Notes for Wednesday – January 20, 2016

Today, we present another entry for Round 62 of the SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing contest. The nearly $12,000 worth of prizes for this round include:

First Prize:

  1. A Tactical Self-Contained 2-Series Solar Power Generator system from Always Empowered. This compact starter power system is packaged in a wheeled O.D. green EMP-shielded Pelican hard case (a $1,700 value),
  2. A Gunsite Academy Three Day Course Certificate that is good for any one, two, or three day course (a $1,195 value),
  3. A course certificate from onPoint Tactical for the prize winner’s choice of three-day civilian courses, excluding those restricted for military or government teams. Three day onPoint courses normally cost $795,
  4. DRD Tactical is providing a 5.56 NATO QD Billet upper with a hammer forged, chrome-lined barrel and a hard case to go with your own AR lower. It will allow any standard AR-type rifle to have a quick change barrel, which can be assembled in less than one minute without the use of any tools and a compact carry capability in a hard case or 3-day pack (an $1,100 value),
  5. Gun Mag Warehouse is providing 20 Magpul PMAG 30-rd Magazines (a value of $300) and a Gun Mag Warehouse T-Shirt; (an equivalent prize will be awarded for residents in states with magazine restrictions),
  6. Two cases of Mountain House freeze-dried assorted entrees in #10 cans, courtesy of Ready Made Resources (a $350 value),
  7. The Ark Institute is donating a non-GMO, non-hybrid vegetable seed package (enough for two families of four) plus seed storage materials, a CD-ROM of Geri Guidetti’s book “Build Your Ark! How to Prepare for Self Reliance in Uncertain Times”, and two bottles of Potassium Iodate (a $325 retail value),
  8. A $250 gift certificate good for any product from Sunflower Ammo,
  9. KellyKettleUSA.com is donating both an AquaBrick water filtration kit and a Stainless Medium Scout Kelly Kettle Complete Kit with a combined retail value of $304, and
  10. Two cases of meals, Ready to Eat (MREs), courtesy of CampingSurvival.com (a $180 value).

Second Prize:

  1. A Glock form factor SIRT laser training pistol and a SIRT AR-15/M4 Laser Training Bolt, courtesy of Next Level Training, which have a combined retail value of $589,
  2. A FloJak EarthStraw Code Red 100-foot well pump system (a $500 value), courtesy of FloJak.com,
  3. A transferable certificate for a two-day Ultimate Bug Out Course from Florida Firearms Training (a $400 value),
  4. A Model 175 Series Solar Generator provided by Quantum Harvest LLC (a $439 value),
  5. A Trekker IV™ Four-Person Emergency Kit from Emergency Essentials (a $250 value),
  6. A $200 gift certificate good towards any books published by PrepperPress.com,
  7. A pre-selected assortment of military surplus gear from CJL Enterprize (a $300 value),
  8. RepackBox is providing a $300 gift certificate to their site, and
  9. Safecastle is providing a package of 10 LifeStraws (a $200 value)

Third Prize:

  1. A Royal Berkey water filter, courtesy of Directive 21 (a $275 value),
  2. A $245 gift certificate from custom knife-maker Jon Kelly Designs, of Eureka, Montana,
  3. A large handmade clothes drying rack, a washboard, and a Homesteading for Beginners DVD, all courtesy of The Homestead Store, with a combined value of $206,
  4. Expanded sets of both washable feminine pads and liners, donated by Naturally Cozy (a $185 retail value),
  5. Two Super Survival Pack seed collections, a $150 value, courtesy of Seed for Security, LLC,
  6. Mayflower Trading is donating a $200 gift certificate for homesteading appliances,
  7. APEX Gun Parts is donating a $250 purchase credit,
  8. Montie Gear is donating a Precision Rest (a $249 value), and
  9. Two 1,000-foot spools of full mil-spec U.S.-made 750 paracord (in-stock colors only) from www.TOUGHGRID.com (a $240 value).

Round 62 ends on January 31st, so get busy writing and e-mail us your entry. Remember that there is a 1,500-word minimum, and that articles on practical “how to” skills for survival have an advantage in the judging.

