Jim’s Quote of the Day:

“Reports of widespread hunger in collapsing Venezuela confirms my opinion: food stands alone as the indispensable preparation for survival. Why? All else can be managed as needed, they’re answerable with non-perishable inventory, often with as-found inventory. By “all else” I mean the other two of “cold-wet-hungry”. You can be any two of these and survive, but not all three. You may be cold or wet on a given day, but you will be hungry every day. No gaps. Therefore: solve food first.” – Ol’ Remus, in his Yer Ol’ Woodpile Report



Hillary’s Lies, The Air Gap Rule, and Systematic Perfidy

FBI Director James Comey flat out lied to the American people yesterday, when he described Hillary Clinton and the State Department’s staffers as “extremely careless” and declined to refer her case for prosecution. What they actually did was far more serious than “careless”. Without a doubt, they willfully, criminally, treasonously carried out deliberate steps to copy classified paragraphs to an unsecure private server, and then they lied about it and also tried to delete files and confound investigators to cover their tracks. By not confirming this perfidy with a criminal referral, Mr. Comey just made himself an indirect party to …


JWR’s Recommendations of the Week:

Books: Storey’s Guide to Raising Rabbits, 4th Edition Tunnel In The Sky by Robert Heinlein Movies: 13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi American Sniper Music: Fairport Convention: Best of the BBC Recordings Hans Zimmer; Gladiator Soundtrack Video Blog Posts: Wranglerstar: Back To Basics 2 The Survival Mom: Food Storage Myths Podcasts: Radio Free Redoubt: June 25, 2016 God and Guns Podcast #155 – Orlando Very Useful Gear: Leatherman Wave (My “Truck Console Carry” multi-tool.) Trijicon ACOG 4×32 with .223 Reticle (The next best thing to owning a Starlight Scope.)




Coping With California’s Six New Gun and Magazine Ban Laws

This year’s Independence Day celebrations have been muted by news of the enactment of six tyrannical new gun, ammunition, and magazine laws in California. California’s leftist legislature in now crowing about how they “did something” in response to the Islamic terror attack in San Bernadino last year. Six of 10 new “Gunmeggddon” laws that they passed were just signed into law by Democrat Governor Jerry “Moonbeam” Brown. Courtesy of the NRA-ILA, here is a summary of Governor Brown’s actions: SIGNED BOTH– Assembly Bill 1135 and Senate Bill 880 will make changes of monumental scale to California’s firearm laws by reclassifying …




Making a Living in the Hinterboonies

One of the great quandaries faced by many American preppers is that their desire to move to a lightly-populated rural region is usually not consistent with the ability to earn a good living. Let’s face it: The job opportunities in the Hinterboonies are scarce. Unless you are retired, self-employed, or you are in a high-demand profession (such as medicine or dentistry), then it might be difficult to have the same standard of living that you’ve enjoyed in an urban or suburban community. Part of the following repeats what I wrote in SurvivalBlog back in 2009 about the sorts of jobs …


Letter: Starting a Manufacturing Business on a Tight Budget, by M.B.

In case you have not kept up with the Maker movement the last couple of years, great strides have happened in the average guys ability to build advanced micro-manufacturing facilities for very little money versus even a few years ago. I will note that this discussion is not all inclusive as this field changes on a sometimes weekly basis. The ability to do advanced manufacturing with relatively small amounts of money is the dirty secret of China’s present economic success.  I should know, since I have been there, I have friends in the industrial automation business who have been there, …


Economics & Investing:

The Trajectory of Venezuelan Hyperinflation Looks Familiar… o o o Puerto Rico Faces Record Default: A Look at the Bonds Due ($2 billion is coming due!) o o o At The Sovereign Investor:  Another Market Meltdown? o o o ‘The end is coming,’ says Ron Paul o o o SurvivalBlog and its editors are not paid investment counselors or advisers. Please see our Provisos page for details.


Odds ‘n Sods:

At Instructables: Best Solar Oven (Home-made!) o o o Fresh details spur debate on Orlando police response o o o Best Bug out Vehicles You Can Actually Afford (The Prepper Journal) o o o Over at The Daily Caller:  State Department Won’t Release Clinton Foundation E-mails for 27 Months.   “Nothing to see here, move along.” o o o She’s painted herself into a corner: Lynch to Accept F.B.I. Recommendations in Clinton Email Inquiry, Official Says.  My favorite quote in the article: “Ms. Lynch has said she wants to handle the Clinton investigation like any other case.” Ah-ha! This explains why …



Notes for Friday – July 01, 2016

July 1st, 1863 was the beginning of the Civil War Battle of Gettysburg. Today is also the birthday of actress Olivia DeHavilland (star of Gone With The Wind), actor Dan Aykroyd (co-star of The Blues Brothers),  and film director William Wyler (often remembered for his film Best Years of Our Lives.) o o o Today, we present another entry for Round 65 of the SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing contest. The nearly $12,000 worth of prizes for this round include: First Prize: A Tactical Self-Contained 2-Series Solar Power Generator system from Always Empowered. This compact starter power system is packaged in a …