March 22, 2019 -- A Quick Run Around The Web

"How China Is Taking Over Europe’s Ports | CCP Trade, Economy, and Politics"--China Uncensored (9 min.). In our continued cold war with China, China is seeking to expand its economic power (and ability to smuggle) by purchasing ports all over the world, including in Europe. 

• TGIF: This week's Weekend Knowledge Dump from Active Response Training. Links and comments about articles on carrying a knife for self-defense, controlling bleeding at a junctional wound (e.g., neck, shoulder), lock picking and more.
• Another reminder of that Baugo Forager's camp knife is on sale, with a 5-pack of just the blades on sale for $50. 
• "Walk And Stalk"--Sporting Shooter. Tips on stalking game from an experienced African game hunter and guide. Most hunters will have encountered much of this advice before: move slowly, wear appropriate camouflage or colors (no blue), stay upwind, and so on. But several of the tips offered have to do with planning your route closer to animal once you spot it. Of course, this means glassing an area not only to spot your animal, but also to study the terrain as part of planning your route and to double-check as you move closer. The author notes, in regard to using binoculars:

       Sit calmly (as high as possible) and explore your hunting environment with binoculars. Use binoculars with the most suitable magnification eg 8 or 10x of high quality. Once you find the wildlife that may be hunted, then move into action. The distance between you and the animal can be determined with a laser range finder.

       If the terrain is too flat and there are not high trees to explore the area, then move slowly from bush to bush (shady area to shady area) to track the animals. Also, you need to stop often and explore the area with the binoculars. With this method I have come up to 60 metres from the animal, often without it knowing I was there. The technique has also allowed an animal to walk onto me from behind a big bush.

• "What you Should Know and a Few Things You Should Do When Buying a Gun Online"--The Truth About Guns. Most of the advice offered has to do with timing--i.e., making sure to allow enough time for the firearm to ship to your local FFL and be processed by the FFL before you need the firearm. I don't have a great deal of experience with buying firearms online, but the biggest piece of advice that I can give you is to contact your local FFL holder and make sure you know what he or she may require before making your gun purchase. 

        An example: I purchased a firearm online through a company which, as part of its web site, offered the ability to search for a local FFL already registered with them, including the amount that the FFL charged for a transfer fee. I found a local gun store that I frequented, clicked on that selection for an FFL, and placed my order. Within a day or two, I received an email from the seller indicating that I needed to contact the local FFL. Speaking to an employee of the local FFL, I learned that (1) the price on the website was incorrect, and that the FFL had significantly increased its transfer fee; and (2) the local FFL had additional procedures it required before it would send the information to the seller allowing the seller to ship the product. The process used by the FFL required that the buyer physically go to the store, complete some form, and pre-pay the transfer fee. In other words, not only was I going to have to pay more than I thought, but it was going to take two trips to this particular store. I wound up calling another local gun store which charged much less, took the information over the phone, and sent a copy of its license to the seller without any additional hassle to me. 

• "Do You Think the Charter Arms Bulldog Is A Good Self Defense Gun?"--The Loadout Room. The author's conclusion is "yes".

• Related: "9 Reliable Charter Arms Revolvers for Personal Defense"--Personal Defense World. I'm intrigued by the fact that they offer a revolver for left-handed shooters, and that their .38 Special revolvers are only 12 ounces, unloaded, which is as light as S&W's .22 Airweight.

• I recently linked to some articles on the .44 Magnum, and thought I would try to do the same with the .357 Magnum. 

• "Mighty .357: The World’s First Magnum Cartridge Withstands the Test of Time"--US Concealed Carry Association. The author notes that "[w]hen fired from 4-inch vented test barrels, the power of the .357 ranges from 575 foot-pounds of energy with a 130-grain bullet at 1410 fps to 774 foot-pounds of energy with a 180-grain bullet at 1485 fps. These energy levels are well out of the reach of any other commonly utilized combat rounds, including the .40 S&W and the .357 SIG."

• "State Your Case: .357 Magnum vs. .44 Magnum"--The Truth About Guns. The author discussed the trade-offs between power and recoil/weight.

