DDD: Fundamentals, Body Armor and the Survival Team Myth by John Meyers

Publisher’s Note: Please take the time to visit the debut of The American Partisan. Please read John’s article on junk gear here. Comment.-BB

Preface:  I generally try to ignore the daily deeds of politicians and the incessant bickering between voting blocs and identity groups but it seems to have gotten to me lately, as you’ll witness. While I prefer proactive apathy toward the system, the following needs to be said. I’d urge conservatives to seek the ‘safe spaces’ they mock as their sacred cows are going be butchered into extremely tasty burgers. -JM

 “At least it ain’t Hillary!” they bleat. Has Team Freedom bowed to Leviathan? This is usually the case when a person with an “R” behind their name is elected to the Offal Office.

During the Obama years, Doomsday Prepper’s became a wildly popular TV show. Oathkeeper’s marched on Lexington Green. Open Carry rallies sprang up across the country. Three Percent groups exploded to the point of making the original ideology inconsequential and even meaningless. The Tea Party movement, an offshoot of the late Ron Paul movement, became co-opted and institutionalized by the mainstream GOP.  Every other truck had a Gadsden flag on it, including ones found in DHS’s parking lots. People were ready to go to war if a single damned democrat uttered “gun control” one more time.

Enter the Age of Trump. Their guy got elected on a platform of populist nationalism. An outsider took the helm to Make America Great Again. He said the days of worrying about Second Amendment erosion are over. He inspired the racialist movements of old to reemerge and openly decry everything from the Social Justice Warrior down at the corner coffee shop to ZOG control of banking and everything in between. Former libertarians united with the white nationalist Traditionalist Workers Party despite them being literal communists on economic issues and fascists on everything else. Cultural conservatives and even some Identitarians now love the music of rapper Kayne West all due to a tweet. The entire spectacle has become the biggest laugh fest of political theater I’ve ever seen.

It has become entirely clear the Resistance has just been mostly playing Patriot for years.  Their guy got into office and America supposedly has been saved from the Cultural Marxists. Some factions went entirely to sleep and stopped showing up on range days or down at the monthly Prepper Meet ‘n Greet. Others stopped preparing all together.

In the last several months, the Orange Fuhrer has unilaterally directed the Department of Justice to classify owners of certain firearms accessories as felons, without a grandfather clause, which is more gun control in one executive directive than Obama instituted in his entire 8-year reign. The Right still cheers Dear Ruler while making 10 million excuses (Muh 4-chess!) or at minimum they remain silent.

He has signed the largest budget in history into law, called for the death penalty for dealers of illegal plant vegetation and chemical compounds, (muh war on drugs!) is fighting the “Deep State” by appointing its cronies to different positions, hoisted oppressive tariffs on steel and aluminum and sparked a trade war whose losers are the American people. People trade, not nations. The “Resistance” still stands by their man because he challenged Biden to a cage match… or something.

Individualist and economic think tanks used to host entire conferences called “Down with the Presidency” when George Bush was in office, attacking the institution of the Imperial Presidency from all directions. Now free market academics that used to speak at those conferences, host debates about Trump’s tariffs and actually consider the pro-tax side to actually have a legitimate position.

Meanwhile, the base is whistling past the graveyard as Trump threw them a bone with some trivial tax cuts. But in typical Supply Side style he didn’t accompany them with spending cuts. In effect he prefers to pay for his extravagant spending by borrowing or printing the money. It’s as if he told the taxpayers he was taking them out for dinner and then sent them the bill.

The same Proud Boys, who wrote, “taxation is theft” in the tip line on their restaurant credit card slips, now demand high tariffs on everything imported into the US while Trump gives his support for national Internet sales tax collection. Apparently the calls to double the federal gas tax are just to Make America Great Again.

John Bolton was appointed National Security Adviser. Trump previously stated the Iraq War was the biggest blunder in American history. So lets appoint its biggest cheerleader. That will drain the swamp!

The Alt Right’s Dear Ruler that they ‘Roman Salute’ has championed Extreme Risk Orders which amount to ‘taking the guns first, due process second.’  He has issued statements to the Supreme Court demanding they never restore non-violent felons gun rights. Ironically one of the cases in question involved a simple charge of carrying a gun without a permit, something any Freedomista should be against the existence of in the first place.

Cheeto Benito argues for raising the purchase age of guns, eliminating all private sales, and has hinted at support of another Assault Weapons Ban. He champions turning the youth propaganda camps that are public schools into literal prison states. He now vows to fight Amazon and make them cough up more money to fill the federal coffers. If Hillary attacked a private company in this fashion, calls of “SOCIALIST!” would rule the day.

