Thread: BASIC LIST / SUGGESTED ITEMS FOR LONG TERM SURVIVAL

SURVIVING IN ARGENTINA
Life in Argentina after the 2001 crisis


THE EXPAT LIFE AND HOW TO SURVIVE IT


Monday, February 6, 2012


This is a guest Article written by my good friend, CapnRick. Rick is an American expat living in Argentina, he also does Consulting ricdele@gmail.com


Thanks Rick and take care! FerFAL

THE EXPAT LIFE AND HOW TO SURVIVE IT: 10 Ways to G.O.O.D Without Losing Your Shirt

by Ricardo de Leon


As an expat US native, I get asked about my reasons for the relocation outside my birth country and my experiences in doing so. I am developing this article to aid in answering the more common questions for people who inquire. I love my life in Argentina… but, the expat life is not for everyone.


The information herein is original and does not commit me to any liability for, nor rights to the information herein. You may freely copy this and reproduce it in any form you wish without attribution.


Most of my expat friends do NOT live in their expat home year round, but spend 6 – 8 months each year at their country of origin home, with a condo they have purchased or a rental they use for their time here in Argentina. Some of them will eventually reverse the process and spend most of their time here, but many will never fully expatriate. I also spend 2 – 4 months each 18 – 24 months in the US. I have permanent residence in Argentina, where many expats just come in on a tourist visa, renew once after the initial 3 month visa period, then leave before the 6 month tour runs out. Please do not convince yourself that it will always be OK to abuse your host nation’s hospitality forever by abusing the tourist visa renewal policy… it makes things unnecessarily more difficult for other tourists.


Many expats in BsAs (Buenos Aires) have made themselves unwelcome by abusing this policy for years, via constant renewals or illegally overstaying their tourist visa limits. Some have even bought property here, and can not visit when they wish due to host country wrath at the expat’s disrespect for sovereign law of the host country.


WHO SHOULD REASONABLY BE ABLE TO EXPECT TO EXPATRIATE THEMSELVES AND THEIR FAMILY WITHOUT LOSING THEIR SHIRTS


People who are relatively young and relatively healthy with easily transferable job market skills, good sense of personal integrity, good forgivers and hardy adapters, fluent in the host country language or willing to walk barefoot over glowing coals (figuratively speaking) to learn it. Other things that aid in assimilating massive changes to one’s lifestyle include having sources of income outside the host country. In many cases, one’s ability to enjoy life without a lot of modern conveniences and media options (or even universally acceptable cell phone reception) is crucial to the success of a good expatriation plan.


There are some folks who should never consider expatriation. If one is uproot themselves from their known habitat and support infrastructure, one must be prepared to do without those comforts while building new ones in the new home. The relocation process is a very destructive one even within ones’ own country. Especially consider…o those who have no easily transferable job skills for the international marketplace. Doctors can easily find earnings at a lesser skill level job in the medical profession while getting re certified as physicians in the new country, whereas lawyers have a more difficult time due to a different legal system (example… differences between the English justice system and Napoleonic law). The people who earn their living over the internet can live anywhere they have a good, dependable high-speed internet connection. Many professions would have a difficult time transferring their skill sets to an often hostile workplace as an expat. People in most countries resent foreigners coming in and taking their jobs… including those in the US, Australia, Canada and the UK. Language barriers should also be considered.o those who have serious chronic ailments that require lots of medical attention.


While the level of care is generally good to excellent in many places, insurance becomes a problem. For example, I have Blue Cross/Blue Shield coverage as part of my retirement package. At age 65, the primary care entity became MediCare, thanks to the 2003 federal law that let BC/BS off the hook as primary care provider. Before I turned 65, I was able to send claim forms back to BC/BS and get refunds for costs expended outside the US. The entire cost for a procedure was often less than the copay for that same procedure in the US, so I got very little benefit from BC/BS. Since MediCare… not usable for costs incurred outside the USA… took over as primary provider, the benefits have dropped to zero, except during my short visits to the US. Since I never signed up for MediCare Part B due to the fact it is worthless outside the US, I have a complicated scenario on benefits if I need medical coverage even while inside the US. At my advanced age with pre-existing conditions, I have no chance of buying insurance that makes sense for me. Your experience may be different.Even if you are young and healthy, one cannot foresee events. Sooner or later, everyone needs medical care. Children with medical conditions certainly are a serious complication.


o persons who heavily depend upon others for emotional support should not consider expatriation. Even if the support provider is moving with you, one cannot depend upon their being able to adapt to conditions in the new country.


o people who depend heavily on financial services (banks, etc) while avoiding the use of technology to access those services and their money. You will soon realize most people need bank accounts in more than one country, and access is often ONLY via internet for those services. ATMs alone are not sufficient for many of us.o people who often indulge in alcohol or other stimulants on the street or in public. These folks put themselves and others at enhanced risk… and enhanced chance of severe consequences. These non-US justice systems tend to be less lenient than US justice systems, up to and including the death penalty for illegal narcotic possession in a few countries. I am not aware of too many countries where this sort of behavior can be exercised with impunity… or personal safety.


o people who lack the capital with which to live for at least 6 months while starting to seek new employment. A lot of work can be done establishing relationships with future employer prospects via internet before actually cutting ties with your support base in your home country. But, even if you have a job lined up before moving, you need 6 months living expense in your pocket when you move. Things don’t always go as planned. Optimism is a very dangerous drug if you overdose.


o the need to get access to your money back in your home country. This took me almost 4 years to arrange money access to the current liveable state. One can never assume that opening a bank account or accessing any other financial services of any kind beyond ATM access is possible in a different country. Some of the procedures I tried include…

oo …having my attorney set up a company for a local citizen who wanted to have a US bank account for security’s sake (banks here are toys of the government). With that company set up, my attorney could then apply for a tax id in the company name and open the bank account in the client’s name with that tax id. As it happened, the client traveled to Miami and set up the bank account himself, using the company tax id as planned. Then, he could hand me relatively modest amounts of local currency in cash in exchange for my bank transfer of US dollars to his account in Miami… anytime it was mutually convenient to do so. Recent government activity has changed things to the point that this procedure is of uncertain legality, so BE CAREFUL if you try something like this and beware the consequences of accidentally running afoul of anyone’s money laundering laws.


oo … using my wife’s account. Not having any local income has a downside… I cannot qualify for a local credit card. There is no such thing as a prepaid credit card here. Debit cards, tied to a checking account, are not legal to use to buy things over the internet or phone… you can only use them in person and showing government picture ID. There is no easy credit. There are very few mortgages… cars and houses are paid for in CASH! Most expats with a permanent residency and even a local job have a tough time getting a bank to agree to allow you to open a bank account here. Expat sites here seethe with expressions of frustration at money handling problems no one could anticipate. This is not an opportunity for the easily frustrated. I can ONLY qualify as co-signer on my citizen wife’s checking account, where we make deposits each month to handle the debit card transactions we need to perform each month. I probably will never qualify for an account on my own, which suits me fine. I need the joint account to be able to access other bank services beyond the scope of this article.


