There Is A Third Option

Liberals are always generous ... with other people's money. Toronto Mayor Oliva Chow has warned that the city may need to raise property taxes paid by residents to cover a $107 million ($78M USD) budget shortfall caused by the city picking up the tab for sheltering migrants after the Canadian government stopped providing funds. Chow indicated that the only two options available to the city were to (i) stop sheltering the migrants (which would aggravate the homeless problem) or (ii) raise taxes.  

VIDEO: True Crimes Using Sword Canes

This is from a series of videos by the author of the book "Committed with the Uncommon: Tales of True Crimes and Strange Weapons" where he highlights a certain weapon and describes a couple, few criminal cases involving that type of weapon. In this case, the weapon is the sword cane. (BTW, this guy has a couple other books he has written on weapons including "Saps, Blackjacks and Slungshots: A History of Forgotten Weapons").  

 VIDEO: "Tales of True Crime and Strange Weapons, Vol VIII"
Object History (12 min.)

VIDEO: Introduction to Target Focused Shooting

 A method for faster shots on target at distances under 20 yards applying the same target focused approach used for handguns mounting a red dot. Here is an article from Shooting Illustrated that also explains the technique: "Front Sight vs Target Focus." And, if you have a pistol with an optic mounted on it, the following article discusses how to use that optic to teach yourself target focused shooting: "Target-Focused Shooting: The Power of Occluded Optics in Training." And "The Non-Technical Sight Picture: Hard Target Focus" from Tactical Hyve.  

 VIDEO: "Introduction to Target Focused Shooting"
Jay Kelley (8 min.)

This Is One Way To Solve The Housing Crises

I've argued for a long time that mass immigration, including illegal aliens, has been a major factor in driving up the price of housing. This article from the Daily Mail seems to support my argument: "Picturesque suburb home to Trump golf resort sees housing market crash as unintended consequence of mass deportations." From the article:

    Doral, a city of 80,000 residents about 25 miles northwest of Miami, has been experiencing an exodus of its Venezuelan immigrants which make up around 40 percent of its population. 

    Venezuelans are abandoning Doral so quickly that locals say they are leaving behind furniture and skipping out on rent, with some said to be driving out at night to avoid encounters with federal agents. 

* * *

    Vacancy rates for Doral apartments have risen significantly as Trump's immigration crackdown has intensified, up from 5.6 percent late last year to 6.5 percent. 

    That's about 50 percent higher than the city's surrounding municipalities, which sit at 4.3 percent. Some buildings in the city are even seeing vacanies above 10 percent. 

    Leasing agents have pointed the finger at the fleeing Venezuelan population. 

    'They’re all telling me, "No, I can’t stay, my [temporary status] is expiring,"' Maria Eugenia Nucete, a Venezuelan-American real-estate agent who has worked in Doral for decades, told the Wall Street Journal. 

The Great Replacement: Colleges Still Giving Preferences To Illegals

From the New York Post: "Top colleges give illegal-immigrant kids a boost — and put Americans second." An excerpt:

    In recent years, the dramatic increase in international students has effectively eroded the core and character of our greatest educational institutions.

    The international student population has ballooned such that one out of every three students attending our universities today is a first- or second-generation immigrant, or an international student.

    Over 19 million such students are now attending our universities, with more than half a million of them undocumented.

    Our research at the Legal Insurrection Foundation’s Criticalrace.org revealed that international graduate students at our major universities have outpaced Americans — in many cases, to the detriment of American-born minorities.

    So we decided to dig deeper.

    We found that every one of America’s 10 highest-ranked universities offer support programs designed to provide extensive financial assistance and legal help to undocumented students.

    These are not small or insignificant institutions: Princeton, MIT, Harvard, Stanford, Yale, the California Institute of Technology, Duke, Johns Hopkins, Northwestern and the University of Pennsylvania all provide avenues by which undocumented immigrants can receive financial assistance. 

Review of a Couple of Small Radios For Preppers

 The first video reviews a sub-$100 radio that might be useful for a prepper: the Radtel RT-950. One of the more interesting features is that the radio can as act a cross-band repeater. The second video discusses the difference between the basic RT-950 reviewed in the first video against a slightly more expense "Pro" model. The only real differences between the two is that the "Pro" version can transmit on the CB bands while the basic version can only receive CB frequencies; and the "Pro" can also receive upper and lower side bands. But for a $12 difference, it is probably worth getting the "Pro" version. 

 VIDEO: "I Review The Radtel RT-950 Ham Radio for SHTF & Emergency Comms"
NotaRubicon Productions (16 min.)

 

 VIDEO: "Radtel RT-950 PRO vs RT-950 Unlocked Ham Radios For SHTF"
NotaRubicon Productions (8 min.)

Update On Michigan Church Shooting

    Law enforcement has now stated that all people at the church building at the time of the shooting and fire have been accounted for, reports the Detroit Free Press. There are 5 dead (including the gunman) and 8 injured. Thus, per ABC News, although authorities are still searching the building, they do not expect to find any more bodies. The article continues: "One victim died at the scene, another later died at the hospital and two more individuals were found dead at the scene due to the fire, officials said. Eight others remain hospitalized, including seven in stable condition and one in critical condition."

    The attention has turned to the shooter's motive. The foregoing Free Press article relates in this regard:

    Burton City Council candidate Kris Johns said he spoke to Sanford about a week ago.

    According to Johns, Sanford was at home and went on a tirade against the church and described Mormons — an informal name for members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints — as "the antichrist."

* * *

    Johns said Sanford spoke quickly as he shared about his time in Iraq and his struggles with drug addiction when he returned home. Sanford moved to Utah at one point to plow snow and had a relationship with a woman there whose family was Mormon.

    Johns said Sanford asked him if he believed in God. He responded, "yes." Johns said he's Christian and a member of Solid Rock Community Church in Burton. And the, from there, Johns said, the conversation took a "a very sharp turn."

The Metatron YouTube channel delves more into Sanford's antipathy toward Mormons.  

    If there is one thing that I hope comes out of this incident, though, is that the LDS leaders revisit their ban on members (other than current law enforcement) from carrying concealed weapons at church. The fact that the church was a "gun free" zone didn't save anyone's life. 

Trying To Gin Up Support To Ban Your Father's Hunting Rifle

 NBC News laments: "Charlie Kirk assassin's alleged gun was powerful, vintage and hard to trace." The article notes that the rifle used by Kirk's killer "was a decades-old, German-made rifle built for use by the military in both World Wars, according to multiple law enforcement sources familiar with the investigation. So old that it may have been brought into the U.S. before laws were enacted in the 1960s requiring guns to be affixed with serial numbers or other marks to enable tracing." That apparently gives it some sort of super-power because: "'Short of the security afforded to the president, there’s no way to defend against the threat posed by this,' said Scott Sweetow, a retired official with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives." 

    While "they’re not designed to spray a large volume of bullets at once," the article helpfully explains, "they are, in some ways, ideally suited for use in sniper-style killings."

    ... Because they are so ubiquitous and beloved by hunters and recreational shooters, a person toting such a rifle in a place like Utah would not arouse any suspicion.

    And they are so well made that, with a decent scope, a person with basic firearm proficiency can strike a target from 150 to 200 yards away, roughly the distance of the shot fired by the Kirk assassin.

    “You do not have to have gone to sniper school or have been any type of champion marksmen,” said Brian Greco, a retired NYPD officer who served in the counterterrorism unit and a Marine Corps veteran. 

Believe me, someone openly hauling a scoped rifle through a college campus is going to arouse suspicion. In my area, they have even had lockdowns because of people being spotted on school grounds carrying folding shovels or umbrellas. 

