Category: Current Events & Politics

Letter Re: Preparing for Pole Shift?

Mr. Rawles, I have been trying to find out more about the consequences of a polar shift, particularly the effects it will have on the Great Lakes Region. I know that no one really knows what will happen, but everything I’ve seen points to something really really bad. If possible could you post what knowledge you may have on the subject on SurvivalBlog? Thank you, – Scott from Michigan JWR Replies: Rapid pole shift is a little more than an unsupported theory, touted mainly by the Art Bell crowd. In my opinion it should be one of the least of …


Letter Re: Will the War in Georgia Trigger a Russian Ammo Import Ban?

Hello James, I have been an avid reader of your novel and SurvivalBlog for about six months now, and I have to echo the sentiment of many other readers–that it has given me a desperately needed focus and sense of purpose. The increased threat of TEOTWAWKI was clear in my mind, and prior to finding your blog, I just had anxiety and was confused over what actions I should be taking t protect my family. I was like a deer in the headlights. Now it is a whole different story. I have stopped wasting money on non-essential items (sodas at …


Letter Re: Maintaining the Nuclear Survival Mindset

Hi, I won’t mention my name because of the privacy concerns you so eloquently pointed out in your blog, but here’s an example of what you were asking about in regards to preparations for a new cold/hot war. I was in the USAF in Security Police from 1980 to 1989, the height of the Cold War, when President Reagan was stepping up the pressure on the then Soviet Union. I served in ICBMs (Minuteman III’s and the Peacekeeper) at Warren AFB in Wyoming and overseas in Ground Launched Cruise Missiles (GLCMs) at Florennes Air Base, Belgium. One of the things …


The Grand Illusion: G8 – 1 = Cold War II?

Perhaps Anatoliy Golitsyn was right. He was a high level Soviet defector that predicted the collapse of the Soviet Union, claiming that perestroika and glasnost were charades that had been planned for decades by the Soviet-era KGB leadership to strategically deceive the West into thinking that we had “won” the Cold War. Some evidence: the recent Russian invasion of Georgia, Russia’s nuclear threats against Poland, and Putin’s hints of positioning ICBMs in Cuba. (As I’ve written before, history doesn’t exactly repeat itself, but it often rhymes.) Was Golitsyn right? The West may have been the victim of the greatest dezinformatisaya …


Letter Re: More Observations on the Aftermath of Hurricane Dolly

Dear JWR and Memsahib, On June 30, in a response to “Help with a Non-Preparedness Minded Spouse”, I shared the thoughts of like-minded men in a group meeting regularly with my husband to prepare for survival needs. Due to the lack of female companionship I was experiencing, and the frustration my husband’s buddies were experiencing, I offered to start a “Ladies Auxiliary” group to motivate the wives to see the value of preparing for emergency survival. Living near the coast of Texas provides us with the challenge of hurricanes each summer, so that became the topic for personal and immediate …


Four Letters Re: Questions from A Not-Quite Convinced Reader

Jim, I was intrigued by Robert C.’s recent letter which questions why we should prepare. I think he has a great question there, and one which deserves further discussion. I put together a personal ‘Top Five’ I’d like to share: Top Five Reasons To Be Preparedness Oriented: 5) It’s simply a natural extension of growing up — understanding and fulfilling our responsibilities. As babies we have all of our basic needs provided for us by our parents. As we mature, we all begin to take some responsibility for our own needs by doing things like getting an education; learning how …


Letter Re: Rampant Inflation in Steel Products

Dear Jim, According to the Federal government, the consumer price index (all items less food and energy) rose just 2.4% since May, 2007. If that’s the case, then I wonder why the [modular steel] cattle panels down at the local farm supply went from $12.99 on May 20, to $18.99 on June 12, and are priced at $27.99 today. That’s a whopping 125% price increase in just 60 days. Call me curious, – Dutch in Wyoming JWR Replies: I hope that SurvivalBlog readers took the advice that I posted back on May 19th. It bears repeating: “Of immediate concern is …


Banks Are Suffering From Their Own Stupidity, by The Mogambo Guru

The first half of the year is over, and now all those brokerage accounts and retirement accounts will be sending out statements to hapless account holders, and it is bad news in spades. This is why (I assume) the Plunge Protection Team (composed of the Federal Reserve, the Treasury and bank insiders) tried to drive the stock markets up on Monday, June 30 – to make those account statements look not quite as bad, and, hopefully, prevent people from dumping all of their stock and bond holdings in a desperate attempt to save something before the whole idiotic, fiat-currency, unlimited-fractional-banking …


Letter Re: Has Family Preparedness in the U.S. Declined Since 9/11/01?

