Weekend Reading #51

 Some longer and more involved reading for weekend:

• First up is Greg Ellifritz's Weekend Knowledge Dump for this weekend. He links and offers some brief commentary to some great resources. Here are some that caught my attention in particular:
• A "crash course" in self-defense from Art of Manliness, which goes over some basic self-defense concepts.
• In that vein, a link to a piece that discusses the differences between how men and women are attacked. Basically, women tend to be grabbed and dragged, and violence against them can often turn into a sexual assault, whereas men are likely to be victims of "social" violence. He has some other points as well.
• And a link from Recoil Magazine discussing what criminals look for when trying to determine who to attack: things like gate, posture, age, sex, fitness, etc. Basically, traits that would identify a weak and easily intimidated target versus one more likely to fight back.
• An interesting review of a couple of common .380 ACP defensive rounds (Hydra-Shok and Critical Defense) against a meat target where the meat target was bare, had medium clothing layers, and heavy clothing layers. All rounds were fired from a KelTek P38T which is probably one of the smallest .380 pistols available. Expansion was uniformly good against the bare target, but clothing had a tremendous impact on expansion with both rounds. 
• A link to Issue 24 of Armed Lifestyle magazine. The magazine includes a number of articles including one on the importance of dry fire, another on situational awareness for runners, and even one on pirates!
• And an article from Outdoor Life on the last interview of Buffalo Bill Cody. One of the interesting insights, which Greg excerpts, is how Wild Bill Hickok was able to win his gun fights despite being, in Cody's opinion, a mediocre gun fighter: once Hickok determined he was going to shoot a man he was cool, calm, and didn't hesitate. 
• John Wilder discusses Lent in his post: "In Which I Discuss What Mustard, Ramen, Historical Timekeeping, Fasting, And Booze Have In Common." He did the fasting and praying and it helped: he says he went down a size on his waistline and he feels closer to God. And reading his article, I learned more about Lent and Ash Wednesday than I knew before. 
• Digging through old bookmarks, I happened across one for this article from Aish: "Jews and Booze: The Fascinating History of Jews and Alcohol." It begins with how Jews in Eastern Europe came to dominate the alcohol trade--particular in running taverns--how that fell apart, and their subsequently taking a substantial role in the organized crime and smuggling of alcohol during prohibition. An excerpt:

    While the vast majority of Jews had nothing to do with organized crime or bootlegging, Jewish mobsters played a disproportionately large role in the illegal alcohol business. The most prominent Jew in the bootlegging business was an Eastern European immigrant named Meyer Lansky who had teamed up with the Italian American mobster Charles “Lucky” Luciano to develop the National Crime Syndicate in the U.S.

    Across the border in Canada the production and sale of alcohol was completely legal, and Lansky saw this as a great source of booze for the American market. His number one supplier in Canada was Sam Bronfman. The Bronfman family, also from Eastern Europe, had immigrated to Montreal and acquired the Canadian Seagram’s Distillery Company in the early 1920’s. Sam Bronfman turned Seagram into a very profitable enterprise in no small part due to prohibition.

    The challenge for Lansky was how to smuggle the alcohol into America. The safest route was by water, across Lake Erie, the smallest of the Great Lakes, located on the border between the U.S. and Canada. So much booze was smuggled across that lake by Bronfman to Lansky that it was nicknamed “the Jewish Lake.”

    There were also a number of exemptions to the prohibition of the sale of alcohol. One of them was for sacramental or religious reasons. Because sacramental wine could be legally distributed through synagogues, many congregations reported massive increases, up to tenfold, in membership during prohibition and there were even cases of non-Jews establishing “Jewish congregations” for the same purpose! 

•  And speaking of organized crime: "How a Botched Contract Killing Exposed Freemason 'Mafia' Network Inside French Secret Society as Murder Trial Begins for 22 Accused"--People. The article begins:

    A trial is underway in France for 22 individuals who officials allege ordered or carried out crimes for a group of Freemasons living in a suburb of Paris.

    The group is accused of mafia-like dealings, ordering hit squads to vanquish rivals and allegedly killing one individual.

    This was all exposed when two individuals allegedly contracted to carry out a murder were arrested outside their target's home, according to Le Monde, France 24 and Radio France Internationale.

