November 15, 2018 -- A Quick Run Around The Web

"Vietnam M16A1 vs Modern AR-15"--Garand Thumb (28 min.)

Short story: there was little difference in times for different drills between the weapons. The M16 did slightly better at longer range shots than the AR with a red dot; the AR with a shorter barrel was faster for working around a barrier than the 20-inch M16.

• John Wilder is writing a series of story vignettes and articles on survival after a significant EMP attack on the United States. The stories follow (so far) the protagonist's attempts to get back to his home after an EMP attack, and what he finds when he gets to his home town. Each story illustrates certain concepts or problems which are then further touched upon in the discussion section. His latest post (part 10) is here, while the first post is here. Check it out.
• One of the most popular articles I've posted was one on upgrading an old Marlin 60 .22 rifle. I had an old rifle that had problems with feeding due to a flaw in the design of the two-piece design of the old feed throat that allowed a gap to open up in the feed ramp, but a newer design of the feed throat eliminated those flaws. There were some design changes that didn't allow for an easy swap of a new feed throat for the old design, but I figured out a method and posted it. When I did some research on the history of the Marlin 60, I learned that even though there is little written or said about this gun, it was actually the best selling .22 rifle in history. I think that the rifle has a lot to offer the prepper and may be a better choice than the Ruger 10/22 in many cases. While older rifles lacked a last shot bolt hold open, newer rifles have this feature. And it uses a tube magazine under the barrel. This not only makes it handy and less likely to snag than other rifles using a protruding box magazine, it also means that you do not have to worry about getting other magazines or losing the ones you have. While this would be a disadvantage to a fighting rifle, a .22 is not a fighting rifle. In any event, I was pleased to learn that Tin Can Bandit has produced a series of articles on the Model 60's history and some different ways to upgrade or customize the rifle:

• "Featured Gun: The Marlin Glenfield Model 60"--a history and overview.

• "Marlin Model 60 Upgrades"--a look at accessories, including stocks, scope mounts and scope rails.

• "Marlin Model 60 Mods"--what others have done to make their firearm work and/or look better.

He is also documenting his modifications to his own rifle by adding a pistol grip and making some other improvements to the stock:

• "Project Night Prowler Reduex pt 1"

• "Project Night Prowler Reduex pt 2"

• "TO FIGHT TO YOUR RIFLE?"--Gabe Suarez. I was roundly criticized for making this very same point several years ago, but Suarez has more credence than me. Anyway, he takes on the saying that "[a] handgun is merely  a weapon used to fight your way back to your rifle - which you shouldn't have left behind..." To be fair, the context of that quote was a post-SHTF situation where you would be openly carrying a rifle to defend against marauders. But I hear or see it crop up in discussions of ordinary (pre-SHTF) self defense discussions. And that is where it becomes silly, as Suarez points out:

For the vast majority of non-uniformed personnel, off duty or CCW personnel, it is a silly statement that should be forgotten.  Not only will the fight be over (perhaps with you dead) by the time you go and get a rifle, but the mind set places you in defensive retreating mode from the outset.  Not only this, but if you are a CCW, non-uniformed shooter, the visual impact of a rifle may well get you misidentified by responding police officers.

• "DoJ Rules That Bump Fire Stocks Are Now Machine Guns, Fall Under NFA Regulation"--The Truth About Guns.

• Update: TTAG corrects their article by noting that the rule hasn't yet been published in the Federal Register, so it is not yet official.

• "Pictures: 300 Blackout in a 5,56 Barrel 16″"--The Firearm Blog. Amazingly, the bullet had almost escaped the end of the barrel before the weapon blew up. Great photograph showing a cut-away of the barrel showing where the bullet stopped, as well as other photos of the catastrophic failure of this particular weapon. Although I use distinctive magazines between my 5.56 and .300 Blackout, I also make it a point to never take both on the same shooting trip.
• "Gabe White…KING of the kydex SLAP!"--Civilian Defender. This article is mostly a review of White's class, but the author includes some tips that he picked up, including the following:

Gabe ... told me that if I could speed up my draw, and get to the gun quicker, I would knock a good chunk of time off of my presentation.  The exercise he showed me to get up to speed was to start from the ready position of my choice, and then swat my hand to the gun, quickly, like a karate chop (remember the audible SLAP when Gabe gets his hand to the gun?) and then acquire the firing grip.  He had my try this several times, without drawing, and just quickly slapping my hand to the holstered pistol.  After about the fifth time, he said, “NOW GET TO THE GUN THAT FAST.”  I did, and HOLY SMOKES, it worked!  I immediately saw an appreciable increase in my presentation/time to first shot.

