A Quick Run Around the Web (12/27/2020)

VIDEO: "Defending Against Mob Violence - Critical Mas(s) Ep. 04 with Massad Ayoob"--Wilson Combat (14 min.). One of the things that we have been seeing in the Antifa and BLM protests is the police, prosecutors and judges taking the position that a mob can no longer be treated as all having the same intent (and therefore all fair game), but someone defending themselves against a mob must now distinguish between those protesting, those merely banging on car or smashing windows, and those reasonably intent on causing harm. Ayoob takes you through this new legal morass. One thing he mentions, however, is that many states that have adopted the castle doctrine have, by statute, applied it to occupied vehicles. Thus, there may be certain presumptions in your favor if you are in a vehicle and attacked by an angry mob. Check your state laws to see if this might apply to you.

Firearms/Self-Defense/Prepping:

• First off is Jon Low's most recent roundup of articles, videos, and commentary from December 23. Lot's of good links and commentary as always on carrying a concealed weapon, and tips and advice for preparing for defending yourself. A couple articles that caught my attention in particular had to do with what to with your firearm when (a) driving or (b) using the porcelain throne. Mr. Low unequivocally states that you should never take your firearm out of its holster--bad things can happen if you do, including losing the firearm or having it stolen, or, even worse, a negligent discharge. As the author of the first article points out, if you can't comfortably carry your firearm and/or access it when seated, you need to look for a different method of carrying it. In the latter case of what to do with a firearm when using the toilet, I would note that I've read a number of accounts of people (including police) accidentally leaving a firearm behind after using the toilet and/or shooting holes into a wall due to negligent handling. And while I would not recommend the program as an example of best practices, one of the episodes of The Rookie has a training officer play a cruel prank on his rookie by taking her duty belt (with firearm) when she had taken it off to use the toilet, hanging it off the hook on the inside of the stall door--he simply reached over the top and grabbed it. 

    A couple other good points that stuck out to me: Mr. Low makes a point that you should not be cycling your carry gun, noting that "as my friend, Sheriff Jim Wilson, likes to point out, 'If you rotate your everyday-carry gun, you don’t have an everyday-carry gun.'" I recognize that you might want, or need, to carry different firearms or use different methods of carry at certain times. For instance, my EDC gun is not the one that I would carry while in the woods where I might fear being attacked by four legged predators in addition to the two legged types. But having found a workable solution to what to carry everyday and how to carry it, I tend to stick with that for years. I do mix things up a bit more since I've been doing some holster tests, but I generally do most of my testing on weekends rather than in my day-to-day carry. Similarly, Mr. Low recommends that you stick to home-defense/night-stand gun that is solely for that purpose: as he puts it, "It’s not your gun; it’s not your partner’s gun.  It’s your home’s gun.  It should be best configured to defend your home." 

    Anyway, a lot more, so check it out and read the whole thing. 

• On a similar note, Greg Ellifritz posted a new Weekend Knowledge Dump yesterday. Lot's of good info, as always, but one in particular that I want to mention is that Ellifritz links to an online Emergency Trauma Response Course being offered free of charge by Mountain Man Medical. I've been putting together an actual IFAK/Trauma kit, so I'm sort of focused on articles and videos about that topic.
• "Wheelgun Wednesday: What Makes a Great Pest Control Revolver?"--The Firearm Blog. The author is discussing dealing with everything from mice or snakes, to raccoon or beaver. The author arrives at pretty much the same point I do, but with different criteria. I think the overall best pest revolver is going to be in .22 LR. Why? Because you can shoot things other than standard .22 LR. That is, you can use bird-shot loads or low velocity rounds such as .22 Long or .22 Short that won't over penetrate against smaller critters and can be (not necessarily will be) quieter than .22 LR.
• "Charles Askins’ .44magnum Kill"--Loose Rounds. From the article:

    Col. Charles Askins pitched up in Saigon in April, 1956, assigned as the chief firearms instructor for the entire Vietnamese Army which at the time consisted of 10 under-sized divisions of 5,000 men each. The hard-bitten colonel, a former Border Patrol officer and NRA National Pistol Champion, did not arrive unarmed. As a prominent gun writer, Charlie was given one of the first Smith & Wesson .44 Magnums, a five-screw N-frame, and he brought the big magnum with him.

