Letter Re: How to Obtain Your Amateur Radio License, by N.M.

Hello,

I recently read author N.M’s article regarding how to obtain an Amateur Radio license. The article was well-written and provided a wealth of information for prospective Hams. I have been a licensed Amateur Radio operator since the early 1990s and have seen a lot of changes in the hobby. Some were good and some not so good, but that is a discussion better left to a lazy chair and a pot of coffee. The reason I am writing is I noticed something that is potentially problematic in N.M’s article. When discussing what radio to select, N.M. mentions the Yaesu FT-8900r, which operates on the 10m/6m/2m/70cm amateur radio bands. While this would indeed be a good radio for a newly-licensed technician, it should be noted that technician class operators would not be allowed to legally use this radio on the 10m band. While technician class operators do indeed have privileges from 28.000 MHz to 28.500 MHz (voice privileges are from 28.300 MHz to 28.500 MHz), the authorized voice mode is SSB phone. The Yaesu FT-8900r is an FM only rig, and, as such, does not utilize the required mode of single sideband (SSB). Using the FM transmit mode on those frequencies could, at least, alienate you from other Ham operators and, at worst, get you a nasty letter from the FCC. – J.D.

News From The American Redoubt:

‘It’s unrelenting’: inside the Washington town surrounded by raging wildfires

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Video: At Least 24 Homes Destroyed in Washington Wildfire

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Northern Idaho Wildfire Update

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Video: Western wildfires continue to spread destruction

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Wilder Idaho school forces student to remove Confederate flag from truck Calls it a “gang” logo – RBS

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Idaho ammo company is in the business of downing drones – RBS

Economics and Investing:

Global Trade In Freefall: Container Freight Rates From Asia To Europe Crash 60% In Three Weeks – GJM

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10 Reasons Why The Market Carnage Is Far From Over

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Items from Mr. Econocobas:

Why The Bear Of 2015 Is Different From The Bear Of 2008

Making Sense Of The Sudden Market Plunge

Households See 1.8 Trillion of Wealth Vanish

Stock Up on Canned Goods and Bottle Water- Fmr Advisor to Gordon Brown Advises – This is interesting just given the source..

Odds ‘n Sods:

Beware, your lock screen passcode probably isn’t very secure: 75% of us start secret patterns from a corner, study reveals – JBG

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Uniformed Officer Booted From Chuck E Cheese Over Duty Handgun – D.S.

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Disconnected is the new security feature: How hyperconnectivity is dangerous to human civilization – D.S.

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Now THAT is real survival: Nurse sets own broken legs while trapped in car after crash – T.P.
“I noticed my feet were real broken,” she said. “They were twisted to the side. My little nurse brain was like, you’ve got to straighten those up because you’re going to…lose your blood supply and then you’re going to lose your legs. I just prayed for a while and so I then picked them up and I moved them. It was really painful but I did it.”

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ZeroGov is launching a new book: A Vision for an Unshackled Humanity: Volume II is a compilation of essays from 2012-2015. By the way, it was launched on August 24 in honor of William Wilberforce who was born on that day.

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The latest from over at the “Thoughts from Frank and Fern” blog: Daddy, I’m Hungry…

Hugh’s Quote of the Day:

“Powerful government tends to draw into it people with bloated egos, people who think they know more than everyone else and have little hesitance in coercing their fellow man. Or as Nobel Laureate Friedrich Hayek said, ‘in government, the scum rises to the top’.” – Walter E. Williams

Notes for Monday – August 24, 2015

On August 24th, 410, Rome was overrun by the Visigoths in an event that symbolized the fall of the Western Roman Empire. This is a moment in history that we would do well to remember. An empire that ruled the world was corrupted from the inside to the point that they could not defend themselves from a much weaker enemy. This could conceivably be the beginning of the dark middle ages.

