Being President Is Good For Business:

I would guess that when most of us consider how many leaders of third world nations have been exposed for stealing government funds and are found to have millions secreted into overseas accounts
.. we shake our heads in wonder at HOW do those poor backward folk allow themselves to be so badly conned ...

His Excellency Jacob Zuma MSHOLOZI 4th President of South Africa.

Charged variously with rape & corruption

 - he is understood to have cost S.A. 83 BILLION DOLLARS.

Link:  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacob_Zuma

Serving the Nation while being US President is also good for business . According to AMERICAN UNIVERSITY Washington .. all recent US Presidents vastly increased their personal wealth while holding that office:

- President Nixon increased his wealth while in office by 650%,

- President Ford by 400%,

-  President Carter by 204%,

- President Reagan by 45%, (President 1981-89, exhibited signs of Altzheimers from 1982-84 ..)

- President GHW Bush by 475%,

- President Bill Clinton by 6,150%,

- President GW Bush by 75%,

- and President Obama - not yet finally calculated but thought to be around 200%.

Link to this University publication:  https://onlinebusiness.american.edu/blog/presidents-net-worth/

"I love the poorly educated"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vpdt7omPoa0

        https://www.patreon.com/user?u=16618870

Marty K.

Survival .. Of The Richest?

When the Titanic sunk in the frigid North Atlantic, April 1912 - fully 60% of it's First Class passengers were saved against only 25% of the third-class human resources. This example is only 'indicative' .. it certainly is not conclusive proof that the upper income levels can include longevity with their many other privileges. - That proof is self evident to anyone looking around everyday life.

The Titanic like many other vessels was an auxiliary ship of the 'Royal' Navy and it's issue equipment would likely have included Webley .455" Revolvers for use by Officers trusted to the control of men.

Inherited wealth needs to be protected in a sustainable and organized way .. it would be disastrous if the establishment's aggressive take-over expeditions ever bounced back as a destructive 'own goal'. Preparations must be made.

The top 1% worldwide will have protected facilities in remote locations accessible by private jet & helicopters - with plenty of camp followers eager to serve and share .. their survival depends on their success.

De-classified Kelvedon Hatch hardened R4 bunker lies 125 foot beneath it's UK Essex bungalow entrance.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kelvedon_Hatch_Secret_Nuclear_Bunker

The most publicly known formal privilege system is the multi-layered monarchy / nobility of the United Kingdom that is fully financed by public taxation.

Here is one example of a current millionaire facility: LINK:
https://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/uk-world-news/inside-secret-doomsday-bunker-millionaires-9736769

The point is that even the thickest billionaire will value both privacy & security when money-resources are not a problem. .. so you will need to search out the real high level stuff. - Those of us with much less means will need to think and work harder at protecting our families from disasters.

How is your future looking? .. as I write we have two nuclear powers currently shooting down each others warplanes. - India & Pakistan are at the early stage of open warfare again.

- You can now send me a wee support $ - starting from $1 to get all this stuff from New Zealand:        https://www.patreon.com/user?u=16618870

Marty K.

Discrimination Not Prejudice:

I enjoyed a Radio NZ interview last Monday with Sean Wallace, "The Chaser" known as 'The Dark Destroyer':

Bradley & Sean

Mr Wallace is a Londoner, a barrister and a classy, learned guy - and while talking about his life he mentioned how it once was normal to see London's rental housing advertised as
'NO BLACKS, IRISH OR PETS'.

I remember that too - my Irish father served in the British Army in Europe and North Africa through WWII .. 7 years from 1938 to 1945 with the Irish Guards Regiment & Nos. 1 & 2 Commandos - but after the war he was looked down-on by some Brits.

- I also remember two lovely old ladies with tattooed numbers on the insides of their wrists.

My favorite cousin Pam married Archie - a Jamaican guy who was ex RAF - and my drinking buddy at family celebrations - and believe me they and their children knew all about racial prejudice.