        When it come to a head-to-head comparison, there’s a world of difference between these two brother cartridges. The .357 is categorically less powerful in terms of available foot-pounds and bullet mass. But the .44 is almost too much to handle when it comes to the same two criteria. Given a similar gun and barrel length, the .357 will always be easier to shoot and generally more accurate. It could be said that the .357 has a slight edge in terms of firearm weight and capacity, with some models weighing only a bit over a pound and holding eight rounds.

        A lightweight .44 Magnum is downright painful to shoot and hard to control. I know that most people, myself included, take no joy in firing a cylinder of Hornady 300 grain XTPs from a Smith & Wesson Model 69, but would happily shoot it with 200 grain .44 Specials all day long. The .357 never really gets painful to shoot, even in higher ft-lbs loads.

         As far as general performance in a revolver, I have to give the edge to the .357 Magnum. The average person is much better suited to it and can practice readily with both 38 Special loads for less recoil and full-house .357 Mag hollow points. The practical end uses of the .357 are many and varied, such as hunting, self-defense (plenty of stopping power), home defense and target shooting. It’s also very forgiving to make handloads for. Guns as small as the S&W J-Frame are readily available and carry easily.

        The .44 Magnum, on the other hand, struggles greatly in small guns. The aforementioned Model 69, shown above, isn’t even remotely fun to fire with anything .44 Magnum. It’s essentially a .44 Special revolver as a result. Bigger handguns do well with .44 Mag, but they lose practicality rapidly for every ounce gained. 

• "Snubbie Ballistics: .38 Special vs. .357 Magnum"--Shooting Illustrated. The author relates: "I randomly selected nine loads—three in each chambering—and fired them over a chronograph out of a Smith & Wesson revolver with a 2.5-inch barrel. The .38 Special ammunition produced an average velocity of 836 fps. The .38 Special +P loads averaged 960 fps, and the .357 Magnum loads averaged 1,276 fps. The .38 Special +P loads showed a 15 percent increase in velocity over the 38 Special loads, and the .357 Magnum loads showed a 52 percent increase. However, the slow-poke 158-grain .38 Special load kind of skewed the results. Omit it and the velocity advantages would be about 4 percent and 38 percent, which is much closer to the prophesied 2 percent and 25 percent guess."

• "Lever Actions for Self-Defense"--Guns & Ammo. With an increasing number of jurisdictions limiting your ability to own a semi-auto defensive rifle or carbine, the lever action has become a more attractive option for self-defense, especially because they are quick to acquire a target and operate and cycle the action. In that regard, the author recommends:

        But, if you're primarily interested in a rifle for self-defense and general backcountry survival, I think pistol caliber carbines are a better choice. Magazine capacity is generally 10-plus rounds, depending on caliber and barrel length. And, thanks to Cowboy Action Shooting, there is no lack of pistol caliber lever action rifles to choose from. Every current lever action manufacturer offers pistol caliber models, and you can get a modern-made rifle, chambered in just about every caliber available in the old west. But classic old west calibers really aren't the best choice today.

         When I say that, I realize that a round that could shoot you dead in 1880, can shoot you just as dead today. So, if you already have access to a rifle chambered in .44-40 or .45 Colt, by all means use it. But, if you are going to buy a rifle, you'd be better off getting one chambered for either .357 Magnum or .44 Magnum. Factory loadings for old west calibers are limited, and are generally on the mild side. In contrast rifles chambered for the two magnum cartridges have a wide range of factory ammunition available from very mild .38 and .44 Special rounds up to very heavily loaded hunting and self-defense ammunition.

• ".357 Magnum"--Terminal Ballistics Research. A detailed article on the .357 Magnum and its ballistic performance on game animals. Good information here if you think you might be hunting with a .357 from a handgun or rifle.

• And for those of you worried about facing off against 2-legged predators: ".38 Special and .357 Magnum Self-Defense Ammo Ballistics Test"--Lucky Gunner. 

• "In Praise of the Home Defense Revolver"--Revolver Guy. The author notes that most of the downsides to a revolver--particularly one that can handle .357--is absent for a revolver kept for home defense. Mostly its an issue of size and weight which really isn't a factor if you are not using it for concealed carry.

