September 19, 2017 -- A Quick Run Around the Web

(Source)

Firearms/Self-Defense/Prepping:

• "'Evacuate or die': Puerto Ricans are told to abandon their homes and a curfew is imposed in the British Virgin Islands as 160mph Hurricane Maria smashes Dominica and the Caribbean"--Daily Mail.
• "Virgin Islands lack supplies for second hurricane pummeling"--Politico. The article notes that conditions are preventing the delivery of supplies that have been ordered. These include:

        As of Monday morning, Virgin Islands officials had received none of the 29 generators ordered. About 15,000 sheeting covers were delivered for protecting homes, of more than 135,000 requested. And a dozen shelter kits arrived, of more than 58 ordered — with supplies like clothing, medical equipment and hygiene items.

         The territory is also short about 400,000 meals, of 2 million ordered. Out of 450 cots requested, 300 are available.

• "Lessons Learned as a First Responder to Hurricane Harvey"--Imminent Threat Solutions. These are: 

1.  Don't become a casualty, meaning that you need to also take care of yourself--don't become over fatigued or unnecessary risks.
2. Stay flexible, meaning don't become married to any single plan--circumstances change.
3. Smartphones are powerful tools, so make sure you have one and have a way of charging it.
4.  Maintain preparedness and self-sustainment at all times--don’t wait until disaster strikes to get prepared (and the author includes a list of supplies and equipment that came in handy).

• "Gear Review: Spartan Armor, Banshee Plate Carrier"--Tier Three Tactical. The author discusses the different rating levels for body armor, as well as the non-standard Level III+. He also argues Level III+ is adequate for most any threat that a person would realistically face. He then goes on to review the Spartan armor and plate carrier.
• "Items You Should Stockpile For Proper Off The Grid Sanitation"--Prepper's Will. The items include: 5-gallon sealable buckets (for storage or an improvised commode); water bottles or containers, and a funnel (storage of water); water filters (the author recommends a Berkey filter); manual water pumps; plastic spray bottles of various sizes (for storing and using any cleaning solutions you may make); unscented household bleach (for both purifying water and cleaning surfaces); household cleaning products; anti-bacterial gels, wipes and sanitizers; liquid soap; toilet paper; paper towels and napkins; N95 face masks and plastic gloves (to use when making soaps or disposing of infectious waste); heavy duty garbage bags; rope, duct tape and zip ties; personal hygiene items; feminine pads and tampons; diapers (if you have babies or toddlers); cat litter or sand (for soaking up spills); and disposable utensils (for using when you don't have water for cleaning).

• Related: "How to Take an Old Fashioned Bird Bath"--Perking Prepping Grandma. Some people might refer to this as a sponge bath. But, basically, she discusses how to bath using a minimum of water. And, of course, the wash basically proceeds from the top down; feet are last because, generally, they are the dirtiest part of the body. And use a separate wash cloth for the head and face. In one of the areas of my mission, we lived in a small house that did not have a shower, although it had a bathing area with a drain, and soaking tub. Because it took so long to heat the water, however, it was verboten to actually soak in the tub. Instead, we used a small container to dip out water out of the tub to pour over us to rinse off shampoo and soap as we performed our "bath." I recommend having a small stool on which to sit (we used a small plastic step).

• "Things To Scavenge Off Of Old & Abandoned Vehicles In A SHTF Survival Situation"--Be Survival. The author notes that not only do many people carry tools, flashlights, and so forth in their trunk or glove box, but that parts from the car (including mirrors and materials from the seats) may be useful.
• "Maintenance and storage of pressure canners"--Poverty Prepping. The author explains that two of the parts to look at, especially, are the safety plug and seals deteriorating; particularly with older canners where they generally were made using rubber. 
• "South Korean Preppers: Government Instructs Citizens How to Get Ready for War"--The Organic Prepper. With the threat from North Korea, prepping is going mainstream in South Korea. The article discusses this, as well as noting some resources and advice from the South Korean government on how to prepare and respond in the event of an attack.
• "Moment a Nazi wearing a swastika armband is tracked down and beaten in Seattle after 'harassing a black man on a bus'"--Daily Mail. The reason I include this article is because it shows how organized that the violent Left have become. The victim allegedly harassed a black man on a bus; a photo of him was taken and passed on to Antifa, who tracked him down within 90 minutes and beat him. In this case it was a neo-Nazi, but it could just have easily been someone wearing a MAGA hat or someone who refused to use the politically correct gender pronoun. The video is also of interest because the victim tried to diffuse the situation, which only allowed the Antifa thugs to get close and deliver a knock-down punch.

