Hollywood Rolls Out New Anti-ICE Talking Points

Actors managed by the Creative Artists Agency (CAA) seem to be reading from a script when it comes to their pro-invasion statements. 

 VIDEO: "This Is F**king Weird"
Paul Joseph Watson (12 min.)

Potatoes For Survival

I've mentioned before that, unless you have a working farm, growing potatoes is going to be necessary for self-sufficiency for most preppers. A couple sources that reinforce that point: 

    First, from an article at the Guardian entitled "A century in the Siberian wilderness: the Old Believers who time forgot," is this bit:

    By 1995, the Russian government was out of money and Yeltsin needed funds for his re-election campaign. Through the “loans-for-shares” scheme, he essentially sold off Russia’s largest enterprises, including its oil and gas concerns. This cemented the position of the oligarchs, whose payments to Yeltsin bought them both Russia’s greatest economic assets and the support of its president. Russia was being sold for parts, the needs of ordinary people forgotten. After the 1998 economic crisis, life expectancy fell to just 58.9 years for men, an unprecedented decline for a country that was not at war. The change was due to a large increase in deaths attributable to social stress: heart attacks, strokes, suicides, homicides, overdoses, car crashes.

    When asked how they survived during this period, people often answered with one word: potatoes. Bags of potatoes were passed between relatives, friends and neighbours. Not even the skins were wasted. People slept at their fields near harvest time, guarding against potato thieves. In 2004, an elderly man in Novgorod oblast expressed Russia’s collective affection when he erected a monument to the potato. The inscription thanked Christopher Columbus and Peter the Great for bringing it to Russia. The world of the Lykovs, who thanked God for potatoes every day, felt surprisingly contemporary.

And the second is the video below from Townsends on how the potato became such an important staple in Europe.

    When I was young, growing your own potatoes was simple because you could buy most any potato at the store, wait until it started growing eyes, and cut it up to act as seed potatoes. It's more complicated today. Store-bought potatoes are generally treated with sprout inhibitors (like Chlorproham) to prevent them from growing eyes and often carry diseases. The best option is to get certified "seed" potatoes and, secondarily, to use tubers you grew yourself because you can avoid some of the issues with store-bought potatoes (although disease will still be an issue). If you are adamant about using a store-bought potato for some reason, here is an article that discusses using them as seed potatoes. 

 VIDEO: "How Potatoes Saved The Poor"
Townsends (14 min.)

Optical Illusion: Red Skulls

 

Source: "These skulls look purple and orange. They are both red."--Popular Science

Encrypting Your PC Diskdrive Without Giving The Keys To Microsoft

In "How to encrypt your PC’s disk without giving the keys to Microsoft" from ArsTechnica, its explains how to use Microsoft's whole disk encryption, BitLocker, without uploading the recovery key to Microsoft (who will give it over to government authorities if asked). The article is, by its own admission, intended for the Communists involved in the current insurrection, but who knows who the federal government will be targeting after the next election? The instructions in the article are for those using Windows 11 Pro, but it also tells you how to upgrade to the Pro version. 

VIDEO: More High Level Purges In China

 Xi Jinping has purged more of his senior military leadership. Some of the rumors and speculation is that high ranking leaders were selling Chinese military secrets to the U.S. or that there was an attempted coup. I wonder if it had to do with the poor performance of Chinese military systems in Venezuela. 

 VIDEO: "Xi Jinping Has Gone Full Stalin"
China Uncensored (6 min.)

Well, Actually ...

The Daily Mail has an article on some of the turncoat Republicans that want Trump to back off on the deportations (although Trump is running well behind Obama on the number of deportations). One of these was Oklahoma Governor Kevin Stitt who told CNN: "'Nobody likes the feds coming to their states,' Stitt said. 'And so what is the goal right now? Is it to deport every single non-US citizen? I don´t think that´s what Americans want.'" I wouldn't be too sure of that. Especially as the scope of the fraud becomes more clear. 

Change

 A long time reader sent to me this quote from American Partisan:

The Left understands why it is armed. They hate you. The Right’s answer has been, until thus, simply “I am armed for the sake of being”.

No. I am armed because there is a Communist menace in this Nation that will, if successful, return to the killing fields. And they are armed because they hate me.

James O'Keefe Discusses The Leftist Insurrection

 From James O'Keefe on X:

 URGENT UPDATE: I’ve never experienced anything quite like today in my life. I’ve interacted with the Cartel and have witnessed some crazy things in the desert in ‘24. But what strikes me is how organized these agitators in Minneapolis are. They have spotters everywhere in the city and suburbs, on street corners, even 30 minutes away from downtown. They have people at hotels that work with them and signal to them which made it making it difficult for us to lose our tail once my cover was blown. Usually I lose a tail. Not this time. We switched locations THREE times. I recorded and posted this while leaving Wayzata, while they were STILL surveilling. We all agreed we must make the threats public ASAP,  even if we had people still in the field with the hidden cams.

Earlier around noon, while @camhigby released his report on the Signal threads, I was inside what appeared to be a fully autonomous Zone. No police presence. The police were told to leave. I  identified myself as Press and they said they will kill Press and will not let me leave. My skin was fully covered because it was so cold. But because they couldn’t verify who I was, they screamed and started throwing ice bottles at us. One hit, @SKRUCHTENMMA, a marine who was with me. They patted him down like THEY were the authorities, attempting to confiscate any weapons. They were set to destroy our vehicle before we even got to it. I will have a full video report shortly. 

I came across the O'Keefe post at Instapundit, but Anonymous Conservative has more of the same including this from Eric Schwalm on X:

     As a former Special Forces Warrant Officer with multiple rotations running counterinsurgency ops—both hunting insurgents and trying to separate them from sympathetic populations—I’ve seen organized resistance up close. From Anbar to Helmand, the pattern is familiar: spotters, cutouts, dead drops (or modern equivalents), disciplined comms, role specialization, and a willingness to absorb casualties while bleeding the stronger force slowly.

    What’s unfolding in Minneapolis right now isn’t “protest.” It’s low-level insurgency infrastructure, built by people who’ve clearly studied the playbook.

    Signal groups at 1,000-member cap per zone. Dedicated roles: mobile chasers, plate checkers logging vehicle data into shared databases, 24/7 dispatch nodes vectoring assets, SALUTE-style reporting (Size, Activity, Location, Unit, Time, Equipment) on suspected federal vehicles. Daily chat rotations and timed deletions to frustrate forensic recovery. Vetting processes for new joiners. Mutual aid from sympathetic locals (teachers providing cover, possible PD tip-offs on license plate lookups). Home-base coordination points. Rapid escalation from observation to physical obstruction—or worse.

    This isn’t spontaneous outrage. This is C2 (command and control) with redundancy, OPSEC hygiene, and task organization that would make a SF team sergeant nod in recognition. Replace “ICE agents” with “occupying coalition forces” and the structure maps almost 1:1 to early-stage urban cells we hunted in the mid-2000s.

Anonymous Conservative also links to a couples sources indicating that members of the John Brown Gun Club, Socialist Rifle Association, Redneck Revolt, and Armed Queers Salt Lake City are headed to Minneapolis. 

    And something to think about:

Weird that ICE are operating in dozens of states, but it only gets violent in the one where we just uncovered a billion dollar fraud ring with probable links to the governor.      

Virginia Dems Want To Encourage Rape and Manslaughter

"Virginia Dems propose law to drop mandatory prison time for rape, manslaughter"--New York Post. The theory being espoused is that it returns us to a time when judges had more discretion in sentencing; but it ignores the reason for the mandatory sentencing which was too many bleeding heart liberal judges letting people off for horrendous crimes with little or no prison time. 

This Is What People Who Support Immigration Want

 "11 dead, 12 wounded after gunmen open fire at soccer field in central Mexico"--New York Post.

Prehistoric Airburst Preceded Agriculture In Levant

 A 2023 article in The Current: "A prehistoric cosmic airburst preceded the advent of agriculture in the Levant." An excerpt:

    Agriculture in Syria started with a bang 12,800 years ago as a fragmented comet slammed into the Earth’s atmosphere. The explosion and subsequent environmental changes forced hunter-gatherers in the prehistoric settlement of Abu Hureyra to adopt agricultural practices to boost their chances for survival.

    That’s the assertion made by an international group of scientists in one of four related research papers, all appearing in the journal Science Open: Airbursts and Cratering Impacts. The papers are the latest results in the investigation of the Younger Dryas Impact Hypothesis, the idea that an anomalous cooling of the Earth almost 13 millennia ago was the result of a cosmic impact.

    “In this general region, there was a change from more humid conditions that were forested and with diverse sources of food for hunter-gatherers, to drier, cooler conditions when they could no longer subsist only as hunter-gatherers,” said Earth scientist James Kennett, a professor emeritus of UC Santa Barbara. The settlement at Abu Hureyra is famous among archaeologists for its evidence of the earliest known transition from foraging to farming. “The villagers started to cultivate barley, wheat and legumes,” he noted. “This is what the evidence clearly shows.”

