February 20, 2019 -- A Quick Run Around the Web

"Earth Catastrophe Cycle | Lucky Head Start"--Suspicious Observers (9 min.)

This discusses some additional evidence of past micro-novas and/or super massive flaring, as well as some things you might want to do to prepare.

• Check out the Woodpile Report for this week.
• Given the video below on the .44 Magnum and .357 Magnum, I thought that this article from John Taffin would be appropriate: "THE .357 MAGNUM:THE ORIGINAL HIGH- PRESSURE WHEELGUN!"--Guns Magazine. Note that this article covers the history of the development of the .357 as well as some of the early revolvers developed for the cartridge.
• "Cartels, Drugs, and Human Trafficking in a Vacation Paradise"--Active Response Training. The gist of the article is "[w]hile there are certainly some places in Mexico that I would not visit for safety concerns, the tourist areas are actually quite safe for travelers, even if a bunch of cartel members are getting killed." The same applies to almost any region: there are areas of relative safety and other areas that are dangerous. In fact, that is why we will hear the term "dangerous part of town." In any event, Greg Ellifritz discusses the drug cartels and why the cartel violence has an insignificant impact on tourists--at least those that stick to tourist areas. The only thing I would add is that I increasingly hear accounts of tourists being drugged (generally via drinks they have ordered) in order to facilitate thefts of cash and other personal property.

         My primary interest in Mexico's crime is two-fold. First is that the measure of violence and types of violence are indicative of the ability of the Mexican government to assert control over its territory. In many areas, Mexican forces are essentially fighting an insurrection. Second is my concern that this violence will cross the border, particularly with the immigration issues and lack of border security.

• Related: "Shooting At Cancun Club Leaves 5 Dead, 5 Injured In Popular Tourist Destination: Report". From the article: "The bloodshed reportedly occurred at a bar called La Kuka, which sits about four miles away from where the city’s popular tourist hotels are located. The incident follows a January bar shooting in the resort city of Playa del Carmen, also in the state of Quintana Roo, that left seven men dead, according to the AP."

• "Uninvited Guests In Time Of Crisis"--Modern Survival Blog. If you are a prepper, unless you are extraordinarily good with your operational security, you will at some point have a relative, friend or colleague say to you something like: "If there is a disaster, I'm coming to your place."  While you may welcome the support that this person can offer, it is more likely that the comment will come from someone that you don't particularly want mooching off your supplies. Although the comment will probably be made in a jocular manner, the author suggests that you treat it seriously and deal with the issue right then and there. If they are not going to be welcome, it is better to deal with it well before hand than after the power has gone out, and they are standing on your doorstep hat in hand. This will offend some people. The author mentions:

       We’ve offended a few people over the years after they’ve told us they intend to come to our house during a disaster by advising them that in fact they weren’t.

       Some were quite shocked at finding out that we’re not their emergency backup plan as they fritter away their money on toys and vacations while we endeavor to create a more sustainable household.

      Were we being mean? No, and here’s why- We already knew that the person or people in question simply would not assimilate into our household. There are a variety of reasons but the result is that their presence would be far too disruptive and in some cases, risky.

• "Gunfighting: The American Martial Art"--Caleb Giddings at Recoil Magazine. An excerpt:

Just as the Brazilians took the Japanese art of jujitsu and made it their own, Americans took the idea of fighting with a handgun and made it our own. Through the years, the understanding of how to best fight with a pistol expanded through two World Wars, until in the 1950s Jeff Cooper first developed the Modern Technique as a teachable system of handgun fighting. The Modern Technique and Gunsite, the school it was primarily taught from, dramatically changed the state of gunfighting as a martial art, for the first time creating a system that could be easily replicated and taught to large numbers of students. The Modern Technique was so successful that it still has its adherents to this day.

• "My disaster preparedness secret weapon: Hydrogen Peroxide"--Loadout Room. H2O2 isn't just good for treating wounds, but it also can be used for mouth hygiene (similar to the joke about mean people versus nice people, rinse, but do not swallow), treating fungus infections, and for cleaning items. In the latter regard, the author mentions that he has used peroxide for cleaning his contact lenses, cleaning clothes, and "[i]t can also be used to clean food containers and utensils, water carriers, or even cooking surfaces to kill things like salmonella."

• Related: "Five Prepper Must-Haves for SHTF Hygiene"--Apartment Prepper. The items are: (1) big trash cans with lids and a supply of the 50-60 gallon garbage bags; (2) seeds; (3) baking soda; (4) supplies (including lotions and medicated cream) for taking care of your feet (I would also include nail clippers, emery boards, and a nail brush or two); and (5) the Combat One Hygiene System.