Internet Trumpansies have called for Lincolnian actions like sending in federal troops into American cities because they have defied federal law on immigration.

This is the freedom Orwell wrote about. People see in Trump what their hopes are. They see him as the comic book Based Stick Man on Pennsylvania Avenue taking out those damned commies one at a time. But really he is just more proof of “Woods’ Law.” No matter whom you elect, you always get John McCain. That is, horrific centrism, log rolling and continual diminishment of liberty that characterizes every administration since Lincoln. The next is always worse than the last. At this point we are just on Bush’s 5th term.

I’ve said for years that when full frontal tyranny manifests, the Patriot movement would be waving flags on parade lines at the tanks rolling through their thoroughfares. If you want to see how it will be just look at how Trump supporters act right now. He can do no wrong in their eyes. It’s a literal manifestation of team sports in the ruling class’s psychology of power.

This is the state of the Resistance. Do us all a favor and take a knee.

For those left standing I offer the following DDD (Defeating Doomsday Derp) essay for your perusal. While they carry Tyranny’s water, we train.

Tactics before Fundamentals?

I attended my first survival oriented ‘tactical’ class approximately 7 years ago. I had some formal training before hand from the non-prepper world. I could shoot a little bit, I was decent at mechanics and I was physically fit. This was not the case for 75% of the rest of the class. After some perimeter security lectures, working angles and doorways and going over some light infantry techniques to defend said property, a brief over view of team tactics was ran with dry weapons. Ambushes, patrol formations, Break Contact, and basic reacting to contact were taught. I left the class thinking I knew all I needed to know to survive the coming collapse.

I began getting really immersed in training and realized they were putting the cart before the horse. The class was taught by an 11B that did know his stuff and had the resume to back it up. What he didn’t understand was the disservice that was being done to the students who were learning to break contact as a small team, but didn’t have knowledge of muzzle discipline and ready positions or efficiency of execution in weapons handling and marksmanship. Stated differently they couldn’t keep their guns running or hit what they were aiming at. They could not index their weapons in a proper manner to avoid fratricide.

There are people several states away that I’ve conversed with that are talking about starting a survival school and plan to teach team tactics. When asked if they were going to have a rifle program to ensure fundamental knowledge of weapons handling, marksmanship and mechanics before moving to more advanced things, they said that flat range live fire was too dangerous.  I was, and still am perplexed.

So let me get this straight, you are going to teach people to operate as a small unit, in an open enrollment class, which involves things like shooting at the enemy while your buddy is forward of your position, in front of the “180,” and you aren’t going to make sure they can handle a weapon first? Talk about a complete disservice. And this completely avoids the topic of overall relevancy and where things like Small Unit Tactics (SUT) should fall in a priority of work in your training regimen.  To put that simply, if you are an average American and are learning patrol tactics before you can run a home defense weapon, your carry pistol, or have basic medical skills, I’d say you probably have your priorities misaligned. Others mileage may vary.

Max Velocity has commented on a previous article, and talks about this very same subject.  He writes,

The MVT experience is that since we began to run civilian training over four years ago, we have been expanding ‘backwards” into weapon manipulation and flat range training. We overestimated the skill with their weapons that students from the prepper milieu would bring to the game. To be totally frank, they mostly have no skill at all, and are a liability to themselves; certainly not skill under pressure in a simulated combat environment where it counts. Tie that in with a refusal to do any meaningful, PT, and you have a recipe for disaster. People are kidding themselves.”

There are people that others look up to for one reason or another, whether its because they are the resident firearms guy in their family or they are known as the guy who has his stuff handled in their group of friends. It is imperative that people in these positions point out the truth to those looking for it. We must realize most of the folks asking are at the Unconscious Incompetence level although some are classic “Ask Holes.”  Usually they don’t know what they don’t know and often the first “Subject Matter Expert” (SME) to give them advice; it is taken as Gospel, good, bad or indifferent.  People attempting to teach others, especially newbies in the survival community, please assure they know the fundamentals before going into the Hondo Rolls, Cheetah Flips and Helo Insertions. After all once the shooting starts it still all boils down to sights and triggers.

From the same blog post referenced above, Max says, “tactical training is a progression.” Indeed. I’ve heard it explained as, skills, techniques and procedures.  Skills are the individual shooting skills and mechanics you learn on the flat range. If you look at what the high-level guys train, they spend most of their time working this stuff. While all the rest needs to be drilled relentlessly, it generally seems to fall in place much easier if you are personally squared away to the best of your ability when entering that team context later on.

