SurvivalBlog’s News From The American Redoubt

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Here is SurvivalBlog’s News From The American Redoubt. This weekly column features news stories and event announcements from around the American Redoubt region. We also mention companies of interest to preppers that are located in the region. The emphasis this week is on Shield Arms, In Montana.

 

Idaho

I just noticed that Quest Aircraft Company in Sandpoint, Idaho has several job openings. These include a Junior Electrical Engineer, a machinist, a Junior Assembler, and a Customer Care Representative.

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Boise: Stabbing suspect was released from prison four months ago

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25-year-old Lewiston man dies from accidental gunshot on hunting trip

 

 

Montana (Shield Arms)

Shield Arms in Bigfork, Montana is already well-known for their milled pistol magazine extensions. They have now branched out and are marketing purpose-built folding AR-15 lowers. Unlike most other folding AR arrangements, the Shield Arms folding mechanism is built in to the lower.  Because of this, there is no need to use a special buffer. A standard M4 buffer works just fine. Check out their site!

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Via a consulting client, I heard about an unusual Montana company that is worthy of mention: Kootenai River Ammuntion, in the town of Libby. From a Montana business development web site:  “Kootenai River Ammunition (KRA) is a northwest Montana based ammunition manufacturer. Our ammo is 100% designed and manufactured by shooters and hunters in Libby. It is meticulously tested and built from the best US-made components with a single goal in mind: to provide ammunition that will ensure shooters consistent accuracy, dependability, and maximum performance. We are a one-of-a-kind ammunition company as we were started by Libby Christian Church to impact our community by providing sustainable jobs. Christian values, family, and community are at the heart of our business as we strive to serve our customers, employees and communities. KRA is an independently run, yet wholly owned, subsidiary of Libby Christian Church.” Contact: Chad Collins: (406) 293-7788.
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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”. Taking another look at the classifieds reveals some neat communications equipment.

Skin Deep

SurvivalBlog Reader D.S. sent in this comment on the UK’s moral failure concerning Asia Bibi (The Pakistani Christian woman who spent 8 years on death row for her faith).

In Britain, both moral outrage and Christian faith have become shallow. Their cultural dilution is in part due to their former empire, in part due to current PC attitudes which preclude favoring historical and traditional values, and both are magnified by the Euro-Central-globalism of the recent generation. The treatment of ‘Tommy Robinson’ shows the depth of the rot in courts and Parliament.

This epic failure of their refusal to offer Asia Bibi asylum demonstrates the governmental fear of the enemy within.

Police Officer Stabbed

As one astute SurvivalBlog commenter noted recently, It’s not just the radical Islamists that are the problem. Islam is a political ideology masquerading as a religion. A SurvivalBlog reader sent in this article on the trial of one attempted police murderer. The perpetrator stabbed the police officer while shouting the usual murderous scream (something about their demon god is great or something like that.) During the trial, the only remorse shown by the person was when he found out that the man he stabbed didn’t die. This brought tears to his face. He cried because his mission was a failure. He also noted that the reason for his attack was because of the U.S. government’s support for Israel.

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The Editors’ Quote of the Day:

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“China clearly has its sights set on world hegemony. The attitude of oriental superiority over the occidental bourgeoisie has long pervaded China and even predates Russian predatory tendencies. Realistic analysts who have long experience with both Russia and China know that neither will long be subservient to the other. Russia and China may attempt to use each other for short-term gain, but will eventually tangle for ultimate supremacy.

For the present, Russia and China are teaming up against the West in a new unilateral quest for arms. This is no surprise. The Russians have been arming China, off and on, since the Chinese Communists came to power under Chairman Mao. But now, the Chinese are playing both sides of the fence, East and West. Knowing that Russia is willing to supply it with plentiful quantities of second-rate equipment, China is looking toward the West for advanced American technology and funding in order to upgrade its Soviet and home-grown equipment.

No nation on earth is building military power faster than China, but it has further to go, so it is not yet a threat but it will be our biggest threat in the next decade. In the end, the complacency of other nations regarding China will change into outright terror as the world one day wakes up and finds itself facing a military monster of incredible size and ferocity.

The Chinese already have a formidable land based army of men, tanks and artillery. What it lacks is a world class navy, air transport and missile force, coupled with a sophisticated communications and control system sufficient to extend Chinese power worldwide. That’s no small task to accomplish, but they are rapidly developing all that capacity. They are even ahead of the US in over-the-horizon anti-ship missiles—a real threat to our carriers.

