Notes for Thursday – December 24, 2015

December 24, 2015 will be the 16th Anniversary of when John Joe Gray’s legal troubles began. He and his family have been self-sufficiently holed up in their Texas ranch for 13 years, in defiance of a warrant for his arrest. This has been the longest standoff in American history, in which he has faced the administrations of four different county sheriffs.

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Today, we present another entry for Round 62 of the SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing contest. The nearly $12,000 worth of prizes for this round include:

First Prize:

  1. A Tactical Self-Contained 2-Series Solar Power Generator system from Always Empowered. This compact starter power system is packaged in a wheeled O.D. green EMP-shielded Pelican hard case (a $1,700 value),
  2. A Gunsite Academy Three Day Course Certificate that is good for any one, two, or three day course (a $1,195 value),
  3. A course certificate from onPoint Tactical for the prize winner’s choice of three-day civilian courses, excluding those restricted for military or government teams. Three day onPoint courses normally cost $795,
  4. DRD Tactical is providing a 5.56 NATO QD Billet upper with a hammer forged, chromlined barrel and a hard case to go with your own AR lower. It will allow any standard AR type rifle to have quick change barrel, which can be assembled in less than one minute without the use of any tools and a compact carry capability in a hard case or 3-day pack (an $1,100 value),
  5. Gun Mag Warehouse is providing 20 Magpul pmags 30-rd Magazines (a value of $300) and a Gun Mag Warehouse T-Shirt; (an equivalent prize will be awarded for residents in states with magazine restrictions),
  6. Two cases of Mountain House freeze dried assorted entrees in #10 cans, courtesy of Ready Made Resources (a $350 value),
  7. The Ark Institute is donating a non-GMO, non-hybrid vegetable seed package (enough for two families of four) plus seed storage materials, a CD-ROM of Geri Guidetti’s book “Build Your Ark! How to Prepare for Self Reliance in Uncertain Times”, and two bottles of Potassium Iodate (a $325 retail value),
  8. A $250 gift certificate from Sunflower Ammo,
  9. KellyKettleUSA.com is donating both an AquaBrick water filtration kit and a Stainless Medium Scout Kelly Kettle Complete Kit with a combined retail value of $304, and
  10. Two cases of meals, Ready to Eat (MREs), courtesy of CampingSurvival.com (a $180 value).

Second Prize:

  1. A Glock form factor SIRT laser training pistol and a SIRT AR-15/M4 Laser Training Bolt, courtesy of Next Level Training, which have a combined retail value of $589,
  2. A FloJak EarthStraw “Code Red” 100-foot well pump system (a $500 value), courtesy of FloJak.com,
  3. A transferable certificate for a two-day Ultimate Bug Out Course from Florida Firearms Training (a $400 value),
  4. A Model 175 Series Solar Generator provided by Quantum Harvest LLC (a $439 value),
  5. A Trekker IV™ Four-Person Emergency Kit from Emergency Essentials (a $250 value),
  6. A $200 gift certificate good towards any books published by PrepperPress.com,
  7. A pre-selected assortment of military surplus gear from CJL Enterprize (a $300 value),
  8. RepackBox is providing a $300 gift certificate to their site, and
  9. Safecastle is providing a package of 10 LifeStraws (a $200 value)

Third Prize:

  1. A Royal Berkey water filter, courtesy of Directive 21 (a $275 value),
  2. A $245 gift certificate from custom knifemaker Jon Kelly Designs, of Eureka, Montana,
  3. A large handmade clothes drying rack, a washboard, and a Homesteading for Beginners DVD, all courtesy of The Homestead Store, with a combined value of $206,
  4. Expanded sets of both washable feminine pads and liners, donated by Naturally Cozy (a $185 retail value),
  5. Two Super Survival Pack seed collections, a $150 value, courtesy of Seed for Security, LLC,
  6. Mayflower Trading is donating a $200 gift certificate for homesteading appliances,
  7. APEX Gun Parts is donating a $250 purchase credit,
  8. Montie Gear is donating a Precision Rest (a $249 value), and
  9. Two 1,000-foot spools of full mil-spec U.S.-made 750 paracord (in-stock colors only) from www.TOUGHGRID.com (a $240 value).

Round 62 ends on January 31st, so get busy writing and e-mail us your entry. Remember that there is a 1,500-word minimum, and that articles on practical “how to” skills for survival have an advantage in the judging.

The Grid Will Never Be Down in the Way You May Think! – Part 1, by X-liberal

I want to illustrate is that the grid is never going to be down. That is, I mean it won’t be down for the “chosen few”. Why? Well, let’s go to God’s word in the Book of Revelation Chapter 13:16 and have a look.

“And he causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads: and that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name.”

What this is saying is that those who have this mark will be able to buy and sell in the free market system. Those “chosen” people would be able to have medical treatment, products from the grocery stores, online shopping deliveries, and a conduit for buying and selling. This means that there will always be a grid up so FedEx planes can transport goods, UPS can deliver boxes to homes, grocery stores will have trucks arriving for restocking, hospitals would be capable of surgery procedures, and even an occasional trip to the opera will all be available right up to the end of the world. The Grid will never be down, according to scriptures. That is, the grid will never be down for the chosen few.

Who are the chosen few?

We already are seeing some strong anti-God and anti-bible social pressures, including high school students having their microphones pulled for mentioning “God” at a graduation ceremony; an elementary student expelled for writing an essay about Jesus; college students removed from campus for being Christian; terminations from work due to having a certain political party presidential candidate’s bumper sticker on their car (happened to me); people called “a hater” for believing God’s Word illustrates that marriage is between a man and a woman rather than between two men or between two women or between a man and a farm animalor; the removal of anything Christian from the public realm through challenges of “separation of church from state”. Those classified as veterans, Christians, rightwing extremists or essentially Republican voters are being placed on the Domestic Terrorist watch list by Home Land Security since a certain Democrat took over the Whitehouse. This will not cease, folks.

I’m a CPA and hold an MBA in accounting. My lovely Asian wife holds an MBA in marketing and is pursing a PhD. I wanted to underscore our background to alert you that many, many professionals are paying heed to the warning signs. In addition, I wanted to demonstrate that individuals preparing to “survive” are not just those bucktooth, homeless-looking, tatteredly-dressed people that the Liberal media illustrates when they waltz through gun shows to interview people. To lead into this, we have all seen the effects of being a Christian or Conservative in the free enterprise system, our place of employment. When we are upholding our conservative values at work, we are flagged for termination, downsized, let go, identified for non-renewal of contracts, and black listed.