Techniques are the beginning of tactics and how to employ those skills in a tactically appropriate manner and the 3-D environment enters the equation. Procedures are all encompassing and tie everything together. Procedures are how you and your buddy would search and clear a structure or how your team would conduct a patrol. Many want to start at the procedures level without having any sort of foundation to work with. If someone is peddling this type of thing, stay far, far away. Do yourself a favor and define your actual mission first, starting with daily life. Once this is done, you can identify what capabilities you’ll need to possess, and you can start a training regimen. And to be perfectly blunt physical fitness should probably be #1 on everyone’s list.

(Authors note: Real time training logs can be found here)

Body Armor, Green Tip and Steel Targets

 If you have a $10 head, buy a $10 helmet.” – Bill Buppert, Zerogov.com

I do not intend to go into a deep discussion about body armor. But I do want to point out a few things. Cheap body armor (usually steel) is bandied about by Threeper’s as the greatest thing since sliced bread. The reality is just a casual search of YouTube will show is that high velocity 5.56 rounds such as the XM193 55gr cartridge will zip through AR500 steel (rated to stop .308), at 50 yards if it is shot through guns that get the round above 3100 FPS. Would you trust your life to that? Often legitimate body armor can be had for not that much more than a set of AR500 plates.

There is also a spalling issue with steel. The bullet fragments on impact and sprays the wearer down with spall. The possibility of severe damage is there, even though the plate may have saved your life. They have come up with some coatings to attempt to mitigate some this, but I just don’t see. You can often find new surplus stock liquidations of new SAPI’s or eSAPI’s for example from places like Tyr Tactical where you can get a set for 175$. No, it’s not the latest greatest lightweight wiz bang plate, but it will actually work when the time comes.

I’ve shot more steel in the past year than any other previous year of my shooting life. I’ve seen 3/8 AR500 targets have XM193 rounds through 20” Colt HBAR’s zip right through it. I’ve also heard that M855 Green tip penetrator ammo will zip through all armor. I personally shot M855 through 18”, 16” and 14.5” guns at 10 yards at AR500 steel and just a small pockmark.

Guys, please settle down about your ‘Armor Piercing” ammo you’ll use on the Jack Boots when they kick down the front door at O’ Dark Thirty.  Research your body armor, evaluate its role in your life and don’t just look at cheap prices. Cheap shit is cheap for a reason.

The Survival Team Myth

I first read “Patriots” by Rawles before it was in print form and was still floating around on various forums on the web in PDF. When it was published in book form, I read that version and then immediately read it again to digest what I read. I saw another explosion of this survival group stuff when One Second After hit and people went collectively survival nuts. (I might have a slightly skewed view since I’m located within 100 miles of where the book is set.)

I began to mingle in these circles. If you didn’t have a group or a team you were going to die a slow, horrible, painful death when the biker gangs drove through your front door. The groups in these stories are usually composed of idealistic men who have trained every skill and stocked up on every supply known to man. They possess all the needed skills and equipment to do everything from full on trauma surgery to conducting a complex tactical mission. There is just a small problem with all of this. It’s a myth of Tactical Fantasy Band Camp. This sort of survival team is a Unicorn, but perhaps a tactical one.

The reality is people do not have a team of 12 pipe hitter, former SOF guys, that ran 6 hits a day for the duration of the GWOT. They usually have a group of families with a few male heads of house that generally are in less than stellar physical shape and a bad case of the Dunning-Kruger’s. Elderly folks are also present in their groups. This is not to demean people in any way; it’s a simple recognition of reality.

Great, you have 6 years of rice and beans squirrelled away in a barn somewhere. You have 80 junky guns to arm your conscripts in AMREV2, but can you efficiently use a rifle to begin with? Stuff does not equal skill. Seeds in a bucket do not mean you can grow your survival garden on your first try in a post-industrial societal breakdown.

Whether it’s called a team or mutual assistance group, (MAG!) one that lives up to its charge, is as rare as hen’s teeth. Let’s conduct a sober experiment. Let’s look at a cross section of our family, friends and acquaintances. Take a look at everyone in your life. Now compare those people to the idealistic survival team found in the average survival fiction book. I’m talking about the book that has each member being part of an organized group, monthly dues, with bylaws and a form of private governance with pre-positioned 5 years worth of food for each member and better (and more) kit than the average CAG shooter as well as everything in between.  Each member is highly trained in everything from off grid water systems to fast roping and 200-mile bug outs. This type of group is pure fantasy for 99% of people.

