Two Letters Re: Prepper Primer For Your Non-prepper Loved Ones, by T.S. – Part 4

I have to disagree with T.S.’ conclusion where Ham radios are concerned.

The days of 40-pound or more base station radios is long gone. Even the backpack type radios from the Korean and Vietnam era that many preppers seem to be so fond of are large, bulky, and inefficient by today’s standards.

There are many lightweight, portable solutions beyond that of the typical HT (handi-talkie). Take the Yaesu FT817ND, for example;it has multiple power options, is super lightweight, can easily fit into a cargo pocket and doubles as a general coverage/shorthand receiver.

If someone is versed in Morse Code the options absolutely explode. From simple transmitters small enough to be housed in a tuna can or even a small altoids tin. To full blown packet station using a raspberry pi, low power screen, a few small batteries and a keyboard.

For me, any communication solution that doesn’t include HAM radio is incomplete.

On a side note, there is software/app called Serval for android phones that allows the phones to work independently of cell towers through the use of peer to peer mesh networking. This offers another communication solution in a grid down/emergency situation. (I am not affiliated with the Serval project in any way.) – B.I.

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Please be aware that safeties, slide, and magazine releases vary by manufacturer. Thinking that they are standardized could lead to a hazardous situation. – D.A.

Hugh Replies: Both of these responses have good information in them. Be aware that, like many of the articles published here, the authors are not writing generic how-tos, but are writing with a specific scenario in mind. In this particular case, T.S. was writing for his family with the equipment that they had on hand. In order for you to apply his writings to you, you must make the appropriate changes and substitutions for your beliefs, supplies, and knowledge levels.

Letter Re: Random Thoughts On Prepping

I really enjoyed the article “Random Thoughts on Prepping, by Stymie.” I want to thank him for writing that article for the blog. For a long time, I’ve also questioned the thinking that the golden horde would migrate to places like Idaho. I keep telling myself that better minds than mine have come to that conclusion, but I still can’t quite buy it.

I’ve been thinking long and hard about the issue of establishing a truly remote homestead as a prepping strategy. We bought property in the Sierras, in Northern California, above the snow line. I kind of question how likely that horde would be to come our way. Granted, there’s decent hunting nearby and on our own land,but most of that golden horde wouldn’t have a clue about hunting and would starve if they had to depend on it to feed themselves, much less a family. Where are they going? Would they go up to Truckee with more than 200 inches of snow per year or over Donner pass? They still have snow in June up there. If they got there, there’s nothing to eat, since almost nobody has gardens or much stored food. Then, if they got that far, where are they going? Another 300 miles of Nevada desert and then they’d be in Utah. That’s not where I’d head. In fact, it’s the very last way I’d head if I was part of the horde. I’d either go no farther than the inland California valley where plenty of food can be had, or north into Oregon farmland. Aternatively, maybe I’d stay on the Pacific coast in some out of the way place where I could fish and with a year-round growing season, or maybe even down in Mexico. The very last place I’d head would be Donner Pass and the Nevada desert beyond it. I worry that this is confirmation bias on my part. I buy the golden horde from Reno migrating down into the California agricultural areas; in fact that’s the only direction I’d head if I lived in Reno. Even later in a complete breakdown scenario when large well-organized locust-like groups are on the move, there just isn’t enough food here to support them and no big distribution centers either. There’s hardly even any markets. The people up here all make the long drive west and down the mountain to stock up for the week.

My husband and I live a few miles outside of a small town in the mid-level Sierras. We live at the end of a dead end road that’s at the end of two more long dead end roads that aren’t county maintained. We retired young and spent ten years before retiring looking around the country to determine where we wanted to retire. Our non-negotiable requirements were reasonable acreage (because at that time my husband thought he wanted to be a gentleman farmer) and at least 50 inches a year of rainfall. We have six neighbors on our road with acreage between 4 and 750+ acres each. As it turned out, my husband changed his mind about farming after we retired. He’s a big guy and has trouble with his knees. I think he realized just how much of farming is spent on your knees. So I became the vegetable gardener. That was a steep learning curve. Despite all my adventurous ways, I was a city girl and clueless about growing food other than for the fun of it. Although I spent some time on a cattle ranch when I was young.

Neighbor 1 is a doctor, with wife and kids. His wife homeschools their kids. They could feed everyone for a mile around with their vegetable garden alone.

Neighbor 2 is an engineer who worked in the space program; he’s retired now and single.

Neighbor 3 is a dedicated hunter and a mechanic, working on machinery of some kind; he has a wife and son.

Neighbor 4 is a county sheriff dept. deputy, with a wife and kids.

Neighbor 5 are a chef and school teacher; they are the parents of the sheriff’s deputy.

Neighbor 6 are the uncle and aunt of Neighbor 3 (the hunter), a retired truck driver and his wife; they own 750 acres that lie on three sides of our combined properties.

