Economics & Investing For Preppers

18

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 risk of buying faked antique guns. (See the Tangibles Investing section.)

Stocks:

Lance Roberts, over at Seeking Alpha: 15 Extreme Risks And How You Can Navigate Them

o  o  o

Uber Loses Another $1.2 billion, Stock Dives Again

Economy & Finance:

Berkshire Becomes Global Cash King: $128BN Cash Pile Bigger Than Apple, Google. JWR’s Comment:  Berkshire has doubled their cash holdings in the past  18 months.  Whenever Warren Buffett heads for the equities market exit door marked “Cash”, then watch out!  Recession must be on the way! (A hat tip to H.L. for the link.)

o  o  o

At Zero Hedge: Turning Japanese? Growth In $9BN US Adult Diaper Market Explodes, Topping Baby Diapers

o  o  o

Debt-Maggeddon: $6.2 Million Per U.S. Birth In 2019

o  o  o

At Wolf Street: What’s Behind the Fed’s Bailout of the Repo Market?

Continue reading“Economics & Investing For Preppers”

Preparedness Notes for Thursday — November 7, 2019

1

November 7th is the anniversary of the death of actor Steve McQueen (born March 24, 1930, died November 7, 1980). The many well-publicized exploits in his tempestuous life and his enduring persona are well known. However, the end of his life is actually the most noteworthy part of his legacy, even though it seldom gets much publicity outside of Christian circles; he came to Jesus after he had been diagnosed with mesothelioma. He died with his forefinger pointing to his key verse in his Bible– Titus 1:2.

—

SurvivalBlog Writing Contest

Today we present another entry for Round 85 of the SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing contest. The more than $12,000 worth of prizes for this round include:

First Prize:

  1. A $3,000 gift certificate towards a Sol-Ark Solar Generator from Veteran owned Portable Solar LLC. The only EMP Hardened Solar Generator System available to the public.
  2. A Gunsite Academy Three Day Course Certificate. This can be used for any 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 (an $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 gift certificate from Quantum Harvest LLC (up to a $2,200 value) good for 12% off the purchase of any of their sun-tracking models, and 10% off the purchase price of any of their other models.
  2. 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.
  3. 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,
  4. A $300 purchase credit for any of the products from EMPShield.com
  5. A Three-Day Deluxe Emergency Kit from Emergency Essentials (a $190 value),
  6. 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).
  7. 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. Good2GoCo.com is providing a $400 purchase credit at regular prices for the prize winner’s choice of either Wise Foods or Augason long term storage foods, in stackable buckets.
  2. 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)
  3. A Royal Berkey water filter, courtesy of Directive 21 (a $275 value),
  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.

Round 85 ends on November 30th, 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.

My Ankle Ammo Rig, by Spotlight

27

It may sound crazy but I can routinely carry over 50 rounds of ammunition on my person at all times without it being obvious, uncomfortable or hampering my normal activities. After more than two decades of law enforcement work and now nearly seven years of a combination of private investigation (PI), private security work, and consulting, I have come full circle. I started out in the late 1980s as a small town cop and was issued a Ruger Security Six .357 Magnum revolver. As with most law enforcement agencies, we went through a series of semi-autos starting in the early 1990s. First, in 1991 we went to a S&W 9mm (the model number escapes me). We carried those from 1991 until around 2009 when we switched to S&W M&P .40s. Just after I retired in the early 2010s, my old agency switched to Smith & Wesson .45s. Basically, we followed the trend of most of the agencies in our area and in particular the state police.

Once I retired, I carried what had been until that point my standard off-duty gun, a Smith & Wesson 3946 9mm single stack semi-auto that holds 7-8 rounds depending on which magazine you have. I always called this my “wedding gun” because shortly before my wife and I were married, she commented to me that when we got married money would probably be a bit tight for awhile so if there was something I wanted I should probably buy it before the wedding, hence the 3946!