Scot’s Product Review: Burris 2-7xx32mm Handgun Scope on the Mexican Mauser

I have long been a fan of Lt. Col. Jeff Cooper and his Scout rifle concept. It’s not the best tool for every application of the rifle, but his idea was to create a general purpose answer to the problem of striking a decisive blow on an animal up to 200 kilograms (440 pounds) at any distance the shooter could place a bullet into the vitals of said animal. He further specified that it should be handy and defined it as being one meter (about 40 inches) long and three kilograms (a bit less than seven pounds) in weight unloaded but including sling and sights. Cooper apparently liked round numbers and metric measurements.

The .308 Winchester round, which is very common and compact enough to allow for a shorter and lighter rifle, is sufficiently powerful to meet Cooper’s standard. There are, of course, plenty of other cartridges that will do the trick, but .308 would be a first choice should one have options.

He also specified the bolt action as best suited to the concept. It is light, simple, and strong, and for his purposes a high rate of fire is unnecessary. A practiced rifleman can run a bolt quickly enough for a follow shot on game.

Besides hunting, Cooper felt the rifle would do well in self-defense and would be a good tool for the military scout, though many of us would pick a semi-auto for those roles. That said the Scout rifle could do the job in most cases.

Cooper argued the primary sighting system should be a fixed, low-powered scope forward mounted on the rifle ahead of the action. This goes against convention. Most of us like lots of magnification and variable power scopes, which we usually leave set on maximum. We usually mount them directly over the action. Cooper didn’t trust variable power scopes, having seen a number fail in his career. He passed away in 2006 at the age of 86, however, and missed experiencing many of the advances in optics over the last decade that have led most of us to think that reliable variable power scopes have arrived.

His preferred location of the scope, forward of the action, has great merit. Getting the scope forward allows easier access to the magazine for topping off the rifle and keeps the scope far from vulnerable foreheads. Most importantly, since the scope is farther from your eyes, it doesn’t block your view, which tremendously improves situational awareness– a valuable capability in hunting or self-defense. As a left-hander, I find it also helps me when I try to run a right-handed bolt rifle. The scope over the action makes it hard to reach over the rifle to work the bolt. If you ever get a chance to watch the movie Saving Private Ryan, make note of the American sharpshooter, who was left-handed, and of the extra effort he had to apply to work the action of his Springfield.

A problem with this mount, however, is that it limits the magnification we all love. Since the scope is further away, it is harder to get the eye directly behind it, and the more magnification we have, the more difficult it is to stay centered with it. Cooper felt that any more than 3 power scopes would not work. I’ve found that to be the case with my eyes. The low magnification does have the advantage of allowing us to keep both eyes open, which also helps our awareness. Lower power also minimizes the tremors we all have when shooting off-hand. A rule of thumb I had beaten into me was that 4x was about as much as most of us can handle, and it is certainly true for me. This applies to conventionally mounted scopes as well as forward mounted one.

While Cooper felt 3 power scopes were sufficiently powerful, I know I am not alone in sometimes wishing for more, which is the reason for this review. I do a fair amount of testing from the bench and get better groups with more magnification than I have with any of my fixed power Scout scopes. When working from a bench, you can take the time to get behind a scope, and paper targets on the range don’t require a high level of situational awareness. I was therefore interested when I spotted some variable power Scout scopes on the market. I feared, however, that the rifle I wanted to put it on, the 7x57mm Mexican Mauser I’ve written about before, might not work with them. The scope mount on the old Mauser is an S&K that sits where the original rear sight was mounted. The specs on these scopes indicated that the eye relief might require them to sit farther back than this mount allows. Pistol scopes, however, offer more eye relief, and since I had tried a 2x handgun scope on a Garand with good results, I asked Burris if I could borrow one of their 2-7x28mm Handgun scopes, and they were nice enough to oblige.

The scope has a 1-inch diameter tube and weighs 13 ounces. At its largest point, it is 39mm, or slightly more than 1.5 inches in diameter. It is 9.7 inches long. So overall, it is a pretty compact package and just a bit larger than a typical fixed power Scout scope, though it is six ounces heavier, which is enough to notice.

You get a choice of a ballistic or plain duplex style reticle. The ballistic has little dots on it for holdover or windage. I’m a simple sort and asked for the plain one. I don’t see this as a long range rifle, and it can be zeroed so you can hold dead on out to 250 yards or so, which in my view is a long shot for hunting in the southeast.