Then, there is us: My husband has every tool known to man. He has arc welding tools, watch-making tools, blacksmith tools, furniture-making tools, machining tools (including a drill press), and every other kind of tool representing three generations of tinkers and makers. He has tools I never heard of, and he knows how to use them. He’s also an award-winning craft brewer, president of the town garden club (more on this in a bit), and past president of large fish keeping and breeding organization. So he knows everything there is to know about keeping large fish and pond systems healthy by natural means (biological filters) and with brute force (constructed sand filters and so forth.). He majored in Zoology at UC Davis and worked as a fireman and EMT to work his way through college. He’s been a Ham radio operator for over thirty years and used Ham radio to spy on China when he was in the Air Force, while stationed on Okinawa. We have a retractable 50 ft. Ham antenna. How cool is that? It’s only visible when we use it. Heh, heh. It’s electric but can also be cranked up by hand.

As for me, I approach life as if I can make, fix, or do anything, too. Soapmaking, canning, quilting, inorganic chemistry are a few of my skills. I’ve built houses and plumbed bathrooms and dug ponds for fun. I have a B.S. degree in Geophysics. Geophysics guys are the ones who look for oil, study volcanoes and earthquakes, and map the deep ocean bottoms– all the geology that you can’t climb into to look at. It has to be done with remote sensing. Interestingly, one of the biggest source of jobs for geophysicists is remote sensing for government spying– satellite and drones and so on. I got that degree for fun and never worked in it. I’m a dedicated shooting, archery, and martial arts enthusiast. I can sail, have owned two large sailboats and lived aboard both.

We have a large garden and a propane-heated, fully-automated 8’x12′ greenhouse and are in the process of building a second 12’x16′ greenhouse that we’ll either heat with house heat exhaust or wood stove or both. Our house has an 8 kilowatt solar system. It’s a two story home with the bottom level earth-bermed on three sides and easily defensible on the fourth side. We live within a half-mile of a large river, and our access to the river is completely private via utility access roads that lie on our own property or our neighbors. There are no crossings on that river for miles in either direction.

All four sides of our combined properties are defensible– inaccessible even by ATV, except for a single point of ingress. Between these six neighbors and ourselves, we have three large, established gardens and a large chicken house. I’ve seen over 90 wild turkey at one time, grazing our land. We have our own herd of nine deer about 150′ from our house in the woods, who we feed (Purina Deer Chow aka Antler Max) and provide water for but wouldn’t hesitate to eat if necessary. They’re so tame we can stand within four feet of them, and they don’t even blink. This they do despite the fact that I also shoot on my land. There are several other deer groups in the vicinity who aren’t that tame. We have two stocked ponds. The surrounding terrain is heavily wooded and steep with strong undergrowth of poison oak and traveler’s misery. The only ingress is through an easily defended road (below our homes) with steep ravines on both sides. There are two old mines on our combined land (and a lot of old mining equipment).

The little town closest to us is a hamlet even by small town standards. There are no traffic lights and only one stop sign in town. There’s only a single off ramp to access the town for five miles in either direction. As president of the garden club there, my husband knows every garden and greenhouse in the area and is super well-loved by the town. I have no doubt he could organize the garden resources to feed the town, if the need arose. The people in this town grew up here and spent their whole lives here. There is a market in town, and the guy who owns it has, in emergency situations in the past, opened the doors to the town and fed the town for free. He regularly helps out families in a personal crisis.

When we were looking for a place to retire, I had nightmares about being stuck in some God-forsaken dust bowl with nothing but wind and dirt as far as the eye could see. There I was, in my old apron, staring at nothing in the distance, with dirt in all the wrinkles on my face. I’m not even a social type of person. Still, that doesn’t mean I want no contact, no restaurants, no movies, no Internet for the next 35 or 40 years.

Back to the question of a remote redoubt, maybe we were blessed with an unusually great combination of neighbors. I can’t say. I think our “group” skills are probably nearly perfect for a SHTF situation. I question whether I could have found this good a group by looking for them. If I had looked for them and invited them to join us in a remote redoubt, I have to wonder how many would have made it there. Then, we would have been in too close quarters, living together like sardines. I’ve asked myself a thousand times if we’d be safer in a more remote place. I guess, even if my life depends on it, I’d rather take my chances in a place like I have, despite California’s stupid gun laws.

Letter Re: Econ 101 for Open Eyes

First I want to thank Little Fish for offering more explanation to readers on economics and finance. I appreciate the opportunity to respond to the questions and concerns in this post in hopes of providing clarity on the IRA LLC concept and our company.  

We at Perpetual Assets are staunch free market capitalists.  We do not like to be handcuffed and would never require anyone to purchase metals from our company. Most of our clients do because we have earned their trust, are competitively priced, executed their IRA LLC conversion perfectly, and provided excellent service along the way. In addition, one does not have to sell to us either. There are no other charges for taking physical possession.  Shipping is even free on most large transactions.

We provide an extensive amount of information on the subject to our clients throughout the process, all of which back up the structural investment framework of the IRA LLC. This includes legal affidavits, concrete do’s and don’t’s, tax code analysis, court cases, and IRS field advisory statements. I am making all of this information available to the public on a single web page that we will provide in the coming days.  

