Happy Halloween

I hope everyone has a Happy Halloween. As a treat, I found a copy of the classic "Lonesome Ghosts" cartoon on YouTube. It's just shy of 9 minutes long. Enjoy!

 

Wilder SNAPs

John Wilder's latest post is "Oh, SNAP: The Waste, The Fraud, The Envy, And You’re Not Alone." He offers some thoughts (and memes ... lots of memes) about the government shutdown (yes, it's still going if you haven't noticed) and the imminent threat of the suspension of SNAP benefits (previously known as "food stamps"). But don't worry. Judge Indira Talwani of the U.S. District Court for Massachusetts has signaled that she may order the Trump Administration to dip into an emergency fund to continue funding SNAP benefits. Speaking at a hearing yesterday (Thursday) she said:

    ... “Right now, Congress has put money in an emergency fund for an emergency, and it’s hard for me to understand how this isn’t an emergency when there’s no money and a lot of people are needing their SNAP benefits."

    “Congress told you what to do if there is no money. You need to figure out how to stretch that emergency money for now," Talwani, who was appointed by former President Barack Obama in September 2013, continued.

It appears that the USDA is arguing that the contingency fund can be used to for shortfalls where funding has been authorized by Congress, there has been no such authorization in this case because the funding authorization expired at the end of the fiscal year. It also appears that the USDA had already diverted some other funds to continue funding SNAP for October. 

    I'm not as heartless about this as you might think. I actually feel for many of the people on SNAP benefits. I don't have current statistics, but every few years or so, I see articles discussing the number of a service members--the lower ranking ones with young families--who receive SNAP/food stamp benefits. When my wife and I were in college, she was friends with a woman whose husband was just starting out as Sheriff's Deputy and they had a small child and, yes, they were receiving food stamps. A lot of employers get away with paying crappy wages because they assume that their employees will qualify for welfare assistance. And I knew students with young families that were also receiving food stamps. But these--the students, the service members, those starting out in low paying jobs--are not the problem because they will eventually earn more and pay taxes more than sufficient to make up for receiving SNAP benefits over the short term. And sometimes because of medical or mental problems, age, or such, some people cannot work (or are very limited in what they can do) and will receive welfare for a long period of time--perhaps most of their life. I cannot begrudge helping them out: "There but for the grace of God go I," and all that.  

    But here is the problem with the Democrats: they are using food (in this case, SNAP) as a political weapon, which makes them no different from African warlords and dictators who control who gets the food from international aid agencies. 

Weekend Reading: New Weekend Knowledge Dump

 Greg Ellifritz has a new Weekend Knowledge Dump posted at his site, Active Response Training. Some links of note as I cast my eye down the list: 

• Some Halloween Safety Tips. I think the most important ones, though, are to make sure the youngsters (and chaperones) are dressed or have accoutrements that heighten their visibility, and for those driving, keep a look out for Trick-or-Treaters. 
• A new Rangemaster Newsletter.
• An article on post-accident/road rage procedures.
• A video on fanny pack carry--particularly useful for me because the guy making the video was concealing a 43x. He is using a Eberlestock Bando Bag (XL). He has some good tips, so check it out.
• And Greg notes that POM is having a 33% off sale on their bulk packs (he provides the Amazon link). 

There is more, of course, so be sure to check it out. I looked for a new Defensive Pistolcraft newsletter, but nothing yet--it will probably come out this weekend. 

FBI Foils Halloween Weekend Terror Plot

 The New York Post reports that "Federal investigators thwarted a real-life Halloween horror by busting 'multiple' terror plotters early Friday, FBI Director Kash Patel announced hours ahead of trick-or-treating getting underway across the nation." No information as of yet on the nature of the plot or who was behind it, but the article adds:

FBI and state police vehicles were spotted in a neighborhood near Fordson High School in the Detroit suburb of Dearborn. Investigators walked in and out of a house, with one official collecting paper bags and other items from an evidence truck.   

Is there anything special about Dearborn? According to Google's AI overview:

Dearborn, Michigan, has the largest Muslim population per capita in the United States. While the U.S. Census doesn't ask about religion, data shows that approximately 55% of the city's residents are of Arab or North African descent, a majority of whom are Muslim. This demographic shift has made Islam a central part of the city's public and cultural life, which has also become home to the largest mosque in North America.   

This was also interesting. According to an unnamed senior government official, "not even Michigan Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer was given a heads-up about the law enforcement operation." 

Breitbart: "‘Easing’ Rent Prices Coincide with Less Immigration to U.S. Under Trump"

 The article relates: "The 'easing' of rental prices coincides with a slowdown of illegal and legal immigration to the United States, the Wall Street Journal admits."

    The Wall Street Journal piece, titled “Renters Have the Upper Hand. And They Are Probably Keeping It,” details rent prices dropping across the United States as the market is tilted toward renters rather than landlords. 

    Immigration, the Journal admits, has played at least some role in rent dropping, as less demand has decreased housing prices[.]   

The article continues:

    Decades of research have shown the correlation between mass immigration and skyrocketing housing costs.

    Last year during a congressional hearing, Center for Immigration Studies Director of Research Steven Camarota told Congress that “a 5-percentage-point increase in the recent immigrant share of a metro area’s population is associated with a 12-percent increase in the average U.S.-born household’s rent, relative to their income.”

    “Adding very large numbers of people to the country must significantly impact housing prices by driving up demand for rental properties … the Census Bureau reports that the increase in rents in 2023 was by far the largest in the past decade,” Camarota said.

    In 2013, a study by the Michael Bloomberg-funded New American Economy, which promotes mass immigration, explained how the importing of tens of millions of immigrants over decades had helped raise housing costs by $3.7 trillion for the next generation of homebuyers, but spun the figure as the creation of “housing wealth.” 

Lucky Gunner Reviews Taurus 22TUC

This is Taurus' latest iteration of its .22LR tip up barrel pocket pistol design. Chris Baker gives it a pretty good review with one exception: reliability. He had a handful of misfeeds and/or misfires out of each 100 round string of fire. The reliability issues are low enough that if this was a range toy, it would be of no real consequence. But as a defensive pistol, even a 2 or 3% failure rate is concerning. But is it the pistol or the ammunition? Several years ago, I had a bulk box of .22 LR from a reputable manufacturer where literally every other round was a dud even with good primer strikes, no matter what firearm I used; and I just have an impression--I haven't been keeping score--that quality control has slipped overall with .22 ammo production.  And I'm not the only one that feels that way, as it seems this has been a well visited topic in various forums and boards. 

VIDEO: "Taurus 22TUC: Budget Price, Zero Compromises (Well, Maybe One)"
Lucky Gunner Ammo (8 min.)

Half of Americans Want All Illegals Gone

From the New York Post: "Half of all Americans back President Trump’s deportation policies and say that all illegal immigrants should be kicked out of the country, whether or not they’ve committed additional crimes, according to a new poll exclusively shared with The Post." 

Tom Cotton Is An Ass

Politico reports: "Cotton blocks Trump-backed effort to make daylight saving time permanent." His reasoning:

“For many Arkansans, permanent daylight savings time would mean the sun wouldn’t rise until after 8:00 or even 8:30am during the dead of winter,” Cotton continued. “The darkness of permanent savings time would be especially harmful for school children and working Americans.” 

Save the faux concern for school children and working Americans. I don't live particularly far in the north, and I'm already going to work in the dark and passing school children waiting for school busses. By December, after the shift back to standard time, I (and other American workers and school children) will be starting our days in the dark and I (and other American workers) will be coming home in the dark.  

