Author Archives: Commander Zero

Fifth columns

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You know, it’s tough enough to be a survivalist when there’s a large demographic that views you as a right-wing, [whoever]-phobe, racist, gun-humping neanderthal. The neighbors with their Subarus and ‘Coexist’ bumper stickers chuckle with their fellow travelers about ‘that guy’ next door who always seems to be up to no good.

Now, it’s starting to trend towards us survivalists living in a world that is, apparently, warming to the consistently failed theory of socialism. Folks, not only am I anti-social, I’m anti-Socialist.

Normally, I don’t care about your religion, who you sleep with (unless, of course, youre doing it outside of your commitments), or what your political bent is – until those beliefs start to manifest themselves as trying to control me and my life. And there are few groups that are about controlling your life more than the starry-eyed morons rallying under the red banner. It’s tragically humourous – the left calls anyone who disagrees with it a Nazi and then embraces socialism and communism. Never mind that when you’re stacking bodies, the Nazis can’t even come close to the stratosphere-challenging mountain that was created under the guise of and guidance of socialism and communism.

I had a survivalist buddy who was a member of The Minutemen back in the day. In those free-wheeling days of the late ’60s and early ’70s, what with groups like The Weathermen and those SLA cats, the notion of some sort of Communist insurgency might have seemed perfectly reasonable. Armed commie takeover of the country seemed more plausible when you had ‘Peoples Army’ of this and the ‘Revolutionary Committee” of that running around shooting cops and robbing banks.

But, as a nation, we’re pretty much fans of bloodless revolution when it comes to our own backyard. The American Revolution and the War of Southern Overconfidence are pretty much the last time we had shooting in the streets over the direction of national government. Thats why we have elections rather than shooting wars. And all you have to do to swing the pendulum from one side to the other is simply convince enough people to march in lockstep to the polls and vote it in someone.

Currently, the contenders for People Most Likely To Ignore Obvious History are Socialist Barbie from NY,  and Bernie Sanders from Vermont. One could be excused for being so divested from reality by reason of stupid youth and the other for age-related dementia. Trouble is, there are legions of stoners, outraged liberal arts majors, and trendy ‘resistance’ types who think socialism is a great idea. And they vote.

What’s this mean for we survivalists? Well, I haven’t seen many socialists who were cool with you owning guns…or, really, much of anything else. As Maggie Thatcher famously opined, ‘the problem with socialism is that you eventually run out of other people’s money.’ And the ‘other people’ are you and me. Yeah, yeah..they always say it’ll come from ‘the rich’ being made to ‘pay their fair share’, but as Slick Willie showed us, you get a lot more money when you redefine downwards who ‘the rich’ are.

Socialists aren’t going to like you owning guns, wealth, any business they think is ‘too big’, and those sorts of things. And as survivalists, we peg the needle on the ol’  “EnemiesOfTheState-O-Meter”.. what with our guns, gold, cash, property, and rather particular ideas about individual liberty.

Normally, I’d think that ‘useful idiots’ like Bernie and Socialist Barbie were outliers..aberrations…the rounding errors of a political equation. But there seems to be a rush to the left these days on the Democrats side. Everyone seems to be trying to outdo each on who can denounce capitalism the loudest and promise the most government gimmes. They think that the next presidential election will be a rush of people who’ll vote for anyone Not Trump… and that means that every left-leaning politician who has dreams of making the big time is going to throw his (or her) hat in the ring and differentiate themselves by being even more lefty than their fellow opportunists.

Practical result? The things you and I care about most are the sort of things that the socialist democrat-types target as being in need of ‘control’. More gold, more cash, more guns, more mags, more property, and above all – more vigilance that idiots like those people are politically stamped out before they get into positions where they can do some real damage.

 

DST FML

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Bennjamin Franklin is one of my favorite Founding Fathers, but…Benny, Benny, Benny. SMH. Daylight Saving Time? Really?

How do those savages in Arizona deal with the chaos of not having … wait..what? They’re doing just fine? So why the hell am I running around the house screwing with my clocks?

Link – Wise Food Storage Turns Over Purchase Records To Government As Part Of Shocking Class-Action Lawsuit

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A class action lawsuit against Wise Company, a survival and emergency food storage company, was filed on February 15, 2017 for “unlawful, unfair, and deceptive advertising and business practices.” Last year, the company agreed to settle the suit, and is expected to announce the settlement on its website by the end of business today.

The class action, known as Miller v. Wise Company Inc., U.S. District Court, Central District of California, Case No. 5:17-cv-00616-JAK-PLA, alleges that on its website and packaging, Wise made misrepresentations and omitted material information about how long its Long-Term Food Kits would last and how many people they would feed. Customers who brought the case (the “Plaintiffs”) allege that as a result, “customers were induced to pay more for those products than  they otherwise would have.”

What is fascinating here is the argument that since it is most likely no one has eaten this stuff, they cannot claim to have suffered damages. Kinda like saying its okay that your airbags are defective since you haven’t used them yet.

