The Mathematics of Countering Tyranny

…it. Posse Comitatus will be ignored if the Left makes this play. Also consider NSA access to affectively all communications, identification of all people communicating regarding any resistance, and targeting those individuals. Consider also a complete shutdown of all cell phone and Internet access in place is most likely to resist, or of individuals most likely to resist. This is a very good article, but the fundamental presumption of a half hearted effort to confiscate against a full scale resistance does not give a complete picture. I would very much like to see you reimagine this scenario with a full-scale commitment by the all of the assets of the government sector, including surveillance in military, again civilian gun owners. My personal thought experiments in this regard suggests that the government I would very much like to see you reimagine this scenario with a full-scale commitment by the all of the…




Building a Backyard Water Treatment Plant, by J.S.M.

…Two or three will be enough, and they should be clean. Do not use milk jugs. Measuring spoons. This set should be dedicated for water purification and not used for cooking. Tuna Fish can, 4.8 ounce to 5 ounce. Can should be cleaned thoroughly. Twelve ounce jar or can with lid removed. Five pounds of non-galvanized iron nails, three to four inches long. The rustier the better, and if they are new out of the box, make sure they are wiped clean, and completely free of grease. This is only necessary if you are concerned about mitigating the arsenic in your source water. Activated carbon or charcoal pellets. These can be purchased at Wal-Mart in the aquarium section or at any aquarium store. Some important notes on materials: Pool Shock Calcium Hypochlorite is a dry form of bleach with chemical compound Ca(CIO)2 better known as “pool shock” and can be…




Getting Prepared: From the Homestead to Living Off the Land

…air compressor and well stocked with tools and various home and auto repair materials. We have a small supplemental solar kit that is expandable. We plan to go to a grid-tie with backup system soon and eventually go off-grid with a hybrid solar – wind system. We regularly make a shopping trip to the nearest Habitat for Humanity Restore (we consider this a frugal man’s “home depot”), which has numerous home repair supplies and materials. We stock up on goods such as paint, PVC pipe and fittings, lumber, hardware, solid core doors, appliances and fixtures, etc. for very cheap prices. These are usually used and donated by contractors or home remodelers, and the price we pay is minimal. The money then goes to Habitat for Humanity for their operations. I search online sources for good tools and materials and have found fencing materials, farming and gardening supplies, soil, compost, PVC…




How to Teach Situational Awareness to Children – Part 4, by T.Y.

…missing. Relate it to their life by asking what they might put in a bag if they had to leave their house in an emergency. As the child matures and becomes more complacent with the game, look for safe opportunities to introduce more realistic elements, such as evacuating with the toy in actual bad weather to an outside building or playhouse. That way your child will get a more realistic appreciation of the importance of life-sustaining items and skills. Assessment If your children are new to the idea of evacuation, assess their reaction to the imaginary situation. Do they stay calm, yet concerned for their toys? Do they understand that the toys will have to leave their homes and that they can only survive with what they bring with them? Observe what items your children choose to put in the bag. Over time, they should pack a bag more quickly…




DPMS Versus DPMS, by Pat Cascio

Two popular AR-style rifles are put to the test. We’re looking at a standard AP4 Carbine and Lite 16-A3 from DPMS today, in a side-by-side comparison. A Rare Side-By-Side Test I receive requests all the time from many of our readers to do a side-by-side test of various firearms. I rarely do these types of articles for one very good reason– no matter how fair I try to be, or unbiased, human nature takes over, and I’ll like one firearm better than the other. I could test a 1911 .45ACP from the XYZ company and a version of the same gun from the ABC company, and in the end no matter how fair of a test I might do I’ll end up picking one 1911 over the other. They might perform equally in my testing, too. So, with this in mind, you’ll rarely see me testing one gun against another….




