A Quick Run Around the Web (3/9/2020)

"Why 29 Rounds, not 30 | AR Mags"--Warrior Poet Society (8 min.)

• First up is Jon Low's latest roundup of news, articles, and commentary at Defensive Pistolcraft.  For example, he notes concerning the issue of trigger control:

   Look at people's trigger fingers the next time you go to the range.  You will see many trigger fingers flying off the trigger on every shot.  But, those persons will swear to you that their trigger control was correct.  They trapped the trigger to the rear after every shot and followed through as they were taught.  They will say this, because they believe what they are saying. That is why coaches use video recordings at practices.  It is easy to know something is true that is false.  It is easy to believe something is true that is false.  The shooter is justified in this false belief because he can feel his finger and knows what he is doing. Such is epistemology, knowledge via justified, true, belief. That's why every yoga studio and ballet studio has mirrors on the walls.  Because it's very easy for the body to fool the brain. It's very easy for the brain to fool itself.

     The coach can tell the shooter that the shooter is doing something wrong, and the shooter (especially children) will acknowledge; but the shooter will not believe that he is doing it wrong.  That's reality.  That's why the coach has to use video recordings.  That's why the shooter has to practice in a mirror. Such visual feedback is required to break the shooter out of his false beliefs.

     Grip pressure would be hard to see.  So practice, to achieve a high level of kinesthetic awareness, is required to get the grip pressure consistent throughout the shot process.  Pay attention to a thing, and you will become sensitive to that thing.

 Lot's more there on a plethora of subjects, so be sure to read the whole thing.

• You can't stop the signal: "DIY Guns: An Intro to Modern 3D Printing and Making Your Own Firearms at Home"--The Truth About Guns. With an inexpensive 3D printer like the the Creality Ender 3, and an upgrade to the MicroSwiss all-metal hotend, the author notes that you can print receivers and pistol frames from good quality polymers including Zytel with a glass fiber fill. The article is fairly in-depth, and is promised to be the first in a series, so give it a look.
• A topic I've raised before--what to do if you are carrying and need to use a public toilet: "One Weird Trick That No One Teaches You About Concealed Carry"--The Truth About Guns. The best concealment for this situation is probably pocket carry, according to the author. But for those who use a belt holster of some type, the author recommends against removing the firearm to place on the back of toilet, the handicapped hand hold, the paper dispenser, or other handy surface because it is too easy to forget the firearm. One suggestion he has is to wrap the waistband of your undergarments around the butt of the pistol to avoid it inadvertently being spotted.
• "“PROTECTING THE BELT,” HOLSTER RETENTION OBSERVATIONS"--Force Necessary. Some stories about holsters that were too good at retention. An excerpt:

Retention story #1:

Several years ago I taught at a major US city police academy, an in-service combatives course. Running there also was the rookie class.There was a woman in this rookie class that was consistently having her pistol taken during defensive tactics classes. Instructors told me she’d purchased a high level (many tricks to draw) retention holster. There were so many twists and turns, pushes and pulls, that she herself could not draw her own gun. Their final qualifications were coming up and she absolutely refused to give up her new safer holster, even though she literally could not pull the gun out on demand! I left before there was a conclusion. My best guess though, is she changed holsters.

• "A Parable for the Poors: Palmetto State Armory v.s. Everyone"--The New Rifleman. The author writes:

      A PSA is like a Honda Civic. It goes from point A to B reliably. The driver obeys the local laws. It doesn’t cost much. It is a car for people who don’t have much money or a car for people who have much more wealth than you realize.

     A KAC/Hodge/etc is like driving a Porsche or (insert high-end car here). It goes from point A to B reliably. The driver obeys the local laws. It cost much more. It is a car for people with great wealth or a car for people who make poor financial decisions.

     In your day to day life, there is an insignificant chance you will use either the Civic or the Porsche in a life or death race… you simply go from point A to point B Monday through Friday.

