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”. Amazon Echo is at the center of a Murder trial as evidence now.

Modern Nomads

A growing segment of America is redefining what a nomadic lifestyle is. CBS news recently ran a new special on this. Upwards of one million Americans are now embracing a modern nomadic lifestyle where the home and property has been sold or rented out and the family now lives and travels in an RV. The article referenced suggests that those people feel that the open road lifestyle has made them happier and improved their marriages. Certainly, they don’t have the same battles over property taxes and other things that most American’s deal with. With homeschooling so available, this can be a lifestyle even for young families.

Saving Your Home

Yahoo has an article on a man who chose to fight for his home rather than evacuate in Paradise, California. Egged on by his 90 year-old mother who refused to evacuate and armed with garden hoses and buckets of water from a swimming pool, he and his mother’s home health aide battled flames all day Thursday and into the night. It should be noted that this was not his first fire and he had some experience at dealing with it. He was able to save his home while those around him lost theirs. I noticed in the article that the description of the properties surrounding him suggested that may have played into the problem. There were apparently lots of flammable things around the properties and right next to homes.

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The Editors’ Quote of the Day:

“The corollary, from the first position, is, that ‘the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed.’ The prohibition is general. No clause in the Constitution could by any rule of construction be conceived to give to congress a power to disarm the people. Such a flagitious attempt could only be made under some general pretense by a state legislature. But if in any blind pursuit of inordinate power, either should attempt it, this amendment may be appealed to as a restraint on both.” – William Rawle, in his textbook A View of the The Constitution, 1825.

Preparedness Notes for Wednesday – November 14, 2018

On November 14th, 1985, the Nevado del Ruiz Volcano erupted in Colombia, killing over 20,000 as nearby towns are buried in mud, ice and lava. Scientist studying the volcano believed an eruption was imminent and had recommended an evacuation of the area which was largely ignored, resulting in the high number of casualties.

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SurvivalBlog Writing Contest

Today features another entry for Round 79 of the SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing contest. The nearly $11,000 worth of prizes for this round include:

First Prize:

  1. A $3000 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 Model 175 Series Solar Generator provided by Quantum Harvest LLC (a $439 value),
  2. 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,
  3. A gift certificate for any two or three-day class from Max Velocity Tactical (a $600 value),
  4. A Three-Day Deluxe Emergency Kit from Emergency Essentials (a $190 value),
  5. RepackBox is providing a $300 gift certificate to their site, and
  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).

Third Prize:

  1. A Royal Berkey water filter, courtesy of Directive 21 (a $275 value),
  2. 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,
  3. Expanded sets of both washable feminine pads and liners, donated by Naturally Cozy (a $185 retail value),
  4. Two Super Survival Pack seed collections, a $150 value, courtesy of Seed for Security, LLC,
  5. Mayflower Trading is donating a $200 gift certificate for homesteading appliances.

Round 79 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.

Making The Hard Decisions Somewhat Easier- Part 1, by Old Bobbert

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Being fully aware of the contest rules concerning fiction, this essay topic has required an ample supply of assumed acceptable standards and examples for one simple over-riding truth– world wide, there is a single commonality factor about everyone who has been forced by circumstances to actually put into real-time practice their go/no go decision. That common event generally fits into a very limited non-nationwide problem. We have experienced some very serious terrible events in some areas of the country but not a nationwide anything.

The recent calamity of the flooding of the Texas coast did not affect other areas in any measurable ways, Yes, the price of petroleum products will go up for a while but not much else. Some single purpose imaginary work in creating this offering seemed to be fully justified and very necessary.

Major Safety Decision Factors That Usually Come Hard

Let’s start with a short list of some of the major safety decision factors that usually come hard for most of us most of the time. We will look into three examples, based of a few separate groups of general circumstances. The first group is bugging out from a city situation. Next would be bugging out from a large suburban, bedroom-type community, and third would be bugging out from a small town about a hundred miles from the nearest major large city and very near an interstate highway.

Continue reading“Making The Hard Decisions Somewhat Easier- Part 1, by Old Bobbert”

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 the Chinese Debt Bubble. (See the Global Economy & Finance section.

 

Precious Metals:

Gold/Silver Ratio Hits 25-Year High; Silver Underperforms. “Comex December silver on Tuesday bottomed at $13.92, the contract’s weakest level since 2016.” JWR’s Comment:  This sounds like a genuine dip point though probably not a full bottom, and a signal to buy.  Perhaps this is more of an opportunity to ratio trade out of gold and into silver.