There will always be a grid, folks, always! It’s just that the grid will slowly but surely become monopolized by a liberal contrivance, which is a Democratic candidate voter pool. There already are sects of hate speech laws passed through the Obamacare Act. A “hater” is flagged by Liberals, investigated by the FBI for hate crimes, and usually criminalized for their view adhering to the Conservative agenda. Let me explain.

Do you remember that George Orwell novel, Animal Farm? You understand the definition of bias or specialized rights, if you have read this. The character in the book, Napoleon, who is a pig, had another pig terminated to obtain sole power over the animals on the farm. One day Napoleon wrote on the barn wall, “All animals are created equal.” It sounds lovely enough, and the animals bought into his leadership. The next day he wrote under that phrase, “But some animals are more equal than others.”

That is where we are, folks. There are three groups of Liberals (Democrats) upheld as having “special” human rights over others. If you dissect this for a moment and go with my train of thought, they are women’s right, black right, and gay right holders. Now, before anyone gets their fanny all in a wad with underwear stuck in it, my family is not racist, sexist, or homophobic. We love everyone. That means we love everyone, no mater the race, gender, or choices they make in life, period. However, the liberal bandwagon doesn’t love everyone equally. Women’s rights are doled out to 51% of the world’s population. (In fact, to hold these human rights, their measuring stick is that one must not don a penis. That’s a nice rights movement.) Liberals uphold human rights for people of color, too, meaning that 88% of the American population will not receive these specialized human rights. The gay, lesbian, beastiality, transgender, and bisexual communities also have special human rights just for sexual conduct to proliferate under the banner of G.L.B.T.B. (These human rights are currently doled out to 0.1% of the world’s population, meaning 99.9% of the world’s population do not have these human rights.)

Now I thought human rights were for all human beings, since they are “human”. Right? Am I wrong to think that human rights were doled out indiscriminately to everyone, all at the same time, anywhere on planet Earth? I mean, isn’t that equal rights– everyone receiving the same human rights? Well, that’s not correct, according to Liberal ideology. Adolph Hitler underscored in his book Mein Kempf that if you turn groups of the population against the other sects, the government can step in with authority and with the solution. In his case, it was the “Final Solution”.

Let’s sunder the results…

Women’s Rights**

  • Sued over $1 trillion out of corporate American since 1960
  • Terminated the lives of babies in the realm of 58 million since 1973
  • The divorce rate was 8% in 1960 and today is over 62%
  • Women working rate was 8% in 1960 and today is about 70%
  • 91% of child custody cases are awarded in favor of the mother
  • 35% of men have been confronted by law enforcement in the courting process to be married
  • 92% of men financially support women (working/non-working) in marriage or through child support
  • Women serve less time in prison than men for the same crime
  • Domestic violence, harassment, stalking, and assault charges against men are at an all-time high
  • Sexual harassment training illustrate men to be sexual predators and deviants at their work places
  • Feminists don’t assume wifely duties, when liberated. It is construed as the “real” sexual harassment

Black Rights**

  • Over 1000 Internet sites for black-only surfers
  • Over 300 tabloids and syndicate media outlets for black-only readers
  • Over 100 Radio programs for black-only listeners
  • Over 10 television stations for black-only viewers (BET is the biggest)
  • United Negro College Fund
  • Black Caucus in Congress
  • Black History Month
  • Black-only clubs at all major universities
  • *All above said mentioned groups condone/ enforce discrimination against other races with no reprisal
  • *When Donald Sterling said, “Don’t bring black people to the game,” he was shaken down for $billions
  • Black Lives Matters Movement has been connected with executing law enforcement officers
  • NAACP has been connected with the burning down of cities in Ferguson, Baltimore, and Philadelphia
  • 600,000 black slaves were taken from Africa, and 600,000 soldiers died to free them (in the Civil War)
  • According to Pat Buchannan, black communities have received over $1 trillion in government handouts
  • Despite being 12% of the U.S. population, blacks commit 52% of the homicides
  • Blacks commit 40% of all other violent crimes (murder, manslaughter, rape, robbery)
  • Even with these statistics, whites are twice as likely to be killed by police officers
  • Blacks are outnumbered 5 to 1 by whites but commit eight times the violent crimes against whites
  • With a 12% population in America, African-Americans make up over 60% of the prison population
  • 38% of black couples divorce as compared to 21% of white couples and 22% of Hispanic couples
  • 42% of black students enrolled in college will graduate; 62% of white students enrolled in college will graduate.

GLBTB Rights**

  • 0.1% of the world’s population is GLBTB
  • 60% of syphilis cases reside in the GLBTB community
  • 78% of the GLBTB have some form of a sexually transmitted disease, according to the C.D.C.
  • 60% of GLBTB have intestinal worms, flukes, amoebae, or Gay Bowel Syndrome
  • 71% of H.I.V. cases are from the GLBTB community
  • GLBTB boast of having over 100 sexual partners per annum and over 1000 per lifetime
  • 63% of lesbians never experienced childbirth and carry an increased risk of breast cancer
  • 33% of lesbians have bacterial vaginitis, and it is found only 13% in heterosexuals
  • 21% of lesbians die of murder, suicide, or traffic accidents; 534 times higher than heterosexuals
  • 50% of lesbians are charged with domestic violence against their partners
  • 50% of lesbians on death row were lesbians at the time of their crime
  • Obama D.O.J. has authorized an amount of $250,000 paid to each G.L.B.T.B. in a violence case
  • Jonathan Lax Scholarship Fund pays $20,000 / semester to gay students; this excludes heterosexuals
  • Appointed by Obama, Kevin Jennings wrote the foreward to the book titled “Queering Elementary Education”
  • Being GLBTB will reduce one’s lifespan by twenty-three years, according to major studies

** Statistics taken from the book, In Pursuit of the Free Pass, by John Howard.

All men and women are equal today under the U.S. Constitution. However, this is not the case as Liberals step in with their solution! Liberals are in charge of doling out human rights. In my opinion, these specialized human rights movements are biased, destructive, and unconstitutional. The U.S. Constitution is still the same document granting all humans certain unalienable rights that are doled out by a benevolent Creator and orchestrating a government embodiment with the duty to uphold those God-given human rights, for all humans, indiscriminately… period and end of story! Biased human rights are doling out favors for the privileged few, while minimizing opportunities for the ones not included under the banner of those human rights (or opportunities to buy and sell on the grid)!

