The Editors’ Quote of the Day:

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“God be merciful unto us, and bless us; and cause his face to shine upon us; Selah. That thy way may be known upon earth, thy saving health among all nations.  Let the people praise thee, O God; let all the people praise thee. O let the nations be glad and sing for joy: for thou shalt judge the people righteously, and govern the nations upon earth. Selah. Let the people praise thee, O God; let all the people praise thee. Then shall the earth yield her increase; and God, even our own God, shall bless us. God shall bless …


Preparedness Notes for Friday — March 20, 2020

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March 20th is the birthday of Mel Tappan. (He was born in 1933, and died in 1980.) His perennially popular survivalist books Survival Guns and Tappan on Survival have a well-deserved following. I designated March 20th as National Survivalism Day, in his honor. This year marks the 40th anniversary of his untimely death. It is also apropos that National Survivalism Day falls in March–one of the months that both Northern Europeans and Native Americans refer to as The Starving Season–when stored food runs low, but before spring bounty appears. SurvivalBlog readers are the type who plan ahead, and stock up. …


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 the incredibly volatile global stock markets. (See the Stocks section.) Precious Metals: Price of Physical Gold Decouples from Paper Gold o  o  o Gold price remains down as Philly Fed survey see largest drop in history. JWR’s Comments: Some institutional stock traders are feeling squeezed by the new bear …


The Editors’ Quote of the Day:

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“If you do not want the State to act like a criminal, you must disarm it as you would a criminal; you must keep it weak. The State will always be criminal in proportion to its strength; a weak State will always be as criminal as it can be, or dare be, but if it is kept down to the proper limit of weakness – which, by the way, is a vast deal lower limit than people are led to believe – its criminality may be safely got on with.” – Albert Jay Nock


Preparedness Notes for Thursday — March 19, 2020

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On March 19, 1982, 50 Argentines landed on South Georgia in the Falkland Islands to plant the Argentine  flag. They renamed the islands The Malvinas. This precipitated the Argentine army invasion on April 2nd. Despite some significant naval losses and dreadful weather, British Marines re-took the island on April 25th in a well-coordinated ground campaign. Coincidentally, in this brief war, the British Army and the Argentine Army were both equipped with FN-FAL variant rifles. (The Brits carried L1A1 “SLR” inch pattern FAL rifles.) — I’d be remiss if I did not mention that the number of reported COVID-19 cases is …


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 a warning on NSAIDs. Coronavirus: An Anti-Malarial Drug is a COVID Cure? Tucker – BREAKING: A peer-reviewed study shows that 100% of patients, after 6 days of taking a Malaria …



Preparedness Notes for Wednesday — March 18, 2020

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Today is the birthday of Luc Besson, director and producer of films such as Nikita and The Fifth Element. He was born in 1959. March 18th is also the birthday of novelist John Updike. (He was born in 1932 and died in 2009.) — Have you noticed that the silver-to-gold price ratio just hit a high of 115-to-1?  If you can find a local dealer with any physical silver on hand, then this would be a great time to ratio trade out gold, into silver. SurvivalBlog Writing Contest Today we present another entry for Round 87 of the SurvivalBlog non-fiction …


JWR’s Recommendations of the Week:

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Here are JWR’s Recommendations of the Week for various media and tools of interest to SurvivalBlog readers. The focus is usually on emergency communications gear, bug out bag gear, books and movies–often with a tie-in to disaster preparedness, and links to “how to” self-sufficiency videos. There are also links to sources for both storage food and storage containers. You will also note an emphasis on history books and historical movies. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. This week the focus is on some Hunkering down “how-to” and supplies.  As near as I can tell, our infection curve …


The Editors’ Quote of the Day:

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“I personally believe that we don’t need a lot more laws, I think we’ve got far too many laws on the books now, that’s part of the problem…. We don’t need more government, more laws; we need a lot less. I’m up there [in Washington, D.C.], trying to dismantle a lot of this giant government…. When you ‘pass a law’ with the current attitude in the Congress what do you get in a law today? You get either more spending, or more taxes, or more controls…. Which do you want? Do you want more spending? I think we’ve got too …


Preparedness Notes for Tuesday — March 17, 2020

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Today would have been the 101st birthday of famed mercenary Thomas Michael “Mad Mike” Hoare. (Born 17 March 1919) He just recently passed away in Durban, South Africa at age 100 on February 2, 2020. The book Mad Mike Hoare: The Legend is fascinating reading. — Welll folks… I’d say that at least in San Francisco, the Schumer has officially Hit Fan.  Headline: San Fran Shutting Down for 3 Weeks … 24-Hour Curfew Starts Tonight. Meanwhile, some Petty Tyranny, in New Orleans. (I believe that Madam Mayor LaToya Cantrell is a bit late with her scheme, since all of the local …


SurvivalBlog’s News From The American Redoubt

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This weekly column features news stories and event announcements from around the American Redoubt region. (Idaho, Montana, eastern Oregon, eastern Washington, and Wyoming.) Much of the region is also more commonly known as The Inland Northwest. We also mention companies of interest to preppers and survivalists that are located in the American Redoubt region. Today, we focus on the belated arrival of COVID-19 in the relatively isolated American Redoubt region. Redoubters already practice Social Distancing. Locally, it is just called being ornery and clannish.  We need to just amp that up a bit, and we’ll pull through, just fine. I …


The Editors’ Quote of the Day:

“[I]t is the greatest absurdity to suppose it in the power of one, or of any number of men, at the entering into society to renounce their essential natural rights, or the means of preserving those rights, when the grand end of civil government, from the very nature of its institution, is for the support, protection, and defence of those very rights; the principal of which, as is before observed, are life, liberty, and property. If men, through fear, fraud, or mistake, should in terms renounce or give up an essential natural right, the eternal law of reason and the …


Preparedness Notes for Monday — March 16, 2020

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Today is the anniversary of the Battle at Pound Gap, Kentucky. (1862) — There are now less that two weeks left in for Round 87 of the SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing contest.  Please get your entries in soon!  Note that they must be at lest 1,500 words long. Articles on practical “how to” skills for survival have an advantage in the judging. — Normally, on Mondays, I post product reviews by our stalwart Field Gear Editor. But given the urgency of the current pandemic, I’m postponing the review article that I had planned to present. Thanks for your patience. But first …


COVID-19: My View From The Powerhouse

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I thought I’d give some insight on the COVID-19 impact from my perspective in the hydroelectric power industry.  As a journeyman hydro electrician, I’ll provide a “boots on the ground” tradesman’s point of view.  I’ll do my best to give a short- and medium-term interpretation of this event’s impacts insofar as keeping the lights on.  While not as prevalent throughout the entire country, hydroelectric projects (dams) are the major supplier of electricity for the bulk of those already in the Redoubt and BC.  While all the windmills along the Columbia produce more political “warm and fuzzies” than actual power, dams …