    Charlie being Charlie, he immediately decided to accompany some patrols on the hunt for Viet Minh communists, and this led to the opportunity, which Charlie relished, to kill the first man with the new .44 Magnum: “Down the trail came a single Viet Minh. He had the MAS 49 over his shoulder and a bag of rice in his left hand. When he got even with me, he chanced to look down and there in the mud of the path were my big paratroop boot prints.

    I was watching him, not being more than three to four steps from the little bastard. I saw the wild look come in his eyes and he glanced around fearfully, meanwhile swinging the French 7.5mm off his shoulder. Instead of shooting this Viet Minh with the service rifle, I shifted the gun to my right hand [Askins was left-handed] and pulled out the big .44 Magnum.

    I let this ambusher have the first 240 grain slug right through the ribs on the left side. It was probably the first man ever killed with the .44 because it was quite new in those days. The effect of the bullet on this pint-sized Oriental was indeed impressive. It literally swept him off his feet. It lifted him off the ground like he had been struck with a huge club and dumped him four to five feet away. I had shot him double-action. I deliberately cocked the big revolver and put another bullet in him, this one aimed at the throat.

• "Let’s Not Celebrate the ATF Pistol Brace Withdrawal Quite So Fast"--The Truth About Guns. The author thinks that it was simply withdrawn because the ATF figures that if it waits a few weeks longer, it can do whatever it wants. He also writes:

I found the “guidance” a bit odd from the start. Aside from beginning with the assumption that any brace was a buttstock until proven otherwise, it didn’t change anything. It left in place the usual “we know it when we see it” process of judging specific products instead of analyzing pistol stabilizing braces as a general class. I think that is coming.

• Gun control in action: "Three police officers are shot dead in France: Gunman 'kills himself' after opening fire on gendarmes rescuing a woman from a 'domestic violence incident'"--Daily Mail. A fourth officer was severely wounded in the leg. The perpetrator was later found dead, having committed suicide. Per the Daily Mail: "According to Europe 1, the man was armed with a military-style Famas assault rifle along with at least two pistols and a pair of night-vision goggles." However, the Europe 1 article cited by the Daily Mail reports: "Quand les gendarmes l'ont découvert, après qu'il se soit donné la mort, l'homme portait un gilet pare- balles, et était armé d'un pistolet automatique Glock, mais aussi d'un fusil automatique américain, une arme de guerre équipée d'un silencieux, d'une torche et d'un dispositif à visée laser." ["When the gendarmes discovered him, after he had committed suicide, the man was wearing a bulletproof vest, and was armed with a Glock automatic pistol, but also an American automatic rifle, a weapon of war equipped with a silencer, torch and laser sighting device."]. Weapons of war and fully automatic firearms are Category A firearms under French law, and which are completely forbidden to citizens to own (see also here). It is not clear, though, whether the use of the term "weapon of war" in the article is hyperbole or actually refers to a Category A firearm. But perhaps it is moot inasmuch as semi-auto rifles are a Category B weapon for which "you need a sports shooting license, which means active membership in a shooting club, presenting yourself at a firing range at least three times a year, and visiting a physician annually for a physical and mental certification that you are capable of owning a firearm," and the whole process must be repeated every 3 years. It is, nevertheless, interesting to observe that "France is awash with illegal weapons, with some experts saying that the number of illegal guns may be twice the number of legal ones."
• If it weren't for guns, there would be no mass killings: "Seven dead and another seven injured in knife massacre at Chinese sauna"--Daily Mail.