The field of view is 21 feet at low power and seven feet at high power at 100 yards. This is narrower than I would like, as a large field of view helps with situational awareness, but since it will primarily be used with both eyes open on low power and you can see around a Scout scope so easily, it is not the problem it would be on a scope that’s mounted close to your eye.

It offers plenty of adjustments for zeroing, 64 inches in both elevation and windage at 100 yards. Each click moves the shot ¼ inch at 100 yards. Eye relief is from 11-21 inches on low power and 10-14 inches on high power.

The finish is matte black, but you can get it in nickel if you like. The MSRP ranges from $419 to $455, depending on finish. The model I had can be found on Amazon for $349, a tidy discount if your budget is like mine.

The scope was mounted on the rifle using the S&K scope mount I reviewed last November. I wish they made this mount in a version for Weaver rings, as it would make it easier to remove the scope if necessary. The one that fits my rifle, however, only comes in a version that uses S&K rings. These are more attractive than Weaver rings and may even work better, but they require Allen wrenches to remove, while Weavers can be removed with a coin or knife blade. For a field use rifle, that’s a good thing. I used a kit from Midway with alignment tools to ensure the rings were properly set and then lapped them so there would be no strain placed on the scope by misaligned rings. A torque wrench got everything snug enough but not too snug.

I actually found there was more eye relief than I needed, and I had to mount the scope as far forward as possible. That surprised me a bit, and it means I probably could have used the Scout version of the scope just as well as the pistol one. I live and learn, but it did work out, which is the important thing.

It was then off to the range to zero. Proof that everything was lined up well is that it was on the paper with the first shot and less than 10 clicks were needed to center the group at 50 yards. The adjustments were consistent and repeatable and moved bullet impact precisely as they should.

Since the range I was using only went to 100 yards and I wanted a 200 yard zero, I used Shoot! , a $40 ballistics software application to compute that the group should be 2¼ inches high at 100 yards, and I futzed with it to get it there. I still need to go to an outdoor range and confirm that it is right at 200 yards. Software simulates and saves time, but we need reality if we are going to use a rifle on game or for self-defense.

The 200 yard zero, by the way, should keep me within four inches of my point of aim out to 250 yards. This is with the 139 grain Privi Partizan load, which is the only one I have been able to find at reasonable cost lately. Truthfully, I would be very unwilling to shoot that far unless I had a lot of time and a solid rest and position. If I combine my abilities with this rifle, I think I would be stretching to go beyond 200 yards in most cases. Serious hunger would, of course, alter that equation.

The scope is bright and clear. With a 32mm diameter objective, it is passing as much light through to the eye as the average young person can make use of at 4.5x magnification and as much as middle-aged and older people can typically use at 6.5x magnification. I discussed seeing through optics in the dark in a binocular review recently should you want more information on the subject. The basic idea, though, is that the more magnification you have, the larger the objective needs to be. There are limits to how much the human eye can take advantage of, and this scope strikes an excellent compromise on letting you see when it’s dark vs. the gain in size and weight larger objectives demand.

My biggest curiosity was how more magnification would turn out using a Scout scope. I think that Colonel Cooper pretty well nailed it. If I go more than 3x in magnification, it gets hard to use the scope off-hand. I start having to squint or close my offside eye and really focus on the scope to see through it. That defeats the goal, which is to have greater awareness of everything else around you and to be able to follow a moving target easily. I’m happiest at around 2.5x, but I can still keep both eyes open and see both through and around the scope at 3x. As magnification increases beyond 3x, it gets harder and harder; someplace past 4x, I lose the awareness that this is all about.

On the other hand, working on the bench, the extra magnification is very welcome. I could see many field situations where it would also be useful, shooting prone, for example. Despite the Colonel’s reservations, I think the variable power scope is worth it, thanks to the improvements in modern optics that he didn’t get to experience. Overall, this test confirmed what I suspected, that one could take advantage of more magnification with a Scout scope under some circumstances, and I found no negatives, other than weight and cost, in going to a variable power scope.

