Notes for Thursday – February 25, 2016

February 25th is the birthday of bluegrass music legend Ralph Stanley (born 1927). His harmonizing and high tenor soloshave an almost haunting sound to them, but I must mention that I was disappointed to hear that he once made a campaign commercial for BHO, back in 2008. Something tells me that he now regrets having done so. o o o Today, we present another entry for Round 63 of the SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing contest. The nearly $12,000 worth of prizes for this round include: First Prize: A Tactical Self-Contained 2-Series Solar Power Generator system from Always Empowered. This compact starter …




Winter Survival- Part 3, by R.C.

In Your Home In the first two parts of this series, we talked about how to survive on foot and in your vehicle in winter weather conditions. In this third part, we will discuss some plans to survive in your home during a cold weather event. The two worst fears for many of people who read this blog is that “the event” happpens in the winter and the grid goes down. The easy answer would be, I’ll get in my car, use mass transit, or fly somewhere that’s warm. During this past storm, we saw the shut down of all …




More About the Coming Forced Digital Currency Swap

The many recent headlines about doing away with the 500 Euro Bill and the $100 Federal Reserve Note, serve as confirmation of my January 28th Essay: Digital Currency: The Key Tool of 21st Century Monolithic Nanny State Tyranny. The Powers That Be are pushing to go cashless sooner rather than later. In this new era of negative interest rates, there is no point in leaving funds in a bank. However, this could create a shortage of physical cash, and since less than 1% of the money supply is in physical bills (the rest is just electronic ledger entries) there is …




Economics and Investing:

The Subprime Auto Loan Meltdown Is Here – Sent in by RBS o o o Japan’s Negative Interest Rates Are Driving up Sales of Safes – Sent in by G.P. o o o Items from Professor Preponomics: US News Central Banks Should Stop Paying Interest on Reserves (Mises) Excerpt: “In 2008, the Federal Reserve began paying interest on reserve balances held on deposit at the Fed. It took more than seven decades from the US leaving the gold standard — in 1933 — for the fiat regime to do this and thus revoke a cardinal element of the old gold-based …




Odds ‘n Sods:

A warning on genetic testing. While it may be illegal to offer health insurance based on genetic testing, the rules don’t apply to life insurance. Think twice about submitting to such intrusive measures. – H.L. o o o I got hacked mid-air while writing an Apple-FBI story. The reader should understand that the author got hacked because he ignored basic OPSEC protocols while accessing the Internet over public WiFi. But the story serves as a reminder that OPSEC should be observed at all times. – P.M. o o o Israel gas reserves triple than originally thought. Israel is looking for …







Notes for Wednesday – February 24, 2016

Today, we present another entry for Round 63 of the SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing contest. The nearly $12,000 worth of prizes for this round include: First Prize: A Tactical Self-Contained 2-Series Solar Power Generator system from Always Empowered. This compact starter power system is packaged in a wheeled O.D. green EMP-shielded Pelican hard case (a $1,700 value), A Gunsite Academy Three Day Course Certificate that is good for any one, two, or three day course (a $1,195 value), A course certificate from onPoint Tactical for the prize winner’s choice of three-day civilian courses, excluding those restricted for military or government teams. …




Winter Survival- Part 2, by R.C.

In Your Vehicle In this part, we will discuss how to survive in your vehicle. We have all seen the news of cars stuck in a trafic jams or abandoned on the side of the road. Then we listen to the mayor or some emergency management guy telling us to stay off the roads, not to abandon our vehicles, or please not walk down the middle of the plowed street because the sidewalk is now shoveled. As a former snowplow operator and first responder, I would have to agree. Stay home, and keep your kids home if it’s a bad …




Letter: Safety of Military Surplus DU Round Containers

Hello, I’ve recently bought a M833 artillery round storage/transport tube at a Canadian store known for buying US DOD surplus. I had just opened the tube and dumped out the pressboard packing tube when it struck me that this tube may have contained a DU projectile. A clothing removal, thorough hand washing, and quick web search later proved that the M833 is in fact a DU round. Aside from M833 and M900 tubes I’m guessing that 20mm transport containers would be available on the surplus market and may have held DU rounds. Do you or others you may know have …




Economics and Investing:

Student debt apocalypse: Median wages up 1.6% over last 25 years while median student debt is up 163.8%. o o o Bracken: Burning Down the House in 2016. Commentary: This article from Western Rifle Shooters Association has a lot of economic content and is well-written and hard-hitting. Warning: Some of the comments posted after the article contain racial references I found somewhat offensive, unnecessary and inappropriate. Sites that include open commentary are vulnerable to this. With this in mind, the article itself was a worthwhile read. – Submitted by K.F. o o o Items from Professor Preponomics: US News The …




Readers’ Recommendations of the Week:

SurvivalBlog reader D.S. stated that 85% of the movies his family watches are Christian based. Ragamuffin was great, but pre-screen for your children. He also recommended No Greater Love as another good family movie. o o o Reader K.W. notified us that The Heavy Water War is now available on Netflix. It is the story behind Hitler’s plan of Germany developing the atomic bomb during WWII and the heavy water sabotages in Rjukan, Norway. Presented from four angles: the German side, the allied, the saboteurs, and the company side. It is mixed with English and subtitled Norwegian/German. The series does …




Odds ‘n Sods:

SurvivalBlog reader JBG sent in this article showing that the German Govt Has New Trojan Horse Malware To Spy On Citizens’ Calls, Typing AND See Through Their Cameraphones o o o Former CIA Director Warns of Nuclear-Generated Electromagnetic Pulse Attack Excerpt: “You can have a relatively long period of time where not just the Russians and the Chinese but the Iranians and the North Koreans are capable of launching a missile. Let’s say they launch it to the south instead of north so nothing picks it up, no radars, no nothing, and it comes around the South Pole, goes into …







Notes for Tuesday – February 23, 2016

On February 23, 1840, former President John Quincy Adams began to argue the Amistad case in front of the U.S. Supreme Court. A practicing lawyer, member of the House of Representatives, and son of America’s second president who was an avowed abolitionist. Though John Quincy Adams downplayed his abolitionist stance, he also viewed the practice as contrary to the nation’s core principles of freedom and equality. In the arguments, Adams attacked Van Buren’s abuse of executive power. In a dramatic moment, Adams faced the judges, pointed to a copy of the Declaration of Independence hanging on the courtroom wall, and …