    Seven people have been killed in a knife attack outside a sauna in northeastern China as the suspect is arrested and a further seven are left injured. 

    The attack in the city of Kaiyuan in Liaoning province occurred outside the sauna and bathhouse on Sunday, according to state media. 

    The suspect, identified by the media by his surname Yang, was arrested while the motive for the attack remains unknown.  

• Suicide by cop? "Cop shot unarmed black man within 10 seconds of encounter, bodycam video shows"--New York Post. The article relates:

    Columbus police officer Adam Coy was dispatched around 1:30 a.m. Tuesday to a non-emergency call about a man who had been idling a car, repeatedly turning it on and off in the Cranbrook neighborhood.

    Shortly after the officers arrived, a black man later identified as Andre Maurice Hill, 47, who had been inside a garage, approached them on foot while holding a phone in his left hand and his other hand not visible.

    Footage from Coy’s body camera then showed him opening fire on Hill, just six seconds after Hill entered the frame.

    No audio is available since Coy did not activate his body camera until after the shooting, which only captured video due to an automatic “look back” feature.

    Without audio, it’s unclear whether Coy yelled any commands at Hill.

If you watch the video or look at the images, Hill had his left hand up, with his cell phone in it, which was the pocket of his coat. It looks to me like Hill was trying to keep his right hand hidden while distracting the officer with the left hand and cell phone.

• Don't be this guy: "Authorities: Utah's Ty Jordan died in accidental shooting"--ABC News. The article states that Jordan shot himself in the hip, but also indicates that the cause of death was listed as an abdominal wound. No further details were given so it would be pure speculation whether he was attempting to holster the weapon, manipulate the weapon, just playing around with it, or testing for "less lethal" areas to shoot someone other than center of mass.
• Given the Christmas morning bombing in Nashville which took out a major telecommunications hub, Greg Ellifritz's article on "Armed Citizen Response to the Terrorist Bomber" seems timely. Although he discusses bombs that might be left in packages, he is concerned that sooner or later we will suicide bombers strike at targets in the United States. Ellifritz writes:

    Sometimes you might be able to identify a suicide bomber before he detonates.  Here’s what to look for:

–          Clothing that is bulky or excessive for the weather (to hide the bomb)

–          Hands hidden (possibly holding the switch to detonate the bomb)

–          A strange chemical odor or excessive cologne to cover up that smell

–          The bomber focused, but unresponsive.  Suicide bombers often have the “1000 yard stare” and are usually  unresponsive to  questions or commands

–          Heavy luggage or backpacks that don’t fit the situation.  The average weight of a bomb used by a suicide bomber is around 20 lbs. The Madrid train bombers all had very heavy backpacks.  The Moscow bomber placed his bomb in a rolling suitcase.  Not all the bombers wear their bombs.

–          Nervousness, excessive sweating, or repeated mumbling of a prayer or mantra

–          Exposed wires anywhere on a person’s body

–          Repeated attempts to avoid security checkpoints and/or police officers

He also gives advice concerning typical lethal and wounding zones so you know how far to get away, and some advice should you decide to engage the bomber with a firearm, so be sure to read the whole thing.

    If you don't have time to get away, try and get behind some cover, lie down with your feet toward the explosion and your head away from the explosion; cover your head as best as you can paying special attention to protect your eyes and ears, and keep your mouth open (yelling is a good idea) to reduce the pressure difference as the shock wave passes over you and, hopefully, not get your eardrums blown out by the blast. Although it will be hard, try to be alert as you exit the area after the explosion as terrorists will sometimes plant additional explosive devices to explode where survivors and/or first responders will congregate. 

