opinion and behavior of Australians of Chinese background.

         “Beijing’s clandestine intrusion into our local Chinese press will have an impact on national security if it is not rooted out,” The Age reported in 2014.

          The Chinese Communist Party’s propaganda bureau, the newspaper reported, was “buying up radio stations and newspapers across the country and channeling the voice of Beijing into them from editorial offices in China”.

           Of course, this would primarily influence immigrants rather than native-born Australians, but such an influence should not be discounted. China clearly considers this to be important.

           What all this means is that China is trying very hard to extend its influence abroad by using ethnic Chinese overseas, appealing to their sense of being Chinese, even though they are foreign citizens and had left the country of their birth.

        Why is this important? Generally, it is important because it represents a group that seeks to retain its separateness from other Americans--to not fully integrate. We see this all the time, such as Hispanics that march with or wave Mexican flags, or, just the other day, Haitian immigrants that apparently forget that they were American and criticized Trump for supposedly calling "their nation" (i.e., Haiti) a  "s***hole." 

         More specifically, however, it is a national security threat because the loyalty to the home country or culture may override loyalty to the United States. For instance, just today, there are reports that a former CIA officer, Jerry Chun Shing Lee, also known as Zhen Cheng Li, was arrested on espionage charges. "A naturalized U.S. citizen, Lee faces up to 10 years in prison on charges of 'unlawful retention of national defense information.'" What he did, however, is much worse: he turned over to China the names of dozens of the United States' top informants in China. As The New York Times describes it:

        More than a dozen C.I.A. informants were killed or imprisoned by the Chinese government. The extent to which the informant network was unraveled, reported last year by The New York Times, was a devastating setback for the C.I.A.

       Officials said the number of informants lost in China rivaled losses in the Soviet Union and Russia during the betrayals of both Aldrich Ames and Robert Hanssen, formerly of the C.I.A. and the F.B.I. They divulged intelligence operations to Moscow for years.

Although this may be one of the more egregious examples, it is not the only one. 

•  "Christianity Is K, And It Is Coming Back"--Anonymous Conservative notes that biblical Christianity teaches K-selected behaviors. He explains:

         To me, a big argument in favor of Christianity is that it basically is an owner’s manual for the K-selected human being. Eons before anybody ever contemplated the idea of reproductive strategies, there was the Bible, explaining how to be K-selected.

          Now, we can look back, and see how all of these traits are logically and scientifically sound. We can see the mechanism behind them. We can see how science supports every aspect of it. We can even see the Apocalypse, complete with the four horsemen, warming up right before our eyes. But way back before all of that, there it was, truth revealed and ascribed to by decent people the world over because there were just enough glimpses behind the curtains every so often to let people know it was truth.

        The Creator gave people just enough of what they needed to help them find their path.

Well, as I like to point out, God is a really smart guy.

Thoughts Regarding Concealed Carry and Grappling

A reader sends:

        I had a couple thoughts that I wanted to share w/ you [regarding] the issue of concealed carry and grappling.  The late Paul Gomez was a friend of mine and we discussed this at some length on a couple of occasions.  He was working w/ Craig Douglas ("SouthNarc") at the time teaching the ECQC course.  Paul said that, while grappling with a student, if he could get his hand on a handgun in a Kydex holster he could take it.  He felt that the most secure holsters were leather holsters worn IWB and said something like "They're the toughest to get.  If a guy even halfway knows what he's doing, you're not taking it from something like a MIlt Sparks Summer Special or a Kramer holster". 

       More recently, in a discussion on TPI [Total Participant Involvement training], Craig wrote of the Safariland 537 holster (link below) "I like it. No issues at all gun grappling. Not the most concealable holster but for wintertime or a looser fit jacket it'll be just fine. It's certainly the MOST concealable holster I've personally found with a worthwhile retention device." 

        https://www.amazon.com/Safariland-Concealment-Slide-Holster-537-83-61/dp/B01FSOEMD8/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1515957047&sr=8-1&keywords=safariland+holster+537 

(Brackets added). Also, in response to comment I made about Fobus holsters, he noted:

        [Regarding] Fobus.  Their holsters are garbage.  I've seen them come apart in gun grappling exercises.  This IS NOT typical of Kydex holsters many of which are well made/ solidly constructed (e.g., BladeTech, Raven, Spencer Keepers).  I don't think Fobus holsters are actually even Kydex. 

        The issue [with regard] to retention of Kydex vs. leather is the way that Kydex releases all at once.  The same thing that makes Kydex slightly faster (consistently .25 seconds or more in tests friends and I have done), to draw from makes it less secure.  It's a trade off, speed vs. security. 

       If I were a cop who went "hands on" w/ bad guys I'd absolutely wear leather (some high percentage of cops are killed w/ their own guns and I'd hazard a guess most lost them tussling w/ a suspect).  If I was taking a class @ Rogers Shooting School, I'd choose Kydex.  For most armed citizens it doesn't much matter as both needing the .25 second or losing their weapon gun grappling are extremely unlikely and one would never know which one of these unlikely events would occur.  I wear leather because I find it more comfortable to wear all day.  

(Brackets added). He also highly recommended Craig Douglas' Extreme Close Quarters Concepts class.