Preparedness Notes for Monday — December 16, 2019

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December 16th is the anniversary of the Boston Tea Party, in 1773. — And December 16th, 1928, was the birthday of Philip K. Dick, who died March 2, 1982. He penned a remarkable number of sci-fi novels and novellas that have been adapted into movies, including Blade Runner, Total Recall, Screamers, Impostor, Minority Report, Paycheck, A Scanner Darkly, Next, and The Adjustment Bureau. Though he had a troubled personal life (with drug use and several failed marriages), his captivating books certainly had a knack for envisioning potential futures.


Economics & Investing For Preppers

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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 Founder and Senior Editor, JWR. Today, we look at crude oil demand. (See the Commodities section.) Economy & Finance: At Zero Hedge: QE Or Not QE? Here Is The Market’s Answer In One Simple Chart. Here is a an excerpt: “The upshot to this attempt to mislead the market what it is doing according to Bank of America, …


Recipe of the Week: Vitality Soup

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This week’s recipe is for Vitality Soup. It should appeal to lacto-vegetarians who consume milk and butter. It is a recipe excerpted from the scarce book Nine Hundred Successful Recipes, by Lulu Thompson Silvernail. This book, from my own book collection, was published in 1923. A recent change in U.S. copyright law now puts most pre-1925 books in the public domain. This entire recipe book will be just part of the more than 4,000 pages of bonus content that is being added to the SurvivalBlog archive waterproof USB stick that will be offered in January, 2020. Ingredients 1 large potato, …



Preparedness Notes for Sunday — December 15, 2019

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The 15th of December, 1923, was the birthday of Uziel “Uzi” Gal (born Gotthard Glas). According to Wikipedia, he was “…born in Weimar, Germany. When the Nazis came to power in 1933 he moved first to England and later, in 1936, to Kibbutz Yagur in the British Mandate of Palestine where he changed his name to Uziel Gal. In 1943, he was arrested for illegally carrying a gun and sentenced to six years in prison. However, he was pardoned and released in 1946, serving less than half of his sentence.” He is, of course, remembered as the inventor of the …


Frederic Bastiat’s The Law – Part 6

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(Part 6 of 6. Please be sure to share this lengthy essay with your children, nieces, and nephews. Thanks. – JWR) — The Enormous Power of Government As long as these ideas prevail, it is clear that the responsibility of government is enormous. Good fortune and bad fortune, wealth and destitution, equality and inequality, virtue and vice—all then depend upon political administration. It is burdened with everything, it undertakes everything, it does everything; therefore it is responsible for everything. If we are fortunate, then government has a claim to our gratitude; but if we are unfortunate, then government must bear …


The Survivalist’s Odds ‘n Sods

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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, we look at Biometric Scanning. DHS Backs Off on Mandatory Face Scans R.J. sent this: DHS Wanted To Add US Citizens To The Long List Of People Subjected To Mandatory Face Scans At …


The Editors’ Quote of the Day:

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“And when he had called all the people unto him, he said unto them, Hearken unto me every one of you, and understand: There is nothing from without a man, that entering into him can defile him: but the things which come out of him, those are they that defile the man. If any man have ears to hear, let him hear. And when he was entered into the house from the people, his disciples asked him concerning the parable. And he saith unto them, Are ye so without understanding also? Do ye not perceive, that whatsoever thing from without …


Preparedness Notes for Saturday — December 14, 2019

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December 14th is the birthday of the late John Warren Wadleigh (born 1927, died September 24, 2013). Wadleigh was better known to many SurvivalBlog readers by his pen name– Oliver Lange. He was the author of the best-selling resistance warfare novel Vandenberg. — This is also the birthday of Air Force General James H. “Jimmy” Doolittle, who died September 27, 1993.


Frederic Bastiat’s The Law – Part 5

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(Part 5 of 6) — What Is Liberty? Actually, what is the political struggle that we witness? It is the instinctive struggle of all people toward liberty. And what is this liberty, whose very name makes the heart beat faster and shakes the world? Is it not the union of all liberties—liberty of conscience, of education, of association, of the press, of travel, of labor, of trade? In short, is not liberty the freedom of every person to make full use of his faculties, so long as he does not harm other persons while doing so? Is not liberty the …


Editors’ Prepping Progress

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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. Note that as an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. We always welcome you to share your own successes and wisdom in the Comments. Let’s keep busy …


The Editors’ Quote of the Day:

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“And Hiram king of Tyre sent his servants unto Solomon; for he had heard that they had anointed him king in the room of his father: for Hiram was ever a lover of David. And Solomon sent to Hiram, saying, Thou knowest how that David my father could not build an house unto the name of the Lord his God for the wars which were about him on every side, until the Lord put them under the soles of his feet. But now the Lord my God hath given me rest on every side, so that there is neither adversary …


Preparedness Notes for Friday — December 13, 2019

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After spending nine months on the run, former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein was captured on December 13, 2003. During his 24 years in office, Saddam’s secret police, charged with protecting his power, terrorized the public, ignoring the human rights of the nation’s citizens. While many of his people faced poverty, he lived in incredible luxury, building more than 20 lavish palaces throughout the country. It was fitting that, in the end, he was hiding in nothing more than a hole in the ground covered by plywood. — December 13th is also the birthday of Sergeant Alvin York.


Frederic Bastiat’s The Law – Part 4

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(Part 4 of 6) — Socialists Ignore Reason and Facts With the amazing credulity which is typical of the classicists, Fenelon ignores the authority of reason and facts when he attributes the general happiness of the Egyptians, not to their own wisdom but to the wisdom of their kings: “We could not turn our eyes to either shore without seeing rich towns and country estates most agreeably located; fields, never fallowed, covered with golden crops every year; meadows full of flocks; workers bending under the weight of the fruit which the earth lavished upon its cultivators; shepherds who made the …


Economics & Investing For Preppers

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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 Founder and Senior Editor, JWR. Today, we look at Mosin Nagant carbines. (See the Tangibles Investing section.) It is Friday the 13th, but I’m not superstitious.  In fact, I’m wary of any day, in the frenetically-paced 21st Century global markets! Things can go badly very quickly, so keep your investments diverse, hedge into tangibles, set some firm stop …