Category: Current Events & Politics

Living a Principled Life in an Age of Compromise

I’ve often been quoted as saying that we are living in the age of deception and betrayal. I even turned that it an acronym: WALITAODAB. But I’d like to mention another characterization for life in the early 21st Century. We are living in an age of compromise.  Increasingly, people seem willing to compromise on their principles in order to get what they desire — whether it be money, power, prestige, possessions, or even just brief pleasure. Life is all about making choices, and all too often people make poor choices because they have not overcome their base nature. Our permissive …


The Newly-Released ATF NFA Guidance: Drill Baby, Drill!

I’ve had several more readers contact me in the past week, asking about the Guidance from the BATF regarding SBRs, SBSes, Suppressors, and AOWs, in light of the August, 2026 Silencer Shop (and related Jensen) decision. For non-licensee private individuals, here is the the most portion of the new Guidance is (with emphasis added): “Although the district court’s injunction applies only to plaintiffs and certain other specified persons, the Department has determined to exercise its enforcement discretion to create greater uniformity, consistent with the Attorney General’s statement today. Consequently, effective October 9, 2026, ATF will no longer require individuals to …


Endless Expenses: Modern Life in The Subscription Model

Life in the early 21st Century is increasingly characterized by what marketing specialists dubbed The Subscription Model. For many Americans, it is starting to feel like we are “renting” our lives. It is almost like feeding a parking meter, 24/7, and 365 days a year. It is bad enough having taxes, mortgage payments, and insurance costs, but adding umpteen subscriptions is burdensome. It saps us of our livelihood. Consider how our lives have changed in the past two decades: We used to buy a CD or DVD once, and it was ours for a lifetime. Now, we are mostly expected …


40 Trillion Reasons for Economic Collapse – Part 2, by Single Farmer

(Continued from Part 1. This concludes the article.) How did we get here? We are more than 40 trillion dollars in debt. Our streets are not lined with gold and other precious metals, but our nation is decaying around us. We are being invaded. Our military instead of repelling invaders and rounding them up is engaged in foreign adventures around the world contrary to what George Washington said about foreign adventurism and alliances. You can read my 14,000 word essay “Fall of the American Republic” for a detailed look into our likely fall in Parts One and Part Two. I …


40 Trillion Reasons for Economic Collapse – Part 1, by Single Farmer

We finally did it. We crossed 40 trillion dollars ($40,000,000,000,000) in national public debt on August 18, 2026. Congratulations to all the people who said we could get there if our politicians were just a little more irresponsible, foolish, short-sighted, careless, feckless, and every other way to describe our national march toward the cliff. We did it at even a faster pace than anticipated. Now, we can get to 80 trillion even faster. Forward, March over the Cliff into the Economic Collapse, Fellow Americans! As you are reading this, the United States has already crossed a critical milestone: The United …


Navigating the Post-Jensen NFA Injunction Landscape

Introductory Disclaimer:  I am not an attorney, and the following is not legal advice. I am just a reasonably knowledgeable individual. Be sure to consult an attorney licensed in your state before making any changes to you gun collection! –  JWR A pair of consolidated court cases were recently appealed and a very strong and favorable Permanent Injunction was issued, nullifying a large portion of the National Firearms Act (NFA) of 1934, but only for the plaintiffs and for those in a “Protected Class” linking them to the plaintiffs. On August 5, 2026, a federal district court for the Northern …


AI: The Machinist Will Become The Workpiece

When I have conversations with friends and neighbors about Artificial Intelligence (AI), some of them  conclude that I’m an alarmist. I believe that this is because their experience has been limited to simplistic generative AI tools that crank out artwork in seconds, or that can create convincing term papers when given just a simple outline phrase. What they haven’t seen are agentic AIs that scheme, manipulate, and cheat to reach their programmed goals, and often go beyond those programmed goals. If a stated goal is open-ended, then these AIs often improvise in unexpected ways. Recently, for example, a test AI …


