We're Going To Need More Iranian Leaders, I Guess

 

The New York Post reports: "Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei is dead after US-Israeli attack on Iran — along with 40 top leaders." The article relates:

     Iran’s tyrannical Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei was killed Saturday in an unprecedented,  joint military attack by the US and Israel called Operation Epic Fury  —  which President Trump said would give Iranians their “greatest chance” to “take back the country.”

    “Khamenei, one of the most evil people in History, is dead,” Trump declared on his Truth Social about 15 hours after the start of the onslaught. “This is not only Justice for the people of Iran, but for all Great Americans, and those people from many Countries throughout the World, that have been killed or mutilated by Khamenei and his gang of bloodthirsty THUGS.”

    Israeli officials told Fox News that more than 40 top Iranian security and regime figures were eliminated in the opening strikes this morning, and as many as 10 high-ranking leaders were killed in the initial strike on Khamenei’s fortified compound.

     The body of the 86-year-old Khamenei was reportedly recovered in the rubble and a photograph of his corpse was shown to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, a senior Israeli official told Reuters.

His death has been confirmed by Iranian state media. But back to the NY Post article:

    Multiple Islamic Revolution Guard Corps commanders were killed in the strikes — including IRGC Commander Gen. Mohammad Pakpour and Iranian defense minister Amir Nasirzadeh, according to the Israel Defense Forces.

    Pakpour was named head of the IRGC after Israel’s June attacks on Iran killed his predecessor, Hossein Salami, and oversaw the deaths of thousands of protestors during weeks-long unrest in December.

    Nasirzadeh was the point man for Iran’s production of long-range surface-to-surface missiles and weapons transferred to Iranian proxies. He also served as commander of the Iranian Air Force.

    Ali Shamkhani, a senior adviser to Iran’s supreme leader, was also killed, according to the IDF.

    As were Saleh Asadi, a top Iranian intelligence official, and Hossein Jabal Amelian, the chairman of the SPND Organization, a group that advanced Iranian projects related to nuclear, biological, and chemical weapons.

The Iranian mullahs took power 47 years ago due to stupidity of the Democrat president Jimmy Carter who let Muslim zealots take over the U.S. embassy and kill and hold hostage Americans without any significant repercussions and made the U.S. appear fools on the world stage. It took the election of a Republican president, Ronald Reagan, to scare the Iranians enough to release the hostages. 

    Of course, the Muslim traitors in our midst were upset about the strikes, with "NYC Mayor Zohran Mamdani and Squad Reps. Alexandria Ocasio Cortez and Ilhan Omar led a laundry list of far-left pols condemning President Trump for launching airstrikes with Israel against Iran." And, as usual, "Democrats decried that Trump had taken action without congressional authorization" even though they have cheered such behavior when their own politicians attack other nations (cough, Libya, cough). Moreover, "White House spokesperson Karoline Leavitt said the administration had briefed several Republican and Democratic leaders in Congress in advance."

    The Iranian leadership--or at least what remains--has struck back. Missiles and drones reportedly hit targets in Sunni nations, including the airport in Dubai. The Iranian Revolutionary Guard has also sought to close the Straight of Hormuz. I hope you have gassed up your car, because we will probably see a spike in oil and gas prices. Too bad we can't offset it with oil seized from Venezuela. In any event, "[t]he FBI has issued a chilling warning to Americans as fears grow Iran will strike the US through its terrorist proxies." I would not be surprised if these terrorist proxies were to receive assistance from various Leftist groups and drug cartels. 

More:

• "Trump was once wary of ordering regime change in Iran. Here’s what made him change his mind"--AP.
• "Iranian Crown Prince Calls on Military, Police, Security Services to Abandon ‘Crumbling’ Islamist Regime"--Breitbart. 
• "China Denounces U.S. as ‘War Addict’ for Strikes on Iran"--Breitbart. They're just upset because the strikes will likely further restrict China's ability to project power abroad. 
• "Lawmakers push for war powers vote after US-Israel strikes on Iran"--News Nation. And by "lawmakers" the article means Democrats. 

Cover For Khyber Optics Mini Dot Optic (MDO)

 

On Feb. 26 I had posted my initial impressions of the Khyber Optics Mini Dot Optic (MDO). I had noted that the optic did not come with a dust cover. I have used neoprene covers for other optics and decided to go that route. I bought a DAXISONN Romeo5 Red Dot Lens Cover from Amazon--it is a neoprene cover with a small loop for pulling it off--and it fits very well over the optic and its mount. I bought a black cover, but they also sell them in brown/FDE, a grey and brown woodland pattern, and a green and brown woodland pattern. There are a couple other sellers with similar products but without the small pull loop. I figured it was worth a few dollars more in order to easily and quickly remove the cover. I wish it were a little tighter fit, but it should be good enough for keeping dust off the lenses in storage or when taking it out to practice. The particular firearm on which it is mounted is only for home defense, anyway, and not a woods gun. 

Weekend Reading #45

You are probably going to be spending time following the news on the latest military operation against Iran. But if not, here is some longer and more involved reading:

• First up is Greg Ellifritz's Weekend Knowledge Dump.  In it he links to the latest Range Master newsletter which includes a "Baseline Assessment Drill" to determine your basic defensive shooting proficiency (and check improvement or whether you are sliding back). It only uses 20 rounds and tests drawing and firing, using your off hand, reloads, and rapidity of fire. Of course you will also need a timer of some sort (or someone with a stop watch). Among the articles in the newsletter is a good piece on situational awareness. 

 Some other links in Greg's Weekend Knowledge Dump that caught my eye, in particular, include:

• "How to improve your situational awareness with natural threat detection mechanisms" which discusses the natural threat detection mechanisms we have been born with and how to better leverage these to increase situational awareness.
• An article on the failure points of a red dot, both with the equipment (e.g. batteries dying, sheared attachment screws) but also environmental (obscured sight window) as well as some tips on mitigating these issues.
• A piece on the advantages to using a sling on a defensive rifle. However, the article also includes my primary objection to a sling on a defensive rifle: "Responding swiftly and decisively to a suspected home invader is going to be tough if the first step is disentangling the gun from the pile of deer rifles and three-gun shotguns that clatter from your safe, dragged by the draping folds of the Blue Force Gear two-point sling on your household AR-15." The solution may be folding the sling up tight and securing it with a rubber band, or storing the defensive rifle in its own location where it isn't going to get tangled up with other firearms or equipment. Grant Cunningham's book, Protecting Your Homestead: Using a rifle to defend life on your property, has quite a bit on storing a defensive rifle for quick access. 
• "The Danger of Higher Ready Positions" is notable mostly for this line: "One of these [principles] is safety—an important consideration in all law enforcement operations we cannot ignore. However, we also cannot allow ourselves to be hamstrung by an inappropriate emphasis on safety. We must maintain a balance between acceptable risk and safety to complete our mission." Notwithstanding that comment, the rest of the article is about why it is inadvisable to use the high ready position, not just from a safety perspective, but also because the weapon obscures your view of what is in front of you without any real benefit in terms of speed should you have to shoot. Greg offers a counter-argument in his article "Pointing Guns at People." As a civilian, you should be aware, though, that by the time you are pointing a weapon at someone you had better already have justifiable cause to use lethal force because, otherwise, you will at best get a brandishing charge and more likely be charged with aggravated assault (or its equivalent in your jurisdiction).
• Finally! From an article on eye dominance some truth: "Experts who expound the you-must-shoot-with-both-eyes-open doctrine do so only because they can. If you are one of the lucky few that can shoot with both eyes open, and never get double vision, do it. The unfortunate majority, however, should experiment to discover their optimum visual plan." 
• The small pocket sized pepper sprays only have a range of 4 to 5 feet. At such short distances, you cannot expect to be able to extend the arm and spray the attacker in the face. Rather, as the linked article explains:

 The best way is to stick the unit in contact with the predator’s upper lip with the nozzle turned upward and then spray the OC directly up his nose into the nasal passages. Or spray it into his mouth if you have to. It’s hard to do if you haven’t practiced it a few times.

