Month: December 2022

The Surveillance State Is Making a List and You’re On It, by John & Nisha Whitehead

“He sees you when you’re sleeping He knows when you’re awake He knows when you’ve been bad or good So be good for goodness’ sake!” —“Santa Claus Is Coming to Town” You’d better watch out—you’d better not pout—you’d better not cry—‘cos I’m telling you why: this Christmas, it’s the Surveillance State that’s making a list and checking it twice, and it won’t matter whether you’ve been bad or good. You’ll be on this list whether you like it or not. Mass surveillance is the Deep State’s version of a “gift” that keeps on giving…back to the Deep State. Geofencing dragnets. …


Editors’ Prepping Progress

To be prepared for a crisis, every Prepper must establish goals and make long-term and short-term plans. In this column, the SurvivalBlog editors review their week’s prep activities and planned prep activities for the coming week. These range from healthcare and gear purchases to gardening, ranch improvements, bug out bag fine-tuning, and food storage. This is something akin to our Retreat Owner Profiles, but written incrementally and in detail, throughout the year.  We always welcome you to share your own successes and wisdom in your e-mailed letters. We post many of those –or excerpts thereof — in this column, in …


The Editors’ Quote of the Day:

“Lord, thou hast been favourable unto thy land: thou hast brought back the captivity of Jacob. Thou hast forgiven the iniquity of thy people, thou hast covered all their sin. Selah. Thou hast taken away all thy wrath: thou hast turned thyself from the fierceness of thine anger. Turn us, O God of our salvation, and cause thine anger toward us to cease. Wilt thou be angry with us for ever? wilt thou draw out thine anger to all generations? Wilt thou not revive us again: that thy people may rejoice in thee? Shew us thy mercy, O Lord, and …


Preparedness Notes for Friday — December 23, 2022

December 23rd is the birthday of Founding Father and Supreme Court Justice John Jay. (Born 1745, died May 17, 1829.) December 23rd is also the anniversary of the establishment of the exclusive private banking cartel known as The Federal Reserve, in 1913. I recommend the book The Creature from Jekyll Island: A Second Look at the Federal Reserve. — SurvivalBlog Writing Contest Today we present another entry for Round 104 of the SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing contest. The prizes for this round include: First Prize: The photovoltaic power specialists at Quantum Harvest LLC  are providing a store-wide 10% off coupon. Depending …


Thoughts on a General Purpose AR-15 Rifle – Part 2, by Steve A.

(Continued from Part 1.  This concludes the article.) The mid-length and rifle length gas systems are known for operating the action more smoothly when compared to the carbine length system. The mid length gas system increases for the carbine length barrel. The longer gas tube gives a longer bolt carrier dwell time in the rifle, which lets all the moving pieces work a little more slowly and less violently but still quickly and energetically enough to let the bolt carrier move back fully and allow the bolt to strip the next round off of the magazine reliably. The entire recoil …


Economics & Investing For Preppers

Here are the latest news items and commentary on current economics news, market trends, stocks, investing opportunities, and the precious metals markets. We also cover hedges, derivatives, and obscura. Most of these items are from the “tangibles heavy” contrarian perspective of SurvivalBlog’s Senior Editor, JWR. Today, we look at the prospects for copper prices, in 2023. (See the Commodities section.) Precious Metals: Reported on Tuesday: Gold price up amid bullish outside markets. o  o  o At the Von Mises Institute website: The “Barbarous Relic” Helped Enable a World More Civilized than Today’s. Economy & Finance: The chief investment officer at …



Preparedness Notes for Thursday — December 22, 2022

December 22nd is the anniversary of the death of SP4 James T. Davis, the first uniformed American combat casualty of the Vietnam War, in 1961. This Army Security Agency (ASA) SIGINT soldier of the 3rd Radio Research Unit was killed in a Viet Cong ambush on a road outside Saigon. — SurvivalBlog Writing Contest Today we present another entry for Round 104 of the SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing contest. The prizes for this round include: First Prize: The photovoltaic power specialists at Quantum Harvest LLC  are providing a store-wide 10% off coupon. Depending on the model chosen, this could be worth …


Thoughts on a General Purpose AR-15 Rifle – Part 1, by Steve A.

You are a safe and responsible firearms owner. After much research on the web and discussion with friends and family, you have made the decision to purchase or build up a general service AR15 style 5.56/.223 caliber rifle and accept the responsibility of doing so. You have a reasonable budget in mind. Now what? You can certainly go buy a complete factory rifle and do very well with it. However, particularly if you plan to use the rifle for a lot of different uses you may well wish to order it bult to your specifications or build it yourself. By …


The Survivalist’s Odds ‘n Sods

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 “JWR”. Our goal is to educate our readers, to help them to recognize emerging threats, and to be better prepared for both disasters and negative societal trends. You can’t mitigate a risk if you haven’t first identified a risk. Today, another tale of woe from the disarmed English populace. A British Prepper Arrested for Gun Possession Here is some typically breathless reporting from the UK: Dover doomsday ‘prepper’ hoarded 17 guns and thousands …



Preparedness Notes for Wednesday — December 21, 2022

On December 21, 1620, William Bradford and the Mayflower Pilgrims landed on what is now known as Plymouth Rock in Plymouth, Massachusetts. — Today marks the Winter Solstice.  We can be encouraged to know that starting tomorrow, the days will be getting longer, here in the northern hemisphere. Officially, this is the first day of winter, but the weather has been “wintery” here in our valley for more than six weeks. We now have a foot and a half of compacted snow on the ground. Yesterday we woke up to some bitter cold.  Tomorrow’s expected high temperature is -1 degree …


IT Careers and Rural Living, by M.J.

I’m writing this as an expansion of JWR’s article posted on December 8, 2022. As he noted, many office jobs can now be done from home. This article is about how I got started in my career in Infomation Technology (IT). While bumpy at times, IT has really paid off for me financially. I hope that my article will inspire some readers to follow a similar path, which may allow them to escape the dysfunctional cities. For those who are already living in rural America, read on to find out about another way to earn income. I got started in …


SurvivalBlog Readers’ & Editors’ Snippets

This weekly column is a collection of short snippets: responses to posted articles, practical self-sufficiency items, how-tos, lessons learned, tips and tricks, and news items — both from readers and from SurvivalBlog’s editors. Note that we may select some long e-mails for posting as separate letters. — Tim J. suggested this great video essay from Reid Henrichs (pictured): There is a Reason This Government Wants Us Disarmed, And It’s Not for Safety. o  o  o Some troubling news: Latest Twitter Files Bombshell: The Deep State Is Really a Tangled Collaboration of State Agencies, Private Contractors, and NGOs. JWR’s Comment: Any …