    The article suggests it it is unlikely that the government will be seeking to ban hunting rifles (for now, it should have added) but the piece ends with another expert warning:

“A vintage firearm in grandpa’s old trunk is cool,” he added, “but it also unfortunately gives access to a firearm to someone who may otherwise have not had access or could have been denied access.” 

Ah yes. The liberal's greatest fear is that someone, somewhere, might be doing something without government permission. 

There, I Fixed The Headline

From the BBC, Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro distributes weapons to his militia, as fears grow of a U.S. intervention to stop Maduro's narco-terrorist empire. (The original headline reads: "The US navy killed 17 in deadly strikes. Now Venezuela is giving civilians guns"). Maduro has historically used his militias and related paramilitary groups to oppress his political opposition, including in the most recent national elections, including acts deemed to be crimes against humanity (see, e.g., here and here).  But Trump Derangement Syndrome is so strong at the BBC that they have cast a brutal dictator as some sort of hero simply because he opposes Trump. 

Post-Weekend Reading

 If you haven't done so already, be sure to check out Greg Ellifritz's Weekend Knowledge Dump from this past Friday which includes links to articles on: how active shooters tend to pick "gun free" zones to carry out their attacks; hostage escape tools and techniques; maintaining a S&W revolver; online subcultures (with the article noting that "the last four high profile school shooters were all connected to groyper and TCC online communities"; an article on how to remove cosmoline from surplus military rifles (using an SKS as an example); and a whole lot more.

    On the latter article, the best method--completely unmentioned in the article but noted in a couple of the comments--is to use boiling water to dissolve the cosmoline from the metal parts and then clean with oil and lube as you would normally do. Some people use boiling water on the wood stock and other wooden parts, but I hate the idea of unnecessarily exposing them to moisture, so I prefer to manually wipe off as much as possible with dry paper towels, followed by cleaning the stock with oiled rags (furniture oil works great). The oil dissolves the grease and leaves a nice finish on the wood. Even if you are uncomfortable with disassembling and pouring boiling water over the parts, I would recommend as least pouring boiling water down the barrels and through gas tubes because it will greatly speed up the whole de-greasing operation. 

A Different Light On The Shooting At Texas Baseball Tournament

 On Saturday I published a short post about a shooting at a baseball tournament in Texas, where the rifle fire came from three Muslims. The news reports at the time reported the shooters as being recreational shooters, giving the impression that the incident was an accident. But the Daily Wire, in its piece entitled "Middle Eastern Men Accused Of Shooting Baseball Coach During Prayer Were Let In To U.S. Under Biden" has updated this story and it now appears to have been a deliberate attack. From the article:

     Three men opened fire on the Ameripark youth baseball field in Katy, Texas, on Sunday from a nearby pasture, shooting the coach in the shoulder, according to the Waller County Sheriff’s office. The three suspects — Mahmood Abdelsalam Rababah, 23, Ahmad Mawed, 21, and Mustafa Mohammad Matalgah, 27 — have been charged with deadly conduct and are each being held on $100,000 bond.

     Mohammad Matalgah of Jordan was given American citizenship on Aug. 1, 2023, despite having prior arrests for drug possession, the Department of Homeland Security told The Daily Wire. Mawed, a Lebanese immigrant, entered the United States on an IR-2 visa — which is given to children of American citizens — on June 3, 2021, automatically granting him a green card.

    “This horrific act of terror firing on children praying before the start of a baseball game is pure evil,” Assistant Homeland Security Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said in a statement. “These individuals from high threat countries were let in by Biden. They clearly were not vetting the aliens they were letting legally enter our country and even become U.S. citizens.”

 We'll see if terrorism charges follow, but shooting at the kids and the coach while they prayed is definitely suggestive of this being an incident of Islamic terrorism. 

An Interesting Weekend

"May you live in interesting times" isn't actually a Chinese curse, but it should have been. The last couple days have been interesting:

• Nigel Max Edge (fka Sean DeBevoise) killed 3 and wounded 5 others at a restaurant in South Port, North Carolina,  He purportedly was a former Marine sniper who was shot while serving in Iraq in 2006. He appears to have been mentally disturbed according to this piece from the New York Post, which also adds: "Edge was armed with a short barrel AR rifle, equipped with a suppressor, a folding stock and scope during Saturday’s attack, court documents charge." No motive has been revealed.
• Also on Saturday, "Maniac outfitted with massive arsenal, including armor-piercing bullets, bashes border agent’s car in NYC." The article relates: "When they caught up with the motorist a few blocks away law enforcement allegedly found a scope, a handgun and extra ammo cartridges with the words “Level 3+” scrawled on it, which police believe means the ammo pierces body armor, according to the sources." The magazines shown in photographs appear to be for an AR, so perhaps he was using an AR pistol.
• And Sunday morning, as I was getting ready for church myself, the story of the shooting at an LDS church building in Grand Blanc, Michigan, was just beginning to pop up in the media. Reports are that Thomas Sanford, an Iraq veteran who served in the Marines, drove his truck into the wall of the church building just as Sunday services were starting. He then opened fire on the congregation members that came out to assist him, thinking that it was an automobile accident. I haven't found more detailed information on the type of weapon he used, but it has been described in the media as an "assault rifle". (See also here) At the time of this writing, he reportedly killed four and wounded 8 others. But after he crashed into the church, he also started a fire that eventually consumed the building. Authorities do not believe that everyone was able to evacuate the burning building, so authorities expect to find more victims. Sanford probably did not expect any resistance--LDS churches are "gun free" zones--and likely did not anticipate as quick a response from law enforcement as occurred, and he was quickly shot and killed by responding officers. In fact, the response was so quick that I have to wonder if the first two officers "responding" were actually members of the congregation. (Update: this article indicates that the first two officers arrived on the scene within 32 seconds of the receipt of a call concerning the shooting).  In any event, no motive or connection with the Church has been released. 

There is little information about the Manhattan incident and perhaps it is just part of the general opposition to the ICE roundups of illegal aliens. But it is notable that the two other incidents both involved Marines that had served in Iraq, were armed with "assault weapons" as the media likes to characterize them, and at first blush appear to be "patriots" (the attacker in Grand Blanc even had American flags flying from the pickup truck he used to ram into the church building). It could be a coincidence, but is interesting nevertheless.   

They’re Coming After Your Father's Hunting Rifle

Even as they pushed gun control for all sorts of other types of firearms, the Dems have always claimed they weren’t coming after your hunting rifle. Just weeks ago, after the Catholic school shooting in Minneapolis, the mayor pushed for stricter controls on "assault weapons" and "high capacity" magazines, but assured voters that "We're not talking about your father's hunting rifle here." 

    But like all other Dem promises, it comes with an expiration date. And we have reached it. Breitbart reports: “Stephen Colbert Pushes More Control on 'Long Guns' After Man Attacked Dallas ICE with 8mm Bolt Action.” After reminding his sycophants that he had long supported gun control:

Then Colbert went to gun control: “I mean, there really hasn’t been much movement to rein in the access to the long guns and many of the weapons used in these killings, but, I mean, hopefully, maybe there could be a political sea change in the United States.” 

This is an obvious reference to the weapons used to kill Charlie Kirk and in the attack on the ICE facility in Texas, both of which were Mauser bolt action rifles--exactly the type of rifles like your father or your grandfather's hunting rifle. 

VIDEO: Setting Up A Defensive Shotgun

 While you can press any firearm into service as a defensive weapon, the hunting or target shooting weapon will not be optimized for defense. The host of this video discusses optimizing a shotgun (specifically, the Mossberg 590) for the defensive role.  

VIDEO: "How to Properly Setup Your Defensive Shotgun | Mossberg 590"
The FieldCraft Survival Channel (15 min.)