Letter Re: Being Anonymous, by Spotlight

HJL:

It’s well written, and he makes good points. Many are things I do. On the other hand, I routinely wear a tie, appear on television commercials promoting my business, and am active on social media. I have even run for political office. Having an excess of energy, I actually knocked on 4,500 doors. I should be out of luck by Spotlight’s standard. Interestingly enough people seem to be so socially conscious about position that you are simply not recognized by people you work with regularly (not friends) when you switch from your coat and tie brand to a paint-stained flannel shirt, pickup truck loaded with tools, and a three-day beard. They look right past you.

I will pick a nit on the whole gray man concept. We have duties as citizens that mean you should know and work with your mayor, city council members, county commissioners, state reps, and even congressmen and senators. I believe we all have a duty to contribute to our community to make it work. When we don’t, it does not, and we end up in the ditch as a society. – R.V.

Economics and Investing:

Russia’s Central Bank Issues Crimea Banknote – Sent in by RBS

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Items from Mr. Econocobas:

Most Americans have less than $1,000 in savings

Items from Professor Preponomics:

U.S. News

To Make the Payment is Almost Impossible: Puerto Rico Defaults (Again) in T-9 Days (Zero Hedge) Will Puerto Rico become America’s Greece?

Inside the Billion-Dollar Battle for Puerto Rico’s Future (New York Times) From the Article: “Some warn that Puerto Rico could be a test case for the rest of the country, paving the way for troubled states like Illinois to escape unsustainable debts.”

Existing Home Sales Fall 10.5% in November (Fox Business) From the Article: “U.S. home resales posted their sharpest drop in five years in November, a potential warning sign for the health of the U.S. economy although new regulations on paperwork for home purchases may have driven the decline.”

Staples Says FTC Rejected Offer as They Try to Acquire Rival Office Depot (Chicago Sun Times) The number of megalith mergers and acquisitions means that anti-trust news continues and will for some time… From the Article: “The Federal Trade Commission sought to block the deal earlier this month believing that a tie up between the last of the major retailers in the sector would throttle competition.”

International News

Finland Should Not Have Signed Up To Euro, Says Foreign Minister (Irish Times) Changes may be coming… “While polls still show most Finns don’t want to go through the process of exiting the currency bloc, there are signs that a plurality of voters think they would be better off outside the euro.”

President of the Czech Republic is Disappointed Greece is Still in the Eurozone (Greek Reporter) Article Excerpt: “The Czech Republic will join the Eurozone the first day after the departure, if possible, of Greece from the Eurozone,” he said adding that “I am extremely disappointed that the summer negotiations between Greece and the lenders did not lead, in the end – despite its appearing quite probable – to Greece’s exiting the Eurozone”.

2016 May Bring a Host of New Troubles for Greece (CNBC) From the Article: “A pension system overhaul, however, is shaping up to be a big hurdle for Greece, a hard sell at a time when the country’s economic crises have sent unemployment skyrocketing above 25 percent and average income plummeting 25 percent over the last four years.”

Personal Economics and Household Finance

Here’s a Sweet Deal: Make Your Own Cocoa Mix (Living on the Cheap) From the Article: “On a cold winter’s eve, what tastes better than a cup of hot cocoa?”

Odds ‘n Sods:

Inside the growing popularity of safe rooms – Part of our society’s exasperating fixation on non-violent defense – Your safety depends solely on how determined the attackers are. They have their place in providing protecting from certain non-targeting disasters, but when you are the targeted, mobility and aggression is your friend. – Sent in by T.J.

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Mass Shooting in New Orleans That Didn’t Get Top Media Attention – 17 victims and hardly a peep from the media? This shooting doesn’t fit the liberal/progressive narrative. – Sent in by D.S.

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You’re on the hook with the FAA over your drone now. What happens when you decide on non-compliance? There are some serious teeth in the ruling, but in reality, probably nothing unless your drone is involved in an incident. – Sent in by J.H.

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Video: Before the castration of America’s men and political correctness: Awesome old toys that you won’t find in stores today. I wish I had one of these growing up.

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Wall Street Journal Reports: Western officials are lacking the information they need to the fake Iraqi and Syrian passports that may be used by terrorist operatives planning attacks in the United States and Europe. ISIS appears to have acquired the equipment needed to create the passports as they have taken over cities in both Iraq and Syria. – T.A.

Notes for Wednesday – December 23, 2015

December 23, 2015 is the 102nd anniversary of the exclusive private banking cartel known as The Federal Reserve. America and the U.S. dollar won’t survive another century under those “banksters”.

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Today, we present another entry for Round 62 of the SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing contest. The nearly $12,000 worth of prizes for this round include:

First Prize:

  1. A Tactical Self-Contained 2-Series Solar Power Generator system from Always Empowered. This compact starter power system is packaged in a wheeled O.D. green EMP-shielded Pelican hard case (a $1,700 value),
  2. A Gunsite Academy Three Day Course Certificate that is good for any one, two, or three day course (a $1,195 value),
  3. A course certificate from onPoint Tactical for the prize winner’s choice of three-day civilian courses, excluding those restricted for military or government teams. Three day onPoint courses normally cost $795,
  4. DRD Tactical is providing a 5.56 NATO QD Billet upper with a hammer forged, chromlined barrel and a hard case to go with your own AR lower. It will allow any standard AR type rifle to have quick change barrel, which can be assembled in less than one minute without the use of any tools and a compact carry capability in a hard case or 3-day pack (an $1,100 value),
  5. Gun Mag Warehouse is providing 20 Magpul pmags 30-rd Magazines (a value of $300) and a Gun Mag Warehouse T-Shirt; (an equivalent prize will be awarded for residents in states with magazine restrictions),
  6. Two cases of Mountain House freeze dried assorted entrees in #10 cans, courtesy of Ready Made Resources (a $350 value),
  7. The Ark Institute is donating a non-GMO, non-hybrid vegetable seed package (enough for two families of four) plus seed storage materials, a CD-ROM of Geri Guidetti’s book “Build Your Ark! How to Prepare for Self Reliance in Uncertain Times”, and two bottles of Potassium Iodate (a $325 retail value),
  8. A $250 gift certificate from Sunflower Ammo,
  9. KellyKettleUSA.com is donating both an AquaBrick water filtration kit and a Stainless Medium Scout Kelly Kettle Complete Kit with a combined retail value of $304, and
  10. Two cases of meals, Ready to Eat (MREs), courtesy of CampingSurvival.com (a $180 value).

