A Quick Run Around the Web (6/20/2020)

"No Atlanta Cops = Wakanda Unchained"--Scouts Honor (4 min.)

Some locals enjoying the boogaloo in Atlanta. Ironically, according to Anonymous Conservative, the woman that was shot was a BLM field organizer. 

• "Atlanta police shortages continue for second day"--CNN. 

      On Wednesday, multiple sources within the Atlanta Police Department told CNN that officers were not responding to calls in three of the department's six zones.

     Though the department denied that was the case, a police union director backed CNN's sources' accounts and said that, in some instances, officers were refusing to leave their precincts unless a fellow police officer required backup.

• On top of the "blue flu," Atlanta, Ga., now has this to deal with: "70 Atlanta Cops Have Resigned After Officer Rolfe Charged W/Felony Murder"--The Lid.
• "Here We Go: Portland Protesters Topple Statue Of George Washington"--Hot Air. This is in Portland, Oregon. According to Andy Ngo, "A century old statue of George Washington was toppled & set on fire with an American flag. 'White fragility,' 'Damn white men' & other messages are written on the moment. On the ground nearby: 'Defund white men.'"
• "This Leftist Tantrum Is an Information Operation and Trump Is Winning It"--Town Hall. 

      This still an information operation, not a kinetic one.

      They want to convince us we are powerless, that everyone else supports their commie agenda, that we cannot win. Their tactics are designed to create that impression and crush our morale. These include the 24/7 media hype, the outright media lies, the movie stars with their dumb PSAs, the staged statue attacks, the corporate solidarity proclamations, the social media cancellations, and the craven kneeling by people who are supposed to stand up for us. But another tactic, familiar to any student of insurgencies, is to provoke an overreaction by those in power in order to undermine its moral authority. They want is to make us (including the president) think this is a kinetic operation, and get our side to make fundamental strategic errors by failing to recognize the true nature of the threat. They hope that such a mismatch between perception and reality will then lead to gravely damaging blunders. One of those would be Trump succumbing to his legit frustration and sending in a bunch of federal troops to crack skulls in Seattle.

      Defining this insurgency as a kinetic operation supports the leftists’ information operation goal of making Americans perceive the situation as out of control, of there being chaos, and of making the election of Grandpa Badfinger being the only thing that will resolve the situation. But there is no kinetic situation to resolve – at least none that is strategically significant in a kinetic sense. Despite the hype, the protests may have involved a peak of 2 million people across the country – out of 330 million. That’s nothing kinetically; it’s significant informationally because it is pushed by so many cultural influencers. The scurvy scumbags of Antifa hold essentially no ground except the turf they are physically standing on at the moment, and that is minuscule. Even the hilarious Road Warrior Republic of Seattle is not even a rounding error of a rounding error in terms of US territory. It’s significant only in the context of an information operation.

• Related: "You’re Not Alone"--Wilder Wealthy and Wise.

      If you’re against police corruption and militarization?  You’re not alone.

      If you’re against excessive use of force by police?  You’re not alone.

     If you’re against rioting and mob violence?  You’re not alone.

     If you mock companies that virtue signal popular causes while avoiding tough issues like the near slave labor they use to produce goods that they offshored from American production?   You’re not alone.

     If you’re against globalism and collectivism?  You’re not alone.

     I’m not saying that the position of the Right is always the right position.  There are times the Right has been wrong.  But the positions of the Right aren’t based in hate – they’re based in a love of freedom, or family, or tradition, or nation, or a healthy desire to be religious.

     If those things are important to you?

    You’re not alone.

Wilder's comments are extremely important. Although our military has forgotten it, the way to win a war is to destroy your enemy's will to fight. Our domestic enemies want to do this by making us believe that we are isolated and alone. Don't let them.

• "Raz of CHAZ Distributes AR-15s from Tesla Trunk"--Victory Girls Blog. Remember, "Washington gun control laws require a ten-day waiting period before purchasing handguns, up to 60 days for non-residents. The state also prohibits non-citizens, those convicted of certain domestic violence violations, individuals under the age of 21, and others from purchasing and possessing firearms," but apparently that doesn't apply to left-wing insurgents.

• Related: "CHAZ Occupier Suggests ‘Rounding Up All the White People’ into Work Brigades"--Summit News. 

• Related: "Media Silence On Armed Anti-Police Protestors And Private Guards Is Deafening"--Legal Insurrection.