Article: "How the German Peasants’ War Exposed 16th-Century Europe’s Fragile Foundations"

Peter Turchin has argued that civil wars and successful revolutions are conflicts between elites. Peasant rebellions are never successful because they are the one thing that will unite elites. So the article "How the German Peasants’ War Exposed 16th-Century Europe’s Fragile Foundations" from LitHub was interesting to me because it seemed to confirm this. Keep in mind that this rebellion arose because of and during the Reformation when German elites were split between Catholicism and emerging Protestantism. From the article (bold added):

    The German Peasants’ War was the greatest popular uprising in western Europe before the French Revolution. Like a vast contagion it spread from southwest Germany through Württemberg, Swabia, the Allgäu, Franconia, Thuringia, and Saxony to Alsace in what is now France, Austria, and Switzerland. Peasants massed in armed bands in one region, then another, and rebellion would break out even in areas far away. At its height it involved well over a hundred thousand people, perhaps many more, who joined with the rebels to bring about a new world of Christian brotherhood. And for several months, they won. Authority and rulership collapsed, and the familiar structures of the Holy Roman Empire were overturned, exposing the fragility of the existing social and religious hierarchies. People even began to dream of a new order.

    But this moment did not last. In spring 1525, the ‘Aufruhr,’ or ‘turbulence,’ as contemporaries called it, had reached its height, rolling all before it. By May the tide had turned. The forces of the lords put down the revolt by slaying somewhere between seventy thousand and a hundred thousand peasants. That summer of blood, maybe 1 per cent of the population of the area of the war was killed, an enormous loss of life in just over two months. 

While the peasants assumed that Luther would support them, they were wrong, "for this was the moment when Luther came out in support of the princes and against the ‘mad dogs’, the rebelling peasants."

From then on, the Reformation in Germany would be conservative. Mainstream reformers would go on to ally with rulers to advance the goals of the Reformation, and when the new church was set up after the war, it would have the backing of those in power. 

This is why the elites came down so hard in the J6 protestors: it was, in their eyes, a peasant's rebellion. 

Texas Baseball Tournament--Gunfire--Muslim Shooters--Hmm...

Earlier this week a baseball tournament in Texas was interrupted by gunfire and a hail of bullets striking in and around the sports complex where the tournament was taking place. Police initially said that the gunfire was from three people target shooting near the complex. The names of the three have finally been released: Mustafa Mohammad Matalgah, 27, Mahmood Abdelsalam Rababah, 23, and Ahmad Mawed, 21. 

Defending Government Buildings From Active Shooter Attacks

Earlier this week, in response to increased attacks on ICE, Greg Ellifritz posted an article on "Defending Police Departments and Government Buildings from Active Killer Attacks." He is, in particular, looking at someone shooting at the building from the outside. 

    You might not think that it applies to you, but how many of you might share an office building with a government agency or have business that takes you to government office buildings? And many of the points are applicable to any building that might come under attack from small arms fire.

    While Greg goes into each point in more detail, his major points are:

1.  Lock the doors.
2.  If the shooter is outside, do not evacuate.
3. Stay away from windows and any glass.
4. Get low.  
5. Turn out lights and close window blinds.
6. Consider moving furniture to in front of windows.
7. Consider moving to interior hallways or to higher floors.
8. Counter attack.

He also has tips for preparing for such attacks. Be sure to read the whole thing.

    While the last point--engaging in a counter attack--might seem counter-intuitive for civilians, I would note that civilians played an important role in suppressing and counter-attacking the shooter in the University of Texas Tower shooting (although that was in 1966 and we live in a different world where the police have very different attitudes toward civilians and firearms). And you also have to consider that where there is a shooting, you don't want to be the one holding a firearm when the police arrive.  

Idaho News: Oklo Breaks Ground For Nuclear Power Plant

 Fox Business reports that "Nuclear technology company Oklo Inc. broke ground on its Idaho National Laboratory (INL) for its first Aurora powerhouse, ushering in a new era of nuclear energy in the U.S." The Aurora is a small scale nuclear reactor that is anticipated to produce up to 75MWe of electrical power. An article from World Nuclear News further explains:

Oklo's Aurora powerhouse is a fast neutron reactor that uses heat pipes to transport heat from the reactor core to a supercritical carbon dioxide power conversion system to generate electricity. Building on the design and operating heritage of the Experimental Breeder Reactor II (EBR-II), which ran in Idaho from 1964 to 1994, it uses metallic fuel to produce electricity and usable heat, and can operate on fuel made from fresh HALEU or used nuclear fuel. 

Illegal Alien Truck Driver Cripples California Girl

 Breitbart reports: 

     A Biden-era illegal migrant from India was arrested after he smashed his 18-wheeler into a pileup and crippled a 5-year-old girl in California.

    “The California Highway Patrol (CHP) Traffic Crash Report states that [Partap] Singh drove at an unsafe speed and failed to stop for traffic and a construction zone. San Bernardino Sheriff’s Department arrived and took over the investigation. The case was referred to the district attorney’s office,” DHS explained.  

In other news, "H-1B Migrants Are Being Used to Fill DEI Jobs." The article relates:

United States Senator Eric Schmitt (R-MO) has revealed that a number of American companies are abusing the H-1B visa program to fill diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) jobs. The revelation is especially egregious as some progressive political figures have justified DEI programs and employment as a means to lift up so-called “marginalized” ethnic minority Americans.   

And yet blacks will still overwhelmingly vote for Democrats and their policies.  

A Solution To The Fermi Paradox?

From Space.com: "No near neighbors: Closest technologically advanced aliens may be 33,000 light-years from Earth." Basically the research on which the article reports indicates that the conditions that would give rise to biospheres stable and long lived enough to for intelligence to evolve are so rare that it is unlikely that any more than two intelligent, tool using species would exist in the galaxy at the same time. "Worlds without number have I created" says the Lord. I don't think He was talking only about uninhabitable hunks of rock or gas giants, so I'm a little doubtful that there are only one or two intelligent species at a time in each galaxy. 

India Wants To Expand Trade Talks To Include More H1B Visas

 Breitbart reports that "India Demands Migrant Visas for Job-Seekers in Trade Talks." Basically India wants the U.S. to ease access for Indians seeking to take jobs from Americans. 

    The reports suggested that India’s government wants to expand the one million-plus population of Indian graduates who are now in the white-collar jobs needed by Americans. Each year, at least 400,000 additional Indians arrive to work U.S. white-collar jobs legally or illegally, so pushing a huge number of American graduates into lower-tier jobs, such as coffee barista.

    But Indians may also want to send more low-wage workers into U.S. jobs via the H-2A, H-2B, B-1, and M-1 visas for trade school students. Many Indian migrants use B-1 tourist visas to work as illegal truckers and cargo handlers on U.S. freeways. 

The article goes on to note:

    “Any U.S. trade deal that links market access to more visas is a bad bargain for American workers,” said a September 24 note from U.S. Tech Workers.

    Many skilled U.S. graduates are unable to secure career-starting jobs amid the current Indian migration.

The article indicates that it is unlikely that the Administration will agree to special accommodations for Indian immigrants. Particularly, as Breitbart reports elsewhere, "[a] September poll of white-collar professionals shows that 56 percent of U.S. citizens say the huge H-1B visa-worker program is transferring their jobs and careers to white-collar migrants." 

• Related: RodeoProfessor on X: "My college students want seasonal work in ski resorts but all the resort labor is now imported on J-1. Old timers always talk about how much fun ski bum lifestyle was for them when they were kids, but it’s not open to American kids anymore." There are a lot of jobs that used to be entries to the work force for American teens that are no longer available or in short supply because of foreign workers taking those jobs. 

