The Latest Wave of The Sagebrush Rebellion

The recent events at the former Malheur Wildlife Refuge (now called the Harney County Resource Center) are just the latest wave of the well-justified Sagebrush Rebellion that has been going on in western states for 30+ years. Even though they lack any constitutional authority over land that should rightfully belong to the States (per Article 1, Section 8, Clause 17), bureaucrats from the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) have been riding roughshod over the west. They have been doing so through their often capricious and dictatorial policies on grazing, timber cutting, mining, weed control, access to water, hunting, recreational shooting, fencing, gates, predator control, invasive species, and access by inholding landowners. Increasingly, the divide between “We The People” and the bureaucrats has become a gaping chasm. And the “Occupy Malheur” protest is not just an isolated incident. For example, see what has been going on for months in Nevada, as described in this recent L.A. Times article: Tension between ranchers and federal officials is dangerously high in Nevada.

Parenthetically, I must mention that I disagree with the tactics chosen by Ammon Bundy and his compatriots. I think that it was foolish of them to take over a Federal government building, to try to prove their point. Instead, they should have set up tents, or simply pulled in with RVs, pickup campers, and camping trailers, to camp for the duration. That way they would have only have been committing a string of misdemeanors. But by breaking into that building, they committed a felony, from the outset. I believe that decision will come back to haunt them. If the siege goes on, it will likely result in them being isolated from resupply and more importantly isolated from the media attention that they deserve. (Since it can be treated as the scene of an ongoing “felony crime”, the FBI can block roads to the site, at will.)

That leads me to a key point: How should we respond, as individuals? First, I recommend that We The People vociferously make our concerns known and demand a redress of grievances. Write your elected representatives and demand that Federal lands be returned to the States. Write letters to the editor of every publication that you can think of. Call for town hall meetings, throughout the country. Start petition drives for pardons for the Hammond family. Alert your friends, and ask them to do likewise. If you are worried about eventual persecution or prosecution over this, then do all of the aforementioned anonymously. If you don’t yet use VPN, the Tor browser, and the IXQuick search engine, then you should start doing so, immediately. Note: If you don’t understand what those are, then you need to do some research and get smart about protecting your online privacy. Do it now.

If anyone chooses to go and support the Malheur occupiers directly, then I would recommend that you be wise and do so with your faces covered. It is probably a good time to buy a supply of Guy Fawkes masks. Do not let your license plates be seen at or near the Harney County Resource Center. Ride in on bikes, horses, or ATVs. (Unfortunately, annual $10 serialized ATV permit stickers are required in Oregon, but a large, well-positioned glob of mud or grease should help wonderfully.)

This level of secrecy might seem paranoid to some, but just take a minute to consider the plight of the 106 bikers who were the recipients of indictments handed out wholesale by a Texas grand jury in 2015. The majority of those men did not come to the Twin Peaks bar in Waco looking for a fight, and very few of them actually fired a shot. They just were in the wrong place at the wrong time.

It is uncertain how the Malheur standoff will end. Hopefully it will end peacefully and with a restoration of Constitutional government. But given the vindictive nature of our government, I suspect that even if Ammon Bundy and his friends walk away from the Harney County Resource Center, it will end in some messy criminal prosecutions that may result in the loss of their voting and gun ownership rights, for life.

Everyone reading this needs to have Plan B and a Plan C. I predict that a wave of persecution in our nation is looming on the horizon. Sadly, things will probably get worse before they get better. So plan accordingly. At the very minimum, cache some of your guns, ammo, and precious metals–either under ground or above ground. It is also wise to update your passports and get passports for any family members who lack them.

Most of all, please pray for our nation. – JWR

What? SurvivalBlog Has a FaceBook Page?

Anyone who has been a follower of SurvivalBlog for any time understands the distaste that the editors have for Facebook and other forms of social media. We make no secret of the fact that we know the primary purpose of these sites is to produce a viable database that can be mined for marketing purposes (and ofttimes other nefarious reasons). We have long stayed away from these OPSEC nightmares and have encouraged our readers to do likewise. However, we have watched these social media sites become giants in the communications industry, and it became obvious to us that we had to do something to protect our intellectual property rights. In addition, these platforms provide the ability to spread our message to potential readers who would not normally seek access to our website.

As a result, SurvivalBlog has started a social media presence. We would like our readers to understand that SurvivalBlog does not keep “lists” of people, even for marketing purposes. The only contact information we retain is that which is necessary for the operation of the blog. If you submit an article to the contest, we will keep your email so that we have a way of contacting you if we need you to make changes to the article, to be able to contact the winners of the contest, and to forward any correspondence that our readers may wish to send to the authors of those articles. We also keep contact information for our advertisers and those with whom we correspond regularly. SurvivalBlog does not keep a list of who reads or accesses the blog, and we operate on the principle that it is not a crime to refuse to turn over what we don’t have or keep to any entity who demands access to it, legally or otherwise.

With those caveats in mind, understand that contact information is a large part of social media networking. While your “liking” the Facebook page or “following” us on any of the social media platforms that we may participate in helps us, in terms of gaining control of our intellectual property and/or spreading the word to those who would not normally visit the website, you would be putting yourself on a list that we have no control over. With regards to social media, every post you view, every video you watch, every response/comment you make, and even every “private message” you send or receive is tracked in their database and is available to whatever entity gains access to that database. The most common accesses are for marketing purposes, but we also know that government entities (both domestic and foreign), corporations, and yes, even criminals use this information to make decisions about you. Social media has become such a large part of our culture that many feel that they must use social media. For that reason, we have prepared some guidelines for you to help you minimize OPSEC violations that can put you, your family, or your business/home at risk.

