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Tuesday, October 24, 2017

October 24, 2017 -- A Quick Run Around the Web

"The Fire RISES: The EU's CRISIS of Regionalism"--Black Pigeon Speaks (~8 min.). The video discusses the various succession movements in Europe and North America.

Firearms/Self-Defense/Prepping:
  • If you ban firearms, then the criminals will have submachine guns: "Illegal SMG factory busted in São Paulo, Brazil"--The Firearms Blog. The reason is that an open bolt submachine gun is one of the cheapest and easiest firearms to make; see, e.g., the British Sten. The SMG copied in this particular factory were based on the Brazilian Mekanika Uru SMG. The article notes:
Although clandestine firearms manufacture is not something unusual in the country, this particular facility called the attention not only due to the fact that its main product, a 9x19mm stockless submachine gun, shows a somewhat decent general finish and apparent (hand-operated by agents) smooth functioning of components, but also that the type has for long (four years, at least) been found in criminal hands in different parts of Brazil.
  • "Revolver Squib Loads"--Active Response Training. A description of what is a squib load and some tips on how to tell if it is a squib load--the primary being a lower than normal report.
  • "Two Are Better Than One: Red Dots and Irons"--The New Rifleman. The author of this piece notes that he is seeing an increasing number of people suggesting that a back up iron sight (BUIS) is no longer needed for a defensive/combat rifle. I know that I've read from SOF types in Afghanistan that have eschewed a BIUS in favor of variable scope and a red dot. The author, here, warns against that practice. Not only are there issues of a battery going dead, but your optic might be damaged or, more likely, a mount may be damaged, come loose, etc.
  • "Woven Glory"--Blue Collar Prepping. The author discusses some different types of looms for weaving at home, from small Inkle Looms (inexpensive, but only suitable for weaving narrow strips of cloth) to the intermediate sized box or table top loom, to the large (and expensive) floor looms. 
  • "The Gripping Hand: A Pragmatic Perspective on Improving Infantry Lethality Through Marksmanship"--The Firearms Blog. Nathaniel F. writes:
The core of our revision is this: It is not true that infantry cannot be trained above the current lackluster standard, but neither is it reasonable to expect them to inflict terror at ranges out to a kilometer and beyond. It is true that a much higher degree of lethality through superior general marksmanship is possible than what is achieved now with the standards of the Army (and the Marine Corps too, although to a lesser extent), and yet simultaneously true that the expense and cost of producing general lethality in the ranks at distances beyond 500 meters is prohibitive. Therefore, the most pragmatic approach to improving lethality through marksmanship is to emphasize precise fires at distances 500 meters and closer.
This isn't really a new concept. British troops, prior to World War I, were extensively trained on how to shoot a rifle both accurately at long distances and quickly. American troops (until WWII) were also trained to be riflemen, and it is something to which the Marine Corps has always aspired (macabre as it sounds, Lee Harvey Oswald's success in assassinated Kennedy was largely due to his marksmanship training he received in the Marines). In WWI, the British quickly lost their most experienced troops to the German Juggernaut, and there was simply insufficient time to adequately train replacement troops to the same standards (which was somewhat moot, in any event, since most of the fighting was within 200 yards). WWII was the watershed for the U.S. Army, after which it began to emphasize volume of fire over accuracy, partly because of the influence of  S.L.A. Marshall.
  • "Backpacking Boots and Why I Use Them"--Wood Trekker. Although there has been a trend for lighter hiking shoes and boots, the author describes why he still prefers wearing full sized backpacking boots: 
Unless you are wearing boots with extremely rigid sides, i.e. something like mountaineering boots, your ankle will twist just the same. On the other hand, trail runners and their “more natural” movement do nothing to prevent an injury. A twisted ankle is a twisted ankle. The argument about trail runners preventing knee injuries makes even less sense because it inevitably assumes that boots actually provide ankle support, thereby transferring the stress to the knees. Since an ankle can roll in the boots as well, this is a non issue for your knees. Athletic research seems to support this as well. Testing between high footwear with “ankle support” and low footwear has shown no statistical difference in the ankle injury rates or frequency. 
  • "Vendetta Precision VP-25 Extended Ambidextrous Charging Handle"--The Firearms Blog. You've probably seen, or even use, extended charging handles for an AR. It is especially useful if mounting an optic. This charging handle might be considered an extra-extended: apparently 4 inches from side to side, which, roughly, probably gives you about an inch and a quarter of handle purchase from each side. MSRP is $75, which is pretty good for this type of handle.


Other Stuff:
  • "Venezuela's deteriorating oil quality riles major refiners"--Reuters. The problem is leading to cancelled orders and demands for refunds or reduced prices. "The quality issues stem from shortages of chemicals and equipment to properly treat and store the oil, resulting in shutdowns and slowdowns at PDVSA production facilities, along with hurried transporting to avoid late deliveries, the sources said."
  • "Is Part Of The r/K Meme Toxic?"--Anonymous Conservative. Anonymous Conservative describes in his book a cycle of prosperity giving rise to "rabbity" liberals, a collapse which gives rise to more K-selected behavior, followed by another rise to prosperity, ad infinitum. Paxton Jackson thinks that this cycle (or discussing it) is "toxic." Jackson writes:
In fact, this meme is downright toxic. It essentially says that our problem was not the bad decisions that we made, but that we prospered, forgetting that it is possible — although none have done it — to choose to prosper without becoming distracted by wealth and comfort. It would require eliminating the weak from among us, probably through exile to the third world.
(Source)
Jackson misunderstands the cycle. As I've noted before, what Anonymous Conservative is describing is the pride cycle from The Book of Mormon, illustrated above. (You can see the same thing in the Bible, although not summarized as neatly--just read Isaiah's and Jeremiah's descriptions of how truly odious men and women had become prior to the destruction of Jerusalem). The cycle doesn't ignore "bad decisions," but explains why the "bad decisions" are made. Essentially, prosperity brings about an r-psychology (or wickedness, if you prefer), which creates the condition for a collapse; the collapse favors the development of a K-select psychology (or righteousness), which paves the way for future prosperity. 
       Between 2004 and 2014, tens of millions of Brazilians emerged from poverty and the country was often cited as an example for the world. High prices for the country’s raw materials and newly developed oil resources helped finance social welfare programs that put money into the pockets of the poorest.

