Wife does not Buy In‏

Hola Ferfal!

Greeting from Atlanta! My lovely wife works in the Health Insurance buisiness, and has been in the 'financial' sector for 13 years..Recently, while listening to Glenn Beck I asked her opinion

on the possibilities of full scale SHTF here in the USA. We have a goodly amount of $$ saved up in our 401K's, Roth Ira and a small savings account. I asked her if we should curb our deposits

into these things, to put more in savings to hedge against the falling dollar. Her response was that 'Glenn Beck is paranoid' and I shouldn't let him get me 'all worked up'. She even sent me this

link to an economist that doesn't think our economy will melt down:http://dailycapitalist.com/2010/09/30/will-we-have-hyperinflation-in-america/

What do you do to prepare if your spouse does not believe that were in for tough times? I love my wife, and I'm not going to leave her or my son. But did you know of anyone down there that blindly

ignored the warning signs after being told to prepare, and what happened? Did your wife buy into the 'preparedness' scenario right away? In my area of Atlanta, we have seen a BIG increase of violent home invasions, yet she wont go to the range with me to learn how to shoot out pistol. http://wsbradio.com/localnews/2010/12/atlanta-cops-fan-out-near-gran.html What to do?

Thanks and be safe

Evan

Hi Evan, of course, if you don’t take action now don’t expect miracles in the future. As the economy gets worse you’ll suffer the consequences for not preparing. If the economy collapses, yes, people have lost their homes, saw their money devaluate to nothing. There’s people that lost everything. Lost their jobs, lost their savings, sold what they had to survive afterwards and then had nothing, no place to live in and no income.

What do you do to prepare if your spouse does not believe that we’re in for tough times? You prepare anyway. You do what you believe is your duty as a father and husband. Stocking up on food (go for a year’s worth if you can afford it) , storing water, putting some money aside every month, both cash and precious metals. Can you protect your family?

Surplus Glock22  $350

A surplus S&W 38 revolver will cost you 250 USD. Another $50 and you have 50 rounds of good ammo. A surplus Glock can be had for $350 http://www.jgsales.com/index.php/glock/used-glocks/cPath/16_150_497.  After a safety class you’ll at least have a weapon in case you need it during social unrest. These, along with some gear such as flashlights, camping gear, first aid kit, are the minimum so as to take care of your responsibilities as a husband and father. It has little to do with what your wife believes, you just do what you think you have to. Afterwards you can explain what you do and what you plan on keep doing to your wife. She may agree with you or not to some extent, but if she loves you she’ll understand these are things you just had to do so as to feel you where providing for your family as best as you can. This situation is far from ideal, but there’s no ideal families. The important thing is doing what you know you MUST do to prepare, at least achieve a basic, common sense degree of preparedness.

People that blindly ignore the obvious? Yes, not good. My neighbor, she sure doesn’t have guns in her house, you could say it’s a “gun free zone”. They suffered several home invasion and her daughters were raped. Bad things happen. With a bit of luck, it just doesn’t happen to you, but these things happen every day. The difference is that with more crime luck runs out fast.

“In my area of Atlanta, we have seen a BIG increase of violent home invasions, yet she wont go to the range with me to learn how to shoot out pistol. http://wsbradio.com/localnews/2010/12/atlanta-cops-fan-out-near-gran.html What to do?”

You can show here these type of news every time it happens in your area. Eventually sit down with her and have a serious conversation. People that suffer home invasions are left with a feeling of fear that stays with them a long time. They feel violated, unsafe. Lets not even talk about what happens when these animals torture, kill and rape. They might as well shoot you in the head, your life is ruined. You have a pistol and go to the range so I believe you already made up your mind about how to deal with such a violent encounter. Your wife needs to at least know how to safely handle a firearm if she has to defend herself.

A marriage is also a society. Sometimes you have to do things you don’t particularly enjoy, but you do it anyway because you understand the other person’s concern.

