COVID-19

The Chinese are anxious to get the nation back to work, making landfill for the First World including the USA. Since the incubation period of the virus has been stated at “between 14 and 24 days”, the standard quarantine of 14 days may not be enough. The cruise ship petri dish experiment showed how quickly the virus will spread through a concentrated population group.
Questions remain about the origin of the virus – engineered weapon or naturally occurring? Questions remain about the long term problems of mutation. We don’t even know for certain whether it is airborne or whether contact is required. Indications are that it can spread through Chinese tenements in the sewage systems (which leak – and if you’ve eve been in one, you’ll know what I’m talking about). 
Some people are more concerned with the possibility of accidental releases of other bioweapons. For now, we’re going to be dealing with COVID-19 for quite some time. Because of HIV RNA, reportedly backed into it, there is the promise that drugs, previously developed, will be effective in treating it. The mortality rate is currently unknown, but in the USA, where the standard of care is good, you’re very likely to survive unless you have pre-extisting conditions.
I’m not predicting gloom and doom unless you live in the People’s Republic of China. The happy time of ripping everybody off and peddling propaganda to the rest of the planet may have come to an end. The economy will get worse in the PRC before it gets better.

Comrade Bernie (are you feeling the Bern?)

At the Democrat debate, Bernie Sanders said that he wanted the federal minimum wage raised to $15/hr.

$15 x 40 hr week = $600
$600 x 52 weeks per year = $31,200

Bernie Sanders was asked how he would pay for free healthcare for all. His answer was a 52% federal tax on anybody making over $29,000 per year.

52% of $31,200 = $16,224 in federal tax
$31,200 – $16,224 = $14,976, or your net after paying federal tax.
$14,976 / 52 weeks = $288 per week
$288 / 40 hr week = $7.20/hr

Of course, there are also excise taxes, state taxes, and other misc. taxes that we all pay so the take home post-tax would actually be smaller than that.

Trivia:

  • Bayonets were only responsible for 2% of all wounds in the Napoleonic French army, according to a 1807 study of Dominique Larrey, chief military surgeon.
On Guard!
Young Japanese schoolgirls (right) learn how to charge an enemy with rifles and bayonets at their high school in Tokyo, Feb. 18, 1937.
I’m not saying that bayonets don’t have their uses. It’s just that they may be over rated for daily drill.
Vespa Madness (war on a budget)

In your reading of history, you may ponder why the French had difficulties winning wars in the mid twentieth century. Look no further.

The Vespa 150 TAP (Troupes Aéroportées) was a modified Italian Vespa scooter, manufactured in France to carry an American M20 75mm recoilless rifle for use by French paratroopers against light armored positions or vehicles.
Although the reinforced frame could easily withstand the rifle being fired while still mounted on the scooter, it was designed for it to be taken out on a tripod also carried by the vehicle. This kind of armament was designed during the thick of the Indochina war (1946-1954) and arrived on the front in time for the Algerian War (1954-1962).

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35 COMMENTS

  1. Bernie learned his math at the same institution that Pochahontas did: The Unicorn Institute of Gum Drops and Fairy Dust, where any answer is right, as long as you write it down with conviction (don't bother to show your work).

  2. The M40 106mm was one of the weapons we learned in Small Arms Repair School. Still have my notes–you never know. Lotta firepower in a light weight package. There are some drawbacks. When you fire at night, everybody knows who you are, what you are, and where you are.

    LL, I think you need one of these for the White Wolf Mine–

    militaryfactory.com/armor/detail.asp?armor_id=205

    Most bad ass six-shooter I know of.

  3. When Bloomberg asked the rest of the donkeys if they'd ever started a business there were CRICKETS. None of them made a payroll, none of them have the slightest idea what it takes to make a business work. They're a lot like Barack was and Biden is. Fairy Dust – exactly.

  4. I've seen the Ontos in action and have even seen it volley fire. MOST impressive. It would have been a great robotic system if there could have been a self-loading weapon option. The guys in the back had to snake out and load the rifles, which gave a "front toward enemy" a more dire meaning.

    And recoilless rifles have made a come-back with the new and improved M3E1 Carl Gustav LIGHT WEIGHT system, and a slew of bad-ass customizable warheads. 84mm never was quite so wicked. If I had an M3E1 out at the mine, I'd need a lot of ammo to 'test fire'.

    The laser range finder is key to the new rounds because you range the target and then set the air burst for 5 meters BEHIND the cover that the hajis are hiding behind. Instant burger.

