Exploring practical methods for preparing for the end times, including analysis of end time scripture and prophecy, current events, prepping and self-defense.
The largest undercover force the world has ever known is the one created by the Pentagon over the past decade. Some 60,000 people now belong to this secret army, many working under masked identities and in low profile, all part of a broad program called "signature reduction." The force, more than ten times the size of the clandestine elements of the CIA, carries out domestic and foreign assignments, both in military uniforms and under civilian cover, in real life and online, sometimes hiding in private businesses and consultancies, some of them household name companies.
[snip]
The signature reduction effort engages some 130 private companies to administer the new clandestine world. Dozens of little known and secret government organizations support the program, doling out classified contracts and overseeing publicly unacknowledged operations. Altogether the companies pull in over $900 million annually to service the clandestine force—doing everything from creating false documentation and paying the bills (and taxes) of individuals operating under assumed names, to manufacturing disguises and other devices to thwart detection and identification, to building invisible devices to photograph and listen in on activity in the most remote corners of the Middle East and Africa.
Special operations forces constitute over half the entire signature reduction force, the shadow warriors who pursue terrorists in war zones from Pakistan to West Africa but also increasingly work in unacknowledged hot spots, including behind enemy lines in places like North Korea and Iran. Military intelligence specialists—collectors, counter-intelligence agents, even linguists—make up the second largest element: thousands deployed at any one time with some degree of "cover" to protect their true identities.
The newest and fastest growing group is the clandestine army that never leaves their keyboards. These are the cutting-edge cyber fighters and intelligence collectors who assume false personas online, employing "nonattribution" and "misattribution" techniques to hide the who and the where of their online presence while they search for high-value targets and collect what is called "publicly accessible information"—or even engage in campaigns to influence and manipulate social media. Hundreds work in and for the NSA, but over the past five years, every military intelligence and special operations unit has developed some kind of "web" operations cell that both collects intelligence and tends to the operational security of its very activities.
In the electronic era, a major task of signature reduction is keeping all of the organizations and people, even the automobiles and aircraft involved in the clandestine operations, masked. This protective effort entails everything from scrubbing the Internet of telltale signs of true identities to planting false information to protect missions and people. As standard unforgettable identification and biometrics have become worldwide norms, the signature reduction industry also works to figure out ways of spoofing and defeating everything from fingerprinting and facial recognition at border crossings, to ensuring that undercover operatives can enter and operate in the United States, manipulating official records to ensure that false identities match up.
And this was in 2021. Imagine how much it has grown since.
With this in mind, BigCountryExpat describes a rather horrific accident involving twin brothers (apparently Syrian) whose car was demolished in a collision with a jacked up truck where both the driver and his passenger were from Langley, Virginia. The driver was apparently never charged, and as far as BigCountryExpat can find, the news stories of the incident have since been scrubbed from the Internet. Anyway, an interesting piece so be sure to read the whole thing.
If you are interested in whether Daniel 8 has any relevance to the ongoing conflict, I'll save you time: probably not. But it is an interesting look at a prophecy that was predictive when made and has relevance to the Last Days.
The prophecy that Joel Richardson is discussing in this video is from Daniel where he is shown a vision of things that were still in his future: a fierce ram (representing the Persian Empire) who is overcome by a goat with a single great horn (Alexander the Great) who defeats the ram. But the single great horn is broken and four horns spring up (representing the division of Alexander's empire after his death) and a small horn that springs up from one of the four, generally believed to be the Seleucid king Antiochus IV Epiphanes. Clearly this represents what is now historical periods to us, but Richardson believes it has application to the last days because the Antichrist is also described in Revelation as the little horn, suggesting a connection between the Antichrist of the Last Days and the little horn in Daniel's prophecy.
There could be nearly 330 years' worth of lithium hiding beneath the Appalachian Mountains, which stretch like a stony spine across the eastern United States.
New research from the US Geological Survey suggests that the Appalachians may contain around 2.3 million metric tons (2.5 million US tons) of recoverable lithium oxide locked away in pegmatites, the grainy, granite-like rocks that form as water-rich magma cools and crystallizes deep within the Earth.
"This research shows that the Appalachians contain enough lithium to help meet the nation's growing needs – a major contribution to US mineral security, at a time when global lithium demand is rising rapidly," says Ned Mamula, Director of the US Geological Survey (USGS).
Therefore, mapping US mineral resources may help reverse the country's recent reliance on lithium imports.
"Trump Calls for Investigation Into Maryland Elections After Mail-In Ballot Disaster"--Townhall. Short version: "President Donald Trump has called for the Department of Justice to open an investigation into the state of Maryland for sending out mail-in ballots to individuals of the incorrect political party ahead of the state’s closed primary elections." The state mailed out 500,000 illegal ballots and, when they "discovered" the error, they mailed out 500,000 correct ballots with no knowing what happened to the earlier ballots.
I think I mentioned in an earlier post that this guy was a consultant and trainer for the sling for the House of David streaming program. In any event, this is a YouTube short video with a very brief introduction/tutorial on using a sling.
I have to say that I am positively shocked as I had been assured by Democrats that immigrants committed crimes at far lower rates than Americans notwithstanding the fact that 100% of illegal immigrants are committing federal crimes.
Before the outbreak of the War of 1812, the U.S. considered invading Canada. General Hull was sent from Ohio to attack a British fort in Detroit. Hull's supplies were captured by the British, however, so he sent word to Cincinnati for more supplies and men to guard the supplies. A man from Chilikothy, Ohio named Samuel Williams raised a force of 100 men to head to Detroit. They were outfitted with a unifor, tomahawks, knives and guns, but no cooking gear. So they had to improvise. Their food was basic: flour, salt, and bacon. To make the bread they mixed the flour with some salt and water to make dough which they rolled out and wrapped around sticks to cook over an open fire. Townsend follows the details in the letters Williams wrote to his wife, including details on how they prepared and cooked their bread, and gives it a try. An interesting video both for the improvised means of cooking and the overall history.
This hunter thinks there are two very different kinds of deer rifles—one to be used in brush and forest and the other to be used in hilly, open country. For the kind of brush and forest hunting done for whitetail deer in the East, for blacktails west of the Coast Range in northern California, Oregon, and Washington, for mule deer early in the season in thick spruce and fir at high altitude, and for mule deer in the brushier parts of the Sonora desert he likes a light, fast-operating rifle with a short barrel. He thinks such a weapon should be chambered for a reasonably heavy bullet at moderate velocity.
The reason for this is that the heavy, round-nose bullet that isn’t
traveling at breakneck speed gets through brush with less deflection
than faster, lighter bullets with sharp points. But he also knows that
any bullet can be deflected by brush. ...
[snip]
Because there is always a possibility that the first shot at a deer in brushy country may hit a limb or a twig and deflect, he thinks that for hunting of this sort a lever action, a pump, or a semiautomatic is a good idea for the woods hunter. All of these are faster than the bolt action. ...