Letter Re: Assuring M1911-Series Autopistol Safety

…fire.  Pull trigger.  Hammer should drop.  If you repeat the test with a pencil inserted into the barrel eraser side first, the pencil should be propelled out of the barrel when you pull the trigger.   4)      Half-cock notch test: with slide forward, and hammer in released position, pull hammer back until you hear the first click.  This is the half-cock notch.  With safety disengaged and firearm gripped as if to fire, pull the trigger.  The hammer should not drop, unless it is a series 80, in which case the hammer will drop, but not with enough force to fire.   5)      Sear reset and engagement test: Perform the basic firing test above, but continue to pull back on the trigger.  Fully pull back on slide and release.  Hammer should be fully cocked, and should not follow the slide forward.  Release trigger and pull again- the hammer should fall.  To…




Gear Review: Coast FL19 Headlamp, by The Novice

…made headlamps. Probably costs a bit more than the Communist China Coast ones. Anonymous https://www.homedepot.com/p/Coast-FL19-330-Lumens-Dual-Color-LED-Headlamp-21586/311180892 Also has them in various Lumen output. The Novice Hi JJ, Great tip. Pelican headlamps are USA made as well. The Novice The best price I have found is at Lowe’s: https://www.lowes.com/pd/Coast-330-Lumen-LED-Headlamp-Battery-Included/1000478491 TominAlaska I had two Costco-purchased Coast headlamps fail (I bought four) and have gone to Princeton Tec because I realized they were made in the USA. They are good units but a little spendy. If you live in a cold climate, I recommend evaluating how easy or difficult it would be to change batteries in cold weather. My older Princeton Tec battery covers are very balky when fingers are fumbling cold. St. Funogas Wait a minute, are you saying there are women who can’t use a pink Swiss army knife??? OldParatrooper I carry a small but very powerful LED flashlight for my evening…




Preparedness Notes for Monday — November 9, 2020

…you going to invest in bullets — which will not protect you — or are you going to invest in American freedom? As Ben Franklin said, we can hang together — or we will hang separately. Muddykid How much of we American’s care about your opinion of American politics? Good stuff today. Made me laugh. Don Williams 1) A week ago, Michael Moore — the leftist filmmaker — was expressing fears that Trump will have the nuclear codes until Jan 20 and might …er.. exercise the “Skynet Option” https://www.moviemaker.com/michael-moore-trump-nuclear-codes/ 2) So I wonder if Michael’s is wetting his bed over the news that Trump has just fired the Secretary of Defense: https://www.militarytimes.com/news/your-military/2020/11/09/exclusive-esper-on-his-way-out-says-he-was-no-yes-man/ 3) After all, those Ohio class subs don’t get real time CNN while 500 feet under the surface. 4) While I am disinclined to encourage the Nervous Nellies, I will note that the current 800 kt Fallout vector…




Protection from Radioactive Fallout by Tennessean

…is 0.1 R/hr only one chirp is heard every thirty seconds.  The internal battery is said to be good for about 10 years.  One may test the device by chilling and then returning to room temperature.  This process produces chirping until the innards of the device all reach ambient temperature.  Note that the upper reading this device will properly measure is 1/10 that of the CD meters and 1000 times that of the M4 meter discussed above.  The RADAlert does not respond to alpha or beta particles, but I do not consider this limitation of any real importance.  The great thing is that this device is constantly on. This is by no means an exhaustive list of available rate meters. For example, www.readymaderesources.com has a number of rate meters for sale.  Blocking uptake of radioactive elements: The concept here is competition.  The body cannot distinguish between a stable isotope of, e.g.,…




A Short Review of a Complex Document: Armageddon Online, by Old Bobbert

…and special needs brothers and sisters. Why should we care about these folks? WE CARE BECAUSE WE ARE AMERICANS AND THIS IS OUR PRIVILEGE AND OUR RESPONSIBILITY. WE ARE A FREE PEOPLE AND WE CARE FOR AND ABOUT THOSE WHO CAN’T HELP THEMSELVES. These are a few web sites suggested in Matt Anderson’s materials in the disabled preparedness area. www.access-board.gov The Access Board www.aoa.dhhs.gov DHHS Administration on Aging www.ncd.gov National Council on Disability www.nod.org/emergency National Organization on Disability www.prepare.org Prepare.org www.aapd.com American Association for People with Disabilities www.afb.org American Foundation for the Blind www.nad.org National Association of the Deaf www.lacity.org/DOD Los Angeles City Department on Disability www.easter-seals.org Easter Seals For more in-depth information, get a copy of “Disaster Preparedness for People with Disabilities” (A5091) from the American Red Cross.   7. F.E.M.A. RR-28 / Reprinted July 1989 CONSTRUCTION OF A SIMPLIFIED WOOD GAS GENERATOR FOR FUELING INTERNAL COMBUSTION ENGINES IN…




Letter Re: Wealth Destruction–Real Wealth or Just On-Paper Wealth?