- When we arrived in New Zealand mid 1970s - popular radio host Tim Bickerstaff  had just ended his (rugby related) PUNCH a POM a DAY campaign .. Some tried.

Racism and prejudice are mostly about fear, ignorance & power.

We humans seem to need to feel superior to others by pushing them down .. indeed there is a theory that one reason why we rose-up on our back legs - was so that we could willy-wave and challenge strangers with the monkey dance.

There are in our small blue world some who need to assert their superiority by taking wealth from their "inferiors'. - THAT is what it's all about. Their pile of cash is scraped together so that they can raise their mentally unbalanced heads above ordinary top-of-the-food chain animals .. so that they can look-down and survey the ants from a penthouse window with a drink in their hand. Full Stop.

Sadly these owners of For Profit Enterprise are the cause of much suffering and hardship below their feet. When there is  revolutionary war in some poor 'third world' state .. it is a dime to a dollar that the base reason is for control of mineral wealth and resources. Full Stop. - Ever heard of a "banana republic"?

I discriminate regularly when choosing the best tool or the superior reasoning in a discussion. - Discrimination is using facts as the basis of judgement.

Small Business should be supported .. I am totally in favor of private enterprise - the builder who builds, the carpenter who works wood, the farmer who farms, the miner who mines. But there needs to be legal limits.
 - National laws are futile against international operators. - We need worldwide policies to deal with worldwide problems and resources.

Corporate oligarchs seek "FREEDOM"  from government regulation to operate without constraints.

- We need to carefully discriminate between the policies of political parties ..
Any government that reduces corporate taxes is reducing the funding available for democratic control .. for Health, Police, Education, and for peacekeeping.  - and further are increasing corporate influence over our lives.

Full Stop.

Marty K.

Black & Tan Holsters:

My new Glock 19X fits fine into my old black G17 belt-slide thumb-break Magnum Leather holster .. but jokers on the club range reckon I need to get with a color-matched high tech Kydex  thermoplastic acrylic-polyvinyl chloride holster and matching belt. - I'm not excited about that thought as I actually prefer the feel & function of old fashioned cow leather.

.. worrying about this suggestion I have dressed the Coyote Tan polymer pistol in my tan shoulder rig

.. And I suspect that it might well be a better color match as Wearable Art . - Yeah it is.

The G19X is a finely made working tool - the quality of the polymer moldings is faultless & the metal should last lifetimes of heavy use.

- The stainless steel guns seem to suite either black or tan rigs .. I do need to say that while the Ruger Mk.IV Hunter model looks good in the photo images - in reality it is a jewel .. truly beautifully built and finished .. a credit to their workers.

It would be reasonably simple to blacken a tan leather holster - but there's no way to change my black dead cow skin into a natural sun-tanned one eh.

______________

I worked with plastics for a dozen years and don't love them (they being mostly smelly, unhealthy, nasty oil-derived crap). Anyone doubting this should take a good sniff of some overheated Delrin acetal resin co-polymer .. this would be a memorable and highly toxic tear-gas experience of the fumigating effects of FORMALDEHYDE gas.

You can achieve similar damaging toxicity by overcooking PVC raw materials .. when setting-up injection molding plant - the evil 😅American habit of stating processing temperatures in Fahrenheit instead of Celsius can lead to an interesting emergency ventilation of corrosive gas ..  One kilogram of PVC heated to 300 degrees C releases an estimated 12.9 g of hydrochloric acid (HCl) fumes and 4.9 g of carbon monoxide (CO). 

It can also seriously get exciting & nasty very quickly if the nozzle blocks or the nozzle heater band fails and freezes the pressure outlet on a cylinder loaded with heating & gassing-spitting-splattering molten polymers (the nylons are hygroscopic).

