A Quick Run Around The Web (6/15/2020)

"Things to NEVER DO with these classics!"--Jerry Miculek (10 min.)

Miculek explains that certain rifle designs depend on the bolt being slowed on closing by the magazine to prevent slam fires, so if you just stick a round in the barrel and then release the bolt to slam shut over the cartridge, it can cause a slam fire. He also notes that doing the same to the Colt 1911 risks damaging the extractor, especially if using an internal extractor.

• Jon Low has published a new roundup of articles, videos and commentary as of June 14, 2020. I've been following his blog for some time now, but reading this most recent post was when I first learned that he had been a fencer. In any event, he covers a lot of topics and articles, but just a few that I wanted to emphasize:

• Low cites Tiger McKee for the following three questions to help you stay alive when faced by violence against a third party: (1) Do you know the details? (2) Am I going to contribute to solving the problem? and (3) Is this worth risking my life for?

• Low recommends using photo realistic targets, including showing the target at various angles and positions, as well as negative targets (see this video explaining negative targets).

• Low notes that the average human reaction time to a KNOWN stimulus is .25 seconds; i.e., it takes, therefore, on average .25 seconds to initiate an action and .25 seconds to initiate stopping an action. This means is that it is quite easy to shoot someone in the back if the target suddenly turns away. In other words, as Low explains, "it takes a long time to react to an unknown stimulus.  And once the stimulus ceases (which is also an unknown stimulus), it takes a long time to react to that too.  So, in a real combat situation where everyone is translating and rotating, the wise person would want to shoot the minimum number of shots (as there is a finite probability that you will get unintended hits with each shot).  So, [as Marty Hayes reasons] to minimize the number of rounds required to stop the attack, it makes sense to shoot more massive bullets."

• Low is a big fan of ambidextrous handguns, even if it is just having an ambidextrous magazine release (i.e., one that can be actuated from either side of the firearm without having to modify the firearm). Thus, even if you can switch the magazine release button between sides (such as in more recent generations of Glock), it is no ambidextrous because you still have to make a mechanical modification. In any event, he has a list of firearms that are truly ambidextrous (both magazine release and slide release), as well as firearms that have ambidextrous magazine releases. I would add to the latter list the Remington R51.

Anyway, a lot more including detailed exercises for improving your grip on the firearm so as to not disturb your sight and shoot accurately, zeroing your pistol so it works with you, some methods to preventing printing, whether you should talk to police after a shooting, and a lot more. Read the whole thing.

• While we are on the subject of roundups of various articles, be sure to also check out Greg Ellifritz's most recent Weekend Knowledge Dump.
• "How to Survive Riots and Civil Unrest"--Organic Prepper. The author describes the signs of building civil unrest, the psychology behind mob violence, and rules or guidelines on surviving riots. An excerpt:

     Civil unrest can be predicted to some degree. Jose shared some of the warning signs he has observed and they all share their part in this pattern.

    Here’s how a protest turns into a riot:

• A perceived outrage occurs.

• Good people react and protest the outrage.

• Sometimes there are not-so-good people in the group, those who want to see violence.

• Those perpetrating the outrage try to quell the protest because they don’t think that the outrage was actually outrageous.

• Others react to the quelling and join the protest.

• A mob mentality erupts. Thugs say, “Hey, it’s a free for all. I’m gonna get some Doritos and while I’m at it, beat the crap out of some folks for fun.”

• All hell breaks loose.

• The police and military get called in.

• The city burns, and neighborhoods get destroyed, and no one in the area is safe.

• Cops act preemptively, out of fear, and for a time, there is no rule of law.

• If you happen to be stuck there, know this: you’re completely on your own.

Of course, the primary rule of surviving a riot is to not be there, which means that you may want to pay attention to any news reports of the times and locations of planned protests, staying out of minority dominated neighborhoods, and leaving a location if you start to see groups of young men and women showing up.

• "How to Use a Compass to Find Your Way"--The Survivalist Blog. This is no fluff piece. It is a detailed article with several embedded videos.
• "Backup rifle sights - some useful things I've learned"--Bayou Renaissance Man. A look at using the offset style of sights. Grant notes: "Three factors are causing me to reconsider my earlier, negative opinion about offset backup sights.  The first, below, demonstrates that if the front and/or back lenses of the primary sight are affected by weather or debris (i.e. sand, mud or what have you), co-witnessed iron sights will suffer from the same problem."
• "Bullet Proofing Walls | Resistant Wall Construction"--Modern Survival Blog. Exerpt:

      There are many ways to build a bullet resistant wall. Or to beef up the resistance to slow or stop a bullet. This particular recommendation was made to the city of Boulder following a series of bullet penetration tests conducted by the city facility manager there.