Any goober with a modicum of Google Fu can tell you that the usual 2000-calorie benchmark was nowhere near being met by these products. Or, really, anyone elses. And the ones that do have the high calorie counts usually get it by loading you up on potatoes or similar fare.

The biggest lesson here is that if you really want to do a long-term food solution you need to design your own package. You can use these guy’s products, sure… but YOU are the one who needs to calculate how much of that product you need…not them.

As for them divulging customer info. Well, its a class-action suit… without the names and addresses they have no idea who (or how many) are involved and where to send the legal paperwork. But, youre smart, right? You use other forms of payment and shipping info, right?

Although the idea that the .gov keeps a list of who ordered ten cases of Hormel seems rather tin foil-ish.

I’ll point out that if you go pay cash at the Mormon Cannery they don’t ask for ID. They may ask for a name but thats pro forma and no one cares to check if its legit.

 

 

 

Domiciles

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WInter continues to do it’s thing here in western Montana.

Next house I live in will be far more heavily winterized than the one I live in now. Ideally, I’d like to build from scratch someday and while the concrete dome homes seem to have a lot to recommend to them, their unconventional appearance and space considerations (where do you put a straight sofa along a curved wall?) make them a tad undesirable.

On the other hand, I’m really fascinated by these. There’s a cutaway of a wall made with these things on display at the airport waiting area and 8″ of concrete makes an impression. Impervious to forest fires and most small arms fire as well. If I were going to drop a little cabin on a chunk o’ nowhere, this would be a good candidate for materials.

I wouldn’t mind getting to actually see a place made out of this stuff. Or even one of those concrete dome homes, come to think of it. Its one thing to want to live in a place that’s built like a bunker, but not everyone wants to live in a place that looks like a bunker. Certainly, I’d take either one of those over a converted conex container.

One of these days I’ll sell my wildly appreciated house, take all the equity, and get that little chunk of nowhere. Maybe live on top of a mountain somewhere like this guy. Or out in the desert like these guys.

But, a lot has to fall into place before that happens. Fun to think about, though.

 

 

 

Article – Man lost in snow for five days survived on Taco Bell sauce packets

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BEND, Ore. (AP) – A man whose car was stranded in central Oregon snow for five days survived by eating taco sauce packets and starting the engine periodically to warm up.

A snowmobiler found Jeremy Taylor, 36, of Sunriver, on Friday and a search and rescue team member who rode to him on a large snow tractor brought him out of the woods, said Sgt. William Bailey, the spokesman for the Deschutes County Sheriff’s Office

Stayed with the car (eventually) and lived. And staying with the car is a lot more attractive if you have the gear you need with you. It doesn’t take up a lot of room and it’s cheaper than a prosthesis to replace your frostbitten feet, or a casket to bury your hypothermia’d body.
Seriously, man….who wants to live on taco sauce packets for five days? Especially when you probably don’t have toilet paper in the vehicle.

Weekend

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So the forecast is for another cold and icily windy weekend. Im heading up to CostCo tomorrow for monthly purchase items, but food ain’t one of ’em. I could lock the doors, not leave the house for a year, and be just fine in terms of food.

Its weekends like this, where the wind howls and rattles the windows, that I appreciate being able to walk into my kitchen and have everything on hand, on the shelves and in the freezers, to make pretty much whatever the hell I want. Its a good feeling.

Anyway, it’s up to CostCo tomorrow for bulk things like a half dozen jugs of laundry detergent, some batteries, and the usual odds and ends that I like to keep on hand in large quantities.

Once that trip to CostCo is done, though…I’m parking the car and not going anywhere until Monday. There’s not much reward in taking unnecessary risks. I’d rather discover Im out of milk and live without it for three days than have to pay for a wrecker and a new car, y’know?

And, interestingly, I received a gift certificate from CostCo  as part of their cashback program on the CostCo Visa card. I bought a truckload of 10/22 magazines last year for sale to you guys and I used that card to pay for them, so…there’s going to be a free case of chicken in my shopping cart.

And, since its going to be a weekend of high temps around 0, this’ll probably be the weekend I defrost the freezer.

What about you? Cold enough in your neck of the woods to make staying home a better idea than driving around?

Another day, another buncha dollars…going out

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The nice thing about living in a 100+ year old house is that things were, generally, built much nicer than they are today, there’s a certain sense of charm and style, and each house is usually rather unique. Drawbacks? Ask my plumber. My kitchen is outta commission until tomorrow when they come back to graft a new section of waste pipe in where the old one was. :::sigh::: I was looking forward to using that tax refund to pay the house down faster.

In other news, Im getting my moneys worth out of the snow blower this season. It isnt that we’ve gotten huge snowstorms. Rather, we get an inch here, two inches there, and after a couple weeks of that it starts adding up. Getting around town isnt too much of a challenge, but you gotta watch those California-plated cars.

And then theres gun news. You know it had to be coming, right? I traded off that Marlin 39A for a very nice, older pre-Rem, pre-safety .336 in .30-30. Now, A lever action does nothing a .308 won’t do faster and more accurately…but, its a handy little carbine.