SurvivalBlog’s Social Media Footprint:

We will add more to this list if we decide to participate in them.

OPSEC Issues

If you are being targeted, constant updates to your social media account can alert the observer to your location as well as other critical information:

  • Are you gone from your home on vacation? If a burglar is following you on social media, he knows exactly when to break in and guarantee that you are not there to greet him.
  • Are you a government official on travel? Do you have a spouse deployed in the military to a sensitive area? If so, updating social media can compromise security.
  • Did you know that it is common for viruses and trojans to utilize social media to compromise computers, cell phones, and tablets?
  • Were you aware of the fertile breeding ground that social media presents to identity thieves? Information that a census worker couldn’t pry out of a person with threat of jail is often just given away for free on social media.
  • Do your kids have social media accounts? Do you know what they are posting and who they are talking to? Do you know who can see what they post?
  • Did you know that by their own admission, terrorist organizations actively utilize social media to investigate persons of interest and all matters related to them (work, family, residence, travel, and schedules).

Even though many people believe that they don’t give any critical information away, it can be considered a case of “death by a thousand cuts.” Each individual piece of information may be meaningless in and of itself, but taken within the context of all of the information available, grievous breaches of OPSEC are easily obtained.

What can you do?

  • Be cautious when accepting friend requests. Yes, it is the socially acceptable thing to have lots of friends, but do you really know these people that you are allowing access to your life? (We are not even talking about the system administrators whom you don’t know, have never met, and don’t even know anything about.) You should never accept friend requests from someone you don’t know, even if they are friends of one of your friends. Check out this Washington Times article on one example of why this is a bad idea.
  • Don’t share information you don’t want to become public. Once it’s “in the wild”, you have no control over it. Even if you post it privately to another person, at a minimum, the system administrators have access to you (need I remind you that you don’t know them). You also have no real control over who the other person will repeat the information too. Our modern society is notorious for it’s gossip. Just look how popular “reality TV” is.
  • Don’t post personally identifiable information. A business posts its location, hours of operation, and other information that is expected in the normal operations of that business, but there is no reason to let the world know what your home location is, who your spouse is, what time you get off of work, and other such critical information.
  • Please think about what you post before you hit send! You can’t get it back once it’s out there!
  • Be conscious about posting critical information about others as well.
  • Remember the “death by a thousand cuts” issue. Too many small pieces of information can be assembled into a fairly complete picture if the attacker is determined.
  • Make sure you are regularly reviewing the security settings in your account. You can’t do anything about the system administrators knowing whatever you post, but you sure can keep strangers from seeing it! The default settings may not be enough and some social media are infamous about changing settings or what the settings mean.
  • Remove the geotags from your pictures! This is, of course, after you have determined that there is no critical information that is being given away by the contents of the pictures themselves. But if you don’t remove those geotags, there is a clear record of where and when you were there. If you don’t know how to do this, look it up on a good search engine. Do not post a picture unless you know they are not there or have been removed. (You should disable the GPS function of your phone anyway. Google doesn’t need to know where you are all of the time.)
  • Remember to watch not just your OPSEC but the OPSEC of those around you. Take care of your neighbors and friends!
  • If you are a company, make sure you have designated only a few (or one) qualified person whom you trust to speak for your company. Many dissenting voices produces problems.
  • Monitor your media presence. You will have friends tag you in photos that have geotags enabled or descriptions that shouldn’t be there. They may write about something you are doing. It is up to you to make sure your OPSEC is not violated, even by others.
  • Teach your family/friends/employees what is and is not “okay” to post.

You can go on the offensive with your OPSEC as well. Some things you can consider go beyond just managing what you post on social media. You can make sure that your OPSEC is maintained quite simply:

  • Never login from insecure/risky locations. These are prime targets for those who snoop for this kind of information.
  • Always update your computer. Yes, we know you’re a cheapskate and you might be proud that your Windows 3.1 computer is still running after 20 years, but it’s a security risk. If you can’t update it and fix the security issues, get a new one. If the operating system is no longer supported and has security issues, get rid of it. It’s not worth the hassle, and computers are a commodity now. It’s an inexpensive fix.
  • Search for yourself online. If too much information comes up, modify what you’re doing and what your security measures are doing.
  • Keep your password secure. Don’t use the same passwords over and over, and never use identical passwords on different systems.
  • Treat links and files carefully. Don’t open it if you don’t know who it’s from. Look at the source of emails, and if you don’t know how to verify if it’s real, ask someone to teach you.
  • Don’t trust add-ons. Games, download engines, and plugins are not written by the social media sites; they come from third parties. You may think playing that new popular game is fun or finding out what color describes your life is neat, but do you know what information you just allowed the application to access by participating?
  • Review your “friends” profiles. What they post may affect you.
  • Always verify a “friend” by other means (phone, person-to-person) before allowing access.
  • Use VPN access and/or Tor whenever you can. If you don’t have a VPN, get one, even if you have to pay for it!

