Tonight I did not forget

so here 'tis

When you kill the business, you don't get ANY wage.

Consider San Francisco, an early adopter of the $15 wage. It’s now experiencing a restaurant die-off, minting jobless hash-slingers, cashiers, busboys, scullery engineers and line cooks as they get pink-slipped in increasing numbers. And the wage there hasn’t yet hit $15.

As the East Bay Times reported in January, at least 60 restaurants around the Bay Area had closed since September alone.

A recent study by Michael Luca at Harvard Business School and Dara Lee Luca at Mathematica Policy Research found that every $1 hike in the minimum wage brings a 14 percent increase in the likelihood of a 3.5-star restaurant on Yelp! closing. 
Which doesn't count all the other restaurants, little local places, that'll be killed.  But hey, I'm sure someone will tell us it's all because the greedy business owners just hated their employees.  And what better way to demonstrate that than to close the business that feeds you?


Hey, but they got the lie out there again, and that's what counts to them.


And this, children, is what happens when the people in charge actually want to win.
Secretary of Defense James Mattis instructed the U.S. military to abandon Obama administration procedures and start focusing on killing Islamic State fighters instead, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Joseph Dunford told Breaking Defense.

“When Secretary Mattis looked at our anti-ISIS campaign, he concluded that in some instances we were essentially just pushing the enemy from one location to another,” Dunford explained. “He asked me and the military chain-of-command to make a conscious effort not to allow ISIS fighters to just flee from one location to another, but rather to deliberately seek to ‘annihilate’ the enemy,” he continued.


Pardon me for putting this bluntly, but God damn.
Minnesota police officer Jeronimo Yanez has been dismissed as a police officer after he was acquitted of manslaughter in the shooting death of black motorist Philando Castile.

The city of St. Anthony said Friday afternoon that the public "will be best served" if Yanez no longer works for the city.
No shit?

What the hell was in the minds of the jury, I don't know.  Murder a man, get away with that but you lose your job.  Yeah, that's punishment.

Yes, I forgot the data dump last night, so

One of the things Pruitt needs to do at the EPA: fire and prosecute

every one of the lying bastards involved in the Gold King mess.  Lies, perjury, arrogance, it's all there.


This is why I’m all for the people with the chronic conditions having full control over their medications. Those of us who are sensible about it and know our limits don’t deserve to be penalized because the wannabe-Darwin-winners managed to fuck something else up, and we don’t deserve to suffer because some idiot bloody wowser is afraid someone somewhere is using that medication to have a good time.


"Oh no, I don't want to encourage violence(I do, but I won't admit it publicy) by this!"
Devine said Republican policies to take away people’s healthcare, enact voter ID laws, and oppose gun regulations are his idea of “tyrannical government.”
So, according to this Democrat,
Wanting to prevent non-citizens from voting,
Protecting the 2nd Amendment, and
Not wanting the .gov in charge of health care
is 'tyrannical'.

Not real smart, is he?

'Porcupine'.

I like that, and it seems to cover things nicely.

Especially since, as noted in a Bookface thread, if a private citizen acts to protect someone else, we don't have qualified immunity to fall back on.  Or a union that'll pay the legal bills.

Moving on to a subject that does not make me want to load up a bag, leave home,

and never come back:

A while back, on my first EBR, I had one of these sights.  It's a basic red dot, nothing fancy about it but it works.  Since it sits so low, I added one of these risers*, which made it just about the perfect height for me.

In the time since that Bushnell has gone on to another mount and firearm, and that riser was just sitting around.  I remembered it, ordered another one, and today put them on the rifle that needed a higher mount, then put a pair of Millett medium rings on, and the scope is now sitting at about the perfect height for me.  And this makes it a quick-detach mount.

I love it when things work out.


*Ref UTG, a guy who's done a lot of QC work for some pretty big companies once told me that, at least on their Pro series, their QC was as good or better than most of the others.  At least on those things, I've found it to be so.

Saw a post today from someone I know

which basically said "The Republicans are responsible for everything."

Apparently the crap from the left doesn't even get a mention.

I am so freaking sick of this shit.

Stealing from the pickpocket in Casablanca: 'Asshats,

asshats everywhere!'

And just what did he delete?

