VIDEO: "Rappelling For The Prepared Citizen"

  

 VIDEO: "Rappelling for the Prepared Citizen - Introduction and Basics"
Echo Mike (46 min.)

¡No Pasarán!: The Real Reason For The Covid Panic

 In his piece, "'Fauci did his bit, played his part, and was lavishly rewarded by the press': So how did a virus with a ~.02%-.04% mortality rate become 24/7 headline news? It became battle prep for the 2020 election steal,"  the author observes:

So how did a virus with a ~.02%-.04% mortality rate become 24/7 headline news? It became battle prep for the 2020 election steal, an incessant drumbeat of death and lockdowns and an economy gone sideways, an endless news cycle of bad news. The dark powers went all in and, among other illegalities, introduced the loosey-goosey mail-in ballot to complement stay-at-home COVID bug-a-boos and hysteria. And who would've suspected if it had been a repeat 2016 squeaker, but the dark powers didn't want to beat Trump they wanted to humiliate him, break him, to politically memory-hole him. So they fabricated 81M+ votes for zombie candidate Biden from the fag-end of Obama 44. That's 11,784,985 votes over peak Obama (2008) and 6,265,888 over Harris's $2B+ mad money campaign (2024). [Pause.] Yeah.  

 On a related note, Declan Finn writes about "Fauci the murderer." He begins:

    Doctor Anthony Fauci killed my father.

    If he’s not a direct killer, he was at least an accomplice.

    When my father came down with an infection that played havoc with his blood sugar, the hospital treating him dismissed it as “just an infection,” and because hospital was operating on COVID protocols and couldn’t be bothered to do their job, they sent him home without stabilizing his blood sugar.

    My father was dead before the week was out. 

And he correctly points out: "In fact, everything labeled a 'conspiracy theory' was true, and if you had a big enough microphone to say that, Fauci made it his job to crush you" 

FBI Data: Murders By Race

From Guns America: "FBI Murder Data Reveals Who Commits Homicides, Who Victims Are." Not surprisingly to anyone that pays attention to facts over propaganda, "[a]ccording to the FBI data analyzed by the CPRC, Black offenders accounted for 56.4% of known murderers in 2024." Also, "[t]he report also compares each group’s share of murderers with its share of the overall U.S. population." And the results?

If every demographic group committed murders strictly in proportion to its share of the population, everyone would score 1.0. Instead, the CPRC found one group stood far apart from the rest. Black males registered 8.3, White males were 1.2, and every other demographic group came in below 1.0. 

And if you think the White ratio seems high, you are correct because it lumps Hispanics with Whites; and we know from other studies that Hispanics commit homicides at rates well above those of Whites. 

Fauci's Holocaust

Kevin Downey Jr. has a piece over at PJ Media entitled "COVID-19: Fauci's Holocaust." And I think he is spot on in his observations laying this at the feet of Fauci. Some of the points raised in the article:

COVID was nothing less than a modern-day Holocaust.  It killed roughly seven million people worldwide. Economies crumbled, and trillions of dollars were lost. Families were kept apart on holidays. We watched our grandparents die alone on tablets. Funerals were either not allowed or limited to 10 people. Children didn't go to school, creating years of educational and emotional damage they still feel today.

[snip]

 The COVID virus and the responses were some of the most evil, premeditated tactics humans have ever wrought upon mankind. What we also endured was a years-long propaganda-fest that would ideologically tear families apart, cost people their livelihoods, and have people at each other's throats in what many were duped into believing was an existential threat to everyone on the planet.

 Here's what we know:

• Fauci decided to sidestep restrictions on gain-of-function research in the U.S. so, through grants and contracts, pursued gain-of-function research at the Wuhan Institute of Virology.
• There, researchers created the COVID-19 virus which, whether by accident or deliberately, was released, quickly spreading in China and, thence, to the rest of the world. 
• Fauci's diary states on February 8, 2020, that he believed that COVID's fatality rate at 0.2-0.3%, but on March 10, he stated it was 10 times higher, which lie he repeated in testimony to Congress.
• He was a key figure urging the lockdowns, notwithstanding that COVID was no more fatal than seasonal flu. And he "admitted in his diary that he convinced elected leaders to continue the lockdowns for as long as he deemed necessary."
• He was a key figure behind mask mandates although he knew that the masks did nothing to prevent the spread of the virus 
• He used the lockdowns as a way of forcing people to get the vaccination.
• And he did all of this for fame, money, and self-aggrandizement.  