It is also important to remember that if you post “it” and then have second thoughts and delete “it”, “it” still exists. You just can’t see “it”. The records in the database still have the original posting, any changes made to the posting, who posted “it”, who deleted “it”, and who saw or interacted with “it”. That information is then available at any time to anyone with access to the data. In this day and age, it is not inconceivable that this now deleted post could be used against you years into the future. There may come a time when “guilt by association” comes into play. Has someone else posted on your Facebook page, after which you deleted the post? You may be judged by the company you keep.

Beginning with these simple measures, you can start taking control of your digital life. Most important of all – Don’t post critical information! This can’t be repeated enough. Search engines make it super easy for adversaries to find it. If you just have to have a social presence, make it a habit to watch Enemy of the State and Minority Report at least on an annual basis. It is fiction, but so was a significant portion of Jules Verne’s fiction…right up to the point where it became reality. (See Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea and From the Earth to the Moon)

Letter Re: Root Cellaring Potatoes

HJL,

One of the best reasons for storing potatoes in a root cellar is to have seed available to plant potatoes the next year. While I buy new seed potatoes every year, I also plant some of my own from the previous year. Potatoes are the one crop that you can not buy packets of seed to store for a long time. I plant a lot more than we can eat, just to store for seed. – North-of-80

News From The American Redoubt:

Saeed Abedini’s church in Boise celebrates his release

o o o

Homeward bound? Lion that trekked 450 miles to Montana killed by hunter

o o o

Warning to U.S. Military and Federal LEOs: Do Not Follow Orders to “Waco” Ammon Bundy Occupation, or Risk Civil War – Sent in by T.P.

o o o

The Oregon Standoff in a Nutshell — From My Perspective — by Todd Macfarlane – RBS

o o o

Sent in by Reader RBS: Constitutional Carry in Idaho is for politicians not for the people

o o o

Rejecting ‘Refugee’ Invitations to North Idaho – B.B.

Economics and Investing:

Italian banks are being squeezed at the margins. Some analysts anticipate more turbulence. “Analysts say stimulus measures by the European Central Bank have helped an economic recovery but have the side effect of putting bank margins under pressure.” 2 Italy Bank Stocks Plunge, Brokers Say Prepare for Tough 2016 – T.A.

o o o

China to spark financial ICE AGE with depression, says Societe Generale bear analyst – B.B.

o o o

Items from Professor Preponomics:

US News

Is Eating a Cinnamon Roll Irrational? (Mises) Who knows what’s best for you? Excerpt: “…in criticizing information asymmetry in markets, they are criticizing all exchange. Akerlof and Shiller habitually succumb to this Nirvana Fallacy, holding up the utopian ideal of perfect information as their (unreachable) model, and then when markets fail to reach this ideal, assume that this justifies government intervention, never giving us a reason why these systemic cognitive biases and information asymmetries can be avoided by bureaucrats more than they can by the average consumer.”

Find Out How Much Obamacare Rates Increased in Your State (The Daily Signal) Spoiler Alert: The pain of increasing health insurance costs were felt across the country although Alaska, Minnesota, and Tennessee were hit especially hard. Excerpt: ” Premiums under the Affordable Care Act will rise in nearly every state this year, spiking health insurance costs for nearly all Americans…”

Obamacare’s Enrollment Increase: Mainly Due to Medicaid Expansion (Heritage) Yet another example illustrating the importance of understanding the information behind the numbers. Excerpt: “Medicaid enrollment increased by almost 6.1 million—principally as a result of Obamacare expanding eligibility to able-bodied, working-age adults.”

International News

Buckle Your Seatbelts: China Could Rock Markets Next Week (Contra Corner) Excerpt: “The first important economic release that could move markets will be China’s fourth-quarter GDP number late Monday night New York time. Analysts are calling for 6.9 percent year over year for the fourth quarter. However, it is widely seen by China watchers as inaccurate and propped up by the government.”

Saudi Arabia Buying Up Farmland in US to Export Alfalfa Hay (CNBC) Spoiler Alert: What they are really exporting out of the U.S. is water. Excerpt: “But not everyone likes the trend. The alfalfa exports are tantamount to ‘exporting water,’ because in Saudi Arabia, ‘they have decided that it’s better to bring feed in rather than to empty their water reserves’…”

Brazil’s Economy Hasn’t Been This Bad Since 1930 (Forbes) Excerpt: “The country is facing its worst economic crisis since the Great Depression in the United States. This year will be another year of contraction.”

Personal Economics and Household Finance

Identity Thieves Using Call Centers to Carry Out Scams (Clark Howard) Excerpt: “You probably aren’t surprised anymore when you figure out that a customer service representative you’re talking to is actually half-way across the world somewhere in a call center. But what may surprise you is that there are call centers that actually specialize in helping identity thieves carry out scams and various types of cyber fraud.”

How We Broke Our Eating Out Habit in 9 Steps (Frugalwoods) Excerpt: “I don’t want to sound like a broken frugal record, but, every single line item counts when you’re trying to attain sky-high savings rates and reach financial independence in short order.”

o o o

SurvivalBlog and its editors are not paid investment counselors or advisers. Please see our Provisos page for details.