Everything in the survival world centers around a team. And I can definitely see the appeal. I am urging folks to conduct real world assessment of those teams and understanding the actual capabilities instead of artificially enhancing those capabilities. Let’s flip back to the first section of this article where I discussed tactics being focused on before fundamentals. It is generally seen in some circles that the Ranger Handbook and Light Infantry Dismounted Patrolling techniques are studied religiously before fundamental skills are even built. How does that team benefit you when you come home from work tomorrow, your door is kicked in and you hear screaming from inside where your 14-year-old daughter is supposed to be after school? Did it really pay off to put off those pistol classes and range days while out on militia call out to do greenside patrolling practice? Does speed dial work that fast to assemble your teammates living in neighboring counties and states to respond to the situation? Or are you going to have to handle business with your mouse gun (because that 1911 was just too doggone big to wear IWB everyday, eh?) in your pocket at that very instant?

This is a perfect example of why the most applicable skills should be your priority before pursuing other things that you should definitely know but are that are fairly unlikely to be needed. But always balance the stakes with the odds.

Networking and forming groups on line is common. Meet ups, forums and the like are popular. I’ve seen the rise of these groups and methods of organizing. I’ve seen people meet up once or twice, they form a group and they think they have a kinship blood bond because they have the same brand of AR15 rifle. Lets just look at this objectively. Meeting someone one time, do you really think they are going to take a bullet for you?

“This guy is so condescending and negative all the time!”

So what can you do in this area? You need to look at who your “tribe” (to use the cliché du jour) is objectively and work with what you have.  If you identify that your survival group is realistically, your wife, your 3 toddlers, 2 dogs and yourself, why on earth are you spending 8 weekends a year at the local militia camp out learning Mark Koernke-esque patrol tactics or how to operate as a platoon of paramilitaries at the detriment of overcoming “Low Left Charlie” with your carry gun?  Why not mastering single man structure flows? 3rd party defense? How to operate around a vehicle that you drive everyday? How to employ your every day carry handgun and operate it with toddlers present? What about learning how to plug a hole in the event that your wife takes a round in that mass shooting incident?

I suggest we take Matt Graham’s advice:

Tom: “I’m a member of a club that gets together and trains in tactics and shooting and stuff…we learn military tactics and practice clearing houses and stuff.”

 Matt Graham: “Why?” I said. Baffled. “Do you have a wife, Tom?” I ask, “and kids?” He answers quickly with a “yep” to both as I get to the point. “Are they Rangers, Tom?” and as I say it I can hear the keystrokes stop in the background, as he repeats my question in his mind – are they rangers? “Because if your wife isn’t a Ranger, Tom, or your little kids aren’t Rangers, then why the fuck are you using Ranger tactics?

Graham further elaborates:

“I am alone. I am a fighting element of 1. Like most, I don’t need to learn how Rangers tackle a tactical situation, I need to learn, and then refine, how I – a man with a wife and a family – tackle tactical situations. It becomes a different template when there is just one gun in the fight. I am breacher. I am medic. I am sniper. I am driver. I am both point and rear. I am security. It is only me. Accepting this helps me acknowledge one of the most important principles I know: no one is coming to save you.

It is my responsibility and my responsibility alone to fix and finish threats to me and mine. So I have learned and refined one-man clears. I have learned comprehensive medical skills for combat trauma. I have learned combatives that finish fights quickly. I have learned weapons skills that help me address problems from near and far, and big to small. I have learned offensive vehicle skills. I have learned how to maximize myself in the darkness. And learning these skills reinforces one of the most important principles I practice: I am the master of my own destiny.

You set yourself up for success.  Do the things that put you in a position to control your fate.  Awareness and mindset are practices, they are habits. Act. Do. Actions. Doing.  Jung said, “…you are what you do, not what you say you will do”.

So do.

Montani Semper Liberi

The own will of me is the State’s destroyer.” – Max Stirner

About the author: John Meyers traces his Appalachian ancestry back nine generations to the 1750’s. He lives with his family on the high ridges of the Smoky Mountains.

24 thoughts on “DDD: Fundamentals, Body Armor and the Survival Team Myth by John Meyers”

  1. I agree with the author on all but one topic in his essay….TARIFFS !

    Since the treason by Clinton and the 106th CON-gress (Republican-controlled) in May 2000, fUSA sovereignty and independence has been nearly destroyed by Permanent Normal Trade Relations with the Chinese Communists. Today, almost nothing of value is manufactured in the fUSA. Almost everything is made by the Chicoms. And if not by the Chicoms the communist Vietnamese, the Indians, the Pakistanis, the Indonesians and a host of others pick up the Chinese slack in assisting the death throes of this once, great nation.