Two Related Articles On The Climate Scam

First up is this article by Matt Taibi entitled "Bill Gates Says We'll Survive Climate Change, World Furious." As you may have heard, Bill Gates, whose Gates Foundation had committed (whatever that means) $1.4 billion to climate change research, released an essay earlier this week on "Three tough truths about climate" including: "Although climate change will have serious consequences—particularly for people in the poorest countries—it will not lead to humanity’s demise." His justification for a shift from focusing on climate change was that we needed to instead focus on fighting poverty and disease in third world countries. (And I'm sure that his foundation will gladly take your tax dollars to "solve" those problems). 

    As Taibi relates:

Reaction was swift and furious. In the words of the immortal Greta Thunberg, “HOW DARE YOU!” The New York Times rushed a piece out titled, “Bill Gates Says Climate Change ‘Will Not Lead To Humanity’s Demise.’” The paper linked to Gates’s net worth on the Bloomberg Billionaires’ Index, to his prior comments about irreversible ecological damage, and to the Gates Foundation’s $1.4 billion commitment to climate change research. It didn’t link to Gates’s new essay, though, instead quoting the editor of Inside Philanthropy, who said “one could imagine” this was Gates’s way of “not wanting to be a target of the Trump administration.” Social media is still burning with theories about Gates betraying the climate cause to get out from under an investigation into his foundation’s alleged funding of Chinese entities. The imminent extinction dream is dying hard.  

But if Taibi had any thoughts on the why of Gates' sudden shift, he wasn't sharing them.

    And that brings me to the second article, "California's Retirement Fund Lost 71% Of $468M Investment In Clean Energy And Won't Say How." As evident when you read the article, the losses weren't due to an economic downturn as the Fund's overall returns were well above 10%. CalPERS won't release information about what specific investments were made, but the article generally discusses the collapse of "green" based industries, including solar panel manufacturing. 

    The reality is that "green" industries are only "green" in the sense that they suck up lots of money: they rely on government (i.e., taxpayer) funding, subsidies, and mandates to be profitable, but that government largesse has been drying up. Ditto for the climate NGOs. The climate-industrial complex has had a 60 year run of doom scaring, but after 60 years of failed predictions and the economic havoc its policies have had, its days are numbered. 

    My take is that Bill Gates has realized this and is getting out of the global warming business--reducing his exposure, you might say--before the public subsidies completely dry up. 

VIDEO: Making Black Powder For Firearms

The other day I linked to a short video about making black powder, but I noted that the resulting powder would not be very good for a black powder firearm. A reader, in his comments, recommended this video on making black powder you could use in a muzzle loader. 

VIDEO: "How To Make The Absolute BEST Black Powder (For Firearms)"
Everything Black Powder (47 min.)

VIDEO: Primitive Hunting and Field Dressing A Rabbit

The primitive hunting part of this video is only about 2:30 minutes. The remainder shows how to skin and clean the rabbit. 

VIDEO: "Primitive Hunt & Clean on a Rabbit"
HuntPrimitive (8 min.)

Diversity in Law School Admissions

From the Washington Free Beacon: "How China Cheats Its Way Into US Law Schools." Short version: "Chinese LSAT prep companies have allowed students to access stolen questions, the Free Beacon has learned." In addition, because of Covid, the company that administers the LSAT has allowed test takers to take the tests remotely. What could go wrong? "In China, online testing has spawned an industry of companies that bypass LSAC’s 'remote security measures,' allowing cheating agents to take the test from anywhere in the world by posing as students and using fake IDs."

Review of Everytown's Firearm Training Class

 Lee Williams took Everytown's "Train Smart" firearm training class so you don't have to. His takeaway: 

Everytown’s new firearm training classes are about as honest and realistic as the journalism produced by its paid staffers at The Trace. In fact, the amount of anti-gun propaganda produced by Everytown’s Train Smart instructors may actually exceed the anti-gun propaganda shoveled out by the plucky kids at The Trace. Suffice it to say, it’s a close race.

Or They Could Just Allow Citizens To Own And Carry Firearms...

 "Japan governor calls for army to tackle deadly bear attacks"--DW. From the lede:

    The governor of Japan's northern Akita prefecture has formally requested military support to protect residents after an unprecedented wave of fatal bear attacks.
    
So far this year, 10 people have been killed in bear encounters across Japan, surpassing the previous record of six fatalities set in 2024. 

Death Toll Rises In Rio de Janeiro Street Battle

Reuters reports: "Rio police raids kill at least 132, corpses line street." From the lede:

    The deadliest police operation in Brazil's history killed at least 132 people, public defenders said on Wednesday, as Rio de Janeiro residents lined a street with dozens of corpses found overnight, a week ahead of global climate events in the city.

    State police said the raids targeting a major drug gang the day before had been planned exhaustively for more than two months, designed to drive suspects into a forested hillside where a special operations unit was waiting in ambush. 

     "The elevated lethality of the operation was expected but not desired," Victor Santos, head of security for Rio state, told a news conference. Rio police officials confirmed 119 deaths so far, including four police officers.

 The main concern, however, seems to be that violent criminals were killed, what with the UN demanding an investigation. Also:

    The Rio state government said the operation was its largest ever to target the Comando Vermelho gang, which controls the drug trade in several favelas - poor and densely populated settlements woven through the city's hilly oceanside terrain.

    Police said they had arrested 113 suspects in the operation and seized 118 firearms.

    President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva was surprised to learn Rio police had launched an "extremely bloody, violent" operation without notifying or involving the federal government, Justice Minister Ricardo Lewandowski told journalists.

    The minister said he planned to meet with Rio's governor and could increase the number of federal security officials there. 

Does that sound like a threat?

I Don't Think This Helps Your Cause

Batya Ungar-Sargon, a Jewish journalist and author, lets the cat out of the bag when she made angry comments about the lack of support for Israel among Democrats (go to the X link for the video). The relevant quote:

    "Only 13% [of Democrats] stand with Israelis against the Palestinians…"

    "The thing that makes this so appalling is that Jews built the left in this country. We built the labor movement. We wrote the New Deal. 70% of the lawyers who worked on civil rights cases were Jews!"

    "We've been at the forefront of every liberal and leftist issue in this country!" 

Many (non-Jewish) people have been labelled antisemitic (or worse) for having pointed this out.  

VIDEO: How To Make Black Powder

 Of course, this is not the full story because it doesn't cover how to make the corned black powder which is really what is needed for use in muskets and pistols. 

 VIDEO: "How To Make Gun Powder In Under 5 Minutes | DIY Black Powder The Old Fashioned Way"
Space Cowboy (5 min.)

Fighting In The Streets In Rio de Janeiro

 Rio de Janeiro was the scene of fighting between government forces and a drug cartel earlier this evening. The Coast Reporter relates: "Huge Brazilian raid on Rio gang leaves at least 64 people dead and 81 under arrest." From the article:

    About 2,500 Brazilian police and soldiers launched a massive raid on a drug-trafficking gang in Rio de Janeiro on Tuesday, arresting 81 suspects and sparking shootouts that left at least 60 suspects and four police officers dead, officials said.

    The operation included officers in helicopters and armored vehicles and targeted the notorious Red Command in the sprawling low-income favelas of Complexo de Alemao and Penha, police said.

    The police operation was one of the most violent in Brazil's recent history, with human rights organizations calling for investigations into the deaths.

    Rio’s state Gov. Claudio Castro said in a video posted on X that 60 criminal suspects were “neutralized” during the massive raid that he called the biggest such operation in the city's history. Some 81 suspects were arrested, while 93 rifles and more than half a ton of drugs were seized, the state government said, adding that those killed “resisted police action.” 

 * * *

    Footage on social media showed fire and smoke rising from the two favelas as gunfire rang out. The city's Education Department said 46 schools across the two neighborhoods were closed, and the nearby Federal University of Rio de Janeiro canceled night classes and told people on campus to seek shelter.

    Suspected gang members blocked roads in northern and southeastern Rio in response to the raid, local media reported. At least 70 buses were commandeered to be used in the blockades, causing significant damage, the city's bus organization Rio Onibus said.