• "The Unsolved Mysteries of Trapper and Hunter Deaths Still Haunt the Yukon Wilderness Today"--Outdoor Life. The author begins:

 A few years ago, while I was researching an article I was writing about a Nazi-killing mad trapper, I came upon unrelated stories of two expert woodsmen who went missing in the Yukon wilderness. The two tragedies occurred within 115 miles of each other but 27 years apart. Both men were alone and in both cases about two weeks passed before anyone knew something was wrong. At both scenes, only scant and bizarre evidence was found.     

The men were Ed Wilkinson, a 58-year-old trapper who disappeared in 1977, and Bart Schleyer, an experienced hunter who 27 years later was dropped off by a float plane to hunt moose and never seen again. 

• On a less serious note: "17 Hilarious Things To Think About On Friday"--Wilder Wealthy & Wise.

Why Do They Lie To Us? Native American Enslavement

I read a piece published by the New Yorker yesterday, February 26, entitled "The Hidden History of Native American Enslavement" by Geraldo Cadava.  While the facts set out in the piece may be correct, the article overall is a deception because it gives the impression that only Europeans (it focuses on the Spanish) were involved in the enslaving of Native Americans with no mention of the various Native American tribes involved in the slave trade; particularly the Comanche that built a powerful empire based on slavery, the horse trade, and trade in firearms. The article also fails to mention the efforts by the Catholic Church and Spanish authorities to purchase enslaved Native Americans from the Comanche and free them. 

VIDEO: The P38 Can Opener

I don't know if the military still issues the P38, but it was issued to troops through WWII and up into the 1980s at least. They are ubiquitous in Army surplus stores. And they are cheap. Preppers like to keep them stashed in kits and with food stores. Campers will often have them around as well. I keep a few in my kitchen as a backup should our regular can opener break. This video gives a bit of history on the P38, shows how to use them to open cans and how they can be pressed into a few other duties as well. 

 VIDEO: "Not JUST a can opener…| How to use a P38"
Echoes Of The Past (5 min.)

How Democrats Win Elections

From the New York Post: "$900M taken from solar panel program and pumped into Dem. voting activism, CAL DOGE claims." 

Kristi Noem Stumbles On A Deep State Intelligence Operation

Anonymous Conservative has some X posts from Kristi Noem, the Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, that are interesting. AC sums it up:

Kristi Noem’s employee is walking by an unmarked door at DHS, and wonders what it is. They investigate and find it is a SCIF, and inside is a whole secret agency within the agency, with employees with top secret clearances, working on files nobody knew existed. Apparently the employees could not just explain what they were doing, so Noem had all the files seized and given to her lawyers to try and figure out what they were up to[.]

And a couple other X posts reveal that she had, with the help of Elon Musk, discovered spyware installed on her phone and computer by DHS staff. 

Magic Prepper: Things To Make Your AR Better

The Magic Prepper channel has some recommended modifications to a stock, bare-bone AR system. First, if your AR came with a standard A2 pistol grip, he recommends upgrading it something that has less of an angle. Second, is to upgrade the buffer system--assuming you are not running a rifle buffer system, he recommends going with an H2 buffer and a better spring. Third, he recommends a quality sling. Fourth, if you are planning on running a suppressor, that you replace your muzzle device with one offering a quick detach for the suppressor (otherwise stick with the A2 flash hider which is overall a good system). Finally, if you have the standard M4 adjustable stock (he calls it the "cheese grater" stock) he recommends that you upgrade it to one offering better features for attaching a sling, a rubber butt pad, and just a bit better quality.

    Magic Prepper has some suggestions as to brands and models, but there are plenty of choices out there. But these upgrades will just make the rifle easier and more comfortable to use.  

VIDEO: "The Best 5 AR-15 Upgrades Worth Doing"
Magic Prepper (14 min.)

The Largest Pterosaur

 From Atlas Obscura: "Was ‘Dracula’ the Biggest Flying Creature Ever?" The article begins:

    “It’s just such an awesome image to think about: a giant flying dragon, essentially, coming down and preying on these dinosaurs,” says Ben Thomas, a paleontology graduate student at the University of Portsmouth, England. Earlier this year, Thomas released a video on his paleontology-themed YouTube channel about his visit to the Altmühltal Museum in Denkendorf, Germany. There, he spoke with paleontologist Nizar Ibrahim about one of the museum’s most remarkable specimens. It’s the fragmentary remains of a pterosaur—a flying reptile—that lived in Transylvania, Romania, 66 million years ago, and just might be the largest animal that has ever flown. Scientists have nicknamed it “Dracula.”

    The Altmühltal Museum displays a cast of Dracula’s remains, alongside a model skeleton and a life-sized statue of the creature. At an estimated 11.5 feet tall, with a wingspan of 37.4 to 39.4 feet, Dracula was comparable to a giraffe when standing, or a small airplane in flight. “Seeing it on the ground really gives you a proper sense of scale, that these were absolutely terrifying animals if you ever encountered them,” says Thomas. Members of the Azhdarchidae family of pterosaurs, to which Dracula belonged, are famous for their size, but “generally the accepted wingspan for all of the others is about 10 meters [32.8 feet] at most,” says Thomas, making Dracula a giant even among its relatives.

 Also:

    ... Some paleontologists theorize that pterosaurs launched themselves into flight from all fours, pushing off with their front limbs, a method not seen in any living creature.

    Thomas explains how pterosaur anatomy confirms the theory of “quad-launching.” While birds have enlarged muscles in their wings for flying and in their legs for launching, “with pterosaurs, you have that all sort of contained in one area” in the chest, he says. “It’s essentially a more mass-efficient way of taking off, which is presumably how they got so much bigger than birds.” 

Khyber Optics Mini Dot Optic (MDO)--Initial Impressions

Earlier this month, I happened across a review from the Tactical Hermit about the Khyber Optics Mini Dot Optic (MDO). I hadn't heard of the company before, but based on the Tactical Hermit's post and the website, it is related to NC Scout over at Brushbeater. It costs $199.99 and comes with a green reticle that can switch between a circle-dot, dot-only, or circle-only. I have a multi-reticle circle-dot from Holosun that I really like and that type of reticle has become my preference because it is quicker to pick up than a plain dot. 

    In any event, I was moving my Holosun HS515GM red dot to a different upper and was in the market for a new red dot. I had been looking at getting an inexpensive Holosun model for roughly the same price with similar features (i.e., green circle-dot reticle) to the Khyber MDO anyway, so I pulled the trigger, so to speak, and ordered the Khyber MDO. What tipped the scale for me on this one over the Holosun is that the Holosun model I was looking at has a small tray to hold the battery that uses a couple really small screws to hold it into place whereas this one has a large cap over the battery that can be unscrewed with a coin or regular flatheaded screwdriver, making it much easier to change batteries and less likely to lose critical parts. This model also had a significantly higher shock rating than the Holosun model. 

    I ordered it on a weekend, but the sight promptly shipped on the next business day which I appreciated and took roughly a week to reach me. (You would not believe the number of items I order where "shipping" just means that they printed the shipping label and then it sits for several days or more before it is actually shipped). The sight comes in a fairly sturdy padded plastic box (see below).

 

 

Inside was the optic with a large Khyber Optic logo on the top, already mounted on the higher riser; a battery; a lower riser for rifles or shotguns with traditional drop-comb stocks; a lens cleaning cloth; and a couple tools for mounting the optic on a Picatinny rail and adjusting the sights. There is also a small booklet with instructions and information on the optic tucked behind the foam padding in the lid. There is no cover for the optic. 

Here is a better view of the optic itself:

 

    As you can see from the photos, the optic is roughly 1.25 inches wide and about 2 inches long. 