• A couple from Beans, Bullets, Bandages & You:

• "PrepperMed 101: Seizure." The article discusses what are seizures, possible causes, and how to identify them. Also, what to do for someone suffering from a seizure:

Summarizing from a bunch of first aid sources, the gist is:

• Leave them be physically, except to keep them from knocking into things or hitting their heads. You can put something soft under the head and move objects away. Don’t restrain the person.

• If you can catch them on the way down in a collapse, let them down gently.

• If they’re not unconscious but blank or confused, lead them away from danger. Stay calm and talk gently. 

• IGNORE that bad old advice about putting something between their teeth!

• Make sure once the seizure’s over that they’re breathing ok. Especially after the big-movement seizure varieties, there may be a period of unconsciousness afterward. Clear the airway if they’re having any breathing trouble. ... Put them in the recovery position if they are still unconscious. 

• And on a related note: "PrepperMed 101: Epilepsy Management Prepping". Epilepsy is generally treated with medication, so the issue is what can you do in the absence of medication. The author notes that ketogenic diets (lots of fat, the daily recommended amount of protein, and very little carbohydrates) reduce seizures in people with epilepsy. This diet not only helps, but can help a lot, reducing seizures by 50% or more in 20% of patients on the diet. The author notes that this diet might be hard to follow in a SHTF situation, but indicates a modified Atkins diet might work: " You’d need lots of canned butter and canned high-fat meat. Also lots of egg powder, and as much mayo and oil as could be used up before it went bad."

       Some other aids that the author mentions that might help is marijuana or CBD oil (although it probably has a short shelf life), and melatonin. 

• "ZAK Tool ZT14 Handcuff Key Review"--Blue Sheep Dog. 
• "PDWs and a Decent Cherry Cake!"--The Michael Bane Blog. Bane decided to prognosticate about the hot new firearms this coming year, and his choice is the PDW (personal defense weapon). Not just a pistol caliber carbine, or an AR pistol, but the really short barreled, compact weapons, or as Bane explains, "The prototypical version of the wee beastie is the SIG Copperhead, the shrunken 3.5-inch barreled version of the Rattler, with an overall length of 14 1/2 inches and in 9mm." Or the Maxim Defense PDX, the Sol Invictus TAC-9, the CMMG Banshee, and so on.
• Still liking the Gerber Bear Grylls Parang: This spring, I had to not only severely trim back a cherry tree, but also had to completely take down a plum tree that had been damaged in a wind storm. For the trimming I mostly used an electric pole (chain-) saw and regular branch clippers. I (or rather, my son) used the electric pole saw to cut most of the tall stuff off the plum tree, and then I used a chain saw to cut down the larger branches and most of the trunk. But rather than let all the wood go to waste, I wanted to process what we could for firewood. So, yesterday evening, my son and I set to work on cutting the smaller branches and twigs off the larger pieces of wood. While he used a variety of tools, I decided to give my Bear Grylls Parang a workout. I had previously reviewed this product in 2015, and thought it was pretty good. I have used the Parang for various tasks since then, but this is the first real workout I've given it since my initial test, and I was very impressed with it. As noted, I was removing smaller branches and twigs from larger pieces of wood so that we could more easily cut up the larger pieces later on. I had no problem with removing branches of 1 to 2 inches in diameter, and cutting those up. I was wearing gloves, of course, but the handle was comfortable, even after a couple hours of work. The curvature of the blade seemed ideal for chopping with it. And the size was about right--anything much longer would have been a hindrance. 

"Tucker: There is no real immigration debate"--Fox News (6 min.)

Both parties want illegal immigration.

• "Is the world running out of gold?"--DW. The article reports:

       Gold production reaching its peak levels is nothing new. The production of the yellow metal has reached its highest levels on at least four occasions in the past before witnessing sharp declines.

       But many say there is something that makes the current gold peak stand out: There is simply no new major gold deposit left to be discovered.

      "The largest and most prolific reserves have already been found," Matthew Miller, an analyst at CFRA Research, told DW. "Gold miners are struggling to grow reserves in line with their production."

