VIDEO: FerFal takes a look at how Kyle Rittenhouse's AR setup (15 min.). The first lesson is that Kyle's mindset played the most important role.
FIREARMS/SELF-DEFENSE/PREPPING:- Just a reminder that if you want a quick look at daily news relevant to the prepper--e.g., natural and man-made disasters, infections and epidemics, etc.--bookmark KA9OFF.
- "Origins of Pistolcraft: The Development of the 'Modern Technique'"--American Rifleman. An attempt to trace the history of modern pistol fighting arts. Of course, to have modern pistol techniques, you had to have modern pistols, and reliable repeating handguns weren't had until the mid- to late-1800s. However, as far as someone trying to develop a system of pistol fighting, and documenting that system, it appears to date back to William E. Fairbairn during his time with the Shanghai Municipal Police.
- "Kyle Rittenhouse’s Lawyers Release a Thorough Self-Defense Narrative"--The Truth About Guns.
- Related: "The Kenosha Shootings / Kyle Rittenhouse: A Tactical and Legal Analysis"--AR15.com. A lengthy post with a breakdown of what happened based on the video available right after the incident.
- "Post-Kenosha, Gun Retailers’ Inventories Have Only Gotten Tighter"--The Truth About Guns. The gist of the story is that the current shortage is worse than it was after Sandy Hook. I was in a Cabella's this weekend, and they had quite a bit of pricier hunting ammunition in the various calibers, but almost no pistol ammunition except for a couple more obscure calibers. The only rimfire available was .22 Mag and .17 HMR. They had no primers except for large magnum pistol primers. I went to another store that has a lot of reloading supplies, and they, too, were out of primers except for the large magnum pistol primers. Earlier last week I went into a third store, Cliff's, which is the reloading center in this area, and they had all sorts of primers, but they wouldn't sell you any unless you bought bullets; and, even then, they would only sell you an amount equal to the number of bullets you purchased. Unfortunately for me, they didn't have in stock any of the bullets for which I was looking.
- "Training Notes: Knowing Your Trigger Reset"--American Partisan. The author notes that the key to accuracy is consistency, and knowing the trigger reset for your weapon helps on this:
Trigger reset occurs at that critical point after the weapon is discharged and the bolt has completed its extracting and feeding cycle. The hammer is reset. A well trained shooter will keep the trigger depressed until this cycle is complete, letting the trigger out just enough to feel and hear a loud click.This is the trigger reset.What this does for us on a semi-auto weapon is give us a point of reference on where the trigger is going to break, firing the weapon again. Whether that’s a high-end AR-15 competition trigger, a mil-spec AR trigger, the AK trigger, a Glock Trigger, so on and so forth, mastering the trigger reset is an important step in learning a consistent trigger pull.
- Loose Rounds has published a four part series on the author's efforts to 3D print a firearm including pitfalls and what worked: (Part 1) (Part 2) (Part 3) (Part 4).
- Related: "DIY Guns: Testing a 3D Printed Walther PPK 32ACP Frame"--The Firearm Blog.
- Related: "US Army Research Brings Tough Polymer to Low-Cost 3D Printers"--The Firearm Blog.
- "DIY Leather Holster Restoration"--Revolver Guy. The author takes a couple leather holsters that look like prunes, one with a thick coating of mold (yuck!) and restores them to near new looking, explaining what was done and recommending products.
- "CoTCCC-Recommended Devices & Adjuncts"--Deployed Medicine. The tourniquets recommended by CoTCCC is more than just the CAT and SOFTT-W. The list now includes the SAM Extremity Tourniquet (SAM-XT), Ratcheting Medical Tourniquet -Tactical (RMT-T), Tactical Mechanical Tourniquet (TMT), TX2” Tourniquet (TX2), and TX3” Tourniquet (TX3).
- "Review of The Prepper’s Medical Handbook"--Alpha Survivalist.
- "Intuition, Pattern Recognition, and Cognitive Dominance"--Marcus Wynne. "[T]he selection, assessment and training of the 21st special operator needs to enhance those psychological skills to enable 'cognitive dominance' as John Robb defines the ability to leverage technology (like artificial intelligence) to dominate emerging conflicts in 'grey zone warfare.'"
- Related: Marcus Wynne has posted some case studies and copies of articles that he has had published in the past. The articles are in PDF format and are at the bottom of the page at the link. Check them out.
- "An Open Letter: Ammo Manufacturers, Please List Your Test Barrel Lengths"--The Firearm Blog. The author argues that, given the wide variety of barrel lengths used by shooters and the widespread adoption of ballistic reticles, firearm manufacturers need to list the barrel length used to arrive at the velocity they advertise for a particular round. In the past, it is has been common for rifle test barrels, for instance, to be 24-inches or more, but most rifles employ barrels shorter--sometimes much shorter--than that.