     He concluded that the best bullet resistant wall construction (versus cost) would be poured concrete filling the cavity between 2″X4″ studs, using 1-1/8″ OSB (oriented strand board) fastened to both sides, followed by 5/8″ Gypsum.

    The OSB would be screwed to to the 2×4’s and used as a material strong enough to hold the poured concrete. Then apparently left in place afterwards as an integral part of the wall. The Gypsum (drywall) is fastened for the interior wall aesthetic appearance.

I would observe that reinforced concrete using rebar is going to be substantially stronger. Also be cognizant of the weight: it may not be possible to do this in your structure without significant structural changes. But you could always add some "grow boxes" or a low patio wall.

• You can't stop the signal:

• "DIY Guns, Part 1: An Intro to Modern 3D Printing and Making Your Own Firearms at Home"--The Truth About Guns.

• "DIY Guns, Part 2: 3D Guns You Can Build Right Now"--The Truth About Guns.

• "DIY Guns, Part 3: 3D Gun Making, Advanced Builds, Processes and Techniques"--The Truth About Guns.

• Yet another article on the difference between .223 and 5.56 NATO: ".223 Remington Vs. 5.56: What's in a Name?"--American Rifleman. But it does go into more detail about why you would see excessive pressure from the 5.56 when shooting it in .223.
• "The Tactical Case For The Flamethrower, According To A Vietnam War Vet"--Task & Purpose. Short version:

The greatest advantage of the flamethrower is its ability to penetrate small openings and fill fortified positions with both fire and smoke. Thus, the enemy either burns or asphyxiates due to the lack of oxygen available to breathe. In the urban environment, the flamethrower can shoot fire around corners to enhance movement past dead or blind angles. Besides causing death and destruction, the flamethrower can greatly impact an enemy psychologically. According to several historical examples, the enemy normally surrenders before submitting themselves to a flame attack. They would rather be captured than burned.

• "The hidden detectors looking for guns and knives"--BBC News. From the article:

      Traditional metal detectors throw up a lot of alarms for innocent metallic objects, creating a chokepoint for paying customers who just want to get to their seat in a stadium or concert hall.

     This very high alarm rate prompted Evolv to blend AI software with radar to cut down on false alerts and keep the crowds flowing into a venue without irksome interruptions.

    This is not just looking for the shape of a gun as defined by the software, but also for small shards of metal packed into a confined space to create shrapnel around an explosive device as was tragically demonstrated in the 2017 Manchester Arena bombing.

    Evolv's software engineers have written algorithms that interpret shapes as signatures, with the outlines of knives and guns catalogued as reasons to alert an operator.

     The density of metal is one key indicator of a weapon's presence and Mr George says his colleagues have programmed the system to react in 1/38th of a second.

    The AI software analyses the results it gets from each crowd and this is uploaded automatically into Evolv's own database.

Although the article is rather lacking on details of the technology involved (mostly talking about the AI learning to improve the system), it appears to use millimeter radar, as well as optical and thermal cameras.

• "Why Chest Holsters Make Sense For Backwoods Carry"--NRA Family. An excerpt:

      For years, the conventional carry position for handguns has been the shooter’s strong side hip. This position makes the handgun easy to reach in many circumstances, and allows the firearm to be tucked out of the way and concealed if necessary. But hip carry has its issues. For starters, carrying a heavy firearm (especially something as large as a big-bore revolver) on the hip causes imbalance and even discomfort while you’re walking several miles. In many cases, such as when sitting on a bike, on horseback or in a canoe, accessing a hip-mounted handgun can be difficult. And fly-fishing? Forget it; it simply isn’t an option when you’re wearing waders.

      Enter the chest rig. For starters, chest holsters offer rapid access to your firearm when you need it most. It may initially seem that the hip position is easiest to access—after all, your arms hang down at your sides, right? Think again. Begin tracking your arm position throughout the day and you’ll find your hands are most often in front of your body. This is particularly true when you’re in the outdoors. You’re using your hands to clear brush, to paddle, support a bike, tie a fly to a tippet, or you’ll simply loop your thumbs in your pack straps. In any case, a chest holster offers the fastest, easiest access point if you need to reach your gun in a hurry. Many backpackers mount their firearm to their pack straps, but that’s not the ideal carry solution because if you drop your pack—and you inevitably will—you’re unarmed.

     Comfort is another reason why many shooters are turning to chest holsters. Anyone who has carried a large handgun in a belt holster while walking long distances understands how irritating that extra weight can be (not to mention having to hike up your pants over and over and again). Chest holsters balance the gun and distribute weight evenly across the shoulders.