• "As America Fights ‘2nd French Revolution,’ Trump Needs to Seize the Moment"--Michael Walsh at the Epoch Times. He warns that "[t]he coming months until the election are going to be among the most perilous in American history," and goes on to describe the demographic changes, loss of religiosity and WuFlu panic that has produced this current moment in history. Walsh thinks that Trump needs to crush this nascent insurrection right now, but I am hesitant because I believe that is exactly what America's enemies want: a video or photograph of troops attacking "protesters." This is 4th Generation warfare, and it would be a mistake to give the enemy want they want: a violent response to the protests. Let the Democrat strongholds stew in their own stink for awhile, say I. If they try to move beyond the Democrat strongholds, we can then reevaluate a response.

• Related: "One dead, another injured after shooting inside Seattle's Capitol Hill Organized Protest zone known as CHOP"--King 5 News. "Police tried to find the shooting victims but were met by a 'violent crowd' that prevented the officers from safely accessing the victims, according to a release from Seattle police Saturday morning."

• Related: "Shootings surge in NYC amid disbanding of NYPD’s plainclothes anti-crime unit"--New York Post.

• Related: "Portland Antifa tries to lock people in at Justice Center, then light it on fire"--NOQ Report.

• Related: "Live updates: North Carolina governor orders Confederate statues removed; Trump rallies in Tulsa after Juneteenth"--USA Today. Updates on further events including more statues being torn down in D.C., continued "blue flu" in Atlanta, and more.

• "Carlson: How Would Obama Have Responded to the Mob? By Tweeting Angry Things? Declaring a New Holiday at Their Request?"--Breitbart. Tucker Carlson points out what everyone intuitively knows: if instead of antifa and BLM, these protests and riots were being carried out by conservatives, and Obama was president, Obama would have used all available resources to crush the protests and arrest the participants. 

“That [conservative] revolution would not last long,” he added. “Say what you will about Barack Obama, and we do, but he never doubted he had the constitutional authority to act, and he did act. Obama knew a threat when he saw one. Our Republican leaders don’t believe they have the authority. They don’t believe they’re legitimate. They don’t see the threat. They don’t want to see the threat because they know they can’t face the mob. They know they’re too weak, and so they offer trinkets and hope the mob will go away. But it won’t, mobs can’t be sated. We thought Republicans understood that, and that’s why we supported them, but the crisis has revealed the truth. Now we know who they are. It could not be clearer, and now it’s time to find new leaders.”

The situation is multifaceted and cannot be characterized as simple as black versus white, or left versus right. There is a revolution going on, but it is at heart a revolution amongst the liberals as to who will have control of the political levers of power--similar to the rioting of 1968 at the Democratic National Convention really being about the issue of who would lead the Democratic party. I'm not denying that the revolutionaries are also targeting conservative culture or wanting to take down Trump--and they would love to have Trump intervene in a bloody way that would doom any chance of his reelection--but this is really a fight over who is in power, the radicals from the 1960s and 70s, or a new generation of radicals.

• "Who gave Floyd the Fentynal?"--Vox Popoli. Vox Day cites a good run-down on the evidence indicating that George Floyd died of a fentynal overdose, but then poses the question of when and how Floyd ingested the fentynal. 
• Why? Are you going to disinherit her? "Angelina Jolie shares thoughts on systemic racism, wonders if her daughter will be affected"--Fox News. She is discussing her adopted Ethiopian daughter. Reminder, Jolie has a net worth of $100 million. 
• "Persecution is now cool!"--Behind the Black. The author writes: "We are in a time of oppression. Make no mistake. If you publicly express an opinion that the left does not like, it is now considered perfectly reasonable among our smart set to destroy your business, dox your family, threaten your children, and have your very existence cancelled."
• Yes. "Is this a revolution?"--Forward Observer. 

      My initial assessment is that this actually is a revolution, in the sense of the Maidan or Tahrir Square, where organizers attempt to foment a popular uprising against the government.

     Maidan, of course, was Ukraine’s 2014 revolution. Tahrir Square, Egypt’s during the 2011 Arab Spring. In both cases, mass protests and violence eventually succeeded in forcing the resignation of the countries’ leaders. There were other cases, too: Puerto Rico, South Korea, Spain, Iceland, and Finland each had their own bouts of widespread protests that led to political change.

      All the way back in 2017, which now seems like 20 years ago, a U.S.-based militant socialist web magazine began promoting the idea of mass protests and small scale direct action as a means to bait President Trump into cracking down on Leftists nationwide.

      The anticipated iron fist reaction would rally support for the Leftist cause, the authors explained, and expand the class conflict against capitalism and the state.

