The New Urban Fortress- Part 2, by M.H.

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Pulling from the fortress concept and the family of Anne Frank, who hid in an attic for two years, I am considering an idea of an urban fortress in the event of SHTF. My idea is based upon the construction of a multi-story commercial building, where the top floor is unmarked on the elevator and unknown and inaccessible to those who do not have a passcode. The idea is creating a large area that is totally overlooked because the construction is such that people cannot identify from the outside how many floors are within the building since there will only be windows around the lower level front entry.

The space must truly be sustainable also. Below are my thoughts regarding options for shelter, water, power, food, sanitation, and security. I look forward to your feedback on any flaws in my thinking.

Shelter

During the “happy path” days, the 10,000 square foot “office space” on the upper floor would be the headquarters for my family-based small business (with very attractive commute). In addition, it will also provide a heavily subsidized permanent “penthouse” residence for my wife and me. Though devoid of “curb appeal” of most homes, the center courtyard could become a very pleasant and secure living space. In time of duress, it could easily morph into an accessible bug out location for my extended family and close friends. It would include living space with kitchen, laundry, and private sleeping and bathroom facilities for between 10 to 30 people.

Continue reading“The New Urban Fortress- Part 2, by M.H.”

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”. Voter fraud rears it’s ugly head this week.

Ignorance in America

This is somewhat old news, but astonishing none the less. A poll last year from APPC of approximately 1000 adults found that a full third of American’s couldn’t name a single protection that was guaranteed by the First Amendment to the Constitution. Fewer still could name a second one. Only three percent could name the right to petition the government. Don’t be one of those people! Robb Moffett of Robb’s Homemade life posted a video that uses your fingers to help you remember all five protections afforded by the First Amendment.

Facebook

Facebook has been in talks with the major banking players, hoping to develop a program that will allow Facebook users to access their account balances and transaction history through the Facebook Interface. If this doesn’t dissuade you from using Facebook, I don’t know what would. Facebook would then have complete access to your transactional history and could mine that history for patterns. Breibart has an article that correctly deduces that they will know every time you purchase a firearm or even a 3D printer that can produce a firearm. What about the purchase of a high standard capacity magazine? Facebook has not said that they would move on such information, but do you really want an anti First and Second Amendment organization knowing such information about you?. Thanks to H.L. for the links.

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The Editors’ Quote of the Day:

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“The store customer, who comes home with a package under his arm has learned nothing, except that a ten dollar bill is a source of power in the market place. The man or woman who has converted material into needed products via tools and skills has matured in the process.” – Helen Nearing, The Good Life (Helen and Scott Nearing’s Sixty Years of Self-Sufficient Living)

 

Preparedness Notes for Wednesday – August 08, 2018

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August 8th is the birthday of Terry Nation (August 8th, 1930 – March 9th, 1997), who was a Welsh television writer and novelist. Nation wrote two series, Survivors and Blake’s 7, in the 1970s. Survivors was re-made a few years ago.

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SurvivalBlog Writing Contest

This has been another entry for Round 78 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 transferable certificate for a two-day Ultimate Bug Out Course from Florida Firearms Training (a $400 value),
  5. A Three-Day Deluxe Emergency Kit from Emergency Essentials (a $190 value),
  6. A $200 gift certificate good towards any books published by PrepperPress.com,
  7. RepackBox is providing a $300 gift certificate to their site.

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, 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).

Round 78 ends on September 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.

The New Urban Fortress- Part 1, by M.H.

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Stealth vs. Tactical

I am a graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy, retired Navy O-5, a mechanical engineer (academically), and an IT business consultant. I am considered by my colleagues to be an “idea machine”. I have made a good living based largely on my outside-the-box thinking. While I have too many ideas to viably act on all of them, there are enough good ones that all are usually worth at least consideration.

An Idea To Have Readers Find Flaws in My Thinking

I have been prepping for a couple of years now and have come upon an idea that I have not heard elsewhere and that goes counter to many generally acceptable prepper “givens”. However, as time goes on, I am giving it more and more serious consideration and would love to have your readers help me find the flaws in my thinking.