Mex. Cartel Killing Pregnant Women For Their Babies and Parts

From Breitbart: "Mexican Cartel Killed Pregnant Women to Harvest Babies and Organs for U.S. Buyers." The article relates:

    The information first came to light earlier this month when Mexican authorities, acting on U.S.-based intelligence, arrested Martha Alicia “La Diabla” Mendez Aguilar, the alleged ringleader of a baby trafficking organization in Ciudad Juarez that is reportedly connected to the Juarez Cartel and CJNG. Earlier this year, the U.S. government labelled CJNG and five other cartels in Mexico as foreign terrorist organizations and called for their eradication.

    According to information released this week by the U.S. Office of the Director of National Intelligence, La Diabla’s organization would lure pregnant women in Mexico to perform clandestine C-sections, murder them, harvest their organs, and sell their children to U.S. couples for up to 250,000 pesos ($14,500 USD).   

Keep in mind that these are the type of people the Democrats want to come to the United States. 

Former FBI Director Comey Indicted For False Statements and Obstruction

The National Review reports: "James Comey Indicted for Alleged Lying to Congress, Obstruction of Justice." Both are felony charges and relate to allegations that Comey lied to Congress when he "testified on September 30, 2020, before the Senate Judiciary Committee that he never authorized anyone at the FBI to leak information to the press related to the investigations of either possible collusion between Trump and Russia or Hillary Clinton’s use of an unauthorized email system." 

DOJ Is Preparing To Investigate Soros's Open Society Foundations

 From PJ Media, "New York Times Reports DOJ Is Investigating George Soros." The article states:

According to the Times report, its reporters had the chance to view a copy of the DOJ official’s memo detailing a list of charges that could be filed against Soros’s Open Society Foundations. These include racketeering, arson, wire fraud, and providing material support for terrorism.  

Another Method Of Discrete Carry For The Office

As I've noted many times before, there is a big difference between concealed carry when you can wear a jacket, a loose T-shirt, an untucked Hawaiian shirt, baggy trousers or shorts, etc., and having to wear business attire or a uniform with a tucked in shirt and slacks. That is why most ads and videos for a concealed carry holster or system use some guy (or gal) dressed in a loose, dark T-shirt not tucked into the waist band.

    But there are systems out there that will work for concealment even in the office environment. Some of the better solutions use a separate belt or support system that is worn beneath the clothes so there are no clips showing and the weapon is carried in such a way that it won't print.  The method demonstrated in this video is one such system. The author uses a Comfort Concealment Blackout Belt (MSRP $46) from Eclipse Holsters that that he fits underneath his clothes to which he attached his holster. His shirt, slacks, and regular belt then went on over all of this. The key advantage to this that I see is that you can use your standard belt holster--it just goes on the inside belt instead of the outside belt--but you could switch back to just using it on a regular belt if dressed more casually. The producer of this video used an AIWB holster but it apparently can be paired with a standard strong side IWB holster.  

    He also indicates that he has used this system with gym shorts, so it may be an option for the person wanting to carry while jogging or when going to the gym. In fact, the manufacturer's video on how to use the belt shows a man and woman using it with exercise clothing, and a couple of the other videos from the manufacturer indicate that it was intended to be used with exercise clothing for use in sports and exercise activities.  

    I've been using the SmartCarry holster with good success in the office environment, so I doubt that I will be trying this out. But this is another system that offers an alternative to the more expensive Enigma. 

 VIDEO: "How to Conceal a Gun No Matter What You're Wearing"
Modern Protector (6 min.)

Bombs & Bants #167

 Welcome back my friends to the show that never ends. Ladies and gentlemen, Bombs & Bants No. 167, where even if some of the jokes bomb, the banter is fun. 

VIDEO: "Bombs and Bants Episode 167" (58 min.) 

"Will no one rid me of this turbulent priest?"

The quote that is the title of this post is attributed to King Henry II of England just prior to the murder of Thomas Becket, the Archbishop of Canterbury, in 1170. The story goes that Henry uttered these words or something similar, but with no express order or request that his lackeys do anything about Becket; nevertheless, it prompted four knights to travel to Canterbury where they killed Becket. As Wikipedia notes:

The phrase is commonly used in modern-day contexts to express that a ruler's wish may be interpreted as a command by their subordinates. It is also commonly understood as shorthand for any rhetorical device allowing leaders to covertly order or exhort violence among their followers, while still being able to claim plausible deniability for political, legal, or other reasons.    

This, of course, is what prominent leftists do today when the label Trump as another "Hitler" or warn that conservatives are "Nazis" and a threat to "our democracy". The common refrain among leftists that "speech is violence" is another covert way to encourage using violence against their political opponents, for how else do you defend yourself against violence?

    And its not just leftist politicians and celebrities.  The Daily Signal notes in its article, "The Disturbing Ties Between the SPLC and Antifa," that the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) does the same thing. That article relates:

The organization that put Charlie Kirk’s organization on a “hate map” with chapters of the Ku Klux Klan ahead of his assassination last week also has a long history of carrying water for the violent Antifa movement that President Donald Trump has targeted for investigation. 

The author goes on to explain:

    The Southern Poverty Law Center, a public interest law firm that gained its reputation by suing Ku Klux Klan chapters into bankruptcy and presents itself as America’s premiere “hate” watchdog, has steadfastly refused to put any Antifa organization on its “hate map.” Meanwhile, the SPLC puts mainstream conservative and Christian groups on the map, calling them part of the “infrastructure upholding white supremacy.”

    A terrorist used the map to target the conservative Christian Family Research Council in 2012, and the man who opened fire at a Congressional Baseball Game practice in 2017 had “liked” the SPLC on Facebook. The SPLC condemned these attacks. 

    This summer, the SPLC added Kirk’s Turning Point USA to the “hate map.” It remains unclear whether this may have inspired Robinson, and the SPLC condemned the assassination, but it has not removed Turning Point from the map.

    The SPLC has refused to add Antifa, Black Lives Matter, or vandals targeting churches and pro-life pregnancy centers to the “hate map.” 

As an example, in May 2025, the SPLC published an article on Kirk and his organization entitled "Turning Point USA: A case study of the hard right in 2024," which accused "the political right"--including Kirk and Turning Point USA--of having "increasingly shifted toward an authoritarian, patriarchal Christian supremacy dedicated to eroding the value of inclusive democracy and public institutions." It then turns specifically on Kirk and Turning Point USA and accuses them of promoting "Christian nationalism," using the word "female" "as a means of reducing women to their reproductive abilities alone" (because, apparently, the leftist term "birthing person" is better), and concludes: "Turning Point USA’s effort to sow fear and division to enforce social hierarchies rooted in supremacism is emblematic of the hard right’s broader political project to destroy our foundational democratic principles and institutions." 

    But it won't just be prominent politicians and pundits that will be targeted by the left. Casey Chalk, writing at The Federalist, warns that Kirk was killed for holding views that are common among conservatives:

    The fact that Kirk’s actual political beliefs are (and have been) dominant on the right for decades should clarify how we interpret the left’s virulent vitriol for him. Large numbers of conservatives affirm traditional gender roles, oppose affirmative action, and say abortion should be illegal in all or most cases. For arguing such things, Kirk was widely hated and ultimately murdered. A surprising number of our fellow citizens not only didn’t mourn him but celebrated his death, as Peachy Keenan’s recent Federalist article terrifyingly highlighted.

    What does that say about how these people view their conservative fellow citizens? If your coworker, neighbor, or fellow parent on your kid’s sports team knew you held most of the same positions as Charlie Kirk, what would they think of you? What would they say about you, either to your face or behind your back? Would they call you a bigot, a white supremacist, a misogynist, a fascist? Would they think your continued existence is a threat to democracy?  