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TDS: Gold Break Below $1,190 Could Trigger More Selling

 

 

Global Economy & Finance (Chinese Debt Bubble):

The Chinese debt bubble has reached absurd proportions. Their bubble reeks of malinvestment. There are now some 50 million unoccupied apartments in China. That is one fifth of the nation’s apartments. Every major Chinese city has districts filled with apartments building that have never been occupied. The apartment building contractors are kept constantly busy, fueled by ballooning debt. The $28 Billion USD equivalent Three Gorges Dam Project is nearly complete — paid for with debt.  And now the $1.2 Trillion “One Belt, One Road” infrastructure project is in full swing. Again, it is being paid for with debt. Some fools as far away as France are financing it. According to S&P, China local governments’ hidden debt could total $5.8 trillion.

This is what happens when a command-driven communist economy supposedly transitions to free market economics. The problem is that the Central Planning commissars are still calling the shots. They just call themselves capitalists now. Old School diktat is still the order of the day. There are already signs that the Chinese debt bubble is deflating. Just observe the Chinese stock market. There have already been $5 Trillion in losses, across Asia. Take a look at this Shanghai chart site, and click on the 5 Year view. Yikes! And that could be just the first stage of collapse. It is absurd to think that a further implosion won’t be felt world-wide. The now unfolding Asian Contagion may herald a global depression that will last a decade or longer.

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I can foresee that the practical limits of “fiscal stimulus” will quickly be reached in China. Since the nation was already saddled in debt, the current stimulus schemes are likely to collapse in less than a year. Chinese government officials will probably try to continue the charade, but at some point the Forex value of the Yuan will collapse. This, in my estimation, will be the trigger for full scale implosion of the Chinese stock markets, housing, car sales, and consumer spending. One almost certain consequence will be a subsequent global drop in commodities prices. Once China is taken out of the equation, commodities will soon have a lot more supply than demand. It will be at that point that platinum will finally bottom.

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JWR’s Recommendations of the Week:

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Here are JWR’s Recommendations of the Week for various media and tools of interest to SurvivalBlog readers. This week the focus is on Replacing Broken Tool Handles. (See the Instructional Videos section.)

Books:

Winter in the Wilderness: A Field Guide to Primitive Survival Skills

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The Glorious Adventure: Through the Mediterranean in the Wake of Odysseus. Halliburton’s classic travel book. “‘The Glorious Adventure’ was Halliburton’s second book, and details how he set out to follow in the path of Ulysses, as described in the Odyssey. The resultant book does not have a dull page. It details how Halliburton roamed the Mediterranean Sea searching for adventure and romance, both of which he was happy to report were still in abundant supply.”

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Pilgrim’s Progress

 

Movies & Television:

Courageous

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The Lord of the Rings: The Motion Picture Trilogy (The Fellowship of the Ring / The Two Towers / The Return of the King) (Extended Edition)

 

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

Going Ghost: Planning for a Low Profile Mobile Lifestyle

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A number of my friends and consulting clients have begun talking about making contingency plans to drop entirely off the grid. One of them calls it “going ghost.” His goal: Being ready for a time of repression that would require him to drop off the radar–to essentially become mobile and invisible to authorities. He said that he wanted to have two options: 1.) In CONUS, being ready and ablrice to blend in and travel by road fairly anonymously, and 2.) being ready and able to travel internationally (OCONUS).

This whole concept of “going ghost” would be daunting for most of us. It is one thing to stop using any credit cards and cease accessing the Internet, but it is quite another to completely vanish. Anyone with a large family, and anyone living from paycheck to paycheck would find this nearly impossible. For many, just the stress of being out of contact with family and friends would be substantial. There would be many challenges. Most notably, traveling costs money–lots of money. When away from hearth, home, and garden nearly every aspect of life comes with a price tag attached. Every meal and every night’s lodging comes with a cost. And of course the larger your traveling party, the higher the cost. Granted, traveling solo can be done fairly inexpensively. But imagine the cost of keeping family of seven quietly on the move!

So this leaves us with our first dilemma: Travel on a shoestring budget.

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SurvivalBlog’s News From The American Redoubt

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Here is SurvivalBlog’s News From The American Redoubt. This weekly column features news stories and event announcements from around the American Redoubt region. We also mention companies of interest to preppers that are located in the region. The emphasis this week is on Shield Arms, In Montana.

 

Idaho

I just noticed that Quest Aircraft Company in Sandpoint, Idaho has several job openings. These include a Junior Electrical Engineer, a machinist, a Junior Assembler, and a Customer Care Representative.

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Boise: Stabbing suspect was released from prison four months ago

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25-year-old Lewiston man dies from accidental gunshot on hunting trip

 

 

Montana (Shield Arms)

Shield Arms in Bigfork, Montana is already well-known for their milled pistol magazine extensions. They have now branched out and are marketing purpose-built folding AR-15 lowers. Unlike most other folding AR arrangements, the Shield Arms folding mechanism is built in to the lower.  Because of this, there is no need to use a special buffer. A standard M4 buffer works just fine. Check out their site!