            But that trend has been reversed over the last two years due to the deepest recession in Brazil’s history and cuts to the subsidy programs, raising the specter that this continent-sized nation has lost its way in addressing wide inequalities that go back to colonial times.
    The last sentence is in reference to the fact that the predominantly white regions in Southern Brazil essentially carry the rest of the country on their backs, economically speaking. Whites are the new slaves, who are expected to bear on their broad backs the burdens of the welfare states and aid to developing countries. Brazil may soon see its own secessionist crises.
    • The elephant in the room:
              The issue of immigration has become the occasion for deciding the most practical and perennial of issues: who rules? Americans know that Europe’s un-sustainable socio-economic model—bureaucratized economies, social welfare, and demographic decline—is a warning to us.
                  Increasingly, we have imitated that model, assuming that the decline would be slow and graceful. But Europe’s crisis, and ours, has always been far less socio-economic than civilizational. That is why mass migration into Euro-American civilization—especially people from the Muslim world who neither share in nor sympathize with that civilization—is accelerating the crisis. Confidence in the future is being replaced by the sense that living as before will be impossible.
                  More and more, people have reacted by voting against the elites responsible for socio-economic management and for migration. But elites on both sides of the Atlantic have not changed course. They justify their resistance to popular sentiment by applying invidious labels to the voters who reject them. Each side’s denial of the other’s legitimacy is collapsing the socio-political legitimacy of modern democracy. This ensures that whatever changes in Euro-American civilization may take hold will include revolutionary political events.
            He further notes:
                     ... Pope Francis speaks of the migrants as “the warriors of hope.”
                         The locals ask: Against whom are the migrants are fighting if not us? What have we done to deserve having this war waged against us? Meanwhile, Italy’s ruling Left coalition signals its superior virtue by sponsoring a law to grant citizenship—and voting rights—to the migrants. That is one reason why the polls show it losing the 2018 elections—badly.
                  Finally, he concludes:
                            Throughout Europe, and America as well, the desire to break out of that grip is unevenly spread and manifests itself in different ways.
                                In Germany, Catholic Bavaria voted differently from the secular east, where the extreme Right and Left rose.
                                 In Italy, the only part of the body politic that is committed unequivocally to cultural identity is the Northern League, which tries to represent the regions north of the Apennines.
                                   In the United States, red states and blue states differ increasingly about immigration as well as everything else. Perhaps salvaging civilization is possible only as pieces that care to do it win autonomy from others that do not.
                                      The issue of immigration is the quintessentially democratic issue because it is all about “who we are, who we want to be, and how we want to live.” Though the choice of who shall and shall not be among us, in what number, never mind of who shall and shall not be part of our body politic, is far from the only one that affects a civilization’s viability, it has become the proxy for all the other choices that do.
                                      I don’t believe it’s disputable at this point that the most potent issue behind the rise of the far right in America and Europe is mass immigration. It’s a core reason that Trump is now president; it’s why the AfD is now the third-biggest party in the German, yes, German, parliament; it’s why Austria’s new chancellor won by co-opting much of the far right’s agenda on immigration; it’s why Britain is attempting (and currently failing) to leave the EU; it’s why Marine Le Pen won a record number of votes for her party in France this spring. A critical moment, in retrospect, came with Angela Merkel’s 2015 decision to import over a million Syrian refugees into the heart of Europe. I’ve no doubt her heart was in the right place, but the political naïveté was stunning. How distant from the lives and views of most people does an elite have to be to see nothing to worry about from such drastic social and cultural change? Michael Brendan Dougherty elegantly explains here the dynamic that followed. There are now new borders and fences going up all over Europe, as a response to Merkel’s blithe misjudgment.
                                        You would think that parties of the center-left would grapple with this existential threat to their political viability. ... And this is one reason why I have dwindling hopes that the Democratic Party will be able to defeat Trump in 2020. Instead of adjusting to this new reality, and listening to the electorate, the Dems have moved ever farther to the left, and are controlled by ever-radicalizing activists.
                                         ... In fact, the Democrats increasingly seem to suggest that any kind of distinction between citizens and noncitizens is somehow racist. You could see this at the last convention, when an entire evening was dedicated to Latinos, illegal and legal, as if the rule of law were largely irrelevant. Hence the euphemism “undocumented” rather than “illegal.” So the stage was built, lit, and set for Trump.
                                             U.S. and other Western scientists voice awe, and even alarm, at China’s quickening advances and spending on quantum communications and computing, revolutionary technologies that could give a huge military and commercial advantage to the nation that conquers them.
                                                 The concerns echo — although to a lesser degree — the shock in the West six decades ago when the Soviets launched the Sputnik satellite, sparking a space race.
                                                    In quick succession, China in recent months has utilized a quantum satellite to transmit ultra-secure data, inaugurated a 1,243-mile quantum link between Shanghai and Beijing, and announced a $10 billion quantum computing center.
                                                    “To me, what is alarming is the level of coordination of what they’ve done,” said Christopher Monroe, a physicist and pioneer in quantum communication at the University of Maryland.
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                                          Weekend Reading -- A New Weekend Knowledge Dump

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