Naah, I definitely don't love plastics .. but you gotta love Glocks for sure.(- luckily they are made of ? eh 😁)

Marty K.
- You can now send me a wee support $ - starting from $1 to get all this stuff from New Zealand:        https://www.patreon.com/user?u=16618870

New Semi-Autos On Range

I took both my Precious's .. My Birthday Presents, up the range today .. in the rain too. - It was such a crappy day that somebody lit the pot-belly wood heater at the firing line.

We are being forecast nasty cold Southerly weather up from the Antarctic ice - despite this still being late summer.

Both semi-autos functioned 100% *despite being spotted with the rain .. as was I. - I used two different lots of 'two-two' ammo .. Winchester 555 bulk 36 grain and CCI Mini-Mags .. all up I think I put 90 rounds through the Ruger Mk IV  - it's muzzle is now lightly smoked.

*I cannot tell a lie - one of the Winchester bulk rounds in the Ruger .22" (the 8th round from the 8th magazine) misfed and bent but I straightened it and reloaded & fired it .. not bad for a semi-auto two-two maybe getting grubby?
- I then fed my new Glock 19X on both Blazer 115gn ball ammo and Federal Hollow-points, followed by a magazine load of locally made hard cast rounds. They all ran like clockwork mice which is pleasing straight out of the box.

Shooting rapid fire at around 7 or 8 meters the holes consistently grouped inside the '8' ring with both calibers on all three paper targets scoring one dropped or pulled shot into the '7' ring - fairly typical for me.

I stripped the Mk.IV to clean, dry & lube it .. and it was a little sooty at the breech face area .. but I did have to find my 5/64" hex.key to pinch-up the front sight that was moving a touch.

I owe Ruger an apology for my earlier irritable whinge about their magazine disconnect on the Mk. IV. - It did not in any way interfere with the loaded pistols function. I still don't think it serves any useful function but there you go .. there will no doubt be some who'd say that about me too 😊.

I'm impressed and pleased with both firearms.

Marty K.

Could Be..

You can send me a wee support $ - starting from $1 to get all this stuff from New Zealand:        https://www.patreon.com/user?u=16618870

'Tools' For Living:

"NEVER EVER DELEGATE RESPONSIBILITY FOR YOUR OWN SAFETY."
                                                                                                           Sgt. Rory Miller.
Fellow peasants and others such as the overcrowded & unfortunate subjects of the Crown in UK -  may from time-to-time need help with tools for use around the house.

.. indeed we Kiwis & Aussies - who are also suffering ever more illogical and restrictive "elf & safe-tea"* regulation - may find it interesting to consider a range of useful tools.
*WARNING: Hot Beverage may be hot.

- "Your starter question for 10 points": What will always be close at hand when needed?

Answer:  YOU yourself - Your ability to solve problems will be much enhanced if ..
a/- You are as alert & fit as you can manage.
b/- And if you have shown even a small interest in learning how to work - perhaps with a 'martial art contact sport' such as Boxing, Judo, Karate, or Tae kwon do ..

He was bullied at school ..

You may not end-up as useful as Alabama Reserve Deputy Sheriff
 Eric 'Butterbean' Esch ..
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DBwPlXe3p3o

..Scary eh.

.. However I've known plenty of  'average sized' jokers who are fit, skilled & determined with a steady eye - never forget that 'application' & "mind over matter" counts. 
- You can start your self-improvement with short daily walks.

If you intend to use any DIY tools you need to be competent - or they may injure you. Tools are inanimate, passive machinery until you pick them up and energize them for good purpose.

 Friction-lock telescopic batons make an effective retrieval pick-up tool when magnetized ..where you can buy them .. ASP batons have been adopted by police in the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, New Zealand and Australia. As with all tools you will vastly benefit from instruction and practice (as with any strong magnet).

 - How about the Security guard's favorite multi-cell LED Maglite torch for working in low-light conditions?

 The Opinel No.12 Saw with a 6 3/8 inch blade is very useful to keep handy - but do be careful as the teeth are very sharp ..

