Gerber Gator Machete, by Pat Cascio

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It’s often forgotten, but a machete can come in handy in many wilderness situations. Under review today is the Gerber Gator Machete.

Machetes

I own several machetes of different sizes and from different companies. Some came without a package, so I have no idea who made them, other than to guess that they were made in China, as is this Gerber Gator Machete. All of my machetes are rusted. They are all manufactured out of carbon steel, and all were fairly inexpensive. However, they all work.

Gerber

I’ve been a fan of Gerber products for a lot of years, and it wasn’t all that many years ago that all of their products were made in the good ol’ USA! Such is not the case these days. In order to compete with other knife companies, some of Gerber’s products are made in China. This machete is no exception, and it was difficult to find the tiny print on the package that stated it was made in China.

Specs on the Gator Machete

Some of the specs on the Gator Machete are that it is made out of forged carbon steel and has an 18-inch blade. The blade itself is 18 inches long and is 2.4 inches at its widest point. Also, it weighs in at slightly more than a pound. The saw back portion of the blade is about 15 inches. I love the Gator Grip rubberized handle; it’s outstanding. There is also a lanyard hole with a lanyard attached. A heavy duty nylon sheath that is riveted is included as well. There is also a limited lifetime warranty on this product.

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Economics & Investing For Preppers

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Here are the latest news items and commentary on current economics news, market trends, stocks, investing opportunities, and the precious metals markets. We also cover hedges, derivatives, and obscura. And it bears mention that most of these items are from the “tangibles heavy” contrarian perspective of JWR. (SurvivalBlog’s Founder and Senior Editor.) Today’s focus is on full capacity magazines (See the Tangibles Investing section.)

Precious Metals:

Gold In 2019: Fed Pausing Could Mean Everything For Gold

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This Market Will Drive Gold Price In 2019

Economy & Finance:

Debt Worldwide Hits Record $184 Trillion, or $86,000 Per Person. JWR’s Summary: Bankers and government collude to create debt-based funny money–out of thin air. Consumers then go on a low-interest rate buying spree. They become deeply indebted to the bankers, who rake in billions in interest, fees, float, and stock profits. When banks do fail, taxpayers bail them out. When will people wake up an get out of their debt slavery, and demand honest money? Oh, and as a correction to that headline, reader Mark in New York points out: “$184 Trillion divided by 7 billion souls is more like $26,285. per person, not $86K.”

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Mark Zuckerberg Lost $15 Billion This Year, More Than Any of the 500 Richest Billionaires in the World

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Preparedness Notes for Sunday – December 16, 2018

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December 16th, 1928, was the birthday of Philip K. Dick, who died March 2, 1982. He penned a remarkable number of sci-fi novels and novellas that have been adapted into movies, including Blade Runner, Total Recall, Screamers, Impostor, Minority Report, Paycheck, A Scanner Darkly, Next, and The Adjustment Bureau. Though he had a troubled personal life (with drug use and several failed marriages), his captivating books certainly had a knack for envisioning potential futures.

Guest Post: Weapons of War On Our Streets – A Guide to the Militarization of America’s Police – Part 2

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This article was originally published on Ammo.com.

The Role of Civil Asset Forfeiture

Civil asset forfeiture (CAF) is a major driver in the militarization of the police force. Put simply, CAF is a legal principle that allows police to seize money and property from “suspected” criminals, which they can do without a warrant because the suspect’s property doesn’t have the presumption of innocence. Note that police do not have to convict or even indict. Indeed, indictments are not even filed in over 80 percent of all cases. Police can simply seize property, more or less at will, with some property harder to seize than others. Seizure of anything under $20,000 will almost certainly stand because that’s about what it’s going to cost you to fight CAF in court.

Most of the money raised through civil asset forfeiture is filed under “other.” This can be anything from a $600 coffee maker to a tank. Because the burden of proof is so low and the benefits are so high, CAF is effectively a legally allowed form of theft by police officers, allowing them to purchase military-grade hardware with stolen property. Here is a short list of military hardware purchased with civil asset forfeiture funds:

  • $5 million helicopter for the Los Angeles Police Department
  • $1 million mobile command bus for Prince George County, Maryland
  • $227,000 for a Lenco brand armored vehicle in Douglasville, GA, a town with a population of 32,000
  • $54,000 for 27 M-4 assault rifles in Braselton, GA, a town with a population of 9,476

While not the sole, nor even the primary, means by which the police are becoming militarized, this is a significant method for police departments to bankroll their own militarization.