Second Prize:

  1. A Glock form factor SIRT laser training pistol and a SIRT AR-15/M4 Laser Training Bolt, courtesy of Next Level Training, which have a combined retail value of $589,
  2. A FloJak EarthStraw “Code Red” 100-foot well pump system (a $500 value), courtesy of FloJak.com,
  3. A transferable certificate for a two-day Ultimate Bug Out Course from Florida Firearms Training (a $400 value),
  4. A Model 175 Series Solar Generator provided by Quantum Harvest LLC (a $439 value),
  5. A Trekker IV™ Four-Person Emergency Kit from Emergency Essentials (a $250 value),
  6. A $200 gift certificate good towards any books published by PrepperPress.com,
  7. A pre-selected assortment of military surplus gear from CJL Enterprize (a $300 value),
  8. RepackBox is providing a $300 gift certificate to their site, and
  9. Safecastle is providing a package of 10 LifeStraws (a $200 value)

Third Prize:

  1. A Royal Berkey water filter, courtesy of Directive 21 (a $275 value),
  2. A $245 gift certificate from custom knifemaker Jon Kelly Designs, of Eureka, Montana,
  3. A large handmade clothes drying rack, a washboard, and a Homesteading for Beginners DVD, all courtesy of The Homestead Store, with a combined value of $206,
  4. Expanded sets of both washable feminine pads and liners, donated by Naturally Cozy (a $185 retail value),
  5. Two Super Survival Pack seed collections, a $150 value, courtesy of Seed for Security, LLC,
  6. Mayflower Trading is donating a $200 gift certificate for homesteading appliances,
  7. APEX Gun Parts is donating a $250 purchase credit,
  8. Montie Gear is donating a Precision Rest (a $249 value), and
  9. Two 1,000-foot spools of full mil-spec U.S.-made 750 paracord (in-stock colors only) from www.TOUGHGRID.com (a $240 value).

Round 62 ends on January 31st, so get busy writing and e-mail us your entry. Remember that there is a 1,500-word minimum, and that articles on practical “how to” skills for survival have an advantage in the judging.

Being Anonymous, by Spotlight

I walked out onto the driveway to greet my wife as she backed the car in, arriving home from a long day at work. Right away, I noticed a magnet on the back of the car, proclaiming us to be members of our church, complete with our town name. “What’s up with that?” I said, looking at the magnet, as she got out of the car. She laughed and said the pastor of our church had put it on there when he saw her in the parking lot. I think she had laughed because she knew what I was going to say next , “That won’t make it until bedtime!” (It didn’t.) When I got into preparedness, I came across the “grey man” theory at some point. Reading it, I realized that I fit the profile, for the most part. I think of it more in the sense of being anonymous, but it’s close enough. The grey man theory is the idea of remaining unnoticed in general and not standing out, not being the one on television who’s being interviewed in regard to some controversial position, not being the guy everyone noticed because of his loud mouth or loud clothing, and that sort of thing.

I have actually been fairly anonymous all of my life, although I didn’t realize it until more recently. You know how some people are very noticeable? Do you know how everyone takes notice when they walk in a room, people talk about them when they’re not in the room, and everyone generally remembers what they said? I am the opposite. It never really dawned on me for most of my life. I’ve always been an introvert, always being more comfortable alone than in a group. In school I always had one or two close friends and never really a big group of them, despite being on numerous sports teams.

When I grew up, I became a police officer in the small town I grew up in. After a few years, I was promoted to detective and spent the rest of my career in that role, which I really enjoyed.

Since I was a cop in the town I grew up in, which as I mentioned was a small town at that, I was particularly careful about telling people where I lived and even more so after I got married and had a family to protect. People think that only big city cops have to worry about retaliation from criminals, when in fact I suspect that it is much more prevalent against small town cops. We’re a lot easier to find, since most big city cops I ran into didn’t live in the cities they patrolled. Those of us in the small towns tend to have repeat contact with the same criminals, and it’s easier to run into a small town cop on a force of 50 or less on purpose, than to find some cop in a city of thousands. On the occasion people asked me where I lived, depending on who they were (i.e. criminal or non-criminal), I either flat-out lied (to the criminals) and named a city where we had looked for houses so I could be somewhat knowledgeable of the area or was vague enough (to the non-criminals) so that it sounded like I had answered but really hadn’t told them much. In addition to being careful what I told people, I had an unlisted phone number and a PO box to get my mail, which was necessary since we first lived in an apartment with no direct mail service. The PO box just became another layer of security after we moved.

As I got into prepping and became familiar with the grey man concept, I realized that I had been born a “grey man” to some degree. For some reason, I am really good with names and faces, but no one seems to remember mine, even people I have met on more than one occasion. Perhaps it’s because of my introverted nature that I am not “rememberable” to people, but I have always found it somewhat humorous to go up to someone I met once or twice, call them by name, and watch as I see them looking confused as to who I am or why they know me while we talk. (I’ve often told my family that men are lucky. We can call each other “buddy”, “pal”, “boss”, and the always flattering “chief”, and no one is the wiser as to the fact that we have no idea who this guy is that we’re talking to!)

So, let’s get back to the car magnet my wife received. Why on earth anyone would drive around with a sign saying where they worship (and probably live) on the back of their car? It’s like those family magnets people put on their car, showing how many kids they have and what gender they are, then add a sticker from the local elementary school as well. So, you have just notified the world that you have X number of young children, what school they go to, and what town you live in. It doesn’t make any sense to me. Don’t get me wrong; I do know why people do it. They’re showing pride in their church, school, or even their family. I just think it’s poor OPSEC, at a minimum, and in some ways, dangerous.

Before I list my tips to being anonymous, here’s one word on the Internet. It was a game changer for privacy as we all know. Anyone who wants to can probably find me pretty easily, since a lot of public records are online for free or for a small fee. However, as one of my former co-workers said when we were discussing why we bothered taking privacy precautions as police officers, “Just because they can find it if they look hard enough, doesn’t mean we should give it to them for nothing.”

