SURVIVING IN ARGENTINA

Venezuela Is Running out of Toilet Paper and other Supplies

2013-05-16T17:08:00.000-07:00

http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/now-venezuela-running-toilet-paper-19190675#.UZTrUUq6j1U

So besides butter, milk and cornmeal, Venezuela is also running out of toilet paper among other basic everyday life staples. Like food, soap and general toiletries, TP is something that you’re going to use anyway so it’s a good idea to have plenty if you’ve got the room for it.

How did this happen you ask? Well, when commie authoritarian governments take over, these kind of problems are unavoidable. Like the government did in Argentina, the Chavista government decided to fight inflation by controlling and freezing prices. If you only have a hammer, you tend to see every problem as a nail. It’s the same way with dictators and authoritarian governments, they think they can force things to be the way they want and completely deny the root causes that provoked the events in the first place. What do importers and distributors do when dealing with mandatory minimum prices? They stop selling, producing and importing until the prices reflect the reality of inflation once again.

So, two things to keep in mind here people. First, have enough supplies for a few months. When you use up half of it, rotate and restock. Food, yes, but also cleaning and personal hygiene supplies and other toiletries. Second, communism doesn’t work. Never has, never will. If you ever hear even a hint of prices being forced or controlled in any way, expect trouble and empty shelves soon.

FerFAL

Spy Gear: EDC of the CIA Agent caught in Russia

2013-05-14T17:18:00.000-07:00

Fernando
1) Following news reports has some photos showing the
EDC kit of a CIA officer arrested in Moscow today:
http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2013/05/russia-spy-ryan-fogle-cia-letter.html?mid=google
2) Has some items like yours.   I can’t make out the black rod
attached to his keyring — looks like a Kubotan:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kubotan
3) Note that the arrested officer is wearing the same type of checked/plaid shirt
as was worn by Raymond Davis –the CIA officer who shot the two motorcyclists
in Pakistan over a year ago.   I suspect that pattern is used to obscure
the print of items carried concealed under it.    However, it can become a
handicapping signature if someone notices that use.
4) Note that translation of the note to the spy being recruited has some
interesting advice on how to do clandestine communications internationally.
What is very strange is that the CIA note did not include a one time key pad (OTP) for
encryption along with instructions.   Von Neumann supposedly proved that the
OTP is unbreakable, even by the strongest computers, and OTP has been used
by both the CIA and Russia.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/One_time_pad
Normally, I would think Russian monitors can see the texts of gmail crossing
their border,even if they can’t pinpoint /identify the source.
Nor did the CIA note specify frequencies/times of a shortwave
numbers station for the agent to monitor for more secure , encrypted contact
instructions. Nor are dead drop locations specified.
The English translation of the CIA note (which was written in Russian) supposedly
was supplied by Russia Today news. Maybe RT left out the good stuff.   They did leave
the CIA gmail address in, so I expect the CIA will shortly be getting a lot of email
explaining how it can enlarge its penis.
http://rt.com/news/fsb-detain-cia-agent-253/
4) An alternative explanation is that Google is being naughty and has put an encrypted,
backdoor/tunnel into gmail for some customer accounts.   I’m speculating –
hackers would have a better idea of what’s possible.
Don Williams

Thanks Don for the heads up, interesting comments too.

It seems that the shirt is common among spies. Untucked shirts are better for concealing weapons or other items and I suppose it looks like normal casual wear for an American traveling on business on his day off.

Lets take a look at the items:

*150.000 Euros in 500 bills. Three straps in ziplock bags. Man, that has to be the most useful piece of kit right there. Remember the video I did just a few days ago about 500 Euro notes.

*2 Wigs. Disguise.

*3 Sunglasses. Disguise, or an obsession with ugly shades.

*Mini Maglite. Not a bad torch if it’s the LED model. It seems to have something on the head of the flashlight. Proably this Mini Maglite, with the anti roll device.

*Knife. It’s a black SOG Flash 2, half plain, half serrated edge. It’s a nice knife both for utility purposes and defense. The handle provides a good grip and enough of a finger guard to use safely for stabbing. The assisted opening system means its more dependable when opening under stress or reduced motor skills. The clip allows for deep pocket carry. All black model.

* Victorinox Classic. All around handy SAK.

*Keychain Kubotan. A simple rod of plastic or metal that can be used as a weapon.

*LED button light. Probably a red Photon II for night map reading.

*Maps.

*Compass.

*Notebook.

*Cellphone. Looks like a rugged Samsung GT-B2710 which is quad band, impact resistant and waterproof model.

*Baseball cap.

*OC spray. A gun would have made more sense than carrying spray alone, but it still has a place.

Birdshot For Home Defense?

2013-05-12T14:45:00.001-07:00

“The Modern Survival Manual” Discount price and New Book on the Way!

2013-05-09T15:27:00.002-07:00

I’m happy to see that Amazon brought down the price of my book, “The Modern Survival Manual: Surviving the Economic Collapse” to $22.46 from the standard $24.95 price. It’s a decision made by Amazon alone so I don’t know how long it will last. If you’ve been thinking about buying it now would be the time to save some money. “The Modern Survival Manual” just reached the 200 review mark, most of them five starts out of five.

If you noticed me posting more randomly lately there’s a reason for that: I’ve been trying to wrap up my second book and make it available as soon as possible. The title is “Bugging Out and Relocating”. Its about… well, bugging out and relocating. :-)

My first book was about surviving after an economic collapse, living with high crime, failing infrastructure and increasing government corruption. It covered a broad variety of topics that had never been addressed in a survival manual before like how to drive when there are higher carjacking risks, avoiding kidnaps and home invasions, dealing with ever increasing inflation, unemployment and sporadic civil unrest like looting and riots.

My second book will cover what to do when you decide to escape all that, both bugging out locally due to a short or medium term emergency, or leaving for good, relocating or even bugging out abroad. It´s about the plans I had in case of having to leave in a hurry as well as the different countries I analyzed and considered. I explain what I was looking for, the criteria applied. In a way this second book is my homework. Like my first book, its what I learned through my own experience. Its not about “what I believe”, “predict” or “guess”, regarding bugging out and relocating, its what I planned and successfully executed in real life.

I’m trying to keep the book as short and to the point as possible. Given the epic (impossible would be a better word) proportion of trying to cover every country and every USA state in every detail, I instead chose to focus more on themethodology used, and only cover some of the key aspects of those locations, countries and USA states, which I consider suitable. This book will complement my first one nicely, covering that other side of preparedness: What do to when bugging in simply isn’t an option.

I still fight my natural tendency to derail and go along the tangent of this and that topic, but with a bit of luck “Bugging out and Relocating” will be available… soon. :-)

FerFAL

Improvised Body Armor?

2013-05-08T18:39:00.002-07:00

Greetings from Malaysia.

I have read your advice on body armor being useful in various situations. However, in this part of the world, the law prohibits body armor (ballistic vest) from being imported by civilians. Though there is no law against the possesion of body armor, it is impossible to deal with a local supplier as they only provide to defence, law enforcement and security entities.

The possesion of firearms is severely restricted in civilians. Normally, only those who hunt for a livelihood or require self-protection in remote plantations are issued with a licence.

Unfortunately, there were enough cases of criminal use of firearms e.g. robberies, though the majority of criminals use knives and parangs (the local version of a machete).

Would you have any suggestion for body armor besides a ballistic vest? Something that can be useful against blades. Of course, I would not want to wear it the whole time so it is only for those special situations which carry risk of bodily harm e.g. transactions involving large sums of cash.