You seem to be doing things right. Have a conversation with her and explain her what concerns you. I’m sure that while not completely on board, she’ll understand. My wife isn’t particularly fond of guns. Soon after we got married I explained to her how to use my Glock 31. She said ok but that she wasn’t going to use it anyway. A few days later I came back home and found my Glock on the kitchen table. Someone had made noise, shook the street door, probably tried to open it so she quickly grabbed the gun. What if that happened to your wife? Most doors, specially in USA, they can be kicked down VERY easily.

Take care and good luck, hope your wife understands these concerns,

FerFAL

LEDs, batteries and EDC gear.

Flashlights are one of those invaluable pieces of gear that those of us that are into survival and preparedness are never caught without. More often that not I’ll have 3 or 4 LED lights with me at all times. My keychain has a nice Fenix LDO1 and I’ll have a 4Sevens Quark Mini123 in my pants pocket. In my bag there’s another AA and 123 light. Its not a big deal. They are small enough and always come in handy. I fid myself loaning one often during shooting classes at night.

A few days ago after the shooting class we were going to the classroom and had to walk through a patch of dark field. I brought my flashlight out and noticed it wasn’t nearly as bright as it usually is. Maybe around 50 lumens of output or so, but this light gives 200 lumens on high mode. No problem, I keep spare batteries in my bag which I always have with me. Still, this reminded me that most people don’t carry flashlights on daily basis, let alone spare batteries. LEDs have extended the duration of batteries beyond what people could even dream of a few years ago, but they do run out. Good flashlights like the Quark Mini are regulated, so that means it keeps constant output of power until the battery is almost dead. Good for maintaining constant luminosity, but gives little warning time. This is one of the reasons why redundancy is important, as well as carrying spare batteries. The best way of knowing your LED flashlight is about to die is seeing a reduction in brightness. Even if its still pretty bright, in good LED lights this means it can no longer keep the same lumens out the front and has little time left. In LED lights like the Mini123 that have low-medium-high mode, you know you’re running out of battery when the medium and high mode looks pretty similar. When you can’t notice any difference between low-medium-high the battery should be replaced.

At all times

One of the few things all gun instructors agree with is that it matters little if you have the best gun in the world or even being the best shot if you don’t have the firearm with you when you need it. Something similar happens with basic survival tools. If you don’t have them with you at all times, you wont have it when you need it. This is why I emphasize so much on the importance of every day carry (EDC) gear.  You don’t need anything fancy, but you do need the basics. Which tools area  minimum must-haves vary depending on who you ask and the person’s personal experience and background. In my case the following factors come into play.

1)      You need to defend yourself from criminals.

2)      You need to deal with failing infrastructure. This includes power outages but also sectors of the city, buildings or roads that have no maintenance and lack proper street lighting.

3)      You need to be able to perform minor repairs in your vehicle or get yourself out of broken down trains, buses, buildings, etc. Emergency response wont be quick and may sometimes not show up at all.

With this premise, the minimum set of tools you should have include: Your gun where legal to carry with one or two spare magazines, wallet, cell phone, folding knife, multitool, flashlight and lighter. These I’ve carried even in jeans with small pockets,  Levi 501 type pants. Some of the cargo pants used today have more than enough space for these basic tools and more. The 99$ EDC kit post is a good start for those new to preparedness but that are working with a limited budget.

The Extra Step

While the basics are in your pockets or directly attached to you. You can (and should) carry a bit extra gear. For women this is called purse :-)  for guys it may be a suitcase, backpack, satchel, briefcase or messenger bag. Laptop cases and shoulder bags have become so popular, its easy to find something that fits your lifestyle, and carry a bag of some sort without attracting attention. Essentials here would be a bottle of water, a couple snacks or energy bars, an emergency blanket of collapsible jacket and a small survival kit such as an Altoids kit or similar.

The greatest problem here? The mental block guys have regarding carrying a bag with them at all times. Women carry purses practically every single day, parents simply can’t go out without a diaper bag. At first I had to force myself logically to take it with me at all times. After a few weeks I just couldn’t go out without it. Maybe one of the most useful things in my bag from the everyday perspective is the extra empty space. I keep about half of it free. This way I can toss in it whatever I’m carrying or buying that day and avoid the nasty little plastic bags that would end up in the trash anyway.