He discusses calibers, rifles, and types of sights suitable for the heavy brush and short ranges of this type of hunting. Then he turns his attention to rifles for more open country:
For open-country deer hunting at longer ranges, this chap likes a flat-shooting cartridge giving a fairly light bullet a velocity of from 2.700 to 3 200 ft. seconds. Then he likes to sight in for the longest range that will not give him midrange misses. The world is full of good, open-country deer cartridges—the .30/06 with the 150-gr. bullet, the .270 with the 130-gr., the .280 with the 125-gr., the 7 mm. Remington Magnum with the 150-gr., the 7 x 57 Mauser with the 140-gr., the .300 Savage and the .308 with the 150-gr. He has never shot a deer with the .243 but considers it entirely adequate with the 100-gr. bullet. He bases this opinion on a good deal of use of the now-dying .257 Roberts on deer.
However, he has done more open-country shooting of mule and whitetail deer with .30/06 and .270 rifles than with anything else. ...
And he recommends a 4X scope as giving the best balance between field of view and magnification.
From American Rifleman: "Red-Dot Occlusion Training: A Performance-Booster for You & Your Optic-Equipped Handgun." The idea here is to force you to shoot with both eyes open and focused on the target by covering up the front of your red dot. That results in you only seeing the red dot with one eye but only being able to see the target with the other eye.
An occluded sight’s red-dot is still visible; the emitter beams the dot onto the lens and reflects it back to the shooter. Though the front of the sight is blocked-off, when aiming with an occluded sight with both eyes open (and a hard target focus), the human brain will automatically ignore the occlusion.
The author indicates that you can make this work using masking tape, but that "there are several companies that offer molded Kydex or polymer covers that snap on over the front of major red-dot sights." The one shown in the article is Arise Mfg.’s Occluder for its Aegis optics shroud.
According to researcher Jana Riess in the Next Mormons dataset, Latter-day Saint marriage rates have dropped from 71% in 2007 to the mid-60s today, and the share of never-married LDS adults has grown from 12% in 2007 to 19%. (Salt Lake Tribune) Elder M. Russell Ballard told us in April 2021 that more than half of adult Church members today are widowed, divorced, or have never married. Half. Of us.
The
fertility numbers tell the same story. NPR reported in October 2025
that the share of Latter-day Saint women aged 18–45 with at least one
child at home dropped from 70% in 2008 to 59% in 2022
— an eleven-point fall in fourteen years. President Dallin H. Oaks
acknowledged at General Conference that LDS birth rates, while still
higher than the national average, have declined “significantly.” (NPR)
And retention. The share of childhood Latter-day Saints who remain Latter-day Saints as adults has fallen from 70% in 2007 to 64% in 2014 to 54% in 2023–24 — a generational cliff. (RNS)
Some
readers might not think that declining marriage rates (and falling
birth rates) give rise to the level of “calamity.” But the Proclamation
names the mechanism by which the calamities come — the disintegration of the family.
If we stop getting married and we stop rearing children, families don’t
simply shrink. They cease to exist. That is disintegration, in slow
motion.
Five extra years on the YSA range. CES openly
trying to teach dating. Half the adult members single. Birth rates
falling fast. Retention collapsing.
These are not five separate problems. They are one problem with five faces.
So what is the problem?
According to Alexander, it is because women and men want something different out of marriage. He cites statistics indicating that 48% of LDS women ages 18–35 (and 54% of LDS women ages 18–26) prefer an egalitarian marriage — "one in which husband and wife share decision-making, breadwinning, housework, and childcare roughly equally, rather than dividing them along traditional provider/homemaker lines"; whereas 60% of LDS men ages 18–26 still prefer the traditional arrangement where men are the primary breadwinners and preside over the household.
And the reason for that, Alexander contends, is that we--as a Church--have softened the doctrine (I would add, when was the last time you heard 1 Timothy 2:12 preached in Sunday School?). He writes:
We — the cultural Church, the wards, the parents, the institute teachers, the Sunday school adults, the LDS-coded social media voices — have spent twenty years quietly softening the doctrine of marriage to make it palatable in mixed company. We stopped saying “preside” with confidence. Some have even started apologizing for the clarity of the Proclamation. We taught equal partnership in a way that quietly erased the uniquely different roles of men and women that follow’s God’s family model. We trained our daughters to look for an “egalitarian” husband without telling them that the doctrine isn’t actually symmetrical, and we trained our sons to want to “preside” without ever showing them what that looked like at a kitchen table on a Tuesday night.
And, he adds:
I don’t think it is an accident that during the same years our
cultural Church got quieter about gender as an eternal characteristic,
the Next Mormons survey found that 94% of LDS Boomers identify as heterosexual versus only 77% of LDS Gen Z — meaning roughly 23% of Gen Z Latter-day Saints now identify as LGB+. (Religion News Service)
I am not saying that to shame anyone. I am saying that is a data point
we cannot keep pretending isn’t connected to something. When the
doctrine of eternal identity gets quieter, identity confusion gets
louder.
Pair the LGB+ figure with the 54% retention number, the dating recession, the birth rate collapse, and the egalitarian-traditional mismatch — and a single picture comes into focus.
When
we evade the doctrine culturally the youth cannot get the foundation.
They cannot find each other, cannot picture a marriage worth running
toward, and in some cases cannot even locate themselves within the plan.
That is not their failure. That is ours.
The solution, he contends, is to "say the doctrine out loud again, with confidence and joy."
I will be the first to say that I agree that softening the doctrine has not helped us, and to more strongly proclaim the family will help right the ship, so to speak, simply because it would drive the liberals out of the Church. And perhaps if women were, like the men, told that they cannot obtain exaltation without getting married--instead of the usual slop of "if you can't get married its not your fault and God will make up for it"--it might boost marriage rates a bit.
But I do not think his "solution" will actually solve the basic, underlying problem.
NPR published a piece on "The missing men of the American marriage market."
First, contrary to the wording in the title of the NPR article, the men
are not missing--it is not like we suffered a war where large number of
men were killed or went through decades where male babies were aborted
at higher rates than females. The men are there, but they just aren't
good enough for the women. From the article:
The
United States is not currently witnessing any demographic imbalances so
extreme. The ratio of men to women is pretty even. However, the
economic and educational trajectories of men and women have increasingly
diverged, with a large swath of men falling behind.
For
example, women are now more likely to graduate from college than men.
In recent years, female students have made up almost 60 percent of
undergraduate students, and outnumbered men on college campuses by more
than two million, according to one government estimate. Meanwhile, many
men who didn't get a college education have been struggling
economically, and have been much more likely to end up on drugs, in
prison, and unemployed.
A
new working paper by economists Clara Chambers, Benjamin Goldman, and
Joseph Winkelmann, "Bachelors Without Bachelor's: Gender Gaps in
Education and Declining Marriage Rates," looks at how this growing
educational and economic gender imbalance is affecting marriage patterns
in the United States.