Odds ‘n Sods:

SurvivalBlog reader T.Z. sent in a link on the GP-5 SSB Shortwave (+AM + FM) receiver. It is a bit complex to use with all the buttons and features, but it receives all the HF Ham bands (CB and shortwave too), has a useful scan/store channel feature, can use NiMH rechargeables or normal AAAs or even a Mini-B USB. It includes all the accessories, including a ferrite and clip-on wire antenna. It’s not very expensive, is small and has lots of extras, like alarm and temperature. It is receive only, but considering the number of Amateur Radio operators this would be a good way for the non-Hams to get the news and chatter.

o o o

Michigan Becomes First State to Welcome Back Sub-$1 Gas

JWR’s Comment: This nationwide dip in gas prices represents a good opportunity to top-off your farm/ranch/home fuel storage.

o o o

The Feds want speed limiters and surveillance devices installed in every car, truck and bus – More control where it doesn’t belong. – T.P.

o o o

Reader GJS sent in this article on Guns of America about the Provident Living stores. SurvivalBlog has reported in the past on the great deals available to anyone at these locations. The selection isn’t large, but the prices can’t be beat.

o o o

Homeland Security’s Ebola Response Put Public at Risk. An audit shows that 169 people who traveled to Ebola-affected countries weren’t properly screened. – G.P.

Notes for Monday – January 18, 2016

In 1942, Germany began the deportations from Warsaw to Treblinka of Polish Jews. Within the first seven weeks of Himmler’s order, more than 250,000 Jews were taken to Treblinka by rail and gassed to death, making it the largest single act of destruction of any population group. After a four month pause, the deportations started up again on January 18th, 1943. A German SS unit entered the ghetto and began rounding up its denizens, but they did not go without a fight. Six hundred Jews were killed in the street as they struggled with the Germans. These Jews refused to surrender, taking arms from their German persecutors in surprise attacks. The Germans eventually withdrew from the ghetto, but sadly the fight did not end there. Before the incursion was over, 6000 more Jews were transported to their deaths at Treblinka. May we never forget these atrocities. Never Again!

o o o

We apologize for the service outage yesterday. Our hosting provider has informed us that they had some issues with their servers which are now fully resolved.

Persevering Through the Panic of 2016

The first two weeks of 2016 have been disastrous for both the commodities markets and the equities markets. Looking at the DJIA and the S&P indexes, more than $3.5 trillion has been lost on paper in just two weeks. Crude oil has dropped to around $29 per barrel. There seems to be no end in sight for the bad economic news. I expect to see further deep market declines, intraday “circuit breaker” market interventions, and perhaps even full-day trading suspensions and bank holidays. I must remind you that I’m writing this on a three-day holiday weekend. (Martin Luther King Jr. Day will be observed on Monday.) When the markets open on Tuesday, we can expect to see a continuing sell-off.

Back in 2008 I posted some economic commentary in SurvivalBlog under the headline: Are Simultaneous Inflation and Deflation Possible? In that essay, I posited that the then-heralded recession “may be deep and long enough to qualify as a bona fide depression”. It now appears that I was right. The so-called “economic recovery” in the interim years has been an illusion, created by several rounds of Quantitative Easing (monetization of the national debt) and the Federal Reserve’s fanciful Zero Interest Rate Policy (ZIRP). The real standard of living for most Americans has declined during this “recovery”. Family debt obligations (mortgages, credit card debt balances, car loans, and student loans) have grown enormously. The national debt has ballooned to $19 trillion during this “recovery”. Job creation has been stagnant during this “recovery”, and the few new jobs there were required massive Federal spending– in fact, about $600,000 in new Federal spending for each new job created. So in short, this much-vaunted “recovery” has been an artificial construct that was not at all sustainable. It was a mountain of lies built upon a mountain of debt. Instead of “unwinding” debt as they should have, the fools in D.C. and Wall Street created more debt, and by doing so, they merely forestalled the inevitable collapse and set the stage for it to be much more devastating.

The following might sound odd, given the current headlines that are screaming “deflation”: I believe that it is time to plan ahead for a mass inflation that will follow on the heels of the current deflation. When this sudden turn from deflation to inflation will occur is difficult to predict. But given our government’s long-established tendency to profligate spending and never-decreasing debt accumulation, I think that a shift into higher interest rates and mass inflation is bound to come. Take a look at a piece that I posted back in 2007 titled Coping With Inflation–Some Strategies for Investing, Bartering, Dickering, and Survival. That should give you some good starting points.

It is definitely time to readjust our preparations, folks. In the short term I recommend:

  1. Increase your greenback cash on hand.
  2. Avoid indebtedness, and do your best to pay off debts.
  3. If you are still in the stock market then get out: sell now!
  4. Put your money into practical tangibles! (Such as productive farm land, guns, long-term storage food, silver, and common caliber ammunition.)

Note: Tangibles will be some of the few reliable shelters, after the mass inflation arrives. Everything else (read: dollar-denominated) will be wiped out, in just a few months.

The unfolding panic and eventual collapse could very well be the excuse that will be used by many national governments to introduce electronic currencies (the first phase of the so-called “Mark of The Beast”). That has some huge implications for family preparedness. Get ready to barter, folks.

Bottom line: Stock up, team up, and train up. Time is short.

You’ve been warned. – JWR

Pat Cascio’s Product Review: Ruger’s New American Pro 9mm

I’ve been a huge fan of Ruger firearms since 1979, when I bought my first Ruger centerfire rifle in .300 Winchester Mag. Everyone anticipated the first cernterfire semiauto pistol from Ruger in 1985, when it was first announced. Alas, there were problems, and the Ruger P85 didn’t actually come out until 1987. I lived in Colorado Springs, CO at the time and operated a small gun business with a friend out of his gas station as well as gun shows, but we couldn’t get our hands on a P85. One gun shop in the entire city had received one sample, and it wasn’t for sale, but there was literally a line of guys waiting to handle it and place their order for one. The P85 was ugly as sin; it was big and bulky, too. I loved it!

