The Editors’ Quote of the Day:

“And as he went out of the temple, one of his disciples saith unto him, Master, see what manner of stones and what buildings are here!

And Jesus answering said unto him, Seest thou these great buildings? there shall not be left one stone upon another, that shall not be thrown down.

And as he sat upon the mount of Olives over against the temple, Peter and James and John and Andrew asked him privately,

Tell us, when shall these things be? and what shall be the sign when all these things shall be fulfilled?

And Jesus answering them began to say, Take heed lest any man deceive you:

For many shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ; and shall deceive many.

And when ye shall hear of wars and rumours of wars, be ye not troubled: for such things must needs be; but the end shall not be yet.

For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be earthquakes in divers places, and there shall be famines and troubles: these are the beginnings of sorrows.

But take heed to yourselves: for they shall deliver you up to councils; and in the synagogues ye shall be beaten: and ye shall be brought before rulers and kings for my sake, for a testimony against them.

And the gospel must first be published among all nations.

But when they shall lead you, and deliver you up, take no thought beforehand what ye shall speak, neither do ye premeditate: but whatsoever shall be given you in that hour, that speak ye: for it is not ye that speak, but the Holy Ghost.

Now the brother shall betray the brother to death, and the father the son; and children shall rise up against their parents, and shall cause them to be put to death.

And ye shall be hated of all men for my name’s sake: but he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved.

But when ye shall see the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, standing where it ought not, (let him that readeth understand,) then let them that be in Judaea flee to the mountains:

And let him that is on the housetop not go down into the house, neither enter therein, to take any thing out of his house:

And let him that is in the field not turn back again for to take up his garment.

But woe to them that are with child, and to them that give suck in those days!

And pray ye that your flight be not in the winter.

For in those days shall be affliction, such as was not from the beginning of the creation which God created unto this time, neither shall be.

And except that the Lord had shortened those days, no flesh should be saved: but for the elect’s sake, whom he hath chosen, he hath shortened the days.

And then if any man shall say to you, Lo, here is Christ; or, lo, he is there; believe him not:

For false Christs and false prophets shall rise, and shall shew signs and wonders, to seduce, if it were possible, even the elect.

But take ye heed: behold, I have foretold you all things.

But in those days, after that tribulation, the sun shall be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light,

And the stars of heaven shall fall, and the powers that are in heaven shall be shaken.

And then shall they see the Son of man coming in the clouds with great power and glory.

And then shall he send his angels, and shall gather together his elect from the four winds, from the uttermost part of the earth to the uttermost part of heaven.

Now learn a parable of the fig tree; When her branch is yet tender, and putteth forth leaves, ye know that summer is near:

So ye in like manner, when ye shall see these things come to pass, know that it is nigh, even at the doors.

Verily I say unto you, that this generation shall not pass, till all these things be done.

Heaven and earth shall pass away: but my words shall not pass away.

But of that day and that hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels which are in heaven, neither the Son, but the Father.

Take ye heed, watch and pray: for ye know not when the time is.” – Mark 13:1-33 (KJV)

Preparedness Notes for Saturday — June 5, 2021

On June 5, 1851, Harriet Beecher Stowe published the first installment of Uncle Tom’s Cabin in The National Era. She was the sister of firebrand abolitionist Henry Ward Beecher.

—

SurvivalBlog Writing Contest

Today we present another entry for Round 95 of the SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing contest. The prizes for this round include:

First Prize:

  1. The photovoltaic power specialists at Quantum Harvest LLC  are providing a store-wide 10% off coupon. Depending on the model chosen, this could be worth more than $2000.
  2. A Gunsite Academy Three Day Course Certificate. This can be used for any of their one, two, or three-day course (a $1,095 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. These have hammer forged, chrome-lined barrels and a hard case, to go with your own AR lower. It will allow any standard AR-type rifle to have a quick change barrel. This can be assembled in less than one minute without the use of any tools. It also provides a compact carry capability in a hard case or in 3-day pack (a $1,100 value),
  5. Two cases of Mountain House freeze-dried assorted entrees in #10 cans, courtesy of Ready Made Resources (a $350 value),
  6. A $250 gift certificate good for any product from Sunflower Ammo,
  7. American Gunsmithing Institute (AGI) is providing a $300 certificate good towards any of their DVD training courses.