NOTE: THE LACK OF a local credit card means I cannot have a local PayPal account, and must use my US PayPal account, which I had hoped to combine to transfer money. Sorry… won’t work.oo using our attorney to collect all our income and deposit monthly all those funds not able to be set up on automatic direct deposit. We handle most of our other transactions over the internet. Our attorney also receives our mail, scans important items to email to us, etc… services most expats suddenly finding themselves in need of paying someone to do for them.oo used JonesTur to transfer a large sum in US dollars to complete a cash real estate purchase. Other such money exchanges offer this service. Fees for these services range from 1% to 5% depending on how well they know you at that branch office and the size of the transaction.PLAN - The most important part of any international move is the Plan, which should reasonably consist of several elements. Make up a list of the countries you are interested in considering for a home. Begin to acquire and collate information on each site. Expat blog sites and user group sites are easy to find… just type the name of the country you wish to research into a search engine search subject box and get started.o Research the requirements to obtain permanent residency. I used the Miami consulate of Argentina’s website to get most of my information, determined that permanent residency was a reasonable expectation for me, and set up an interview to establish the requirements for a temporary residency. The paperwork for moving two vehicles and a lot of household effects for me and my wife would be possible only once my temporary residence was approved.


o Once you have a short list of candidate countries in which you are interested, it is time to start lurking and corresponding all the expat sites. I spent years of the Colombia site before I felt I was going about things incorrectly. You should go back several years on the expat commentaries and read as much as you can about the members’ questions and experiences. This information is useful in eliminating some countries.I would still consider Colombia, but I would now give precedence to Panama and Ecuador. For my particular needs, Ecuador is great. Panama is not my favorite, but makes the most sense for those who cannot tolerate such disruption in their lives as other countries require. The US dollar is the local currency, many US health insurance firms have networks set up there, and the banking, real estate and job situations are a dream there compared to the rest of the world. The only place I can stand the climate is at the higher altitudes, which really limits access to the civilized goodies of Panama City. I visited these countries many times over 40 years in business, but got most of my information from the expats.I am really fortunate to be well situated with a marvelous lifestyle in a top-notch climate. We walk everywhere and recently sold the vehicles because we don’t really need them. I wish all of you the same.


o CHECK EXPAT WRITERS’ BLOGS so you can get some good ideas before making a final decision. My favorites are Simon Black … Simon Black and Fernando Aquirre… About | The Modern Survivalist


EXECUTE THE PLAN - The final decisions made, it is a good idea to plan to …o rent for the first year or two. One must be severely overly optimistic to try to buy real estate in a foreign country without a couple of years of research or throwing an amazing amount of money away. Neither course is likely to end well. The best chances for optimum results only come after tedious and astute research and getting good local assistance from local friends and expats.


Being able to walk away from a series of decisions that didn’t work out is always easier if the legal entanglements are not too severe. You will be glad you were careful.o consider trying to do without a car… at least for the first year or so. The advice may seem radical if, like me, you have driven for over 50 years and had a car since teen years. It is important to realize that the majority of people in most countries do NOT drive on a daily basis and car ownership is not as prevalent outside the first world countries. The paperwork is incredibly complicated, there are many items that can go wrong with seriously bad outcome. We came close to losing our car to confiscation and sale by customs, all because of an intramural row with a different government agency over whether or not a certain law was in force. If we had not had several thousand dollars available to cover the problem… bye-bye Ford Focus. Your results could be better or worse.


The good news is that the bus/train/taxi facilities are fabulous… we are very comfortable using public transport, at very economical rates. If we ever need our own transport, I may pick up a good deal on one of the thousands of scooter that crowd the streets here.o request a copy of my free TRAVEL SECURITY article to see some personal safety issues that may come up as you move around the world and your new home, and how to deal with them. Send a request email to ricdele@gmail.com To get you started thinking about personal security, try to consider that you are safer leasing an apartment above ground level than one would be in a freestanding home with a yard.

Be aware of your surroundings, especially when approaching your front door from the street. Many home invasions can be avoided by carefully considering your surroundings and perhaps walking away from your front door, delaying opening the door, etc if the scene seems unsafe. Once the invaders are free from view from the street, the situation is about as bad as possible.o try to build good relationships with the local merchants and government officials. The sense of community is a marvelous asset if there are emergencies of some kind. Having the local beat cops watching out for you is always a good idea. Fernado “FerFAL” Aguirre taught me that one. I have applied it in my new home, and my wife is amazed at how successful my community Public Relations has been. Thanks, Fer.


o plan to become active in expat social activities. I consider it part of my duties as an expat to stay in touch with other expat and their issues. Consider joining expat clubs and participate in group activities. There is a wealth of experience, information and advice available through these activities. Most importantly… IT’S FUN!o once you have picked out your new host country, join LinkedIn for free and start investigating groups to join.


There are over 2,000 LinkedIn groups that show up on a site search for “Argentina”, and many more for “Latin America”, as examples. I have met some very helpful people and gotten lots of good ideas from my reading there. Who knows? You may be able to find that new job to finance your expatriation on LinkedIn.


o some may be surprised that I do not recommend home schooling your children unless the security concerns are otherwise unworkable, or you were already home schooling prior to expatriating. Private schools are expensive, but, a necessary expense to insure that your children are not subject to undue potential for violence against them. I believe that the best solution for most families may be the private school approach as kids acclimatize to a new environment in a foreign country better when attending school, religious services and community activities with their peers. Besides, IT’S FUN!!!!


o volunteering for service to charitable organizations is a good way to aid in assimilation into the community. Another FUN way to adapt to your new home.


http://ferfal.blogspot.com/2012/02/expat-life-and-how-to-survive-it.html

New Prepper Show To Air Tonight On National Geographic

February 7, 2012 by Sam Rolley

SHARP ENTERTAINMENT / NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC CHANNEL

David Sarti is preparing for a EMT attack.

A new television show that airs tonight on the National Geographic Channel will examine the lifestyles of American preppers who are getting ready for a number of catastrophic disasters.

“Doomsday Preppers,” which will premier tonight at 9 p.m. EST, follows the lives of otherwise ordinary Americans who have made a conscious decision to prepare for the collapse of civilization and other disaster scenarios.

The show will allow viewers to glimpse into the life of one of eight preppers in each episode:

Megan Hurwitt, The Young Urban Prepper: Prepping to survive a catastrophic oil crisis.

The show describes Hurwitt as a metropolitan party girl living in Houston, Texas. She carries a compact “go bag” with her at all times that includes a compact mess kit, survival knife, compass, flint, pepper spray, family photos, as well as a few other hygienic essentials. In the first episode of the series, viewers will follow Hurwitt as she details her plan for evacuating Houston in the event of a doomsday scenario.

Dennis Evers, The “Godfather” Prepper: Prepping to hedge against hyperinflation.

With 11 children and a growing number of grandchildren, Evers is worried about the global chaos that would accompany hyperinflation. Evers and his family have turned their Colorado farm into a portrait of self-sufficiency and have trained themselves to work as a self-sufficient unit in the event of economic collapse.

David Sarti, The Hillbilly Prepper: Prepping for an EMP attack.

A HAM radio and communications expert, Sarti is described by the show’s producers as smart, knowledgeable, quick-witted and just straight-up funny. The emphasis of Sarti’s prepper philosophy, the show’s producers say, is what you can’t buy, you make.

Learn about other preppers on the show here.