    The men at the center of the scandal are all members of the Athanor Freemasons, a former sect of the Grande Loge de l'Alliance Maçonnique Française that was closed in 2021 after these crimes came to light. 

• And now for something completely different: "America’s First UFO Sighting"--History.com. Recorded on March 1, 1639, by John Winthrop. It also discusses another recorded sighting several years later in 1644.

Amazon Bricking Older Kindles

The New York Post reports that as of May 20, 2026, Amazon is stopping support for older Kindle and Kindle Fire readers including downloading new content from a Kindle library or registering the devices. The affected devices include:

•  Kindle 1st Generation (2007) and 2nd Generation (2009), Kindle DX (2009) and DX Graphite (2010), Kindle Keyboard (2010), Kindle 4 (2011), Kindle Touch (2011), Kindle 5 (2012), and Kindle Paperwhite 1st Generation (2012).
• The Kindle Fire 1st Gen (2011), Kindle Fire 2nd Gen (2012), Kindle Fire HD 7 (2012), Kindle Fire HD 8.9 (2012).  

Per the article, you will still be able to use the devices, but only with what has been downloaded onto the device. Amazon has also warned that if you restore a device to factory settings, you will not be able to register the device. 

Why 10.5-Inches For .300 Blackout

 From "Why I Chose a 10.5” Barrel for My 300 Blackout Build" by Scott Witner:

When chambering supersonic loads, 300 BLK produces more than 1,153 ft-lbs of energy at 10.5″, while 5.56 NATO’s M193 load produces 1,161 ft-lbs in a 16″ barrel.

Also:

... with a 10.5″ barrel, the subsonic round’s dwell time is sufficient to cycle the bolt without the need for an adjustable gas block. At this barrel length, supersonic rounds don’t produce too much felt recoil with a fixed gas block; the gun is neither over- nor under-gassed.

If you’re running both supersonic and subsonic loads, especially suppressed, 10.5″ gives you the gas dwell time to cycle reliably without adding the complexity (and cost) of an adjustable gas block.    

And from "Mike" in the comments:

Here’s the “why” that Scott didn’t cover: in a 125gr super, all the powder is burnt by 9 inches of barrel travel. In 5.56 NATO it’s something like 18 inches. This is a joint result of both the power charge and of the diameter of the flight channel on that caliber. Consumer .223 is usually burnt in 16.

In a 10.5 inch barrel, 300BLK is done burning sauce before the exit, and on Subs, the fire is out about the time she passes the gas port. This is why 10.5 is the optimal full flexibility barrel length on 300BLK      

When I built my .300 Blackout pistol--which was only ever intended for supersonic ammo--I used a 9-inch barrel because that was the point of full powder burn. But I noted that it was just a tad too long to fit inside your standard day pack/book bag. If I were to do it over again, I think I would go with a 7.5-inch barrel for the additional compactness it would offer. 

    As for 7.5-inch, the author relates:

A 7.5″ barrel has traditionally not met the definition of “optimal” for 300 Blackout. The supersonic load loses nearly 20% of its muzzle velocity at that length, while the 190-grain subsonic load loses 10%. Only the heaviest subsonic loads (220-grain) approach nominal velocity at 7.5″, losing around 6.7%.

I think the loss in muzzle velocity would be worth it being more easily stored or packed around in a vehicle.  

British Newscaster Lays Out The New American International Order

 A couple weeks ago I posted about "The New American Based International Order," presenting an interpretation of Trump's actions by someone calling themselves 10Δ. Now a British newscaster has said essentially the same thing, as noted by M.A. Rothman on X (along with a video of the newscaster's comments) (emphasis in original):

    GB News’ Alex Armstrong laid out the geopolitical map that American media refuses to draw: this war isn’t about toppling Iran. It’s about 𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐠𝐥𝐨𝐛𝐚𝐥 𝐨𝐫𝐝𝐞𝐫 — and America is winning on every front. 