• "I don’t like 'winter' trigger guards"--Loose Rounds. The author thinks that winter trigger guards on an AR are gimmicks. He writes: "Here is the thing, the standard trigger can be flipped down. This gives even MORE space for gloved hands, and ALSO allows you to shoot if you wearing mittens. A winter trigger guard wont let you do that." That was pretty much my experience when I was testing triggers with gloves and mittens.
• "The Truth About the AR-15 Carry Handle"--The Truth About Guns. The author notes that carry handle rear sights take up a lot of rail space; so, if you are only going to be running iron sights, they are a great option, but otherwise you may want to get something more compact. He also warns that most detachable carry handles on the market do not provide enough room for your hand to work as carry handles, and recommends Lion Gears' M4/AR15 Light Weight Carry Handle.
• "SHTF Rifle Considerations: To Operator or Not to Operator?"--John Stokes at All Outdoor. The author explains his views on a SHTF rifle and its use. I agree with his general assessment that "[y]ou are not an operator, nor will you be one in TSHTF." Obviously, circumstances may dictate what we do and why--a plague that wipes out half of humanity will present different circumstances than a civil war. In the former case, if the Black Death is any guide, civil society will still survive, while the latter could see us having to defend against mobs. One thing I'm luke-warm about is the author's choice of a scout-rifle for a SHTF rifle. The concept of the scout-rifle is based on a romanticized view of how a military scout operates, seeking a rifle that is intended for extended time in the field in hostile territory, being good at both hunting large game and fighting. The forward placed optic is a hold-over from when bolt-action rifles were fed ammunition from the top via stripper clips and not really relevant to a rifle that accepts detachable magazines (or that, on the other hand, can't accept stripper clips). (I am aware that Cooper felt that the forward scope preserves peripheral vision, but that hasn't been an issue with military optics). Bolt action rifles are slower to operate than other types of actions. As fatigue sets in, the operator will be slower in operating the action. I have yet to see a scout-rifle that actually meets Cooper's weight requirement. Frankly, if you want something that fits the role of the scout-rifle, I think starting with a Mountain Rifle and modifying it to accept detachable magazines would be a better option. 
• It is interesting to see the increasing number of work-arounds of the National Firearms Act: "Big Punch, Little Package: The ‘Diablo,’ A 12GA Muzzle-Loading Pistol from American Gun Craft"--Guns America Digest. A double-barrel sawed off shotgun that is legal because it is muzzle-loading. 
  

".357 Magnum vs. .44 Magnum"--Paul Harrell (29 min.)

A comparison of both external and terminal ballistics between different loads, different barrel lengths, etc.

• Thou shalt not kill: "Planned Parenthood Kept Babies Alive in order to Harvest Brain & Heart"--The Washington Pundit. A reader brought this article to my attention. From the article:

        In an undercover video, a former technician for a tissue-harvesting company details how an aborted baby was kept alive so that its heart could be harvested at a California Planned Parenthood facility, raising more legal questions about the group’s practices.

       Holly O’Donnell, a former blood and tissue procurement technician for the biotech startup StemExpress, also said she was asked to harvest an intact brain from the late-term, male fetus whose heart was still beating after the abortion.

      A StemExpress supervisor “gave me the scissors and told me that I had to cut down the middle of the face. And I can’t even describe what that feels like,” said Ms. O’Donnell, who has been featured in earlier videos by the Center for Medical Progress, a pro-life group that previously had released six undercover clips involving Planned Parenthood personnel and practices.

      David Daleiden, the video project leader, said the undercover footage and interviews show that fetuses are sometimes delivered “intact and alive” before their organs are harvested.

• Thou shalt not bear false witness: "Investigators Know What Led Jussie Smollett To Stage Attack, Report Suggests"--Daily Wire. Smollett, an openly gay black actor that starred in the show, Empire, claimed he was attacked by two men wearing MAGA hats that beat him, poured bleach over him, tied a noose around his neck, and yelled at him that this is MAGA country. The incident seemed so over the top that I think most reasonable people knew that it was fake, because we've seen this type of thing before. The Daily Caller has a list of such hoaxes in the past. As it was, Smollett not only staged the attack, but the two men he hired to carry out the attack were Nigerian. Smollett is now the subject a criminal investigation for filing a false police report. Police were suspicious from the very beginning:

       The sources say there were red flags from the get-go. Cops were extremely suspicious when Jussie took them out to the area where he said he was attacked and pointed to an obscure camera saying how happy he was that the attack was on video. Turns out the camera was pointing in the wrong direction. Cops thought it was weird he knew the location of that camera.

