Preparedness Notes for Tuesday — January 7, 2020

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January 7th, 1963 was the birthday of Senator Rand Paul.

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This is also the birthday of Cresson Kearny (born 1914, died December 18, 2003)

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SurvivalBlog Writing Contest

Today we present another entry for Round 86 of the SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing contest. The more than $12,000 worth of prizes for this round include:

First Prize:

  1. A $3,000 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 gift certificate from Quantum Harvest LLC (up to a $2,200 value) good for 12% off the purchase of any of their sun-tracking models, and 10% off the purchase price of any of their other models.
  2. A Front Sight Lifetime Diamond Membership, providing lifetime free training at any Front Sight Nevada course, with no limit on repeating classes. This prize is courtesy of a SurvivalBlog reader who prefers to be anonymous.
  3. 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,
  4. A $300 purchase credit for any of the products from EMPShield.com
  5. A Three-Day Deluxe Emergency Kit from Emergency Essentials (a $190 value),
  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).
  7. 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. Good2GoCo.com is providing a $400 purchase credit at regular prices for the prize winner’s choice of either Wise Foods or Augason long term storage foods, in stackable buckets.
  2. Three sets each of made-in-USA regular and wide-mouth reusable canning lids. (This is a total of 300 lids and 600 gaskets.) This prize is courtesy of Harvest Guard (a $270 value)
  3. A Royal Berkey water filter, courtesy of Directive 21 (a $275 value),
  4. Expanded sets of both washable feminine pads and liners, donated by Naturally Cozy (a $185 retail value),
  5. Two Super Survival Pack seed collections, a $150 value, courtesy of Seed for Security, LLC,
  6. Mayflower Trading is donating a $200 gift certificate for homesteading appliances.

Round 86 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.


18 Comments

    1. Bedford, Dr. Ron Paul is the most honorable, liberty-minded person who served in the U.S. government that I know. He continues to be one of the greatest advocates for peace, liberty and the unborn today.

      1. I have admired Ron Paul ever since he spoke out against the travesty leading up to attacking Iraq. And against the ensuing occupation. Courageous.

        Carry on

  4. I have always agreed with the Pauls on their diagnosis of the problems in America. The debt. Too many foreign entanglements, etc.

    I have not necessarily agreed with their treatment of this “disease”. I don’t think that they have presented a phased approach to fixing the issues. At least I have never heard it. IMO you cannot just cut all your spending and pull out of all of our alliances in a day. I think you have to do things in a more gradual way or you will kill the patient.

    In the realm of spending, I think Bowles/Simpson (if anyone remembers that) was a good (although admittedly imperfect) plan to start tackling spending. (It was DOA.) Sequester, although a dirty word, was actually more effective than advertised although flawed. I know of no proposal to phase us out of our over reaching foreign policies that has been proposed.

    That said, I think at least on the debt side, at some point we will reach a point where a phased approach will not be plausible anymore and we will be forced to cut radically and suddenly causing financial chaos. That of course is what so many are prepping for, including myself.

    1. Who could be a better consigliere to Rand Paul than his father? The problem with Ron Paul has always been that no one wanted to listen. Most bureaucrats and politicians don’t want to willingly give up their power and their imagined self importance.

      1: Abortion. It morally wrong unless the mother would die without one. Ron has said this over and over again. On the other hand, it’s between the woman and her mate, the woman and her family, the woman and her doctor, the woman and her minister, the woman and her God. I don’t see a place for government to have an opinion, let alone write law.

      2: Government debt. There are at least 5 unconstitutional departments in the US government. Move the few constitutional functions to departments that fall within the purview of the constitution and kill the rest. Then go through each department, look at those agencies, bureaus, committees, boards, etc, that do not fall within the limits of the constitution and kill them. End the permanent bureaucracy, term limits for bureaucrats, no pensions other than a 401K. We could cut the employees of the USG by a million or more in a freaking heartbeat, within a single year. The total employment would easily be cut in half within 2 years. That would be 2 million bureaucrats not being paid by We the People. That would be over $500 Billion directly cut from the budget.

      Pay off the debt. The USG has $200 Trillion in assets at market value. Surely we could find buyers for $23 Trillion worth of stuff over a relatively short period of time. Paying off the debt would cut the budget by another $500 Billion by not having any interest to pay. From then on, no deficit spending, and no borrowing, not even in time of war.