I would argue that defunding even a relatively small IRA could have harmful ramifications. In this article I give an example of a $100k IRA cash out. Depending on one’s tax bracket you can see how even a $30k cash out could have significant taxes and penalties, making the $1895 setup fee a viable option to get your hands on the most metal possible. Of course, at some point (currently age 70 ½) you will be forced to take taxable distributions from your IRA LLC. Yes, you can literally pull out those shiny gold, silver, or platinum eagle coins as IRA distributions years later.  Yes, it will be a taxable distribution, but pulling out $5,000 value in silver per year is a lighter blow to your taxable income than cashing out a full $30,000+ IRA.

There should be no concern about the IRS considering this an example of ‘hiding’ assets. As manager of the LLC the individual is the fiduciary of the assets owned by the LLC. He or she is in complete control of the storage of said assets.  Our favorite three-letter regulatory bodies are not alerted when one executes this process. All they know is that John Doe has rolled his IRA, SEP, Simple or 401k over to a self-directed IRA platform with one of the largest and oldest IRS-compliant custodians in the marketplace. In the event of an IRS audit, the individual is responsible to furnish the assets of the LLC. That’s when Mr. Doe has to dig a hole in the ground and knock the dust off those IRA LLC owned coins and prove he has not spent or otherwise personally used those assets. The IRS does not know you hold coins in your hand unless you are audited, and again we are not hiding anything, and certainly not advertising it. The only reporting requirement is an annual valuation of the LLC assets (dollar amount) to the custodian as they update their total assets under management.

In the end, this is all about control and choice. Legally, as a firm we can never endorse non-compliance. That being said, if some mid- to late- 30s Germany draconian measures begin to show face, regardless if they threaten gun rights, metals, retirement accounts, or personal freedoms, our goal is for our clients to have a choice and assets within 50 feet of the client’s possession; we give you that liberty. As we occasionally tell clients, we try to protect you from everyone, except yourself. – Will Lehr

Economics and Investing:

As Bank Deaths Continue to Shock, Documents Reveal JPMorgan Has Been Patenting Death Derivatives– Diana

Items from The Economatrix:

Stocks Around The World Get Slammed: Here’s What You Need To Know

Video: Eric Sprott on Ukraine Russia War: Capital Controls, Bank Runs, Gold and Silver Forecast

Gold ends over 2% higher as Ukraine tensions spike

Oil prices spike on Russia sanctions fears

Ukraine crisis: 5 financial, economic effects

Odds ‘n Sods:

An anonymous reader sent in a list of ammunition makers that are based out of Ukraine and will probably see shortages or shipping delays due to the current crisis:

Wolf/WPA/UCW ,Tulammo,Red Army/RASU,Brown Bear, Herters, MFS Ammunition, Russian 223

Note: SurvivalBlog has not confirmed that there are any interruptions in the supply of any of these brands. We are not even sure that all of these brands have origination points within Ukraine.

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Krayton Kerns on Ukraine/USA: Sit

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A roughly 25-minute audio interview with Dr. Paul Craig Roberts worth listening to on Ukraine: Ukraine rightest are nazi’s

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Court Orders Allows School to Ban Clothing With American Flag.

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K.W. sent in this link on Starting A Farm: Looking for Land, courtesy of “Farm & Dairy”

Hugh’s Quote of the Day:

“Pommer’s Law: A person’s mind can be changed by reading information on the Internet. The nature of this change will be from having no opinion to having a wrong opinion.” – Rob Pommer

Notes from HJL:

Today’s entry in the writing contest deals with a subject that many of us would just rather pretend doesn’t exist– mental illness. This subject has long been a difficult issue to deal with in our society, and being diagnosed as mentally ill (whether correctly or incorrectly) has long lasting consequences. Because the issue is so complicated, it is often terribly abused by those in authority, leaving no recourse for those who are victimized. It is also an area that we need to prepare for, because it is not going away. During a TEOTWAWKI event, it will only get worse. The causes of real mental illness are many, and the length of duration is as varied. However, once diagnosed as mentally ill, you always have, at a minimum, the stigma and legal consequences for the rest of your life (unconstitutionally, I believe). As a reader of this blog, you are probably already outside of what is considered “normal”. It wouldn’t take much for someone to use that against you.

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Today we present another entry for Round 51 of the SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing contest. The $11,000+ worth of prizes for this round include:

First Prize:

  1. Gunsite Academy Three Day Course Certificate, good for any one, two, or three course (a $1,195 value),
  2. A course certificate from onPoint Tactical. This certificate will be 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,
  3. Two cases of Mountain House freeze dried assorted entrees in #10 cans, courtesy of Ready Made Resources (a $350 value),
  4. A $300 gift certificate from CJL Enterprize, for any of their military surplus gear,
  5. A 9-Tray Excalibur Food Dehydrator from Safecastle.com (a $300 value),
  6. A $300 Gift Certificate from Freeze Dry Guy,
  7. A $250 gift certificate from Sunflower Ammo,
  8. A roll of $10 face value in pre-1965 U.S. 90% silver quarters, courtesy of GoldAndSilverOnline.com, (currently valued at around $180 postpaid),
  9. Both VPN tunnel and DigitalSafe annual subscriptions from Privacy Abroad (a combined value of $195),
  10. 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,
  11. APEX Gun Parts is donating a $250 purchase credit, and
  12. TexasgiBrass.com is providing a $300 gift certificate.