• "How to Skin and Quarter a Deer"--American Hunter. A good set of instructions and photographs.
• "Survival Tips – How to Pack a Kayak for camping!"--Survival Bound. 
• "REVIEW: HOLOSUN HE503R GOLD DOT SIGHT & MAGNIFIER"--Recoil Magazine.

Holosun says the gold reticle was developed partially because it's not affected by the most common form of color-blindness. According to the U.S. National Library of Medicine, red-green color vision deficiency affects 1 in 12 males and 1 in 200 females in population groups with Northern European ancestry. In comparison, blue-yellow color vision defects are far rarer, only affecting about 1 in 10,000 people worldwide. If you were born with red-green color-blindess, a yellow reticle should be much easier to spot than either of those colors.

• "The HoloSun HE403R-GD “Gold Dot” Review: Worthy of a Gold Star?"--The New Rifleman.

The Gold Dot concept is just as valid as red, or green dots… I appreciated the dot outdoors as it was bright and obvious against foliage. It may be weaker against white backdrops and bright weapon lights, but I was unable to wash it out until danger close distances to the target. Like any reticle/color choice, it has its ups and downs.

• "Phases of an Attack"--Staying Safe LLC.

     Violent encounters don’t happen at random. Attacks follow a cycle. This cycle is broken down into six stages: target selection, observation of the target, attack planning/training, execution, escape, and exploitation. The six stages fall into three phases: Pre-Attack, Attack, and Post-Attack.

     There is no set time frame for an attacker to complete the cycle, and it is the attacker who chooses when to move forward or backward in stages. The time it takes to complete each stage will greatly depend on a number of factors, such as, type and goals of an attack, experience of the attacker and the victim, to name a few. For example, a snatch and grab robbery may go through Pre-Attack and Attack phases within seconds, but domestic violence may stay in the Attack phase for years.

• "The bunker builders preparing for doomsday"--BBC.

      Back in Kansas, I followed Hall through one of the 16,000lb (7.2 tonne) blast doors that can be "locked down" at a moment's notice. He waved me over to the nuclear, biological, and chemical air filtration unit for the condo and explained that they had three military-grade filters each providing 2,000-cubic feet per minute of filtration, that "were $30,000 (£24,400) a pop", says Hall. "I put $20m (£16m) into this place and when you start buying military-grade equipment from the government you wouldn’t believe how quickly you get to that number," he said.

     Hall’s team had drilled 45, 300-ft (91m) deep subterranean geothermal wells and built in a water filtration system that used UV sterilisation and carbon paper filters. The system can filter 10,000 gallons (45,400 litres) of water a day into three electronically-monitored 25,000-gallon (113,500-litre) tanks. Power to the bunker is supplied by five different redundant systems – so, if one goes down, there are four backups. This is crucial, since as a life support system, losing power would kill everyone in the facility.

     Hall says: “We’ve got a bank of 386 submarine batteries with a life of 15 or 16 years. We’re currently running at 50–60kW, 16–18 of which are coming from the wind turbine... However, we can’t do solar here... because the panels are fragile, and this is, after all, tornado alley. At some point we know that wind turbine is going to go too. I mean it won’t make it through five years of ice storms and hail, so we’ve also got two 100kW diesel generators, each of which could run the facility for 2.5 years.

     Survival Condo has both private and communal areas, as you might find in any high-rise development. But in this tower block, during full lockdown mode there can be no external support. It must function as a closed system, where people are kept both healthy and busy until they are able to emerge. 

     Experiments in enclosed life-support systems conducted by the military (for submarines) and scientists (for spacecraft) have often neglected to consider social systems after lockdown. Hall says he recognises that sustainability is not simply about technical functionality. On my tour he opened another door to a 50,000-gallon (227,000-litre) indoor swimming pool verged by a rock waterfall, lounge chairs and a picnic table. It was much like a scene from a holiday resort – but without the Sun.

The "guards" should like that after they have taken over the shelter for their own families and kicked out or enslaved the condo owners.

"Tucker: Black Lives Matter is now a political party"--Fox News (25 min.)

• "Yes, We Mean Literally Abolish the Police--Because reform won’t happen" by Mariame Kaba at The New York Times. An excerpt:

      Congressional Democrats want to make it easier to identify and prosecute police misconduct; Joe Biden wants to give police departments $300 million. But efforts to solve police violence through liberal reforms like these have failed for nearly a century.

     Enough. We can’t reform the police. The only way to diminish police violence is to reduce contact between the public and the police.

     There is not a single era in United States history in which the police were not a force of violence against black people. Policing in the South emerged from the slave patrols in the 1700 and 1800s that caught and returned runaway slaves. In the North, the first municipal police departments in the mid-1800s helped quash labor strikes and riots against the rich. Everywhere, they have suppressed marginalized populations to protect the status quo.

