#3
I’ve met several growers in Napa and Sonoma. I found them to be hard working farmer/businessmen with great concern for the quality of their product.
#4
Thank you xyz. Great wines from Alexander Valley are still produced by small growers, and their old vine zinfandel is among the best wine produced in California.
I can't say that I've tasted much French wine but I happen to have tasted my share of California wine and have found that a lot of it is quite good. Even in San Diego County you can find vineyards and wineries that produce excellent wine.
If you're ever in California for any length of time, I heartily recommend a tour in the wine producing areas of San Diego, Riverside, Santa Barbara, San Luis Obispo, Monterey, Napa and Sonoma Counties. Napa, Sonoma, Paso Robles and the Santa Ynez Valley are some of the more famous wine growing regions and for good reason. These are mostly rural areas and as far away culturally and politically from San Francisco and Los Angeles as you are. The countryside if beautiful. The people are friendly. Accommodations and local cuisine are first rate.
If you tour a smaller winery, or even some of the bigger ones, you may well have a chance to meet with the owners. You will then appreciate the hard work and the entrepreneurial spirit that enables them to do what they do so well.
I am not getting paid for this post. I just like the wine.
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
04/07/2024 16:11 Comments ||
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#8
Cheers AU.
Me and Mrs Z rent a car and take the back roads in wine country from time to time. First class hospitality.
#3
QRF (Quick Reaction Force)/Military Airlift support for civil authorities coordination training for the coming DNC Convention and anticipation summer BLM/ANTIFA festivities?
[Daily Mail, where America gets its news] A Good Samaritan intervened and tackled a brazen attacker who had allegedly battered and spat at an employee at an Indiana Subway restaurant.
Gabriel Pitzulo, 23, managed to keep the alleged assailant pinned on the ground for eight minutes until law enforcement authorities were called to the Subway store in Indianapolis.
The incredible moment was captured on the store's surveillance camera, showing the brave former high school wrestler charging at the attacker and successfully taking him down.
The belligerent customer, later identified as Daniel Saunders, 31, was charged with one count of battery resulting in bodily injury, as reported by WFSB.
The Subway store manager decided to grant Pitzulo free sandwiches for life as a token of appreciation for his heroic action on March 22.
The video of Pitzulo's heroic intervention has circulated on social media, and the young man expressed his hope that it will inspire others to step up when innocent people are being targeted.
'I haven't really been turning down interviews because I do want to get this out there for the young men.
'There's a lot of talk nowadays of toxic masculinity, and I'm really trying to, you know, push this narrative that you should stand up for the people, innocent people, people in your local neighborhood. That's kind of what I take from it.'
'I advise anybody to stick up for, you know, to do what's right. And to help people around you,' he said.
Saunders was charged with battery injury, battery resulting in bodily injury and disorderly conduct-fighting/tumultuous conduct, according to police records.
Aarij Kham, the Indianapolis district manager of Subway, expressed gratitude to Pitzulo for his courageous actions and recounted what had happened in a statement.
He said Saunders had been in the restaurant for all week, using bathroom and asking for free food.
‘The man in the video was there all week and we let him use the bathroom, gave him free food, made sure he was taken care of as we always do.'
'When he came in I was at another store but he asked for more free food and my employee said no at the time because he was drunk.
'He had three to four bottles of Hennessey on him that I later disposed of after the cops arrived. He got aggravated when she told him to leave and he threw stuff at her and did assault her – they were able to take photos of the mark on her face.
'Gabriel was the only one who walked in and he stepped into action and did what anyone should do. Gabriel was on him for seven to eight minutes and once the cops showed up, it took four to five cops to restrain him.
'I told Gabriel that as long as I'm working here he can get free Subway from me or my manager,' Kham said.
[Military] The Army has officially fielded its brand-new Next Generation Squad Weapon rifles to its first unit, bringing an end to the service's decades-long effort to replace its M4 and M16 family of military firearms.
Army Futures Command announced Thursday that soldiers from 1st Battalion, 506th Infantry Regiment, 101st Airborne Division, at Fort Campbell, Kentucky, accepted delivery of the XM7 Next Generation Rifle and XM250 Next Generation Automatic Rifle ahead of training in April.
Produced by firearm maker Sig Sauer, the XM7 is intended to replace the M4 carbine in close combat formations, while the XM250 will replace the M249 Squad Automatic Weapon, or SAW. Both new rifles are chambered in 6.8 mm to provide improved range and lethality against enemy body armor.
