A Quick Run Around the Web (6/26/2020)

"Shooting Around Corners"--11BravoTraining (2 min.)

• TGIF: A new "Weekend Knowledge Dump" from Active Response Training. Topics include shooting through windshield glass, managing unknown contacts, first-aid for pets, first aid kits for travelers, information on choke holds (and, no, I don't think they need to be completely banned), information about blunt force trauma, and lots more.
• "5 MUST-KNOW SKILLS FOR SHOOTING AROUND CORNERS"--Guns.com. Main points: (1) feet close together and parallel with the barricade; (2) lean over the hips; (3) torso square with the barricade; (4) heads up; and (5) buttstock on the collar bone. On the latter point, the author explains:

When it comes to tactics and CQB, when using a long gun, the buttstock should be placed in the collar bone area, not in the pocket of the shoulder. Placing the buttstock on or near the collar bone allows the head to be upright, the torso to be parallel with the threat, and shooter to have maximum concealing ability around the corner of a barricade. Inevitably, this will lead to shooters having a quality pie technique.

• "Concealed Carry Corner: The Problem With Carrying Too Much"--The Firearm Blog. The main point is:

Having everything you could possibly have in your tactical pants seems like a great idea but it doesn’t take long to realize the truth behind it. Carrying a ton of stuff is a ton of work with little to no pay off in the long term. The biggest issue that arises is the amount of bulk that happens in your pockets once you start shoving things in every pocket possible. It’s hard to stay mobile and quick on your feet if you have an extra 5-10LBS of gear in your pant pockets all the time. This goes hand in hand with another big issue of keeping inconspicuous with too much gear. Having too many things stuck in your pants pockets can bring attention to yourself when having a concealed handgun and simple pocket knife can be just as effective without the extra bulk.

Also: "The old saying 'Keep It Simple Stupid' really does apply to carrying a concealed firearm. There are a number of issues that can arise from carrying too much stuff on your body and in the long run, it’s really not worth the hassle for that one low chance where you may need a second folding knife or third pistol magazine."

• "Ballistics Basics: The Effects Of Air Temperature On Bullet Flight"--Gun Digest. 

      ... Simply, a bullet doesn’t travel as well through dense, thick air. In the last column, we learned that air pressure is directly related to air density — when one goes up, so does the other.

      More air pressure = denser air = slower bullet = lower impact on target

      Now it’s time to move on to temperature’s role. Temperature affects a bullet’s speed in two ways: The ambient air temperature plays a role in the air’s pressure, and the temperature of your cartridge — more accurately, the temperature of the powder in your cartridge — will cause varying velocities.

And:

      How much of a difference can this make? Great question. If you’re shooting 175-grain Federal Gold Medal Match bullets out of a .308 Win. rifle at about 2,600 fps on a 55-degree winter day, you can expect about 223 inches of drop from your 100-yard zero at 800 yards. If you didn’t get back to the range until it was 95 degrees in the summer and you expected to make an adjustment on your scope to account for the 223 inches your bullet previously dropped at 800 yards, then you’d miss where you were aiming by about 10 inches.

     Cartridge Temperature

      The other influence on bullet velocity due to temperature has to do with the temperature of the powder in your cartridge of ammunition. This variable is unique because it doesn’t just change with the outside air temperature and weather: It can change even though the environment is exactly the same. If you’re shooting multiple rounds and heat up the chamber of your rifle, and then you let the next round sit in your chamber for a while, you can increase the temperature of your powder.

     Hotter temperature creates a hotter and faster-burning powder. This usually results in higher muzzle velocities.

• How times change: "Homemade DDT"--Time (Aug. 6, 1945):

      Many a civilian would give red points to get his hands on a little DDT, the Army's high-priority insecticide. Recently citizens of Media and Swarthmore, Philadelphia suburbs, were astonished: two of the towns' hardware stores offered bottles of DDT for sale across the open counter. The solution was just right for killing flies and mosquitoes. The stores did a land-office business at $1 per pint. Then WPB heard about it and asked grimly: where did the stuff come from?

      The answer: a Swarthmore chemist named Walter Steuber (of Houdry Process Corp.) had decided that the easiest way to get DDT was to make it himself. He was turning it out by the gallon in his cellar. Said Steuber: any competent chemist can figure out the formula and make DDT out of non-priority materials. The ingredients are: chloral hydrate (better known as "Mickey Finn"), monochlor benzine, and concentrated sulfuric acid.