• "Seven tactics for planning next year’s garden" by Kristina Seleshanko, Backwoods Home Magazine. She recommends that you (i) assess how your garden produced last year (what worked, what didn't), (ii) select seeds for what you want to grow this coming year, (iii) consider your garden plot (sunlight, drainage, etc.) and corrections or changes, (iv) amend (i.e., test your garden soil and add compost or other nutrients now), (v) map out your garden, (vi) prepare for planting by buying supplies sooner rather than later, and (vii) make an action list of what and when you have to accomplish certain tasks.
• The Beans, Bullets, Bandages & You blog has been publishing a series of articles dealing with health issues and prepping:
• "The Prepper’s Eye".
• "The Prepper’s Skin".
• "A Prepper’s Blood Vessels".
• "The Prepper’s Gut".
• "Non-Prescription Drugs & Interactions".
• "How to Purify Water Using the Sun and a Water Bottle"--Apartment Prepper. We all know that ultraviolet light can be used to kill microorganisms. So leaving water in a PET plastic (not glass) container in the direct sunlight is one way to kill the microorganisms in the water (you will still need to filter out particulate matter, and it won't do anything to remove chemicals in the water). The method described by the author is: (i) Fill the bottle with clear water; (ii) shake the bottle well; and (iii) set the filled bottle out in the sun (6 hours on a sunny day and two days if cloudy). Cody Lundin recommends using sealed bags (e.g., gallon Ziplock bags) and laying the flat as the thinner layer of water will more quickly be purified.
• "Understanding Radioactive Fallout Resulting From Nuclear Detonation"--Nikealaska.org. The article briefly discusses the primary effects of a nuclear explosion--heat (thermal radiation), EMP (Electro-Magnetic-Pulse), initial nuclear radiation (e.g., gamma rays), blast, and radioactive fallout--before focusing on the latter topic. The author explains:

    In a nuclear detonation dirt and shattered debris are sucked up into the radioactive cloud where they are melted and infused with radioactive elements and on which radioactive elements condense. The majority of these particles take the form of gritty sand or dust. The larger particles fall to the ground fastest and emit radiation the longest. The smaller particles stay suspended in the air longer and therefore disperse over a much wider area - as much as hundreds of miles - but lose much of their radiation before they have a chance to fall to the ground. A high altitude detonation results in mostly smaller particles, but fallout will be present in any event.

    Smaller particles lose most of their radiation in 24 hours or so. Larger particles (sand-sized) may take 3 or 4 days or more for their radiation output to fall to safer levels. Bigger debris which falls closer to the blast area and in greater amounts may take much more time. Generally speaking, the first 24 hours after fallout begins to settle will be the most dangerous time for an area near or downwind from a detonation site.

Alpha and Beta radiation from radioactive fallout is easily blocked--Alpha radiation won't penetrate your skin and Beta can be blocked with heavy clothing--so the primary concern with that radiation is breathing in or ingesting particulate matter (e.g., dust or ash) that is emitting this type of radiation. Thus, you want to make sure that if you are outside, you have a mask or other way to filter the air you breath, and you want to wash off (decontaminate) clothing and yourself to avoid tracking contaminated matter back into your shelter or home. Gamma radiation will penetrate quite thick and dense material, and is the bigger risk. Remember the square of the distance rule applies to radiation exposure, so a child is going to suffer a greater radiation exposure than an adult when standing or walking through an area contaminated with radiation. The typical advice is that most of the radiation should be gone within 2 weeks following a nuclear detonation.

• "How to Dress for Cold Winter Weather, According to a Fairbanks Outdoorsman"--Tyler Freel, Outdoor Life. An excellent article about dressing for cold weather--not just the basics of dressing in layers, but also going into recommendations for specific brands and fabrics/fills. An excerpt:

Layering your clothing is a cornerstone of staying comfortable in cold weather. You can’t depend on battery-heated socks or shake-up hand warmers. Your clothing needs to be insulated enough to use the heat your body produces to keep you warm. The colder the temperatures, and the less strenuous the activity, the heavier your clothing will need to be. To stay warm, you must regulate your body temperature by the layers you wear according to activity. If you’re going on a day-long snowshoe outing, you’re going to want to be dressed in minimal layers so you don’t overheat, but you need to bring additional layers to put on when you stop, otherwise you’ll freeze quickly.