A video I watched earlier this evening indicated the initial raid by police backed up by special forces soldiers initially went well, but then the cartel struck back and that was when the more widespread fighting erupted.

    Another article--"At least 64 killed in Rio de Janeiro police operation ahead of COP30 events"--added the following:

    Smoke rose over the city's iconic skyline early on Tuesday as gangs burnt cars to slow the advance of armoured vehicles while bursts of gunfire rang out.

    Police released videos showing suspects using drones armed with grenades against law enforcement officers. 

    The footage also showed armed men fleeing into a forested area near the operation.

    After the most intense fighting subsided, police from a special operations unit started rounding up dozens of shirtless men.  

And an article from Brazil Reports states: "Rio has been placed on high alert as security forces anticipate further counterattacks." 

Trump Targets Beef Prices

Politico reports that, to combat high beef prices in the U.S., Trump is raising the quota on beef from Argentina to 80,000 metric tons, which the article says "has spurred intense backlash from farm-state Republicans and agriculture industry groups who have felt burned by several Trump administration policies in recent months." Yup. First cracking down on illegal aliens and now this. What's next? Getting rid of the mandate to put ethanol in gasoline? 

The Church Of England Went Woke, And Now It Is Broken

Conservative Woman reports that earlier this month (October 2025), "Dame Sarah Mullally was appointed the first female Archbishop of Canterbury. As is tradition, the appointment was approved by the Prime Minister and the King, but the nomination came from the Church." Mullally was a particularly progressive pick. Per the article, "she’s a supporter of LGBTQ+ rights and activism, she has strongly backed asylum and migration, she is a self-declared feminist, and she is both politically and it seems religiously progressive." And, "[a]s Bishop of London, she boasted about representing a diverse and multicultural city, and put her experience in handling diversity as one of the key qualifications and evidence of positive experience she could bring to being the Archbishop of Canterbury."

    But not all Anglicans approved of her. In fact, the majority of Anglicans--and the very third world inhabitants that Mullally delusionally believes she is advocating for--have rejected her:

    The Global Fellowship of Confessing Anglicans (also known as Gafcon) represent the Anglican faith in Africa. Their response was to declare publicly that they would no longer send delegates to Church meetings in the United Kingdom, no longer consider the Archbishop of Canterbury as first among equals or a seat of authority to which they deferred, and no longer consider themselves in the same communion as the Bishops and clergy of the Church of England within England. Perhaps even more tellingly, they asserted that they were the true Anglican communion, more loyal to the instructions of the Bible and Anglican interpretation of those than priests in England. There’s a subtle but powerful distinction there – they were saying not that they had broken away from an Anglican vision of Biblical instruction and Christian identity but that the Church in England had done so. 

    African Anglicans now assert that they are the true Anglicans, and that the organisation within the UK is not. And in terms of the number of people who follow their message, they are right to assert this. 

    In losing the African churches and the global, more conservative branch of Anglicanism, the Church of England has lost 80 per cent of Anglicans on the planet. 

    Imagine a company that lost 80 per cent of its customers. Or a political party that lost 80 per cent of its voters. Or a nation state that lost 80 per cent of its territory. These would in each case be recognised as unmitigated disasters. 

The problem, as noted by the author, is that the Anglican leadership are no longer Christian nor interested in Christianity. Rather, they are "concerned with politics, and specifically with always advocating for leftist politics and progressive politics." Thus "[t]he defining Christian religious offer of universal love from Christ for all humanity is twisted into a weird CRT-Christian fusion which says to black Christians ‘we will regard you as generally sacred but not listen to your opinions’ and which says to white Christians ‘we will relentlessly demonise and devalue you and regard you as morally good only if you are politically progressive’."  

    This should be viewed as a warning to all churches of the fruits of embracing leftist insanity. 

Antifa To Change Uniforms To Look More Like Islamic Terrorists

Victoria Taft, writing at PJ Media, has compiled reporting from journalists that infiltrated an Antifa panel discussion being held at an anarchist book fair in Oakland, Calif., featuring speakers from the Antifa group "NorCal Resist." One of the topics was a change in uniform from the all black ("black bloc") currently favored by Antifa to "turning to keffiyeh cloths around their head to decoy the cops at what they call their 'direct actions.'" Taft wonders: "Is it possible that now that Antifa is a terrorist group that its funding is drying up, and they need new grants from the billionaire Islamofascists?"

    However, I found this next bit more interesting. In fact, my LDS readers should take special note. As way of background for those that are not LDS and not familiar with the Book of Mormon, a recurring theme in the Book of Mormon are conspiracies--secret combinations--that repeatedly arise to overthrow the legitimate, established government. The most prominent in the Book is a group called the Gadianton Robbers, which acted much like an organized crime group, committing murders and other crimes, bound together by oaths and secrecy, seeking to infiltrate and overthrow the established government. But these oaths were no ordinary blood oaths, but were Satanic in nature:

“Now behold, those secret oaths and covenants did not come forth unto Gadianton from the records which were delivered unto Helaman; but behold, they were put into the heart of Gadianton by that same being who did entice our first parents to partake of the forbidden fruit—yea, that same being who did plot with Cain, that if he would murder his brother Abel it should not be known unto the world. And he did plot with Cain and his followers from that time forth.” Helaman 6:26–27 

For more on this point, see "Why Were the Secret Oaths of the Gadianton Robbers so Dangerous?" at Scripture Central. 

    Now back to Taft's article. Taft relates (bold added):

    Choe explained on my recent Adult in the Room Podcast that he and an Antifa investigator, Karlyn Borysenko, snuck into two anarchist book fairs, where Antifa and other offshoot groups, such as "anarcho-Satanists," sell materials that make up the Antifa canon and pedagogy. 

* * * 

    Choe told me the fair featured very dark materials. 

    You had sessions on how to recruit for anti-ICE activities and sharing new tactics on how to go after immigration officers. So again, we saw a, a smorgasbord of calls for violence, recruiting, uh, new Antifa members, and of course this propaganda which also included a lot of Satan worship and stuff from the occult.

A reminder that Antifa and similar are not just political movements, but, as Paul tells us: "For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places." Ephesians 6:12. 

Trump Tightens Federal Funding To Anti-Gun NGOs

From Shooting News Weekly: "Trump Administration Cuts Flow of Tax Dollars Funneled to Leftist Gun Control Orgs and NGOs." The Department of Justice issues grants via the Community Based Violence Intervention and Prevention Initiative (CVIPI) "to support groups working in rural and urban communities struggling to address violence and fund research studying the programs’ efficacy." Under the Biden Administration, community-based organizations, non-profits and local and state governments were eligible to apply for the grants. But under new guidelines, only city, county and tribal governments are permitted to apply for the grants. 

Peter Grant: Bubble Bursting On Auto Loans To Illegals

Peter Grant, who runs the Bayou Renaissance Man blog, recently published a post entitled "Automotive chickens coming home to an illegal alien roost?" It discusses the recent bankruptcy of Tricolor Auto Group, the 7th largest used car dealer in the country (and 3rd largest in California and Texas). Tricolor (which name comes from the three colors of the Mexican flag) apparently specialized in selling automobiles to illegals. But "with President Trump deciding to start enforcing the nation’s immigration laws, there has suddenly been a major 'market correction' in that market segment. Not only has the customer base largely evaporated, but so have loan repayments, which Tricolor also serviced." 

    It is not just Tricolor that is having problems. Major banks--the ones that were onboard with debanking conservatives--apparently were complicit in taking these "sub prime" auto loans, bundling them, and selling them as "social bonds" to investors. 

    And to add insult to injury, Grant reports that the illegals have "now taken their vehicles across the border to Mexico and points south, still owing pots of money on them, and - of course - they're no longer paying the monthly note." So Tricolor and other similar lenders can't even collect on their collateral. 