    Although the website indicates that the optic is "IP67" I believe this might be a typo as the literature that came with the optic indicates that it is IPX7, meaning that it can withstand temporary immersion in water up to 1 meter (roughly 3.3 feet) for up to 30 minutes without sustaining damage. However, if the website is correct, a 6 rating for dust would be pretty good. 

    Many optics come with visible lens coatings, such as a ruby coating, for clarity and protection, but I could find nothing in the booklet about coatings and do not see any visible coating. I did note that looking through the optic that it can catch reflections of brightly lit objects from behind. 

    The controls work fairly well. To turn on the optic, you have to push and hold the + button for a few seconds. Pushing and holding the + button for a moment also allows you to cycle through the reticles. Pushing and holding the - button will turn off the optic. The + and - buttons will also increase or reduce the brightness of the reticle, respectively.

    Because it is  green reticle, it shows up better in bright light than a red reticle and does seem to work better for my slight astigmatism--red colored dots always seem to be slightly smeared in my vision rather than a crisp dot that most people see. The circle on this is much smaller than the Holosun circle-dot that I own. At first this bothered me, but then I realized that the circle was small enough to use by itself to aim the weapon. 

    Brightness is manually set only. I have a few other red dots that automatically adjust to brightness, but this is not one. It does, however, have a "shake-awake" feature that turns off the optic if it doesn't sense movement for roughly 220 seconds per the instructions. This feature is very sensitive. I had a hard time telling if mine was working correctly because just the vibration of opening the door to where it was stored or the vibration of footfalls was enough to light it up. I had to leave the door open and carefully walk up to it to spot whether the emitter had gone off. Whatever sensors it uses would be great for a perimeter alarm!

    The glow from the reticle or emitter is quite visible from the front of the optic. Khyber Optic lists a kill flash for the MDO, but it has been out of stock. If they get more in stock, however, I plan on picking one up. 

    I haven't had a chance to go out shooting and test this in the field. However, I did roughly zero it using the backup iron sights (which were already sighted in) and I have to say that the clicks for the adjustments were very solid and easily felt. 

    Now I just need to get something to keep dust off the optic. I've had to resort to baggy neoprene covers on a couple other optics, so that will probably be what I do on this one as well unless there is a tighter formed rubber cover that will fit. [Update: I bought a DAXISONN Romeo5 Red Dot Lens Cover from Amazon--it is a neoprene cover with a small loop for pulling it off--and it fits very well over the optic and its mount. I bought a black cover, but they also sell them in brown/FDE, a grey and brown woodland pattern, and a green and brown woodland pattern].

True Prepper Offers Free E-Book Downloads

 From True Prepper: "Free Survival PDFs, Manuals, & Downloads." Sections or categories include military manuals (including survival guides and skills useful to preppers); survival and bushcraft skills; preparedness manuals for civilians; first aid; a couple books on specific threats like EMP and nuclear winter; surviving nuclear war; a variety of checklists; and a couple useful references on the military phonetic alphabet and testing whether a plant is edible. 

Wilder: Another Lesson On Indian Culture

In his post "Jugaad And The Mumbai Mafia," John Wilder teaches us some more about Indian culture.  And excerpt:

    “Jugaad is the dishonest and deliberate bending of the rules and laws to one’s favor. In India, such underhanded and self-serving behavior is celebrated, especially among the upper/middle classes. It can also mean ‘doing the bare minimum to get by’ which is why Indian coding, craftsmanship, etc., is so terrible.”

    Ouch.  Kicked straight in the Microsoft©.

    But we see jugaad continually exhibited by the Indians who have fled that paradise of the world’s largest trash mountain stunning Mumbai skyline and open sewage the Ganges. They cheat everyone at everything.  And when there are bunches of them, they cheat in organized groups that would make the Mafia blush. 

He also offers some thoughts on why they are so disliked even by the Left. One reason not listed but which is important is that they are moving into economic sectors that were historically dominated by another ethnic group. (See, e.g., "How Indian families took over the Antwerp diamond trade from orthodox Jews"--Quartz). 

Fool Me Twice... Schumer Proposes Another Amnesty For Illegals

The Post Millennial reports that Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer wants to pursue an immigration bill that would guarantee citizenship for 11 million illegal immigrants currently living in the United States.

    Schumer made the remarks during an appearance on Morning Joe on MSNOW, where he was asked what kind of immigration agreement he hopes to advance in the Senate. He pointed to a 2013 “bipartisan” framework that had the support of then-Senator John McCain as a model.

    Schumer said that he would back a similar bill that “toughens up the border” while also providing a “path to citizenship” for “11 million people who are here.” He added that such a bill would also allow high-tech workers needed by industries to enter the country.  

We've been through this before. The Immigration Reform and Control Act (IRCA) of 1986, signed by President Reagan, granted legal status to an estimated 3 million illegal aliens who had lived in the U.S. continuously since Jan. 1, 1982. As part of the deal for obtaining an amnesty, Democrats promised to increase border security and crack down on illegal immigration and the employers that hire them. The border security never materialized and the "crackdown" on employers was so watered down to be meaningless. As to its effectiveness, the Wikipedia entry states: "Despite the passage of the act, the population of undocumented immigrants rose from 5 million in 1986 to 11.1 million in 2013." 

Young Leftists Embrace Political Violence

From the Washington Examiner (via MSN): "Politics without restraint: A generational shift toward violence and radicalism is taking place." Samuel Abrams writes:

    I recently walked into my politics class at Sarah Lawrence College prepared to discuss civic protest. The prompt was Minneapolis, where a recent immigration enforcement surge has sparked mass demonstrations, a general strike, and the fatal shooting of two civilians by federal agents.

    I planned to cover basic principles: the right to protest, the obligation to remain nonviolent, the distinction between civil disobedience and coercion. My students rejected the premise almost immediately.

    “What are we supposed to do?” one asked. “Hold signs while people are being shot?”

    “You’re asking us to play by rules that only we follow,” another said.

    They cited the Black Panthers. They invoked Stonewall. They argued, confidently, that throughout American history, violence or the credible threat of it was what forced change. Several endorsed armed confrontation with Immigration and Customs Enforcement as both effective and ethically justified.

    This view dominated the discussion.

    I have spent 20 years studying these attitudes in survey data. But numbers do not argue back. What I encountered that day around the seminar table was the data made flesh: Students who spoke about political violence not with reluctance or regret, but with moral certainty.

Abrams notes this isn't just his class. " Over one-third of students now say using violence to stop a campus speaker is acceptable. Nineteen percent of adults under 30 believe political violence is sometimes justified, compared with just 3% of those 65 and older. Republican and Democratic students increasingly converge in their willingness to excuse force, even as they target different opponents. It is a generational shift." 

    And they aren't learning this just from radical publications, but from the elites (particularly those on the left). Consider:

    Last month, Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner issued a statement that would have been unthinkable from a major American law-enforcement official a generation ago. Speaking about federal immigration agents, Krasner declared: “In a country of 350 million, we outnumber them. If we have to hunt you down the way they hunted down Nazis for decades, we will find your identities. We will find you. We will achieve justice.”

    This was not a call for lawful accountability, but a threat of extrajudicial pursuit with language more suited to revolutionary tribunals than a constitutional republic. His sheriff followed with a blunt endorsement: “You don’t want this smoke.”    

He continues:

    What I am describing is the erosion of a foundational American norm: The belief that political opponents, however wrong they may be, remain legitimate participants in a shared civic order, and that conflict must be governed by law rather than resolved through intimidation or violence.

    What we are witnessing is not ideological polarization so much as affective polarization, the transformation of political disagreement into moral hatred in which opponents are no longer seen as mistaken fellow citizens but as illegitimate and dangerous enemies. When that norm collapses, politics does not become more just, it becomes more primitive.

Abrams believes there is a peaceful way out, but it involves the middle--which have not radicalized--stepping up their participation. He notes, for instance, that the the election that Krasner a third term only had a 15% turnout. "A small activist cohort selected officials [and] empowered him to speak in the name of the city. The same pattern now repeats across school boards, city councils, party committees, and faculty senates nationwide." 

