1/ The independent Russian media outlet SOTA reports that police in Moscow and the surrounding region are raiding hostels, restaurants and offices to indiscriminately round up men for mobilisation.

— ChrisO (@ChrisO_wiki) October 12, 2022

Back in my younger years, this was the way it was done in Venezuela. From the age of 18 till 25, you were expected to serve and if the military did not have enough people to fill the assigned yearly numbers, they went hunting for recruits. We called it Recluta.

Venezuelan military was as corrupted as the rest of its institutions. If you were a plain soldier doing your time, you were fully abused and treated as slave for the upper ranks and their political buddies. Very few were in real defense duties which it meant going to the border with Colombia and deal with the FARC and other assorted terrorist/guerrilla organizations and later with the Colombian cartels. Support was null to zero for the troops, so they learned to dig deep and avoid confrontations, something they were not successful sometimes. Imagine yourself a poorly trained, poorly equipped and unsupported trooper going against hardcore veterans of 30+ years of civil and guerrilla warfare.

So, you did your best to hide when you read in the paper that recruitment quotas were not met. More than once, my buds and I went to the movies only to see the military “recruiters” stand at the exits demanding papers which included the military registration card. If you were “excepted” (Only child, student, etc.) you would go free, but otherwise it was a straight trip to the “Jaula” (Cage or what it is known to all of you as paddy wagon) and then a quick trip to the local military base without a chance to notify anybody for 3 months.  The shit was that if the numbers were low in a year, they would “lose” your military exception papers and by the time shit was cleared, well, you have been already 6 months inside, go ahead and finish.

To say that there were a number of pissed off recruits is an understatement and that lead to the almost never reported cases upon cases of mass killings inside military installations by angry young men that were kidnapped from the streets, treated like shit and then given an FN FAL and expect they would say thank you and smile. I personally know of one case where a recruit killed at least 5 uniformed personnel in one night including a couple sergeants and one lieutenant. I saw the bodies come into the military hospital.

Reclutas died down when the economy tanked in Venezuela in the early to mid 80s. Young kids without a possibility of a good paying or even a crappy paying job, would volunteer to have three squares, a roof and medical plus being able to send some coin home to the family. Allegedly a new law passed and the Recluta system is no longer in action, but with teh economy going deeper into shit every second and more people trying to join in for benefits, we would never know if they would have followed the law.

Oh yes. I did my best and was never picked up nor I served in that shitshow of military. To say I was impressed at the military in the US is a frigging understatement. Hell, I wanted to join, but the future missus put a stop to that. I am neither sorry not embarrassed I did not do my “duty” in the Venezuelan Armed Forces. As I was told by a NG General friend of my dad: “This asshole would probably blow HQ and kill everybody inside.” when I mentioned if recruited, I wanted to be in demolitions.

PS: Another way to avoid the Recluta at night was to be with a date. It sems the upper crust of the military did not want to be raked over coals if some girls were left in the cold and unescorted in the late hours because their boyfriends were hauled away to “serve their country.”

A couple of weeks ago we covered the story of Michael Palacios and his unhappy experience at a NYC McDonalds.

He was so unhappy he took an ax and threatened and attacked customers. He assaulted a number of people there.

Fortunately for the good folks of NYC, the police were there after the violence had stopped to arrest Palacios.

Being a violent criminal who was “well known to law enforcement” he spent a couple of hours in jail before being released without bail.

On Sunday he was arrested again. This time for graffiti and grand theft. He stole a “expensive bike” from a nearby coffee shop and then took off. The police gave chase before finally catching him.

He broke the $3500 bike (Why was it not secured?)

He was charged with “grand larceny, two counts of criminal mischief, possession of stolen property, making graffiti and possession of graffiti instruments”. He was also charged with a graffiti violation for an incident in June.

Given his one many vandalism spree after his violent assault on multiple people, he again spend a few hours in jail before being released without bail.

We all are praying and hoping that he learned his lesson this time.

NYC man released without bail for McDonald’s ax attack arrested again and released without bail

Still reading The Great Terror: A Reassessment by Robert Conquest.

One small bit of history I was unaware of. During the Great Purge, untold tens of thousands of Soviet citizens were disposed of by means of stuffing them in old ships and barges, taking them to some deep-water locations and scuttling the vessels, drowning all the occupants.

Hitler was a fucking amateur.

You are just finding this out? Many states, especially in the South had laws against mask (other than Halloween and such) dating back the Reconstruction because of shit-stains like the Klan and assorted brigands and had to be modified or ignored when Fauci and Company of Thieves brought forth the “Mask-Or-Die” dogma.  And we have people believe that the criminal element youd not take advantage of what their fellow counterparts in the “medical” profession created? Those believers are also known as “predictable victims.”

First, if you have not read OldNFO’s Grey Man series, go do so. JL Curtis Amazon Web Page

What is a “gray man”? He is the man or woman that you don’t notice. He is the man you walk by every day and he is just part of the background. He doesn’t stand out in anyway. He isn’t overly loud in voice, character or looks. He is equally comfortable in his Dickies work pants with grease under his fingernails as sitting in a fine restaurant, dressed correctly for the place.

