Letter Re: Making a “Last Run” When the SHTF – How Do They “Ring Up” Your Purchase?

Hugh, Thank you GMJ for your great article. Having some cash at home is a great idea for when the ATM and credit/debit card readers no longer work with no power. When you make that last run to the grocery store, bring your greenbacks with you. Be prepared if their power is out. You’ve made your organized path through the store and your cart is full. You pull up to the non-functioning conveyor belt to unload your purchase to scan. Because there’s no power it means no barcode price scanner and no credit/debit. The clerk is practically paralyzed, because they …




A Forecast For 2016 and Beyond: Will America’s Cascading Collapse Finally Unfold?

Through their Zero Interest Rate Policy (ZIRP) and Quantitative Easing (QE), the Federal Reserve (“The Fed’) private banking cartel and the U.S. Treasury have conspired to rig the system. They have artificially suspended the boom-bust business cycle for the past seven years, but now, with interest rates finally rising, they’ve run out of their “smoke and mirrors” tricks. We’ve just had the appearance of an economic recovery, when no genuine structural recovery has actually occurred. Just a tiny 25 Basis Points (0.25% ) rise in the Fed Funds Rate in December 2015 caused a near full-scale collapse of the stock …




January in Precious Metals, by Steven Cochran of Gainesville Coins

Welcome to SurvivalBlog’s Precious Metals Month in Review, by Steven Cochran of Gainsesville Coins where we take a look at “the month that was” in precious metals. Each month, we cover the price action of gold and examine the “what” and “why” behind those numbers. What Did Gold Do in January? Gold started the year around the $1,061 mark and quickly blew that away as stocks worldwide saw the worst start to a year in nearly forever. This caught a record number of speculators short, who had to scramble to cover their bets. By the 7th of January, gold had …




Podcast Pick of the Week

Samuel Culper over at Forward Observer Magazine has a podcast on the Malhuer aftermath and the Lessons learned. While there are still holdouts at the wildlife refuge, the leadership has been taken down and arrested, one man is dead and many have left the refuge. Culper walks the listeners through the intelligence failures and what could have been done better and how the community can learn from this event. Malhuer aftermath and the Lessons learned




Prayer Requests: America’s Latest Inversions of Justice

Like many other Americans living in rural towns, I attend a church that is small enough that there is time to hear the prayer requests of individual congregants–both at the Wednesday evening Bible study meeting and at the Sunday worship services. This coming Sunday, I plan to voice three prayer requests in succession. This is in reaction to three news stories that have circulated in just the past two weeks. These news reports have deeply troubled me, and have begun to dominate my prayer life. All three of these involve inversions of justice. They are: Indictment of the Planned Parenthood …




Digital Currency: The Key Tool of 21st Century Monolithic Nanny State Tyranny

There has been talk of doing away with paper currency for several decades, but up until now that has mostly been idle conjecture and mostly bluster. Gradually, however, the building blocks of such a system have indeed been developed. These enabling technologies include: Credit cards Debit cards Postal meters Credit and debit card enabled pay phones Credit and debit card enabled vending machines Credit and debit card enabled “pay before you exit” parking garage kiosks Grocery and warehouse store “member” cards Automated bank account and wage garnishment by the IRS Automated child support and alimony payments Transnational debit cards with …




Malheur: The 3,025 FPS Arrest Warrant

News of the recent events in Oregon deeply saddened me. According to Victoria Sharp (who was in the car that was ambushed) Lavoy Finicum was shot when he had his hands in the air. We really won’t know who to believe until video of the event is released. (There were 30+ vehicles there, so the chances are very good that a dashcam recorded what happened.) The Federal agents have apparently now upped the ante, turning what had been a peaceful dialogue into a shooting affray. It saddens me to hear that there was loss of life in the ambush-arrest of …




Hillary Rodham Clinton: The Queen of Codeword Compromise–America’s #1 Unprosecuted Felon

Recent news reports on the Clinton Servergate scandal have made it clear that Hillary Rodham Clinton (HRC) does not deserve a term in the White House. Rather, she deserves a term in prison, a long term. On January 19th, Fox News published an exclusively-obtained, unclassified letter written by I. Charles McCullough III, the Intelligence Community Inspector General for the Director of Central Intelligence (DCI). His letter summarized the findings of a recent comprehensive review by intelligence agencies that identified “several dozen” previously unreported classified e-mails stored on Clinton’s “secret” (yet unsecure) server that until 2013 was managed by Justin Cooper, …




Letter Re: The Latest Wave of The Sagebrush Rebellion, Response by N.E.