Second Prize:

  1. A gift certificate worth $1,000, courtesy of Spec Ops Brand,
  2. A Glock form factor SIRT laser training pistol and a SIRT AR-15/M4 Laser Training Bolt, courtesy of Next Level Training. Together, these have a retail value of $589.
  3. A FloJak EarthStraw “Code Red” 100 foot well pump system (a $500 value), courtesy of FloJak.com,
  4. $300 worth of ammo from Patriot Firearms and Munitions. (They also offer a 10% discount for all SurvivalBlog readers with coupon code SVB10P .),
  5. A $250 gift card from Emergency Essentials,
  6. A full set of all 26 books published by PrepperPress.com (a $270 value),
  7. Two cases of Meals, Ready to Eat (MREs), courtesy of CampingSurvival.com (a $180 value),
  8. EP Lowers, makers of 80% complete fiber composite polymer lowers for the AR-15 rifles, is donating a $250 gift certificate,
  9. Autrey’s Armory – specialists in AR-15, M4s, parts, and accessories is donating a $250 gift certificate,
  10. Dri-Harvestfoods.com in Bozeman, Montana is providing a prize bundle with Beans, Buttermilk Powder, Montana Hard Red Wheat, Drink Mixes, and White Rice, valued at $333,
  11. TexasgiBrass.com is providing a $150 gift certificate, and
  12. Organized Prepperis providing a $500 gift certificate.

Third Prize:

  1. A Royal Berkey water filter, courtesy of Directive 21 (a $275 value),
  2. 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,
  3. Expanded sets of both washable feminine pads and liners, donated by Naturally Cozy (a $185 retail value),
  4. Two Super Survival Pack seed collections, a $150 value, courtesy of Seed for Security,
  5. A MURS Dakota Alert Base Station Kit with a retail value of $240 from JRH Enterprises,
  6. Mayflower Trading is donating a $200 gift certificate for homesteading appliances, and
  7. Ambra Le Roy Medical Products in North Carolina is donating a bundle of their traditional wound care and first aid supplies, with a value of $208.

Round 51 ends on March 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.

Where There’s Smoke, There’s Fire, But Watch Out For Arsonists, by G.L.

I have a story to tell you. A couple of weeks ago, YouTube decided to suggest in my sidebar that I view a video of Oprah flashing “satanic” eyes. I took the bait. Lo and behold, Oprah closed her eyes and weird snake-like eyes appeared on her eyelids. I spent the next week wondering if there was a chance that Oprah was possessed.

Then, a few days ago, I came across another snake-eye video. This time, it was of Justin Bieber in court. Bieber blinked, and the eyes appeared instead of his usual eyes, AFTER he blinked and not on the lids. There was a link to another video; I watched that too. Jim Carrey and Steve Carell were the possessed/aliens this time. Only THIS time, instead of their eyelids showing the eyes or their whole eye changing, there was a subtle reptilian narrowing of their corneas. Strangely enough, it happened the exact same way for both of them.

You would think, if Hollywood stars were possessed or aliens, the aliens would all have the same subtle shift of the eyes. Instead, each video clip showed a slightly different change. In one, it was on the lids. In another, it was a normal blink, followed by a change in the whole eye. In another, slightly narrowed corneas, like a cat or reptile. All right. Suppose each alien shows the change differently. Why, then, did Jim Carrey and Steve Carell shift the exact same way?

The answer is obvious and simple. Each video is different because each video shows someone else’s idea of what a reptilian or demonic shift would look like. They’re probably catering to all the people who think that “reptilians” have taken over positions of power in our country. Each video has different eyes, because each was altered to look “demonic” or “reptilian” by a different person. We can debate who that editing person is or when it happened to the videos. Maybe there’s someone at the TV station having a joke at the expense of their boss. The point is, they WERE altered, because they’re all different. Put another way, we know that, at the very least, two out of those three videos are lies. (And yet, if the third isn’t a lie, if they actually are reptilians, why would people have to make fake videos? Why not just post the real ones?)

Somebody out there, no, more than one somebody, wants you to be afraid. They want us to be afraid. Maybe they’re just having fun with their little hoax. Maybe it’s more sinister. The point is not just that videos can lie; we all know that. The point is this: Warnings are not always made with the best of intentions. Warnings might just be made by sick people who want to cause panic.

The devil isn’t in the Hollywood stars. It’s in the people who shout “fire” in a crowded movie theater when there is no fire. It’s in the rioters and looters who scream that the government, the aliens, or the demons are out to get us and cause stampedes that crush people to death. If you ever look in THEIR eyes, you probably won’t see slits, but you will see evil.

That doesn’t mean we should never go on YouTube, or we need to avoid conspiracy blogs completely. The truth is out there. We just have to look really hard to find it. Don’t be afraid to believe theories like that. Or rather, do not fear to examine them. Eventually, if you look hard enough, the truth will come out. Certainly, do fear the damage the theories can do if enough people believe them and if YOU believe them, and they’re not true.