- "The Chapstick Trick"--Active Response Training. To keep carbon from building up on the lens of your weapon light, smear a thin layer of grease from a chapstick over the lens prior to using the weapon. The carbon can then just be wiped away.
- "Bear Spray Failure in Alaska, 46-Year-Old Killed Clearing Trail"--Ammo Land. From the lede:
On 29 July, 2020, Daniel Schilling went to clear trail about a mile from his cabin in Alaska. His dog returned home without him. His wife was very concerned. Searchers found his body, killed by a bear, where he was working. An empty can of bear spray, with the safety off, which had been discharged at the site, was also found.
He was killed by a brown bear. The author notes that since Schilling's dog accompanied him, it is unlikely that he was surprised by the bear, and proposes that the attack was predatory. The lesson is that bear spray cannot be relied on for defense against an attacking bear.
- "Gear Review: Recover Tactical 20/20 Stabilizer Kit for GLOCK Pistols"--The Truth About Guns. While we have seen some different chassis offered to turn your Glock pistol into a PDW, this product simply locked onto your existing Glock's frame to allow for a pistol brace and attaching other items. This product has interested me since I first started hearing about it early in the year, but I haven't seen any in-depth reviews until this. But while the author believes that this would be an excellent product for a disabled shooter, he gives the impression that it would not be useful in a PDW role:
There are two ways to look at the Recover Tactical 20/20. One is as a silly little item that allows you to misuse the brace and shoulder the gun. If you take that route, I doubt you’ll see much improvement in performance over a standard GLOCK. Sure the third point of contact helps, but it’s no pistol caliber carbine. You can LARP as an Israeli operator, but there are better ways to dispense 9mm pills (especially given their current price and availability).
Braces were initially designed as a device to aid those with injuries in shooting their weapon. If you view the 20/20 that way, the 20/20 makes a ton of sense. An amputee or someone with a disabled arm can benefit greatly from this device as a stabilizing brace. It’s comfortable when strapped to the arm and allows you to hold the pistol firmly and naturally.
- "SELCO: Someone WILL Enforce the New Rules When the SHTF…And You Probably WON’T Like How They Do It"--Organic Prepper. Selco explains:
WROL is a word that most people imagine describes something like complete anarchy, absence of rules, law, and everything that makes up a society. Does this mean a society where human rights are absent, dictatorship rules, no freedom at all. Is that WROL?
No. It is not.
They still have laws, rules, police, and maybe courts. But their “rule of law” is not anything that you understand it to be. For example, they may have a law written where you could be jailed and detained without proper court case for months or years, simply because you criticized the government. Or, even because you wear something “improper”.
So basically it is still a world with society and order and laws. Everything is governed by the law. However, this law is absolutely different from any law that most of you imagined. You may call it lawlessness, but it is not. It is not WROL.
It is a Different Rule of Law (DROL)
THE CURRENT UNREST:
- "Here’s why Kyle Rittenhouse, the teen shooting suspect in Kenosha killings, is likely to get off" by Eric Zorn at the Chicago Tribune. From the lede:
Kyle Rittenhouse is going to walk.This is my conclusion as I emerge, blinking in the light, from the rabbit hole I’ve been down all week of self-defense law, jury-instruction language, charging documents and online, frame-by-frame analysis of the videos of the tragic shootings in Kenosha during street protests on Aug. 25.
- Related: "Kyle Rittenhouse’s Unlawful Possession Charge Is A Huge Can Of Worms"--The Truth About Guns. Rittenhouse's attorney is gong to argue that since Rittenhouse is old enough to be considered part of the militia under Federal law, that he had a Second Amendment right to possess the rifle he used.
- Related: a clever double entendre seen at WRSA:
- The first person that Kyle Rittenhouse shot and killed was Joseph Rosenbaum. The MSM would like you to believe that he was an angel: a devoted father, and engaged to be married to his devoted girlfriend. If you follow conservative news sites, you probably already know that Rosenbaum liked to rape little boys (see also here). In fact, he had quite the criminal history. Rod Dreher contends that "Rosenbaum’s criminal record has nothing to do with what happened to him," but I would disagree. Rosenbaum's criminal history shows that he was a violent criminal and very much r-selected; i.e., high on the scale of liberal characteristics. He was exactly the type of person that would attack someone like Rittenhouse, chase him, and attempt to take away his rifle.
- "The Ambush of Aaron Danielson"--Gun Free Zone. Danielson was the Trump supporter recently shot to death at a riot in Portland. Contrary to what the MSM is telling you, video of the incident shows that Michael Reinoehl, the killer, stalked Jay Danielson.