     WPB solemnly ruled: "Anybody can make DDT, provided he uses non-priority materials or materials for which he has obtained a priority rating. But you can't sell it except for military or experimental purposes."

     Last week, as a result of Steuber's enterprise, WPB suddenly changed its mind. Beginning this month, it announced, regular manufacturers will be allowed to sell limited supplies of DDT to civilians, manufacturers producing less than 1,000 lbs. weekly may sell their product to anyone they choose.

• "45/70 Government: Staying Power"--Steinel Ammunition. The cartridge dates back to 1873 and is till going strong. While I wouldn't say that it is a common cartridge that you will find in every country store, it seems that most any gun store with a large selection of calibers will carry it regularly in various loads. The article discusses various reasons while .45/70 has stayed reasonably popular, but it really comes down to the fact that the cartridge still works very well at what it was intended to do:

The terminal performance of 45–70 is impressive even at the antique level. 405gr soft lead bullet deforms upon impact, producing expansion to about .70” and 25 inches or deeper penetration. With mid-range loads, lighter bullets often expand to an inch, reducing penetration to levels more reasonable for stopping deer or bad hominids. The same weight and velocity applied to an all-brass machined projectile just drills a caliber-sized hole through bone, gristle plate or muscle, making it an effective dangerous game stopper for North America. At the top of the ballistics chart, mid-weight bullets expand and penetrate impressively, while hard-case lead or machined brass bullets drill even deeper holes at the cost of significantly increased recoil. While a factor, recoil is pretty reasonable with the milder loads in even light rifles, as well as mid-level loads in a typical lever action. At short range, 45–70 out-stops 6mm Lee and 30-40 Krag, the two calibers that replaced it in Navy and Army use, by a significant margin. At longer ranges, the smaller calibers provide a flatter trajectory, and the cartridges are easier to carry in large amounts, valid concerns for the military but less for the hunter and the sports shooter who instead can appreciate the greater stopping power, the longer barrel life and the more illustrious history of the 45–70 Government.

• "Measurements and Standards for Pistol Shooting"--Shooting Illustrated. The title is somewhat misleading because it doesn't give specific standards. Rather, it discusses methods for measuring or determining your abilities:

      If one were looking to measure and track one’s raw shooting skill development, there are several good tests out there one can use to do so. The simplest benchmark is the 5x5 (sometimes called the 5x5x5) from trainer Gila Hayes. A fairly basic skills assessment, it involves starting from low ready and, in a 5-second par time, putting five rounds in a 5-inch circle at 5 yards. Once this becomes second nature, you can make it more difficult by starting from the holster, moving the target back, making it smaller, or trying to do it five times in a row without dropping a shot (hence adding an extra “x5”).

     A more challenging skills test is the creatively named “The Test,” from Larry Vickers, which would substitute a B8 bullseye repair center for the 5-inch circle and involve 10 shots in 10 seconds from 10 yards, with heavy penalties for inaccuracy.

    Beyond this, there are various qualification courses that can be looked up online, like the current FBI qualification or the qualification course used by Massad Ayoob in his MAG-40 class. ...

• "Mountain Rifles — A Brief History"--Rifleshooter Magazine. If you haven't heard the term before, a mountain rifle is a light weight hunting rifle intended for carrying while scrambling around on the steep slopes in mountainous terrain. In the United States, these are typically bolt action rifles with thin barrels in standard deer calibers such as .308, .30-06, .270, etc., with synthetic stocks or thin wooden stocks to cut down on weight. The article gives a history of the development of these rifles and some of the tricks used to reduce weight. 
• "The .500 S&W Magnum: Most Powerful Handgun Round In The World"--American Rifleman. History and comments on this cartridge and the pistol that S&W developed to shoot it as well as commentary on shooting it.
• "Rural Defense Comms: The Hardware"--Lizard Farmer. The author begins:

We’re going to take a little break from terrain and touch on another topic – Communications or Comms.  I’ll say it right up front – I know I’m going to catch a ton of shit over this little gem.  Comms is about as hot a topic as different shades of Multicam and there’s as many arguments over the merits of what is and isn’t best in comms gear.  But remember what the focus of this blog is:  Rural Defense when SHTF.  That SHTF could be in any number of forms – economic collapse, widespread civil unrest, Insurrection, a Zombie Apocalypse (I got an email asking why I don’t use that scenario since it’s such a “great catch-all surrogate” – Are you happy now?).  This article isn’t geared for the Militia Unit in a tactical environment – there are better options for those folks.  If you’ve read The Farmer at War you’ll remember the mention of their radio system: The Agric-Alert Radio system.  This system allowed farms and ranches not only to alert security forces of attacks, but also to call for assistance from their neighbors.  And just like those Marxist thugs that attacked those farmers you can bet that if you’re going to get hit the threat is going to take your phone and power out if it’s still on (those little green telecom boxes up and down the roadside don’t hold up to being run over – and please don’t ask me how I know this).   In this entry we’ll look at some examples of comms solutions.

Read the whole thing.

• Evolution in action: "Resident Opens Fire, Kills Two Home Intrusion Suspects"--Breitbart. 

      KTLA reports the two suspects, 18-year-old Jose Perez and 25-year-old Sergio Pacheco, were both from Long Beach and are alleged to have broken into the home “around 12:10 a.m.”

     One of the residents retrieved a gun to fight back the two suspects.

     ABC 7 quotes police saying, “Both Pacheco and Perez arrived at the residence unannounced, forced their way inside and assaulted the two residents. During the altercation, one resident fired a firearm at Pacheco and Perez, who were both struck by the gunfire.”

     Officers arrived to find Perez fatally wounded inside the home and Pacheco lying fatally wounded in the street.

"Inside CHAZ (the Capital Hill Autonomous Zone)"--Ami Horowitz (5 min.).

The part I want to focus on starts about 1:45 into the video (the link should start you at the right time) when they interview one of the BLM organizers who bluntly expresses one of the goals of the group--to literally tear or burn it all down as a prelude to rebuilding.

• The left won the revolution in 1965: "Changing face of America: Nonwhites and Hispanics now make up majority of people under age 16, as census data shows non-Hispanic whites could become a minority in 25 years"--Daily Mail. The article reports that "[a]ccording to the figures, the white population is on the decline as the number of deaths have exceeded births among the group and white immigration to the US has slowed down." "Meanwhile, minority groups continue to grow in size with the Asian population seeing the biggest increase of any demographic in the past decade by almost 30 per cent." And, take careful note of this: "Almost two-third of that growth was driven by international migration." 

      As Vox Day recently reminded us, one of the primary architects of our current disaster was Emanuel Celler who served as a Representative for New York in the House of Representatives for 50 years. As a reminder that stereotypes can, at times, be useful heuristic tools, Celler was a communist descended from Jewish immigrants from Germany and an enemy of the Second Amendment and the American populous. Wikipedia succinctly summarizes Celler's main evils as follows:

As Chairman of the House Judiciary Committee from 1949 to 1973 (except for a break from 1953–55 when the Republicans controlled the House), Celler was involved in drafting and passing the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Civil Rights Act of 1968 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965. In January 1965, Celler proposed in the House of Representatives the Twenty-fifth Amendment, which clarifies an ambiguous provision of the Constitution regarding succession to the presidency. Also in 1965, he proposed and steered to passage the Hart-Celler Act, which eliminated national origins as a consideration for immigration. This was the culminating moment in Celler's 41-year fight to overcome restriction on immigration to the United States based on national origin. The US Gun Control Act of 1968 directly evolved from Celler's Bill H.R. 17735.

• "The Second American Civil War Has Already Been Fought and Academia Won" by Stephen Kruiser at PJ Media. He writes:

       The ideological divide in this country has reeked of irreconcilable differences for some time, they’re just manifesting themselves a bit more acutely right now. I’ve been advocating for cutting the lib cesspool cities loose but not because I want to avoid future conflict with them or I don’t think they’re worth saving. As my headline indicates, it’s because I believe the war has already been fought and those cities are lost.

       We have arrived at this powder keg point in American history precisely because that’s where Academia and public education have been steering generations of our young people. I wrote a short book about it in 2013 (updated in 2018) that was humorous in tone but still acknowledged that it was a serious subject. In it I detail how and why liberals try to get their commie little hands on American kids as early as possible. They indoctrinate and groom them from pre-K through high school, then they weaponize them in college.

      The weapons have been deployed.

* * *

      The second Civil War that was waged wasn’t for physical territory, but for the hearts and minds of America’s young people. It was a brilliant long game that was played right in front of our faces but went largely unnoticed until recent years when the anti-free speech “safe zones” began springing up on campuses and mini riots broke out every time a conservative speaker was booked for an appearance at a university.