     So when you see a police officer pressing his knee into a black man’s neck until he dies, that’s the logical result of policing in America. When a police officer brutalizes a black person, he is doing what he sees as his job.

     Now two weeks of nationwide protests have led some to call for defunding the police, while others argue that doing so would make us less safe.

     The first thing to point out is that police officers don’t do what you think they do. They spend most of their time responding to noise complaints, issuing parking and traffic citations, and dealing with other noncriminal issues. We’ve been taught to think they “catch the bad guys; they chase the bank robbers; they find the serial killers,” said Alex Vitale, the coordinator of the Policing and Social Justice Project at Brooklyn College, in an interview with Jacobin. But this is “a big myth,” he said. “The vast majority of police officers make one felony arrest a year. If they make two, they’re cop of the month.”

      We can’t simply change their job descriptions to focus on the worst of the worst criminals. That’s not what they are set up to do.

     Second, a “safe” world is not one in which the police keep black and other marginalized people in check through threats of arrest, incarceration, violence and death.

     I’ve been advocating the abolition of the police for years. Regardless of your view on police power — whether you want to get rid of the police or simply to make them less violent — here’s an immediate demand we can all make: Cut the number of police in half and cut their budget in half. Fewer police officers equals fewer opportunities for them to brutalize and kill people. The idea is gaining traction in Minneapolis, Dallas, Los Angeles and other cities.

Or blacks could reduce their interaction with police by committing less crime. The sad part is that it is mostly a small subset of blacks responsible for the majority of crime. This is true among all races. For instance, a 2013 Swedish study that looked at individuals born between 1958–1980 found that 1% of the population was responsible for 63% of violent crime convictions. It is not so low in inner-city America, however. A study from Philadelphia looking at persons born in 1945 found that approximately 6% were responsible for over 50% of crime; a follow up study looking at individuals born in 1958 showed that 7.5% of those in the study were responsible for 61% of the crimes committed by members in that cohort. Similarly, the Star Tribune reported a couple years ago that "'When we talk about the disproportionality of the race of our young black and brown boys who are losing their lives, it is clear that in the city of Minneapolis, 75 percent of our shooting victims are African-Americans,' [Police Chief Medaria Arradondo] said. 'It’s a public health crisis, quite frankly.'"

       Why is this small group responsible for the majority of crime?  From the book Juvenile Crime, Juvenile Justice:

A large number of studies report that delinquents have a lower verbal IQ compared with nondelinquents, as well as lower school achievement (Fergusson and Horwood, 1995; Maguin and Loeber, 1996; Moffitt, 1997). Antisocial youth also tend to show cognitive deficits in the areas of executive functions1 (Moffitt et al., 1994; Seguin et al., 1995), perception of social cues, and problem-solving processing patterns (Dodge et al., 1997; Huesmann, 1988). The association between cognitive deficits and delinquency remains after controlling for social class and race (Moffitt, 1990; Lynam et al., 1993).

 There also appears to be certain genes associated with violent behavior.

        There is another point that I find interesting to all of this. If you had any exposure to the militia movement in the 1980's and 1990's, even just scholarly books writing about the movement, you would quickly learn that the "bogeyman" often raised by members of the movement was that of liberals deploying squads of gang members in the stead of police to, among other things, confiscate firearms. So here we see another situation where life seems to be mimicking art.

• Related: "Austin City Council Votes Unanimously to Partially Defund Police"--Texas Scorecard. Reducing the police budget by 25% next year. Why don't they just hang out a sign welcoming the cartels while they are at it.

• Related: "America, We Are Leaving" by Travis Yates in Law Officer. An excerpt:

      Doctors kill 250,000 people a year. They call them “medical mistakes” because society understands that they do a very difficult job under high stress and they must make the best possible decision in the moment.

     Law enforcement is tasked with the same and we are highly successful. Despite the most violent society we have ever seen, less than 1,000 suspects are killed a year. 96% are attacking us with weapons and all but a few others are attacking us with their cars or their fists and more and more with simulated guns so Benjamin Crump can help their family win the lottery.

     I’ve seen cops risk their own lives when they shouldn’t have…….just to keep from taking one.

     They never get the credit that other professions get.

     Cowards are all around us. From chiefs to sheriffs to politicians, no one has our back.

     Now, the little we have, we are told they are going to defund us or even abolish us. Citizens with a political agenda will reign over us and all you have to do is wake up and put on a uniform to be a racist.

     This weekend I received death threats for just doing my job. It would have been outrageous a decade ago and made national news.

     Now, it’s just a Monday.

     There will be more threats, more accusations of racism and more lies told about us.

     I used to talk cops out of leaving the job. Now I’m encouraging them.