One of the worst things that can happen is that a completely sane person will be labeled as “insane” and put in the hospital against their will. Believe me; this has happened. I’ve been in the hospital, and I met someone in there who merely said that someone had poisoned her. With no history of mental illness that I know of, she just thought someone had poisoned her, and she got thrown in the crazy house against her will. I myself explained about a previous mental illness diagnosis in the course of seeking medical treatment, then explained how I thought my medications for that condition had interacted with something else and caused internal bleeding. The first time, when I had the actual internal bleeding (and accompanying blood instead of poop), and an extremely bad stomachache, I got treated. When I went back for a minute to explain how I thought it had happened, i.e. what had interacted with the medications to “poison” me, I got thrown in the psych ward. I’m telling you, never mention “poison” in a New York City hospital. It’s like saying “bomb” at an airport.

When I was in there, one of the worst things I saw is that some of the people weren’t a “danger”; they were just acting strangely. Now, if one day you become convinced that all of Hollywood is composed of reptilian aliens, don’t you think YOU would act a little strangely, maybe start screaming and panicking? Just pray something like that never happens to you in New York City. The scariest thing is that they can hold you there in that psychiatric institution, indefinitely, if they– at least two doctors in NYC (though it’s different in other places)– think you’re a danger to yourself or others. They can hold you for 72 hours even without the doctors, and will sometimes hold you longer, if you don’t know your rights and insist on them, or if the courthouse takes a week or two to hold your hearing, as happened to me. Look up “involuntary commitment,” for more information. Now, if the doctors are paranoid enough to institutionalize any person who mentions poison in the hospital, don’t you think they’d maybe entertain the thought that someone who thought Hollywood was populated by reptilians would be crazy enough to, oh, go kill those reptilians? What if it’s some reasonable, sane person, who might not believe in reptilians, but believes something like it, simply because enough people have said it to them?

That’s not all. After all, theories like that won’t just get you labeled as crazy. Not only could people lock you up if you ever voice them. If you tell someone, it will make them that much less likely to believe that you know what you’re talking about, about prepping, and the fact that they should be prepared, and everything else. If they think you’re doing it to protect yourself from the reptilians, they’re not going to want to do it themselves. So, when the dollar crashes, they’ll be outta luck. However, if you don’t tell anyone, how will you know how crazy you sound? Bouncing ideas off of someone else is sometimes the only way we can reasonably expect to NOT go crazy. So we can’t be afraid of telling other people what we think. We just have to be careful WHO we choose to trust with our innermost thoughts. If you heard “Brake!”, and it saved you from a car crash, it’s perfectly fine to tell your wife. But don’t extrapolate and tell your doctor you’re hearing voices.

These are some rules for ferreting out the truth. Take them or leave them; I am, after all, “mentally ill.” I’ve also learned a thing or two.

First, liars lie, and most of those who tell the truth are not afraid of the truth. Hence, truth-tellers are not afraid to tell you what the liars say, and then refute it with the truth. Liars, however, will not tell you what the other side says, will not refute it, and will instead only tell “their” version of events. How many political races have you seen (most notably the last few presidential elections) where somebody just repeated a lie again and again, hoping people would believe them, no matter how many times the news station or their opponent proved that what they were saying wasn’t true? Those liars never, ever mentioned what the other side was saying. When people tell the truth, they do say what the other side is saying. They’re not afraid of people examining the issue because they know, or hope, that the truth will win out. The one who’s not lying is not afraid of the truth; he’s trying to PROVE the truth, which involves refuting a lie. The liar is trying to HIDE the truth, which involves not bringing it up if nobody else does. See how it works? Liars fear the truth, so much so that they avoid even mentioning it, if possible. Imagine, for a minute, what would happen to a conspiracy blog that published all the mainstream news critiques of the “theory of the day”. Most of the conspiracy theories would collapse. Imagine, for a minute, that those reptilian video posters wrote a critique explaining away the differences between their videos. Do you think they would do such a thing? Why wasn’t I afraid to post about what they said, even if I don’t believe it? Because I could prove it wasn’t true.

Here’s another rule: You should take the time to think; liars won’t want you to. When trying to figure out if something is true, do a search on the people who say it. See if they’re reputable. I’ve stopped myself from clicking on a number of spam emails that way. Another rule for ferreting out spam, or false testimonials: Liars may say they’ve been covered by CNN or NBC, but do they link to the originals, on the CNN website, or give you the web address for it? Do they facilitate your research or just say you should trust them? Spam may say it’s from AOL or your credit card company, and you need to send them this information or that information NOW. If you’re cautious and educated, you’ll know that the real company will never ask you for that information. You’ll also notice that the fakes’ logos look a little funny, and their grammar is poor. You also shouldn’t be afraid to call the company to find out if it’s real. My father almost sent his credit card information to a spammer, but I told him to check if the email really was from PayPal. Think about what spammers, or phishers, are doing for a minute. They want something from you, and they say that something terrible will happen if you don’t give it immediately. Liars, spammers, evildoers sometimes try to make you afraid, and they make you think you need to act NOW, in the hopes that you’ll be irrational because of that fear. They hope you’ll be irrational enough to believe them and do what they say, without checking them out. Always ask yourself what’s the worst that could happen if I take the time to check this out? Are they trying too hard to scare me and not let me think?