    And leftist groups are merely doubling down since Kirk's death. The Minnesota Star Tribune published an op-ed by Nekima Levy Armstrong, an activist in that area, entitled "The blunt truth about Charlie Kirk’s legacy," in which Armstrong wrote about Kirk:

    But to honor the truth, we cannot allow grief to blur memory into mythmaking. And right now, America is watching an aggressive effort to canonize Kirk — a man whose life’s work left scars on millions of people like me. To tell the truth about him is not to celebrate his death. It is to insist that facts matter more than falsehoods, even in mourning.

    Kirk built his career on attacking the dignity of others. He dismissed prominent Black women as affirmative-action “picks” who, in his words, “don’t have the brain processing power to be taken seriously,” despite never completing a college degree himself.

    He smeared George Floyd — whose murder sparked the largest racial justice protests in half a century — as a “scumbag,” pushing conspiracy theories about Floyd’s life rather than grappling with the reality of police violence. He called the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. “a bad man,” attempting to strip away the moral authority of one of America’s greatest leaders.

    He was openly hostile to empathy itself, saying he did not believe in it. That posture was not abstract — it became a license for cruelty, for mocking the marginalized, for celebrating inequality. His rhetoric toward LGBTQ communities was no less venomous. For young queer kids scrolling social media, the message was clear: You are not safe, not worthy, not human enough to be treated with compassion.

    These words were not harmless. They were a politics of dehumanization, amplified daily through platforms that rewarded outrage. They emboldened bullies, disinformed voters and undermined the fragile work of racial reconciliation in America. His legacy is not just of “provocative” speech but of real harm.

And the "speech is violence" mantra makes its appearance.  The World Socialist Web Site, in a piece from its editorial board entitled "Charlie Kirk: The Horst Wessel of the MAGA movement," begins:

    In the 36 hours following the assassination of Charlie Kirk—the fascist political operative whose activities were lavishly funded by billionaire oligarchs and for which he was paid millions of dollars—he has been posthumously elevated to the status of a national hero. Once again emulating the propaganda tactics of Hitler and Goebbels, the Trump administration is portraying Kirk as a political martyr, an American version of the German Nazi Horst Wessel. After the latter’s violent death in February 1930, the Nazis eulogized Wessel as an exemplar of Germany’s patriotic youth. A hymn to honor Wessel’s memory, the notorious “Horst Wessel Song,” became the anthem of the Nazi Party.

    In a similar process of political canonization, Charlie Kirk is being transformed into the Horst Wessel of the fascistic MAGA movement. 

They couldn't even go two sentences without comparing conservatives to Hitler and Nazis. Werner Lange writing at Common Dreams discusses "The Murder and Myth of Charlie Kirk," stating:

    For years, fascist forces in America have been loosely bifurcated along spiritual and secular lines, one turning a hijacked faith into a holy war against “godless Liberals” and the other using metastasized political power to cripple democracy, curtail free speech, and crush the “lunatic Left.” The murder of Charlie Kirk changed all that, and brought the two trajectories together, dramatically and dangerously.

    A broad united front for fascism now confronts us. To propel its potency, the real Charlie Kirk had to be replaced by a mythologized one, something masters of deceit promptly manufactured.

 He, too, goes on to compare Charlie Kirk to Horst Wessel, once again repeating the comparison of conservatives to Nazis. 

    I don't see Kirk's assassination being like that of Horst Wessel, but more like that of Emmett Till. Till's murder showed the public the ugly side to racism in Mississippi in the early 1950s; and Kirk's murder very publicly showed the ugly side of leftism and its violence. 

    In any event, leftist violence has been ratcheting up over the past several years. At this point, the political violence and terrorism that we saw in the 1960s and '70s may be a "best case" scenario.

Related:

• "Jasmine Crockett Rejects Violence Claims After Charlie Kirk Death"--Newsweek. Essentially it is Crockett claiming that her hateful speech comparing conservatives to Nazis is not a call for violence.
• "The Left Calls Kirk Memorial a ‘Festival of Hate,’ and Attendees ‘Fascists’"--Legal Insurrection. 
• "Bogus ADL Report Either Mislabels Leftist Violence As ‘Right-Wing’ Or Omits It Entirely" by John Lott at The Federalist.  
• "The Atlantic admits left-wing violence is on the rise"--The Post Millennial. 
•  "How College Courses Rationalize Political Violence"--The Daily Signal. 

Another Leftist Terrorist Attack: This Time On ICE Facility In Dallas

 News reports indicate that a still unidentified gunman "fired from a rooftop as agents led [detainees] into the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement office just before 7 a.m. local time — just a month after there was a bomb threat there, Homeland Security spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin told Fox News." At least four people were injured and two shot dead. Ironically, the two that were killed were detainees. The shooter also died from a self-inflicted wound. According to reports, "One of the unspent shell casings recovered at the scene was engraved with the phrase 'anti-ICE.'" And a PJ Media piece reports that "The FBI has found evidence indicating that the mass shooter on Wednesday at the Dallas Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) facility was deliberately targeting ICE amidst escalating leftist rhetoric against the agency." Interestingly, the recovered shells were in a stripper clip. Will this be another antique rifle that will not be able to be traced?

• Update: The gunman has been identified as Joshua Jahn, aged 29.  

Gun & Prepping News #48

 Just some gun and prepping related links that I thought interesting or useful:  

• "Top Selling Guns | August 2025"--Guns & Ammo.  Per the article, the Sig P365 and P320 take the top two spots, respectively, in the new semi-auto handgun category and, swapping places, are also the top two spots in the used semi-auto pistol market; the Colt Python is #1 in the new revolver category; the S&W Model 10 is #1 in used revolver category; the top spot in new and used semi-auto rifle categories both go to the Ruger 10/22; the Ruger American Rifle is the top selling new bolt-action rifle; the top used bolt-action is the Winchester Model 70; the top new lever action is the Marlin 1895 SBL while the Winchester 94 tops the used lever actions. I'll skip over the single-shot rifles and the different shotgun categories. 
• Far out of my price range, but it is good to see continued innovations in handguns: "The Quest For The Low Bore Axis: Rideout Arsenal Dragon from the USA"--The Firearm Blog. An excerpt:

With the idea that a pistol using a fixed barrel and a retardation system based on mechanical disadvantage was the best solution, Travis ditched the rather cumbersome rollers in favor of a lever delay. This is a mechanically simple design that requires careful optimization and manufacturing to function properly; therefore, it’s quite uncommon in modern, mass-produced pistols. We can recall the rather obscure Hogue Avenger pistol and the more famous FAMAS assault rifle as examples of this approach.

• "REACTION TIME. HOW LONG IS A SECOND?"--Survival Centric.  The author begins:

A second is a second, you might say. But, in the martial and sports worlds (and even the stock markets), they worry about split second response times to incoming attacks. Response-reaction-time is defined as the time between a stimulus and a response. Through the years instructors belittled your survival chances to respond to an attack by scaring people about response times. After all,  the ambush lives and breathes inside the failure to respond. In the opposite realm, many instructors have ignored the subject. In the 1990s and 2000s the martial arts, the self defense and combatives worlds were riddled with some depressing, confusing myths on the topic of reaction time and it was treated like an ogre, almost impossible to overcome. 

• "Moats’ Notes: “Back to the Future” - Learning to Run a Snub-Nosed Revolver"--The Tactical Wire. An excerpt:

Darryl presented a thought-provoking discussion on “thinking triggers” versus “shooting triggers.”  In competitive shooting, most of your thinking is accomplished prior to the action; you know in advance that you’re going to shoot.  In a defensive altercation whether you’re going to shoot depends on your last second assessment of the threat; the first shot is an irrevocable commitment.  The 12 lb., long stroke of the double action revolver’s trigger gives added time for thinking and assessing. It’s not as conducive to marksmanship as the 4 lb. short stroke of a single action.  A double action revolver is a “thinking trigger” for every shot, your “splits” may be greater but so is your ability to assess when and if to start shooting and when to stop shooting.   