14 Abandoned Towns And Cities From Around The World

Pyramiden, Svalbard--a Russian coal mining settlement abandoned in 1998

The article is "14 Abandoned Cities Around the World With Eerily Beautiful Architecture" from Architectural Digest. The cities range from ancient settlements like Mesa Verde (Colorado) to more modern abandoned towns and settlements in California, Russia, the UAE, and more. Some I was already familiar with from other articles or videos, but some were new to me. 

Gun & Prepping News #92

 Some links that may be of interest: 

• "Hero armed citizen opened fire on Idaho In-N-Out gunman, tried to stop shooting that left 2 dead, 7 wounded: harrowing video"--The New York Post.  
• "The Case Against FliteControl" by Travis Pike, The Truth About Guns. The author, who admits to using the 8-pellet Winchester buckshot with the FliteControl wad in his self-defense shotgun, writes:

For me, the biggest argument against FliteControl is the same argument for FliteControl: the pattern is tight. When dealing with typical home defense ranges, every shotgun load is firing a fairly tight pattern due to the limited range. A standard shotgun pattern is tight enough that the likelihood of an errant pellet is quite low.

When we reduce the pattern to a hole slightly larger than a 12-gauge slug, we are losing out on a big benefit to throwing multiple pellets per trigger pull. The little bit of spread we are getting at home defense ranges can help us put pellets where it matters.   

What I believe he is getting at is that you just don't need it for self defense inside the home because the distances are so short.  

• "August 2026 Rangemaster Drill of the Month: 3 Seconds Standard, Vers. 2.0"--The Tactical Wire. Revisiting a point made in the Weekend Reading column:

“The DEA in 2007 had 44 incidents in which shots were fired against criminals. The average engagement distance was 14.6 feet. The typical American sedan is 16 feet long, so we could just say, about a car length. 

“In the case of our students who had to shoot in self-defense, the distances involved were: 

Contact distance 4% 

3-7 yards 91% 

Beyond 7 yards 4%

“The 3 shootings beyond 7 yards were at 15,17 and 22 yards, so some work at that sort of distance is needed, but not a lot. 

“So, we put the vast majority of our effort in class on fast, reliable vital zone hits at the 3,5, and 7 yard lines, with a heavy emphasis on 3-5 yards. Three yards could be classified as conversational distance” and is the zone in which we normally talk to strangers. Five yards is essentially one car length. 7 yards is across a large room. If you think in those terms, the reason 91% of our shootings took place at from 3 to 7 yards makes a lot of sense. Keep this in mind when structuring your practice sessions.” 

• Conversely: "The Long Line – Practice for Precision"--Tactical Wire.  

If you want to be able to shoot at all well at 25 yards, you train at fifty yards. That’s the take from a bullseye shooter – at least one and likely many more. It’s also the take of Pat McNamara, a name familiar to those interested in the tactical/personal protection aspect of firearms. 

• "Civilian Marksmanship Program Announces Sale of M14s"--Bearing Arms. No details on prices or availability. In its announcement, "the CMP revealed that the rifles will be modified to be 'permanently and irreversibly semi-automatic rifles,' and will be 'fully compliant with CMP enabling legislation authorizing the transfer and sale of military surplus .30 caliber rifles.'" My guess--and it is only a guess--is that this means that they will be shipping them with new receivers.
• This looks interesting: Sightmark has released a red dot they are calling the G-Shot. What makes it unique is that the red dot is incorporated into a chassis or frame that is designed to fit over the rear of a standard Gen 3, 4, or 5 Glock slide with no modifications to the slide or need to remove the rear sights. 
• "Deep Concealment: Shedding Light on Pocket Carry"--Athlon Outdoors.  