Yet, do not be afraid to be afraid. If people weren’t afraid, they wouldn’t have fled from Hurricane Katrina’s wrath, and thousands more would have died. When a legitimate person or group of people, like each news channel in your area, says to fear, then go ahead and panic a little. Do what they tell you. When economist after economist says the dollar’s going to crash, well, maybe it’s time to stash a little Bitcoin, save your gold, and gather together things you might want to trade. When some obscure website says it’s time to panic, do a little research, especially if they’re asking you for anything like money or personal information…or if they mention reptilians.

Letter Re: Amateur Radio Licensees

Hello Hugh,

I’m a ham radio operator, and in my monthly ham radio magazine, QST, I saw a chart of ham radio licensees by year. See http://www.arrl.org/news/amateur-radio-showing-steady-growth-in-the-us. It is amazing. Take a look at the chart at the bottom of the page and observe the steep increase in licensees, after four years of decline. What’s the pivotal year? 2008! That coincides with the point in time many of us first took an interest in preparedness, coincident with the acceleration of the political decline in America.

It appears that SIXTY THOUSAND people have received ham radio licenses during the Obama administration, including several in classes I have taught. We don’t discuss preparedness so much in our classes, but it’s on their minds.

How encouraging that 60,000 new licensees are better prepared to communicate after SHTF and better prepared to rebuild our great nation! – CJ

Hugh Replies: While I’m sure that as the “preparedness attitude” increases with the general population, they tend to look at Ham radio as a primary form of practicing communications, but I don’t think it’s the primary motivation in the increase of numbers. Only about 17 percent of the U.S. population is concerned with prepardness beyond about three days. There is some ambiguity in those numbers, and they are hard to verify, so don’t take them too seriously. Personally, I tend to think that they are on the high side. Ham radio operators that I have spoken with feel that that is a good percentage number to use when speaking about Hams who utilize the bandwidth to prepare for communications when the SHTF. Most Hams that are involved in the emergency communications part of the hobby do so as part of an American Radio Relay League (ARRL) affiliated American Radio Emergency Service (ARES) club or possibly the Military Auxiliary Radio System (MARS) or similar organizations. Their participation in emergency communications tends to be centered around government priorities– mostly local, county or state. For several years, FEMA has pumped dollars, not just into local emergency organizations like fire, ambulance, and police, but also support organizations like ARES clubs. The next time you are on a “field day” exercise, ask to see one of the local Ham’s “go bags”. What you will most likely find is an assortment of communication gear, connectors, coax, power wiring, et cetera. Very seldom will you see a “go bag” that is actually oriented towards survival. They are mostly concerned about having the right connector to hook any antenna up to any radio in the field. It is an appropriate bag for the goals that they have.

A bit of history here might help. Citizens Band (CB) radio was initially required to operate only with a license. As deregulation began, the requirement for licenses for CB radios was relaxed and the flood began. In the late 70’s Amateur Radio was booming as CB became congested and “unruly” in its operation. As pagers and cellular communications became common though, Ham radio licenses began to decline. Around the same time, the U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) came up with the idea of auctioning off spectrum licenses to generate income. The Ham bands, originally occupying what was considered unusable bandwidth, now was in possession of prime radio frequency (RF) real estate. The ARRL needed more Hams to justify to the FCC why that spectrum needed to remain untouched. Thus began the process of the removal of licensing requirements from Ham radio. The ARRL, as the primary voice of Ham radio in the U.S., worked with the FCC to restructure the system. Many changes were enacted, from the FCC handing the testing for licenses over to clubs, to the removal of the code requirements and simplification of the testing questions. I should also mention that the ARRL is also a private company that sells publications. They have a vested financial interest in having a large base of Hams to sell their publications to.

When you speak with an old-timer Ham, you will often see torn loyalties. They readily recognize that if those changes were not made, the user base would have declined to the point where there might not be such a thing as Ham licenses, with the FCC grabbing of spectrum. On the other hand, the license does not represent what it once did. In the 1950s and 60s, most Hams built their own equipment from scratch and had a full understanding of how it worked. Often, Ham radio was the pioneer on proving new communications techniques, like spread spectrum, digital, and slow scan. Today, most Hams buy their equipment and have a rudimentary understanding of RF (if any at all).

In any event, the result is that it is easier than ever to obtain a Ham license today. You can practice communications on a personal level and in real or simulated events, if you are part of an ARES organization. Some times local governments don’t even deal with ARES (due to legal questions in activating them), and they just want individual Hams to participate in their organization. Regardless of the reason for the increase in the number of Hams, we should take advantage of the opportunity and license now, so we can be practicing prepardness communications.

News From The American Redoubt:

A controversial bill allowing Guns on campus bill passes House committee in Boise Idaho. At the same time, A Boise State University professor makes a public statement: When May I Shoot a Student?. It’s absurdity at its best. – RBS

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M.J. sent in this article about local folks having access to public roads: Judge rules against Forest Service travel plan

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Adding to the already contentious issue – THE WOLF EFFECT: Why Anti-Hunters are Dead Wrong about Wolves – K.F.

