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Thursday, June 11, 2020

A Quick Run Around the Web (6/11/2020)

"Security Footage Shows George Floyd Clearly Drop A Small Baggie w/ White Substance During Arrest"--Banned Video (7 min.). The video starts with what looks like Floyd doing some dealing out of his vehicle, then a few minutes later, the cops show up. 
      On the issue of ejector rod length: I recently read a review where the author was critical of the ejector rod length because it was shorter than the length of the cartridge and, therefore, would not fully eject the cartridge without turning the gun over to get a gravity assist. In my opinion, the article reflected the author's lack of experience or knowledge concerning the firearm. You don't want an extremely long ejector rod because cases can get stuck underneath the extractor "star", which is not desirable when time is of the essence. 
      As to gardening failures, this is why long term food storage is critical. As I've mentioned before, you should probably just plan on your first attempted crop failing (or mostly failing). This doesn't mean not to plant the first year or to approach the gardening with less seriousness, but to plant knowing that the effort will probably be more fruitful in respect to experience and "lessons learned" than in actual produce.
Our analysis focuses on the tactics and composition of the crowd that besieged the Third Precinct on Day Two of the uprising. The siege lasted roughly from 4 pm well into the early hours of the morning of May 28. We believe that the tactical retreat of the police from the Third Precinct on Day Three was won by the siege of Day Two, which exhausted the Precinct’s personnel and supplies. We were not present for the fighting that preceded the retreat on Day Three, as we showed up just as the police were leaving. We were across the city in an area where youth were fighting the cops in tit-for-tat battles while trying to loot a strip mall—hence our focus on Day Two here.
Some additional points:
  • The author finds it significant that there was no one organization in control, which might have cautioned about actions or forced the participants to slow down, but was instead a "crowd" made up of members of differing groups and affiliations, writing: "The agency that took down the Third Precinct was a crowd and not an organization because its goals, means, and internal makeup were not regulated by centralized authority. This proved beneficial, as the crowd consequently had recourse to more practical options and was freer to create unforeseen internal relationships in order to adapt to the conflict at hand." 
  • "The crowd mostly originated from working-class and poor Black and Brown neighborhoods. This was especially true of those who threw things at the police and vandalized and looted stores. Those who do not identify as 'owners' of the world that oppresses them are more likely fight and steal from it when the opportunity arises. The crowd had no interest in justifying itself to onlookers and it was scarcely interested in 'signifying' anything to anyone outside of itself. There were no signs or speeches, only chants that served the tactical purposes of 'hyping up' ('Fuck 12!') and interrupting police violence with strategically deployed 'innocence' ('Hands up! Don’t shoot!')."
  • The group exercised electronic intelligence, both using scanners to catch police traffic, as well as "advis[ing] rebels to set up the Telegram app on burner phones in order to stay informed while preventing police stingrays (false cell phone towers) from gleaning their personal information."
  • The admixture of peaceful protesters and rioters was beneficial for three main reason: (1) "They [the peaceful protesters] created a spectacle of legitimacy, which was intensified as police violence escalated," (2) "They created a front line that blocked police attempts to advance when they deployed outside of the Precinct," and (3) "In addition, in an unexpected turn of affairs, the peaceful protestors shielded those who employed projectiles."
  • The rioters had tasks and jobs: The rioters employed people specifically as "ballistic squads" who threw Molotov cocktails, rocks, and what-not, at police, as well as those using laser pointers to blind police, blind and disable surveillance cameras and drones, and chase off police helicopters. Other rioters were tasked with building barricades. 
  • Looting was a key tactic: "First, it liberated supplies to heal and nourish the crowd." "Second, looting boosted the crowd’s morale by creating solidarity and joy through a shared act of collective transgression." "Third, and most importantly, looting contributed to keeping the situation ungovernable." Burning of looted buildings served a similar role of draining police resources because the police were often drawn from other areas to provide security for firefighters.
Needless to say, read the whole thing.
  • "Sig P210: A Classic For The Ages, Made New" by Patrick Sweeney at Gun Digest. A history of this iconic firearm and a detailed look at the most recent model. The author notes that "the P210 is a scary-accurate kind of handgun, a one-inch-groups-at-25-yards kind of handgun."