Other Stuff:

• A new Woodpile Report is up. A couple of interesting articles that he includes:

• "Tesla vs Edison: the AC/DC current wars make a comeback"--Cosmos. As you may remember from history or science classes, the problem with direct current (DC) was that it could not be transmitted over long distances as could alternating current (AC) because AC voltages could be raised (and, at the end point, lowered) by using transformers. This article notes, however, that there are now transformers that can do the same with DC: 

These new transformers take the form of electronic circuits that convert DC currents up and down the spectrum from a few volts to a million or more. Lighter and smaller than traditional ones, DC transformers make it easier to integrate wind and solar electricity into the grid, and they reduce the likelihood of failures cascading from one electricity generation region to another.

• "The Pentagon’s New Wonder Weapons for World Dominion"--Unz Report. According to the author, "[w]ithin a decade, the Pentagon apparently hopes to patrol the entire planet ceaselessly via a triple-canopy aerospace shield that would reach from sky to space and be secured by an armada of drones with lethal missiles and Argus-eyed sensors, monitored through an electronic matrix and controlled by robotic systems." The author then discusses each tier in more detail. Interesting reading.

• "South Korea: The Wild Card in the Korean Crisis"--George Friedman at Mauldin Economics (h/t Bayou Renaissance Man). Friedman explains why the U.S. has been limited to saber rattling over North Korea's nuclear program, and why North Korea is becoming arrogant in its flouting of its nuclear program: South Korea's refusal to cooperate with the U.S. in a military solution. He writes:

        A couple of weeks ago, the reason for their [the North Koreans'] confidence became evident. First, US President Donald Trump tweeted a message to the South Koreans accusing them of appeasement. In response, the South Koreans released a statement saying South Korea’s top interest was to ensure that it would never again experience the devastation it endured during the Korean War. From South Korea’s perspective, artillery fire exchanges that might hit Seoul had to be avoided. Given the choice between a major war to end the North’s nuclear program and accepting a North Korea armed with nuclear weapons, South Korea would choose the latter.

        With that policy made public, and Trump’s criticism of it on the table, the entire game changed its form. The situation had been viewed as a two-player game, with North Korea rushing to build a deterrent, and the US looking for the right moment to attack. But it was actually a three-player game, in which the major dispute was between South Korea and the United States.

         The US could have attacked the North without South Korea’s agreement, but it would have been substantially more difficult. The US has a large number of fighter jets and about 40,000 troops based in the South. South Korean airspace would be needed as well. If Seoul refused to cooperate, the US would be facing two hostile powers, and would possibly push the North and the South together. Washington would be blamed for the inevitable casualties in Seoul. The risk of failure would pyramid.

         With the South making it clear that it couldn’t accept another devastating war on the peninsula, the war option was dissolving for the United States. When we consider North Korea’s confidence now, it is completely explicable. Assuming the South hadn’t told the North its position, Pyongyang’s intelligence service certainly picked it up, given the various meetings being held. I thought these meetings were about war plans, but in retrospect they were about pressuring and cajoling South Korea to accept the plans. Another indicator I missed was a general absence of South Korean preparations for war and an odd calm among the public. The US was leaning forward, and yet there were few practice evacuations, as if the South did not expect war.

          The key element I missed was that South Korea’s overriding imperative was the avoidance of war. It wasn’t happy with North Korea’s programs, but it was not prepared to sustain the kind of casualties an attack on North Korea would precipitate in the South, and especially not the possibility that, like other American wars, a quick intervention would turn into a long and limitless war.

• The first step is recognizing that you have a problem: "Global warming may be occurring more slowly than previously thought, study suggests"--Independent. Per the article: "Computer modelling used a decade ago to predict how quickly global average temperatures would rise may have forecast too much warming, a study has found." 
• A word of warning: "This Land Is Their Land"--Foreign Policy. The author argues that immigration is inevitable and we had better get used to it. A small excerpt:

Tharoor’s speech reminded me of the time my grandfather was sitting in a park in suburban London. An elderly British man came up to him and wagged a finger at him. “Why are you here?” the man demanded. “Why are you in my country?”

“We are the creditors,” responded my grandfather, who was born in India, spent his working years in Kenya, and was now retired in London. “You took all our wealth, our diamonds. Now we have come to collect.”

Most of this is Marxist drivel, but it provides an insight into what the more educated migrants and refugees are thinking.