The Multnomah County District Attorney’s Office released newly unsealed court documents on Friday, including the second-degree arrest affidavit against Reinoehl, revealing the details of the deadly encounter between him and Danielson.According to the affidavit, which includes images obtained from surveillance cameras outside a garage near the scene of the shooting, Reinoehl hid himself in an alcove of the garage waiting for Danielson, and a friend, Chandler Pappas, waiting for them to walk past him.Homicide Detective Rico Beniga notes that Reinoehl “conceals himself, waits and watches” as Danielson and Pappas pass him. According to the document, as soon as they walk by, Reinoehl reaches out for his pocket or pouch on his waistband and emerges out of the garage before following them. The shooting takes places shortly thereafter and was not captured on camera.Reinoehl then fired two shots at Danielson, one hitting the bear can spray he was carrying and another striking him, fatally. A witness told police detective Danielson sprayed the can of mace before the shots were fired and that there was a verbal altercation with “black males,” one of whom was heard saying “We’re going to f**king kill you,” before Danielson used the spray and the shots rang out.
It is actually much worse than that, as it appears to have been a hit job involving some 10 people. Anonymous Conservative noted a couple days ago, from his review of the video of the lead up to the shooting, that there was a multi-person hit team, writing:
Here is a picture of the moments before the shooting. Notice the shooter is beginning to move as he draws his weapon, even though he does not have a sightline to the targets yet, and his position behind that cover would seem to be far enough back he could not otherwise have known his targets were hitting that position at exactly that moment. How did he know his targets were about to enter the killzone right then, and he needed to draw and begin moving? Even more interesting, in the criminal complaint on page 17, it points out he was initially walking with a woman in a white T-shirt, coming from one direction to that corner, and both were staring down the street at the targets who were a ways away, coming from a completely different place, as if the shooter and his partner had been told over the air to go there, and the targets they were about to shoot were coming from that direction, and they were identifying them. Once they got a bead on the targets, the woman stopped at the corner and loitered as he continued on and took cover in that alcove. Taking a corner gave her sightlines up and down all streets there, which would be second nature to the trained surveillance operative. And yet not having a sightline to the shooter, how would she communicate with him? They were linked by radio. Look up behind the targets in the picture above, and you will see a lone guy who looks like the guy they are looking for. Notice his hand is covering his mouth just as the shooter begins to move, and the shooter is not holding a walkie talkie to receive any broadcast. It looks an awful like the guy behind the targets had taken surveillance command of the targets, he was trained enough that casually covering his lower face as he whispered into his chest was second nature, and he was radioing to the shooter who had an earpiece to receive, and probably a chest mic to transmit, triggering his movement at that moment, coordinating it to the targets. Also interesting, this new character may be surveillance aware enough he turned away from the surveillance camera as he came into view of it. Look at how powerful you will be if you learn to see these techniques. The splitting team, the girl taking the corner with her back against the wall, the other guy she was with taking cover ahead, the following unit covering his mouth and turning from street cameras, and another figure initiating movement at the exact same time as the one figures mouth covering, linking them.
Later the same day, FerFal and Matt Bracken discussed the shooting in a live streamed interview (link here), with Bracken noting that it was at least a 10 person team involved in the ambush of Danielson, including a person shooting video of the incident. Bracken has posted the video taken by one of the members of the assault team at American Partisan (link here).
- "Intelligence Gathering at Protests" by J.D. at Survival Blog. The author attended several protests to gather intelligence on Antifa and how it runs these events. An excerpt:
The first one I attended was on the University of Michigan campus. The protest was rather large, about 1,500 people. What I found interesting was that the first speaker pointed out that “allies from RevCom/ANTIFA” were present, just to provide “logistical support” including medical and security teams. The local RevCom leader got up and explained how to find the medics (Large red or green crosses) and explained that security was “circulating among the crowd” for safety. That was an ominous statement, as I’ll point out later.I began moving through the crowd and quickly spotted several security team members, obviously watching the crowd for anyone who wasn’t clapping or cheering along. It’s important to note that these protests require 100% ideological agreement or they will approach you and become confrontational, so I made sure I was chanting along. I noticed almost immediately that despite the man who said he was the RevCom leader, a young man named Ethan, that I would later have many interactions with, was actually in charge. He is a security team leader within the ANTIFA organization.The biggest observation from the first protest was that despite the claims that they aren’t organized, they are highly organized by a central organization. Ethan and his security/medical team have been at every protest I’ve attended in Michigan, including one at the Capitol an hour away. They use the ubiquitous BaoFeng Handi-talkie radios to communicate.* * *Counter-Surveillance is a huge piece of the ANTIFA/RevCom program. They recorded license plate numbers of vehicles they deemed “suspicious”. At one point, when Ethan saw a man (not me) outside the protest taking photos, he tried to get the police to make the man leave. Imagine, protesting against the police, yet asking them to help you. The police told Ethan that Ethan and his group had no legal standing to ask anyone to leave, since they didn’t own the parking lot and were technically trespassing.* * *So what are the lessons for patriots?
- The protests are organized by a central organization.
- They have trained and professional security teams.