  • "The tale of Trinity’s carry gun: The Beretta 80-Series" by Caleb Giddings at Recoil Magazine. Some history of this firearm as well as an explanation of the difference between the 84B and 84F and 84FS models. According to the author, the gun was somewhat of a niche firearm during the 1980's and '90's:
The second demographic that enjoyed the 80-Series were switched-on undercover cops. For most of the consumer market the caliber offerings in 32 ACP and 380 ACP, coupled with the gun's odd size for such a small caliber didn't make it appealing. Since it arrived before wide-spread legalization of concealed carry, Beretta didn't have the ability to market it for that purpose either. Undercover and plainclothes cops of a certain mindset appreciated the gun's compact size and considerable round count advantage over a J-frame. 14 rounds of 380 ACP out of an easily concealable package makes a lot of sense when your other choice is 5 or 6 rounds of 38 Special, and so the little Cheetahs found a small niche.
      As the coronavirus pandemic has prompted people to rush to stores to purchase years of toilet paper, a professional survivalist warns that there are better ways to prepare for a worst-case scenario.
         Steven Claytor is a survival professional in North Florida that, after training for years under veteran survivalist instructor and star of Discovery Channel’s “Dual Survivor” Cody Lundin, teaches families from all over northeast Florida how best to prepare for a possible disaster. He said hindsight is 2020 in that families around the country should have already been prepared for the coronavirus now.
           “It’s probably hindsight to say this but preparing now is pretty much too late,” Claytor said. “You’re not preparing now. You’re scrambling to survive.”
             Claytor said the behaviors he’s seen during the COVID-19 pandemic are signs of what he calls a survival-mode scramble. Stores are already picked over, people are waiting on supplies, and nobody is getting everything they want, he said, and that’s because they waited until the actual situation to prepare. Claytor said people should already be prepared for a situation like this in an ideal world.
                Whether or not you believe in climate change, Mother Nature doesn’t care. She just does what she does. And she’s going to unleash wildfires, tornadoes, and hurricanes this season, regardless of the pandemic. Mother Nature doesn’t care that you’re in lockdown as flood waters rise. She couldn’t give a hoot that you’re scared to evacuate to a public shelter.  
                 It’s your problem. Yours alone. And we all have to become preppers to power through cascading natural calamities. With local authorities stretched thin by COVID-19, we can’t count on them or FEMA to save us. Prepping makes you calmer because you have a plan and supplies. You’ll feel more confident to stare that earthquake down. And you increase your odds of survival.
                    Consider this. The past two years were among the worst on record for natural disasters in the United States. This summer augurs to be a knockout as well. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration projects “above-normal” hurricane action over the Atlantic starting in weeks. California expects the annual blazes. Floods are forecast along the Mississippi.
                      And dams break, as we saw on May 19 in Michigan, forcing 10,000 people to flee their homes. Many evacuees, already hunkered down in a state ravaged by the virus, opted to sleep in their cars rather than risk infection in public shelters.
                • Our weather just a few days ago: "Unusually cold June storm drops over 7 inches of snow on Bogus Basin"--KTVB. "The snow kept coming in areas around the region. By Monday morning, Bogus was up to 8 inches, while Tamarack had 17 inches and Brundage had received around 15 inches." These are all ski reports in within an easy drive of Boise, albeit at higher elevations. Nevertheless, very unusual for this time of year.
                • "Bullet Hole In Clothing"--Bev Fitchett's Guns. Forensic evidence that can be gathered from a victim's clothing. For instance, the article opens with photographs showing powder tattooing on the skin of the victim but no evidence of powder around the bullet hole in the victim's clothing. Another interesting excerpt:
                  In contact wounds through clothing, depending on the type of fabric and the amount of gas produced, tearing and/or melting of the material can occur. This is true whether the garment is hanging loose or pulled tightly against the skin. Contact wounds in cloth composed of cotton or a cotton mixture with medium and large-caliber weapons (.38 Special and above), usually result in tears with a cruciform appearance (Figure 12.5). Contact wounds in 100% synthetic material (nylon, triacetate, etc.) result not in tears but in "burn holes." The heat of the gases causes the material to melt producing large circular holes, usually with scalloped margins (Figure 12.5).
                          I know, the Spec Ops Bearded ones look cool, but that is where it ends with me. I have been there and worked with guys that looked cool, but I would not want to be taught by them. They might be a great soldier, but as far as teaching goes, they leave much to be desired.