     If the day comes where you must race your Porsche or Civic in a life or death race… It will be vitally important that your choice of the car starts reliably. When the race begins, the announcer says that the race is a drag strip seven yards in length. The only thing you need to do to survive is to start your engine and cross the finish line.

     The Porsche crosses the line first, but the owner is pissed because 99 percent of the power, engineering, cost, and luxury were left out of the race entirely.

     The Civic owner was sad that he was slightly slower but was ultimately relieved that his car started and functioned as designed.

     Both cars were seized by authorities after the life or death race pending an investigation into the incident. The Porsche owner was rightfully pissed. The Civic owner said “ok” and his wife picked him up in the spare Civic they got during a Honda BOGO sale.

• "WATCHING TWO MEN SHOT – TEXAS CHURCH SHOOTING"--Force Necessary. The author notes that members of the church security team were watching the shooter, Kinnunen, when he walked into the sanctuary because he was wearing a fake beard and fake wig. The author notes security details that he worked on in the past, and that no one with a mask or disguise was even allowed near the event/principle, and continues:

      Any professional would easily recognize that this was a mess and professional, security failure.

     Numerous people (to include the guards,) saw him wearing a bad wig and a fake beard. And clothes long enough to conceal a shotgun. How much clothing does one need to cover a shotgun? To sit down while concealing a shotgun? The couple sitting next to him, got up and left. And security, just…watched.

     In my world, my time, you walk across the my parking lot, you try to enter my building, my doors, into my lobby,  you try take a seat in my event, in a fake wig, and a fake beard (cheap ones that untrained citizens recognized) wearing enough bulky clothes to conceal a shotgun? Baggy enough to conceal one while seated? Well bubba, you ain’t getting in the door. Your ass is bounced off to the dark side of the moon.

     I understand I am dinosaur from a past age. I understand that the politically correct world today has officially in some cases and unofficially de-emasculated many police and security people into wormy little, paranoid, sycophant, pussy cats. Afraid to stop people. Afraid to confront people. Afraid to march them off somewhere. Afraid to pat them down. But probable cause and common sense tells you, you can. You’d better. Especially by a school. Especially by a church. the Supreme Court calls such things, “totality of circumstances.”

• "Everyday Carry Essentials In Addition to a Firearm"--Shooting Illustrated. The author's first suggestion is a tourniquet, and more specifically, the North American Rescue Combat Application Tourniquet (C-A-T) or the Tactical Medical Solutions SOF Tactical Tourniquet Wide (SOFTT-W). a flashlight that you can easily carry everyday, and a less than lethal option of pepper-spray. 
• Interesting quote from The Future of Land Warfare by Michael E. O'Hanlon: "Indeed, when one considers all types of militia fighters and short-timers from that conflict, some estimates have concluded that nearly half of all military-age eligible men actually fought against the British in the War of American Independence." Sounds like a bit more than 3%.
• "James Woods: ‘Founding Fathers Wrote the Second Amendment for Violent Haters Like Chuck Schumer’"--Breitbart. From the article:

      Schumer made the threat during a pro-abortion rally outside the Supreme Court [last] week as oral arguments pertaining to June Medical Services v. Russo were heard, a case relating to the availability of abortion services in the state of Louisiana.

       “I want to tell you, Gorsuch. I want to tell you, Kavanaugh,” warned Schumer, who led the fight against both their nominations. “You have released the whirlwind, and you will pay the price. You won’t know what hit you if you go forward with these awful decisions.”

      Responding to Schumer’s threat, Woods said that the threatening of judges in such a manner indicated the country was in “civil war territory.”

     “When the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court must take the extraordinary step of admonishing a United States Senator from targeting the lives of named Justices, we are in civil war territory,” Woods said. “The Founding Fathers wrote the Second Amendment for violent haters like  Chuck Schumer.”

• Today's coronavirus stats are: 111,332 confirmed infections, 3,879 dead, 62,488 recovered, and 44,965 resolved. As for the United States, the stats are 551 confirmed cases with 22 deaths. In comparison, updated CDC statistics peg the number that have died of seasonal flu in the United States at 20,000.