Thank you

Ken

Hi Ken,

High levels of crime and restrictions to owning guns and armor sure is a bad combination!

I would suggest looking into the surplus market or second hand sales. Sometimes police officers or security guards sell their armor when quitting their jobs or going for another line of work.

Unfortunately armor isn’t that easy to improvise. Kevlar and other BP fabrics are very specific and you need a number of layers to provide ballistic and stab protection.

If you cant get body armor, you may be able to buy armor plate carriers and then have steel plates made to fit it. You need thick steel (+1/4 inch) and you should test it before trusting your life to it. Some synthetic resins are very hard and I believe 1 inch thick plates made of harder resins will stop most handgun calibers if not rifle rounds. Again, it’s a matter of experimenting.

There’s not much you can do against attacks with machetes. Arms and head will be pretty vulnerable. While not as good as an actual stab proof vest you might want to look into getting a reinforced biker jacket. Some of the better ones are made for real protective materials, thick leather, Kevlar and hard plastic inserts. Again, this isn’t made for protection from knife attacks but it is tough material intended for skipping along the road at high speed after you fall. A good motorcycle jacket and a pair of cut resistant gloves might be a good combination.

Remember people, the second amendment does NOT cover body armor. Its getting more and more restricted around the globe. Buy new if you can afford it, or look around on ebay for used one but do get it while you can.

FerFAL

Amateur Radio and Preparedness

2013-05-06T19:37:00.003-07:00

Hey, FerFAL

About 6 months ago, I got my amateur radio operator license. Let me tell you, it's another good tool to have in your box when the SHTF. I find lots of benefits in getting it. I have a General, which gives me access to the High Frequency bands, besides the VHF and UHF (which the Technician class provides). So I can communicate locally with my community when disaster strikes and cell phones are nothing but paperweight, but also long range communication to see what's happening in some other part of the world. I've already done experiments with a battery and a solar panel simulating a power outage; it works fine. Imagine still being able to talk to your loved ones when the grid goes crapola in your area. The FCC exams in the USA are faily easy. Please take a look at this link, since it's from your current area.

http://www.ofcom.org.uk/static/archive/ra/publication/ra_info/ra190/ra190.htm

Hope you get motivated so I can hear you over the airwaves. I know many fans would love to hear some survavalism rag-chewing in ham frequencies.

Saludos,

Carlos

WP4OPK

Hi Carlos,

It is indeed.For people interested in survival and emergency preparedness the Amateur Radio Emergency Service ARES is a good way to get involved and network. http://www.arrl.org/ares

For those of you that are Technicians, recent changes in rules gave Technicians some new HF privileges. http://www.hamuniverse.com/frequencyallocations.html

Amateur radio is one of those skillsets that has several benefits beyond the obvious one of communications when more traditional methods are down:

*It allows you to link with people that probably share your same interests.

*It’s a good family activity as well, kids usually find it very interesting.

*It can be linked to other fields of knowledge (electricity, general home repairs)

I remember when I was little my old man had a HAM radio. It was the internet’s great granddaddy. I fondly remember the few occasions when we used it to talk with other people. I wish we had used it more back in the day.

Today, you have some pretty impressive rigs available. As this guy suggests, if you are serious about it and you want to get long range HF, better clarity, etc., its better to go for the more complete all band, all modes models. Something like Yaesu is known quality.

Yaesu FT-897D All-Mode HF thru UHF Transceiver AM-FM-CW-USB-LSB

Yaesu FT-857D Amateur Radio Transceiver - HF, VHF, UHF All-Mode 100W

Yaesu FT-450D 100 Watt , 6 thru 160M HF All-Mode Amateur Ham Radio Transceiver with Built-In Automatic Antenna Tuner & DSP Filtering!
These radios are pretty expensive but are not the same thing as much cheaper VHF, UHF and CB radios. These have a place as well, but the range you can cover with a CB is much shorter. Still, they usually make good additions for staying communicated while on vehicles while on the road:

Midland 75-822 40 Channel CB-Way RadioTip on getting an antenna for next to nothing: Drive around town and when you see an antenna, don’t be shy about asking if they are interested in selling it. Sometimes people move into a house and don’t even know what the thing is there for and are happy to see that ugly antenna go, or even make a couple bucks out of it! Sometimes they simply lost interest. If they are still using it, well you just met another radio operator in your area. Win-win situation if there ever was one.

FerFAL

Survival Mindset, Preparedness and Paranoia

2013-05-04T15:57:00.001-07:00

Left, Right and Society Today

2013-05-03T10:11:00.002-07:00

The following is a letter by contributor JV. I reply bellow with some insights of my own. Its part where we stand today, part self-criticism as a society.

FerFAL

“Socialism (literally, government) is the great fiction, whereby everybody endeavours to live off of everybody else.”

-        Frederic Bastiat, 1801-1850

David Sirota recently penned an article about the Boston Marathon bombing, while the victims were still bleeding one day after the attack, titled “Let’s hope the Boston Marathon bomber is a white American.” http://www.salon.com/2013/04/16/lets_hope_the_boston_marathon_bomber_is_a_white_american/

Of course, Sirota’s reason is simple – he did not want “slander” of Islam, or by extension, any other minorities. Leaving aside the simple question of whether the Qu’ran is violent or not (I have read it twice, and indeed it is – and in fact was founded by violence), Sirota does have an initial valid point that we may perhaps all agree on: We desire all people to have basic human rights and dignity. The question is, how do we get there?

Unfortunately the “logic” of Sirota, and others of his persuasion, breaks down in two areas. The first area is that leftists like Sirota – in their Robespierrian attempt to make everyone equal – have no problems running roughshod over other equally intrinsic rights that are also predicated on basic human rights and dignity, such as the right of free speech, or the right of self-defense, which includes the right to bear arms.

But that is not the concern of this article. Rather, the second, and key concern, of this article is the inhumanity, hypocrisy, hatred and Orwellian control that has historically and intrinsically been part and parcel of the very nature of left. Sirota’s article, written while people were still bleeding in pain, is consistent with the inhumanity of the left. And here is the key point: Is Sirota an aberration? Was this article just a “one-off?” There are certainly people of all persuasions – left, right, centre, anarchists, monarchists, etc. – where we can find those who have engaged in violence, so even if there were ten Sirota’s writing in Salon the next day, that would not prove leftists are suspect as a group. And I don’t wish to even hint at the typical Alinsky intellectual fraud of demonizing one person, and then extending that to a full group. It is intellectually bankrupt and – on a different plane – completely irrelevant. I will leave that kind of sophistry to the left. Besides, leftists are much better at it! And, no, I am not being hypocritical here, for my very point is that the left, with few exceptions, always engages in this type of casuistry. That is why they require their campus speech police, a compliant, “lamestream” media, a well-oiled propaganda machine, and hordes of “Yes we can” chanters. Rather, my belief is that as the conservative and libertarian views have an intrinsic, explanatory adequacy, we needn’t devolve into the leftist shenanigans of organizations like Moveon.org, etc. to win the day. Rather, people of good will and fair-mindedness will see the reasoning behind the conservative argument, just as even after decades of iron-fisted, propaganda filled Soviet rule, the moral and intellectual bankruptcy of socialism – the emperor with no clothes – could still be seen. Yes, it would be ideal if leftists would grant the same fairness to conservatives, but in my experience with the left, basic logic, evenhandedness and intellectual integrity such as this passes by their reasoning like “two sheeps in the night” (pun intended). I learned this lesson the hard way on one of the very first papers I wrote while an undergrad at university, where I was clearly marked down on a paper by a leftist professor who did not agree with a few minor observations made within the writing.