Continue reading“Guest Post: Weapons of War On Our Streets – A Guide to the Militarization of America’s Police – Part 2”

The Survivalist’s Odds ‘n Sods:

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SurvivalBlog presents another edition of The Survivalist’s Odds ‘n Sods— a collection of news bits and pieces that are relevant to the modern survivalist and prepper from “HJL”. An interesting article on A.I. Soldiers is profiled today.

Fallen Star

A former Army Green Beret has been charged with the murder of an Afghan terrorist. The heart of the issue is that the terrorist planted a bomb that killed numerous people including two U.S. Marines. He was captured and held, but had to be released because prosecutors could not find enough evidence to charge him with the crime. Major Mathes Golsteyn tracked the suspect down after his release from U.S. custody and shot him. As much as it pains me to say it, I believe the charges are appropriate given the evidence that I know. What sets us apart from savages is the adherance to the “rule of law”.

Had the suspect been killed during the initial capture, I think things would have been different, but to track him down and kill him after a lawful release, no matter how painful that release was, was wrong. War sometimes frustrates those in the military and in every war there are those who cross the lines of humanity and do the wrong thing. It is my personal believe that we must conduct ourselves as men of integrity even during the atrocities of war. My heart breaks for those who have reached the point where they have difficulty understanding that. Thanks to DSV for the link.

Stupid is as Stupid Does

In a nearly unbelievable fit of stupidity, a new New Jersey law proves the words of Forrest Gump to be true. New Jersey’s law limits all firearms magazines to no more than 10 rounds of capacity. The problem, other than the obvious one at face value, is that there is no exception for law enforcement. It would appear that all duty firearms of law enforcement officers in New Jersey contain more than 10 rounds of ammunition. In one fell swoop, idiot lawmakers have made it so that an off-duty police officer is denied the ability to carry his duty weapon without becoming a criminal.

They can’t even have those weapons at home unless they leave the high capacity standard capacity magazines at work. The law even applies to those officers that are “on-call” meaning that an officer must show up at his place of work to retrieve his magazines before responding to an incident.

Continue reading“The Survivalist’s Odds ‘n Sods:”

The Editors’ Quote of the Day:

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“Then said Jesus unto them, I will ask you one thing; Is it lawful on the sabbath days to do good, or to do evil? to save life, or to destroy it? And looking round about upon them all, he said unto the man, Stretch forth thy hand. And he did so: and his hand was restored whole as the other. And they were filled with madness; and communed one with another what they might do to Jesus.” – Luke 6:9-11 (KJV)

Preparedness Notes for Saturday – December 15, 2018

The 15th of December, 1923, was the birth day of Uziel “Uzi” Gal (born Gotthard Glas). According to Wikipedia, he was “…born in Weimar, Germany. When the Nazis came to power in 1933 he moved first to England and later, in 1936, to Kibbutz Yagur in the British Mandate of Palestine where he changed his name to Uziel Gal. In 1943, he was arrested for illegally carrying a gun and sentenced to six years in prison. However, he was pardoned and released in 1946, serving less than half of his sentence.” He is, of course, remembered as the inventor of the famous Uzi submachine gun and the short-lived Ruger MP9 (an improvement to the Uzi). Uzi Gal is not to be confused with Israel Galili, the chief weapons designer for Israeli Military Industries (IMI), who along with Yaacov Lior designed the Galil improvement to the AK-47.

Guest Post: Weapons of War On Our Streets- A Guide to the Militarization of America’s Police- Part 1

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This article was originally published on Ammo.com.

The claim often heard from those attempting to pass more gun control legislation is that all they’re trying to do is get the “weapons of war off our streets,” but it’s simply untrue that “weapons of war” are available to the general public. You’d last about three minutes in a real war with an AR-15, even with one of the most aggressive builds you can get your hands on. The truth is that the only people with “weapons of war” on America’s streets are, increasingly, the police.

Thanks primarily to the Pentagon’s 1033 program which allows law enforcement agencies to get their hands on Department of Defense technology and the Bush-era War on Terror, American police have received a startling amount of heavy-duty, military-grade hardware. Between 1998 and 2014, the dollar value of military hardware sent to police departments skyrocketed from $9.4 million to $796.8 million.