Making A Conceal Carry Vest, by C.E.

Surviving is really a willingness to accept the challenge of a life-threatening change that is forced on you. A world that requires a grandmother to conceal carry has been one of my biggest challenges. Can I keep a firearm close at hand for self defense, be legal, be safe around my grandchildren, and still be comfortable? I rarely wear any clothing that will handle a holster. I like the belly band system but find they don’t always work with dresses, and at the end of the day they can be rough on the skin. A conceal carry purse seems too risky for me. That same black hole that swallows my car keys could just as easily hide my gun when I need it. A purse opens too many doors for failure. Do I take my purse with me to the garden or on a walk? There are too many times when my purse is just beyond my reach, and will I remember my gun is in my purse when I run into a school, the courthouse, or a hospital? What if my purse gets snatched? Not only do I lose my money, I have now provided a criminal with another gun.

Since my style is casual, I came up with a way to refit a blue jean vest to hold a gun. It is tucked away under my arm, out of sight and in my control. It is also easy to access and does not print. My personal comfort level is to not have a bullet in the chamber. I wear my gun with the clip in but needing to be racked. I try to stay away from dangerous situations and hope that if I have to take out a gun, I will have time to rack it and shoot. My first level of defense is awareness and caution. After that, I rely on the element of surprise and not the speed of my draw. I would not be picked from a crowd as “the person most likely to be carrying a concealed weapon”. That is how I practice and that is where my comfort level is at today. New times will require new adaptations. For now, this vest gives me a great option for carrying a weapon. It is discrete, readily available, and I am constantly aware of its presence without it being uncomfortable.

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To make an inexpensive conceal carry vest, I recommend you shop Goodwill, Salvation Army, or your favorite thrift shop. Even in my small town, I can usually find two or three vests to choose from. Select a vest with lots of seaming topstitching and/or pockets– the more the better. Every seam adds places to secure the pocket to the vest and draws the eye away from any unusual bumps or indentations. Also buy some extra jeans fabric or medium- to heavy-weight cotton. I have a few skirts or jeans dresses in the sewing room for patches. You will want to have several shades of medium weight fabric or denim for pocket options. For this vest I used a piece of a blue jean dress with an embroidery embellishment and a decorative pocket. It isn’t the best match, but it was too much fun to pass up. Survival doesn’t have to be boring and mundane. Joy and creativity should always be an option. Why survive just to be miserable?

Set up your sewing machine with a jeans (size 16) needle and medium-weight thread that matches the top stitching of your vest. Most jeans are top-stitched in a pale beige or a pale brownish orange. As you make this, remember that the function is far more important than the form. If you are the only one who ever sees this, you are wildly successful.

Determine right or left hand access, and mark the inside of the vest for the pocket. Yes, I made my first one backwards! It would have been wonderful if I was left handed instead of right handed. The weight of your gun will be supported from the shoulder, the lapel seam, the side seam, and the pocket area. I like to design the pocket so that the gun sets just under the bust line and towards the side seam. In a relaxed stance, it is just under my arm. I can cross my arms and reach into the vest in a very natural position and pull out the gun. If you cut the pocket right, your gun will not shift and move around while you wear it. This vest has a yoke front, so I will use it for securing the top of the pocket. I can hand stitch the inside pocket piece to the vest seams. Every vest you make will have a slightly different pocket shape.

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I always start by making a paper pattern. Pin your paper to the area you will be installing the pocket and trace around the inside of the vest. I prefer a light-weight paper that can shape to the vest. It may take you several attempts to get it just right. Start big; you can always trim. I have found that I like the bottom of the pocket to drop an inch or two towards the side seam. This allows the gun to always fall into the pocket. I also like the opening to finish a few inches back from the lapel area. You will need to wear the vest open to access the gun, but you don’t want it to be visible from the outside. Make sure you add an inch all around for seam allowances. Take the time to lay your gun on the paper template to be sure it will fit. If you have an inch or two around the gun, it will be more than big enough to handle the bulk and tight enough to keep it stable.