My concern is that the left, in general, is built around a philosophy that treats people as animals, has utilitarianism as its religion, and is at core one of the most blatantly hypocritical and violent movements to ever un-grace the face of the planet. The left is not so much concerned about justice as they are about their own conceit that they alone have the knowledge to control everyone and everything. I recall a cartoon from decades ago, the author now lost to antiquity, which had one rich man stating to another “First I thought it was sex, then money… but now I know it is power.” And importantly, power without humanity equals tyranny. This is exactly what is occurring today.

Where does our humanity – without which everything degrades into utilitarianism and depersonalized “citizens” (here I disparagingly use the term “citizens” as Robespierre did) – derive from? Ultimately, we are left with two choices: God or man. And if the latter, then those rights may also be taken away by the same entity that “granted” them. The most successful country and culture in the history of man, the U.S., adhered to the former, of course. Thomas Jefferson stated that our rights were endowed by our Creator in our founding document. Other writers such as CS Lewis, in his short book The Abolition of Man, have noted that ethics ultimately have no basis without the absolutes from whence they derive. Or as the Russian philosopher Nicolai Berdyaev once put it, “If there is no God, man does not exist either.” But let me not even go down the “religious” path – Albert Camus, who was no Christian – alluded to the same idea, once stating that a finite point, without an infinite reference point, has no meaning.

So, where does the socialist un-vision lead us? As writer and Fabian socialist G.B. Shaw once wrote, “You would be forcibly fed, clothed, lodged, taught and employed, whether you liked it or not. If it were discovered that you had not the character and industry enough to be worth all this trouble, you might possibly be executed in a kindly manner.” And shouldn’t our dear leaders do as Shaw, suggests, for recall that in the left’s world, your rights are granted by the man created state, and can be revoked that same man created state. Or, as Fyodor Dostoyevski stated , if there is no God, everything is permissible. And what is this “permissible?” This is simply answered, by taking a look at the track record of the left, which has been one consistent record of oppression, lack of compassion, murder and poverty. To wit:

          Dr. Arthur Brooks of Syracuse University, has written one of the most important books on the topic of leftist faux “compassion,” entitled Who Really Cares. This book is worthy of being a cornerstone in your personal library, with 200 pages of very heavily documented statistics noting, for example, that religious conservatives are more likely than leftists to give money away, volunteer for community concerns, and even give to secular charities. Most strikingly, if leftists gave blood at the same rate as conservatives, the blood supply for critical, life-saving medical support would increase by 45% (see page 22 in Brooks’ book)In another must-read book, Do As I Say, Not As I Do, by Peter Schweizer, he profiles the utter hypocrisy of liberal icons such as Nancy Pelosi, who owns – in addition to multiple other properties – a vineyard on Zinfandel Lane in St. Helena, CA, worth $25 mm in 2005. What’s the big deal about this? Pelosi, who would like a national holiday commemorating United Farm Workers’ Cesar Chavez, will not let UFW union workers pick the grapes for the Pelosi vineyard’s $100 a bottle wine, says Schweizer. And it’s not that they don’t make a lot of dough off their vineyard – as of the book’s writing, financial disclosures showed $200k to $2 million profits on this vineyard alone in the preceding years. But, as we also see, e.g., with carbon billionaire Al Gore, profit trumps ethics and intellectual integrity. Babs Streisand, another Hollywood Learjet leftist? Schweizer quotes Brad Meltzer worked for her for a year and half, and commented about her treatment of the working staff, stating that she was “… absolutely mean and niggardly about the salaries of the working people she hired,” and referring to some young illegal immigrants she hired for $3.50/hr to do menial work, when they asked for 25 cents/hr more for overtime work, Meltzer says “She told me to fire them and have them replaced. It killed me, but I did it.” And let’s not forget other similar examples, such as Hilary Clinton with her miraculous cattle trades, Whitewater and her host of other get rich quick schemes.

          Hatred from the left? Here is security camera footage from the homosexual gun attack on Family Research Council, where the perpetrator intended to kill dozens of innocent people, and then wipe Chik-Fil-A sandwiches all over them in a final insult to those he murdered. http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=nl9BQlSv8Fg#t=2s (~2 min). I have personally witnessed similar physical threats of violence by homosexuals in a meeting of parents’ elementary school children, so this comes as no surprise to me.

          Violence? Political Outcast.com notes that John Wilkes Booth, a Democrat, shot and killed President Lincoln; Charles Guiteau, who was a member of the communist Oneida Community, shot and killed President Garfield; Leon Czolgosz, a leftist anarchist (similar to the useful idiots in the Occupy movement) killed President McKinley. Meanwhile, some other lefties who had failed assassination attempts (whose politics we know) include Severino Di Giovanni, a leftist anarchist, tried to bomb President-elect Hoover’s train, Giuseppe Zangara, a professed anti-capitalist, tried shooting President-elect Franklin Roosevelt; Oscar Collazo and Griselio Torresola, two Marxists, tried killing President Truman at the Blair House; Samuel Byck, who tried joining the leftist Black Panther group, attempted to kill President Nixon. As well, Lynette “Squeaky” Fromme, member of the Manson Family and also a hippie environmentalist, shot at President Ford; Sara Jane Moore tried to kill Pres. Ford as well because, as she said, “the government had declared war on the Left”; Ramiro Ortega-Hernandez, a leftist connected to the Occupy movement, tried getting a one-in-a-billion shot at Obama by firing a gun at the White House.As if the murder and terrors of Robespierre weren’t enough of a clue, the outcome of leftist philosophy reached its nadir a century later, starting in the USSR. When the Russians opened their archives after the fall of the Soviet Union in the early 1990s, they admitted that there were 61 – 62 million “excess deaths.” Dr. RJ Rummell of Univ. of Hawaii, in his book Death by Government,has painstakingly detailed that roughly 170 million people were murdered by their own governments in the last century, with about 99% of those deaths coming at the hands of socialist countries. Meanwhile Stephane Courtois, et al, in the highly regarded Black Book of Communism, stated the numbers murdered by the left were around 100 million. You say tomato, I say tomahto…. but any way you slice the leftist killings (assuming knives are not yet banned), the left has murdered and oppressed more human beings than any other movement in the history of the world.



          Interestingly, there is one key word in the paragraph above that needs special attention: the word “excess” used by the Russians. The significance of this is that even after many decades of socialist propaganda, dehumanization, oppression, there was still a conscience in people, as well as an innate recognition that what was done was simply evil. It almost as if they couldn’t bring themselves to us the word “murdered,” and needed some Cain and Abel type euphemism to attempt to hide the blood of their murdered brothers. And therein lies some hope for us.

While the list could go on for dozens of pages about the hypocrisy and violence of the left, what is the real point of the above? Just to mud sling? Certainly, conservatives have their own failures, and a list could be made of that, too. I, myself, could also have a list made of my own failures and hypocrisies. But this objection proves the very point: All men and women are fallible, and truly absolute power corrupts absolutely. Which is why the basis of the American Constitution, with its separation of powers, is utterly central, and why the erosion of Constitutional principles will lead to disaster, totalitarianism, and worse. Generally speaking the core of the conservative and libertarian views is that this very recognition of fallibility is built into their guiding principles, in a way that socialism denies theoretically, or practically. It is also the reason why conservatives and libertarians will not be shut up, as the alternative is a fate worse than if Hitler took over the world… and why this post is written.

