Preparedness Notes for Thursday – May 31, 2018

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May 31st, 1895 was the birthday of George R. Stewart. Prior to his death on August 22, 1980, he was a novelist, university professor, and toponymist. In the preparedness community, he is best remembered as the author of the classic post-pandemic novel Earth Abides.

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Seed for Security, LLC is having an exceptional sale. Their Colossal Pack is now 15% off. This Pack is a total of 7 pounds of vegetable, herb and grain seeds. All are open-pollinated,and non GMO. Included are their 3 most popular collections: the Super Survival Pack, the 4 grain Collection, and the Heirloom Herb Collection. Each Colossal Pack comes with a 4 page Seed Saving Guide as well. This offer is for a limited time.

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SurvivalBlog Writing Contest

This has been another entry for Round 76 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. Two cases of Meals, Ready to Eat (MREs), courtesy of CampingSurvival.com (a $180 value), and
  8. 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 76 ends on May 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.

Remain Anonymous Online and Protect Information- Part 2, by Contributor

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I’m going to show you how you can remain anonymous online and protect information and communications. We have already gone through the purchase of a computer and its setup as well as establishing a virtual private network (VPN) and virtual machines. Now, let’s continue on our journey for online anonymity.

Firefox

Don’t forget to have your VPN up and running as you continue to setup your virtual machine (VM). Now, download and install Firefox from mozilla.org. Open the Options and go to Privacy and Security. Under History, set it to Never remember history, and restart the browser. You’ll probably be prompted to set a default browser; instead, change it from Microsoft Edge to Firefox.

Go back to Options and Privacy and then uncheck Remember logins, address bar suggestions browsing history, bookmarks, and open tabs. Under Tracking Protection, select Always for both “block known trackers” and “send do not track signal”. For Firefox data collection and use, you should uncheck “Allow Firefox to Send Technical Data to Mozilla”.

DuckDuckGo, Default Search Engine

Now go to the search tab in the options window and change your default search engine to duckduckgo. Install the add-on NoScript for Firefox. Now you can use the same VPN testing sites, plus a few others under Browser Privacy to test your settings. If everything is working well, there should be very little identifying information, like your ISP and browser settings.

Continue reading“Remain Anonymous Online and Protect Information- Part 2, by Contributor”

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”. Today, let’s put the South African murders in perspective.

A is for Antifa

Going right along with JWR’s definitions outlined in Terms of Temerity: Why The Left Loathes The Words We Use is this new series on The Leftese Dictionary by Andrew Klaven of The Daily Wire. Only the first letter of the alphabet is posted on YouTube right now, but they promise to post one new letter every two weeks over the next year or so till they have all the alphabet. I can’t imagine that this will stay up long with all the progressive/left snowflakes that seem to roam the halls of YouTube these days, so view it while you can and enjoy.

More on Tommy Robinson

Alex Barron (The Bard of the American Redoubt) has posted some pointed video commentary on Tommy Robinson’s incarceration and the larger issue of radical Islam. For those that are still unfamiliar, Tommy Robinson was protesting at a trial of an Islamic street gang that was on trial for sex trafficking. The protest was over how easy the government is going on these criminals with full knowledge of their deeds over the fear of being called racist. Tommy was arrested, tried, convicted, and sentenced to 13 months of hard time in the same prison with Islamic bullies who have sworn to kill him. It is effectively a kangaroo court with a death sentence.

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

The Editors’ Quote of the Day:

“Gold and silver are always in demand, regardless of clime, century, or government in power. But public confidence in and, hence, demand for paper money depends on the ultimate confidence – or lack thereof – of the public in the viability of the issuing government.” – Murray Rothbard

Preparedness Notes for Wednesday – May 30, 2018

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By proclamation of General John A. Logan of the Grand Army of the Republic, the first major Memorial Day observance was held on May 30th, 1868 to honor those who died “in defense of their country” Known to some as “Decoration Day,” mourners honored the Civil War dead by decorating their graves with flowers. On the first Decoration Day, General James Garfield made a speech at Arlington National Cemetery, after which 5,000 participants helped to decorate the graves of the more than 20,000 Union and Confederate soldiers buried in the cemetery.

The 1868 celebration was inspired by local observances that had taken place in various locations in the three years since the end of the Civil War. In fact, several cities claim to be the birthplace of Memorial Day, including Columbus, Mississippi; Macon, Georgia; Richmond, Virginia; Boalsburg, Pennsylvania; and Carbondale, Illinois. In 1966, the federal government, under the direction of President Lyndon B. Johnson, declared Waterloo, New York, the official birthplace of Memorial Day. They chose Waterloo–which had first celebrated the day on May 5, 1866–because the town had made Memorial Day an annual, community-wide event, during which businesses closed and residents decorated the graves of soldiers with flowers and flags.