Being Anonymous:

  1. Unlist your phone number. If you’re already listed, I don’t know how much this will do to remove what’s already out there. At a minimum, tell the phone company you don’t want your address listed. (Yes, you can do that!) My unlisted number costs me less than $5 per month. As a bonus, I almost never get telemarketing calls. If I’m asked in a store for my phone number, I tell them it’s unlisted or give them my cell number, which is not connected to my home.
  2. Use a PO Box or UPS store mailbox. Yes, it’s a hassle to have to go somewhere other than the end of your driveway for mail. We actually do get some mail at our house, but we use the UPS store mailbox that I set up for a side business for most of our bills, checks, DMV paperwork, et cetera. It’s particularly helpful on the DMV paperwork. In the event my car gets stolen, the thieves won’t have my home address. In my state, the DMV is okay with a PO Box or UPS store address on the actual license or registration, as long as you provide them with your real street address for their records. Anytime I’m asked for my address, it’s the UPS Store one I give.
  3. Skip the flashy clothes or ones with controversial statements. One of the things I liked about being a cop was wearing a uniform. There was no picking out clothes everyday. Then I made detective and had to pick out clothes (and a tie!) everyday. Now that I’m retired, I wear mostly earth tones, nothing that screams tactical (i.e. “shoot me first” in a robbery), and either work boots or hikers. Before I was a cop, I was obsessed with police hats, sweatshirts, et cetera. Not long after I got on the job, I realized that not everyone actually likes the police, so that came to an end quickly. I have participated in events like praying the rosary outside Planned Parenthood without having to wear the t-shirt that goes along with it. I don’t wear shirts that advocate gun rights, but I could still go to a gun rights rally. I don’t think being anonymous keeps you from exercising your rights; it just doesn’t need to be on the shirt you wear.
  4. Keep stickers and magnets off the car. Similar to above, I don’t put stickers or magnets on my car that state my political beliefs either. Similar to the family type magnets or what school my kid goes to, no one needs to guess that I’m probably carrying a gun because I have five NRA stickers on my bumper. While we’re at it, maybe take off that license plate frame the dealer loves to put on every car they sell. First of all, why am I giving them free advertising? Secondly, no one needs to know where you got your car, since most of us buy them near where we live.
  5. Don’t drive a flashy, distinctive car. Speaking of cars, driving a flashy or distinctive car is definitely anti-anonymity. After I retired from law enforcement, I was a private investigator for a few years. At that time, we just happened to own a navy minivan that was about eight years old and a grey Ford sedan that was about the same age. Talk about perfect cars for PI work! I spent many hours in the back of the minivan, seats folded flat, sitting on a lawn chair, watching worker’s compensation scammers ply their trade. When I wasn’t on surveillance, the Ford was great for riding around in to conduct interviews or accident investigations. If I drove a lifted Ford F-150 with 35” mudders on it, I probably would not be too successful at sneaking around. Which car are people going to remember driving down their street?
  6. Avoid publicity as much as possible. As stated above, it’s much harder in the Internet age to do so than it was when I was growing up. My name still appears online in regards to some old cases I worked on and in things related to my old department. There’s nothing I can do about that. However, when I was invited to appear as an audience member on a national TV show in regards to the gun control debate, I politely declined.
  7. Recognize that some times you will be exposed. No matter how hard you try to be anonymous, it’s very difficult and sometimes you’ll be identified through no fault of your own. My wife joined a local organization and became its president after a few years. Unbeknownst to her until a year or so after her term was up, the national organization that oversees the locals had put all of the officer’s names, addresses, and phone numbers online! This was prior to our PI business being up and running, and it was during the time where we had moved away from the area where our PO Box was and we were only getting mail at our house. I think she was more upset than I was, mostly because her job sometimes requires her to deal with some angry people, so she wasn’t too keen on our address being so public. Again, we can’t control everything.
  8. Don’t be completely forthcoming when talking to people you don’t know. As an introvert, I don’t have too much problem with this, since I don’t spend much time engaged in conversation with strangers. But, even if you are an extroverted type of person, try to avoid giving your life story to everyone you meet. Most people are just being polite when they ask where you live or what you do and don’t have any evil motives. Even then, it doesn’t mean you have to give out your address. Even now, to people I meet who may ask, I generalize where I live by describing its close relation to the next town over, but that description is pretty broad in reality. I can always tell someone more about myself later if necessary, but I can’t “untell” them anything once it’s out of my mouth.
  9. Don’t attract attention to yourself by being the big mouth at the event or the one who is complaining loudly about some perceived bad treatment you received. This doesn’t mean not to complain if it’s warranted; just don’t make a big scene when it’s not necessary (and it’s usually not). In this day and age, you can bet your tirade will be on YouTube or someone’s Facebook page as soon as you’re done ranting.
  10. Don’t post anything online using your real name. I often see people posting on various websites with what appear to be real names and in some cases definitely are. I used to read one investigation related website that required real names! Note I said “read” as I would never have posted there or anywhere else with my real name. Some people claim it makes it harder for people to hide behind their pen names, which is probably true, but it’s also dumb. Luckily, SurvivalBlog allows and encourages us to use pseudonyms when posting.
  11. Get a shredder. We have had a shredder for many years, since way before they became really popular. Currently we have a small Fellowes brand shredder that cross cuts, which is way better than the old strip style shredding. Now they make ones that micro shred, which is even smaller than cross cutting.
  12. Don’t use social media. If you’ve read SurvivalBlog for any amount of time, you are probably aware of social media and its downfalls. Facebook is notoriously bad at maintaining its users’ privacy. Don’t do it!
  13. Turn off GPS tracking. I always keep my GPS software turned off on my phone and digital camera. One of my cop buddies used to tease me by telling me that I thought I was so important that someone would track me. I didn’t think that, but with the NSA listening to regular American’s phone calls, who knows who’s watching us anymore? Again, don’t give it away.
  14. Select an Internet birth date. I have what I call an “Internet birthday”, which is not my real birthday. If something on the Internet requires my birthdate, it’s my Internet birthday that I put down. Make it something you’ll remember easily but that’s close enough to your own that you don’t make yourself too much younger or older. Also, be careful where you use it. I once used it for a particular company where I didn’t think it really mattered and then months later when trying to verify who I was the rep asked me for my birthday. I forgot I had used my Internet birthday. Oops! Luckily I was able to identify myself in other ways, but be more careful than I was. Plus, I get to admonish my family every year when no one wishes me a Happy Internet Birthday on that day!
  15. Finally, don’t be paranoid. This probably sounds ironic, coming from someone who just described all of the things he does to remain anonymous, but as stated earlier, you can’t control everything. I used to do crime prevention surveys for residents of the town where I was a police officer. One of the things I used to tell our residents was, “if for some reason, someone wants to get into your house (as opposed to any house), they will, regardless of what you do.”

I hope this has been helpful to you in your quest to keep you and your family safe. I truly believe anonymity is an important part of being prepared.