To be honest, I had never really shot that gun that well. I could pass the required course with it to carry off duty but I don’t have a lot of confidence with it beyond 10 yards or so. Like most cops I don’t consider myself a “gun guy”. I am very familiar with the guns I carry and never leave home without one, but I couldn’t talk very long about ballistics, the differences between various grains of ammunition, etc. I enjoy shooting as far as preparing to defend my family, or myself but it’s not a hobby for me, just a necessity for my chosen field of work. On the job I carried the ammo they gave me. Now that I’m retired I did some research on the best self defense rounds and stick with those.Continue reading“My Ankle Ammo Rig, by Spotlight”

The Survivalist’s Odds ‘n Sods

16

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, we look at Google’s newly-announced photo OCR technology.

Google Can Now Search for Text in Your Pictures

Regular content contributor G.P. sent this: Google Photos can now search for text in your pictures, copy and paste it. JWR’s Comment: Never forget that the Internet is an enormous vacuum cleaner, sucking up data. Whatever goes there often ends up ends up in persistent databases. This technology is probably already being misused by malefactors–both state actors and non-state actors. In addition to using a tool like ExifPurge to remove GPS tagging from your personal photos, it is very important to not post any close-ups that reveal your fingerprints and to not let things like firearms serial numbers, credit cards, personal correspondence, bills, receipts, or car license plate numbers be seen in any uploaded photos. OCR technology is progressing rapidly. And with AI now increasingly being used to cross-correlate data, the implications are huge.

Maunder Minimum? Central England’s Chilly October

SurvivalBlog reader A.D. spotted this news: Central England experiences Historically Chilly October. The article begins:

“The UK’s October 2019 sure felt like a chilly one, but now official Met Office temperature data has confirmed it — Central England just experienced a month on par with those of the mid-to-late 1600s.

The Central England Temperature (CET) record measures the monthly mean surface air temperatures for the Midlands region of England, and is the longest series of monthly temperature observations in existence, anywhere in the world.

Its mean reading for October 2019 came in at a nice round 10C — that’s 0.7C below the already cool 1961-1990 average (the current standard period of reference for climatological data used by the WMO).

In the 360 years of CET data there have only-ever been nine other years with an October average temperature of 10C — these are 1659, 1660, 1663, 1668, 1669, 1670, 1672, 1679, and 1722.”

No Power = No Phones

Peter sent us this: PG&E blackout knocks out quarter of Sonoma County cellphone towers. JWR’s Comments: California’s regulations don’t require backup power–even for some land line phones. This underscores the need to have both our own power generating  capacity and to have ham radio gear and practice with it.

Continue reading“The Survivalist’s Odds ‘n Sods”

Preparedness Notes for Wednesday — November 6, 2019

1

Today in 1977, the Toccoa Falls Dam in Georgia gave way and 39 people died in the resulting flood. The dam was an earthen dam constructed across a canyon in 1887 and had a 55-acre lake that was 180 feet deep. The dam had recently been inspected and approved, but in the early morning hours it gave way. Water flooded down the canyon at speeds approaching 120 mph. Below, residents of the Christian and Missionary Alliance College had no time to evacuate as the small community was wiped out.

—

To finish paying off some family bills, I’m auctioning one more of my original pre-ban HK91 rifles. This one is woodland digital camouflage dipped! The opening bid is just $2,200.  This auction ends on the evening of November 10th. Get your bid in soon!

—

SurvivalBlog Writing Contest

Today we present another entry for Round 85 of the SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing contest. The more than $12,000 worth of prizes for this round include:

First Prize:

  1. A $3,000 gift certificate towards a Sol-Ark Solar Generator from Veteran owned Portable Solar LLC. The only EMP Hardened Solar Generator System available to the public.
  2. A Gunsite Academy Three Day Course Certificate. This can be used for any 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 (an $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 gift certificate from Quantum Harvest LLC (up to a $2,200 value) good for 12% off the purchase of any of their sun-tracking models, and 10% off the purchase price of any of their other models.
  2. 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.
  3. 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,
  4. A $300 purchase credit for any of the products from EMPShield.com
  5. A Three-Day Deluxe Emergency Kit from Emergency Essentials (a $190 value),
  6. 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).
  7. 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. Good2GoCo.com is providing a $400 purchase credit at regular prices for the prize winner’s choice of either Wise Foods or Augason long term storage foods, in stackable buckets.
  2. 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)
  3. A Royal Berkey water filter, courtesy of Directive 21 (a $275 value),
  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.

Round 85 ends on November 30th, 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.

