The Survivalist’s Odds ‘n Sods:

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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 “HJL”. “Platinum” used to mean something special. When you were part of the platinum club for any organization, you had somehow earned your way. Even a platinum credit card used to mean that you were financially stable. That’s obviously not the case now. In New Orleans, you can be special by being part of the city sanctioned spying ring.

City Sanctioned Spying

New Orleans has gone full Orwell with their latest proposal. You can now join their new “Platinum” program by tying your security cameras into their feeds.

“SafeCam Platinum is an exciting new opportunity to connect your home or business with the City of New Orleans by sharing your public-facing security camera footage directly with the Real Time Crime Center!”

How exciting, you can now feel like you are part of a privileged group spying on your neighbors.

More Than Carbon Taxes

Reader D.S. sent in this article that shows France’s unrest, while triggered by the new carbon taxes is deeper than that and why the public is still rioting. Both France and German have ordered EU states to open up their borders for mass migration. Both Macron and Merkle have championed the process of a globalist government and redistribution of wealth. In their push to these goals, they have not obtained the consent of the governed and it’s beginning to show. To add insult to injury, it also appears that armored vehicles responding to the riots in Paris are wearing the EU flag.

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The Editors’ Quote of the Day:

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“Show me that age and country where the rights and liberties of the people were placed on the sole chance of their rulers being good men, without a consequent loss of liberty?” – Patrick Henry, In a speech at the Virginia Ratifying Convention (June 5th,1788)

Gerber Prodigy, by Pat Cascio

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I’m always on the lookout for knife bargains and knives to test for our readers. This time around Amazon led me to the Gerber Prodigy, a fixed blade survival knife, and we’ll give you a run down on it in this article.

Writers Who Test Firearms and Knives

Many readers believe that writers, especially those of us who test firearms and knives, make a lot of money doing this for a living. Nothing could be further from the truth. Most of us hold or have held other jobs while pursuing the testing/writing of products. As for me, I worked as a police officer and also did private K-9 security work, was a martial arts instructor, as well as offered firearms classes. I did whatever else I had to do to help make ends meet. These days, I’m semi-retired and only test products that I believe would be of interest to our SurvivalBlog readers.

On a Limited Budget

Some knife companies send me their latest products for testing. Other times, I purchase knives out of my own funds, and I’m extremely careful how I spend my money these days since I’m on a limited budget with my fixed income. My wife still works full time. However, in another year or two, she’ll retire and our income will be extremely limited. So, we budget now, and we’ll have to budget even more when that time comes.

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Economics & Investing For Preppers

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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. And it bears mention that most of these items are from the “tangibles heavy” contrarian perspective of JWR. (SurvivalBlog’s Founder and Senior Editor.) Today’s focus is on HF Ham Radio Transceivers  (See the Tangibles Investing section.)

 

Precious Metals:

Gold Extends Gains, at 5-Month High, as U.S. Stock Market Sell-Off Intensifies

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For those of you might want to hear from a Chartist: Silver At Historic Price Juncture: Which Way Will It Break?

 

Economy & Finance:

Inverted Yield Curve – The Complete Picture

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Chris Martenson: Every Bubble Is In Search Of A Pin

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At Zero Hedge: “It Can’t Go On Forever” – Bob Shiller Questions America’s “Gigantic Housing Boom”

 

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Preparedness Notes for Sunday – December 09, 2018

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December 9th, 1914 is the birthday of Maximo Guillermo “Max” Manus. He was one of the few Norwegians who had the testicular fortitude to put his life on the line, fighting the Nazi occupiers. (There surely would have been more active resistance fighters, but fearing widespread reprisal executions by the Germans, King H7 asked the civilian populace to stand down.) Max Manus passed away in 1996. I would have liked to have met him. His exploits are fairly accurately shown in the movie Max Manus: Man of War.

Guest Post: Another Day Older and Deeper in Debt, by Gary Christenson

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This post first appeared on The Deviant Investor.

Official US national debt exceeds $21 trillion. National debt increases over $3 billion per day.

Another day older and $3 billion deeper in debt!

The U.S. government pays the interest by issuing new debt. But that new debt increases total debt and (eventually) drives up interest rates, which requires more borrowing to pay the annual interest payments. Another year older and deeper in debt! A reset will occur when the debt load becomes too heavy.

WHY DEEPER IN DEBT?

Governments spend currency units, corporations demand their payoffs, the warfare and welfare lobbies own congress and the “borrow and spend” circus performs.

From Treasury Secretary Mnuchin:

“The real story is we made a significant investment in the military which is very, very important, and to get that done we had to increase non-military spending.”

The Deep State extracted its share of the swag, participants collected their payoffs and debt expanded. Borrow and spend is the lifeblood of the Wall Street and D.C. circus.

But it extends beyond Washington D.C. Consider these massive debt burdens in the U.S.:

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The Survivalist’s Odds ‘n Sods:

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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 “HJL”. With Paris burning due to the riots, the questions start arising on why they continue. The answer may surprise you.

Paris Burning

Are you still wondering why Paris is burning? This article sent in by reader H.L. shows why there is so much civil unrest. France has the the highest tax rate in the industrialized world along with the worst investment record in Europe. You can physically oppress people all day long and they will usually just knuckle under and take the abuse. But when you start hitting them in their pocketbook and making it difficult to feed their family– lookout! Back in the 1700s the magic tipping point seemed to be around 6% tax. In today’s world, it would appear to be closer to 40%. France is at a whopping 46.2% tax rate. I don’t think a simple reversal of the new gasoline taxes is going to fix this problem.