     And, there's this. We're told investigators didn't believe the 2 alleged attackers screamed, "This is MAGA country," because, "Not a single Trump supporter watches 'Empire.'"

John Nolte at Breitbart describes Smollett's plot in more detail, but also raises an interesting point about Smollett's apparent attempt to make sure the event was recorded on a surveillance camera:

        Imagine what it would have done to this country and to the city of Chicago if the attack had been recorded, if an outlet like TMZ had leaked the video, and if the wildly irresponsible race baiters at CNN had broadcast that video over and over and over again — an endless loop of two men assaulting a gay, black man; pouring bleaching on him and tying a noose around his neck.

       It would have been just like that other media hoax — “Hands Up, Don’t Shoot” — and we all know what that led to: the destruction of a predominantly black neighborhood in the ensuing riots.

• Related: "On January 29, Two Hate Crimes Occurred. The Media Only Covered The Fake One. Here's Why."--Daily Wire. The fake one was, of course, the Smollett affair. The other--the real one--was the beating of a Jewish man in New York by three thugs, part of a growing list of hate crimes directed against Jews by young black men.

• Related: A real hate crime: "Man Pulls a Gun on Sam's Club Customer Wearing MAGA Hat"--PJ Media.

• I know that early accounts of crimes can be wrong, but some still make you wonder: "6 dead, including shooter, and 5 officers wounded in attack at Illinois manufacturing firm"--Chicago Tribune (via MSN). The article mentions that 4 of the officers wounded were from the Aurora Police Department. No mention of any other law enforcement agencies. Yet earlier reports indicated that "Kane County’s SWAT team, the U.S. Marshal’s Task Force and other police are at Henry Pratt Company[.]" I think there was more to this than simply an enraged employee shooting up his place of work.
• The Russian Collusion story is basically dead, and with it any plausible threat of impeachment, so the globalists and left have moved onto a new strategy: "Warren: Officials have duty ‘to invoke 25th amendment’ if they think Trump is unfit"--The Hill. This is how you get civil war. From the lede:

Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass), a 2020 Democratic presidential hopeful, on Sunday said that Trump administration officials have a constitutional duty to invoke the 25th Amendment if they believe the president cannot fulfill his job, saying their loyalty should be to "the Constitution" and not to the president.

• Related: "Report: Two Cabinet Officials Were 'Ready to Support' Effort to Remove Trump"--PJ Media. Rick Moran writes: "James Baker, a former top FBI lawyer, told Congress in closed-door testimony that the effort by Justice Department officials to remove Donald Trump from office by invoking the 25th Amendment was backed by two Trump cabinet officials who were 'ready to support' the effort."

• Related: "Eight days in May: New revelations about intrigue to remove Trump"--Washington Examiner. From the article: "The short version is: The reports were true. Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein really did discuss wearing a wire to secretly record the president. Rosenstein and others did discuss invoking the 25th Amendment to remove the president from office. And the FBI did adopt an aggressive new investigation strategy, targeting the president himself, almost instantly after the Comey firing."

• The time of reckoning is fast approaching. First, Nancy Pelosi is threatening, should Democrats regain the Presidency, of declaring "gun violence" a "national emergency." From that article:

        Pelosi hopes H.R. 8, the Bipartisan Background Checks Act, will pass out of the House by the end of this month. According to the text of the bill, “it shall be unlawful for any person who is not a licensed importer, licensed manufacturer, or licensed dealer to transfer a firearm to any other person who is not so licensed, unless a licensed importer, licensed manufacturer, or licensed dealer has first taken possession of the firearm for the purpose of complying with subsection.”

      She said anyone who tries to block the legislation should keep in mind that gun-control activists aren’t going anywhere.

      “We’re not going away. You might as well save yourself a lot of time by accepting that fact, that the law will be changed, that lives will be saved,” Pelosi said during an event Tuesday organized by MoCo Students for Change, a student-led anti-gun violence group, and Change the Ref.

      “It’s an epidemic. It’s an emergency. We should declare it an emergency and take great action immediately. Are you ready to accept the success we are about to have?” she added.

      Relevant to this is an article linked to at Western Rifle Shooter's Association from a mommy blog, Design Mom, entitled, "It’s Too Late. You’ve Lost Your Guns." The author suggests that a lot of Americans that previously had been willing to work for "common sense gun reform," are frustrated at the lack of additional gun restrictions, and are now willing and eager to simply outlaw the possession and ownership of firearms. Interestingly, the author describes the change as an "inflection point," as if we had passed some type of preference cascade in favor of banning firearms. She writes: "My social feeds were absolutely overflowing with calls for an outright gun ban. And the biggest shock is that the calls were coming from lifelong gun-rights supporters." She then puts together a list of straw man arguments followed by the anti-gun counterpoints. 