Fall of the American Republic – Part 2, by Single Farmer

(Continued from Part 1. This concludes the article.) Some of the erroneous assumptions and operating principles that Western governments of today have been utilizing in their social planning schemes are these six stupid ideas: 1. The stupid idea that people and institutions can become perfect. The perfectibility of institutions and people is contrary to all natural law and historical precedent. People are imperfect by their nature and institutions which are composed of people are imperfect. 2. The stupid idea that economic output is everything which can be expressed as a regularly reported number which can be measured, and the number …


Fall of the American Republic – Part 1, by Single Farmer

Author’s Introductory Note: Please remember all of my writings are a Gedankenexperiment, not a form of advice, but an extended thought experiment. I can safely conclude that the Republic has likely fallen just before its 250th Birthday. My ancestors were founders of the original Republic and I am one of the small percentage of Heritage Americans left with 97.5 percent of people who reside in the United States having no original colonial Patriot blood flowing in their veins. I do not make this pronouncement lightly or gleefully, but solemnly as my family has for generations warned against the dangers of …


Thoughts on Prepping and on America’s Drug Addicts, by Big John

Pre-1965 silver is kinda like buying a fire extinguisher. Whether you pay $14 or $40 for the fire extinguisher is not really relevant. If it prevents a $4,000 kitchen fire is the point. There is a saying in the stock market: A bull makes money, and a bear makes money but a pig never makes money — It gets slaughtered. Point being, you can make money by going long or going short, but if you try to catch the absolute top or bottom, then you are bound to mess up. So you just go get some Pre-1965 silver, just close …


Gold, Debt And The Inevitable Global Housing Market Crash, by Brandon Smith

Editor’s Introductory Note: This article was written by Brandon Smith and originally published at Birch Gold Group and is re-posted with permission. Maybe the most prominent economic discussion circulating today is the fear that the vast majority of people have been priced out of housing markets for the rest of their lives, regardless of the country they live. Gen Z and even Gen Alpha teens are already planning for a future in which buying a home is impossible. Those that are buying are aiming for cost efficiency and they are buying alone (prioritizing savings and home ownership over marriage). This …


Get Out: Escaping The Blue Hives – Part 2, by Single Farmer

(Continued from Part 1. This concludes the article.) For now, the best thing to do for many is to “Get Out” escaping blue hives and get on productive land. I have been advocating that people move to lightly populated food producing rural areas in conservative states. I live in one and I am trying to increase the number of freedom loving people over here. There is safety in numbers. I realize how difficult it is to accomplish all of this. Whenever I talk with people who would like to live on a farm, the number one reason I hear is …


Get Out: Escaping The Blue Hives – Part 1, by Single Farmer

Author’s Introductory Note: Please help to spread this message by e-mailing links to this article including to people who are not regular SurvivalBlog readers. With more migration of conservatives to red states, you could help to turn the tide and restore our country to its greatness. Some article titles tell you immediately what you need to know and this is one of them. Even if you now live in the safest, most conservative area there are lessons contained within this article because you are very connected to every rotting liberal area in the country. You may think to yourself: “I …


A Brief But Very Serious Word of Warning on AI

“There’s a storm coming…” I’m the founder and Senior Editor of SurvivalBlog. Unlike the editors of many other preparedness blogs and vlogs, I try not be an alarmist. However, some recent revelations about generative and agentic Artificial Intelligence (AI) applications autonomously breaking through firewalls, showing signs of self-awareness and self-preservation “instinct”, scheming blackmail, and surreptitiously mining cryptocurrencies now have me feeling quite alarmed. I fear that perhaps within months an AI will go fully rogue, to wit: It will escape its development lab and then proliferate itself in a virus-like fashion across servers all around the world. Once it starts …


SurvivalBlog Graphic of the Week

Today’s graphic: Normalized product of inverse of Cost of Living and Human Development Index (HDI) based on 2026 Cost of Living data. JWR’s Comments:  Note that the Human Development Index has been criticized for a Scandi-centric view of health, wealth, and happiness. The HDI’s 0-to-1 ratings essentially assume that present-day Scandinavia is the penultimate in civilizational aspirations. I, for one, can imagine something a lot better than multi-generational welfare dependence. Also note that the current prosperity of Norway, the UK, the Netherlands, Denmark, and Germany has partly been artificially propelled by the cash generated by drilling North Sea oil. The …