Letter: 2016 U.S. Census Implementing Massive Invasion of Privacy

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Dear Sir,

Last year we were contacted that we were chosen to be a part of the 2016 U.S. Census. This is a year-long census where you are contacted at intervals throughout the year. It is monthly and then there is a break of a few months and then back to monthly. Some months they come to your home for 20 to 30 minutes of questioning and other months they call you for follow-up questions. We now have three more to go. Last night was the most invasive to date. I was shocked at the personal questions I was being asked. I was asked all the normal questions. How many people live in this house? Do you work and where? How many hours a week do you work? What is your annual income? Years of college? What are your certifications? They asked the “normal” questions, but then…

Banking information:

  • Did we have a checking and a savings?
  • Did we use the teller, the ATM, online banking, or phone banking?
  • Do we transfer money from account to account via online baking or with an app on our phone?
  • Were there any loans we had applied for over the last year– auto, mortgage, credit card, et cetera
  • Had we applied for a Pay-Day Loan?
  • Had we pawned anything?

Continue reading“Letter: 2016 U.S. Census Implementing Massive Invasion of Privacy”

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”. Since today’s focus is on the USS Fitzgerald collision, we’ll start with that.

USS Fitzgerald Collision

Something Fishy

Reader T.P. sent in this article that explores the concept of the collision being a deliberate act of sabotage or terrorism. The container ship was apparently running without lights and transponder (against maritime rules). The article, however, is based upon an alleged email from a Navy mother whose son was aboard ship. For now, this has to be classified as a rumor, but it’s an interesting angle in today’s world.

Possible Explanation

Reader T.P. also sent in this article from a retired navy destroyer captain with some plausible explanations of just how such a collision could occur with no evil intent. This article has some very good information on right-of-ways, radar, lights, and maritime traffic. Nothing is ever as simple as it seems.

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Editors’ Quote Of The Day

”The tumult and the shouting dies;
The Captains and the Kings depart:
Still stands Thine ancient sacrifice,
An humble and a contrite heart.
Lord God of Hosts, be with us yet,
Lest we forget—lest we forget!” – Rudyard Kipling, Recessional, 1897

 

Preparedness Notes for Wednesday – June 21, 2017

June 21st is the birthday of Rex Applegate (June 21, 1914 – July 14, 1998), author of Kill or Be Killed. He was the friend and mentor of SurvivalBlog’s Senior Field Gear Editor, Pat Cascio.

Today is the summer solstice in the northern hemisphere.  Whomever it was who came up with the phrase “The lazy days of summer” obviously didn’t live on a self-sufficient  homestead. We are very busy at this time of year. – JWR

Water Safety: Prevent Deaths by Drowning!, by M. in Canada

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Summer Vacation Around Water

Summer is a wonderful season and one that requires knowledge of water safety to prevent deaths by drowning. The weather is warm, sunny, and even cold in areas of the country. Children cheer their happiness and excitement for the last day of school. Everyone is dreaming of summer vacation when they go camping, set up a tent in the cool shade of a wooded camp ground with a nice sandy beach by the shore of a lake with its refreshing waters. What could be more perfect?

They look forward to a vacation at the sea on a sandy beach. Even families with young children enjoy playing in the sand. Those beautiful days at the beach make wonderful memories.

There is however something that can transform a paradise into a nightmare. An unforeseen catastrophic event can result from a very avoidable accident. It is one of those things where you say to yourself: “How could I have let this happen?”. “How can this happen to me?” “If I only knew what to do; my best friend, my brother, or my girlfriend would still be with us today.” When these things happen, it really makes a vacation go sour. When you lose someone in a specific way, like an accident in the water, injuries, or drowning, the scenery stays in the memory. Lakes, rivers, and the sea will always remind you of that day.

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Letter: Best Homeschool Materials for TEOTWAWKI

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Hugh,

Here’s a theoretical question I’d like to as SurvivalBlog readers. If you had all the money you wanted to spend on homeschool materials  right now, but never had any more money to spend on it later, what would you buy for your children to ensure that they had a complete K-12 education? I am looking for a curriculum that works for almost everybody, contains almost no consumables, and doesn’t require electronics. Just dreaming here, but would like your ideas. – E.

Economics & Investing for Preppers

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 the Fake Recovery.


Precious Metals:

First up, Frank Holmes asks: Is India’s Gold Market Recovering?

o  o  o

The Herald (in New Zealand) reports: May gold deliveries buoyant

 

Commodities:

Next, there is this from Nick Cunningham: Déjà Vu: Shale To Kill Oil Prices Once Again

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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, tools, and gear of interest to SurvivalBlog readers. This week’s emphasis is on auxiliary fuel tanks. (Down in the Gear section.)

Books:

The Long Emergency: Surviving the End of Oil, Climate Change, and Other Converging Catastrophes of the Twenty-First Century by James H. Kunstler

Fire and Ice, by Ray Kytle

Movies:

Enemy at the Gates. A highly fictionalized retelling of the battle of Stalingrad. It is from the perspective of a Red Army sniper team.

Panic in Year Zero. The corny film that first got me thinking about TEOTWAWKI. It was recently mentioned by a SurvivalBlog reader, in an e-mail.

