This Is Saigon 1967

Via Wirecutter

[Photos] Into the Wilderness of Saigon in 1867

 

Before “southern Vietnam,” there was Cochinchina; before Saigon, there wasn’t much of anything but vast stretches of tropical jungle and mosquito-infested swamps.

This set of rare black and white images from 1867 was taken by a man named John Thomson. Even though not much is known about the identity or life story of their author, these images are among the few visual testaments of the very early days of the city we now know and love.

In 1859, the French conquered Saigon and the three provinces of Bien Hoa, Gia Dinh and Dinh Tuong. Just a few years later, in 1864, all French territories in the southern region of the country officially became the French colony of Cochinchina. Thomson’s images were taken just three years after that, when, despite a few buildings and ongoing construction projects, Saigon was barely a town, let a lone the bustling metropolis that we know today.

More @ Saigoneer

Compare your community's social distancing activity to its activity prior to COVID-19

Via Billy

 

According to the World Health Organization and the CDC, social distancing is currently the most effective way to slow the spread of COVID-19. We created this interactive Scoreboard, updated daily, to empower organizations to measure and understand the efficacy of social distancing initiatives at the local level.

Please scroll down and explore the data — the more we all understand, the more lives we can save together.

@ UNACAST

Lindsey Graham and Others Call for a Halt to the Stimulus Bill: The Current Text ‘Incentivizes Layoffs’

Via Billy

So how’s that $2 trillion stimulus bill going?

According to GOP Senators Lindsey Graham, Tim Scott, and Ben Sasse, there’s a problem.

It was agreed upon between Trump and leaders in the upper chamber around 1 a.m. Wednesday.

But the trio have called for a pressing of Pause: As reported to NBC News, there’s been a “massive drafting error.”

And that ball-drop could possibly result in big-time layoffs.

More @ Red State

Important Notice To All Buds Customers

We apologize for yet another email in your inbox regarding Coronavirus issues affecting business operations. We will just assume you are already aware of the extreme impact this pandemic has had on firearm and ammunition sales. Things like product shortages, price increases, shipping delays, etc. At a time when many are focused on the negative, and assuming the worst, we wanted to share some more positive and hopefully calming facts with you about our business.

1) If you have placed an order and received a confirmation number we do have your order. Although shipping will likely be delayed substantially beyond our standard terms, the website is automatically securing your item(s) as they are ordered. It is completely impossible for our Customer Service staff to communicate with all +3.2 million customers, of which +225,000 are visiting the site each day now. Our staff is currently only reaching out to customers with existing orders, and only then when there is an actual issue with their order. So... not hearing from us is actually a good thing. Repeated attempts by hundreds of thousands of people to check the status of their order is not going to help expedite anyone's order. It only makes it more difficult for us to assist those relative handful of customers who actually require human assistance to resolve an issue with their existing order.

2) We still have thousands of guns and millions of rounds of ammo. Although it was never our plan to sell them all in a matter of weeks! We are one of the only remaining online retailers that actually has our own +100,000 square foot warehouse full of guns and ammo. Don't believe it...? Just check out this funny Hickok45 video on Youtube posted back in 2016 that actually shows the inside of our warehouse. You will see Hickok45 walk into our warehouse around the 2:30 mark of this video. Many of our competitors have no inventory and rely solely on their suppliers to inventory and ship their orders for them... so you will see their inventories being depleted much more rapidly as well as prices skyrocketing as their suppliers are raising their prices daily, if not hourly. We also use suppliers to supplement our own inventory so we are subject to some price increases ourselves, but not to the extent as those who rely solely on their suppliers.

3) Our only shortage is people and hours in a day... not guns and ammo. We admittedly were unprepared for how a pandemic would affect our business... just like millions of other businesses were. Our major issue is simply not having enough people, and not enough hours in a day, to process and ship all of the orders our website is capable of accepting. The Budsgunshop.com website runs wide open, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. However, our staff only runs wide open about 12-16 hours per day before they start complaining about things like needing to eat, sleep, or seeing their kids... who are all at home from school now. We were actually dealing with the exact same issue (on a much different scale) way back in 2013. Check out this Youtube video at the 8:10 mark and you will hear a very similar story.

