January 17, 2017 -- A Quick Run Around the Web

From Survival Russia: "Helping Out Survival Lilly With Saws And Safety" (17 min.)

This video is intended as a follow up to Survival Lilly's recent review of different styles of survival or outdoor saws.

• "How to prepare for — and survive — a nuclear bombing"--New York Post. Whereas I posted a link to the "duck and cover" video, which teaches how to survive the blast effects of a nuclear weapon (assuming you aren't in the kill zone), this article describes methods of surviving nuclear fallout and radiation. Not an in-depth discussion, but it provides some of the basics.

• Related: "Pentagon Document Confirms Existence of Russian Doomsday Torpedo"--Popular Mechanics. The weapon is supposed to be able to carry a 100 megaton warhead--nearly twice as large as the largest nuclear warhead every detonated. According to the article:

Kanyon [the weapon's codename] is designed to attack coastal areas, destroying cities, naval bases, and ports. The mega-bomb would also generate an artificial tsunami that would surge inland, spreading radioactive contamination with the advancing water. To make matters worse there are reports the warhead is “salted” with the radioactive isotope Cobalt-60. Contaminated areas would be off-limits to humanity for up to 100 years.

Although the article suggests that development of the weapon system was spurred to avoid any ballistic missile or bomber aircraft defenses that the United States may have, the semi-autonomous nature of the weapon reflects another issue of such a weapon: getting far enough away that the crew delivering the weapon would not be killed by their own weapon, which would be the case if it was dropped from an aircraft.

• "What You Need To Know About The Barrel Break-In Process"--Shooting Sports USA. An excerpt:

Barrels with a very smooth interior tend to foul less than those with a rough interior. The goal for shooters here, is to create a bore condition that will produce less fouling. Accomplish this by micro-burnishing any radial tooling marks left in the barrel in the direction of bullet travel. This is where the “fire, clean, fire, clean” method (for many shots) helps make the barrel smoother.

• A note from the Security & Self-Reliance blog authors: "We’ve Remodeled One of Our Websites.. 24/7 News Headlines for those that prefer the outdoor life." The site in question is their Baugo Blades page, which has news feeds of a whole slew of outdoors/hunting/fishing blogs and sites.
• "SURRENDER Bump Stocks – Massachusetts To Issue Police Destruction Letter"--The Firearms Blog. Looks like a takings matter in the offing.
• Max Velocity discusses "The Warrior Mindset and Firearms Culture." Basically, he describes how the ability to shoot--even if you can shoot well--is insufficient to create a "warrior." But many people delude themselves otherwise.
• A monograph on guerrilla medicine: "The Death of the Golden Hour and the Return of the Future Guerrilla Hospital" (PDF 1 mb). It appears to be more a history and analysis of the place of guerrilla medicine in special warfare operations, rather than a "how-to" on medical care. (H/t Western Rifle Shooters Association).
• Paging Al Gore: "More than 1,200 flights cancelled as 57 million East Coasters - from Florida to Maine - are hit with snow, ice and freezing cold temperatures"--Daily Mail. 
• Failed state alert, and a glimpse at how order might be restored after an apocalypse: "Losing Faith in the State, Some Mexican Towns Quietly Break Away"--Borderland Beat. From the article:

Tancítaro represents a quiet but telling trend in Mexico, where a handful of towns and cities are effectively seceding, partly or in whole. These are acts of desperation, revealing the degree to which Mexico’s police and politicians are seen as part of the threat.

It goes on:

        It began with an uprising. Townspeople formed militias to eject both the cartel, which effectively controlled much of Michoacán, and the local police, who were seen as complicit. Orchard owners, whose families and businesses faced growing extortion threats, bankrolled the revolt.

        This left Tancítaro without police or a government, whose officials had fled. Power accumulated to the militias that controlled the streets and to their backers, an organization of wealthy avocado growers known as the Junta de Sanidad Vegetal, or Plant Health Council. Citizens sometimes call it the Junta.

        Nearly four years in, long after other militia-run towns in Michoacán collapsed into violence, the streets remain safe and tidy. But in sweeping away the institutions that enabled crime to flourish, Tancítaro created a system that in many ways resembles cartel control.

         Their rule began with a purge. Young men suspected of involvement in the cartel were expelled. Low-level runners or informants, mostly boys, were allowed to stay, though the cartel murdered most in retaliation, a militia commander said.

       Though violence eventually cooled, the wartime power structure has remained. The militias now act as the police, as well as guards for the town perimeter and the avocado orchards.

       Cinthia Garcia Nieves, a young community organizer, moved into town shortly after the fighting subsided. Idealistic but clear-minded, she wanted to help Tancítaro develop real institutions.

        But lines of authority had “blurred,” she said in a cafe near the town center.

        Ms. Nieves set up citizens’ councils as a way for local families to get involved. But militia rule has accustomed many to the idea that power belongs to whomever has the guns.

       She has high hopes for community justice forums, designed to punish crimes and resolve disputes. But, in practice, justice is often determined — and punishments administered — by whichever militia commander chooses to involve himself.

