Category: Emerging Threats

A Look Ahead: Property Values in an Age of Inflation

Several SurvivalBlog readers have contacted me in recent weeks, asking me to gauge where we are in the housing market cycle, here in the United States. My replies to them have reiterated a few key points: 1.) House prices have risen between 15% and 30% in most markets in the past 12 months. This is not sustainable, unless Dollar inflation increases considerably. 2.) There is a wide diversity of regional real estate markets. Some are clearly “over-bought”, while others are likely to continue to rise. 3.) Interest rates will probably continue to remain low, but at some point, they must …


This is Not My Planned TEOTWAWKI , by S.F. in Oregon

I’ve planned and prepared for a panoply of disasters: Financial collapse?  Check.  EMP strike?  Check.  Mutant Biker Apocalypse?  Check.  Slow descent into Third World conditions?  Hmmm…  This is not the TEOTWAWKI I prepared for.  So, let’s regroup and reassess. As society collapses slowly in what can only be described as a slow-motion-controlled demolition of civilization, what are we witnessing? Labor shortages, at least for now.  Perhaps the end of unemployment benefits will reverse this, but if this is planned (The Great Reset), then it may continue.  How does this play out?  The other day a friend who does not make …


Get Out of the Cities – Part 2, by SaraSue

(Continued from Part 1. This concludes the article.) In Part 1, I discussed the primary reason for getting out of the big cities: It is just not safe. The main reasons I have been told that people hesitate on moving to a rural location is not knowing what to do for a living – getting a job. The money thing. Secondarily, the inconvenience of being far away from customary activities. Thirdly, fear of the unknown. There are many reasons why people can’t fathom moving away from the big city. Making money If you can’t “take your job with you”, for …


Get Out of the Cities – Part 1, by SaraSue

If you’re on the fence, then please get off of it and make your move. I realize how scary that sounds because I’ve done it. I realize how insane it sounds to walk away from a job with really good benefits and a retirement account. Again, because I did it. I did it for health reasons several years ago, but the current situation is no different – there is a need, a demand, a situation at hand (unconstitutional mandates?), that requires finding a spot far away from the madness and its influences. I was scared spitless at the time – …


Food: The Ultimate Weapon, by MacHam

Never before in the history of mankind has a generation of people been so distant from their food sources, both in geography and in knowledge of how they are created. Those who are intent on doing evil have used withholding food as a weapon of war for thousands of years. Unlike modern weapons of war that leave great environmental damage, starvation is a silent albeit slow killer. This leaves a populace malnourished and the people are hence easily led, unable to resist the commands of leaders. Depopulation follows, leaving all wealth and infrastructure in place. It truly is the perfect …


WTSHTF: What Will the Police Do?, by Gramthar’s Hammer

Full disclosure: I am one of them. Or I was one of them, to be more accurate. I’m retired now, so I spend my days watching the lawn grow and pondering various “what-ifs”. One of these gedankenexperiments is: “What if the wheels come off the wagon and the police are no longer guardians of peace. What would the police do if they became hungry and angry, just like the masses.” My wife thinks I should get a hobby, to which I answer I already have one: prepping. For 27 years I worked in law enforcement for several agencies. Most of …


Live Not by Lies – Part 2, by Born Free

(Continued from Part 1. This concludes the article.) Please forgive me for quoting Solzhenitsyn extensively. But I have not found more clarity anywhere, which really means I haven’t done enough research to seek out other dissidents in history. This man did nothing more, as a Russian soldier, than correspond with a friend who happened to be a soldier for “the other side”. That was it. That was his great sin that landed him in a prison camp! His private correspondence (think e-mail, text, Internet posts) was nothing more than criticism of how “the state” was handling things – and the …


Live Not by Lies – Part 1, by Born Free

In the past few years, we have all witnessed Internet censorship, up to and including the censorship of the President of the United States. My initial reaction was, “Who cares? We don’t need the media in order to live our lives! Turn it all off. Ignore them!” Then, the stories started trickling out, mostly on alternative media platforms and via individual blogger websites. It wasn’t just the popular media platforms (Facebook, Twitter, Youtube, WordPress, Reddit, etc.), the mainstream media organizations (CNN, MSNBC, FOX, ABC, NBC, CBS, etc.), major payment processors (PayPal, for one), e-mail providers (Mailchimp, for one), web hosting …