      The budget in then in a real tangible surplus (not the imaginary surpluses of the Clinton administration). There should be no need to borrow money, from anyone.

      3: Social Security and Medicare. They can be phased out over the next thirty years or so. No new people paying into the system. Buyouts for those who are willing to accept it, including those who are already on it. Selling more of those assets, over time, the key words being “over time”, pays for the buyouts.

      4: Foreign policy. This one is easy. We have a constitutional foreign policy. It is called neutrality. We are supposed to have jealously guarded, vigorously defended, foreign policy of neutrality. We used to be the biggest, bad-ass, neutral country on the planet. We were literally that shining city on the hill, the country every other country wanted to emulate. We were the leader of the free world. The free world being the world of neutral countries.

      Show me, in OUR constitution, where the States granted the authority to the general government (the USG) to spend American blood, the blood of our sons and daughters, brothers and sisters, mothers and fathers, and even grand mothers and grand fathers, to defend a state that is NOT one of THESE United States. While we’re at it, show me in OUR constitution where the States granted the authority to the general government, to spend American treasure, the treasure of the citizens, to defend a state that is NOT one of THESE United States. The same goes for foreign aid; show me where the states granted the authority to the general government, to take money, in the form of taxes, to give to the government of a state that is NOT one of THESE United States.

      5: Taxes. That too is easy. Regardless of the 16th amendment, an income tax is not only immoral, it’s actually unconstitutional. The 16th is a direct violation of the 13th amendment. For the government to tax the product of your labor, is for the government to stake a claim of ownership of your labor, that without due process of law (no crime, no trial, no conviction, just a sentence).

    2. Hey JBH, I’m pretty sure we’ve already passed the point where a phased approach on the debt side is plausible. Looking at the Congressional Budget Office’s 2019 review, it took 80% of federal revenues just to pay for social security (and medicare, etc.) and interest on the national debt. That left $708 billion, and the Pentagon took 96% of that, leaving just $32 billion to run the entire rest of the federal government. That was impossible so they had to borrow another trillion dollars. If you run your social security report, there’s a note on page 2 that says in 2034 they’re going to have to cut your check back to 78% of what they’re estimating your benefit will be, unless Congress gets off their butts and does something soon. (The CBO puts this date at 2032.) There’s no way Congress is going to do anything because if they cut current benefits like they need to if they want to save the Ponzi scheme from collapse, they’ll lose the vote of old folks. There’s no way they’re going to raise current payroll taxes like they need to because they’ll lose the vote of the working folks. So they won’t do anything until the system is teetering on the verge of collapse.

      So I agree with you, if they ever do make any cuts to government, it will only be radically and suddenly. But IMHO, it will be before 2032 and not over social security.

      1. Don’t be taken in by this. SS pays for itself. You may not like it or not like paying SS but it is a self supporting system. Ditto for Medicare. The Democrats and some Republicans voted to roll the SS funds into the general fund for exactly the reason that you and others would be fooled and think it is a “general funds expenditure”.

        1. OneGuy, in 2019 Uncle Sam only collected a total of $1.243 trillion in payroll taxes (FICA) but paid out $2.09 trillion in SS, medicare, and medicaid. That’s from the CBO’s report looking back on how the 2019 budget actually played out compared to projections. The demographics are getting worse every year so those numbers will continue to worsen. I don’t personally care what happens one way or the other, I’m simply pointing out where we’re headed mathematically. JMO but it’s not relevant where these funds are “located,” it’s all funny money to begin with and when it’s time to pay the piper, our social security checks will bounce just as high whether the funds are coming from the general fund or from a social security fund.

          1. Starting in the late 50’s the federal government began taking money from the SS trust fund and giving them “notes”. The federal government owes the SS trust fund about $4 trillion now. So the SS and Medicare system still has plenty of money.

            Now I ask you how much did welfare recipients contribute to a “trust” fund to pay welfare?

            ALSO not all of Medicares funding comes from payroll taxes. The retiree pays a substantial premium every month for their Medicare. How much premium does a Medicaid patient pay? AND in addition every medicare patient pays 20% co-pay of the payment for medical services, how much does the Medicaid patient pay for co-pay.

            I am telling you that you are being sold a lot of BS about SS and Medicare.

        2. I do not claim to be an expert, however I have studied this matter extensively and this is the situation as I understand it.