    Under PNTR Amerika has become the greatest….of debtor nations. Four TRILLION fiat dollars of trade deficit with the Chicoms alone. 10,000 factories have been shuttered. Millions of factory jobs have been lost. Wages have been stagnant and falling for 15+ years. More than half of all Amerikans now work for some level of government, whether local/state/fedgov or the beloved .gov “contactor”. In turn, these .gov “workers” create nothing except more rules, more laws and more tyranny. Thank you free trade.

    Free trade, courtesy of the imbeciles one knows as the electorate, the citizens, have endorsed their own demise at the hands of globalist politicians they have kept in power for years, for decades. The only solution ARE tariffs. The ending of GATT, NAFTA, PNTR and other globalist, economic schemes to bring about the New World Order.

    POTUS Trump has been a disappointment for me and others. He has succumbed to the Deep State on most issues as outlined by the essay author. Yet, on the issue of trade tariffs, POTUS Trump is spot on. He needs to go even further with tariffs. Tariff EVERYTHING coming across our borders. Tariff heavily. And terminate with prejudice all those who support both “free trade” and the importation of more and more 3rd World poverty via the foreigners invading this once, great nation.

    1. So your solution to all you listed is to force American consumers to pay higher prices? All taxes are paid by the people in the end. Price we pay for ‘civilization?’

      1. Corporate income taxes are merely a clever tax on consumers by politicians and tariffs behave in much the same way as de facto targeted corporate income taxes on imported goods. The bonus for governments is that they expand regulatory power on the product under tariff and pocket the imposition. In the end, consumers pay higher prices. Nice work if you can get it.

        1. Well Bill, then based on your limited argument against tariffs I can assume you welcome the destruction of American industry and our four trillion dollar + trade deficit with the communist Chinese, eh ?

          Does it not bother you that every consumable you purchase is made by foreigners, particularly citizens of the Peoples Republic of China ?

          As much as you rail against “government”, you appear to open your arms to every other person you meet on the street, working for government.

          Manufacturing creates wealth. Look where fUSA is today and where the ChiComs are. We abandoned manufacturing and thus wealth and gave it to the Red Chinese. They have become rich and powerful. FUSA has become a nation that cannot sustain it’s own needs. A nation living in the past and on credit.

          But hey….lets just keep bringing in more foreign goods, cheap H1B invaders and third world refugees. Can you say “Goodbye America” ?

          1. DanIII,

            I welcome your comments here.

            Manufacturing isn’t the only contributor to wealth so are algorithms and other intangible intellectual heavy lifters that make complex economies hum. Why not tax that intellectual property too?

            Let’s be clear any call for higher tariffs is always a call for higher taxes on domestic consumers. If that is a false statement, prove me wrong. Those foreign H1B visas are keeping the American technology leviathan afloat b/c Americans don’t want to bother with getting the hard-won STEM knowledge.

            I will give you this, in the tiny subculture of weapons and components in the non-fully automatic small arms milieu, no one beats the ingenuity of the garage tinkerers here from anywhere on the planet. Yet that has happened in spite of the government and in spite of the government prohibitions on weapons development by the civilian small arms industry.

            Tariffs have led to two internal wars in North American beginning with the first AmRev. Taxation and tariff imposition is synonymous. If you want non-intervention and prosperity, choose the Swiss model; if you want high tariffs and import substitution, choose the Mexican model.

            Some of the provocations:

            The taxes and limitations on liberty, you ask?

            1750 The Iron Act was designed to restrict the manufacturing activities in the colonies

            1763 The end of the French and Indian War (Seven Years’ War) left the British with a massive war debt. George Grenville became the British Prime Minister and to pay the war debt the British, under the leadership of Grenville ended their policy of Salutary Neglect in the colonies. The British started to enforce the Laws of the Navigations Acts and looked for ways of imposing new taxes in the colonies.