In conclusion, returning to the Russians – who know a thing or two about the abject failure of socialism – as one observed “The future kingdom of socialism will be a terrible tyranny of criminals and murderers. It will throw humanity into a true hell of spiritual suffering and poverty.” (Fyodor Dostoyevski). But, of course, the hypocrite elite, the Learjet leftists and limousine liberals, will still be living in spendour, and as Orwell warned us, while we will all be equal in this socialist dystopia, some of us will be “more equal” than the others. Just ask leftists George Clooney with his multiple megamansions (you can google this for your own verification, and to see actual pictures), Sean Penn and his palatial digs, Mikey Moore with his NY penthouse and multi-million dollar mansion on Torch Lake, MI, Madonna, or a thousand other Hollywierd glitterati – when not even one of them will open up just one room in just one of their zillion square foot mansions. Just think of Obama supporter Tom Hanks, who in 2010 purchased a 14,500-square-foot mega mansion in Pacific Palisades for $26 million, which was the largest transaction for a single-family home in Los Angeles County that year. Any tent people you know of bunking there.

In conclusion, even socialists sometimes have an inkling of the inherent insufficiency of socialism. Leftist French writer Andre Gide wrote, after visiting the socialist workers paradise of Stalin, that “I doubt that in any country of the world, even Hitler’s Germany, is thought less free, more bowed down, more terrorized,” while on the opposite side of the world, Chinese philosopher Lin Yutang wrote of socialism he saw in communist China that included “making 12 year old children subject to capital punishment, sending women to work in underground coal mines, harassing workers during their lunchtime with threats of prison – or worse – if they were late returning to work.”

Friends, we have our work cut out for us. That work is non-violent in nature. But we need to speak, communicate and educate. That is the path forward. The alternative is a fate worse than if Hitler had won.

-JV

Thanks JV for sharing your thoughts. You cover several topics here that I believe are to a great extent relevant to what we see in society today, in many ways the root cause of many of the problems we try to be better prepared for by doing what we do here.

I must say though, that while I agree with you on certain things I don’t agree with others. Since its more fun to talk about differences rather than the things we agree on, I’ll do just that.

A few years ago while at a Self Reliance Expo in Salt Lake city I was talking with John Silveira, editor of Backwoods Home maganize and author of Danielle Kidnapped.

We were talking about current events, politics and such, which is a topic that survivalists generally agree on more or less. At one point I told him that at the end of the day “Communism is simply a brutal form of capitalism”. He liked that quote and wrote it down somewhere. As I read JV’s letter I was reminded of that. Isnt it amazing, how many incredibly rich leftists we have? Not just the actors and other famous (and rich) people JV notices. I see it happening in my own country, Argentina, with a leftist government, “national and popular”, where the “national and popular” president wears Italian designer clothes and jewels fit for a queen, has billions in accounts, and the rest of her “national and popular” minions also live in opulent estates, located on the richest parts of Buenos Aires. What an interesting way of being leftists and “national and popular”.

Like the graphic of Y equal tangent X equation tenting to negative infinity, all of a sudden it joins somewhere with infinity, the two extremes mysteriously coming together at some point beyond rational understanding.

All these people, not only rich politicians and actors, but even more important, superrich corporation owners, why is it that they finance leftists? Because they want to be poor? No, its because they want to make an obscene amount of money, and you can only do that if you take away from other people.

Anyone remembers that Simpsons episode, where Bill Gates “acquires” Homer’s internet company? He destroys his office while saying “I didn’t get rich signing checks, Mr. Simpson”.

That’s where the right becomes left. Rob a bank and steal 10 million dollars at gunpoint and you get 10 to 25. Steal 100 billion dollars through market manipulation causing death and misery to millions around the globe and you get to choose who gets elected as a president next year. It’s the new concept of left-right monstrosity: If they make money its their money, hey, that’s capitalism right? But if they lose money they still make money because the tax payer is left to pick up the tab. Sorry, too big to fail.

Right or Left. I don’t trust either any more. Like y=tgx, it gets to a point where the limit to the left tends to infinity and the limit to the right, ironically tends to negative infinity and it both happens at that same point.

About minorities, racism and xenophobia. I think that within the survival community we have the huge stigma of racism and it needs to be addressed. I’ve lost count of how many times I’ve read racist or xenophobic remarks against different nationalities, ethnic groups and religions. There’s no right group to be racist about people. Racism is racism pure and simple. We cant just paint it all with a wide brush and call it political correctness or political agenda. Those do exist, of course they do, but so does racism. It not only exists, racism, xenophobia and sectarianism are alive and better than ever, many times sponsored by the government themselves. People that don’t see it generally do so because they never suffered it themselves.

About moral values, today I watched teen mom on MTV for about 20 minutes before changing the channel, worried about suffering brain damage due to stupidity exposure.

I know these things are scripted but still, my God.

One of the “teen” couples, they must have been weighting over 300 pounds each, at the very least I kid you not. Oh, by the way, if 70% of your body weight is fat you’re not big, you’re just plain old fat dude. These two morbidly obese teenagers, they had a baby, not only did they scream and shout at each other in front of their already fat child, they lived like pigs as well. The house they lived in was a mess. Both of them were too lazy to do cleaning of any kind. The disgusting mess they lived in was accentuated by cat feces that covered any free surface of the floor that wasn’t occupied with dirty clothes or fast food wrapping trash.

Lets not even get to the millions of people that apparently seem to be surprised that their slutty teenage daughters end up getting pregnant when sleeping around.

I’m telling you, if you watch that show for more than 30 minutes you lose all faith in human kind.

If we don’t find a way of going back to a place where people have some basic values, minimum amount of shame and self respect, we’re done. Here again, both left and right promote this same kind of society. A society that is stupid, and lazy, with no self-respect or moral compass.

The less you think, the more needy you are, the more you depend on the government, the greater the control it has over you.