          SS has been self supporting until recent years. Payroll taxes formerly came in that exceeded payments going out. Any excess that comes in is placed in the General Fund. In return a government bond is written against this amount and placed in the SS Trust Fund as a future obligation from the General Fund.

          The situation is now reversing. Payments out are beginning to exceed revenue coming in. To deal with this situation and keep payments at current full levels, bonds within the Trust Fund are cashed. Bear in mind that the excess payroll tax money was already spent so the bonds have to be redeemed by general taxes, printing money or borrowing money. There is no pile of money somewhere for this and even if there was it would not have been in circulation and would have had other economic repercussions. However the way current law is written, as long as there are bonds in the Trust Fund, the government is statutorily required to redeem these bonds and keep payments full. When the Trust Fund is depleted, the government has no obligation to keep payments at the current full level. They are only obligated to distribute the payroll taxes they collect.

          The official estimate is that the Trust Fund will be depleted by 2034. It is estimated that payroll taxes at that time will cover 78-79% of what would have been “full” coverage. That is all the government will be obligated to cover.

          What happens after that is anyone’s guess.

          A simpler but reasonably accurate explanation of the Trust Fund is this. Imagine every pay day you take $100 and put it aside for retirement. Except you then borrow that $100 from yourself and spend it on other things and in exchange you write yourself an IOU for $100 and put it in a drawer. When you are ready to retire you pull out the IOUs…and pay yourself back???With what??? As nuts as that sounds, that is truly the SS Trust Fund.

          Why the accounting games? Because when SS was sold to the public, they were told they were saving for their OWN retirement and so the money had to go somewhere where it was supposedly being saved. So this accounting nonsense was invented to provide the illusion your money was being saved when in fact it was being spent and an IOU was being written against it. If the public had been told they were just paying for everyone else’s retirement and then someone else would have to pay for theirs it is likely they would have strung up their congressmen.

          1. Why do you suppose that suddenly SS payments exceed SS taxes? The single biggest factor is immigration. The government is quietly giving SS to immigrants who never put a penny into the SS system. To my knowledge this began under President Carter who gave SS to all of those who came from Cuba on the Mariel boatlift. Now it is everyone who comes here. If an immigrant or refugee comes to the U.S. and through chain migration brings in someone over age 65 that person can apply for SS — YOUR SS dollars.

  5. I like Rand Paul but he has his John McCain moments and seems to work against the country when that happens. He is like Susan Collins in that way, kind of a lose cannon.

  6. Always liked, and have respect for Rand Paul & Ron Paul, both From a school of Common Sense & Humility. They both approach some issues in a manner I disagree with though.
    If the American Redoubt is to be the birthplace of the “new improved” America, it’s really pretty simple – FOLLOW the Constitution – PERIOD. It ain’t that hard!
    The difficulty comes from the average person NOT knowing what’s in it. Primarily because our education system does not teach it, and they don’t teach it for a reason. Sheep and uninformed /unaware are easy to herd and do what you want with. That’s been the plan all along.
    If it should unfold in a manner similar to this it would be wise to review the Amendments, dispensing some and perhaps including some of those JWR touched on in one of his first books (I can’t remember which one now.)

  7. Who could be a better consigliere to Rand Paul than his father? The problem with Ron Paul, or Rand for that matter, has always been that no one wanted to listen. Most bureaucrats and politicians don’t want to willingly give up their power and their imagined self importance.

    1: Abortion. It morally wrong unless the mother would die without one. Ron has said this over and over again. On the other hand, it’s between the woman and her mate, the woman and her family, the woman and her doctor, the woman and her minister, the woman and her God. I don’t see a place for government to have an opinion, let alone write law.

    2: Government debt. There are at least 5 unconstitutional departments in the US government. Move the few constitutional functions to departments that fall within the purview of the constitution and kill the rest. Then go through each department, look at those agencies, bureaus, committees, boards, etc, that do not fall within the limits of the constitution and kill them. End the permanent bureaucracy, term limits for bureaucrats, no pensions other than a 401K. We could cut the employees of the USG by a million or more in a freaking heartbeat, within a single year. The total employment would easily be cut in half within 2 years. That would be 2 million bureaucrats not being paid by We the People. That would be over $500 Billion directly cut from the budget.