                           Take for example, room CQB and a point person. New systems teach old school stuff that is made for sterile big rooms which are in most military shoot houses. The tactics don’t work so well in the average house with furniture and clutter.
                             Some instructors teach the point person to enter, shoot the bad guy and continue to roll to the unknown. There are a couple of problems with this. First, bad guys don’t die like in the movies. They can fall with a gun in their hand, next to the gun and can flop for 60 seconds before they expire or relax. As point, do you want to give this this threat up visually and lose sight of this person? Why not hit and commit? You are entering the room with a team or a partner, why try and clear it all by yourself?
                               Next, some systems being taught promote pushing to the corner, even though you might see it from the outside of the room instead of taking the threat which is obvious when you roll your scan from the corner as a point person prior to entry. I have watched many a student see the threat, then look at their corner and then shoot the threat. Guess what guys, reaction time has started when the bad guy sees you. You can look at an empty corner that you can see from the outside prior to entry and then look at it again prior to shooting the bad guy, but it is time consuming.
                                 The old thought process of getting out of the “fatal funnel” is okay, but running to a corner first before you shoot is not putting rounds in the bad guy. It has been said that it was three and four man always getting shot on entries as the bad guy would shoot at the doorway. This is likely because one and two were busy doing dumb stuff and not putting rounds into them. 1 and 2 were running to corners they could see outside the breach point and ignoring the obvious threat. This is why 3-4 were getting hit. Again, 1 and 2 were not putting rounds into the bad guy because they were “digging” a corner they could already see.
                                   While the military has some good tactics in special units, much of the standard tactics simply suck. I have to constantly break former military guys of throwing their rifle up at every corner when entering a room. I have to explain to them that this is America and walls do not stop bullets like the ones overseas. I have to also explain to them that there are other officers and innocents in those rooms that don’t need weapons pointed at them. 
                                      As you’d expect from their similar overall size, the ballistics of the .300 Blackout and 7.62×39 are pretty similar as well when using similar weight bullets. In fact, they’re both roughly comparable to the .30-30 Winchester.
                                       However, the .300 Blackout is available in a wide range of bullet weights. So not all .300 BLK loads are created equal.
                                         For instance, the vast majority of 7.62x39mm factory loads shoot bullets in the 120-125 grain range. Of these, 122 grain and 123 grain loads are by far the most common. On the other hand, most .300 Blackout factory loads use bullets in the 78-226 grain range. 110 grain, 120 grain, 125 grain, 150 grain, 208 grain, and 220 grain bullets are the most popular.
                                           As you can see, the table below comparing the 110gr Hornady GMX (.305 BC) and 220gr Sellier & Bellot FMJ subsonic (.330 BC) loads in .300 Blackout to a 123gr Hornady SST (.295 BC) load in 7.62x39mm and a Hornady 150gr RN (.186) in .30-30 Winchester, the ballistics of the three cartridges are pretty similar.
                                             The .30-30 Winchester starts off with significantly more kinetic energy, but the .300 Blackout and 7.62x39mm bullets have a much higher ballistic coefficient. For that reason, the 110gr .300 Blackout and 7.62x39mm loads have a flatter trajectory and retain more energy than the .30-30 out past 200 yards.
                                                The 7.62×39 has a little more kinetic energy, but the .300 Blackout has a slightly flatter trajectory due to higher ballistic coefficient of the .300 Blackout bullets. For all intents and purposes, there is very little difference in the ballistics of the .300 Blackout and 7.62×39 because the differences between them are so small with most loads. That’s obviously not the case with the subsonic .300 Blackout ammo though, which has a very low muzzle velocity and therefore a quite short effective range.
                                                 Additionally, the recoil characteristics of the two cartridges are pretty similar as well. When fired from a Ruger Mini-14/Mini-30, the .300 Blackout has slightly less than recoil than the 7.62×39. That being said, both cartridges have a relatively mild recoil that most shooters should be able to handle without any trouble.
                                            • "Best AR-15 Upgrades – What to Consider and WHY"--AR Build Junkie. The author first recommends that you improve yourself by getting training and practicing. He then moves on to look at optics, lights, slings, and some items to increase reliability.
