International Travel Preparation- Part 1, by O.D.

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When the mushroom cloud goes up or the grid goes down, those of us preparing will be fortunate if we are home or at our pre-planned bug out location and with our family. But many of us work away from home, with a sizeable minority of us travelling out-of-country. What then? Are you prepared for international travel?

Getting All The Way Back Home

I’ve been flying to and from work for about three decades, usually not to places high on the “must-see for the party scene” list. On my second-ever expatriate assignment, I got a quick and extremely pointed wake-up call when I was hijacked on the taxi ride in from the airport. Now I may not be able to see ahead to the future, but I am a relatively quick learner from the harsh past. And now, everyday travel prep is second nature, especially when going to places where the rule of law still doesn’t apply or has been worsening.

Some of these places, for example, include the “Trashcanistans”, Sudan, or Brussels. So, I will share a few comments on what I have personally found to be useful. I have only needed some of it for real on two occasions in 28 years. However, during those two times I was very pleased to be my own backup.

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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 investing in  Trading Cards. (See the Tangibles section, near the end of this column.)

 

Precious Metals:

Investors Should Take Advantage Of Gold’s Summer Doldrums – Mickey Fulp

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Stunning Results: Four Top Primary Silver Miners Production Plummets

Stocks:

When Will the Tech Bubble Burst?

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Over at the CNBC Cheering Section: S&P 500 and Dow hit record highs, led by financials

 

Commodities:

I missed this interesting article when it ran back in April: Nickel Market Beware: Batteries can no Longer be Ignored – Roskill Information Services

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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 the movie Copperhead.

Books:

Conscience of a Conservative: A Rejection of Destructive Politics and a Return to Principle. Note:  Senator Flake is a pseudo-Conservative and a Republican In Name Only (RINO.) I’m recommending that you read the book as an insight on how how the RINOs manipulate and operate. The career-entrenched RINOs in Congress are currently squandering the opportunity of the majority that was handed to them in the last election. They have no intention of “draining the Swamp.”  They are are, in fact, the Swamp Creatures.

o  o  o

A Guide Book of United States Coins 2018: The Official Red Book

 

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A Quiet Life: How to Lower Your Profile or Go Fully Off the Grid

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Part of my work life in most weeks involves consulting phone calls.  The majority of my clients are in the U.S. and Canada.  Not surprisingly, many of my clients have questions for me about privacy.  These questions are generally along three lines:  1.) Buying guns privately, 2.) buying land privately, and 3.) how to avoid paper trails on storage food purchases.  In this essay,  I will try to address all three of those topics, as well as a few related points. One of the key concepts herein is Going Analog.  But first, I’ll mention completely dropping off the grid.

Going Dark

The Going Dark concept implies someone cutting off all normal contacts. This is often coincident with relocating in an attempt to disappear without a trace.  This extreme in privacy is only required for someone in duress.  That is, for instance, someone who is the target of a manhunt,  for a criminal case witness who is at risk, someone evading an abusive ex-spouse, or someone who is fleeing creditors.

Details on fully Going Dark are included in several popular books, such as: How to Disappear: Erase Your Digital Footprint, Leave False Trails, And Vanish Without A Trace.

For most of the rest of us, simply lowering your profile is sufficient.  The following are few suggestions:

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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. The emphasis today is on the term Redoubter. It is now used as a term of derision by leftist malcontents.

The Redoubt Movement and “Redoubters” in the News

First off, over at The Charles Carroll Society site, there is a great article. It is about how the term “Redoubter” has been politicized. Liberal Republican upset that conservatives are politically active in Idaho.

Idaho

Michael Snyder has announced his candidacy for an Idaho Congressional seat.  You may recognize Michael’s name. He is the author of four books and he is the Editor of EconomicCollapseBlog.com.  He is a devout Christian, and distinctly  “pro-life, pro-gun, and pro-liberty.”  Snyder favors term limits and limited government.  And Snyder is also in favor of abolishing the IRS, the EPA, the Federal Reserve, and the Income Tax. Those are worthy goals!  Snyder and his family live in Bonners Ferry, Idaho.

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There is a Kickstarter project now active for a clever roto-molded hand cart called the Polymule.  This was the creation of an Idaho inventor. It looks quite versatile. Preppers will surely see its potential for Get Out Of Dodge gear transport. That is just the beginning.  It is also well-suited to pulling firewood out of the woods (in those tightly-spaced groves where even your quad won’t go.) They also look great for gardening and for transporting wild game. (As a deer cart.)

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Reader H.L. sent this: Health insurers in Idaho request premium rate hikes as high as 81 percent. JWR’s Comment: B-b-but wait! President Obama told us that our rates would probably go down!

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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”. Today we are featuring some interesting Second Amendment focused articles, but first this gut wrenching article:

Reverend Hillary

I looked for any kind of indication that this was a satirical article and came up empty handed. Now, recognizing that while The Atlantic calls itself “moderate” it clearly leans solidly left. Even so, I think I’ve thrown up a little in my mouth. It certainly begs the question of “Exactly what Gospel will she be preaching?”: Hillary Wants to Preach. Perhaps she is trying to emulate Al Sharpton or something like that. But The Atlantic says it best: “There are no more voters left to lose.” Thanks to T.P. for the link.