  5. I thinks Sanders is a dangerous lunatic but… If you're going to play the game, you've got to do it right, LL. I believe that Sanders proposed 52% federal tax rate is for income greater than $10 million/yr. At $250K/yr it's down to 37%. He's all the way down at 15% at $31K/yr.
    We've gotta play it straight with the numbers. Making errors is a good way to lose support.

  6. I entered that numbers that I was aware of, and I may have misheard. Thank you for clarifying it and for keeping it real.

  9. Army Basic Training 1963 we did bayonet drill often. Turned out, I was good at it. Later, walking guard one hour from the Fulda Gap in the finest airborne landing spot one could hope for (Campo Pond, Hanau) with no ammo for my M-14, my bayonet was fixed the moment the guard truck was out of sight. Gave me some comfort, it did.

  14. The genuine G.I. bayonets go for a sizable hit to the old 401(k), but some of the repops I've seen are reasonably priced. Still trying to decide if I want one of those "three foot long" 1918 blades, or the newer "fighting knife" style. Gonna have to research it some more, as I know next to nothing about Bayonets past and present.

  15. "Because of HIV RNA, reportedly backed into it, there is the promise that drugs, previously developed, will be effective in treating it."

    Hmmm. If these anti-HIV drugs are pressed into widespread use for millions of new patients, I wonder if that will hasten development of resistance to said drugs. (I have no idea how those drugs even work, so this is not foreshadowing, just thinking – for values of "thinking" – out loud.)

  17. What a handy Vespa. That said, Lombardy's locking down cities, to say nothing of S. Korea. You don't have to be Nostradamus to work out the trajectory.

    Here in the US all's well, with a gang of septuagenerians arguing over who's the most socialist. Then there's Mini, in a billionaire class of his own.

    Imagine the story — the virus gets really bad, so Mini and fellow billionaires take shelter only to emerge months later, their work complete.Then what?

    Mini and Hill, Dwarf and Crone, and the new viral dystopia. Terrifying, eh?

  18. As I understand it, the HIV drugs are being used on patients in the US with some success.

    But this virus has already shown signs of mutation in Hubei. I don't know if what I read is accurate because I have no hands-on activity there but it rings true. And viruses are nothing if not adaptable. Witness this year's flu shot in the US. We guessed wrong.

    So it's a real mess. And the financial impact on China of a mutating weaponized (designed) virus based on the SARS coronavirus could break them internationally in terms of commerce.

  20. As I replied to Mike, above, the concern with these viruses is mutations that occur in heavily populated areas where the virus is being spread back and forth. It could end up dystopian.

    The Donkey Drama continues with the mainstream media trying to decide who they hate more, lying for the joy of telling falsehoods. The insanity has reached fever pitch and will continue to escalate.

  21. drjim, be careful of the repros. I have yet to see one that will actually fit on a rifle. Just in case you don't know (yet) Garand and '03 rifle bayonets will interchange. Here's a good place for research–

    usmilitaryknives.com/Table%20of%20Contents.htm

  24. There are still some M40 recoilless rifles in use for avalanche control. 105mm howitzers are also used in some places.

  26. I've been told that they're just what the doctor ordered for crowd control. While a mob may not believe you'll actually shoot them, they're not about to throw themselves onto shiny pigstickers.

  28. Only a Frenchman would consider going to war on a vespa. And while the regular French army may have embraced that, I wonder if the French Foreign Legion embraced them? I'm guessing no.

  29. Drag-stepping my way into a crowd of Antifa people with an M-14 and a pig sticker bayonet on the barrel is a fantasy of mine.

  30. This morning on BBC:

    "Iran reported its fifth death from the disease. The outbreak is centred on the holy city of Qom but officials warned that the virus may already have spread to 'all cities in Iran'."

    bbc.com/news/world-asia-51596665

  31. In the far way-back times, an acquaintance of mine had a buddy who worked for Cal-Trans. Said acquaintance managed to acquire a stash of M48 50 cal spotter brass.

    cartridgecollectors.org/cmo/cmo08dec.htm

    He built a falling block single shot rife and chambered it for the M48 necked down to 30 caliber. Custom reloading dies were to be had just down the road in Oroville.

    Never got to see the rifle. IIRC, he was pushing 200 gr. 30 cal projectiles at WELL over 3000 fps. His favorite thing was to hunt California ground squirrels. Still in their burrows. At night. OK, I made up the 'at night' part.

  32. Only 2% of wounds as recorded by the French Army Hospital service…with the source considered, it is entirely possible that the majority of bayonet wounds never made it to the hospital. Just a thought.

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