And just as when “all you’ve got is a hammer, then everything looks like a nail”, militarized police have become more willing to use their new weapons when carrying out law enforcement tasks. For example, the number of SWAT raids in the United States grew dramatically from about 3,000 in 1980, to a whopping 50,000 SWAT raids in 2014, according to The New Jim Crow by Michelle Alexander.

Continue reading“Guest Post: Weapons of War On Our Streets- A Guide to the Militarization of America’s Police- Part 1”

Editors’ Prepping Progress

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To be prepared for a crisis, every Prepper must establish goals and make long-term and short-term plans. Steadily, we work on meeting our prepping goals. In this column, the SurvivalBlog editors review their week’s prep activities. They also often share their planned prep activities for the coming week. These range from healthcare and gear purchases to gardening, property improvements, and food storage. This is something akin to our Retreat Owner Profiles, but written incrementally and in detail, throughout the year. We always welcome you to share your own successes and wisdom in the Comments. Let’s keep busy and be ready!

JWR

Here at the Rawles Ranch, we received just a few inches of inches of snow this past week. Much of that melted on Wednesday and Thursday, when the temperature soared to around 36 degrees F. Our old reliable snow plow is now attached, but I haven’t yet put it into service this year. We’ll wait and see how the winter weather pattern develops.  Perhaps it will be much more mild than last year.

I recently helped a consulting client select a gun vault to give to his son, for his new home. I recently began recommending vaults from Rhino Metals. That is a company located in Caldwell, Idaho. They are now one of our affiliate advertisers. Rhino is currently offering a 15% discount on their safes and 25% off all their safe accessories. When sales like that come along, I encourage folks to jump on them. My client says that he will be not only helping his son and daughter-in-law with the vault purchase, but also by stocking it well with a variety of investment tangibles, primarily for his grand-kids. A wise and oft-quoted old American saying: “Don’t keep all your eggs in one basket.”

Avalanche Lily Reports:

Most of our family was down with the Common Cold this week. But early in the week I took the one-hour drive to town for shopping errands and made a special trip to a Dollar Store. There, my goal was to stock us up on some additional first aid supplies. These included: An ice pack bottle, several three-packs of 2-ounce dispensers of hand sanitizer (also useful for kindling fires), some foam toe bandages, 10 packs of paper dust masks, rolls of bandage gauze, boxes of individually-packaged alcohol prep pads, rolls of waterproof bandage tape, and some 4-packs of single use 1/2-gram Super Glue (CA glue) tubes. That glue is quite handy for wound closure. Total expense: $34.

I’m hopeful that we’ll get over these colds and be more productive, next week!

– Jim & Avalanche Lily, Rawles

 

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The Survivalist’s Odds ‘n Sods:

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SurvivalBlog presents another edition of The Survivalist’s Odds ‘n Sods— a collection of news bits and pieces that are relevant to the modern survivalist and prepper from “HJL”. Survivalrealty has a great California location with an Atlas shelter on the property this week.

Public Schools Again

In yet another example of why public schools are a total loss, a West Point High School teacher in Virginia was fired for refusing to use the politically correct gender pronoun that a very troubled and mentally ill student decided that they wanted to use. The student was a biological female, yet decided to identify as a male. While the teacher was agreeable to calling the student by her actual name, it wasn’t good enough and the student along with the administration demanded that the teacher suspend reality and refer to the student by her chosen pronoun.

Other students at the school have staged a walkout in protest, but to no avail. This is a disturbing trend that we have allowed to take hold in these Marxist/Socialist indoctrination centers as up to three percent of ninth and eleventh graders are gender nonconforming at this point. Get out while you can! Thanks to D.S. for the link.

Global SitRep

Reader G.P. sent in this article by Patrick Buchanan that gives an interesting global sitrep. As we enter the next two years of Trump’s presidency, the U.S. will basically be paralyzed politically as the Democrats go after Trump with everything they have. Europe’s leaders are also similarly paralyzed due to various political maladies that affect each of their nations. England is consumed with Brexit, France is burning with globalization, Germany is swamped with immigrants, Poland and Hungary are at odds with Brussels and Europe is drowning in Muslim immigrants. It’s not a pretty thing.