- They actively conduct counter-surveillance.
- Park sufficiently far enough distance away to discourage anyone following, and walk in.
- They are completely willing to use arms and force.
- The presence of body armor indicates a willingness to use violence.
- Blending in is far better than direct confrontation.
- Have a fully stocked and ready first aid kit, such as a BearFAK.
Do I believe there will be a time when confrontation is needed? Absolutely.
However, let’s be smart and gather intelligence slowly and carefully first.
Peter Grant, at his Bayou Renaissance Man blog, also links to information showing that Antifa and BLM are far more organized than we have been led to believe. One of the article he cites mentions:
The course of the nightly action against the PPB [Portland Police Bureau] followed a fairly predictable pattern: a contingent of notional BLM protesters rendezvoused with a group of antifa black bloc at a public park close to their objective. As they moved towards the police building which was their target, “corkers” -a sort of bicycle-mounted blocking force - closed off side streets and the scouting line - typically on mopeds - moved ahead and on the flanks. Behind them came the main contingent of black bloc. Upon arrival at the PPB the streets were blocked with vehicles and burning dumpsters, with the “corkers” stationed to direct traffic away from the action and the scouts setting up a picket line extending out several blocks, watching for police reinforcements and creating the strong impression of antifa control of territory.
- "Black Lives Matter protesters exchange gunfire with property owners amid march to DC"--The Blaze (Aug. 27). From the lede:
Black Lives Matter protesters on a march from Milwaukee to Washington, D.C., for the anniversary of Martin Luther King Jr.'s "I Have a Dream" speech exchanged gunfire with Pennsylvania property owners Monday night — and one of the protesters was treated and released from a hospital after being hit by shotgun fire.
You know how SJW's always lie? Well, this story illustrates that fact as well. The protesters blame the property owner for initiating the violence. But the video shows that the property owner did not open his door until after shots were already fired. He then stepped out and, according to protesters, fired his rifle at a distance of 3 feet, but miraculously missed them. Note that the only injury was someone hit with shotgun pellets--i.e., an Antifa friendly fire incident. According to the article, a shotgun, shotgun shells, a semi-automatic pistol, and 9mm casings were recovered at the scene. The article discusses some other not-peaceful incidents as well, so read the whole thing.
- "'We're shutting you down': Violent BLM protesters attack stunned diners and smash up a restaurant in Rochester in shocking footage during protest over the death of Daniel Prude"--Daily Mail.
- "The Raw Hatred of Black Lives Matter" by Jared Taylor at American Renaissance. Key point: "One of the characteristics of Black Lives Matter is viciousness. True believers have a crazed hatred for their opponents that not even soldiers on a battlefield show to their enemies." He mentions and links to many examples, including mentioning the following short-lived billboard from my home town:
“Black & brown folks built this country, and we’re doing it again. Join us or get out of the way!” That’s a stylized skyline of Boise, propped up by black and brown hands. Boise is only 2 percent black and 8 percent Hispanic, but they built the place. Please note the burning police car. That is what will happen if you don’t get out of the way.
One of my great-grandfathers quarried and worked the stone that built Boise, and he was of Anglo-German descent, not black or brown.
- Democrats want a contested election. "Hillary Clinton said under no circumstances should Biden concede Election Night, and Democrats should plan for weeks and months of litigation and ballot fights," says Legal Insurrection. The author continues by suggesting that the Democrat strategy is to delay the vote count for long enough that they can steal the election through adding additional mail in ballots. John Sexton at Hot Air warns that a law professor at Georgetown University named Rosa Brooks has "wargamed" the election and predicts substantial street violence after the election absent a "big win" by Biden.
- "The Finger in the Dike Election" by Angelo M. Codevilla at the Claremont Review of Books. He observes that "Trump, imperfect as he is, is like a finger in a dike that, if removed, would loose a deluge," of anti-American leftism upon the
nationcountry. The book he is reviewing is The Stakes: America at the Point of No Return, by Michael Anton. An excerpt:
... Anton gives us a remarkable chapter on how thoroughly latter-day immigration has scrambled all things American. His point is that the past half-century’s immigration—very differently from our prior policy—seems to have been intended to do just that. This, he argues, not only degrades ordinary Americans’ lives, it also throws a wild card into the ruling class’s own plans for control—of which their approach to immigration is arguably the key element. In short, the ruling class has unleashed a bunch of tigers on America, which for now it is riding. Whether and for how long it can stay on their backs and not end up in their bellies is an open question. This is true, Anton ably shows, whether present trends continue ... or even if they don’t .... He has already left no doubt that the odds are stacked in favor of the ruling class continuing its dismantling of America as we knew it—that for most of us the result is likely to be worse than California with lousy weather. ...