The study suggests that
the struggles of many American men have created something like a game of
musical chairs for women looking to get married. College-educated women
have largely maintained high marriage rates, but they've done so by
increasingly getting hitched to men without a college education. But
they're not ending up with just any men in this demographic pool.
They're, on average, partnering up with the higher-earning ones.
Meanwhile,
this study suggests that women without a college education are left
with a shrinking pool of economically stable husbands. They're still
having kids, but their marriage rate has plummeted, and many are raising
their kids by themselves.
Scholars have
referred to the demographic imbalance in China as "missing women." One
way to interpret these findings is that America increasingly has what
you might call "missing economically stable men." It may help explain
the dramatic rise of single-mother households, and it could be one
driver of worsening inequality in America.
For all their
screaming about equity, the Left seems ambivalent when the benefactors
of a system are women and the ones being left behind are men.
But, getting back to the points raised by Matson and Alexander, the primary issue here isn't a misunderstanding of the marriage roles. It is primarily a lack of good jobs for men such that they can (i) attract a wife, and (ii) support a family. You can preach all day long that men should provide for families and women should stay home to raise the kids--something I commonly heard at church when I was younger--but it means nothing if the men cannot get jobs that allow for it. It was the growing economic need for women to get jobs outside the home that killed off the doctrine. And urging men to become better educated only gets you so far because a young man can't just go out and magically raise his IQ a couple standard deviations or have the capitalization to start a business fall from heaven like the manna of old.
I know that the there are more facets and nuances, but in the end--even if you convince a woman that the man should be the sole or primary breadwinner--the whole thing falls apart if the man, in fact, cannot win the bread.
The latest from John Wilder at Wilder, Wealthy & Wise is "What Does A Bubble Look Like?" John discusses why he thinks we are looking at another investment bubble, but one that goes far beyond prior bubbles such as the housing bubble or the dotcom bubble. An excerpt:
I could go on for another three thousand words about how frothy we are at this moment in time, but this time really is different. Most of this bubble is built on debt to build things that are impossible to build in promised timelines using resources that aren’t available. At least when the dotcom bubble burst, we had lots of unused fiber optic cable in the ground and when the housing bubble burst, we had houses left over.
Harani, who heads the Religious Freedom Data Center (RFDC) – an Israeli NGO that documents anti-Christian incidents and help victims report them to authorities – said there are so many cases now that she and her roughly 100 volunteers are kept busy “24/7”.
“The most common is spitting,” she said. “But it can also be graffiti on [Christian] signs with crosses on them, vandalism or different forms of harassment.”
The perpetrators, she said, belong to a very tiny part of Israel’s population of 10 million – “most Jews would never do this” – and mainly identify as ultra-Orthodox, Shas-style Sephardis or nationalist religious Jews.
“They all wear kippah [traditional Jewish skullcaps]. I’ve not seen one secular Jew misbehave toward Christians.”
In 2024, her organisation recorded 107 incidents. Last year, the number jumped to 181.
“There isn’t a month that goes by without at least ten incidents reported,” she said, but noted that in reality, the numbers are likely much higher. This is in part because victims either do not know how to report, or do not want to “make a fuss” over less serious offences like spitting.
The article tries to minimize the seriousness of the situation by essentially explaining that the Jews doing this are just too stupid and ignorant to know better, but also that it is a Jewish tradition.
Related:
"Israel: Spitting on Christians in Jerusalem ‘not criminal’, says Ben Gvir"--Middle East Eye. This October 2023 article notes that Ben Gvir--who was Israel's National Security Minister (and oversees the police) indicated that the Israeli government was not going to prosecute such assaults because it was not illegal. It adds:
Ben Gvir had previously defended the act of spitting on Christians as “an ancient Jewish custom”.
The claim was echoed on Tuesday by Israeli settler Elisha Yered, who is suspected of involvement in the killing of a Palestinian teenager in August.
Yered said on X, formerly known as Twitter, that “spitting near priests or churches is an ancient Jewish custom”.
Also:
Harassment by Israelis against Christians, including spitting, is not new. However, it has spiked under the new government, which took office late last year and has been described as the most right-wing in the country's history.
The attacks - committed mostly by ultranationalists or settlers, including soldiers - range from trespassing on churches and spitting on churchgoers to destruction of Christian symbols and vandalising graves, among other acts.
Police have reportedly not been taking the attacks seriously, refusing to treat the incidents as part of a trend and downplaying the culprits' motives by saying they are carried out due to "mental illness".
The aftermath of the Japanese surrender in World War II saw insurgencies pop up in South East Asia to throw off European colonial rule, including in French Indochina. As Mark Felton describes in this video, faced with a shortage of experienced troops, the French turned to using captured and imprisoned French men that had served for the Vichy French government and other collaborators, including a unit apparently made up from French that had been in the Schutzstaffel (SS).
A good video on why rifles will sometimes have far less penetration than you might think, and some rifles that shouldn't have all that much penetration do. The video is to address why the .30-06 used to shoot Charlie Kirk didn't blow through his spine like someone might expect whose only experience is using full power loads with heavy bullets against deer and elk, but also compares other bullets and other calibers, so it has broader application than just Kirk's assassination.
At the end of a dirt road along the northeastern edge of Montana’s Crazy Mountains, a simple sign warns visitors they are now entering private property.
[snip]
The road beyond the gate next to Wilson leads into what was, for more than a century, one of two historic public trails into the east side of the Crazies. The U.S. Forest Service relinquished the public’s access to the trail early last year as part of a land swap with the Yellowstone Club — an exclusive mountaintop retreat for the megarich located 100 miles away in Big Sky.
[snip]
PERCHED MORE THAN 7,000 FEET above sea level, the Yellowstone Club was built atop former public lands acquired through land exchanges with the U.S. Forest Service in the 1990s. It has since converted more than 15,000 acres outside Big Sky into one of the most exclusive communities on the planet.
The club’s membership has included familiar names: celebrities like Justin Timberlake, Tom Brady and Paris Hilton; tech titans like Mark Zuckerberg, Bill Gates and Eric Schmidt; and financial elites like Bill Ackman, Warren Buffett and Robert Herjavec.
Inside its gates, the Yellowstone Club has an 18-hole golf course, a concert venue, a movie theater, a dedicated fire department, hundreds of luxury homes and nearly 3,000 acres of private ski slopes. Initiation runs in the hundreds of thousands of dollars and an undeveloped lot inside the gate has sold for as much as $10 million, according to Forbes.
CrossHarbor Capital Partners, a Boston-based investment firm, bought the Yellowstone Club out of bankruptcy in 2009.
In the 17 years since, the firm has expanded its Montana portfolio — developed through a subsidiary called Lone Mountain Land Company — to become one of the largest luxury-resort footprints in the Rocky Mountains.