       At Breitbart claims that ammo sales have surged amid fears of pandemic-induced chaos, noting that "online ammunition retailer Ammo.com has seen a 410 percent increased in .40 caliber handgun ammo sales since February 23, 2020. They have seen a 194 percent increase in .223 (AR-15 amm0) sales, 101 percent increase in 9mm ammo sales, and a 95 percent increase in the sale of 12 gauge shells." Coronavirus fears or receipt of tax refunds? 

       Meanwhile, Chinese authorities are predicting that "the city of Wuhan, ground zero for the worldwide coronavirus epidemic, could have zero new infections by the end of March, while other cities in Hubei province will reach zero infections even sooner." But The Week reports that "China's coronavirus recovery is 'all fake,' whistleblowers and residents claim." For instance:

       Beijing has spent much of the outbreak pushing districts to carry on business as usual, with some local governments subsidizing electricity costs and even installing mandatory productivity quotas. Zhejiang, a province east of the epicenter city of Wuhan, claimed as of Feb. 24 it had restored 98.6 percent of its pre-coronavirus work capacity.

      But civil servants tell Caixan that businesses are actually faking these numbers. Beijing had started checking Zhejiang businesses' electricity consumption levels, so district officials ordered the companies to start leaving their lights and machinery on all day to drive the numbers up, one civil servant said. Businesses have reportedly falsified staff attendance logs as well — they "would rather waste a small amount of money on power than irritate local officials," Caixan writes.

       Now that the virus has spread beyond China, we are getting a better idea of its mortality rate, which appears to now be between 0.1 and 1 percent. Nevertheless, an expert for the American Hospital Association is predicting that there could be as many as 96 million cases in the US, 4.8 million hospitalizations, and 480,000 deaths associated with the novel coronavirus. Nevertheless, there has been another article authored by researchers that note that the virus may have greater impact on some races than others. Chinese researchers note that 2019-nCov (i.e., COVID-19) shares the same receptor, Angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2) as SARS. The researchers "further found (in a comparison of eight individual samples) that the 'Asian male one has an extremely large number of ACE2-expressing cells in the lung' in comparison to other races." Thus, they predict that the virus will largely be restricted to Asian populations. This makes sense given the dearth of cases in Africa and South America.

        In a similar vein, an article from the World Economic Forum reports that we're right to be concerned, but a microbiologist explains why we shouldn't panic and outlines some causes for optimism. The points he raises are that we know what is causing the disease, we know how to detect the virus, 80% of the cases are mild (even more when considering children), and the number that recover from more serious cases is 13 times as many as die. 

       But if we do end up with lots of cases, a primary problem we will face is a lack of hospital beds and trained medical personnel, with one expert predicting that all hospital beds will be in use by May 8. Two factors may keep the cases in the United States relatively low: the early implementation of travel bans and "nonpharmaceutical interventions" isolation of ill persons and quarantine of those suspected of having contact with ill persons, school closures, and banning of public gatherings (or at least moving them outdoors). The "nonpharmaceutical interventions" were effective to control the Spanish Flu. Aesop at the Raconteur Report is warning that whether we are looking at quarantines or large numbers of sick and dead, the economy may very well tank. Peter Grant notes that container shipping from China is down and advises:

 If you buy much from stores that rely on Chinese products - stores like Walmart, Target, Harbor Freight, and many others - you can now see where they're going to be a couple of months from now.  What's in the supply pipeline right now - the containers that have already left our ports - is all there is for the foreseeable future.  When it's used up, those stores will either have to find alternative suppliers - and right now, none have stepped up to the plate, because they aren't shipping containers here either - or do without.  That means their customers will do without, too.  Forewarned is forearmed.

What this illustrates is that globalism/outsourcing manufacturing is a failure, and, more specifically, we need to decouple from China.