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This isn’t a small crack either. It is apparently large enough to have caused visual movement in the roadbed above the dam. Washington Dam Has 65-Foot Crack – L.M.

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9th Circuit blasts Montana Buckaroo rifle plan – H.L.

Odds ‘n Sods:

Those sneaky thieves! Apparently the coat hanger trick has moved from the car to the garage door. But you can stop it cold with a simple zip tie: $1 fix could secure your garage from thieves – G.S.

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Once a country no longer values human life, how long till they descend into this? –Red Reign: China’s horrific nonconsensual organ harvesting and religious oppression unveiled

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For Valley citrus growers, this season has 2 natural disasters. News of the severe drought continues to rock the system.

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And the executive orders issued by Obama in January 2013 start taking effect: Bypassing Congress, DOJ to Announce Expansion to Gun Background Checks

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D.C. sent in the link to an animated video on taxation. It is certainly enlightening, especially when you consider that the Boston tea party occurred with taxation in the range of 3% and without representation. Today the highest rates hover around the 50% mark and are still absent representation. You Can Always Leave

Hugh’s Quote of the Day:

“I am sick and tired of people who say that if you debate and you disagree with this administration, somehow you’re not patriotic. And we should stand up and say we are Americans and we have a right to debate and disagree with any administration.” – Hillary Clinton, 2003 YouTube video

Notes from HJL:

In analyzing the Ukraine, I’m finding interesting facts about an area that I have known little of. To me, it appears that the Ukraine is in a similar position to the U.S. in 1776. Much of the country is pro-Russia and much of it is pro-Independant. While the U.S. government makes much ado (at least with their lips) regarding Putin putting forces on the ground in Ukraine, it appears that there are long-standing agreements in place that allow Russia access to facilities in the Black Sea. P.M. sent in this link showing maps of Ukraine from the New York Times and it’s readily apparent why Russia is so interested in the Crimea Area.

It is also interesting to note that Ukraine’s defense forces are ill-prepared to deal with the amount and types of hardware that is being massed in the area. It is still difficult to tell if the protesters are pro- or anti-Russia in regards to the developments or if they just have issues with their own government’s stance. We will still need to keep a close eye on things as they develop as this event has the ability to magnify to such an extent so as to destabilize the world, both politically and economically. Anybody remember Archduke Franz Ferdinand?

Guest Article: Precious Metals Month In Review, by Steven Cochran

Welcome to SurvivalBlog’s Precious Metals Month in review. Every month, we take a look at “the month that was” in precious metals, covering everything from price action to the information that’s driving the numbers.

February In Precious Metals

Three major factors for precious metals in February were Chinese physical demand; poor economic news in the U.S. (which was blamed on sequential blizzards); and emerging market crises, especially Ukraine.

China

Chinese gold sales last month hit 246 metric tons – a record for January – but the pace didn’t slow down after the Lunar New Year as expected. Chinese gold buyers weren’t just lured by low prices in February, they were protecting themselves against a possible financial collapse similar to what happened with Lehman Brothers and AIG in the U.S. in 2008. A substantial portion of China’s economy is depending on unregulated “under the table” loans to companies who can’t qualify for a bank loan. The Chinese central bank started reducing the money supply to squeeze out this practice, and the citizens, fearing bank defaults, started pulling their savings from banks and flooding jewelry stores to buy gold chains and bars. Chinese weekly gold demand has exceeded weekly global mine production for all but two weeks so far this year.

When the official Chinese gold import numbers for 2013 were released by Beijing, Western news sources jumped on the fact that domestic Chinese gold mining and scrap gold recycling totaling 500 metric tons was not accounted for. Many people speculate that this missing gold ended up in a shell company belonging to the Chinese central bank, to keep its gold purchases hidden while it sells off U.S. Treasuries.

Economic Slowdown

Many analysts were looking for a correction in the stock market bubble this month, and disappointing economic data gave many the cover to jump ship. On February 3rd, both U.S. and European stock markets saw their biggest one-day drop in six months. An estimated $24 billion in investments was pulled out of U.S. equity markets that week. At the same time, gold skeptic Ed Bowsher wrote a column in MoneyWeek titled “I’ve Never Bought Gold Before – But I’m Buying It Now.“

There was no fight over raising the debt ceiling in mid-February, which would have given gold a boost, but the yellow metal really didn’t need it. Both gold and silver continued to show gains, even when the stock markets pushed higher. Gold rose above the 50-day moving average on January 23rd, and never looked back. On February 7th, it rose above the important 100-day moving average, and on Valentine’s Day, it broke the $1,320 mark, above the 200-day moving average. At the same time, silver posted it’s longest rally in 45 years, dating back to 1968. Both metals are handily beating the stock market in 2014 so far.

SHTF in Emerging Nations

Gold (and silver’s) excellent month wasn’t just about an oversold market and good fundamentals. There was literally blood in the streets on three continents, as popular uprisings against corrupt governments escalated to gunfire from both sides.

