Practical Eschatology

 From Breitbart: "MEXICO’S ELECTION PLOT UNMASKED: How Mexico’s 50+ Consulates Are Running Shadow Campaign to Sway U.S. Elections." Among various activities, they are sending millions of textbooks to American schools that teach history the way Mexico wants it taught, offer similar courses to Mexican adults in the U.S., and organized mass protests in support of illegal immigration into the U.S. I don't see why Mexico should be allowed to have so many consulates. China has one embassy and four consulates in the U.S. Russia has only three consulates in addition to their embassy. Germany has eight consulates. India has only seven. 

Earlier this month, Massad Ayoob had posted explaining why "On Target, On Trigger" is wrong. By "On Target, On Trigger" he meant having the finger on the trigger while holding someone at gunpoint. But Rich Grassi, in his article "Sacred Cow or Wrong Point?" argues that even pointing the firearm at someone, until you are actually taking your shot, is wrong. He writes:

     Actually, the point is “in the self-defense context, gunpoint needs to go.” If there’s muzzle on meat, we’re in the process of shooting (unless something stops that train). Otherwise, the muzzle is averted in the safest available direction, usually a muzzle-averted (thanks, Dave Spaulding) low ready.

    Low ready has acres of advantages – not the least of which is complete vision of the (incipient) crime scene pre-engagement. If shooting’s not needed, so much the better.

 He's not the only one that teaches this. In the civilian context, the quotes from Marty Hayes:

    “My advice is to avoid drawing the gun unless you absolutely need to do so, avoid pointing the gun at anyone unless you absolutely need to do so, and then call the police to report the criminal activity which caused you to draw the gun.  If you cannot articulate criminal activity on the part of the aggressive parties, don’t draw the gun.

    “An alternative to drawing the gun at all is simply to take a bladed stance, with gun side away from the potential attacker or attackers, and place your hand on the gun underneath your concealment garment, with a warning to back off.  Your resolve to use deadly force if necessary is communicated, but there is no exposure of the gun.”   

Read the whole thing.  

"China’s population falls again as births drop to lowest rate since 1949 communist revolution," reports the Associated Press. Population figures earlier this week show that the population declined by 3 million people last year, and "the birth rate in 2025 — 5.63 per 1,000 people — is the lowest on record since 1949, the year that Mao Zedong’s Communists overthrew the Nationalists and began running China. Figures before that, under the previous Nationalist government, were not available." In other words, birth rates are the lowest ever recorded. The article adds:

Like many other countries in Asia, China has faced a declining fertility rate, or the average number of babies a woman is expected to have in her lifetime. While the government does not regularly publish a fertility rate, last saying it was 1.3 in 2020, experts have estimated it is now around 1. Both figures are far below the 2.1 rate that would maintain the size of China’s population.  

The actual population figures may actually be much worse than officially reported, however, as the video below explains:

 VIDEO: "China’s Real Population: A Question No One Is Allowed to Answer"
Lei's Real Talk (14 min.)

From the New York Post: "Rogue elephant kills nearly two dozen people in 10-day rampage through eastern India." An additional 15 people have been injured. Per the article:

    The animal is believed to be in a state of musth — a natural but dangerous hormonal condition in male elephants marked by a surge in testosterone that can last weeks or even months.

    During musth, bulls become extremely aggressive, restless and unpredictable, often roaming long distances and attacking without warning.

Authorities have been unsuccessful in tranquilizing the animal, and "[l]ocal authorities say the elephant has yet to be captured as it continues to evade teams by moving swiftly through dense forest and slipping across remote villages under cover of darkness."

Newsweek reports: 

    Members of New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s Democratic Socialists of America have been cultivating ties with officials of the Chinese Communist Party and agreeing to take pro-China positions, according to extensive minutes of internal meetings seen by Newsweek. 