       The realization is finally sinking in across the U.S. policy community: The belief in “globalization” as a sure path to modernization has been perhaps the greatest delusion to have seized American elites since the conviction that the United Nations would eliminate the problem of war from the international system. The current coronavirus crisis may have put an exclamation point on this truth by exposing key vulnerabilities caused by farming out critical elements of the U.S. supply chain to China. But the diagnosis and remedy have been clear for a much longer time: We need a hard decoupling from China.

     The national security predicament the United States finds itself in has deeply entrenched ideological roots. Until the Trump Administration confronted China, multiple U.S. administrations had fundamentally misread the pathway the People’s Republic of China (PRC) would follow as it used access to Western markets and technology to modernize its economy. ...

      Over the past three decades globalist ideology has fueled the greatest centralization of market and supply chains to date, creating a system in which a single point of failure can disrupt the manufacturing of consumer goods. ...

     ... [T]he principal challenge facing the United States and its allies is one that is internal to our own polity.  It rests on our competitor’s ability to exploit our own set of legacy assumptions about the purportedly inevitable waning of the nation state and the universalization of participatory democracy as a direct consequence of globalization and market-driven modernization across the world. Even though evidence to the contrary has been piling high for the past thirty years, the globalization paradigm still dominates a large segment of U.S. policy debates.

      ... Three decades of assurances from Washington, echoed out of Berlin and Paris, that institutions trump culture and, most importantly, that the best pathway forward for humanity lies in the formation of one global market and one set of democratic principles (notwithstanding the mundane obligatory mantra that “diversity is our strength”) have effectively disarmed our polities when it comes to confronting the reality of resurgent great power competition and predatory behavior by our adversaries. Market access-cum-export-driven modernization was supposed to bring about the eventual democratization of Russia and China; instead, the two countries have adopted revisionist-nationalist and techno-nationalist postures, respectively.

       Another unintended consequence of the coronavirus outbreak: "As people worry about gathering in public because of coronavirus, blood donations steadily dwindle." The Los Angeles Times story continues: "There is currently no shortage of blood supply in the country. But Eduardo Nunes, vice president of quality, standards and accreditation for AABB, said that it would be cause for serious concern if the decline continues for weeks over fears of falling ill to COVID-19."

       An article at the Journal of Medical Virology is asserting that "[t]he neuroinvasive potential of SARS‐CoV2 may be at least partially responsible for the respiratory failure of COVID‐19 patients." From the abstract:

The most characteristic symptom of COVID‐19 patients is respiratory distress, and most of the patients admitted to the intensive care could not breathe spontaneously. Additionally, some COVID‐19 patients also showed neurologic signs such as headache, nausea and vomiting. Increasing evidence shows that coronavriruses are not always confined to the respiratory tract and that they may also invade the central nervous system inducing neurological diseases. 

       If we do have a high number of infections and deaths in the United States, it will be partly the fault of over-regulation on the part of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) which has been slow to approve tests for the coronavirus. While other countries had quickly adopted tests for coronivirus and allowed the sale of testing kits, "[t]he FDA has not allowed the experienced and highly skilled professionals at public-health, academic, and commercial laboratories to set up their own laboratory developed tests (LDTs), and no manufactured test kits have been authorized for sale in the U.S." 

       To Democrats and others on the left, the coronavirus is a God-send (if they believed in God). For instance, we read:

NBC political director Chuck Todd spent a part of Sunday’s Meet the Press musing about how the virus could be President Trump’s version of the Iran Hostage Crisis, where President Jimmy Carter showed such poor leadership the public voted in President Ronald Reagan. Of course, the idea this time was that Trump would get dumped for a Democrat.

MSNBC’s Nicolle Wallace and a guest expressed their hope that the coronavirus becomes Trump’s "Katrina". Other liberals are excited by the possibility that the virus will kill more old people because they (the old people) are more likely to be climate skeptics.

       Last, but certainly not least, a friend sent me this link to a WHO guidance on home care of coronivirus cases.

