The Editors’ Quote of the Day:

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“Where justice is denied, where poverty is enforced, where ignorance prevails, and where any one class is made to feel that society is an organized conspiracy to oppress, rob and degrade them, neither persons nor property will be safe.” – Frederick Douglass

Kershaw’s Barstow Folder, by Pat Cascio

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I love value in a true every day carry folding knife, one that will get used hard but still stand up to the rigors of what a folding knife should be, and the new Kershaw Barstow folder is worth a close look.

Kershaw Knives

Kershaw Knives has been around since 1974. It is right here, in my home state of Oregon, not too far from Portland but just far enough from the maddening crowds. Kershaw never ceases to amaze me with all the new and very different knife designs they come out with each year. To be sure, and to remain competitive in the cutlery field, they have some of their knives made overseas. I have no problem with that, so long as the quality is there and the value is exceptional. I don’t especially enjoy buying products made in communist countries, but we live in a global economy, like it or not, so we all must overlook things like this.

Exceptional Value and Nice Blade Features

The Kershaw Barstow is made in mainland China. But it is an exceptional value, considering all the features this little folder has to offer. The 3-inch long spear point blade is plenty tough, and it has the look of being a double-edge blade though it is not; it is only sharpened on one side. The blade’s steel is 8Cr13MoV. This is an economy stainless steel, but it holds an edge a decent amount of time and is actually easy to re-sharpen. Kershaw applies their BlackWash coating for an “already broken-in” look, and it helps hide any scratches on the blade from use, which is nice! The black glass-filed handle material is also plenty tough with an arrow type directional pattern, for a sure grip.

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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 American retail giant Walmart.

Precious Metals:

Kitco News Gold Survey: Dollar’s Pain To Mean Gold’s Gain

o  o  o

Rich Dad Author Says The Next Financial Crash Will be Like an “Avalanche”. Kiyosaki is predicting huge losses and a “half off sale” for stocks. For many years he has suggested gold as a safe haven.

Stock Markets:

Next, over at MarketWatch: This epic stock-market rally will get a second wind from stellar earnings

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The Editors’ Quote of the Day:

“The structure of the Second Amendment within the Bill of Rights proves that the right to bear arms is an individual right, rather than a collective one. The collective rights’ idea that the Second Amendment can only be viewed in terms of state or federal power “ignores the implication that might be drawn from the Second, Ninth, and Tenth Amendments: the citizenry itself can be viewed as an important third component of republican governance as far as it stands ready to defend republican liberty against the depredations of the other two structures, however futile that might appear as a practical matter.” – Sanford Levinson, The Embarrassing Second Amendment, 99 YALE L.J. 637, 651 (1989).

Preparedness Notes for Sunday – January 14, 2018

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On January 14th, 1784, the Continental Congress ratified the Second Treaty of Paris, ending the War for Independence. In the document, which was known as the Second Treaty of Paris because the Treaty of Paris was also the name of the agreement that had ended the Seven Years’ War in 1763, Britain officially agreed to recognize the independence of its 13 former colonies as the new United States of America.

Guest Article: Gold Market Themes for 2018, by Arkadiusz Sieroń

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2018 has just begun. What will a new year bring for the gold market?

Macroeconomic Outlook Will Remain Unpleasant

The current economic expansion is surprisingly durable, as it has already lasted more than 100 months. It worries many investors who are afraid of the upcoming recessions. Surely, there are many reasons to worry, and the recession will eventually come. But we are not at this point yet. The current expansion is unusually long, but it is exceptionally sluggish. This year we expect that the global economic growth will continue. Actually, it may even accelerate and become more synchronized among countries. Moreover, with relatively strong business momentum, the labor markets in advanced economies should strengthen further. And although inflation is likely to rise, it will remain low. Hence, the macroeconomic outlook will remain unpleasant for the gold market, as the yellow metal prefers periods of economic turmoil or stagnation.

Fed Will Be Gold’s Enemy

The Fed will continue its gradual tightening. In 2017, the U.S. central bank lifted interest rates three times. We expect similar number of hikes this year. The unwind of the Fed’s enormous balance sheet would withdraw some liquidity from the market, exerting an additional tightening effect for the financial conditions. Moreover, Jerome Powell will replace Janet Yellen as the Fed’s Chair. And we will also see a few other significant personal changes at the U.S. central bank. We predict, thus, that the FOMC will be more hawkish in 2018 than in 2017. The Committee will include more hawks (due to the normal rotation among the regional Fed Presidents, Trump’s nomination to the Board of Governors), but also all the members could vote in a more hawkish way, given the strong economic momentum. A lot will depend on inflationary dynamics, but we believe that a modest hawkish shift is likely this year. Gold reacts more to the real interest rates, not to the federal funds rate, but the Fed’s hawkish rhetoric should be a headwind for the yellow metal.

