Preparedness Notes for Friday — May 5, 2023

This is the birthday of Pat Frank (1908-1964). This was the pen name of newspaper journalist Harry Hart Frank. His novel Alas, Babylon is a survivalist classic. His personal life was marred by alcoholism, but his writing is admired and still surprisingly popular, today. (Alas, Babylon is still in print, after 64 years!) As an homage to Pat Frank, one of the settings in my novel Expatriates is Mt. Dora, Florida, which was fictionalized by Pat Frank as Fort Repose in Alas, Babylon. — Perhaps of interest to survivalists, the new Silo television series will begin streaming today (May 5, …




AR-15 Setup and Maintenance – Part 1, by John Smith

The AR-15 family of guns has become “America’s Rifle” over the period of almost 60 years. Over time, the rifle has seen many changes and refinements. Now that there are so many choices, prospective buyers and users could use some determining what choices are best for them. This article has four sections covering: rifle configurations/parts selection, ammunition, rifle accessories, and rifle cleaning/maintenance. Hopefully, you will find some of the information below helpful. Rifle configurations and Parts selection The first thing to decide is whether you want to build or buy a rifle. If you are on a strict budget, definitely …




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. In this column, JWR also covers hedges, derivatives, and various obscura. Most of these items are from JWR’s “tangibles heavy” contrarian perspective. Today, a further examination of the developing global banking crisis. (See the Economy & Finance section.) Precious Metals: Spot silver is looking quite bullish, up more than 5% for the week to $26.29 per Troy ounce, as of Thursday afternoon. o  o  o An interview with Jeffrey Tucker: The Fed is Trapped: This Recession Will Be …