The Editors’ Quote of the Day:

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“You really don’t understand. We don’t worry about What counts is that many millions of people have the knowledge that they can go to a weapon shop if they want to protect themselves and their families. And, even more important, the forces that would normally try to enslave them are restrained by the conviction that it is dangerous to press people too far. And so a great balance has been struck between those who govern and those who are governed.”
Cayle stared at her in bitter disappointment. “You mean that a person has to save himself? Even when you get a gun you have to nerve yourself to resist? Nobody is there to help you?”
It struck him with a pang that she must have told him this in order to show him why she couldn’t help him.
Lucy spoke again. “I can see that what I’ve told you is a great disappointment to you. But that’s the way it is. And I think you’ll realize that’s the way it has to be. When a people lose the courage to resist.”  A.E. Van Vogt, in The Weapon Shops of Isher

Preparedness Notes for Tuesday – July 31, 2018

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July 31st, 1921, was the birthday of Army Air Corps veteran David Thatcher, one of the Doolittle Raiders. Thatcher was the tail gunner in the rear of the Mitchell B-25 medium bomber christened the Ruptured Duck, the seventh of 16 planes. Returning from the raid, the bomber crashed into the sea from low fuel and the crewmen survived, in no small part to Thatcher’s heroic efforts. The five airmen washed ashore and were given aid by Chinese fishermen who found them. Thatcher bound their wounds and being the only crewman able to walk, joined with armed guerrillas to carry the other crewmen to a hospital while evading Japanese troops. He lived in Missoula, Montana.

The Superior Crypto IRA, of Which You’ve Never Heard

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Cryptocurrency IRAs have become a major interest in our industry. The problems with these programs are numerous, mainly that you, the client, are not in control. These are centralized schemes that do not empower the individual. What’s worse is the fees are an astronomical 15-20% or more of your entire investment portfolio! You are limited in your investments, and most importantly you do not have access, control, or custody of the assets. With Perpetual Assets IRA LLC, you have it all, for a flat, affordable fee.

If You Don’t Hold It, You Don’t Own It

What happens with a crisis in confidence or the next banking crisis? Planning for these events are many investors’ main reasons for investing in cryptocurrency as we enter a new financial paradigm and move away from government-issued fiat currencies. Even if your centralized IRA crypto is insured, you still have a third party between you and your assets. If you don’t hold it, you don’t own it.

Counterparty risk will be a key buzzword in the coming financial turmoil. Think Bernie Madoff, only widespread, with numerous claims on the same asset, not to mention the insurance covers a U.S. dollar valuation at the time of loss. Even if your loss is made whole by a third party insurer, how long will it take to be paid, and what will happen to crypto prices in that timeframe? More importantly, what will happen to the value of the fiat currency in said timeframe?

Crypto Assets in Your Possession

Perpetual Assets IRA LLC is truly decentralized, a mechanism that the entire existence of crypto is built upon. This empowers the people, by and for the people, not financial institutions, custodians, and trustees. This platform allows you to control the storage of your crypto assets in your possession. This obviously eliminates counterparty risk but also provides you easy and fast access to your digital assets should you want to trade or take profits.

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SurvivalBlog’s News From The American Redoubt

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 leather craftsman Norm Schertenlieb.

 

Idaho

First, over at Redoubt News: No Thanks, Senator Risch

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Big beards!  The 50 year-old rock band ZZ Top will be performing at The Festival at Sandpoint, on August 4th.

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Northwest of Boise: Mesa Fire grows overnight to nearly 15,000 acres. Here is a quote: New mandatory evacuations have been issued for the Cottonwood area and voluntary evacuations have been issued for the South Exeter area of Adams County due to the Mesa Fire, which is burning just off Highway 95 about four miles south of Council.

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Mass stabbing suspect summoned Boise police to jail before his attorneys intervened

 

Montana

Young Grizzly Bear Moved to Cabinet-Yaak Ecosystem to Help Boost Population

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News from Glacier Park International Airport: Busy Skies, Full Seats

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I recently met a quite skilled leather craftsman who lives in Great Falls, Montana. His name is Norm Schertenlieb. He makes some great leather holsters. His specialty is a quasi-shoulder holster that is also belt supported. It is an ideal design for comfortable field carry (but not concealed carry) of heavy frame big bore pistols and revolvers, such as .454 Casulls, various .45/.410 revolvers, and the monstrous .500 S&W X-frame wheelguns. He also makes holsters for a wide variety of smaller pistols and revolvers.

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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”. I’m finally understanding why our young people are so enthralled by socialism today.

Socialism

If you’re wondering why socialism seems to be OK with the new generation, it’s because of articles like this one. Remember, these are generally people who have never experienced the horrors of socialism and places like Venezuela and Argentina are far away. They’ve never seen people starving in mass and they have a view that even in poverty you can have a 100 inch flat screen TV and two cars. According to the article you can relax, the money won’t run out and the health care will remain the best in the world. Socialism is the new buzzword that conservatives use to scare you away from the Democratic party. Thanks to R.E. for the link.