 Read the whole thing. No reason a similar disaster could not happen again. 

Gun & Prepping News #65

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

•  It's that time of year ... Shot Show:
• "Aimpoint A-Cut And COA Optic Become Widely Available"--The Firearm Blog.  Just noting that the A-Cut optic mounting system has been adopted by other manufacturers beyond Glock. Will this be the Key-Mod v. M-Lok all over again?
• "Winchester SXR2 Semi-Auto Rifle Keeps The Fudd Dream Alive"--The Firearm Blog. This is a hunting rifle that will be offered in 308, .30-06, 300 Win Mag and 9.3x62. Per the article, it is intended to be a less expensive option to the Browning BAR, although the MSRP puts it only a couple hundred less. Increasingly unusual for this day and age, it comes with iron sights. Unfortunately, the author couldn't spare room from his sarcastic commentary to give us any real details about the weapon. Per Winchester's website, the rifle is a gas piston design and uses a 7 lug bolt, and weighs 7 lbs. 4 oz. for the composite model. It seems to have already been sold in Europe. 
• "Blecher BrashZero Caseless Bullpup Rifle"--The Firearm Blog. So this is an interesting rifle. Rather than feed cartridges, it uses magazines holding the components: the bullet, the powder, and, I assume, some sort of primer. As the weapon cycles, the components are fed into the rifle. It reminds me of a couple rifle designs that had been developed in the late 18th Century that used hand cranks to feed powder and ball into the breach to allow more rapid fire. I believe one of these designs even saw service on the British side during the Revolutionary War. 
• "Beretta Introduces the A300 Ultima Patrol in 20ga!"--The Firearm Blog.  
• "14 Rounds in the Palm of Your Hand - KelTec’s PR-3AT"--The Firearm Blog. Another internal magazine design loaded via stripper clip. 
• "New Diamondback SDR-A Aluminum Frame .38 Special Revolver"--The Firearm Blog.  This is a "hammerless" design using a 6-round cylinder, with real pistol sights, and only weighing 15.6 ounces unloaded. 
• "Lyman Products Introduces Sonicore Suppressors"--Outdoor Wire. This is a line of different suppressors--apparently a European design--with the key selling point being that "MSRP will range from $199 to $299, depending on model." 
• More: "Lowering Decibels For Less: Lyman's New Sonicore Suppressor Lineup"--American Rifleman.
• "Tech Wisdom: Snakes vs. Patches"--Shooting Illustrated.  Basically, the bore snake is intended for range use while patches and rods are really needed for a more thorough cleaning regimen. 
• "MRAD vs MOA: How to Choose the Right Rifle Scope"--The Truth About Guns.  "Compared with MRAD, each MOA click moves the POI a smaller distance, so it takes plenty of clicks to move your POI any very far. American civilian shooters tend to use MOA, while the military and much of the rest of the world will use MRAD," writes the author. 
• On the topic of rifle scopes: "Scope Mounting: Do It Right Or Don’t Bother!"--Guns Magazine. The author writes:

There’s no way around it: to properly mount a scope, you need equipment. One option is to pay a competent gunsmith to do it — money well spent if the gunsmith does it properly — or you can invest $400-700 in proper tools and own them for life. Even if you only mount a couple of scopes a year, it pencils out over time. 

• Giving up on the scout rifle or finally bringing in mainstream? 
• "New for 2026: Franchi Momentum Mule Rifle"--American Rifleman. 
• "New for 2026: Ruger American Rifle Generation II Scout"--American Rifleman. 

These are two very similar rifles intended for similar purposes--a do-it-all type rifle. Both are bolt actions with similar caliber options (both have models available in .308 and 5.56/.223, although Ruger offers some additional choices); threaded barrels; long scope rail systems that allow the mounting of a standard scope, a forward (scout) long eye relief scope; built in iron sights; 16-inch barrels; and available with 10-round magazines. The Franchi is slightly over 7 lbs. versus 6.5 lbs. for the Ruger. The Franchi is also several hundred dollars more, but has some other features that might make it worth the price difference. 

• Definitely not a scout rifle: "PSA Unleashes the Sabre-10A2 Super Sass .308 Rifle"--Ammo Land. An AR-10 style rifle coming in at 11 lbs.
• "10mm vs. .40 S&W: Similarities, Differences and Uses"--Shooting Illustrated. Short take: "While the .40 S&W is a marginal hunting round, the 10mm is probably the best of the rimless, straight-walled pistol cartridges," but "the .40 S&W is a damned good defensive cartridge, giving a good balance of penetration, accuracy and portability."
• " .38 Special: What I’ve Learned After Over 20,000 Rounds"--The Truth About Guns. A very versatile cartridge. 
• "Concealed Carry Corner: Stop Carrying So Much Junk"--The Firearm Blog. An excerpt:

 When it comes to carrying a concealed handgun, less truly is more and if you carry more than the bare minimum, it's wasted energy in most cases. I’ve certainly been there where I was carrying two flashlights along with a small utility knife as well as a larger knife for self-defense on top of my main carry gun and extra magazines. I felt like my pants were a boat anchor and it just became a lot to the point where I wanted to leave the house without anything. The simple truth is, you need a small handgun to start out with basically nothing else besides a good holster.

•  "Rifles: Find the Right Ammunition"--Shooting Illustrated. The article discusses how sometimes what appears to be a crap barrel might just need a different load. For example:

     One rifle started the week with a dismal 6.9-MOA average of five-shot, 100-yard groups using a highly regarded, 77-grain match 5.56 NATO load. A popular 70-grain defensive load was even worse. The carbine’s like-new, 1:7-inch-twist barrel came from a pedigreed rifle maker and seemed just right for the task. Shaving slightly more than 1 MOA off the student’s average-group size (through rifle accurization) sounds good by itself, but that still left him with a 5.2-MOA best group at 100 yards.

    The rifle’s owner was ready to scrap the barrel, so I encouraged him to try a lighter-weight factory load that I sometimes use for accuracy testing: Hornady’s match-quality, 55-grain V-Max. His initial five-shot group printed less than 1 inch, and for the first time all week, this experienced rifleman was smiling. Another great V-Max group convinced him that the barrel wasn’t a lost cause. He used PMC 55-grain FMJ for the rest of his groups, which averaged a hair larger than 2 MOA at 100 yards.

• "M1 Garand Bucket List: Shoot The Legend"--Guns America.  Lots of photos and information about this great rifle. 
• When you absolutely need to start a fire: "AZAO TH3AZ Thermite Grenades"--The Truth About Guns. These are not regulated items, so you can purchase them without the ATF's permission. The article mentions that:

Much like Tannerite, AZAO’s thermite grenades come with the relevant chemical mixture separated. Coming in a couple restaurant style ketchup squeeze bottles, the iron oxide and aluminum powder are mixed on the day of use, on site. 

 These are also not the same as military thermite grenades which also include thermate. But apparently those are planned to be offered in the future. 

• "Buffer Zones and Bailouts: Navigating Urban Mobility During Unrest"--Option Gray. Advice on (i) planning multiple exit routes, (ii) identify protest prone zones, and (iii) fuel, stash, and fallback points. And some final thoughts:

     Urban mobility during unrest isn’t about fear. It’s about freedom. If you can move, you can adapt. If you’re trapped, options shrink fast.

    Treat your city like a terrain map, not a convenience. Study it. Walk it. And build your own escape routes now—while you still can.

• "EMP Proof Watch"--Modern Survival Blog. He believes that the best for this purpose is those with mechanical movements. His recommendation is the SNK805 – SEIKO 5, an "automatic" (self-winding) watch with date function and illuminated face. Sort of pricey, though, at $329 currently at Amazon. 
• "The Superior Hat"--Blue Collar Prepping. A review of the "Men's Superior Hat" from Duluth Trading Co. It is an insulated hat with a baseball cap style brim but but with fold down flaps to cover the ears.  

VIDEO: Winter Survival Belt

This belt is intended to be worn outside of a parka to augment what you would normally carry for use in the backwoods for specific winter conditions.  

 VIDEO: "WINTER SURVIVAL BELT | How To Make A Belt Kit"
SURVIVAL SCOUT (9 min.)

VIDEO: A Rabbi Calls For Unity With Muslim Invaders of Europe

An Israeli rabbi speaking at Devos said that Jews need to ally with Muslims against "old" (i.e., native) Europeans.  I've said it before, but I'll say it again: when Jews speak of "never again" they are specifically thinking of Europeans and the West. 

 VIDEO: "A Strange Thing To Say"
m o d e r n i t y (5 min.)

VIDEO: Packing For A Backcountry Hunt

A professional backcountry hunting guide details what he packs for a backcountry elk hunt. A lot of the gear is for surveilling an area for elk--binoculars, laser range finders, tripod, spotting scope--but he also includes first aid kit and other gear a woodsman and hunter would need.  