DSCF0003

I didn’t get my own P85 until we had moved back to Oregon in 1988, and in one week I actually received two P85s. I was in heaven. However, one of the guns had a problem I couldn’t figure out. The slide would lock halfway open during firing and I had to remove the magazine and pound the slide closed. For the life of me, I couldn’t see what the problem was. The gun was sent to Ruger and repaired, without an explanation, and returned to me. Since this time, I’ve owned every P-series pistol that Ruger has made over the years. Several years ago, Ruger came out with a completely different pistol in their SR-series– striker fired, and once again I owned all the different models.

DSCF0004

The P-85 developed a problem with the firing pin breaking, and it could have potentially fired when you decocked the gun. In short order, to Ruger’s credit, they recalled those guns, corrected the problem, and stamped MKII on the slides, so you knew the problem was taken care of. I applaud Ruger for this. They are fast to jump on a problem and take care of it, unlike some other gun makers who want to hide the problem, hoping it will go away. Ruger came out with the P-89 in 1989, basically the P-85 without any problems. Since then, Ruger has had a whole host of centerfire pistols over the years, and every last one was a winner in my book.

DSCF0006

A few days before New Years Day, 2015, I received a press release from Ruger, introducing their brand-new, striker-fired “American” semiauto pistol. I loved what I saw and read. The gun is very sleek, very up-to-date, and modern looking. I hate boring our readers with all the specs on guns, so go to the Ruger website, where they will give you all that information.

The new American from Ruger is only being produced in 9mm and .45ACP, with no plans on coming out with one in .40S&W anytime soon. The .40 S&W is falling out of favor these days, especially with law enforcement. They are going back to the 9mm in droves. With new developments in JHP 9mm ammunition these days, the 9mm is supposedly right up there in stopping power with the .40 S&W, and it is easier to shoot. There is a lot less recoil, and police qualifying scores are going up since they switched back to the 9mm; hits and hits only are what count. So, we may not see a Ruger American in .40 S&W.

DSCF0007

I didn’t receive my Ruger American Pro 9mm sample until more than two weeks after I ordered it. Ruger is slammed with orders. Demand is outstripping production right now. That’s how popular the American is, right out of the gate. Of course, my local gun shop got in their order for the American a day before I got my sample, and needless to say they really rubbed it in that they, once again, got a new gun before I did. It doesn’t happen often, but when it does, they really get on my case about it.

 

Over the course of three days I put more than 500-rds though my Ruger sample. Unlike most blogs out there, SurvivalBlog.com will never report on a new product based solely on a press release. Yeah, a lot of gun and survival blogs were 2½ weeks ahead of us reporting on a gun they didn’t have. They simply wrote on their blogs what was on the Ruger press release. That’s not fair to their readers, and we won’t do that, EVER!

The new Ruger American Pro 9 is a striker-fired handgun, which is the trend these days. It has a black polymer frame, and the slide is blackened stainless steel. The frame has several Picatinny rails for mounting lights and/or lasers; previous Ruger’s didn’t have but one rail mounting point. The slide is very sleek looking, and it has cocking serrations on the rear of the slide. There is also a massive external extractor right in front on the right side of the gun. Funny thing is, there is nothing on my sample with the “American” moniker on it. On the front of the slide on either side, it simply has “Ruger” on it. We also have a genuine Novake rear sight on the slide, which is nice, real nice. Two white dots on the rear sight, and one white dot on the front sight make it very fast and easy to pick-up. There is a lot of light between the front and rear sight on either side of the front sight, which makes it great for combat work but not for precise target shooting . Then again, this isn’t a target gun; keep that in mind!

DSCF0008

Gone is the big “flag” that Ruger was putting on their SR series, alerting you that there was a round in the chamber. No one liked it. Instead, we have a cut in the rear of the barrel’s chamber, where you can see if there is a round in there. It seems like everyone is going to this sort of thing, and many states require it, if you want to sell a handgun in their state. Moving down to the frame, there is no manual safety, instead it has the little lever in the front of the trigger. That is popular; the gun can’t fire if you don’t have pressure on the trigger, pushing the lever backwards. There is also several internal, passive safeties that won’t allow the gun to fire if dropped. There is a full-time ambi slide release, and on the left side is the take down lever. Remove the magazine, lock the slide open, and rotate the lever down, and then carefully, while holding the slide, release it and the slide comes off, and you can then remove the recoil spring and barrel. It’s just that simple and fast.

DSCF0009

Moving down on the frame, we have a full-time magazine release, one triangular button on either side of the frame, right behind the trigger guard. And, as already mentioned, the frame has Picatinny rails for mounting lights and/or lasers. The front strap of the frame has several different diamond patterns on it, for a sure grip; I love it. The back strap has diamond patterns on it, but they’re different. (See the pics.) Now, here is where things get interesting. The back strap is removable/replaceable. My sample came with the medium-sized back strap; however, included in the nice black polymer case the American came in is two more back straps– one smaller/thinner and one bigger front to back and thicker. A Torx head tool is included for changing out the back straps. I tried all three, and settled on the medium-sized one that was on the gun. However, quite honestly, I could live with any of the three back straps. They all felt good to my hands. We also have a lanyard attachment on the rear of the butt of the gun. This is obviously geared toward law enforcement. A lot of cops in foreign countries have their guns attached to a lanyard so it can’t be taken from them.