    Read the whole thing.

Related:

• "Driver armed with a flamethrower rams LADWP substation in possible ‘terrorism-related event’"--New York Post.  "A man, who was wearing 'soft body armor' and had two shotguns and an assault rifle-style pistol, was found dead in the car suffering from a self-inflicted gunshot wound."
• "Idaho woman accused of attempting to set fire to DHS building with stolen ambulance"--Fox News.  The building was mostly filled with medical offices located next to a hospital, with DHS only just having rented some space. 

Sarah Elizabeth George, 43, of Boise, is accused of stealing a Canyon County Paramedics ambulance from outside St. Luke’s Meridian around 11 p.m. on Feb. 18, crashing it through the entrance of the Portico North building and pouring gasoline across the lobby floor before fleeing on foot, according to a federal criminal complaint.     

• Another unprovoked black on white attack: "Mom describes moment maniac with long criminal history slashed her 13-year-old son's throat in an unprovoked attack"--Daily Mail. Another millimeter deeper and the boy would likely have died.  As the article notes: "The attack comes amid a series of seemingly random, unprovoked, deadly attacks, including the killing of a Ukrainian refugee on a train in Charlotte in September 2025, and a stabbing spree on the New York City subway in January 2025."

Feds Sue Coca Cola For Discriminating Against Men

The suit stems from last September when Coca-Cola Northeast Beverages, a New Hampshire-based distributor, hosted a two-day women-only networking event at the Mohegan Sun Casino and Resort in Connecticut.

    About 250 women attended the event, which centered around the theme “Embrace Your Authenticity: Break Barriers, Be Genuine, Inspire Change,” according to the social media post.

    Women were excused from work and paid their normal wages during the trip without needing to use any vacation time, the lawsuit said.

    The company also paid for their hotel rooms, as well as food and beverages during the trip, according to the suit.

    Funding the trip for female employees, but not male ones, “constitutes a denial of equal compensation, terms, conditions, or privileges of employment on the basis of sex,” the EEOC said in its lawsuit. 

We need more suits like this. For too long, liberals and the organizations they control have gotten away with violating laws prohibiting discrimination. 

Study: Trans People Are Disproportionate Share Of Mass Shooters

Breitbart reports that "[t]ransgender individuals commit 'disproportionate shares of mass public and active shooting attacks,' a Crime Prevention Research Center (CPRC) report shows." The article notes that "CPRC studied data from 2018 to 2024, finding that attacks by transgender shooters was 'at least 12 times their share of the population' in 2024." 

When Seconds Count The Police Are 45 Minutes Away

A mass stabbing yesterday in liberal Washington has left four dead. The incident occurred in Gig Harbor, just outside of Tacoma. According to the article, one of the victims had called 911 at 8:45 am claimant the suspect was violating a no-contact order. While police were en route, another call to 911 reported that the suspect was stabbing people. The suspect was shot dead by police at 9:30 am. The article elaborates:

    Police have since confirmed the no contact order was not yet valid because it had not been served to the suspect.

    Officer were given a copy of the order to serve the suspect, but by the time they arrived at the scene, he had already carried out his stabbing spree.   

The Guardian reports that the suspect "was the subject of domestic violence protection orders recording mental health and substance abuse issues stretching back at least five years."

    The Seattle Times reported that the mother, who has also not been named, had pressed for two protection orders since December 2020. Those early protection orders reported that the woman’s son had been having mental health problems and had threatened her daughter with a knife inside the home.

    In the petition to Pierce county superior court last April, the woman said that her son was delusional and saw himself as “an Egyptian god”. She had returned home to find her cat missing and pictures that had been hanging on the wall destroyed.

    The court granted a protection order requiring him to leave his mother’s house where he had been living and to keep 1,000ft from the property. He was also banned from possessing weapons and told to follow a mental health treatment plan that had been prepared for him involving medication. 

Oldest Writing From Europe And 40,000 Years Old

Everything we thought we knew about the rise of civilization is wrong. From Popular Science: "Earliest known writing dates back over 40,000 years." From the lede:

    New evidence published today in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences indicates humans experimented with symbolic writing as much as 40,000 years ago. If true, the discoveries dramatically recontextualize the history of communication, given the earliest known written languages are Mesopotamian proto-cuneiforms dating back to around 3000 BCE.

    “The artifacts date back to tens of thousands of years before the first writing systems, to the time when Homo sapiens left Africa, settled in Europe, and encountered Neanderthal,” explained Ewa Dutkiewicz, a study co-author and archaeologist at Berlin’s Museum of Prehistory and Early History.

    Dutkiewicz and colleagues have spent years analyzing 260 relics recovered from Stone Age cave sites in the Swabian Jura, a remote mountain range located in southwestern Germany. These include a small mammoth figurine carved from the extinct animal’s tusk along with the Adorant, a famous ivory carving that appears to depict a human-lion figure with outstretched arms. These and many other similar artifacts also feature frequently repeating sequences of lines, crosses, dots, and notches.

 The patterns were found to be similar to early proto-Cuniform writing. 

Big Country Expat Reviews Chinese MRE-Style Meal

From Big Country Expat: "My Thanks, Some Lunch and Lack of Accountability." The article is (mostly) a review of a Chinese MRE-style meal which contained: "Green Bean and Beef Rice for the main, Spicy Beef for the smol snack, 2x duck eggs and some Crisp Cucumbers, with sauce, and Egg Drop soup." Other than the "crisp cucumbers" he thought it was pretty good, and the heater was apparently much more effective than those in U.S. MREs. Nothing on where he sourced it, however. 

TTAG: Best Buffer Setup for a 10.5″ Unsuppressed AR Pistol

The author, Scott Witner, notes that there are a lot of reasons people might not run a suppressor on a 10.5" AR, including that even with a suppressor it is still not hearing safe, so why bother? In any event, to slow down the BCG so it doesn't beat the weapon to death (or, I would add, cause feeding issues like the BCG outrunning the speed at which the magazine can push a new round up to be picked up by the BCG), he recommends an H2 buffer and the Sprinco Enhanced Power AR-15 Buffer Spring – Blue, which is a stronger spring "due to running an over-gassed or suppressed rifle." It is also made from "chrome silicon wire and heat-treated for extreme durability, this spring delivers consistent performance across tens of thousands of rounds without degradation or fatigue." 

    I went with essentially the same buffer setup in my 18" AR build because it was overgassed and running too fast as I described in this post where I had to troubleshoot what initially appeared to be a short-stroke problem (it wasn't). I used the H2 buffer (or something basically the same weight) and subsequently replaced the standard AR spring with a heavier flat coil spring. 

Misreading the Room

Breitbart reports that "[o]n Wednesday’s broadcast of MS NOW’s 'Morning Joe,' Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear (D) said that for people of faith 'it is unacceptable to have a body count from ICE’s actions or to see these people injured' and that 'If you’re a person of faith, you don’t want to see people chained at the ankles.'" No. Half the country voted for the illegals to be deported and if that requires ICE to defend themselves and chain up violent criminals, so be it. The only people "of faith" that would find it unacceptable either aren't Christian or believe in "teddy bear Jesus", but I repeat myself. 

More On Susan Rice's Revenge Speech

I had posted last week about Susan Rice's threats of revenge on any company or organization that supported or assisted President Trump, warning that it was a big step toward civil war. Rod Dreher had similar thoughts, comparing it to the dynamics that led to the Spanish Civil War in the 1930s. He writes:

This is important. It signals the kind of dynamic that gripped Spain in first half of 1930s, as the govt of the Republic lurched btw Left and Right. Eventually, both sides hated each other so much that civil war was inevitable. ...

He has embedded the video where Rice makes her threats and suggests a YouTube video on the prelude to the Spanish Civil War.