    Start with oil. The Strait of Hormuz carries 𝟒𝟓% 𝐨𝐟 𝐂𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐚’𝐬 𝐨𝐢𝐥 𝐬𝐮𝐩𝐩𝐥𝐲. Trump effectively captured Venezuela’s oil supply in January. As Armstrong put it: “𝘓𝘰𝘰𝘬 𝘸𝘩𝘰’𝘴 𝘨𝘰𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘶𝘱𝘱𝘦𝘳 𝘩𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘢𝘭𝘭 𝘰𝘧 𝘢 𝘴𝘶𝘥𝘥𝘦𝘯. 𝘈𝘮𝘦𝘳𝘪𝘤𝘢 𝘪𝘴 𝘯𝘰𝘸 𝘤𝘰𝘯𝘵𝘳𝘰𝘭𝘭𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘷𝘢𝘴𝘵 𝘴𝘸𝘢𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘴 𝘰𝘧 𝘰𝘪𝘭 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘊𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘢 𝘯𝘦𝘦𝘥𝘴.” China is in the middle of a tariff negotiation with Trump — and suddenly its entire energy supply depends on American goodwill. 

    Then Europe. With Russian energy off the table and domestic energy hollowed out by the “𝘭𝘦𝘧𝘵𝘪𝘴𝘵 𝘰𝘣𝘴𝘦𝘴𝘴𝘪𝘰𝘯 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘯𝘦𝘵 𝘻𝘦𝘳𝘰,” Europe is becoming 𝐰𝐡𝐨𝐥𝐥𝐲 𝐝𝐞𝐩𝐞𝐧𝐝𝐞𝐧𝐭 𝐨𝐧 𝐀𝐦𝐞𝐫𝐢𝐜𝐚𝐧 𝐨𝐢𝐥 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐠𝐚𝐬. Armstrong: “𝘛𝘩𝘦𝘺 𝘸𝘪𝘭𝘭 𝘥𝘪𝘤𝘵𝘢𝘵𝘦 𝘵𝘦𝘳𝘮𝘴 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘶𝘴𝘦 𝘦𝘯𝘦𝘳𝘨𝘺 𝘢𝘴 𝘭𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘢𝘨𝘦, 𝘯𝘰𝘵 𝘫𝘶𝘴𝘵 𝘦𝘤𝘰𝘯𝘰𝘮𝘪𝘤𝘢𝘭𝘭𝘺, 𝘣𝘶𝘵 𝘨𝘦𝘰𝘱𝘰𝘭𝘪𝘵𝘪𝘤𝘢𝘭𝘭𝘺 𝘵𝘰𝘰.” 

    Armstrong connected the dots to what the Pentagon calls 𝐆𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐍𝐨𝐫𝐭𝐡 𝐀𝐦𝐞𝐫𝐢𝐜𝐚 — Greenland through the Panama Canal, the entire Western Hemisphere secured as a self-sufficient American economic and security zone. “𝘕𝘰 𝘮𝘰𝘳𝘦 𝘨𝘭𝘰𝘣𝘢𝘭 𝘱𝘰𝘭𝘪𝘤𝘪𝘯𝘨, 𝘯𝘰 𝘮𝘰𝘳𝘦 𝘦𝘯𝘥𝘭𝘦𝘴𝘴 𝘧𝘰𝘳𝘦𝘪𝘨𝘯 𝘤𝘰𝘮𝘮𝘪𝘵𝘮𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘴, 𝘫𝘶𝘴𝘵 𝘢 𝘧𝘰𝘳𝘵𝘪𝘧𝘪𝘦𝘥, 𝘳𝘦𝘴𝘰𝘶𝘳𝘤𝘦-𝘳𝘪𝘤𝘩 𝘱𝘰𝘸𝘦𝘳 𝘣𝘢𝘴𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘰𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘳𝘴 𝘩𝘢𝘷𝘦 𝘯𝘰 𝘤𝘩𝘰𝘪𝘤𝘦 𝘣𝘶𝘵 𝘵𝘰 𝘳𝘦𝘭𝘺 𝘰𝘯. 𝘛𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘪𝘴 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘯𝘦𝘸 𝘈𝘮𝘦𝘳𝘪𝘤𝘢.”  

This is the new petro dollar. But the Democrats will throw it away in a day because they are traitors that have more loyalty to foreigners than to the United States. 