     It’s over America. You finally did it.

     You aren’t going to have to abolish the police, we won’t be around for it.

     And while I know, most Americans still appreciate us, it’s not enough and the risk is too high. Those of you that say thank you or buy the occasional meal, it means everything.

     But those of you that were silent while the slow turning of the knives in our backs happened by thugs and cowards, this is on you.

     Your belief in hashtags and memes over the truth has and will create an environment in your community that you will never expect.

     If you think Minneapolis will turn into Mogadishu and that is far from you, it’s coming.

     And when it does, remember what your complicity did.

     This is the America that you made.

• Related: "Truck Drivers Say They Won’t Deliver To Cities with Defunded Police Departments"--CDL Life. 

• Related: "A silent majority? Black Americans reject violence, looting in neighborhoods after Floyd death"--Just The News. "The rioters are 'reflective of a small subset of black America that is jobless, lawless, wild, and capable of the brutality we saw,' said Rob Smith, a black conservative activist and decorated Iraq War veteran, but 'the silent majority will always stay on the side of law and order.'"

• Free stuff! "Hundreds of looters storm a Florida Walmart and make off with $100,000 worth of merchandise while it was closed during the George Floyd protests"--Daily Mail. Video and stills. Money quote: "Surveillance video from inside the Walmart that was released by the law enforcement agency shows a massive crowd of people gleefully forcing their way inside the store and then getting to work despoiling it."
• Old: "I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character." New: "Why Raising Kids To ‘Not See Color’ Doesn't Help Fight Racism."

• Related: "The Left Has Gone from 'Orange Man Bad' to 'White Man Bad'—and It's Going to Backfire"--PJ Media.

• "An Honest Conversation on Race?"--American Thinker. From the article:

      An honest conversation on race would include discussion of plenty of inconvenient facts, such as the fact that black men disproportionately commit violent crime or that police almost never kill unarmed black men.  Indeed, the facts show that nearly 40 percent of cop killers are black and that a police officer is more than 18.5 times more likely to be killed by a black American than for a law enforcement officer to kill an unarmed black person. 

      An honest conversation on race would express horror at the fact that somewhere around three-quarters of black men are raised without fathers and note the tremendous societal damage this causes.

      An honest conversation would ponder why black American homicide-victimization rate is three times the rate of Hispanics and seven times the average white rate, almost exclusively murdered (94%) by other black Americans.  

• Related: "The Color of Crime"--a post of mine from 2016 looking at an analysis of crime data by Edwin S. Rubenstein.

• Related: "Only 5% Of Black First-Time Takers Passed February California Bar Exam, Compared To 52% Of Whites, 42% Of Asians, And 31% Of Hispanics"--Tax Prof Blog. 

• Related: "Washington Supreme Court Grants Diploma Privilege To All Bar Applicants"--Tax Prof Blog. Essentially, if you graduated from a ABA accredited law school in Washington, you will be automatically allowed entrance to the bar without having to take the Bar Exam. 

• Yes. "Do black Americans commit more crime?"--Channel4.com. A comment to one of this TV station's stories on blacks disproportionately dying at the hands of the police led them to check into black crime statistics. The station's finding: 

      It’s true that around 13 per cent of Americans are black, according to the latest estimates from the US Census Bureau.

     And yes, according to the Bureau of Justice Statistics, black offenders committed 52 per cent of homicides recorded in the data between 1980 and 2008. Only 45 per cent of the offenders were white. Homicide is a broader category than “murder” but let’s not split hairs.

• "UC Berkeley History Professor’s Open Letter Against BLM, Police Brutality And Cultural Orthodoxy." An excerpt:

      The claim that the difficulties that the black community faces are entirely causally explained by exogenous factors in the form of white systemic racism, white supremacy, and other forms of white discrimination remains a problematic hypothesis that should be vigorously challenged by historians. Instead, it is being treated as an axiomatic and actionable truth without serious consideration of its profound flaws, or its worrying implication of total black impotence. This hypothesis is transforming our institution and our culture, without any space for dissent outside of a tightly policed, narrow discourse.

      A counternarrative exists. If you have time, please consider examining some of the documents I attach at the end of this email.

     Overwhelmingly, the reasoning provided by BLM and allies is either primarily anecdotal (as in the case with the bulk of Ta-Nehisi Coates’ undeniably moving article) or it is transparently motivated. As an example of the latter problem, consider the proportion of black incarcerated Americans. This proportion is often used to characterize the criminal justice system as anti-black. However, if we use the precise same methodology, we would have to conclude that the criminal justice system is even more anti-male than it is anti-black. Would we characterize criminal justice as a systemically misandrist conspiracy against innocent American men? I hope you see that this type of reasoning is flawed, and requires a significant suspension of our rational faculties. Black people are not incarcerated at higher rates than their involvement in violent crime would predict. This fact has been demonstrated multiple times across multiple jurisdictions in multiple countries. And yet, I see my department uncritically reproducing a narrative that diminishes black agency in favor of a white-centric explanation that appeals to the department’s apparent desire to shoulder the ‘white man’s burden’ and to promote a narrative of white guilt.