- while the larger pruning saws are very workmanlike and versatile for limb control.

A large rubber or rawhide mallet can be very functional as a "shifter" about the place;

Sometimes you may need to be a little ingenious - Consider how you might make a non-marking 'mallet' or tenderizer from a small sock filled with flexible, heavy, non-drying plasticine modeling clay.

Did you know that flexible non-toxic Plasticine is (like a 'hot-dog'😃) approximately 65% bulking agent, (principally gypsum) - plus 10% petroleum jelly, 5% lime and 10% lanolin and stearic acid?

Good stuff, 

Marty K.
peasantry is commonly used in a non-pejorative sense as a collective noun for the rural population in the poor and under-developed countries of the world.- In Europe, peasants were divided into three classes according to their personal status: slave, serf, and free tenant. 

- NOW you can send me a wee support $ - starting from $1 to get all this stuff from New Zealand:        https://www.patreon.com/user?u=16618870

WMR - 22" MAGNUM - More Accepted .. Shortly:

The .22" Magnum 5.6x27 mmR  is a most useful round. - Some shootists comment that it doesn't particularly excel at pinpoint bull's-eye## target accuracy - but it does stretch out the power and range of an easy-shooting lightweight hunting tool in a very usable way .. An overnight success after sixty years?

## This looseness claim from the early days may have been due to it's transonic-supersonic nature?

My earlier WMR blog suggests that a WMR rifle makes a great survival tool:   https://flicense.blogspot.com/2014/04/22-wmr-rimfire-magnum-useful.html

If you want a most useful pea rifle survival tool that works with thin-skinned animals .. the WMR could well be tops - except that it's little brother two-two rim-fire is also very useful at slightly shorter ranges, can be subsonic-silenced & at lower prices.

The fashion for rubbishing smaller calibers is fading somewhat lately under the bright sunshine of fact - and there are a few gun makers showing good sense and starting to cater for users needs.
But ..

Kel-Tec 4.3 inch Barrel And THIRTY Round Magazines:

Standard Manufacturing S333. 2 Barrels, 2 Holes, 2 Fingers, 22 WMR - 1.25 inch Barrel:

These two very interesting and innovative tools are short barreled and if you take a look at BBTI's site they list useful performance figures for the common calibers working from long and shortened barrels .. Ballistics By The Inch:  

  http://ballisticsbytheinch.com/index.html

At a quick glance BBTI's tables don't go as low as one inch barrel length .. but at two inches the lowly .22" rim-fire is moving just about as smartly as the WMR. - BOTH are at around 900 foot per second.

The WMR needs more barrel time to accelerate to it's Magnum velocities. There are many brands with different variable options - but it seems that the WMR loses it's advantage over long rifle rounds in short barrels below three inches.

Eighteen inch barrels seem to lift the WMR to it's best velocities at around 2,300 feet per second ..

From the Kel-Tec' PMR-30's four inches the WMR is leaving home at around 1,400 f/sec whereas a 22" long rifle would be lagging-back at around 1,000 f/sec.

The Standard Manufacturing S333 Volleyfire is a clever two-at-a-time idea chambered in .22 Magnum - even at under 900 feet per second - four sets of two WMR slugs are going to hurt .. but I get the feeling that they aren't doing anything much more than four sets of 2x two-two rim-fire could match from that stumpy one inch length (except for the noise level). - a couple of extra inches might make all the difference .. well at least an extra 100 ft/sec extra - they'll be loud but.

But to date nobody seems to have actually bought one and video gel-tested it over a chronograph on range - maybe they don't reliably go   B'Bang  yet?

________________________

I have spotted multiple references to a blow-back WMR caliber 'EDDA' Sub-Machine Gun made in ARGENTINA. - Nobody seems to know anything about this arm other than it using a 30 round box magazine ..it seems so mysterious that there are no reliable images. 