Letter: Preview of Anti-Gun Agendas

Good morning:

By now, it has become clear that the gloves are off and the anti-gun establishment has openly stated that it intends to take guns and gun rights. President Obama’s spokespeople have stated that he is considering executive action when he gets back from vacation in January. This sounds kind of mysterious, but if you want to know what to expect, you need look no farther than what is going on in Virginia just outside the nation’s capital. I awoke this morning to learn that Virginia has moved to phase two of its anti-gun tyranny. In phase one Governor McAuliffe, whose campaign was heavily funded by anti-gun Bloomberg & Associates unilaterally issued an executive order dated October 15, 2015. That order, despite no agency findings or any other lawful process, declared that there was an “emergency” and that guns needed to be excluded from all state offices, agencies and property for all civilians, including concealed handgun permit (CHP) holders. This included every state office, including their state-run alcohol stores, Division of Motor Vehicles, everything everywhere statewide. That “emergency” executive order was then moved to the rule-making process so it could become permanent (found here if anyone wants to see for themselves). More than 2600 comments against have been recorded so far, but that’s actually not very many and those probably won’t make any actual difference. Similarly, it won’t make a difference that there have been zero shootings in Virginia state offices, that CHP holders are more law abiding than some police departments, or that making state offices and property “gun free” target zones is a spectacularly bad idea.

Last night, the Virginia Attorney General (who won in 2013 by 165 votes in a state of some 8.3 million) stated that he had performed an “audit” of other states issuing concealed handgun permits and declared that twenty-five states are too “lax”, therefore he is unilaterally ending reciprocity for those states (article here). This means that citizens there suddenly cannot carry in Virginia and Virginia citizens cannot carry there either. This is all happening, by the way, in a state where the state Constitution states quite clearly in Article I, Section 13: “That a well regulated militia, composed of the body of the people, trained to arms, is the proper, natural, and safe defense of a free state, therefore, the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed…”

The orchestrated actions above appear to be a test to see what happens when executive orders and attorney general actions are used to bypass the legislative branch and damage or destroy the rights of the people. Unless the actions are more heavily resisted in Virginia and any other states that are trying this authoritarian approach, we should expect this to be tried at the federal level very soon. As always, be prepared. – Kass Andrada

Economics and Investing:

Survey shows US is a nation of red retail and blue retail – Sent in by RBS

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Congress’s $1.15 trillion spending bill: Heads they Win, Tails you Lose

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Items from Professor Preponomics:

U.S. News

The Federal Reserve Will Hand Out $11B in Riskless Profits to Foreign Banks in 2016 (Contra Corner) From the Article: “And since there is no plan in sight for unwinding the Fed’s gargantuan balance sheet and soaking up the trillions in excess reserves parked at both domestic and foreign banks, this handout of risk-free cash will continue indefinitely.”

Third Quarter Growth Trimmed to 2% (Market Watch) No surprise here… More than six years into the “recovery” and U.S. economic growth is well below the norm.

Looking Ahead to 2016: Massive Inventory Overhang a Key Risk for Future Growth (Zero Hedge) The suggestion is that “there is a massive inventory overhang heading into Q4 and 2016, one which will likely impact GDP by at least 1.5%-2% if not more once this long overdue inventory liquidation takes place.”

International News

Top Business Story in 2015: China’s Sharp Economic Slowdown (AP) From the Article: “China’s economy lost some luster and its leaders their aura of invincibility. A commodities boom went bust, spreading pain from Texas oil fields to Indonesian coal mines.”

Chinese Leaders Approve Economic Plan for 2016 (Market Watch) From the Article: “Chinese leaders approved an economic blueprint for next year that emphasizes tackling long-term problems and reflects a realization that debt and investment can no longer power the world’s second-largest economy.”

Japan Flags Inflation Target Fudge as Commodity Rout Deepens (Reuters) From the Article: “Japan’s economics minister is laying the groundwork for the country’s central bank to fudge its own inflation target as the global sell-off in commodities pushes the consumer price goalposts further away.”

Personal Economics and Household Finance

7 Reasons Why You Can’t Get Out of Debt and What To Do About It (The Frugal Farmer) …and the key message is: what to do about it!

Odds ‘n Sods:

ATF Lets Straw-Purchasing Violent Criminal Walk In WV – If ever there was a federal agency that should be disbanded, this has got to be it! Sent in by T.P.

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Showing just how out-of-touch the government powers are with the American people, Guns topping Christmas lists thanks to terrorism concerns, fear over restrictions – Sent in by G.G.

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SurvivalBlog reader J.K. sent in an interesting article on intelligence-sharing in the Syrian war: Military to Military

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Because there are apparently not enough “known unknowns”: Unlimited Muslim immigration: A Congress of fools or traitors? – Sent in by B.B.

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At the risk of starting another caliber war (and simultaneously hoping that it doesn’t do that), A former special-operations doctor explains why he would rather be shot with an AK-47 than an M4. Personally, I’d rather not be shot by either one, but if the pictures hold any credence, the M4 produces some devastating wounds. – Sent in by K.C.

Hugh’s Quote of the Day:

“Nullification is the Jeffersonian idea that the states of the American Union must judge the constitutionality of the acts of their agent, the federal government, since no impartial arbiter between them exists. When the federal government exercises a particularly dangerous power not delegated to it, the states must refuse to allow its enforcement within their borders.” – Thomas E. Woods, Jr.

Notes for Tuesday – December 22, 2015

December 22nd is the anniversary of the death of SP4 James T. Davis– the first uniformed American combat casualty of the Vietnam War– in 1961. This ASA soldier (of the 3rd Radio Research Unit) was killed in a Viet Cong ambush on a road outside Saigon.

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Today, we present another entry for Round 62 of the SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing contest. The nearly $12,000 worth of prizes for this round include:

First Prize:

  1. A Tactical Self-Contained 2-Series Solar Power Generator system from Always Empowered. This compact starter power system is packaged in a wheeled O.D. green EMP-shielded Pelican hard case (a $1,700 value),
  2. A Gunsite Academy Three Day Course Certificate that is good for any one, two, or three day course (a $1,195 value),
  3. A course certificate from onPoint Tactical for the prize winner’s choice of three-day civilian courses, excluding those restricted for military or government teams. Three day onPoint courses normally cost $795,
  4. DRD Tactical is providing a 5.56 NATO QD Billet upper with a hammer forged, chromlined barrel and a hard case to go with your own AR lower. It will allow any standard AR type rifle to have quick change barrel, which can be assembled in less than one minute without the use of any tools and a compact carry capability in a hard case or 3-day pack (an $1,100 value),
  5. Gun Mag Warehouse is providing 20 Magpul pmags 30-rd Magazines (a value of $300) and a Gun Mag Warehouse T-Shirt; (an equivalent prize will be awarded for residents in states with magazine restrictions),
  6. Two cases of Mountain House freeze dried assorted entrees in #10 cans, courtesy of Ready Made Resources (a $350 value),
  7. The Ark Institute is donating a non-GMO, non-hybrid vegetable seed package (enough for two families of four) plus seed storage materials, a CD-ROM of Geri Guidetti’s book “Build Your Ark! How to Prepare for Self Reliance in Uncertain Times”, and two bottles of Potassium Iodate (a $325 retail value),
  8. A $250 gift certificate from Sunflower Ammo,
  9. KellyKettleUSA.com is donating both an AquaBrick water filtration kit and a Stainless Medium Scout Kelly Kettle Complete Kit with a combined retail value of $304, and
  10. Two cases of meals, Ready to Eat (MREs), courtesy of CampingSurvival.com (a $180 value).