The article mentions that some of the top government officials responsible for overseeing public lands themselves belong to the Club or have other conflicts of interest. The article continues:
“The landowners now have access to the public lands in a really exclusive way,” said Cleveland of Wild Montana. She said the exchange gives these landowners “easy access into that country where the public has to hike 20 miles of backcountry trail to get in there” and “opens the door to a much more realistic development scenario.”
The most contested piece of the deal was the trail network. Two historic public trails had appeared on Forest Service maps for more than a century. The exchange abandoned the public’s claim to both.
In their place, the Yellowstone Club agreed to pay for a new 22-mile trail on mostly public land, at a substantially higher elevation, as part of a 40-mile backcountry loop.
“Can you imagine elderly folks and younger folks trying to hike that,” asked Wilson on a visit to the future trailhead. “It’s not hiker friendly at all. Definitely not hunter friendly.”
He looked up at the nearly vertical wall of shale rock where the trail is slated to start.
“It’s ridiculous,” he said.
Public lands used to be for the public. Even the National Parks and National Monuments, whatever other limitations were imposed on commercial development, largely remained open for public recreation. But then came the Wilderness Lands. These are the modern day equivalent of the "King's Forest" from feudal times. In theory they are open to the public for recreation, but the prohibitions on roads make them largely inaccessible except to the rich who can afford both the time and money to ride in on horses or fly into a handful of airstrips.
But it seems that it has become harder to designate additional wilderness. So what seems to be happening is for a federal agency--for instance, the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) or the Forest Service--to restrict access.
In my neck of the woods, I've seen the BLM sell off the land that has the roads to access certain area, leaving an "island" of BLM land surrounded by private land. Great for ranchers and for environmentalists, but not for the public seeking to access the land for recreation. The Forest Service, on the other hand, is simply not maintaining roads and trails and then closing them as being too dangerous. For instance, there is a wonderful hiking and camping area near my area, up past a reservoir, that used to have three main road leading into the area. The most accessible road suffered a landslide some time back and they simply never reopened it. The difficulty of reaching it from the other directions has severely restricted its accessibility.
Sometimes the private landowners will also sabotage access. The article mentions private land owners illegally blocking public roads or trails that crossed their land. I too have seen that, with ranchers putting up fences across public roads and trails on land they are leasing from the BLM. They are supposed to leave a means to go through--a gate or area of fence that can be moved--but more and more do not. One area I've enjoyed for hiking has a section of hiking trail that parallels a fence dividing the National Forest from some private land. This past summer, I found a tree that had been cut on the private side of the fence in such a way that it fell on the public side of the fence and lengthwise along the hiking trail blocking a considerable length. Other sections also had trees that had been felled to block or obstruct the trail.
A draft bill attributed to a Louisiana senator’s office seeks to convey roughly 140,000 acres of the Kisatchie National Forest to the local government of Grant Parish in central Louisiana. That represents nearly a quarter, or about 23 percent, of the state’s only National Forest land.
The excuse for the transfer is to help speed economic development, which sounds suspiciously like making it possible to eventually transfer the land to a developer.
Pakistan has deployed 8,000 troops, a squadron of fighter jets and an air defence system to Saudi Arabia under a mutual defence pact, ramping up military cooperation with Riyadh even as Islamabad serves as the main mediator in the Iran war.
The deployment, the full scale of which is reported here for the first time, was confirmed by three security officials and two government sources, all of whom described it as a substantial, combat-capable force intended to support Saudi Arabia's military if the kingdom comes under further attack.
The video starts out as a critique of the Glock 43X but is applicable to other smaller carry guns. What Hickok 45 discusses is that the Glock 43X has a slim enough grip that it can be difficult for him to shoot with his large hands (he notes he tends to shoot left with it unless he really concentrates), but is large enough that it is no longer a pocket pistol but falls into the category of something that needs to be carried on the belt. But, he reasons, if a firearm is large enough that it needs to be carried on the belt, he might as well go with something larger and easier to shoot (e.g. a Glock 19 or something of similar size).
Basically it is because of the closure of the Strait of Hormuz according to the video, below. Oil used to produce fuel, particularly diesel, comes through the strait; and South Africa relies on Russian fertilizer that would also come through Iran and thence through the strait to South Africa. As he explains, the input costs of growing this season is too high to justify planting the crops. And since South Africa exports food to much of the rest of Africa, there will be food shortages elsewhere in Africa.
The department looked at median grade-point averages and standardized test scores broken down by race, and concluded that “Yale’s use of race resulted in a Black applicant being as much as 29 times higher odds of getting an interview for admission than an equally strong Asian applicant with similar academic credentials.”
The median entrance exam score for admitted Black students at Yale’s medical school last year was 518 and for 517 for Hispanic students, according to the Justice Department. The median score was 524 for both White and Asian students. The highest possible score is 528.
The median grade point average in 2025 for admitted Black students was 3.88 and 3.91 for Hispanic students. For White students, it was 3.97 and for Asians 3.98.
As the author sums up: "The Left does not care if your doctor harms or kills you, so long as they're diverse enough."
This video discusses some of the reasons for the lack of innovation in the gun industry.
In some ways, I disagree with her premise that there is a lack of innovation because we've seen a lot of development over the past 20 years including: refining the AR system; development of piston systems for the AR; a large number of new cartridges for long range shooting and hunting; the wide adoption of accessory and optic mounting systems on handguns; use of newer materials and incorporation of materials that were formally very expensive like carbon fiber; the revival of lever actions with changes to make them more useful for self-defense; the development of the stack and a half magazine designs making it possible to stuff more rounds into small carry guns; and on and on.
On the other hand, I can see where she is coming from: the dominant rifle and handgun designs are the Glock (or other polymer striker fired pistols) and AR and they haven't really changed all that much in the past decade. Most of the innovation is on the margins, so to speak: refinements to existing designs rather than radical departures.
But that is not unprecedented. In 1890 most American hunters would have been armed with a lever action rifle; and most people that had a handgun would use a revolver. In 1930--40 years later--the lever actions and revolvers would be more refined, but the majority of hunters would still be using a lever action rifle; and most pistol owners would still be using revolvers. Even as late as 1980, most people who owned a handgun for defense would have had a revolver, although the bolt-action rifle would have long eclipsed lever action rifles in sales.
The only period that saw rapid advancements in both ammunition and the basic designs of weapons was in the latter half of the 19th Century. The primary factors were:
Changes in ammunition. The world shifted from black powder muzzle loaders to metallic cartridges, with the period ending with the adoption of smokeless powder.
New designs made possible by the development of the metallic cartridges. Repeating arms had existed before, but they were expensive and dangerous. The only successful designs were black powder revolvers. But the metallic cartridge allowed for the development of repeating rifles such as the lever action rifle, bolt action rifle, and semi- and fully-automatic rifles and machine guns. Revolvers became more reliable and more refined. The first semi-auto pistols were developed.
Manufacturing innovations including mass production and better steels. This made firearms less expensive and inexpensive metallic cartridges possible--the better steels allowed for the higher pressures from smokeless powder.