"Bulgaria Joins the Fascist Alliance - WW2 - 080 - March 7, 1941"--World War Two (12 min.)

• The Turkish invasion of Greece via immigrants continues to heat up. Some recent headlines:

• "Greek Troops Open Fire on Refugees While Vigilantes Attack Aid Workers and the Media"--PJ Media. The author writes:

      I doubt whether a lot of these simple Greek villagers are members of a far-right organization. Their motivations are simple; their families are at risk and their property is being invaded by foreigners. For them, there are no grand geopolitical issues involved. They are protecting theirs and their own from harm.

      But with the rest of the EU cheerleading from the sidelines -- while not lifting a finger to help except to open their wallets -- Greece finds itself alone and facing a potential onslaught of 100,000 people.

• "Greece: Local Volunteers Rally Around Police and Army, Help Detain Illegals"--Breitbart. 

•  "Vigilantes Along Greek Border With Turkey Say, ‘No More’ to Migrants"--DNYUZ. 

•  "Nearly 8 in 10 Greeks Support Government’s Border Control Policy"--Breitbart. 

• "Tear gas sprayed across migrants at Turkey-Greece border"--AP.

• "PICTURES: Greek Border in Flames as Migrants Keep Trying to Break Through"--Breitbart.

• "Reports: Turkish Police Use Drones to Organise Tear Gas Attacks on Greek Border Guards"--Breitbart.

One of the reasons for Turkey's actions is that it doesn't believe it is getting the support it should receive from NATO for Turkey's invasion of Syria, resulting in Turkey being soundly defeated by Syrian forces enjoying Russian air superiority. Of course, Greece is not getting support from its European allies either. For instance, Finland’s feminist led government has decided to help out by sending its border guards to Greece to help the invaders claim asylum. 

• Tolerance: "UK: Underage Girl Used Like ‘Piece of Meat’ By ‘Asian’ Grooming Gang"--Breitbart. For some reason, this article reminds of the following quote from Genghis Khan: "The greatest happiness is to scatter your enemy, to drive him before you, to see his cities reduced to ashes, to see those who love him shrouded in tears, and to gather into your bosom his wives and daughters."
• Refugees welcome! "Denmark: 62 Per Cent of Young Somali Migrants Convicted by Age 30"--Breitbart. From the article:

       Over half of all of the young migrant men from Somalia, Lebanon, and Morocco living in Denmark have been convicted of at least one crime before the age of 30.

      The figures come from a report by think tank Unitos that delved into crime statistics kept by the Danish Ministry of Justice and looked at the crime rates for men born between 1985 and 1987.

      The report found that young migrants from certain backgrounds were especially prone to criminal behaviour, with 222 of the 357 Somali young men, 62 per cent, having been convicted of a crime such as violence, vandalism, and theft before the age of 30, Jyllands Posten reports.

     For Lebanese migrants, the rate was 60 per cent, and for Moroccans the rate was 52 per cent.

      Migrants from Iraq, Iran, and the former Yugoslavia saw rates of 40 per cent.

     In contrast, only 18 per cent of Danish-born citizens had been convicted by 30.

• Diversity is a strength: "Illegal Alien, 31, Charged with Raping 14-Year-Old Girl in Idaho"--Breitbart. 
• Immigrants contribute to the economy: "Study: American Taxpayers Billed up to $133K per Refugee Resettled in U.S."--Breitbart. 
• "I have a dream....": "‘Let white people die’ prof triples down: Whiteness is ‘mental and physical terrorism’"--The College Fix.
• It takes a village to raise a child: "Horrifying Berlin foster experiments saw kids DELIBERATELY given to paedos to see if sex abuse was ‘good for them’"--The Sun. From the article:

      The twisted logic behind behind the "Kentler experiment"— named after the leading sexologist Helmut Kentler who spearheaded it — was that paedophilia could have "positive consequences".

     Astonishingly, in the late 1960s Kentler managed to persuade West Berlin's ruling Senate that homeless boys would leap at the opportunity to be fostered by paedophile dads.