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Letter: An Amazon OPSEC Reminder

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Dear SurvivalBlog Readers,

You have a profile and Amazon has been getting more aggressive of late. I noted an old pic from before they linked every social media organization and gave facebook-level creepy info so I deleted everything and reduced my name to something unrelatable.

Use the Amazon Link from SurvivalBlog, but make sure your profile isn’t leaking too much info. (please do review with a stripped profile since it helps everyone to know which products work) – T.Z.

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”. The Black Death plague continues in Africa with a new variant.

Oops

Several SurvivalBlog readers sent in this huge mistake: A Civil Defense employee in Hawaii accidentally triggered a ballistic missile warning. The alert was issued by cell phone test yesterday morning and sparked terror as thousands fled to bomb shelters. The employee wasn’t even aware that he has issued the alert til his own phone notified him. It took 38 minutes for a correction to be issued by the same alert system. While many are upset by the alert, considering the world events in the Pacific region right now, this was probably a good thing. At least people now know how poorly prepared they are. Will they pay attention?

Immigration

Reader P.S. sent in this article from the New York Times on how even liberal, left-leaning countries have limits on what they will tolerate in terms of illegal immigration. There is a loophole in the U.S. – Canadian treaty that allows people who entered the U.S. illegally to claim refugee status in Canada. Many who have learned that their U.S. status is about to be rescinded have attempted to take advantage of this. However, immigration officials in Canada are warning them, stating that it is stretching the immigration system to a breaking point and risks stoking a potential backlash.

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The Editors’ Quote of the Day:

“What shall we say then? Is there unrighteousness with God? God forbid. For he saith to Moses, I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion. So then it is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that sheweth mercy. For the scripture saith unto Pharaoh, Even for this same purpose have I raised thee up, that I might shew my power in thee, and that my name might be declared throughout all the earth. Therefore hath he mercy on whom he will have mercy, and whom he will he hardeneth.” Romans 9:14-18 (KJV)

A Great Wall: On Border Controls, Immigration, and National Survival

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I have generally side-stepped the issue of immigration in SurvivalBlog, from the outset. Back in 2006, I explained why. But recent events have pushed this issue to the forefront of the national debate.  At this juncture, I’d like to make my position clear, even at the risk of perturbing some of my readers.  I can now see that immigration is not just a political issue or a policy issue. Rather, it is a matter of national survival.

Even before Donald J. Trump (DJT) was seated as U.S. president, there was huge disagreement on his planned immigration and border security policies. There are deep differences in the world views of American liberals and conservatives. Liberals tend to favor open borders and almost unlimited immigration.  In contrast, conservatives favor secure borders and quite limited immigration. The failing of most liberals is that they don’t look at the illegal immigration problem from a multi-generational viewpoint, and they fail to see the full implications of the macro scale changes to our demographics.

To fully understand this complex issue, it is apropos to step back and look at the historical context of our nation’s immigration policies, starting in the 18th century.

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The Editors’ Preps for the Week

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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

Dear SurvivalBlog Readers,

We’ve had another quiet week, here at the Rawles Ranch.  Most of our energy has been directed at homeschooling and Bible study. Our #1 Daughter also got some more experience with baking. The incremental firewood and hay hauling is continuing, per our winter routine. Ditto for stock tank filling and stock tank heater rotation. It is a mundane routine,  but a welcome opportunity to get outdoors and check on our livestock. Avalanche Lily took advantage of one break in the weather to clean out our poultry shed. She also made a Costco run, to top off our supplies of pet food and fresh vegetables.

Our winter greenhouse crop has survived, but sprouting and growth has been slow.  We are hoping the produce from these beds will give a “jump start” on our garden, this year.

Continue reading“The Editors’ Preps for the Week”

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”. The Puerto Rico update gives us an idea of what most urban areas will be like during the beginning phases of a societal collapse.

Institutional Evil

A project Veritas video shows former Twitter employees discussing “Shadow Banning” users. This is the policy where the platform allows those who are in control to arbitrarily apply censorship to the platform. Those users who have ideals contrary to the censors get their accounts locked and/or banned or have tweets removed. Conservative concepts regularly get flagged yet left-leaning content sails through unchecked. Thanks to D.B. for the link.

New Spy Portal

While we are on the subject of social media, it’s worth noting that Facebook is getting in on the act. The Portal is a 15 inch screen with a wide angle camera that has facial recognition and microphones to allow voice control. It’s being pitched as a way for family and friends to stay in contact with each other through video chatting and other social features. The units are planned to ship later this year and I’m wondering how many who purchase one will have read George Orwell’s 1984 (where telescreens were used to closely monitor and repress citizens.) Thanks to DSV for the link.

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