The show is part of a growing number of prepper-related cable and alternative media programs. Similar shows include “Livin’ for the Apocalypse,” which featured Personal Liberty preparedness expert Peggy Layton in a TLC special last summer, and Glenn Beck’s “Independence USA,” which aired on GBTV last month and follows one family’s attempt to become prepared for anything.

New Prepper Show To Air Tonight On National Geographic : Personal Liberty Digest™=

Geocaching As An Introduction To Land Navigation And Orienteering

February 6, 2012 by David Morris


Geocaching is basically a global treasure hunting game that combines navigation, critical thinking, creative thinking, following directions and luck.

Survival and preparedness is serious business. The quality and quantity of survival skills that you have may very well mean the difference between living and dying after a catastrophe. From time to time, I like to share ideas for fun activities that you can do on your own or with other members of your family that have a “hidden” preparedness component. The way I see it, if you can have fun with your family while also learning skills that could save them or prevent them from experiencing unnecessary pain in the future, it’s a win-win situation.

Geocaching is an activity that fits into that category incredibly well, and it can be as much fun or as serious as you want it to be.

Geocaching is basically a global treasure hunting game that combines navigation, critical thinking, creative thinking, following directions and luck. People hide containers containing trinkets, called geocaches, and post clues on Geocaching.com on how to find them using a GPS-enabled device. There are more than 1.6 million geochaches worldwide.

If you’re interested in learning land navigation or getting a family member interested, geocaching is a great way to get your toes wet and get exposure to some of the most basic elements.

An easy way to get started with geocaching if you have a handheld GPS is to go to Geocaching.com, sign up for a free account, plug in a location near you where you’d like to hunt for a geocache, plug the coordinates into your GPS, and go hunting.

Alternatively, if you have a smart phone, you can download the geocaching.com app, which uses your phone’s GPS feature, and start hunting for nearby caches. This, of course, depends on your comfort level with enabling GPS on your phone and agreeing to share it with Geocaching.com.

Initially, pick easy caches that have been found recently and that look like they have good hints. I cannot emphasize enough how important it is to start off with easy geocaches to build confidence and then switch to more challenging ones.

Once you get to the coordinates listed for the cache, you’ll learn a valuable lesson in navigation: +/-, otherwise known as accuracy, is a big deal when you’re looking for an exact location.

Here’s what I mean. Let’s say that when the person who placed the cache originally placed it and recorded the location, their GPS was accurate to within 20 feet. When you go to find it, your GPS is telling you that it’s accurate to within 20 feet. That means that when you get to the exact coordinates listed on geocaching.com, you’ll be within 40 feet of the cache. Depending on the location and the description/clues, a circle with a 40 foot radius can mean the cache will be very easy or very difficult to find.

When you find a geocache, it will usually range in size from a small pill bottle to an ammo can and be filled with trinkets, stickers and other stuff that you might get from a gumball machine. In geocaching culture, it’s customary to take something and replace it with one or more items of equal or greater value. The prize isn’t really what you take from the cache: It’s the thrill of the chase and finding the cache. The goodies are just for fun. It’s also customary to sign a log with your name or handle and the date that you found the cache. Personally, I rarely, if ever take anything from the cache unless I have my boys with me, but I do sign and date the log with whatever random handle I decide to go with at that moment.

Some caches are under rocks, under fake rocks, inside of fence posts, attached to the bottom of sculptures with magnets, inside the leg of a specific table at a restaurant, hanging in bushes, behind a loose brick/loose mortar, behind a book in a library, in a tree, etc. The locations are limited only by the creativity of the person placing the caches.

Another aspect about geocaching in populated areas is “muggles.” Muggles are non-geocachers. As a geocacher, one of your goals is to find the caches you’re looking for, open them and replace them without any muggles realizing what you’re doing. This is a fun spy-vs.-spy component that adds both an element of frustration and excitement to the process. Alternatively, you can just find the cache and forget about whether or not anyone sees what you’re doing.

As you get more into geocaching, you’ll learn some valuable lessons that you can apply in survival situations, including:

1. The incredible variety of places to hide things in both urban and wilderness environments.
2. The incredible variety of containers to use as caches.
3. The benefits and limitations of GPS technology.
4. Using GPS or map and compass navigation to find something other than a street address.
5. The clandestine skill of retrieving and depositing “dead drops.”
6. The ramifications of GPS and navigational accuracy.
7. If you use a map and compass, the importance of current magnetic declination (magnetic north and true north are different in most places and the difference varies from location to location and changes over time). The north on your map and the north on your compass may differ by up to 10-20 degrees in the United States. You have to account for the difference when navigating.
8. The importance of clear communication with navigational clues and the frustration of trying to interpret poorly written clues.
9. Ideas for setting up your own caches, either for geocaching or for your own personal preparations.

Try geocaching this weekend, if not sooner. Two big hints:

1. If you have a dedicated GPS, use it. The increased accuracy will make a huge difference.
2. If you don’t have a smart phone, print or write out the coordinates, description and hints.

Do you have any experience with geocaching? Did you get introduced to caching through geocaching and move on to caching preparedness supplies? If so, please share your comments and experiences by commenting below.

–David Morris

Geocaching As An Introduction To Land Navigation And Orienteering : Personal Liberty Digest™=

Defensive Shooting Fundamentals

January 30, 2012 by Bruce N. Eimer, Ph.D.

In my practice as a defensive firearms instructor, I work with many students of all ages on a private basis.

Over the years, numerous students have come to work with me to learn advanced defensive shooting techniques. In many cases, initial evaluation of their shooting skills revealed that they were terribly incompetent with a handgun and often unsafe as well. In almost every case, these people had never gotten the basics down. This is remarkable given the fact that many of these students reported that they had attended multiple tactical shooting schools before coming to me. This phenomenon left me wondering how they had missed the boat. I was also left wondering how it was that some “big name” firearms instructors with whom they said they trained, in some cases privately, never straightened them out.

In each of these cases, it was necessary for me to take them back through the basics. A shooter must understand and be able to perform the basics before he or she can expect to move on to develop competence in advanced shooting skills and tactics. In addition, if you are going to carry a concealed handgun, you must develop advanced competence. The purpose of this article is to provide a blueprint for learning the basics well so that you can then move on to develop advanced competence with the defensive handgun. However, recognize that you cannot learn this material from an article. You must practice and, ideally, you should work with a qualified shooting instructor.

Noted police and civilian firearms instructor and writer Massad Ayoob has been a pioneer in teaching people the fundamentals of defensive shooting in ways consistent with what happens physically and psychologically when you are fighting for your life. In the 1970s, he developed the Stressfire system, and it has evolved and been refined over the years. Ayoob’s Stressfire books are highly recommended reads.

Ayoob studied what happens to the human mind and body in the “stress flood” of a fight-or-flight scenario. Based on what he learned, he created techniques that not only wouldn’t fall apart under stress but, instead, would feed off the effects of the body alarm reaction and become more effective under stress.

The Stressfire shooting program emphasizes techniques that depend on simple gross motor skills as opposed to complex fine motor skills, since fine motor skills deteriorate under life and death stress. Also, gross motor techniques can withstand the tremors and increased physical strength attendant to the body-alarm-triggered adrenaline dump into the bloodstream.