Cut two pocket pieces out of fabrics that best match the inside of the vest. The piece that will show if your vest opens should blend naturally into the vest. Your goal is to blend this pocket in as much as possible, unless of course you find that perfect piece of embellished denim. The piece of fabric closest to the vest can be any kind of medium-weight scrap fabric. It can be similar to what you find in a jeans pocket.

Pin one pocket piece to the inside to check one last time how it fits before sewing. Ripping out stitches is very time consuming and gives sewing a bad name. If you like the size and fit, unpin it and begin to make the pocket. To finish the pocket opening, turn back the fabric one turn to the inside (wrong side of fabric) and sew down. I am blessed with a serger so I used it to finish the edge first. You do not need to do that step. If you use traditional methods of hemming this part (double turn) you will have some very heavy seams later. Use a zig zag stitch or sew several rows of stitching to keep this area flat. This “facing” will get the most handling and will need to be free of anything that will catch on your gun. Repeat this process for the second piece.

Now with your fabric right sides together sew shoulder (yoke), armhole, side, and bottom seams starting one or two inches up the pocket side (blue line). I find it easier to access the gun if the front and back pocket piece don’t match evenly at the opening. Make one piece a little wider at the opening than the other. Isn’t it great when you are better off not being perfect?

Clip the corners and then turn the pocket right sides out. Press flat and topstitch the pocket piece for added durability. Topstitch the blue line area.

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If I am going to carry a gun I want to make sure I have an extra clip, so I add a line of sewing across the top of the pocket to hold an extra magazine. The sewing line should run slightly down so that the clip always falls into the vest. You need to have it handy, but you don’t want it rattling around in the gun pocket. Put your clip in the top of the pocket and mark your line. Your clip should go in and out with a slight bit of friction. Sew that before you place the pocket in the vest.

It is time to attach the pocket to the vest at the shoulder (yoke for this one), armhole, and side seam from the outside sewing over the original topstitching. Make sure you increase your stitch length and go slow. You are sewing through quite a bit of fabric. You want to match the original sewing as close as possible. This vest had a front pocket, so I could also hand tack the inside lining down at the pocket and decorative front seam. This allows for the pocket to stay snug to the vest. IMG_3024 Try on your vest with your gun in it for a final fitting. Make sure everything lays flat against the lapel area. Occasionally you will need to tweak the fit. The pocket may fit a little differently when you go from a flat work table to a three dimensional body. Hand tack down the lapel area where needed.

This is the after picture with a gun in the added pocket. It’s concealed but available and tucked away in your own personal space. You now have one more option for protecting yourself that looks great and is very inexpensive to make yourself.

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Letter Re: Active Shooter Response

In light of both the mass shooting in California as well as a shooting scenario that my sister-in-law dealt with on the same day with a non-lethal shootout in her neighbor’s home, it has become apparent that the time has come for families, churches, and communities to take measures to avoid being soft targets. My sister-in-law gave asylum to her neighbors after an angry ex-boyfriend went over to her neighbor’s house and threatened them with a gun. A 2-year-old and a 4-year-old were left in the basement of the neighbor’s house while their mother and two other men dove out windows and ran to the house of my sister-in-law and brother-in-law and hid there screaming hysterically while shots rang out. By the grace of God only the dogs and cats were killed, but folks that was in a rural area with weapons everywhere. Let this not happen in our neighborhoods.

I am going to be honest; I am enraged right now, enraged at quotes I have seen from ISIS filth about leaving the Crusaders in fear. We are not afraid. We are not trembling. We are not cowed. There is a rifle behind every blade of grass, and despite a generation raised on social media and compromise the backbone of the greatest nation to ever exist is still strong and true. I will not allow my house, I will not allow my brother’s at work, and I will not allow my neighborhood to lay supinely on their backs until a jihadist is shooting on every porch. We will take steps to bring the fight to whomever attempts to harm us or harm others while we are present.