The trigger guard is not quite square-ish but is very nicely done with none of those silly serrations or checkering on the front that used to be in favor, for those who placed the trigger finger of their off-hand on the front of the trigger guard. Plus, the trigger guard is large enough for a gloved hand, which is another nice touch. We also want to mention the extended “beaver tail” on the frame. On some guns, especially a GLOCK, if you are wearing heavy gloves in the winter and your have a high hold on the gun with your gun hand, the slide can and does get caught on the gloves, producing a malfunction. On the Ruger American, the beaver tail is placed perfectly, still giving you a high hand hold on the gun, but the slide won’t catch your thick-gloved hand. A lot of thought went into the feature.

DSCF0011

The American comes with two nickel/Teflon coated 17-rd magazines, and needless to say you won’t see any on the market for a while. You’ll have to purchase them directly from Ruger for the time being. I placed an order for another mag at www.shopruger.com. Mags are in short supply right now. The magazines have viewing holes, starting at hole #4 and ending with hole #17, so you have a good idea of how many rounds are left in your mag. The mags were easy to load, until I got to the 16th and 17th rounds; they were a bugger to stuff into the mags. Then again, many handgun mags are hard to fully load. What I do is load my mags to full-capacity and let them sit for a couple weeks. After that, those last few rounds are easy to insert. So then you have a fully loaded magazine, not a problem!

DSCF0012

The American has been tested for sustained +P fire, and I have no doubts the gun will hold up to all the +P ammo you want to shoot through it, if you can afford the price tag for +P ammo. To be sure, no gun makers recommend that you run +P+ ammo through their guns; some of this ammo is really hot-loaded to “proof” loading pressures, so be advised.

BTW, Ruger advertises the trigger return as crisp, with a short take-up. The take-up before firing is short, and the trigger reset is very positive. The trigger pull on my sample broke at 5.5-lbs, but it didn’t feel that heavy in the least. The trigger is actually more of a two-stage one with some take-up and then you feel some resistance before the gun fires. This is much better than many other striker-fired handguns I’ve used over the years. I like it.

The Ruger American weighs in at 30-oz for the 9mm version and only an ounce more for the .45ACP version, which is a little bit heavier than some other polymer framed handguns, but this is a full-sized, duty gun. My crystal ball is working and I predict we will start seeing these guns in duty holsters at various law enforcement agencies and without a doubt, in military holsters all over the world. Ruger is going to put a serious dent in GLOCK and S&W M&P sales. Full retain is $589, but once supply catches up with demand you’ll see the Ruger American selling for under $500; that’s a lot less than a GLOCK and about the same as a S&W M&P. Based on my testing, I’d pick the American over the GLOCK or M&P for a duty gun, if I were a cop again!

DSCF0015

If you check out Ruger’s website, you will find that they already have a list of holster makers who have holsters in-stock and ready to ship that will fit the American. I have more holsters than I care to admit, so I started experimenting with them and the American. I found that the Blackhawk Products leather Askins holster, for concealed carry, fit my American sample perfectly. Also, I have some old Uncle Mike’s duty and concealed holsters that also fit the American. So, unlike many new handguns that come on the market with no one making holsters for them, Ruger saw to it that you won’t have a problem finding a holster to fit their new handguns.

As soon as I received my Ruger American Pro 9mm sample, I ran out to my usual shooting spot to run some ammo through the sample. I had an outstanding supply of 9mm from Black Hills Ammunition and Buffalo Bore Ammunition for my testing. Of course, it had to be pouring down rain, but rain doesn’t stop my shooting; extreme summer heat does though.

From Black Hills, I had their 100-gr Frangible load– factor seconds. This load isn’t sold to the public. I had forgotten I had some left from a few years ago and only had a couple boxes. This ammo breaks apart when it hits something solid, like a steel backstop at a firing range. I also had their 115-gr JHP +P, 124-gr JHP +P, 115-gr FMJ, 124-gr JHP, 115-gr Barnes TAC –XP +P loads – a great assortment. From Buffalo Bore, I had their 147-gr Hard Cast FN +P load, 147-gr JHP sub sonic JHP load, 147-gr FMJ sub sonic, 115-gr Barnes TAC XP +P+, and the Barnes loads from Black Hills and Buffalo Bore are an all-copper hollow point load. I had the 124-gr FMJ FN +P+ Penetrator round and their 115-gr JHP +P+ load. It was quite an assortment of different loads and different bullet weights to test in the American.

DSCF0016

I had a strange thing happen during the first three 17-rd mags I fired, and that was that the empty brass was being flung in all directions. After those first three mags, the empties were all going in a nice little pile to the right of the gun. I guess things needed to settle down in the new gun. I’ve had this same thing happen with some other brand-new guns; the brass would go every place to start with. Then the gun would settle down. Eventually, the brass was going where it needed to go, so don’t think this is a “problem” with any new gun. I just wanted to mention it.