VIDEO: "Expert's Backcountry Hunting Backpack - What to pack for a SUCCESSFUL Hunt"
On The Scout (13 min.)

Weekend Reading

• First up is another Weekend Knowledge Dump from Active Response Training. Some of the links that caught my attention:
• At the top of this list is an article form Guns Magazine entitled "No, The Sky Ain't Falling" which is a weird title for an article about really useful prepping gear that you may have overlooked: everything from water filters and dust masks, to dental repair kits and a crowbar. Go over it and see if there is anything that you are missing.
• An article going over the benefits and uses of a having a triangular bandage. The author really likes the "Cravat Triangular Bandage" from ChinookMed.
• On this note, Greg mentions that Amazon currently has a sale on Israeli style bandages.
• An article with advice on how not to get car jacked. I laughed at one of the specific, enumerated points: don't go to Detroit.
• An article looking at the pros and cons of red dots on concealed carry pistols. I've been experimenting with this lately, and I can tell you a couple real quick cons: the optic gets a lot of lint and dust on (I just carry it under a jacket), and it is just one more thing to dig into your side. I was also watching a video lately where the author had stuck a red dot on a pistol he normally carried in the pocket. Of course, with the optic, it would no longer fit in the pocket holster he had for the weapon; so he was having to get a bigger holster and I was left with the the question of whether he would even be able to fit it into a pocket. I think there is a definite place for optics on a duty sized pistol, but I don't see them working well for deep concealment or pocket carry; and in between those extremes, it probably is going to come down to a individual circumstances. 
• It appears that the Left is going to be trying to force the rest of the country to give into their demands, and so Greg has included a link to a timely article on the topic of "What If Your Neighborhood Is Attacked By An Angry Mob?"
• And an early look on the impact of the elimination of the $200 suppressor tax: "Knox Williams, executive director of the American Suppressor Association (ASA), reported after meeting with ATF officials during SHOT Show here in Las Vegas that, to date, more than 260,000 eForms have been processed this January."  
• "Woke never really died, it’s coming back with a vengeance — and we should be terrified" by Rikki Schlott, New York Post. 
• And some from Peter Grant at Bayou Renaissance Man:
• "Fifty people control the culture" - Media (streaming, movies, record labels) is highly concentrated. Google controls most of the internet. This concentration means that just a small group can choke off the flow of information to and between members of the public. 

    What it means, of course, is that if anyone wants to do anything that the "favored fifty" (or enough of them, at any rate) would rather not see succeed, they can throttle it to the point of strangulation without even raising a sweat.  If they don't publish it, nobody will be able to access it.  If they don't publicize it, nobody will know about it.  If it becomes any sort of a threat, they can buy it with their pocket change and simply shut it down.  The developer or author or owner won't be able to refuse their offer, because he/she/they will go broke if they don't.

    A prime example may be seen in Minneapolis and Minnesota right now.  All the focus of the news media is on ICE's law enforcement activity there - ignoring the truly massive fraud investigations going on into multiple aspects of the state's government, ...

•  "Minnesota: Both sides are caught on the horns of a dilemma" - This article begins with a warning of how the anti-ICE protestors going into a church crossed a red line, including a quote from, of all people, Rod Dreher warning that this type of behavior is how civil wars start because, at some point, conservatives are going to react. But I also found the second half of the post interesting because it notes how these confrontations are being orchestrated, to-wit, this example:

January 15, 2026. Tore Says monitors document simultaneous Zoom calls across every major activist network in the United States. Sunrise Movement. Federal employee resistance groups. Military reservist networks. Senior Executive Service officials. Antifa organizers. Ideologically opposed groups, different platforms, never having worked together publicly.

Jake broadcasts intent to burn a Quran to provoke the left.

Pink broadcasts alerts about an “anti-Muslim rally” to mobilize the Left.

They both specify the exact time. They both name the location.

On the surface, they are enemies. In the intelligence chatter, they are the same network. One operative amplifies the threat. The other provides the violence. Two hands of the same foreign-funded clock.

Every Zoom call Tore documented discussed the same objective: create sufficient unrest that the president invokes the Insurrection Act.

• "Minneapolis has been planning its insurrection for a long time" - Another post describing the organized efforts on the ground to identify ICE activity and provoke confrontations. An excerpt:

Minnesota has spent years building an infrastructure of ICE watch patrols, NGO backed rapid response teams, and politically wired nonprofits that can flip from ordinary life to street mobilization in minutes. 

The key to Minnesota’s rapid mobilization is not Twitter activism. It is an on the ground surveillance and response network that local reporters have already documented in detail. A Star Tribune investigation into the “organized resistance to ICE” in Minnesota reads like a field manual for modern grassroots intelligence operations.​

In south Minneapolis, volunteers spend hours driving what they openly call ICE patrols. Phones are mounted on dashboards. Every sighting of a suspicious SUV, every cluster of federal jackets, is recorded and dropped into Signal and WhatsApp groups that run silently in the background of daily life.​

•  "I agree" - Noting that there is a lag between the collapse of a central authority and full-insurgency. And in that lag period?

[There are] large numbers of people armed and ideologically primed for violence, yet most still hesitate to cross the line into open, sustained conflict. Instead, we see the precursors: fireworks thrown as provocations, screaming crowds, disruptive "stupid games," and tantrum-like escalations when people don't get their way. These are the behaviors of spoiled children testing boundaries. 

 He believes that we are in that lag period. But the key point, at the end of his post, is that we have a situation (he refers to the deportation of illegal aliens, but it also applies to many other divisive issues) where no reconciliation is possible. 

Daily Mail: Grocery Shelves Stripped Bare

The reason we prepare. From the Daily Mail: "Panic buying grips America as historic winter storm closes in... and millions could be left without heat for DAYS: Live updates."

Colbert Speaks The Truth For Once

Upset that the FCC will be enforcing the "equal time" rule on late night talk shows, Colbert made the following comments on his show:

    'And I’ve got one thing to say to the FCC,' Colbert - an outspoken Trump critic - went on.   

    'I’m flattered you think that appearing on my show has the power to affect politics in any way, but I’ve been doing this job for 21 years. 

    'And let me tell you something, buddy - if our government had turned out the way I had chosen, you would not have the power to make this announcement.'  

If the government had turned out the way he had chosen, no conservative would ever be allowed speak their minds.  

Ariz. AG Suggests Scared Residents Can Shoot ICE Agents

 Some of the dumbest self-defense advice since Joe Biden's advice to just shoot through the door. From the New York Post: "Arizona AG Kris Mayes wildly suggests residents can shoot masked ICE agents under state’s self-defense laws: ‘Recipe for disaster’." 

    Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes wildly suggested that residents can open fire on masked ICE agents if they feel their life is in danger under the state’s self-defense laws.

    The Democrat, in a sit-down with 12 News anchor Brahm Resnik, warned that Arizona’s “Stand Your Ground” law, which allows citizens to use deadly force if they believe they’re in imminent danger, could become a “recipe for disaster” if protesters clash with immigration officers.

    “It’s kind of a recipe for disaster because you have these masked federal officers with very little identification, sometimes no identification, wearing plain clothes and masks,” Mayes said in the Monday interview, calling ICE “very poorly trained.” 

    “And we have a Stand Your Ground law that says that if you reasonably believe that your life is in danger and you’re in your house or your car or on your property, that you can defend yourself with lethal force.”

What I suspect is going on here is that she is hoping that someone takes her advice and tries to shoot an ICE officer which will notch up the rhetoric and protests no matter the outcome. She wants the chaos. 

The Soviet's Silenced Revolver: The OTS 38

From Breach Bang Clear: "OTS 38 Revolver: Stechkin’s Suppressed Wheelgun." This was a snub-nosed revolver that shot from a barrel at the bottom of the cylinder (like a Rhino revolver) to mitigate recoil and muzzle climb when a round was fired. There was no sound suppressor to attach, however. Rather it used a special rimless 7.62x42mm cartridge that each acted to suppress the sound. The article explains:

... The sound and flash of each round are fully contained within the cartridge case. Inside the case is a piston. After firing, the piston seals the cartridge’s neck. This eliminates the noise, smoke and flash by acting as a barrier after the round is touched off. In essence, each round acts as its own silencer.

[snip]

 This particular round was designed to be effective at up to 100′, and the sound signature is said to be at 110 dB with no muzzle flash. ...

Abandoned Yugo Submarine Tunnels

 

It's been a while since I had a post about modern ruins. The photograph above is one of several from an article at Atlas Obscura entitled "Abandoned Submarine Tunnels." The article relates:

    Montenegro’s submarine tunnels, or bunkers, are channels dug out of cliff walls in the Bay of Kotor (on the northern coast of the Luštica Peninsula, near the village of Rose) built by the Yugoslav Army for the purpose of concealing submarines and small warships from satellites or spy planes.