The Next Generation Squad Weapon series also includes the XM157 Fire Control smart scope, built by Vortex Optics, which integrates advanced technologies such as a laser range finder, ballistic calculator and digital display overlay into a next-generation rifle optic.
...
Based on Sig Sauer's MCX-Spear rifle, the XM7 features a 13-inch barrel, both standard and left-side non-reciprocating charging handles, a collapsible buttstock, a free-floating reinforced M-LOK handguard, and AR-style ergonomics. The XM250, based on Sig's LMG 6.8 mm machine gun, features quick-detach magazines and increased M1913 rail space. Both weapons come with Sig Sauer suppressors designed to reduce the blowback from toxic fumes.
Soldiers should know that the XM7 is noticeably heavier than the M4 carbine -- 9.8 pounds suppressed in a basic combat load compared to the M4's 7.4-pound combat load, per the Army -- and delivers increased recoil compared to the M4 on par with a weapon system chambered in 7.62 mm, according to Sig Sauer officials.
According to the Army's fiscal 2025 budget request, the service has a long-term plan of buying 111,428 XM7 rifles, 13,334 XM250 automatic rifles, and 124,749 XM157 Fire Control devices stretching into the 2030s.
The XM7 and XM250 "ensure increased lethality against a broad spectrum of targets beyond current/legacy weapon capabilities; increased range, accuracy, and probability of hit; reduced engagement time; suppressed flash/sound signature; and improved controllability and mobility," the Army's budget says.
#5
So why not just go back to the old 7.62 round? Fewer rounds per pound but with all the sighting gear you should need less rounds to put on target. Reduces your logistics.
#7
The 6.8 / 277 Fury is a superior round. The bullet has better ballistic properties and the muzzle velocity is greater than the 7.62 round.
The upped performance is all about effective range and defeating improved body armor.
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
04/07/2024 8:34 Comments ||
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#8
Just remember, before the Army fell in love with this Sig, it fell in love with an H&K model that turned out to be a pig.
They're always excited about buying a new one.
Posted by: ed in texas ||
04/07/2024 9:21 Comments ||
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#12
HORRORS! Another assault gun! Isn't anyone wanting to keep from hammering at the snowflakes tender feewings? Another apocalyptic meltdown is on the way!
(Sorry. My coffee just kicked in and I felt the need to expostulate!)
It would make it heavier and all the rifles/machine guns that fired it would need retooled to handle the additional pressure in the chamber. Cheaper to make a new rifle and round.
So why not just go back to the old 7.62 round?
They tried that at first with the M-14 and while it is a beautiful dedicated marksman rifle, it is too heavy and you can't carry enough ammo which is why the military changed to the M-16.
BACKGROUND
So a bit of a history lesson coming. The US adapted the 30-06 back in the early 1900s as it was the best round at the time to be the standard service rifle round. It was definitely a man killer as one through a lung would put a soldier in the KIA category if they didn't get to a surgeon in under an hour. The US continued this in WW2 as the average soldier only carried around 25-30lbs of gear and ammo and could still establish fire superiority with their semi-auto M1 .
The assault rifle changed everything. Suddenly you could fire semi or auto and carry more rounds in a rifle and the M1 would be out gunned and the US units had a hard time establishing fire superiority. They tried their own version of an assault rifle with the M-14 and it failed. So they went with a lighter caliber, the 5.56 and the M-16 so they could fire just as much as the AK and had more (20% more) ammo to do so. This worked fine for the time, but with the appearance of modern body armor the 5.56 just doesn't have the ass to get through a lot of it.
So now we get to the 6.8mm. A loss of a little bit of ammo carry capacity, but more range and more damage at the end. We'll see if this is the new magic zone the 5.56 round occupied for so long or if this is the modern M-14. I think it has some real potential, but only real world action will prove it.
#15
Short answer. The magic number is the BC, AKA ballistic coefficient. Longer bullets for the most part (not always) have better BCs. What happens when you make an already heavy 7.62 bullet longer? Right, Bueller, it gets even heavier. And all that wonderful additional range goes away with the extra weight.
We could have had a .270 bullet when the FAL was being tested back in 1947. But Army brass wanted the .30 and the M14 and actually jiggered the tests to get it.