– SurvivalBlog Field Gear Editor, Scot Frank Eire

Pat Cascio’s Product Review: CZ Scorpion Handgun

Some many months back, I viewed a video on YouTube about the CZ Scorpion EVO 3 S1 handgun. (That’s quite a mouthful, so we’ll just call it the CZ Scorpion.) I was really impressed with the video testing the CZ Scorpion. I’ve had some other semi-auto only versions of full-auto sub guns in the past, and most didn’t impress me. They were just too bulky, or they flat out weren’t reliable. However, there was just “something” about the CZ Scorpion that caught my attention when I watched that video. So, I kept a watchful eye out for one at my local gun shop, and recently they finally got one in stock that I snapped up.

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The CZ Scorpion is imported by CZ USA , along with many other fine firearms, too many to even begin to count on their website. The CZ Scorpion is made in the Czech Republic– what was formerly part of the old Iron Curtain under the control of the Soviet Union. To be sure, some outstanding firearms have been manufactured in the Czech Republic over the years. One I always wanted was the CZ 75 9mm handgun, but the few that were in the U.S. some many years ago were commanding big money. So, I was content to purchase “clones” of the famed CZ 75 over the years. Some were better than others. However, you can now have the real deal, thanks to CZ USA. However, the gun under review today is the CZ Scorpion.

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Make no mistake, this is a handgun, even though it may appear to be a submachine gun by its looks. The Scorpion is chambered in 9mm and comes with two 20-rd magazines, however, 30-rd mags are available, if you can find them. They are hard to come by, though, if you shop around you can find them at the actual retail price of a mere $19.95. There are some companies that are charging as much as $75 a piece for the 30-rd mags. Steer clear of them! Shop around the Internet, and you’ll find some of these 30-rd polymer mags for your Scorpion. www.gregcotellc.com often has the 30-rd mags for $19.95. If he is out of stock, get on the waiting list; he gets them in all the time. The polymer mags are fiber reinforced and translucent; you can see the rounds in the mag, even though the polymer is smoked colored. They are double feed and easy to load, too. Just press the rounds down, as you would on a mag like the AR-15 takes, really fast. It’s easy to load 30-rds in a minute or less.

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The frame/receiver on the Scorpion is black, fiber reinforced polymer, reducing the weight of the gun to 5.0 lbs. The barrel and bolt carrier group is, needless to say, made out of steel. The barrel is 7.72 inches and cold hammer forged, so it will stand up to all the shooting you want to do without fear of wearing the barrel out. Overall length of the Scoprion is 16.0 inches with a height of 9.4 inches with the 20-rd mag inserted. There are Picatinny-style rails on the top of the receiver as well as the bottom/front and on either side of the receiver forward of the ejection port, so you can mount all manner of accessories, like lights and lasers. The lower Picatinny rail has a “stop” attached, for proper hand placement. You don’t want your off hand to push forward and get a finger blown off if it protrudes in front of the barrel. On my sample, the “stop” was attached fully forward. I moved it rearward a bit, and it makes the gun fit my off hand all that much better. The barrel also has a flash suppressor attached to it, which is nice!

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The charging handle comes mounted on the left side of the upper receiver. However, in a minute or so, you can mount it on the right side of the gun, if you are a southpaw. The ejection port is large, and empty brass easily clears it. The grip is large and long, too long in my humble opinion, but I guess longer is better than having a grip that is too short. Additionally, you can move the grip rearward by simply loosening a screw and sliding the grip back. I found the position where it was, which was fully forward, to work best for me, and I experimented with moving in rearward. The trigger is also polymer and grooved. I would prefer a smooth trigger face, however, you can easily smooth the trigger fast with a bit of sandpaper or a Dremel Tool. Just go slow! The magazine release is just forward of the trigger, on the trigger guard, and is easily pushed with your trigger finger to remove a magazine. Again, that’s really nice!