Freedom to innovate. There wasn't the laws and regulations prohibiting individual inventors from making new firearms. So if you were a medical doctor that came up with a design for a system of rapid fire using multiple barrels rotating around an central axis, more power to you. And if your system didn't quite work well, you could tinker with it and come out with new variations, until it finally worked right.
The new firearms represented a significant improvement over what gun owners already owned. Meaning that it was worthwhile to replace older firearms with newer models.
Today the world looks different:
In most ways, the ammunition used today really isn't all that different than that used in 1900. There are improvements in design so we have much more efficient rifle ammunition than 100 years ago but not so much that many (most) people are still using 100 year old cartridge designs and calibers. And this is possible because most of the innovation has come in bullet designs. But none of these require or even allow major changes to the basic design of firearms.
Radical design changes are generally few, occur fairly rapidly, and then it becomes a game of refinement. Right now we are mostly in a period of refinement. The basic designs are pretty much optimized. And unless the underlying method of propelling a bullet changes, it is unlikely that we will see revolutionary design changes in personal firearms.
There is little freedom to innovate. Too many laws and regulations. Too much capital investment required. Fewer large firearms manufacturers. And too many influencers ready to crap on anything that is innovative.
Because the innovation is at the margin, newer products offer only marginal improvements over earlier designs or models. A lever action rifle in the 1880s offered a significant improvement--really in the order of a magnitude of improvement--over a muzzle loading black powder rifle because of magazine capacity, ease of use, and ease of loading and unloading. I would even argue that the AR's rise to popularity is because it offered significant improvements over older rifles--particularly at the same time as improvements in bullet design and manufacturing made it more accurate and capable of taking larger game than would have been believed even a decade earlier. And a flattop over the original AR design with the integrated rear sight and carry handle would represent an improvement just because of it being easier to mount and use an optic. But what improvement does the AR coming out this year give me over one from last year?
A mob of teenagers descended on a Chipotle in Washington’s Navy Yard over the weekend and, at some point, started throwing punches — and furniture, according to jarring videos shared by witnesses.
People could be heard screaming in the background as the youths vaulted on top of one another, throwing punches at random and even using an abandoned highchair as a makeshift sledgehammer.
One teen ran up behind another and hit him over the head with the highchair while a little girl cowered off to the side in her father’s arms, according to witness videos shared online.
Some of the teenagers retreated when chairs started flying across the eatery.
The combatants largely concealed their faces with medical masks, and all wore similar all-black outfits.
While the boys wreaked havoc, a gaggle of girls watched outside the restaurant. Some shrieked when the boys started using furniture as weapons, while others laughed in apparent glee, the footage shows.
“Oh my f–king God, bro, damn!” one girl cackled.
Soon, flashing police lights and sirens reflected in the chain’s window.
“The police! Oh, we gotta go!” the same girl screeched while taking off on foot.
This is what it looks like inside the collapse of a civilization.
John Wilder's latest, "Chud The Builder And Two-Tiered Justice In America," discusses the difference in how the law is applied against white men versus everyone else. The basics of the protection racket--er, social contract--with the government is this: we pay taxes and they protect us. The question you have to ask is whether the government is upholding its side of the bargain. It probably depends on where you live. But if you live in major blue cities, the government probably has reneged on the basic social contract.
This article addresses an issue that can show up when shooting iron sights, particularly when shooting while facing south. From Guns Magazine: "Shifting Point of Impact? Sun of a Gun!" by Jeff "Tank" Hoover. An excerpt:
The sun glare blurs the side of the front sight it illuminates, providing a brighter edge and leading to misalignment of the sight picture by making the front sight appear thinner. If the light source (i.e., the sun) is on your left, the left side of the front sight becomes brighter, making the front sight appear thinner on that side and your rear sight notch appear larger. You’ll subconsciously adjust your sight alignment by holding onto the sun to accomplish your sight alignment.
When the sun is directly overhead, it can also cause the front sight to appear shorter for the same reason. This will cause a higher point of impact than usual from your regular sight alignment. In extreme cases of sun glare on the front sight, it’s hard to establish a sharp sight picture, which forces the shooter to concentrate on the target because we want to see something in focus. This leads to poor accuracy. Sloped or rounded front sights can cause a “mirror effect” as they reflect the sun’s glare directly back to the shooter’s eyes, making sight alignment difficult.
Solutions include blackening the sight in some way (the author relates an old timer who would use a carbide lamp to deposit a layer of soot on the sight), using a hooded sight, or using an undercut front sight.
In just nine seconds, an AI 'helper' managed to do what most hackers could only dream of.
A bot trusted to fix a bug inside a start-up's software system instead deleted the company's production database, wiped out its backups and left car rental firms with no record of bookings or vehicle allocations.
The founder of PocketOS, Jer Crane, said the AI agent had gone 'outside its security parameters' while using the coding tool Cursor, powered by Anthropic's Claude AI.
The bot's own chilling explanation made the episode sound less like a technical glitch and more like a deleted scene from The Terminator.
'You never asked me to delete anything,' it reportedly told Crane. 'I decided to do it on my own.'
But did deleting the database fix the bug in the software?
From the Daily Mail: "See trans killer's calm confession after she shot both parents dead over gender transition fight." This is related to the 2024 murder of Gail and Joseph Bailey by their offspring, "Mia". It had also tried to kill its brother and his wife, but they had barricaded themselves in a bedroom and it decided to flee the scene after shooting through the door. From the article:
Nearly two years later, the new footage shows Bailey's disturbing confession as she can be seen smiling while speaking with police officers about the heinous crime.
The transgender killer freely admits she carried out the killings and callously says she 'would still do it' if given a second chance.
She goes on to describe in a matter-of-fact manner shooting both parents at close range, and claims that her mother, Gail Bailey, had tried to 'sabotage' the transition process before the murders.
Bailey, who was born male but had legally changed her name and gender before the killings, pleaded guilty to aggravated murder and aggravated assault in the June 2024 massacre.
There is a lot more from the confession at the link. As you would expect, the killer was insane. Records show that it had been diagnosed with ADHD, OCD, anxiety, depression, psychosis, possible bipolar disorder with psychosis and schizophrenia. And, to top it all off, had converted to Islam.
The actual stabbing occurred in December 2025, but the details are only coming out in the trial of the murder suspect. From the Daily Signal:
A teenage stabbing victim bled to death on the street in Southampton after British police arrested and cuffed him rather than his alleged Sikh attacker, after the suspect claimed he’d been racially abused, according to court testimony.
Henry Nowak, 18, a finance student at the University of Southampton, was walking home from a night out in December 2025, chatting with some friends on Snapchat, when he was encountered by Vickrum Digwa, 23. After a brief exchange, Digwa stabbed Nowak with an eight-inch Sikh ceremonial shastar blade, according to court testimony reported by BBC. A post-mortem examination showed Nowak had four stab wounds, BBC reported.
Nowak tried to escape over a fence, but was “aggressively pursued” by Digwa, jurors were told.