Second Prize:

  1. A Front Sight Lifetime Diamond Membership, providing lifetime free training at any Front Sight Nevada course, with no limit on repeating classes. This prize is courtesy of a SurvivalBlog reader who prefers to be anonymous.
  2. A Glock form factor SIRT laser training pistol and a SIRT AR-15/M4 Laser Training Bolt, courtesy of Next Level Training, that have a combined retail value of $589,
  3. 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).
  4. An Israeli CBRN Gas Mask with Hydration Straw and two Extra 40mm NATO Filter s – Manufactured in 2020 (a $229.99 value), courtesy of McGuire Army-Navy.
  5. Naturally Cozy is donating a “Prepper Pack” Menstrual Kit.  This kit contains 18 pads and it comes vacuum-sealed for long term storage or slips easily into a bugout bag.  The value of this kit is $220.
  6. An assortment of products along with a one-hour consultation on health and wellness from Pruitt’s Tree Resin (a $265 value).

Third Prize:

  1. Three sets each of made-in-USA regular and wide-mouth reusable canning lids. (This is a total of 300 lids and 600 gaskets.) This prize is courtesy of Harvest Guard (a $270 value)
  2. A Royal Berkey water filter, courtesy of Directive 21 (a $275 value),
  3. Siege Stoves is generously donating a SIEGE® STOVE kit, including a Titanium Gen 3 Flat-Pack Stove with titanium Cross-Members and a variety of bonus items including a Large Folding Grill, a pair of Side Toasters, a Compact Fire Poker, and an extra set of stainless steel universal Cross-Members. (In all, a $200 value.)
  4. Two Super Survival Pack seed collections, a $150 value, courtesy of Seed for Security, LLC,
  5. A transferable $150 purchase credit from Elk Creek Company, toward the purchase of any pre-1899 antique gun. There is no paperwork required for delivery of pre-1899 guns into most states, making them the last bastion of firearms purchasing privacy!

Round 95 ends on July 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.

 

An Electric Car for TEOTWAWKI? – Part 3, by S.B.

(Continued from Part 2. This concludes the article.)

When the Battery Dies, You are Getting a Flatbed Tow

Speaking of your electric vehicle turning into an inert hunk of metal, I have run out of juice twice on my vehicle. Both times required a flatbed tow truck to bring my vehicle back home. [Editor’s Note: Never use a traditional tow truck, since there is no “neutral” gear position with electric cars, and damage will occur.] Fortunately, both times I was only a couple of miles from home, and just did not have that last bit of juice needed to get there. Also, both times occurred because my “plan” did not go as planned. In one instance, a public charger I normally used was out of service at a meeting location. My normal hour of charge time I had there didn’t happen and it turns out I really did need that extra charge time to get home. The second time I had an unexpected need to get to a meeting and pulled off a charger sooner than I normally would. That loss of charge time was enough to strand me at the freeway off-ramp three miles from my house.

Once the battery runs out on an electric vehicle, that’s it. No walking to a gas station, buying a gas can, and walking back to the vehicle. No calling home for someone to bring you a jerry can from the garage. In theory, you could bring a generator to the vehicle and charge it that way, but then you are running the generator and burning gas for an hour or more just to get the electric vehicle to go a couple of miles. Whether a tow truck, or a more informal tow in a WROL situation, that vehicle is not moving unless something is pulling it.

Without a Charger the Car is a Paperweight

Electric vehicles come with a Level 1 charger that plugs into a standard 120-volt home outlet. These chargers can fail. The one that came with my vehicle eventually did. Fortunately, it failed “slowly” in that sometimes it would charge and sometimes it wouldn’t. Before there was a catastrophic failure, I was able to easily purchase a refurbished Level 1 charger on line. I have kept the old, partially working charger as a backup. Following the old “Two is one, one is none” maxim, have a backup charger available at your home. Whether that is a Level 2 charger installed in your garage and the Level 1 charger that came with your vehicle, or an extra Level 1 charger stored in a box, have at least one extra. If you don’t have a functioning charger, whatever you have in your battery is all you will have available before your electric vehicle is a glorified paperweight.

Although I would not recommend it, if your planned backup is a publicly available charger somewhere, make sure the charger works with your vehicle. There are at least three commonly used charging port configurations out there. On more than one occasion I’ve rolled up to an electric vehicle charging station only to find out that it did not have a charging port that worked with my car. Continue reading“An Electric Car for TEOTWAWKI? – Part 3, by S.B.”