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The front and rear sights are extremely nice, especially the rear sight, that has four different sized apertures so you can use the biggest opening for up close and personal work or the smallest one for longer distance shooting. With a flip of the apertures, you can change sizes. That’s excellent. The front sight is a squared aperture post that you can adjust for elevation. The rear sight can be adjusted for windage. The front sight also has grooves on the rear of it to help stop sunlight from reflecting on it. Just forward of the ejection port, we have a nice steel attaching device, for attaching a single point sling, one on either side of the gun. The rear of the receiver also has a method for attaching a single point sling. I added a piece of Velcro to it and a round key ring, so I can attach a single point sling there, if I don’t want to attach one on the sides of the gun.

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Lastly, we have an ambidextrous safety that operates smoothly. This is my only real complaint, and one CZ needs to address: the ambi safety is just long enough that when you take a proper firing grip on the gun, and pull the trigger, the safety digs into the knuckle of the trigger finger. Ouch! I’m hoping that CZ will come out with a single side safety. In lieu of that, I will take the old Dremel Tool to the bottom of the safety on the right side and grind it down a little bit. It won’t take much. I don’t know how CZ engineers missed this problem. If CZ doesn’t come out with a single-side safety, I’m sure some after-market enterprise will.

The trigger pull is a bit stiff, and on my sample was about seven pounds, however, it felt lighter than that for some reason. I also covered most of the Picatinny rails with rubber covers, for a better hold without the sharp edges of the rails cutting into my off hand when firing. A minute or two with some extra-fine emory cloth will do the same, but it was easier to just snap the rubber rail protectors onto the rails. We also have a bolt release on the left side of the Scorpion. If you gun the gun dry and insert another loaded mag into it, you can either pull the charging handle back and release it to send the bolt forward, chambering another round, or simply pull down on the large bolt carrier release. I found pulling down on the bolt carrier release lever worked better for me, instead of pulling back on the charging handle.

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I will say that, at least for me, it was best to attach a single-point sling to the side of the Scorpion, the left side, while the bungee part of the sling was across my shoulder and neck. Then, by extending the gun forward, causing some slight tension with the sling, I found I had a very steady platform from which to shoot. Simply grab the pistol grip, as you would with any other semi-auto handgun, and then place your off hand forward of the magazine well, allowing it to push against the “stop”, and you have about as solid of a platform as you can get. I did fire over a rolled up sleeping bag, but honestly the sling method is the way to go. “Yes,” you can fire the gun one-handed, but that’s not the way to go if you want any sort of accuracy.

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I had a huge variety of various 9mm loads from Black Hills Ammunition and Buffalo Bore Ammunition for testing, plus some reloads of unknown origin given to me, from JHP to lead to FMJ loads. From Black Hills, I had their 115-gr JHP +P, 124-JHP +P, 115-gr FMJ, 115-gr EXP HP, 124-gr JHP and their 115-gr Barnes TAC-XP +P all-copper hollow point. From Buffalo Bore, I had their 147-gr FMJ FN Heavy load, 147-gr +P Outdoorsman load, Hard Cast Flat Nose, 115-gr TAC-XP +P+ all-copper hollow point, 124-gr FMJ FN +P+ and their 115-gr JHP +P+. Wow!! Just about any type and flavor of 9mm ammo you can think of were run through the CZ Scorpion.

I’ll tell you what. I had zero malfunctions of any sort with any of the ammo, and to be sure, as a test, every single magazine I loaded had a mix of various types, weights, and manufactures of ammo in it. This is always a great test, to mix different types of ammo in a magazine to see how a gun will feed. Many owner’s manuals will tell you to not mix different brands or types of ammo in the mags, and many guns will simply choke if you do this. That was not so with the Scorpion. It fired everything, without hesitation, everything! And, needless to say, a 5-lb handgun in 9mm has no recoil to speak of, either.