     We are now seeing the rise of a young electorate that is very comfortable with socialism and will soon be seizing political power. The meteoric rise of the all-mouth, no-brain Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is all the chilling evidence you should need to see how lost young voters are. In a very short time, she has become the conscience of the Democratic party. The Elders of the Village all kowtow to her, living in constant fear of what kind of damage her camera-seeking mouth might do.

• "Catholic church in Detroit fires lesbian music director who is married to a woman by invoking its 'morality clause' - which is not affected by last week's Supreme Court gay rights ruling"--Daily Mail.  She and her spouse are also music and program directors for the Wild Goose Festival, which per its website appears to be yet another liberal organization shifting to the far left. For instance, recent blog posts concern "anti-racism," which, as I've noted before, is a form of black supremacy/black supremacist philosophy. This woman had been the music director for the parish for 30 years. If you go to the end of the article, it notes that she had worked closely with children at the church. So for 30 years, she likely indoctrinated the children in that parish as to leftist causes and beliefs. And to see just how far things have gone, one of parishioners who was upset about the termination stated: "'Jesus would not be turning Terry and Kirsti away. He'd be welcoming them with open arms. It's just ridiculous.'" I challenge anyone to find a passage where Christ told an adult "you're good to go as you are; no changes needed." What we see are Christ telling the adulterous woman to "go and sin no more" (with no hug given), reprimanding the woman at the well for her many husbands and living with someone outside of marriage, telling the righteous and wealthy young man that he needed to give his belongings to the poor and follow Jesus (i.e., become a disciple or apostle), and warning us about wolves in sheep's clothing. The belief that Christ will accept us unconditionally is a pernicious belief because that how Satan proposed to undermine our agency. As one writer explains, "Satan proposed exempting us from the consequences of choice—eating, drinking, and being merry [—] while still being redeemed in the end. Satan wanted to save everybody, regardless of their choices." The author adds: "Minimization of accountability—dodging the consequence—is part and parcel of Satan’s strategy."
• "You Must Take The War Of 'Culture War' Seriously. Our Enemies Do"--William M. Briggs. An excerpt:

And this from (no reactionary he) Sohrab Ahmari: “White liberals I know — some of the wealthiest in my social orbit — are cheering the riots and calling for the shedding of ‘pig’s blood.’ Of course, they and their families own multiple homes outside the city, where they can retreat in utter safety.”

• Related: "In Racist Screed, NYT’s 1619 Project Founder Calls ‘White Race’ ‘Barbaric Devils,’ ‘Bloodsuckers,’ Columbus ‘No Different Than Hitler’"--The Federalist. 

• "Why American lives matter most: Once the US exported Coca-Cola, McDonald's and movies. Now it exports political pathologies"--Un Herd. Key bit:

Yet the global adoption of US causes has a more explicitly political function as well. As James Hunter, the first theorist of the “culture war” has argued, a culture war is also a class war, built around the controversial accumulation of status by educated and urban representatives of cognitive-cultural capitalism. Some form of contest will always occur when industry and agriculture decline, and when higher education swells in response, as there is so much status, and wealth, waiting to be claimed. But American media directs these contests onto battlegrounds of cultural values.

If this sounds familiar, it is because it resembles the theories espoused by Peter Turchin, who famously predicted in 2010 that there would be civil unrest in the 2020's due to what he terms elite overproduction (generating a competition among elites) and popular immiseration (e.g., stagnant or falling wages) (See, e.g., this 2013 article by Turchin at Bloomberg and, from his own blog, "The Science behind My Forecast for 2020"). In a 2013 article for Aeon, Turchin explained that inequality historically is addressed when the elites finally realize "that they need to suppress their internal rivalries, and switch to a more co-operative way of governing, if they are to have any hope of preserving the social order." For instance, looking at the United States in the early 20th Century, Turchin writes:

     These were the years of extreme insecurity. There were race riots (the ‘Red Summer of 1919’), worker insurrections, and an Italian anarchist terrorist campaign aimed directly at the elites. The worst incident in US labour history was the West Virginia Mine War of 1920—21, culminating in the Battle of Blair Mountain. Although it started as a workers’ dispute, the Mine War eventually turned into the largest armed insurrection that the US has ever seen, the Civil War excepted. Between 10,000 and 15,000 miners armed with rifles battled against thousands of strikebreakers and sheriff deputies. The federal government eventually called in the US Army, the only time it has ever done so against its own people. Add to all this the rise of the Soviet Union and the wave of socialist revolutions that swept Europe after the First World War, triggering the Red Scare of 1921, and you get a sense of the atmosphere. Quantitative data indicate that this period was the most violent in US history, second only to the Civil War. It was much, much worse than the 1960s.