                                                  In case you have missed the memo, which I highly doubt, the world is on fire right now. In my opinion as a former Intelligence Analyst, this looks an awful lot like an attempted “color revolution.” This one may be the full monty, or it may be a dress rehearsal for November. I don’t buy for a second this is an organic protest. Someone is pulling the strings, which we can infer from the fact that the protests are worldwide.
                                                    The scariest part of this isn’t the popularity or destruction. It is the fact that the government we pay to protect us, has largely decided to sit this one out. While our cities are quite literally on fire, we hear over and over again decisions to pull police back. “Give them space to protest.” Or a decision to just not prosecute anyone. That last bit has probably been the most shocking. How do you encourage bad behavior? As any parent knows, refuse to punish it.
                                                      So while murder rates are skyrocketing, businesses that survived the Corona are being looted, and even the guard post to the White House was burned, we have basically been told we are on our own. Peachy. Sounds fantastic. Perhaps the only silver lining to any of this is that the gun control debate is not just dead, it’s buried at sea wrapped in anchor chains and anvils.
                                                  As I've mentioned before, I would not count on the gun control debate being dead--remember 1968. No, as soon as some propitious incident occurs, the Democrats will be ramming another bill through Congress, or the President will buckle to pressure to have the ATF once again reinterpret the laws. Except this time, the gun rights side has been arguing for so long that the Second Amendment doesn't have anything to do with hunting, the Democrats will agree, and, as is happening in Canada, hunting weapons will also start to be included in the bans.
                                                  "Tucker: The rise of left-wing rage mobs in America"--Fox News (15 min.)
                                                  • "War in the United States"--LDS Last Days. A collection of quotes regarding the wars of desolation that will sweep the United States in the last days. For instance, from John Taylor in 1879: "I knew very well myself when this last war [i.e., the Civil War] was commencing, and could have wept and did weep, over this nation; but there is yet to come a sound of war, trouble and distress, in which brother will be arrayed against brother, father against son, son against father, a scene of desolation and destruction that will permeate our land until it will be a vexation to hear the report thereof." And another from Joseph Smith:
                                                  I saw men hunting the lives of their own sons, and brother murdering brother, women killing their own daughters, and daughters seeking the lives of their mothers. I saw armies arrayed against armies. I saw blood, desolation, fires. The Son of Man has said that the mother shall be against the daughter, and the daughter against the mother. These things are at our doors. They will follow the Saints of God from city to city. Satan will rage, and the spirit of the devil is now enraged. I know not how soon these things will take place; but with a view of them, shall I cry peace? No; I will lift up my voice and testify of them. How long you will have good crops, and the famine be kept off, I do not know; when the fig tree leaves, know then that the summer is nigh at hand.
                                                  The reality is that we have been in a Cold Civil War since the 1960's, with flare-ups here and there in the form of riots and violent protests, bombings and assassinations. This died down in last few decades, but has been on the rise since at least 2009. Now it is flaring in response to a national coordinated effort. 
                                                          Yes my dears, all White people are racists. All. Of. Them.
                                                            Here is where you stop to cry, clutch your pearls, rant and rave aloud to tell me how wrong I am, and to tell me not all White people. I’m doing reverse racism (there’s no such thing as reverse racism), and you’re ready to do tit for tat with me and every Black person on the internet (because you’re too afraid to say this nonsense in person) on how terrible Black people are. I have [fill in the blank White person savior activity here], so I know I’m not racist. I don’t say the N-word; I go to church with Black people, and I even go to lunch with the Black lady/guy from my job. I have a biracial child. I date Black women/men.
                                                              My husband/wife is Black. I work in an all Black [fill in the blank setting]. I am not racist. I’m liberal. I voted for Hillary. I use #BlackLivesMatter hashtags. I have a Black friend (that I never talk to about race).