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Accuracy testing was rather boring. It didn’t seem to matter much which ammo I ran through the Scorpion; it loved ’em all. That’s something that doesn’t usually happen. Then again, we have a fixed barrel, straight blow-back recoil system, so the barrel isn’t moving up and down or back and forth. If I had to pick a winner in the accuracy department, it would be the Black Hills 124-gr JHP load at 25-yards. No load exceeded 3-inchs, and I think the gun can do much better than that. My accuracy testing was limited. We were in the middle of one of three heat waves in Oregon, and I don’t tolerate that kind of heat, so I was a bit rushed to get through my shooting. In all, I put more than 500-rds down range with the Scorpion. I could pick out some large rocks, downrange 50-75 yards, and easily nail them. I changed the rear aperture a few times, and needless to say, the smaller apertures gave me a better sigh picture for longer shots.

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I’m thinking about putting some kind of red dot sight on the upper Picatinny rail, for faster sight acquisition. It’s be something small; nothing overly large is called for. So, now it begs to question, what good is a semi-auto “submachine gun” for a survival situation? Well, first of all, the Scorpion isn’t just designed for survival. It would make a dandy house gun with a 30-rd mag full of some JHP fodder; you can sure hold your own against any intruder. As a survival gun, well, it’s not my first choice, but I wouldn’t feel under-gunned if this is the only handgun I had with me out in the boonies. Stoke it with some of the Buffalo Bore 147-gr +P Outdoorsman Hard Cast loads, and you can take many kinds of game. I wouldn’t want to be on the receiving end of the Scorpion if I were 150-yards out or close. We are talking about laying down some serious fire power, accurate fire too, in a short amount of time.

As I mentioned above, the best way to deploy the Scorpion is with a single point sling attached, either to one of the ambi attaching points on either side of the receiver in front of the ejection port, or place a piece of Velcro on the rear of the receiver (see pic) and use a round key ring to attach the single point sling there. Plus, at only 5.0 lbs, the Scorpion can hang across your chest all day long with a single point sling and a 30-rd mag; you’ll hardly know it’s there. Toss in a triple 9mm tactical thigh pouch from 100_6164href=”http://www.blackhawk.com”>Blackhawk Products and one more mag in the gun, and that gives you a fast 120-rds on hand. Toss a couple more triple 9mm subgun mag pouches on a tactical vest, and you are ready for WW3.

I test a lot of guns for articles, as well as testing guns in some of my handgun classes, that are far and few between. Many guns I test are just a new and improved version of an older design. However, the CZ Scoprion EVO 3 S1 (there’s that long name) was a lot of fun to shoot… a LOT of fun! I oftentimes ask a friend or two to go out shooting with me, and they are always more than happy to shoot at my expense. However, this time around I hoarded the Scorpion all to myself. I didn’t even let the wife shoot it. It could be very addicting, and a person could easily blow through a case or two of 9mm ammo in short order, if they weren’t paying attention. Yes! It is that much fun to shoot! Full retail is $849. I talked my local gun shop down to $750; they had it marked for $799. It’s quite a bargain, if you ask me, for so much gun, so much fun gun! Check one out at your local gun shop, if they have one. They are still in short supply.

– Senior Product Review Editor, Pat Cascio

Recipe of the Week: Tzatziki Dip, by A.S.

Here is a simple recipe for making a cool refreshing dip for those hot summer days when you don’t want something sweet or you are seeking a healthy way of adding some variety to your diet. It makes a great alternative to the sugary sauces that are sold on the supermarket shelf. The bonus is its homemade, and you know what’s in it, which is a winner in my book!

Ingredients:

  • 1 Kg / 2.2 lbs full fat Greek yogurt
  • 1 rsp lemon Juice
  • 4 cloves of fresh garlic
  • 1 tsp rock salt
  • 2 Tbs olive oil
  • 2 stalks of fresh chives
  • 1 lg telegraph cucumber- peeled, halved, and seeds removed
  • 2 cut pieces of muslin /cheesecloth (about 6×8 inches)

Directions:

  1. Place yogurt in your piece of cheesecloth and slowly squeeze over a bowl to remove the whey. Do this until most of the whey is removed. Let the now much drier yogurt drain over the bowl for 15 minutes.
  2. Take the cucumber and proceed to grate the green outside skin to the softer flesh underneath. Place the grated Cucumber in another piece of muslin/cheesecloth and squeeze out the juice into a bowl and discard.
  3. In a bowl place your salt, lemon juice, olive oil, chives, garlic, yogurt, and cucumber; mix well!
  4. Let your dip stay overnight in the fridge to bring out the flavour, and then serve with your favourite pita bread and black olives to enjoy!