    While deep concealment is the most common, pocket carry shines in a backup-gun role. Many armed citizens and law enforcement officers have long relied on small revolvers or compact pistols carried in a pocket as a secondary firearm. This provides access to a weapon if the primary gun becomes unavailable or if one hand is occupied. Carrying a backup gun in the support-side pocket can create additional options during a defensive encounter. While not everyone needs a second firearm, pocket carry remains one of the most practical methods for those who choose to carry one.

    For others, pocket carry may simply be the only realistic option. Physical limitations, work attire, body type, or daily activities may make traditional waistband carry difficult. The best carry method is often the one that a person can realistically maintain every day. The key is being honest about your situation. Carrying a smaller firearm in your pocket is far better than leaving a larger firearm at home. However, that decision should be made thoughtfully and not solely for convenience. 

• "Review: .45 Long Colt — History and Ammo Recommendations"--The Mag Life. This is one of only a small number of cartridges that successfully made the transition from black powder to modern smokeless powder. 
• "Marines Just Added AI That Turns M240 Machine Guns Into Drone Killers"--Military.com. A system that automates the tracking and targeting of the drones. 

    According to specs provided to Military.com, the system relies on passive sensing rather than radar, which helps keep the host platform’s signature low. Pointing accuracy is listed at less than one minute of angle.

    In the M240 configuration, the cyclic rate is 850 rounds per minute, and the company has repeatedly highlighted a cost per kill measured in the low tens of dollars, driven largely by the price of the ammunition itself. 

• "Sawyer Mini Not Flowing After Storage? How to Restore It"--Modern Survival Blog. The author explains:

    If your Sawyer Mini barely flows after months or years in storage, do not assume it is worn out. The hollow fibers may need to be fully re-wetted. Sediment or mineral deposits may also be blocking the small passageways.

    The best first step is to run clean water through the filter in the normal direction. Then backflush it forcefully with the included syringe. A stubborn filter may need a warm-water soak or a separate white-vinegar soak.

    This matters for anyone who keeps a water filter in an emergency kit. A filter that worked when stored may seem almost useless when you suddenly need it.

    That is especially true when the kit has never been opened or tested since the day it was purchased.

The remainder of the article provides more detailed directions and explanations.

• "Boot Care: How to properly care for your boots."--Joint Force Tactical.  Instructions on cleaning, drying, water proofing, and conditioning of the boot material. 
• "Best Hand Saw for Cutting Logs and Firewood"--Modern Survival Blog. The "best" is somewhat a misnomer because what is best depends on what is the size of the wood and whether you have someone to help you or are working alone. But he goes over different saws what where they excel. 
• The inevitable result of a natural disaster: "Looting breaks out in Bordeaux's empty suburbs as wildfire inferno so big it makes its own lightning storms moves to just seven miles from city"--Daily Mail.  
• "Parasite outbreak explodes to more than 10,000 cases in one state as hundreds are hospitalized nationwide"--Daily Mail. The state is Michigan, and the parasites discussed in the article are not Somalis but cyclosporiasis, "a sickness that causes diarrhea and stomach pain." 

VIDEO: The People You'd Meet On A Medieval Road

 Back when most people walked or used small carts and most of Europe was but empty forest, travel was not as frequent or distant as today. And this impacted the type of people you might encounter on the road. 

 VIDEO: "STRANGE people you meet on a MEDIEVAL ROAD"
Modern History TV (46 min.)

VIDEO: The Origins Of Little Red Riding Hood?

 The oldest version of Little Red Riding Hood, according to this video, was much darker than the tale we know today, having elements of a werewolf, murder, cannibalism, and human sacrifice. The video goes on to suggest that the tale may have its source in even older practices of a wolf cult and transformation brought on by eating certain types of meat.  

VIDEO: "Is a Real Wolf Cult Hiding in Little Red Riding Hood?"
The Resurrectionists (14 min.)

VIDEO: Extreme Close Quarters Shooting

From the description: "firearms trainer Ralph Mroz takes a critical look at the most commonly taught contact-distance shooting techniques". 

 VIDEO: "Extreme Close Quarters Shooting: A Critical Analysis of Contact-Distance Shooting Tactics (1999)" - SUPERTAPE Video Archive (57 min.)