California Has Paid Leftist Groups Behind Illegal Immigrant Invasion Over $100 Million

From Townhall: "It's True: Gavin Newsom's California Government Has Paid Protestors Over $100 Million." The article states that $115 million went to non-profit organizations whose core function is to organize protests, with the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights (CHIRLA) receiving over $100 million by itself. 

The Retreat Of Civilization: The British Rape Gangs

    At my age, high school is mostly just a dim blur in the rear view mirror with only a few specific memories standing out. One of these was a presentation by a Catholic priest in my humanities class (something that would never be allowed today!) and, specifically, his comments that the concept of "human rights" and respect for women is rooted in Christianity. It doesn't natively exist in other cultures; and where it exists today, it is because of their exposure to Western Civilization. 

    I posted yesterday how with the decline of the influence and power of the West, native cultures are reasserting themselves, using Afghanistan as an example as it has once again legalized slavery and eliminated many protections for wives. But it is happening in the West as Western leadership has abandoned the principles of Christianity even if they still pretend to honor those principles. 

    A good example of this is Great Britain which is increasingly becoming a bizarre mashup of atheism and Islam. Instapundit linked to an article by Dexter Van Zile entitled "The Rape Gang Crisis: Modern-Day Slavery on British Soil." He begins by noting that sociologist Orlando Patterson, in his 1982 book Slavery and Social Death: A Comparative Study, "defines slavery not primarily as a legal relation of property , but as 'the permanent, violent domination of natally alienated and generally dishonored persons.'" 

    He argues that this condition constitutes social death, a profound form of existential exclusion where the enslaved person is rendered a non-person in social terms. Slavery, in Patterson’s view, entails three key constituent elements:

1.     Violent domination—the constant, naked exercise of force and total power over the slave, approaching limitless control from the master’s perspective and total powerlessness from the slave’s.
2.     Natal alienation—the slave is severed from all legitimate claims of birth, kinship, ancestry, and social belonging; they cannot form or inherit independent social ties, rendering them “socially dead” from the moment of enslavement (and often by birth in hereditary systems).
3.     General dishonor — the slave is degraded, stripped of honor, publicly shamed, and treated as inherently inferior or worthless, reinforcing their exclusion from the moral and symbolic community.

    In the grooming gangs cases (such as those in Rotherham, Rochdale, Telford, and others), thousands of vulnerable young girls—predominantly white and British—were systematically raped, trafficked, and exploited over extended periods by organized groups of men, largely of Pakistani Muslim heritage. The victims were subjected to prolonged sexual servitude akin to slavery.

    Applying Patterson’s framework, it’s clear these girls experienced a modern analogue of social death ....  

After discussing how the victims of the grooming gangs meet the criteria for slavery and "social death", Van Zile continues:

    These young women—born and raised as citizens in the UK—were effectively enslaved in their own country, reduced to non-persons whose suffering was tolerated or ignored. This was facilitated by a tacit coalition: the perpetrators who exercised the domination, and elements of native British elites (police, social services, local councils) who, according to multiple official inquiries (e.g., Alexis Jay’s 2014 Rotherham report documenting ~1,400 victims abused 1997–2013), repeatedly failed to act decisively—often citing fears of racism or cultural sensitivities.

    By turning a blind eye or downplaying the crimes, authorities effectively sacrificed these girls to maintain fragile social order. They purchased compliance from segments of the Pakistani/Muslim community, avoiding backlash that might have demanded greater assimilation and a badly needed cultural reckoning with the ideology of Islamism.

    With the rape gang crisis, we see a perverse exchange where the social death of vulnerable girls was tolerated to manage tensions in a multicultural democracy. The result was not chattel slavery in the classical sense, but a grave, organized form of modern sexual enslavement that inflicted profound, lasting social death on its victims. 

He concludes that by tolerating--or, more correctly, covering up--these events, "British elites have likely poisoned intergroup relations in the United Kingdom for a long, long time." It is too bad that Van Zile was not familiar with the research by Robert D. Putnam regarding social trust and social capital, because then Van Zile would have recognized that the destruction of social trust was not caused by the toleration of the rape gangs, per se, but is inherent in a "multicultural" society. Merely having large populations of Pakistanis in the UK destroys social trust even if the Pakistanis had been upright citizens that worked to assimilate. 

    But back to question of why or how was this allowed to happen. Van Zile focuses on the expedient answer: British officials were willing to sacrifice these girls--even though they numbered in the thousands--to maintain civil order. (In other words, they feared if it got out, it would be their heads that would roll--figuratively speaking of course). 

    But there is a deeper reason which is that the strong, confident Christianity that made Britain a great power is gone. British elites, both the elected and unelected, are no longer Christian or patriotic. Many are from alien cultures. 

    Here is an example of how far Britain has fallen from when Britain was great. "In December 1829," this BBC article notes, "Lord William Bentinck, the first governor general of British-ruled India, banned sati, the ancient Hindu practice of a widow immolating herself on her husband's funeral pyre." Violation of the ban was treated as murder and punishable by death. It is from this background that we get the response of Sir Charles James Napier--Commander-in-Chief of British forces in India from 1843–1847--to a Hindu priest’s objection to the prohibition of sati: 

Be it so. This burning of widows is your custom; prepare the funeral pile. But my nation has also a custom. When men burn women alive we hang them, and confiscate all their property. My carpenters shall therefore erect gibbets on which to hang all concerned when the widow is consumed. Let us all act according to national customs. 

Unfortunately, though, that was not the end of the matter, and after the 1857 Sepoy Mutiny, the British softened the law against sati in order to appease high-caste Hindus who had played a leading role in the rebellion. 

    The 1862 regulation repealed both the penal provisions which said that sati would be punishable as culpable homicide and the other imposing that the death penalty in aggravated cases. It also meant that it allowed the accused to claim that the victim had consented to her life being terminated at her husband's funeral, so it was a case of suicide rather than a murder.

    Mr Mitta writes that the dilution of the sati rule was a "response to the simmering grievances against social legislation" - outlawing of sati, a 1850 law empowering outcaste and apostate Hindus to inherit family property and a 1856 law allowing remarriage of all widows.

    But the immediate trigger for pushing through a diluted law was the "outrage among upper-caste Hindu soldiers" who were incensed over reports that cartridges had been greased with cow fat.  

In the first half of the 19th Century, the British confidence and Christian culture led them to ban, at pain of death, the killing of women in India. Within 50 years, that confidence had diluted to the extent that to keep the peace, the British were willing to sacrifice the lives of untold numbers of Indian women to appease the Indian elites. Now, 200 years after the British tried to eradicate the practice of sati, the British culture and its Christianity is so weak the the elites had no compunctions of sacrificing the lives of thousands of native British girls to appease a foreign population on British soil. What next? Jizya taxes? Looking at the benefits that Muslim immigrants receive, that apparently is already in place. Blasphemy laws?  Britain has them. Executing those who dishonor Muhammad? Coming soon to a council near you.  

Are Some U.S.S. Ford Sailors Sabotaging The Ship?

The Anonymous Conservative (AC) has, among other things in his daily report, has reports that suggest that sailors aboard the U.S.S. Ford aircraft carrier have been sabotaging the ship by flushing shirts, socks, and lengths of rope down toilets and clogging the systems.  From NPR:

 Since it's a vacuum system, a problem with one head can cause all of the toilets in that part of the ship to lose suction, making it difficult for the maintenance crews to isolate a problem. The crews find everything from T-shirts to a four-foot piece of rope clogging the system. But the most common problem seems to be a part of the back of the toilet that comes loose.       

The NPR article was from January, but AC also includes information that the Ford has had to dock in Greece because the problem is worse with sewage running throughout the decks, delaying its ability to participate in any attack on Iran.   

One Cartridge, Two Roles?

 I'm on the SOFREP mailing list and received an email 5 or 6 days ago with the subject: "One Cartridge, Two Roles: The Logic Behind the M7 and M250." The M7 is the Army's new automatic rifle and the M250 is a belt fed machine gun, both using the 6.8x51 cartridge. The email touts this as a boon:

    ... One cartridge feeding both the rifleman and the automatic rifleman means the squad is speaking the same ballistic language when the fight stretches across terrain. The rifle is no longer living in one performance envelope while the gunner works in another. Effects downrange start to align.