     It was successfully argued they would be "head over heels in love" with their new father figures.

     About this time Kentler was publicly lobbying for decriminalisation sex between adults and children in West Germany.

     The academic argued youngsters "almost always more seriously damaged" by their abusers being prosecuted than by the abuse itself.

     But despite his openly positive views on paedophilia, Kentler was given official blessing for a pilot that paved the way for the experiment.

     This arranged for boys to move in with three known West Berlin paedophiles so they could then "learn to live proper, unremarkable lives".

      Later he explained he believed the "three men would do so much to help ‘their’ boys because they had a sexual relationship with them".  

     It is not clear whether the West Berlin’s Senate voted on the experiment or agreed to it behind closed doors.

Of course the men chosen for the experiment raped and molested their charges. According to the article, the "experiment" lasted from 1969 to 2003.

• Only cops should have guns: "Detroit Cop Accidentally Shoots Herself at Detroit Public Safety Headquarters"--The Truth About Guns.
• Fidelity, Bravery, Integrity: "Obama's FBI let terrorists go who then killed Americans"--Don Surber.  He observes:

      The FBI investigated and decided 6 Islamic terrorists posed no threat. They are:

• Nidal Hasan, who later killed 14 people and wound 31 more at Fort Hood.

• Tamerlan Tsarnaev, who later killed 3 people and injured 249 more in the Boston Marathon.

• Elton Simpson, who later killed a guard but failed in his attempted attack on a Draw Mohammad exhibition in Garland, Texas.

• Omar Mateen, who later killed 49 gay people at Orlando Pulse Nightclub. 

• Ahmad Rahami, who later injured 31 people in bombings in New York and New Jersey.

• Esteban Santiago, who later killed 5 people and injured 6 more at Ft. Lauderdale Airport.

And this: "Of course, the FBI had plenty of resources available to spy on Donald Trump and his family and to send 25 agents and a CNN camera crew to Florida to arrest Roger Stone and his wife at 6 in the morning."

• "Imagine a world in which every single human being can freely share in the sum of all knowledge": "Wikipedia Airbrushes List of Climate Sceptic Scientists Out of History"--Breitbart. According to Wikipedia, in explaining its actions: “The result was delete. This is because I see a consensus here that there is no value in having a list that combines the qualities of a) being a scientist, in the general sense of that word, and b) disagreeing with the scientific consensus on global warming.” 
• Your vote counts: "Dallas County asks to recount Super Tuesday election results after 44 thumb drives discovered"--WFAA 8. Per the article, these might have records of as much as 10% of the votes cast.
• Fighting inflation the old fashion way: "DHS Secretary Chad Wolf Approves 35K H-2B Foreign Workers to Take U.S. Jobs"--Breitbart. The article explains:

       The H-2B visa program has been widely used by businesses to drag down the wages of American workers in landscaping, conservation work, the meatpacking industry, the construction industry, and fishing jobs, a 2019 study from the Center for Immigration Studies finds.

      When comparing the wages of H-2B foreign workers to the national wage average for each blue-collar industry, about 21 out of 25 of the industries offered lower wages to foreign workers than Americans.

      In the construction industry, wage suppression is significant, with H-2B foreign workers being offered more than 20 percent less than their American counterparts. In the fishing industry, foreign workers were offered more than 30 percent less for their jobs than Americans in the field, and in the meatpacking industry, foreign workers got 23 percent less pay in wages than Americans.

• And I was taught in school that Native Americans learned scalping from Europeans: "Farming encouraged cooperation and violence among early humans"--UPI. In a study of pre-Columbian Eastern American-Indian populations, the researchers found evidence that as farming increased, so did violence, including trophy taking:

"Of course there are signs of violence throughout history, but trophy-taking is a different type of violence," Weitzel said. "The victor removes a part of the loser as a signal they won. They took scalps, hands, feet, heads -- that first evidence appears to have happened at the same time as plant management."