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Via a consulting client, I heard about an unusual Montana company that is worthy of mention: Kootenai River Ammuntion, in the town of Libby. From a Montana business development web site:  “Kootenai River Ammunition (KRA) is a northwest Montana based ammunition manufacturer. Our ammo is 100% designed and manufactured by shooters and hunters in Libby. It is meticulously tested and built from the best US-made components with a single goal in mind: to provide ammunition that will ensure shooters consistent accuracy, dependability, and maximum performance. We are a one-of-a-kind ammunition company as we were started by Libby Christian Church to impact our community by providing sustainable jobs. Christian values, family, and community are at the heart of our business as we strive to serve our customers, employees and communities. KRA is an independently run, yet wholly owned, subsidiary of Libby Christian Church.” Contact: Chad Collins: (406) 293-7788.
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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”. Taking another look at the classifieds reveals some neat communications equipment.

Skin Deep

SurvivalBlog Reader D.S. sent in this comment on the UK’s moral failure concerning Asia Bibi (The Pakistani Christian woman who spent 8 years on death row for her faith).

In Britain, both moral outrage and Christian faith have become shallow. Their cultural dilution is in part due to their former empire, in part due to current PC attitudes which preclude favoring historical and traditional values, and both are magnified by the Euro-Central-globalism of the recent generation. The treatment of ‘Tommy Robinson’ shows the depth of the rot in courts and Parliament.

This epic failure of their refusal to offer Asia Bibi asylum demonstrates the governmental fear of the enemy within.

Police Officer Stabbed

As one astute SurvivalBlog commenter noted recently, It’s not just the radical Islamists that are the problem. Islam is a political ideology masquerading as a religion. A SurvivalBlog reader sent in this article on the trial of one attempted police murderer. The perpetrator stabbed the police officer while shouting the usual murderous scream (something about their demon god is great or something like that.) During the trial, the only remorse shown by the person was when he found out that the man he stabbed didn’t die. This brought tears to his face. He cried because his mission was a failure. He also noted that the reason for his attack was because of the U.S. government’s support for Israel.

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The Editors’ Quote of the Day:

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“China clearly has its sights set on world hegemony. The attitude of oriental superiority over the occidental bourgeoisie has long pervaded China and even predates Russian predatory tendencies. Realistic analysts who have long experience with both Russia and China know that neither will long be subservient to the other. Russia and China may attempt to use each other for short-term gain, but will eventually tangle for ultimate supremacy.

For the present, Russia and China are teaming up against the West in a new unilateral quest for arms. This is no surprise. The Russians have been arming China, off and on, since the Chinese Communists came to power under Chairman Mao. But now, the Chinese are playing both sides of the fence, East and West. Knowing that Russia is willing to supply it with plentiful quantities of second-rate equipment, China is looking toward the West for advanced American technology and funding in order to upgrade its Soviet and home-grown equipment.

No nation on earth is building military power faster than China, but it has further to go, so it is not yet a threat but it will be our biggest threat in the next decade. In the end, the complacency of other nations regarding China will change into outright terror as the world one day wakes up and finds itself facing a military monster of incredible size and ferocity.

The Chinese already have a formidable land based army of men, tanks and artillery. What it lacks is a world class navy, air transport and missile force, coupled with a sophisticated communications and control system sufficient to extend Chinese power worldwide. That’s no small task to accomplish, but they are rapidly developing all that capacity. They are even ahead of the US in over-the-horizon anti-ship missiles—a real threat to our carriers.

Naturally, China is harnessing its billions in trade dollars supplied by naive American champions of free trade to build their forces. The Chinese leaders are openly derisive of American Republicans who are convinced that peaceful trade will moderate Communism. For the Chinese, war with the West is inevitable. It’s no longer a matter of if, but when!” – Joel Skousen, author of: Strategic Relocation: North American Guide to Safe Places

Kershaw Kitchen Knives, by Pat Cascio

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Survival means different things to different people. Many only think of survival in terms of surviving out in the wilderness. That isn’t the only type of survival. Today, we are looking at a set of kitchen knives from Kershaw Knives and how they will help you survive your daily kitchen chores.

Ernest Emerson- The Real Deal

One of the most famous tactical knife designers in the world is Ernest Emerson. When many hear his name, they immediately think of his line of custom or factory-made tactical knives. They do so with good reason; this is what made Emerson famous. However, many don’t know that Ernest Emerson is also a very accomplished martial artist in his own right, too. In the past, I’ve spent many hours on the phone with Ernest, collecting background information on the theory behind his knives, as well as his martial arts background. Having spent more than 35 years actively involved in the martial arts myself, Emerson and I had a lot to discuss during our phone conversations. You can tell if the person is the real deal or a mall ninja. Emerson is the real thing.

Emerson Knives

Emerson knives have been featured in several TV shows as well as movies, and because of demand he no longer takes orders for his custom, hand-made knives. Instead, he opened his own factory, where his knives are made under Emerson’s close supervision. Now, with that said, even the factory-made Emerson Knives are in short supply. Many times, you will see that his knives are out-of-stock on his own website.

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