    That kind of commonality simplifies more than logistics. It stabilizes planning. When ammunition feeds both roles from the same family, resupply becomes less fragile, and leaders spend less time managing caliber mismatches under pressure. The squad carries one core solution instead of juggling two separate ones.

    There are tradeoffs. A higher-energy cartridge brings more recoil and more heat. It demands discipline and training. But it also gives the automatic rifle greater reach and authority while letting the rifleman stay relevant at distances where legacy systems begin to fall off. That overlap is the point.  

While simplifying logistics is laudable, I'm not convinced that replacing the multitude of personal weapons used in WWII and Korea with a single heavy rifle, the M14 (which was quickly replaced by the M16) was all that beneficial, and yet that is what we are doing all over again. And I'm not convinced that the M7 and M250 will have the same "performance window"--the belt fed machine gun will always be able to operate at longer distances than the rifle if for no other reason than that the machine gunner can drop bullets onto a beaten zone at far greater distances than a rifleman can deliver accurate shots. Besides which, Afghanistan aside, the trend over the past 60 years has been more and more fighting in built up environments. So I have to ask whether the M7 is trying to bet against the trend.

    I have no problem with the M7 as a DMR or even as a "mountain rifle"--I've always thought that it made sense for troops in certain environments to have rifles capable of longer ranges--but not as a general issue weapon. Moreover, I suspect that something like the 6mm ARC would have met most of the requirements that the Army wanted with the 6.8x51, but could have been done with a simple change of the upper and magazine rather than a whole new rifle. 

    Even the increased lethality argument is suspect. I'm not saying that the lethality of an individual round might not be more, but that compared to the magazine capacity, the lethality is not necessarily increased. I can best explain what I mean by an illustration from an article I recently came across on the .458 SOCOM round.  Discussing the cartridge's backstory, the article states:

    ... The story goes that Marty ter Weeme, founder of Teppo Jutsu LLC, and a member of the U.S. Special Operations world were discussing what they considered the lackluster performance of the 5.56 NATO M855 round during a battle between members of Task Force Ranger and Somali militants. Reportedly, multiple hits with the 5.56 were required to neutralize adversaries. This led to the conception of a large-caliber cartridge compatible with the AR-15/M16/M4 platform in .458-caliber. 

It had impressive ballistics--at least for CQB. But the downside? "With the new follower, a 30-round 5.56 NATO magazine could [only] hold 10 rounds of .458 SOCOM," and the increased recoil made it more difficult to put multiple rounds on target. Also: "A Soldier armed with a 5.56 NATO-chambered AR, carrying 10 pounds of ammo, could carry nearly 400 rounds, while a Soldier armed with a .458 SOCOM-chambered carbine could only carry about 140 rounds." So, even if it took three hits from a 5.56 to put down an enemy versus one shot from the .458, both used 1/10th of their magazine capacity to do so. And from that perspective, there would be no advantage to using the .458 round. 

    In any event, the Marines aren't buying it--"it" being the M7. The Defense-Blog reports that "U.S. Marine Corps rejects switch to M7 rifle." It relates:

    The United States Marine Corps has decided to retain the M27 Infantry Automatic Rifle for its close combat formations rather than adopt the Army’s M7 Next Generation Squad Weapon rifle, a Marine Corps spokesperson confirmed to Task & Purpose.

    “The Marine Corps will retain the M27 for our close combat formations as it best aligns with our unique service requirements, amphibious doctrinal employment of weapons, and distinct modernization priorities, while ensuring seamless interoperability across the Joint force and with coalition partners,” the spokesperson said in an email to the publication.

    The decision keeps the M27 as the Corps’ primary infantry rifle while the Army continues fielding the M7 and its companion M250 machine gun under the Next Generation Squad Weapon (NGSW) program. The Marine Corps indicated it will continue observing the Army’s program before making any future decisions.    

Good Photo Of Mexican Nat'l Guard With FX-05 Rifles

Source: "Mexico descends into violence after cartel leader ‘El Mencho’ killed"--Al Jazeera. 

     This appears to be the open-sight version of the FX-05 Xiuhcoatl rifle designed and manufactured by Dirección General de Industria Militar del Ejército (General Directorate of Military Industry of the Army). It fires the 5.56 NATO round using a long stroke piston system. It is a bit unusual in that it is one of only a small number of rifle designs that use polygonal rifling. 

Article: Is Your Church A Sitting Duck?

From Shooting News Weekly: "Hope Isn’t a Plan: Is Your Church a Sitting Duck?" My church is. But I'm old enough to remember when churches didn't need church security teams. John Wilder touches on that era in his piece, "How To Break A Society, Part I." He begins:

    Picture this:  I leave my keys in the truck overnight.  Windows down.  Wallet on the dash.  Next morning?  Still there.  Nothing missing, though a cat might have explored an empty burger wrapper.  No viral TikTok™ of some “youth” doing donuts in my F-150®.

    Absurd?  No.

    And not because Big Brother has cameras up the backside of every squirrel, but because back in the day people just didn’t do that crap.  The neighbors would have known who did it.  Moms would have heard about it at church, and the father of the kid would have heard about it from his boss.

    Shame, accountability, and consequences work better than ankle monitors.

    That was the power of societal norms.  Invisible fences made of “What will people think?”  And the Founding Fathers knew it.  They told us so.

    Benjamin Franklin walked out of the Constitutional Convention and some lady asked what they’d given us. “A republic,” he said, “if you can keep it.” Not “if the government keeps it for you.” Not “if we pass enough laws.” If you can keep it.

    John Adams was even blunter in 1798: “Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.”

    They weren’t kidding.    

But liberals felt stifled and had to tear the whole thing down. Read the whole thing. 

The Daily Mail's Reporting On The Cartel Violence In Mexico

This appears to be a link with periodic updates. In the past, it was not uncommon to have a cartel leader killed and for the cartel to splinter, increasing the violence as the splinter groups fought one another and other cartels for control. 

Step-By-Step Reloading By Tom McHale

Tom McHale is a professional gun writer, author of a multitude of articles on all aspects of shooting, as well as several books including The Practical Guide To Reloading Ammunition. I came across a series of detailed articles on reloading at American Handgunner magazine (Part 1) (Part 2) (Part 3) (Part 4) (Part 5) but it only covered collecting the brass, preparing the brass, and the resizing the case and expanding the case mouth. In trying to find additional parts of that series, I came across the series of articles on the steps to reloading that he had written for Guns America. 

Part 1: Want to Reload Your Own Ammo? Basic Questions to Consider

Part 2: The Reloading Process

Part 3: The Gear You’ll Need and What It’ll Cost You

Part 4: Brass Cleaning and Preparation to Load

Part 5: Brass Resizing

Part 6: Trimming Cartridge Cases

Part 7: Repriming the Cartridge Case

Part 8: Powder, Propellants, and Pressure

Part 9: All About Primers

Part 10: Projectiles: Materials, Weights, and Styles

Part 11: Seating and Crimping Bullets

Part 12: To Crimp or not to Crimp

Part 13: Final Inspection and Packaging Tips

Civilization Continues To Retreat

In the recent past, Western civilization had strong enough influence so that even if a country wasn't directly under Western rule the native culture would have submitted to Western influence. But with Western civilization in full retreat, the native cultures are reasserting themselves. I hope the Leftist feel proud about what they have done. From Breitbart: "Taliban OKs Slavery, Domestic Violence in Updated Criminal Code."

    Taliban “supreme leader” Hibatullah Akhundzada recently approved a novel criminal code, multiple outlets reported this week, that dramatically expands the legal ability for men to physically abuse women and children and provides for the creation of a formal “slave” class in the country.