You Must Learn The Basics Well

Think about it. In order to produce accurate hits with a handgun, you need to do all of the following: grip and hold the handgun securely and firmly; maintain a stable and balanced stance; keep the muzzle on the target — that is, aim the handgun properly and maintain good aim for follow-up shots (this is called follow-through); control and flow with the handgun’s recoil; and operate the trigger in a controlled manner.

Massad Ayoob’s Stressfire System emphasizes a five-point checklist that comprises the fundamentals for accomplishing the above: power stance, high hand, hard grasp, front sight and smooth roll of the trigger. This checklist provides a blueprint for practicing the fundamentals of marksmanship.

1. The Power Stance

Defensive handgunning is about fighting with a handgun. To gain the advantage in a fight, you need to adopt a stable, balanced and mobile stance. Your stance needs to be stable and balanced so that you are not thrown over by the gun’s recoil or anything else. Your shooting/fighting stance needs to be mobile so that you are not cemented or planted to the ground. You must be able to move to achieve dominance and to avoid being the recipient of blows or shots from your opponent.

More times than not, when I work with shooting students, I have to correct their stance. Many initially stand with a backward lean. Many stand too rigidly or too floppily. Some stand like a pole, and many stand square to their target with both feet parallel. None of these stances are aggressive fighting stances. Sure, you may have to shoot in a rapidly unfolding dynamic gunfight from an unorthodox and non-choreographed position; however, you must start from an aggressive and powerful stance that gives you a solid foundation.

A power stance gives you a wide base for stability and balance. It keeps you from being pushed backward by the firearm’s recoil or by your opponent. It entails leaning aggressively forward from the hips (head in front of shoulders and shoulders in front of hips). Knees should be slightly bent to absorb shock and facilitate mobility. The non-dominant foot (the one opposite your strong shooting hand) should be forward; and your dominant foot should be rearward, digging into the ground.

This power stance can be applied while static or while moving. It will be familiar to anyone with experience in wrestling, boxing or the martial arts. As stated by Massad Ayoob, “… it allows the fighter to deliver and receive impact without losing balance or the ability to continue strenuous physical activity.”

2. The High Hand

The lower a handgun’s bore axis, the easier it is to control the gun during recoil in order to deliver accurate follow-up shots. One can make the bore axis sit lower in the hands by gripping the handgun with one’s master hand as high up on the back strap as is possible. This increases your control over the gun whether you are shooting with one hand or two.

3. The Hard Grasp Or “Crush Grip”

You cannot grip a handgun too hard or too strongly. In real combat, defensive shooting means you are fighting for your life. Are you going to be relaxed at such a time? The answer is, of course not. You are going to be holding onto your life support system, your weapon, as if your life depends on it — and it does. Get used to it now. A crush grip or convulsive grip will make your handgun more difficult for your opponents to take away from you. A crush grip will help you control a powerful handgun’s recoil or the snappy recoil of a not-so-powerful mouse gun. Additionally, a crush grip will help you better isolate the movement of your trigger finger so that you have more trigger control. Conversely, a light grasp on the handgun encourages milking, which is likely to make a right-handed shooter’s shots go to low left.

As Ayoob points out, the crush grip or hard grasp may be applied with the thumbs in virtually any position, but it will benefit most when the thumbs are curled tightly down. When you curl your thumb down over your other fingers — as when you make a fist — you can squeeze harder. Try it and see for yourself.

4. The Front Sight

The bullet will go where the muzzle is pointed. To assure that the muzzle is pointed where you want the bullet to hit, you must have a reliable way of indexing the muzzle on target. That is the purpose of the front sight. The front sight helps you align your handgun’s muzzle with your point of aim on the target. This is usually accomplished in coordination with the rear sight. Verifying that the front sight is centered in the rear sight notch is called sight alignment, and superimposing your aligned front and rear sights onto your point of aim on the target is called getting a sight picture.

The more precise your shot or shots need to be, the smaller your target; or the greater your distance from your target, the more precise your sight alignment and sight picture need to be and the more time you will need to take those precise shots.

Sight alignment and trigger control are the two most important features of marksmanship. Trigger control helps the shooter maintain sight alignment and, therefore, muzzle alignment as the gun is fired and immediately afterward. Afterward is called follow-through. It means giving the bullet enough time to exit the barrel by keeping the gun directed at the point of aim while breaking the shot and, subsequently, recovering your point of aim after the gun travels through its arc of recoil so that you can prepare for a follow-up shot.

“… a firearm is a remote-control drill, and must be indexed or the hole it produces will be drilled in the wrong place…”

The goal of defensive marksmanship is to achieve combat accurate hits as fast as possible. Combat accurate hits are defined as shots that inflict disabling damage on the opponent. In any fight, the fighter who lands the first good hits on his opponent has the edge. In a gunfight, this translates into shooting well-placed bullets into your opponent before he hits you. It is foolish to sacrifice accuracy for speed. You can’t miss fast enough to win a gunfight.

Factoring out the variable of a shooter’s confidence in his shooting ability, the closer the distance, the faster the shooter can afford to shoot, and the less reliance is needed on a perfect sight picture. At close (bad breath) distances, point shooting is the way to go. To learn to shoot for combat accuracy in a gunfight (defensive shooting), the shooter must learn to shoot both with and without sights — the latter being point shooting.

As Ayoob points out:

… a firearm is a remote-control drill, and must be indexed or the hole it produces will be drilled in the wrong place. The index may be precise or coarse, depending on the nature of the shot that must be taken. Distance, target size and speed are all factors in that determination. The shooter may have the precise sight picture of the conventional marksmanship manual. They may have a similar image in line of sight, seen quickly and less than perfectly (Col. Jeff Cooper’s concept of ‘flash sight picture‘). Out to roughly seven yards with a handgun, the front sight sitting above the rear sight is adequate for a heart-area hit and can be indexed even in secondary or tertiary focus when the shooter is focused primarily on the threat (StressFire’s “StressPoint Index,” champion Todd Jarrett’s concept of “shooting out of the notch”). In poor light at extreme speed, it may suffice to simply see the silhouette of the handgun superimposed over the area of the threat that the officer wants to hit (Jim Cirillo’s “gun silhouette” concept).

5. The Smooth Roll

Good trigger control is the most important aspect of getting good hits. It becomes even more important under stress. Poor trigger control is one of the biggest reasons for dropped and errant shots. It is logical that to keep the muzzle on target, the shooter needs to smoothly operate the trigger. Erratic trigger control will drive the muzzle away from the shooter’s point of aim.

The goal is to smoothly press the trigger all the way rearward without hesitation until the shot breaks and then to ride the trigger forward as the trigger resets for the next shot. As Ayoob points out, “… each activation of the trigger is done with a single-stage movement. We use the term ‘roll the trigger’ to convey the smooth, even, uninterrupted, straight-back rearward pressure on the trigger which we seek.”

If the handgun fits the shooter’s hands, poor trigger control is typically caused by a combination of factors. These can include: poor isolation of the trigger finger (also known as “milking” the gun), inadequate placement of the trigger finger on the face of the trigger, an inadequate or unstable grip on the handgun (poor form, gripping too loosely, having to re-adjust the grip after each shot), flinching, anticipating the shot, jerking the trigger, trying to stage the trigger, and not keeping the finger on the trigger throughout a string of shots.