      If we claim that the criminal justice system is white-supremacist, why is it that Asian Americans, Indian Americans, and Nigerian Americans are incarcerated at vastly lower rates than white Americans? This is a funny sort of white supremacy. Even Jewish Americans are incarcerated less than gentile whites. I think it’s fair to say that your average white supremacist disapproves of Jews. And yet, these alleged white supremacists incarcerate gentiles at vastly higher rates than Jews. None of this is addressed in your literature. None of this is explained, beyond hand-waving and ad hominems. “Those are racist dogwhistles”. “The model minority myth is white supremacist”. “Only fascists talk about black-on-black crime”, ad nauseam. These types of statements do not amount to counterarguments: they are simply arbitrary offensive classifications, intended to silence and oppress discourse. Any serious historian will recognize these for the silencing orthodoxy tactics they are, common to suppressive regimes, doctrines, and religions throughout time and space. They are intended to crush real diversity and permanently exile the culture of robust criticism from our department.

The original letter had attachments, which you can find here.

• The big lie: "Is There Really an 'Epidemic' of Racist Police Shootings? Several Studies Say No."--PJ Media. 

      According to a 2019 study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, white officers are not more likely to shoot black civilians than black or Hispanic officers are. According to the study, there is “no evidence of anti-Black or anti-Hispanic disparities across shootings, and White officers are not more likely to shoot minority civilians than non-White officers. Instead, race-specific crime strongly predicts civilian race. This suggests that increasing diversity among officers by itself is unlikely to reduce racial disparity in police shootings.”

      Other studies have reached similar conclusions, including a Harvard study that found no racial bias in police using deadly force, though there is some disparity when it comes to physical force. With regard to lethal force, however, no disparity exists.

     “A solid body of evidence finds no structural bias in the criminal-justice system with regard to arrests, prosecution or sentencing,” explained Heather Mac Donald of the Manhatten Institute in the Wall Street Journal earlier this week. “Crime and suspect behavior, not race, determine most police actions.”

Joseph Goebbels is reputed to have said: "If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it."

• "Next Big Crisis: Racist Evictions of Black People"--PJ Media. From the lede:

      The numbers are staggering — and frightening. On July 24, the moratorium on rental evictions will expire. At that point, 26 million apartment dwellers will be at risk of losing a place to live. That number is an estimate of renters who will be unable to come up with a rent payment by September.

     At least 44 percent of blacks who rent say they are unsure if they can make the next payment. Needless to say, it’s a combustible situation.

• Flashback: "Issues 2020: Mass Decarceration Will Increase Violent Crime"--Manhattan Institute. This September 2019 article warned that "[s]lashing the prison population to match levels in the Western European democracies would require releasing significant numbers of violent and chronic offenders serving time for crimes that most Americans agree should lead to prison. Reducing or eliminating sentences would diminish the incapacitation benefits of incarceration and, given the extremely high rates of recidivism, would expose society to large numbers of people likely to commit more crimes."
• These are the type of people that should be hounded out of your churches: "Justice Too Long Delayed: It’s time for the church to make restitution for racial sin" by Timothy Dalrymple, editor of Christianity Today. He writes:

Two original sins have plagued this nation from its inception: the destruction of its native inhabitants and the institution of slavery. Both sprang from a failure to see an equal in the racial other. As Bishop Claude Alexander has said, racism was in the amniotic fluid out of which our nation was born. There was a virus present in the very environment that nurtured the development of our country, our culture, and our people. The virus of racism infected our church, our Constitution and laws, our attitudes and ideologies. We have never fully defeated it.

After presenting a historically ignorant view of slavery and a false account of its importance to the national economy, Dalrymple continues:

      But repentance is not enough. The other biblical narrative that comes to mind is the story of a tax collector in Jericho. Zacchaeus was a collaborator with the occupying Roman authority, and by adding his own extortionary fees, he plundered the wealth of his neighbors and enriched himself. Jesus encountered him and shocked the crowd by going to his home. Salvation came to the house of Zacchaeus on that day. He proclaimed, “Look, Lord! Here and now I give half of my possessions to the poor, and if I have cheated anybody out of anything, I will give back four times the amount” (Luke 19:8).