Weekend Reading #67

Some longer or more involved reading:

• First is the Weekend Knowledge Dump from Greg Ellifritz at Active Response Training. These posts are generally collections of articles related to self-defense or firearms articles with a self-defense bent, but also articles on other topics such as prepping, first aid or trauma care, travel, and self-improvement. Some of the links that grabbed my attention in particular this week were:
• The August 2026 Rangemaster news letter. These generally feature one or more drills to practice, a couple/few articles of interest to concealed carriers or trainers, reports on one or two classes, and the like. For this reason, I try to read the Rangemaster newsletter when it comes out. If Greg doesn't mention it in his Weekend Knowledge Dump, Jon Low will link to it in his bi-weekly newsletter. In any event, one of the articles in the August issue is distances in self-defense shootings. Typically the statistics we see for this are actually derived from police shootings, not civilian self defense. This article instead look at FBI and Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) statistics whose agents generally wear plain civilian clothing, with concealed pistols. The hope is that it more generally represents what a civilian would face. The FBI/DEA statistics are roughly 70% at 0-7 yards, 20% at 7-15 yards, and the remainder at over 15 yards. But the article also notes:

In the case of our students who had to shoot in self-defense, the distances involved were:
Contact distance 4%
3-7 yards 91%
Beyond 7 yards 4%

The 3 shootings beyond 7 yards were at 15,17 and 22 yards, so some work at that sort of distance is needed, but not a lot. 

• You may have heard about changes to the Post Office's rules on mailing firearms, which now allow firearms to be mailed. But the important part to remember is that the rule does not do away with other firearms laws and their requirements. The article Greg links to explains:

    ... The Gun Control Act of 1968 still generally requires that handguns transferred between unlicensed individuals across state lines go through a Federal Firearms Licensee in the recipient’s state. What the USPS rule change does is remove the additional federal mailing prohibition that sat on top of that framework — a prohibition that applied even to fully lawful FFL-to-FFL shipments, FFL-to-customer shipments where permitted, and other transfers that were otherwise completely legal under the GCA but could not move through the Postal Service specifically.

    In practical terms: an FFL shipping a handgun to another FFL for a customer transfer, a manufacturer shipping a pistol back to a customer after warranty service, or an individual shipping a handgun to a licensed dealer for consignment or sale — all of these transactions were legal under the GCA before April 2026, but could not use USPS. Now they can. The universe of handgun transactions that require an FFL has not changed. The shipping options available for those transactions have expanded significantly.

•  An article discussing pocket carry, including this observation: "A small pocket pistol can be easily slipped into a pocket regardless of weather conditions and takes virtually no time to don. The convenience of pocket carry means you'll probably carry your gun more often." IMHO, everyone that conceals carry should at least have a handgun and holster for pocket carry even if they don't intend it to be their primary carry gun. 
• Lucky Gunner trashes the Walther PPK as a carry gun. He notes that it was actually quite groundbreaking when it came out in the 1930s--and frankly it would still have been a good option in the 1960s when the original Bond films were made--but there are far better options today. Which is probably why Walther pulled it from the market with the intent to update it. 
• Greg included an article from The Truth About Guns on selecting the correct barrel length for your .300 BLK pistol, carbine, or SBR if you intend to silence it. You can't go wrong with a 9" barrel for either subsonic or supersonic loads. However, I wish now that I had gone an inch or two shorter just to make it easier to put into a pack. 
• A great article on managing the grip and manual safeties on a 1911 style pistol. 
• An article reminding us that criminals do not think like most of us--at least in the West. They suffer from antisocial thinking patterns, with many sociopaths and psychopaths among them. 

Criminals think in such selfish all or nothing terms because believing themselves omniscient and knowing everything, they sense no need to evaluate a situation at any length (unless casing out a place to commit a crime). For the criminal mind, just thinking something makes it so. If a person is certain of his omniscience and infallibility, he has no reason to engage in the rational mental processes that are necessary for making decisions, like defining the problem, establishing a realistic objective, suspending judgment, gathering facts, evaluating alternatives, and selecting a rational, thought-out solution. If criminals want something, they obtain it very quickly, one way or the other without rational decision-making and concern for their victims. 

•  And an article on first aid for animal bites, useful for anyone in the outdoors, but also for SHTF which might see feral or scared animals. And, frankly, there are some urban areas that have problems with feral dogs. 