• Lawfare in action: "US judge halts hundreds of drilling projects in groundbreaking climate change ruling"--The Guardian. The article reports that "[d]rilling had been stalled on more than 300,000 acres of public land in Wyoming after it was ruled the Trump administration violated environmental laws by failing to consider greenhouse gas emissions. The federal judge has ordered the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), which manages US public lands and issues leases to the energy industry, to redo its analysis."
• As I noted several days ago, the Christchurch shooting is being used as an excuse to clamp down on political speech more generally--at least, the speech that is not approved by our elites. "The Chilling Censorship of the Christchurch Shooting"--Barbara Boland at The American Conservative. Boland relates:

          In the wake of the attacks, the prime minister promised to keep the murderer “nameless,” and the internet promptly obliged by flushing the perpetrator’s identity down the memory hole. New Zealanders’ access to online material about him was blocked. In what has become standing operating procedure after mass attacks, social media accounts connected to the perpetrator disappeared. Internet service providers in New Zealand blocked access to sites like 4chan, 8chan, LiveLeak, and the file-sharing site Mega if the sites did not take down material related to the shooting.

       Ardern then announced that the government would consider further policing social media, saying, “We will look at the role that social media played and what steps we can take, including on the international stage and in unison with our partners.”

       Her actions raise the question: can we prevent evil by simply deleting its mention online? Imagine if the same decision had been made in the wake of other horrific historic crimes. Should we delete all footage of 9/11 from YouTube? How about never uttering the name Osama bin Laden or the acronym ISIS? What about banning all mentions of Adolf Hitler, burning all copies of Mein Kampf, and deleting all references to the Holocaust from our history books, lest we inspire neo-Nazis? Would these actions honor the memory of the dead, or simply erase their suffering? Such logic would replace “never forget” with “never remember.”

She argues that "Rather than running away from reality, democratic societies should confront evil directly, allowing evidence of it to be freely available, daily confronting and confounding those who would deny that such things ever happen. We must remember history, lest we be doomed to repeat it."

          My personal opinion is that one of the reasons that the reaction to this incident is more strident than in other cases is because Brenton Tarrant left a manifesto that raises uncomfortable truths, and was able to fairly accurately predict how governments would react, especially with clamping down on gun control. New Zealand is moving forward with banning any semi-automatic rifles or shotguns that are capable of being used with a detachable magazine that holds more than five rounds. Supposedly some New Zealand gun owners have already begun turning in weapons to the police. This action is easier for the government of New Zealand if the voters there do not know that Tarrant chose his method of attack specifically to drive new gun control legislation.

• Related: "Missouri Senate Bans All Federal Gun Control Laws in Proposed Bill"--The Sentinel. Actually, what the bill would do, if enacted, is prohibit expenditure of state or local funds to enforce federal gun control laws.

• Related: "Registration Always Leads to Confiscation – A Lesson From New Zealand"--The Truth About Guns.

• It's a small club and you don't belong to it: "Elite Colleges Constantly Tell Low-Income Students That They Do Not Belong"--The Atlantic (h/t Instapundit). An excerpt:

        Last Tuesday, the Justice Department charged 50 people with involvement in an elaborate scheme to purchase spots in some of the country’s top schools. The tactics described in the indictment were complex and multipronged, requiring multiple steps of deception and bribery by parents and their co-conspirators to secure their children’s admission to the schools of their choice. The plot purportedly included faking learning disabilities, using Photoshopped images to make it seem as if students played sports that they did not actually play, and pretending that students were of different ethnicities in an effort to exploit affirmative-action programs. The alleged scheme was led by a man named William Singer, who called his business venture a “side door” into college. On Tuesday, Singer pleaded guilty to all charges.

       The case, rightfully, has set off a wave of conversations about how the wealthy are able to lie and manipulate their way into the country’s elite colleges and universities. But the scandal also provides an opportunity to interrogate how these universities are set up in ways that systematically amplify and exacerbate the class differences between their students. Students from low-income backgrounds receive daily reminders—interpersonal and institutional, symbolic and structural—that they are the ones who do not belong.

     To understand the prevalence of wealth at top-tier schools, and how those schools often fail to adequately serve low-income students, it helps to turn to a book called The Privileged Poor, by the Harvard University professor Anthony Abraham Jack, published earlier this month. In the book, Jack combines his own journey as a low-income student from Miami who attended selective schools (Amherst College as an undergrad and Harvard for graduate school) and his two-year ethnographic research project, in which he interviewed and followed the lives of low-income students as they navigated life at an unidentified elite school he refers to as “Renowned University.”