      Since then, the idea of mass mobilization has become regular fare for both liberal and leftist think-pieces.

• Our best weapon is a studied indifference--not hatred and not obedience: "I Am Not Your Slave"--Ricochet. The author writes:

       The constant attacks on American citizens who are white are absurd and insulting. The commentary insisting that all whites must be racist is bizarre and on a closer look, based on no facts at all. I’ve decided that I’ve had enough of these intended insults. (I can only be insulted if I accept the observations.) I’m pushing back. I realize that some black Americans and people on the Left would be outraged at my ideas, and if they had the opportunity would vehemently chastise me.

      I don’t care.

     I only care about living a life of integrity, about being a good person to my fellow man (no matter what the person’s color is), and to make good choices. No person has the right to force me to think or behave in a particular way—a person can certainly try, but I will ignore their intimidation tactics and efforts to humiliate me.

Also:

You say that if I don’t speak out or act to support your claims about racism, I am complicit. If your claims are not legitimate, what am I complicit in? Who are you to decide how I should live my life? Who are you to demand that I act for a cause that I don’t think is legitimate? Even if there are racists in this country (and I’m sure there are), why do I have to take action against them? What makes your cause stand out against all the rest of the needs of society?

• "Leave Our Statues Alone"--Meridian Magazine.

       ... Slave trading is not a uniquely black experience. Take a peek through history and you will find slaves all over the world throughout the centuries. Here in jolly old England many of our fellow Brits were rounded up and sold into slavery. The success of St Augustine’s mission to implant Christianity into England was preceded by Pope Gregory witnessing white, blue eyed English boys being sold in a Rome slave market and declaring “They are not Angles, but Angels.”Our ancient feudal system had aspects of abuse and slavery running all the way through it. British history is full of it! Which raises an awkward question.

      Who, may I ask, is the authority figure to determine which slaves are more deserving than another. What is the magic date by which we determine which statue, street name, building name stays and which is rudely discarded.Who determines which cause deserves to be championed. If slavery suddenly trumps history then should we not give equal air time to every other cause under heaven. Where do you stop?

• Police disproportionately killing blacks is a myth: "FBI Data: Blacks, Who Are Only 13.4% of the Population, Were 54.9% of Known Murder Offenders in 2018"--Unz Review.  

"AR500 Armor vs Hunting Rifles"--Iraqveteran8888 (11 min.)

 I feel like the author was trying to not make the armor fail: other than the .45-70, all shots were at 100 yards, and the author mostly used uncommon calibers instead of more popular ones like the .270 or .243. I would have really liked to have seen what the .243 would have done, even at 100 yards.

• "SCOTUS Rejection of 2A Cases Moves Up Likelihood of a Forced Choice for Gun Owners" by David Codrea at Ammo Land. 

     At this point, there are plenty of reasons for gun owners to be concerned, not the least being Donald Trump’s unique ability to alienate the core constituency that got him elected (and a new report of a potential ATF reversal on arm braces isn’t helping). What we know for certain is that if Joe Biden and the Democrats win “bigly,” the means of peaceful redress supposedly guaranteed by the First Amendment will be as closed off to us as “Second Amendment protections.”

     None of us has a crystal ball to know what is coming next, but it does look like November could be our “last best hope” for such redress using the remarkable system bequeathed us by our Founders. After that, who knows what terrible choices each of us will be confronted with, and when?

    The one thing we will come to know to our credit or our shame is how serious we each are when we declare “WE WILL NOT DISARM” and the only choices left by those who would claim our rights as theirs are surrender or resist.

• "Slowing the Coronavirus Is Speeding the Spread of Other Diseases"--The New York Times. An excerpt:

      As poor countries around the world struggle to beat back the coronavirus, they are unintentionally contributing to fresh explosions of illness and death from other diseases — ones that are readily prevented by vaccines.

     This spring, after the World Health Organization and UNICEF warned that the pandemic could spread swiftly when children gathered for shots, many countries suspended their inoculation programs. Even in countries that tried to keep them going, cargo flights with vaccine supplies were halted by the pandemic and health workers diverted to fight it.

     Now, diphtheria is appearing in Pakistan, Bangladesh and Nepal.

     Cholera is in South Sudan, Cameroon, Mozambique, Yemen and Bangladesh.

     A mutated strain of poliovirus has been reported in more than 30 countries.

     And measles is flaring around the globe, including in Bangladesh, Brazil, Cambodia, Central African Republic, Iraq, Kazakhstan, Nepal, Nigeria and Uzbekistan.