FerFAL

EDC contest Story Winner

2013-04-30T17:11:00.000-07:00

Ferfal, here is my everyday carry story.
I am a 35 year old father of 4 living in Colorado. One night last summer I took my family to the sushi restaurant located at a strip-mall near our house. We live in a nice neighborhood and could have walked to the restaurant, but our youngest child was just over one year old at the time and it was easier to drive. We met my mother-in-law and her sister at the restaurant.
We were having a fun dinner – we tried the Miso soup and had just started passing around plates of sushi when my one-year-old started making a little too much noise, and my mother-in-law decided to take him for a walk outside. We were seated by the large windows that spanned the entire front of the restaurant and I could see the two of them playing on the sidewalk outside. I was facing the front door and the windows that extended out from the front door, on either side.
Suddenly, a middle-aged women walked into view from the left of where I was seated and leaned heavily against the glass window with a loud thud. Her hair was a mess and her makeup had been spread around her face by tears and the wiping of dirty hands. She was talking on a cell phone as she leaned against the window and she looked very distraught. I noticed my mother-in-law waiving her hand in a back-and-forth motion, signaling for me to come outside. She was holding my one-year-old in her arms.
I walked outside and my mother-in-law said, I think this woman needs some help. I started to approach the woman when a young man, about 18 years old, appeared from the around the corner of the building where the woman had come from. He was wearing a t-shirt with a dark colored button-up shirt over it, only the very top button was fastened and the rest of the shirt was parted to each side, with the widest space at the bottom. He was standing at the top of three steps that the woman had descended before leaning against the window, which was presently to my left. He said, “hey man, I’m just trying to get this woman a cab.”
I ascended to his level at the top of the steps and said “hi” and shook his hand. He explained he had found this woman crying and asked if he could help. She seemed intoxicated so he called a cab. He asked me to help him get her into the cab when it arrived. I looked over at the woman and I could hear her telling the person on the other end of the phone line that she was going to kill herself. She was obviously intoxicated and very emotional, but her speech was clear because she was speaking in an elevated tone of voice.
I said, “Hey, man, I think we should probably call 911 because….” Before I could finish speaking, the young man leaned his face close to my ear and said, “If you call the cops, I’ll F***ing stab you right here.”
Time seemed to slow down as I became very aware of the cell phone in my left and the pocket-knife (a little Spyderco Dragonfly) in the front-right pocket of my jeans. When I looked down at my phone, the young man lunged for it and missed as I pulled it away, spinning counter-clockwise and pushing him away from me with my right hand. Upon missing the phone, he stumbled to an upright position on the steps and then lurched past me, back in the direction where he came from, and stopped about ten feet away.
I could sense, without seeing, the distraught lady behind me to the left and my mother-in-law with my one-year-old directly behind me about twenty feet or so. I vividly imagined, like a daydream, the young man rushing toward me, my right had drawing the knife from my pocket, unfolding it with my thumb and driving it into his chest. The thought made me cringe and my mind raced as I tried to decide what to do next. I wanted to call 911 to help the distraught woman, who I believed to be mentally ill or intoxicated or both. I did not want to have to stab the young man. I drew and unfold my knife while simultaneously raising the phone in front of me to dial 911, such that I could see the young man in front of me as I did so. I got the 911 dispatcher and announced, so that she and the young man could hear me, that I had a knife in my hand because the young man threatened to stab me if I called 911. I explained that a woman needed to be taken to the hospital because she seemed intoxicated and she threatened to kill herself. The dispatched asked for my location and I explained.
The young man looked nervous and he turned to his right and started walking away, then he moved toward the woman and said “tell your son I’m sorry.” Then he turned around and walked away across the large parking lot and across the busy four lane street in front of me. I noticed for the first time that he had a red backpack on, the type that is just a nylon bag with strings as shoulder straps.
Within minutes, several police cars and an ambulance arrived. Two female police office stepped out of their cars, and one asked me to identify myself. I explained that I had called 911 and that I had a knife in my hand, which I showed her by holding it between my thumb and forefinger with the flat of the blade and handle exposed to her for maximum visibility. She put her hand on her pistol and told me to put the knife down. I slowly set the knife in front of me on the concrete sidewalk. She carefully picked it up, folded it, and put it on top of her patrol car. She told me to sit down and asked me questions in a very demanding tone. She asked for my driver’s license and I handed it to her. She asked me to explain what happened several times and I did so, at one point she asked me to stand up and show her where the events had taken place. I felt conscious of the fact that I was wearing a t-shirt and jeans – I felt like if I was better dressed she might have treated me better.
I saw two or three more patrol cars arrive, and the young man was let out of one of them. A male officer arrived and told the female officer he would take it from here.
“You’ve probably told your story enough times,” the officer said, “there are some discrepancies in your story.”
“Well, if there are, then that’s how the human brain works because I’m trying to explain it clearly but parts of it seem like a blur,” I responded.
“That is how it works, actually,” he replied. “We caught the other guy. We found a knife in his backpack. He says he grabbed your cell phone, and that’s about the only thing I could charge him with. Do you want to press charges?”
“I don’t think he actually grabbed my phone,” I said.
“I believe you,” the officer replied.
“I don’t want to press charges. I was afraid he would rush me and didn’t want to stab him, so I showed him my knife and called 911 at the same time,” I explained.
“I asked him why he didn’t want you to call 911, and he didn’t have a reason – I don’t think you did anything wrong,” he said.
By that time, my mother-in-law and her sister had taken the kids home, and only my wife was waiting for me. We drove the short distance home and I gradually relaxed as the adrenaline worked its way out of my system.
I learned some things from this experience. I learned that I am the type of person who tries to help people. Sometimes in trying to help people, one becomes caught up in dangerous situations. I started thinking more about defensive carry. I looked into a better defensive carry knife. Interestingly, the guy who helped me at the sporting goods store said that he was a former combat medic and “you don’t want to get in a knife fight, get a gun.” I think that makes a lot of sense. I did buy what I consider to be a better defensive carry knife that day, a Buck Redpoint, which is a great defensive carry knife for the money. I took off the clip, and it fits nicely in my pocket. I also plan to take a concealed carry class, which will allow me to legally and responsibly carry a pistol. If the situation I described above had happened while I was carrying a pistol, I don’t think I would have drawn it, unless I saw that the young man was holding a weapon in his hand. I think I would have told him I was armed and that I didn’t want any trouble, but that I was going to call the police. I’m curious what you and your readers think about the situation I described above and my defensive carry philosophy. Take care,
Patrick

Hi Patrick,
Nice story man, you won!
Several things to point out:
1)The use of the cellphone to call for backup and having it with you, even when going out for a quick bite.
2) The knife being used, and this person clealry thinking better about what he as doing (and not wanting to get stabbed!)
3)Realizing you need more of a fighting oriented EDC knife instead. I would recommmend a Cold Steel Voyager rather the Buck Redpoint though.
4)Finally concluding that yup, carrying a gun is a good idea.
5)Bad things happen when least expected, close to home, when doing "normal" stuff.
6) One last comment, next time remember to put away the weapon (knife or gun) before cops get there. That's how people get shot.
Thanks for sharing your story!
FerFAL

Why People Like "Bin Laden" 500 Euro Notes

2013-04-29T14:54:00.002-07:00

The Secret World Of Gold

2013-04-25T18:56:00.000-07:00

Very interesting documentary about gold, highly recommended!
FerFAL

EDC Story Contest/ Giveway

2013-04-24T03:28:00.001-07:00

Do you have an interesting EDC related story to tell? Here’s your chance to win a fancy Exotac FireStarter!

I’m interesting in learning about the ways in which your Everyday Carry gear (gun, knife, flashlight, cellphone, cash, etc, etc) has saved the day or somehow come in handy during emergencies or even just solving normal day to day problems. The best story wins a black Exotac nanoSTRIKER XL Ferrocerium Fire Starter donated by our sponsor campingsurvival.com

The steps and conditions are very simple:

1)Write your story in 500-1000 words. This is just a general guideline, you can use more or less if that’s what you need to tell your story.

2)You have until Sunday, April 28th to submit your story (my email can be found on the right column, in red) That will give you the weekend to sit and write a bit. I’ll read them all and announce a winner on Tuesday, April 30th.

3)This time the contest is for USA only. Don’t worry, the next one will include everyone world wide ;-)

The contest starts as of right now so if you have something in mind start writing!

FerFAL

Preparedness & Household Consumable Supplies

2013-04-22T12:37:00.001-07:00

Hi Fernando,
Just another fan of your blog and videos here. I really appreciate your reasonable and realistic take on things.

In my current situation, I'm not as prepared as I eventually want to be, but we're getting there steadily.   I'm living in a small apartment in a big city and I'm still recovering economically from a divorce, so that limits some things, but there is one thing I'm doing that I wanted to get your thoughts on.

I just refer to it as 'pipelining' (in a reference to how most computer CPUs consume instruction codes) and what I mean is the practice of having 2-5 months worth of all the things we consume in storage here in the apartment, and when needed, putting the oldest item to use first, hence the "first in - first out" pipeline.   With the exception of some perishables such as fresh meat and vegetables for upcoming meals, which we tend to buy just a day or two before use, we've slowly accumulated a stock of pretty much everything one buys at a store from dry and canned food stuffs, to other goods like storage bags, wrapping paper, soap, laundry detergent, cleaners, tooth brushes, paper products, and so on and on. We've really gone out of our way to identify everything that might be applicable, even if they are items we use only irregularly. When we run out of something, we check storage, pull out another one if we have it, and add it to the shopping list - so that when we go shopping, we are mostly replenishing storage and not stuff in current use.