• "The Fine Art of Bribery"--Organic Prepper. While based on experience with travelling outside the United States (and most likely to be a skill needed in the second and third world countries), the author notes that it could be handy after a SHTF event even in the First World. One thing I would add is that in many cases, you are not bribing an official to break the law, but to simply do his or her job properly and expeditiously--what is more correctly termed a "grease payment". You should read the whole article, but I will quote the author's advice as to how to offer a "bribe" while still maintaining plausible deniability:

    When offering a bribe, the wording you use is extremely important. Suppose you’ve found that one honest guy in a corrupt group, you want to be able to brush aside your offer as definitely-not-a-bribe-of-course. If you’re not having this conversation in your first language, you will want to be even more careful lest you insult someone’s mother instead of offering them money.

    When offering a bribe, you want to be very careful to do it outside of the earshot of others. Figure out who is involved in the situation and has the power to make it go your way, and then try to get him aside so you can find your moment.

    You don’t want to say, “What will it cost to make this all go away? Subtlety is of crucial importance. All of the suggestions that follow have some plausible deniability built into them. Here are a few ways to offer a bribe that doesn’t really sound like a bribe, but the person you’re bribing will know it’s a bribe.

• “Can I pay the fine to you now? I’m afraid I only have cash.”
• “You’ve come all this way for no reason. Thank you for being so considerate. The least I can do is offer you some gas money.” (I said this to the guy that was about to cut off my water because I hadn’t received the bill. Thus, I hadn’t paid the bill.)
• “Is there a possibility I can take care of this ticket right now? I’m from out of town and don’t want to have to come back and pay it.”
• “Could I pay you to watch my car if I park it here?” I’ve done this when seeking parking in a busy town in Mexico in a parking lot for patrons only.
• “Do you ever do any kind of consulting work to help people get their paperwork through a little bit faster?” A friend of mine paid a city inspector as a “consultant” to push through some paperwork on a building permit.
• “I heard there was a fee I could pay to make X happen.”
• “I’m in business too. I’d much rather settle this problem now than later when it will cost me more money. Is there anything we can do right now to fix this?”

    I prefer it when they tell me the amount they want so I can counter it if necessary or “gratefully” pay it if the price is reasonable. “How much is the fine?” “What is your rate for this type of consultation?” These are both good ways to get an idea of the amount they want. Some will shoot for the moon, and you’ll need to counter it. Others will shock you by how little they ask.

    Treat it like a private, quiet, and respectful business transaction because, in many places, that’s precisely what it is. Bribery is a way of life.

• Related: "Dark Arts For The Good Guy Series: Bribery" (Part 1) (Part 2)--Straight Forward In A Crooked World.
• "Transportation in Get Home Situations" by Jeanie Beales, The Survivalist Blog. Some advice on putting together a "get home" plan, including discussions of different types of transportation, alternate routes or meeting up places, and other challenges that you might face. In most cases, it is being aware of choke points and alternate routes home. I suspect that for most commuters, if you can't use your private vehicle to get home, you probably are going to have to walk or just stay where you are.
• "How To Train A National Hostage Rescue Team" by Marcus Wynne. An excerpt:

Among those officers [in the South African Police Service] is the Special Task Force, the national level tactical unit tasked with duties similar to our FBI Hostage Rescue Team: hostage rescue, extreme high risk arrests, counter-terror and other special operations. The Task Force or “Takkies” do a full time month of CQB training during their squadron training rotation. CQB training encompasses empty hand striking, striking in conjunction with a live operating weapon, strikiing in the event of a malfunctioning weapon, weapons manipulation in the middle of a fight including clearing malfunctions, secondary transitions, knife transitions and empty hand techniques, handling prisoners, and going hands-on with non-comnpliant subjects.

Read the whole thing. 