    Three such tunnels were constructed, intended as protection from air raids. A submarine would have entered a tunnel while submerged and surface completely once inside. With an average depth of about 90 feet and a maximum depth of over 200 feet, the Bay of Kotor offered an ideal location to such hide vessels of marine warfare. 

 They were abandoned after the collapse of the Warsaw Pact. Fake boulders meant to conceal the openings have deteriorated leaving the entrances easy to spot. Per the article, the tunnels are not closed off and the public can take boats to, or even into, the tunnels. 

Ancient Military Barracks From Time Of Ramses II

This article is from the fall of 2024, but still interesting: "These Ancient Egyptian Barracks Paint a Vivid Picture of Military Life During the Reign of Ramses II." From the article:

Researchers have discovered a 3,200-year-old Egyptian fort filled with archaeological treasures. Located at the Tell Al-Abqain excavation site in northwest Egypt, the buried structure contained religious tributes, military barracks and a bronze sword inscribed with the name of the pharaoh Ramses II.

[snip]

Those buildings, or barracks, contained a trove of artifacts, including the necessities and personal effects of the soldiers stationed there during Egypt’s New Kingdom era, a period of prosperity, territorial expansion and peace that lasted from around 1550 to 1077 B.C.E. The barracks show the military power Egypt expended to grow and defend its territory during this time.

[snip]

At the site, researchers also found granaries, cow burials and pottery containing fish bones. In ancient Egypt, cows were “revered as celestial deities” and symbols of “strength, abundance and prosperity,” per the statement. However, these specific burials indicate that soldiers likely ate the cows: The bovine remains were found in an area near an oven, “which confirms that they were probably divided into parts and then stored in silos after drying,” El Kharadly tells Live Science’s Owen Jarus. 

Another AWFUL Being Awful

The Daily Mail reports that Mary Conmee, 63, "a retired New York State Police Sgt. who resides in Orrington, [Maine] confessed she was the woman who tried to impede the Brewer Police Department's investigation into a person's 'intent to kill school staff and others' at local schools on Wednesday, authorities said." Why would she do this? Because she's a liberal and so her need to feel good about herself outweighs anybody else's right to life, liberty or property. This was all about her social preening: she thought it might be an immigration enforcement action. 

Virginia Lawmaker Introduces Bill Blocking Scrutiny Of Non-Profits After Minnessota Fraud Exposed

I saw this over at Anonymous Conservative this morning: a Fox News article reporting that "After Somali fraud scandal, VA Democrat pushes bill killing oversight of nonprofits." The politician at issue is the Jessica Anderson, a delegate to the general assembly. You might not think this will get very far, but I've seen comments that Virginia Governor Abigail Spanberger is being groomed to be one of the next Democratic presidential candidates. She might push something like this along to solidify support behind her in the party. 

Leftist Upping The Stakes In Minnessota

The leftist rag, the Peoples Dispatch, states that "[m]omentum toward a statewide general strike is rapidly building in Minnesota, as unions, businesses, students, and community organizations prepare to shut down work, schools, and commerce on January 23, in response to the killing of Renee Macklin Good and the expanding presence of Immigration Customs Enforcement (ICE) in the Twin Cities." The article adds:

The call to shut down the Twin Cities and the entire state of Minnesota has been joined by over 100 labor unions, community organizations, cultural groups, and tenant and neighborhood associations. Hundreds of small businesses so far have also declared they will totally shut down, according to a sign-on letter shared with Peoples Dispatch.  

The question is whether anyone (but news organizations) will notice? Meanwhile, per ABC News, the "Army orders military police to get ready for a possible Minneapolis deployment, AP source says." This is only a few dozen MPs according to the article. But it also notes that "[a]bout 1,500 active-duty soldiers from the Army’s 11th Airborne Division based in Alaska also have received similar standby orders."

A Look Inside The Mind Of An Elite

 An article from the New York Post entitled "James Cameron moved his family to New Zealand because it’s ‘sane’ compared to ‘extremely polarized’ US." A few things that struck me when I read it:

• The lack of loyalty to any country. He was born in Canada, moved to the U.S. in 1971, purchased a farm (i.e., a bolt hole) in New Zealand in 2012, moved there in 2022 because he preferred how they forced everyone to get the Covid vaxx versus the United States, and now has citizenship in New Zealand. 
• Why are so many elites picking New Zealand as their bolt holes? 
• His collectivist tendencies. The article relates:

    Although he was still working on 2022’s “Avatar: The Way of Water” at the time, he and Amis decided to “make the move as a family” that August because of how New Zealand responded to the pandemic versus the US.

    “New Zealand had eliminated the virus completely,” the “Terminator” director, who was born in Canada but moved to California in 1971, told Besinger. “They actually eliminated the virus twice. The third time when it showed up in a mutated form, it broke through. But fortunately, they already had a 98% vaccination rate.” 

    “This is why I love New Zealand,” he continued. “People there are, for the most part, sane as opposed to the United States, where you had a 62% vaccination rate, and that’s going down – going the wrong direction.”

    Cameron went on to praise New Zealand’s appreciation for science and suggested that the US would fall apart if another pandemic occurred.

    “Where would you rather live?” the Oscar-winning director asked. “A place that actually believes in science and is sane, and where people can work together cohesively to a common goal?”   

So he considers a population insane if they don't do what the elites tell them? Or perhaps he likes the social cohesion that comes from a country that is 68% white versus living in southern California?

New Theory About How Pyramids Were Constructed

"Egypt's Great Pyramid construction rewritten as new evidence exposes how it was actually built" reports the Daily Mail.  

    The construction of Egypt’s Great Pyramid has long baffled archaeologists, with no surviving ancient texts explaining how its massive stone blocks were lifted and assembled so quickly. 

    Traditional theories rely on ramps and a slow, layer-by-layer build, but they struggle to explain how stones weighing up to 60 tons were raised hundreds of feet in just two decades. 

    Now, a new study has proposed that the pyramid was built using an internal system of counterweights and pulley-like mechanisms hidden inside its structure.

    In research published in Nature, Dr Simon Andreas Scheuring of Weill Cornell Medicine in New York calculated that builders could lift and place massive blocks at an astonishing pace, sometimes as quickly as one block per minute. 

    He argued that this would only have been possible with sliding counterweights, rather than brute-force hauling, generating the power needed to raise stones to the upper levels of the Pyramid of Khufu.

    The study also pointed to architectural features inside the pyramid that support this model, identifying the Grand Gallery and Ascending Passage as sloped ramps where counterweights may have been dropped to create a lifting force. 

    The Antechamber, long thought to be a security feature, is reinterpreted as a pulley-like mechanism that could help lift even the heaviest blocks. 

    If true, the study suggested the Great Pyramid was constructed from the inside out, starting at an internal core and using hidden pulley systems to raise stones as the structure grew. 

The Science Is Unsettled

 From Science News: "A massive cosmic ring may challenge a key assumption about the universe." A ring of dense matter spanning more than 3.3 billion light-years is posing a problem for the cosmological principle, which holds that the universe looks the same in all directions on large scales.

    That principle is “the second most fundamental assumption in the field,” after Einstein’s theory of general relativity, says mathematical physicist Eoin ÓColgáin of Atlantic Technological University in Ireland, who studies challenges to the cosmological principle but was not involved in the new work. Every theoretical model of the universe assumes that matter is evenly distributed when you look at large enough volumes of space. Without that assumption, ÓColgáin says, “all hell would break loose.”

    The giant ring joins a growing list of huge structures that shouldn’t exist if that assumption holds. It is apparently an extension of a previously reported “giant arc,” and encircles a smaller — but still huge — “big ring” of material.

    “They appear to present more of a challenge to the cosmological principle together now,” says Lopez, of the University of Central Lancashire in Preston, England. “Can we explain something like a ring and an arc together?”

More of Mexico's Assymetrical Attacks On The U.S.

 From Breitbart: "MEXICO’S ELECTION PLOT UNMASKED: How Mexico’s 50+ Consulates Are Running Shadow Campaign to Sway U.S. Elections." Among various activities, they are sending millions of textbooks to American schools that teach history the way Mexico wants it taught, offer similar courses to Mexican adults in the U.S., and organized mass protests in support of illegal immigration into the U.S. I don't see why Mexico should be allowed to have so many consulates. China has one embassy and four consulates in the U.S. Russia has only three consulates in addition to their embassy. Germany has eight consulates. India has only seven. 

Grassi: At Gunpoint Is Wrong

Earlier this month, Massad Ayoob had posted explaining why "On Target, On Trigger" is wrong. By "On Target, On Trigger" he meant having the finger on the trigger while holding someone at gunpoint. But Rich Grassi, in his article "Sacred Cow or Wrong Point?" argues that even pointing the firearm at someone, until you are actually taking your shot, is wrong. He writes:

     Actually, the point is “in the self-defense context, gunpoint needs to go.” If there’s muzzle on meat, we’re in the process of shooting (unless something stops that train). Otherwise, the muzzle is averted in the safest available direction, usually a muzzle-averted (thanks, Dave Spaulding) low ready.