Unavoidable Maintenance and Repair

Just like flashlights need batteries, the rest of your gear will need proper care as well. The difference between poor and quality craftsmanship is not that one breaks and the other one doesn’t. Everything wears out and eventually fails, the difference is that with quality gear it takes longer and you generally get a bit of warning. Check your gear often and do proper maintenance. As we say around here, if your gun isn’t showing wear, your just not using it enough. Know how to disassemble your firearm, know how to repair it and keep a spare part kit, even with Glocks. Usually a few pins and springs, firing pin extractor and ejector, back plate and that little white plastic piece that jumps out when you remove the back plate. 

When it comes to knives, you just have to know how to sharpen them and clean them after use. It doesn’t matter if you get one that costs hundreds of dollars or is ridiculously hardened steel like you see sometimes (+60rc) It will just be harder to sharpen later on, that’s why I prefer knives that are around 58/59rc. There’s people out there that send their knives to be sharpened to a specialist. Would you be doing that during an emergency? No, you have to know how to do these things yourself. Same thing goes for your multitool. It must be kept sharpened and oiled at the pivot points so as to be in proper working condition when you need it. The Leatherman Charge and Wave which I use and always recommend uses a number 10 security torx screw. Get a  set of safety torxs screwdrivers that includes the number 10 so as to tighten or loosen your Leatherman or disassemble if needed.

After using your knife for working or eating, clean it before putting it away. I use the knife that I carry in my pack for “asados” (Argentine version f BBQ) After eating I’ll clean it with a napkin and store it in its sheath. The grease left protects it from rust but it may leave a few stains because of the fatty acids. Since this is not a showcase piece, I can live with that.

Sometimes when training or after simply getting caught in the rain, all your gear gets wet along with you. What I do is right as soon as I get home I spray everything with WD40. (great stuff, have several cans handy) WD, stands for water displacement, 40^th attempt. This was created specially to keep water away and avoid corrosion. It has been used to keep away humidity from submarine batteries and avoid corrosion in Atlas missiles. Victorinox’s manual says to open and close the tool while submerged in hot water. This removes grit and dirt. Afterwards dry and oil.

Just a few thoughts guys, take care and enjoy the rest of your weekend!

FerFAL

Politically Approved Genocide in South Africa

Remember my friends form South Africa that I posted about a couple days ago? Just got an email from one of them :

You asked about farm murders. This week a whole family was killed. The
    little girl was just 3 years old. This is amid the goverment trying to

    get its "struggle song" declared as non-hate speech. Check out the

    links for more info.

    http://www.news24.com/SouthAfrica/News/Six-nabbed-for-family-murder-20101202

   
    http://www.news24.com/SouthAfrica/News/ANC-defends-kill-the-boer-song-20100311

   
    http://www.news24.com/SouthAfrica/Politics/ANC-wants-kill-the-boer-back-20101024

   
    Marcu

Thanks Marcu, take care over there. 

Watch your back ok?

Fernando 

Six held for farmer, family's murder

2010-12-02 18:38

Bloemfontein - Six people were arrested and were being questioned over the brutal murder of a Lindley family on Thursday, Free State police said.

"The investigating team managed to take six people into custody and they are still being questioned," said spokesperson Motantsi Makhele.
A team consisting of members attached to organised crime, crime intelligence and visible policing started following leads and information from the scene.
"At about 14:30 they managed to track down six possible suspects, one firearm whose ownership couldn't be verified yet and the bank cards belonging to the 40-year-old deceased were also found."
Three of the suspects were arrested on the farm, while other three were picked up in the town of Lindley, Makhele said.
Most of the suspects are in their early twenties.




Stabbed, shot

Attie Potgieter, his wife Wilma and their daughter Willemien, 3 were found murdered on their farm on Thursday morning.
It seemed the farmer, in his 40s, was stabbed, while his wife and daughter were shot.
Commercial farming body, Free State Agriculture, condemned the killing.
Chief executive Henk Vermeulen said: "We condemn the senseless murder in the strongest possible terms."
Vermeulen said the criminals showed that they had no respect for "civilisation, people's lives" and law-abiding citizens.
"Criminals assume they have the right to attack citizens and in this case murder them."
He expressed the organisation's sympathy to the Potgieter family, and urged farmers in the Free State to get involved in the Free State Agriculture and police rural safety plan.