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
04/07/2024 13:47 Comments ||
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#16
BTW, for those who don't obsess over this stuff - what we call a .270 caliber bullet mics to .277 inch. Which equals 6.8 mm.
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
04/07/2024 13:50 Comments ||
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#17
Lastly. The new cartridge is running chamber pressure of 80,000 psi. The 7.62 is down around 52,000.
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
04/07/2024 13:55 Comments ||
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#18
Backwards compatability with existing AR platform. Put an upper that can handle the chamber pressure on you existing lower and you are good to go.
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
04/07/2024 14:02 Comments ||
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#20
^ Great platform. The current SIG .277 civilian platform is AR-10.
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
04/07/2024 14:58 Comments ||
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#21
At the end of the day, the question is this: Are you more wedded to the "tradition" of a .30 caliber / 7.65 mm cartridge or do you want the best performance that almost 120 years of evolution has brought on since the 30-06 (the 06 is for 1906, OK?)?
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
04/07/2024 15:07 Comments ||
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#23
A great idea that doesn't deliver much advantage for all the other issues it brings. Propellantless would be even better, but the energy has to come from somewhere.
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
04/07/2024 15:36 Comments ||
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#24
In the end, the real answer is eliminate the need for hostile fire. That's a diplomatic problem, not an engineering one.
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
04/07/2024 15:38 Comments ||
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#25
Ref #15: We could have had a .270 bullet when the FAL was being tested back in 1947. But Army brass wanted the .30 and the M14 and actually jiggered the tests to get it.
Posted by M. Murcek
Smoke Bomb Hill Weapons Committee, Fort Bragg recommended the FN-FAL. Big army said "no can do."
#26
I have a DSA SA-58 FAL pistol. It is 7.62. I can only think how sweet it would be in .277
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
04/07/2024 16:08 Comments ||
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#27
I'm no expert. For all I know the new weapons are excellent. But it seems to me the last time we won a war of any consequence it was with the M1.
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
04/07/2024 16:22 Comments ||
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#28
Yes. Fight the last war. It always works out so well.
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
04/07/2024 16:27 Comments ||
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#29
The M1 didn't win anything. Troops with clear ROE won.
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
04/07/2024 16:38 Comments ||
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#30
Yes, M, I understand all that. I guess I'm just wondering what new dust up our leaders are planning just to see how these new weapons work in actual combat.
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
04/07/2024 17:04 Comments ||
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#31
^ We need better leaders more than better weapons.
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
04/07/2024 17:06 Comments ||
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#33
I handload every round I shoot and every round sits in the tray full of rat poison before it gets loaded. Beats all these arguments about efficiency.
[ShootingIllustrated] Accuracy still matters, but now speed is in the mix as well.
The United States Marine Corps announced earlier this month it is changing the shooting standards to which it has adhered for more than a century. The new system will reflect accuracy as well as the speed at which a Marine delivers hits on target.
Re-evaluation of the century-old marksmanship qualification standards began in 2018, when a combat lethality study found an unexpected loss in proficiency in engagements at unknown distances, or when the Marine or target were on the move. The Marine Corps is investing $34 million to better train its troops with the new system, phasing out an approach that required delivering 30 rounds at established distance in two minutes. The old scoring system didn’t differentiate between lethal shots and those that may not stop an aggressor or readily identify distances problematic for a particular shooter.
“This is about increasing lethality,” Col. Gregory Jones, commander of the Weapons Training Battalion—part of Training Command at Marine Corps Base Quantico in Virginia—told Stars and Stripes. “This is not your granddad’s rifle range.”
Marines are required to annually prequalify and qualify with their rifles. If a prequalification score met standards, it could be accepted for both in the past. Now it must be at the expert level, not just at marksman or sharpshooter performance, to do so.
In addition, the Marine Corps has begun allowing entry-level shooters to support rifles with their magazines. The change reflects improvements in magazine design and strength as well as widespread success using the approach in civilian competitions.
“The rifle range in 1907, it’s not bad or good. It’s what we had when we had … a 1903 Springfield [rifle], which was an 1890s technology,” Jones explained to Stars and Stripes. “Now we have an M-16A4. The test is not as true a measure of lethality as it was when we had older, outdated technology.”
#2
See article above: Army Futures Command announced Thursday that soldiers from 1st Battalion, 506th Infantry Regiment, 101st Airborne Division, at Fort Campbell, Kentucky, accepted delivery of the XM7 Next Generation Rifle and XM250 Next Generation Automatic Rifle ahead of training in April.