VIDEO: "Wars of the 2020s and 30s"--Whatifalthist (26 min.)

A major source of conflict will likely be water. Another factor raised in this video, and one discussed in depth by David Goldman in his book How Civilizations Die, is that a lot of major powers are getting old before they get rich; and the number of old to young is so lop-sided that these countries face the prospects of rapidly declining populations of military age men. This means that if these countries are going to take military action, they have a limited window in which to do so. China and Iran are two countries that fall into this category. 

Miscellany:

• The forever lockdowns: "Dr. Fauci now claims it will take up to 90% immunity across the US to end pandemic and has been 'moving the goal posts' as COVID becomes 'more transmissible' - while THREE super-strains are discovered overseas and CDC predicts up to 420K deaths by mid-January"--Daily Mail. That means that 297 million Americans will have to be vaccinated or be infected. 
• "Anthony Quinn Warner Named as Nashville Bombing Person of Interest"--The Heavy. A good rundown of what we currently have been told about the Nashville Bombing on Christmas. The article begins:

    Anthony Quinn Warner is a 63-year-old Tennessee man who is a person of interest in the explosion of a parked RV in downtown Nashville, Tennessee, on Christmas morning, according to Nashville’s police chief. An RV similar to the one used in the Nashville bombing was parked at Warner’s home address in images available on Google Maps and Google Earth, Heavy discovered.

    There was a first clue pointing toward a motive; WSMV-TV’s Jeremy Finley is reporting that “FBI agents spent the days at another location today besides searching the home of Anthony Warner, pursuing tips that he was paranoid about 5g spying on Americans.” Since the pandemic hit, conspiracy theories have raged that 5G cell phone towers spread COVID-19; scientists have found the claims baseless, according to BBC. In May, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security warned of the potential for attacks by 5G conspiracy theorists against cell towers and wireless providers.

    The song “Downtown” by Petula Clark was playing from the RV right before the blast, authorities said. That song’s lyrics start, “When you’re alone and life is making you lonely, you can always go downtown…”

    Authorities told CNN the explosion was likely a suicide bombing.

    Warner, who is unmarried and childless, is self-employed in the IT area, a neighbor said; state records show he once was licensed as an alarm contractor, with a specialty in burglar alarm installation. In recent years, he lost a father and brother, leaving him with few living family members. On Saturday, a Newsweek editor said DNA swabs were being collected from Warner’s mother, “possibly to help identify human remains.” Heavy reached a neighbor of Warner’s who confirmed that the FBI and ATF were at Warner’s longtime house along Bakertown Road in Antioch, Tennessee, which is a Nashville neighborhood. Documents show Warner transferred the home to a Los Angeles woman a month before the blast, however.

• More: "Mother, 29, given TWO free homes worth $409K by 'Nashville bomber', 63, says she had no idea he signed property over to her a month ago - as feds probe if he blew himself up at AT&T building because he feared 5G is spying on Americans"--Daily Mail. Reminds me of the Stephen King story Road Work.
• More: "Some Interesting Questions Raised About the Viral Video of the Nashville Bombing"--Red State. A video that was uploaded of the pre- and post-explosion event was posted from recent accounts.
• More: "Mysterious Viral Video of Nashville Bombing Surfaces as Police Investigate 'Person of Interest'"--PJ Media. Also notes that witnesses had reported gunfire hours before the explosion.
• More: "NASHVILLE MAYOR MAKES AWKWARD JOKE ABOUT EXPLOSION"--OutKick. Nashville Mayor John Cooper (Dem.) seemed oddly tickled by the whole event.
• More: "Bracken On Nashville"--Western Rifle Shooters Association. Theorizes that the explosion was nothing more than the RV being filled with propane gas before being detonated.
• More: "Customers angry, AT&T stresses patience with outage following downtown Nashville explosion"--WKRN. From the article:

    The service outage has affected 911 emergency systems, hospital systems, and has reportedly caused issues with other systems such as ATMs and card readers.