    Low ready has acres of advantages – not the least of which is complete vision of the (incipient) crime scene pre-engagement. If shooting’s not needed, so much the better.

 He's not the only one that teaches this. In the civilian context, the quotes from Marty Hayes:

    “My advice is to avoid drawing the gun unless you absolutely need to do so, avoid pointing the gun at anyone unless you absolutely need to do so, and then call the police to report the criminal activity which caused you to draw the gun.  If you cannot articulate criminal activity on the part of the aggressive parties, don’t draw the gun.

    “An alternative to drawing the gun at all is simply to take a bladed stance, with gun side away from the potential attacker or attackers, and place your hand on the gun underneath your concealment garment, with a warning to back off.  Your resolve to use deadly force if necessary is communicated, but there is no exposure of the gun.”   

Read the whole thing.  

China's Population Continues To Fall

"China’s population falls again as births drop to lowest rate since 1949 communist revolution," reports the Associated Press. Population figures earlier this week show that the population declined by 3 million people last year, and "the birth rate in 2025 — 5.63 per 1,000 people — is the lowest on record since 1949, the year that Mao Zedong’s Communists overthrew the Nationalists and began running China. Figures before that, under the previous Nationalist government, were not available." In other words, birth rates are the lowest ever recorded. The article adds:

Like many other countries in Asia, China has faced a declining fertility rate, or the average number of babies a woman is expected to have in her lifetime. While the government does not regularly publish a fertility rate, last saying it was 1.3 in 2020, experts have estimated it is now around 1. Both figures are far below the 2.1 rate that would maintain the size of China’s population.  

The actual population figures may actually be much worse than officially reported, however, as the video below explains:

 VIDEO: "China’s Real Population: A Question No One Is Allowed to Answer"
Lei's Real Talk (14 min.)

NY Post: Rogue Elephant Kills Nearly Two Dozen People In India

From the New York Post: "Rogue elephant kills nearly two dozen people in 10-day rampage through eastern India." An additional 15 people have been injured. Per the article:

    The animal is believed to be in a state of musth — a natural but dangerous hormonal condition in male elephants marked by a surge in testosterone that can last weeks or even months.

    During musth, bulls become extremely aggressive, restless and unpredictable, often roaming long distances and attacking without warning.

Authorities have been unsuccessful in tranquilizing the animal, and "[l]ocal authorities say the elephant has yet to be captured as it continues to evade teams by moving swiftly through dense forest and slipping across remote villages under cover of darkness."

Newsweek: Democratic Socialists Useful Idiots For China

Newsweek reports: 

    Members of New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s Democratic Socialists of America have been cultivating ties with officials of the Chinese Communist Party and agreeing to take pro-China positions, according to extensive minutes of internal meetings seen by Newsweek. 

    The minutes of the DSA meetings show participants discussing contacts with officials from China’s ruling party in the name of "anti-imperialism," with some members saying the organization should avoid topics that are sensitive for Beijing, such as China's threats to invade Taiwan, its security crackdown in Hong Kong and abuses of the Uyghur Muslim minority. They also discuss visits to China. Chinese officials did not take part in the meetings themselves but met with members in China and encouraged the DSA to set up exchanges, according to the minutes.   

In other words, the Democratic Socialists are okay with invading other countries;  gassing, beating and arresting protestors; and slave labor and concentration camps; so long as it is the "right people" people doing it.  

Some Good News

 It's easy to get lost in the negative news, so I wanted to direct your attention to some good news. Greg Ellifritz recently gave an update on his prostate cancer and reports that the cancer has not spread nearly as rapidly as the doctors had predicted, adding:

The tumor putting pressure on a nerve in my low back has actually gotten significantly smaller.  I still have cancer, but it seems to be confined to what’s left of my prostate gland and in two pelvic lymph nodes.  The cancer has not spread to any anatomic structures where it has the ability to kill me yet.  In fact, it has not spread at all since last May.   

This isn't to say he is out of the woods, though, so keep him in your prayers.  

Mexico's Territorial Ambitions For The American Southwest

From Just The News: "The Reconquista: How Mexico is weaponizing illegal immigration to punish the United States." An excerpt:

    Many pillars of the Mexican elite embrace the notion of Reconquista—the “reconquest” of the land ceded to the United States by Mexico during the 1848 Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, achieved through mass migration and political action. There are many in positions of power who share some version of that vision.

    While they may or may not mean the literal territorial rejoining of those territories with Mexico, they very much mean the cultural and political detachment of the American Southwest from the US and transforming it to resemble Mexican civilization.

    They hope to accomplish this task by mass migration, preventing the assimilation of migrants in the United States to the American way of life, and organizing them into a political force for Mexico’s benefit. With the help of powerful forces inside the United States, they are well on their way.

    Mexico’s political elite are shockingly open about it.

The article includes comments from José Gerardo Rodolfo Fernández Noroña, a member of the Mexican parliament for President Claudia Sheinbaum’s ruling Morena party, former Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador (popularly known as AMLO), Jorge Nuño Jiménez, a prominent Mexican academic who regularly attends the United Nations Conference, and other elites supporting the Reconquista of portions of the United States. 

    The seems like a good reason to expel illegal aliens and freeze all immigration from Mexico. 

VIDEO: RIA Pak-Out Folding Shotgun And Firearm

Shot Show 2026 content is already showing up on YouTube. One that caught my attention was this video which takes a look at a couple folding designs from RIA--a full size shotgun with stock and a stockless firearm--that appear that they could fold up to fit into a backpack or gym bag. And the prices mentioned seemed pretty reasonable.  

VIDEO: "FOLDING Pump Shotguns Are Here: RIA Pak-Out 12 Gauge | SHOT Show 2026"
TFB TV (5 min.)

What The Left Plans For The Rest Of Us

In a comment to my post "Do They Understand The Possible Consequences?" long time reader Steve S6 pointed me to this article at Metallicman, "What the Progressive Socialist Liberals have in store for Conservatives" (Part 1) (Part 2). And while conservatives think we have the upper hand for various reasons (but probably because of the much higher rates of gun ownership), the articles contains two warnings that we should heed. 

    First, when the balloon goes up, authorities will be going around to forcibly collect those firearms; and if you refuse, they may shoot you on the spot or simply destroy your house with you in it. Apparently this is what they did in the Balkans War. In that case, the only people that had firearms after SHTF were those that possessed them illegally--without them being registered with the government (or in the case of the U.S. in a retail/ATF database).  

    Second, we are probably underestimating their abilities. In Part 2 of the Metallicman article, he cautions that "they will be better armed, and trained than what you are expecting." He also notes that "their mass base skewers far younger, they have a legal system and  media providing overhead cover for their actions, and from our  observation, their level and speed of organization have far surpassed  what the Right was able to accomplish in twice the time." This is not surprising. We saw this type of organization in the 1960s as to the various radical groups, even terrorist groups like the Weather Underground. The left has been doing this--refining this--for decades. For instance, just yesterday, S2 Underground related in a post on X:

By my count, there are at least 55 different legal groups in Minnesota alone that are providing free legal services to the groups conducting these destabilization operations. Whenever federal agents make an arrest at a violent riot, the suspect is usually released a few hours later, and provided with a wealth of free resources. 

(See also Mutual Aid Disaster Relief as an example of organization among the left). The right has not even begun to put together these types of networks.

    Beyond the left having lawyers on speed dial is that they have been training up their direct action people, everything from the front line protestors to the groups that provide "security" such as the Puget Sound John Brown Gun Club (JBGC), the Rhode Island JBGC, Redneck Revolt, and other similar groups. Back in 2019, Tactical Hermit wrote about this in his article, "An Examination of the New Violent Left in America," which is cited in Part 2 of the Metallicman article. An excerpt:

    To get a sense of where the average leftist is at regarding violence, there is this overly biased article from the Guardian.  In which members of the the Puget Sound John Brown Gun Club stated that they were willing to be armed and get violent if need be to “Provide Security and Protect themselves from Right Wing Aggression.” This is classic deflection (blame) rhetoric. Since in most every video I can find of ANTIFA, it is THESE morons that start the fights, not the Trump Supporters or “Right Wing” groups.

    The PSJBGC go on to clearly state on their website that they believe in “ACTIVE RESISTANCE” and that they train in Defense which includes the right to own, carry, and train with tactically useful rifles, pistols, and body armor. Not sure what “tactically useful” means here, but it is clear, at least to me, that they are trying to be better organized and sound more martially active or “warlike” if you will than other groups you typically find in this ilk which look and sound downright effeminate and weak. 

