“Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety.” – B. Franklin

After the president’s speech about how people need to be denied guns if they’re on the ‘no fly list’, and how all these ‘loopholes’ need to be closed, and ‘assault weapons’ and ‘high capacity magazines’ need to be forbidden, there’s a great focus in the survivalist community on those issues. But..there is another issue that is being brought up a little more quietly and that issue is communications.

For years now the .gov has been leaning on tech companies to make their products secure enough to please consumers, but not so secure that .gov can’t get into it if they want. Phone manufacturers, for example, are being encouraged to develop their phones so that no one but the phone’s owner can access the data within it….unless that person is .gov.

In short, we’re spiraling back to the Clipper Chip days. The idea of ‘key escrow’, or a third-party holding the keys to your phone, is still among us. From the Wikipedia entry:

Following the Snowden disclosures from 2013, Apple and Google announced that they would lock down data stored on their smartphones with encryption, in a way so that Apple and Google could not break the encryption even if ordered to do so with a warrant.^[10] This prompted a strong reaction from the authorities, with one of the more iconic responses being the chief of detectives for Chicago’s police department stating that “Apple will become the phone of choice for the pedophile”.^[11] Washington Post posted an editorial insisting that “smartphone users must accept that they cannot be above the law if there is a valid search warrant”, and after agreeing that backdoors would be undesirable, suggested implementing a “golden key” backdoor which would unlock the data with a warrant.

You can rest assured that the old chestnut of “If you’re not doing anything illegal, then you have nothing to hide” will be trotted out.

Quite simply, I enjoy my privacy. And if I want to communicate with my fellow Like-Minded Individuals over the internet, through text messaging, or even through Mr Franklins postal system, I should be able to do so with confidence that whatever message I am sending is being viewed only by it’s intended recipients.

Things to keep an eye open for?

• More pressure on manufacturers to include backdoors for LE/.gov in their hardware/software
• Loosening up of the requirements to intercept communications
• More record-keeping of who sent what where. (You know the PO scans all snail mail addresses and stores them, right?)
• Crypto software either getting watered down, or reclassified to make sales to folks like you and I more difficult
• The FCC shuffling around which bands can/can’t be used by various classes of license.

And it really wouldn’t surprise me to see some action in the world of amateur radio. One of the first signs of a Bad Thing is when .gov tightens the screws on those wanting equipment that can allow someone to communicate to someone outside the country. I couuld very easily see an ATF 4473-style ‘background check’ put into place for those wanting ham radio licenses and certain ‘powerful’ equipment.

This might, actually, be a good time to get the ball rolling if you’ve been thinking about getting into amateur radio.

A couple days ago, a nice, middle-class, married couple had an episode of what Tam calls “Sudden Jihadi Syndrome” and shot up an office building before getting their tickets punched when the cops finally caught up to them and started a bullet party. Once the dust settled, and Mr & Mrs al-Smith had their home tossed, it came to light that this couple was building bombs in the garage and doing other things that would give the local HOA the vapors. So..to recap…married couple with suspiciously Irish names shoot up the joint, re-enact the end of Butch And Sundance, have a home full of bombs, are connected to overseas extremists and, naturally, the issue is…..guns.

The media, of course, went full tardcore and turned the whole story into one about the evils of guns. The administration, never one to rush to the reasonable conclusion, initially decided that if it walks like a duck, quacks like a duck, looks like a duck, and has a garage full of pipe bombs like a duck, it’s definitely…..not a terrorist duck. Eventually the public mockery became too much and the story devolved into ‘Well, they were plotting terrorist stuff but they got pissed off at the guys at the Christmas party and decided to shoot it up.’

So, instead, we get treated to more of the same from the usual idiots. The promise of ‘executive orders’ to address this obvious gun-violence issue is trotted out. And, in a tiny little corner of Texas, someone at CTD gets the USB drive containing the 100dollarpmag.exe algorithim out of the safe.

Which brings us to…magic. Wanna see a magic trick? Ready? Here we go….(Does Carnac the Magnificent routine)….

Answer: “Not enough.”
:::Tears open envelope and withdraws question:::
“How many magazines do you have?”

Ta-daaa! Thank you, thank you…I’ll be here all week. Tip your waitress.