    Reading this, though, I am reminded of Edger Rice Burroughs' 1915 book, The Lost Continent (aka Beyond Thirty), the story of a small group of Americans that by misfortune arrive in a post-apocalypse England decades after the U.S. lost contact with Europe following the Great War. In the book, the United States had not intervened in the war and the length and brutality of the war had reduced Europe to a new state of barbarism. The title "Beyond Thirty" refers to the fact (in the book) that the Americas had forbidden travel beyond the 30th Parallel. 

Of Course: Minneapolis To Overturn Gay Bathhouse Ban To Appease Somalis

I'd seen a few headlines on this topic but passed them over until seeing this at ZeroHedge: "Minneapolis Pushes To Legalize Sex Bath-Houses For Gay Somali Immigrants." The ban had been enacted with the support of the LGBT community in the 1980s to combat the spread of AIDS, but "[a]ctivists now claim the rules disproportionately harmed same-sex partnerships and people with HIV/AIDS while driving gatherings into unsafe private spaces." I'm not a doctor, but I'm pretty sure that viruses don't care where it happens. The real question is whether the inevitable explosion in STDs will provide yet another way for Somalis to rip off American taxpayers. 

France Removes Gold From NY Federal Reserve

The French Central Bank believes it has seen the writing on the wall. From the Daily Caller: "French Bank Yanks Gold Bars From US, Makes $15,000,000,000." From the article:

France’s national bank removed and sold all of its remaining gold held by the U.S. Federal Reserve, netting a profit worth nearly $15 billion, multiple outlets reported.

The Bank of France announced it netted 12.8 billion euros — equivalent to $14.8 billion — after it finished pulling 129 tons of gold from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York and replacing it with higher-quality gold stored in Paris, Radio France Internationale (RFI) reported Saturday. The massive amount of the precious metal represented 5% of the bank’s total reserves. 

The article notes that this represents "the first time in about 100 years that France did not keep any of its gold at New York City’s Fed branch, mining.com reported." The article indicates that other central banks began considering this option after the U.S. froze Russian assets, fearful that they might be caught up in similar asset seizures. It was just that France was the first to act. The article continues (bold added):

    “France is the only one that’s formally moved. Germany and Italy have talked about it,” Hanke, who served on President Ronald Reagan’s Council of Economic Advisers, told the DCNF. “The discussion, the anxiousness and the risk of having their assets somehow frozen if they were in the United States came up when in February 2022 the central bank assets of Russia were frozen — because the standard before that had been these were untouchable central bank assets.”

    “And so that was the start of things,” Hanke said. He noted that then-U.S. President Joe Biden “led the charge” in breaking from the precedent in which the “reserves of central banks were off limits” and “had sovereign immunity.”

    “They had sovereign immunity, but we froze them,” the applied economics professor said. “Biden led that charge. That came from the United States. Everybody else piled on, but the lead was the United States.”  

The article further adds:

    Former chief economist at the Office of Management and Budget J.D. Foster told the DCNF that, “symbolically,” France moving the gold means it is “further cutting ties with the United States, making it easier in the end for the United States to cut ties with Europe.” He said France’s ties with the U.S. are disappearing “one by one.” 

    “Substantively, it doesn’t mean a damn thing. These gold reserves are relics of a bygone era. We have fiat currencies now,” he said. “And think about it: $15 billion in gold reserves when trillions flow through New York markets hourly, some days every minute.”

    “France, and most especially President [Emmanuel] ‘lame-duck’ Macron, remains a clown show. They are only doing this out of petty spite, like a three-year-old’s temper tantrum,” Foster added, referring to the French leader, who is term-limited in 2027. “Make no mistake — if somebody wants to give me $15 billion in gold bullion, I won’t complain, but relative to national output, the money supply, the vast flows of capital internationally, it’s a flea’s fart in a hurricane.” 

 Related?  "Trump mulls punishing NATO countries that didn’t assist Iran war effort: report"--The New York Post. 

Ayoob: The Lethality Of Knives

 Ayoob discusses why knives are more dangerous than you probably realize.  

VIDEO: "Why Knives Are More Dangerous Than People Think"
Massad Ayoob - Facts and Firearms (7 min.)

The Road To 2040

George Friedman has long been a successful predictor of international trends. I greatly enjoyed his books The Next 100 Years and The Future Of War. If anyone had paid attention to the latter book, we would have spent the 2000s building space stations and moon bases rather than fighting useless wars in the Middle-East and wouldn't now have to race to prevent the Chinese from gaining control of the ultimate "high ground". 