This also applies to the DA/SA or DAO trigger on a semi-auto pistol. 

• "Shooting Strong with Changing Vision"--A Girl And A Gun. I've seen a lot of articles over the past several months that have addressed vision issues for pistol shooters whether it is astigmatism, failing eyesight, or other issues. This article addresses common vision issues--astigmatism, eye dominance issues, progressive or bifocal glasses, cataracts, and split vision after surgery--and offers solutions for both red dot and iron sights. One thing my father did after he switched to trifocal lenses was to place a piece of tape (he used electrical tape, if I remember correctly) on the lens for this dominant eye with small aperture hole in it so that he was only looking through the part of the lens that was the correct focus. There are companies that sell products that work similarly, such as the Merit Optical Attachment or the EyePal system. (Note: I haven't used these products, but came across them doing a Google search and only include them as a convenience for readers). Here is a thread that discusses some downside to the Merit device and discusses a solution similar to what my father did.
• While we are on the topic of shooting and vision: "Maximizing Visibility and Protection: A Guide to Shooting Glasses"--Eclipse Optics. Information on different types of shooting glasses, features you should look for, how to choose one that is right for you, and care and maintenance.
• "Holosun 507 Comp – Best First Pistol Red Dot Sight?"--Jerking The Trigger.  The large window, reticle options (including ring-dot combo) and low price impressed the author. 
• "Barrel Bedding for the Precision AR-15: A How To Guide"--The New Rifleman. A how-to on "precisely fit the barrel extension to the upper receiver, making them function as one solid unit."
• "32 Auto Extreme Deep Carry"--The Tactical Wire. A review of the KelTec P32 including accuracy testing. Conclusion:

    I doubt I’m a better shot now, but I’d have to say that 3-4” at fifteen yards with no pressure is pretty good from this small a gun – understanding that it’s meant for extreme deep concealment. It more than “beats nothing.” 

    The Federal HydraShok Deep is quite accurate – this is a sub-7-ounce pistol, with little to hang onto. The bullet is under the 71-grain standard weight for ball, but not by much and the speed is right up there, faster than the lighter Silvertip.

    As to carry ammo, any of the ball rounds would work. Winchester has the flat-point FMJ bullet and I like that feature. As to carrying ball ammo, it’s risky in most handgun calibers because more time and attention is given to premium defense ammo. In the 32, I’m not sure that’s quite the factor – but reliability is. The previous P32 was reliable with ball and some hollowpoints, but not all. 

    It’s a decision each user will have to make.

• "Midwest Industries Releases AK Multi Tool"--The Truth About Guns.  The article doesn't mention a price, but it is $85 dollars. But for that you get a tool that handles front sight elevation and windage adjustments, handguard lever tool, and detent tool for a muzzle device. And it looks to be fairly sturdy. 
• "9 OTC Items To Help Fight Radiation Poisoning"--Urban Survival Site. Fortunately, one of the items that is still available over the counter are Iodine Pills (Potassium Iodide / IOSAT) which the author notes are "one of the only FDA-approved treatments for radiation exposure." The other items are foods and supplements that can either help reduce absorption of radioactive isotopes or aid in flushing them from your body. 
• "Confessions Of A Desert Rat — Life In The Boonies On $30 A Week"--Self Reliance. The author explains that he lives in the high desert of the American Southwest. The article is a mix of anecdotes, tips, and insights from living frugally. But even though the author describes himself as a bit of a hermit, he emphasizes the importance of strong relationships with neighbors. 
• "Run Your Generator Several Times a Year – How Long – Tips"--Modern Survival Blog. The author notes:

Generator maintenance at a minimum, involves simply running your generator from time to time. Why?

•     To keep its internal parts lubricated with oil
•     Charge the battery (if it has a battery)
•     To be sure the carburetor isn’t gummed up
•     Put it under load to verify output
•     To make sure that the generator actually works (before you ever need it for an emergency)

• "Prepper's Pantry: One-Pot Meals"--Blue Collar Prepping. The author relates:

Many years ago, when I still went camping, the only cooking pot I brought along was a steel wok. In that I could make nearly anything over the campfire, from hamburgers to stew to biscuits, though generally not all at the same time. It was extremely versatile and allowed me to travel lighter while still eating well. On trail drives, the cast iron Dutch oven served (and still serves) a similar purpose, allowing simple and hearty meals to be made with little need to carry a variety of cookware in the limited space of a chuck wagon. With some thought and preparation, a frying pan or skillet can serve the same purpose in the prepper's kitchen.  

 

He also includes a couple recipes: one for a dish he calls "Bachelor Chicken" and the other for "Chicken With Onions". My wife works late and I generally also work well past 5 pm, so we don't have a lot of time to prepare meals, and I often fall back on my own versions of one-pot meals: typically some type of stir fry or a pot of chicken and vegetable curry.  (Although I guess they are technically not one-pot because I also use a rice cooker to prepare rice). 

VIDEO: More On North Sea Impact Crater

 OzGeology has a video that goes into more detail about the North Sea crater I posted about yesterday, including how it originally was thought to be a massive collapsed salt dome. OzGeology has other videos about impacts and resulting tsunamis, so if this stuff interests you, you should check out his channel.  

 VIDEO: "A New Asteroid Crater Was Just Discovered in Europe"
OzGeology (8 min.)

Leftists' Live In An Imaginary World

 The Daily Mail reports: "White midwife accused of colonialism and violence after trying to set up dice-playing group in her woke Brooklyn neighborhood." The woman was trying to be neighborly and invite people to participate in a group to play Bunco, which was originally a British game invented in the 19th Century. However, the crazies came out:

    Incensed locals accused Christy of 'playing gentrified cee lo' - referring to a dice game associated with historically black East Coast neighborhoods such as Bed Stuy, in Brooklyn. 

    The unexpected hatred prompted Christy to delete her post, but one local, Janessa Wilson, captured it in a screenshot. She re-shared it to the 'Bed-Stuy Brooklyn Community' page, prompting a fresh flood of outrage. 

    Wilson accused Chrissy of 'colonial violence' for deleting the original offending post. 

    'Deleting your post, and all of the labor that we did to educate, is colonial violence. so that tracks,' Wilson wrote. 'The colonizers be colonizing,' someone agreed in the comments section. 

Not only is Bunco not based on cee lo, but cee lo was a Chinese dice game, not one invented by blacks. But the craziness went further with one ignoramus posting: "'Don't bring your whiteness in the space. That's racist. The dice game is literally genocide.'" So, do you think this person really believes Bunco is literally genocide, or just angry at the idea of a white person existing? 

Playing The World's Smallest Violin

From the Daily Mail: "Jimmy Kimmel's big TV comeback strangled as SEVENTY ABC affiliates refuse to air tonight's show." Nexstar is joining Sinclair in not having its affiliate stations air Kimmel's programing. As the article points out:

    That means close to a third of ABC's 230 local-level stations will not run the network's flagship late-night show, which was pulled off air last Wednesday. 

    Kimmel's show will also be drained of vital advertiser cash that would have been spent had his show been screened on the affiliates as usual. 

Not good news for a show that was already struggling in its ratings. 

Scientists Confirm North Sea Impact 43 Million Years Ago

Phys.org reports that "Scientists find proof that an asteroid hit the North Sea more than 43 million years ago." Per the article, new evidence has confirmed that the Silverpit Crater in the southern North Sea was caused by a comet or asteroid impact 43 to 46 million years ago. "The Silverpit Crater sits 700 meters below the seabed in the North Sea, about 80 miles off the coast of Yorkshire," the article relates, and is 3 km wide and surrounded by a 20 km wide zone of circular faults.  I suspect that these large impacts have happened far more often than scientists suspect. 