Editors’ Prepping Progress

To be prepared for a crisis, every Prepper must establish goals and make long-term and short-term plans. In this column, the SurvivalBlog editors review their week’s prep activities and planned prep activities for the coming week. These range from healthcare and gear purchases to gardening, ranch improvements, bug out bag fine-tuning, and food storage. This is something akin to our Retreat Owner Profiles, but written incrementally and in detail, throughout the year.  We always welcome you to share your own successes and wisdom in your e-mailed letters. We post many of those –or excerpts thereof — in this column, in the Odds ‘n Sods Column, and in the Snippets column. Let’s keep busy and be ready!

Jim Reports:

I’m back on the road, for the full month of June.  I will reactivate ordering at Elk Creek Company on or about July 1st.

I heard from Lily that shortly after I left on my trip that our Bad Boy Bull disassembled one of our tube gates. That goes to prove one of my long-standing assertions: Bulls are only well-behaved in the chest freezer.

I’ve settled into my out-of-state travel routine. The only really good things I can mention are that I get a lot exercise, I get a lot of writing/editing done, and I get to hear some family history. Otherwise, there is just a lot of monotonous routine. But I feel obligated to be here, caring for an ailing elderly family member. That is how I was raised. I hope that someday my children or grandchildren will do the same, for me.

Now, over to Lily…

Continue reading“Editors’ Prepping Progress”

The Editors’ Quote of the Day:

“They sent a letter unto him, wherein was written thus; Unto Darius the king, all peace.

 Be it known unto the king, that we went into the province of Judea, to the house of the great God, which is builded with great stones, and timber is laid in the walls, and this work goeth fast on, and prospereth in their hands.

Then asked we those elders, and said unto them thus, Who commanded you to build this house, and to make up these walls?

We asked their names also, to certify thee, that we might write the names of the men that were the chief of them.

And thus they returned us answer, saying, We are the servants of the God of heaven and earth, and build the house that was builded these many years ago, which a great king of Israel builded and set up.

But after that our fathers had provoked the God of heaven unto wrath, he gave them into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon, the Chaldean, who destroyed this house, and carried the people away into Babylon.

But in the first year of Cyrus the king of Babylon the same king Cyrus made a decree to build this house of God.

And the vessels also of gold and silver of the house of God, which Nebuchadnezzar took out of the temple that was in Jerusalem, and brought them into the temple of Babylon, those did Cyrus the king take out of the temple of Babylon, and they were delivered unto one, whose name was Sheshbazzar, whom he had made governor;

And said unto him, Take these vessels, go, carry them into the temple that is in Jerusalem, and let the house of God be builded in his place.

Then came the same Sheshbazzar, and laid the foundation of the house of God which is in Jerusalem: and since that time even until now hath it been in building, and yet it is not finished.

Now therefore, if it seem good to the king, let there be search made in the king’s treasure house, which is there at Babylon, whether it be so, that a decree was made of Cyrus the king to build this house of God at Jerusalem, and let the king send his pleasure to us concerning this matter.” – Ezra 5:7-17 (KJV)

Preparedness Notes for Friday — June 4, 2021

Today is the anniversary of the Tiananmen Square Massacre, in 1989.

On this day, June 4th, in 1944 United States Navy Task Group 22.3 captured U-505, a German submarine and with it an intact Enigma cipher machine. This was the first time since the USS Peacock seized HMS Nautilus in 1815 that the USN had captured an enemy vessel at sea. The sub, reunited with its periscope a decade ago, is displayed at the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago.

—

SurvivalBlog Writing Contest

Today we present another entry for Round 95 of the SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing contest. The prizes for this round include:

First Prize:

  1. The photovoltaic power specialists at Quantum Harvest LLC  are providing a store-wide 10% off coupon. Depending on the model chosen, this could be worth more than $2000.
  2. A Gunsite Academy Three Day Course Certificate. This can be used for any of their one, two, or three-day course (a $1,095 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. These have hammer forged, chrome-lined barrels and a hard case, to go with your own AR lower. It will allow any standard AR-type rifle to have a quick change barrel. This can be assembled in less than one minute without the use of any tools. It also provides a compact carry capability in a hard case or in 3-day pack (a $1,100 value),
  5. Two cases of Mountain House freeze-dried assorted entrees in #10 cans, courtesy of Ready Made Resources (a $350 value),
  6. A $250 gift certificate good for any product from Sunflower Ammo,
  7. American Gunsmithing Institute (AGI) is providing a $300 certificate good towards any of their DVD training courses.

