A Chinese armed robot, a ripoff of the Boston Dynamics “Spot.” Slow, not very maneuverable, limited elevation, and LOUD.
PLA robot dog 😎 pic.twitter.com/fBZgqw5h6Q
— 彩云香江 (@louischeung_hk) July 29, 2022
Jul 292022
Jul 272022
The one where Brandon Herrera tries to replicate the home-made piece of junk firearm that was used to assassinate Shinzo Abe. The result works, but would likely be fatal to the shooter. This indicates that the assassin either somehow found a way to test and perfect his design (which seems unlikely in Japan), or he thought it through better than Herrera from the get-go.
I bet this one ends up getting yeeted by YouTube, since it shows how a disarmed populace can arm itself.
UPDATE: Yeeted. One might consider it odd that an American company would ban videos that kinda-sorta a little bit show how to make things that are legal for Americans to make. Odd, that.
Jul 242022
A few days ago, the House debated their latest gun grab. Starting at about 2:14:22, an exchange is held that lays plain the fact that this bill is monumentally unConstitutional, with Jerry Nadler *proudly* proclaiming that it would ban weapons “in common use.” The relevant part goes on for about five minutes, at which time the Democrats pivot to whining about the border rather than tackling the fact that they are doing something that they *know* is illegal.
Suggestion 1: If you are a lawmaker, don’t make laws that you know are unConstitutional.
Suggestion 2: Don’t admit it this openly.
Bonus round: Democrats lie outright and claim that a stabilizing brace is a bump stock, and are willing to die on that hill.
Jul 232022
But it *should.*
H.R.8399 – To amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to repeal the National Firearms Act.
A BILL
To amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to repeal the National Firearms Act.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. Repeal of National Firearms Act.
Chapter 53 of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986, and the item relating to such chapter in the table of chapters for subtitle E, are hereby repealed
This would be *spectacular.* It would be the most important rollback of governmental overreach since the end of prohibition. But will it pass? The chances in *this* House are nil. In this Senate are nil. Getting signed by this Administration? Less than Nil.
But a man can dream.
Jul 212022
China’s Nuclear Powered Super Long-Range Torpedo Concept Fits Concerning Pattern
Article concerns a theoretical weapon the Chinese have written a paper about. A torpedo that can be launched from a normal tube, equipped with a reactor of rather inefficient performance but adequate to drive it across the ocean to San Francisco at 30 knots. There it would drop the reactor which would supposedly safely deactivate and sink into the sand; the torpedo would then guide itself to the target under conventional power.
On the one hand: archives are filled with design studies that went nowhere. One the other hand, it would be unwise to assume that the Chinese *aren’t* developing this. And given their recent history of aggression and technical incompetence, I’d fully expect a large fraction of the reactors to melt down en route, some to deactivate then reactivate, some of the torpedoes to wander off and blow up Easter Island or Fiji, or just bob around in the ocean until rammed by a fishing vessel or a deafened whale. Still, it’s interesting to note that the Commies are threatening San Francisco. Gotta wonder how the commies of San Fran and Berkeley would react to the sudden appearance of a radioactive tsunami a few meters high washing into town. I imagine the radiation wards will be filled with plaintive cries of “Trump’s fault!” and “white privilege!”
Jul 212022
This may well be pure BS. If it’s not, though… ruh-roh, Russian tankies…
US Secretary of the Air Force Frank Kendall told a journalist who inquired about the possibility of transferring aircraft data.
Thus the US Air Force will be able to write off obsolete military aircraft in order to focus on modern programs. #Ukraine #UkraineRussianWar #Ukrainian
— 🇺🇦Ukraine News Live🇺🇦 (@UkraineNewsLive) July 21, 2022
The A-10 is, let’s face it, obsolete. As absolutely badass as the plane is, drones have kinda taken over the role… sure, they’re far more easily destroyed than the A-10, but who cares? They’re cheap and disposable and ain’t nobody on board. The modern battlefield is an unsafe place for something slow and targetable like the A-10. Buuuuuuuut…. the Russians, rather stupidly, have failed to gain absolute air dominance over all of Ukraine. This is the sort of environment that the A-10, properly employed and properly flown, can shine in. Swamp the Russian air defenses with cheap rocks and cheap drones, and then the A-10 comes striding in ten feet tall and lays waste with precision, determination and brutality. *Imagine* those long trains of resupply trucks, miles long, looking up and seeing a few A-10s drawing down on them. Whoopsie.