      The US, in short, was in a revolutionary situation, and many among the political and business elites realised it. They began to push through a remarkable series of reforms. In 1921 and 1924, Congress passed legislation that effectively shut down immigration into the US. Although much of the motivation behind these laws was to exclude ‘dangerous aliens’ such as Italian anarchists and Eastern European socialists, the broader effect was to reduce the labour surplus. Worker wages grew rapidly. At around the same time, federal income tax came in and the rate at which top incomes were taxed began to increase. Somewhat later, provoked by the Great Depression, other laws legalised collective bargaining through unions, introduced a minimum wage, and established Social Security.

      The US elites entered into an unwritten compact with the working classes. This implicit contract included the promise that the fruits of economic growth would be distributed more equitably among both workers and owners. In return, the fundamentals of the political-economic system would not be challenged (no revolution). The deal allowed the lower and upper classes to co-operate in solving the challenges facing the American Republic — overcoming the Great Depression, winning the Second World War, and countering the Soviet threat during the Cold War.

Obviously, this unwritten compact was broken. Nevertheless, Turchin concluded the article with a hope that, with some understanding of the cycles, the cycle could be broken or softened. It was not to be. Turchin wrote on June 1 of this year:

      Our conclusion is that, unfortunately, my 2010 forecast is correct. Unfortunately, because I would have greatly preferred it to become a “self-defeating prophecy”, but that clearly has not happened.

     What does it mean for the current wave of protests and riots? The nature of such dynamical processes is such that it can subside tomorrow, or escalate; either outcome is possible.A spark landing even in abundant fuel can either go out, or grow to a conflagration.

    What is much more certain is that the deep structural drivers for instability continue to operate unabated. Worse, the Covid-19 pandemic exacerbated several of these instability drivers. This means that even after the current wave of indignation, caused by the killing of George Floyd, subsides, there will be other triggers that will continue to spark more fires—as long as the structural forces, undermining the stability of our society, continue to provide abundant fuel for them.

• Do you believe in coincidences? "Calls for reparations gain steam as U.S. reckons with racial injustice"--Thomson Reuters Foundation.

      When California State Assemblywoman Shirley Weber introduced a bill last year to study reparations for African Americans, she was worried people wouldn't accept that racial inequality and injustice were still alive and well.

     Instead, the bill came up for a vote two weeks after the death of an unarmed Black man, George Floyd, at the hands of a white police officer spurred a nationwide reckoning on that very topic. It passed the assembly on June 11 with a 56-5 vote.

     "Maybe we'll be a model for what can happen at the federal level," Weber told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.

     The bill goes next to the California State Senate, where she expects it to pass and then be signed into law by the governor.

As we have seen with gun legislation, the legislation is drafted and queued up in the event that something happens that could quickly shift public opinion. 

• "Supreme Court Says Federal Courts Cannot Interfere in Deportations"--Breitbart. 

      The U.S. Supreme Court says Congress can bar the nation’s federal courts from interfering in the agencies’ deportation of illegal aliens.

     “An alien … has only those rights regarding admission that Congress has provided by statute,” said the 7-2 decision by Justice Samuel Alito. “An alien who tries to enter the country illegally is treated an an ‘applicant for admission,’ an alien who is detained shortly after unlawful entry cannot be said to have ‘effected an [legal] entry.”

• More: "Supreme Court hands Trump administration win on deportation powers"--Fox News.

      The Supreme Court ruled Thursday for the Trump administration in a key immigration case, determining that a federal law limiting an asylum applicant’s ability to appeal a determination that he lacked a credible fear of persecution from his home country does not violate the Constitution.

      The ruling means the administration can deport some people seeking asylum without allowing them to make their case to a federal judge. The 7-2 ruling applies to those who fail their initial asylum screenings, making them eligible for quick deportation.