 That was in 2019. The training has only continued. On November 24, 2025, Wired published an article entitled "The Hard-Left Shooters Leading a Gun Culture Revolution" by Manisha Krishnan. The author relates how in July, prior to Kirk's assassination, she was riding in a golf cart to a shooting range near Parma, Idaho, with "a 22-year-old YouTuber who goes by Gun Bunny, ... a Russian Jew who is poly-pansexual" and  "an Indigenous-Mexican Slovak Jew who is trans and chronically disabled." They were there to take part in the High Desert Brutality match hosted by Karl Kasarda, who runs the InRange TV YouTube channel, and who the article describes as "[a] 51-year-old cis white man whose love of subcultures spans hacking, industrial music, and a stint as a minister with the Satanic Temple[.]" "But," the article adds, "there is no question he is largely responsible for building this alternative gun community, which he and others describe as the 'punk rock outsiders of the shooting community.'" The article continues:

These tensions have gotten worse under Trump 2.0. After the president was reelected, left-leaning and queer-focused firearms organizations and classes like the Liberal Gun Club and the Pink Pistols told me they were seeing major spikes in interest and attendance. In early September, media outlets reported that Justice Department officials were considering a gun ban for trans people. In response, one trans gun content creator recommended trans Americans who’d been planning to purchase firearms “do so now.” 

Now I am not saying that every leftist (or even a majority of them) attending classes and events like that described above want an armed revolution; but there are some--probably too many--that do (see, e.g,, "Founder of Armed Queers group investigated in Charlie Kirk shooting is radical trans leftist who advocated violence"--New York Post; "Anti-Fascist. Armed to the Teeth"--Rolling Stone). The Rolling Stone article, for instance, relates:

    In 2019, the JBGC made headlines when 69-year-old Willem Van Spronsen, a senior member of the Puget Sound chapter, attacked an Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in Tacoma, Washington. Van Spronsen infiltrated the property with a semiautomatic rifle and several Molotov cocktails, before being shot and killed by police. Van Spronsen’s premeditated attack is a notable exception in the group’s history, in which they’ve rarely participated in violence. But his attack and his farewell letter to another member, in which he wrote, “I am antifa” — a reference to anti-fascist activism — gained attention, in particular, from the right.  

    Since Van Spronsen’s death, the number of active JBGC chapters around the country has increased dramatically, based on dozens of new JBGC Twitter accounts popping up. JBGCs have no central leadership or formal organization, instead operating as a loosely connected network of independent cells. Many members wear a patch with a stylized cartoon of their group’s namesake, bordered by the words “I don’t argue with people John Brown would have shot.” Chapters often range in size from around half a dozen members to more than 20, who are usually vetted through personal connections and in-person meetings before being welcomed in. ...

 The author also relates the camaraderie and mission orientation of such groups:

 The John Brown Gun Clubs operate independently but share a similar ethos: Direct action to counter the threat of the far right, and their members are dedicated to anti-fascism, anti-racism, and anti-bigotry. Most groups I spoke to emphasize that showing up armed is only part of their work, mentioning supply drives for unhoused people during Texas’ deep freezes and other mutual-aid events. “The gun stuff doesn’t exist without all this other stuff,” says one JBGC member who goes by the name Accountant. “If we’re going to be carrying guns, there has to be a community reason for it.”    

In other words, they aren't just meeting on weekends just to shoot a some targets, exchange some tall tales, and go home. If things go like they did in the 1960s and '70s, these people will soon be shadowing law enforcement and gathering intelligence, if they are not already doing so.    

Do They Understand The Possible Consequences?

Yesterday, Don Lemon and fellow anti-ICE revolutionaries raided a church in order to intimidate the local ICE administrator (who was also the pastor of the church). Today I came across other incidents showing that the anti-ICE people in Minneapolis are getting out of control: bulling and shouting obscenities at five white men simply because they were white; stealing equipment from a conservative reporter; attacking a man simply for wearing camo (and not the type used by military or law enforcement--it was like that used by duck hunters because the pattern mimics reeds and grass); and threatening and attacking a man with violence unless he took off an American flag hoodie and then stealing it after he had done so. 

    They want a revolution. Whether they get one or not is another question. But the point is that they are pushing to create some political break, possibly causing a civil war. I am reminded of Mark Twain's "The War Prayer" which starts out with a town overtaken with the thoughts of the glory of war, reflected by the prayer offered up by the minister of the town's church. But then a stranger walks to the pulpit to offer a very different prayer:

    “You have heard your servant’s prayer — the uttered part of it. I am commissioned of God to put into words the other part of it — that part which the pastor — and also you in your hearts — fervently prayed silently. And ignorantly and unthinkingly? God grant that it was so! You heard these words: ‘Grant us the victory, O Lord our God!’ … When you have prayed for victory you have prayed for many unmentioned results which follow victory–must follow it, cannot help but follow it. Upon the listening spirit of God fell also the unspoken part of the prayer. He commandeth me to put it into words. Listen!

    “O Lord our Father, our young patriots, idols of our hearts, go forth to battle — be Thou near them! With them — in spirit — we also go forth from the sweet peace of our beloved firesides to smite the foe. O Lord our God, help us to tear their soldiers to bloody shreds with our shells; help us to cover their smiling fields with the pale forms of their patriot dead; help us to drown the thunder of the guns with the shrieks of their wounded, writhing in pain; help us to lay waste their humble homes with a hurricane of fire; help us to wring the hearts of their unoffending widows with unavailing grief; help us to turn them out roofless with little children to wander unfriended the wastes of their desolated land in rags and hunger and thirst, sports of the sun flames of summer and the icy winds of winter, broken in spirit, worn with travail, imploring Thee for the refuge of the grave and denied it — for our sakes who adore Thee, Lord, blast their hopes, blight their lives, protract their bitter pilgrimage, make heavy their steps, water their way with their tears, stain the white snow with the blood of their wounded feet! We ask it, in the spirit of love, of Him Who is the Source of Love, and Who is the ever-faithful refuge and friend of all that are sore beset and seek His aid with humble and contrite hearts. Amen.

    (After a pause.) “Ye have prayed it; if ye still desire it, speak! The messenger of the Most High waits!”    

This is what the Leftist agitators secretly hope for anyone to the right of them.  

    But in a civil war--especially as one that falls along ideological rather than geographic divides--the innocent on both sides will be slaughtered and suffer.  Jack Lawson reminds us of this in his recent piece describing what an American civil war would be like. He writes:

    I’ve seen hundreds if not thousands of dead and probably more internal Human Anatomy than most medical surgeons. The blood thirsty revenge of black Rhodesian Army and Police torturing the Communists to death… for killing and torturing to death their children, siblings, parents and grandparents in their Tribal Trust Lands. God forbid you get between a Mashona or Matabele Warrior in his quest for vengeance. We soon had to be careful who we turned our prisoners over to.

    Bodies callously and without name, unceremoniously pushed into mass grave. I’ve witnessed the poverty, starvation, brutality. Enough killing, dying, barbarity and depravity for another twenty people’s lifetimes. I hope that never comes here. But such is the mad course of events that America’s ‘protestors’ are leading us to.

Beyond the killing, food will become a weapon:

    When it gets to food, you’ll quickly get ‘woke’ (up) to the Leftist’s (Communists) tactics. Because, food is a weapon and when you’re starving, you won’t care who is feeding you and your family. You’ll fight for the devil himself to keep eating. Again, food becomes a weapon. Read my essay “Store Food NOW!” on http:/JackLawsonBooks.Substack.com to understand how this weapon is used.

    The “I hate America!” Socialist stooges, enthusiastically continue, are funded by the background financial assistance and encouragement of the Deep State-Globalist-Elite-Leftist-Marxist-Internationals-One World Order-Woke & Whackos. They, along with the “Talking Heads” of the Main Stream News Media, will be persuading people to think… “Capitalism can’t provide for you, but Socialism (Communism) can!” …as their way to get total control of America. Socialism is Communism, without the gun barrel stuck up your nose.

    Then, how they’ll obtain supplies will be barbaric and they’ll supply only their own believers and those who support them. You’ll have to kiss many tushes to survive if you’re not one of them… and that will probably not work. Letting them rape your Wife, girlfriend or Daughters might get you somewhere.   

But this type of behavior will cut both ways. The Tactical Hermit has a couple recent posts on the Civil War that allude to the barbarity of it all. First, "The Burning of Alexandria," which relates how a Union army forced to retreat "devastated the countryside, burning every habitation. They stole everything that could be carried." The second relates some about a Southern guerilla fighter, "Bloody Bill" Anderson. 

William T. “Bloody Bill” Anderson was quite the gifted psychopath. The deadliest Confederate guerilla leader of the American Civil War, Anderson led his ruthless mob of cutthroats on a reign of terror along the rugged Kansas–Missouri border and killed hundreds along the way. The path Bloody Bill took from a well-behaved, respectful child to an inveterate butcher and rapist is a study in human depravity.    

