Dear Survivor,
In my conversations with you, you’re telling me you want firearms training. And you want to know where to get it. You know about my professional training at Sig Sauer in Epping, NH here, here, here, and here. But not all of you can get there. My advice: Go to your local gun shop and ask around, or visit the NRA’s website. A friend of mine had a great experience training with SureFire, and it’s important to remember these companies offer off location options too.
You might want to hurry too. Joe Biden’s team is already talking about the gun control measures it wants in place. Ryan Cleckner, a former special operations sniper and a current firearms attorney, lists the top six places he thinks a Biden administration would strike against gun owners first, writing at The Federalist:
I think the first things a Biden administration will do regarding guns if given the chance are:
- Banning pistol braces
- Banning homemade firearms/80 percent receivers
- Banning online firearm and ammunition sales
Shortly after the first bans, and if he has the help of the Senate, the next gun control measures will likely be:
- Banning “assault weapons”
- Banning “high capacity” magazines
- Requiring universal background checks
Assault weapons? That means your AR-15. “High capacity” magazines? That means your standard capacity 30-round mags, or maybe even your ten-round mags.
What does this all add up to? It means you want to hurry. Get your guns and training now. Be sure to get training from someone who knows what they’re doing.
Dick and Debbie Young, my in-laws, recently put in some time at the range with one of New England’s best-known trainers, Daria Bruno. Dick said that he and Debbie were a bit put-off by the noise at the range at first, but that Daria “put us at ease right from the start. Our AR-7s pack up in three pieces in a waterproof stock, so the first task was assembling the rifles. Easy. Once assembled, we loaded the magazines with 8 rounds of CCI .22LR hollow points. The mags hold 9 rounds, but when new, they can be stiff. No one wants to mangle a finger or thumb jamming in round #9.”
After a few pointers from Daria, Dick and Debbie “each felt like [they] had shot Roy Rogers style.”
Don’t get frustrated and let the high demand for guns and bullets slow you down. You owe it to yourself to get the training you deserve. Get shooting Roy Rogers style, before it’s too late.
Are You Ready for January’s Great Reset?
Well, that time is fast approaching. In fact, it’s coming in January. Just wait until you see what they can do to the value of your money, the environment, and your children’s education.
In January (stay informed daily with me right here), the Masters of the Universe will meet up in Davos, Switzerland (again). Tops on their agenda will be the not-so-secret Great Reset (it even has its own website: www.weforum.org/great-reset/), where elites see disasters like the China Virus as “opportunities” to change the world to their liking.
Think it can’t happen? Look at what a religion Global Warming has become. The Green New Dealers kneel at the altar of Bernie Sanders. It’s a dream come true. Socialism is alive and well. And life as we know it isn’t going back to the way it was. (Do you ever think you’ll fly abroad again without being masked, tracked, or harassed in some way?)
Governors and Mayors in Blue states—without even firing a bullet—have Americans locking themselves in their homes. Americans are driving their cars with masks on and wandering the streets right past you as if you don’t even exist. They look through their curtains to see if their neighbors have more than ten guests on Thanksgiving Day. And they vote for politicians who raise a toast at fancy restaurants on the taxpayers’ dime.
It’s quite the team. And it’s this same team that defunds your police—forcing you to become your own first line of defense. It’s happening. The Masters of the Universe are licking their chops. Come January, they can’t wait to hit the slopes in Davos and talk about YOU.
Stay informed (I’ll have the Great Reset covered cold). Remember, protecting your freedom is a constant battle. And your freedom isn’t free.
Top Gun: Meeting Enemy FIRE Golfing in Key West
You don’t go to Key West to golf, but, if you’re in Key West and want to, then you’re in for a treat. There’s a great 18-hole, southernmost course just outside of Old Town KW. It’s just far enough to enjoy your chocolate croissant and con leche or to split a Cuban mix from 5 Brothers on your drive.
Now being a public/private course and the only one, it gets a lot of play. Tee times are required and if you’re a twosome you’ll soon be paired up into a foursome whether you like it or not. “Don’t worry,” I said to my son Owen between bites. “Meeting other golfers is like meeting other skiers. Once you break the ice, you end up having the best time together.”
When I was Owen’s age, my dad and I visited colleges down south and carved out plenty of time to golf in Myrtle Beach. Being fairly new to golf, I know what he was thinking about playing with strangers while staring out the window, “I hope I don’t suck today.”
I told him golfers are there to have fun and that some of my favorite golf quotes I learned from strangers. “You know,” I said, “bad drives that hit a tree and bound into in play, ‘That’s not gonna hurt ya,’ and the three worst words in golf ‘still your turn.’”