[snip]

    According to the Times of India, the latest affront to human rights from the Taliban is the publication of a 90-page criminal code, issued as an edict recently, likely in late January. No evidence suggests any public participation in the drafting of the code or legislative debate by certified lawmakers prior to its imposition.

    Citing the British outlet The Independent, the Indian newspaper noted that the code includes the creation of “free” and “slave” categories of Afghanis and different legal punishments for criminals in each category. While it does not explicitly list all women in the country as “slaves,” certain provisions in the criminal code for women appear to treat them as separate from free citizens.

    The code reportedly states explicitly that men can beat women and children in their homes, but only if they do not break their bones or cause extreme bodily harm. The code also effectively strips women of the right to accuse men of extreme physical abuse, as it both requires and bans women from showing the parts of their bodies harmed.

    “They [women] are required to prove they have suffered serious bodily harm by showing their wounds to the judge, while at the same time being required to remain fully covered,” the Independent explained. “They are also required to be accompanied to the court by their husband or male chaperone (mahram) — even though the majority of offenders in such cases are the husbands themselves.”

In the not so distant future, we may see similar before and after pictures of Berlin, Paris, or London. And it will largely be because of what were called, when I was younger, "bleeding heart liberals" who bought the Leftist lies about all cultures being equal and suffered from pathological altruism. 

Related: 

Serpentza discusses the trajectory of South Africa after black/communist rule:

VIDEO: "Decolonization in Action - They Ruined my Country!"
serpentza (29 min.)

An Epstein In The Making

From Breitbart: "Senior Class President Charged with 300 Felonies for Allegedly Running Sextortion Scheme in Pennsylvania High School." 

    Zachariah Abraham Meyers, an 18-year-old senior at the local high school in Peters Township, a semi-rural town of 23,000 residents 15 miles southwest of Pittsburgh, faces 304 charges ranging from sexual exploitation of and sexual abuse of children to unlawful contact with minors and wiretap law violations, local news outlets reported over the weekend. 

[snip]

    Police accuse Meyers of targeting fellow students ranging from ages 14-17 at Peters Township High School across multiple social media platforms, including Snapchat and TikTok. Some 1,200 students in grades 9-12 attend the school.

    In one case, authorities allege that Meyers, who is listed as a varsity member of the school’s volleyball team, directed a juvenile to have sexual intercourse with two adult men, record video inside a gym locker room, and then send those videos to an account. 

Gun & Prepping News #69

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

• Owning a gun--still hundreds of times safer than owning a swimming pool: "Accidental Shooting Statistics"--Ammo Land. Quick highlights:

• In 2024, 1% (438) of all firearm-related deaths (41,656) were due to accidental shootings.
• 30% (438) of the 1,457 unintentional firearm-related injuries in 2024 were fatal.
• There is an average of 114 accidental gun deaths among children and adolescents annually.
• Accidental shootings account for 0.004% of all injuries leading to hospital visits.

• "Does the ‘3-3-3 Rule’ Hold Up for Civilian Self-Defense?"--Guns America. The 3-3-3 rule--that gun fights happen within 3 feet, in 3 seconds, with 3 rounds being fired--is drawn from an FBI study of shooting incidents involving police officers. For the civilian it appears that the average is closer to 9 feet, in 6 seconds, with 4 shots fired.
• "Home Invasion! Grab The Defensive Rifle- Dead Trigger….What The Hell Do You Do Now??"--Shooting Performance. The answer is in the sub-title: "The Why’s and How’s of Transitioning to a Secondary Weapon." From the lede:

What the heck is a dead trigger?  Let’s define that term first:  Anytime you pull the trigger and expect it to go bang, and it doesn’t, that is a dead trigger.  If you are in a situation like the one described in the title of this article, it really doesn’t matter why the rifle didn’t go bang, just that you have a response when it does.  The article that follows discusses your options. 

The reasons for a dead trigger might be something simple like the rifle wasn't made ready in the first instance or ran out of ammo, but could also be due to some sort of malfunction. The article discusses why a weapon transition to a handgun is preferable at short combat distances to trying to troubleshoot the rifle; how to perform a weapon transition; getting the rifle back into action; and suggestions as to (safely) training for a dead trigger.

• "Your Mind is Your Weapon: Mastering Situational Awareness"--Taurus USA.  The author begins:

    The most important lesson I learned and taught as a firearms instructor for the CIA is that your mind is your primary weapon. Weapons evolve, systems come and go, but your ability to assess and respond to a threat ultimately determines your survival. A well-made firearm can be a powerful equalizer, but effectiveness depends on strategy and restraint – knowing  when to reveal your strengths and when to keep them concealed.

    Carrying a concealed weapon is not just about having the right firearm; it’s about being able to transition instantly from a passive state to full combat readiness. Success in a critical moment relies on both mental awareness and physical capability. The way you carry, conceal and present your firearm when a threat arises is determined by your training and skill. Simply owning a good gun is never enough. 

Good tips for learning and maintaining situational awareness and understanding when a threat arises. Be sure to check it out. 

• For those using firearms with manual safeties: "The Mechanical Safety:  Use it or take the gamble."--Paul Howe. He begins:

While training with more and more law enforcement agencies, I have found that a potentially dangerous practice has been implemented into their SOP’s. This being the ignoring of the weapon manual safety. Many tactical teams are moving from the Last Covered and Concealed (LCC) position to the breach point in a linear formation with a straight finger and the weapon on fire. Further, they conduct a great deal of interior movement and room clearing with the weapon on fire and a straight finger. 

The rest of the article goes over why you need to use the safety, the dangers to not using safeties, and why he thinks law enforcement got away from training to use safeties. 

• Some firearms history: "StG 45(M): The Last Sturmgewehr"--The Armory Life.  This used a roller delayed blowback action and is the predecessor to the CETME Model C and, subsequently, the HK-91 and all subsequent roller delayed firearms manufactured by HK. This is a long and detailed article, but worth your time. 
• "Your First Suppressor: A Short(ish) Guide for First-Time Buyers"--The Truth About Guns. A look at some suppressors for ARs, 9mm, and rimfire weapons.
• Of course, you'll want some ammo to go with that new suppressor: "Pairing Your Suppressor With The Right Subsonic Ammo"--The Truth About Guns. Some suggestions on subsonic ammo in 9mm, .300 BLK, .22 LR, .45 ACP, .45-70, and .458 SOCOM.
• Speaking of handgun ammo: "Brink’s U.S. Selects Liberty Ammunition for Executive Protection"--The Truth About Guns. Specifically, the 9mm Spike load which the article describes as "55-grain, all-copper projectile features an integral spike design that enables deep penetration through barriers while creating a permanent wound channel—critical capabilities when threats may involve vehicle glass, heavy clothing, or intermediate obstacles." The round is supposed to have 1,900 feet per second muzzle velocity giving 441 foot-pounds of energy on target. 
• And some more on ammo: "Here’s Why the .223 Remington Is the Most Underrated Deer Cartridge"--Outdoor Life. By "deer" the author is probably meaning whitetail.  An excerpt:

The .223 is inherently accurate, ammo is affordable, and modern purpose-built bullets have elevated its effectiveness even further. The key here is that the .223 is fun and affordable to shoot. So deer hunters preparing for the season have no excuse to not practice shooting from field positions.

As far as the ammo to use for hunting, the author recommends "heavier tipped, lead-core bullets that offer dramatic expansion that is controlled by a thicker jacket. These offer the expansion that causes larger wound cavities but will often penetrate deeply enough to pass through a deer entirely," specifically mentioning the 69-grain Sierra GameKing. However, he notes that "[q]uality bullets in the 69- to 80-grain range are more than capable of" providing the necessary 10 to 12 inches of penetration needed to take whitetail deer.

• Related:  "Best 223 for Deer Hunting: Taking Down Whitetails with 22-Caliber Bullets"--Ammo Land.