Of course, there are lots of problems with this idea. The A-10 is not in production, nor, I expect, are most of the spare parts needed to maintain the fleet. A Ukrainian A-10 gets damaged, repairing it might be quite problematic. Ukrainian pilots have, to my knowledge, zero training time on the A-10. Russian air defense has been kind of a joke; this might spur them to actually get on the job. And every A-10 sent to Ukraine is an A-10 that can’t be sent to the US Army (the Army should have fixed wing ground attack/support aircraft: fight me). The USAF has wanted to rid itself of the A-10 for decades, and, honestly, I guess I’d rather see them lost in combat shooting their way to Valhalla than in a scrap yard getting turned into nails and pop cans. At this point, losing airframes over enemy territory no longer holds the fear of “oh no, they’ll learn our secrets from examining the wreckage” that it might have 40 years ago.
A-10’s appear in the skies of Ukraine, the Russians will make taking them out a priority. That will certainly make for an interesting clash. And if the American plane and Ukrainian pilot put up a good showing of survivability… the Russians will probably bend themselves over backwards to take them out. The A-10s could thus be useful simply as a way to throw the Russian war effort into chaos, devoting effort and funds to some new goal, while now getting stingier on other more practical goals.
Jul 202022
I had noted that Good Guy With A Gun Eli Dicken was reported to have shot the wannabe mass shooter from a range of forty yards. It gets better:
Update: Eli Dicken stopped the mall shooter in 15 seconds flat, landing 8 out of 10 shots from his 9mm at 40 freaking yards!
Yup. From forty to fifty yards, he took the bad guy down in less time than most of us would take to register just what the frak was going on. The coroner report says that the badguy had 8 bullet wounds, which *may* mean he got shot eight times, though it might include both entry and exit wounds as separate, dunno (which would still mean four hits at least).
Jul 182022
Elishjah Dicken is a *man.* He shot a murderer 40 yards away with a pistol. Well done sir.
EDIT: Video below is a local news interview with the grandmother of Dicken’s girlfriend. It’s worth a watch; nothing NSFW, just news. Dunno why they’ve blocked playback on other sites.
When seconds count, the police are only… what, like, 45 minutes away?
Elisjsha Dicken: Good Samaritan Named in Greenwood Mall Shooting
This news story has basically two characters of note. With luck, Elisjsha will be the one who is remembered.
Jul 152022
Here’s a link to H.R. 1808, a bill the Democrats are pushing that is *blatantly* unConstitutional. Anyone who signs it should be impeached, but here we are.
https://www.congress.gov/bill/117th-congress/house-bill/1808/text
To regulate assault weapons, to ensure that the right to keep and bear arms is not unlimited, and for other purposes.
The important bits:
“(36) The term ‘semiautomatic assault weapon’ means any of the following, regardless of country of manufacture or caliber of ammunition accepted:
“(A) A semiautomatic rifle that—
“(i) has a magazine that is not a fixed magazine; and
“(ii) does have any 1 of the following:
“(I) A pistol grip.
“(II) A forward grip.
“(III) A folding, telescoping, or detachable stock, or is otherwise foldable or adjustable in a manner that operates to reduce the length, size, or any other dimension, or otherwise enhances the concealability, of the weapon.
“(IV) A grenade launcher.
“(V) A barrel shroud.
“(VI) A threaded barrel.
So, in short, an “assault weapon” is basically any semi-automatic rifle you are likely to come across.
And what do they want to do with these “assault weapons?”
It shall be unlawful for a person to import, sell, manufacture, transfer, or possess, in or affecting interstate or foreign commerce, a semiautomatic assault weapon.
They want to imprison or kill – perhaps both – tens of *millions* of Americans.
The Democrats don;t have the votes to pull this scheme off by themselves. They’ll need a few backstabbing “Republicans” to get onboard as well. Keep an eye on them.
Jul 122022