Wilder Has Iran Update

John Wilder has an update on the Iran war: "Iran So Far Away: Million-Dollar Bombs Versus $3,000 Drones and Day 23 of the 4 Day Operation to Liberate Iran." Short take: oil prices are going up as fast as our missile stockpiles are going down. 

VIDEO: Making Your Own Self-Sealing Targets

You probably have already come across blog or forum posts where people describe using horse stall mats to make their own self-sealing targets. The following video discusses this, including a description of how the author made the targets and showing how well his work.  

 VIDEO: "Infinitely self sealing target companies are a scam."
Regular Guy Training LLC (8 min.)

Immigrants in the News

• First up, ProPublica's dog whistle to liberal women: "Trump Has Detained the Parents of More Than 11,000 U.S. Citizen Kids."  Translation: Trump has detained a bunch of illegal aliens that managed to pop out anchor babies while on U.S. soil. The authors also whine: "Trump is deporting about four times as many moms of U.S. citizen children per day as Biden did." Sounds like a good start.
• "Illegal migrant accused of executing Loyola student Sheridan Gorman was cut loose twice under Biden: DHS"--New York Post.  From the lede:

An illegal Venezuelan migrant accused of executing a Loyola University Chicago freshman from New York entered the US under the Biden administration, and was released under Chicago’s sanctuary city laws before the killing, the Department of Homeland Security said Sunday.

 Remember, this is what liberals want when they say they support immigration.

• "Child predator captured at bus stop trying to flee US before major sex-assault conviction: DA"--New York Post. Jorge Campos "cut off his ankle monitor and tried to flee the US before the final day of his trial for sexually assaulting his girlfriend’s daughter — only to be nabbed at a bus stop, authorities said." This is more of what people who support immigration want.
• "FBI raids Hollywood mansion in $17.4M alleged mortgage scam targeting seniors, 11 arrested including Iranian"--Fox News. The article relates:

Prosecutors said the scheme resulted in about $6 million in actual losses, with 11 suspects — including an Iranian and Azerbaijani national — accused of stealing victims’ identities, taking out mortgages on their homes and pocketing the cash. 

Many of the names of the defendants sound like those of immigrants as well:

The defendants are Nazaret Chakrian, 65; Arnold Moradians, 57; Avetis Hekimyan, 38; Ross Tarkhan, 32; Tigran Hovanesian, 56; Armen Vardevaryan, 55; Craig Higdon, 66; Helen Spangler, 62; Victor Lossi, 43; Marine Sarkisian, 49; and Cynthia Borjas, 51. 

•  On a related note: "Nolte: Why Cesar Chavez Suddenly Became Politically Inconvenient to the Left"--Breitbart. If you haven't heard, #MeToo has caught up with leftist icon, Cesar Chavez. But why are the women suddenly coming forward with their claims? John Nolte has some thoughts:

    What I know for a fact, though, is two things: 1) the timing is political, and 2) New Media forced the women to come forward.

    You see, this year is the 99th anniversary of Chavez’s birth (he died in 1993), and celebrations had been planned for this event all over the country. Next year, though… Wow. One-hundred years. That’s the biggie, and you can bet that were it not for New Media, the left planned to feast on that anniversary.

    There is just one inconvenient fact about the left’s secular saint…

    Cesar Chavez opposed illegal immigration every bit as much as Donald J. Trump. Chávez understood that illegal aliens undermined the wages of legal migrant workers and their union bargaining power.

    Cesar Chavez was so opposed to illegal immigration that, just like Minuteman Project of 2004, which was widely smeared in the legacy media as racist, Chavez put together his own militia to stop illegals from crossing the border. There are credible reports that violence was used as an example to others.

    To form his United Farmworkers Union (UFW), it was Chavez versus the growers, and for obvious reasons,  the growers loved the open border.

     For just as obvious reasons, Chavez did not.

    And there you have it.

    That’s why it was time to take Chavez down. The left feared, and not unreasonably, that as Chavez once again entered the public consciousness through these milestone birthday celebrations that New Media would co-opt him as a powerful symbol of the truth: that illegal immigration is devastating to the working class and benefits the rich and powerful.