He is the guy sitting at the bar, nursing a drink and paying no attention to anybody or anything that hears everything that is said and notices all that happens around him.

He is the unnoticed.

It is difficult to be that person. Sometimes you want what is comfortable and not what is gray. Sometimes you want to be tacticool or the gal that wants to be in the 3 in heels looking like a million dollars with every eye focused on her.

Sometimes it is difficult to understand that gray doesn’t mean the color. You would stand out much more at a beside the street in “gray” clothing than wearing a high vis safety vest and hardhat.

The gray man is able to walk into a secured dorm because he feels like just another student in the rush of students going in. The backpack on his back is a student like backpack. He walks into the office building and nobody notices because his computer bag is just a computer bag. His briefcase is just that.

His lunch bag doesn’t attract attention either.

How do you become a gray man? You start by shutting your mouth and listening. You open your eyes an observe.

If you want to be noticed, stare at somebody. Learn to watch somebody without focusing on that person. Don’t stare. The last thing you want to hear is “Are you looking at me!?!? What are you looking at old man/runt/pussy?” Or “Are you looking at MY girl?”

Learn to observe.

Keep your ears open. If you are sitting at the bar or in the dinner or restaurant, what is the conversation going on around you? Are they talking about the amazing touchdown that happened or are they talking about something else entirely?

Learn to sit where you can observe yet not be seen observing. You don’t sit in the back corner. You sit near the back. You sit with your back angled towards the wall. You choose where you sit so that your firearm is protected yet you can still reach it.

For high speed low drag people, have you ever tried to draw your weapon while sitting at your kitchen table? How about when you are sitting on the sofa or in the easy chair? When was the last time you sat in a chair with arms? The chair arms at many dinning room tables will interfere with your ability to draw your weapon. That appendix carry is nice, how about when you are sitting? Are you carrying in the small of your back? Can you reach your gun with out drawing attention to yourself?

Driving down the streets of my town, one in five vehicles is a pickup truck. 3 out of five are four wheel drive. One in 100 is a sports car. One in 1000 might be an expensive sports car.

The guy in the Ford Crown Vic with tinted windows stands out. Panel vans on the street stand out. Dark Suburbans with dark windows stand out.

In DC, a pickup truck stands out. A Prius does not. There are more four door sedans rolling around than you can shake a stick at.

What you drive needs to be gray. In NYC, for the longest time, the best gray vehicle was a bright yellow cab.

What you wear needs to be gray. If you are walking into an office building where they wear suits and ties, wear a suit and tie. If you are walking into places that require a hardhat, wear a hardhat. It use to be that the most invisible man in the building was the guy with a hardhat on and a clipboard.

Stay away from the tacticool clothing. You are carrying an IFAK, make sure it is not obvious. Ankle kits are a good choice for not showing your IFAK.

Your EDC firearm needs to be concealed. If what you are wearing doesn’t allow a full size weapon, then don’t be all mocho and refuse to carry a smaller gun. A little 7 shot 9mm pistol in a pocket holster is a good start.

If you carry a knife, make sure you carry two. One that doesn’t freak the mundanes. My boss once stopped at my desk and asked me to open a box that had just arrived. I was busy and just took my primary and did the wrist flick thing and a 3 1/2in blade was suddenly in my hand. It sort of freaked my boss.

I have a very practical swiss army knife that I should have used.

My briefcase is a Hazard 4 “Ditch” laptop/soft briefcase with the Removable flap. It is a little tacticool but not so much that people notice. It has a main compartment which has a hook and loop holster for a full size firearm. It has a hook and loop where I have a first-aid kit. It has all the little pockets along the side for spare mags and other things. There is a couple of tetra paks of flavored tuna. Along with a Ka-Bar “spork”. There is a full size padded pocket that holds my laptop.

With the flap closed and latched you can open a zipper and gain access to the side compartment to pull out the laptop. Push to quick release buckles and the flap is free and you can then gain access to the double zippered main compartment.

It has places for moral patches, and I do have some on my bag. But they are silly things. Like “Rub dirt in it, sooner or later everything stops bleeding”. Them’s that know can guess there is a first aid kit in that bag.

For my Truck Gun I went with a NC Star Vism Discreet Carbine Case.

It is designed for a 16″ AR-15 broken down. All of the separators and tie down loops can be moved around. With a little bit of fiddling there is room for a Glock in a OWB holster, the PC 9 Carbine and easily a dozen mags. I’ve also used it with a broken down AR-15, that same glock pistol, three AR 30 round mags, one 20 round AR mag, 6 Glock mags

When closed it looks like a slightly oversized laptop bag. Given the size of laptops today, it gets no attention.

My family has doctors, nurses, EMTs and other medical professionals in it. I am well aware of the process of medical internships and rotations. I was going to write something about it but then DiveMedic did a much better job.