Overcoming the American Era of Self-Loathing

There is a disturbing trend that I’ve seen in contemporary American culture: Self-loathing. People young and old are being indoctrinated to hate the things that made America exceptional: Capitalism, hard work, entrepreneurship, our Founding Fathers, farming, ranching, and wholesome family relationships. Our children are even being taught to hate the color of their own skin. Some key examples are the “Systemic Racism” mantra and the now pervasive “Critical Race Theory” curricula. This trend has been promulgated by both academia and the mass media.  Ironically, the same liberals who laudably preached “treat everyone equally” are now preaching that people should be …


Nice Guys Go To The Gulag

Watching recent events has confirmed that America truly is in peril. It is now clear that the Democrats intend to pursue California-style political domination, nationwide. In California, the Democrats hold super-majorities in both the State Assembly and the State Senate. They also hold the governorship, in the person of Gavin Newsom–who is part of a wicked multi-generational four-family intermarried political dynasty that has dominated the state for 60+ years.  So now, California’s Democrats hold The Whole Enchilada. They are getting their full socialist agenda enacted, with no meaningful opposition. They are driving a Democrat steamroller over Sacramento. But clearly, the …


The “Reasonable” Dictators of D.C.

The congressmen and executive branch bureaucrats of the District of Columbia (DC) — a.k.a. The District of Criminals — are now fully exercising arbitrary and capricious powers. While supposedly operating within a constitutional framework, their dictates are becoming more and more draconian, and often downright absurd. Their latest proposal is a  “high capacity” magazine ban. I’d like to illustrate the absurdity of such proposals with an analogy: Let’s say that you live in the mythical country of The Republic of Freedonia. Freedonia is a constitutional republic with individual rights enshrined in a much-vaunted but two-century-old Constitution. Among these rights is “freedom …


On Irish Democracy – Part 1, by Born Free

Ah yes, there’s a little Irish in me.  I had forgotten about my heritage until one of my offspring did a 23&Me genetic test and after looking at the test results asked “Who’s Irish?”  She is the only one in the family with tons of reddish blonde naturally curly hair paired with blue eyes. That question triggered memories, history, and I shared the information that would have been forgotten.  My father’s mother’s family hails from the hills of Tennessee, the Appalachians.  My father insisted that they were Scots-Irish and at one time he traced the American family tree back to …


Demonetizing Precious Metals, by Serena

What got us here: In the coinage act of 1792, Congress in the United States declared the definition of our monetary units (The Dollar and the Eagle) and defined the character of each of these units with specified weights, measures, and the number of grains in silver or gold for each of these monetary units. They went on to declare the silver to gold ratio to be 15:1 which at the time was a worldwide standard. Should that balance not be declared and maintained the undervalued units would naturally migrate to other world economies. In the following 80 years, our …


20 Reasons Why America’s Next Bank Holiday Will Be a Nightmare (Updated)

JWR’s Introductory Note: Today, in lieu of our regular bi-weekly Economics and Investing column, I’m presenting an update to an article that I wrote for SurvivalBlog, back in June of 2012, titled:  20 Reasons Why America’s Next Bank Holiday Will Be a Nightmare. If anyone compares this with the original edition, you will see that I’m standing by the majority of my 2012 predictions and recommendations. If anything, nine years later, the threats that we’d face in a banking crisis will be even greater, because of increased reliance on electronic payment systems, power grid reliance, Internet reliance, and the larger …


Basic Computer Privacy and Security, by Liber T. Y.

First of all, a few disclaimers: 1. I am not a computer geek and I am not good at coding. I am merely a layman who has found some useful tools for computer privacy and security and knows a thing or two about computers (I’m also not a lawyer so any legal ramifications should be talked about with a legal professional). 2. This article is about what a layman can do to secure their computer and browse privately in the Windows operating system (OS). As such, not all of the products listed herein may work in an Apple or Linux …