        I have no doubt but that the left is getting desperate to restrict firearms. Notwithstanding the gun-grabbers assertion that gun owners are too weak to resist a tyrannical government and the might of the U.S. military, the knowledgeable ones are well aware of the lessons of Vietnam, post-invasion Iraq, and Afghanistan. Design Mom is emblematic of the increased confidence on the left because they have won most of the battles on the cultural war, and believe that the war is over and all that remains is cleaning up here and there.

        The biggest factor favoring gun owners is the elite's uncertainty as to the consequences of a gun grab. "What will gun owners do?" is the key question. Will gun owners simply fold without a fight, which is, unfortunately, the lesson that they seem to be taking from the bans in states such as New York, New Jersey, California, etc., or is there the potential of violence. Although there has not been any violence, it is because there has also been massive non-compliance with the laws, including sheriffs that have stated their refusal to enforce those gun laws. So far, no state has dared to address non-compliance because they don't know what will happen. It is similar to the cold-war stand-off between the U.S. and the U.S.S.R.--the threat of mutually assured destruction and could this or that provocation be enough to elicit a nuclear response.

        The proper response to Design Mom and her ilk is to play on their uncertainty. Point out that gun owners simply won't comply with a ban ... and then what? Will she be willing to see her gun-owning relatives killed by police or sentenced to prison? See police or "traitors" killed?  Don't threaten them or say anything that could be construed as inciting a revolt or favoring the overthrow of the government. Just make it clear to gun-grabbers that they have no idea what type of hell they could be unleashing if they decide to confiscate firearms.

• Related: "In Defense Of ‘Don’t Punch Right’"--Château Heartiste. These are the people that help inject uncertainty into the situation. CH writes:

‘Don’t Punch Right’ doesn’t mean you lovingly embrace beady-eyed social rejects with swastika tattoos and defend them at all costs from attack. It means you do what the Left does with their sanpaku-eyed social rejects with neckbeards and post-op vaginas: you don’t join your enemies to attack them. Instead, like the Left, you change the subject, mildly defend them on abstract principles of “giving a voice to all”, or mildly rebuke them for the minor sin of “letting their justified anger get the better of them”. If all else fails, you ignore them or pretend you don’t know what’s going on and dodge any questions about them.

• Speaking of uncertainty: "Businesses Damaged After Underground Transformer Explodes In Center City"--CBS Philly. "The explosion was so strong it sent several manhole covers flying. A 300 to 400 pound metal transformer access cover went way up in the air, too, and broke into pieces."
• As I drive around locally, I see a lot of cars with bumper stickers reading "Refugees Welcome": "Tanzanian Refugees Arrested for Gang Rape of 18-Year-Old Idaho Woman"--Gateway Pundit. The rape occurred in Kuna, Idaho, which is a small farming community/bedroom community just south of the Boise/Meridian metro area. The girl had gone on a date with one of the men, in violation of Farnam's rules of "don't do stupid things, with stupid people, in stupid places."

• Related: "European girls in Vienna are wearing headscarves to avoid assaults by male muslim migrants"--Voice of Europe.

• "No Border Crisis as DEA Stops Enough Fentanyl to Kill 2.4 Million People in New Jersey"--Shore News. Per the article, Isabel Otanez-Sanchez, 25, and Jesus Zavala-Torres, 33, both of San Jacinto, California, have been charged with shipping over 30 pounds of crystal methamphetamine into New Jersey and conspiring to ship five kilos of fentanyl. When Torress was arrested, two kilos of fentanyl was found in his car. 

• Related: "Pharmaceutical Giants Caught Supplying Cartels With Tons of Bulk Ingredients to Produce Meth"--The Free Thought Project.

• Signs of a civilization in decline: "Australia’s Obsession With Hopelessly Intermittent Wind & Solar Wrecking Entire Power Grid"--Stop These Things. Due to Australia's commitment to so-called renewable energy sources, "[m]ass power cuts (aka load shedding and demand management) and mass blackouts are the new normal."
• A reminder that we live in the 21st Century: "You may soon have to give your DNA to the state and pay $250 for the privilege"--AZ Central. A proposed law would require any person required to submit to a background check under Arizona law to include, as part of that check, a DNA sample.