In any event, Friedman used to run a valuable service called Strat-For which I often visited. But he left years ago and, as I recently discovered, joined or started another enterprise called Geopolitical Futures. This is a subscription service, but there are a few tidbits for the rest of us. One of these to check out is a short piece written in 2021 entitled "The Road to 2040: A Summary of Our Forecast." Subscribers get access to the full forecast, but even the summary is interesting.

I'll skip over his forecasts concerning Europe as they mostly mirror those in his book, The Next 100 Years: Germany will falter and decline and Poland will become the dominant European power. 

Just as the collapse of the British Empire continues apace, he predicts the continued decline and rupture of the Soviet Empire, perhaps with even the Russian Federation breaking apart into smaller units. Which is what Joseph Tainter's work, The Collapse of Complex Societies, would have predicted. 

The United States, he predicts, will abide as the sole world dominant power through at least 2040. Not the least of his reasons is that with China's export economy faltering, China will (and has seen as events played out over the past several years) a great increase in unemployment which will eventually result in growing discontent. 

The regime will attempt to survive the economy’s downward spiral by tightening its grip on power and sliding back into dictatorship. However, the regional divergences in China are too widespread and not easily suppressed by dictatorship. Therefore, by 2040, China will see a return to regionalism, accompanied by turmoil. As China weakens, a power vacuum will emerge in East Asia, which will be filled by Japan. By 2040, Japan, with its enormous economy and substantial military capabilities, will become the leading East Asian power. 

If Oswald Spengler were describing it, he might suggest that China will enter another warring states period. In any event, speaking to my LDS readers, it is inevitable that China will suffer severe shock and loss of influence of the CCP--we know that at some point China will have to be opened up to missionary work and that Japan will provide the bulk of those missionaries. 

His predictions of the Middle-East will also interest those of end-time prophecy:

 In the Middle East, we do not foresee a definitive end or containment of Islamic extremism. On the contrary, it is likely to re-emerge and expand its territory. Turkey and Iran are the only regional actors with the capability to challenge Islamic extremist groups, and Iran is unlikely to do so in any substantial way. Given these groups’ s territorial aspirations to re-establish a caliphate, Turkey will have to engage militarily to defend its borders. As Turkey asserts its military and economic strength, these developments will effectively bring a return of the Ottoman Empire, thrusting Turkey back into the position as the dominant regional power by 2040.

He concludes:

To summarize, the dominant theme we see playing out over the course of the next 19 years is increasing disarray in Europe and Asia. We expect prolonged stability in North American with U.S. rivals working to increase their footholds in Latin America. Despite the growing unsteadiness in Eurasia, we also expect to see three regional powers emerge: Japan, Turkey and Poland. These countries will be outliers in an otherwise fragmented Eastern Hemisphere. 

Strangely, there is no mention of Israel which sees itself as a becoming a regional power, if not already one. I believe that Israel will seek (1) to consolidate control over the territories within its borders (thus, no homelands for the Palestinians), (2) continue to nibble off bits of its neighbors, and (3) consolidate its position as having the most powerful military in the region. 

Chaos When ICE Shows Up At Penn. DMV

From Red State: "Chaos Erupts at Pennsylvania DMV: Illegals Scatter and Ditch Trucks After Tip Brings ICE — 13 Nabbed." From the lede: "Chaos erupted on Friday at a Pennsylvania DMV when ICE agents were tipped off to an unusually large gathering of tractor-trailer drivers gathering outside. Those drivers were suspected illegal immigrants seeking to renew their commercial driver’s licenses (CDLs)." The article adds: "Those taken into custody were from countries including Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, and Turkmenistan." People who support immigration support this. 

The Great Replacement--Dutch Advert

You can't get much clearer than this about the purpose of allowing aliens to invade Europe: Basil the Great posts on X:

An advert in Denmark shows a White Danish couple hugging on the sofa

An "expert" shows up out of nowhere and tells them not to date each other because it’s basically "inbreeding" for whites to have babies with other whites

 He says they should have kids with non-Whites instead   

The video of the advertisement is embedded at the link.