Year: 2025

JWR’s Meme Of The Week: 

The latest meme created by JWR: Meme Text: Dr. Stephen Hawking’s Visit to Epstein’s Island Has Prompted The Creation Of A New Legal Term: Nerdacious Moral Derpitude Some Related Links: What Unsealed Jeffrey Epstein Documents Say About Stephen Hawking. Legal Defintion of Moral Turpitude. Pam Bondi dismisses claim Epstein info is missing and defends delays in releasing files Pam Bondi Changes Her Tune After Covert Recording. Notes From JWR: Do you have a meme idea? Just e-mail me the concept, and I’ll try to assemble it. And if it is posted then I’ll give you credit. Thanks! Permission to repost …


The Editors’ Quote of the Day:

“Brethren, my heart’s desire and prayer to God for Israel is, that they might be saved. For I bear them record that they have a zeal of God, but not according to knowledge. For they being ignorant of God’s righteousness, and going about to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God. For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth. For Moses describeth the righteousness which is of the law, That the man which doeth those things shall live by them. But the righteousness which is of faith …


Preparedness Notes for Saturday — May 10, 2025

On May 10, 1765, per the British Longitude Act, clockmaker John Harrison was awarded  £10,000 for the invention of a practical naval longitude clock.  Latitude calculations had been made for hundreds of years with sextants, but the Longitude Problem was finally solved only by Harrison’s invention of a precision clock that could keep accurate time for many months. This ushered in the era of relatively precise modern maritime navigation. — May 10th is the birthday of the late Col. Jeff Cooper (born 1920, died September 25, 2006). — May 10th is also the birthday of the late Janis Pinups (born …


The Trump Administration’s Biggest Wins And Biggest Fails So Far, by Brandon Smith

Back in 2016 I predicted a resounding win for Donald Trump in his election campaign against Hillary Clinton despite a chorus of voices telling me I was crazy. The argument from skeptics was that the establishment would never allow Trump into office. My position on the event was relatively straightforward – The conservative populist movement was far too strong to deny and the globalists might not see a Trump White House as a total loss if they could control it from behind the scenes, or sabotage it with a national crisis. By 2020, Trump was in the midst of the …


Editors’ Prepping Progress

To be prepared for a crisis, every Prepper must establish goals and make both 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 the Odds …


The Editors’ Quote of the Day:

“Destruction upon destruction is cried; for the whole land is spoiled: suddenly are my tents spoiled, and my curtains in a moment. How long shall I see the standard, and hear the sound of the trumpet? For my people is foolish, they have not known me; they are sottish children, and they have none understanding: they are wise to do evil, but to do good they have no knowledge. I beheld the earth, and, lo, it was without form, and void; and the heavens, and they had no light. I beheld the mountains, and, lo, they trembled, and all the …


Preparedness Notes for Friday — May 9, 2025

On May 9, 1904, the steam locomotive City of Truro (pictured) became the first steam engine to exceed 100 mph. From the InfoGalactic Wiki:  “…a British 4-4-0 steam locomotive built in 1903 for the Great Western Railway (GWR) at Swindon Works to a design by George Jackson Churchward. City of Truro was timed at 8.8 seconds between two quarter-mile posts whilst hauling the “Ocean Mails” special from Plymouth to London Paddington on 9 May 1904. This timing was recorded from the train by Charles Rous-Marten, who wrote for The Railway Magazine and other journals. If exact, this time would correspond …


Post-SHTF Lighting: Portable Power Stations – Part 3, by St. Funogas

(Continued from Part 2.  This concludes the article.) HOW TO POWER LIGHTS USING A PPS Now let’s take a look at various ways to power lamps, lights, and flashlights. 1. Rechargeable Lights There are lots of options with rechargeable lighting so it shouldn’t be too difficult to find something that appeals to you. Here are some things to look for when buying rechargeable lights. These features will be listed on the box or in the product description if shopping online. Battery capacity – The higher the better. The larger the battery capacity, the longer it can provide light without needing …


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. This column emphasizes JWR’s “tangibles heavy” investing strategy and contrarian perspective. Today, we look at Tariff Arbitrage in Tangibles. (See the Tangibles Investing section.) Precious Metals: Despite the best efforts of the short-sellers, the precious metals bull market now seems to have been confirmed. The rise in gold now appears unstoppable. Meanwhile, the Silver Shorts are still pulling the weekly shenanigans, almost every Friday. But given the …


The Editors’ Quote of the Day:

“The second item in the liberal creed, after self-righteousness, is unaccountability. Liberals have invented whole college majors–psychology, sociology, women’s studies–to prove that nothing is anybody’s fault. No one is fond of taking responsibility for his actions, but consider how much you’d have to hate free will to come up with a political platform that advocates killing unborn babies but not convicted murderers. A callous pragmatist might favor abortion and capital punishment. A devout Christian would sanction neither. But it takes years of therapy to arrive at the liberal view.” –  P.J. O’Rourke, Give War a Chance


Preparedness Notes for Thursday — May 8, 2025

Today is the 80th anniversary of VE Day, otherwise known as Victory in Europe Day, in 1945. World War II ended in Europe after Germany signed an unconditional surrender. The Brits have several days of celebrations planned. — This is also the birthday of Austrian economist Friedrich Hayek. — SurvivalBlog Writing Contest Today we present another entry for Round 118 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 more than $2,000. …


Post-SHTF Lighting: Portable Power Stations – Part 2, by St. Funogas

(Continued from Part 1.) DETERMINING HOW LONG A PPS CAN SUPPLY POWER To determine how long a fully-charged PPS will last, three things must be considered: 1.) The wattage of the device being powered 2.) How long you need it to run for, and 3.) The wattage capacity of the PPS battery. As previously mentioned, to simplify the math some of the battery rules are ignored such as maximum drawdown percentage of a battery and the energy loss when inverting from 12 Volts DC to 120 Volts AC. Appliance Wattage – Nearly every 120 VAC electric device has the wattage …


The Survivalist’s Odds ‘n Sods

SurvivalBlog presents another edition of The Survivalist’s Odds ‘n Sods. This column is 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. In today’s column, the push toward greater use of military drones. U.S. Army Plans Massive Increase in Its Use of Drones Over at The Wall Street Journal: U.S. Army Plans Massive …



Preparedness Notes for Wednesday — May 7, 2025

On May 7, 1700, William Penn began monthly meetings for blacks advocating emancipation. — And on May 7, 1867, Swedish chemist Alfred Nobel patented dynamite in England. This was the first of three patents he would receive for the explosive. — SurvivalBlog Writing Contest Today we present another entry for Round 118 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 more than $2,000. A Gunsite Academy Three Day Course Certificate. …