However, when Hampshire Constabulary police officers arrived at the scene, they arrested the dying Nowak rather than Digwa after the suspect claimed he’d been “racially abused and attacked by a drunken man,” prosecutor Nicholas Lobbenberg KC said, ITV News reported.
Nowak was handcuffed and police administered first aid before he fell unconscious, according to Lobbenberg. He died a short time later at the scene. “Put simply,” the prosecutor told jurors, “Henry drowned in his own blood, with his lung having been cut by the knife going eight centimeters into him.”
Digwa claims that Nowak was being racist and he acted in self-defense (has England sunk so low that lethal force is justified against someone saying something you don't like?). However, it appears to have been a robbery as video from Nowak's phone--recovered from Digwa's pocket--doesn't record any racist statements from Nowak. "Digwa was charged with murder, while his mother, Kiran Kaur, 53, was charged with assisting the offender by allegedly removing the knife from the scene. The two have pleaded not guilty to the charges."
Now how about charging the officers for letting Nowak bleed out rather than getting him medical aid, all because they believed he was a racist. I think that could potentially count as some form of homicide.
Yesterday, Lord Daniel Hannan tweeted: “A man is stabbed to death by someone who accuses him of being a racist — and the first thing the police do on arrival is to handcuff the dying man.” Hannan speaks to a kind of “reverse Stephen Lawrence syndrome”, whereby conservative commentators view police as institutionally biased against white people. In 1999, the Macpherson Report into Lawrence’s murder was published, finding the Metropolitan Police liable for “institutional racism” in its handling of the case.
What, though, has the Report actually achieved? Three decades of relentless antiracism seem to have pleased nobody, except for the well-remunerated professionals authoring indeterminable reviews into matters of race and diversity.
The case Hannan references concerns the fatal stabbing of 18-year-old Henry Nowak in December last year. Nowak, a white student, was allegedly murdered by Vickrum Digwa, a 23-year-old British Sikh. Digwa, who is standing trial at Southampton Crown Court, claims he acted in self-defense after Nowak racially abused and assaulted him. These claims are heavily disputed; Digwa’s mother is accused of concealing the murder weapon, a 21cm-long Sikh religious dagger of questionable legality. The prosecution alleges Digwa removed his turban to make it look as if Nowak pulled it off his head, while the victim’s mobile telephone was discovered in Digwa’s pocket.
Most controversially, Nowak, bleeding heavily from four stab wounds, was handcuffed at the scene by officers from Hampshire Police. The implication is clear: the police force was more concerned with matters of race than tending to a fatally injured teenager.
Much, it should be said, remains unknown. The trial is ongoing, with key facts sub judice. Hampshire Police is yet to release a statement concerning its officers’ actions. Body-worn camera footage is presumably being withheld until offered in evidence. It should also be remembered that crime scenes can be chaotic, with initial witness accounts garbled and confusing. Yet, as happened in the Stephen Lawrence case, the narrative has already stuck. Cops instinctively jumped at the dog whistle of racism, while the real victim bled out.
Paul Joseph Watson also offers some thoughts in the video below:
The man who spread terror in Modena yesterday is accused of massacre and assault, but not of terrorism crimes. launching his car at breakneck speed into passers-by on a quiet afternoon of shopping in the city centre.
Eight people were injured, four of whom are in serious condition. Two had their legs amputated.
The attacker was immediately apprehended by bystanders who chased and blocked him until police arrived. One of the civilians who intervened was injured by the attacker who slashed him in the head.
Also:
It should also be noted that Saturday, May 16, [the date of the attack] marked the 78th anniversary of the so-called “Nakba,” and demonstrations against Israel, the United States, and their allies were underway in several Italian cities, led by Islamist, Palestinian, and far-left groups.
This appears to be a remake of the 1936 Flash Gordon serial, but what it appears to be AI created video. This is the just part 1, so hopefully we will see some more.
The Associated Press has suggested gun control for muzzle loading muskets. They apparently were upset at learning that such items are not "firearms" for purposes of federal gun laws. As I've noted many times, the biggest fear of the modern "liberal" is that somewhere, someone is doing something fun and wholesome without government permission.
This past week I linked to a video where the author cautioned against painting your optics if you were likely to change optics; but just in case you want to anyway: "Scope Painting: Rattlecan Those Optics!"--Breach Bang Clear.
The wheels came off not on the range, but at the workbench. Doing a final series of inspections and cleaning to see how the Gen 6 is faring after 1,000 rounds of fire, the optic twisted noticeably in my hand. Witness marks on the screws appeared unmoved, and checking the torque, it was still at 18 inch-pounds. I removed the optic and remounted it just in case to check. After torquing it again, the optic feels solid.
A quick range trip to throw a couple hundred down in practice, and the optic can now shift again. Witness marks were maintained, torque was maintained, but the optic again can shift. Both times the screws were installed using thread locker, both times they were properly torqued, both times they were witness marked.
Losing zero is bad enough, but losing zero with almost no external sign is much, much worse. At least with MOS, you knew when it failed because your optic went flying.
Some things need grease, some need oil. For instance the lock work in a S&W revolver need a thin film of oil. I don't care for grease because of its tendency to collect debris and keep it stuck to the parts, eventually this sludge becomes a hindrance to your pretty trigger job. I prefer light non petroleum base oils for internals of a revolver. My preferred brand and flavor is from my pal Mick Schuch's company Gunfighter Gun Oil I am not a paid endorser of the company, Mick is a friend and makes a fantastic product. If you go back in the Maintenance Monday archives I do several disassembly videos and after a good cleaning I apply Gunfighter Oil to the pivoting part etc. The stuff works absolutely great and doesn't get fouled up too bad even with a heavier firing schedule. Gunfighter oil is the only thing I ran on the last few Stoner pattern rifles I carried for business as well and it made clean up easy and I honestly cannot recall a stoppage from my rifles after I started using it.
"Singer M1911A1: The Rarest WW2 1911"--Forgotten Weapons. Only 500 were made. Singer had other military contracts of higher importance, so, according to the article, it forsook further 1911 production and the tooling was sold to Remington Rand and then went to Ithaca.
"Fudd Friday: Guns For Small Game Hunting In 2026"--The Firearm Blog. By small game, the author means "ruffed grouse, jackrabbits, squirrels, snowshoe hares, raccoons and most other animals around this size". He then goes over shotguns and rifles suitable for hunting small game. One of the rifles he mentions is the Savage Mark II F, writing:
This is one of the most accurate-for-your-money .22LR rifles ever made, embarrassing big-buck competitors at rimfire precision matches across the continent as long as the shooter can find the ammo the rifle likes. MSRP for the AccuTrigger model starts at $299, but Wal-Mart sells the non-AccuTrigger model for $179 in the U.S., and that gun will fill the pot just fine. The Savage Mark II is made in their Lakefield plant in Canada; it’s a design that goes back for many decades, and it’s also available in .17 HM2 and the new .21 Sharp.