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SurvivalBlog Writing Contest

Today features another entry for Round 76 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. Two cases of Meals, Ready to Eat (MREs), courtesy of CampingSurvival.com (a $180 value), and
  8. 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 76 ends on May 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.

Remain Anonymous Online and Protect Information- Part 1, by Contributor

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Would you like to remain anonymous while online? Would you like to protect your communications and information? Well, I’m going to show you how you can accomplish this. This is intended to be a comprehensive, full paranoid guide. So use everything or just some to get the protection you deem appropriate. It might be best to read through this guide, determine everything you’ll need, and then go step by step. At the end, I’ve provided some resources for additional help, if this doesn’t provide enough in-depth guidance.

Start From Nothing, Remove Everything

Let’s start from nothing. You need a computer, preferably a laptop. I would recommend a gaming laptop from Amazon. If you want absolutely no traces, you’ll want to buy it used (such as on Craigslist) with cash or have an acquaintance buy it from Amazon. You could buy something from a local store with cash, or get a prepaid credit card and use that.

If the laptop has Windows 10 Professional, then you are good to go. However, it probably does not. So, you need to buy and install that. Again, you can buy this from Amazon, a local store, or through a private purchase. When you are installing it, ensure you select to “Remove Everything”. This just makes sure you have a fresh install without any of the extra software that is usually included.

Windows 10 Professional Required for Bitlocker to Encrypt Drive

Windows 10 Professional is required for bitlocker to encrypt the drive. Now encrypt your entire hard drive. To do this, go to the start button, settings, and manage bitlocker. Select your C drive, and turn on bitlocker. The setup will walk you through what you need to do. You’ll be setting a password.

Continue reading“Remain Anonymous Online and Protect Information- Part 1, by Contributor”

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 investing in Fiddleback Forge custom knives. (See the Tangibles Investing section.)

 

Precious Metals:

First off, these observations by Peter Hug: Gold Continues To Search For Direction

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Gold Still ‘Fantastic’ As All Currencies Are Losing To U.S. Dollar – America Silver

 

Forex:

The Indian rupee is under pressure — that may signal economic trouble ahead

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Next at The WSJ: Italy Sparks Global Fear of Fresh Euro Crisis

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Dollar at 10-month high against euro as ‘Quitaly’ fears rise

 

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 the EOTech Holographic Weapon Sight. (See the Gear section.)

Books:

Undergrounds in Insurgent, Revolutionary and Resistance Warfare: Second Edition (U.S. Army Special Forces Reprint)

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Building a Log Cabin in Alaska in Four Months: Using the trees from two acres of land

 

Movies:

Here is the sequel to a movie that I mentioned in this column last year: Idaho: The Movie 2 . The scenery is breathtaking.

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The Ballad of Lefty Brown. A well-made western, filmed on location in Montana.

 

Continue reading“JWR’s Recommendations of the Week”

Preparedness Notes for Tuesday – May 29, 2018

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On this day in 1780, the treatment of Patriot prisoners by British Colonel Banastre Tarleton and his Loyalist troops lead to the coining of a phrase that defined British brutality for the rest of the War for Independence: “Tarleton’s Quarter.”

Tarleton and his Torries proceeded to shoot any an all Patriots that had surrendered after the fall of Charleston. The Patriots lost 113 men. The slaughter of the surrendered troops became a propaganda victory for the Continentals and Carolina civilians who had been terrified of Tarleton and their loyalist neighbors now rallied to the Patriot cause.

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We have a new acronym today: GPDR. Nope, it doesn’t stand for General Data Protection Regulation. Rather, it means: Globalist Pukes Disrupting Readers.

Terms of Temerity: Why The Left Loathes The Words We Use

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Five years ago in SurvivalBlog, I posted The Leftist Lexicon: Translating Statist Rhetoric Into Plain English, by Ray X.  Then, a few months later, I posted a brief essay that I authored. It was titled: Incendiary Words: Of Detonations and Denotations. In the latter essay, I warned that our language was being twisted by leftist terminology and that we need to hold fast to the proper, objective, and accepted meanings of words.

Most recently, I’ve noticed that the assorted leftists, statists, globalists, and collectivists who dominate the American mass media now sneer at conservatives, Christians, and libertarians when we dare to even use certain words. They consider this use signaling, or an act of utter temerity. Their condescending disdain for our proper use of the English language and the objective meanings of words seems to shout: “How dare you use that word?”