Continue reading“The Survivalist’s Odds ‘n Sods:”

The Editors’ Quote of the Day:

“Then Joseph could not refrain himself before all them that stood by him; and he cried, Cause every man to go out from me. And there stood no man with him, while Joseph made himself known unto his brethren. And he wept aloud: and the Egyptians and the house of Pharaoh heard.” – Genesis 45:1-2 (KJV)

Preparedness Notes for Friday – December 14, 2018

December 14th is the birthday of the late John Warren Wadleigh (born 1927, died September 24, 2013). Wadleigh was better known to many SurvivalBlog readers by his pen name– Oliver Lange. He was the author of the best-selling resistance warfare novel Vandenberg.

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SurvivalBlog Writing Contest

This has been another entry for Round 80 of the SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing contest. The nearly $11,000 worth of prizes for this round include:

First Prize:

  1. A $3000 gift certificate towards a Sol-Ark Solar Generator from Veteran owned Portable Solar LLC. The only EMP Hardened Solar Generator System available to the public.
  2. A Gunsite Academy Three Day Course Certificate. This can be used for any one, two, or three day course (a $1,095 value),
  3. A course certificate from onPoint Tactical for the prize winner’s choice of three-day civilian courses, excluding those restricted for military or government teams. Three day onPoint courses normally cost $795,
  4. DRD Tactical is providing a 5.56 NATO QD Billet upper. These have hammer forged, chrome-lined barrels and a hard case, to go with your own AR lower. It will allow any standard AR-type rifle to have a quick change barrel. This can be assembled in less than one minute without the use of any tools. It also provides a compact carry capability in a hard case or in 3-day pack (an $1,100 value),
  5. Two cases of Mountain House freeze-dried assorted entrees in #10 cans, courtesy of Ready Made Resources (a $350 value),
  6. A $250 gift certificate good for any product from Sunflower Ammo,
  7. American Gunsmithing Institute (AGI) is providing a $300 certificate good towards any of their DVD training courses.

Second Prize:

  1. A Model 175 Series Solar Generator provided by Quantum Harvest LLC (a $439 value),
  2. A Glock form factor SIRT laser training pistol and a SIRT AR-15/M4 Laser Training Bolt, courtesy of Next Level Training, which have a combined retail value of $589,
  3. A gift certificate for any two or three-day class from Max Velocity Tactical (a $600 value),
  4. A Three-Day Deluxe Emergency Kit from Emergency Essentials (a $190 value),
  5. Two 1,000-foot spools of full mil-spec U.S.-made 750 paracord (in-stock colors only) from www.TOUGHGRID.com (a $240 value).
  6. An assortment of products along with a one hour consultation on health and wellness from Pruitt’s Tree Resin (a $265 value).

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, LLC,
  5. Mayflower Trading is donating a $200 gift certificate for homesteading appliances.

Round 80 ends on January 31st, so get busy writing and e-mail us your entry. Remember that there is a 1,500-word minimum, and that articles on practical “how to” skills for survival have an advantage in the judging.

A Year in Central America- Part 2, by G.P.

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A Preview of a Local or National Slide Into Poverty

We are taking a look at Central American countries, primarily Honduras, for a preview of some of what our own experience might be following a local or national slide into poverty. What might the United States look like? How do ordinary people cope with this situation? We are looking for lessons. However, some readers may also be looking at another country suitable for establishing self sufficiency and simple living. We’ll continue to take a look at Honduras with these two objectives in mind.

More Stories of Crime

A retired American living in a small Honduran village told of the hamlet’s problems with a young robber. The robber and a confederate had tried to rob his wife one evening and fired after her truck when she wouldn’t stop. The tailgate still had several bullet strikes. Eventually, the villain beat up a teenage boy and stole his cell phone.

The boy and his older brother came to the robber’s house. His brother told the man’s parents to stay out of it, walked back to the room where the thief was sitting in a hammock, and confronted him. “This is the guy that hit you?” “Yes.” “This is your phone?” “Yes.” At the second answer, the older brother drew a pistol and shot the robber. Then, he turned and left the house. Nothing came of it; everyone knew what had happened and knew that the bandit had to be dealt with.

Continue reading“A Year in Central America- Part 2, by G.P.”