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Put another way, Paris is basically burning over climate change taxes introduced in the last few years. The straw that broke the camels back was the $0.25/gallon climate change tax on gasoline. Imagine what will happen if that tax is closer to $49/gallon. That is the level of taxation that a United Nations special climate report calls for in 12 years using a carbon tax of $5,500/ton. The U.N. claims that a tax of $27,000/ton ($240/gallon) is needed to limit global warming to no more than 1.5 degrees. Thanks to DSV for the link.

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The Editors’ Quote of the Day:

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“And I, brethren, when I came to you, came not with excellency of speech or of wisdom, declaring unto you the testimony of God. For I determined not to know any thing among you, save Jesus Christ, and him crucified. And I was with you in weakness, and in fear, and in much trembling. And my speech and my preaching was not with enticing words of man’s wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power: that your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God.” – 1 Corinthians 2:1-5 (KJV)

Family Earthquake Preparedness: Are You Ready?

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The recent strong earthquake near Anchorage, Alaska underscores the importance of family earthquake readiness. Thankfully, we live in a country with modern building standards. This is not in the case of many Third World nations, where unreinforced masonry construction is the norm. In the Third World, folks tend to be very stingy with reinforcing bar (“rebar”). So its seems that every time there is a large earthquake in those regions, there are building collapses, with large loss of life.

By far, the safest houses for earthquakes are of wood frame construction. This is because such structures can flex and sway, when an earthquake rolls through. If you look at recent history of fairly large earthquakes in California, the three things that suffer the most are: 1.) Bridges and overpasses, 2.) Brick fireplace chimneys attached to wood frame houses, and 3.) Water mains. Again, we can be thankful that wood frame construction is the norm, and that most masonry buildings in the U.S. and Canada have sufficient rebar reinforcement. But even reinforced concrete and brick is inherently more vulnerable that wood frame, in the most severe earthquakes. (Magnitude 7.0, or higher, on the Richter scale.) By the way, the Richter scale is logarithmic. That means that a Magnitude 7.0 is 10 time more powerful that a Magnitude 6.

For those of you reading this who live in a wood frame house or apartment, you should have two concerns: A.) Seismic retrofitting, if needed, and B.) Securing furniture, water heaters, wall hangings, and fragile items from falling, in the event of an earthquake. In this article, I will be discussing both of these.

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Editors’ Prepping Progress

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To be prepared for a crisis, every Prepper must establish goals and make long-term and short-term plans. Steadily, we work on meeting our prepping goals. In this column, the SurvivalBlog editors review their week’s prep activities. They also often share their planned prep activities for the coming week. These range from healthcare and gear purchases to gardening, property improvements, 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 the Comments. Let’s keep busy and be ready!

JWR

At this time of year we often have family and friends visit the ranch. This activity curtails a lot of our prepping, aside for the usual day-to-day tasks and livestock chores.  So this week you won’t be reading any detailed descriptions of our projects. However…

With the new Democrat-dominated Congress about to be seated (on January 3, 2019), I have been planning ahead with some preemptive mitigation for upcoming firearms legislation.  I’m pursuing two main avenues of mitigation:  Stocking up on full capacity magazines, and buying some extra AR lower receivers–both 80% complete and 100% serialized varieties.  By mail order, I’ve been buying large quantities of AR15, AR-10, and assorted Glock magazines.  I’ve purchased many of these from GunMag Warehouse–one of our affiliate advertisers.  I’ve also been attending more gun shows, to search for AR-15 and AR-10 lowers–either stripped or complete.

Just the introduction of proposed legislation in January and February is almost certain to throw the market into a panic. Surely, prices will escalate.  Right now you can find standard AR-15 MagPul PMAGs for under $10 each.  Likewise, serialized stripped AR-15 lowers are available for around $50 each. But once the panic develops, those magazines will be $30+ and serialzed lowers will be $300+. Count on it.  The clock is ticking, folks, so stock up! – Jim & Avalanche Lily, Rawles

 

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The Survivalist’s Odds ‘n Sods:

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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 “HJL”. It seems that a Skynet rising isn’t too far fetched anymore. We’re only talking chess here, but it is a short leap from chess to world domination given the right conditions.

New Jersey Magazine Ban Law

ANJRPC Releases Guide To Comply With NJ Magazine Ban By December 10

JWR’s Comment: If any New Jersey SurvivalBlog readers have any 11+ round magazines that they are considering turning in for destruction, PLEASE DON’T!  Instead, mail them to me, and I will gladly reimburse you for at least your postage, and probably a lot more. (Depending on the type of magazine, and its condition.) For example, I’m paying $6 each for USGI 15-round M1 Carbine magazines, in nice condition. And I’ll pay $18 each for 13-round Glock Model 21 factory magazines. Just box them up and mail them to Jim Rawles P.O. Box 303, Moyie Springs, Idaho 83845 …and I’ll mail you a check. It is just that simple.

Crazy Eyes

We are definitely in for a wild ride come January. Socialist Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (a.k.a. Crazy Eyes) got a bit miffed when Donald Trump Jr trolled her on Instagram. I have to admit, it’s funny. For those who don’t want to click on the Instagram link, It’s a meme which has a pictured of Ocasio-Cortez asking the question: “Why are you so afraid of a socialist economy?” followed by a picture of Trump saying: “Because Americans want to walk their dogs, not eat them.”. Crazy Eyes’ response was to attempt to troll Trump Jr. back by threatening him with her subpoena power in about a month. Can you say “ethics violation”? See what happens when you don’t show up at the polls on election day?

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