Second Prize:

  1. A Front Sight Lifetime Diamond Membership, providing lifetime free training at any Front Sight Nevada course, with no limit on repeating classes. This prize is courtesy of a SurvivalBlog reader who prefers to be anonymous.
  2. A Glock form factor SIRT laser training pistol and a SIRT AR-15/M4 Laser Training Bolt, courtesy of Next Level Training, that have a combined retail value of $589,
  3. 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).
  4. An Israeli CBRN Gas Mask with Hydration Straw and two Extra 40mm NATO Filter s – Manufactured in 2020 (a $229.99 value), courtesy of McGuire Army-Navy.
  5. Naturally Cozy is donating a “Prepper Pack” Menstrual Kit.  This kit contains 18 pads and it comes vacuum-sealed for long term storage or slips easily into a bugout bag.  The value of this kit is $220.
  6. An assortment of products along with a one-hour consultation on health and wellness from Pruitt’s Tree Resin (a $265 value).

Third Prize:

  1. Three sets each of made-in-USA regular and wide-mouth reusable canning lids. (This is a total of 300 lids and 600 gaskets.) This prize is courtesy of Harvest Guard (a $270 value)
  2. A Royal Berkey water filter, courtesy of Directive 21 (a $275 value),
  3. Siege Stoves is generously donating a SIEGE® STOVE kit, including a Titanium Gen 3 Flat-Pack Stove with titanium Cross-Members and a variety of bonus items including a Large Folding Grill, a pair of Side Toasters, a Compact Fire Poker, and an extra set of stainless steel universal Cross-Members. (In all, a $200 value.)
  4. Two Super Survival Pack seed collections, a $150 value, courtesy of Seed for Security, LLC,
  5. A transferable $150 purchase credit from Elk Creek Company, toward the purchase of any pre-1899 antique gun. There is no paperwork required for delivery of pre-1899 guns into most states, making them the last bastion of firearms purchasing privacy!

Round 95 ends on July 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.

An Electric Car for TEOTWAWKI? – Part 2, by S.B.

(Continued from Part 1.)

Using the AC/Heater in the Car Matters (a lot)

The weather is not only going to have more of an affect on your electric car (compared to a gasoline vehicle), but it is going to have more of an effect on you because using climate control draws a lot of juice from your battery. In a gas vehicle, running the heater has little to no effect on the vehicle’s performance because you are just pulling heat from the engine compartment that is a byproduct of the engine running. Although running the air conditioner (AC) in a gas vehicle is supposed to reduce the miles per gallon (mpg) you achieve, I have never noticed much of a difference in the myriad cars I have driven over my life. However, in an electric car, the same battery that powers the engine also powers the heating and AC. In my car, if I turn on the heater or AC, the travel range on the display immediately drops about 15%. So, all else being equal, if I have enough battery charge to take me 50-miles, if I have my AC or heater on during that trip, I’ll only get about 43-miles. Not long after I first bought my car, I noticed that it had seat heaters. I thought that was a pretty luxurious amenity for such a basic vehicle. Then I figured out that it takes a lot less energy to run the seat heaters than to run the heating elements that heat the air in the cabin. The seat heaters weren’t an amenity, they were a workaround to minimize the need to use the “regular” heater.

For me, this plays directly into the charging time issue discussed above. When I commute to work, by the time I get to the parking lot, I don’t have enough charge to get back home. Fortunately, I have access to a Level 2 charger at the office. Still, every day, there is roughly a 3–4-hour period where if there was an emergency, I could not use my electric car to get home. So, to minimize this “can’t make it home” window, I use the heater very sparingly on the way into work. On winter mornings, I’ll be driving down the highway with gloves, scarf, and ski hat, rag in hand wiping the condensation from the cabin side of the windshield. Only when the condensation gets too bad will I treat myself to a few minutes of running the defrost. With the long charge times for electric vehicles, everything takes planning, because there is no stopping for gas whenever you need it.

