Notes for Saturday – November 12, 2016

Today is the birthday of USMC Sergeant Major Daniel Joseph “Dan” Daly (born 1873, died April 27, 1937). He was one of only nineteen men (including seven Marines) to twice receive the Medal of Honor. This is also the birthday of Corporal John Alan Coey (died 19 July 1975). He was the first American volunteer killed in Rhodesia. o o o Today, we present another entry for Round 67 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 …




Purchasing Power: Past, Present, Future- Part 5, by L.M.

If one was to purchase gold and silver as insurance and track the spot price at kitco.com on an hourly or even weekly basis, one is missing the purpose entirely. Do you review your health, home, or automobile insurance policies weekly? Of course not. You review it before you purchase it, put the policy in a safe place, and bring it out when you need it. Then there is the camp that loves to argue that silver and gold are a worthless store of value and that good stocks with good dividends are the way to protect your purchasing power …




Letter Re: Fingerprinted To Sell Gold Coin

Dear JWR and HJL, It appears I have missed something along the way. I recently went in to a local pawn shop that a year ago was a coin and jewelry shop. My husband and I have purchased from the coin and jewelry shop a number of times and I had sold a gold necklace once. You surrender gold and get cash; it was that easy. The same owner turned it into a pawn shop. This time I went in to sell a single gold coin, and the owner took my drivers license information and my thumb print. I was …




Economics and Investing:

Ag barometer points toward tough times – K.W. o o o The Looming Bubble in Long-Term Debt o o o Paper Gold Market Trades Jaw-Dropping 6,800 Tonnes In One Day! o o o Make Inflation Great Again! Is Trump the “Inflation President”? Spotlight on Bonds, Oil, Gold, Attitudes o o o SurvivalBlog and its editors are not paid investment counselors or advisers. Please see our Provisos page for details.




Odds ‘n Sods:

Shooting enthusiasts might find this place in Kentucky of interest: Small lots in a “2nd Amendment” community alongside a complete shooting complex. This is just one of more than 250 current property listings at SurvivalRealty.com (which is owned and operated by my #1 Son). – JWR o o o I’ve noticed the new InfoGalactic alternative to Wikipedia is flourishing, and that its articles have begun to diverge from Wikipedia’s blatant bias. My congratulations to the InfoGalactic editors. I encourage all of my readers to get involved and to at least replace their browser Wikipedia bookmarks with InfoGalactic bookmarks. If you …




Hugh’s Quote of the Day:

“Now the Lord had said unto Abram, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father’s house, unto a land that I will shew thee: and I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing: and I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee: and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed.” – Genesis 12:1-3 (KJV)




Notes for Friday – November 11, 2016

November 11th is of course Veteran’s Day. If you value you freedom, then thank a veteran. It is also the birthday of General George S. Patton, Jr. (born 1885, died December 21, 1945). It is the birthday of Hugh Everett (born 1930, died July 19, 1982), the American physicist who first proposed the many-worlds interpretation (MWI) of quantum physics, which he termed his “relative state” formulation. November 11th also marks Rhodesia’s Unilateral Declaration of Independence (UDI), in 1965. Remember Rhodesia. o o o With all the chatter about the election, some sad news got lost in the shuffle: Mike Dillon …




Purchasing Power: Past, Present, Future- Part 4, by L.M.

The real currency of the world has become trust. Dallas Fed chairman Fisher stated, “Fiat money is a game of CONfidence and faith and if these are lost it is over.” (emphasis added) Did he really just admit that this is a CON game? I thought we were supposed to play our part in this grand charade and pretend it had value? What is the matter with him? What in the world does this even mean? Sadly, we are past the time in history when being honest was considered noble and right! Governments are past it, and soon people around …




Letter Re: Airedales

Mr. Rawles, Regarding the article about Airedales, I literally re-lived my childhood reading it. My family has had many Airedale dogs over the past 30 years. These beautiful dogs are the “class clowns” of the dog world. You couldn’t ask for a more faithful, protective, humorous, and friendly dog. And they will turn incredibly vicious to protect their owner or if they are challenged by other dogs. I recall as a young boy my father walking our Airedale when a German Shepard, that was much bigger and not on a leash, came racing over to attack our Airedale. Our little …




Economics and Investing:

Half of America Can’t Afford More Than $100/Month on Health Insurance – B.B. o o o Most people in the US missed out on this o o o President Trump: This Is How To Bring Back 1 Million Energy Jobs. Although the energy policies of President-elect Trump remain largely unclear, there is huge potential to create hundreds of thousands of energy jobs across the country. o o o The story of inflation between 1996 and 2016 is of rising prices in things that you need: Prices skyrocket for middle class goods and services. o o o SurvivalBlog and its editors …




Odds ‘n Sods:

It’s important to remember that the voting upset experienced on November 8th really isn’t about a “mandate” being given to Donald Trump or even about supporting him as a candidate. The bottom line is that the upset was about “status quo” versus “cleaning house”, the establishment versus the outside. Sending an outsider to Washington has often been crudely compared to sending a young tender virgin to clean up a whorehouse. We should be praying that Trump can follow through with cleaning up the cesspool. – HJL o o o Along those lines comes this article from Tyler Durden at Zero …







Notes for Thursday – November 10, 2016

November 10th is remembered in the United States as the “birthday” of the U.S. Marine Corps. Coincidentally, the 10th is also the birthday of the late Mikhail Timofeyevich Kalashnikov (born in 1919, died December 23, 2013). He didn’t design a lot of different guns, but one of his few designs was the prototype for what turned out to be the world’s most widely produced assault rifles. Once an iconic symbol of international communism, the AK’s curved magazine profile has in more recent years become just a symbol of citizens being well-armed. o o o Ready Made Resources is having a …




Purchasing Power: Past, Present, Future- Part 3, by L.M.

Largest Theft in History As expected, Ms. Yellen smiled last week, announcing no change to the Fed’s extraordinary policies. For the last eight years, she has been aiding and abetting the largest theft in history. Thanks to ZIRP (zero-interest-rate policy) and QE (quantitative easing), every year, about $300 billion is transferred from largely middle-class savers to largely better-off speculators, financial asset owners, and the biggest borrowers during that period– corporations and the government. The financial press, nevertheless, finds something vaguely heroic about enabling the grandest larceny ever. Bloomberg says, “Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen braved mounting opposition inside and outside …