    Of 29 countries that have currently suspended measles campaigns because of the pandemic, 18 are reporting outbreaks. An additional 13 countries are considering postponement. According to the Measles and Rubella Initiative, 178 million people are at risk of missing measles shots in 2020.

     The risk now is “an epidemic in a few months’ time that will kill more children than Covid,” said Chibuzo Okonta, the president of Doctors Without Borders in West and Central Africa.

• More Kung Flu fallout: "40,000 crew still at sea. Some call for change in cruise-Caribbean relationship"--Miami Herald. Historically, out-of-work sailors or fishermen that had fallen on hard times would turn to piracy. The problem in this case has been exacerbated by cruise-lines registering their ships with poor third-world countries, none of which will allow the ships to dock in those countries or otherwise have resources to evacuate the crews. 
• Some interesting weapons history: "Flamethrowers of World War I"--Mashable. From the article:

     Though projected incendiary weapons such as Greek fire were used in naval engagements by ancient Byzantines and Chinese, the modern flamethrower made its debut in 1901, when Richard Fiedler submitted his "Flammenwerfer" design to the German Army.

     Most flamethrower designs consisted of two tanks carried on a soldier’s back, one filled with a flammable liquid, the other with propellant gas. The squeeze of a trigger would send the liquid shooting across an igniter, projecting a jet of burning fuel at targets up to 18 meters away.

    The first combat use of the flamethrower came on Feb. 26, 1915, against the French near Verdun. The usefulness of the weapon was limited by its short range and limited mobility. On July 30, 1915, flamethrowers were used effectively against British positions to flush soldiers out of their trenches and into the open.

     The flamethrower, like poison gas, was a psychologically terrifying weapon, leading to its use by the German Army in more than 300 battles in the war. It was also adopted by the British and French over the course of the conflict.

• Related: "The Horrific Effectiveness of Flamethrowers"--Real Clear Defense. Because it was effective, it is no longer used.

• An answer looking for a question: "Tested: The Multi-Purpose Howdah Alaskan from Pedersoli and the Italian Firearms Group"--Guns America. This is essentially a double-barrel pistol in .45 Colt/.410 with an MSRP of $1,425.00. 
• "9mm v. 380 ACP Ammunition – Which is Better for Concealed Carry?"--Ammo Land. This is interesting testing because the author used essentially identical firearms in both calibers. Of course, the velocity and bullet weight of the 9 mm rounds handedly exceeded those of the .380, meaning that the 9 mm consistently had significantly higher muzzle energy. Unfortunately, the author did not do any tests with ballistic gel. But, as is especially pointed out in the embedded video, the hard numbers aren't the whole story. The author's wife did some shooting and had much faster and easier follow up shots with the .380 over 9 mm. 
• This looks like an interesting product: "Havoc Tactical Solutions’ Deflector Brake Controls Your Ejected Empty Brass"--The Truth About Guns. Essentially it is a bumper pad that adheres to the brass deflector on an AR, the purpose to protect the ejected case from being damaged and absorb some of the energy so the case falls closer to the shooter.
• Simple and better than breaking your fingers by throwing a punch: "3 Ways to Throw an Elbow Strike"--Art of Manliness. 
• "Cleaning After Corrosive-Primed Ammunition"--Blue Collar Prepping. The author recommends several different methods and products for dissolving and cleaning out the corrosive salts, but I just use regular Windex with ammonia.
• "Field Report: The 2020 Colt Python"--Revolver Guy. The author has no experience with the original Python, so his article is a straight up review and not a comparison like many other review articles I've read. Short story, however, is that the author liked the revolver and was impressed with the high polish on the stainless steel. His only complaint was a slightly heavier single-action trigger pull than he preferred, and he wished it had the smooth "combat trigger" rather than textured trigger.
• "Make Hardtack: Step-By-Step"--Beans, Bullets, Bandages & You. Good, detailed and illustrated instructions.
• "Review of The Prepper’s Medical Handbook"--Alpha Survivalist. Short take:

      Truth be known, there are a huge number of guides from which to choose should you be looking to learn about emergency medicine.

      Pretty much every guide or handbook will cover the same medical emergencies and the same types of treatments. Setting out all this medical information in a way that makes it easier for readers to digest and remember, is what makes one guide stand out from the many others.

      This is exactly what ‘The Prepper’s Medical Handbook’ does well.

      This medical handbook covers everything from diagnostics, to suturing, to putting together a comprehensive medical kit ideal for preppers, and is laid out using simple yet detailed instructions alongside uncomplicated and clear line drawings.