If you go anywhere that takes more than 50% of your charge, expect to spend some time at a charger before heading home. In reality, and particularly in a TEOTWAWKI scenario, going anywhere that takes up to 30% or 40% of your charge under ideal conditions should include charging up time at the destination. What if the you-know-what has hit the fan? Say I’m driving with a couple of people from our retreat to the trader fair. We are toughing it out on a cold day, staying bundled up in the electric vehicle so we don’t need to use battery for the heater. It takes 45% of the charge to get to our destination. One of our group gets seriously injured and the best venue for treatment is our retreat. We need to turn on the heater to keep our injured teammate from going into shock. We-are-not-making-it-home-in-that-vehicle. Similar scenario but needing the AC instead. We-are-not-making-it-home-in-that-vehicle.Continue reading“An Electric Car for TEOTWAWKI? – Part 2, by S.B.”

Economics & Investing For Preppers

Here are the latest news items and commentary on current economics news, market trends, stocks, investing opportunities, and the precious metals markets. We also cover hedges, derivatives, and obscura. Most of these items are from the “tangibles heavy” contrarian perspective of SurvivalBlog’s Founder and Senior Editor, JWR. Today, we look at the manifold signs of rising general price inflation, with postage stamps as the poster child. (See the Inflation Watch section.)

Precious Metals:

On June 2nd, it was reported: Gold futures hold above $1,900 as spot gold trades just below at $1,899.30

But then on June 3rd, both gold and silver took a dip. Gold was down 2% to $1868.60. So this might be a good juncture to buy some physical gold or silver. And, for the record, I’m still leaning toward silver. The silver-to-gold spot price ratio is presently 68.67-to-1. In my estimation, a ratio anywhere above 45-to-1 makes silver a buy.

o  o  o

US Mint Delays Silver Shipments Due To “Global Silver Shortage”. Note: The U.S. Mint later posted this follow-up: “In a message released Friday, May 28, we made reference to a global shortage of silver. In more precise terms, the silver shortage being experienced by the United States Mint pertains only to the supply of silver blanks among suppliers to the U.S. Mint.”

o  o  o

How Governments Killed the Gold Standard

o  o  o

Arkadiusz Sieroń: Biden Proposes $6 Trillion Budget. Will Money Flow Into Gold?

Economy & Finance:

Over at Fox Business: US durable goods orders drop 1.3% in April

o  o  o

At Zero Hedge: California’s Massive Container-Ship Traffic Jam Is Still Really Jammed

o  o  o

At Wolf Street: Fed Drains $485 Billion in Liquidity from Market via Reverse Repos, Undoing 4 Months of QE, Even as QE Continues, Total Assets Near $8 Trillion

Continue reading“Economics & Investing For Preppers”

The Editors’ Quote of the Day:

“The national debt was $5.6 trillion in 2000, the budget was as close to balanced as it had been in decades, the defense budget ($300 billion) was at decades low as there was no major conflicts in the world, and term limits were still a legitimately discussed election issue. If someone was told on January 1, 2000 that in 2021 the national debt was going to hit $30 trillion, with annual deficits of $3 to $4 trillion, a defense budget of $750 billion as war looms on the near-term horizon, and all semblance of governing through legislation to benefit the citizenry had dissipated, they would have laughed, accused you of being a conspiracy nutjob, and said the nation would be a hyperinflationary banana republic with 50% interest rates if any of that came to pass. The truth is always far worse than your darkest visions and fears.” – Jim Quinn, in his The Burning Platform blog

Preparedness Notes for Thursday — June 3, 2021

On this day, in 1911, actress Ellen Corby was born. She is often remembered for her role as Grandma Walton, in the television series The Waltons. She passed away in 1999.

On June 3rd, 1539, Spanish explorer Hernando De Soto claimed Florida for Spain.

June 3rd can also be considered the “birthday” of the U.S. Army. (It was established by Congress on June 3rd, 1784.)

—

Two unusual coastal listings were recently added, at SurvivalRealty.com:

SurvivalBlog Writing Contest

Today we present another entry for Round 95 of the SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing contest. The prizes for this round include:

First Prize:

  1. The photovoltaic power specialists at Quantum Harvest LLC  are providing a store-wide 10% off coupon. Depending on the model chosen, this could be worth more than $2000.
  2. A Gunsite Academy Three Day Course Certificate. This can be used for any of their one, two, or three-day course (a $1,095 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. These have hammer forged, chrome-lined barrels and a hard case, to go with your own AR lower. It will allow any standard AR-type rifle to have a quick change barrel. This can be assembled in less than one minute without the use of any tools. It also provides a compact carry capability in a hard case or in 3-day pack (a $1,100 value),
  5. Two cases of Mountain House freeze-dried assorted entrees in #10 cans, courtesy of Ready Made Resources (a $350 value),
  6. A $250 gift certificate good for any product from Sunflower Ammo,
  7. American Gunsmithing Institute (AGI) is providing a $300 certificate good towards any of their DVD training courses.