As we thought about that, two F-18 fighter jets were in formation up ahead, screaming over route A1A before one split off hard left and the other prepared for landing. “That’s so cool,” I said. “That must be the best job,” he said, as I nodded.
After our first round we had two new friends, both bartenders at a cool tiki bar favored by locals. “Come by with Becky while you’re in town,” one of them said. “Owen maybe we’ll see you in a few years.”
On our second outing, we were paired up with brother-in-laws, one visiting for Thanksgiving. At the turn I spoke with one of them asking what he does in Key West. “I’m a fighter pilot,” he said casually between bites of his hotdog. “I’m actually the enemy. I train the guys that come down here with their squadron.”
Embarrassing Owen, I told Tom (not his real name) one of our favorite movies is Top Gun. He said “I went there,” and finished off his dog. I said we love going to the Rhode Island Air Show to see the Blue Angels. “I know the guys,” he said, then he hit his tee shot.
As an aside, a close friend of mine was a swim instructor at the Navy base in Newport. I’ll never forget her telling me “E.J. you’d never pick a SEAL out of a lineup. They look like regular guys.” Now I know exactly what she meant.
The other cool thing, from my perspective as a dad, about playing golf with your son and two strangers, is it’s like dinner at your grandparents. You need to have manners, often in rare supply when it’s just the two of us. On day three, we were paired with a husband and wife couple. You could just tell he was a golfer, even if his best rounds were astern.
He offered Owen two or three words of advice that, if coming from me, would have resulted in two or three holes of angry silence. I’ve gotta say, Key West Golf Course is expensive, especially if you rent clubs (we bring ours), but that alone was worth every penny.
On our fourth and final round, we met our new partner playing alone. I asked what he does down here in Key West and he said “I’m a fighter pilot.” My eyes lit up (again) and said we just played with Tom the other day. “Oh, Maverick? (not real call sign). “He was supposed to be here but something came up.”
Turns out they graduated from Top Gun together. Our new friend chipped in from 50 yards out on the first hole, and I knew it was going to be another good day on the course.
On 18, a pair of Super Hornets flew over at cruising speed. I asked Viper (not his real call sign) what they were doing. He said “They’ll go 150 miles out over the Gulf and fight each other or guys like me and Maverick. They’ve already spent an hour and a half on the ground reviewing today’s plans. I’ll be up there in the morning.”
And just like that, we cleaned up our putts and the round was over. Removing our hats, we shook hands and I thanked him for his service. He said in the most respectful and sincere way, “E.J., believe me the pleasure is all mine.”
“We can see why,” I said as he walked off into the sunset.
Like the fighter pilots training against Maverick and Viper, you need to stay ahead of the enemy. In your case, the enemy is inertia. Inertia is what holds you back from making the right investment choices, or preparing your family for trouble ahead. If you’re serious about beating inertia, click here to sign up for my monthly Survive & Thrive newsletter. I’ll push you into action. Remember, only sign up if you’re serious about reaching your goals.
Your Survival Guy is just getting by down here in beautiful Key West. This sunset pic below is from high above Louie’s Backyard where Becky and I recently had a chance to reflect on life for a while. Because it’s times like these you need to take some time for YOU.
RIP Chuck Yeager – The first man to break the sound barrier, Gen. Chuck Yeager, has passed away. Heroic test pilots like Chuck Yeager made today’s advanced jets, like the F-22 Raptor, possible.
Survive and Thrive this Month.
Warm regards,
E.J.,
“Your Survival Guy”
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P.S. Will you even know it when they come for your cash? When they the steal it in the dead of night? When the digitalization of the dollar makes paper obsolete?
Think they can’t inflate your money away? Look at interest rates—flat as a gingerbread cookie and stoking the inflationary real estate fire. First-time buyers can barely afford a manger, never mind a three-bedroom, two and a half bath.
Remember when you bought your first home when interest rates were closer to the Twelfth Day of Christmas than the first? Back then, at least you could make the numbers work based on your salary. Today, first-time homebuyers pay some crazy multiple of their salary if they even have a job.
Managed interest rates create winners and losers, destroying what used to be the beginning of the American dream—buying a home and starting a family. The new pastime is trading stocks on Robinhood (sorry NFL) and playing video games on PS5 (if you can get one) instead of discipline or sound investing.
P.P.S. There are two types of cabinet positions in any administration. The first are those that demand Senate confirmation. These generally go to respected professionals and politicians whose careers have avoided controversy.
The second type of cabinet position is the unvetted, unconfirmed group of presidential advisers and White House staff who serve at the president’s discretion. This group is usually made up of loyal campaign staff, political flunkies, the occasional expert, and party hacks who have destroyed their reputation so badly that they can never be appointed to a Senate-confirmed position.