Such wonderful, clear-thinking people.  Much like CNN:
Curiously, Darcy seemed uninterested in CNN’s inability to correct its own false reporting on the Alexandria shooting. CNN falsely reported early Thursday morning that the rifle used by the Alexandria shooter, an SKS chambered in 7.62×39, was “a Chinese-made AK variant.” This is demonstrably false, and it’s an error with significant implications given U.S. gun laws.
...
Instead of moving quickly to correct the egregious errors as a way to prove that CNN is serious about publishing facts instead of fiction, Darcy did the exact opposite.

“Not playing your game man, but have fun!” Darcy replied.

"Do NOT tell the commoners to defend themselves,

it will give them bad ideas!"  In the place where (formerly Great)Britain used to be.


Apparently gun control pays rather well.


Translation: "Lie. Lie about what you actually want to do, because despite what we claim most people don't want what we do."
Here's a hint: if '90% of people want universal background checks' were true, we'd have them.


Another 'comedian' lecturing us, starting with this:
“I’m enlightened, I’m progressive, and I feel like I was put on this earth to enact righteous change, AKA, I’m a 2017 comedian.”
which translates to "I'm going to shove my virtue in your face and demand you change to meet my demands!"  Response:

Speaking of full ESPN,
A group of Native American and indigenous activists are lobbying the United Nations to outlaw "cultural appropriation" across the globe.

Critics of "cultural appropriation" believe that people should not adopt ideas, art, food, clothing, or other elements of cultures they do not belong to.
So, are white people not to be allowed to eat at restaurants serving anything other than European food?  No medical research on folk medicines?

And what happens when someone tells a Person of Colour "You can't eat/drink/wear/use that, you're appropriating another culture!" ?

This level of stupid, I really have no words for.

I mentioned that Fiocci shotgun ammo the other day, (updated)

and picked up a box for testing.  Box looks like this,

ammo like this

Now, if someone's going to bitch that this isn't a full, in-depth test, then convince someone to give me a few boxes of this and something to compare it to and I'll do it.  Till then, this is what you get.
Also, no bitching about photography; Oleg Volk I ain't.

Ran down to H&H to try this stuff, taking it and a box of Winchester Ranger low recoil 00 buck to compare it to.  Both are labeled 'low recoil', and I've found the Winchester to be definitely lower than standard buckshot.  Winchester says theirs runs 1145fps; the Fiocci is labeled 1150, so you'd expect them to feel about the same.  And they did.
Added: this was with a pump shotgun with an 18" barrel, no choke.


Results at ten yards

 Top two targets are Winchester, lower Fiocci, and the big holes are from wads.  Pattern sizes are pretty close.

Second try

gave the same results.  As noted, recoil felt the same, and within the vagaries of me shooting this offhand had the same POA/POI.

Other observations:
They sounded different, the Fiocci having what I'd describe as a sharper report.
Fiocci definitely had more muzzle flash.  Nothing horrible, but noticeable.

Neither gives patterns like Federal Flitecontrol, so if you need that, get Federal.  If you want something that'll work just fine at down the hall or across the room distances, the Fiocci or Winchester should work just fine.  And the Fiocci comes in a box of ten for $5-7 depending on where you get it; that makes practice more affordable.

Thus ends this review.
 Update: from comments,
 If you ever see any, try the Herters loads sometime. I keep the Mrs' HD 12-ga stoked with their mini-buckshot shells. Fit six instead of five in a Mossberg 500 and while they are only 6-pellet they are 1200 fps and in the living room I think they will be just fine for a smaller-statured shooter. She says they are less recoil even than the Winchester 8-pellet reduced-recoil Ranger I keep in the bedroom gun. 
I haven't seen this ammo, so I can't comment on it; from this I think I need to find a box to try.

Also, if you haven't heard of them, Aguila makes some mini shotshells, both buckshot and slugs.  I've tried them, they're  low recoil.  Please note the warnings at the bottom of the Midway page: many(probably most) repeating shotguns will not feed these reliably without modifications, and they cannot be relied on to cycle the action of a semi-auto.

"Yes, a bunch of people are dead and injured, BUT

see how diverse we are!"
Britain really is screwed.


I shall now go make holes in targets, and possibly write about it afterward.

Be it noted

that when you have  a specific load to put together, black powder isn't that much more than smokeless.

Shooting and cleaning(blowtube, wiping, etc.) on the other hand, still a bit of a PITA

Someday soon, this must be checked out

If there’s one meat item we all can’t live without, I think we could agree it’s our beloved bacon. And while you can find it in most Oklahoma restaurants, we found a restaurant that’s overflowing with bacon. From the moment you walk into Bacon in Oklahoma City, the smell alone makes your mouth start watering. Bacon lovers you will want to visit this bacon-themed restaurant…it’s everything you’ve ever dreamed of (and more).