Second Prize:

  1. A Front Sight Lifetime Diamond Membership, providing lifetime free training at any Front Sight Nevada course, with no limit on repeating classes. This prize is courtesy of a SurvivalBlog reader who prefers to be anonymous.
  2. A Glock form factor SIRT laser training pistol and a SIRT AR-15/M4 Laser Training Bolt, courtesy of Next Level Training, that have a combined retail value of $589,
  3. 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).
  4. An Israeli CBRN Gas Mask with Hydration Straw and two Extra 40mm NATO Filter s – Manufactured in 2020 (a $229.99 value), courtesy of McGuire Army-Navy.
  5. Naturally Cozy is donating a “Prepper Pack” Menstrual Kit.  This kit contains 18 pads and it comes vacuum-sealed for long term storage or slips easily into a bugout bag.  The value of this kit is $220.
  6. An assortment of products along with a one-hour consultation on health and wellness from Pruitt’s Tree Resin (a $265 value).

Third Prize:

  1. Three sets each of made-in-USA regular and wide-mouth reusable canning lids. (This is a total of 300 lids and 600 gaskets.) This prize is courtesy of Harvest Guard (a $270 value)
  2. A Royal Berkey water filter, courtesy of Directive 21 (a $275 value),
  3. Siege Stoves is generously donating a SIEGE® STOVE kit, including a Titanium Gen 3 Flat-Pack Stove with titanium Cross-Members and a variety of bonus items including a Large Folding Grill, a pair of Side Toasters, a Compact Fire Poker, and an extra set of stainless steel universal Cross-Members. (In all, a $200 value.)
  4. Two Super Survival Pack seed collections, a $150 value, courtesy of Seed for Security, LLC,
  5. A transferable $150 purchase credit from Elk Creek Company, toward the purchase of any pre-1899 antique gun. There is no paperwork required for delivery of pre-1899 guns into most states, making them the last bastion of firearms purchasing privacy!

Round 95 ends on July 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.

An Electric Car for TEOTWAWKI? – Part 1, by S.B.

I’ve been working on an article for SurvivalBlog on electric cars for quite some time…writing a little bit here and there then prioritizing other activities and halting work. With the recent Colonial Pipeline ransomware fiasco and associated fuel shortages on the east coast Report: U.S. Capital Nearly Out of Gas While NC, VA Also Endure Outages (breitbart.com), I thought this an opportune time to buckle down and finish up the article. Regardless of how you interpret U.S. Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm’s recent statement regarding the Colonial Pipeline shutdown where she said “if you drive an electric car, this would not be affecting you…” Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm on Pipeline Crisis: Drive an Electric Car (breitbart.com); she does have a point. In a less than TEOTWAWKI scenario, where electricity is available and gas is not, an electric vehicle would be a nice thing to have. Even in a full TEOTWWAKI scenario, an electric vehicle can have many advantages, as well as drawbacks, as I’ll discuss below.

Consider this a basic tutorial on the electric vehicle “platform” conveyed through the lens of prepping. Just as there are various weapons platforms that all ultimately have the same function of sending fast-moving projectiles downrange, consider an electric car one, among many platforms to transport people and goods down the road. I won’t go into great detail on the ins and outs of electric vehicles and the different makes and models, but identify common characteristics of the “platform” and how they might influence a preparedness minded person considering purchasing an electric vehicle. I’ll be conveying broad generalities. If you have an electric vehicle and think while reading this “My car does not work quite that way.”, or “Things work a little differently out where I live.”, I don’t doubt it. In this article, I’m focusing on the general principles and not the specific details.

Note that I’ll only be discussing “all-electric” vehicles powered solely by an electric motor and battery power. I have no experience owning or driving a “hybrid” that runs off of both electricity and gas (e.g., Toyota Prius), so will leave any discussion of that vehicle platform to others.Continue reading“An Electric Car for TEOTWAWKI? – Part 1, by S.B.”