Susan Rice falls in the latter category.
Joe Biden has signaled he will hire Rice as the chief of his Domestic Policy Council. David Marcus explained Biden’s embrace of the worst of the Obama era in the NY Post on December 10, writing:
In his latest effort to refill the swamp with Obama administration lackeys, President-elect Joe Biden has tapped former National Security Adviser Susan Rice to lead his White House Domestic Policy Council.
Really, Joe?
Rice, who was on Biden’s short list for the vice-presidential nomination this year, is a veritable poster child of Obama-era corruption. Her fingerprints are all over at least two of the most significant scandals of that supposedly spotless administration: the debacle surrounding the 2012 attack on US facilities in Benghazi, Libya, and the outrageous “unmasking” of Gen. Michael Flynn.
Rice played a central role in the Benghazi fiasco. She was, after all, the public face of a blatant Team Obama lie about the cause of the deadly terror assault.
She would tell the American people that the attack — which claimed the lives of four Americans, including Ambassador Christopher Stevens — was a “spontaneous” reaction to a YouTube video posted by an American. Michael Morell, the deputy CIA director at the time (and a vociferous President Trump critic today), was baffled by Rice’s insistence on this line. “Why she said this, I don’t know. It is a question only she can answer.”
Is it though? Isn’t it, in fact, rather obvious that this lie was told for two basic reasons? One, to deflect from the Obama administration’s intelligence whoopsies, namely, failing to detect and protect against the attack? And second, to blame America foremost for jihadist violence against us? If only we didn’t make irresponsible YouTube videos, the world would be a safer place.
Is this the kind of thinking Rice will bring to domestic policy?
But as bad as the Benghazi scandal was — and it was terrible — it pales in comparison to Rice’s involvement in spying on the Trump transition team and lying about it.
In April 2017, Rice was asked by PBS’s Judy Woodruff if she was aware of members of the Trump team being surveilled in connection with foreign investigations. Her answer: “I know nothing about this. I was surprised to see the reports.” But we now know that Rice was very much aware of, and a leader in, the spying efforts, including the unmasking of Flynn.
Perhaps Biden is comfortable with Rice’s prevarications, because he himself has a record of dishonesty regarding the effort made against the Trump transition team by the Obama administration, which he now admits to having had knowledge of. In the event, with the Justice Department’s probe into Team Obama’s 2016 transition shenanigans still underway, Rice will join Biden as a top White House player.
The common denominator of these two scandals, either one of which should be enough to keep anyone out of a position of public trust, is the lying.
Biden appointed Rice because she knows where the bodies are buried. He can’t have her outside the administration, uncontrolled and ready to go off like a “loose nuke.” Prepare yourself for four years of being insulted by the Biden administration’s contempt for the forgotten men and women of America.
P.P.S. You’re not the only one thinking about packing up your business and heading for a low-tax state where politicians treat you like their employer rather than their piggy bank. The billionaire CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, Elon Musk has moved to Texas. Heather Somerville reports for The Wall Street Journal:
Tesla Inc. Chief Executive Elon Musk said he has moved to Texas, taking aim at Silicon Valley and becoming one of the highest-profile executives yet to leave California during the coronavirus pandemic.
He said relocating made sense with Tesla’s new factory being built in Texas. He lamented that California, in his view, had become complacent with its innovators.
Mr. Musk’s companies continue to maintain extensive operations in California, and other tech firms are expanding their presence there. Yet his decision to move underscores a growing discontent, particularly among wealthier tech professionals, with the cost of living in the state, a pre-pandemic real-estate crunch and clogged roads.
Taking up residence in Texas comes with personal benefits for Mr. Musk: The state doesn’t collect state income or capital-gains tax for individuals. The auto executive qualified this year for billions of dollars in stock-option compensation as part of a pay-package agreement, making him the second-richest person in the world.
During the spring, when Mr. Musk was sparring over coronavirus shelter-in-place orders that shut his factory near San Francisco, California Gov. Gavin Newsom told CNBC he was “not worried about Elon leaving any time soon” and the state was committed to the car maker’s success. “We may not be the cheapest place to do business but we are the best place to do business,” Mr. Newsom, a Democrat, said. Silicon Valley remains home to some of the hottest companies— Airbnb Inc. and food delivery company DoorDash Inc. are poised for multibillion-dollar public listings this month and are both based in San Francisco.
You’ve read in these pages about many others who are looking for a better America. It’s no surprise when some politicians are focused more on their ideology than on their states’ success.
You don’t need to be a billionaire to find a better America. You can live like a billionaire in places where you’ll be left alone to pursue your dreams. Find an island of freedom for you and your family today.
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