Second Prize:

  1. A Glock form factor SIRT laser training pistol and a SIRT AR-15/M4 Laser Training Bolt, courtesy of Next Level Training, which have a combined retail value of $589,
  2. A FloJak EarthStraw “Code Red” 100-foot well pump system (a $500 value), courtesy of FloJak.com,
  3. A transferable certificate for a two-day Ultimate Bug Out Course from Florida Firearms Training (a $400 value),
  4. A Model 175 Series Solar Generator provided by Quantum Harvest LLC (a $439 value),
  5. A Trekker IV™ Four-Person Emergency Kit from Emergency Essentials (a $250 value),
  6. A $200 gift certificate good towards any books published by PrepperPress.com,
  7. A pre-selected assortment of military surplus gear from CJL Enterprize (a $300 value),
  8. RepackBox is providing a $300 gift certificate to their site, and
  9. Safecastle is providing a package of 10 LifeStraws (a $200 value)

Third Prize:

  1. A Royal Berkey water filter, courtesy of Directive 21 (a $275 value),
  2. A $245 gift certificate from custom knifemaker Jon Kelly Designs, of Eureka, Montana,
  3. A large handmade clothes drying rack, a washboard, and a Homesteading for Beginners DVD, all courtesy of The Homestead Store, with a combined value of $206,
  4. Expanded sets of both washable feminine pads and liners, donated by Naturally Cozy (a $185 retail value),
  5. Two Super Survival Pack seed collections, a $150 value, courtesy of Seed for Security, LLC,
  6. Mayflower Trading is donating a $200 gift certificate for homesteading appliances,
  7. APEX Gun Parts is donating a $250 purchase credit,
  8. Montie Gear is donating a Precision Rest (a $249 value), and
  9. Two 1,000-foot spools of full mil-spec U.S.-made 750 paracord (in-stock colors only) from www.TOUGHGRID.com (a $240 value).

Round 62 ends on January 31st, so get busy writing and e-mail us your entry. Remember that there is a 1,500-word minimum, and that articles on practical “how to” skills for survival have an advantage in the judging.

Water Works- Part 4, by JSP

Other Projects, A Future Project, and “War Game” Potential Problems

In this final section addressing survival related water systems, I will outline a few projects we have completed, talk about a future project, and “war game” potential problems that could arise.

Our personal outlook is that, when things crash, people who are previously identified will be coming to our place of retreat, and we also have to be open to the fact that the Holy Spirit may direct people to us who we don’t currently know. Our main residence has a standard septic tank and drain field, two bathrooms, and one shower. With a capacity of only 500 gallons, our main house septic tank system could become overwhelmed in short order when used by a crowd. If you are on a septic tank, do not overlook having it pumped regularly. Depending on the size and use, pumping every four to five years is common advice. I would argue that for people with outlooks like ours, if you can afford it, have it pumped more often. I know of a family who “forgot” to have their septic tank pumped and are not sure but think it may have been eight or ten years since the last time it was pumped. Wouldn’t you know it, the day before this last Thanksgiving, with company in town and a house full of people expected for a “turkey day” feast, both of their bathtubs backed up with raw sewage!

Consequently, the following three projects were designed to a) reduce pressure on the main house septic system, b) allow for more people to access sanitation appliances,such as flush toilets, sinks, and showers, and c) have fun building and problem solving. Prepping is our hobby!

The Outdoor Bathroom

In the summer time, at your local big box hardware store, they sell eight-foot sections of pre-built cedar fencing with some fancy lattice work on the top. Using some of these panels, I created an outdoor bathroom attached to the back (south facing) side of our house. It has a “toilet” stall that is a urinal only (male and female), a shower stall, and a double basin sink. This facility has no roof and is open air, so it’s a three season facility at best. The shower is an EZ Tankless model 101. The “drain” goes into a rudimentary four-inch perforated drainage tile set in gravel that ultimately daylights into a creek bottom 100 yards away. On a nice day, it’s a great place to take a shower with a view that is 100 miles or more.

The Outdoor Kitchen

The main home has a 12’x36′ screened-in back patio. In winter time, the bottom portion is closed in with T-111 type siding, and the top with clear view panels. https://www.farmtek.com/farm/supplies/prod1;ft_canopies_tents-ft_weathershield_commercial_canopies;pg105670.html Two-thirds of this space (12’x24′) is an outdoor kitchen, which can be used for canning, bulk food handling, and game or livestock that has been harvested. I won’t go into all the details of this facility, but I want to focus on the water aspect of it. Bear in mind that canning and processing butchered things, such as chickens, takes a lot of water.

The two water systems in this space are a sink and a wood cook stove with a Range Boiler. The sink is a commercial, three-basin, deep well, stainless steel model. We built a wood base for it that has storage and is on wheels. Attached to the side of the unit is an EZ Tankless model 202 on demand water heater. Remember that unit is fired on batteries so there is no electricity to these systems. The drain water for this sink goes out the wall and can be captured in a 5-gallon bucket or allowed to spill out on the ground to water the lawn. The point is that even if you run a lot of water through it, you’re not taxing your drain field. Furthermore, you should avoid putting bleach and harsh chemicals down a drain that makes it way into the septic tank, as that will kill the natural bacteria that breaks down solids. So this is an ideal sink to use when bleaching things for sanitation, et cetera.

Near the sink is the Ashland Delux wood stove, and between the stove and sink is the 40-gallon Range Boiler. I plumbed this Range Boiler to function as either a “closed loop” or “open loop system”. Closed loop means it is only supplied with water and only delivers water to the patio sink. Open loop means is works just like the other stove/boiler and delivers hot water to the cold water inlet of the main home water heater.