I was glad to see JWR and SurvivalBlog writing about this topic. There are many historical aspects to this situation that seem to be lacking information. From a macro perspective, what is interesting to me about the entire discourse of the BLM and the 1976 Federal Land Policy and Management Act is how the entire law was largely about resources. The Oregon situation is also about resources. Sure, there are many narratives and news stories that provide different information and details about differences in perspective. However, let us not lose sight as prudent people to a major theme that surrounds …




Making A Conceal Carry Vest, by C.E.

Surviving is really a willingness to accept the challenge of a life-threatening change that is forced on you. A world that requires a grandmother to conceal carry has been one of my biggest challenges. Can I keep a firearm close at hand for self defense, be legal, be safe around my grandchildren, and still be comfortable? I rarely wear any clothing that will handle a holster. I like the belly band system but find they don’t always work with dresses, and at the end of the day they can be rough on the skin. A conceal carry purse seems too …




Letter Re: Active Shooter Response

In light of both the mass shooting in California as well as a shooting scenario that my sister-in-law dealt with on the same day with a non-lethal shootout in her neighbor’s home, it has become apparent that the time has come for families, churches, and communities to take measures to avoid being soft targets. My sister-in-law gave asylum to her neighbors after an angry ex-boyfriend went over to her neighbor’s house and threatened them with a gun. A 2-year-old and a 4-year-old were left in the basement of the neighbor’s house while their mother and two other men dove out …




The Latest Wave of The Sagebrush Rebellion

The recent events at the former Malheur Wildlife Refuge (now called the Harney County Resource Center) are just the latest wave of the well-justified Sagebrush Rebellion that has been going on in western states for 30+ years. Even though they lack any constitutional authority over land that should rightfully belong to the States (per Article 1, Section 8, Clause 17), bureaucrats from the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) have been riding roughshod over the west. They have been doing so through their often capricious and dictatorial policies on grazing, timber cutting, mining, weed control, access to water, hunting, recreational shooting, …




Persevering Through the Panic of 2016

The first two weeks of 2016 have been disastrous for both the commodities markets and the equities markets. Looking at the DJIA and the S&P indexes, more than $3.5 trillion has been lost on paper in just two weeks. Crude oil has dropped to around $29 per barrel. There seems to be no end in sight for the bad economic news. I expect to see further deep market declines, intraday “circuit breaker” market interventions, and perhaps even full-day trading suspensions and bank holidays. I must remind you that I’m writing this on a three-day holiday weekend. (Martin Luther King Jr. …




Letter: Stocks, Gold and Gas

HJL, My wife and I were giving a home school economics lesson at the pumps the other day. We talked to our kids about how most people live and work and the daily driving it requires. My wife and I concluded that this gas price drop has put $350 per month back in the pocket of the average neighbor around here. That is no small thing. I saw sales at my antique store rise in the last half of December and continue at a brisk pace this month. That people are buying used stuff points to the new frugality that …




Katrina– “A Wakeup Call”, by M.M.

Here’s a little insight for everyone. This is a brief synopsis of a firsthand account of why everyone should prepare for the unknown. I have been a police officer for most of my adult life in the New Orleans metro area and was working when Hurricane Katrina made landfall. The media focused mainly on the impoverished areas, but the world failed to see the whole picture. I cannot begin to describe the stress present prior to the storm making landfall. Several questions consumed me during the week leading up to this event: Is this going to be bad enough to …