4) We are not alone this time; we brought +3 million friends with us! After living through those difficult learning experiences in years past, we knew we had to do something very different in order to make our Customer Service resources scalable on very short notice. Out of those experiences the Buds Community was born back in 2015. Collaborating with our +3 million customers with a vast knowledge of firearms, ammunition, and accessories to create a Q&A forum that is capable of quickly answering customer questions at a rate of 2x, 3x, or even 10x the rate of the day before. This short 8 minute Youtube video posted back in 2017 explains why the solution was created (for times like these) and how it works.

5) We have a history of facing and winning these types of challenges. After 50 years in the business, we have been faced with similar difficulties in the past and always came out stronger than when we went in. More recently, back in 2009, we saw similar increases in volume as a result of both the political dynamics at the time and the H1N1 pandemic. It is navigating through those types of experiences, and the subsequent changes that we made, that allow us to continue to operate today under extreme conditions. We were admittedly not prepared well enough to handle this latest challenge without experiencing some delays and other inconveniences. However, you can rest assured that we have been around long enough, and been through enough, to come out the other side of this challenge, along with you, stronger than when we went in.

We are here for you and in this with you. "Budsgunshop" is not just another company name on internet. We are over 200 individuals with families of our own at home to support and care for. We are going to continue to do the very best we can for you at an extremely difficult time. Unfortunately, our best at this time is likely going to be woefully short of what it was just a few short weeks ago, and definitely not up to your expectations of "Buds." For those of you that have any patience left at all, we would greatly appreciate you sharing that with us... as patience may actually be the only thing in shorter supply than toilet paper at this time.

Rex McClanahan
President
Budsgunshop.com LLC

Los Angeles Mayor Shutting Off Water and Power For ‘Non-Essential’ Businesses That Haven’t Closed

Via Billy

 

Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti has announced that the city will be shutting off water and power to any non-essential businesses that defied orders and stayed open during the coronavirus crisis.

 

During his Tuesday press briefing Garcetti announced that the Department of Water and Power will be shutting off services for the businesses that don’t comply with the “safer at home” ordinance.

“This behavior is irresponsible and selfish,” Garcetti said of businesses that remained open.

More @ The Gateway Pundit

CDC: Coronavirus can survive on surfaces for at least 17 days

Via Billy

The coronavirus can survive on surfaces for at least 17 days, according to a study released Monday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The new data came from a study of the COVID-19 outbreaks on the Diamond Princess ship off the coast of Japan and the Grand Princess ship off the coast of California.

Passengers and crew members on both ships were quarantined on board after previously asymptomatic guests tested positive for the coronavirus once they landed onshore.

More @ WND

Repost 2015: The War We Came To Fight: A Study of the Battle of An Loc, April – June, 1972

  

Dead Commie tanks, courteous of  M72 LAWs.

Chapter 1

During the North Vietnamese Army’s (NVA) Easter Offensive in the spring of 1972, a “new face of war” emerged in the Republic of Vietnam (RVN); unlike previous years, the war evolved into a mild-intensity conflict replete with massed forces, sophisticated weaponry, and massive firepower on both sides. At no place was this more apparent than in Military Region (MR) III where United States air power proved to be the decisive factor in lifting the siege of the beleaguered province capital of An Loc. During a three-month period commencing in April, the United States Air Force (USAF) provided the Vietnamese garrison and its handful of U.S. advisors with their major means of fire support, their primary source of re-supply, and interdiction of enemy forces at the tactical level. This triad of support not only broke the NVA’s stranglehold on the once-prosperous rubber plantation town but also destroyed the better part of three divisions that would have been poised to move on Saigon, some 90 kilometers to the south, had An Loc fallen.

More @ FNC

Anheuser-Busch Voluntarily Converts Breweries To Make Hand Sanitizer

Via Billy

Leave it to big business to take advantage of the little guy. Or not.

Anheuser-Busch InBev announced over the weekend it would begin producing hand sanitizer to replenish a global supply constantly being scooped up by coronavirus-panicked folks.

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From its verified account on Twitter, the biggest beer maker in the world pledged Sunday that its breweries would be manufacturing more than 1 million bottles of sanitizer “to donate to some of the areas most impacted by COVID-19.”

More @ WJ