Ultimatums and Threats In Iran War

Ultimatums and threats flew fast and thick over the past 24 hours. Yesterday evening, Trump told Iran to open the Strait of Hormuz within 48 hours or risk the U.S. destroying Iranian power plants. Iran responded with its own threats to attack fuel, energy, information technology systems and desalination infrastructure in the region. Iran has also threatened to completely shut the Strait.

I had mentioned earlier this month that Saudi Arabia was going to attempt to increase the amount of oil flowing through its East-West pipeline (although the total is still far short of what would normally go by tanker through the Strait of Hormuz). But Anonymous Conservatives links to sources saying that the Houthis in Yemen could shut this down by targeting ships entering or exiting the Red Sea, presumably at its southern opening. This doesn't completely cut off the Red Sea: oil freighters could still use the Suez Canal. But not all oil tankers, just Suezmax tankers or smaller. The Very Large Crude Carriers (VLCCs) and Ultra-Large Crude Carriers (ULCCs) cannot use the canal. There is also the issue of whether the Houthis Iranian supplied anti-ship missiles could reach far enough north to target even those tankers. 

The Great Replacement--Medical Doctors

Mary Talley Bowden MD posted on X, in response to a March 20, 2026, article complaining that not enough foreign medical students got residency spots: 

1367 US medical students did not get a US residency spot.

6733 international, non-US medical students got a US residency spot.    

(H/t Anonymous Conservative).  

Gun & Prepping News #73

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

• "Battle On The Border: Pancho Villa’s Raid On America"--American Rifleman. Short take: "In March 1916, Americans living in the quiet town of Columbus, N.M., suddenly found themselves attacked by Mexican bandits, and many citizens sought to arm themselves and fight back, both during the raid and afterward." The article goes over why Pancho Villa targeted Columbus, N.M., has a bit about the battle, and discusses the aftermath, including this:

    When morning came, the raiders were gone, chased some 15 miles back into Mexico by U.S. Army Maj. Frank Tompkins, leading two troops from the 13th Cavalry. Back in Columbus, the tragic accounting began. Eight civilians lost their lives that night, along with 11 American Soldiers. Several buildings were burned down, while homes and stores were looted. A growing rage gripped both citizens and Soldiers as the locals gathered up the bodies of the men Villa left behind. The dead Mexicans, 63 in all, were dragged about a mile east of Columbus, where the corpses were piled up, soaked with kerosene and burned. Some residents said the horrible smell lingered for months afterward.

    Seven of Villa’s men were captured during the raid, and they were quickly tried. One was sentenced to life in prison. The others were hanged—two on June 9th, and the remaining four on June 30th. 

• "A Shooter’s review of the Manurhin MR 73"--Revolver Guy.  The author, Darrin S., gives his review of this iconic revolver after 2 years and 2,500+ rounds. If you are not familiar with the Manurhin, it is a French .357 Magnum revolver originally built for use by France's anti-terrorist unit, GIGN. They have a reputation of extreme durability, even with full magnum rounds, yet still within a K-frame sized package. These are not target guns but are built for combat and reliability. Nevertheless, the author writes: 

... This is one of the most accurate revolvers I’ve ever shot. This was a long-term review, and I used to have a collection of targets that I kept, but I unfortunately lost them during some move or another. Suffice to say, with loads it likes, the gun will hover right around an inch at 25 yards, shooting real five-shot groups. ...

• Speaking of revolvers: "Colt’s Blued Python Is Back and It Still Bites"--Guns America. The author gives his review of a 3-inch model he owns. Accuracy was mixed, with the lighter weight bullets having larger groups, but the heavier bullets (158 grain .38 Special +P and 158 grain .357 Magnum) giving 2 to 2.5 inch 6-round groups at 25 yards. Actually, 158 grain was standard for .38 Special and .357 Magnum loads at one time, so it makes sense the weapon would shoot best with those.
• "Ruger Security-380 Review: A Reliable .380 Built for Defense"--The Truth About Guns. I've talked before about duty sized .380 pistols like Beretta 84 and Walther PP. This appears to be in that same class--the bigger brother to the Ruger LCP Max. It uses either 10 or 15-round magazines and features a "Lite Rack" system making it easier for people with reduced hand strength to still rack the slide. I think a lot of people--particularly older people with reduced hand strength or that are recoil shy--would benefit from using a .380 over a larger 9mm, so I'm glad to see manufacturers producing .380 handguns suited for a home defense weapon. 
• "TFB 1-Year Review: Strike Industries Hyperion Armor RF3 Level IV Plate"--The Firearms Blog. These run $279.95 for a set of two. Like other rifle plates in that price range, the plates are a composite of polymer and ceramic. But unlike most others in this class that use a fabric cover, these use a spray on polymer "liner" to cover it. 
• "The Critical Issue in Home Defense"--The Tactical Wire.  Rich Grassi writes:

If you have a firearm of any type for home defense, the most critical skill you can possess falls under RULE 4: Be sure of your target; visually identify it before firing. Know what’s around it, on either side of it; what’s behind it and what could step between your muzzle and the target. 

And he notes:

    You never shoot at a sound. Visually identify the person and situation first. 

    You have the tools to do that and I don’t mean the latest sun-tan-causing super tactical gun-mounted light. 

    You could try your voice. The Tactical Professor, Claude Werner, arrived at the tactical solution: “Who’s there?”

    If the answer is, “Daddy, it’s me,” put the fowling piece away.  

•  "SPORTS or How NOT to Clear a Jammed AR-15 Rifle"--Shooting Wire. Paul Markel notes that when he was in the military, he was taught to clear his rifle using the SPORTS method: "S, slap the magazine. P, pull back on the charging handle, O, observe the ejection port. R, release the charging handle. T, tap the forward assist. S, attempt to shoot your rifle." But, the author learned through experience, SPORTS is wrong for every occasion. 

The enemy isn’t going to call timeout and let you fix your rifle. You either need to skin out a pistol or fix your rifle as fast as possible. For the Type 1 and Type 2 stoppages, we clear them by dropping our elbows to our ribs (ejection port toward the ground), tap the magazine (once), rack the charging handle vigorously (let it go, allowing a full compression of the recoil spring to drive the bolt home) and attempt to fire if the situation warrants. 

Type 3 (the double-feed) is more involved but still simpler than the SPORTS method. I have to admit that I'd never heard of SPORTS before this article. 

• "Is It Bad to Store Magazines Fully Loaded?"--The Truth About Guns. Typically "no" but sometimes "yes." The general concern here is either magazine spring set or spring fatigue. Neither is a concern with quality springs if you are just loading the magazines and letting them sit. But the author notes: "Some all-polymer magazines can experience feed lip creep under prolonged pressure, though quality brands are designed to address this issue."
• More homemade guns in Brazil: "FGC-9 bedroom factory discovered"--Impro Guns.  Pretty nice guns for being 3-D printed and all that. 
• "Complete Review: 6.5 Creedmoor Ammunition — Performance and Top Brands"--The Mag Life. It's been almost 20 years since this cartridge was released. The author gives some background on the cartridge and some information on several hunting and target shooting loads. 
• "Boat Guns: Top 5 Long Guns For Boating Defense"--The Firearm Blog.  His list is: (1) the Mossberg 590 Mariner; (2) AR-15 rifles with no particular model or brand mentioned; (3) Henry all-weather lever action rifles; (4) the Ruger PC carbine; and (5) the Benelli Nova H2O pump-action shotgun which features a nickel plated barrel and magazine tube. The primary concern with a "boat gun" is corrosion, particularly if you have it around salt water or are going to be on the water a lot or for an extended period of time. Consequently, any firearms picked for boating defense should be selected with corrosion resistance in mind, whether it is some sort of special coating or nickel plating like those sported by some shotguns intended for marine environments, or being constructed of stainless steel. Polymer furniture is also a plus. I've thought in the past that the Ruger Mini-14 (or Mini-30) in stainless steel might be a better choice than the AR for a boat gun because almost all its metal parts are constructed of stainless steel. 
• "Ready! Set!! Prep!! – Hunting Rifles"--Surviving Prepper. This is apparently part 2 of a series of article on rifles for preppers where part 1 dealt with surplus military bolt action rifles. This article is concerned with hunting weapons and briefly discusses lever action rifles and bolt action hunting rifles suitable for hunting (obviously) but which can pressed into service as defensive rifles. Part 1 (military surplus guns) can be found here. And Part 3, modern sporting rifles, can be found here. 
• "Are You Forgetting These Prepper Gun Skills?"--The Armory Life.  Those being: basic shooting skills, maintenance skills, basic gunsmithing skills, and hand loading of ammunition. 
• "The Ultimate List Of INCH Bag Survival Items"--Modern Survival Online. The author writes:

    INCH stands for I’m Never Coming Home. It is a large survival bag that is packed full of all the essentials tools and gear you will need to survive while you find a new place to call home. A BOB – or bugout bag, holds enough gear to keep you alive UNTIL you get home, or up to 72 hours.

    While you will some of the same items in each bag, there are vast differences in both the gear packed and the rucksack used to carry them. Think of an INCH bag as a bugout bag on steroids! In this article we’ll talk about the items you need to consider when you put it together.     

The principle difference is that the INCH bag will have equipment and supplies to help you live off the land, thus there is going to be gear for hunting or fishing that you probably would not fine in a BOB, as well as more tools and other gear that you probably would not need in a BOB. But that also makes the INCH bag larger and heavier. Frankly, I doubt most people could successfully live off the land, even if they had practiced it; and there is enough gear here that it probably would need to split between multiple packs among your family or group.  

• "How to Build a Signal Fire"--Field & Stream. This is a fire intended to be seen, so the directions discuss building a fire elevated off the ground (about waist height) on a tripod. 
• "How To Make A Butterfly Bandage"--New York Presbyterian.  Simple instructions on making a butterfly bandage from a strip of adhesive tape.
• "Homemade Casting Materials"--Hesperian Health Guides. How to make plaster bandages or a wax mold for a creating a plastic cast.  Of course, if you are going to make plaster bandages or casts in a SHTF situation, you might also need to know how to make plaster-of-Paris. 
• "Make a three plant emergency field dressing"--Survival Common Sense.  It uses yarrow, mullein, and plantain (the article explains how to identify them). The large leaves of the mullein, the article explains, are used like bandages but also contain a substance that reduces swelling. The plaintain, mushed up, will stimulate healing. And the yarrow promotes clotting. 
• "Are You Prepared to Share?"--Blue Collar Prepping. The author begins:

    "Do I share my preps with the unprepared or do I keep them for myself?" is an age-old prepper question with, unfortunately, no good answers.

    On the one hand, it makes cold-blooded sense not to share with other people in an emergency or after a disaster; after all, anything you give to them now is a resource you won't have later when you might need it. If you have a family, the stakes become higher: why should you risk their health and well-being by taking away from them to give to a stranger? And what if others hear about it and come begging -- or worse, demanding, that demand backed up by force of arms?

    On the other hand, will your conscience allow you to send away the sickly, the starving and the cold empty-handed? What if they have children with them? There's not much point in having a lifetime's worth of food if you can't live with yourself, and if you lose your essential humanity in the name of protecting your family then you risk alienating them as you become emotionally hardened.

    Fortunately, there are options between "Give" and "Don't Give". 

The options she discusses are: (i) hide yourself and your preps--if they don't know you're there they won't ask--(ii) direct them to a cache which both helps them but gets them out of your area; (iii) sell them the food in exchange for items they may have or for their labor. 

• Related: "Do Preppers Have A Duty to Supply Others?" This is a 2012 post that I wrote in response to a professional emergency manager's blog post calling preppers selfish for preparing for themselves and not others.
• Related: "Sensible Prepper, Are We Responsible for the Unprepared?"--Sensible Prepper. This article is also a reaction to the FEMA emergency manager's post calling preppers selfish. 
• Related: "Prepping for Others." A 2015 post where I linked to a an article on breaking OpSec and its discussion of what happens after people learn that you have food. 
• Related: "The First Rule Of Prepping: You Do Not Talk About Prepping"--The Urban Survival Site. This article covers several topics including why you should stop trying to explain or justify your prepping to others; and the stages of a crisis leading up to marauding gangs and looters.  
• Related: "Why you should share your prepping and recruit others"--The Prepared.  This takes the opposite position from the standard viewpoint that you should keep your preps to yourself  and argues for sharing that you prep with family, friends, and neighbors. Their reasoning:

    No matter how optimistic you may be about humans and their nature, when Shit Hits The Fan, societal norms and rule of law might not apply. No sane prepper would put a big sign on their house saying “I have emergency food,” for example.

    But many preppers don’t realize that people around them, like friends and neighbors, probably already know. People who prepare naturally give off a vibe of being thoughtful and “having their act together.” 

 [snip]

    Even if they have no idea you’ve got a basement stocked full of supplies, it’s very likely they’d come knocking on your door in an emergency anyway. It’s the disaster equivalent of “can I borrow a cup of sugar?” 

VIDEO: Results of IQ Tests in Nigeria

The host of this video had heard from Westerners about the low IQ's of Sub-Saharan Africans, so he assembled a team, obtained funding, and went out onto the streets of Nigeria to select random people and have them take IQ tests to refute what he'd heard. The results, as the host puts it, were "very disappointing." The average score was 73 while the median was 69. I don't know if this was the high score or not, but he said only 3% scored 102 which is the average for whites; while 52% scored below 70. The host even took the test himself just to check that there wasn't something wrong with the test.  

Failing to show that Sub-Saharan Africans have comparable IQs to other peoples, the host then goes on to argue that I.Q. does not fully represent an individual's overall intelligence or potential and, so, it is "essential to highlight that this should not be a reason to mock or insult Africans." 

Whatever IQ measures, it is related to the ability to function and positively contribute in an advanced economy. And low IQ has a strong correlation to low time preference, impulsivity, and criminality.   

So when you hear or read that IQ is dropping in Western countries, realize that this is not because Westerners are getting less intelligent, but reflects immigration from the Third World.  

 VIDEO: "We Conducted an IQ Test in Nigeria, Africa"
BantuCityDiaries (6 min.)

VIDEO: Individual Skills For Reacting To Contact

This video goes over the individual skills and actions for reacting to contact as well as an introduction to what a team leader would do. By individual skills, the video is discussing things such as how you should move, taking cover or at least getting low to the ground, different types of fire, etc. 

 VIDEO: "How to Survive a Gunfight"
Echo Mike (12 min.)

VIDEO: Everyone Going To 6.8mm?

This video from Cappy Army discusses how the Russians and the Chinese are developing 6.8mm rounds for combat rifles, with both apparently aimed at developing rounds capable of penetrating body armor. He notes that the Russians already have issues with this because most Ukrainians soldiers have body armor. The Russian cartridge will feature a tungsten-steel penetrator intended to not only defeat body armor, but also light vehicle armor. It is also supposed to offer substantial improvements in range over current or past military rounds. 

The Chinese round appears to be a near copy of the U.S. 6.8x51mm, except that the case is 1mm shorter. Not much on it, but what little there is suggests that their focus is on defeating U.S. body armor.   

 VIDEO: "Why Everyone is Switching to a '6.8mm NGSW' for WW3"
Cappy Army (15 min.)

Illegals Who Vote, Birthright Citizenship, And More

From the New York Post: "Illegal immigrants from Africa, India and China are voting in US elections — here’s how they’re doing it." An excerpt:

    As the issue of election security ramps up in Congress with the SAVE Act, Sacko’s arrest was one of nearly a dozen uncovered by The Post of non-citizens allegedly voting in US elections, sometimes for decades, with many remaining listed as active voters on state rolls, even after their convictions.

    “The reality is aliens are voting in American elections,” J. Christian Adams, president of Public Interest Legal Foundation, who has spent decades working on election integrity, told The Post, noting no one is quite sure how widespread the problem is.

[snip]

    Adams said the main problem is aliens being invited to register to vote, usually through the mail, at the DMV or via third-party groups.

The article also covers several specific examples of illegals that have been caught voting in the U.S., and some are still registered to vote.

    In the long term, though, birth right citizenship and its abuse is the greater problem: "US territory turned tropical maternity ward has produced thousands of ‘American’ babies for parents living in China."  

    Pregnant Chinese women have turned a tropical paradise into a maternity ward — pumping out babies who automatically become US citizens daily.

    The Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI), a US territory northeast of Guam in the Pacific Ocean, has been flooded with so-called “birth tourists” since 2009 when then-president Barack Obama introduced a visa-waiver program for Chinese nationals.

    China-watchers estimate about 1,000 companies offer birth tourism to the Northern Mariana Islands, other US overseas territories and even the US mainland. They claim a gob-smacking 1.5 million American babies are being raised in China by Chinese parents who’ve participated in birth tourism.

All of those mothers and babies are subject to the jurisdiction of China, not the U.S., and so none should be considered U.S. citizens. 

    And more chicanery from the enemies of this country: "Left-Wing Activist Group Teaches Liberals How To Get Through Jury Selection and Vote 'Not Guilty' on Trump DOJ Prosecutions, Recordings Show." 

    A left-wing activist group is teaching liberals in Washington, D.C., and "across the United States" how to increase their chances of serving as jurors on cases brought by the Trump Department of Justice so they can undermine its chances of securing convictions, training materials reviewed by the Washington Free Beacon show.

    Freedom Trainers, whose fiscal sponsor is the George Soros-funded group Community Change, is working to make "jury nullification"—the practice of voting against a conviction even if the defendant broke the law—a go-to legal weapon for the Left. Its sessions and training materials, reviewed by the Free Beacon, show how the group teaches "committed people" to gum up federal prosecutions.

     Leftists like to tell themselves that they are making a better society, but they are really just creating a hell on Earth: "*No Shame: The descent of modern society into Depravity." The article begins:

 When did it start? What was the first inkling that what was previously forbidden behavior, was now going to become not only accepted, but celebrated. What happened that now, if you don’t celebrate vulgar, depraved behavior, you are mocked and ridiculed? My guess is this started back in the 1950s and 1960s, with the discovery and heavy marketing of the birth-control pill. That one invention started a cascade of unpleasant changes in society, when sex became detached from procreation. Feminism was the motivator; that every woman was expected to go to college, be launched into the working world, and treat sex not as an act of love leading to marriage and children, but as just good fun, for only one night if she wanted.

The author then draws the line from female promiscuity possible because of the birth control pill and abortion on demand, to homosexual rights, to "gay" marriage, to the transgender movement, and the author's prediction of where it will go from there. 

    Government is simply the name we give to the things we choose to do together: "Censored, Dismissed, Confirmed: History of Blood Clots & COVID Vaccine Debate"--Legal Insurrection. Also: "Leaked Report to Federal Advisers Calls for Urgent Recognition of Covid Vaccine Injuries"--Brownstone Institute. An excerpt:

    The report focuses on what it calls Post-Acute Covid-19 Vaccination Syndrome, or PACVS.

    The term refers to symptoms that persist for at least 12 weeks after vaccination and cannot be explained by another medical condition.

    Patients with PACVS often present with complex, multi-system illness. Symptoms may involve the nervous system, the cardiovascular system, the immune system, the endocrine system, and the autonomic nervous system.

    The clinical picture varies widely. Some people develop severe fatigue, cognitive impairment, neuropathy, or dysautonomia.

    Others experience chest pain, immune disturbances, or endocrine problems. Symptoms often fluctuate and evolve over time, making early diagnosis difficult.

    Clinical features frequently overlap with long Covid — including fatigue, cognitive impairment, dysautonomia, neuropathy, chest pain, and immune disturbances.

    Yet many patients fall into a diagnostic no-man’s-land, particularly in the early stages of illness.

    Some eventually meet criteria for recognised conditions such as postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome (POTS), small fibre neuropathy, or ME/CFS.

    But even then, the path to recognition can take years.

    The workgroup argues that these difficulties do not necessarily reflect the absence of disease. Instead, they reflect the limits of the systems used to detect and classify illness.