"HOW TO–Have More Self Worth: Tips from Lindsey Stirling" (3 min.)

• Believe all women: "How a selfie saved a Texas man from 99 years in prison"--4WWL. Short story: crazy ex-girlfriend cut an X in her skin and then claimed that the accused had done it ... but, fortunately, he had taken a selfie of himself and his mother at the time he supposedly attacked the crazy ex-girlfriend. Nevertheless, he was arrested simply on the ex's say so.
• You have been disenfranchised: "HOW MANY NON-CITIZENS VOTE IN U.S. ELECTIONS?"--Powerline. The author takes a look back at a 2014 study, that determined that "this participation [by non-citizens] has been large enough to change meaningful election outcomes including Electoral College votes, and Congressional elections. Non-citizen votes likely gave Senate Democrats the pivotal 60th vote needed to overcome filibusters in order to pass health care reform and other Obama administration priorities in the 111th Congress." The study's author also concluded that voter ID laws would do little to change this type of voter fraud.

• Related: "Will Trump be the Last Republican President?"--American Thinker. The author believes "yes," because there are no prominent Republicans with the appeal to voters that Trump has, and the fact that demographics will flip Florida and Texas blue, and probably other states, too. Not just foreign immigration, but emigration from California to other states. Trump may be able to pull off a second term, but there is little hope of a conservative winning the presidential election after that.

• How is Broward County any different from a banana republic? "Conservative Group ‘Bikers for Trump’ Submits Evidence of Broward County Ballot Tampering to Florida AG Pam Bondi"--The Gateway Pundit (h/t Anonymous Conservative). The tags were found on the ground outside the Broward Supervisor of Elections main office, suggesting that ballot boxes were opened before being delivered into the building for proper processing. 

• Related: "Brenda Snipes: Boxes Found in Rental Car at Ft. Lauderdale Airport Contained Blank Ballots"--PJ Media. 

• Related: "Florida judge sides with Democrats, giving thousands a second chance to fix their ballots"--Vox. This has to do with those ballots where voters' signatures did not match state records. They will have an opportunity to come in and prove that their signatures were valid.

• The caravan of putative illegal aliens has reached the U.S. border near San Diego and some have already been arrested for illegally entering the country. Fox News reports:

       More than a dozen members of the migrant caravan were arrested Wednesday night along U.S.-Tijuana border, a border patrol source in the San Diego sector told Fox News.

      A small group was arrested near the beach in an area called Playas de Tijuana. A large group was arrested in the mountains east of Otay Mesa, a San Diego community that straddles the Mexican border, the source said. All were arrested for trying to cross the border illegally, the source said.

      Separately, a fight broke out Wednesday night in Tijuana between local Mexicans and Hondurans arriving in the caravan. The migrants complained that the locals were yelling: “Go home. We don’t want you here!” Members of the caravan complained to reporters that local police made no attempt to break up the fight.

Two more caravans are on their way: another from Honduras and the third from El Salvador.

• Warning: A poll of Democratic voters shows that their top issues are socialized medicine and repealing the 2nd Amendment.
• Mini-McCain: "Flake to halt judicial nominees until Mueller protection bill passed"--Washington Times. I wonder what the Democrats have on this guy.
• I'm shocked. Shocked, I tell you. "Climate contrarian uncovers scientific error, upends major ocean warming study"--San Diego Union-Tribune. According to the article, "[i]n a paper published Oct. 31 in the journal Nature, researchers found that ocean temperatures had warmed 60 percent more than outlined by the United Nation’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change." Problem was that there was a glaring math error apparent on the first page of the paper, which was pointed out by mathematician Nic Lewis. One of the researchers, "Keeling said they have since redone the calculations, finding the ocean is still likely warmer than the estimate used by the IPCC. However, that increase in heat has a larger range of probability than initially thought — between 10 percent and 70 percent, as other studies have already found." Whew! Good thing the peer review process caught the error before it was published and splashed across the major media (sarc.).
• "California wildfires: Is Trump right when he blames forest managers?"--BBC. Surprisingly for a left-wing news organization, they find that Trump is right in that poor management is a significant cause.
• Heh. Dan Aykroyd has confirmed that a Ghostbusters 3 is in the works and, hopefully, will include Bill Murray. Apparently the all-female cast of the reboot was so unpopular that it won't be getting a sequel. 
• "HOW GOOGLE AND AMAZON GOT AWAY WITH NOT BEING REGULATED"--Wired. The article discusses how Facebook, Google, and Amazon all got away with buying up competitors with little or no concerns raised by regulators as to possible anti-trust issues. From the article:

In total, Facebook managed to string together 67 unchallenged acquisitions, which seems impressive, unless you consider that Amazon undertook 91 and Google got away with 214 (a few of which were conditioned). In this way, the tech industry became essentially composed of just a few giant trusts: Google for search and related industries, Facebook for social media, Amazon for online commerce. While competitors remained in the wings, their positions became marginalized with every passing day.