DSCF0017

My second day of shooting was fairly nice weather with no rain. My beautiful wife helped me with the shooting but not loading magazines. She always leaves that job to me for some reason. Throughout my testing those last two rounds, in both magazines, were a real bugger to get loaded, but as I said before load-up those mags and let ‘em sit for two weeks. Then, the last two rounds will slide right in there. I’ve been there and done that with many brand-new magazines. Again, it’s not a “problem” to the Ruger magazines, not in the least. On my third day of testing, we had clouds and it was chilly. I was out shooting alone. The thumb on my right hand was taking a beating from loading those magazines, and it was bruised and sore, real sore. I wanted to get all my shooting in as soon as I could, so I could give our readers a real report on the new Ruger, not just copying from the press release, like so many other blogs have done.

DSCF0018

There was not a single malfunction in all my testing, not even a hint of a problem, other than those first three magazines I fired, with the empty brass being flung all over the place. The American chugged along without any problems. Then, it dawned on me that I never lubed the gun. It was pretty dry with just some packing oils on it. I broke the gun down, before I fired it the first time, to check things out but didn’t lube the gun in all my shooting and there were no problems. Yes!!

At 25-yards, I could keep my groups around 3-inches or less, if I did my part, and when I was getting tired, the groups opened-up to 4-inches. My accuracy testing was done over a rolled up sleeping bag, over the hood of my pickup truck. Honestly, I didn’t test all the various ammo during my testing for accuracy. There was just too big of a selection to pick from, and I wanted to get this article out to our readers. If I was on my game and fresh, the Black Hills 124-gr JHP load was the winner with groups slightly under 3-inches, but I think the Ruger can do better. Right on the heels of that load was the Bufflo Bore 147-gr FMJ sub sonic load. Tied for third place was the Black Hills 115-gr JHP +P and the Buffalo Bore 147-gr Hard Cast FN +P load. There were no losers in the accuracy department, and as mentioned, I think the Ruger can go even better, when I take some time to really wring it out for accuracy. Still, three inch groups for a “duty” handgun, that’s more than acceptable, much more than acceptable!

DSCF0019

Without a doubt, the Ruger designers took some serious time to design this gun, and they listened to shooters, too. It has all the features you need and nothing you don’t. Night sights would be nice, and I’m sure the after-market folks will come out with some, if Ruger doesn’t.

We’ve come a long, long way since the Ruger P-85 came out in 1987, and along the way I’ve seen each new model that Ruger came out with get better and better. I don’t know how Ruger is going to top themselves with their next centerfire semiauto pistol. They are going to have to work extra hard at it. The new Ruger American is a total winner in my book. Now the only problem I have is trying to talk myself out of not getting one in 9mm. No sooner do I get close to getting Ruger paid-off on gun samples I kept, then they go and do this to me. Here’s another new gun that I’m going to keep and pay for, but now I want one in .45ACP, too. Ruger, you did it up right this time, 110% right. We all appreciate it!

– Senior Product Review Editor, Pat Cascio

Recipe of the Week: Two By Four Soup, by Mama C

Ingredients:

  • 2 cans Ro-tel (tomatoes and green chilis)
  • 2 cans condensed Minestrone soup
  • 2 cans pinto beans or your favorite
  • 2 lbs. ground beef or venison
  • 1 lb. Velveeta, cubed (or similar melting cheese)

Directions:

  1. In a soup pot, brown ground meat and drain
  2. Add rotel, soup, beans, and meat, and cook over medium heat about 15 minutes.
  3. Add cheese, turn soup on low until cheese is melted. Stir well.

Serve with tortilla chips, bread, or crackers. This recipe can be easily halved or doubled. If I don’t have canned beans, I have substituted diced, canned potatoes. Yummy both ways.

o o o

Do you have a favorite recipe that would be of interest to SurvivalBlog readers? Please send it via e-mail. Thanks!

Letter: Stocks, Gold and Gas

HJL,

My wife and I were giving a home school economics lesson at the pumps the other day. We talked to our kids about how most people live and work and the daily driving it requires. My wife and I concluded that this gas price drop has put $350 per month back in the pocket of the average neighbor around here. That is no small thing.

I saw sales at my antique store rise in the last half of December and continue at a brisk pace this month. That people are buying used stuff points to the new frugality that the economic media has trouble pulling their arms around. Somehow we are supposed to continue to act like sheeple and blindly go pay top dollar at the mall for landfill bound junk made in China and live like the glamorous people portrayed on television.

There is a group of people I call my “board”. They are smart in their own areas. I floated the idea that Congress and Fed have closed the interest expense loop with that bill that requires the Fed to turn over to the Treasury excess earning. With that act they have given the Fed the ability to raise interest rates without immediately making the government insolvent. I got a collective “oh my!” as the dawning spread over their faces. The other thing that I floated is that whenever some jerk that is shorting the market, like Soros or RBS, makes a scare announcement hoping to inspire panic and make a killing with their short positions I flip up Kitco (they offer pretty graphs that can be easily manipulated). If the price of gold is still static, then it is not a real panic. Of course if gold has spiked then all there is for me to do is stop by the grocery for one last load because there will be nothing I can do to avoid loss. I will be ahead of the people that depend on the evening news, and I’ll be back to throwing mutual fund statements in the corner unopened for the duration.

Another thing about pretty graphs, people that want to scare you play with the time period shown. Not only can liars figure but they can draw pretty graphs. Shorter is scarier, and longer gives perspective.

Am I committed to prepping? Absolutely! We are clearly on our own. I become more resilient every day, week, and month.