    The minutes of the DSA meetings show participants discussing contacts with officials from China’s ruling party in the name of "anti-imperialism," with some members saying the organization should avoid topics that are sensitive for Beijing, such as China's threats to invade Taiwan, its security crackdown in Hong Kong and abuses of the Uyghur Muslim minority. They also discuss visits to China. Chinese officials did not take part in the meetings themselves but met with members in China and encouraged the DSA to set up exchanges, according to the minutes.   

In other words, the Democratic Socialists are okay with invading other countries;  gassing, beating and arresting protestors; and slave labor and concentration camps; so long as it is the "right people" people doing it.  

 It's easy to get lost in the negative news, so I wanted to direct your attention to some good news. Greg Ellifritz recently gave an update on his prostate cancer and reports that the cancer has not spread nearly as rapidly as the doctors had predicted, adding:

The tumor putting pressure on a nerve in my low back has actually gotten significantly smaller.  I still have cancer, but it seems to be confined to what’s left of my prostate gland and in two pelvic lymph nodes.  The cancer has not spread to any anatomic structures where it has the ability to kill me yet.  In fact, it has not spread at all since last May.   

This isn't to say he is out of the woods, though, so keep him in your prayers.  

From Just The News: "The Reconquista: How Mexico is weaponizing illegal immigration to punish the United States." An excerpt:

    Many pillars of the Mexican elite embrace the notion of Reconquista—the “reconquest” of the land ceded to the United States by Mexico during the 1848 Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, achieved through mass migration and political action. There are many in positions of power who share some version of that vision.

    While they may or may not mean the literal territorial rejoining of those territories with Mexico, they very much mean the cultural and political detachment of the American Southwest from the US and transforming it to resemble Mexican civilization.

    They hope to accomplish this task by mass migration, preventing the assimilation of migrants in the United States to the American way of life, and organizing them into a political force for Mexico’s benefit. With the help of powerful forces inside the United States, they are well on their way.

    Mexico’s political elite are shockingly open about it.

The article includes comments from José Gerardo Rodolfo Fernández Noroña, a member of the Mexican parliament for President Claudia Sheinbaum’s ruling Morena party, former Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador (popularly known as AMLO), Jorge Nuño Jiménez, a prominent Mexican academic who regularly attends the United Nations Conference, and other elites supporting the Reconquista of portions of the United States. 

    The seems like a good reason to expel illegal aliens and freeze all immigration from Mexico. 

Shot Show 2026 content is already showing up on YouTube. One that caught my attention was this video which takes a look at a couple folding designs from RIA--a full size shotgun with stock and a stockless firearm--that appear that they could fold up to fit into a backpack or gym bag. And the prices mentioned seemed pretty reasonable.  

VIDEO: "FOLDING Pump Shotguns Are Here: RIA Pak-Out 12 Gauge | SHOT Show 2026"
TFB TV (5 min.)

In a comment to my post "Do They Understand The Possible Consequences?" long time reader Steve S6 pointed me to this article at Metallicman, "What the Progressive Socialist Liberals have in store for Conservatives" (Part 1) (Part 2). And while conservatives think we have the upper hand for various reasons (but probably because of the much higher rates of gun ownership), the articles contains two warnings that we should heed. 

    First, when the balloon goes up, authorities will be going around to forcibly collect those firearms; and if you refuse, they may shoot you on the spot or simply destroy your house with you in it. Apparently this is what they did in the Balkans War. In that case, the only people that had firearms after SHTF were those that possessed them illegally--without them being registered with the government (or in the case of the U.S. in a retail/ATF database).  

    Second, we are probably underestimating their abilities. In Part 2 of the Metallicman article, he cautions that "they will be better armed, and trained than what you are expecting." He also notes that "their mass base skewers far younger, they have a legal system and  media providing overhead cover for their actions, and from our  observation, their level and speed of organization have far surpassed  what the Right was able to accomplish in twice the time." This is not surprising. We saw this type of organization in the 1960s as to the various radical groups, even terrorist groups like the Weather Underground. The left has been doing this--refining this--for decades. For instance, just yesterday, S2 Underground related in a post on X:

By my count, there are at least 55 different legal groups in Minnesota alone that are providing free legal services to the groups conducting these destabilization operations. Whenever federal agents make an arrest at a violent riot, the suspect is usually released a few hours later, and provided with a wealth of free resources. 