(H/t Anonymous Conservative).

• And the British Empire continues its collapse: "Vigilante group of almost 400 people join forces to tackle crime in their area after spate of violent attacks left them with 'no trust in the police'"--Daily Mail. The article reports:

        Fed up families left furious by police have set up a 400-strong vigilante group as they vow to keep their community safe following a spate of violent attacks.

       Formed on social media just three weeks ago, community watchdog group 'We Stand Determined' are working together to report danger to residents across Birmingham.

      At first, the group attempted to get more police officers in the area through petitioning local authorities.

     But when that failed, the group decided to take action themselves, becoming another of a rising trend of community action groups hoping to fight back against criminals.   

        Organisers Wayne, Tracy and Michael founded the group after discovering a friend had been attacked in his home in Birmingham by thieves armed with hammers. They now organise twice-weekly patrols across the city.

One might have thought that the British could have arrested the collapse when it left nothing but the original British people, but I think that they are so mired in the trees that they can't see the forest. They are being invaded by hostile peoples and the government is no longer able to protect the natives from the predations from these invaders.

• "France Has Neither Nationalism nor Patriotism"--David P. Goldman at PJ Media. He writes:

         Just 29% of the French are willing to fight for their country, according to a 2017 WIN/Gallup poll, a bit above Germany's 18%. Contrast that to 84% of Israel's Jewish population. That's "patriotism" or "nationalism," as you prefer. All Europeans want is an untroubled journey to extinction. As it happens, there is a reasonably tight statistical relationship between the total fertility rate and readiness to defend one's country. In the case of France, I used the estimated fertility rate for women born in France (migrants push up the total).

      Why should any European lay down his life for the welfare of future generations, when there aren't going to be any future generations? Europe's nationalism, as I argued in my 2011 book How Civilizations Die and in the appended essay on the First World War, was a form of national idolatry. Each of the major European nations worshipped at its own altar, and held itself to be a superior culture, a superior civilization, a new Roman Empire, or a new "chosen people," entitled to dominate its neighbors. French grandeur, German Kultur, and Russian messianism fought each other to the death twice in the 20th Century. If you worship yourself, you become the God that failed. Europe wallows in its own pessimism and self-disgust.

• "Nineteen-mile-wide crater is discovered under Greenland's ice: Kilometre-wide iron meteor smashed into Earth with the force of 47 MILLION Hiroshima bombs just 12,000 years ago"--Daily Mail. Notwithstanding the headline, the scientists have not yet been able to date the crater: it could be as new as 12,000 years ago, or 3 million. If 12,000 years ago, however, it may tie into the sudden reversal of warming at the Younger Dryas. From the article: "The explosion had a lasting impact because it melted swathes of Greenland's ice sheet, causing a flood of freshwater into the Nares Strait." This would have disrupted the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation--the flow of warm water into the Northern Atlantic--leading to an immediate cooling. 
• "Neanderthals Suffered a Lot of Traumatic Injuries. So How Did They Live So Long? Our ancient-hominid relatives seem to have had surprisingly sophisticated health care."--The Atlantic. "In a recent paper in Quaternary Science Reviews, [Penny] Spikins concludes that Neanderthals’ medical skills were remarkably similar to our own ancestors’ methods, and included wound dressing, fever management, midwifery, and a budding pharmacopeia of herbal remedies. Developing these abilities, she hypothesizes, might have even changed the course of their evolution."
• "How the Big Apple looked in the 1940s: More than half a million newly digitized photos capture EVERY building in NYC's five boroughs - and just look at how things have changed"--Daily Mail. The article has photos comparing the same locations now versus the 1940s era photographs. The whole archive of the 1940s photographs is here.
• A reminder that we live in the 21st Century: "Indonesia 737 crash caused by “safety” feature change pilots weren’t told of"--Ars Technica. The "safety feature" was a computer controlled feature to correct the plane's attitude in the event of a stall, by forcing down the nose of the plane. Only problem, in this particular crash, the sensor that determined whether the plane was in a stall malfunctioned. And to add to it all, pilots were not told about this the anti-stall feature nor how to correct or trouble-shoot for it. So all the while when the pilots were trying to pull up the aircraft, it was ignoring their commends, and nose-diving the plane into the ground.