A better case study for what a second American civil war would be like is perhaps the 30 Years War:

    Before the First World War, it was known as the most destructive conflict in European history – responsible for the loss of as much as 40 per cent of the German population, which according to some estimates may have fallen in the years between 1618 and 1648 from around 20 million to 12 million. This immense human toll as a result of battle, famine, and disease would scar the continent for centuries – so that some historians describe it as the greatest trauma in German history.

    But as well as being horrific in terms of the sheer numbers of casualties inflicted and lives destroyed, the Thirty Years’ War was also horrific for the manner in which it was conducted. As the large number of surviving eyewitness accounts attest, this was a war of attrition, in which civilians often found themselves on the front line. Massacres such as that during the Sack of Magdeburg – the conflict’s worst atrocity, which left up to 20,000 of the city’s 25,000 Protestant inhabitants dead – were conducted without mercy. Huge numbers of refugees were also created, as neighbours were pitched against each other, and entire areas of the country were laid waste. 

VIDEO: Federal FliteControl v. Hornady Critical Defense

Both Hornady Critical Defense and Federal FliteControl both use essentially the same wad to keep the shot together, so why does the Critical Defense perform so much worse than the Federal load? In his article "Federal’s Flite Control vs. Hornady’s Versa-Tite," Nate at the Shotgun Blog writes:

 The Hornady load, even though it has the same basic wad design, does not shoot nearly as tight as the Federal Flite Control. I think this is largely due to using standard lead pellets, a higher muzzle velocity, and lack of buffer material. Even though the wads of both loads probably fall off the payload at about the same distance, odds are the Hornady pellets have more deformation than the Federal pellets. This causes more fliers, and explains the uneven pattern density.  

VIDEO: "Federal FliteControl 8 Pellet Vs. Hornady Critical Defense (Beretta A300 Patterning & Testing)"
Paul W. (10 min.)

 VIDEO: "Effective range of 12 ga 00 buck Federal Flight Control."
30 Second Tactics (3 min.)

Karma or Revenge?

The New York Post reports that "The suspect in the September murder of a teenage girl has himself been found shot dead in his bullet-riddled car, according to police."

    Deshawn Suggs, 18, was found dead in a car on San Antonio’s Far West Side early Saturday from a gunshot wound to the head — nearly four months after he was identified as the sole suspect in the murder of Alianna Ujueta, 17, who was also shot in the head while leaving a party. 

    Suggs’ car and a neighboring residence were riddled with bullet holes and his death has been ruled a homicide, according to News4SanAntonio.

There had been an outstanding warrant for Deshawn's arrest, but "Police said Sunday Suggs is no longer wanted as he has been confirmed dead." 

Big Country Expat Announces Downloadable Library

Big Country Expat has announced he has made some materials available on a Google Drive for download, including his Flammenwerfer Instructions and OPFOR War Manual collection. The direct link for the library is here. 

Mark Felton: The Nazi Bell

 The Nazi Bell is a one of those myths that came out of World War II that is a cross between UFO lore and German super-science. In this video, Mark Felton tries to ferret out the origin of the myth. 

 VIDEO: "Die Glocke - Hitler's Anti-Gravity Machine?"
Mark Felton Productions (14 min.)

VIDEO: Dealing With The Dark On The American Frontier

A couple stories of how Daniel Boone dealt with a couple dangerous incidents that occurred at night.

VIDEO: "Daniel Boone In The Dark On The Frontier"
The Deerskin Diary (11 min.)

Dems Pushing Civil War

• "Minneapolis Mayor says city is 'under siege' after being 'invaded' by ICE as Pentagon says 1,500 troops are on standby for deployment"--Daily Mail. 
• "Seattle's hyperwoke mayor sends protesters to anti-ICE training camps as 4,000 in NYC prepare to use 'Minneapolis tactics' on streets"--Daily Mail. 
• "NYC socialists mustering army of 4,000 anti-ICE activists to bring Minnesota tactics to Big Apple"--New York Post.  
• "Mob storms Minnesota church during worship to target pastor they say has ICE ties"--New York Post. 

Gun & Prepping News #64

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

• "ATF Data Shows The Number of Guns in Americans’ Hands Now Tops Half a Billion"--Shooting News Weekly. Key bit is that as of 2023, the estimated total number of firearms in civilian possession was 506.1 million. Also, "[d]ata indicates that 32,091,000 Modern Sporting Rifles (MSRs) are in circulation since 1990," although "Modern Sporting Rifle (MSR) production decreased 46.2 percent from 2022 to 2023." This was part of a larger trend: "Total domestic firearm production reported in the 2023 AFMER was 8,466,729 – a decrease of 15.4 percent from 2022 reported figures." 
• Scaremongering: "Months after controversial legal move, forced reset triggers are being sold for handguns"--WJLA. 

 Former ATF Chief Counsel Pamela Hicks has fired one, describing it as "scary."

    "I could not get it to fire a single round," Hicks recalled. "The rounds go off so fast that there's no real way to interrupt."   

Woman like her are the reason for misogyny.  

• "Pistol Wizard".  Not an article but a website with articles and guides on topics for new concealed carry owners on how to use and maintain a pistol, the different parts of a handgun, whether a pistol is right for you, belts and clothing for concealed carry, having and using pepper spray, and lots more. It looks like it would be a good resource for new shooters and may even have some new information for experienced shooters. 
• Related: "Glock Disassembly 101"--Wing Tactical. This article covers both a basic field strip and more advanced disassembly to remove the striker, extractor, and trigger assembly.
• "Top 3 Shooting Stances: Isosceles vs Weaver vs Chapman"--Pew Pew Tactical. These are all two-handed stances. If you are using a Kevlar vest or body armor, the Isosceles is the best stance as it squares the armor up toward a threat maximizing the armor coverage. The Weaver stance is similar to a fighting stance you might use in boxing or other martial arts, with the strong side leg dropping back to give more support. The Chapman stance (sometimes referred to as a modified Weaver) simply straightens the shooting arm out a bit more than with the Weaver and brings the head down toward that shoulder and arm to mimic shooting a rifle with the shooting arm being the "stock". Massad Ayoob wrote in one of his books, though, that it is a mistake to get too married to a particular stance because in a dynamic situation, you are going to be twisting your body, moving your feet, and so on, such that you could be moving and shooting through several different stances. 
• And for old shooters: "RECONSIDERING POWERING DOWN" by Massad Ayoob. He notes that old shooters he knows have suffered hand problems from shooting high powered and magnum handguns and suggests that we might want to do most of our shooting with tamer loads. An excerpt:

Remembering my recently deceased friend John Taffin I was reminded how over the years, he shot the hell out of super-powerful handguns like the .500 Linebaugh and hot-loaded .44 Magnum, and wound up with injured hands and wrists. In his writing, he warned the rest of us about it, and set an example by publicly admitting he was shooting lighter loads these days.   

• "Meet FALCO’s New Next-Gen Pocket Holsters"--The Truth About Guns. If you are going to carry in pants pockets, you need a pocket holster. Falco has three new models: a leather "wallet" style (designed to break up the outline of the handgun and make it look like you have a large wallet in your pocket), a lightweight Kydex holster, and a really light (and really expensive) carbon fiber holster.
• "Making DIY ammunition from blanks in Germany"--Impro Guns. Video at link.

 Combining 9mm PAK blanks with 9mm big bore airgun pellets for use in 3D Printed guns such as the FGC-9 or Urutau (featured).

• "The Art of Pocket Carry" by Travis Pike, Safariland. An excerpt discussing the advantages of pocket carry:

    Speed in a defensive encounter is always critical. As concealed carriers, we work on having a fast draw because speed is a major value. Pocket carry can be fast, but it can also be slow. Having to reach into your pocket from outside can be quite slow.

    For those inclined to a fast draw, pocket carry offers you the ability to simply put your hand in your pocket and grip your gun without anyone being the wiser. Drawing and placing an accurate shot on target can be done in under a second with a holster like the Safariland Model 25.

    Another obvious benefit to pocket carry is that the gun conceals easily. You don’t need to worry about your shirt riding up or tuckable holsters. It drops in your pocket, and if it’s the right size, it disappears. Admittedly, if you are the tight-pants type, it’s not for you.

    And finally, a pocket pistol very convenient. You can carry it easily day in and day out without the poke and prod of a standard holster. If you’re running to the store for milk, the thought of throwing on pants, a belt, and a standard holster might not be that appealing. A J-Frame in your pocket is a heckuva lot better than the Glock 19 left at home. 

 He also discusses picking a handgun for pocket carry, selecting a holster, and has some other tips as well as a practice drill he calls the Wizard Drill. 