Trigger control can be practiced through dry fire in addition to live fire; so can the other fundamentals of marksmanship. An excellent dry fire drill for practicing all of the fundamentals is the Wall Drill.

The Wall Drill

Grasp the handgun high on the back strap so that the tang of the handgun pinches into the V-notch of your dominant strong hand.

This dry fire drill requires sustained focus and concentration. This drill builds a muscle memory or motor memory of the key marksmanship fundamentals.

Make sure that the handgun is unloaded, that there is no ammunition in the room, and that the backstop is safe and in a safe direction.

Pick an aim point on the wall or surface in front of you and point your triple-checked, unloaded handgun about an inch away from the aim point such that your front sight is right over the aim point.

Go through your pre-flight checklist of marksmanship fundamentals as discussed earlier: power stance, high hand, crush grip, front sight, sight alignment, sight picture and smooth roll of the trigger.

Think to yourself front sight, keep your sight alignment and sight picture steady and say to yourself “smooth roll” as you smoothly press the trigger all the way rearward and then let it reset for the next shot. Your aim is to keep your gun steady as you press the trigger.

When you maintain a maximum strength, crush grip or “gorilla grip” on the handgun, you may see the whites of your knuckles. That’s how you know you are gripping hard enough, thumbs curled down, thumbprint over thumbnail for greater strength.

Live Fire Focus Drill

Live fire practice of the marksmanship fundamentals is essential. The following live fire drill is called the One Hole Drill. This drill makes use of the principle that if you aim small, you will miss small.

Start out at a reasonable distance from your target. Don’t be ashamed for this to be three yards; that’s nine feet. Pick a small spot on your paper target as your point of aim. You can draw a 1-inch circle in black magic marker to mark the spot.

Go through your checklist of marksmanship fundamentals as you focus on your aim point. Punch your handgun out toward your aim point as you focus intently on your front sight and acquire a sight picture. Your front sight should be in sharp focus as contrasted with a relatively slightly blurred target and rear sight. Recognize that you can only focus sharply with your eyes on one object at a time.

Keeping your gun steady (you should be in a power stance, with a high-handed, two-handed hard grasp on your handgun), smoothly roll your trigger rearward as you stay focused on your front sight. Watch your front sight as the shot breaks and through the gun’s arc of recoil. Don’t peek over your gun to see the shot.

Hold your trigger to the rear as the gun recoils and then ride your trigger forward until it resets as the gun settles back on target. Now, prepare for your next shot by taking up any slack in the trigger.

The front sight should be in focus; the rear sight and target slightly blurred.

You can run this drill in either one of two ways: One way is to take a string of shots without checking where those shots went; after shooting the string, lower the gun to a ready position and check the results of your work. The other way is to drop the gun to the ready after each single shot or pair of shots.

Your goal is a perfect 1-inch group. You want to exercise your fundamentals at the target distance at which you are working until you attain a perfect one inch group, and when you do, you can then move backward to a greater distance (e.g., 5 to 7 to 10 to 12 to 15 to 20 to 25 yards, and so on). You keep moving backward (increasing the distance) until you can no longer shoot a perfect group at a given distance, and then you stay and work at that distance.

This drill will increase your accuracy and marksmanship skill in live fire.

Summary

Without a solid foundation in the fundamentals, advanced shooting techniques fall short. Defensive and combat-oriented shooters need to create the discipline to practice their fundamentals regularly in order to keep their edge and maintain their advanced skills.

–Bruce N. Eimer, Ph.D.


Defensive Shooting Fundamentals : Personal Liberty Digest™

The Art Work Speaks for itself

Bleeding Zombie Targets from Zombie Industries

by Administrator on February 4, 2012

Some products just don’t deserve to stay in the file and closing our coverage of SHOT Show 2012, it would be a crime to not include mention of these incredible bleeding zombie targets we found at Media Day at the Range. Every shooting station at Media Day pretty much had at least one of these extremely unique targets, and they aren’t as cheesy as you may think. Not only do they bleed, they are also designed to “mutilate” with dozens or hundreds of rounds fired into them, so even dumping mags into them is somewhat pleasing as a reactionary target, with ongoing deterioration of the dummy as it slowly gets chewed away.The price of these things runs between $70 and $100, and you can buy them right from the company website, or through Amazon and other internet retailers. Most of the people who tried them on Media Day thought they were worth the money, and even with next to no publicity, the company was sold out of them over Christmas. What do you get the guy who has everything? Apparently bleeding zombie targets!

We will include a couple of the different models here, but if you look through the company website they have a whole bunch of different options, and most of them are available. Are they too gruesome and overdone? To each his own, but punching paper gets old and these are a fun thing for a welcome change to a more reactive target. You can’t even get concert tickets for a hundred bucks anymore, and obliterating one of these will cost you a lot more in ammo than it will in target. They certainly are not for the faint of heart, but how many of us gun nuts classify as anything close to fickle?

What you don’t see here, and we forgot to take a picture of, is a second generation of these targets that is being created for military and police. It has vital regions outlined on the dummy and can give a tactical trainer the ability to actually see how different hits produce wound channels that will take out both vital organs and the spine, which is instantly disabling in a gunfight. In speaking with the creators of these products at Media Day, the initial somewhat silly idea of bleeding zombie targets has led to real potential for a long term successful product in three dimensional gunfight training aids. Fly the flag up the pole and see who salutes was how these got started, and the idea has really taken on a life of its own.

We should mention here that there are some people who are offended by these targets and find them too realistic and gruesome. There have even been those who say these are a threat to the 2nd Amendment because they make gun nuts look bad, like we are bloodthirsty killers. This is probably the same school of folks like Mitt Romney who think the 2nd Amendment is about hunting. The 2nd Amendment isn’t about hunting. It is about being able to defend your liberty and protect yourself, and what better to train for that than shooting targets that bleed and look gruesome? Someone has to play devil’s advocate and why not us! They are pretty gross so you be the judge.

This is one of those products that we hope to get a few of after the SHOT Show dust clears to demonstrate how it works, and we’d like to take a look at some of the other stuff from Zombie Industries. They have some great ideas for targets that hold clay pigeons, and they seem to be an inspired group of guys committed to making shooting more fun.




This is the only picture any of us thought to pop on Media Day and it is a tad light. You get the point anyway. They are fairly gruesome, but the designers of these targets think they have a big future in three dimensional gunfight training.





















Bleeding Zombie Targets from Zombie Industries

Vitamin D

Saturday, 04 February 2012 20:25
15 Comments
By Stuart McHardy

Scotland has a reputation around the world. Generally we are known for our hospitality, humanity and culture. But we are also known as the Sick Man of Europe because of the extent of medical problems like MS, diabetes and even rickets.

While some of these problems are clearly linked to the endemic poverty which has been allowed to fester in our cities by indifferent and essentially corrupt politicians, there is another factor which has recently begun to receive attention, vitamin D deficiency which scientists around the world are becoming increasingly concerned with.

The lack of vitamin D is due primarily to a lack of sunlight, though even on sunny winter’s days the sunshine in northern climates is too low to be of benefit. The only way to counteract this deficiency is by ingesting vitamin supplements.

And therein lies the rub. Edinburgh GP Dr Helga Rhein has been to the fore in trying to raise awareness of this problem. Recently she told me, “It has become crystal clear that we have to do something about letting people know about the need to take vitamin D.”