The Survivalist’s Odds ‘n Sods

SurvivalBlog presents another edition of The Survivalist’s Odds ‘n Sods— a collection of news bits and pieces that are relevant to the modern survivalist and prepper from “JWR”. Our goal is to educate our readers, to help them to recognize emerging threats, and to be better prepared for both disasters and negative societal trends. You can’t mitigate a risk if you haven’t first identified a risk. Today, for openers, we take a look at some Bunkers of the Swiss National Redoubt (Schweizer Reduit.)

The Lovely Swiss Villas That Could Destroy An Army

A video from The Tim Traveller: The Lovely Swiss Villas That Could Destroy An Army

The Camouflaged Military Bunkers of Switzerland

A great collection of photos, over at Amusing Planet: The Camouflaged Military Bunkers of Switzerland.

Swiss Bunker Layout, An Entrance to the Redoubt

Swiss Bunker Layout, An Entrance to the Redoubt.

Photos of Switzerland’s Secret Bunkers

16 eerie pictures of Switzerland’s secret bunkers.

Most of Those Moving to Red States Vote Republican

Here is some confirmation for my observations: DeSantis says majority of people fleeing to Florida are registering as Republicans.
Continue reading“The Survivalist’s Odds ‘n Sods”

The Editors’ Quote of the Day:

“Commodities such as gold and silver have a world market that transcends national borders, politics, religions, and race. A person may not like someone else’s religion, but he’ll accept his gold.” – Robert Kiyosaki

Preparedness Notes for Wednesday — June 2, 2021

On June 2, 1774, Parliament renewed the Quartering Act, allowing British military to stay in private homes if necessary, completing the Coercive Acts. The Quartering Act, in conjunction with the Massachusetts Government Act, the Administration of Justice Act, and the Boston Port Act, were known as the Coercive Acts. These Acts were Parliament’s way of asserting their control over the colonists after the Boston Tea Party and were one of the main motivations for the 3rd Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.

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Please don’t forget to post a comment at the Federal Register’s website about the ATF’s proposed rule change radically redefining the term “frame or receiver” and substantially regulating making homemade guns. The comment period ends in 78 days. Please remind the F Troop Boys that only the U.S. Congress can change core definitions and that homemade gun-making is a purely intrastate affair, and thus outside of Federal jurisdiction for interstate commerce.

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 Democrats want the same for the Federal government.

Seeing this progression led me to a minor epiphany: What the Democrats have already accomplished in California, and what they hope to accomplish nationally was all perfectly legal.  Although there was some Illegal gerrymandering and plenty of felonious “voting irregularities”, they largely gained their supermajorities within the political process. It was all legal. This was nothing short of a quiet and calculated socialist revolution, all via propaganda, public school indoctrination, demographic shifts via legislated immigration rule changes, and then a slow series of electoral victories. The Republicans just watched it happen, with no substantive pushback.  Even during the Trump years, when the Republicans held the majority in both houses of congress, they simply dithered and dawdled, not daring to  keep their key promise to repeal the Affordable Care Act (ACA — commonly called Obamacare.) The leftist “moderate” wing of the Republican party was dominated by Never-Trumpers who didn’t wish to hand Trump any legislative victories. They preferred to squander the advantage of their majority rather than see Trump given any credit for rolling back socialist legislation.

The fictitious insurrection

If the Democrats succeed with their plans, then we will have a problem: Conservatives are largely law-abiding, and non-confrontational. We are The Nice Guys. And Nice Guys generally don’t start riots, and they don’t start revolutions. On January 6, 2021, just a hint of an uprising threw the Democrats in Congress and the leftist mainstream media into a panic.  Nancy Pelosi ordered fencing thrown up all around the U.S. Capitol complex, topped with razor wire. National Guard troops were mobilized for five months to “guard the Capitol” against a fictitious “insurrection.”  As of early June, 2021, the troops have now been withdrawn, but Pelosi’s ugly fence remains.

If the Democrats use their usual bag of tricks to steal the next election, and further solidify their hold on the House and Senate, then we will be in deep, deep trouble.  With a Democrat president  — most likely the Maoist Kamala Harris — and solid majorities in the House and Senate, they will begin to push through their entire socialist agenda. To wit: Higher taxes, more bureaucracy, gun ownership restrictions, censorship, targeted prosecution of conservatives, womb-to-tomb welfare, “stimulus” to infinity, taxpayer-funded higher education, a never-ending succession of COVID strains with lockdowns, unbridled government spending with no meaningful debt limits, defunding police, race-based reparations for pre-1865 slavery, et cetera.