When Can We Call It Civil War?

Check out this bit from a PJ Media article:

Without much warning, the Sinclair Broadcast Group halted plans to broadcast a tribute to Charlie Kirk in the same time slot as the suspended "Jimmy Kimmel Live!" show. According to reports, multiple local ABC affiliates received a number of credible threats to their people and facilities prior to Friday’s scheduled airing of the tribute. 

This is the left: using violence and threats of violence to shut down free speech and influence the political process. Right now, it may only be terrorism, but at what point is terrorism so wide spread that it should be classified as civil war? 

• More leftist terrorism: "Woman accused of arson at El Paso church before Charlie Kirk vigil"--El Paso Times.  Marynka Zarina Marquez has been arrested for the arson with the intent to damage a house of worship, that being an evangelical church the night before a Charlie Kirk vigil was scheduled to take place. 

A rainbow-colored paper plate allegedly left at the scene had been written in black marker, "C Kirk is in hell with nothing but (words blurred out)," reported Channel 7-KVIA, showing a photo of the plate shared by Beth El Bible Church's building manager. 

Federal Punch 9mm vs .380 Test

Tools & Targets puts two Federal Punch offerings up against each other in this new test: the .380 Punch ammo versus the 9 mm Punch ammo. The ammo he is using both feature nickel plated cases, but he notes that some are just plain brass jackets, the latter being all I've been finding in my neck of the woods. The test results are sort of what you would expect: excellent penetration and expansion from the 9 mm and adequate penetration and marginal expansion from the .380 (apparently a combination of the nose being plugged by the denim and the bullet turning sideways after hitting the gel). 

    The 9mm Federal Punch loads are intended for self-defense and not law enforcement, so they are not going to perform as well against hard barriers as loads specifically developed for law enforcement, which is fine for me. Particularly since a box of 20 of the 9mm Punch retails for around $17 in my area, versus $30 to $35 for most self-defense/law enforcement ammo. 

 VIDEO: "9MM VS .380!...Federal Punch Self-Defense AMMO Ballistic Gel Test!"
Tools&Targets (12 min.)

ICE Crackdown Hits Rich Americans The Hardest

In its article, "The Bougie Fallout of ICE’s Crackdown in DC," Politico admits that "the services benefiting the well-to-do are most impacted by DC’s ICE crackdown." From the lede:

    It’s a longstanding MAGA critique of mass immigration: the idea that the status quo amounts to a lifestyle subsidy for the class of Americans who frequent upscale eateries, get their kitchens renovated and hire nannies, landscapers or cleaning ladies.

    And, for better or worse, a month of unprecedented immigration enforcement in Washington seems to be bearing out that critique.

The author also acknowledges that Washington's well-to-do are not a sympathetic demographic:

... The sector of the Washington population that has spiffed up gentrified neighborhoods via fancy kitchen upgrades or dived into the capital’s booming multicultural restaurant scene may well represent the demographic most despised on the Trump-era right. 

US Birth Rates Suffer Further Declines

The New York post cites CDC data showing that birth rates in the U.S. continue to decline, now at less than 1.6 children per woman. 2.1 is considered replacement level--the level needed to keep the population stable. Researches peg the decline to rising housing prices: 

In the research paper titled “House Prices and Birth Rates: The Impact of the Real Estate Market on the Decision to Have a Baby,” authors Lisa Dettling and Melissa Schettini Kearney write that a 10% jump in home prices leads to a 1% drop in births among non-homeowners in an average metro.  

Part of the reason for high housing prices is the lack of entry level homes intended for the first time home buyer according to this article from Yahoo! Finance. The article explains that this is the result of a couple of factors: builders not constructing enough entry level homes to keep up with demand; and owners of such homes unable to afford to sell those homes and step up into larger homes. Costs of construction have gone up as well due to tariffs on Canadian lumber raising material costs and the crack down on illegal aliens increasing labor costs. On the subject of expensive housing, Peter Grant (author of the Bayou Renaissance Man blog) notes some research indicating that younger cohorts are opting to move out of larger cities to smaller cities and exurbs. While the research lists various reasons for this demographic shift, one of the reasons listed is affordability. 

    Of course, housing prices is only part of the picture. There is also this: "No wonder there is fear of a population crisis — young men and women are wildly out of sync on family values"--New York Post. Key point: "A new poll found that young men who voted for Donald Trump prioritize having children above all else — but being a parent is of so little importance to young women who voted for Kamala Harris, it charted second to last out of 13 options." Significantly, however, even for those young women that voted for Trump, having children was halfway down their list of priorities. 

Antifa Designated Domestic Terrorist Organization

Trump has signed an executive order designating Antifa as a domestic terrorist organization. Per the order:

“All relevant executive departments and agencies shall utilize all applicable authorities to investigate, disrupt, and dismantle any and all illegal operations – especially those involving terrorist actions — conducted by Antifa or any person claiming to act on behalf of Antifa, or for which Antifa or any person claiming to act on behalf of Antifa provided material support, including necessary investigatory and prosecutorial actions against those who fund such operations.” 

The key parts are the inclusion of anyone providing material support or funding its illegal operations. I'm not holding my breath though, since that would involve very important people that are, for all intents and purposes, above the law. We'll see most of the attention devoted to the "foot soldiers" on the ground.

Related: "Exclusive: Soros’ Open Society gave $80 million to pro-terror groups"--Capital Research Center. The lede:

Since 2016, George Soros’s Open Society Foundations (OSF), now run with his son Alexander, has poured over $80 million into groups tied to terrorism or extremist violence. The evidence is stark: Open Society has sent millions of dollars into U.S.-based organizations that engage in “direct actions” that the FBI defines as domestic terrorism. These groups include the Center for Third World Organizing and its militant partner Ruckus Society, which trained activists in property destruction and sabotage during the 2020 riots, and the Sunrise Movement, which endorsed the Antifa-linked Stop Cop City campaign, in which activists currently face over 40 domestic terrorism charges and 60 racketeering indictments. At the same time, Open Society awarded $18 million to the Movement for Black Lives, a group that co-authored a radical guide that glorifies Hamas’s October 7 massacre and instructs activists in the use of false IDs, blockades, and economic disruption. 

Disney/ABC Cave--Reinstating Kimmel

 From the New York Post: "Jimmy Kimmel set for return to ABC after backlash — but won’t apologize for Charlie Kirk comments: sources." Time to boycott Kimmel's advertisers. 

By Their Fruits Ye Shall Know Them

 And, in this case, perhaps some insight into who are their real masters. From Zero Hedge: "Adam Schiff, Tim Kaine Introduce Bill To Protect Caribbean Drug Traffickers From Trump Strikes." The bill would require Congressional approval before the president could use the military against non-state groups involved in drug trafficking. Thus, the bill goes beyond strikes on a few boats in the Caribbean, but would extend to all drug cartels. 

The Impact of H1B Visas

In "Recent College Grads Are Discovering That a STEM Degree Doesn't Guarantee a Stable Job," from Money Magazine, it reports that the unemployment rate for graduates with physics degrees is 7.8% and for computer engineering it was 7.5% compared with an average for all college graduates of 3.9%. The article also reports that "[s]eparate data from the National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE) suggests that it’s getting more difficult for computer- and physical-science majors to land jobs after graduation." And:

    In 2014, the first year NACE began tracking job outlooks by major, only 6.1% of computer engineering majors said they were still looking for full-time employment six months after graduation, while about 80% were already employed. Jump to 2023, the latest survey, and it’s a much different picture: 13.7% are looking for jobs, while only 64% are employed full time.

    Over that same period, all college graduates faced a drop in full-time employment with a higher share looking for work, but the change in employment prospects was particularly pronounced for certain STEM majors.