B.L.U.F.

Unlike engineers, doctors are expected to make diagnosis and medical decisions that require them to have good working knowledge of the human system right now. Engineers can wait till the morning to ask an expert in a different field.

JKB over at gunfreezone asks why medical training requires doctors to do rotations in specialties that are not their own, pointing out that engineers in one field don’t have to also do internships at a civil engineering firm, a mechanical engineering firm, a structural engineering firm, and a chemical engineering firm. He states that it looks like a complete waste of the student’s time. The reason that medicine does that is actually pretty simple, so let me give a simple explanation.

It isn’t likely that a mechanical engineer will do something that will have a direct effect on a chemical engineer’s job. That chemical engineer isn’t likely going to have an issue with avoiding the problems that a structural engineer is having. Imagine if a mechanical engineer tightened a screw a quarter turn, and this caused the hydraulic fluid to become acidic and then the building collapsed. Not so in medicine. Sure, people in medicine tend to specialize, but the human body is a complex system, and changes to one system have profound effects on the others.

Let’s say that I am in cardiology and I have a heart failure patient who is in fluid overload. There are a number of drugs that one could choose from to get rid of those fluids. I could try furosemide, or perhaps bumetanide. Perhaps torsemide, or even hydrochlorothiazide. Any of those medications would likely solve your patient’s issues, but which one of these is going to be detrimental to the patient’s kidneys? Do I want to choose a potassium sparing or a potassium wasting diuretic? How will that react with the patient’s preexisting autoimmune dysfunction? I could consult a nephrologist, an endocrinologist, and an immunologist, but doctors largely don’t stand around most of the time having huge arguments. That only happens on TV shows, not because there are no egos involved, because there are. Medical people are just too pressed for time to keep doing that, so wouldn’t it be easier if I already knew?

So for that reason, most in medicine learns a little about every system and specialty before going on to gain a deep understanding of their specialty. Nurses, doctors, PAs, NPs, all of them.

The first comment on that post complains about sterile fields and how they are “superstition.” Sterile fields are there to prevent post procedure infections. You can’t see infectious agents. Perhaps you didn’t touch anything. Or maybe you bumped into something that was covered in S. aureus and didn’t notice. How do you know? Can you be sure? If you are wrong, you will know in couple of days when your patient goes septic. You can’t bet a patient’s life on “the ten second rule.” Certain behaviors are high risk, so procedures get written in to the process to reduce or eliminate those higher risk behaviors. That includes treating everything that “breaks field” as though it was covered in an infectious agent- because it might be, and there is no way to know for sure. So you toss the offending object aside, and use one that you KNOW is sterile.

As an example, the most common cause of hospital caused infections is a CAUTI (Catheter Associated Urinary Tract Infection). It’s caused by a catheter introducing a pathogen into the urinary tract. That can affect the kidneys. It can cause Acute Kidney Injury. In some cases, that can cause Chronic Kidney Disease and ultimately kidney failure, or it can cause septicemia (a blood infection), which leads to death. Because of this, there are procedures that need to be followed when inserting, caring for, and ordering indwelling catheters. Can you violate that procedure and get away with it? Sure. A few times. Maybe only once. But one thing is sure, you will eventually wind up with a septic patient. So the procedure is there to prevent that.

My grandfather on my father’s side was a union organizer.

My grandfather on my mother’s side was in the union.

My wife is in a union.

The unions of my grandfathers’ time were creating a better working environment than existed. They were creating a balance. They did create a balance between speed and profit against health, safety, and wages.

When I was in high school I got a chance to read the longshoreman’s contract. The one thing that got me was that a longshoreman got paid even if he didn’t work. If he was at the hiring hall on time all five days and he did not get at least 40 hours, the difference between the hours he did get and 40 were “made up” to him.

At the time a longshoreman that didn’t work was bringing home more money than my mother as a degree nurse.

The scam part of it was that most jobs were handed out by 0730, 0800 was pushing it. You were “on time” if you were at the hiring hall by 0900.

Now I was never a member of the longshoreman’s union. I was a kid and I might have misunderstood what I read, but that is what I came away with.

Today that is what unions do, they push for higher wages, less work, for example less students per teacher, and better benefits.

But they came into existence because there was not balance. A company had all the power. Striking was difficult and dangerous.

It was possible to be born into a mining town, be down in the mines by the time you were 10, work until you could no longer work, from health issues or crippling injuries, or death. For the entire duration of you work life, you were forever in debt to the company.

On your first day of work they company gave you your gear. They set the prices and every payday you had to pay some of it back, to pay for the equipment they gave you on credit. Your equipment wore out and you had to replace it. On credit.

The company owned the home you lived in, you were paying for it from your paycheck.

The food you purchased at the company store was bought on credit. And you paid for it out of every paycheck.

It wasn’t uncommon for a man to come out of the mines at the end of the week and owe the company more money after paying his entire wages back to the company, than he owed at the start of the week.

Tennessee Ernie Ford brought that story to life:

A modern take: