Category: Emerging Threats

Shoot or Don’t Shoot–Moral Implications of the Split-Second Decision to Take a Life, by Jeff R.

It doesn’t have to be TEOTWAWKI for a person to be faced with the choice of shoot or don’t shoot. Everyday in the United States a police officer somewhere makes that choice (sometimes they choose “don’t shoot”). All too often, average Joe or Jane Citizen must make that choice. Hopefully dear reader, that day will never come for you, but if it does, here are a few things to help you not hesitate when necessity requires that you pull the trigger, and to help you live with the consequences. Decide now that you will shoot another person if it becomes …


Letter Re: The Quasi-Reality Television Show “The Colony”

James, Last night was the first episode of a survival reality show on The Discovery Channel, ‘The Colony’, It is a 10-week experiment illustrating how 10 people cope with life after a biological wipe-out. They started with the first six participants being sleep deprived for 30 hours, then “raiding” a department store for whatever they can find before engaging in an eight mile walk through the Los Angeles River [–now a concrete aqueduct, which is dry most of each year–] to find an abandoned factory marked “Sanctuary”. The show did illustrate how most of us who are unprepared will fail …


Three Letters Re: The Simple Reality of EMP — Different Than You Might Expect

Dear JWR, I read the EMP article by Andru and thought it very well done with one minor correction in the power generation area (worked in the nuclear power industry for 20 years before changing careers). The EMP E3 pulse is very dangerous to the transformers in the transmission and distribution system, and hydro-electric and nuclear will also be severely affected. Commercial generators of any output run at 8,000-10,000 volts which is fed immediately to step up transformers to feed the transmission system. The most common voltage for the transmission system is 250,000 to 500,000 volts (3 phase) which reduces …


Six Letters Re: Self-Sufficiency in England? Take the Gap

Hello Mr. Rawles, Thank you for taking the time to reply to my previous e-mail. I must confess your original post on your blog and your reply left me feeling somewhat bothered and a little defensive. I have been mulling this over all day and deep down I know the reason why, it’s because you are absolutely 100% right. My wife who makes my world go round could not leave her family, my son who has special needs is receiving very specialist care locally, my community, friends and neighbours who have worked this land for generations rely on me for …


The Simple Reality of EMP — Different Than You Might Expect, by Andru

One topic I have paid close attention to for the past 10 years has been our nation’s risk to Electromagnetic Pulse (EMP).  There are a few points I would like to make that are often overlooked—mostly dealing with the magnitude of the threat.  I don’t claim to be an expert on the subject, but I have consumed as much information as possible that doesn’t delve into the high-level physics—the kind of knowledge required to truly be an expert.  What may set me apart the most is the simple fact that I actually read the 181 page Critical National Infrastructures (CNI) …


Letter Re: Some Details on the High Altitude EMP Threat

Mr. Rawles, Within our Christian survivalist group in Washington State, we use your novel Patriots, as a primer for friends. Keep up the great job you do. Please consider the following statement with your readers. I believe that an electromagnetic pulse (EMP) attack by satellite can happen to the U.S. without any notice at all, and many nations already have the satellites in order to produce the end result. This is not meant to scare, but just an observation on how our great country can be taken back to the 1800s technology and a Third World country economic level, in …


Oh, Henry! Worried About TEOTWAWKI?

A recent news headline in the English newspaper The Independent caught my eye: Paulson reveals US concerns of breakdown in law and order. I only rarely post entire newspaper articles. But this article is particularly significant to the SurvivalBlog readership, and since it is brief, I’m posting it in full: The Bush administration and Congress discussed the possibility of a breakdown in law and order and the logistics of feeding US citizens if commerce and banking collapsed as a result of last autumn’s financial panic, it was disclosed yesterday. Making his first appearance on Capitol Hill since leaving office, the …


Three Rules for Living Through the Second Depression, by Chaz Valenza

I believe we are on the precipice of the Second Depression. Though President Obama is working valiantly to turn the country’s financial ship, it appears to me that the lack of a genuine economic engine to create sufficient, sustaining, value-adding jobs will come too late. What should the common man do? Much of the advice on how to live through such hard times is often too specific, not specific enough or draconian. How many of us are ready or should even consider survivalist methods? Who among us can afford to completely restructure their finances on a moment’s notice? Which of …