Signals Intelligence for Regular Folk – Part 2, by Tunnel Rabbit

13

(Continued from Part 1.  This concludes the article.)

A $20 SDR-UTL dongle can cover 1.8MHz to 1.2 GHz, and see and hear the entire 220MHz Ham band, or the entire spectrum with the right software. Yet who would use precious power to monitor a band with no traffic on it anyway? The more expensive Dongle covers most everything else including frequencies that drones would use… With the $20 dongle, a poor man’s frequency analyzer, one can see weak transmissions even though they cannot hear them. And one can spot spurious transmissions, secondary harmonics, that can lead to the identification of those using the notorious Baofeng UV-5R. Having a Baofeng or two, I’ve tested this.  If the user is using something besides a Baofeng, I would consider them the more serious threat.  So even you-guys with a Yaesu, Kenwood, or whatever fine radios, can be identified by their lack of spurious RF!

Detection, DF-ing, and Intrusion

To better detect threats using low power radio, rip the television antenna off the chimney that is actually this often dual band UHF/VHF antenna horizontally polarized receiving antenna, but mount to pole so that is vertical (that is up and down orientation), and point it in the direction of the most likely avenue of approach.  Using the old  cable that is on the old television antenna, strip and push one of the bare wires into the scanners antenna plug, and attached the other wire to the body of radio or ground of that antenna base of the scanner.  This is the tricky part, but the correct connector and a 50 ohm, or even 75 ohm cable TV cable without the proper connector can be run from the antenna to the scanner. It is of course best to plan ahead, and do it the correct and reliable way. Program the scanner with only GMRS/FRS, MURS, and even CB frequencies, and others if you can.  Use a second scanner on the same cable to sweep the entire 2 meter Ham band.

The common as dirt radio out there. is the ubiquitous GMRS/FRS radios and represents the most likely radio that Bubba and his gang might use if knocking off preppers. CB radio will be their second choice, and possibly even 2 meter. GMRS/FRS radios have a very short range, so we use a direction antenna that will pick up the weakest signal. and exclude signals that are not as much of a threat.  We would want to hear all traffic in the area as well, but our focus should first be at the front door, and primary avenue of approach.  If any traffic is heard they are very close by, and so is the threat. It would be best to put a patrol out to confirm and gauge the threat, or at least put eyes out on the approach, and ready the defense.Continue reading“Signals Intelligence for Regular Folk – Part 2, by Tunnel Rabbit”

JWR’s Recommendations of the Week:

Here are JWR’s Recommendations of the Week for various media and tools of interest to SurvivalBlog readers. The focus is usually on emergency communications gear, bug out bag gear, books and movies–often with a tie-in to disaster preparedness, and links to “how to” self-sufficiency videos. There are also links to sources for both storage food and storage containers. You will also note an emphasis on history books and historical movies. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. This week I have a special recommendations column devoted to countersurveillance references and products.

Books:

Claire Wolfe: The Freedom Outlaw’s Handbook: 179 Things to Do ‘Til the Revolution

o  o  o

Techniques in Countersurveillance: The Fine Art of Bug Extermination in the Real World of Intelligence Gathering

o  o  o

Bench-Tested Circuits For Surveillance And Countersurveillance Technicians

o  o  o

This one is dated, but still worth reading: The Privacy Handbook: Proven Countermeasures for Combating Threats to Privacy, Security, and Personal Freedom

Continue reading“JWR’s Recommendations of the Week:”

The Editors’ Quote of the Day:

15

“As to the present value of old technology in stoves, look for a moment at Finland. Finland is an advanced country, known for fine workmanship and good design. The Finns are international traders. Their products have to be good, especially in regard to heating because their climate is like that of Alaska. Today, [1984] Finland’s government actively encourages the construction of masonry stoves through tax policy. About two-thirds of Finland’s new houses have built-in masonry stoves. Most of the rest have wood-fired masonry baking ovens which can also be used for space heating. This government policy says a good deal about Finland’s confidence in an old technology, even in the space age. It says something as well about the country’s assessment of the energy situation.