     Zacchaeus had not personally designed the unjust system of Roman taxation. But he had not denounced it either; he had participated in it and profited from it. So Zacchaeus did not merely repent of his ways; he made restitution. He set up what we might call a “Zacchaeus fund” in order to restore what belonged to his neighbors. Are we willing to do the same? Black lives matter. They matter so much that Jesus sacrificed everything for them. Are we willing to sacrifice as well?

     Perhaps the country is not ready to make reparations. But the history of racial injustice demands personal and corporate response. Perhaps the church can lead the way in biblical restitution. I am aware of one “Zacchaeus fund” in Atlanta, where Christians who believe that African Americans have been subjected to four centuries of injustice and plunder are beginning to do their humble part to make it right. A majority-black committee assigns the funds to support rising black leaders in the church and in the marketplace. It will not be enough, but it will be something. What if there were Zacchaeus funds in every city and believers gave sacrificially, so our brothers and sisters could be restored and so our neighbors could see once again the Christlike love that overcame the world?

So what does God say about this? Well, in Ezekiel 18:20 it states: "... The son shall not bear the iniquity of the father, neither shall the father bear the iniquity of the son: the righteousness of the righteous shall be upon him, and the wickedness of the wicked shall be upon him." I would, therefore, consider Dalrymple to be one of those who "draw near to me [i.e., Christ] with their lips, but their hearts are far from me, they teach for doctrines the commandments of men, having a form of godliness, but they deny the power thereof.” JS-History 1:19. See also 2 Timothy 3:5.

• Related: "A Boise church ‘repents’ and will remove a Confederate icon. Are others in Idaho next?"--Spokane Review. 

      The Cathedral of the Rockies installed stained-glass windows for its then-new building in downtown Boise in 1960. Church documents show that the window, featuring Lee standing with Presidents Abraham Lincoln and George Washington, was meant as an “inclusive nod to Southerners who have settled in Boise,” said the Rev. Duane Anders, senior pastor.

     “Clearly, white Southerners,” Anders said.

• I had been wondering why police have not been using LRADs to break up the riots. Apparently it was just that the protesters/rioters have not been going to the right (or is that wrong?) neighborhoods: "Beverly Hills Police Deployed Tear Gas as Protesters Gathered Friday Night"--Los Angeles Magazine. 

      The protest began on the edge of West Hollywood and Beverly Hills on Santa Monica Boulevard and Doheny at 10 p.m. Organizers had planned on marching down Santa Monica, through a few residential streets, and ending at the Beverly Hills sign for a night of music, poetry, and history lessons.

     “The plan was to have a conversation and then dance and play music,” said James Butler, a model and YouTuber who organized the event. Butler chose Beverly Hills to expose the wealthy enclave to the conversations currently taking place at protests across the country. “I was saying, wake their rich asses up.”

     The march barely made it onto a residential street, North Alpine Drive, before a fleet of police officers arrived at the other end in full riot gear and with an armored vehicle.

     A voice blared out from the loud speaker on the armored car: “As a peace officer with the Beverly Hills Police Department, I hereby declare this to be an unlawful assembly and in the name of the people of the State of California, I command all those assembled…to immediately disperse.”

     Members of the group held their ground, chanting popular protest phrases at the officers in front of them and at the stately homes on either side. “Whose streets? Our streets!” they yelled, taking a knee before the line of officers.

     Butler stood in front of the crowd and spoke directly to the officers. “We just to educate you,” he said through a megaphone. “The first ever police system in the United States of America was KKK.”

     “This is a test of the Long Range Acoustic Device,” came a prerecorded voice from the armored car, referring to a sonic weapon device used for crowd control. Immediately, protesters began to back up and return to the main street below.

     Soon, though, even after using the LRAD twice, plumes of smoke appeared at the front of the line of protesters followed by loud popping sounds. Calls for a medic ran through the ranks of protesters.

    “Fuck you! We walk back and you fire?” one protester shouted, his voice horse [sic] from chanting.

I'm guessing that the Hollywood liberals will not be defunding their police. 

• "Armed Neighborhood Groups Form In The Absence Of Police Protection"--NPR. The article is about groups of Hispanics that armed to protect their neighborhoods from rioters and looters. As Glenn Reynolds noted about this article, "Just remember, you can tell the racial makeup of the groups by the wording of the NPR headlines." If it would have been whites doing this, they would have been called "vigilantes" or "white supremacists". 
• "BLM-Branded ‘Kill a White on Sight’ Posters Found in Scotland"--Breitbart.
• "London: BLM Supporters Mob and Seriously Assault People Suspected of Being ‘Far Right’"--Breitbart. 
• What a surprise (not!): "‘They Took Our Rights Away’: Citizen Living In Seattle’s Autonomous Zone Speaks Out"--The Daily Caller.  