Wilder: The EBT Apocalypse

CBS News reports that "Federal food aid will not go out starting Nov. 1 amid government shutdown, Trump administration says." From the article:

    The U.S. Department of Agriculture has posted a notice on its website saying federal food aid will not go out on Nov. 1, raising the stakes for families nationwide as the government shutdown drags on.

    The new notice comes after the Trump administration said it would not tap roughly $5 billion in contingency funds to keep benefits through the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, commonly referred to as SNAP, flowing into November. That program helps about 1 in 8 Americans buy groceries.

Thus, according to Politico, "At least 25 states plan to cut off food aid benefits in November," including California, Arkansas, Hawaii, Indiana, Mississippi and New Jersey. 

    What could all this mean?  Well, assuming that the health insurers Democrats don't back down on the Obamacare subsidies and allow the Republicans to pass the continuing funding resolution, it means that EBT cards will not be filled and millions of welfare recipients will suddenly find themselves unable to buy food. The consequence, John Wilder predicts, will be " 'Mostly peaceful' flash mobs looting grocery stores." He also predicts riots, including  that "[w]ithin 72 hours of the blackout, flash mobs of 'minority urban youths' (MUYs, in Bracken’s lingo) would swarm intersections, yank soccer moms from their SUVs." Well, they did vote for it. He gives a timeline of what he believes will happen. Read the whole thing.

    Fun fact: The food stamp program--and the reason it is run by the Department of Agriculture--was originally intended as an indirect subsidy for farmers by boosting demand for farm products.  

More: Black Pigeon gives his 2 cents:

 VIDEO: "America's Grim Bargain: No EBT No PEACE"
Black Pigeon Speaks (7 min.)

The Louvre Heist Another Example of Cultural Enrichment

Over at Hot Air, Josh Hammer writes that the "Louvre Heist Encapsulates a Western Culture That Will Not Defend Itself," explaining:

The utterly humiliating inability of French authorities to either prevent the theft of the literal crown jewels or promptly arrest the perpetrators after the fact is the most poetic possible way to demonstrate a point that has come up in so many of my conversations this week: At best, European political and cultural elites have no interest in protecting and preserving their culture; and at worst, they have an interest in seeing that culture replaced root and branch.

    At the time he wrote his article, none of the thieves had been caught. Now that two of the thieves are in custody, we get a sense that the theft is more than just incompetence on the part of the DEI female led Louvre bureaucracy, but might also be another example of cultural enrichment. NBC News reports that at least some of the thieves left behind physical evidence,  including gloves, a walkie-talkie, a vest, and a can of gasoline, from which French authorities were able to find DNA traces. These traces led to the arrest of two career criminals both from Aubervilliers, a suburb in northeast Paris, with a large migrant population. (However, The Art Newspaper says that the two were from Seine-Saint-Denis north of the capital, another department with a high immigrant population).  A police spokesman "said that police decided to move in on Saturday when it became clear that one suspect was planning to flee to Algeria. He was arrested at Charles de Gaulle airport 40 minutes before the flight was due to take off."  The BBC reports that the other suspect was headed to Mali. 

    ABC News reports that "[o]ne of the suspects has dual citizenship in France and Mali, and the other is a dual citizen of France and Algeria, investigators said, adding that both were already known to police from past burglary cases." The Art Newspaper confirms that the suspect trying to flee to Algeria was a French-Algerian citizen. 

    Two additional suspects remain on the run. 

• More: "2 Louvre robbery suspects busted in $100M museum heist, one caught at Paris airport trying to flee France"--New York Post.  

VIDEO: Brass Facts Bought A Snubby Revolver

Brass Facts is a YouTube channel that generally focuses on the type of weapons that would be used by high speed, low drag operators. Even his EDC concealed carry pistols are pretty tricked out looking pieces. But he admits that he has picked up a snubby revolver: in particular, the S&W 638 which is the one with the shrouded hammer. His explanation basically comes down to convenience for when he makes a quick trip to a convenience store or lets the dog out but doesn't want to go to the trouble of putting on a belt and his regular concealed carry gear. 

 VIDEO: "Why I bought a Revolver in 2025"
Brass Facts (8 min.)

VIDEO: .30-30 v. .300 Blackout

So how good is the .300 BLK out for deer hunting? I have often heard the 7.62x39 compared favorably to the .30-30 from a ballistic point of view; and the .300 BLK is supposed to have similar ballistics to the 7.62x39. But how about the .300 BLK compared directly to the .30-30? This is a particularly good comparison because both rounds tested use the same bullet: 150 grain Federal Powershok. The gel blocks were shot at 100 yards and 30 yards. The .30-30 has slightly better performance based on the expansion, but it is not as great as you would think and may be a result of the barrel lengths: the .30-30 was shot from a 20-inch barrel while the .300 BLK was shot from a 16-inch barrel.   

VIDEO: "30-30 and 300 BLK in Ballistic Gel. 100 yards and 30 yards"
Little River Outdoorsman (8 min.)

VIDEO: The 7-Stage Collapse Pattern of Empires

 While I generally have looked at authors who study the political and sociological factors that lead to the collapse of a civilization, this one is a little more narrow of scope--the collapse of an empire rather than a whole civilization--and focuses on economic issues. It examines three historical examples--Spain, the British Empire, and the Soviet Union (itself really an Empire)--and then looks at where is the United States. The video description states:

The seven-stage pattern is identical across all three empires: Stage 1 - Military Overextension, Stage 2 - Currency Debasement, Stage 3 - Debt Spiral, Stage 4 - Loss of Productive Capacity, Stage 5 - Social Decay, Stage 6 - Loss of Reserve Currency Status, Stage 7 - Collapse. Spain completed all seven stages between 1590 and 1670. Britain completed them between 1914 and 1954. The Soviet Union completed them between 1945 and 1991. And the United States is currently at Stage 5, with clear warning signs of Stage 6 emerging.    

Another notable point is that when an Empire reaches Stage 7, the collapse can be very rapid--a matter of a couple decades in the case of Great Britain and 900 days for the Soviet Union.  

VIDEO: "The 7-Stage Collapse Pattern: Spain, Britain, USSR... USA Is At Stage 5"
Economy Rewind (18 min.)

Dealing With Mountain Lions

    A couple videos on mountain lion (aka cougar) encounters. The first video is by Les Stroud and goes over what to do if you should encounter a mountain lion, including if one starts stalking you. Being Les Stroud, it is premised on your not having a weapon or not using a weapon. His basic advice, if the lion becomes aware of you, is to act big, confident, and scary. 

    The second video is a recording of an actual encounter with a mountain lion by a hiker or runner in Utah, where he is not exactly what I would consider acting big, confident, and scary. But at least he had the sense to not turn his back on the animal or try and run away. Fortunately, the cougar seemed more concerned with just moving the man along and out of its territory than in attacking him. 

 VIDEO: "Survivorman | Masterclass | Dealing with Mountain Lions"
Survivorman - Les Stroud (4 min.)

 

 VIDEO: "Viral video shows cougar stalking Utah hiker in terrifying 6-minute encounter"
ABC7 (6 min.)

Why Did The Chicken Cross The Road? Self-Defense Lessons

 

(Source)

The comic, above, is funny because there is an edge of truth to it. And some wisdom, if we are willing to learn. 

    Anyone who lives in a town or city large enough to have local news reporting will likely have noted that certain races or ethnic groups disproportionately show up in articles reporting violent crimes. For instance, even as a teenager, I had realized that reports of violent assaults or murders in my area would almost always involve someone with a Hispanic name--a consequence of local farmers and food processors using illegal aliens as laborers. 