We live in a location within the Inland Northwest that gets pretty cold in winter and pretty hot in summer. “Back in the day”, when people only cooked with wood and if you just had an indoor wood cook stove, things could get brutally hot inside the house in summer with no air conditioning. So, if money allowed it, you had a second “summer stove” on a screened-in patio near the kitchen. Or some people who couldn’t afford two stoves would move their stove onto the patio for summer and back inside for winter. That is what the Ashland stove is for, summer use.

Even though this space is closed-in for winter, it still freezes. The first winter I had this set up, I shut off the water and frankly did a pretty poor job of draining things, as I thought it wouldn’t freeze that hard. That cost me a brand new EZ Tankless heater and potential injury. We were having a Christmas (not holiday!) get together at our place and wanted to use the patio for a buffet line. So, I fired up the Ashland stove to heat the space, not realizing that the pipes connecting the stove with the Range Boiler had frozen water in them. I had used copper pipe, not the galvanized I spoke of earlier, and in no time enough pressure had built up in the pipes that it caused an explosion, and I mean “explosion” in every sense of the word. It shredded the pipe, and the patio filled completely full of steam.

The lessons learned were to use stronger pipe and, when implementing systems like this in a location that could freeze, everything needs to be fully and completely drained. In addition to opening drain valves in low locations, you need to open valves up higher to let air in to facilitate draining water in the lines.

The Outhouse

We were hosting a wedding last summer and instead of simply renting “port a potties” like anyone else would have, I decided to build an “outhouse”. So, I got to talking and planning about “how” and “where” with a friend, and one thing led to another and the project got pretty big. This is a stand alone “pole building” that is 8’x12′ and has a flush toilet, enclosed shower, and sink.

There is no electricity to this building by choice, so it’s not heated. However, it’s super insulated, so a small kerosene heater can make it toasty quickly, and we light it with battery-operated LED camping type lamps. The water supply system is unique, having learned my lessons about freezing and knowing that much of the winter it would not be heated. For the water source, I plumbed a frost-free hydrant inside the building, and everything is connected to that. The shower is run with another EZ Tankless 202 unit. (There is no hot water to the sink.) Everything has easy to access drains to avoid freezing. When everything is drained and shut down, you can still use the flush toilet, as all you do is open the frost-free hydrant to fill a 2-gallon bucket, pour that water in the toilet, and now you can flush.

This bathroom has its own dedicated 1500-gallon septic tank and drain field, so it shouldn’t need to be pumped in my lifetime. Finally, we plumbed it with some exterior valves that allow the shower and sink “gray water” to be diverted from the septic tank down to an orchard for irrigation.

No, we didn’t expect this project to become so elaborate or expensive; it just took on a life of its own. However, now it is a very useful tool to accommodate guests and reduce the pressure on the house systems.

Shallow Well

One project we have tried and not succeeded at is a shallow well. There are videos online showing how to auger these out and build them. We have all the parts and materials on hand but have tried digging three times in the most logical location for our property. Each time we have hit water at about eight feet (in summer) and hit serious rock at about nine feet.

Surface Water/Pond

What about surface water? We got a bid from an excavator to do the digging to build a good-sized pond. He estimated it would have held about a million gallons, and he wanted $10,000 to do the excavating. He had a good vision for the project and his work was probably worth that much, but when I priced everything out it seemed like it would have run $25,000 to $30,000 for that total project, which was more than we wanted to spend. It would have been nice, but you can’t just drink that water, like you can the water from a well.t

Anticipated Reader Questions

Lastly, I thought I would pose and answer some questions readers might have.

  • What happens if your generator dies? My neighbor (part of the group) has one just like it. Otherwise, we go to the slow pump and rain water collection options.
  • What if you run out of gas? Where we live, everyone has stored fuel on hand. I have a 300-gallon tank, and so does my neighbor. We use ours but never let it get below half full. We get premium unleaded delivered for about $2 per gallon. If you take the fuel consumption of the generator and the GPM output of the well and do the math, for every 100 gallons of fuel we get 138,000 gallons of water.
  • What if your solar systems get fried by an EMP or CME? We have back ups. Four 280 watt panels, an Outback Charge Controller, combiner box, and an Xantrax inverter are all in a Faraday cage.
  • What flaws do you see in your systems? The pump house has no electricity by design, but we need to run some kind of heat to keep it from freezing, possibly a heat lamp grid up and maybe kerosene draft lamp grid down. If that freezes, we would have a problem.
  • What if your main well pump is toast? We do have a 24-volt SHURflo pump on hand (also in Faraday cage) that was purchased for the shallow well; it has a 300-foot lift ability at 2GPM that we could conceivably put down the main well, if it came to that.
  • Are there any drawbacks to heating water with wood? There are only the same drawbacks of heating with wood in that the exhaust smoke could be an OPSEC problem. You are basically telling the watching world that you are alive, safe, and warm at a time you may not want to do so. Therefore, having propane or kerosene options might be wise.

I hope this information has been helpful to the SurvivalBlog community and that it spurs you on to taking your water preps to the next level.

In closing I would like to share one of my favorite quotes:

“You can ignore reality, but you cannot ignore the consequences of ignoring reality.” – Ayn Rand

Seeking Input on Nigeria and on Drafting the Ilemi Constitution

I’m sure that many SurvivalBlog readers have now read my novel Land of Promise, which set up my Counter-Caliphate Chronicles novel series. (Reviews on Amazon.com are greatly appreciated.) The first novel included some details on the founding of the fictional Ilemi Republic, in East Africa. I’m now drafting the second novel in the series, titled Piece of Resistance. Although part of this book will be set in The Ilemi Republic, it primarily describes a war of resistance in Nigeria, in the 2040s. (Fourth Generation warfare against a totalitarian Islamic government.) If any SurvivalBlog readers have recent experience in Nigeria, then I would love to hear from you. Although I have traveled some in Africa, I have never been to Nigeria. So I’d really appreciate having the opportunity to discuss Nigerian culture, politics, economics, religions, foods, climate, and tribal differences with someone who has lived there or who has at least traveled there extensively.

I’m also soliciting input on my draft of the Ilemi Constitution, which I plan to include in Piece of Resistance, as an appendix. In particular, I’m looking for suggestions on how to create some ironclad limitations on the expansion of government. I’m hoping that there are some legal scholars out there who would like to help. More than just a piece of fiction, I am hoping that this draft of the Ilemi Constitution will serve as a model that could be followed, in the establishment of new libertarian nations with minimalist governments.

Please e-mail me, if you are interested. Many thanks! – JWR