The article tries to blame the high unemployment rate in STEM majors as being a consequence of the adoption of AI. But in a market where Newsweek estimated earlier this year that 60% of all computer-related jobs are filled by H1-B visa holders, do you really think high unemployment among American STEM majors is an AI issue? That excuse is just gaslighting. 

    There is some push back, though. In his most recent post, "H-1Begone," John Wilder noted the push to charge H1B applicants a $100,000 fee which caused all sorts of outrage among Indians, include many threats against Americans that sound like those we see from hardcore ISIS members. Unfortunately, Wilder reports, the $100,000 fee has been walked back so that it will now only apply to new applicants and not to renewals. But Wilder also suggests that there is a growing dislike of Indians, noting that he has "seen several polls that indicate a strong preference to getting legal Indians out over deporting illegal aliens." He adds the following advice:

How you can help is by applying for H-1B jobs at JOBS.NOW.  It’s easy, and each job application, if unfairly dismissed, can set you up for a lawsuit against the company.  And, if they take the application and judge it meets the criteria, they can’t continue with the H-1B process and the foreigner will be sent home.  There are even people who will help you file the complaint if you’re unfairly ruled out.

Bump In The Night Sling

The producer of this video goes over what he did for a "bump in the night" kit, but using a sling instead of a belt. (For comparison, see my post on "The Bump In The Night Belt"). 

VIDEO: "TOTC Home Defense / Bump in the Night Kit"
Mike Tango Whiskey (17 min.)

Post Weekend Reading

If you haven't done so already, make sure to read the latest "Weekend Knowledge Dump" from Active Response Training. I first want to thank Greg Ellifritz for linking to my article on why it is recommended not to use your own handloads for self-defense, particularly how it might be used against you by a dishonest prosecutor. In that vein, Greg links to an article entitled "Beating the ‘Rambo’ Rap: How to Explain a Self-Defense Shooting in Court," which discusses how a prosecutor can and will attempt to portray you as a "Rambo" intent on violence by looking at things such as "tough guy" sayings on T-shirts, multiple firearms, carrying spare ammo/reloads, and so on. 

    Another article well worth your time is "Lessons from South Africa for Americans Preparing for South Africanization," with special relevance to anyone living in blue cities. The author begins by noting that firearms are simply tools and not a total home security solution. So the author looks at how whites in South Africa have responded to the constant, endemic crime and corruption: avoidance (i.e., moving away from high crime areas where possible but at least moving to a place with conservative law enforcement and prosecutors); hiring private security; fortified dwellings; and community mobilization (e.g., an active community watch). 

    There are lots of other good articles to which he links, but I would suggest you read at least the two foregoing articles.  

     Also be sure check out the latest Defensive Pistolcraft newsletter. One topic that Jon Low addresses is using shooting matches to help your self-defense skills. Jon writes:

    If you're shooting an IDPA match or a USPSA match in a tactically correct manner, you're going to come in dead last.  Well, you'll place in front of the DNF (did not fire) guys who failed to show up.  Because tactically correct is slow.  Because thinking takes time. 

      All the gamers are shooting much faster than they can think.  Because they have choreographed the stage and rehearsed the stage in their mind.  They have adjusted their magazines to run out of ammo when they want to, to allow them to do their mag changes between sets of targets, etc.  They are not making any decisions when they run the stage.  Hick's Law says that without decisions the automatic motor operations are going to go very fast.  

      Of course, you should have cleaned the stage.  No safety violations.  No muzzling of any no-shoot targets.  No crowding cover.  Etc.  

      Tactically correct means you are thinking your way through the stage, not racing through the stage.  

 Massad Ayoob has commented about the value of shooting under a time pressure to prepare for shooting under different types of pressure.

    Some other advice:

     At this past weekend's Bullets & Bibles, several of the instructors were teaching, "Support side thumb pointing forward."  In order to point one's support side thumb forward, one has to bend one's wrist.  I was repeatedly told that this was the "correct" way and that all of the top instructors teach this technique.  

     This is false.  This is why you must attend many different conferences / schools.  Diversity of opinion only becomes evident when you expose yourself to a diversity of instructors.  

     Tom Givens teaches thumbs up, not thumbs forward.  John Farnam teaches thumbs up, not thumbs forward.  The list is quite long, but you get the idea.  

     Why?  Because the straight wrist gives you a much stronger grip than a bent wrist.  And grip strength is essential for stability / accuracy.  A stronger grip makes it harder for the bad guy to take your pistol from you.  

     You don't believe me?  Go to your physical therapist and ask to use the grip strength gauge.  With a straight wrist, grip.  With a bent wrist (as used in a thumbs forward grip), grip.   

Lots more so be sure to check out the whole thing.   

Just Another Form Of Terrorism

"Horrific moment high school football player fractures rival's spine in senseless attack"--Daily Mail. The accompanying video makes clear that it was deliberate and unprovoked. The attacker is black; the victim is white. 

And Yet More Leftist Violence As Shooter Shouting "Free Palistine" Attacks Wedding.

From the Daily Mail: "'Free Palestine' gunman kills one and injures multiple during wedding reception." The killer has since been identified as Hunter Nadeau and the victim as Robert Steven DeCesare. "Law enforcement said there were no known links between both men," reports the latter article. The shooting was in Nashua, New Hampshire; the shooter is from New Mexico. 

More Leftist Political Violence

 From the Daily Mail: "ABC TV station struck by gunfire days after broadcaster pulled Jimmy Kimmel from the air."

Antifa's Plans on Splitting the Right

 Andy Ngo notes that Antifa "are stunned by the unity of outrage on the right after the assassination of Charlie Kirk last week." He goes on to discuss an after-action report produced by the Antifa cell in Corvallis, Ore. "In their own words," he relates, "they admit fearing the loss of their long-standing ability to mark conservatives for death without much resistance."  Ngo also writes of their plans to counter the political ascendance of MAGA, writing:

To counter a cultural shift away from their dehumanization tactics — now deeply mainstreamed on the left — Antifa recommend dividing the right against itself. Specifically, they point to Israel as the wedge issue, noting waning support for the war and growing criticism of Benjamin Netanyahu among prominent conservative figures and popular conspiracy theorists. 

We Can Reclassify The Attempted Assassination of Justice Kavanaugh As Trans Violence

 From the Daily Mail: "Man accused of trying to assassinate Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh now identifies as transgender woman."

Anti-Immigration Protests in the Netherlands

Tired of the elites trying to destroy the Dutch people.

Related: "The woke use Muslim rapists to destroy Christian Europe, says top Cardinal"--The Conservative Woman. This article only has a small bit from the Cardinal's interview. You can find the full interview here. For instance, speaking of Islam and wokeism:

    Islam is, of course, a religion and has nothing inherently to do with wokeism. However, wokeists are instrumentalizing Islam to undermine Christian identity and Western tradition and culture. I believe, though, that these same wokeists may be the next victims of radical Islamists. They may have calculated that Muslims will eventually adopt woke ideas, but there is no chance of this. On the contrary, Islam rejects the dignity of women, and its moral framework has nothing in common with the aims of wokeism, one of which is to homosexualize society and thought.

    In England, for example, wokeism in its initial phase uses Islamism as a tool to weaken Christian culture and tradition. Currently, in tragic cases—such as when a girl is violated by several Muslim men—the girl is more likely to go to jail than the perpetrators.

 He also discusses issues caused by the Muslim invaders in Germany, including this  response when asked if Germany could become an Islamic nation: "It already is, in many ways. Muslims dominate public life, in part because politicians live in fear of them." 

VIDEO: "SHOCK VIDEO: Anti-Immigration Protestors Get Into Multiple Violent Clashes With Dutch Police"--Forbes Breaking News (3 min.)