      Talcott explained that tensions have been high because not everyone agrees that Raz Simone, the man who has declared himself to be the “warlord,” should be the leader.

     “A lot of these protesters do not agree with Raz becoming this warlord,” Talcott said. “We spoke to a few of them that were manning the entry points here in Seattle, and they say that his idea of what he wants CHAZ to become is not what the majority of the people inside want. So it is a little bit difficult, because they want no rules, but this is a society used to living by rules.”

     Talcott also shared part of an interview with a local resident who was only willing to give only his first name — Brandon — because he feared reprisal.

     “You can see for yourself, you can see that we don’t have the right to vote for stuff here anymore,” Brandon said. “You can see the demands when they say the that we want the pensions away from every police officer in Seattle. They took our rights away. That’s not okay. It’s not political. It’s just not okay.”

• A reader sends: "Head of private security company: Anarchists, neo-Nazis used 'sophisticated' tactics to escalate unrest in Twin Cities"--KSTP.

      Michael Rozin, President of Rozin Security, said his team of former special operations forces members helped track the violence and also were involved in protecting key sites on the streets.

     Rozin said, for the most part, the fires and gunshots during the worst three-day stretch of the unrest, May 28 through May 30, were connected to known anarchists and some neo-Nazi groups who traveled to the Twin Cities metro in the days after George Floyd's death.

      "The anarchists, the extremist groups, were operating in an organized fashion," Rozin said. "They were operating in what almost appears to be an asymmetric warfare manner."

     Rozin said the anarchists were communicating with one another in a "sophisticated manner" and were moving around Minneapolis and St. Paul where the peaceful protests were occurring.

     "They were operating small cells, and they would move from one point to another point," Rozin said. "They would set up barricades, they would open fire, they will know how to control the cities in such a way that police almost become irrelevant to an extent. It was remarkable."

     Rozin said the intent of the anarchists and neo-Nazis is not necessarily to induce race riots but rather to undermine the trust of the people with their government and they use whatever emotion is prevalent to exploit the situation and gather strength for their goals.

     "They would shoot at law enforcement and were not necessarily shooting at peaceful protesters," Rozin said. "They were trying to incite the police to shoot back and quite possibly create another tragic situation that would cause even more rioting and violence."

• This is how George Soros makes money: "Speculators' bearish bets on U.S. dollar rise: CFTC, Reuters data"--Reuters.

      The value of the net short dollar position was $9.51 billion for the week ended June 9, compared with a net short position of $8.17 billion for the week before that.

     The net short position was the largest bearish position speculators have held in six weeks, the data showed.

     U.S. dollar positioning was derived from net contracts of International Monetary Market speculators in the Japanese yen, euro, British pound, Swiss franc and Canadian and Australian dollars.

• More: "America’s currency is losing its exceptionalism"--Bloomberg. "Already stressed by the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic, U.S. living standards are about to be squeezed as never before. At the same time, the world is having serious doubts about the once widely accepted presumption of American exceptionalism. Currencies set the equilibrium between these two forces — domestic economic fundamentals and foreign perceptions of a nation’s strength or weakness. The balance is shifting, and a crash in the dollar could well be in the offing."

• Hmm. "Analysis of cellphone location data in high-security area of Wuhan virology lab that studied coronavirus in bats indicates it shutdown in October after a 'hazardous event'"--Daily Mail. 

• Related: "Coronavirus may have been in China in early fall, satellite data suggests"--ABC News (via MSN). From the article:

      Using techniques similar to those employed by intelligence agencies, the research team behind the study analyzed commercial satellite imagery and "observed a dramatic increase in hospital traffic outside five major Wuhan hospitals beginning late summer and early fall 2019," according to Dr. John Brownstein, the Harvard Medical professor who led the research.

     Brownstein, an ABC News contributor, said the traffic increase also "coincided with" elevated queries on a Chinese internet search for "certain symptoms that would later be determined as closely associated with the novel coronavirus."

     Though Brownstein acknowledged the evidence is circumstantial, he said the study makes for an important new data point in the mystery of COVID-19's origins.

    “Something was happening in October,” said Brownstein, the chief innovation officer at Boston Children’s Hospital and director of the medical center’s Computational Epidemiology Lab. “Clearly, there was some level of social disruption taking place well before what was previously identified as the start of the novel coronavirus pandemic.”

(Underline added).

• "NPR: 'Mounting Evidence' Suggests COVID Not As Deadly as Thought. Did the Experts Fail Again?"--Foundation for Economic Education. Money quote: "As the historian Paul Johnson has observed, most of the worst events of the 20th century were perpetrated by experts who used collective power to shape world events in a direction they believed was beneficial."