Amazing, right? But not that amazing… people are naturally short-sighted. We don’t like to think of the bad possibilities in our future, and instead we tend to see only the good, or neutral, possibilities. Unfortunately, when you’re looking on a timeline that could go on another thirty years or so until you hit room temperature, there is a lot of room for things to go wrong. If you think that the ten magazines you have for your AR are ‘plenty’, then you really need to change your way of thinking. And you’re an idiot.

This is *exactly* the sort of event that nudges The Powers That Be into doing stupid things like 1994 Assault Weapons Ban: The Next Generation. Even if it doesn’t, its going to push gun/mags/ammo price and availability into the red zone. So…if you still haven’t gotten around to buying everything that might not be available at a later date….this is your reminder that crap like this, as tragic as it is, will always be used to tie your hands further when it comes to buying those useful guns and accessories.

Between domestic terrorism, Hillary, President Sanders, lame-duck Obama, and all those other things, there’s plenty of strong arguments to say that next week may as well be never when it comes to getting those things you need. Get ’em now and get a lot of them. You can buy a jet ski next year, can’t say the same about a CZ Evo or a Glock happystick.

I’m not much of the holiday type, and Crom knows I’ve got virtually nothing to be thankful for these days, but, nonetheless, for those of you who are the holiday type I hope you have an enjoyable Day Before Friday Of Color.

I’m rather looking forward to Black Friday  Friday Of Color sales. For the last several years the gun community has had more and more awesome sales on the day after Thanksgiving. And, just like in the mainstream world, those sales are starting to come earlier and earlier. In fact, I had a vendor email me the other day that they have stripped AR lowers, in quantity, for less than $30 ea. How cool is that? S&W ARs are showing up for around $550. I expect some truly cool magazine sales as well.

If you’re in a position to have a few hundred bucks to blow on gun gear, you might wanna keep ahold of it until the day after Thanksgiving

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Someone asked about the Ruger BX-25 magazines. While I almost always choose OEM factory mags over aftermarket mags, I’m a tad reserved on the BX-25. When they first came out they has some issues and I read that reliability had some issues. Of course, new products always have some teething pains. Perhaps the new BX-25 mags are flawless, but I haven’t any experience with them. I have decades of experience with the Butler Creek mags and are very comfortable with them, and comfortable recommending them. That said, if I can score a few BX-25 mags at a decent price I’ll try ’em out and see how they go.

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I’d like to thank the handful of people that kicked in the other day. In addition to the folks who dropped a few bucks in the hat for expenses, one generous soul actually sert up a monthly subscription which was really quite generous and thoughtful. So..thanks to everyone who generously pushed some Federal Reserve Notes in my direction.

Which reminds me, prior to that someone had the Metals Pimp drop off a couple ounces of silver. And thats always a cool thing! So, again, much thanky.

“World War Z” was an excellent book, however it was a thoroughly crappy movie. But..there was a little nugget in there that is worth mentioning. In the story, the Israelis wind up being the best prepared country to survive the zombie apocalypse. The question raised is ‘how did the Israelis know to prepare for this event’. In the story, an Israeli intelligence operative briefs the main character on the “Tenth Man Rule”. He goes on to say that after getting caught flat-footed in the 1973 war, the powers that be adopted the Tenth Man Rule. The idea is that if a threat  is brought before this council of ten men, and all are in agreement about threat being minimal or unlikely, it is the duty for one man, the tenth man, to disagree, treat the threat as real and likely, and investigate/plan for it. When the Israelis intercepted the Indian communications, everyone assumed the word ‘zombies’ as code for something else…but the tenth man works on the assumption that zombies actually meant…zombies.

In it’s own words;

This process of critical thinking goes by several names..Deviils Advocate, critical thinking, etc, but I rather like the name ‘Tenth Man’ since it encapsulates the basic premise of the idea.

This ..docrtrine..doesn’t say to prepare for the unlikely eventuality, but rather to investigate it seriously instead of dismissing it out of hand. For example, I live in a landlocked state hundreds of miles from the nearest coastline. Going down a list of potential disaster you get to ‘tsunami’. The natural instinct is to cross it off the list and continue to other threats. The Tenth Man, however, might look deeper. He might realize that while the water will never reach this far inland, the consequences might…there’ll be refugees, airport traffic increases, delivery interruptions from the affected area, etc, etc. And, perhaps, these will be significant enough to plan for..or maybe not. But dismissing the threat out of hand would have been the knee-jerk reaction nine times out of ten.

Anyway, it’s an interesting outlook and a different way of approaching potential problem-solving…and thus worth sharing.

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?