Now, if the Democrats continue to pull this off, election after election, they will reach the threshold of holding supermajorities. Meanwhile, with Democrats controlling the White House for several successive terms, the composition of the Federal courts will become solidly liberal. Their carefully planned endgame is to assert socialist control over all three branches of government. If that happens, then Lord Help Us!

Please also consider that the Republican Party, as it is now being led is not much better than the Democrat Party. In essence, both major parties have socialist goals and have acquiesced to accepting big government and high taxes. The Democrats are just in more of a hurry.  When we look back on the last 50 years, we can see that the two outstanding “conservative” presidents — Reagan and Trump — were, despite their rhetoric, both big spenders and not true libertarians. So, what is needed in the long term is not just a new wave of Republicanism, but also a Sea Change within the Republican party, pushing it toward less government, minimal regulation, and lower taxes.

Not The Time To Play Nice

This is not the time to “play nice.” We’ve tried that for five decades and it has only emboldened the socialists. They’ve grown the state and federal governments to gargantuan proportions. They’ve shackled us with innumerable regulations and dictates. They’ve taxed us to death. They’ve attempted to disarm us. They are driving wedges between the generations and people groups. They’ve legalized homosexual marriage with hardly a peep of opposition, and now they are now pushing forward with their “trans-sexual” agenda, even on pre-pubescent children, again with very little concrete opposition. They’ve instituted systems of regulation and licensure for just about every trade and occupation. In many states, you can’t even be a barber or a hairdresser without a license. In some locales, they’ve made things as simple as building your own home a bureaucratic nightmare, with umpteen codes, inspections, environmental impact studies, and permit fees. And, as we’ve seen in recent months, the leftists will push “White Privilege”, “Critical Race Theory”, and “Climate Change” environmentalism as hard and fast as possible.

The sad truth is that continuing to play nice with the statist-socialists will inevitably put us behind barbed wire, for “re-education.”  The history of the 20th Century saw this pattern repeated, many times in many countries. This is how socialists operate: First, they belittle you. Then they demonize you. Then they criminalize you. Then they segregate you. And finally, they incarcerate you — or in some cases liquidate you. Nice guys go to the Gulag.

The leftist politicians have shoved the throttle wide open for their entire agenda, with the complicity of academia and the mass media. Anyone who opposes them is instantly branded as a racist, or “homophobic”, anti-semitic, or worse. Oh, I suppose that they will stop maliciously labeling their opponents as child molesters, because that is the next item on their agenda of proposed “rights” and “lifestyle choices.”

How We Can Win

In the long term, we can win, and we will win, but we must steel ourselves with genuine resolve. How can we accomplish this?

  • We must quietly team up with like-minded individuals and families.
  • We must learn to ignore the taunts and threats of leftists. Our behavior must be driven by Biblical standards — not by what is “now-accepted” or “popular”.
  • We must press on, despite being demonetized and de-platformed.
  • We must stop “moderating” our positions, for the sake of appearances, attaboys, or decorum.
  • We must coordinate a campaign of massive noncompliance with unconstitutional laws.
  • We must establish home-based businesses, and trade amongst ourselves — preferably with constitutional silver currency — and starve the beast.
  • We must fully withdraw ourselves from their Orewelian social media platforms and instead establish and support alternate media platforms — such as FrankSpeech.
  • We must consolidate geographically to redoubts — to survive and thrive in the dark days to come.
  • We must guard our children against evil influences, through homeschooling.
  • We must arm and armor ourselves and draw the line in the sand of never “papering” (registering), or surrendering our guns, ammunition, full-capacity magazines, night vision gear, body armor, and helmets.
  • We must begin consistently using both encryption and VPN. (Note: I prefer NordVPN — and we’ll earn a small commission if you sign up with them, using our link.)
  • We must support those who have been maliciously persecuted and prosecuted.
  • We must cease any and all “compromise”.
  • We must withdraw from liberally tainted churches.
  • We must choose in advance just how, when, and where we will fight against tyranny. Pick your fights wisely, and consider the consequences. Brief your family members, and make those crucial “You will go stay with Aunt Charlotte” contingency plans and directives.
  • We must modify our home architecture with both ballistic hardening and hidden safe rooms. (What I call “Ten Boom Rooms”.)
  • We must teach our children well: “Never get on the bus.” Never willingly go into Federal custody.

I pray the 91st Psalm for all of my readers. – JWR