            1763 Proclamation of 1763 was an attempt by the British crown to separate white settlements from Indian country

            1764 Sugar Act – Law passed by the British Parliament setting a tax on sugar and molasses imported into the colonies impacting the manufacture of rum in New England. The Sugar Act was repealed in 1766 and replaced with the Revenue Act of 1766, which reduced the tax on molasses imports – also refer to Colonial, Continental and Revolutionary Currency

            1764 Currency Act – Series of Laws passed by the British Government that regulated paper money issued by the colonies

            1765 The Quartering Act: The first of a series of Laws requiring the provision of housing, food and drink to British troops stationed in towns designed to improve the living conditions of troops whilst decreasing the cost to the crown

            1765 The Stamp Act of 1765 placed a stamp duty (tax) on legal papers, newspapers and pamphlets. Vehement opposition by the Colonies, led by patriots such as Patrick Henry, resulted in the repeal of the act in 1766.

            1765 The Sons of Liberty. The Sons of Liberty was an an organization (a secret society) formed by American Patriots who opposed British measures against the colonists, and agitated for resistance

            1765 The Non-importation Agreements (1765–75). Associations were organized by Sons of Liberty and Whig merchants to boycott English goods In response to new taxes. American colonists were discouraged from purchasing of British imports.

            1766 The Declaratory Act: Declaration by the British Parliament that accompanied repeal of the Stamp Act stating that Parliament’s authority was the same in America as in Britain and asserted Parliament’s authority to make laws binding on the American colonies

            1767 Townshend Acts – Series of Laws passed by the British Parliament placing duties on items imported by the colonists including glass, lead, paints, paper and tea. The reaction from the colonists was so intense that Great Britain eventually repealed all the taxes except the one on tea. Acts included the Revenue Act of 1767, the Indemnity Act, the Commissioners of Customs Act, the Vice Admiralty Court Act and the New York Restraining Act.

            1770 March 5, 1770: The Boston Massacre during which British troops killed 5 Boston civilians.

            1773 Tea Act – Law passed by the British Parliament allowing the British East India Company to sell its low-cost tea directly to the colonies, undermining colonial tea merchants. The introduction of the Tea Act led to the Boston Tea Party

            1774 December 16: The Boston Tea Party – Massachusetts patriots dressed as Mohawk Indians protested against the British Tea Act

            1774 Intolerable (Coercive) Acts: The Intolerable Acts also known as Coercive Acts were a were a reprisal to the Boston Tea party rebellion. A package of five laws aimed at restoring authority in its colonie

            March 31, 1774: The Boston Port Act

            May 20, 1774: The Massachusetts Government Act

            May 20, 1774: The Administration of Justice Act

            June 2, 1774: The Quartering Act

            June 22, 1774: The Quebec Act established on June 22, 1774

            Again, tariffs benefit the government and punish consumers.

            Murray Rothbard: The tariff principle is an attack on the market, and its logical goal is the self-sufficiency of industrial producers; it is a goal that, if realized, would spell poverty for all… It would be a regression from civilization to barbarism.

            Hans-Herman Hoppe: International protectionism, while obviously less destructive than a policy of interpersonal or inter-regional protectionism, would result in precisely the same effect and constitute a sure recipe for America’s further economic decline. To be sure, some American jobs and industries would be saved, but such savings would come at a price. The standard of living and the real income of the American consumers of foreign products would be forcibly reduced. The cost to all U.S. producers who employ the protected industry’s products as their own input factors would be raised, and they would be rendered internationally less competitive. Moreover, what could foreigners do with the money they earned from their U.S. imports? They could either buy American goods, or they could leave it here and invest it, and if their imports were stopped or reduced, they would buy fewer American goods or invest smaller amounts. Hence, as a result of saving a few inefficient American jobs, a far greater number of efficient American jobs would be destroyed or prevented from coming into existence.

      2. JM,

        Interesting how you failed to address any of my points. What has happened is because folks like you continue to whine that tariffs cost you more. Yep. They do. However, what has happened to wages and taxes in the last 18 years since we gave the Chicoms free reign in our market. Wages have gone DOWN and taxes have gone UP !

        You would pay extra on imported items and thus hit with a tariff. You could buy an AMERICAN manufactured product as opposed to the foreign-made, American job-killing product that has been made more costly by tariffs. It is called “choice”. If you believe the foreign product is superior to the American product, then pay more for the foreign product. Simple. That, or you can decide to thumb your nose at the New World Order and work to make America Great again.

        1. Bill, I read you weekly, your addicting. Have to agree with Dan, your dancing the dance, shits not adding up?

          I’m often amused when we lose ourselves in the past. Not the here and now. I would agree that to understand our future, one must understand the past.

          Meyers great article, I gotta believe in something, so I’ll stick with Trump, for the political side. I see it the way Dan III does.