                                                                I know. I’ve heard it all already, honey. I know. You are a product of your racist American environment.
                                                                  You are racist love, but it’s okay to admit it. I’m ready for you to admit it so that we can move on to bigger things. You denying the obvious stalls the long road to healing. Take a moment to sit with this new/old revelation. Your racism is a product of nurturing and nature. Own it.
                                                                    You can’t help you were born to racist parents, who were raised in a White Supremacist system.
                                                                      You can help with tearing down the racist systems and structures that support you and kill me and my sons based on flawed science crafted by flawed White and European people. White people admitting they are racist is necessary for those individuals desiring to do something right now.
                                                                       If you can’t do that, I can’t rock with you. I can’t walk with you. I can’t talk with you. I can’t help you. And I damned sure can’t trust you.
                                                                         Racism got us into this mess. Anti-racism is the only thing that will get us out of it. It’s been 400-years. Y’all can’t keep running from yourselves.
                                                                           All White people are racist and the fact that you need a special out like a “Not All White People” label is disheartening because it says to me you are racist, but you’re in denial about it. To me this kind of white person is most dangerous kind of White people I know and I just don’t have time to play games with you all anymore. They are so busy dodging responsibility they can’t see the obvious racism in needing an exception to the rule. There are no exceptions to racism and White people. You’re born into that gang.
                                                                              Now is the time to show that Black lives matter. It’s time to show us any lives matter besides a White one.
                                                                                Either you’re for Black people or against. It’s just that simple. ...
                                                                            The solution? She refers readers to the article "90 Days, 400 Years" by Robert Gorman. Gorman contends that the United States cannot be reformed in its current form, but asserts that "[s]omehow, we must mercy-kill the American experiment itself. We have to admit that it failed us, we failed it, whites failed non-whites (natives and blacks in particular), males failed non-males, and our white ancestors repeatedly failed us." What does he propose?
                                                                                    It will, also, require also no less than white self-abdication. A collective rejection of privilege in a legally and economically binding way. Specific attention must be paid to black humans we share geography with.
                                                                                     We must create a formal declaration, ratified by an internationally recognized governing body, of historical and current wrongdoing and injustice perpetrated by whites against blacks, chronicling the history of violence. Apologizing and atoning for slavery, segregation, mass incarceration, police violence and a host of other atrocities so lengthy that to list them would fill volumes long enough to count the dead.
                                                                                        All racism is an attempt to preserve a surplus. We must compensate those who suffered most, and mightily, at the hands of the racist ethno-state. White America’s most tangible surplus lies in inter-generational wealth. We need a graduated estate tax like an income tax, up to 99% for the Billionaire family offices.
                                                                                          That wealth must be redistributed among the masses, proportionally re-balancing the multi-dimensional scales of inequity, offering some kind of restitution for state-sanctioned inter-generational poverty, trauma, and violence. Descendants of slaves get the largest slice of the pie, by far. A black-led coalition will handle the distribution calculus — white leadership cannot decide what’s fair for non-whites.
                                                                                            We also need a multi-ethnic, multiracial, omni-gender coalition to rewrite the history texts, to allow for the plurality of narratives that tell the complete, unweighted story of ourselves. Our American history texts are, often, nationalist propaganda. So is most news, either intentionally or inadvertently. We must critically examine how we present information to our young, to our masses, to our leaders. Only then can we see American history and the human fabric for what it was, is, and has been to date: A history of violence.
                                                                                      * * *