But it can be made handier…….

To that effect, I ordered up a nice set of protected Skinner sights to replace those virtually useless buckhorns. There’ll be a replacement protected front sight as well. After that, the stock goes byebye to be replaced with a Boyds laminate in forest camo. Once thats done, I’ll inlet one of these into the rear stockto give myself a side-mounted sling, and call it a day. Should be a wonderfully useful gun by that point. Sure, I’ll have a few bucks in it that I will never recover but thats fine…this will be one of those guns I have no intention of selling.

A snowy night, where it’s a good idea to stay indoors, can be expensive when you have an internet connection, a gun habit, and low impulse control.

 

Post for a winters night

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Some genuinely winter weather going on here. It isnt so much that there is much snow, its that the wind and cold accompanying it makes it interesting. Ever go to a beach and watch the sand blow across everything and create dunes? It is exactly like that here but with powdery snow. Since it’s so cold, there’s no moisture int he air…the moisture becomes ice, right? So the snow behaves as dry grains of sand.

Its blowing and drifting pretty heavily…I took the snowblower out about four hours ago and it looks like I never even tried. Being ‘that guy’ ‘I just had to break out the snowshoes and go for a walk around the neighborhood. Then, removed the snowshoes and tried the same walk. Short version: Spend the money and get those snowshoes.

This is an outstanding night to test winter gear. I’m tempted to break out the military sleep system and go crawl into it and see how it fares. Of course, I suppose its possible I fall asleep and the snow drifts over me and the GoreTex and I suffocate in my sleep. Hmm.

Excellent night to stay indoors though. Tomorrow morning will be all about snowblowing and travel travails. I’m not planning to go anywhere by vehicle tomorrow, and I may not go anywhere by foot either if this keeps up. I cant imagine snowshoeing to school.

But, I have food, heat, lights, hot water, and a king-sized down comforter on the bed, so i feel pretty cocky and full of myself at the moment. Watching a moderate snowpocalypse outside my door from the comfort of my warm and well-stocked abode does tend to promote the smugness.

You people in the southern states who panic when 3/4″ of snow falls and turns your highways into parking lots? Yeah, you’d crap your pants if you saw what we’re driving in.

For those of you in the region, skip the traveling about… a trip to CostCo for Brita filters and inkjet cartridges is not worth messing up your vehicle, your insurance rates, and your tibia. Why buy trouble? Stay home, enjoy your preps, and tell the spouse “I told you so”.

That Tapco deal

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Sadly, will not come to pass. While I was able to get a good deal on the mags themselves, the vendor wanted, and I kid you not, $314 to ship. Now, I ship stuff for a living so I know how much it costs to ship things and it does not cost that much to ship a couple hundred plastic magazines across the US. So, with the shipping charges wiping out any gains from the discounted mags, it’s pretty much a non-starter. But….I’ll keep my eyes open.

Trading stock

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I was talking with someone today and they asked me about whether I stockpile things like cigarettes, booze, or coffee for bartering purposes.

I actually do not. The biggest reason, for me, is that I simply do not use any of those products. Whether its inventory for resale or items for my own personal stash, I never acquire anything in bulk that I cannot use for my own needs. To do otherwise would risk wasting resources on something I can’t use.

However, there are things that I keep a rather large quantity of that is so large it could double as a supply of barter goods if it had to. And, if I got stuck with them, theyre things I use anyway. Such as? Well, medical supplies spring to mind. Same for food, batteries, toilet paper, silver, some ammo and guns, clothing, fuel, etc.

Bartering assumes that there is something I need or want that I do not already have. After all, no one exposes themselves (and their goods) to the risk of some sort of post-apocalyptic marketplace if they don’t need to. Would you? Would anyone? Why advertise to the world that you not only have something but you have enough of it that you can actually use it for trade?

Of course, we can’t think of everything. And something may happen that forces your hand. Maybe floss weevils got into your dental floss stash and you’re completely out of the stuff eve though you had stockpiled cases of it. Things can happen.

For my interests, I figure the things I already use (and have) in large quantity will have plenty of value. Will there be people who would kill for a drink? Or a cigarette? Or coffee? Absolutely. And thats why some poeple stock up on that sort of stuff. But there’ll also be people who’d kill to have food for their kids. Or themselves. And since I already am a user of food, it makes sense have that on hand as trade fodder if I decide to have a reserve of some kind for trading.

I suppose it wouldn’t kill me to throw $20 on the counter at WalMart and grab a couple dozen single-serve packets of freeze dried coffee. Or a couple airplane-sized bottles of Jack Daniels. And I might do that. But, for me, it simply makes more sense to stockpile things I can use since a) if I can use it someone else can too and b) if i wind up keeping it then I only wind up improving my situation.

Let me put it another way: which makes more sense..buying $100 worth of an item that may have some barter value but has no use to you individually, or buying $100 worth of an item that may have some barter value AND can benefit your stockpile if you wind up keeping it. Hmm.

Anyway, your mileage may vary but, no, no hoard of cigarettes and Mad Dog in the bunker.