          As for taking care of business at home, my two case of freeze dried and another thousand rounds arrived yesterday. I do the food supply monthly, and as of,a few months ago the ammo, again.

          While I support trump, I’ve literally doubled our preps, and ammo count. Not cheap, roughly 740.00 a month for ammo and two cases of freeze dried. ” 308″ got a shit load of .308s,and mags, not enough pills to feed em all. For an extended time.
          I’m fixing that

          For now I’m comfortable with my investment.

          Mr. Meyers, I physically can’t do crowds or meetings anymore. In the past eight years I’ve become a recluse, my PTSD, for some reason just won’t allow me to do groups. Preppers, shooters don’t matter. I smell things I’m gone, I sense things I’m gone. Many times I don’t even know what it is, other then a gut feeling. I go. I don’t question it, I just do it.

          Me my cat, my grand dog, my family is all I’m interested in hanging out with.

          Great article. I’m not very vocal anymore, just kickin it. I’ve never quit following what you all are saying

          Dirk

          1. Dirk,

            I am glad to have you here and if we all agreed, how interesting could our conversation be? Just yeas and head nods, no thanks. Per taxation in all its guises and variants, I will always be opposed.

            This insn’t a matter of losing ourselves in the past so much as Socratic drilling and knowing history has rhythms and the past has plenty of lessons to teach those who watch the train wrecks today.

            We have a four year low hum in the assault on our individual liberty and you are using the time wisely as am I. Now is the time to fulfill the forever provisioning as if it will all disappear tomorrow.

            Bill

  2. You mention “choice,” yet, consider that a government intervention of a 30% tax, is part of said ‘free choice.’

    Imagine if I were to make the argument of “well, you have the free choice to work elsewhere” when you complained of 30% taken from your pay check. Move to Somalia, is that the next argument?

    I have yet to hear of any exercise or heuristic approach in which a society can tax its way into prosperity. Taxes are always destruction.

    A myriad of reasons exist why Americans no longer manufacture. Regulations, taxation, and the like all contribute. Automation is the biggest “job killer” of all, yet, I don’t hear to many people wanting to replace the excavator with 50 men and shovels, cuz ‘er jerbs!”

    But you know what it ultimately boils down to? Consumers choose. Consumers like Walmart junk instead of over priced American junk. If we are to make the case that a government intervention can, as you put it, ‘Make American Great Again” and “thumb the NWO,” perhaps we should jail consumers of ChiCom product? Perhaps institute Chinese population control to stop breeding consumers of foreign product into existence? Is there any end of the intervention needed to remake society into a reality of American Greatness that hardly ever existed in the first place? Do you actually think you can save the sinking ship of this Empire? Just one more tax? One more law?

    1. JM,

      You confirm for me you are a globalist.

      Yes. There should be a total moratorium on immigration for the next 20 years.

      Regarding your “consumers” remark….you disregard nationalism totally. I am not a “consumer”. I am an American who has watched the continuing erosion of my country, over the last 30 years, courtesy of imbeciles such as yourself. Methinks you are a government employee, aren’t you ?

      Are you employing selective memory when you ignore the American industrial revolution of the 19th Century ? The fUSA had been importing almost every life necessity from Great Britain. Finally, strong tariffs were imposed on Great Britain and the fUSA reduced it’s dependence on British goods. Furthermore, the federal government was kept small by being funded totally by tariffs until the enactment of the income tax in 1913. Thus since 1915 the federal government has been funded by income taxes and not tariffs. Consequently, Americans have seen the growth of government and the subsequent abuse and ever growing tyranny at the expanding hands of what one calls “government”.

      While you whine and snivel about tariffs, you dismiss the advent of the federal income tax imposed in 1913. Do some research. Enlighten yourself. Awaken !

      BTW….how’s that government paycheck looking ? Is it buying for you what it bought 10 years ago ? Annual pay raises not withstanding.

      1. Mission accomplished. Trumpster got his feelings hurt.

        How many false accusations can we fit into 1 post:
        1. Gov employee
        2. Globalist
        3. Imbecile
        4. An historical illiterate
        5. A supporter of income taxation

        Do any of those things strike you as ironic, considering this essay was posted on a site called Zerogov?

        There is also that pesky inconvenient fact…something about Smoot Hawley and a Great Depression. No, couldn’t be.

        Sort of funny to me. A professed III’er that champions immigration police states and high import tariffs, when the legacy he claims to represent went to war over oppressive tariffs and mercantilism, and what, minuscule taxes on soft drinks?