#3
Be interesting to see results . What I see in this is much more ammo used to accomplish near same results. But then my TO weapon was the M14 in Vietnam.1965...(rifle /pistol expert and Marine rifle team member in 1964 for 6 months then off to Vietnam).
#4
The rifle range in 1907, it’s not bad or good. It’s what we had when we had … a 1903 Springfield [rifle], which was an 1890s technology,
The Fucile di Fanteria (Eng: Infantry rifle) Modello 91/38 bolt-action rifle had been introduced in 1891 by Salvatore Carcano. It was good enough to hit a moving target at range on November 22, 1963 by a former Marine trained in the traditional manner.
#6
A bit of a misleading headline, IMHO. Tuning the standard to match modern world conditions is not the same as ditching standards to accommodate the wokerati and gender-confused. Train like you fight, fight like you train.
It was good enough to hit a moving target at range on November 22, 1963 by a former Marine trained in the traditional manner.
Shooting left-handed, I've been told. God bless the Marines.
#7
I recall an interview with a Marine Corps pilot during the Korean War. When the interviewer asked him what was his primary job in the Marine Corps he said "I'm a Marine Corps Rifleman, currently flying the F-86 Saber".
God help the Corps if they ever abandon their devotion to accurate shooting. "This is my rifle. There are many like it, but this one is mine."
Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited.
[Regnum] The parents of Kate Middleton, Princess of Wales, who suffers from cancer, got into thousands of debts, The Times reported.
Carole and Michael Francis Middleton started the party supplies company Party Pieces in 1987. Business was booming, but the coronavirus pandemic took a major hit to revenue. Now the company has been declared bankrupt, and the debt of the Princess of Wales's parents to creditors amounted to $330,000.
I expect her parents own considerably more than that in real estate, and apparently for generations much of the family money has been tied up in various trusts. And anyway the point of bankruptcy is to walk away from debts, if I understand correctly. No need to worry that Her Royal Highness’s parents will starve.
“This is a very worrying time for the family, but they are not expecting help from their children,” the statement said.
Kate Middleton, wife of Prince William, heir to the British throne, was born in the city of Reading in the English county of Berkshire. Her parents worked for British Airways before starting their own business selling party supplies. Kate graduated from the University of St. Andrews in Scotland, where she met Prince William in 2001. Her parents are close members of the royal family and often attend events with Kate, William and their children.
Since November 2023, the Princess of Wales has stopped appearing in public. Later, information appeared that Kate Middleton had undergone planned abdominal surgery at a clinic in London. The first footage of her appeared in March 2024. In a video message, she announced that she was undergoing a course of preventive chemotherapy. According to Kate, the cancer was discovered by post-surgery tests.
However, there are no reliable reports about what type of cancer it is and at what stage it is. They even tried to steal the duchess's medical records. It was assumed, in particular, that it could be cervical cancer, but royal family expert Mark Roche, citing his informants, reported that Kate Middleton was diagnosed with colon cancer.
Queen Consort Camilla said on March 29 that the good wishes were very supportive of the Princess of Wales.
Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited.
[Regnum] Nicaraguan authorities have finally severed diplomatic relations with Ecuador after police from the South American country forcibly entered the embassy in Quito to detain former Ecuadorian Vice President Jorge Glas. The Nicaraguan government announced this on Saturday, April 6.
“After the unthinkable and reprehensible actions committed tonight in Quito... our decisive and irrevocable condemnation is translated into a sovereign decision to sever all diplomatic relations with the government of Ecuador,” the Nicaraguan newspaper El 19 quoted the government press service as saying.
The Nicaraguan authorities also expressed solidarity and words of support to Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, who also decided to suspend diplomatic relations with Ecuador.
As Regnum reported, on April 5, Mexico agreed to grant political asylum to the former Vice President of Ecuador, Jorge Glas. Before that, Glas spent five years in prison on charges of bribery and criminal conspiracy. At the end of 2023, a court in Ecuador sentenced the former vice president to six years in a corruption case, but Glas took refuge in the Mexican embassy in Quito.
The next day, the head of the Mexican Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Alicia Barcena, reported that several diplomats were injured during the storming of the country's embassy in Ecuador. Barcena called the past a flagrant violation of the Vienna Convention.
[Daily Mail, where America gets its news] She’s panicking because a significant minority of Black, Latino, and young voters prefer former president Trump to current president Biden.