    Micheal Levin delves into this issue in detail in his 1997 book, Why Race Matters, spending a considerable amount of time discussing the disparity in violent crimes committed by blacks versus whites. By necessity, the data he was relying upon was from the late 1980s and early '90s at the height of the crack cocaine epidemic when overall violent crime rates--especially murders--where much higher than we have seen in the intervening decades. Levin, nevertheless, noted that there was a significant asymmetry in interracial crime (footnotes and citations omitted):

... It is widely publicized that blacks are more likely than whites to be crime victims and that their victimizers are more likely to be black than white ....   What is less widely known is the preference of blacks for white victims. More than 97% of white crime is committed against whites, while one-half to two-thirds of black crime is also committed against whites. In 1987, 50.2% of simple assaults by blacks had white victims; between 1979 and 1986, 2,416,696 of the 4,088,945 simple assaults committed annually by blacks were directed against whites, a cross racial rate of 59%. Since blacks are 12% of the population, 88% of the victims of black (and white) crime would be white if victim choice were random. Thus, whites attacked blacks at about 1/4 of the rate predicted by random victim choice, while blacks attack whites at about 2/3 the predicted rate. Taking the ratio of these fractions--.66/.25--as a measure of intensity of preference by race, blacks may be said to prefer white victims more than 2.6 times as intensely as whites prefer black victims. Informative as this ratio is, it seriously understates the racial asymmetry because of the absolute greater crime rates of blacks. Since the average black is more than 2.5 times more likely to victimize a white than the average white is to victimize a black, and 10 times more likely to have committed a crime, the average black is about 25 times more likely to have victimized a white than the average white is to have victimized a black.

 Levin later notes that "[p]roportionally, blacks killed 22 times as many whites as whites did blacks," and that "a black is about 11 times more likely to have raped a white woman than a white is to have raped a black woman." In fact, the number of black women raped by white men is so low statistically that it is "too small to permit calculation of a standard error." He also points out that "80-90% of all interracial crime is black-on-white." 

    While overall crime rates have dropped since the 1990s, the disproportionality of black on white crime seems to have stayed pretty much the same, perhaps with a bit of an increase. Back in 2016,  Edwin S. Rubenstein published a paper entitled "The Color of Crime" as well an article of the same name setting out the highlights.  You can find Rubenstein's article here. The actual report (in PDF) is here. But a couple highlights:

• In 2013, a black was six times more likely than a non-black to commit murder, and 12 times more likely to murder someone of another race than to be murdered by someone of another race.

• In 2013, of the approximately 660,000 crimes of interracial violence that involved blacks and whites, blacks were the perpetrators 85 percent of the time. This meant a black person was 27 times more likely to attack a white person than vice versa. A Hispanic was eight times more likely to attack a white person than vice versa.

FBI crime statistics from 2019 report that blacks, who represent a little over 13% of population, committed 51.2% of murders, 26.7% of rapes, 52.7% of robberies, 33.2% of aggravated assaults, and, in fact, where grossly disproportionately represented across all crime categories except driving under the influence, violation of liquor laws, and drunkenness where the percentages were close to their share of the population. 

     Of course, these violent crimes are not being carried out equally by black men and black women, or even amongst all age groups. In this regard, a recent article by Addison Flay noted that "[b]lack males aged 14-49, just 3% of the population, commit 43% of the murders." I don't know the source of his number, but it is likely correct given the overall percentage of murders committed by blacks. 

   So, if you are walking down a street when you suddenly encounter a black male coming toward you--and you have no other information about the person than his race--what should you do? If your intuition or "gut feeling" tells you that the situation could be dangerous and you cross the street, kudos to you: that is the basic lesson in Gavin de Becker's book, The Gift of Fear. 

    But even from a purely logical perspective, avoidance is the correct course of action.  Levin,  in his book, goes into detail the statistical arguments on why you should cross the street. If you know nothing else beyond the gender and skin color, the risk of being attacked by a black male is well above a minimal threshold that you could infer you might be attacked, so the reasonable course of action would be to cross the street. It's not racial enmity that dictates that outcome, but rationality. 

     Which brings me back to Addison Flay's article about the murder of Ukrainian refugee Iryna Zarutska, stabbed to death on a commuter train for making the mistake of sitting with her back to a violent black man. Flay writes:

     ... How could she have avoided this situation? Literally, do not turn your back on a Black man. That’s how you could have avoided it. And any boomer dad or uncle would see their young daughter or niece with no self-awareness sit in front of someone like that and wince. And if she got lucky and got up that day and walked out of that train, they would be called racist for that reaction. But that day was not her lucky day. He was not one of the ‘good ones’. She paid with her life.

   That’s what it comes down to: luck. Sometimes you survive an encounter with an erratic Black man on public transit with only a bruise, a scar, or a shaken memory. Sometimes you end up the one on trial with a manslaughter charge, forced to explain why you defended yourself. And sometimes, like Iryna Zarutska, you don’t walk away at all.

    That day was the unlucky day when she encountered one of those ones; that day was the unlucky day when it cost her her life, and she is now dead, forever. And her family is now left staring at the hole that used to be their daughter, sister, niece. How could it have been avoided? If she were racist.

    We were conditioned to believe that any—any—level of prejudice, any shred of pattern recognition, is not just evil but the highest evil. Oh, you’re racist? I can’t even sit in the same room with you. You do a double-take, you look over your shoulder because a Black man is behind you? That’s a microaggression. You cross the street? That’s systemic racism. You instinctively tense up? That’s internalised hate. How dare you. How dare you feel that. Better to be dead than be caught thinking it. Better to bleed out on the floor than be called racist.

    And yet, if she’d been just a little more racist, she’d be alive. If she had trusted that instinct, her parents would still have a daughter. If she saw that guy and turned and walked the other way, she’d be alive. If she had decided she wouldn’t turn her back to him and sit behind him, she might still be alive. One moment of racism would have kept her breathing.   

VIDEO: Where Europeans The First To Develop Writing?

Dan Davis looks at the debate on whether the Vinča symbols or the Danubian Script made by the Chalcolithic societies in South East Europe were writing or just symbols or designs. If they are writing, they would predate Mesopotamian cuneiform writing by a thousand years.    

VIDEO: "Did Europe Invent Writing Before Mesopotamia?"
Dan Davis History

GUNS Magazine: "The Great Deer Butchery Debacle"

 Brent Wheat tells a funny story about his first (and presumably, only) attempt to butcher his own deer. Probably should have stopped when he started punching holes in the ceiling of his garage to access a rafter from which to hang the deer. 

Cultural Enrichment On California Highway

 From the New York Post: "Harrowing video captures big rig driven by illegal immigrant plowing into vehicles on California freeway, killing three." Additional context: 

    Dashcam footage allegedly showed Jashanpreet Singh, 21, slamming into several cars while behind the wheel of the red big rig on the westbound 10 Freeway shortly after 1 p.m. Wednesday, according to the clip first obtained by ABC7.

* * *

    Singh is an illegal immigrant from India who entered the US in 2022 through the southern border and was “released” under President Joe Biden’s administration, according to the Department of Homeland Security.

    He was arrested by local authorities in San Bernardino County on vehicular manslaughter while intoxicated and driving under the influence charges before ICE issued an arrest detainer.  

Gun Control = Tyranny

From PJ Media: "Oh Canada! Your Government Took Your Guns, Now Your Homes. Get It, Yet?" While the article is ostensibly about a recent court decision awarding a large chunk of the Vancouver suburb of Richmond, BC, to a "First Nation" tribe that had dubious claims to it, it really is a lesson that once a government takes away a people's weapons, it can pretty much do whatever it wants.