Masonry stoves can sharply reduce wood-burning safety problems. The iron stove is frequently so hot that it will burn anyone who touches it. The masonry stove is commonly designed in Europe with benches attached, so that you can sit and lean against the stove. There is a world of difference in safety between a stove you can lean on and one that burns at the touch.” – David Lyle, The Book of Masonry Stoves — Rediscovering an Old Way of Warming

Preparedness Notes for Tuesday — November 5, 2019

2

On this day in 2009, 13 people were killed and more than 30 others were wounded–nearly all of them unarmed soldiers–when a U.S. Army officer went on a shooting rampage with a pistol at Fort Hood, Texas. The massacre was carried out by Major Nidal Malik Hasan, an Army psychiatrist, was the worst mass murder at a U.S. military installation. In the Fort Hood shooting, Hasan reportedly shouted “Allahu Akbar!” After his capture, Hasan said that “Muslims should rise up.” He was later sentenced to death.

—

I’ve recently learned that SurvivalBlog has been penalized through de-ranking by search engine algorithms, partly because of the short length of some of our columns. So I’ve opted to henceforth consolidate the “Odds ‘n Sods” column to just Sundays and Thursdays. It will no longer be posted on Tuesdays. Not to worry, as the total number of column items seen each week won’t be decreasing much. I’m sorry to do this, but to maintain  visibility to folks doing web searches, we must cater to the vagaries of the search engines. They now de-rank any blog entry that is less than 600 words long. One way that you can counter their de-ranking of the blog is by encouraging your friends to make SurvivalBlog.com their browser’s home page, and by occasionally linking to SurvivalBlog articles from your own web page or blog. Many Thanks! – JWR

—

SurvivalBlog Writing Contest

Today we present another entry for Round 85 of the SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing contest. The more than $12,000 worth of prizes for this round include:

First Prize:

  1. A $3,000 gift certificate towards a Sol-Ark Solar Generator from Veteran owned Portable Solar LLC. The only EMP Hardened Solar Generator System available to the public.
  2. A Gunsite Academy Three Day Course Certificate. This can be used for any 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 (an $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 gift certificate from Quantum Harvest LLC (up to a $2,200 value) good for 12% off the purchase of any of their sun-tracking models, and 10% off the purchase price of any of their other models.
  2. 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.
  3. 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,
  4. A $300 purchase credit for any of the products from EMPShield.com
  5. A Three-Day Deluxe Emergency Kit from Emergency Essentials (a $190 value),
  6. 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).
  7. 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. Good2GoCo.com is providing a $400 purchase credit at regular prices for the prize winner’s choice of either Wise Foods or Augason long term storage foods, in stackable buckets.
  2. 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)
  3. A Royal Berkey water filter, courtesy of Directive 21 (a $275 value),
  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.

Round 85 ends on November 30th, 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.

Signals Intelligence for Regular Folk – Part 1, by Tunnel Rabbit

36

This is another attempt to put a vital part of a security operation into an affordable box, that will provide ‘the mostest, for the leastest’, the quickest, and in the easiest way. In time, the basic tools will be the foundation of whatever improvements to an area of your security plan that fits you.  At present, the discussion is about radio related topics as it pertains to a security operation. The pros know that actionable intelligence should drive defenses.  We will likely not have the time to develop that lofty level of intelligence, yet there is one type of intelligence where the “low hanging fruit” is easily had.  We seek to discover this threat, so that action will be taken. This certain and basic information, a no-brainer, is about threats that should cause one to heighten their defenses, if not put eyes on the problem. So what are we talking about?  Bad guys using radios to coordinate movement, against you and yours.

At the end of the day is it not what you got, but what you can keep. The ability to keep what we got is the goal. As alluded to, ad naseum, *Security will be job one*. You can have a dedicated security team that is supported by everyone else, yet sadly most of us will be hurting for certain without enough hands that make work light.  Can we have dedicated security team?  Gotta S2 for you? Got no clue? How about your own SIGINT? No? Bummer!  How can we cram, at least one of these important functions into something bite size that a prepper can chew? Can we consolidate capabilities, downsize one critical task? Is it possible to put at least some of it into a manageable size box that can provide at least some of what is the most useful?  Can we adapted these tasks to regular folk’s background, without a steep learning curve?  All these pesky questions were needed to be asked. As it pertains to the recent topic d’jour, we can indeed take a bite of the security problem out, by starting with a single scanner. The threat will not disappoint, and neither will a scanner, if used properly.  Give Grandpa, or the big kid, a scanner for Christmas. You might be glad you did.  It is a critical part of your security and commo plan, that does the first intel job: Warning.Continue reading“Signals Intelligence for Regular Folk – Part 1, by Tunnel Rabbit”