The first step is understanding that it is our responsibility to care for the needs of our families. The government of the United States of America will not save you in time, should you or your loved ones be involved in a shootout. The response time from police and SWAT will be too late, especially in rural areas. So understand that should a situation unfold, we as citizens are the first line of defense.

On forward operating bases in Afghanistan, we carried our weapons at all times. We were never without our rifles, because one never knows when some “normal” person will get a jihadi itch and want to be sent to his god. First line of defense: carry a weapon, carry extra mags, and train to use them proficiently.

My family trains on rapid response to emergency. My oldest is seven years old, and the other four are barely able to comprehend emergencies, but that does not mean we do not train. Battle stations in my home means the oldest grabs the second youngest and heads for the bathroom with his brothers. Mom grabs the baby and heads to the bathroom, letting our mastiff into the house, if he is outside and time permits. In the bathroom they all lay down in the bathtub (it works because they are small) and my wife kneels in the bathtub with her .45 Kimber pointed at the wall and her entire body shielded from the door except for the weapon. If anyone stands on the other side of the door and does not announce themselves as me, she will shoot until they stop moving through the door. I am a soldier; I have the combat mindset. I’ve shot rounds in anger, and I’ve remained calm under fire, but my wife is not. Therefore, it is imperative to insure that she understands that when there is a bad guy in the house, shoot first, kill, and reload. Mercy is not an option.

Have a large dog, a man-stopper. I have a Beorboel, a South African Mastiff. In the religion of Islam, dogs are the spawn of Satan. They fear them. I know this to be true. There is no better home security than an active, intelligent, family dog.

My neighbors believe in liberty. They own guns. We have rapport and that is a huge asset when doing contingency planning. In most rural areas the good people have hunting rifles and shotguns; get to know your neighbors and keep your eyes on anything out of the norm.

Know the capabilities of your weapons, your own capabilities, and the capabilities of your family members. If you live with large open areas around your home, get a laser range finder and figure out different ambush locations/elevation markings for all the distances you might have to shoot. The implied task is that you own a weapon capable of effective fire at those ranges and you train and set up that weapon to be proficient at those ranges. That requires another conversation entirely, but honestly, as a military sniper, I can assure you that with .308 and practice at 500-800 meters, minute of man is not a difficult shot.

Do not be a soft target, ever. Keep your head on a swivel and understand your operational environment at all times. If some crazy person begins shooting, take him or her out, whatever it takes. Do not allow the cycle of terror to continue. Stop them cold, take their weapon, clear the area, then stand by in a non-threatening way when LE eventually comes. I long for one story of a potential shooter shot in the face by a civilian before they could do any damage. What better illustration of the power for good by an armed citizen? Molon Labe – Swamp Fox

Economics and Investing:

As this “Recovery” trudges on, the numbers are starting to become known. SurvivalBlog reader B.B. sent in this link showing that Americans are giving up on jobs. “As many as 40% of capable Americans without a job have completely given up looking for work”

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Why U.S. Retail Sales Ended 2015 Poorly – RBS

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Items from Professor Preponomics:

US News

More Pain Seen Ahead for US Banks Exposed to Energy Loans (Yahoo) Excerpt: “”Everybody was hoping for a bounce through most of last year and it hasn’t materialized so I think both the regulators and the auditors are going to be taking a much harder look at these credits…”

Lawmakers Push Bills to Reform Wyoming Asset Forfeiture Laws (Casper Star Tribune) Excerpt: ““Asset forfeiture is an extraordinary remedy, and it should be done only after we make sure that the constitutional protections of the innocent are in place…”

Feds Stop Sharing Forfeiture Funds with Local Law Enforcement (The Tampa Tribune) There are better ways to provide for the appropriate funding of costs associated with law enforcement. Civil forfeiture is not the solution. It’s deeply troubling that one must read substantially into this article to find a reference to the rights of citizens. Excerpt: “Nobody should lose their property without being convicted of a crime…”

International News

European Dark Pools Expand, Spiting Regulators Ambitions (Bloomberg) Excerpt: “The region’s dark pools– venues that don’t display prices before trades take place– enjoyed a 45 percent jump in the value of trading they handled in 2015…”