Gun & Prepping News #52

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

• Greg Ellifritz has posted a new Weekend Knowledge Dump. I haven't had time to go through the articles, but a few of the titles caught my eye including articles on weapon lights on a home defense pistol, an article apparently arguing that "good enough" for self defense training does not require you to be an expert, and an article critiquing the "run" part of the advice to "run, hide, fight" in response to an active shooter. 
• "Accessorizing the Small Frame Revolver"--Shooting Illustrated. Some advice on belts, holsters, and carrying reloads; as well as a practice drill to test out your carry set up and suggestions as to using dummy rounds. 
• "How to Pattern the Defensive Shotgun"--That Shotgun Blog (h/t Tactical Hermit). Why pattern? The author states: "Patterning a shotgun with your chosen buckshot load is akin to zeroing a rifle. The gun isn’t really ready for service until it has been patterned, and every gun has to be individually patterned, just like every rifle has to have its own zero." And there is this tip:

The shortcut for choosing a load. Pattern check at 15 yards. Usually this will give you enough information to know whether or not it is worth shooting another 20 rounds to see how the rest plays out. If the pattern at 15 yards isn’t worthwhile, then it probably isn’t worth pursuing.

• "Myths in Armed Self Defense"--Tactical Wire.  Rich Grassi offers up his thoughts on some "myths" concerning self-defense, including one that I have visited recently: using handloads for self-defense. His take:

    Defense ammo must have (1) ignition reliability, (2) functional reliability and (3) it must hit to the sights. After that, adequate penetration is good, decelerating in the target medium is likewise nice – but if it doesn't go “bang,” ties up in the gun, or hits “somewhere out there,” all that expensive bullet development and testing is a colossal waste of effort.

    In my considerable experience – I was a handloader many years ago – I prefer premium defense ammo from ammo factories. I’ve seen too many failures with personally loaded, professionally remanufactured and bulk-pack low-cost range ammo from big factories to use anything but the premium stuff.

    But, it’s up to you. What’s your life worth? 

• More: "EDC Tip: No Reloads for Self-Defense"--Shooting News Weekly. What caught my attention in this article had nothing to do with the debate on whether to use reloads but rather the author's comments concerning the sale of his first article to Guns & Weapons for Law Enforcement magazine in 1993. He writes:

When it came to those who wrote for his law enforcement and self-defense periodicals, [Editor] Harry [Kane] had a strict rule, he didn’t print articles from anyone who had never carried a gun for living. At that time I was a combat veteran and was working full-time as a professional bodyguard.  

Although that was several years before I got my first CCL, I remember my frustration once I had a CCL in trying to find good advice for the civilian on concealed carry. All the articles on concealed carry seemed to have been written by ex-law enforcement who apparently never had to worry about their gun printing or a co-worker noticing it on the belt. This explains why there wasn't better advice for the civilian. 

• "FMG Books"--Revolver Guy.  FMG, the publisher of American Handgunner and Guns Magazine, has decided to end the print editions of its magazines, which got the author reminiscing about past columns and writers whose work he enjoyed and to the point of the article which was to note that FMG is publishing books--both physical and e-books--collecting some of the best articles of these past writers.
• "S&W 629 Mountain Gun Returns Better Than Ever"--Guns America.  From the lede: "Lipsey’s-exclusive S&W 629 Mountain Gun brings the classic 4 inch .44 Magnum back with smart upgrades like a gold bead Patridge front sight, Bear Hug stocks, and no internal lock." 
• "Unlikely Journey: The StG 44 in French Indochina and the Vietnam War"--The Firearm Blog. Frederick Forsyth's 1974 novel, The Dogs of War, is about a mercenary hired by a large mining concern to overthrow the government of a small, but mineral rich, African country so that the company can obtain a mining concession. Surprisingly, though, the actual battle where the mercenaries seize control of the country is only a small portion of the book. The majority of the book is about the logistics: getting supplies, arms and munitions; obtaining the necessary paperwork to transport the arms; and so on. One of the interesting things to me about the book was the prevalence, even as late as the 1970s when the book was to take place, of weapons left over from World War II. But that is basically what this article is about, although focusing on just one weapon--the StG 44. The world was awash in small arms after World War II, particularly arms captured by the allied nations, and they found their way into other conflicts in corners of the world far from Europe. 
• From my local news: "Woman charged after pointing gun at two people outside of Boise Costco, BPD says"--KIVI TV.  Nothing too exciting here: a 65-year old woman got into a "road rage" incident with another driver and pulled a firearm on him/her. Although the details are lacking, it apparently was a fight over a parking space. I can certainly sympathize since the parking situation is terrible at that particular Costco. Nevertheless, it is a good reminder that defensive firearms are to protect yourself (or loved ones) from an imminent threat of death or grave bodily harm, not as a dominance display in a parking lot. The woman was arrested and faces two felony charges for aggravated assault. 
• "Jacks & Saps and Timing" (Part 1) (Part 2) -- Tactical Professor.  These 2018 articles go over a class the author had taken on using blackjacks and saps, including, in the second article, information on timing--"knowing when and where [i.e., what distance] the tool can best be employed."  An excerpt from Part 2:

    ... The Distance to opponent is an important factor in our Decisions about when and whether to deploy any given weapon, whether it be a firearm, an impact tool, or personal weapon (hands and feet). John Boyd examined this relationship in great detail in the Aerial Attack Study. Updated version of Boyd’s Aerial Attack Study At a given range, the pilot of a fighter aircraft would execute previously determined decisions about where to position himself and which weapon was appropriate to use at that distance.

    Timing Errors are faulty decision choices based on the distance to the aggressor and positioning. One of the major issues mentioned in the class and then seen in the final evolution was going for In Fight Weapon Access (IFWA) too soon. When using an impact tool, the defender needs to be in a Dominant Position before attempting to draw the Jack or Sap. Going for it too soon allows either the aggressor to foul the draw or prevents the defender from effectively employing the tool. 

• "Pepper spray sees sales boom in North America, across globe"--News Nation. From the article:

    According to Polaris Market Research, pepper spray sales — which are already valued at over $42 billion — saw a massive shift resulting from “technological advancements in pepper spray and the presence of global players in the region.”

    “The U.S. market for pepper spray has gained substantial traction, a trend expected to persist throughout the forecast period, the analysis said. “Increasing investments in research and development activities for less-lethal self-defense weapons in the U.S. are anticipated to drive market expansion.”

    Not only in the United States, but also in Canada, Mexico, and Asia, the prevalence of crimes such as eve-teasing, rape, kidnapping, murder, and human trafficking has boosted the demand for pepper spray. 

I had to look up "eve teasing". According to Google's AI, it is "staring, stalking, passing comments, and inappropriate physical touch." 

• "Passing Special Forces Selection Requires Proper Foot Care and Boots"--SOFREP.  If you are like me, you are in no position--or shape--to be trying out for Special Forces. But the advice in this article on how to prepare your feet and boots, what socks to use, and other info to prevent foot injuries and blisters, is invaluable to anyone that might be hiking, hunting, or bugging-out.
• "How to Attach a Knife Sheath to MOLLE: A Comprehensive Guide"--Crate Club.  Discusses MOLLE-clips and using paracord. 
• "Glock FM81 Field Knife"--Survival Blog. This is a review of the FM81, which is the version with the saw blade on the spine of the knife for cutting roots when digging a foxhole or trench. A lot of people praise the Glock knives for their sturdiness and low price versus comparable knives from other companies. But this author wasn't so impressed:

But throughout my testing of the FM81, the longer blade was an inconvenience. It felt awkward and unnatural. I have decided that I would only be interested in carrying a longer-bladed knife under the most exceptional circumstances. If I found myself in exceptional circumstances, I would not mind carrying the FM81. But if I was carrying the FM81 into danger, I would want to carry it in a different sheath. It is my opinion that polymer is more suitable for handgun frames than knife sheaths.   

I have one of these knives, but I would have been happier if it did not have the saw back spine. Unfortunately, the version without the spine (the FM 78) no longer appears to be manufactured. And it can be hard to release the knife from the sheath--it is very secure, though.  