(See also Mutual Aid Disaster Relief as an example of organization among the left). The right has not even begun to put together these types of networks.

    Beyond the left having lawyers on speed dial is that they have been training up their direct action people, everything from the front line protestors to the groups that provide "security" such as the Puget Sound John Brown Gun Club (JBGC), the Rhode Island JBGC, Redneck Revolt, and other similar groups. Back in 2019, Tactical Hermit wrote about this in his article, "An Examination of the New Violent Left in America," which is cited in Part 2 of the Metallicman article. An excerpt:

    To get a sense of where the average leftist is at regarding violence, there is this overly biased article from the Guardian.  In which members of the the Puget Sound John Brown Gun Club stated that they were willing to be armed and get violent if need be to “Provide Security and Protect themselves from Right Wing Aggression.” This is classic deflection (blame) rhetoric. Since in most every video I can find of ANTIFA, it is THESE morons that start the fights, not the Trump Supporters or “Right Wing” groups.

    The PSJBGC go on to clearly state on their website that they believe in “ACTIVE RESISTANCE” and that they train in Defense which includes the right to own, carry, and train with tactically useful rifles, pistols, and body armor. Not sure what “tactically useful” means here, but it is clear, at least to me, that they are trying to be better organized and sound more martially active or “warlike” if you will than other groups you typically find in this ilk which look and sound downright effeminate and weak. 

 That was in 2019. The training has only continued. On November 24, 2025, Wired published an article entitled "The Hard-Left Shooters Leading a Gun Culture Revolution" by Manisha Krishnan. The author relates how in July, prior to Kirk's assassination, she was riding in a golf cart to a shooting range near Parma, Idaho, with "a 22-year-old YouTuber who goes by Gun Bunny, ... a Russian Jew who is poly-pansexual" and  "an Indigenous-Mexican Slovak Jew who is trans and chronically disabled." They were there to take part in the High Desert Brutality match hosted by Karl Kasarda, who runs the InRange TV YouTube channel, and who the article describes as "[a] 51-year-old cis white man whose love of subcultures spans hacking, industrial music, and a stint as a minister with the Satanic Temple[.]" "But," the article adds, "there is no question he is largely responsible for building this alternative gun community, which he and others describe as the 'punk rock outsiders of the shooting community.'" The article continues:

These tensions have gotten worse under Trump 2.0. After the president was reelected, left-leaning and queer-focused firearms organizations and classes like the Liberal Gun Club and the Pink Pistols told me they were seeing major spikes in interest and attendance. In early September, media outlets reported that Justice Department officials were considering a gun ban for trans people. In response, one trans gun content creator recommended trans Americans who’d been planning to purchase firearms “do so now.” 

Now I am not saying that every leftist (or even a majority of them) attending classes and events like that described above want an armed revolution; but there are some--probably too many--that do (see, e.g,, "Founder of Armed Queers group investigated in Charlie Kirk shooting is radical trans leftist who advocated violence"--New York Post; "Anti-Fascist. Armed to the Teeth"--Rolling Stone). The Rolling Stone article, for instance, relates:

    In 2019, the JBGC made headlines when 69-year-old Willem Van Spronsen, a senior member of the Puget Sound chapter, attacked an Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in Tacoma, Washington. Van Spronsen infiltrated the property with a semiautomatic rifle and several Molotov cocktails, before being shot and killed by police. Van Spronsen’s premeditated attack is a notable exception in the group’s history, in which they’ve rarely participated in violence. But his attack and his farewell letter to another member, in which he wrote, “I am antifa” — a reference to anti-fascist activism — gained attention, in particular, from the right.  