Marty K.
 - NOW you can send me a wee support $ - starting from $1 to get all this stuff from New Zealand:        https://www.patreon.com/user?u=16618870

Both Cars & Guns Give Liberty:

Which of these listed factors have most helped INDIVIDUAL FREEDOM? ...  antibiotics, automation, broadcast radio, Christianity, colonization, emancipation, factory farming, free education, the Guillotine, gun-powder, journalism, monarchy, nuclear energy, personal mobility, photovoltaics, polymer-technology, representative democracy, slavery, television, trade unionism, transistors ..

My pick - from what I've experienced would be ..

#1/- Cars as personal transport allowed ordinary people the mobility to choose where to work and where to live. (including bicycles, buses, motorbikes etc.) Without the means to travel workers are almost as tied as slaves.

#2/- Gunpowder led to personal 'Equalizer' weapons. An armed "weakling" can free herself from a stronger oppressor just like the peasant archers ended the dominance of armored knights.

#3/- Free Education opens the minds and talents of students irrespective of inherited wealth.

- I do know that cars have now become the 'fall guy' .. as polluting health hazards in big cities - but that surely is more a feature of overcrowded grid-locked roads caused by governments failure to address overpopulation & public transport.

I also understand that cars (like guns) are also used in many criminal adventures like bank robbery and bombings .. but that is not the fault of the tool ..

The misuse of any technology by murderous individuals or groups makes THE PERPETRATORS guilty of crime - not the tools.

This applies to those responsible for the One Million Deaths every year in warfare since the end of WWII - not to the science of the explosive weapons.

There seems to be a trend currently to use simplistic finger pointing & blaming rather than considering a reasoned but complex truth. - This is yet another symptom of corrupt lazy dishonest professionals not doing the jobs that they are payed for .. they take the money and shrug off the responsibility of actually resolving issues.

A real classic example of this is when media & politicians blame amok killings on the availability of civilian guns - rather than on the deliberate under funding of healthcare, education and law enforcement, by corruptly distributing wealth and tax relief upwards.

Marty K.
I just read an article about blaming inanimate objects (guns) for the actions of criminal attackers - which is a common emotional anti-gun argument. However as I read further into this story it too began to 'smell' like an emotional, biased rant. - The first two quotes the writer listed to support his case were inaccurate and the third was wrongly attributed to George Orwell. - I stopped reading right then - disappointed that this writer devalued a strong case with woolly thinking.

I've signed-up to Patreon. - NOW you can send me a wee support $ - starting from $1 to get all this stuff from New Zealand:        https://www.patreon.com/user?u=16618870
M.K.

BAZOOKA - LAW & RPG:

BAZOOKA were a portable form of rocket propelled Grenade launcher that proved to be very effective against armored tanks and hardened bunkers in WWII. The design combines the light weight of an open-ended smooth-bore launch tube with rocket propulsion and shaped charge technology.

The popular name "Bazooka" comes from American musical comedian Bob Burns 1890-1956 who built his first "musical" tube in the back of Hayman's plumbing shop from a length of gas pipe. Burns was a talented musician & served as band leader with the US Marines Corps Jazz Band in WWII. Europe. - His jazz Bazooka functioned as a very basic slide trombone (or "Sackbut").

The M72  L A W (Light Anti-Armor Weapon (System) was a much improved development from the larger Bazooka borrowing from the German Panzerfaust recoilless rifle. The M72 consists of two concentric tubes and a missile making a sealed unit that is telescoped open for firing.

The Soviet RPG-7 Rocket Propelled Grenade uses a powder charge to launch the rocket forward & clear of the operator before the rocket motor ignites .. Some versions are single use disposable - while others may be reloaded by inserting further rockets from the front.

Later versions like the RPG-30 fire a double or precursor projectile that acts as a forerunner false target to clear the path for the main explosive projectile travelling 0.4 seconds behind.