Note that the situation follows the maxim: political power flows from the muzzle of a gun.

• "Armed Antifa Apparently Involved In Charlottesville Death Of Heather Heyer"--Captain's Journal. You remember the infamous Charlottesville rally and the incident where James Fields drove into a crowd of people, killing one protester? There were suggestions at the time that Fields actions were because he was a fleeing a group of protesters that were attacking him and his vehicle. Now Herschel Smith notes an apparent admission by a member of the Redneck Revolt that they had been threatening Fields with a rifle just prior to the incident.
• "Beijing seeks loyalty from ethnic Chinese with foreign passports"--Ejinsight. From the article:

        Much has been said about China’s growing nationalism but little attention has been paid to its increasing assertion of something akin to sovereignty over ethnic Chinese who are citizens of other countries.

         While this is particularly noteworthy in Hong Kong, it is also true in the United States, Australia and other countries.

         What China wants is for foreign citizens of ethnic Chinese background to be loyal to the “motherland” – meaning China – regardless of their citizenship and to work to further the interests of China.

        This was disclosed in the People’s Daily a couple of years ago when it encouraged “more and more overseas Chinese to participate in the local political life”.

        It referred to specifically to Congresswoman Judy Chu of California, who was born in the United States of immigrant parents, as someone “participating in politics in foreign countries”.

        The Chinese government wants to make use of foreign politicians who happen to be of Chinese extraction to support its causes, such as in its territorial dispute with Japan.

         The Chinese consul general in San Francisco, Luo Linquan, at an annual reception last December for American families that had adopted Chinese babies, reminded the young American girls and women that China was the land of their birth and that China would never forget them.

         “You grow up speaking English,” the Chinese diplomat said but then added, “Yet your black eyes, black hair and dark skin all remind you that you are Chinese.”

          He encouraged them to learn Chinese and to develop a “Chinese spirit”.

          Being able to win the sympathy and support of this large group of Americans would be a great boost to Chinese influence in the US. About 100,000 Chinese babies have been adopted by American couples in the last 25 years.

          In Australia, there have been charges that official Chinese propaganda was being used to influence the opinion and behavior of Australians of Chinese background.

         “Beijing’s clandestine intrusion into our local Chinese press will have an impact on national security if it is not rooted out,” The Age reported in 2014.

          The Chinese Communist Party’s propaganda bureau, the newspaper reported, was “buying up radio stations and newspapers across the country and channeling the voice of Beijing into them from editorial offices in China”.

           Of course, this would primarily influence immigrants rather than native-born Australians, but such an influence should not be discounted. China clearly considers this to be important.

           What all this means is that China is trying very hard to extend its influence abroad by using ethnic Chinese overseas, appealing to their sense of being Chinese, even though they are foreign citizens and had left the country of their birth.

        Why is this important? Generally, it is important because it represents a group that seeks to retain its separateness from other Americans--to not fully integrate. We see this all the time, such as Hispanics that march with or wave Mexican flags, or, just the other day, Haitian immigrants that apparently forget that they were American and criticized Trump for supposedly calling "their nation" (i.e., Haiti) a  "s***hole." 

         More specifically, however, it is a national security threat because the loyalty to the home country or culture may override loyalty to the United States. For instance, just today, there are reports that a former CIA officer, Jerry Chun Shing Lee, also known as Zhen Cheng Li, was arrested on espionage charges. "A naturalized U.S. citizen, Lee faces up to 10 years in prison on charges of 'unlawful retention of national defense information.'" What he did, however, is much worse: he turned over to China the names of dozens of the United States' top informants in China. As The New York Times describes it:

        More than a dozen C.I.A. informants were killed or imprisoned by the Chinese government. The extent to which the informant network was unraveled, reported last year by The New York Times, was a devastating setback for the C.I.A.

       Officials said the number of informants lost in China rivaled losses in the Soviet Union and Russia during the betrayals of both Aldrich Ames and Robert Hanssen, formerly of the C.I.A. and the F.B.I. They divulged intelligence operations to Moscow for years.

Although this may be one of the more egregious examples, it is not the only one. 

•  "Christianity Is K, And It Is Coming Back"--Anonymous Conservative notes that biblical Christianity teaches K-selected behaviors. He explains:

         To me, a big argument in favor of Christianity is that it basically is an owner’s manual for the K-selected human being. Eons before anybody ever contemplated the idea of reproductive strategies, there was the Bible, explaining how to be K-selected.

          Now, we can look back, and see how all of these traits are logically and scientifically sound. We can see the mechanism behind them. We can see how science supports every aspect of it. We can even see the Apocalypse, complete with the four horsemen, warming up right before our eyes. But way back before all of that, there it was, truth revealed and ascribed to by decent people the world over because there were just enough glimpses behind the curtains every so often to let people know it was truth.

        The Creator gave people just enough of what they needed to help them find their path.

Well, as I like to point out, God is a really smart guy.