Borrowed from Wirecutter:

"GET OFF MY DOCK!"

Typical July weather here,

which means still hot & humid in the evening, though mornings can be delightful.  Right now it's evening, so indoor studies are in order.

History; it be messy

While taking sediment cores from a nearby peat bog to help study the ancient environment, archaeologist Paul Ledger and his colleagues discovered a previously unknown chapter in the story of L’Anse aux Meadows. Buried about 35cm (14 inches) beneath the modern surface, they found signs of an ancient occupancy: a layer of trampled mud littered with woodworking debris, charcoal, and the remains of plants and insects.

 Based on its depth and the insect species present, the layer looks like similar surfaces from the edges of Viking Age Norse settlements in Greenland and Iceland. But organic material from the layer radiocarbon dated to the late 1100s or early 1200s, long after the Norse were thought to have left Newfoundland for good.

I need to go to the range

as there are two rifles that need zeroing, some loads that need testing, and some stuff that just needs shooting.

Some of which means ammo to load.  And there's only so much time in a day to fit that in with the other stuff.

Time, ask of me anything but time.

Socialism, Comrades!

And yes, it's real socialism.
Venezuelan special forces have carried out thousands of extrajudicial killings in the past 18 months and then manipulated crime scenes to make it look as if the victims had been resisting arrest, the United Nations said on Thursday in a report detailing wide-ranging government abuses targeting political opponents.

Special Action Forces described by witnesses as “death squads” killed 5,287 people in 2018 and another 1,569 by mid-May of this year, in what are officially termed by the Venezuelan government “Operations for the Liberation of the People,” United Nations investigators reported.

Well, they liberated those people from breathing.  And from further starvation.

Now we only wait for the left to figure out how to blame it on the US.

Late. Hot. Tired.

Data.

I need to try something

In .45-70 I've tried various alloys, and found both 15-1 and 20-1 lead-tin seem to work the best in mine.

I've also noticed that some people have gotten pretty good results in using much harder alloys.  I've got some Lee 500-grain that I cast out of mongrel alloy; I need to load a few of them with a load that works well with 15-1 and see what they do.  I know they probably won't shoot as well, but it's worth trying just to compare results.

Why no, I can't leave some things alone.

A bit more on the asshats who think violence is fine

as long as their side is doing it. 

Adding to ebola in the Congo and region, measles

is running wild.
As the world anxiously monitors the outbreak of Ebola in Democratic Republic of the Congo, health officials note that a measles outbreak declared last month in the country has killed more people—mostly children—and faster.

Since January 2019, officials have recorded over 100,000 measles cases in the DRC, mostly in children, and nearly 2,000 have died. The figures surpass those of the latest Ebola outbreak in the country, which has tallied not quite 2,500 cases and 1,665 deaths since August 2018. The totals were noted by World Health Organization Director-General, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, in a speech today, July 15, at the United Nations Office in Geneva, Switzerland.

Also, remember what Peter Grant had in his post about trying to check people for ebola? 
Though he began experiencing symptoms while in Butembo, he traveled by bus to Goma on July 12 with 18 other people. The bus passed through three health checkpoints on its way, but the pastor showed no symptoms and gave different names at each checkpoint. This is possibly because he was trying to conceal his identity and health status, officials said.
If this doesn't get horrendously worse before it gets better, I'll be surprised.

The ebola situation is bad

And from what the gentleman says, probably worse- maybe a LOT worse- than reported.
...As a result, the virus is now poised to break out into three or four new countries.  I'm taking bets that it will do so before long.  I know that area from personal experience.  Just look at this map (courtesy of the Daily Mail) of where the epidemic has spread, most recently to Goma, a city of at least one million people (according to informal estimates, double that).
...
Unless we're very lucky, look for Ebola to reach Burundi next, and from there, slowly but surely, all the way down the central African lakes and their connecting rivers to Zambia and Malawi.  Look at the blue areas on the map below.  That's how informal, local trade travels, and (like many others, such as the Black Death in Europe in the 14th century) this disease follows trade.  It will not be possible to screen all travelers using such routes.  It's physically impossible to intercept them all - and given their mistrust of graft-seeking officialdom (of which more below), they'll have every incentive to avoid checkpoints.  They'll simply take to the bush and walk around them, or sail past them.
And if one infected person gets on an airplane to another country...  Chances are against that starting a big outbreak, but anyone really want to take the chance?

And even without airplanes,
"Isolated cases" of Ebola have now been reported from Uganda and Kenya, with the latter subject to official denials.  (If you believe them, I have a bridge in Brooklyn, NYC, to sell you.  Cash only, please, and in small bills.)  Officials in surrounding countries are terrified of admitting to Ebola cases on their territory, because they may bring with them restrictions on travel, trade, and all sorts of things that may affect their economies - and, consequently, the graft, bribery and corruption they rely on to fill their wallets.  Can't have that interrupted, can we?  This is Africa, after all!  (That's how wealthier refugees from Ebola will evade travel restrictions, even though they may be carrying the disease.  A suitable bribe, and they'll be waved through.  How do I know this?  Because I've done it myself to evade travel restrictions, in more than one country in Africa.)  That being the case, distrust any and all official statistics coming out of the affected areas.  They may or may not be correct.  I'll trust Doctors Without Borders' figures before I trust those from any health ministry (or the World Health Organization).