Ok, so this is all probably pretty basic preparedness stuff - the idea being that if there is an interruption of any various sort - unavailability at the store, sudden price controls, banking system holiday, gas shortage or transit outage, etc... that we can just stay tight at home and ride out the storm.   Since all of the items being purchased will wind up being used or consumed in the near future, we don't feel like it's a waste of money on something speculative.   Given that we're in an apartment, the 'depth' of our 'pipeline' is limited by storage space. In the near future, we're likely to move outside the city and into a small house, and should have considerably more storage capacity.
What I wanted to ask you was if you had some thoughts on just what is a good 'depth' (in time) for 'how deep' to make our pipeline.   i.e. at what point of stocking up, does the value of doing so start to really diminish?

Appreciated,
-Matt

Hi Matt. I very much agree with your line of though. I too lived in an apartment for years at a time and understand the storage space limitations.

The greatest problem I had was finding ways of storing water. We had experienced both power outages and water shortages and by far what worried me the most was being without water. You thinking spending a couple days without power is bad? Try turning off the water supply for a weekend and see how that goes. Knowing well that water is a top priority what I did was store it in 2 litter soda bottles and just using up any free space I could find, from under the bed to behind furniture, under couches or corners in the dressers.

As you correctly point out, these are supplies that you will use anyway, dry food, soap, detergent, toilet paper, so having them sure isn’t wasted money. In fact, if you stock up you can save money by buying in bulk when you find good deals.

What’s a good “depth” of supplies in term of time? One month as minimum, with six months being ideal. And if you can extend you dry food staples so as to cover 12 months in a worst case scenario, that would be perfect.

I believe that a month is the minimum you should aim for in an apartment , at least for everything other than water. You just cant store that much water in an apartment. In an apartment, I’d go for at least two gallons per person as a basic minimum so as to have enough water to drink during short term emergencies. A month would buy you enough time for shelter in place scenarios which are generally short term events.

Ideally you would have more, given that you have space for storing it. Six months worth of supplies would buy you time during recessions, job loss, rioting and problems in the supply chain during longer term emergencies. The logic here is that if stores and groceries aren’t working normally after a month, let alone two months, you have to plan on relocating anyway because things are about to get very ugly! The supplies will buy you time to get things sorted out without worrying about keeping your family fed, clean and healthy. A cash stash will help keep power, heating and other bills paid, cover any holes in your preps that you missed or procure transportation and relocation funds.

Some of the things to stock up on:

Dry pasta (lasts forever and keeps you alive)

Canned vegetables (preferably in glass jars)

Tomato sauce

Rice

Sugar

Salt

Vegetable oil

Soap

Bleach

Toilet Paper

Hand Sanitizer (alcohol based)

Toothpaste

Laundry detergent

Dishwashing liquid

Disposable plates and cutlery (great for when there’s no water to clean up)

Trash bags

Any other suggestions, leave them in the comments below!

Take care everyone,

FerFAL

Boston Terriorist Attack: The Uses of Your EDC Kit

2013-04-17T15:38:00.000-07:00

As I watched the awful images and videos of the terrorist attack in Boston I kept thinking of how everyday carry items that I often mention here as part of a well rounded survival emergency kit could have come into play.

1)A bottle of water isn’t just good for drinking even if that is the most common use for it. It can be used to clean up wounds and wash out dust and debris from your face , especially your eyes.

Klean Kanteen 27 -Ounce Classic, Poly Sport Cap 2.0 Stainless Steel Water Bottle

2)A big scarf or shemagh can be used as a pad to apply direct pressure on a wound or used to improvise a tourniquet. It can be used along with water to clean up some too.

Rothco Shemagh Tactical Desert Scarf, Olive Drab, O/S

3)A simple hank of 550 paracord can be used as tourniquet as well. A Canadian jam knot can be done quickly and tightens nicely as you pull.

Rothco Type III Commercial Paracord (Black, 550-Pound/100-Feet)

4)A collapsible respirator can be used to keep the dust away. Combined with safety sunglasses (which may save your eyes from shrapnel) and latex gloves it allows you to help bleeding victims.

3M 8511 Particulate Sanding N95 Respirator with Valve, 10-Pack

5)Celox Gauze is a hemostatic agent that can stop intense bleeding like the ones seen in the Boston Marathon victims. Stopping the bleeding will make the difference between life and death for some of these people.

Celox V12090 – GR Gauze Roll, 10′ L x 3″ W

I believe that these should be included in your everyday carry bag, given how invaluable they are when facing different kind of disasters and emergencies.

Has the terrorist attack in Boston changed some of your opinions? Anything you decided to do or carry because of what you’ve seen? Leave your comment, I’d like to read your opinion.

FerFAL

Bomb Attack in Boston: Cell phones in Crisis Situations‏

2013-04-15T15:09:00.000-07:00

Right now on Fox.com

So again we see, don't rely on your cell phone in bad situations:

Cellphone service was shut down in the Boston area to prevent any possible remote detonations of explosives, a law enforcement official said. The official was speaking on condition of anonymity because the investigation was ongoing.

If you only have a cell phone and no land line in the Boston area, you are now cut off.

-A

I’m watching the news right now. My prayers go out to all the victims of this horrible attack. My parents were in Boston yesterday, they just called to tell me about the attack. I lived in Boston when I was little, my best childhood memories.

Indeed, they bring cellphone communications down in case there’s more cell phone activated bombs waiting to be detonated. During disasters you just don’t know.

You still have smart phones with wifi that could use skype or send email if you find a working hotspot, so its worth trying that as a mean of communication. I know that a lot of people used just that after the earthquake in Chile when cell phones lines weren’t working either.

FerFAL

Modern Survivalism : Getting your Family On Board

2013-04-14T18:03:00.001-07:00

Hi Fernando.

I want to start of by saying I'm a big fan. I watch your videos almost everyday.

I am a highly trained member of the usa army. I am very big on self defense. I am currently stationed in the usa and visit/ communicate with my family everyday to make sure they are ok. I am deploying over seas at the end of the month. I offered to buy each member of my a family a firearm and send them to shooting class. They have all declined saying they don't believe in guns or weapons for that matter. And they believe they don't have to develop survival skills.

My question is do have any ideas or tactics on how I could encourage them to take self defense more seriously or any ideas at all on actions I can take to make sure they are safe before I deploy and while I'm away?

Thank you,

Matt

Hi Matt,

This is a common problem that many readers experience themselves.

It seems that for the lucky ones, the family, parents or spouses, simply “tolerate” their little hobby. They are not at all involved but see it as harmless so they put up with it even if they have no interest in it themselves. For others, they end up either not doing much preparedness or hide it from their families that see it just as a waste of time and money. It seems that few are lucky enough to have their family on board.

The problem is that for some important preparedness steps such as home and personal security, you need your family to be on board. It’s of no use to have an alarm, good locks and doors if the rest of the family won’t bother to locking the door every time. Family Preparedness should be a team effort and it is important to have the on board. If you’re the only one that remembers restocking the food you all eat, the batteries that others just use up, it can become frustrating to have all the weight on your back and no one helping.

Something along those lines happens with firearms as well. You may be a good shooter, get the training and know what to do, but that wont help a family member that doesn’t know how to handle a gun and is alone to deal with an intruder.

Right after getting married I explained to my wife where I was keeping my Glock and how to use it. She listened but I knew guns weren’t her thing. A few weeks later I came back home to find the Glock on the table next to my wife. Someone had tried to open the front door and she went for the gun. Luckily the door was of course locked, and whoever it was didn’t try to force it beyond that.