.. Measure & Countermeasure 😈

Going back to far more basic means .. the more curious minded of us may be intrigued to read the Wikipedia Description  about 'home made' YASIN ياسين RPGs that are used against the Israeli Defense Forces 

Link:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yasin_(RPG)

Marty K.

I've signed-up to Patreon. - NOW you can send me a wee support $ - starting from $1 to get all this stuff from New Zealand:        https://www.patreon.com/user?u=16618870

Teaching SURVIVAL:

Looking recently at my emergency gear set me to thinking about TEACHERS.

Who today teaches our kids about the basic skills needed to survive? .. I guess the short answer is 'nobody'.

I'm thinking this way .. IF (WHEN) the water doesn't flow when you use the tap/faucet - if you flick the power switch but there's no electricity - you pick up the phone but there's no signal so you can't fault-report to the supply company.

 Your tablet screen lights-up on the battery but the screen is blank. The supermarket is locked in darkness & so too is the EFTPOS 'hole-in-the-wall' machine. Cards are useless but smelly sewage is bubbling up and running down the road.

Your kids are an hour's drive away but you need gas and the pumps are out ...

_________________________

Darfield 4th September 2010

 Christchurch 22nd February 2011

  Kaikoura 14th November 2016

THREE DESTRUCTIVE EARTHQUAKES

- AND We Are Still Waiting For THE BIG ONE.

It gets BASIC very fast and we all soon need the same stuff .. Shelter-Heating-Food & Water .. Transport-Security-Medical Care. - If you've got some and "they" don't .. but they want it now, - you have a problem. However - there is much more to long term survival than US style stacking boxes of ammunition in a garage with a selection of AR15s on top.

My mind boggles but there are some who get their meals from Burger joints, Chippies,  KFC palaces, Hot Dogs** or maybe frozen pizzas .. when they are open.

 - Isn't EDUCATION meant to prepare young people for life?

I'm told that there are kids who don't know that a 'shake' comes from cows udders or that a burger is some of a ground-up dead cow's corpse - that bacon is a salty flavored slice off a dead pig. - That they don't eat veggies unless they're hidden some way. They and their responsible adults will be useless.

- If you tried to demonstrate how to kill and cook a chicken they'd need counselling & calming medication.

Has anyone shown these folk how to make a meal from raw materials? - How to kill & clean a rabbit? - How to dig a potato? - that fruit grows on trees - not shrink wrapped in plastic trays?

Preppers debate which caliber is right for inclusion in their 'Bug-Out' bag - but where are you buggering off to if the whole place for 100 kilometers in every direction is in ruins?

"Drop, Cover, Hold" is decent advice for both Earthquakes and Nuclear Warfare - but then what?

Marty K.
Note: I just remembered that there are 2x "wind-up torches" in the car that seem to work .. and a useless 'wind-up radio' in the office that just hisses & crackles a bit.

________________

** HOT DOG & Chicken Nuggets "Meat" - Pick up a package of franks, and the first few items on the ingredient list generally include some combination of mechanically separated turkey, chicken, pork, and/or beef. According to the USDA, mechanically separated poultry is actually "any product resulting from the mechanical separation and removal of most of the bone from attached skeletal muscle and other tissue of poultry carcasses and parts of carcasses that has a paste-like form and consistency.”
 (Yum?) This paste generally contains a higher content of bone fragments than actual meat. To cut down on the risk of foodborne illness, hot dogs can contain no more than 20 percent of pork prepared in this manner, while mechanically separated beef is completely outlawed in the U.S. Fortunately for food-paste aficionados, companies can pump as much mechanically separated poultry into their hot dogs as they like! The rest of the hot dog’s meat (usually less than 50 percent) is generally regular pork and beef - Fillers, Salt, Preservatives & Flavorings.

Mechanically Recovered Poultry.

