SurvivalBlog presents another edition of The Survivalist’s Odds ‘n Sods— a collection of news bits and pieces that are relevant to the modern survivalist and prepper from “HJL”. Venezuela is again making the news with their constitutional assembly.
Your Money — Frozen
Imagine your hard earned money, deposited in a bank and frozen— right when you need to pay your mortgage. Are you prepared for such an eventuality? The European Union states are considering measures which would allow them to temporarily stop people from withdrawing money from their bank accounts to prevent bank runs. The given reason is to keep banks from failing, but it may have the opposite effect. Would you keep your money in a bank that is on the verge of failing? I wouldn’t! If I know my bank is on shaky ground, pffft, I’m gone! Thanks to reader D.S. for the link.
Building a Bridge Over a Creek
One of our favorite vloggers, Wranglerstar has wrapped up his series on building a bridge over a creek that is strong enough to drive a tractor over. It is a nine part series starting on June 29th. If you have a similar problem, you definitely need to watch this series. Note that if it will hold a tractor the size of his, you can drive a car over it as well.
Venezuela
The crises in Venezuela continues to accelerate. Maduro is brushing off new U.S. sanctions along with those who condemn him in Venezuela. he claims his newly elected constitutional assembly has given him a popular mandate to radically overhaul Venezuela’s political system. He has stated that he has no intention of deviating from his plans to rewrite the constitution (conveniently giving himself dictatorial powers). He also plans to accelerate his aggression towards his “enemies”.
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This is probably the end of Venezuela’s faltering democracy. The newly elected assembly technically has broad powers and rules above even the presidency. Of course, it’s packed with loyalists as is the Supreme Court. Bernie Sanders supporters should pay close attention as this is the fulfillment of their every desire. We get to see the death of a nation first hand by those who held a narcissistic socialist view and brought down destruction upon themselves and the entire nation. Thanks to H.L. for the link.
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Even the “Sweetheart” of the Venezuela socialist movement is troubled by Maduro’s policies. Lawyer Eva Golinger was a U.S. attorney who publicly supported the socialist revolution in Venezuela and was showered with impromptu kisses from supporters when in Venezuela. She has become a vocal critic of late, claiming that Maduro regularly tramples human rights (but stops short of endorsing the opposition.) Can you say Hanoi Jane?
Forbes thoughts on Self-Reliant Homesteaders
Forbes ran an editorial on how Self-Reliant Homesteaders and Preppers are moochers. The author, Dr Ozimek, draws on his exhaustive experience of watching prepping shows on TV. Yep, he admits that that is his primary source of information. This drivel is apparently what passes for editorial comment in the main stream media nowadays. Daisy Luther, at The Organic Prepper has an excellent rebuttal of the authors delusional opinion. Skip the Forbes article and read the rebuttal.
Snake Killer
Mrs. Latimer detests snakes. Around here, we have come to a compromise. A shovel has two ends on it. Venomous snakes (usually rattlers) get the metal end. The wooden end is for dealing with non-venomous snakes (they get moved). You never know when you’re going to have to grab the shovel. Reader W.W. sent in this article on a 72 year-old woman that has killed 17 copperhead snakes in just a few days at her home. Now that’s a frontier woman!
RE: Your Money -Frozen
A measure of protection can be achieved by paying your mortgage, waiting about 5 days and the going on an sending the next months payment. If you watch the web tool they go from expecting this month’s payment to expecting the next, then the next. You just keep paying monthly after the double month and stay 75 to 45 days ahead of a possible late payment and 90 to 60 days out from delinquency. It is important to not allow the second of the double payment to be called “principal only”. I know you can manipulate the due date to this degree. Perhaps even triple paying would give even more cushion. There is always a wave of land grabbers and lawyers on the heel of every banking crises. Even now there are hedge funds that own and operate single family houses all over the country after 2008. The problem is that ANY default gets blown up with fabricated fees into a club to be used on you. If you have paid off assets and some debt you have to take steps. Mine is the keep the debt in my name and the assets in spouse or mother’s name. Not sure if it will work but it is a decent intermediate step.
A far better solution would be to simply rathole a few mortgage payments away at home. That way you can go to the bank and pay in cash if need be, or you could pay for something else more pressing if necessary. Far better to have the cash in hand than to let the banks sit on it interest free like that.
I would not advise making advance payments on a loan to a bank. If something happens to them, that money is gone, and you may lose credit for paying it. Given the new regs that have come out in the past few years, depositors become creditors, and that would include advance payments on loans. If the bank fails, your advance payment would get tied up in bankruptcy court just like your savings account will.
Mama lives in Tucson. She grew up in West Texas, and knows that a garden hoe is a useful tool for dealing with vipers. To watch her go after a rattler is like watching an angry Joan Crawford beat down.
Certainly cash, some silver coin and gold in hand is a first step. However, I gave my word that I would pay those debts so I do my best to get that done. A bank mortgage like that is not a static thing in terms of interest and principal. Very little of the accelerated payment will be interest as in the first case only about 5 days have accumulated. I maintain that it is mostly your money as you have knocked down principal. I would not prepay owner financing where it does not change the interest. Plus there will be no “owner finance holiday” only “bank holidays”. Lastly, there are many shades to a crash and we have to be prepared in degrees to handle it and not just survive but thrive.
Unless the system is in total collapse, the banks will honor demands by other lenders. If you send the payment in the receiving lender will make a demand on the payers account from the account holder’s bank. If the banks won’t honor obligations like mortgages, the system would collapse very quickly. If you are sending checks against a frozen account and the bank won’t honor the transfer, it’s a classic “force majure” the assets are there and it is the paying bank that is failing to honor the request. You cannot be expected to honor the obligation if your account is arbitrarily frozen by government. The freezing of accounts, and capital controls is usually instituted to prevent people from withdrawing their money to convert it into other assets like food, gold, or whatever else. Capital controls stabilize the money system short term so the government can figure out how best to screw the populous.
A bit off subject but I hope no one will mind.
Brownells catalog number 70 – the Big Book for 2017-2018 is now out if you give it a day or so the PDF copy should be out.
Congratulations on killing 17 copperhead snakes Mrs. Newby but I’ve got you beat fellow Okie. I’m up to 51 kills as of today.
It makes perfect sense that Forbes would write against preppers. IMO our economic system and political system are totally reliant on people buying things they don’t need with money they don’t have and then paying income, property and sales taxes on it all. If a significant portion of the population realized they were in slavery to their excessive wants and did not play, the whole house of cards could come down.