The Tonto Mini-Messenger Bag by Hazard 4
Online gear-head guru Roz has a video review up of Hazard 4’s Tonto bag which reminds me a lot of the Maxpedition Remora Gearslinger. Of course, on Amazon the Tonto is a good $30 cheaper so the budget conscious survivalist looking for a small bag for every day carry or short scouting/hiking trips might want to watch take a look at the Tanto.
The second part is somewhere on Roz’s YouTube channal, which is worth looking through. She’s has dozens of reviews of gear you’ll find useful and she concentrates on the practical aspects of gear, not the para-military fantasy too many reviewers mistake for survivalism.
I have to say I’m liking the set up on this bag and thinking of putting in an order, although Hazard’s larger (and for my needs less useful) Evac line calls to me.
Sheriff Joe Arpaio Evacuates Kansan Speaking Event After Bomb Threat
FTSE Gains 100 on Rainbows and Fairy Dust
The actual title of this Telegraph piece is FTSE gains 100 on BP Spill Hopes, Optimism over U.S. Corporate Profits but my title works as well. First the BP “hope” that investors are supposedly buying into:
BP shares gained 2.9pc as investors awaited news that tests on a new cap would show the leak in the Gulf of Mexico has been brought under control after 12 weeks. The shares have rise nearly 13pc so far this week, buoyed by takeover talk and reports of assets sales.
In reality BP is done. The Obama administration will gut the company and BP will need to sell off most of itself to pay for the damages to the gulf. A cynical person might put forward that both America and England need BP to be worth more when it sells off it’s assets so maybe they have arraigned some market movement to milk every last dime out of them. But I’m a well known optimist.
The U.S. news is just as “good” for investors:
Banking shares were lifted by positive sentiment about US quarterly results after a bullish statement from Alcoa, the largest US aluminium producer, yesterday. JP Morgan, Citigroup and Bank of America all report this week.
Barclays rose 4.2pc and RBS 3.85pc as Britain’s index of leading shares is heading for its sixth straight gain.
“What we have generally seen over the last few days are traders betting that the US earning season will be a fruitful one and are therefore cherry-picking stocks that to them may look cheap,” said Giles Watts, head of equities with City Index.
Alcoa lifted its outlook for global consumption of aluminium, which led to a rally among miners. Eurasian Natural Resources gained 3.3pc, and precious metals group Johnson Matthey, rose 3.6pc. Recent worries over a slowdown in Chinese demand were forgotten.
Did I say fairy dust? I meant wishful thinking. Anyone who thinks China can indefinitely float the world and pull us out of a depression should spend less time reading DNC press releases and more time looking at economic indicators. The same article that announces this ‘good news” (China needs aluminum …for what? Bombers?) slips in a little unimportant nugget. Portugal just had their credit rating downgraded.
Oh, and economic powerhouse China has lost almost 2% as investors there sold off shares of property developers and lenders, the two industries supposedly powering China’s economic boom.
But the reality here is that investors are desperate and want good news. No one can believe that BP and U.S. corporations are really going to be doing well. It’s insane. Insane but instructive.
It’s this type of magical financial thinking that got us in trouble in the first place. Instead of common sense safe investing strategies people look to make quick bucks on market movements driven by herd mentality. That can work for a short time, but the wise investor now will be ignoring the herd and taking the steps he needs to top protect his wealth from the next crash that is coming this year.
Time to Get Out of Oakland: Police Layoffs to Lead to Anarchy
I’d almost say there’s no bad guys in this one but in fact both the city and the department have been so blase about spending taxpayer money neither deserves sympathy. Of course, as usual, the people who will suffer will be the Oakland residents themselves who are being told once the layoff of around 80 officers go into effect, the police will no longer physically respond to a variety of crimes that include grand theft, burglary and identity theft. Citizens are told to report those crimes on-line:
Oakland’s police chief is making some dire claims about what his force will and will not respond to if layoffs go as planned.
Chief Anthony Batts listed exactly 44 situations that his officers will no longer respond to and they include grand theft, burglary, car wrecks, identity theft and vandalism. He says if you live and Oakland and one of the above happens to you, you need to let police know on-line.
Some 80 officers were to be let go at midnight last night if a last-minute deal was not reached. That’s about ten percent of the work force.
The list of crimes they will no longer respond to is shocking, and frankly telling:
*Â burglary
* theft
* embezzlement
* grand theft
* grand theft:dog
* identity theft
* false information to peace officer
* required to register as sex or arson offender
* dump waste or offensive matter
* discard appliance with lock
* loud music
* possess forged notes
* pass fictitious check
* obtain money by false voucher
* fraudulent use of access cards
* stolen license plate
* embezzlement by an employee (over $ 400)
* extortion
* attempted extortion
* false personification of other
* injure telephone/ power line
* interfere with power line
* unauthorized cable tv connection
* vandalism
* administer/expose poison to another’s
The vandalism is troubling because Oakland hosts a number of anarchist and communist groups who like to “smash capitalism” in a literal sense.
But take a look at the list again. A non-compliant sex offender/arsonist can break in your home, cut you phone line, steal your license plate and check books (and your dog!), use them to pretend they are you and purchase stuff fraudulently while pawning the jewelry they stole from you and the cops will not show up to take a report. Then if the person extorts money from you to get your stuff back and poisons you at the meeting, the cops are still going to be a no show.
Seriously, many of the crimes Oakland’s PD is deciding they will not show up for are the crimes committed by drug users and lefties, and in that area the two are one in the same. They are turning the city over to petty thieves and violent radicals and telling Oakland’s law abiding citizens to allow people to steal from them and break their stuff.
And that’s what they are telling them, remember California in general is not a self-defense friendly state and certainly not one where police accept the idea that you can injure others in defense of property. Store owners who fight off snatch and grabs will face charges or people who rough up a thief they catch in their car will find no police responding to his or her call for help, but a squad car coming to pull them in for assault.
Stores in Oakland should simply shut down now, rather than wait a few years as things get progressively worse. Home owners should take the loss, sell their house for whatever they can and leave to a city that will at least allow you to pepper spray a purse snatcher. Oakland is already burning, and they’ve ruin out of money to pay for water.
Get out while you can.
h/t Drudge