However, it takes more than practicing your preps. It is the right thought process, but you have to have a developed skill that others want/need to pay for. Never allow yourself to be just a worker that can be cast off. If you are that worker, you start your journey to being a sovereign individual by learning the why and the substance of everything around you.

RV

Economics and Investing:

Brandon Smith: The Advantages of Barter and Localism. Something that we all need to be good at in the coming crisis.

o o o

The Deflation Monster Has Arrived – G.G.

o o o

Items from Professor Preponomics:

US News

Credit Crunch Could Be Worse that the Housing Crisis (CNBC) Excerpt: “Oil and gas companies borrowed heavily when oil prices were soaring above $70 a barrel. But in the past 24 months, they’ve seen their values and cash flows erode ferociously as oil prices plunge — and that’s made it hard for some to pay back that debt. This could lead to a massive credit crunch like the one we saw in 2008” …and a related exclusive on the same concern at Zero Hedge: Dallas Fed Quietly Suspends Energy Mark-to-Market on Default Contagion Concerns Warning: the ZH article commentary may contain bad language or inappropriate avatar images.

Mises Week in Review (Mises) Excerpt: “The global economy continues to wrestle with deflation, with oil reaching its lowest price in over a decade. The economic winds continue to look ominous, with even mainstream outlets questioning whether 2016 could be worse than 2008.”

The Big Short (Mises) Agreed. Hollywood gets closer to the truth of capitalism in this release than they have in others! They also do reasonably well in introducing the concepts of Mortgage Backed Securities (MBSs) and Collateralized Debt Obligations (CDOs) although I wish they had done more with these. Warning: the movie contains bad language and some scenes involving nudity. Excerpt: “The two main things it leaves out—and both are critical for understanding the housing bubble/financial crisis—are the roles that regulation and the Federal Reserve played. Government regulations linked bank capital requirements to the risk of bank assets.”

Rand Paul’s Fed Audit Legislation Falls Short in Senate (Washington Examiner) Among the arguments against auditing the Federal Reserve is that such audits would subject its decisions to the influence of politics; it could easily be argued, however, that Federal Reserve operations are already influenced and engineered by the very politics about which the Fed seems to be concerned. If I might be so bold… It is my personal opinion that the primary difference may be whether the politics are those of the few or those of the many. Excerpt: “…the Federal Reserve Transparency Act of 2015, would have eliminated existing restrictions on the Government Accountability Office’s ability to audit the Federal Reserve’s operations.”

International News

Saudi Shares in Free Fall After Oil Rout (Business Insider) Excerpt: “Share prices in the energy-rich Gulf states nosedived Sunday following the sharp decline in oil prices and the expected rise in Iranian crude exports after the lifting of sanctions.”

Global Slump “Will Force UK Factories Into Deeper Recession” (The Telegraph) Excerpt: “The UK’s factories are likely to scrap capital spending plans as signs of a global slowdown have renewed the oil price rout. The slump, from $115 a barrel in the summer of 2014 to below $30 for the first time since 2004, has already forced change in the manufacturing sector.”

Personal Economics and Household Finance

Scammers Fake Social Security Email (FTC) Excerpt: “The subject line says “Get Protected,” and the email talks about new features from the Social Security Administration (SSA) that can help taxpayers monitor their credit reports, and know about unauthorized use of their Social Security number. It even cites the IRS and the official-sounding “S.A.F.E Act 2015.” It sounds real, but it’s all made-up.”

Build a Greenhouse on a Budget: Top 10 Cheap and Easy DIY Greenhouses (Home and Gardening Ideas) Great ideas for greenhouse designs!

o o o

SurvivalBlog and its editors are not paid investment counselors or advisers. Please see our Provisos page for details.

Odds ‘n Sods:

Water matters. “Michigan’s attorney general opened an investigation Friday into lead contamination in Flint’s drinking water, and the governor asked President Obama to declare a disaster as National Guard troops fanned out across this anxious city to help distribute bottled water, water filters and testing kits. The actions drew new scrutiny to an environmental crisis that poisoned the water supply for a year and a half before it was addressed. The contamination has left a city of 100,000 people unable to use tap water for drinking, cooking or bathing…” From the New York Times: Anger and Scrutiny Grow Over Poisoned Water in Michigan City – T.A.

o o o

SurvivalBlog reader sent in this link on using “gravity” to power your light. Really…Humans have used gravity to power devices for thousands of years. Why not a reading light? Turning Gravity Into Light – Smarter Every Day 146

o o o

G.G. sent this article in from Popular Mechanics on how long fast food ketchup packets actually last. Surprisingly it isn’t forever!

o o o

I prefer a good Weller butane-powered portable soldering iron, but reader G.P. sent in a neat article showing how to hack a USB charger into a cordless soldering iron.

o o o

Sweden: State-funded Muslim “Sniper” Training. Excerpt: “The almost unbelievable plunge into insanity—started two years ago already—was reported—in a positive pro-refugee light—by the Allehanda newspaper in Sweden, under the title ‘Fired up for Sniping’,” – T.P.

Hugh’s Quote of the Day:

“I thought, well, I’m not going to die sitting down.” – Airman 1st class Spencer Stone to Jimmy Kimmel (Stone and two other men tackled an Islamic terrorist on a high speed train traveling through France, preventing a massacre on Sept 14 2015.)