She then made the point that it has been known for more than 100 years that vitamin D is important for the development of healthy bones and muscles. Rickets which used to be very common in Scotland was virtually abolished when cod liver oil, which contains vitamin D, was found to cure and prevent it. Several studies have shown that the majority of people living in Scotland are particularly short of vitamin D and that one in three of us is severely deficient.

Some recent scientific research has shown that extremely high levels of Vitamin D have absolutely no side effects at all. Dr Rhein points out that this makes it even more puzzling that the government recommended intake for expectant mothers is so low. The government recommends 400 IU daily where Dr Rhein suggests at least five times as much. 4000 IU daily has been declared the safe upper limit for adults by the American Institute of Medicine.

The scientific evidence is in, but as ever bureaucracy seems to be the problem. The problem is compounded by the fact that as things stand our GPs are not allowed to prescribe vitamin D. When you realise that people believe taking it leads to fewer colds and bouts of ‘flu’ (I can testify to that having been on it for over a year now), better repair of pulled or injured muscles and wounds, less aches and pains, better muscle strength, less tiredness and fewer feelings of depression, it seems plain daft that our GPs cannot prescribe it.

Because Vitamin D is involved in many cell processes that help maintenance and repair of tissue and supports the immune processes that defend the body against infection and the growth of malignant cells. It has also been claimed that it is of help to people suffering from cancer*.

No one is claiming that vitamin D is panacea for all ills, but the evidence from around the world demonstrates that it we need certain levels of it to keep healthy. In Scandinavia and Germany this has long been known and people there take it regularly and are encouraged to do so by their governments. The old cliche that prevention is better than cure seems relevant here.

People in Scotland, and northern England, who suffer from chronic medical conditions, and old people, often have low levels of vitamin D in their systems and Dr Rhein suggests that they should be encouraged take very large doses till their levels come up.

Your doctor can do a blood test to see whether your body stores of Vitamin D are adequate. Given the non-toxicity of even such high levels of the vitamin and the widely replicated scientific research showing the advantages of taking the supplements it is surely time that the powers that be gave GPs like Dr Rhein the power to prescribe them.

You can of course simply order supplements on line and take them yourself – I do, but as these supplements are of such obvious advantage it seems peculiar to say the least that the medical establishment in Scotland are not pushing them at us. After all prevention is not only better than cure it is also much more cost effective, which with the current political bleating about the state of the economy, and the strain ion NHS budgets, would appear to make the prescribing of widespread Vitamin D a no brainer.

And incidentally, the Daily Telegraph, not owned by Rupert Murdoch, reported last December 19, that sunbathing boosts men’s sex drives – and what do we get from sunshine – yep, Vitamin D.

* GrassrootsHealth | Vitamin D Action - GrassrootsHealth | Vitamin D Action

Some recommended sources for ordering Vitamn D supplements are:

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BioTech Pharmacal Vitamins, Supplements, Vitamin D, and more for healthy living! -(US) -1,000 IU; 5,000 IU; 50,000 IU = monthly dose
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Also available at Holland and Barrett or Boots the Chemist

Vitamin D

Why Do We Want to Spray More Agent Orange on Our Crops? Are We at War with Ourselves (and Our Children)?

February 7, 2012
Remember Agent Orange, the notorious defoliant used in the Vietnam War? Are you ready for Agent Orange Ready seeds for US agriculture? Action Alert!

One of the two active ingredients that made up Agent Orange is 2,4-D. Despite what Agent Orange did to Vietnam and the Vietnamese people, not to mention a generation of American soldiers, 2,4-D is currently the most widely used herbicide in the world, and the third most commonly used in North America. But apparently we aren’t using this poison enough. By using seeds engineered to withstand it, much more can be applied to our soil and crops.

One of the biggest reasons for genetic engineering of crops is that the harsh poisons used to kill weeds also tend to kill the crops themselves. Scientists genetically alter the crops’ DNA so they will resist damage from the herbicides. Most of the attention to date has been on the creation of Roundup Ready seeds—that is, seeds and crops that can withstand the herbicide Roundup from Monsanto. According to USDA figures, 94 percent of soybeans and more than 70 percent of corn and cotton planted in the US contain the Roundup-resistant gene.

Not at all surprisingly, weeds are becoming increasingly resistant to Roundup, creating “superweeds” which are “galloping through the Midwest.” So Dow AgroScience created a strain of corn that has been genetically engineered to withstand a different class of herbicides—those containing 2,4-D, a known carcinogen.

Dow is now seeking to freely use this 2,4-D-resistant corn. GE modification to create resistance means they will be free to use ever-increasing amounts of the herbicide, with no limits whatsoever.

These new herbicide-resistant crops will be planted alongside conventional and organic crops. This increases the potential for cross-contamination, and for the spillover of toxic herbicides into the groundwater and neighboring farms.

The manufacturer of this seed will of course reject our use of the term

“Agent Orange Ready” seed. But don’t be deceived. 2,4-D was a principal ingredient of Agent Orange—and it is the toxic pesticide that these new seeds are designed to survive.

Three million people had health effects and 150,000 were born with birth defects as result of Agent Orange’s use during the Vietnam War. The US Department of Veterans Affairs has a shocking list of the diseases related to Agent Orange exposure, including leukemia, diabetes, Hodgkin’s lymphoma, heart disease, Parkinson’s, and numerous different cancers.

It is true that the other half of the Agent Orange recipe was an herbicide whose manufacturing process made it easily susceptible to contamination with an incredibly toxic chemical called TCDD (the most toxic dioxin). But this doesn’t let 2,4-D off the hook, not by any means.

The advocacy group Beyond Pesticides discusses the terrible health and environmental effects of 2,4-D at length on their website. There are clear links between 2,4-D and cancer, as well as potential endocrine disruption, reproductive effects, neurotoxicity, kidney liver damage, and birth and development defects. This herbicide is far worse than Roundup.

In 2008, the Natural Resources Defense Council petitioned the EPA to ban the pesticide. According to the NRDC, there are safer and more effective pesticides, but 2,4-D is often more affordable.

Even scarier, Monsanto and Dow now seem to be in collusion with one another. In its petition, Dow states that the 2,4-D trait in the GE seeds will be stacked with Monsanto’s Roundup Ready trait so that the seeds are resistant to multiple herbicide tolerances. Soon we’ll be eating food with a whole cocktail of different herbicide traits cooked into the seed—all so they can be sprayed with chemicals that are more toxic than ever before! The real solution here is to stop using GE seeds altogether.
Unfortunately, our nation is increasingly dependent on mono-cultured GE crops, rather than promoting diversity in crops and organic food and vegetables—which is better for not only for our health but for the environment as well.

GE crops are not tolerated in the European Union. BASF, a German biotech company, decided to leave the EU and go to the US where they receive safe harbor from the USDA. Last year, Hungary destroyed roughly 1000 acres of illegal GE corn, and said it plans to make distributing GMO seeds a felony.

The USDA’s public comment period for giving a green light to this GE corn ends on February 27. Even if we don’t move USDA, the more comments received, the firmer foundation is laid for Congressional or legal action. USDA has already written an environmental assessment—and not surprisingly it’s a whitewash.