      All this makes ‘The Prepper’s Medical Handbook’ one of the best medical guides we at Alpha Survivalist have had the pleasure of reviewing and we believe it would make a fantastic addition to any prepper’s library.

• "CIVIL UNREST FUELS GUN SALES"--Guns Magazine. "When it was revealed gun sales in May were up 80% over the same month in 2019 by Small Arms Analytics & Forecasting, the protests-turn-riots in several major cities was cited as the reason, replacing the COVID-19 pandemic panic of prior months."

"Tucker: There are two versions of the law"--Fox News (10 min.)

He discusses the concept of "blood guilt" and how the Left is applying that to whites, suggesting that whites are of a lesser moral worth than other ethnicities.

• California's descent into third-world status continues: "Blackouts this summer could DECIMATE Big Tech companies in Silicon Valley as thousands of staffers work from home and away from large office campuses with stronger power lines"--Daily Mail. The article explains:

     Millions of California homes were left in the dark last summer when a series of intentional power cuts by PG&E and Edison International temporarily suspended electricity to stop wildfires.     

    Big Tech firms in Silicon Valley managed to stay afloat during those electricity outages because of fortified power lines, but power cuts this summer could spark a catastrophic fallout for thousands of staffers who've set up home offices.  

• Earlier this week: "Elite French Police Deployed as Armed Chechens and North Africans Go to War in Dijon"--Breitbart. "Dozens of people, many of them armed with firearms, knives, and iron bars gathered in Grésilles to take revenge on members of the local North African community, reportedly following an attack on a Chechen 16-year-old boy on June 10th. According to the prosecutor of Dijon, Éric Mathais, at least six people had been wounded in clashes on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday."

• Related: "France sends the army into Dijon as city is turned into a war zone by assault rifle-toting Chechen gangs mounting revenge attacks on Arab gangsters for beating of 16-year-old"--Daily Mail. 

• The suicide of expertise: "And this is why I'll never trust Dr. Fauci again"--Bayou Renaissance Man. Quoting from a news conference with Dr. Fauci:

      "Masks are not 100% protective. However, they certainly are better than not wearing a mask. Both to prevent you, if you happen to be a person who may feel well, but has an asymptomatic infection that you don't even know about, to prevent you from infecting someone else," said Fauci. "But also, it can protect you a certain degree, not a hundred percent, in protecting you from getting infected from someone who, either is breathing, or coughing, or sneezing, or singing or whatever it is in which the droplets or the aerosols go out. So masks work."

     So, why weren't we told to wear masks in the beginning?

     "Well, the reason for that is that we were concerned the public health community, and many people were saying this, were concerned that it was at a time when personal protective equipment, including the N95 masks and the surgical masks, were in very short supply. And we wanted to make sure that the people namely, the health care workers, who were brave enough to put themselves in a harm way, to take care of people who you know were infected with the coronavirus and the danger of them getting infected."

• I've noted before that the coming wars in East Asia will be over water: "China is accused of using bulldozers to redirect Himalayan river at centre of deadly border brawl with India as satellite images show China 'constructing roads and bringing in machinery'"--Daily Mail. 
• "Is This The World’s Next Oil Hotspot?"--OilPrice.com. The country is Namibia, and in particular, the Kavango Basin, a 6.3-million-acre basin with a 12-billion-barrel original oil in place potential, which was recently acquired by a Canadian company called Reconnaissance Energy Africa Ltd. Still have to do the test drilling, however.
• A reminder that we live in the 21st Century: "NASA rushing to complete Mars launch before planet moves out of range. Mission to include first-ever helicopter exploration."--MSN. 

      Dubbed “Perseverance,” the SUV-sized rover would embark on a $2.7 billion exploration mission to search for ancient signs of life on Mars, and begin the first leg of an attempt to bring samples from the Red Planet back to Earth. Over the course of a mission that is expected to last some two years on the surface, the rover would also study the planet’s climate and geology and help pave the way for human exploration, NASA said.

      The spacecraft also will be carrying a small helicopter, called “Ingenuity,” which would become the first rotorcraft to fly on another planet.

       If all goes well, the spacecraft would lift off on an Atlas V rocket from the Florida Space Coast on July 20 and land on Mars on Feb. 18, 2021. For the landing site, NASA has chosen a crater called Jezero, the site of an ancient lake as well as a delta, where there are rocks that date back 4 billion years. Perseverance is expected to scour the area, drilling for samples and signs of habitable conditions and even signs of ancient microbial life.