Divemedic

So I have been thinking that it could be beneficial to have some smoke grenades. Not to mention fun. So I searched far and wide to find some, and settled on EG Grenades and their EG18 series. Now I wasn’t sure whether or not to get the 18 or the 18X, so I bought some of each. It turns out that I really like typing the word ‘grenade’ so I may use it quite a bit here.

I ordered them on Friday, June 26, and they shipped the same day by FedEx ground. The cost was $150 for eight grenades including shipping, and they arrived on Wednesday, July 1. They are available in eight colors: Black, Blue, Green Red, White, Yellow, Orange, and Purple. I bought red, white, and blue because those colors were on sale for Independence Day and because those colors won’t raise too many eyebrows while I am testing them close to July 4.

The grenades claim that it is safe to be stored at up to 50degC and 70% humidity. That means they should do well in an ammo can in the garage with a couple of desiccant packs thrown in there.

I waited until afternoon for the breeze to die down, and decided to test one. Humidity was 85%, temperature 81F, and wind was 3 mph out of the WSW.  The first grenade I tested was an EG18X in RED.

Deploying the grenade is easy- just pop off the safety cap, pull the pin, and toss the grenade. There is NO delay between pulling the pin and the emergence of smoke. The web page for the grenade states that smoke emerges for about 50 seconds. That may be true if you count every wisp of smoke, but the time for actual, thick smoke is almost exactly 30 seconds.

The smoke cloud stayed relatively close to the ground, with the thickest part of the cloud extending from the ground to about 15 feet in height. The cloud was thick enough and wide enough to completely hide the house across the street. I would say 60 feet wide by about 30 feet deep. It remained relatively intact for about 2 minutes.

This grenade is more than capable of obscuring the movement of people or objects from ground observation, as long as wind conditions allowed the cloud to remain intact. The smoke would have worked had I needed to move from the house to a vehicle in the driveway without being seen- in other words, instant concealment. It would also be quite effective for marking locations for spotting from the air. In other words, just like its military counterpart.

Another warning: The grenade came to rest on its side on my driveway. The discharge stained the concrete. I don’t know how long the red stain will be there.

Later: I will test the EG18 as a comparison.

So it turns out that pulling the pin on a high output smoke grenade and tossing it into your yard pisses off some of your neighbors. The guy who lives 4 doors down is REALLY pissed. I don’t care. It isn’t illegal, and I broke no rules.

My smoke grenades got delivered today. I am going to try a couple out in the next day or two. Next: sourcing flash bangs and CS grenades.

As I have been saying for several weeks, it is obvious that the opening shots of Civil War 2 have been fired. We are in the early stages of phase 2 of a communist insurgency:

Phase II (guerrilla warfare phase) is the first level of armed violence. Irregularforces engage in sabotage, interdiction of communication and logistics links,assassination, and selective attacks against government forces. Insurgents expand their secure base areas and, where possible, link them to form strategic enclaves of political autonomy.

The ambush as a tactic has been around for thousand of years, dating back to ancient warfare. Ambushes give a commander a way to attack the enemy with the element of surprise. The ambush is a tactic that has been in use for over 3,000 years, and tactics have remained largely unchanged for over a thousand years. 


Miguel and JKB posted a link to a film of an ambush that was executed by Antifa/BLM forces in Provo, Utah. Here is the link to that video of the incident. 


The basics of an ambush are relatively simple to understand. Let’s start there, and then we can discuss how to defeat one.


An ambush is a tactic where a force uses a concealed position to engage an enemy with surprise and firepower. The side that initiates an ambush sets the time and place for it by enticing the enemy into the ambush, or observes the enemy’s routine and sets the ambush accordingly.


In a military setting, there are different ambushes. There are tactical and strategic ambushes, the Army also classifies them as near (hand grenade range) and far ambushes. We can ignore them for this purpose, and I will explain why later. 


The area where the ambush will be carried out will be an area where the ambushers have concentrated their firepower to inflict the maximum effect on the force to be ambushed. That area is referred to as the “kill zone.” 


The goal of an ambush is to entice or catch the target in the kill zone, and then hold that target within the kill zone for as long as possible, or at least as long as it takes to inflict the desired casualties on the target. 


So how do we defend ourselves from an ambush? The first way is to be unpredictable. Don’t be where an enemy can set up an ambush and wait for you. The ideal course of action is to avoid being in the kill zone in the first place. Follow the advice here for my thoughts on that. 

Unfortunately, this isn’t going to work for the ambush that we saw above. The ambushers don’t care about any particular target. They are simply looking for any random person to come along in a vehicle and then attack them. 


In the above case, a vehicle enters the kill zone and is held there by crowds of “protesters” in the street. The ambushers are counting on the fact that Americans are reluctant to run over pedestrians in order to escape. 


Now the Army has some suggestions on how to defeat an ambush, but they are not really practical for our purposes. They want troops who are trapped in the kill zone to engage the enemy with suppressive firepower so that follow on troops who are not in the kill zone can outflank and engage the ambushers. 


Since we are not at the point where platoon sized engagements are practical, we have to find a better way. 


The key to defeating an ambush is to minimize the ambushers’ advantages while maximizing your own. 


The ambushers have four main advantages:
1 they selected the ambush site
2 they have surprise on their side
3 they are not afraid to use force
4 we cannot use excessive force to defend ourselves, lest we wind up in jail


Our biggest advantages are:
1 we have mobility
2 the ambushers are tied to the kill zone and the protest area


So the first two things to mitigate their advantages while taking advantage of our own:
1 we have to move clear of the kill zone
2 we have to seize the initiative 


The simplest and easiest way to accomplish both is to floor it. We are in a vehicle, we are mobile, and they are not. We are limited to almost no weapons use, because the ambushers are (for whatever reason) not being prosecuted for their actions. Not so much for our side. Use force, and there is a good chance that you will lose everything in the legal shit storm that follows. 


Expect things to continue getting worse as time goes on. 

A researcher conducts a study that shows police do not shoot blacks at a higher rate than other races. So the college fired him. You bet your ass the next researcher’s study will have different findings.

This is how science gets corrupted to suit a particular result.

So tell me how Republicans are the party of small government. The governor extended the ban on evictions. That means that it has been 5 months since some landlords have gotten paid. They have no recourse but to allow someone to live on their property for free.

So what is a landlord to do if they can’t collect rent and can’t evict?

It seems to me that the government is taking property without recompense. The Fifth Amendment sounds like a winner for that.

nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation.

Anyone know where the courts have ruled on that?

Renters who cannot or will not pay rent are angry that Florida Governor Desantis is allowing the moratorium on evictions to expire tonight at midnight. That moratorium has been in effect since April 2, meaning that tenants have been able to live rent free for at least 4 months.

Meanwhile, the owners of those properties have had to go without collecting a dime of rent for that 4 months. Demanding that someone provide something of monetary value to you is called slavery. My tip to renters is this: try to work something out with your landlord. If they won’t, then it is their property, not yours.

An economist is suggesting that the dollar should be devalued by a third. So people are now seriously suggesting that we devalue the dollar to make gold over $2000 an ounce.

With news breaking that a Chinese company recently sold 83 tons of fake gold, I want to remind everyone to use some sort of means of verification. I use a Fisch gold coin detector. Yeah, the complete set costs about $250. Catching one fake will pay for 7 of these.