    Since Van Spronsen’s death, the number of active JBGC chapters around the country has increased dramatically, based on dozens of new JBGC Twitter accounts popping up. JBGCs have no central leadership or formal organization, instead operating as a loosely connected network of independent cells. Many members wear a patch with a stylized cartoon of their group’s namesake, bordered by the words “I don’t argue with people John Brown would have shot.” Chapters often range in size from around half a dozen members to more than 20, who are usually vetted through personal connections and in-person meetings before being welcomed in. ...

 The author also relates the camaraderie and mission orientation of such groups:

 The John Brown Gun Clubs operate independently but share a similar ethos: Direct action to counter the threat of the far right, and their members are dedicated to anti-fascism, anti-racism, and anti-bigotry. Most groups I spoke to emphasize that showing up armed is only part of their work, mentioning supply drives for unhoused people during Texas’ deep freezes and other mutual-aid events. “The gun stuff doesn’t exist without all this other stuff,” says one JBGC member who goes by the name Accountant. “If we’re going to be carrying guns, there has to be a community reason for it.”    

In other words, they aren't just meeting on weekends just to shoot a some targets, exchange some tall tales, and go home. If things go like they did in the 1960s and '70s, these people will soon be shadowing law enforcement and gathering intelligence, if they are not already doing so.    

Yesterday, Don Lemon and fellow anti-ICE revolutionaries raided a church in order to intimidate the local ICE administrator (who was also the pastor of the church). Today I came across other incidents showing that the anti-ICE people in Minneapolis are getting out of control: bulling and shouting obscenities at five white men simply because they were white; stealing equipment from a conservative reporter; attacking a man simply for wearing camo (and not the type used by military or law enforcement--it was like that used by duck hunters because the pattern mimics reeds and grass); and threatening and attacking a man with violence unless he took off an American flag hoodie and then stealing it after he had done so. 

    They want a revolution. Whether they get one or not is another question. But the point is that they are pushing to create some political break, possibly causing a civil war. I am reminded of Mark Twain's "The War Prayer" which starts out with a town overtaken with the thoughts of the glory of war, reflected by the prayer offered up by the minister of the town's church. But then a stranger walks to the pulpit to offer a very different prayer:

    “You have heard your servant’s prayer — the uttered part of it. I am commissioned of God to put into words the other part of it — that part which the pastor — and also you in your hearts — fervently prayed silently. And ignorantly and unthinkingly? God grant that it was so! You heard these words: ‘Grant us the victory, O Lord our God!’ … When you have prayed for victory you have prayed for many unmentioned results which follow victory–must follow it, cannot help but follow it. Upon the listening spirit of God fell also the unspoken part of the prayer. He commandeth me to put it into words. Listen!

    “O Lord our Father, our young patriots, idols of our hearts, go forth to battle — be Thou near them! With them — in spirit — we also go forth from the sweet peace of our beloved firesides to smite the foe. O Lord our God, help us to tear their soldiers to bloody shreds with our shells; help us to cover their smiling fields with the pale forms of their patriot dead; help us to drown the thunder of the guns with the shrieks of their wounded, writhing in pain; help us to lay waste their humble homes with a hurricane of fire; help us to wring the hearts of their unoffending widows with unavailing grief; help us to turn them out roofless with little children to wander unfriended the wastes of their desolated land in rags and hunger and thirst, sports of the sun flames of summer and the icy winds of winter, broken in spirit, worn with travail, imploring Thee for the refuge of the grave and denied it — for our sakes who adore Thee, Lord, blast their hopes, blight their lives, protract their bitter pilgrimage, make heavy their steps, water their way with their tears, stain the white snow with the blood of their wounded feet! We ask it, in the spirit of love, of Him Who is the Source of Love, and Who is the ever-faithful refuge and friend of all that are sore beset and seek His aid with humble and contrite hearts. Amen.