Jennifer Lewis, 67, called Trump Hitler in a recent interview on SiriusXM
The Black-ish star declared that Trump would scrap the constitution if re-elected
The actress said that Trump would put black people ' in camps' if he wins in 2024
Maybe he needs to study the History of the Democrat Party for the last 180+/- years that he supports.
Maybe read Joe Biden's 1960-80's racist quotes before opening his lame A$$ stupid mouth, looking for some camera time for a failing show and career.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
04/07/2024 16:00 Comments ||
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#10
Hell, I wouldn't even bother putting Lewis in a camp. The best remedy for people like her is to stop listening and walk away from them. But if they join BLM and riot, that's another story.
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
04/07/2024 16:30 Comments ||
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#11
"Entertainment" industry is circling the bowl. Like the healthcare industry the leeches and lampreys are firmly attached.
You may need healthcare. You can take a pass on the overpriced "entertainment."
Til gummint requires you to buy it, anyway.
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
04/07/2024 16:50 Comments ||
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A confidential memo circulated among top Democratic donors has sparked a furious debate in Democratic circles about whether to narrow the focus of voter registration efforts to avoid signing up likely Republicans.
For decades, nonpartisan groups allied with the Democratic Party have run wide-ranging efforts aimed at increasing voter registration among people of color and young people — groups that tend to lean Democratic but have historically voted at lower rates than older and White people.
In recent years, however, there has been a marked shift among the roughly 1 in 5 citizens of voting age who are unregistered toward Republicans, raising fresh questions about how much boosting nonpartisan voter registration could help presumptive GOP nominee Donald Trump heading into November.
[JustTheNews] Stanford Internet Observatory director Alex Stamos sat for a transcribed interview with the House Judiciary Committee.
The head of a Stanford University organization that led a consortium to report purported election misinformation to social media platforms in the past two national cycles couldn't explain why participants said a Department of Homeland Security component played a direct role in the reports, in a transcribed interview with the House Judiciary Committee.
Stanford Internet Observatory Director Alex Stamos echoed the Election Integrity Partnership's previous denial, following Just the News reporting in fall 2022, that the consortium tried to "decide what is or isn't 'misinformation'" or acted on behalf of DHS or its Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency with social media platforms.
EIP and its spinoff Virality Project, which was focused on purported COVID-19 misinformation, "have been grossly mischaracterized," Stamos said in his opening statement. The interview was conducted last June but only released by the committee Friday.
"To be clear, at no time did the EIP censor speech or have access to backend platform systems or data outside of public content," he said. "The EIP did not take down posts or apply labels and had no power to do so … did not create targeting lists or blacklists of accounts," and its list of "top spreaders of false information" was generated by academic analysis "after the election."
It only reported content that "clearly violated the policies of social media platforms … so they could make their own determinations," said Stamos, who was Facebook's chief security officer from 2015 to 2018.
But Stamos admitted "it's possible that we gave [platforms] a heads-up when we were posting about" supposed misinformation they hosted, because it was "a polite thing to do so that they know that we're going public." He denied that this had a coercive effect compared to "a celebrity or somebody with a massive following" making the same accusation.
EIP participants said they communicated with platforms "through" or "by way of" CISA in the Jira ticketing system, but Stamos said he assumed they were actually referring to the Elections Infrastructure Information Sharing Analysis Center, which is funded through DHS grants and includes CISA as a partner.
"I know that, obviously, the EI-ISAC was operating with CISA's blessing to run a switchboard [for reports of security issues], but what specific role was being played in this is outside of our knowledge," Stamos said.
He didn't think platforms would have discussed with him whether they knew CISA was working with EI-ISAC.
Stamos couldn't explain a ticket that said it was "shared with TikTok, Facebook, EI-ISAC, Twitter … and CISA CFITF," referring to CISA's Countering Foreign Influence Task Force, which is mentioned in EIP's after-action report for the 2020 election as having "aided in the reporting process" and "implementing resilience efforts to counter election misinformation."
He said he didn't know what the "C" meant in CFITF, thought the component was "between different departments" rather than part of CISA.
In order to learn "what entity was represented by CISA CFITF in the Jira system," as Stamos was asked, EIP would have to search for "an entry in the ticket that refers to them that makes it clear," he said, because "we don't have the kind of metadata configuration of the database anymore."
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