* * *
They do not believe they have to worry about controlling their own violent troops because they are sure that they have nothing to fear from conservatives. That is because conservatives have continued to believe that the United States’s institutions and those who run them retain legitimacy. Conservative complaisance made possible a half-century of Progressive rule’s abuse. The War on Poverty ended up enriching its managers while expanding the underclass that voted for them. The civil rights movement ended up entitling a class of diversity managers to promote their friends and ruin their opponents. The environmental movement ended up empowering the very same wealthy, powerful folks while squeezing the rest of America into cookie cutter living and paying inflated energy prices. The feminist movement delivered divorce and abortion—far from benefiting women, it has made millions dependent on ruling class favor. The COVID-19 pandemic has had almost nothing to do with public health and almost everything to do with separating, impoverishing, and disconnecting people inclined to vote against the ruling class. As leftist judges rule, conservatives respond by appointing judges who pledge not to rule. As leftist governors establish their brand of effective sovereignty by decree, conservative ones obey court orders. So long as, and to the degree that, the illusion of legitimacy stands—so long as the Right obeys while the Left disobeys and commands—there is no end to what the Left can do because there is so little that conservatives do to fight back.
And:
Consider the 2020 election. In July, the Democratic National Committee engaged some 600 lawyers to litigate the outcome, possibly in every state. No particular outcome of such litigations is needed to set off a systemic crisis. The existence of the litigations themselves is enough for one or more blue state governors to refuse to certify that state’s electors to the Electoral College, so as to prevent the college from recording a majority of votes for the winner. In case no winner could be confirmed by January’s Inauguration Day, the 20th Amendment provides that Congress would elect the next president. Who doubts that, were Donald Trump the apparent winner, and were Congress in Democratic hands, that this would be likelier than not to happen?Before or afterward, were conservatives not unanimously to roll over, and were a few incidents to result in loss of life and conflict between police forces on opposite sides of the affairs, America might well experience an explosion of pent-up rage less like the American Civil War of the 19th century and more like the horror that bled Spain in the 20th.
- "Growing numbers of district attorneys are out to undermine the law" by the New York Post's editorial board. From the op-ed:
One reason for the surging, often protracted violence in US cities is the rise of a host of progressive prosecutors who actually tilt against law and order.
The trend is most glaring in places known for their kooky left-wing politics, like Portland and San Francisco, but extreme leftists have also taken over as district attorneys in cities like Chicago and Boston. Many owe big thanks for their elections to funding from far-left fatcat George Soros.
- Related: "California DA’s new policy to consider looters’ ‘needs’ before charging them"--New York Post. The DA in question is Contra Costa County District Attorney Diana Becton. And, wouldn't you know it, she is one of the district attorney's backed by Soros.
- "FBI Chicago: Gangs Formed Pact to Shoot Police Officers Who Draw Weapons on Suspects"--Breitbart. Fourth Generation warfare:
The “situational information report” from FBI officials in Chicago dated August 26, 2020, states “members of these gang factions have been actively searching for, and filming, police officers in performance of their official duties. The purpose of which is to catch on film an officer drawing his/her weapon on any subject and the subsequent ‘shoot on-site’ of said officer, in order to garner national media attention.”
- Heh: "STAGED: Woman Busts Biden for SCRIPTING Questions at Town Hall – ‘I Was Told To Go Off This Paper But I Can’t’"--24 News.
- Live by the sword, die by the sword: "Suspect in fatal Portland protest shooting killed by feds during arrest attempt"--New York Post. Michael Forest Reinoehl was an Antifa/BLM "security" guy that was wanted for the murder of Aaron “Jay” Danielson, in Portland on Aug. 29, 2020. Although I'm not sure as to which was first, a warrant was issued for Reinoehl's arrest around the same time as Vox released a teaser from an interview of Reinoehl in which, I understand, Reinoehl essentially admitted to shooting Danielson by claiming he acted in defense of others. Reinoehl must not have had much faith in his defense because, rather than be arrested, Reinoehl decided to try and shoot it out with the U.S. Marshals Service Fugitive Task Forces--a foolish decision that cost him his life. I don't know anything about Reinoehl, but it seems telling that even his own family is not upset about his death: "The sister of Portland antifa protester wanted for 'shooting dead' a Patriot Prayer member last week, responded when informed of her brother's death: 'I wouldn't say at this point that this counts as bad news.'"
- Anonymous Conservative pointed out this interesting article at The Christian Post, "Are BLM leaders calling on the spirits of the dead?" The answer, according to the article, is yes. Specifically they are calling on (and worshiping) past civil right's leaders and those whose deaths have supposedly motivated the riots this summer. The author further links this to radical feminism, noting that "many of the major trends in our society could be traced back to this 'Jezebelic' spirit. These include the rise of pornography; the shout your abortion movement; radical feminism; the emasculating of men; the war on gender; the rise of witchcraft and sorcery; and the silencing of the prophetic voice of the church."