H1N1 Influenza: A Cytokine Storm Conclusion, But Still More Questions Than Answers

The good news on H1N1 (commonly called Swine Flu) is that in current strains the death rate appears to be as low as 1 in 2,000 infections, at least in First World countries with modern hospital facilities. The bad news is that at least 60% of world’s population is expect to contract the bug, and that further mutations are probable. The Mutation Question Mutations to less virulent strains are the historic norm for viruses but there is the risk of one that is very deadly. (To explain: in the grand scheme of things, a mutation with high lethality is is …


Ug-99 and The Ugly Times Ahead–There’ll Be Fungus Among Us

My consulting clients often ask me me for predictions. “What’s your timeframe, Mister Rawles?” I hear that in almost every consulting call. My clients ask: “When will the US economy crater?” I tell them that is impossible to predict, because there are so many variables and interdependencies, and because the markets are so heavily manipulated. They also ask me: Is the H1N1 Flu sure to mutate in to a more virulent strain, and if so, when?” I answer: “That is impossible to predict.” I’m also often quizzed about the Ug-99 wheat fungus (aka “Durable Wheat Rust”, or simply “the stem …


Letter Re: An Upcoming Retreat Purchase — Sell Gold or Take a Mortgage?

Jim, We love your site. It is part of our daily must reads. While driving to view possible retreat locations today, we printed out your advice on retreat locations and read it again as we drove to the determined area. After looking most of the day, we literally stumble upon (because it was not visible from the road – only a for sale sign) a nearly perfect location, several springs, trees, hillside with level areas, in the top three in all categories of your retreat lists, etc. In looking to make an offer we wanted your advice regarding financing the …


Security at Places of Worship: More Than a Matter of Faith, by Scott Stewart and Fred Burton

In recent months, several high-profile incidents have raised awareness of the threat posed by individuals and small groups operating under the principles of leaderless resistance. These incidents have included lone wolf attacks against a doctor who performed abortions in Kansas, an armed forces recruitment center in Arkansas and the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C. Additionally, a grassroots jihadist cell was arrested for attempting to bomb Jewish targets in the Bronx and planning to shoot down a military aircraft at an Air National Guard base in Newburgh, N.Y. In addition to pointing out the threat posed by grassroots cells …


Letter Re: Keeping Cash On Hand–A Lesson Learned

Dear Jim, I didn’t need a major nationwide SHTF moment to learn a lesson this week. (Why didn’t I listen to your advice before this happened!) On the 15th, someone intercepted my new debit card before it reached my mailbox and cleaned out my checking account at a gas station in another state at 3:00 AM. I didn’t have much in there, as it went into overdraft, but it was all I had and I needed it to get to the end of the month. When the bank called at 10:00 AM, I assured them it wasn’t me who overdrew …


The Meme of Crushroom: A Key Retreat Architecture Element

One bit of retreat architecture that I’ve often recommended to my consulting clients who are designing (or retrofitting) retreats is the inclusion of a protruding entryway foyer, that I call a crushroom. Passing this advice along to you gives me the chance to employ one of my horrible puns: The Meme of Crushroom. A crushroom is a controllable confined space, typically an entry foyer, that can be covered with small arms fire or subjected to irritant or obscurant smoke or sprays. The outer door (or barred gate) to the crushroom is normally left open, but has a spring loaded self …


Letter Re: Societal Collapse: The Albanian Experience (Circa 1997)

Mr. Rawles, I’m a new SurvivalBlog reader, and your blog goes along a lot with many of my own thoughts and precautions; things many people these days consider ridiculous, but that an old instructor of mine (from a gov’t agency that shall go unnamed) would probably call “maintaining a healthy level of paranoia”. In browsing your blog and its archives, I have been surprised to find no mention of the Albanian crisis in 1997. I believe that it offers a strong example of how quickly and unexpectedly a (relatively) advanced society can descend into chaos, and how drastic the consequences …