• "Gas stations disappearing from rural areas"--Japan Times. As areas of Japan become depopulated, gas stations are also disappearing, making it more difficult for the few residents that remain. 
• You may have seen some reports that John Kelly told President Trump that Mexico was on the path to becoming a failed state (story here and here). This, of course, caused outrage from liberals and from Mexico. However, due to the expanding violence and power of the drug cartels over the last several years, warnings that Mexico was becoming a failed state have come from several sources. (See, e.g., this 2015 article from the Cato Institute). Of course, semantics are important here. What policy makers consider a "failed state" is somewhat broader than a collapse into anarchy such as Somolia. Rather, it has to do with whether the government has fallen under the control of criminal enterprises. George Friedman explained in this 2008 article from Stratfor: 

There comes a moment when the imbalance in resources reverses the relationship between government and cartels. Government officials, seeing the futility of resistance, effectively become tools of the cartels. Since there are multiple cartels, the area of competition ceases to be solely the border towns, shifting to the corridors of power in Mexico City. Government officials begin giving their primary loyalty not to the government but to one of the cartels. The government thus becomes both an arena for competition among the cartels and an instrument used by one cartel against another. That is the prescription for what is called a "failed state" — a state that no longer can function as a state. Lebanon in the 1980s is one such example. There are examples in American history as well. Chicago in the 1920s was overwhelmed by a similar process. Smuggling alcohol created huge pools of money on the U.S. side of the border, controlled by criminals both by definition (bootlegging was illegal) and by inclination (people who engage in one sort of illegality are prepared to be criminals, more broadly understood). The smuggling laws gave these criminals huge amounts of power, which they used to intimidate and effectively absorb the city government. Facing a choice between being killed or being enriched, city officials chose the latter. City government shifted from controlling the criminals to being an arm of criminal power. In the meantime, various criminal gangs competed with each other for power. Chicago had a failed city government. The resources available to the Chicago gangs were limited, however, and it was not possible for them to carry out the same function in Washington. Ultimately, Washington deployed resources in Chicago and destroyed one of the main gangs. But if Al Capone had been able to carry out the same operation in Washington as he did in Chicago, the United States could have become a failed state. It is important to point out that we are not speaking here of corruption, which exists in all governments everywhere. Instead, we are talking about a systematic breakdown of the state, in which government is not simply influenced by criminals, but becomes an instrument of criminals — either simply an arena for battling among groups or under the control of a particular group. The state no longer can carry out its primary function of imposing peace, and it becomes helpless, or itself a direct perpetrator of crime. 

• Related: "Huachicoleros turn to robbing trains--Up to 16 attacks a day on trains running between Veracruz and Mexico City"--Mexico News Daily. From the article:

       The thefts are conducted by heavily armed criminals with high-powered weapons, accompanied by local residents, she said. “We’re not prepared to fight against the large numbers of people who arrive with support from armed individuals.”

       The former are used as a human shield while the thieves help themselves to appliances, sugar, wine and liquor, cement, tires and more, Aranda said.

The article indicates that the robbers are placing barriers on the tracks to stop trains.

• Speaking about countries on the path to becoming failed states: "Muslim Grooming Gangs"--New English Review. The author writes:

       To the public, the finding of the Jay report that for 16 years, gangs of Pakistani heritage men had been allowed to violently sexually abuse at least 1400 young girls with near impunity, verged on the unbelievable.

         The refusal of the authorities to protect children who were so clearly being subjected to the most appalling abuse is a clear example of the power of political correctness to throttle the ability of ordinary people to distinguish between right and wrong. Indeed, failure to hold a minority group accountable for such actions is to exempt Muslims from normal moral standards, as if they can’t be expected to know better. Such condescension is appropriately referred to as cultural exemption, which is racism of the most odious and politically most dangerous kind. As Jonathan Freedland in The Guardian put it: “That’s not just political correctness gone mad. That’s political correctness gone racist.” How ironic then that its worst offenders are on the political Left.

       That said, one would have expected the authorities in Rotherham to have been sufficiently chastened to set their house in order, but the opposite appears to be the case. ...

• "Demography and the End of Diversity?"--Powerline Blog. Another pundit wakes up to the fact that diversity has been oversold. The author not only notes Robert Putnam's research showing increased diversity resulted in less social cohesion and social capital, but new research showing that diverse groups, when in competition, become more conservative. He then comments:

       If you view government as a primary spoils system, then the zero-sum nature of it will cause infighting among the spoils-seekers. We can already see this at work in California, where the move to reinstate affirmative action admissions in public universities was sailing along until Asian Democrats in the state legislature, under pressure from their constituents, opposed the change.

        Maybe this partly explains why Trump got a higher share of the Hispanic and black vote than Romney or McCain did?

• Another article on dark energy, this one noting a conflict between dark energy and the cosmological constant: "Crack in the cosmological paradigm" (PDF).