• Related: "The Pocket Pistol"--Gun Culture 2.0. The author has some excerpts about pocket carry from English gun writer Hugh B.C. Pollard in his 1917 work, The Book of the Pistol & Revolver. 
• Related: "Concealed Carry: All About Pocket Carry"--Pew Pew Tactical. 
• "It’s Shoulder Holster Season…How Will You Be Celebrating?"--Shooting News Weekly.  The title refers to the fact that most people who use shoulder holsters use them under a jacket or coat and, therefore, mostly in cooler weather. The author has some tips and comments about shoulder holster carry if it is something that interests you. 
• Related: "How to Wear a Shoulder Holster"--Falco.  A detailed article and a couple videos.
• Related: "Best Shoulder Holsters: Comfortable, Concealable, and Ready for Carry"--The Firearms Blog. This is a 2026 article that goes over the basics of shoulder holsters and then looks at the Model D906 Kydex Holster, the Horizontal Revolver Shoulder Holster D129, and the D633 L Sherman Leather vertical roto shoulder holster, all from Falco Holsters. The Kydex holster mentioned above is a single sided model (holster but no magazine holder), but Falco also offers a Kydex holster that is double sided (holster on one side, magazine holders on the other--the D905) for about $180, which is nearly a $100 less than a leather holster. 
• "De-Sporterizing a Lee Enfield No4 MkI"--Hunting Gear Guy. In the decades following WWII, as nations modernized and ditched their old bolt action military rifles, those rifles found their way into the surplus market where they could be purchased for cheap. Many were converted, to one extent or another, to make them more usable as a hunting rifle--typically with different stocks and adding some way to mount a telescopic sight, but sometimes with more radical changes--a process called "sporterizing". Some sporterizing was done well by accomplished gun smiths and some were done poorly. But as the supply of surplus rifles in good condition dries up, I suspect that we will see more this: someone taking a sporterized weapon and trying to return it to some semblance of its original military configuration. 
• "CMP To Start Selling Surplus Shotguns?"--The Firearm Blog.  The most recent National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) "authorizes the Army, Navy, and Air Force to make a one-time transfer of shotguns determined to be surplus to the CMP for resale." However, "military surplus shotguns with barrels under 18 inches or shotguns designed for 'Masterkey' applications cannot be transferred to CMP." It also only authorizes the sale of pump-action shotguns. At the time the article was written, the NDAA had not yet passed Congress, but it has since been signed into law, but it appears this provision survived into the final version. 
• "Is the 1911 the Ideal Woods Gun?"--The Armory Life.  It seems to be enough for woods or range work in Texas, according to the author. From the ballistic gel tests I've seen, in a +P loading with hard cast bullets, it should do just as well as 10mm with hard cast bullets. Anyway, the author writes:

... The 1911 is an inherently accurate gun, particularly modern production models. The long sight radius of a 5” “government model” allows for precise aiming, particularly when equipped with modern sights. The mechanical accuracy of the gun is also supported by its crisp, single stage trigger. Operating the trigger is instinctive and easy to learn, allowing fast and easily repeatable shots compared to longer, heavier and/or mushier triggers.

Compared to pistols devoid of manual safeties, the thumb safety of the 1911 offers significant protection when going through brush. In addition. the heft of the 1911, combined with the low operating pressure of the .45 round, gives the gun its highly controllable recoil impulse. Finally, while still a slim and handy single-stack, its capacity exceeds the number of cartridges held in any of the big bore or high-power revolvers more commonly recommended as woods guns. 

• "Fudd Friday: Are Iron Sights on a Hunting Rifle Obsolete?"--The Firearm Blog. No, the author explains, because even if you have a great optic, if it gets damaged or otherwise cannot be used, the iron sights allow you to have something on which you can fall back. He notes this is particularly important on hunts where you cannot easily get back to civilization to repair or replace a scope or get a different rifle. 
• "Deer markings actually glow: The scrapes and rubs the mammals leave behind shine under UV light humans can't see"--Popular Science. Time to start carrying a UV light when hunting?
• "The Unsolved Mysteries of Trapper and Hunter Deaths Still Haunt the Yukon Wilderness Today"--Outdoor Life. From the article: 

One of the men was Ed Wilkinson, a 58-year-old trapper who disappeared in 1977. Ed was said to have been born on the trap line, as tough as they come, but kind-hearted too. He was known to have survived grizzly attacks and was once gored by a bull moose. He had lived his entire life in the Yukon wilderness. The other man was a 49-year-old large carnivore expert and a traditional bowhunter named Bart Schleyer, who failed to show up for a scheduled floatplane pick up in 2004. Later, a few of his bones were found. Schleyer was a legend in his own time, called the last wild man by some. He was a friend to wildlife biologists, hunters, and other adventurers around the world.  

• "Five reasons to use a survival knife lanyard"--Survival Common Sense. I can speak from experience that the most basic reason is so you don't lose the knife. I lost an expensive pocket knife with a pocket clip on a hunting trip. I'm not sure if it simply worked its way loose climbing a steep mountain side or if a branch or bit of brush caught on it and pulled it loose, but it was a disappointing way to end a day of hunting to discover it was gone. But in addition to securing it against loss, the author also mentions safety when processing a large animal, keep from having it wrestled away from you if you have to use it for self-defense (although I question the wisdom of this), safety while using (don't want it to go flying if you lose hold), and greater visibility if you put a bright cord on it. 
• "Flint and Punkwood: A Colonial Fire Starting Technique"--Breach Bang Clear.  

... Flint and steel were common in the kit of colonial Americans and popular trade items to native peoples in the interior. In more remote areas, chert could be substituted for flint, so long as it was the sort of rock that can strike sparks. But just as vital to the fire starting kit is the fine tinder used to take a flame. Many woodsmen carried tinderboxes filled with charred cloth. The problem with charred cloth is that it is very much a chicken before the egg sort of tinder. You have to make the charred cloth on a fire ahead of time. Anthony of the Deerskin Diary channel demonstrates and dives into the historiography of using punk wood as tinder. This way, common with Southeastern tribes during the colonial era, is an excellent fuel, provided you know where to find it.  

• "The Slishman Wrap & Wound Care For When There Is No Doctor"--Deep Roots At Home.  The author mentions that "The Slishman Pressure Wrap was created by Dr. Sam Slishman, an emergency medicine doc, to make applying a tourniquet or pressure bandage simpler for an untrained user." 

    Because of the risk involved, traditional tourniquets should 1.) only be applied by someone with proper training and 2.) initiate an immediate evacuation to definitive care. Most ordinary people don’t own or even know how to use one. (source)

    Using the Slishman pressure wrap, however, is intuitive – apply direct pressure and wrap around the wound. If too much pressure is applied, the wrap can be easily adjusted as to not make the injury worse. It is finely adjustable (tighten until hemostasis is achieved, then loosen for pain control and better perfusion to the extremity).

    It will replace the Combat Application Tourniquet (CAT), which will stop bleeding, but the pain is crazy —plus, you could lose the entire limb if not administered correctly and for too long. A CAT won’t work for kids.   

There is an embedded video showing how to use the pressure wrap.  

• "The Seven Vegetables You Should Always Grow From Seeds (and Why)"--Life Hacker. The author lists carrots, beets, radishes, corn, beans, cucumbers, and lettuce. 
• "Can You Leave Your Propane Tank Outside In Winter? Here’s What You Need To Know"--Southern Living. The author writes:

Your propane tank should be fine in the winter unless the temperature dips below -40°F. Propane becomes a liquid at -44°F, making it difficult to fire up the grill.    

The article also has tips on safely storing portable propane tanks.  

• "28 Underrated Prepping Items That Could Save Your Life in an Emergency"--The Late Prepper. A check list of some items that you might want to have on hand but which you might have not really thought about or considered, like aluminum foil, zip ties, safety pins and sewing supplies, a pencil sharpener, bungee cords, etc. 
• "Here’s How You’ll Die When the SHTF (and How to Prevent Your Untimely Demise)"--Organic Prepper.  She covers 10 reasons or causes people will die, including dying of thirst or waterborne illness, running out of necessary medications, infection, murdered, suffer an accident resulting in major trauma, and others. One she mentions is dying due to fantasy-world planning:

 So many preppers have poorly thought-out plans for survival. They think they’ll “live off the land” and hunt, forage, and farm their way through the apocalypse, but they’ve never milked a goat or planted the contents of their seed banks. They don’t understand that gardens and crops can fail for innumerable reasons. They think they’re still in the same physical condition that they were 25 years ago and overestimate their ability to perform physical labor, like chopping wood for the fire. There are hundreds of bad strategies that will get preppers killed (in fact, here are 12 of them), and mostly it boils down to one crucial fact: it’s all a fantasy. They’ve never done ANY of the things that they think they will do for survival, or if they have done them, it was decades ago, when they were younger, fitter, and more resilient. I can tell you right now, if we had to live off of the contents of this year’s drought-stricken, deer-and-gopher-raided garden, we’d last about a week, enjoying salsa by the jarful, but little else.

• "Free Survival PDFs, Manuals, & Downloads"--Trueprepper.com. The title says it all.