SurvivalBlog’s News From The American Redoubt

4

This weekly column features news stories and event announcements from around the American Redoubt region. (Idaho, Montana, eastern Oregon, eastern Washington, and Wyoming.) Much of the region is also more commonly known as The Inland Northwest. We also mention companies of interest to preppers and survivalists that are located in the American Redoubt region. Today, we focus on conifer encroachment.   (See the Montana section.)

Region-Wide

Inland Northwest Trends, Fall 2019 (Gallery). Far from being just “hicks, out in the sticks”, many builders in the American Redoubt are constructing and final finishing some very beautiful homes.

o o o

In Redoubt, Matthew Barney retells an ancient myth in a survivalist American landscape

Idaho

o o o

University of Idaho deficit expected to increase to $22 million

o o o

Books in Idaho prisons: What’s allowed, what isn’t, and what they mean to those inside. JWR’s Comment: I’ve heard that because of their technical details, my nonfiction books and even some of my novels have been banned by state and Federal prisons.

Continue reading“SurvivalBlog’s News From The American Redoubt”

The Editors’ Quote of the Day:

6

“Like the larger context of suburbia, the giant consolidated schools seemed like a good idea at the time. The idea was to save administrative costs throughout a given district or region and the unanticipated consequence was to make education a loathsome and pointless experience for the students. The public schools are well on their way to just collapsing under the weight of their outlandish costs, especially their pension obligations, and the onerous school bus fleets.

Similarly, the colleges that have absorbed the flow of public school graduates — many of them ill-prepared for higher ed — using the loan racket to support their operations, are verging on criticality en route to collapse. Two colleges in my region shut down this year: Green Mountain College in Poultney, VT, and Southern Vermont College in Bennington. A third, Hampshire College over in western Massachusetts, is “looking for a new partner,” i.e. whirling around the drain. Many more will be following them.

The psychology of previous investment plays a big part in all this. Having spent so much of our national wealth building all this stuff, we can’t imagine letting go of it. And we built it during the decades of our greatest wealth accumulation. Now that we are paying today’s bills by borrowing from the future (i.e. accumulating massive debt), we can’t really continue to maintain all this infrastructure. But we’ll continue to pretend we can until we reach the moment of systemic criticality, where reality can no longer be denied. It’s liable to be messy. Like moments of criticality in natural systems — earthquakes, avalanches — financial shock tends to be quick, disorderly, and destructive.

The resolution of all this will be emergent, too, like its origin. That is, it will work itself out nonlinearly and chaotically. As for schooling itself across the whole spectrum from primary to higher ed, a lot of it will simply collapse and disappear, at least for a period of time, maybe a long time. It is most likely to reorganize on the fine grain of home schooling or home schools that aggregate into group teaching. But education will be nothing like the gargantuan enterprise it has been in our time. Some institutions of higher ed may survive, if they can downscale stringently. But anything organized at the giant scale is likely to find it very difficult to go on.” – James Howard Kunstler

Preparedness Notes for Monday — November 4, 2019

November 4th is the birthday of Medal of Honor recipient John Basilone. He was born in 1916 in Buffalo, New York.

—

On this day in 1979, student followers of the Ayatollah Khomeini sent shock waves across America when they stormed the U.S. embassy in Tehran. The radical Islamic fundamentalists took 90 hostages. The students were enraged that the deposed Shah had been allowed to enter the U.S. to seek medical attention. Just a few days later, the provincial leader of Iran resigned and the Ayatollah Khomeini took full control of the country. Two weeks later, all non-U.S personnel as well as female and minority Americans began to be released. The remaining 52 hostages were held for 14 months until the election of President Reagan.

—

To finish paying off some family bills, I decided to auction one more of my original pre-ban HK91 rifles. This one is woodland digital camouflage dipped! The opening bid is just $2,200. This auction runs for just one week. (Ending on the evening of November 10th.) Get your bid in early!