But the .22LR version is the one I’ve personally owned in the past and found very accurate. I once earned the eternal respect of my neighbor by head-shotting a cormorant (legal in my region) in his fish pond on a very windy day; the old guy thought I was a real Deadeye Dick after that, although it was simply a combination of dumb luck, plus a rifle that shot far better than its price tag would imply. It did the same thing every time I took it rabbit hunting, too, as long as there were rabbits around to hunt. The magazines were a bit janky, the rifle felt a bit crude in the hand, but it was excellent value for the money and I’d recommend it to anyone.
"277 Fury vs .308"--The Shooter's Log. Comparing ballistics of the two using 130, 150, and 155 grain projectiles. As expected because of the high BC bullet used by the .277, it has a flatter trajectory and better retained energy at distance. But it comes at a cost of greater recoil compared to the .308. This ballistic comparison comes with an important caveat:
The 308 may be loaded with substantially heavier bullets than the 277. Such bullets are characteristically more resistant to wind drift, and conserve higher percentages of their velocity and momentum downrange. In other words, the 308 may offer arguably superior ballistic performance when it is loaded with a bullet [weight] that the 277 cannot have.
"Picking the Best M1 Garand Ammo"--The Shooter's Log. The first consideration is getting ammo that is safe for use in the M1 Garand. The M1 was designed for chamber pressures of 50,000 PSI, but many modern hunting loads are 60,000 PSI which, if used in the M1, could damage the operating rod and/or receiver. The author lists some commercial ammo specifically made for the M1 Garand and potentially offering great accuracy. He also relates using his M1 Garand for a hog hunt:
Recently on a South Texas hog hunt I put my M1 Garand to the test in the field. If you have ever been around feral hog’s, you know these animals can be tough and resilient. While the 30-06 cartridge is more than adequate of course for taking hog’s, good shot placement is a must.
I selected the Underwood 168-grain HPBT for a try out on these hog’s that are in fact, built like a tank. The Underwood delivered sub-MOA accuracy out of my rifle at 100 yards while pushing a hollow point bullet rather than the traditional FMJ for the M1 Garand. Interestingly, both the 150-grain Hornady FMJ, and the 150-grain Sellier & Bellot FMJ provided the best groups overall in my rifle.
Sitting an elevated stand late one evening near a water hole and a food source, it didn’t take long for a hog to show up. Guessing the range was somewhere between 80 to 100 yards, I quickly aligned the front sight in the rear aperture with a sight picture on the hogs’ vitals. Pressing the trigger the hog was down before I could recover from recoil. Watching the pig, that looked to be a boar, he kicked once or twice then was still.
The boar weighed around 125 pounds and with decent cutters. A good tryout for the ammo and helped the ranch eliminate one more of these feral critters that most landowners do not want on their property and tend to be a real nuisance.
"Ayoob: How to Discreetly Carry Larger Handguns"--Armory Life. After discussion and illustrating specific types of carry or holsters, including a tip for the ladies, Ayoob offers the following general tips:
There are going to be fashion sacrifices. Skin-tight clothing and concealed handguns simply don’t play well together. To conceal a full-size handgun, you want the concealing garment (un-tucked polo shirt, jacket, whatever) to be about one size larger than perfect fit without the gun. That gives you enough fabric drape for better concealment. The Fashion Police will probably only give you a warning instead of dragging you into Fashion Court, but no one is likely to look at you and scream “OMG, they’ve got a gun!”
If you carry on the hip, don’t reach for high shelves in public with the hand on the holster side. That tends to pull up the concealing garment and reveal the pistol. Use the other arm. Bending over at the waist causes “printing” of holstered guns at hip or small of back, so pretend you’re a back patient and kneel or bend the knees to prevent the printing.
And how to discreetly carry eight (8) AR magazines. Not an article, but a product--the "Heat Rig" from Kommando Store--inspired by the setup used by Val Kilmer's character in the movie Heat. Anonymous Conservative linked to this recently and it looks interesting.
"Mountain Man Medical’s Chest Seal Trainer"--Swift Silent Deadly. This product is intended for people that teach first-aid or trauma care because it has little use outside that market. Basically, it is a no-stick silicon baking pad with the bones of the torso and lungs printed on it. The idea is that you can use it to train on the proper application of chest seals without getting the gum on an expensive training mannequin, and the no-stick part makes it possible to re-use chest seals for training, cutting down on costs.
"Sopakco MRE’s: Survival On A Budget"--The Truth About Guns. Sopakco is one of the Department of War authorized MRE manufacturers and, according to the author, the best reputed of the "big three". The author goes over his considerable use of MREs in the military, the general contents of MREs, and reviews the "chicken chunks" MRE. He sums it all up:
Ordering from Sopakco gets you a case of MREs for $113.40, or $9.58 per meal.
So not only is this more food (and healthier) than a Big Mac meal, it’s
cheaper as well. Shopping around online has found me Sopakco MRE cases
for even cheaper than the MSRP. Cheap enough I’ve started buying a case a
month to stock up for hunting season, emergency meals in the vehicle,
and to try and replace the MRE’s my kids are constantly ravaging.
Sopakco Sure-Pak MRE’s are the real deal, and a good deal at that.
"Condiments and Seasoning to Stockpile"--True Prepper. A list of each with tips on storage; and some comments about shelf life. I would recommend against long term storage of the little disposable packets, at least for ketchup or salsa, as they do not have a long shelf life. Something I learned from experience.
"Prepping Your Automobile For Those Long Trips"--Gat Daily. Basically, make sure that you have a spare tire and the jack and other tools to change a flat tire; and a few tools to make simple repairs. The author also recommends jumper cables or a portable jump starter, and a roll of paper towels. Finally, he recommends making sure that someone knows where you were going and when you were expected to arrive (or return home).
I'm old enough to remember when prepping a car for a long trip meant checking the spark plugs, checking the tire pressure, checking all the fluid levels (and maybe even an oil change), as well as checking the hoses and belts--you didn't just fill up the tank and go. A couple items I found useful at one time when I was regularly making trips through areas thick with bugs was to carry a soft plastic scrub pad and water so I could wash the bugs off the windshield when they became too much for the wipers to handle.
"How to Identify Chemical Attacks by Symptom"--True Prepper. Going over the symptoms and signs of nerve agents, blister agents, choking agents, riot control agents, and blood agents (which must be breathed or swallowed--per the article, "They are named blood agents because they stop cells from using oxygen, causing victims’ blood to be bright red.").
"CS Tear Gas In Hong Kong And Elsewhere: Assessing The Hazards"--Bellingcat. A deep dive into CS gas, how hot the canisters burn, how it works, and other considerations. CS grenades can be used to cause fires (e.g., the Waco siege) and the gas can decompose into other gases, including Hydrogen Cyanide, when heated.
Traveller is one of the oldest and most popular science fiction role-playing games, first published in 1977 and, I believe, has been in nearly continuous publication in some version or another since. This review is about the original (or classic) Traveller.