Mechanically Recovered Meat: The process entails pureeing or grinding the carcass left after the manual removal of meat from the bones and then forcing that slurry through a sieve under pressure. This puree includes bone, bone marrow, skin, nerves, blood vessels, and the scraps of meat remaining on the bones. The resulting product is a blend primarily consisting of tissues not generally considered meat along with a much smaller amount of actual meat (muscle tissue).

 I've signed-up to Patreon. - NOW you can send me a wee support $ - starting from $1 to get all this stuff from New Zealand:        https://www.patreon.com/user?u=16618870

Really SMALL Nukes:

Making a bigger nuclear explosion is reasonably simple - much like cooking for more guests - you can quiet simply mix MORE ingredients and do roughly the same cooking until you throw the result smoking at the table.

- Smaller is a different kettle of fish entirely - as when you halve or quarter the nuclear ingredients it may not go critical at all ..

The W54  was one of the smallest nuclear  devices designed by the Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory to give a yield starting from only 10 tons .. but they had lots of problems getting them to work reliably. - Like the whole Mutual Assured Destruction theory - making small yielding versions of massively destructive weapons is a durrr concept.

Davy Crockett.

The brains department after many experimental tests settled for the implosion device that was fitted to the Davy Crocket M28-M29 pocket rocket - fired from a smooth bore recoilless spigot rifle and deployed widely in Northern Germany and Korea. - The Davy Crockett had either a range of 2 kilometers or 2.5 kilometers and the 34.5kg warheads had a Hi/Lo switch to increase the yield.

The heroic name of this bazooka reflects the character needed to fire such a self harming tool .. but they only made about 400 of them.

The same warhead was adapted to use as back-pack demolition mines and as an air-to-air AIM-26 Falcon missile - both of which were likely just as dodgy to loose off.

.. Studies in April of 1958 demonstrated that the F-108 aircraft would be able to avoid the nuclear warhead’s deadly radius provided the Falcon launch took place at a range of no less than 20 nautical miles (37 kilometers) 

It's a mans life in today's army eh. 😏

Does this Government history of self destructive defense tactics with WMD add any color to political debates about terminally ill old people being helped to end their own suffering? 

- Either way we do now seem to be starting another nuclear arms race - except now we have THREE big players - with China's military 'progress' - Here is a sample of the US President's wisdom .. Trump told reporters that “We have more money than anybody else by far … We’ll build it up until they come to their senses. When they do, then we’ll all be smart, and we’ll all stop. And by the way not only stop, we’ll reduce, which I would love to do” 
U.S currently plans to spend $1.2 Trillion on nuclear weapons upgrades between 2017-2046.

Marty K.

 I've signed-up to Patreon. - NOW you can send me a wee support $ - starting from $1 to get all this stuff from New Zealand:        https://www.patreon.com/user?u=16618870

EMERGENCY KIT in a Billy Can & ..

I remembered today that my small Emergency Kit hadn't been checked for how long? .. so I fetched it from above my pistol safe and opened it up. - All was good except I seem to have used all the para-cord - and the three 'Cuppa-Soup' packets and tea bags needed changing / rotating.

Currently it holds 3x tea-light candles - box of waterproof matches, a book of matches, & a BIC lighter, a small can-opener with a LED light attached, an Opinel folding knife, 'Energiser' LED Torch, a coil of 'piano' wire, a flexible 'ring saw', - a folding 'tablet fuel' stove, the 3x fresh instant soup sachets and three tea bags and a small container of sugar .. all easily pack into a $20 stainless steel billy can.

I also pocket-carry another Opinel folder tied to a small ferro-rod & striker:

 .. So far - So good .. But here's the bad news 😙.

CAR KIT:
 I keep a plastic crate packed with bulkier emergency/camping equipment in the back of my vehicle.  - WRONG ..  It was on the garage floor covered in dust & leaves where it had been dumped since a previous vehicle had been passed-on .. but even worse - it's 'Bug-Out' gear was filthy and covered with mouse poo and dead spiders.