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

Letter Re: Multiple Families on Your Retreat

Hi.

The article on Multiple Families was very good. We, too, live at our retreat. We’ve been working for five years to make this 9000 ft elevation retreat sustainable and may someday write about lessons learned, but for now we just want to respond to Farmer Brown. He was very generous to invite someone in to partner on the ranch, especially since the infrastructure he owns is a very expensive venture– one not shared by the new family. We believe we solved this issue in that we developed a co-op and invited a number of small families from our church to participate. We’ve done this for two years now and have had a chance to watch their work ethic, to see how dedicated they are to accomplishing tasks, and how they work together with or without our guidance. (A few times we were out of town and they had to figure out what to do with themselves, and they made us proud.) Some of them are as poor as church mice, while others just aren’t self-motivated; they need guidance to buy this or that. Still others are working their fingers to the bone trying to establish their own retreat in the city. They all have expertise in various areas necessary to survival. But we haven’t gone that extra step, as Farmer Brown suggested, and written up anything formal or set out specific tasks if/when we should all live together. Some in the group won’t need that and others won’t see what needs doing. But, we think, we do have a handle on whether these specific people will work well in a grid-down situation, after working with them for an extended time.

Thanks for this blog. It is VERY helpful. – S.

Economics and Investing:

Warning: The Great Reset Is Coming, Very Soon! — Bill Holter

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Making Sense Of The Sudden Market Plunge As we’ve been warning for a long time, you cannot print your way to prosperity; you can only delay the inevitable by trading time for elevation. Now, instead of finding ourselves saddled with $155 trillion of global debt as we did in 2008, we’re entering this next crisis with $200 trillion on the books and interest rates already stuck at zero. We are 30 feet up the ladder instead of 10, and it’s a long way down. – A.T.

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Oil Price Collapse Triggers Currency Crisis In Emerging Markets

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Is The Global Financial System On The Verge Of Collapse?

Hugh’s Quote of the Day:

“I shall exert every faculty I possess in aiding to prevent the Constitution from being nullified, destroyed, or impaired; and even though I should see it fail, I will still, with a voice feeble, perhaps, but earnest as ever issued from human lips, and with extinguish, call on the people to come to its rescue.” – Daniel Webster

Notes for Sunday – August 23, 2015

August 23rd is the anniversary of the declaration of the independent state of “Franklin” in Eastern Tennessee by the settlers there in 1784. Unfortunately, the Continental Congress rejected it, so the state of Franklin never became a reality.

In 1833, Britain abolished slavery in the colonies and 700,000 slaves were freed. I can’t help but wonder had Abraham Lincoln allowed the political process to run its course, as it did in England, and slavery was abolished by the will of the people, as it would have been, rather than by executive order, would we have the racial tensions we have today?

Guest Post: Government is Good, by Will Lehr of Perpetual Assets

The following story takes place during late summer in south central Texas. As I battle the humidity by sipping on a margarita on the San Antonio river walk, I wonder if the air can get any thicker without precipitation. It is Friday night before a family wedding. We dine together, the bride’s family and the groom’s family. I am a member of the former. The night before, the bride– my sister– had prepped me for the meeting with the family of her hubby-to-be. I was warned the future in-laws were very “politically active.” That is code for, “Will, don’t ruin my wedding with talks of our nobel peace prize drone king, civil liberty erosion, the role of government, …” So, I sip my margarita, while biting my tongue. However, as the margarita flows, as does the liquid courage impeding that internal filter as alcohol acts as a form of truth serum.