Please contact USDA immediately, and protest what is going on in the strongest possible terms. Point out the serious health problems linked to 2,4-D, the danger of cross-pollination and contamination of surrounding farmland by the herbicides, as well as the environmental unsustainability of creating new GE seeds to withstand increasingly poisonous herbicides. We must not accept Agent Orange Ready seed. Please take action today!

Why Do We Want to Spray More Agent Orange on Our Crops? | Welcome to the Alliance for Natural Health - USA

The White House, US Courts & the EPA Shaft Veterans to Protect Monsanto & Dow

Cassandra Anderson
NaturalSociety
February 7, 2012

American veterans and the entire country of Viet Nam affected by Agent Orange have been shafted beyond imagination due to corruption within the US government and US courts. US courts have protected Monsanto and Dow Chemical from liability and criminal prosecution. The US government has shielded Monsanto and Dow from the massive cost of medical treatment for victims and environmental remediation cleanup costs that would drive these corporations into bankruptcy.

Before we delve further into the issue, it’s important to detail what exactly dioxin is. Dioxin has a half life of 100 years or more when it is below the surface, leached into soil or embedded in river or stream sediment. Dioxin was generated as a byproduct of herbicide 2,4,5-T made by Monsanto and Dow, the top 2 producers of Agent Orange. It causes cancer, birth defects, liver damage and other major health problems.

Monsanto & Dow’s 2,4,5-T dioxin laden-herbicide was used in the US for agricultural purposes in the 1940′s before it was used for chemical warfare in Viet Nam from the early 1960′s through 1971. It was phased out in the late 1970′s. Now, let’s discuss the political situation behind this carcinogen.

US Government and US Court Dioxin Cover-Ups

• President Reagans’s administration, in cahoots with the CDC, thwarted a $43 million Congressional Study of Agent Orange in 1987 to protect itself and its corporate pals Monsanto & Dow from accountability to US veterans and the people of Viet Nam.

• US Courts dismissed veterans’ Agent Orange lawsuits based on a Supreme Court precedent, known as the Feres Doctrine, freeing the government of responsibility for deaths and injuries related to military service.

• The Supreme Court refused to hear American and Vietnamese victims’ lawsuits against Monsanto, Dow and other Agent Orange manufacturers on 3 separate occasions. Remember that the Supreme Court collects their checks from the federal government.

Atrocious Criminal Acts By Monsanto & Dow

• Agent Orange makers hide behind government contractor immunity, despite the fact that dioxin contaminated herbicide 2,4,5-T was produced long before they were contractors for the government (50 million tons of the herbicide was sprayed in the US per year). No modifications were used for Monsanto & Dow’s herbicide — half the ingredients in Agent Orange — so the immunity defense falls flat.

• Boehringer, a German 2,4,5-T herbicide producer notified Dow in 1957 about dioxin hazards and that dioxin could be eliminated by slow cooking the herbicide for about 12 hours. It appears that Dow and Monsanto continued cooking 2,4,5-T quickly in 45 minutes. Higher output led to higher profits. Monsanto’s formula contained high levels of dioxin and was dirtier than Dow’s product.

• Monsanto was not only aware in 1950 that dioxin was a health danger, but they also created a fraudulent health study.

• In 1965 Dow met in secret with other Agent Orange manufacturers to discuss the toxicity hazards of dioxin and their fear over a government investigation and restrictive regulations.

US Veterans Shafted By the Kangaroo Court

Judge Jack Weinstein of the US Federal Court of the Eastern District of New York committed the following offenses in several class action suits filed by veterans against Monsanto & Dow:

• Weinstein appointed attorneys to represent the veterans and then intimidated the attorneys into agreeing to a ‘nuisance’ settlement of $180 million- nowhere near enough money to cover the medical treatment of hundreds of thousands of injured vets.

• Weinstein rejected the veterans’ expert studies, instead of allowing a jury to decide on the credibility of the expert witnesses; Weinstein created a new rule of law from the bench.

• Weinstein based his ruling on Monsanto’s expert study that was later proven to be fraudulent.

• Weinstein dismissed all other veterans’ lawsuits against Monsanto and Dow.

• Weinstein took over a case that was unlawfully transferred to his federal court as it had been filed in the state of Texas. He dismissed that case.

• Astonishingly, Weistein created a second new rule of law to protect Monsanto and Dow. Weinstein invented immunity for government contractors!

Weinstein’s excuse for the government contractor defense was that if contractors were made to pay, they would pass the cost on to the government, so they were therefore immune. Weinstein’s new law was created from the bench instead of law passed through Congress!
Weinsteins’s law has now been extended to all government supply contractors (even non-military contractors) in the courts.

Viet Nam

Approximately 11 million gallons of Agent Orange was dumped on Viet Nam between 1962 to 1970. It is estimated that Agent Orange is responsible for 400,000 deaths, 3 million victims of disease and 500,000 children born with birth defects.
Over 14 million acres of Vietnamese forests were sprayed. Agent Orange was also dumped in water supplies.

In 2004, Vietnamese victims filed a lawsuit against Dow, Monsanto and other manufacturers of Agent Orange. Judge Weinstein (yes, the same Judge Weinstein) presided over this case and dismissed it. Weinstein used the excuse that Monsanto and Dow had government sovereign immunity that extended to them because they were government contractors. He also ruled that Agent Orange was not considered a poison during that period, under international law.

The Supreme Court refused to hear this case, too.

The stated purpose of using Agent Orange was to deny the enemy cover in forested areas through defoliation. However, the US Army did contract studies in 1943 of the effects of 2,4,5-T and 2,4-D (the other ingredient of Agent Orange) on cereal grains, including rice, and developed the concept of using aerial herbicide spraying to destroy enemy crops to disrupt the food supply. Obviously, poisoning the enemy, farmland and civilians was a chemical warfare strategy used by the US government.

Monsanto Immunity

Currently, there is a court case pending against Monsanto’s dioxin contaminated 2,4,5-T herbicide filed by parties who lived near the plant where it was produced in West Virginia. The judge in that case, Paul G. Gardephe, denied Monsanto immunity! Judge Gardephe asserted that because Monsanto burned dioxin waste in open pits and the US government was not aware of this practice, nor did they evaluate it for hazard, Monsanto’s contractor defense was denied.

Fate of US Veterans

In 2003, the Supreme Court affirmed a lower court decision allowing veterans to sue Monsanto, Dow and other Agent Orange manufacturers directly.
The government has responded, under the Obama regime, by passing the Caregivers and Veterans Omnibus Health Services Act of 2010, which allows the automatic funding of veterans’ Agent Orange claims. While Monsanto & Dow appear to have considerable liability, the cost of healthcare and hospitalization of affected veterans is paid by American taxpayers.

More than 2 million Americans served in Viet Nam. The Veterans Administration claims they have no idea how many vets have been treated for Agent Orange injuries, or how much taxpayer money has been spent. The EPA is also involved in the cover-up and has been delaying an assessment report on dioxin since 1985 to protect plastic, chlorine, paper, herbicide and agricultural industries.