Read the whole thing.

• A fish rots from the head: "As Biden and Kerry Went Soft on China, Sons Made Nuclear, Military Business Deals with Chinese Gov't"--PJ Media. From the article: "'During a critical eighteen-month period of diplomatic negotiations between Washington and Beijing, the Biden and Kerry families and friends pocketed major cash from companies connected to the Chinese government,' Peter Schweizer writes in his new book 'Secret Empires: How the American Political Class Hides Corruption and Enriches Family and Friends.'"

• Related: "Two mystery parties try to restrict release of documents in Jeffrey Epstein civil suit"--Miami Herald. One of the unnamed parties appears to have been a victim, but the other "continues to mount a last-ditch legal campaign to keep court records that allegedly contain details of their sex exploits involving young girls — and other third party people who may be involved — under seal."

• What it means is that the long march through the institutions is finally over: "Progressive Strategy for 2020: Change the Rules of Engagement"--PJ Media. Richard Fernandez writes:

       But changing the rules is a tacit admission that Plan A has failed. Nobody's talking about a "rules-based international system" anymore because changing the rules is Plan B.  The progressives are already creating their own world order to replace the old world order.  The system Hillary hoped to lead is gone.

* * *

        In this context, the spate of proposals to change the rules -- lower the voting age, abolish the Electoral College, expand the Supreme Court, and spend trillions on a Green New Deal -- should come as no surprise. They are the domestic equivalent of building a brand new America. Although they come at a destabilizing price, it is one the ideologues are willing to pay since their vision is imperative enough. After all, to paraphrase Recep Erdogan, "The rules are like a tram ride: when you reach your stop, you get off."

• Related: "Chicago's Democratic socialists on brink of transforming city's politics"--The Guardian. From the article: 

        Rodriguez won more votes in the February election than Mell, a former Illinois state representative, and is now one of four members of the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) vying for a city council seat in the 2 April runoff, along with Andre Vasquez, Byron Sigcho-Lopez and Jeanette Taylor.

       Two other Democratic Socialists of America members, Carlos Ramirez-Rosa and Daniel La Spata, have already won seats outright.

      The democratic socialists say their strong showing in Chicago’s election last month is partly a reaction to its entrenched machine politics, along with policies that progressives say have prioritized the wealthy over the interests of black, brown and working-class residents.

• Related: "We Fight Now or the Socialists Win"--American Thinker. The author explains:

In 2008, there were members of the New Black Panthers stationed outside voting locations.  The right needs to do the same, and have people in place to document everything.  Challenge them at the polls; challenge them outside the polls; challenge them every time we see them cheat; challenge every single vote if need be.  Sue them in court over every irregularity, otherwise, they’re going to deny enough ballots, harvest enough votes, or find enough in trunks of cars to win.  We will need to fight for a fair 2020 election, or they will steal it. 

• "The Intellectual Assault On Our National Identity"--Robert W. Merry at The American Conservative. An excerpt:

       The underlying flaw here is that Lepore sees an ongoing struggle in America between the heirs of Abraham Lincoln, Frederick Douglass, and W.E.B. Du Bois, on the one hand, and the heirs of John C. Calhoun, Stephen A. Douglas, and Father Coughlin, on the other. She presents a binary view of America and its history, with two forces—good and evil—at play. If liberal historians don’t present the right version, she warns, other people will co-opt the narrative, embracing the racism of Calhoun and Douglas and Coughlin. To prevent that, she wants to obliterate the nation’s cultural heritage.

       In fact, though, the struggle of today is not John C. Calhoun versus Abraham Lincoln. It is about what the late Samuel Huntington of Harvard called the country’s “mainstream Anglo-Protestant culture in which most of its people, whatever their subcultures, have shared. For almost four centuries this culture of the founding settlers has been the central and the lasting component of American identity.” Huntington argued that, yes, race and ethnicity once represented foundational elements of the American identity. But they have fallen by the wayside. That has left the cultural and creedal identities.