My point is, in some cases its only when an actually incident hits close to home that people react and start taking it seriously.

My advice would be not to force it, and try going little by little. It’s a good idea to start with an informal plinking session if there’s a fear of guns, and bring up and mention whenever you see or read about a crime incident in your community. This can be very effective. Some people just unconsciously seem to ignore crimes and other violent incidents around them, and its only when you start mentioning it that they join the dots and realize “hey, we better do something to improve our security situation”.

Being overly dramatic or going for fear mongering can have the opposite result, or bring unnecessary fear and stress to the family. Just keep it real, go little by little winning one small battle at a time.

Regarding other aspects of survival and preparedness try finding common ground. Going out for a walk is a nice family activity. Soon enough you find yourself doing nicer hikes with them. Suddenly that jacket isn’t as warm or that shoe isn’t as good for longer walks as initially thought. In terms of supplies, it makes sense to buy in bulk when cheap and stock up, and nothing beats producing a can of tomato sauce of roll of toilet paper from your stock when everyone else thought you had run out of it. Its in those moments when the family sees the wisdom in it.

In your case, you do have a leverage tool- You can use guilt to at least get away with some of it. Oh, yes, its a cheap shot but hey :-). You’re deploying anyway, right ? I would go for something along these lines: “I’m leaving soon and as a favor I would feel much better if I know you can at least protect yourself. Just a trip to the range for some basic instruction and you can just leave it in the safe after that, but I’ll feel better knowing that you not only have it, but at least learned its basic handling and fired it once."

Good luck!

FerFAL

Gun & Ammo Scare: Stock up on Common or Oddball Calibers?

2013-04-12T17:52:00.002-07:00

6 Steps to Survive a Nuclear Bomb Attack

2013-04-10T18:20:00.000-07:00

I’m receiving a lot of emails by people worried, all over the world regarding the issue with North Korea. First, lets try to be realistic about the potential striking range. For those of you in Europe worried about nuclear war, at this moment North Korea just doesn’t seem to have any way to strike a target that far away. At the most we’re looking at reaching Alaska and the west coast of continental US. Of course South Korea and Guam are well within reach, and this does not mean that smaller bombs cant be sneaked in by other methods, pretty much anywhere in the world, so while all things considered not a top priority, it can happen. Some will even say that a suitcase bomb or smaller dirty bomb being used in terrorist attacks is very much unavoidable and will end up happening eventually.

Even though an unlikely event, the anxiety and concern is understandable and as always knowledge not only helps calm our fears, it might be life-saving in such an event if it ever takes place.

1)You CAN survive a nuclear attack: While very powerful, and even though within a certain range of one or two miles the destruction and fatality is almost complete, the further away you are from where the bomb exploded, the greater the chances of survival you have. For a 10 kiloton nuke, you’re looking at a fatality rate of 20% at an 8 mile radius. So unless you live close or within a major strategic target your chances aren’t that bad.

2)Don’t look at the explosion and breathe in and out: The explosion is so bright that it can blind you momentarily or permanently. Breathing in and out in short pulses will keep your air passages open and help protect your lungs and eardrums from the high pressure shockwave of the explosion. If you hold your breath your lungs can burst due to overpressure waves, causing internal bleeding and death. Pulmonary contusion is the most common cause of death due to blast (explosion) injuries. Find shelter or hit the floor if there’s no shelter near by.

3)Identify the Explosion area and Wind Direction: If you happen to survive the initial blast, and make it out of the fires and collapsed structures, you may have a chance of making it. If the overpressure shock, flying debris and heat didn’t kill you, now you have to worry about the radioactive fallout. You have between 10 and 20 minutes before the radioactive particles start falling. The wind will spread the fallout plume in the direction of the wind, so the fastest way to avoid fallout if the wind is blowing it your way is moving perpendicularly away from it. If you are lucky enough to survive and the wind isn’t blowing the ash your way, evacuate the area moving against the direction of the wind. The wind can change directions at any time but this is your safest bet.

4)Cover up: While evacuating is your main priority if you are able to do so, you also want to cover as much as you can to avoid the contact with radioactive particles. Ideally you would have an NBC suit and respirator. If not you can somewhat improvise protection with rubber boots and gloves and waterproof clothing, using duct tape to close up the gaps. You should only remove these clothes after being decontaminated when you reach a safe area.

Gas Mask Complete Family Kit, Two (2) Adult+ Two(2) Children Survival Gas Masks, 4 NBC Filters, 4 Canteens , 4 Straws Plus Anti Radiation 20 Tablets of Potassium Iodide 130mg $149.90

Dupont X-Large Yellow Tychem QC Chemical Protection Coveralls $15.58

5)If you cant evacuate you should shelter in place: A basement or better yet a fallout shelter is the best place to be in. You need 3 feet of earth for protection against gamma rays. If you are in an apartment building, you want to be in the 9^th floor or higher, and stay in inner rooms, away from exterior walls for added protection. After 72hs radiation will go down considerably.

6) Plan ahead of time: This is the last but most important point. Know your situation. Know if you live in a potential target like a large metropolis or close to an important military base. Know the predominant wind direction and think about how you would evacuate, which would be the fastest route and which would be the second best choice if that main route is packed with cars. Identify any nearby fallout or bomb shelters, check their operational status (if they are still open and working) or other improvised shelter like tunnels or underground structures in case you have to shelter in place. Ideally, you would have either a fallout shelter or an improvised shelter in your basement. Finally have your Standard Preparedness Supplies ready and organized so as to grab what you can and go as fast as possible.

FerFAL

5 Tips to Prepare for a Cyprus-Type Event

2013-04-07T17:14:00.000-07:00

1) Have your Standard Preparedness Supplies in Order: You’ll need food, water, means of self defense, medical care and shelter for a multitude of events and this is no different. Having food means you wont have to worry about running to the store to buy food for the next few days just when people’s accounts get frozen, credit cards are no longer accepted and cash is becoming scarce. Same goes for medicines you may need or fuel to move around.

2) Have Cash. We’ve gone through this before. While a fiat currency can lose value very fast its unlikely that the Dollar or Euro will become worthless overnight. When banks close and ATM go empty, cash is king. Suppliers are scared and go for cash only, at times forcing retailers to do the same. This happens often with fuel during economic crisis. I recommend a minimum of one month worth of expenses in cash at hand.

3) Have Precious Metals. Gold and silver in well recognized coins. This is your insurance in case the fiat currency does go belly up eventually. Even if it doesn’t, while the currency loses value because of whatever is going on, your PM are safe from that devaluation. While the price of PM goes up and down, it always retains a somewhat similar purchasing value throughout history.

4) Buy a safe, then buy another one. If you think of it, its cheap insurance so as to keep your money safe in case of a break in, no pun intended. Most petty thieves looking for quick cash, cellphones or prescription drugs wont even know what to do and will leave the safe alone but as criminals notice that people keep more cash at home because of the distrust of banks, break ins and home invasions will become more common. A determined criminal will either steal the safe entirely or manage to open it using power tools. A second, very well hidden safe is the best way to increase the chances of keeping most of your savings safe. Do keep a bit of cash, cheap jewelry and other typical safe stuff just in case in your first “decoy” safe.

