Category: Current Events & Politics

Letter: Russia

1

I found this article to be profound. I think it’s valuable to get into the head of potential enemies, as well as to understand how history has shaped their culture and especially their view of outsiders. Over the years, the author, Dimitri Orlov, has had some fascinating, insightful, and useful observations about the ongoing and accelerating collapse of the United States, and I respect his opinion. I also recognize that he might have a positive bias toward Russia, which is understandable, but if this article is biased I don’t think it’s by very much. What most fascinates me with Orlov’s …


Guest Article: SHTF Intelligence – Getting Started- Part Three, by Samuel Culper

This is the third article in a series about using intelligence for preparedness. I’m starting from square zero in order to introduce a new crop of Americans to the concept of using intelligence, to prove that there’s a need for intelligence and to get readers quickly up to speed on how to incorporate it into their security planning. For a better foundation, be sure to read Part One and Part Two and check out the Ultimate ACE Startup Guide, too. Brief Recap In the first article, we established that prepared communities need intelligence because they’re going to have blind spots …


The Times They Are A Changin’ , by ShepherdFarmerGeek

Last night, the Dogs of Doom and I were out for our after-dinner hike when we heard what sounded like voices. But it was coming from the treetops, and soon a crow flew into sight, pursued by an angry sparrow. The crow was smarter, stronger, faster, and much bigger than the little bird, but he was being driven away because the sparrow was out-maneuvering it. I knew exactly how that crow felt! Nine hours earlier I had been the only customer at the local copy shop, and the owner was helping me find some colored paper, when this sour-looking elderly …


Budget Planning- Part 5, by Sarah Latimer

Cutting Costs- Some Ideas We Have Implemented As I have said before, it is necessary to set priorities and develop a spending plan with your spouse and family in order to utilize your financial resources to achieve life goals. If you have followed along so far, you’ve documented your current income, your fixed expenses, and your flexible expenses. You have begun to consider other sources of income and maybe ways to cut expenses. Hopefully, you have also taken time to get a healthy perspective on money and its roles in your life as well as your spending habits. Have you …


Guest Article: Obama’s Executive Order and the Gunsmith, by Gene Kelly

Does the recent Obama “executive order” really affect your ability to do your own gunsmithing or be a professional gunsmith?! If you listen to the wagging tongues, supposedly all gunsmiths are going to have to register with the State Department DDTC and pay big fees. In reality, well, not so much. The first thing I want to tell you is don’t panic. Things are not as dire as initially broadcast widely over the Internet. The current government would love nothing better than to have you throw up your hands and quit gunsmithing or stop working on your guns. In fact, …


Is Being Prepared Getting In The Way of Living?, by M.

What are you preparing for? Are you getting ready to survive an EMP attack? A financial meltdown? Flu pandemic? Nuclear holocaust? Regardless of what we are preparing for, sometimes it is healthy to ask ourselves how we are living in the meantime. Those of us who feel a need to prepare do it with a passion, but are we preparing in sensible ways that allow us to enjoy life each day, or are we so busy watching and waiting for the chaos of life to justify the time and money we’ve spent on our “preps” that we miss a lot …


Guest Article: SHTF Intelligence – Getting Started- Part 2, by Samuel Culper

This is the second article in a series about using intelligence for preparedness. I’m starting from square zero, in order to introduce a new crop of Americans to the concept of using intelligence, to prove that there’s a need for intelligence, and to get readers quickly up to speed on how to incorporate it into their security planning. After getting caught up to speed, if you’d like to gain a deeper knowledge and put theory into practice, a book entitled *SHTF Intelligence will show you the way forward. You can find a small homework exercise here. In the first article, …


Letter Re: Wifi At a Discrete Distance

It’s better to find an adapter with antenna port. This is a high-powered single-band adapter or a dual band (I’d recommend the 5Ghz band if possible, but it is still a bit rare) with RP-SMA connection. Then add a good antenna; the omni is probably equal to the Yagi. If there isn’t interference and is dual band but this Yagi will pull in from a longer distance. If you can get two and get a connector, you can put it “in the middle” like in a tree and point one at the source and one where you are using it, …