Naturally, China is harnessing its billions in trade dollars supplied by naive American champions of free trade to build their forces. The Chinese leaders are openly derisive of American Republicans who are convinced that peaceful trade will moderate Communism. For the Chinese, war with the West is inevitable. It’s no longer a matter of if, but when!” – Joel Skousen, author of: Strategic Relocation: North American Guide to Safe Places

Kershaw Kitchen Knives, by Pat Cascio

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Survival means different things to different people. Many only think of survival in terms of surviving out in the wilderness. That isn’t the only type of survival. Today, we are looking at a set of kitchen knives from Kershaw Knives and how they will help you survive your daily kitchen chores.

Ernest Emerson- The Real Deal

One of the most famous tactical knife designers in the world is Ernest Emerson. When many hear his name, they immediately think of his line of custom or factory-made tactical knives. They do so with good reason; this is what made Emerson famous. However, many don’t know that Ernest Emerson is also a very accomplished martial artist in his own right, too. In the past, I’ve spent many hours on the phone with Ernest, collecting background information on the theory behind his knives, as well as his martial arts background. Having spent more than 35 years actively involved in the martial arts myself, Emerson and I had a lot to discuss during our phone conversations. You can tell if the person is the real deal or a mall ninja. Emerson is the real thing.

Emerson Knives

Emerson knives have been featured in several TV shows as well as movies, and because of demand he no longer takes orders for his custom, hand-made knives. Instead, he opened his own factory, where his knives are made under Emerson’s close supervision. Now, with that said, even the factory-made Emerson Knives are in short supply. Many times, you will see that his knives are out-of-stock on his own website.

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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 the USD to Euro Ratio. (See the Forex & Cryptos section.)

Public and Private Debt:

U.S. on a Course to Spend More on Debt Than Defense

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And all-time high: Average Credit Card Debt in the U.S. in 2018. JWR’s Comments: When interest rates inevitably rise, installment debt will come back to haunt many Americans. And anyone who has a copious credit card debt who becomes unemployed will be devastated. Get out of debt, folks!

 

Stocks & Global Economy:

After four days of rallying, there was another bear day on Wall Street on Friday (November 9, 2018) –down .77% in one day. JWR’s Comments: Combined with other recent losses, that brought the Dow Jones Index down to the point that ALL of the market gains for 2018 have been wiped out. I hope that my readers had stop loss orders in place! Don’t try to “buy on the dip” on this one, folks. There is a strong smell of bear in the air.

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The “Nightmare Scenario” For Beijing: 50 Million Chinese Apartments Are Empty

 

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The Editors’ Quote of the Day:

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“We would not be able to ignore the greatest threat western nations have faced in modern times – Radical Islamic Fundamentalism. It’s a different world, today. The Cold War and Mutual Assured Destruction almost look like the good old days. The enemy we face today will not go away, metamorphose or quit. We are in a fight to the death.” – The late Jerry Ahern, when asked if he and his wife were to write The Survivalist series today, what changes he would make. (From an interview in 2010.)

Preparedness Notes for Sunday – November 11, 2018

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Today is a very special Veterans Day/Poppy Day. This is the 100th anniversary of the armistice that ended World War I. (Then known as The Great War or quite naively as The War to End All Wars.) The armistice became effective at the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month of 1918. Today, I’m thinking especially of my Great Uncle, Gus Wallach. He was very quiet about his service in World War I. He was a Stanford graduate who became a U.S. Army Lieutenant and fought in the trenches of France. Whenever I asked him about his service, he would start by saying: “War is a terrible thing.” How right he was. – JWR

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SurvivalBlog Writing Contest

Today features another entry for Round 79 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. RepackBox is providing a $300 gift certificate to their site, and
  6. 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).

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 79 ends on November 30th, 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.

The Beginning of the End, by Todd

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An event occurred last week that I want, or more accurately need, to share with others. For me, this feels like a five-alarm warning bell on steroids going off. To my wife and the few friends that I shared this with, it is not a big deal; they just gave me another one of those “Yup, that wouldn’t have happened in the ‘90s” type of reactions. Maybe I’m an alarmist; maybe I’m not. I am just reporting, however, the facts and will let you decide for yourself if there is any revelation in my experience.

About Myself

Before I go into the details, let me briefly tell you about myself so you can understand my context, worldview, and perspective. I am a forty-something Bible-believing Christian, a libertarian conservative, and a prepper. Additionally, I have too many letters after my name to be of much practical help in the event of TEOTWAWKI. While I wish and fantasize about moving back to a small rural community in the heart of the Redoubt, amongst like-minded people, and being able to live self-sufficiently, that is not my calling. Rather I spend approximately 60 percent of the year overseas, am easily found on the Internet and in government and commercial databases, and look, at least on paper, very much like those who would not survive TEOTWAWKI.

Because of work and extensive travel, I have credit cards. The primary card I use was issued by a major U.S.-based bank. I also have this same bank’s credit card issued in Canada and the UK. There is a small checking account attached to the U.S. card where I keep less than $5,000 in case of an emergency while traveling.