…constitutes major trial and tribulation. Up to 40% of people with mortgaged homes now have negative equity–meaning that the remaining principal of their mortgage now exceeds the market value of their house. (This is commonly called being “upside down” in a mortgage.) So now, even for someone that can make their mortgage payments, changing jobs to a new locale beyond commute distance means losing their house and starting over. And if they go with the “jingle mail” method, it means starting over with a ruined credit rating. 7.) The Last Shreds of Job Security: Following the trend set by Silicon Valley, when the “Dot.Com” bubble burst in 2000, many industries are now getting positively ruthless about cost-cutting. There is now a constant barrage of news of layoffs, reduced benefits, and cutting our perks. Don’t expect “normality” to resume to the corporate workplace in our generation. Any vestiges of “job security”…




Guest Editorial: The Great Bust of ’08, by Mike Whitney

…are dire straights, too. They’re bogged down with commercial and residential loans that are defaulting faster than any time since the Great Depression. The Comptroller of the Currency,John Dugan — who is presently investigating commercial real estate loans — discovered that commercial banks “wrote off $524 million in construction and development loans in the third quarter of 2007, almost nine times the amount of 2006”. The commercial real estate market is following residential real estate off a cliff. Dugan found out that, “More than 60 per cent of Florida banks have commercial real estate loans worth more than 300 per cent of their capital, a level that automatically attracts more attention from examiners.” (Wall Street Journal) He said that his office was prepared to intervene if banks with large real estate exposure maintained unreasonably low reserves for bad loans. Dugan is forecasting a steep “increase in bank failures.” “Dozens of…




Hughs Quote of the Day:

…farmers in John Deere hats Our amazin’ race is beatin’ the check Prayin’ that the bank ain’t ran it through yet Real, like too much rain fallin’ from the sky Real, like the drought that came around here last July It’s the damn boll weevils and the market and the weeds, the prayer they’re sayin’ when they plant the seeds And the chance they take to bring us our next meal I call that real Real, like a job you lose ’cause it moves to Mexico Like a mama and a baby with no safe place to go Like a little dream-house with a big old foreclosed sign Like a flag-draped coffin and a twenty-one gun goodbye I call that real Man, I call that real Oh, I call that real.” – Lyrics to the song Real, written by Neal Coty and Jimmy Melton and sung by James Wesley (Prosser)…




Amazon’s Mechanical Turk– A Real, Honest, Stay-at-home Job, by LAT

…students. Some are marketing research, like do you prefer packaging “A” or packaging “B”. There are audio transcriptions to be completed. Some ask you to record yourself saying certain words or phrases. (Think language learning CD’s. Someone has to read all those phrases in German.) Some ask you to classify a product into a category that you would use to search for it. Others want you to beta test a website and provide feedback, or write a short article for something. Others have you searching for certain terms on Google and then reporting the rankings and what major city you are near. Most are simple; some are more complex. I was a tad skeptical at first, but these are real, honest jobs. Each has its own payment and time frame to be completed. How many of these HITs are open to you depends on your ratings and qualifications. MTurk has…




A Little Planning and a Lot of Rehearsing, by Todd S. in Colorado

…us to rehearse skills that are expensive to rehearse in real life.  The Army utilizes expansive training centers with high-tech simulators, because even though it is expensive to operate simulators, it is much less expensive than running real vehicles through a field exercise.  A single tank platoon with four tanks can totally drain one fuel truck not to mention the cost of vehicle maintenance with turbine engines running around a quarter of a million dollars when brand new.  Call of Duty does not a warrior make, but hunting and tactical games can illustrate the importance of cover and concealment, shooting techniques, and tactical movement without having to pay the price for your mistakes in the real world.  Practicing with high caliber rifle ammunition is practically like shooting dollar bills out of your barrel.  Save the live fires for when your shooters are more proficient on marksmanship basics and will benefit…