• "Use-by, Best-by, Sell-by dates, and What They Mean"--Modern Survival Blog.  The author notes: "The date stamp typically seen on foods (e.g. canned food) was never about public health. Rather, freshness. Or peak freshness. Consumers mistakenly believe it’s primarily a safety thing. However, it’s actually not…" He goes on to explain the meaning of the terms and using a FIFO (first-in, first-out) food storage and use plan. 
• "Winter Survival Kit Add-ons"--Modern Survival Blog.  The author provides the following suggestions:

•     Blanket (fleece or wool)
•     Emergency Blanket (Mylar foil type)
•     Lip Balm (regular Vaseline works too)
•     Hand and Foot Warmers (for when it’s wicked cold)
•     Gloves (well insulated)
•     Mittens can be warmer (though without dexterity)
•     Beanie Hat (warmer type, enough to pull over your ears)
•     Neck Scarf (multiple uses too)
•     Neck Gaiter (these really help!)
•     Face Mask (Balaclava)
•     Extra Socks (if existing pair gets wet)
•     Winter Goggles (big difference in cold/snow)
•     Road Flare (fast Firestarter)
•     Snow Shovel (vehicle)
•     Ice Scraper & Brush (vehicle)
•     Windshield Washer Fluid (‘cold’ variety)
•     Jumper Cables (vehicle)
•     Tire Chains (if applicable)

He also has some winter tips, so check out the whole thing.

• And since we are on the subject of winter preps: "The importance of tire chains"--KIVI TV. You'll want to watch the embedded video as it has someone with the Idaho Transportation Department demonstrating how to put on the chains. 
• "How to Regrow Vegetables at Home Using Kitchen Scraps"--The Late Prepper.  The author points out that "[m]any common vegetables like green onions, bok choy and celery regrow from scraps using just water and sunlight". The article goes into more detail on the advantages of growing from scraps, different food items that can be grown from scraps, a bit of the science behind it, and tips on how to do it. There is also an embedded video by the Dr. Mercola YouTube channel on the subject. 
• "Hedge Fund Billionaire Warns US Entering ‘Civil War’"--Newsweek. From the lede:

    Hedge fund manager and billionaire Ray Dalio has warned that the U.S. may be entering a new kind of “civil war” amid rising inequality and debt, as well as a breakdown in the global geopolitical order.

    In an interview with Bloomberg TV which aired this week, the founder of Bridgewater Associates said that the forces which “shape the world” were all now being disrupted, and that America served as a prime example of this.

    “We’re in wars. There is a financial, money war. There’s a technology war, there’s geopolitical wars, and there are more military wars,” he said. “And so we have a civil war of some sort which is developing in the U.S. and elsewhere, where there are irreconcilable differences.”

3I/ATLAS Emitting Metal Alloy Never Seen In Nature

The New York Post reports that 3I/ATLAS "is emitting a plume which contains four grams of nickel per second with no evidence of iron — unheard of in comets." "The end result," the article continues, "is an alloy called nickel tetracarbonyl, which has only ever been previously witnessed in human manufacturing, Harvard astrophysicist Dr. Avi Loeb told The Post." Okay, that is interesting, but this is what really got my attention: "The type of refined compound seen in 3I/ATLAS is used in metal coatings in manufacturing, including in the aerospace industry, to strengthen surface materials."

Diversity Is Our Strength: Illegals and Lawsuits

Just the News reports that "Law firms exploiting illegal immigrants to file personal injury lawsuits, expert says." An excerpt:

    The scheme is simple. An illegal immigrant approaches a personal injury law firm to sue his workplace and property managers for an injury – real, inflated, or fake – for millions of dollars in return for assistance securing up-front loans to pay back the border coyotes that brought him here, Lauren Zelt, executive director of Protecting American Consumers Together, told Just the News.

    “So what we're seeing in a lot of major cities across the country, places like New York, Los Angeles, other places, is folks are coming across the border illegally, and then, in order to go ahead and pay back those that brought them here, a/k/a their coyotes, they're working with billboard [advertising] attorneys to stage accidents,” Zelt told the "Just the News, No Noise" TV show on Tuesday.

Wide variety of suits, from slip-and-fall to automobile accident injuries

    “These accidents could be workplace accidents. They could be car accidents. There's a variety of different methods that they use, but once the accident is staged, they then work with the billboard attorneys to take out loans that honestly are often at astronomical rates, to then pay back their coyotes and get their lawsuits started,” she said. “Now, once they do that, their billboard attorneys actually often send them to doctors for procedures they don't need, all in the name of getting a larger settlement at the end of the day.”   

Who among you is shocked that a person who broke laws to enter the United States illegally, and did so as part of a conspiracy with an organized crime group, would then turn around and commit fraud?  

Jack O'Connor's Opinion of the .30-30

"Jack O’Connor’s Opinion of the Old .30-30 Winchester" is a reprint of an article written by Jack O'Connor and originally published in the April 1953 issue of Outdoor Life. He talks about popularity of the cartridge and the rifles that shoot it, the history of the .30-30, and why it so quickly supplanted the older black-powder cartridges:

    The .30/30 achieved its popularity be­cause the Model 94 carbine for it was light, short, and handy, but even more because the cartridge was, in contrast with the black-powder cartridges which it replaced, flat-shooting, accurate, and deadly. It came out about the time that Western game was getting scarcer and wilder. 

    Earlier, close shots had been the rule; now they were the exception. The .30/30 was a 200-yd. deer rifle, whereas the cartridges of the .44/40-.45/70-.38/55 class were, at best, about 125 or 150-yd. killers. It is probable that many of the old black-powder cartridges were a good deal more accurate than the .30/30 in that at any range they would shoot smaller groups, but the .30/30 had more practical accuracy because of its flatter trajectory. 

    It is fashionable these days to say that the .30/30 has less killing power than the large-caliber black-powder rifles it replaced. You couldn’t tell that to the Western hunters who abandoned their .45/70’s, .44/40’s, and .38/55’s for it. My maternal grandfather killed hundreds of mule deer with Winchester Model 76 and 86 rifles and black-powder car­tridges. When he was ranching in northern New Mexico it was routine for him to take a wagonload of deer into the market at Trinidad, Colo., to trade for groceries. He shot grizzlies, black bears, bighorn sheep, and mountain lions. When the .30/30 came out he got one and retired his .45/70. If you had told him that the big black-powder cartridge was superior, he’d have fig­ured you were balmy. 

And amongst the anecdotes, he has some advice on bullet selection for the deer hunter:

    At the risk of being considered a con­servative and a mossback, I am going to hazard a wild-eyed guess that prob­ably the best .30/30 deer bullet is the old-fashioned thin-jacketed soft-point with a good deal of lead exposed at the tip. The average American deer (even a mule deer or one of the larger varie­ties of northern whitetail) is not a large, brawny, or blocky animal. For sudden kills, the problem is not deep penetration but rapid expansion. Par­ticularly on a broadside shot through the rib cage, a deer does not offer much resistance to the bullet. I’ve shot a good many deer in my day, in the brush and in the open, and I’ve had far more trouble with bullets that failed to open up fast enough than with bullets that didn’t penetrate deeply enough. 

    The ordinary soft-point bullet mushrooms quickly and strikes a hard and damaging blow, whereas some of the newer bullets with harder cores and stiffer, harder jackets don’t do enough damage to smack a buck down in his tracks. I once saw an antelope hit in the hind end with a fancy 170-gr. .30/30 bullet. It went through him from stern to stem and came out his fore­head. He was, of course, a dead ante­lope; but if he’d been shot through the lungs he’d have run a mile. 

    Used as it should be used, in the brush and in the open up to about 200 yd., the .30/30 is a satisfactory deer cartridge. It won’t lay a deer down with a poorly placed shot, as will the more powerful .348 Winchester or the .300 Savage; but if the hunter breaks a buck’s neck or gets a bullet into its chest cavity, he’ll have himself a piece of meat.  

