Category: Current Events & Politics

Three Letters Re: The Noose is Tightening

HJL, I recommend that readers strive to make deposits and withdrawals via an ATM. There is no opportunity to be interrogated by a teller. I’ve also found that a deposit of a larger value seems to clear faster (i.e. funds available in my account) if I perform the deposit via an ATM. – P.S. o o o HJL, I checked with a friend of mine that works in a small community bank in NJ. She was not aware of the most intrusive questions at all. Income and employer of both to make a deposit plus the other questions they do …


Letter: The Noose is Tightening

HJL, Report from Maryland: I went to the bank today to make a deposit (two medical insurance reimbursement checks). I was informed that I had to show my drivers license or passport to make a deposit. (Up until now ID had to be provided only for withdrawals.) Then, the teller told me I needed to provide personal information: name of employer, annual salary, citizenship of another country or dual citizenship, foreign bank account holdings, and because it is a joint account, I was told to provide the same for my spouse. I’ll let you and others imagine my response. I …


Becoming A Warrior At Gunsite Academy, by J.H.

I had dreams of becoming an armed warrior at a very young age. My father and my uncle put a .22 rifle in my hands after I joined the Boy Scouts, and they asked that I go with them through the woods along the Cahaba River in Shelby County, Alabama. They cared less about sports and preferred that I learn how to survive in a non-urban/non-suburban environment. I believe they were interested in passing along family history as much as anything else. They told me how my ancestors, mainly my great-grandfathers, survived as warriors when they fought in the American …


Mike Williamson’s Review: Benjamin Blatt, Firearm Attorney in Indiana

Benjamin Blatt is licensed in Indiana only at this point, so this review will unfortunately have a limited market. https://www.facebook.com/hoosierattorney My own knowledge of firearms law is extensive, for a layman and activist who has been at this since 1986. So, coming across a professional with detailed knowledge of the fine points is a great find. Ben recently set me up with two firearms trusts– one trust for NFA items specifically and one for my valuable antiques and collectibles. The price for each was exceptionally reasonable. The process for both was simple and straightforward. I provided him with information on …


Letter Re: An Introduction to Gangs – Part 1, by T.N.

HJL, In an introduction to gangs he blames gangs primarily on “lawyers, politicians, and judges who defend and promote these groups as well as the culture and media, which have helped them recruit and excused their behavior as “cultural differences”. However, the real blame should be placed squarely on the unconstitutional war on drugs. Without the war on drugs, and the black market profits it creates, these gangs would quickly wither away to almost nothing, just like the the ones based on alcohol were withering away after prohibition of alcohol was ended till we foolishly replaced one source of profit …


An Introduction to Gangs – Part 3, by T.N.

WHITE SUPREMECY AND SKINHEAD GROUPS: There are far more groups in this category than I could ever hope to name, but they are usually easy to spot. Unfortunately, they are actually very commonly found in prepper circles and in the survivalist communities. Most white supremacy groups and skinhead groups are far more concerned with their political cause and less with committing acts of violence. This being said many of them have committed isolated acts of violence at some time or another, and many times conduct regular criminal enterprises that include making/selling meth and buying or selling illegal guns. Most violence …


An Introduction to Gangs – Part 2, by T.N.

Specific Gangs, Their Behavior, and How To Identify Them The examples given in this section are by no means the only gangs to be concerned with; they are just a few examples of some gangs you may see. Crips: The Crips are a notorious gang that originated in Los Angeles California back in the 1960’s but have spread to every state in the nation with an estimated 35,000 members in 2007, according to FBI statistics. (This figure is based on the number who have been arrested and is likely a very low estimate.) They are predominantly an African-American ethnic gang; …


An Introduction to Gangs – Part 1, by T.N.

The Threat Unfortunately our American justice (or in-justice) system has utterly failed to curtail certain groups and organizations from threatening the safety of the American public. I am warning you that just beneath the super-thin veneer of American civil society lurks a dark and deadly threat. It’s a threat so insidious that it kills young children often times for sport and so powerful it has purchased politicians at both state and federal levels of government. Most people see very little of this threat, only catching glimpses of it as it burns through the thin layer of civility and boils over …


Letter Re: Digital Security

HJL, Where TrueCrypt left off, VeraCrypt has picked up the baton. (It has the exact same interface, same features with improvements made behind the scenes.) The TrueCrypt letter specifically said that there “May still be unresolved security issues…” They didn’t say it wasn’t secure. They were quite vague. They were in the middle of an audit and quit before the results came out. VeraCrypt takes the results of the audit and appeared to correct some of the very minor issues. I was impressed by how few they are (i.e., increasing some iterations from a few thousand to hundreds of thousands), …


Letter Re: Digital Security

Hello from Russia! This Friday, SurvivalBlog mentioned “Digital Security- Part 2, by Dakota”. As a computer specialist and a paranoiac, I must warn you about two things. Bitmessage is absolutely secure. (I mean that nobody can read an encrypted message or find the sender or recipient or fact of communication between them.) But the price of this fact is too high and is a security hole by itself: Bitmessage client sends your message to every other client. What does it mean? In reality, every client would receive all the traffic the system creates. If, say, every one of 100 users …


Digital Security- Part 2, by Dakota

Secure Email (continued) Public key encryption works like this: you have two keys– a public key and a private key. Your public key is just that; it’s something you share with the public. Think of it as more of a padlock though. When someone wants to send you an email, they lock it with this padlock. No one along the way can see what’s inside the email (not even your email provider). When you want to read the email you use your private key just like you would use a literal key to unlock, or rather decrypt, the message. Your …


Digital Security- Part 1, by Dakota

Before we begin, note that the title is a bit of a misnomer. Digital security is mostly nonexistent. When computers took off, security was never a concern, so they are inherently insecure. I will do my best to help you secure your computer as much as possible. The point isn’t to make your computer invulnerable to attack. That’s impossible. However, just like your survival retreat security, the goal is to make yourself such a hard target that hackers or the government move on to lower hanging fruit. Again, nothing in here will make you immune to the NSA. They have …


Letter Re: Ancestry Story

HJL, It looks like there is a differing view that counters the story you linked to… Facts matter!. – D.S. HJL Responds: There is always more than one side to any argument; this one is no exception. However, the author of the “Facts matter!” article that you are referencing, while making the accusation that the original author is twisting “the facts” to suit his purpose, does the exact same thing. Given both articles, here are my concerns: Does anyone who submits their DNA to Sorenson Labs (Ancestory) have a reasonable expectation that their DNA will be used for any purpose …


Letter Re: Bird Flu Becoming Critical

James, Our county department of health is running an exercise to see how well they could do if they had to distribute an anti-viral to the community. They are asking for volunteers to take part in an effort to try to stress their delivery system. I am encouraged that the local officials, even in hyper-liberal Boulder County Colorado, take the possibility of an outbreak seriously enough to run an exercise. – R.R.


Letter Re: Google Almighty

HJL: Search with Google, the candidate “Scott Walker” and then use Duck Duck Go to search the same thing. When I did it, Google queued up 10 articles on him that were all negative. The Duck queued up 6 favorable articles with four negative articles. I’m not necessarily endorsing Mr. Walker, but he is a controversial figure, due to his anti-union measures, making him a good example of Google limiting not just what you see but what you should think. – RV