Anti-government protestors in Thailand got hold of M-79 grenade launchers seized from riot police, and turned them on their former owners. Snipers from both sides have also inflicted numerous casualties.

Venezuela was on the brink of a full-scale civil war all month, as a divided populace held mass demonstrations for and against the government. Protests were sparked by food shortages, an inflation rate over 50%, and rampant crime. Dozens have been killed in the fighting.

The big news this month was of course Ukraine. With a government on the brink of default and a currency hitting new lows, President Viktor Yanukovych agreed to a deal from his Russian allies to scrap an agreement for closer ties with the EU in exchange for a $15 billion loan to Ukraine. This set off protests by thousands of citizens, already disgusted with what they saw as cronyism and a looting of the national treasury by Yanukovych and his inner circle. Leading protestors were “disappeared” by the government, and demonstrations devolved into street fighting in the capital of Kiev, with hundreds dead and wounded.

After Yanukovych was deposed by parliament, he fled to the Crimea in southern Ukraine. This area is full of the descendents of ethnic Russians settled here by Stalin after purging the local population, and is a Yanukovych stronghold. This is also the home of the Russian Black Sea Fleet, and Putin has no intention of losing this strategic port. 150,000 Russian troops and tanks are massed on the Ukrainian border, holding “war games”. On February 26th, 120 uniformed gunmen with no insignia stormed the Crimean parliament building, and raised the Russian flag after days of protest between pro- and anti- Russian crowds in Sevestapol.

All these events have been a major factor in gold’s rally of nearly $100 in February.

Market Buzz

Gold and silver had a very strong February, despite a pullback at the end of the month. Both have solid uptrends in place, and bulls have the short-term advantage. One market sector that has seen conflicting rumors is India. It seems that almost daily, there are reports that the Finance Ministry is going to ease the draconian gold import restrictions, or are going to leave them in place. Over 200 metric tons of gold was estimated to have been smuggled into India in 2013, costing the government $1 billion in lost taxes.

More proof that physical gold is moving West to East, never to be seen on the London or COMEX ever again, is the report that 80% of gold exported by Switzerland in January went to Asia. Most of this gold came from the London Gold Exchange. The 400 oz Good Delivery bars are melted down and purified from .999 to .9999 fineness, then re-cast into 1 kilo bars for the Asian market.

GATA.org alerts its readers that the Financial Times scrubbed a report from their website that said an auditing firm examined the London Gold Fix from January 2010 to December 2013, and found evidence that suggested collusion or manipulation of gold prices approximately 50% of the time. Eric Sprott notes that the coming end of gold manipulation is a “golden opportunity” for investors.

Peter Schiff says that Yellen is better for gold than Bernanke was, and explains why in this video from February 19. Another of our favorite links from this month is Matthew Lynn’s “Three Warning Signs From Higher Gold Prices” on MarketWatch.

Speaking of the London Gold Fix, it seems like the largest bank in the world by assets, the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, is positioning itself to take over Deutsche Bank’s role at the exclusive table. ICBC has purchased the London commodities and forex division of Standard Bank, which gives it the presence in the international gold market to qualify to be one of the five banks in the world that sets the benchmark gold price.

On The Retail Front

The U.S. Mint reported that demand for the Silver Eagle bullion coin has quadrupled since 2007. Year to date sales for the Silver Eagle through February was nearly 8.5 million coins. The Perth Mint has a new collectible hit on its hands with the “Gods of Olympus” series of 2 oz silver high relief coins. The first coin, featuring Zeus, sold out within hours of its introduction.

There was some “buried treasure” news this month, as we learn that the hard work and research of two Scottish treasure hunters paid off when they unearthed 322 medieval silver coins during a dig in gale-force winds. Unlike the United States, treasure hunting laws in Scotland and the U.K. encourage metal detectorists to turn significant finds in to the government, because even if a museum decides it wants the treasure, it has to pay the market price, which is then split between the finder and land-owner. Not at all like the confiscatory practices in the U.S.

The big story was of course the California couple who stumbled upon the largest buried cache of gold coins ever found in the United States, while walking their dog on their property. The 1,427 gold U.S. coins date from 1847 to 1894, and many are in mint condition. The find is estimated to be worth $10 million, with some of the coins worth over a million dollars by themselves.

Looking Ahead

We still haven’t seen the stock market correction we seem to be overdue for, and gold and silver have good market fundamentals heading into March. Ukraine is going to be a big hotspot, and if the Erdogan government in Turkey collapses or goes bankrupt, it could drag Greece and Cyprus down with it. There are many nations right now experiencing the type of conditions that we hope we don’t see in the U.S. but should prepare for. Economic numbers for the U.S. will carry a lot of weight, as there won’t be blizzards to blame for them any more. Eric Sprott notes that the government has changed the way the CPI is measured for the 20th time in 30 years, to hide the true inflation rate. Will prices at the cash register force Yellen to raise the benchmark rates she charges the big banks? Keep in mind, the guy they hired for the #2 spot at the Fed is an expert on hyperinflation.

Steven Cochran is the Senior Content Writer for Gainsville Coins