•  "The Cost of America's Broken Immigration System" by Ken Salazar, Time Magazine. I include this, not because I agree with or value Salazar's opinions (I don't), but as an example of leftist propaganda. It starts with a personal story of tragedy--specifically focusing on a single female migrant and her son injured when the trailer they were riding in rolled over in an auto-accident--in order to create a sense of sympathy and disarm your critical thinking skills. He wants you to think "this poor woman...she deserves an opportunity to come to the United States" and then expand that sympathy to include all of the hordes trying to breach our borders. 

    And then the switch from sympathy to guilt (Western societies are unique in being driven by guilt). This he does through these two sentences: "This incident, and countless other tragedies like it, is what inaction looks like. And for decades, both American political parties have been responsible for it." No, our country and our politicians were not the one's that told that woman to get into a trailer packed with dozens of other people, nor did we cause the accident. The woman did something stupid and suffered consequences. 

    Salazar continues: "As U.S. ambassador, I urgently and passionately made the argument to people in the White House and the halls of Congress that we needed to fix our border and find durable solutions. I warned Democrats that if we did not address this, it would contribute to defeat in the November 2024 elections. I’m sorry to say I was correct." Well, this seems reasonable. We need to fix the borders. But here is the reversal:

Trump was right that the border was broken and needed to be fixed. But his plan of enforcement, tearing families apart, terrorizing communities with mass ICE raids, and pitting nations against nations is not the solution. 

In other words, he is saying that if you don't want illegals to remain here and believe they have to go back--because sending them back will require arrests--you are no better than a terrorist.

    So at this point Salazar hopes the reader will be nodding his (or more likely, her) head in agreement, waiting with baited breath for Salazar to offer some reasonable solution. And that is?

I propose the creation of a New American Alliance, a North America where the borders, migration, and our nation's deep economic and cultural ties are fixed to create an untapped opportunity rather than a manufactured crisis. It is a truer expression of who we are as Americans—people who achieve greatness when we are united and when we work together toward common goals. 

In other words, his idea of fixing the border is to simply do away with borders. Just let them all in and f*** all you lessor mortals that will actually have to live with the consequences.  

    And we have an example of this right now from the Spanish enclave of Ceuta on the North Africa coast, with the New York Post reporting:

    An unprecedented wave of 60,000 illegal migrants from Africa has flooded the Spanish enclave of Ceuta, prompting Spain to deploy its military – as locals liken the invasion to an “apocalypse.”

    Harrowing local media reports reveal residents and business owners in Ceuta – a Spanish territory located on the north African coast – are terrified to open their doors amid the rush of migrants, many of whom arrived wearing nothing but swimwear without a penny or possession to their name.

    “Businesses closed. Shops shut because if you open a business, it gets overrun … We’re scared. The streets are packed. There are no measures in place. It’s every man for himself. They’re not giving us any help,” a terrified downtown restaurant owner who didn’t want to give their name told state-owned Spanish media outlet RTVE. 

• "Discover the Mysteries of Italy’s Park of Monsters, a 16th-Century Garden Filled With Strange, Colossal Stone Creatures"--Smithsonian Magazine. From the lede:

    Visiting the Sacro Bosco (Italian for Sacred Grove), a 16th-century garden in Bomarzo, Italy, is no ordinary walk through the park. The seven-acre site’s sculpted monsters, open tombs and dramatic depictions of supernatural combatants make the experience more akin to braving a Renaissance version of a haunted house. Visitors can wander through a tilted building, run away from a giant gaping mouth and—if they manage to get past Cerberus, the three-headed dog who guards the gates of the underworld—descend into hell.

    The Sacro Bosco’s colossal stone statues are frightening to behold. But what makes this garden extra eerie is that no one knows for sure why monsters haunt these woods. “No receipts, account books or commission documents survive to tell us about the Sacro Bosco’s creation,” says John Garton, an art historian at Clark University and the co-author of an upcoming book about the garden. Pier Francesco Orsini, the duke who commissioned the Sacro Bosco in the mid-1500s, left no explicit clues.

An interesting read and lots of photos.