For more information:
http://www.usvetdsp.com/agentorange.htm
http://multinationalmonitor.org/hype...mm0791_06.html
http://japanfocus.org/-Fred_A_-Wilcox/3662
Boehringer Monsanto Dioxin Report

Explore More:

1. Carcinogenic Dioxin Set Free: EPA Kneels to Monsanto and Big Agriculture
2. Military Veterans Win PTSD Health Settlement
3. EPA Delays Dioxin Hazard Report Once Again Due to Industry Pressure
4. How to Stop the Resurgence of Agent Orange in Your Food Supply | Vital Activism
5. Breaking: Monsanto Forced Out of UK by Activists
6. Monsanto GMO Sugarbeets to be Destroyed | Court Concludes USDA Illegally Approved Biotech Crop

http://naturalsociety.com/white-hous...tect-monsanto/

The White House, US Courts & the EPA Shaft Veterans to Protect Monsanto & Dow



By Cassandra Anderson
February 7, 2012



American veterans and the entire country of Viet Nam affected by Agent Orange have been shafted beyond imagination due to corruption within the US government and US courts. US courts have protected Monsanto and Dow Chemical from liability and criminal prosecution. The US government has shielded Monsanto and Dow from the massive cost of medical treatment for victims and environmental remediation cleanup costs that would drive these corporations into bankruptcy.

Dioxin has a half life of 100 years or more when it is below the surface, leached into soil or embedded in river or stream sediment.



Dioxin was generated as a byproduct of herbicide 2,4,5-T made by Monsanto and Dow, the top 2 producers of Agent Orange. Dioxin causes cancer, birth defects, liver damage and other major health problems.



Monsanto & Dow's 2,4,5-T dioxin laden-herbicide was used in the US for agricultural purposes in the 1940's before it was used for chemical warfare in Viet Nam from the early 1960's through 1971. It was phased out in the late 1970's.



US Government and US Court Cover-Ups

• President Reagans's administration, in cahoots with the CDC, thwarted a $43 million Congressional Study of Agent Orange in 1987 to protect itself and its corporate pals Monsanto & Dow from accountability to US veterans and the people of Viet Nam.



• US Courts dismissed veterans' Agent Orange lawsuitsbased on a Supreme Court precedent, known as the Feres Doctrine, freeing the government of responsibility for deaths and injuries related to military service.



• The Supreme Court refused to hear American and Vietnamese victims' lawsuits against Monsanto, Dow and other Agent Orange manufacturers on 3 separate occasions. Remember that the Supreme Court collects their checks from the federal government.



Atrocious Criminal Acts By Monsanto & Dow

• Agent Orange makers hide behind government contractor immunity, despite the fact that dioxin contaminated herbicide 2,4,5-T was produced long before they were contractors for the government (50 million tons of the herbicide was sprayed in the US per year). No modifications were used for Monsanto & Dow's herbicide, half the ingredients in Agent Orange, so the immunity defense falls flat.



• Boehringer, a German 2,4,5-T herbicide producer notified Dow in 1957 about dioxin hazards and that dioxin could be eliminated by slow cooking the herbicide for about 12 hours. It appears that Dow and Monsanto continued cooking 2,4,5-T quickly in 45 minutes. Higher output led to higher profits. Monsanto's formula contained high levels of dioxin and was dirtier than Dow's product.



• Monsanto was not only aware in 1950 that dioxin was a health danger, but they also created a fraudulent health study.



• In 1965 Dow met in secret with other Agent Orange manufacturers to discuss the toxicity hazards of dioxin and their fear over a government investigation and restrictive regulations.

US Veterans Shafted By the Kangaroo Court




Judge Jack Weinstein of the US Federal Court of the Eastern District of New York committed the following offensesin several class action suits filed by veterans against Monsanto & Dow:


• Weinstein appointed attorneys to represent the veterans and then intimidated the attorneys into agreeing to a 'nuisance' settlement of $180 million- nowhere near enough money to cover the medical treatment of hundreds of thousands of injured vets.


• Weinstein rejected the veterans' expert studies, instead of allowing a jury to decide on the credibility of the expert witnesses; Weinstein created a new rule of law from the bench.


• Weinstein based his ruling on Monsanto's expert study that was later proven to be fraudulent.


• Weinstein dismissed all other veterans' lawsuits against Monsanto and Dow.


• Weinstein took over a case that was unlawfully transferred to his federal court as it had been filed in the state of Texas. He dismissed that case.


• Astonishingly, Weistein created a second new rule of law to protect Monsanto and Dow. WEINSTEIN INVENTED IMMUNITY FOR GOVERNMENT CONTRACTORS!


Weinstein's excuse for the government contractor defense was that if contractors were made to pay, they would pass the cost on to the government, so they were therefore immune. Weinstein's new law was created from the bench instead of law passed through Congress!


Weinsteins's law has now been extended to all government supply contractors (even non-military contractors) in the courts.


Viet Nam




Approximately 11 million gallons of Agent Orange was dumped on Viet Nam between 1962 to 1970. It is estimated that Agent Orange is responsible for 400,000 deaths, 3 million victims of disease and 500,000 children born with birth defects.


Over 14 million acres of Vietnamese forests were sprayed. Agent Orange was also dumped in water supplies.


In 2004, Vietnamese victims filed a lawsuit against Dow, Monsanto and other manufacturers of Agent Orange. Judge Weinstein (yes, the same Judge Weinstein) presided over this case and dismissed it. Weinstein used the excuse that Monsanto and Dow had government sovereign immunity that extended to them because they were government contractors. He also ruled that Agent Orange was not considered a poison during that period, under international law.


The Supreme Court refused to hear this case, too.


The stated purpose of using Agent Orange was to deny the enemy cover in forested areas through defoliation. However, the US Army did contract studies in 1943 of the effects of 2,4,5-T and 2,4-D (the other ingredient of Agent Orange) on cereal grains, including rice, and developed the concept of using aerial herbicide spraying to destroy enemy crops to disrupt the food supply. Obviously, poisoning the enemy, farmland and civilians was a chemical warfare strategy used by the US government.


Monsanto Immunity


Currently, there is a court case pending against Monsanto's dioxin contaminated 2,4,5-T herbicide filed by parties who lived near the plant where it was produced in West Virginia. The judge in that case, Paul G. Gardephe denied Monsanto immunity! Judge Gardephe asserted that because Monsanto burned dioxin waste in open pits and the US government was not aware of this practice, nor did they evaluate it for hazard, Monsanto's contractor defense was denied.


Fate of US Veterans

In 2003, the Supreme Court affirmed a lower court decision allowing veterans to sue Monsanto, Dow and other Agent Orange manufacturers directly.

The government has responded, under the Obama regime, by passing the Caregivers and Veterans Omnibus Health Services Act of 2010, which allows the automatic funding of veterans' Agent Orange claims. While Monsanto & Dow appear to have considerable liability, the cost of healthcare and hospitalization of affected veterans is paid by American taxpayers.

More than 2 million Americans served in Viet Nam. The Veterans Administration claims they have no idea how many vets have been treated for Agent Orange injuries, or how much taxpayer money has been spent.

The EPA is also involved in the cover-up and has been delaying an assessment report on dioxin since 1985 to protect plastic, chlorine, paper, herbicide and agricultural industries.

This article also appears at NaturalSociety.com- for more information about dioxin pollution today, click here.

The White House, US Courts & the EPA Shaft Veterans to Protect Monsanto & Dow