SentrySafe SFW123DSB 1.23 Cubic Feet Combination Fire-Safe, Medium Grey $155.99

SentrySafe 7250 Waterproof Floor Safe, 540 Cubic Inches, Gray $120.59

5) Off Shore Banking. No, you’re not Jason Bourne or 007, but even if you just have a couple hundred bucks in it, an account in another country gives you the choice of moving the money out of the local banking system. Maybe you don’t get the chance to transfer it, but what if you do? If you do see something fishy going on you can transfer it and maybe save your money. Nothing happens? No harm done, you just lose a couple bucks on the transfer fee. What you wont be able to do is open an account in just a day or two when you need it in a hurry. What country you ask ? Google up to find where the big fish keep theirs. Hopefully you have it and rarely move money to it. But having it gives you options, and options are always good to have.

FerFAL

Survival & Preparedness: Networking and Meeting Like-Minded People

2013-04-04T16:55:00.002-07:00

Mortgages during and after an Economic Collapse?

2013-04-03T04:01:00.001-07:00

Hi Fernando,

I read your book about 1.5 years ago and am begining to read it a second time.

One thing that I don't believe you cover is exactly what happens to mortgages and taxes during a collapse. If a large majority of people are unemployed do they let you remain in the home if you cannot pay your mortgage and property taxes?

I have been aquiring supplies for two years, but one thing I will not be able to do in the event of a collapse is to pay off my mortgage. Many of my supplies will not do much good if I am forced to become a nomad.

Thanks

Jim

Hi Jim, this question often comes up and I can see how it is a concern these days for most people. Regarding taxes, like death, they are unavoidable, and if there’s one thing I’ve learned from Argentina and researching various other crisis around the globe is that taxes do go up, and they are almost entirely aimed at the middle class socioeconomic group.

Regarding mortgages in Argentina, certain laws were implemented to stop people from losing their homes, but it just worked in a smaller percentages of the cases.

Poverty in USA

A law was passed, Ley 25.798, which gave you a year before you had to continue making your mortgage payments. The mortgage was updated to the current price of the property and monthly payments could not be greater than 25% of the family’s income. This only benefited those that had bought the property between January 2001 and September 2003, the property had to cost less than 100.000 USD or the equal amount converted to pesos and it had to be your only property, the one you live in. This of course meant that the law only benefited the lower income buyer, and only those that bought during that period of time. As for those not covered by this law, a thousand homes went under the hammer per month.

Here’s the link explaining all this but its in Spanish:

http://www.contactoprofesional.com/abogados/hipotecas.htm

What happens if you cant make the payments, mortgages or taxes? Accounts get frozen, and any money coming into your account is immediately taken to pay for those debts. You lose everything little by little and become poor or even fall below the poverty bracket into extreme poverty and indigence, losing it all and becoming homeless. That happened to hundreds of thousands. I know of several people that had to move back with their parents, other relatives of friends to live in their kitchens or living rooms for long periods of time, and those are the lucky ones. Those that didn’t have family to take them in, they ended up living on the streets.

FerFAL

The Best UK Legal carry Knife

2013-04-02T08:52:00.002-07:00

Boker Plus Trance 42 avaiable at Heinnie.com!
(Use discount code OUTEN3210 for 5% Off)

FerFAL

Happy Easter Everyone!!

2013-03-31T06:45:00.002-07:00

Happy Easter Everyone! For many of us, when the going gets tough the spiritual fortitude provided by our faith keeps us going.

If you get the chance, try going to Mass today. I’m just back from it and feel great. Its been some time since I last went to Church. I’ve been neglecting my spiritual life a bit lately but I’ll try to address that in the future.

I’m one of those Catholics that feels he has enough faith, prays frequently, but for some reason just doesn’t go to Church much. God is everywhere and we don’t need to be anywhere specific to pray, right? Other than stepping into Church every now and then and thanking God, at times I’ve spent years without going to Mass. Well, I don’t know why but going to Church today just felt great, and from now on I’ll try to go every Sunday.

If you’ve been neglecting your spiritual life lately as well this would be a good time to be honest and see where it may be improved.

I leave you this blessing;

May the road rise up to meet you.
May the wind always be at your back.
May the sun shine warm upon your face,
and rains fall soft upon your fields.
And until we meet again,
May God hold you in the palm of His hand.

-An Old Irish Blessing

Have a great day everyone!

FerFAL

Cold Steel Vaquero XL 51/2" Recurved Blade

2013-03-29T12:54:00.005-07:00

For many years now I’ve written about the virtues of the recurved blade. The “S” shape works in such way that it catches within its curve the material you are slashing at and forces it into the edge rather than letting it slip as you would see in straight or simple curved blades. With the Nogales tip that Cold Steel uses in their Vaquero, you still have a narrow tip that penetrates well.
The latest Cold Steel Vaquero XL has several improvements over the previous models.

Cold Steel Voyager XL Vaquero Plain Edge Knife $50.97
The blade in the Vaquero XL is indeed large for a folder, 5 ½” inches long and 4mm thick. The steel is Aus8A, which Cold Steel knows how to heat treat well and achieves satisfactory results in terms of toughness, edge retention and ease of sharpening.
The grip is without a doubt one of the greatest improvements from previous models. It feels comfortable with space to spare even for big hands. A deep depression where the index finger rests makes for a generous finger guard, which is something that adds security and confidence for defensive use and heavy duty tasks. The clip is smaller than it used to be which is a good thing. Its only as big as it needs to be, and it comes with a spare clip for left hand carry. It only allows for tip up carry though.

The “Grivory” handle is strong, reinforced on the inside with aluminum liners. The handle has an aggressive cross pattern texture for better retention. The locking mechanism, a back lock system called TriAd, is one of the strongest in the market. Bronze washers make for a fast and effortless opening.

In spite of the size the big folder carries well. Even when carrying it on normal jeans, walking around, driving or sitting, you simply forget abut it.
This is a big knife, especially effective for defensive purposes. It doesn’t hurt either that it’s as intimidating as few knives out there, which is something I got to personally test a few years ago. Where and when legal to carry, and when looking for a knife specifically for defensive purposes, this is what I would carry. I did in fact carry the old Vaquero for several years in Argentina.
The knife costs around 50 USD and for that price it has to be one of the best deals around these days. If defense isn’t the main role you have in mind for the knife, then the more classic Clip Point version may suit you better and will be easier to sharpen.
Check out my video Review:

FerFAL

“Supercard”: the Kirchner’s Government Credit Card for the People

2013-03-26T17:51:00.000-07:00

Supermaket Association Juan Vasco Martinez, showing the "Supercard" which of course has to be red...

You thought that the Argentine government had gone nuts when they froze prices and banned supermarkets from advertising in newspapers? Well, that’s the beauty of Cristina Kirchner’s government, whenever they do something ridiculous in an attempt to stop sky rocketing inflation you can rest assured that their next measure will be even more bizarre.

Say hello to the “Supercard”, the credit card that the Argentine government will force people to use while boycotting the ones already found on the market. Domestic Trade Secretary Guillermo Moreno came up with this brilliant idea. Why let Mastercard or Visa keep 3% when you can force everyone to use “Supercard” that charges just 1%? Isnt it fantastic how these people chose what’s best for you? There’s the small matter of individuals actually having the freedom to use whatever kind of card they want, rather than being forced to use a shady credit card created by corrupt politicians and their associates. For now, Supermaket Association Juan Vasco Martínez said “no one’s talking about banning anything… but” said Martinez smiling like a weasel “ lets say the dynamic created by the Supercard will end up excluding the others, because of the market…”.

The Argentine Ripoff BS - English translation would be: The government got together with the main big name supermarkets and together planned to get rid of credit cards and force everyone into using their own lousy credit card called “Supercard”.

I cant wait to see what snake oil solution they’ll come up with next.

FerFAL