Feral Hogs

The Southern and Western states are facing an increasingly difficult situation as feral hogs expand their domain and destruction. This article sent in by reader H.L. is a good introduction to those who are unfamiliar with the issue and the massive destruction that they can bring. Most interesting is the articles revelation that hogs are actually not wanderers and that their expansion is most likely due to humans transporting them to create hunting.

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Kershaw Launch 7, by Pat Cascio

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The new Launch 7 by Kershaw Knives is their newest folder. It’s an automatic push button opening knife.

Kershaw Knives

I still remember when I took my first tour of the Kershaw plant how small it was. If memory serves me correctly, there were 17 people on the shop floor making knives. Since that first trip, Kershaw has moved into a much larger building, and no sooner did they move in they had plans to expand their operation. My last tour of Kershaw was several years back, and they had several hundred employees on the shop floor, in the warehouse, loading dock, and front offices. KAI Corporation in Japan actually owns Kershaw these days. The daily operation at the Kershaw plant is overseen by “Jack”. He prefers to be called that, because it’s hard to pronounce his Japanese name. He’s a wonderful man who always has time to shake my hand and chat.

Automatic Knives, Not “Switchblades”

I’ve mentioned this many times in my articles about automatic knives, that is a folding knife that opens by the push of a button. The uneducated still call these types of knives a “switchblade” for some reason. It’s not operated by a “switch”; it opens by the push of a button. The blade is then swung open by the stout spring, and it locks in place.

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Recipe of the Week: Hobo Stew, by D.B.

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There are a few variations of this recipe. Here’s mine. There’s a lot of food value in this recipe, and it’s ready in about 40 minutes.

Ingredients:

  • 1 lb ground meat (turkey or beef)
  • 2 or 3 cloves garlic (diced)
  • 1 large onion (diced)
  • 1 large bell pepper
  • 1-10 oz can Rotel
  • 1-4 oz can diced green chiles
  • 1 can Bush beans (or equal)
  • 1 can black beans
  • 1/4 cup brown sugar
  • 1 Tbsp corn starch (optional)

Directions:

  1. Brown meat, onions, garlic, bell pepper, and diced chiles for 10 minutes or so.
  2. Add Rotel and simmer for 10 minutes.
  3. Add beans and brown sugar. Simmer for 20 minutes. If you like it thicker, dissolve corn starch in cold water and add to mixture.
  4. Add salt, pepper, and hot sauce to suit.

This will make 6 to 8 servings and it’s better the next day.

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Do you have a favorite recipe that would be of interest to SurvivalBlog readers? Please send it via e-mail. Thanks!

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 common caliber ammunition, primarily for barter. (See the Tangibles Investing section, below.)

Gold and Silver Market Morning: June 5 2017 – Gold consolidating with a positive bias

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The South Africa Chamber of Mines has released their annual statistics for the preceding year. Despite their cheery verbiage, the cold hard fact is that South African gold production is less than half of what it was in 2001. Most of this decline has been caused by labor issues rather than lack of gold reserves or mining technical problems.

Stocks:

Where The Booming Stock Market Goes From Here

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Over at Seeking Alpha, Bradley Lamensdorf offered this: Watch Out, Indicators Point To A Break In The Stock Market

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Tech stocks send another bearish warning of bigger market sell-off, even with Apple at highs. (This web page has auto-start video.)

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Letter Re: Cats Moving into the Neighborhood

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Hugh,

In response to the comment about cats moving into the neighborhood: be grateful. The Lyme spirochete has been around for millions of years. Lyme disease started to explode in the 1970’s and 1980’s, which is when the national spay-neuter programs got started, and the population of outdoor cats dropped like a rock.

I remember as a child in the 1950’s seeing kittens running around outdoors in the summer. In the last thirty years, except for my own protected outdoor cat colony, I’ve seen only one outdoor kitten.

The ticks that carry Lyme have a two year life cycle. The first year they spend on small animals; mostly mice and other rodents. The second year they move to larger animals such as deer, dogs and people.

Cats were selected by people for thousands of years to over-hunt, in order to protect farmers’ crops from rodents. A top hunter was valuable livestock.

What people didn’t know was that the cats were also protecting them from rodent-borne diseases. Like Lyme, plague, and other nasties.

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Editors’ Quote of the Day:

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“Pournelle’s Iron Law of Bureaucracy states that in any bureaucratic organization there will be two kinds of people: those who work to further the actual goals of the organization, and those who work for the organization itself. Examples in education would be teachers who work and sacrifice to teach children, vs. union representative who work to protect any teacher including the most incompetent. The Iron Law states that in all cases, the second type of person will always gain control of the organization, and will always write the rules under which the organization functions.” – Jerry Pournelle, Chaos Manor View 408, April 3-9, 2006