One thing that will help here: I really doubt Trump would have any problem ordering "NOBODY from 'x' countries comes in without extensive screening.  And if you test positive you're not going home, you're going into a hospital to be watched.  With armed guards if necessary."

Yesterday I spent a couple of hours

melting lead pipe and casting it into ingots.

Then found out there was a heat warning in effect(no wonder the shirt was soaked).

I think alloying with tin will wait until I'm less likely to melt.

A bit of history on the 3rd bomb that wasn't dropped,

and the dangers of messing with plutonium.

At this point the citizens of Rotherham should've started decorating lampposts with council members

The council and social services there had behaved abominably. An investigation discovered that more than 1,000 girls had been raped or sexually abused. 

Now we find that the council offered the principal rapist, a piece of filth called Arshid Hussain, the chance to see his child.
These idiots really don't give a rats ass about anyone except their official 'victim' class, do they?

Lampposts, ropes, council members: some assembly required.

Roman concrete,

she thinks she's figured it out.

A: The EffingBI has been this way for a looong time,

the current mess just brought it more to public attention.

B: Fairly or not, the current FBI tragedy is that an American citizen should be duly worried about his constitutional rights any time he is approached by such senior FBI officials. That is not a slur on the rank and file, but the legacy of the supposed best and brightest of the agency and their distortions of the bureau’s once professional creed.
Bullshit.  Anyone who thinks the rank and file- those field agents Sean Hannity keeps insisting are without tarnish, etc.- aren't affected by this attitude are blind or fools.  Do they think all the footwork involved in this was only done by the high-rankers? 

And that's not even touching on the lab scandals and others.

Said it before: either the FBI gets a serious housecleaning, which has to include "Yes, you're Special Agents of the Bureau; that does NOT mean you get to play games with the law and get away with it", or that agency will never be trusted again.  And if they don't clean it out they do not deserve to be trusted.

"Make them tell people what they believe BEFORE the election?

That's not fair!"


Anyone who's surprised hasn't been paying attention

Same here

Why would anyone be surprised about the media not bringing up another socialist trying for mass murder?  They probably cheered him on.


Speaking of the current socialist who tried for a high body count, if someone tries insisting that antifa & Co. don't actually like violence,

I really need to do some handloading,

but it's late and I'm tired.  Maybe tomorrow.

I've now got regular access to a very nice outdoor range, so hopefully I can get some ammo tested(factory and handloads), and generally get a bit more rifle work done.

Speaking of, did a bit of casting this morning, and it reminded me of something: I've got some molds that, once up to heat, just throw good bullets time after time; I've got one in which the bullets stick badly until the lead and mold temps are just right, at which point they just fall right out; and I've got one in particular that is a great big PITA to consistently get good bullets out of.  It's a RCBS for .32 semi-wadcutters, and except for the once in a blue moon when all the stars align, you'll get a good bullet in one cavity and the base won't fill out in the other.  I've cleaned, and done an extra flux of the lead, and it continues.  I've never had this much trouble out of any other.

I'm tired, I may continue on this tomorrow.

Ammo To Go did some suppressor testing,

and put it together with some of the legal stuff.

Definitely time for popcorn

Pressley seeming to hit back at the criticism from the CBC et al: “We don’t need any more brown faces that don’t want to be a brown voice. We don’t need any more black voices that don’t want to be a black voice.”
"If you don't speak and vote the way we want you to you aren't REALLY black or brown!"  Oh yeah, that's going over well.

This is the same kind of crap a bunch of the Evil Party has been throwing at any minority group member who doesn't toe their line for years; now it's being used on them, and it couldn't happen to a nicer bunch of crapheads.


Speaking of leftist asshats,
The Communist Origins of Antifa


Yes, this is how stupid a bunch of the left has become:
Bernie Marcus and Arthur Blank, the two primary founders of Home Depot are both Jewish.

Marcus is also a huge philanthropist supporting everything from the Atlanta Aquarium to a foundation for developmentally disabled children.

But being Republicans, at least one who supports Trump, that makes them White Supremacists.  Jewish White Supremacists.


Also from GFZ, more idiocy from Media Matters

Why does the Postal Service bother with tracking numbers?

Aside from making you feel good or something?

'African Wins Again' was a phrase I first heard

from Peter Capstick.  Years later I read 'Let Africa Sink'.  And the other day I ran across this:
I have seen. I am not turning my head and pretending unpleasant things are not true.

Senegal was not a hellhole. Very poor people can lead happy, meaningful lives in their own cultures' terms. But they are not our terms. The excrement is the least of it. Our basic ideas of human relations, right and wrong, are incompatible.
Interesting read.  The kind that makes leftists break out in sweats and scream 'Racist!', because uncomfortable facts are not to be tolerated.