Dear Mr. Rawles, I first learned of your blog site through a New York Times article that ran back in April. Since then, I have spent a lot of time on your excellent site, and have followed many of your suggestions. I think the best you’ve made so far is that people read the book “Boston’s Gun Bible“. Mine is now a well thumbed rag doll, but the amount of knowledge contained within is impressive. My larder and defensive cache are coming along nicely. I want to point out another New York Times article to you: Are You Ready for …


Surviving an Age of Greed and Envy–Criminal Looters and Looters Under Color of Law

Several SurvivalBlog readers recently sent me a link to an article that ran in Britain’s The Independent newspaper: Britain declares war on food waste. So it seems that The Powers That Be have figured out a way to ration food under a novel pretense–the wastefulness of bulk packaging. (I guess they’ve never heard of freezers, dehydrators, and vacuum packing machines. We hardly waste a morsel, here at the ranch. The subtle subtext to this new “war on waste” article ties in to the Fabian Socialist mindset that is so pervasive in England. (And sadly, here in America, as well.) They …


Letter Re: Learning from the Price of Canned Tuna

Hi Jim, A while back on the blog you had a letter from a reader regarding the price increases that are coming down the pike (pun intended) for tuna. I was in a Wal-Mart the other day, and it looks like those increases are coming sooner rather than later. Two weeks ago, I purchased a bunch of Wal-Mart house brand tuna packed in oil, 6 ounce cans, for $0.53 per can. Yesterday, I was in Wal-Mart again, and the same product is now $0.74 per can. That is a price increase of 39% in a fortnight! I’m happy to say …


Letter Re: Biofuel Problems and Sustainability

Hi Jim, A recent article in Der Spiegel gives us some real insight into food prices. My guess is that if we continue down this path we will see some important events start taking place in Third World nations that cannot afford high food prices. Here is how this can effect us here. It takes 400 pounds of corn to make 25 gallons of ethanol. This might be a weeks worth of fuel for a person commuting to work. It could be many months worth of food for that same person. You may say that you don’t eat that much …


Letter Re: The Handwriting is on the Wall for the Big Three Auto Makers

Mr. Rawles, Anyone who is paying attention would have seen the mess that America’s “Big Three” auto makers are in. A smart Peak Oil [market] player would have shorted them a while ago. But consider this little fun fact – As of this last Friday, the market capitalization of General Motors (GM) was just over $5 billion. That’s all. Toyota has about 25 times that. So are several other healthy auto makers and they all know that times are tough yet GM expects sales to pick up later this year? But consider that $5 billion. It’s cheap yet no one …


Letter Re: California’s House Prices Plummet to Surprising Depths

Hi Jim, We’ve been good about our refinancing. As the house appreciated, we took a little here and there on two re-fi[nancing]s, to pay off most of our credit debt, and to start a business. At this time a couple of years ago, the house was worth $440,000, conservatively. In January, $351,000. Just last night, using a very good evaluation tool called Zillow.com, we were surprised to find that in the last six months, the house’s value dropped [still further,] to just over $250,000. That was a shock. Almost [a] $190,000 [on-paper loss] in less than two years, in an …


Letter Re: The Five Minute Bank Run

Dear Mr. Rawles: I wanted to tell you a personal experience I just had at the bank that scares me to death. If you think a bank can last a few days during a bank run, then you will be very surprised by my story. I wanted to withdraw $10,000 from a JP Morgan Chase Bank branch in a local Houston [, Texas] suburb. Chase is the second largest bank in the US and Houston is the fourth largest city in the US. I went in and said: “Can I please have my money?” The teller disappeared for 10 minutes …