    Pay off the debt. The USG has $200 Trillion in assets at market value. Surely we could find buyers for $23 Trillion worth of stuff over a relatively short period of time. Paying off the debt would cut the budget by another $500 Billion by not having any interest to pay. From then on, no deficit spending, and no borrowing, not even in time of war.

    The budget is then in a real tangible surplus (not the imaginary surpluses of the Clinton administration). There should be no need to borrow money, from anyone.

    3: Social Security and Medicare. They can be phased out over the next thirty years or so. No new people paying into the system. Buyouts for those who are willing to accept it, including those who are already on it. Selling more of those assets, over time, the key words being “over time”, pays for the buyouts.

    4: Foreign policy. This one is easy. We have a constitutional foreign policy. It is called neutrality. We are supposed to have a jealously guarded, vigorously defended, foreign policy of neutrality. We used to be the biggest, bad-ass, neutral country on the planet. We were literally that shining city on the hill, the country every other country wanted to emulate. We were the leader of the free world. The free world being the world of neutral countries.

    Show me, in OUR constitution, where the States granted the authority to the general government (the USG) to spend American blood, the blood of our sons and daughters, brothers and sisters, mothers and fathers, and even grand mothers and grand fathers, to defend a state that is NOT one of THESE United States. While we’re at it, show me in OUR constitution where the States granted the authority to the general government, to spend American treasure, the treasure of the citizens, to defend a state that is NOT one of THESE United States. The same goes for foreign aid; show me where the states granted the authority to the general government, to take money from the citizens, in the form of taxes, to give to the government of a state that is NOT one of THESE United States.

    5: Taxes. That too is easy. Regardless of the 16th amendment, an income tax is not only immoral, it’s actually unconstitutional. The 16th is a direct violation of the 13th amendment. For the government to tax the product of your labor, is for the government to stake a claim of ownership of your labor, that without due process of law (no crime, no trial, no conviction, just a sentence).

    If the USG cuts enough spending, an income tax is not necessary. We could go back to the constitutional taxes of tariffs and excises. These are basically taxes on your purchases, based on the value of whatever you purchase, and taxes you can control. You see, tariffs aren’t a bad thing if that is the only method of taxing the people. Oh, and those tariffs should only be on imports, not on exports, like how it was before and during the dark times under the dictator LIncoln.

    There is more but that is enough for now. These are not my ideas. These are the ideas of Dr. Paul (Ron) and the other Austrian economists. These are the things the good doctor was talking about on the campaign trail in both 2008 and 2012. These are also the thoughts of the other Dr. Paul (Rand). Unfortunately, no one wanted to actually listen to the these good men.

    As an aside: For those of you who find something wrong with libertarianism, you are not listening to actual libertarians. Always remember, and never forget, if it walks like a leftist, and it talks like a leftist, it’s a leftist. There are “right” libertarians, and there are “left” libertarians. The left libertarians are just the left, no different than AOC or Bernie Sanders. This is also not original to me, it’s original to the Bionic Mosquito (look him up then start reading). Finally, being libertarian (on principle, little “l” libertarian) and being Libertarian (a party hack, capital “L” Libertarian) are not the same thing. The Libertarian Party really, really sucks. Libertarianism as a philosophy does not suck.

  8. The other guy mentioned:
    (Cresson) “Kearny’s most notable work is Nuclear War Survival Skills (NWSS). It describes civil defense research to determine the methods for ordinary citizens to build effective expedient shelters in a short period of time.
    It includes “MacGyver-like” plans for the Kearny air pump (KAP), Kearny fallout meter (KFM) and blast doors designed to be published in a newspaper prior to an attack. This book is in the public domain and is available for purchase, as well as ~~~~>free download online,~~~ from the Oregon Institute of Science and Medicine.

    His other works include Jungle Snafus … and Remedies, a book on the history of development of specialized equipment for use by military forces in jungle regions, and Will Civil Defense Work?

    Bibliography
    Jungle Snafus…And Remedies, Oregon Institute of Science and Medicine (1996), ISBN 1-884067-10-7
    Nuclear War Survival Skills ISBN 0-942487-01-X
    The KFM, A Homemade Yet Accurate and Dependable Fallout Meter (Co-author) ORNL-5040, January 1978
    Will Civil Defense Work?, Greenhaven Press, June 1985, ISBN 99968-1-553-6″
    [Wikipedia]

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