        One thing that always made me grin was folks who lay claim to an American liberty tradition, support Southern Secession, yet champion the Lincolnian policy of oppressive taxation. Sort of funny that those tariffs were contributing factors in 2 large scale domestic resistance movements in favor of liberty in this country.

        1. JM,

          As I stated, you are a globalist. I wasn’t wrong.

          Regarding your anti-tariff mentality….it was tariffs that funded fUSA until the creation in 1913 by fedgov of the ultimate tyranny….the Income Tax !

          You rail against tariffs, but you have no problem with income taxation. Hypocrisy of the highest sort.

          As I explained to you earlier, but you chose to ignore, tariffs FUNDED the fedgov. One could choose a product without tariff. If not, then you helped fund one’s beloved fedgov. Today, more than 100 years hence, tariffs amount to a pittance while income taxation takes nearly half of an individual’s income.

          BTW….I knew you would deny my observation that you are a .gov employee, if not but a retired one.

          Tariffs protects the citizenry from the invasion of foreign produced goods. Call it a tax. Fine. But, as I attempted to reason with you and failed, I told you that the fUSA has a trade deficit with the Chinese communists of more than 4,000,000,000.00 dollars. That 4,000,000,000.00 dollars amounts to Red Chinese citizens working to provide NON-working/sub-standard wage earning fUSA citizens with products once made here. Products that fUSA citizens made providing income and retirement savings. Now, no longer. Courtesy of the demise of tariffs and the acceptance of socialism/communism among the Amerikan citizenry.

          I consider you just one of many entrenched and foolish, globalist imbeciles so persasive in Amerika today.

          Pitiful.

        2. Tory Dan,
          Despite your completely witless comments and logical fallacies, I’ll correct a couple of your egregiously false claims from you post below.

          1. I have never in my life worked for any govt entity or gov contractor. If you are implying I was former mil and/or did any contracting you are talking to the wrong guy.

          2. Yes, tariffs funded the US state, pre and post income tax, where is there disagreement on this? what is your point? I do not seek to fund anything. I’d be perfectly fine if Mordor drifted down the Potomac and on out to sea never to be seen again. Taxation is extortion and I do not support it on any level. Wouldnt you find it ironic if an income tax supporter’s article was posted on a site called zerogov?

          3. Did it occur to you that you have a trade deficit with your grocery store? If you buy 200$ worth of groceries per week, you are contributing to your own trade deficit weekly. The horrors.

          4. The people of the US are not synonymous with the US state.

          5. Do you have the right to interfere in trade between 2 people? Can you delegate a right you don’t have?

          If you want to hire someone to cut your grass, and I play mafia, and get in the middle of it, institute a tax on the transaction, force you to pay it, how is this any semblance of a position of freedom? This is the tariff situation you support. “Oh but you can go somewhere else!” Muh freedumbs.

          This is the state of the resistance from the essay. Supporters of leviathan and diminished liberty. The abstract collective common good over freedom of choice. “Identity” over free choice. Govt as paternal protector and godsend to create above market wages for union members and muh pension. Iron fisted Power over markets. III’ers who hold positions held by Tories. False dichotomies and made up ad hominem’s are truth. Oppression is freedom.

          I’m sure your pro-state commentary will be found in a future essay.

      2. >>>JM,

        You confirm for me you are a globalist.<<<

        Lololol…that's gotta be one of the funniest lines here, ever. I'll bet you got an interesting take on what confirmation is. Say, do you do Tarot too?

  3. Great, great post John; thanks. You’d think it might occur to peeps that maybe strong individuals make the best teams. But alas, so convinced are they that “individualism” somehow means alone. Weird, but logic never was their strong suit.

  4. Great article, thanks for posting it. Meat birds are doing fine. Getting another hog to butcher this year. Converting garden from things that must be started to things that start themselves every year (see permaculture). I’ve come to see almost all forms of .gov (Fed, State, Local etc) as self perpetuating corruption machines. I’m not quite an anarchist but rather a minarchist. Your assessment of the current regime is spot on. I still can’t fathom that people who voted for orange julius don’t see it. Prayer won’t stop the bear. Hope is not a strategy or tactic. Denial is not just a river in Egypt.

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  6. And THIS is why I keep coming back. A mans principles, morals and ethics are his, and his alone, that we disagree from time to time, is a strength, not a weakness. Embrace it,

    Love this place, for its observations wisdom and strengths.

    Bill you rock, so do your contributors.

    Carpa Diem
    Dirk

  7. Good stuff John.. hope you can come down and hang out with us again soon .your suggestions were a hit at last shooting

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