In the space of a week silver was up and down a buck. Wild times.

I was in the coin shop today and it was pointed out to me that today was some sort of Indian holiday. (Thats Indian with the 7-11, not Indian with the casino.) Specifically, Dhanteras …“Dhanteras holds special significance for the business community due to the customary purchases of precious metals on this day”

How cool is that? A holiday that encourages you to go out and by gold. I need to bring this to the attention of The Metals Pimp so he can find a whole new demographic to cater to.

In this country we have several holidays devoted to buying guns. Mostly Election Day.

Election Day. Here’s something to scare the crap out of you – one year from today Hillary Clinton might be elected President. Say it out loud …”Madame President”…”President Hiillary Clinton”…kinda makes your testicles retreat into your abdomen, doesn’t it? But, since it is supposedly anyones race at this point, it could be “President Sanders” which, actually, I’m kinda rooting for because I think electing an avowed Socialist as President is just the kick in the pants to end all the foreplay already and get the next Civil War started.

But what about the conservatives? I’ll just flat-out say it: Trump won’t get the nomination. Do I like Trump? I like how he can out-Biden just about anyone with his talk-first-ask-questions-later attitude. And, he is forcing other candidates to address issues that might otherwise have been passed over. But…President Trump? Not going to happen.

Carson? He says (mostly) the right things (and the Right things), but I can’t see him as a leader. An awesome Cabinet member, sure…but the guy who makes the hard decisions that can send American kids back to mom and dad in a box? Nope.

Cruz and Rubio? I’m of the opinion it’ll be between the two of them. Whether they win the office will depend not so much on the strength of their candidacy as it will on how much people dislike Hillary Clinton.

Honestly, no one is really hitting my buttons. This election, like every one since 1988, won’t be about voting for someone…but rather be about voting against someone. “Im not voting for X because I want him in office..Im voting for X because I dont want to see Y in office.”

Personally, I have no faith in my ability to predict which party, let alone which candidate, will win. But…I have seen this movie before, mi amigos. It ends with $60 Pmags, $55 bricks of .22 ammo, and a $1900 ‘basic’ ARs. Let’s look at it logically – the two most likely Democratic candidates are both anti-freedom enough that it is entirely reasonable to expect a rerun of the 1994 Assault Weapons Ban. Perhaps not in its entirety, but certainly some parts of it…magazine ban, import ban, prohibited features, etc, etc….something will happen. It’s a certainty. So, the hope is that if the Republican candidate wins, we’ll be spared that. Well..maybe. Here;s a couple ‘sound bites’ about the two Republicans positions on guns. (Cruz  Rubio – ontheissues.org)

Seems promising, right? But historically, some folks who said they were on our side have done some pretty unkind things to those of us who like our thundertoys. So, here’s what we have: The Democrats win the election, it’s a virtual certainty we’re going to get screwed. The Republicans win, theres a chance we’re going to get screwed…or not. But neither is certain.

Let me put it to you another way. It’s time to board your flight at the airport, there are two planes leaving to the same destination. One plane is a virtual certainty to crash, the other is 50/50 on if it’ll crash. Which one do you get on? Well, if your choice is between the two and you have to pick one…you go with the one that has the 50/50 chance of not crashing. But…you step over to the duty free shop and pick up a parachute.

Right now, parachutes look a lot like more mags and guns in the safe.

And, yes, third-party options exist but those are the planes that people board but then sit on the tarmac for four years as they never get clearance for takeoff.

Moral of the story: its a year to Election Day. Start the buying now.

I’ve been trying to read Kuntsler’s The Long Emergency and am just having trouble getting into it. The problem is that while the advice given about sustainable communities, failed systems, etc, etc, is good, I have trouble getting into the notion that ‘Peak Oil’ will be the downfall of civilization.

Does anyone even remember Peak Oil? Is it getting relegated to the ‘dustbin of history’ along with The New Ice Age, Y2K, Bird Flu, and EMP?

What brings this up for me is that the local banking institution I do business at has no access to their tellers…instead, you get this:

You stand at a video kiosk and work your transaction with a vacuum tube system (very steampunk…it’s like 1930’s Wall Street). I asked one of the employees about the reasoning for completely locking the tellers out..was it security? Staffing issues? Nope. The story I was told is that the building was constructed recently when then Bird Flu specter was all the rage. The idea was to prevent exposure to infected people. A fascinating idea except that currency .. cash.. is probably the most effective disease-spreading vector in the public marketplace. The dollar bill in your pocket has been in a strippers g-string, a homeless guys urine-soaked pocket, a hospital janitors wallet, etc, etc, and all through it’s travels it’s picked up enough bugs to wipe out a reclusive Amazon village.

So..keeping your tellers in a sneeze-proof room is more effective in preventing the spread of illness than, I dunno, running all the Andrew Jacksons under a UV light and through an autoclave?

But it reminded me of the failed prophecies that have come down the pike lately…Y2K, Peak Oil, 2012, etc, etc. While there is just no real predicting when the wheels are going to fly off civilization, you can’t go wrong being ready for it. BUT….hinging all your plans on that event, at a particular time and place, is just the sort of thing that gets you a tinfoil Stetson.

This is actually one of the first times I’ve ever seen a private commercial enterprise build their facility specifically to ward against a particular Bad Event. Interesting.

Not the usual stuff I post, but its a nice reminder that if you go far enough out of your way in Montana you can come across some pretty cool organic protein sources.

This particular critter had a radio collar on and was totally unconcerned about me being nearby. In other circumstances, this photo op would have ended with a 168 gr. BTSP.

Living in Montana has a lot going against it..what with the mediocre economic climate, and, to be honest, some backward thinking troglodytes, but where else can I get within spitting distance of critters like this?

Was doing some gear swapping from one vehicle to another and, naturally, discovered a few things I had forgotten about. Most notably, these:

Everyone is familiar with those ‘lifeboat ration’ bars that come in a brick of 3600 calories, right? Well, turns out they make smaller size ones as well. The USRDA of pretty much everything is based on a 2000 calorie a day diet. It would take five of these things to equal that recommended intake. Interestingly, five of these bars is actually fairly compact and while I would hate to have to subsist on them for any length of time they would certainly beat starving to death. Someone on one of the forums decided to try eating nothing but those Mainstay/Datrex bars for a week and see what would happen. I can’t find the link but he was less than enthused about the experience.

But, hey, something you can stick in your pack and not worry about for several years is kinda handy. As I said, it definitely beats eating the upholstery. I’ll be folding some small pouches of Mountain House into the vehicle kit just in case. A small Esbit stove and a canteen cup are already in there so that’s half the battle towards having a ‘real meal’. MRE’s work too but theyre just too darn bulky and heavy.