As the conversation moves to the subject of gun control, my tongue apparently wins the battle with the cerebral cortex of my brain. I interject, “Why should I need permission from a state or regulatory body to responsibly bear arms?” As I passionately discuss the role of self regulation in a free market, the faces turn blank. Most alive today have never experienced a truly free market. I have, however, studied the intricacies of free markets and understand the concept of self regulation. I believe the good in humanity self regulates the bad, if allowed. When I contend that giving away the mildest of liberties only leads to the forceful theft of the greatest of liberties, I remember perhaps my favorite Thomas Jefferson quote, “I prefer dangerous freedom to peaceful slavery.” Life is dangerous my friends, and it should be. We should not fear danger, we should embrace it, as “fear is the passion of slaves,” as I quote from Patrick Henry. Without danger we would not understand its cause and effect, and we would not experience that precious thing called self regulation.

It is in this moment that I truly understand what Mr. Jefferson meant. Danger is precious. When we fear it we try to unnaturally regulate it, and in doing so, we inevitably give away our liberties to some collective promising us safety and security from that scary thing called danger. Perhaps it is faith that gives us strength in uncertainty, that allows us to embrace danger and hence embrace our natural freedoms. Faith in God, faith in self, faith in the good of man, and perhaps it is different for each person. Faith in a government, faith in a collective is certainly not the pathway to man’s highest and best self.

Luckily, I managed to keep the political portion of the debate merely on the subject of regulation and free markets. As it turns out, one of the twenty something children of my new family was self-proclaimed “anti government”. (He still supported the need for permission to bear arms, however.) As I finished my duck enchiladas and ordered my second and final tonic of truth serum, the conversation came to an end.

Upon leaving the establishment and parting ways, we exchanged hugs and handshakes, momentarily forgetting our differences in belief. The father of the groom took me to the side and said that he appreciated my passion. He also went on to declare that he thought I was right, but in an almost omnipotent suggestion touted that “government is good.” I did not disagree but merely smiled while shaking his hand and said, “Good thing we have the freedom of opinion. I may not agree with yours, but I damn sure respect your right to have one, freely and without censure.” He looked at me and smiled. He clearly got the reference to the sanctity of the 1st Amendment.

As I later reflected on the trials of the evening I found myself thinking of ways to present to my new in-law the belief that government is seldom good, often just a necessary evil. The most productive and fastest advancing society in the history of the world was built right here, a few hundred years ago, under the premise of a chained up, limited government, and a free society of man. Would he understand this, that the Founding Fathers’ experiment of a free society changed the world forever? It’s not likely, due to the spoon fed propaganda in school and media demonizing the American revolution.

Then it dawned on me. Hit him where it hurts, where it is felt, in the pocket. You see regardless of differences of belief, none of us like being robbed. Most of us can appreciate a hard day’s work and the fruits of our labor. The experience of theft of the fruits we earn is one that can be shared across cultures and borders. The best part about my new strategy is it didn’t require me to corner anyone and evangelize. All I had to do was what everyone does in a social gathering: explain what I do. As a facilitator of IRA LLC rollovers I have personally experienced the utmost in government restriction of capital.

The next day, after the wedding I anxiously waited to connect with my in-law and hear the question, “So what do you do for work?” Once the opportunity arose, I explained how we help jailbreak people’s retirement accounts. I discussed the benefits of taking physical, in-home possession of IRA gold and silver. I discussed the element of asset protection and investment diversification it offers. He was intrigued, which only heightened as I really expanded on asset protection. I explained the MyRA introduction and the real documented risks to private pension “tax.” I carefully used the word tax instead of confiscation so as not to lose him.

I knew this gentleman was an NYPD firefighter. I figured he was certainly a part of a government-sponsored pension plan. Which, by the way, is the most at risk slush fund from theft. I mentioned how many of our clients became terrified of these plans they were locked into and couldn’t wait to get out. I explained how experts have claimed that government plans are the most at risk, quite simply because the government controls them. When they change the rules, they’ll go for the lowest hanging fruit. These days it’s easy to get almost anyone to agree the government is broke. Seeing the blatant risk to your life savings is not hard to grasp. At this point we had a great dialogue going. I may not have swayed him away from the belief that government is good, but I definitely got his attention and maybe a new client.

Sincerely,
Will Lehr
Managing Partner & Co Founder
Perpetual Assets