First, The OBLIGATORY Trigger Warning:

The following content may upset liberally-educated, emotionally immature, or emotionally unstable individuals. Seek a safe space, preferably with puppies and coloring books.

Terminology Clarification

One introductory note about terminology, for our foreign readers: American liberalism isn’t what’s termed libéralisme in France and other French-speaking countries. It is much closer to what is called social democracy in France and throughout the rest of Europe.  In this essay I will generally use the word leftist rather than liberal.

Here are 100 specific examples of words and phrases that leftists seem to loathe–at least in their original denotations. I will also summarize their thought processes, and many of their attempts to push alternative definitions:

Continue reading“Terms of Temerity: Why The Left Loathes The Words We Use”

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 the right to open carry in the American Redoubt. (See the Eastern Washington section.)

Region-Wide:

Yet again, the American Redoubt region shines: Map of U.S. Murder Rates, By County.  Here is a quote from the article: “One should not put much weight on this purely ‘cross-sectional’ evidence over one point in time and many factors determine murder rates, but it is still interesting to note that so much of the country has both very high gun ownership rates and zero murders.”

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Finally, after several years, I finally have a demographic map where the Redoubt region did not fare well: Mapping The Tsunami Of Suicides Across America. (Thanks to T.Z. for the link.)

 

Idaho

A well-established car parts dealership in Orofino, Idaho has expanded their line to include many guns and gun parts: Olive’s Auto Parts.  One customer that I know who lives near Orofino quipped that they should change their name to Olive’s Semi-Auto Parts! Phone: (208) 476-5576

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Boar’s Head Highland Butchery, in Weippe, Idaho has seen great growth in their business. They now have a mobile slaughter truck and trailer. Their clientele has expanded to include regular customers in Clearwater County, Lewis County, Nez Perce County, Latah County, and Idaho County. They cut and trim meats just like you get from your  local grocery store. Get your cattle and hogs in before the fall rush!  Phone: (208) 435-4900

 

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”. Apparently, a UK judge believes that knives are too sharp now.

Prepping in America

Reader H.J. sent in this article on what preppers are prepping for in America. Interestingly enough, unlike what Doomsday Preppers would have you believe, evidence of paranoia is pretty slim. Most folks are motivated by the media’s non-stop coverage of natural disasters and well as a government that encourages people to prep.

I could have helped the author out here. In our case, it’s not about TEOTWAWKI, EMP, earthquakes or anything else. It’s simply following through on the promise I made to my wife and family that I would take care of them no matter what. When any hardship comes, I will still feed and clothe my family and make sure that they have a safe place to lie down. I don’t care whether it’s a terrorist attack or simply losing my job. I will take care of my family. That’s pretty much what responsible people have been doing for thousands of years.

Knives are Too Sharp

Reader T.P. sent in this article on a judge in the U.K. who has proposed filing down the points of kitchen knives as a solution to the country’s soaring knife crime epidemic. In his words:

“It might even be that the police could organise a programme whereby the owners of kitchen knives, which have been properly and lawfully bought for culinary purposes, could be taken somewhere to be modified, with the points being ground down into rounded ends,”

I suppose the next step will be to mandate that all car batteries are sealed AGM batteries so the average person can’t access the acid in them too? I wonder what will happen when they realize that a knife used in nefarious ways is far more damaging when used in a slash than a poke?

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

Preparedness Notes for Monday – May 28, 2018

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Today, Memorial Day, is a day of solemn remembrance in the U.S. of the many who have given their all for our freedoms. We always thank those who are serving in our military and their families who have also made sacrifices, but today most of all we want to honor those who gave their lives.

Just a Common Soldier

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George Washington, a young lieutenant colonel in the British Army and future president of the United States, led an attack on French forces at Jumonville Glen on this day in 1754. This battle was later credited with being the opening salvo in the French and Indian War (1754 to 1763).

In the biography His Excellency: George Washington, historian Joseph Ellis recounts Washington’s first combat experience. Washington and 40 colonial troops had been encamped near the French garrison at Fort Duquesne when he received an urgent message to rescue Indian allies in the area who were threatened by French forces. In his official report of the encounter, Washington described how his troops, aided by warriors under the Indian leader Tanacharison, surrounded a detachment of 32 French soldiers near the fort on May 28 and, within 15 minutes, killed 10 of them, including the garrison’s commander, wounded one and took another 21 prisoner.

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Don’t forget! This is the final day of Ready Made Resources’ awesome sale on their HP+ ITT 3rd Gen autogated PVS-14 Night Vision for $2895. (This unit has manual gain.) They are also having a sale on their Photonis White Posphor 4G unit with a 10 year warranty for only $3175.