      In a decision in the case of Dept. of Homeland Security v. Thuraissigiam, the court ruled that the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act (IIRIRA) – which prevents judicial review of the credible fear determination – does not violate the Constitution’s Suspension Clause, which protects habeas corpus privileges that allow courts to determine if a person should be released due to unlawful detention.

• There is more than one way to skin a cat: "U.S. agency that grants citizenship, visas plans to furlough two-thirds of staff in August"--NBC News.

      Beginning in April, the Trump administration postponed asylum hearings for immigrants and froze the issuance of a broad range of visas, citing the need to protect American jobs. President Donald Trump signed an executive order Monday extending and expanding his original proclamation through Dec. 31.

     But there are other categories of visa applicants, including health care workers responding to the COVID-19 outbreak, and food processing workers, who are still allowed into the United States and whose applications may be slowed by the reduction in staff.

• "Coronavirus Jumps the Border, Overwhelming Hospitals in California"--New York Times. According to the lede, "[h]ospitals are airlifting patients to facilities hundreds of miles away to handle an influx of Americans and U.S. green card holders sickened in Mexico." Also:

      “We are a teeny tiny hospital but have always been able to manage, calling in staff on their days off or transferring one or two patients out a day to bigger facilities,” said Ms. Cruz, director of the emergency department of the El Centro Regional Medical Center. “We’d get a surge for 24 or 48 hours that required all hands on the deck.”

     Then came the coronavirus.

     The hospital, which has a 20-bed intensive-care unit, has been overwhelmed with ailing residents of the Imperial Valley, as well as Americans and U.S. green card holders fleeing overcrowded clinics and hospitals in Mexicali, a city of 1.1 million on the other side of the border.

     To alleviate the pressure, hospitals in nearby San Diego and Riverside counties began accepting transfers in April. But the intensifying crisis prompted California last week to activate an extraordinary response, enlisting hospitals as far north as Santa Barbara, San Francisco and Sacramento to accept patients from this remote southeastern corner of the state.

• Not Africa or the Middle-East, but in Argentina: "'Astonishing' huge swarm of locusts sweeps through farmland and ruins crops"--The Mirror.
• Some more cultural enrichment in England: "Man shot dead by police after stabbing in Glasgow hotel"--BBC News. The hotel was being used to house asylum seekers. Per the article, "[s]ix people are being treated in hospital for their injuries, including a police officer who was said to be 'critical but stable'."
• Diversity is a strength: "Major incident declared after thousands flock to UK beaches in sweltering heat"--CNN. 

     Bournemouth and Sandbanks, in Dorset, were hit particularly hard as crowds came to enjoy the hottest day of the year so far, according to a statement released Thursday by local authority Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole (BCP) Council.

      Despite advice to stay away from the area, it was overrun with cars and sunbathers, leading to gridlock, illegal parking and anti-social behavior. By Thursday morning, more than 40 tons of waste had been removed from the coastline.

      Council leader Vikki Slade said she was "absolutely appalled" by the scenes.

       "The irresponsible behavior and actions of so many people is just shocking and our services are stretched to the absolute hilt trying to keep everyone safe," said Slade in the statement. "We have had no choice now but to declare a major incident and initiate an emergency response."

• The Church of England once again genuflects to the whims of political correctness: "Nelson Mandela's widow says statues are part of our history and we must learn from them after Archbishop of Canterbury warns some 'will have to come down' as Church thinks again about portraying Jesus as white"--Daily Mail.

      Justin Welby said monuments would be looked at 'very carefully' to see if they all 'should be there'. 

     In a wide-ranging interview, he also urged the West to reconsider its prevailing mindset that Jesus was white, and pointed to different portrayals of Christ as Black, Middle Eastern and Chinese in different countries.

Christians in the West understand that Jesus was Jewish--at least those that actually know anything about the Bible. That Welby questions this suggests that he does not know his Bible or the members of his flock.

• Diversity + Proximity ... "Siege of Italy's coronavirus ghetto enters its second day: Riot police reinforcements are sent in to stop residents escaping from locked down tower blocks filled with migrant workers"--Daily Mail. 
• Meanwhile, in our failed state to the south: "‘Jalisco cartel’ gunmen shoot Mexico City's police chief and kill at least two cops in ambush using sniper rifles and grenades in city's most upmarket neighbourhood"--Daily Mail. A photograph of some of the weapons recovered by police show a .50 rifle and what looks to me to be a SCAR. 
• Things may continue to be dicey with the Three Gorges Dam in China: "China tells provinces to brace for new round of heavy downpours"-Reuters. From the article:

     China has urged more than a dozen provinces to take precautions against another round of heavy rain in the next few days after turbulent weather brought floods to large swathes of the country this month.