- Big mistake! "Texas AG says state may take over Austin Police Department to prevent defunding"--Fox News. As it stands right now, the Leftist city leaders in Austin would own in increase in violence and crime. By taking over law enforcement, the blame for not dealing with the violence will be shifted to the state. The appropriate response is let Austin's Leftist city officials stew, and start moving state agencies and offices out of Austin.
- They're being optimists: "Why the Economic Scars of Rioting Will Haunt Minneapolis for Decades"--National Review. Cities and areas ravaged by riots in the 1960s, such as Detroit and Watts, have never recovered.
- We are entering a new dark age: "Autopsies can uphold white supremacy" by Elizabeth Kolsky at the Washington Post. Kolsky is a history professor at Villanova University. The liberal arts ceased teaching critical thinking skills long ago and has descended into madness, which probably explains the complete absence of logic in this piece. Let me outline the syllogism she presents:
- The Hennepin County medical examiner’s autopsy of George Floyd “revealed no physical findings that support a diagnosis of traumatic asphyxia or strangulation,” but attributed his death to other factors, including underlying health conditions.
- 19th Century medical science had strange ideas that were used at times to relieve whites of culpability for the deaths of people of color.
- Therefore, the conclusions of the Floyd autopsy were the result of racism.
You can see the logical disconnect between assertion 2 and the conclusion at 3. I can use the same "logic" to show that Kolsky is racist, ergo: (1) Kolsky is a historian; (2) Herodotus believed that the Greeks were superior to all other people; (3) therefore Kolsky is a racist.
- "Natural History Museum to review potentially 'offensive' Charles Darwin collection"--The Telegraph. Not unexpected. Evolutionary theory poses the greatest threat to the Left advancing systemic racism and white privilege to explain why certain minorities lag behind whites economically.
- "Something Wicked This Way Comes" by Michael Walsh at The Pipeline.
Why the Left has such a burning psychological need to constantly fantasize about destruction is no secret: in effect, they are a monomaniacal suicide cult with the added fillip of wanting to take the rest of the world down with them. They exist fearfully in a crabbed, constricted self-prison, in which anything -- a breath, a fart, a sneeze, the flick of a light switch -- can unleash cataclysmic events. What the arbitrary and capricious lockdowns have taught us -- in addition to the fact that the American constitution is now clinically dead, and that the Bill of Rights no longer is absolute -- is to fear our fellow man and thus turn ourselves into a nation of snitches and scolds.
MISCELLANY:
- Isn't interesting that just days after Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Milley, told members of Congress that the military will not play a role in November's election and won't help settle any disputes if the results are contested, we are suddenly inundated with news stories claiming that Pres. Trump disparaged American troops that had died in defending our nation?
- Related: "F**k Howard Dean and his brother, play stupid games with the Viet Cong edition"--Gun Free Zone. It's amazing to me how free Leftist politicians are with using dead relatives for some political advantage. In this case, Dean tweeted a response to The Atlantic article accusing Trump of disparaging American troops in which he (Dean) insinuating that his brother had been killed as part of the Vietnam conflict. The reality, though, is that Dean's brother was a communist sympathizer that traveled to Vietnam to show his support for the communists and was arrested, tortured and killed be those same communists.
- And yet another reason why COVID infection numbers are suspect: "Shelby County woman who passed away 6 months ago gets letter saying she is COVID-19 positive"--WBIR 10 News. The woman died in February, was cremated, and then her son got a letter saying that she had been tested in June and found to be positive.
- "Covid tests could be picking up DEAD virus cells from weeks' old infections and 'false positives' could be exaggerating scale of pandemic, claims study"--Daily Mail.
- They can't deal with rioters and looters, but, according to the Daily Mail, "NYPD prepares for 'mass arrests' during Labor Day weekend due to wild partying as people flock to beaches while 43 MILLION Americans are put under excessive heat watch with temperatures expected to reach 120F on the West Coast."
- The War On Christianity: Seattle has allowed protests and marches and rioting, but has closed down a park to prevent a Christian worship service from being held there.
- "The Lockdown Has Gone From a Mistake to a Crime" writes Dennis Prager.