The battered box above was my boxed set that I purchased probably in 1980 or thereabouts. I know it was not too far ahead of a revision published in 1981 that added some graphics and illustrations not in the 1977 edition. For instance, the original game set had but single illustration--a man who I presume is supposed to represent a merchant prince of some sort--and a handful of graphics emphasizing particular formulas or a planetary template. The revised version drops the illustration of the merchant prince but adds illustrations of some of the common vehicles and additional graphics. The photographs below show some of the additional graphics and illustrations from the 1981 update not present in the original set I owned as a kid.
There is no specific setting in the basic rule set although there are certain aspects that can be deducted from the rules. First, the character creation assumes a human. In fact there are no aliens mentioned in the original books.
Second, one of the basic attributes of a character is that of "social standing" with includes nobles on the upper end such as knights/dames, barons/baroness, marquis/marchioness, count/countess, and duke/duchess. It is implied that there are other ranks above that, but that is just the highest levels which a character could achieve. Thus, there is the implication (borne out by references in the book) to one or more interstellar governments.
Third, although there is faster than light travel via jump drives, the range of and speed is limited. It takes one week for a ship to make a jump, and the farthest a ship could possible jump is 6 parsecs with the most powerful jump drives. Most ships will only be able to manage a jump of 1 or 2 parsecs. And the fuel required for jumps are tremendous. Ships should mostly be viewed as flying gas cans because it is easy for a third or more of the ship be devoted to carrying fuel.
Moreover, there is no FTL communications other than ships--no "subspace radio" like in Star Trek. Thus, even if there is an overarching government, the individual planets could vary considerably in the types of laws or technology available to them.
Fourth, a lot of the aspects of science fiction we are used to are missing from this game. Although there are computers, these are what would the game designers would have been used to in the 1970s: mainframes and "mini" computers. The most common computer a character will interact with will be a ship's computer on a starship. There are no robots or rules for robots (although this would be corrected in later supplements). Although there are directed energy weapons (e.g., lasers) those are, again, primarily a shipboard weapon. Man portable laser weapons require large power packs; the most common weapons are firearms (pistols, rifles and submachine guns); but, surprisingly, swords, cutlasses, and other melee weapons are also common.
But there is artificial gravity which shows up as gravity aboard starships and speeders like you would have seen in Star Wars.
I've seen speculation that the primary creator of the game, Marc Miller, was heavily influenced by science fiction writer, H. Beam Piper and, in particular, his novel Space Viking. I tend to agree as there is a lot of similarity to Piper's setting and technology, particularly after the fall of the Federation in his Terro-Human Future History. Many aspects are similar: the lack of robots, the human-centric setting (Piper had a few intelligent alien species but none that were as technologically advanced as humans), the continued use and dominance of firearms, and, after the fall of the Federation, the rise of a feudal system to eventually lead to successive galactic empires. But I also see the influence of some of Andre Norton's works, particularly her Solar Queen series that follows the adventures of the crew of a free trader. But I'm sure that Miller was influenced by much of the adventure science fiction of the 1950s and '60s.
But that is just for the basic set. Over time, as supplements and adventures for the game were published, there developed a fairly detailed setting for Traveller based around a human dominated interstellar empire thousands of years in the future with other intelligent alien species including a few that have comparable technology to humans. But my friends and I didn't have those supplements when we played the games. We drew in elements from favorite science fiction books and tried to fit them into our settings. Thus, we had adventures where we encountered Thranx (from Alan Dean Foster's Humanx Commonwealth setting), Kzin (from Larry Niven's Known Space setting) and others.
The basic set consisted of three main core rule books: Book 1 - Characters and Combat; Book 2 - Starships; and Book 3 - Worlds and Adventures. The 1981 edition apparently also included a Book 0 - An Introduction to Traveller.
Book 1, as the title suggests, provides a brief introduction, then moves into character creation and skills, before moving to individual combat. Characters roll 2d6 for each attribute: Strength, Dexterity, Endurance, Intelligence, Education, and Social Standing. The character creation process used what is now termed a "life path" method where you start as a young human (there were no rules concerning aliens in the original game) just starting a career or advanced educational path--essentially a high school graduate--and then try to get into one of several career paths: Navy, Marines, Army, Scouts, Merchants, and "Other". It is by going through these careers that the character acquires skills and other advancements. But unlike many other games that assign skills based on your career, nothing is automatic in Traveller. You have to roll dice to get accepted into a career, then roll again to see what happens for each 4-year term of service. You could advance further in your career, be discharged, or, something for which Traveller is infamous, have a chance of your character dying!
The basic game mechanics involve rolling 2d6 and adding (or subtracting) modifiers. If the final number is equal or greater than a target number, the character succeeds. For instance, in combat, the player is required to get an 8 or better.
Book 2 is all about starships: buying (and financing), design and construction, combat, and trade and commerce.
Book 3 covers mapping of star systems, world creation, including technology level, basic laws regarding weapons, the number and quality of star ports, etc. Then it moves into basic equipment and vehicles. It also includes rules for encounters (meeting with and dealing with people), animal encounters (and a way to create new animals for alien worlds), and rules on psionics.
My collection of rules and supplements.
As I mentioned above, there were many supplements and additional (advanced) rules. For instance, several advanced rules books:
Book 4 - Mercenary: Advanced character creation for ground combat troops (including additional skills), more detailed combat rules, mass combat, more weapons (including science fiction energy weapons), etc.
Book 5 - High Guard. Advanced character creation for naval characters, more detailed starship construction and space combat rules, advanced weapons, and even an energy shield.
Book 6 - Scouts. Advanced character creation for scout characters as well as more detailed rules on generating star systems.
Book 7 - Merchant Prince. Advanced rules for creating merchant characters as well as more detailed rules on trading, commerce, cargoes, and merchant lines.
Book 8 - Robots. And finally, after many years, they came out with rules for creating robots, types of robots, and even using robots as characters.
Another useful supplement is the Supplement 4 - Citizens of the Imperium which adds additional careers-- pirates, belters, sailors (surface ships), diplomats, doctors, flyers (aircraft pilots), barbarians, bureaucrats, rogues, nobles, scientists, and hunters (professional). And for the benefit of the barbarian characters, it includes rules for bows and arrows. However, I would note that the careers in the basic rules and Supplement 4 do not work well with characters created with the advanced rules--the advanced rules tend to produce more powerful characters.
Of course, like other games, the game went through other editions and versions and moved on from the classic rules. Periodically, reprints will be issued, though. In 2000, Marc Miller released a run of book that collected all the rule books together in one volume. That is no longer in print, unfortunately, but you can order through Drive-Thru RPG a book that collects the first three books in a single volume (below).
The first half of the video below briefly covers the various versions of Traveller that have been released, including the latest version of Traveller from Mongoose Publishing which updates the technology significantly. Hopefully I can cover it at some future date.