       Now the cultural element is under assault by intellectuals such as Jill Lepore, who want America’s identity to be narrowed down to just its governing creed. That’s why she must deny the country’s early cultural cohesiveness born of the dominance of the continent’s early British settlers. And that’s why, in her essay, she equates those who wish to preserve that identity with the racism of a Calhoun or Coughlin.

• Related: "‘American Political Thought’ course at CU Denver removes all white men from curriculum"--The College Fix. The author mentions that "[p]erhaps the most striking thing that stands out of the course syllabus is that there is absolutely zero mention of the Founding Fathers (or any other U.S. president or political leader, for that matter) or any of the Western Enlightenment thinkers. Nothing on Washington. Or Jefferson. Or Madison. Or Hamilton. Not a mention of Locke or Rousseau. None of that."

• The wages of sin socialism, California edition: "Skid Road: How California's army of homeless has turned the state's richest boulevards into RV parks as exorbitant rents force families and full-time workers to live on four wheels"--Daily Mail. 
• The rise of the new European empire: "Germany likely to renege on pledge to Trump to boost military spending"--Japan Times. Although Germany is bumping its spending up to 1.37% of GDP (it is supposed to be 2% under its treaty obligations), "the share of military spending would drop back to 1.25 percent in 2023, with any further spending increases to be negotiated year by year, the sources said." Frankly, we have left Germany feeling too cushy. We should dump NATO and concentrate on those nations that are useful to our defense, such as Poland or Norway, where we could base anti-ballistic missile weapons. 
• The peasants are revolting: "France to deploy troops to maintain security during protests"--AP. The protests in question are the Yellow Vest protests.

• More: "French soldiers will be allowed to 'OPEN FIRE' if lives are threatened by Yellow Vest rioters this weekend as the military is drafted in to help 5,000 police on the streets of Paris"--The Daily Mail. 

• Related: "Yellow Vests and You"--Starving the Monkeys. From the author's research into the protests, it appears to be nationalistic socialists protesting globalist socialists.

• The new cold war: "U.S. Marines are practicing seizing small islands using techniques learned in World War II as a possible conflict with China looms in the Pacific"--The Daily Mail.
• God. He's a really smart guy: "Drinking 2 Cups Of Hot Tea A Day Nearly Doubles Chances Of Cancer, Study Finds"--CBS Philly. From the news story:

       The report found drinking two cups of tea a day at more than 140 degrees almost doubles your chance of getting esophageal cancer. The temperature is key.

      It is thought the heat may damage the esophagus, creating repeated injuries that lead to cancer in the same way smoke, alcohol and acid reflux do.

• The plasma universe: "These Two Cosmic 'Chimneys' Could Be Fueling the Galaxy-Sized Bubbles Looming Over the Milky Way"--Live Science. From the article:

        The supermassive black hole at the center of our galaxy is a bit like the hearth at the center of a cozy pub. It's a bright, warm gathering place around which all the quotidian life of the Milky Way swirls — and, according to a new study published today (Mar. 20) in the journal Nature, it might even have a chimney or two.

       In a recent study of the X-ray emissions seething out of the Milky Way's galactic center, researchers noticed two unusual structures that have never been described before. Twin columns of superhot, X-ray-emitting plasma appeared to be billowing out of the galactic center, one rising north and the other flowing south, for hundreds of light-years in either direction.

      "We call these the chimneys," lead study author Gabriele Ponti, a researcher at the National Institute for Astrophysics (INAF) in Italy, told Live Science. "Looking at them, we see clear evidence for a strong outflow of plasma from the galactic center."

• A reminder that we live in the 21st Century: "Navy Ready to ‘Burn the Boats’ with 2021 Laser Installation on a Destroyer"--USNI News. From the article:

        The service is targeting 2021 to install a High Energy Laser and Integrated Optical-dazzler with Surveillance weapon system aboard a West Coast Arleigh Burke-class Flight IIA destroyer, Boxall said.

       The 60-kilowatt HELIOS, much more powerful than the 20-kilowatt laser weapon system the Navy tested aboard afloat forward staging base USS Ponce five years ago, is designed to counter small attack boats small unmanned aerial vehicles.