Regarding the economic catastrophe in America and around the world — especially among the world’s poor who are dependent upon America and other first-world countries for their income through exports and tourism — I wrote, “It is panic and hysteria, not the coronavirus, that created this catastrophe.”Unfortunately, I was right.The world should have followed Sweden’s example. That country never locked down and has even kept children under 16 in school the entire time. As Reuters reported on July 15, the number of Swedish children between 1 and 19 years of age who have died of COVID-19 is zero. And the percentage of children who contracted the illness was the exact same in Sweden as it was in Finland, which locked down its schools.As regards teachers, Sweden’s Public Health Agency reported that “a comparison of the incidence of COVID-19 in different professions suggested no increased risk for teachers.” Nevertheless, with few exceptions, teachers in Los Angeles and elsewhere refuse to enter a classroom that has students in it. Their disdain for their profession has been superseded only by that of the Los Angeles teachers union, which announced that teachers will not resume teaching until the police are defunded.People who defend lockdowns and closing schools point out that Sweden has the eighth-highest death rate per million in the Western world. But, needless to say, this has no bearing at all on the issue of whether Sweden was right to keep schools open or whether our country was wrong to close them, let alone keep them closed now. The overwhelming majority of deaths from COVID-19 in Sweden were among people over 70 years of age, and most of those were people over 80 and with compromised immune systems.Reuters reported that three separate studies, including one by UNICEF, “showed that Swedish children fared better than children in other countries during the pandemic, both in terms of education and mental health.”For more than a month, Sweden has had almost no deaths from COVID-19 while the entire society remains open and almost no one wears masks. (In Holland, too, almost no one wears masks.) For all intents and purposes, the virus is over in Sweden.
- "Teachers’ Union Won’t Go Back to School -- But Will Go to Sharpton’s 50,000 March"--Frontpage Magazine. The article reports that "[t]he American Federation of Teachers union boss Randi Weingarten claimed at the union's annual convention that teachers were so terrified of going back to school that they were 'quitting in droves' and 'making their wills'," but "[a] few weeks after the death march [protest held in New York], the AFT’s teachers took a break from making out their wills to get on buses and travel to Washington D.C. to take part in Sharpton’s 50,000 person rally."
- Related (seen at Instapundit):
- As Glenn Reynolds would say, "asking the important questions": "Why Would Anyone Become A Leftist?"--Wilder Wealthy & Wise. The question arises because communism has universally failed where ever and whenever it has been implemented. The reason is that it is a religious cult, that follows a pattern of indoctrination familiar to anyone that has studied how cults work:
The process of radicalization was described by Jean Guitton (as related by Orsini):
Segregation – They are kept apart from healthy past relationships – their new relationships only come through communist contacts. They are then immerse in Leftist thoughts and theory.
Permanent Indignation – Inner purity is confirmed (and signaled) through outer indignation – the Left loves to despise any who think even slightly differently than they do.
Desire to be Persecuted – When people in the “world” make fun of the Left, the Leftist love it – it shows how virtuous and pure the Leftist is, and confirms to them how horrible the rest of the world must be.
Purification of Means through the End – Any violence is justified because it will lead to the promised land of no work and infinite goodies. Building it on a mountain of skulls is just a feature.
Principle of Secrecy – Antifa’s© external goals that they advertise aren’t their real goals. They know that what they really want is the complete destruction of society, and to have it rebuilt just as they see fit. But they don’t say that – so every member is essentially a member of a secret society. That binds them together – they can only speak freely to each other.
Preventative Internal Terror – The one thing Leftist cannot stand is anyone to the Right. Anyone collaborating with the Right in any way? Betrayal? Any member who strays from Leftism is certainly the biggest enemy of the Antifa©, even more so than actual fascists.
Read the whole thing.
- The end of NATO as we know it? "Turkish President Recep Erdogan warns Greece to enter talks over disputed Mediterranean territory or suffer 'painful experiences'"--Daily Mail. From the article:
Ankara is currently facing off against Greece and Cyprus over oil and gas exploration rights in the eastern Mediterranean. All sides have deployed naval and air forces to assert their competing claims in the region.
'They are going to understand that Turkey has the political, economic and military power to tear up the immoral maps and documents imposed,' Erdogan added, referring to areas marked by Greece and Cyprus as their economic maritime zones.
The YouTube channel, The Caspian Report, has a short (13 min.) video that provides more background and context. What we are seeing is that Turkey, much like China, is unhappy with how economic maritime zones where created by UN treaty. Since Greece has sovereignty over so many islands in the Eastern Mediterranean, and Cyprus sits in a strategic location, Turkey has been walled off from accessing underwater resources in the Eastern Mediterranean. And this hasn't been, and wouldn't be, a big deal except that suddenly a bunch of oil and gas deposits have been discovered in the region, and Turkey wants in on the action. Turkey is too weak to challenge Israel or Egypt, (and its claims would be less tenuous in any event), but Greece and Cyprus are a different matter. Note that this is driving Turkey's strategy in Libya as well, with Turkey essentially wanting to link up its economic zone with that of Libya.
- "Claim: New mathematical method shows how climate change led to fall of ancient civilization"--Watts Up With That. The gist of the research and modeling is that a period of increased rainfall allowed for the rise of the Indus Valley civilization, and the end of that period, and lessened rainfall, led to the civilization's demise. However, I've read good arguments for blaming newly emergent urban diseases for the abandonment of the cities. It was probably a perfect storm of problems.
- It's an electric universe: "Researchers find unexpected electrical current that could stabilize fusion reactions"--Princeton Plasma Physics Lab.