    (After a pause.) “Ye have prayed it; if ye still desire it, speak! The messenger of the Most High waits!”    

This is what the Leftist agitators secretly hope for anyone to the right of them.  

    But in a civil war--especially as one that falls along ideological rather than geographic divides--the innocent on both sides will be slaughtered and suffer.  Jack Lawson reminds us of this in his recent piece describing what an American civil war would be like. He writes:

    I’ve seen hundreds if not thousands of dead and probably more internal Human Anatomy than most medical surgeons. The blood thirsty revenge of black Rhodesian Army and Police torturing the Communists to death… for killing and torturing to death their children, siblings, parents and grandparents in their Tribal Trust Lands. God forbid you get between a Mashona or Matabele Warrior in his quest for vengeance. We soon had to be careful who we turned our prisoners over to.

    Bodies callously and without name, unceremoniously pushed into mass grave. I’ve witnessed the poverty, starvation, brutality. Enough killing, dying, barbarity and depravity for another twenty people’s lifetimes. I hope that never comes here. But such is the mad course of events that America’s ‘protestors’ are leading us to.

Beyond the killing, food will become a weapon:

    When it gets to food, you’ll quickly get ‘woke’ (up) to the Leftist’s (Communists) tactics. Because, food is a weapon and when you’re starving, you won’t care who is feeding you and your family. You’ll fight for the devil himself to keep eating. Again, food becomes a weapon. Read my essay “Store Food NOW!” on http:/JackLawsonBooks.Substack.com to understand how this weapon is used.

    The “I hate America!” Socialist stooges, enthusiastically continue, are funded by the background financial assistance and encouragement of the Deep State-Globalist-Elite-Leftist-Marxist-Internationals-One World Order-Woke & Whackos. They, along with the “Talking Heads” of the Main Stream News Media, will be persuading people to think… “Capitalism can’t provide for you, but Socialism (Communism) can!” …as their way to get total control of America. Socialism is Communism, without the gun barrel stuck up your nose.

    Then, how they’ll obtain supplies will be barbaric and they’ll supply only their own believers and those who support them. You’ll have to kiss many tushes to survive if you’re not one of them… and that will probably not work. Letting them rape your Wife, girlfriend or Daughters might get you somewhere.   

But this type of behavior will cut both ways. The Tactical Hermit has a couple recent posts on the Civil War that allude to the barbarity of it all. First, "The Burning of Alexandria," which relates how a Union army forced to retreat "devastated the countryside, burning every habitation. They stole everything that could be carried." The second relates some about a Southern guerilla fighter, "Bloody Bill" Anderson. 

William T. “Bloody Bill” Anderson was quite the gifted psychopath. The deadliest Confederate guerilla leader of the American Civil War, Anderson led his ruthless mob of cutthroats on a reign of terror along the rugged Kansas–Missouri border and killed hundreds along the way. The path Bloody Bill took from a well-behaved, respectful child to an inveterate butcher and rapist is a study in human depravity.    

A better case study for what a second American civil war would be like is perhaps the 30 Years War:

    Before the First World War, it was known as the most destructive conflict in European history – responsible for the loss of as much as 40 per cent of the German population, which according to some estimates may have fallen in the years between 1618 and 1648 from around 20 million to 12 million. This immense human toll as a result of battle, famine, and disease would scar the continent for centuries – so that some historians describe it as the greatest trauma in German history.

    But as well as being horrific in terms of the sheer numbers of casualties inflicted and lives destroyed, the Thirty Years’ War was also horrific for the manner in which it was conducted. As the large number of surviving eyewitness accounts attest, this was a war of attrition, in which civilians often found themselves on the front line. Massacres such as that during the Sack of Magdeburg – the conflict’s worst atrocity, which left up to 20,000 of the city’s 25,000 Protestant inhabitants dead – were conducted without mercy. Huge numbers of refugees were also created, as neighbours were pitched against each other, and entire areas of the country were laid waste.