- Bear in mind that New Zealand has EARTHQUAKES .. and sometimes they are SERIOUS. - We all need to have an emergency kit.

- So it all got stripped and washed in hot bleach solution while I felt hotly ashamed ..  here's what I had:

A Glock Entrenching Tool - This has a decent wood-saw in the telescoped grip. The spade can be edge sharpened for use as an axe.. Quality.

A Glock Knife. - 4 plastic PLATES (one broken!), 2 Stainless steel DISHES, a nice china COFFEE MUG, 2x CAN OPENERS, A SMALL COPPER KETTLE, A HAND TOWEL, A TEA TOWEL, A CLEAN RAG, An alcohol 'SPIRIT' BURNER & a bottle of METHYLATED SPIRITS, - A pair of LEATHER WORK GLOVES & A pair of WOOL MITTENS with liners. - A tupperware box of cutlery.

A bent/melted CANDLE, - candle HOLDER with box of MATCHES, A BIC LIGHTER & 2nd box of MATCHES, TWO more FOLDING STOVES with fuel tablets, SALT, PEPPER, & SUGAR in plastic containers. A plastic ice-cube/water bottle, - A 19 liter SOLAR SHOWER, a small THERMOS FLASK. - And a bungee cord, wheel nut brace & a short tie-down ratchet-strap.

.. USELESS things:
 A 12V. AIR COMPRESSOR, An 'ELASTOPLAST' FIRST AID KIT in a warped container,  a tube of NESTLE Condensed milk NINE YEARS OUT OF DATE, - a WATER FILTER in a mouse eaten cardboard pack, a large screw-top container with two stale teabags, a small warped plastic wash bowl, - and the BAFTA Award for moving images goes to .. an empty biscuit/cracker packet chewed open and eaten by mice(s).

GUILTY? .. YES:  I used to keep a filled water container with canned foods like baked beans & stew in the trunk but I must have "rotated them out" without replacement.

.. & I MUST buy a new folding (pruning?) saw but the Glock Spade has one that works. - para cord too and a couple of SPACE BLANKETS. Maybe another LED TORCH - some coffee, & powdered milk? - What about Tincture of Iodine for water & wound purification .. Google is your friend?

- Do it this week eh.
Out in the garage - where I mean them to be - are a gas barbecue, a twin-burner camping cooker, a large spare gas cylinder, sleeping bags, tent,  a mountain bike, - and various hand tools. - Plus I do keep a well stocked pantry with canned & dried foods. There should be fresh foods growing in the garden.

For what it may be worth there is a 1,000 liter rain water tank, solar garden lights, - a small petrol generator and lawn-mower petrol outside.
Marty K.

Hi Marty

I think you need a few more tea bags, and a sealed pack of fresh batteries (the ones in the torch will deteriorate with time).  I also have a few spare butane cans for my cooker, as well as a hexamine stove.  Add a pack of fire starter briquettes (in a sealed container) and some de-hi meals.  You can’t beat the good old Thermette.  I have sent a couple to mates overseas.  A brick of subsonic .22 ammo and a suppressed rifle should be kept handy as well.

Rod

Yeup to everything there - I do usually have a few packs of the fire starters in the living room .. but right now? - there's only 1/3rd of an open pack ! 

with your agreement I'll add your comment to the post, Cheers & keep happy, M.K.

notes: Can openers are becoming almost passe' now that most cans have 'tear tops'. - Are LED lamps replacing candles? .. but a candle can help get a fire going. - Where is my 'Thermette' .. such a functional piece of  kiwi kit?
 - WATER .. in the last 3 earthquake's - supermarkets were full of  SHELVES EMPTY of bottled water.
 - Broken houses, broken sewers and NO water.

 I've signed-up to Patreon. - NOW you can send me a wee support $ - starting from $1 to get all this stuff from New Zealand:        https://www.patreon.com/user?u=16618870