Being sick to death of politics, I will ask an important question:

Why is it so damned hard to find extra-high scope rings?

And why do so many places lie when they call theirs 'extra tall'?  And for that matter make it hard as hell to find out how tall they really are?

Black powder revolvers vs. gel

Interesting.

"This movie doesn't fit my demands, therefore it's against women!" Or something.

We’re told that the female lead “does nothing to challenge modern-day racist beauty standards”.  Uh, I wasn’t aware that that was a fucking requirement.  Here’s a novel concept, Diana is a fucking GREEK.  Which means she’s not black, or Indian, or Asian, or… fill in minority here.  Shit these folks complained when a woman that wasn’t Asian played the role of a ROBOT in a Movie based on a Japanese comic (in the comic the robot was very much Anglo, but it was an excuse to whine, so they took it).
...
She wants to know why Diana couldn’t be a woman of color, or a “fat, thick and short body type”… UH because they were trying to stay somewhat true to the legend and the comic book?  Because AMAZONS aren’t black fat short thick women? (because 1) being Greek, 2) living a Warrior culture in a subsistence economy, that is probably near the point of hunger if not starvation on a bad year, there isn’t enough food to get fat?)  DEAR GODS to the ancient Greeks and predecessors the height of pulchritude was a heavier woman, precisely because they were so rare, and if you were fat, that meant you were RICH.  She (the author of this rag) then uses the excuse that “linebackers are fat, and no one doubts their athletic ability”.
Um, linebackers are BIG; I doubt there's much fat there.  But bringing that up probably makes me a 'ist' of some kind.

We got in some Fiocci shotgun ammo:

12 gauge, 00 buckshot, 1150fps, at a very good price.  I need to get a box of this to try out.  That's about the same velocity as the Winchester Ranger low recoil load, and I'd like to compare them on patterning.

Damn.  Just checked, can't find that they make a similar velocity load with #4 buck; that'd be a real good defense load.

Good piece on watching/controlling your space

If you can get accustomed to the idea that you are always being watched by a potential threat than you will understand why looking hard is so important. Looking hard is more than just wearing a tough guy scowl on your face, protruding your imaginary lats and wearing a Batman utility belt – with or without batarang (sorry Hondo!). What Joe wanted his Marines to do was to present a hard target. When he was telling us that, Marines and Soldiers were being hunted by a highly evasive enemy who could move freely amongst the local population. They would strike and disappear back into obscurity with little effort. Joe’s Marines didn’t have this problem because we looked hard.

Looking hard means expecting a fight. It means projecting a presence of dominance in all actions. It means being aware of your surroundings. It means presenting a hard target. It means owning your ground.

At some point these bat-wielding 'security patrols' are going to put someone in the hospital

or the grave; and the victim or his family is going to sue the ass off the administrators for not doing something about the idiots.

The friends of the idiots will scream 'Racism!' and so forth, and the administrators will whine.  And if the cops don't find and arrest the assholes, the problems will REALLY start.


"Why doesn't the public trust us?  It's Trump's fault!"
Yeah, keep telling yourself that, moron.


Speaking of media asshats, from Madam Hoyt:
I’m also not precisely stupid. I can read print if it’s six feet tall and in letters of fire. I think I was fifteen when I tweaked to the fact that the media had a narrative, which was roughly “eventually the proletarian revolution wins over the world, and we’re all happy forever and ever.” This is why most people in Europe thought of Cuba as a paradise well into the eighties; why idiots still adorn themselves with t-shirts of the mass murderer Che Guevara; and why people who’d flinch at declaring themselves fascist don’t hesitate to call themselves communist.

This is worldwide. That’s what the media is, that’s what they do.

But the United States has always been a thorn in their flesh.


Oh, no, no way this could go wrong...
The Denver City Council voted Monday to approve major sentencing reform (in other words, making penalties more lenient) on Class I and II offenses. The latter cover crimes like public defecation, panhandling and camping out on the sidewalk. KUSA reports :

City leaders and immigrant rights advocates argued the changes will protect Denver’s immigrant community from facing unintended consequences.

“Many times it becomes a deportable offense if you’ve been convicted of even a minor ordinance violation that’s punishable by a year in jail,” Mark Silverstein said, legal director for the American Civil Liberties Union of Colorado.

 Because better to let people crap on the sidewalks and streets than them face being deported.  Right.