- SAPA

Bet you wont see much coverage of all this in main stream media, or the big picture you get when you connect the dots of a ruling political party that is clearly out there for blood, and the not so subtle approval of white families getting massacred.

Apparently “kill the boer, kill the farmer” isn’t a racist statement. “Its just taken out of context” according to the African National Congress (ANC) Youth leader, Julius Malema. The ANC is the left wing ruling political party of South Africa, founded by Nelson Mandela and other like minded individuals.

Two very important survival lessons here my friends.

a)       The survivalist retreat works perfectly well as long as there’s no serious crime situation to deal with. If there’s a real threat it will only work well in fiction novels and movies.

b)       When you are outnumbered, or even worse, when the majority of the people all around you and the government itself supports the extermination of your kind of people, either because of race, religious or moral beliefs, you either leave or become a martir.

Its happening now it South Africa, it happened in Germany with the Nazis and in Bosnia with the Serb Nationalists, just to mention a few cases. First it is suggested that you’re not welcomed any more, then they start harassing and killing you, and finally you’re not allowed to leave any more.

Take care folks.



FerFAL

Real Estate Situation

 Youtube clip from Geroge Hemminger (aka George4title)



 George mentions flipping houses as a way in which corporations make money. They've been basically selling overpriced property to people that had no money. How does this translate into fortunes for wallstreet? How could this possibly make money for them, if people can't even afford them? It doesn't matter! Its' still making them billions through the bailouts. Taxpayers are left to pay for the bill.
Another way this makes money for corporations that George didn't mention is urbanization.  People get into debt, lose their homes, the home falls in price due to the crisis, then the entire area isn’t worth anything.  Right? Wrong.
These companies either buy it back for pocket change, huge extensions of real estate, put some makeup on it, start a new development and sell it all over again (at inflated prices of course).
While people think in days, months and years, these guys, board of directors, they can afford to think in terms of decades. They can capitalize on profit that wont even be made after these company owners are dead. They even make money out of projects that will never take place. Not that different from selling debt, is it?

FerFAL

Hey FerFal, I wanted to share this with you.

If you were in Hungary, would you give up 70% of your pension in order to stay private?

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-11-25/hungary-follows-argentina-in-pension-fund-ultimatum-nightmare-for-some.html

Thanks for the link. It just goes to prove that we're all more alike than we like to admit. They go with inlfation, taxes, then they end up downright stealing from you.

FerFAL

Hungary Follows Argentina in Pension-Fund Ultimatum, `Nightmare' for Some

By Zoltan Simon - Nov 25, 2010 11:24 AM GMT-0300 

Hungary is giving its citizens an ultimatum: move your private-pension fund assets to the state or lose your state pension.