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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”. The world’s public schools are at it yet again.

A Surprising Poll

Like many others, I have always assumed that conservative strongholds like Texas have suffered from the migration of leftist/progressive loonies from California or the east coast. The thinking was that these people moving in from the coasts were bringing their liberal values with them as they sought employment opportunities. It was quite surprising to me to learn that that assumption may very well be wrong. I was listening to Ben Shapiro when he profiled a recent poll that measured if a person had been born in Texas or not and if they voted for Cruz or O’Rourke in this election. It would appear that the people moving into Texas are fleeing the liberal/progressive coasts and are actually skewing the results in favor of conservatism. It is the young, new voters that are most liberal. I suspect that has alot to do with the indoctrination centers we call public school. The interesting part of the video starts at about 14:00.

Scotland Public Schools

Scotland is one of the latest countries to openly subvert Christian values through the public schools. According to this article send in by DSV, schools in Scotland will soon be required to teach students LGBT history to prevent “homophobia and transphobia” and to encourage exploration of their own gender identity. The move comes after lawmakers accepted the full recommendations of a working group led by the Time for Inclusive Education (TIE) campaign. There will be no exemptions or opt-outs to the policy. As we’ve said before, get your kids out of these indoctrination centers while you can.

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Preparedness Notes for Saturday – November 10, 2018

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November 10th is remembered in the United States as the “birthday” of the U.S. Marine Corps. Coincidentally, the 10th is also the birthday of the late Mikhail Timofeyevich Kalashnikov, born in 1919, died December 23, 2013. He didn’t design a lot of different guns, but one of his few designs was the prototype for what turned out to be the world’s most widely produced assault rifles. Once an iconic symbol of international communism, the AK’s curved magazine profile has in more recent years become just a symbol of citizens being well-armed.

Guest Post: Silver, The S&P and Sanity, by Gary Christenson

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Silver prices peaked in 2011. The descent has been long and tedious. Perhaps silver prices made an important low on September 11, 2018, like they did on November 21, 2001 at $4.01. That long-term low was twenty cents below the price on September 11, 2001, the day the twin towers fell at free-fall acceleration, which marked the beginning of the silver bull market that launched prices upward by factor of 12.

The S&P 500 Index has risen for over 9 years, from a low of 666 to a high of 2,940. It sits in late October at about 2,641. Massive debt increases, central bank created low interest rates, fiat currency devaluations, stock buybacks and debt based optimism fueled the rally. A correction is occurring.

Sanity: I know of no metric to measure the absence of sanity in the financial world, but if such a metric existed, it would register HIGH! Consider:

  • Official U.S. national debt has increased an average of 8.8% per year since 1971 when President Nixon defaulted on the U.S. promise to exchange dollars for gold. It is not sane to expect the economy to grow a few percent per year while debt grows 8.8% per year. Debt rising faster than economic growth for decades creates dire consequences.
  • Finite World: The world and its resources are finite. Yet we demand expansion and more extraction of resources every year. How sane is exponentially increasing use of commodities in a finite world? How sane is creating exponentially larger quantities of fiat currency and debt in a finite world?
  • Negative Interest Rates: Several European countries promise, in ten years, to repay a smaller number of devalued euros than the amount borrowed. If you want fewer euros than you loaned, and will wait ten years, and understand the repaid euros in ten years will be worth far less than current euros… step forward. Crazy!
  • Nuclear War: Mutually Assured Destruction—MAD. Building bigger and more deadly nuclear bombs at huge expense accomplishes what? Encouraging guaranteed global destruction is not sane.

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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

Dear SurvivalBlog Readers:

This past week was fairly quiet at the Rawles Ranch. As expected, rain transitioned to snow showers.  I went ahead and attached our Western brand snow plow to our pickup, as usual. Also per my seasonal SOP, I loaded 350 pounds of sand (in long cylindrical bags) into the back of the pickup bed, to provide counterbalance and some extra traction, for plowing. To keep those tube sand bags from shifting, I use a 2×10 plank that is cut to the width of the pickup bed. The plank sits at an angle, braced up against the back of the protruding wheel wells. With the sand bags in place, that plank doesn’t budge and the sand bags all stay back near the tailgate, where they belong. Courtesy of the good folks at the local Les Schwab tire store, the pickup is already wearing studded snow tires. (I keep a complete set, on rims, for the seasonal swap.)

It feels good to be ready to plow snow.  I’ve only been faked out a couple of years out of the past 12 here at the ranch. In those two years the snows were so light that I didn’t have to plow at all. But such years are the exception rather than the rule.

Such is life, north of the 45th Parallel.

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