A Quick Run Around the Web (3/11/2020)

"c o r o n a v i r u s"--Paul Joseph Watson (10 min.)

A look at how open borders permitted the spread of the Wuhan virus, as well as commentary on the politicization and unwarranted panic.

• In case you missed the President's announcement earlier this evening, he will be suspending all travel from the European Union for 30 days beginning on Friday, in order to protect against the newest virus hot spots. He also mentioned that with South Korea and China apparently seeing declining numbers of new cases, travel restrictions with those countries may be revisited sooner rather than later.
• Since we are on the topic of the Wuhan virus, today's worldwide statistics are 126,569 confirmed infections, 4,621 deaths, and 68,086 recovered. The United States has 1,189 confirmed cases, and 36 dead. The numbers of infected are probably much higher. I have a niece who works in a hospital in the Seattle area that has come down with something much like pneumonia, but they won't test her for COVID-19 unless they first have a clinical diagnosis. In other words, they are only using the tests to confirm a diagnosis. 
• A timely announcement (sarc.): "World Health Organization Declares Coronavirus Outbreak a Global Pandemic"--Breitbart. I take this to mean that the WHO believes that the rate of increase will flatten off or start to decline.
• "Coronavirus can travel twice as far as official ‘safe distance’ and stay in air for 30 minutes, Chinese study finds"--South China Morning Post. Researchers now saying that the Wuhan virus can affect people up to 4.5 meters (14.8 ft.) 
• A few weeks ago, one of my friends suckered me into going halfsies with him on a buy-one-get-one-free sale of AK receivers. I hadn't thought that I was going to do another AK build, but it looks like I was wrong. The big difference between when I did my earlier builds and now is that the costs of the parts kits are so high. When I bought my first parts kit, they were selling for about $100 for the Romy "G" models; and, because Bush Jr. hadn't yet banned the importation of barrels with the parts kits, it came with its original barrel already populated with the sight block, gas block, etc. When I did my next build, the kits were between $150 and $200 for a kit with no guarantee of matching serial numbers on the parts, but at least came with a U.S. made barrel included. But for the last year or so, whenever I've bothered to look, the kits have varied from $300 to more than $500 depending on the type of kit (model, where it was manufactured, etc.). 

       As luck would have it, though, I chanced across a sale at Midway offering Romanian AKM parts kits with a side-folding stock (but obviously sans barrel) for $250. Figuring this was probably the best price I would see on kits, I bit the bullet and ordered it, and was pleasantly surprised with what I got. First of all, all the parts looked new or nearly new, with no observable wear as far as I could tell through the coating of grease. All the parts were present, which is also nice. But, most surprisingly of all, it was a completely matching serial number kit--i.e., all of the serialized parts had the same serial number. The only reason that the kit wasn't a higher grade, I believe, is because the top handguard had cracked and split--something that I saw that other's had complained about. For me, it was a non-issue: first, I was going to replace the furniture with American made products as part of the 922r compliance; and, second, the piece had split along the grain and would have easily been fixed with wood glue and, at worst, a pin.  So, in short, I was very pleased with what I got. Should be a fun project.

• "Should You Load Your AR Mags to 30?"--The Firearm Blog. The Warrior Poet Society video from the other day about why he only loads his magazines to 29 rounds sure hit a sore spot. That article relates:

     Ash Hess, the government and military sales rep for Knights Armament Company believes mags should be loaded to 30. He is not alone. The controversy gained a large amount of attention. In response, Chuck Pressburg, a retired well-renowned member of the US Army’s Special Operations, posted a video HERE to provide data on the argument.


      Those promoting loading mags to 30 rounds argue that this was the intended round count for these magazines. They were designed to be fully loaded to 30 and can be loaded successfully as such. Giving up 1 or 2 rounds simply takes away from the user’s capabilities and with an in-spec rifle, you should not have issues.

It seems that people are getting their panties in a wad about nothing. The issue was that underloading the magazine by one round made it easier to lock a magazine in place when the bolt is closed (such as making a tactical reload), not that you couldn't get the magazine to lock into place with a full 30-rounds. I have a couple Magpul magazines that you have to give them a hard tap to make sure they lock in place on a closed bolt when fully loaded, and the same issue with a different rifle if fully loaded. 

"Strange Star, Impactor Theory, Cosmic Nonsense | S0 News Mar.10.2020"--Suspicious Observers

• "Ancient human settlement was obliterated by a COMET that exploded in Earth's atmosphere and sent fragments of molten glass 'hot enough to melt cars' flying to the ground 12,800 years ago"--Daily Mail. This is yet another impact event at the time of the beginning of the Younger Dryas. Other evidences of impact include an impact in the Michigan and a possible one over Greenland. In any event, from the article:

      The event destroyed a village found in the Abu Hureyra dig site in Syria and splattered fragments of molten glass 'hot enough to melt cars' to the ground.

     The impact is also believed to have contributed to the extinction of many large animals, including mammoths as well as North American horses and camels.

     Experts believe the explosion helped bring about the demise of the North American Clovis culture and usher in an episode of climatic cooling.

More about this in the Suspicious Observers video, above.

• The Ninth Circuit gets smacked down again: "Supreme Court Preserves ‘Remain in Mexico’ Border Defense"--Breitbart. Interesting fact: the Ninth Circuit gets reversed more by SCOTUS than any other federal circuit court. Anyway, as you may know, Anti-American agitators had sued to stop the Trump administration from returning Central American "refugees" to Mexico pending the determination of their applications to immigrate. As part of that case, the Ninth Circuit court has issued a temporary restraining order stopping the federal program from returning the "refugees." By this decision, the Supreme Court lifted the stay imposed by the Ninth Circuit.
• "Four security guards at Dresden's Royal Palace are suspected of involvement in the heist which saw thieves make off with nearly £1BILLION in antique jewels"--Daily Mail. The article reports:

       Germany was left in shock when priceless treasures including three sets of diamonds thought to be worth €1bn were whisked from the Green Vault of the museum in an early morning raid after a fire cut power to the building.   

       Investigators have long suspected the robbers had inside knowledge of the layout of rooms where the treasures were kept and the museum's 'Fort Knox-like' security system.

       Two security guards who were on duty in the early hours of November 25, when the raid was carried out, are suspected of helping the thieves as they did not confront the robbers, the Guardian reports.

        They also called police to report the robbery instead of pressing a panic alarm, possibly costing valuable time and allowing the burglars to escape in a getaway car.

       A third guard, who was arrested on November 29, is thought to have passed on information about the museum's floor-plan and security measures.

       And a fourth guard is suspected of meddling with the alarm system, enabling the thieves to smash open the cases containing the glittering jewels unhindered.