Stand Your Ground

Reader T.P. sent in this article that shows how CNN is mangling the so-called “Stand Your Ground” laws yet again. While CNN claims that “Stand Your Ground” cases of self-defense are more complicated, they miss the boat completely. Actually self-defense cases are much simpler to evaluate. In a normal cases, you have to be evaluated on five criteria: innocence, imminence, proportionality, reasonableness, and avoidance. SYG laws simply remove the last criteria of “avoidance” making the evaluation easier for all involved. They also don’t seem to know that while SYG laws are only in 26 states, all states have some form of self-defense laws in place. Furthermore, they link SYG laws with racism. Once again CNN shows why all reasonable people don’t watch their news.

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Preparedness Notes for Monday – July 30, 2018

Today we remember the birthday of author Reginald Bretnor. He was born Alfred Reginald Kahn on July 30, 1911, in Vladivostok. He died on July 22, 1992 in Medford, Oregon. In addition to penning many witty science fiction novels and short stories in his characteristic style, he also wrote nonfiction articles for Mel Tappan’s P.S. Letter

Ruger/Black Hills Ammunition, Mark IV 22/45 Lite Edition, by Pat Cascio

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If you don’t have a .22 LR firearm in your survival battery, you should! We look today at an extremely limited, rare edition, of the Ruger Mark IV 22/45 pistol.

Survival Firearm

For more than 40 years now, folks have been asking me what type or kind of firearm should they purchase first for survival. Others ask if they only have funds to purchase one firearm, period, what would it be. My answer has changed, with knowledge, and I’m sure a lot of folks will disagree with me. For the longest time now, I’ve been recommending that folks purchase a good .22 LR rifle or handgun, if that’s all you have the funds for. Now, when we talk about “survival” it can mean a lot of different things to a lot of people.

If you are a bush pilot in Alaska, you will surely want something in a larger caliber if your plane goes down in bear infested areas. If you’re out walking a wilderness trail on a Sunday afternoon with only a fanny pack, you might think a .22 LR handgun is a good choice for fending for yourself if you get lost. Look, before all the hate mail comments start pouring in, there is no right or wrong answer here. This is just my take on it.

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Economics & Investing For Preppers

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Here are the latest 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 off-road pickups and SUVs. (See the Tangibles Investing Section.)

 

Precious Metals:

Horwitz: Gold’s Groundhog Day

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The Road To War: Buying Fear – Gold

 

Commodities and Currencies:

Commodities Recap For The Week Of June 29, 2018

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Weekly Report Week 30 – Gold, Copper, CRB, Oil, Euro, Dollar

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Gunsmith Training: Unboxing and Familiarization, by R2

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I started with AGI’s Professional Gunsmith Course – Level 1. This base course is listed at $4,997, but I have seen it with significant discounts on sale. I’m currently looking at a catalog that has pretty much everything in their inventory at a 30% off price. However, this catalog and its prices has already expired.

How You Find Deals

So how do you find out about these deals? Well, you have to get on their mailing list, for starters. Fair warning though, AGI is excellent at marketing, and they very seldom let a sales lead slip through the cracks. I know this annoys many people, but as a self-employed person I really respect the marketing effort. If you’re on the list, you will receive a ton of promotional material, both through the mail and email.

You don’t really have to worry about them going out of business, because they aggressively recruit. You need to sign up for their informational kit, placing yourself on their list in order to catch the sales. Otherwise, you will be paying full price.

Having just had a child that went through the college selection process not too long ago, I will say that AGI’s marketing is no different that most brick and mortar colleges. I don’t let it get under my skin..

They send new product announcements and also coupons, enabling you to purchase at a discount. Not too long ago, they retired a number of videos and you are able to pick those up at a deal as well.

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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 TSA is at it again, this time tracking domestic travel of U.S. citizens.

Farmlands Documentary

The official documentary that Lauren Southern has been working on has been released. Farmlands (2018) documents the plight of South African white farmers as they receive pressure from both the government and the black population. The documentary covers the false promises of equality and the corruption and lies of the government as well as the actions of local communities. The documentary is a little over an hour long and is well worth watching. Despite being held up by the left as a paragon of justice, the South African movement is a debacle on the order of Zimbabwe. Thanks to D.B. for the link.

The Cost of Illegals

Reader H.L. sent in this article that details the financial burden of illegal immigration on United States taxpayers. Of particular interest is the data that shows that when you include both the federal and the state costs, you end up with a total cost of almost $135 billion to service an estimated 12.5 million illegal aliens. But those same immigrants, if they all paid taxes, would only bring in around $19 billion in combined taxes. That leaves a shortfall of $116 billion that you, the American taxpayer has to pick up. The article breaks the tax expenditures down so it’s easy to see where the money goes.

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The Editors’ Quote of the Day:

“And one of the scribes came, and having heard them reasoning together, and perceiving that he had answered them well, asked him, Which is the first commandment of all? And Jesus answered him, The first of all the commandments is, Hear, O Israel; The Lord our God is one Lord: and thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength: this is the first commandment.” – Mark 12:28-30 (KJV)