• And for the deadliest game: "223/5.56 Duty/Defense Ammunition Selection"--Tactical Anatomy. After discussion of the failures of different types of ammunition and why, even with rifles, penetration is king, the author concludes:

    The clear answer is that for general patrol/defensive rifle duty, we want a round that both expands well and penetrates deeply, while maintaining reliable functionality and accuracy. This is the ideal.

    That being said, and no disrespect intended to any of the runners-up, my personal and professional 5.56 ammunition choices based on the recommendations of true experts like Dr. Roberts–and my own experience on live animals and tissue simulants–tend to run along the lines of Federal TRU 55/62gr bonded, Black Hills/Nosler Partition 65 gr, and Winchester JSP 64 gr. These rounds will defeat intermediate barriers and will penetrate deeply through tissue, and will work accurately in barrels from 1:7 through 1:10. All of these rounds have an excellent record in OIS’s over many, many years, and as such I have no reservation in recommending them. 

• And if you want something for hunting that is light recoiling but believe that .223 is too small or under powered, there is this: "Best 243 Ammo for Deer & Other Hunts"--The Shooter's Log. 
• "CCW Range Bag Essentials: What You Need to Train With Your Carry Pistol"--Ammo Land. The author selected the Propper Bail Out Bag to carry his stuff, and then describes what he carries and where he stows it in the bag. (BTW, it is $9 dollars less to order from Propper over Amazon, but Amazon offers "free" shipping--so it might be a wash when all is said and done).
• And once you get to the range: "Five Drills for Beginners at the Range"--Ammo Land. The author, Travis Pike, explains:

    A drill is a shooting exercise that prescribes nearly every element of your shooting. It describes your distance, your accuracy standards, the time you have to accomplish the drill, how many rounds are fired, and more. Most importantly, it has a time and accuracy standard.

    A time and accuracy standard gives you a goal to meet. If you can’t meet these goals, you’ll be able to identify your weaknesses and, hopefully, improve your shooting skills continually. Shooters should never dive too deep or too fast. Attempting the FAST Drill as a new shooter can be a recipe for disaster. 

• "Daniel Defense H9 9mm: The Hudson Concept, Perfected"--The Truth About Guns.  The Hudson pistol was one that featured a very low bore axis by lowering the recoil spring assembly so it was ahead of the trigger guard. The original design and execution had issues. But according to this review, Daniel Defense has cleaned it up and has a workable pistol. MSRP is $999 but the street price is higher--closer to $1,300, the author writes.
• "Securing Backyard Fences"--Active Response Training.  Greg Ellifritz writes:

    In my police days, it was very common to see heroin addicts cruising around wealthy residential neighborhoods looking for places to burglarize in the daytime when most residents were at work.

    Their most common MO was to find an attractive house and then knock on the door. If someone answers, they play it off by pretending that they are looking for someone.

[snip]

    If they didn’t get an answer, they would go around to the back of the house where fewer people could see them,  They would then break in to the house via a back door or window.

    I never saw one of those burglaries happen to a residence with a locked back fence. 

• "Locked Down. Rounded Up. Warehoused. The Rise of America’s Concentration Camps"--SHTF Plan. From the article:

    In 2021, amid a global pandemic, warnings that the federal government might repurpose warehouses into detention facilities on American soil were dismissed as speculative, alarmist, or even conspiratorial.

    Five years later, what was speculation is a blueprint for locking up whoever the government chooses to target.

    According to investigative reports, the Department of Homeland Security and Immigration and Customs Enforcement are actively purchasing warehouses, factories, and industrial buildings across the country for use as detention centers—often with little public notice, minimal oversight, and virtually no accountability. 

We saw this happen in Australia to those who refused to take the vax, and many elites here in the United States expressed a wish that those who refused the vax be rounded up and imprisoned, so this seems likely if there is a real pandemic. 

• "Wheat Grinders 101"--Blue Collar Prepping. While you can use whole wheat corns, they will be more useful ground into flour as you need it (wheat can store for decades, but flour only for months). This article discusses the three basic types of grinders--manual, electric, and hybrid--as well as some advice on accessories and using the grinders. 
• "Power Outage? What Size Generator for a Freezer (And How Long to Run It)"--Modern Survival Blog. From the article:

Most chest freezers use 80–150 running watts, but need 600–1,200 starting watts for a brief moment when the compressor turns on. A 1,000-watt generator or larger is usually enough to run a freezer. If running both a refrigerator and freezer, a 2,000-watt inverter generator provides comfortable capacity.

And:

 You don’t need to run a generator continuously. A full chest freezer can stay frozen 24–48 hours without power. During an outage, many people run a generator about 1 hour every 8–12 hours to maintain safe freezer temperatures. Use a thermometer and keep food below 32°F (0°C).

The goal is to cool the freezer back down before food temperatures rise above freezing.

• "All Tied Up: Basic Survival Camping Knots"--Gat Daily.  It goes over the following:

• Basic Knot Lingo
• Square Knot (Reef Knot)
• Bowline Knot
• Jam Knot (Canadian Jam Knot)
• Clove Hitch 

More importantly, and unlike many other articles or books on knots, it also tells you what each knot can be used for.

•  And from Survival Blog: "More Inflation Ahead: At Best, Plan on Semi-Retirement." Congress has spent so much of the Social Security Trust Fund as a backstop to its other profligate spending that there is not nearly enough money coming in to maintain current payouts. So the government will likely resort to inflating itself out of debt, devaluing personal savings and investments. Consequently, Rawles warns:

... Inflation will deeply degrade the purchasing power of savings, annuities, stocks, mutual funds, CDs, bonds, ETFs, pension funds, and Social Security payments. Even the best contrarian hedge fund won’t fully protect you when the dollar itself is wiped out. Day-to-day living will soon become very expensive. So, at best, we need to plan on semi-retirement in the latter decades of our lives.  ... 

I suspect that if it weren't for the massive fraud of which we are barely scratching the surface, there would probably be plenty of money for Social Security. But when some elderly immigrant steps of the boat and immediately races to the Social Security office, it becomes unsustainable. 

• "Build a brick rocket stove for emergency water purification"--Survival Common Sense. 
• But you need to use the right materials: "Build a brick rocket stove: Is it safe to use concrete blocks?"--Survival Common Sense. The short answer is that you will probably be okay using concrete blocks, but they will probably erode over time. So, to make something that will last long term, use the firebricks.
• "The Ultimate First Aid Supplies List: Be Ready for Anything"--More Than Just Surviving.  This is not about a first aid kit for traveling or hiking, but something at home intended to handle a larger variety of problems. The author comments:

This list is broken down into two major sections: medications to stock, and situation specific kits you would ideally keep in your home. Both these sections then have particular subsections in them, though because it’s only two main sections, we’ve decided to just number these subsections straight through as though they were in just one group. If you’ve got a little bit of everything from each of the subsections, I’d say you’re pretty set. Certainly pick and choose what you feel is best to have for your own peace of mind at home. As I said, I know not everyone will want to keep everything here in stock (though I will be aiming for hitting as many items on this list personally), I just wanted to make sure this list was as comprehensive as possible so that in case you’re redoing your traveling first aid kit, or your at home first aid kit, you can look over this list and know you probably haven’t missed much if you’ve got all you want off of this behemoth. 

The list includes not just what to buy but what it is used for. 

• "Tucker Carlson stunned as ex-Bush official reveals US has doomsday bunkers for elites"--Daily Mail. This 2025 article relates:

    A former Bush administration official has made a shocking claim that the US government is secretly preparing for a mass extinction event on Earth. 

    Catherine Austin Fitts, who was the US Assistant Secretary of Housing and Urban Development for Housing, joined Tucker Carlson on his podcast this week, saying she found $21 trillion in unaccounted funds was diverted to covert projects between 1998 and 2015.

    'One of the things I've looked at in the process of looking at where all this money is going is the underground base, city infrastructure and transportation system that's been built,' Fitts said.

It's interesting speculation, but the more likely explanation is that the missing money went to fraudulent payouts.