Wilder: The Iranian War And Collapse

In his article, "Casualties Of War: Africa, A.I., India . . . And Europe?," John Wilder muses that the disruptions to oil and gas shipments will cause all sorts of unpleasantness because so much of our industry and economy is dependent on oil and gas (and byproducts from gas production, like helium): energy costs are going up, India is running low on fertilizer, and chip manufacturers in Taiwan have lost access to the helium they need for chip production. But the biggest loser may be Africa:

    Why? For starters, Africa imports 85% of its food.

    85%.

    85%.

    Why? Farming is apparently too hard, and whenever they have a few white people farming and feeding Africa, black people decide they’ll take the magic farm and get rich.  Except they don’t. Lush, productive farms fall into disrepair, but, hey, the Africans who looted the place ate for a day.

    Not only that, their governments are also basketcases.  In almost every country, the government requires copious amounts of foreign aid to get anything done. ...   

If foreign aid disappears due to ... I don't know ... a global depression, then Africa will quickly devolve into war and starvation. And a lot of them will head north to Europe. John thinks that the Europeans will stop admitting them. I don't know. The Mediterranean Sea could act like a barrier, but any barrier--such as a fence or wall or sea--is only as good as those manning it. And Europe doesn't have any navies worth talking about. 

    Check out the videos included in the article showing hordes of Africans racing across dark highways in Europe. Now imagine them carrying AKs.  

VIDEO: How Gun Shows Lost Their Luster

The host of this video notes that he doesn't go to gun shows anymore. He recollects that gun shows used to be (i) a way to see and handle firearms which you may not have known about before and (ii) were a source of good deals (particularly when surplus rifles and ammo were flooding into the U.S.) but not so much anymore. He ascribes the decline to the internet and the ability to research, find, and order items online, and everyone now easily knowing the value of what they have.

Obviously I can only speak to my experience with gun shows in my neck of the woods, but I see the beginning of the decline of the gun show corresponding to the popularity of shows like Antiques Roadshow (aka the "overpriced old stuff" show). Suddenly everything that was old, no matter its condition, was expensive. What was once a cheap beater gun was suddenly an "antique" or "collectible". In addition, in this area at least, the shows became less like gun shows and more like flea markets that also happened to have guns. Sellers of bric-a-brac, trinkets, candles, cheap knives and wall-hanger swords, homegrown or homemade food or beauty products, etc., increasingly took over the floor space. 

 VIDEO: "Why I REFUSE to go to Gun Shows Now"
Hegshot87 (11 min.)

Even Everest Is A Scam

From the New York Post: "Mount Everest guides allegedly ‘poisoned’ climbers as part of sinister $20M scam." 

    Mount Everest guides have allegedly been secretly lacing tourists’ food to trigger costly helicopter rescues as part of a $20 million insurance scam, according to a new investigation.

    Police in Nepal have charged 32 individuals with organized crime and fraud charges related to the plot, which involves trekking company owners, helicopter operators, and hospital executives, the Kathmandu Post reported. 

    Guides with the trekking agencies allegedly poisoned tourists by putting baking soda in their food to trigger severe gastrointestinal distress that mimicked altitude sickness or food poisoning, investigators said. 

    Once ill, the visitors were allegedly pressured into agreeing to costly emergency helicopter evacuations, with operators using forged medical and flight documents to bill international travel insurers for the cost, according to authorities in the Himalayan country.

    Those ill-gotten gains were then allegedly split among the guides, helicopter companies, trekking agencies, and the hospitals where the tourists were taken for fake treatments.     

VIDEO: Individual Movement Techniques

 Back to basics.  

VIDEO: "INFANTRYMAN'S GUIDE: Individual Movement Techniques (IMTs)"
Brent0331 (10 min.)

Tactical Anatomy: The Stark Realities Of Armed-Self Defense

From a 2012 post by John Williams at Tactical Anatomy: "Primer: The Stark Realities of Armed Self-Defense." He has a list of good points to take to heart, including this one:

4.   If you shoot somebody, even if you did so in what you think was self-defense, have realistic expectations about what is likely to happen.  

a. EXPECT to be arrested and charged.
b. Expect to be handcuffed and taken to jail.
c. Expect a very nasty series of interrogations.
d. Expect to have to hire a good lawyer, and expect to spend the next 1-2 years defending yourself.
e. Expect to have to mortgage your house and liquidate all your assets to pay your legal costs.
f. Expect to lose your guns.

Start with these expectations, because they are far more likely than the chances you are going to be allowed to go home and sleep in your own bed for a while. (But if you’ve taken appropriate deadly force training, your chances of making it through this horror relatively unscathed is much better than if you follow all the advice you’ve been reading on the internet.) 

The only change to his points that I would make is to #8. Williams writes:

8. The prosecutors are not going to be your friends if you shoot somebody. It’s their job to put you in prison for the rest of your life, whether you deserve to be there or not. They don’t care if you think you’re a good guy. 

 It should end: "They don't care if you are the good guy."  

The Great Replacement

 From X: A video in which Rep. David Morales (D-RI) says the mural for Iryna Zarutska "does not reflect our values." Translation: She was white so Morales doesn't give a sh** about her. 

Fresh Water Under Great Salt Lake

Interesting article: "Scientists discover potentially huge freshwater reservoir hidden beneath Great Salt Lake." The article indicates that the freshwater reservoir may extend beyond the Lake's current borders and extend up to 2.5 miles (4 km) deep in toward the Lake's eastern margin, where mounds covered with freshwater reeds have sprouted up in recent years.