Italian Banks Hammered (Contra Corner) The opening line says it all: “Things don’t matter until they do.” Bloomberg is also reporting on this concern: Italian Banks Lead European Decliners on Bad Loans Concerns

Chart of the Day: Which Bank is Most Exposed to the Struggling Oil and Gas Sector (Yahoo) All eyes are on Singapore and DBS. Excerpt: “Singapore’s largest banks should prepare for more non-performing loans (NPLs) as oil prices drop to their lowest level in twelve years…”

IMF Cuts Global Growth Forecast as China Slows (Reuters) Excerpt: “The International Monetary Fund cut its global growth forecasts for the third time in less than a year on Tuesday, as new figures from Beijing showed that the Chinese economy grew at its slowest rate in a quarter of a century in 2015.”

Personal Economics and Household Finance

In a Post-Boom World, Auto Prices Will Fall (Mises) Beware of the dangers of credit expansion, the enticements that encourage debt-fueled spending, the leverage effect and the consequences of its reversal. Excerpt: “Last week, Tommy Behnke in Mises Daily predicted that auto prices will fall as the bubble bursts from the artificially created demand generated from excessive credit creation.”

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SurvivalBlog is not a paid investment counselor or adviser. Please see our Provisos page for details.

Readers’ Recommendations of the Week:

Child of War Son of Angels by Curtis Whitfield Tong was recommended by SurvivalBlog reader M.G. It’s a child’s memoir of horror and reconciliation while imprisoned in World War II-torn Philippines.

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SurvivalBlog reader P.B. recommended both In the Absence of God and Bridging the Abyss. Both works deal with different people approaching crises from different world view perspectives. Moderns and Post-moderns find themselves without any objective basis for forming moral judgments or hope of justice.

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Reader E.L. writes in:
Taylor Caldwell’s The Devil’s Advocate, a novel first published in 1952 is distopian fiction right up there with “1984” and “Brave New World.” She predicts a United States that has turned completely “progressive” (e.g., communist), a collectivist totalitarian entity called “The Democracy,” ruled by the military. It’s a Leftist nightmare world, one that seems to be encroaching upon American reality more and more each day. Many of the things Caldwell writes about in this novel mirror what is going on today. Unfortunately, “The Devil’s Advocate” is out of print, and the copies available on Amazon are pretty expensive. I paid $36 for a used paperback copy.

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R.B. recommended two books: A Guide for the Perplexed by E.F. Schumacher and Whatever Happened to Penny Candy by R.J. Maybury. He has given each of these books to his six children because they are the backbone of a sound understanding of what life is all about (the Guide) and what’s going on in our economy (Penny Candy).

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Reader P.W. suggested the movies Defiance and The Pianist. She rarely watches movies a second time, but she watched Defiance three times in one day. She asks that you pay attention to the shoes in Defiance and the use of color (or lack thereof) in The Pianist.

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

Odds ‘n Sods:

RBS sent in this link: Drone Catcher Is Every Drone’s Worst Nightmare (video) – My favorite comment: “Inevitable, a counter-drone. Next will be a counter-drone-catcher”

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Clinton-Appointed Judge Dismisses RICO Case Against Clintons
JWR’s Comment: This adds new meaning to the word racketeering. (Any ethical judge would have recused himself.)

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Inspector General: Clinton emails had intel from most secretive, classified programs – Apparently Hillary had “several dozen” emails classified as special access programs (SAP) on her private server. SAP indicates a level of classification beyond even “top secret”. Anyone placing bets on whether a Democratic controlled justice influenced by a Democratic socialist/marxist/Muslim president will indict? – Sent in by P.S.

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T.Z. sent in this article about 10 beautiful under-used edible trees and shrubs that can transform yards into a raw food paradise

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State of Emergency Declared As Legionnaires’ Disease Spikes in Flint Michigan – Sent in by D.S.

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

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

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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.

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

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

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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.

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

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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.”

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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.

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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.

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

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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.

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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.