Coyote Attack In NJ Suburb

The Daily Mail reports on a coyote attack in the yard of a home in Woodcliff Lake, NJ, injuring both a pet dog and a housekeeper before being scared off by the homeowner.  The article also relates:

    This and other recent coyote attacks have led the Woodcliff Lake Police Department and New Jersey Fish and Wildlife to issue a public warning to residents of the area. 

    The departments have said not to leave children or pets unattended outside, especially at dawn or dusk. 

    They also told residents to secure their trash and discourage prey by removing bird feeders, picking up fallen fruit and covering compost piles. 

    'If you live near a wooded area, that's where you got to be more aware of your surroundings, because obviously they lurk in heavily brushed areas,' said Woodcliff Lake Police Captain Chad Malloy. 

    When encountering a coyote, officials recommend making loud noise, waving your arms, spraying water and to not turn your back or run.

    Captain Malloy said coyote attacks in the area are rare, but just a day after Monday's incident, there was another similar attack in a neighboring town. There were also two other coyote attacks in the area last month.   

If making load noises, waving your arms, or spraying water is all people are allowed to do to defend against coyotes, it's no wonder they aren't afraid of humans.  

The Truth About The "No Kings" Protests

 The Daily Mail reports that "[a]n inconvenient truth has emerged about the anti-Trump No Kings protests that swept the nation over the weekend - they were mainly attended by rich, old white people." An excerpt:

    CNN commentator Batya Ungar-Sargon pointed out the glaring disparity between those in the streets protesting and the less affluent groups they claim to speak for.

    'These protests were overwhelmingly white, they were overwhelmingly elderly people. White boomers have the right to have a mass therapy session about the fact that Donald Trump won. But to call it a No Kings protest, to act like he is a king, is so utterly preposterous,' the journalist said.

    'This is a man who won the popular vote, he won every swing state, he is a person who is enacting the exact agenda he promised he was going to enact while he was campaigning, and so what they are actually protesting is the absolute perfection of American democracy.'

The only two people I personally know who attended the local "No Kings" rally--a married couple--fit this description. 

Video Review of the Beretta 20X Bobcat

 Lucky Gunner is doing a series on .22 pistols and decided to review the updated Beretta Bobcat. The major changes are that the newer versions have "real" sights instead of the small front blade and rear gutter sights of the original, a larger safety lever, the magazine release has been moved from the heel of the weapon to the more standard location behind the trigger, and the trigger guard is now part of the frame instead of being the spring for the tilt up barrel. The magazine is now slightly longer to accommodate 8 rounds of ammunition and provide a pinky rest, and is made of polymer. The particular model tested has a threaded barrel for mounting a suppressor and suppressor height sights; but Beretta also sells a version with a regular barrel and lower sitting sights according to the video. 

 VIDEO: "Beretta 20X Bobcat: Tip-Up .22 Gets an Overhaul"
Lucky Gunner Ammo (8 min.)

VIDEO: Physicists Find Evidence Of UFOs

The research in question involved scientists who examined the glass photographic plates from the first Palomar Observatory Sky Survey (POSS-I) conducted prior to the first artificial satellite--from 1949 to 1957. Basically, they were looking for "stars" in the plates that appeared in one photograph of a section of sky, but were absent in subsequent photographs of the same area. After weeding out artifacts due to poor quality scans or dust, "[t]hey found a total of  five such transients and they aren't single  dots. They are configurations of four, five,  and in one case six dots in a row. And one of  those with five in a row is dated to July 27th, 1952." The significance of that date is because it was at the height of the Washington D.C. "UFO Flap" where numerous UFOs were spotted on radar or by pilots in the D.C. area. 

    In addition, the scientists found that the transients were "less likely" to show up in the Earth's shadow, meaning that they were objects that were reflecting sunlight. They also found a strong correlation between the appearance of the transients and nuclear weapon tests. However, the fact that they didn't show up in the Earth's shadow means that it couldn't have been from radioactive fallout. 

     A couple of the comments were also interesting. One comment read: "Donald Menzel destroyed so many of Harvard Observatory's glass plates and put an embargo on observation in the early 60s." And a follow up comment further explained that the Menzel destroyed the plates dating from the very time period that these researchers were studying. Wikipedia notes on this point:

During World War II, Menzel was commissioned as a lieutenant commander in the United States Navy and asked to head a division of intelligence, where he used his many-sided talents, including deciphering enemy codes. Even until 1955, he worked with the Navy improving radio-wave propagation by tracking the Sun's emissions and studying the effect of the aurora on radio propagation for the Department of Defense. Returning to Harvard after the war, he was appointed acting director of the Harvard Observatory in 1952, and was the full director from 1954 to 1966. His colleague Dr. Dorrit Hoffleit recalls one of his first actions in the position was asking his secretary to destroy a third of the plates sight unseen, resulting in their permanent loss from the record. The term "Menzel Gap" was used to refer to the 1953–1968 absence of astronomical photographic plates when plate-making operations were temporarily halted by Menzel as a cost-cutting measure. 

 VIDEO: "Physicists Find Evidence For UAPs"
Sabine Hossenfelder (7 min.)

The MSM Can't Tell The Truth

Another example of the mainstream media covering up the truth. The New York Post reports: "Anti-immigrant protesters burn police van after girl attacked near Dublin asylum seeker housing." How does the story explain the protests or why the protestors were so upset? From the lede:

Anti-immigrant protesters burned a police vehicle and attacked officers near a building housing asylum seekers in Dublin on Tuesday, the justice minister said, a day after a man was arrested for an attack on a young girl nearby.   

Hmm. A man attacked a young girl "nearby" a "building" housing asylum seekers. Any more details? Well, after lecturing the reader about how bad it was to protest immigration and "sow dissent," the article explains: 

Police on Tuesday said a man in his 20s had been charged in the area following an alleged serious assault of a female juvenile. 

So now it is more than just an "attack" but has become a "serious assault". Anything else?  Nothing other than we learn that the attacker had an outstanding deportation order. 

    What were they hiding? Well, compare it against this article from the Irish Mirror: "Gardai investigating alleged rape of 10-year-old Irish girl by asylum seeker on grounds of Dublin hotel."  The article relates that the girl was 10 years old, Irish, and apparently raped by an African migrant on the grounds of the Citywest Hotel in Dublin, which hotel had recently been purchased by the government to house asylum seekers. Also, the child had been in the care of Tusla, the State's Child and Family Agency, which apparently couldn't explain how the girl came to be at the hotel. 

Wilder: Enserfification

John Wilder's latest post is "Enserfification, It’s No Accident." He explains: "Enserfification is not quite feudalism, where the lord hands you a pitchfork and a plot of mud and some ugly facial moles in exchange for your firstborn.  Nope, it’s sneakier.  It’s the slow, corporate/bureaucratic boil where the middle class gets squeezed until the middle class plops, slowly mind you, into the ranks of a serf." An excerpt:

    Remember when Mom and Dad said, “Get a degree in engineering or computers, kid, and you’ll be set for life”?  Yeah, that was before the H-1B visa tsunami turned Silicon Valley into a global import mall with accents thicker than a deaf Russian that learned English in South Carolina.

    In 2024 alone, the U.S. approved a whopping 399,395 H-1B petitions—basically a free-for-all green light for companies to hire cheaper talent from abroad instead of the fresh-faced Americans they just saddled with $100k in student debt.  Oh, and did anyone mention that these invaders can bring their spouses, and that they can work, too?

    That 400,000 number is up 3% from the year before, because nothing says “meritocracy” like importing coders who mainly lie about their degree and qualifications.   

This is what he describes as Step 1 of "Enserfification": "Lock the gates on opportunity, import infinity Indians [or some other group from third world countries, I would add], then blame the peasants for not climbing the walls." 

    Read the whole thing.