No Easy Answers

With regards to shelter-in-place and/or bug-out locations, there are no easy answers. The classic options given to preppers consist of either indefensible and unsustainable urban homes surrounded by a large population of potential looters or isolated and remote rural homes that will become the repeated target of visitation from an increasingly desperate “golden horde” refugees and/or dangerous marauders. I have come to believe that these represent a false or incomplete list of choices.

Urban Homes Thought Not Viable Options

Classic wisdom says urban homes are not really a viable option because there will be a lack of even the basics once the societal infrastructure fails. Sustainable water, power, and sanitation do not exist and the inability to grow crops make this is a losing proposition from the start.

Continue reading“The New Urban Fortress- Part 1, by M.H.”

Economics & Investing For Preppers

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Here are the latest 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 collectible antique hand tools. (See the Tangibles Investing section.)

 

Precious Metals:

First up, this article recommended by a blog reader in Alaska: Silver Threads among the Gold: What the Tea Leaves Seem to Be Telling Us

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Gold looking for a break of the 21-D SMA at $1,227

 

Stocks:

Tesla’s Wild Ride Gets Even Wilder

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Zack’s: In a Protracted Trade War, These Two Steel Stocks Will Be Among the Winners

Continue reading“Economics & Investing For Preppers”

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 Tool Storage (See the Gear section.)

 

Books:

The Russia Hoax: The Illicit Scheme to Clear Hillary Clinton and Frame Donald Trump

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Bushcraft 101: A Field Guide to the Art of Wilderness Survival

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Liars, Leakers, and Liberals: The Case Against the Anti-Trump Conspiracy

 

Movies:

The Mechanic. (The original, with Charles Bronson. I much prefer it to the recent remake.) Available on DVD, but also available for free streaming to Amazon Prime members.

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George Marshall & the American Century

 

Continue reading“JWR’s Recommendations of the Week”

The Editors’ Quote of the Day:

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“You often hear people speaking as if life was like striving upward toward a mountain peak. That is not so. Life is as if you were traveling a ridge crest. You have the gulf of inefficiency on one side and the gulf of wickedness on the other, and it helps not to have avoided one gulf if you fall into the other.”  – Theodore Roosevelt

Some Implications of the NRA’s Recommended Full Auto Amnesty

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Introductory Note: The following is not intended to be legal advice. Consult a licensed attorney in your own state.  This essay is simply conjecture on possible outcomes of a change in U.S. Treasury Department policy, in response to a recent suggestion by the National Rifle Association (NRA). Your perspective might be substantially different, your situation might not match what I’m suggesting, and “your mileage may vary.” Do not do anything illegal. The window of opportunity that I will describe does not yet exist. So this essay is just some conjectural food for thought.

The recent national kerfluffle over so-called “bumpfire” stocks has prompted thousands of Americans to send comments to the ATF. The NRA also sent a lengthy comment, in opposition. This followed a published Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) on bumpfire stocks, that could possibly redefine them as “machineguns.” This NPRM is worse than many commentators had anticipated, in part because the proposed rule has no Grandfather Clause. By the ATF’s own estimates there are more than 350,000 American bumpfire stocks (worth about $96 million) already in circulation. The proposed rule would declare these stocks all contraband unregistered “machineguns”. They would have to be destroyed, taken out of U.S. territory, or turned in, with no compensation to their owners. The proposed unconstitutional “taking” rule provides no method provided to pay the $200 tax to register the stocks as $200 transfer-taxed machineguns.

Continue reading“Some Implications of the NRA’s Recommended Full Auto Amnesty”

SurvivalBlog’s News From The American Redoubt

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 startup companies in the American Redoubt.

 

Idaho

Idaho’s startup hub? Turns out it’s Coeur d’Alene

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10 Best Tech Startups in Boise

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Reader Jon C. sent us this: Dozens of goats overtake Boise neighborhood, possibly plotting world domination

 

Montana

Montana Startups to Watch 2018: High-tech and Manufacturing

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How Tiny Bozeman, Montana, Became A Booming Tech Town

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Montana-based mapping startup onX raises a round of funding fit for Big Sky Country

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

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”. Venezuela is back in the news this week again.

