Quotulatiousness

January 10, 2021

Washington DC Abandons The Troops in the Field – WW2 – 124 – January 9, 1942

Filed under: Britain, China, Germany, History, Japan, Military, Pacific, Russia, USA, WW2 — Tags: , , , , , , — Nicholas @ 04:00

World War Two
Published 9 Jan 2021

The US government realizes that it cannot send help to relieve the US and Filipino forces in the Philippines, but it does not tell those forces. Meanwhile in the USSR, a huge Red Army offensive against entrenched German forces begins along the entire frontline. The Germans have pulled back in North Africa, though, to consolidate. The Japanese enter Manila and advance in Malaya, but are forced to withdraw in China.

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– Michał Uchman

Sources:
– IWM FE 239
– Supermarine Spitfire By Joel Wisneski from the Noun Project
– Container by Shocho from the Noun Project

Music from Epidemic Sound:
– “Easy Target” – Rannar Sillard
– “Deflection” – Reynard Seidel
– “Growing Doubt” – Wendel Scherer
– “Secret Cargo” – Craft Case
– “Trapped in a Maze” – Philip Ayers
– “Not Safe Yet” – Gunnar Johnsen
– “Underlying Truth” – Howard Harper-Barnes
– “Spellbound” – Edward Karl Hanson
– “On the Edge of Change” – Brightarm Orchestra
– “Split Decision” – Rannar Sillard
– “Out the Window” – Wendel Scherer

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A TimeGhost chronological documentary produced by OnLion Entertainment GmbH.

Has the United States reached the same tipping point Canada reached in 1982?

Filed under: Cancon, Government, History, Politics, USA — Tags: , , , , — Nicholas @ 03:00

David Warren considers the 1982 tipping point in Canada to have been the implementation of Pierre Trudeau’s Constitution:

Queen Elizabeth II signs Canada’s constitutional proclamation in Ottawa on April 17, 1982 as Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau looks on.

There are two principal political parties in modern America (in which I include up here). In the Natted States, the population is divided roughly equally between those of “progressive” and “regressive” habits of mind; in the Canadas, the former have come to dominate.

The tipping point was reached much earlier up here, and the new “metapower” (Foucault’s term) was seized, politically, from within the Liberal Party. The strategy was to disenfranchise the “conservative” half of the electorate, by undermining all national institutions, and hosing down Canada’s previous identity. I’d count, say, 1982, as the point of no return. That identity was replaced, definitively, under a revised Trudeau constitution, with a new “multicultural” identity, in which citizens were themselves redefined, from free persons whose rights were inalienable, to interchangeable clients of an omnipotent State, which could dispense rights whenever it was in the mood — and withdraw them whenever the mood changed; however frequently.

This is the Democrat strategy in the larger, and still less amenable, country next door. As Andrew Breitbart and Antonio Gramsci might agree, this is an essentially cultural process. Politics are visible at the tip of the iceberg, but “progress” requires a more thorough “cleansing,” of old cultural norms. The cancer metastasized more from Hollywood, than from Washington DC. The takeover of the Democratic Party as the vanguard “agent of change” was only part of the institutional takeover of America. As important was the takeover of the mass media, and even corporate boardrooms. Those who weren’t “progressive” would now be “cancelled”: must cease to be.

All cultural change has a religious dimension. The Democrat representatives of the “powers and principalities” mentioned by Saint Paul, are characteristically godless, themselves. But they depend on a massive, core constituency of low-information, low-intelligence, easily manipulated urban voters.

Those who can still see the stars at night tend to remain in the ancient, God-fearing default. In the cities, where the masses may not grasp that milk comes from cows, let alone that someone must milk them, the belief that the economy is based on government cheques is more common. That is the god of the populous cities, and for most city-dwellers, not voting for their “godless god” of progress, seems a kind of heresy.

The idea that such heretics should be deprived of their freedom, starting with freedom of speech, does not appeal to the “rural” voter, including people like me — a “country hick” type who paradoxically lives in the city. The idea that laws and constitutions should be flexible, to accommodate the latest schemes of a progressive technocratic élite, doesn’t flourish among us country bumpkins. But to the efficiency experts in the city, what is our problem?

Light Machine Guns in Finland: DP-28 vs LS-26

Filed under: Europe, History, Military, Russia, Weapons, WW2 — Tags: , , , , , , — Nicholas @ 02:00

Forgotten Weapons
Published 20 Jul 2017

http://www.patreon.com/ForgottenWeapons

Before the Winter War, the standard light machine gun adopted by the Finnish military was the Lahti-Saloranta LS-26. This was a complex and finely built weapon, using a short recoil action and tilting bolt, chambered for the same 7.62x54mm rimmed cartridge as used by Finland’s Mosin-Nagant infantry rifles. The LS-26 fed from 20-round box magazines which are a bit unusual in having a single-feed presentation (which made them difficult to load without a tool, but also prevented potential problems from rimlock).

In total, about 5,000 LS26 machine guns were made for Finland (and an additional 1,200 sold to China in 8mm Mauser). They were apparently quite accurate, but highly prone to malfunctioning in the cold and dirty field conditions of Finnish combat. When the Winter War broke out and Finns began capturing Russian equipment, the Russian DP-28 light machine gun became a very popular alternative to the LS-26.

The Degtyarev DP-28 may not have been as refined of a weapon, but it was much better suited to real combat. It was simple and reliable, and the 47-round magazine capacity was certainly appreciated as well. By the end of the Continuation War, Finland had some 15,000 Degtyarev light machine guns in its inventory, far outnumbering the LS-26s.

Today Karl and I had a chance to fire both weapons side by side (unfortunately, my trigger time on the LS-26 was quite limited, and I was not able to film a full disassembly of it). We both found the LS-26 to be quite a challenging weapon to use effectively, even without any malfunctions. The Degtyarev was a much more usable machine gun.

One other interesting takeaway for us was the remarkable effectiveness of the semiautomatics DP/DPM made by SMG Guns here in the US. It delivered probably 90% of the utility of the original fully automatic version, which is quite impressive. After this comparison, I would recommend it even more heartily than before.

Special thanks to Varusteleka for arranging this shoot!

All photos in this video are courtesy of the excellent Finnish Defense Forces’ Photo Archive:
http://sa-kuva.fi

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QotD: Sexual equality and the risk of demographic collapse

Filed under: Health, Quotations, USA — Tags: , , , , — Nicholas @ 01:00

I like living in a society where women are, generally speaking, as free to choose their own path in life as I am. I like strong women, women who are confident and look me in the eye and see themselves as my equals. But I wonder, sometimes, if sexual equality isn’t doomed by biology. The relevant facts are (a) men and women have different optimal reproductive strategies because of the asymmetry in energy investment – being pregnant and giving birth is a lot more costly and risky than ejaculating, and (b) a woman’s fertile period is a relatively short portion of her lifetime. Following the logic out, it may be that the consequence of sexual equality is demographic collapse — nasty cultures which treat women like brood mares are the future simply because the nice cultures that don’t do that stop breeding at replacement rates.

Eric S. Raymond, “Fearing what might be true”, Armed and Dangerous, 2009-10-23.

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