                                                                                              To avoid more war, we must accept state failure. In doing so, we’re not just killing a nation to save humans. We’re killing a nation so that a new one can flourish, we’re rewriting our pasts to preserve better futures, we’re looking ourselves in the eye so we can look our brethren in the eye not in fear, or in hate, or in shame … But in a communion so desperately deserved and so rarely, fleetingly achieved.
                                                                                        • Meanwhile, the FBI still has its head stuck in the sand ... or somewhere: "White supremacists and racist terrorists pose greatest risk of violence, FBI warns"--New York Post. A new intelligence bulletin sent to law enforcement "barely mentions Antifa as a potential violent group." Perhaps its time to consider whether our greatest national security threats are within the federal intelligence and law enforcement agencies.
                                                                                        • The irony behind black slavery:
                                                                                        In 1654, John Casor, a black indentured servant in colonial Virginia, was the first man to be declared a slave in a civil case. He had claimed to an officer that his master, Anthony Johnson, himself a free black, had held him past his indenture term. A neighbor, Robert Parker, told Johnson that if he did not release Casor, he would testify in court to this fact. Under local laws, Johnson was at risk for losing some of his headright lands for violating the terms of indenture. Under duress, Johnson freed Casor. Casor entered into a seven years' indenture with Parker. Feeling cheated, Johnson sued Parker to repossess Casor. A Northampton County, Virginia court ruled for Johnson, declaring that Parker illegally was detaining Casor from his rightful master who legally held him "for the duration of his life" (Bold added).
                                                                                                But a larger, more comprehensive information operation is still ongoing, one in which a bunch of pampered SJW stormtroopers, aided and abetted by the weak and frightened elder caste of liberals occupying the heights of the establishment, are attempting to define the tolerable range of ideas and expression within our culture. In a shocking turn that would surprise only stupid people, the tolerable range of ideas and expression they wish to establish corresponds exactly to the ideas and expressions they agree with. The Venn diagram of what they think and what they allow to be thought is a single circle.
                                                                                                 The rest of us are expected to shut up, and thereby concede and recognize their mastery over us.
                                                                                                  We could do that, sure. 
                                                                                                    Or we could tell them “no.”
                                                                                                       I’ll go with “no.”
                                                                                                         For more than 100 years, astronomers have been observing a curious star located some 190 light years away from Earth in the constellation Libra. It rapidly journeys across the sky at 800,000 mph (1.3 million kilometers per hour). But more interesting than that, HD 140283 — or Methuselah as it's commonly known — is also one of the universe's oldest known stars.
                                                                                                           In 2000, scientists sought to date the star using observations via the European Space Agency's (ESA) Hipparcos satellite, which estimated an age of 16 billion years old. Such a figure was rather mind-blowing and also pretty baffling. As astronomer Howard Bond of Pennsylvania State University pointed out, the age of the universe — determined from observations of the cosmic microwave background — is 13.8 billion years old. "It was a serious discrepancy," he said.
                                                                                                        Yuh think? Convinced that the estimate of 16 billion years had to be wrong, Bond worked at various ways to bring the estimate come in lower, eventually ending up with an age of 14.46 billion years--still before the Big Bang, though.
                                                                                                        By at

                                                                                                        2 comments:

                                                                                                        1. John WilderJune 14, 2020 at 7:34 PM

                                                                                                          Marley K. is evil.

                                                                                                          Every word is meant to divide and destroy.

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                                                                                                          Replies
                                                                                                          1. DocentJune 15, 2020 at 9:00 AM

                                                                                                            Some people just want to see the world burn. She is one of them.

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                                                                                                        Weekend Reading--A Knowledge Dump and More

                                                                                                         Greg Elifritz has posted a new Weekend Knowledge Dump   with links to articles and a podcast on a variety of self-defense and prepping topi...