Madame President Clinton’s Coming War on the Blogosphere, and Your Countermeasures

Now that Hillary (“Hitlery”) Rodham Clinton (HRC) has received the Democratic Party nomination for president, there is a strong likelihood that she will win the election in November and then be enthroned as president in January of 2017. I predict that she will waste no time in launching an onslaught of punitive new policies via executive orders, presidential memoranda, and policy directives promulgated through her cabinet and Federal agencies to eviscerate our Constitutional rights (most notably the 1st and 2nd Amendments). A key goal this campaign will be silencing dissent in the alternative press and the American blogosphere. Given HRC’s …


Budget Planning- Part 4, by Sarah Latimer

Flexible Expenses This is the list of all expenses that are generally short-term commitments and flexible in their amount. Initially, try to get a handle on where you are spending your money right now. Once you have that written down and can get the picture of how your income is being used, you can begin to make adjustments based upon your goals. So, be realistic and honest in this step! I will write more about how to cut some of these costs down in the next section, but for now get a handle on your spending. You will be able …


SurvivalBlog’s Orwell Awards – 2016

As promised (but after a delay) we are announcing our first set of Orwell Awards. These are awarded to individuals and organizations who have abused the English language with Newspeak distortions in ways that degrade our liberty, our dignity, our heritage, and the truth, in the past year. Our thanks to the many readers who e-mailed us their nominations. We plan to issue these awards annually. The winners are: First Place: Barack Hussein Obama, for his “Gender Identity Mandate“. Under Obama’s twisted logic, any school, organization, agency, or business will be denied Federal funds or contracts if they don’t allow …


Getting To Your Children and Keeping Them Safe: Help For An Absentee Parent- Part 1, by J.C.

The United States has nearly 1.2 million divorces* of married couples. There are an estimated 25 million children* living in single parent households, and many parents travel long distances for work, spending nights away from home. Setting aside for a moment the reasons for these situations, the fact is that a large portion of children are away from either one or both parents for extended periods of time. If you are a parent who spends time away from your child, how do you plan to save them in a SHTF moment, or more importantly, get to them in a crisis …


Document It! The Pressing Need for More Citizen Journalists

The recent tragic police shooting events have made it clear that there is a need to have more citizens of all skin tones document their interactions with the police, federal agents, and all public officials. For your own protection and for the protection of our collective rights, I strongly recommend taking these steps, immediately: Get press credentials. Genuine press credentials with Photo ID are available free of charge and can be printed out immediately at our CFAPA.org blog spinoff web site. Carry a sign. Print and carry a “PRESS” sign to display on your dashboard. (Also available free at the …


Letter Re: Digital Currency Weapons and Intel Tools

Hello, I have recently been doing a bit of research for my Payroll and Accounting class, and part of that led me to a 2007 Kansas law that allowed employers to select the form of payment to employees. These include things you might expect, like cash, direct deposit, checks, and more interestingly for me payroll debit cards. The payroll debit cards led to further research I thought worth sharing and somewhat related. To be clear, I fully support a laissez-faire approach to private business, but the digital trend may be worth looking at. First, governments around the world are keenly …


Mindset of Financial Preparedness: The Color Code, by L.F. in Texas

We live in a world where almost everything happens rapidly and often by remote. Books and movies are downloaded from the Internet for instant entertainment. We travel freely and quickly around the world. Things like automatic dishwashers and laundry machines aren’t even remarkable anymore. And everywhere we go, in person or online, we are enticed to spend money freely, without thought of tomorrow. Being a prepper, however, means that we are thinking ahead to what might happen tomorrow, or next month or year, and getting ready for those possibilities. How does that affect our financial strategies? Colonel Jeff Cooper was …