     Rainstorms and downpours are expected to hit vast stretches of China from Friday through Tuesday, with a high risk of flooding, landslides and urban waterlogging, the flood control agency said in a website statement.

And from China.org.cn: 

      The new round of torrential rains from Friday to Tuesday will affect 13 provincial regions, including Hubei and Hunan provinces, according to the Ministry of Emergency Management.

     China's national observatory renewed blue alerts for rainstorms and severe convective weather, which is characterized by strong winds, hail, thunderstorms and brief but heavy rainfall, for the 24 hours starting from 2 pm on Thursday.

     Generally, the biggest hourly precipitation in the affected areas, including southern parts of Hunan and northern parts of Fujian province, will be 3 to 5 centimeters. In the most extreme situation, however, some areas may receive 7 centimeters of precipitation in an hour, the National Meteorological Center said.

• More: "Heavy 'plum rain' returns to already soaked central, southern China this week"--Accuweather.

• Related: "Miles on “Three Gorges Dam”: CCP ignores warning signs, even wants it to collapse"--G News. I don't believe that the CCP wants the dam to collapse because it would be the greatest disaster in history. Money quote: "The Three Gorges Dam has become a no-flight zone recently due to heavy flooding and online discussions of structural issues. It is being patrolled by the army, and aerial photography of the dam is prohibited."

• Related: "Concerns Over the Three Gorges Dam Grow, as China Begins Censoring News of the Floods"--Epoch Times.

      The Three Gorges Dam in China has become a center of attention, as waters rise and local authorities issue flood warnings nearby. Taiwan News reports that a prominent Chinese hydrologist, Wang Weiluo, is claiming the dam “could collapse at any moment.” He pointed to existing concerns over the dam’s design, construction, and process for inspections.

     Chinese authorities, meanwhile, are declaring that information on the flood in Chongqing is “sensitive information,” which subjects it to censorship. The floods havee already hit 26 provinces, required emergency rescue of over 213,000 people, and damaged over 171,000 homes. The situation may grow worse as the 980 reservoirs are impacted.

• Related: "Is The Three Gorges Dam on the Brink of Collapse?"--OilPrice.com. (Keep scrolling down to get to the article). The article notes that China is experiencing the heaviest rains it has had since 1949--the Three Gorges Dam was completed in 2008. 400 million people live downstream of the dam. 

• Related: "230,000 DIED IN A DAM COLLAPSE THAT CHINA KEPT SECRET FOR YEARS"--OZY.

By the time night fell on Aug. 8 [1975], as many as 65 area dams had collapsed. But despite the fact that water levels at the Banqiao Dam had far exceeded a safe capacity, and a number of sluice gates for controlling water flow were clogged with silt, authorities felt confident they’d skirt disaster. After all, the Soviet-designed dam had been built to survive a typhoon — a once-every-1,000-year occurrence that could dump 11 inches of rain per day. Unfortunately, Typhoon Nina would prove to be a once-every-2,000-year storm, bearing down with enough force to cause the world’s deadliest infrastructure failure ever.

Christ said that the Gospel would be taught to all nations before his return. China doesn't allow proselyting and barely tolerates the Church and other Christian faiths as it is. Something big will have to happen to China in order to open its doors. I'm not saying this is it, but Christianity is not going to be able to spread in China until the CCP either makes a significant change in its laws and policy, or the CCP falls from power. The same lies in store for India and the Muslim world: voluntary change (e.g., Dubai allowing a temple to be built) or some event or disaster forcing the change (e.g., collapse of the Soviet Union).

     We cannot be at ease here in the United States, though. As it states in Ether:

And now, we can behold the decrees of God concerning this land [i.e., America], that it is a land of promise; and whatsoever nation shall possess it shall serve God, or they shall be swept off when the fulness of his wrath shall come upon them. And the fulness of his wrath cometh upon them when they are ripened in iniquity.

• "Did the Viking Age begin 2,000 years earlier than we thought?"--Bayou Renaissance Man. Bronze Age "Vikings" from 3,000 years ago had advanced ship architecture and weapons comparable to their later iron-age counterparts.