    The issues are affecting a broad spectrum of not just AT&T services but also T-Mobile services in several southeast and Midsouth metropolitan areas including telephone, internet, and television service.

• "Video Taken By Pilots Of What Could Be The Elusive Los Angeles Jet Pack Guy Emerges"--The Drive. As the author notes:

A guy flying out over the ocean in a jet pack at around 3,000 feet, especially one without any lifting surfaces, is a puzzling proposition, to say the least. Jet packs that do exist have very short ranges and are not equipped to be flying in dense airspace, especially thousands of feet in the air. 

There is some speculation that it might be a drone disguised or mocked up to look like a man, but that engenders its own questions and technical challenges. 

• "Attorney Sidney Powell Releases 270 Page Document on Massive 2020 Election Fraud Involving Foreign Interference"--Gateway Pundit. You can download a copy of the binder contents here.
• As a great actor once said, "Never go full retard." The reporter here went full retard. "Arkansas far-left journalist among 4 charged in BLM firebombings of police vehicles: report"--Fox News.
• Remember that these are the people that couldn't win a two-decade war against goat herders in Afghanistan (by comparison, Alexander conquered it in only 2 years with far fewer troops in what was essentially peer-on-peer conditions): "Donald Trump's Martial-Law Talk Has Military on Red Alert"--Newsweek. From the lede:

Pentagon and Washington-area military leaders are on red alert, wary of what President Donald Trump might do in his remaining days in office. Though far-fetched, ranking officers have discussed what they would do if the president declared martial law. And military commands responsible for Washington DC are engaged in secret contingency planning in case the armed forces are called upon to maintain or restore civil order during the inauguration and transition period. According to one officer who spoke to Newsweek on condition of anonymity, the planning is being kept out of sight of the White House and Trump loyalists in the Pentagon for fear that it would be shut down.

• "The Second American Civil War: 'War it will still be'"--Bayou Renaissance Man. He cites from an article at The Federalist:

    What’s triggering the second American civil war?  Trump’s unexpected election in 2016, and his four highly successful years -- despite implacable opposition and attempted subversion by the Democrat-led axis -- and the prospect of a final Trump term, when the president would not only consolidate his achievements, but push new initiatives to break the corruption and imperiousness that infects the nation’s “elite”… these were the Rubicon.  Anti-liberty forces have long been marching through the nation’s institutions.  But this became a double-time as they grasped Trump’s primal threat to their fortunes, present and future. 

    Liberty’s enemies have opted for brinkmanship to settle matters, once and for all.  They haven’t mustered armies to seize Washington, D.C. (would they have to anyway?) and occupy red states.  Give them credit.  They aim to achieve their coup without firing a shot.  Call it a velvet-gloved coup d’état.  Some are terming it a “Color Revolution.”  The war they’re waging to seize power is conspiratorial, innovative, multidimensional.  It relies on subterfuge, misinformation, misdirection, audacity, and a gamble: that while millions of patriots may now squawk and shake their fists, they will go no further… that when Biden is installed as president, and the cabal he fronts holds the levers of power, resistance will be futile, anyway.  Anger will give way to sullen resignation. 

. . .

    Antiliberty forces -- Democrats, leftists, Big Tech barons, monied interests of all stripes, Deep State players, and other establishment elements (and lurking in Great Oz-like fashion, Xi Jinping) -- underestimate patriots.  They regard working- and middle-class Americans as inferiors -- rubes to be had.  Anti-liberty forces occupy many -- if not most -- of the power centers in the nation.  And, as stated, they’re pursuing a highly complex silent coup.  The war being waged is far too sophisticated and devious for patriots to ever figure out, much less counter effectively, they reason.                        