Hungary's Economy Minister Gyorgy Matolcsy

Economy Minister Gyorgy Matolcsy announced the policy yesterday, escalating a government drive to bring 3 trillion forint ($14.6 billion) of privately managed pension assets under state control to reduce the budget deficit and public debt. Workers who opt against returning to the state system stand to lose 70 percent of their pension claim.
“This is effectively a nationalization of private pension funds,” David Nemeth, an economist at ING Groep NV in Budapest, said in a phone interview. “It’s the nightmare scenario.”
Hungary is rolling back pension changes implemented more than a decade ago as countries from Poland to Lithuania find themselves squeezed by policies designed to limit long-term liabilities by shifting workers into private funds. Now the cost is swelling debt and deficit levels at a time when the European Union is demanding greater fiscal discipline.
Hungary, the most indebted eastern member of the EU, is following the example of Argentina, which in 2001 confiscated about $3.2 billion of pension savings before the country stopped servicing its debt. The government in Buenos Aires nationalized the $24 billion industry two years ago to compensate for falling tax revenue after a 2005 debt restructuring.
Bond Target Missed
Hungary failed to sell the planned amount of debt at an auction today as the forint weakened and bond yields climbed to higher than in June, when the country roiled world markets by raising the specter of default. Yields may rise “quite significantly” as the exit of private pension funds will lead to dropping demand for local debt, Attila Eszes, a bond trader at KBC Groep NV in Budapest, said in a phone interview.
Prime Minister Viktor Orban plans to use pension funds to pay current government pensions and reduce debt as he seeks to cut the budget deficit to less than the EU limit of 3 percent of gross domestic product next year from a targeted 3.8 percent this year. The bloc last month rebuffed a request from nine members, including Hungary, Poland and Sweden, to discount deficit figures by the amount shifted to private managers.
‘Huge Hole’
“There is a huge hole in the state pension system fund,” Matolcsy told reporters in Parliament. “The government fund’s revenue from pension contributions is 900 billion forint less than its expenditure. This is unsustainable.”
In 1998, Hungary required workers to put a portion of their pension contributions into privately managed funds that were designed to supplement state pensions. Today, about 3 million people have money in the private plans.
The funds’ assets will be automatically shifted to the state system on Jan. 31, unless members specifically opt out. Those who decide to remain in the private funds will lose their government pension after future contributions even as the state will continue to claim 70 percent of pension contributions paid after the individual, Matolcsy said.
“This is open blackmail,” Julianna Baba, president of the Stabilitas Penztarszovetseg, which groups private pension funds, said in a phone interview today. “It’s a rigged deal.”
Court Challenge
The association is filing a motion at the Constitutional Court to have the law annulled. It says the pension fund plan violates constitutional guarantees against discrimination, for the rule of law, social security, the defense of property and human dignity.
Other eastern EU members are also seeking to cut deficits with the help of pension funds.
Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said yesterday that the country may issue long-term pension bonds to compensate private funds for funneling some employee contributions to the budget.
The plan is “one of these ideas that guarantee safety of future pensioners and the budget without a revolution in the pension system,” Tusk said in parliament. “A concrete proposal will be presented next week.”
Lithuania reduced contributions to private funds last year, and Estonia announced in April 2009 that it would freeze pension-fund contributions through the end of this year. The government in Tallinn is reinstating partial contributions to pension funds from January.
In Bulgaria, private vocational pension funds will put 20 percent of their assets under state control to cover early retirement until 2014 to curb a widening deficit. This amounts to 100 million lev, or $68 million. Such retirement funds cover about 100,000 workers in specific professions who are forced to retire early.
More Risky
Hungary’s pension changes are making the country more risky for investors, according to market reactions to the government’s plan. The forint weakened 2.1 percent versus the euro so far this month, making it the world’s worst-performing currency for that period.
The government today sold 30 billion forint of 12-month Treasury bills, 10 billion forint less than planned, as the average yield rose to 6.05 percent from 5.94 percent at the previous auction on two weeks ago. Government bonds tumbled, lifting the yield on the forint note on the benchmark 10-year bond to 7.81 percent at 2:42 p.m., the highest since June 7. Bond yields move inversely to the price.
‘Long-Term Risks’
“The pension system changes will increase long-term risks, while short-term gains such as lower public debt and deficit will prove illusory, if the economy stays weak,” Michal Dybula, an economist at BNP Paribas in Warsaw said in an e-mailed note. “The proposed changes on pensions also increase the risk of rating downgrades, since Hungary’s structural fiscal position will not improve.”
In Hungary, employers set aside 24 percent of each worker’s salary for pension contributions and employees are required to pay 10 percent. Forcing workers back into the state system means the government will retain control of all that money, rather than transferring a portion to the private funds.
Under the rules announced yesterday, workers who choose to remain in the private pension funds will lose the social security contributions made by their employers, Matolcsy said. The government would continue to transfer contributions made by employees to the funds, he said.
“It’s unprecedented in Europe that a government is threatening to kick its own citizens out of the state pension system,” Zoltan Torok, a Budapest-based economist at Raiffeisen Bank International AG, said in a phone interview. “It’s probably enough to ensure that no one is going to stay in the private pension fund system in his or her right mind.”
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Zoltan Simon at zsimon@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this Willy Morris at wmorris@bloomberg.net