Electric current is everywhere, from powering homes to controlling the plasma(link is external) that fuels fusion(link is external) reactions to possibly giving rise to vast cosmic magnetic fields. Now, scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL) have found that electrical currents can form in ways not known before. The novel findings could give researchers greater ability to bring the fusion energy that drives the sun and stars to Earth.
“It’s very important to understand which processes produce electrical currents in plasma and which phenomena could interfere with them,” said Ian Ochs, graduate student in Princeton University’s Program in Plasma Physics and lead author of a paper(link is external) selected as a featured article in Physics of Plasmas. “They are the primary tool we use to control plasma in magnetic fusion research.”
Fusion is the process that smashes together light elements in the form of plasma — the hot, charged state of matter composed of free electrons and atomic nuclei — generating massive amounts of energy. Scientists are seeking to replicate fusion(link is external) for a virtually inexhaustible supply of power to generate electricity.
The unexpected currents arise in the plasma within doughnut-shaped fusion facilities known as tokamaks. The currents develop when a particular type of electromagnetic wave, such as those that radios and microwave ovens emit, forms spontaneously. These waves push some of the already-moving electrons, “which ride the wave like surfers on a surfboard,” said Ochs.
But the frequencies of these waves matter. When the frequency is high, the wave causes some electrons to move forward and others backward. The two motions cancel each other out and no current occurs.
However, when the frequency is low, the waves pushes forward on the electrons and backward on the atomic nuclei, or ions, creating a net electrical current after all. Ochs found that researchers could surprisingly create these currents when the low-frequency wave was a particular type called an “ion acoustic wave” that resembles sound waves in air.
- Heh. "California Bows to Energy Reality"--Watts Up With That. Well, what do you know. The slaughter of endangered birds by the green-power cult in California was for naught. California is extending the time before certain gas powerplants have to be shut down because solar and wind power has proven too unreliable.
- A reminder that we live in the 21st Century: "NuScale’s small nuclear reactor is first to get US safety approval"--Ars Technica.
One hope buoying nuclear energy advocates has been the promise of “small modular reactor” designs. By dividing a nuclear facility into an array of smaller reactors, they can largely be manufactured in a factory and then dropped into place, saving us from having to build a complex, possibly one-of-a-kind behemoth on site. That could be a big deal for nuclear’s persistent financial problems, while also enabling some design features that further improve safety.
On Friday, the first small modular reactor received a design certification from the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission, meaning that it meets safety requirements and could be chosen by future projects seeking licensing and approval.
The design comes from NuScale, a company birthed from research at Oregon State University that has received some substantial Department of Energy funding. It’s a 76-foot-tall, 15-foot-wide steel cylinder (23 meters by 5 meters) capable of producing 50 megawatts of electricity. (The company also has a 60-megawatt iteration teed up.) They envision a plant employing up to 12 of these reactors in a large pool like those used in current nuclear plants.
We'll seen see who really is concerned about CO2 emissions and who is not based on their reaction to the possibility of wide-spread nuclear power.
Again, great assortment of links.
ReplyDeleteHow can a member of Antifa be saved? Or can they be saved?
Thank you. I was going to add, when I mentioned your article, that terrorists use a similar method of indoctrinating members to their cause.
DeleteAs to saving a member of Antifa, if you are talking about "saved" in a religious sense, anyone can be saved if they accept Christ, seek out the truth, and follow His commandments. If a member of Antifa could show the same devotion to Christ as they have heretofore shown to communism, it may even be easier for them than for middle-of-the-road types (see Rev. 3:15 where Christ wished that the Laodicean church were anything but tepid in their faith, and Paul's conversion on the road to Damascus). Realistically, however, I don't see Antifa members changing their tune because change is hard and would require them to admit that they are wrong. Antifa members don't come across as humble or meek.
There seems to be a couple ways that an Antifa member could be "saved" in a secular sense, but it probably depends on how much he relies on reason. We've seen that reasonable people can be changed via "red pilling"--essentially the world being exposed for what it is. On this note, although he was never a hardcore Leftist, I've found interesting Roosh Valizadeh's change over the years from a notorious pickup artist to becoming more conservative to becoming a devoted Christian. But this isn't going to work for someone who is closed minded or makes decisions based on his feelings.
But because Leftism is a religion to its adherents, I suspect that another way to obtain a secular change from an Antifa member would have to be focused on changing his religion from Leftism to Christianity. (This, I suspect, is why Communist regimes are so hostile to Christianity). That said, I've seen "Christian-lite" people often fall away into the trap of sin without consequences offered by the Left.
I would think that would appeal to very few of them - as Antifa is explicitly evil. That makes redemption so much more rare. Tough times are coming.
DeleteI agree. Antifa is evil and it is highly unlikely that they will mend their ways. Even if they appeared to reform, say, after a crack down by the government, I would be highly suspect on whether they had truly reformed.
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