• "Netflix is at it again. It says a lot about us that we allow them to get away with it"--Bayou Renaissance Man. First it was the Cuties movie, and now "Netflix’s 'Tiny Pretty Things' viewers have branded its explicit sex scenes 'soft porn.'"
• Hungary fights back: "Hungary amends constitution to redefine family, effectively banning gay adoption"--NBC News.
• Evolution in action: "No Families, No Children, No Future" by Rod Dreher, American Conservative. Dreher points out the following from a David Shore article in New York Magazine on the gender gap between Biden and Trump supporters (underline added):

Neither the societal shift away from traditional gender roles nor the downstream cultural consequences of that shift are anywhere near complete. As Rebecca Traister has incisively argued, the growing prevalence of singledom among America’s rising generation of women is one of the most potent forces in contemporary politics. In 2009, for the first time in history, there were more unmarried women in the United States than married ones. And today, young women in the U.S. aren’t just unprecedentedly single; they also appear to be unprecedentedly uninterested in heterosexuality: According to private polling shared with Intelligencer by Democratic data scientist David Shor, roughly 30 percent of American women under 25 identify as LGBT; for women over 60, that figure is less than 5 percent.

Dreher then writes:

    What’s behind this is primarily cultural. We have become an anti-natalist society. And further, we have become a society that no longer values the natural family. We see everywhere disintegration. Yesterday, on the Al Mohler podcast, I talked about going to a conservative Evangelical college a few years back, and hearing from professors there that they feared most of their students would never be able to form stable families, because so many of them had never seen what that’s like.

    And now we have 30 percent of Gen Z women claiming to be sexually uninterested in men. There is nothing remotely normal about that number. It is a sign of a deeply decadent culture — that is, a culture that lacks the wherewithal to survive. The most important thing that a generation can do is produce the next generation. No families, no children, no future.

    In 1947, Carle C. Zimmerman, then the head of Harvard’s sociology department, wrote a book called Family And Civilization. He was not a religious man; he was only interested in the cultural values that allowed civilizations to thrive, and those that caused civilizations to collapse. His general thesis is that family systems determine the strength and resilience of a civilization. Zimmerman wrote:

There is little left now within the family or the moral code to hold this family together. Mankind has consumed not only the crop, but the seed for the next planting as well. Whatever may be our Pollyanna inclination, this fact cannot be avoided. Under any assumptions, the implications will be far reaching for the future not only of the family but of our civilization as well. The question is no longer a moral one; it is social. It is no longer familistic; it is cultural. The very continuation of our culture seems to be inextricably associated with this nihilism in family behavior.

And:

The only thing that seems certain is that we are again in one of those periods of family decay in which civilization is suffering internally from the lack of a basic belief in the forces which make it work. The problem has existed before. The basic nature of this illness has been diagnosed before. After some centuries, the necessary remedy has been applied. What will be done now is a matter of conjecture. We may do a better job than was done before; we may do a worse one.

He wrote this in 1947. Zimmerman missed the Baby Boom coming, but otherwise, he was right on target.

Note that it isn't necessarily that women are completely writing off men, but instead is reflected in the rise of bisexuality. The two videos below discuss this trend of increased sexuality among women and where it is taking society:

"You Won’t Believe What These Graphs Reveal About Women!"--Alexander Grace (11 min.)

This video discusses the results from a Finnish study on women's sexuality. Although it is from Finland, the results--at least as to the number of bisexual or lesbian women--seem to track what was found in the United States per the article cited above. What the study showed is that although men's sexuality and attitudes toward sex have remained fairly steady over the past 50 years, women have become more sexually active than men by most measures.

"The Future Is Polygamous (The New Feminism)"--Alexander Grace (20 min.)

This is a follow up to the earlier video. The author argues that due to hypergamy--women's desire to mate or marry someone of higher status (and why women complain that there are no longer good men to marry)--combined with feminist empowerment will eventually cause feminists to demand the right to marry men who already have a wife. We don't actually have to guess about this because, no matter how polygamy started among Mormons, at the end of that period it was women who fought the hardest to keep polygamy in place.