Explosive-Carrying Drones

The Explosive-Carrying Drones in Venezuela Won’t Be the Last

JWR’s Comment: I first mentioned the emerging threat of UAVIEDs in SurvivalBlog back in 2006. Frankly, I’m surprised that it took this long for someone to use one against a head of state.

Baofeng Radios

Reader JMD wrote in to let us know of this upcoming change by the FCC that will make it illegal to sell radios (like the popular Baofengs) that can operate in the FRS radio band (462.5625 – 462.7250 MHz) and any other licensed band in a single device. Manufacturers will have to either quit selling them or block the FRS bands like they do for the current cellular bands. This is the relevant verbiage:

§ 95.591 Sales of FRS combination radios prohibited.

Effective September 30, 2019, no person shall sell or offer for sale hand-held portable radio equipment capable of operating under this subpart (FRS) and under any other licensed or licensed-by-rule radio services in this chapter (devices may be authorized under this subpart with part 15 unlicensed equipment authorizations).

Editor’s Comment:  I strongly recommend stocking up on dual band Baofeng handi-talkies before this regulatory change takes place. If bought in a set of five, the cost per transceiver is only around $23 each, postage paid!  By law, these presently may be bought by any adult. But a license is needed to operate them outside of the no-license  FRS, GMRS, and MURS bands. (That is, in the amateur operators’ bands.)

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

Preparedness Notes for Monday – August 06, 2018

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On August 6th, 1945 at 8:16 a.m. (Japanese time), an American B-29 bomber– the Enola Gay– dropped the world’s first war-time atom bomb over the city of Hiroshima. Approximately 80,000 people were killed as a result of the blast, with another 35,000 injured. At least another 60,000 would be dead by the end of the year from the effects of the fallout. History is always written by the victors, so the reasoning and justification for this will be argued for years to come. But one thing is for sure: this action officially ushered in the nuclear age in war and has generated mass fear among civilization ever since, even though the firebombing of Japanese cities caused far more damage and loss of life. An interesting side note is Tsutomu Yamaguchi. He was 3km from the Hiroshima blast but survived. Along with a few other survivors, he made his way to his hometown, Nagasaki, and was again within 3km of the second blast yet survived this one also.

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The prepper holiday “Paratus” will be celebrated on September 21st. Paratus was originated by “Commader Zero”, the pen name of the editor of the long-running Notes From The Bunker Blog.

CRKT “Kuk”, by Pat Cascio

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There is nothing really new, when it comes to the time-tested Ghurka blade, is there? Well, as a matter of fact, the all-new Columbia River Knife & Tool “Kuk”, designed by Ryan Johnson, puts a new twist on this blade, which is under review today.

My Collection of Military-Style Knives and Bayonets

I want to say that I was probably about 15 years old, maybe a little older or younger, when I started collecting military-style knives and bayonets. One of my favorite stops was a small Army/Navy Surplus store on the south end of downtown Chicago. Sadly, it is long gone. However, I spent untold hours in there, looking not only at U.S. military surplus clothing but all types of blades for my collection. It was there that I first learned about the Ghurka Kukri curved bladed knife. Even today, this type of blade is still often called a “Ghurka”, and that is incorrect. It was the Indian Ghurkas who carried this blade into combat with great effectiveness during WWII and beyond. Even today, they still use it. It’s a testament to the design and the ferociousness of these fights, often deployed/employed as mercenaries at times.

Sad to say, I no longer have the collection of military bayonets that came from all corners of the world. At some point, it was sold, when I needed some fast cash. I hated parting with all those knives, but ya do what ya gotta do to make ends meet at times. I want to say this collection was sold in the early 1970s, back in my old home town of Chicago, IL.

Continue reading“CRKT “Kuk”, by Pat Cascio”