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Editors’ Quote Of The Day

“Liberty cannot be preserved without a general knowledge among the people, who have a right, from the frame of their nature, to knowledge, as their great Creator, who does nothing in vain, has given them understandings, and a desire to know; but besides this, they have a right, an indisputable, unalienable, indefeasible, divine right to that most dreaded and envied kind of knowledge, I mean, of the characters and conduct of their rulers. Rulers are no more than attorneys, agents, and trustees, of the people; and if the cause, the interest, and trust, is insidiously betrayed, or wantonly trifled away, the people have a right to revoke the authority that they themselves have deputed, and to constitute other and better agents, attorneys and trustees.” – John Adams A Dissertation on the Canon and Feudal Law (1765)

Passing on Family Prepping and Gardening Experience, by J.L.

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Continuous Learning

I officially became a prepper during the Y2K experience, but upon reflection I have been prepping most of my life. I have always been fascinated with how things work. Learning became a lifelong occupation. I sometimes wish that I could focus on one discipline and become an expert. But looking back at the age of 61, I suspect that I’ve always had a little ADD (attention deficit disorder). Because of that, over my life, I have been involved in most phases of construction. I’ve been a welder, an instrument technician, a tree worker, an environmental analyst, and a manager in a large power company. Currently, I currently own multiple businesses, after retiring four years ago from the corporate world. My hobbies include gardening, woodworking, reloading, and doing as much shooting as I have time for. We raise chickens, bees, and have a year-round greenhouse.

I believe, in a TEOTWAWKI or even a SHTF moment, what we have in our head is the most important piece of survival gear we possess. I am amazed, in every job I have had, how the skills and knowledge that I learned in my other pursuits helped me out. And I am baffled at how few interests and skills other people have developed.

Continue reading“Passing on Family Prepping and Gardening Experience, by J.L.”

Letter: Heating Oil and Kerosene Uses

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Hello Jim:

I wanted to write a note about an idea for heating. We use a Nestor-Martin as well as a napoleon oil stove to heat. These are very, very efficient. They burn one and a half to three gallons maximum per day and can heat a 2000 square-foot home. They require no electricity in their gravity fed from oil tank. I’ve heated with wood most of my life. (There is nothing like a wood fire.)

To give you an example of how much the world has changed, in the late 70s and 80s as a Boy Scout our troop raised most of our funds from going in the woods felling trees and selling firewood. Nowadays, the Scouts have been watered down to car washes and cupcakes sales. We had professional woodsmen guiding and overseeing us to minimize the danger, but the danger was there nonetheless. We also did paper drives in the late 70s-’80s. When the paper price spiked, everyone in our town was helping us out. We could fill three or four tractor-trailers in a weekend. Unfortunately, this is a sad truth. Baden Powell would be ashamed. Wood does not have a very long storage lifespan before it becomes punky and loses as much of its caloric value.

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SurvivalBlog’s News From The American Redoubt

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This column is posted on Tuesdays. Here, we present news and announcements from around the American Redoubt. We also mention companies in the region of interest to preppers. Today’s focus is on the proposed Scotchman Peak wilderness area.


Idaho (Scotchman Peak)

First, over at Redoubt News, we read: Scotchman Peak Still A Hot Topic. JWR’s Comments: This proposed wilderness area straddles the Idaho/Montana State line. (On the map, look east of Clark Fork, Idaho.) The Wilderness designation will eliminate motorized access to a huge swath of National Forest. But presently the lower elevations have well-established roads. These are  National Forest roads that are open to the public. Built during logging, those roads were indirectly paid for by your tax dollars. Not surprisingly, the self-proclaimed “caring” leftists have other plans. They intend to deny back-country access to non-backpacking older Americans.

o o o

SurvivalBlog reader TTABS posted a fun rafting video a couple of years back.  But I didn’t discover it until this week: Rafting Idaho’s Lochsa River – Row Adventures

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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”.

Digital Face Reconstruction

Remember the days when it was important to get the victim or witness of a crime to a sketch artist as quickly as possible so they could remember the facial features? The sketch artist of the future is here now and it’s a bit different. Researchers are now able to use brain scans and direct neuron recording to identify and recreate “faces” with uncanny accuracy. I guess I’m okay with the brain scans, but the “direct neuron recording” is a bit disturbing to me. Nobody is sticking needle probes into my brain. The technology is in its infancy so maybe they’ll fix that. Thanks to B.B. for the link.

Eye-in-the-sky

Miami-Dade is considering a flying platform at 25,000 feet to use war-time technology to constantly monitor and photograph large areas of the city and then use that footage to track down suspects after a crime occurs. This means blanket surveillance for everyone outside and within the airborne camera’s 25-square-mile field of vision. But don’t worry, it’s just to catch the bad guys. This technology would never be used against you. Ahem.

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

Editors’ Quote Of The Day

“There is no word that has admitted of more various significations, and has made more different impressions on human minds, than that of Liberty. Some have taken it for a facility of deposing a person on whom they had conferred a tyrannical authority; others for the power of choosing a person whom they are obliged to obey; others for the right of bearing arms, and of being thereby enabled to use violence, others in fine for the privilege of being governed by a native of their own country or by their own laws.
Some have annexed this name to one form of government, in exclusion of others: Those who had a republican taste, applied it to this government; those who liked a monarchical state, gave it to monarchies. Thus they all have applied the name of liberty to the government most conformable to their own customs and inclinations: and as in a republic people have not so constant and so present a view of the instruments of the evils they complain of, and likewise as the laws seem there to speak more, and the executors of the laws less, it is generally attributed to republics, and denied to monarchies. In fine as in democracies the people seem to do very near whatever they please, liberty has been placed in this sort of government, and the power of the people has been confounded with their liberty.” – Charles de Montesquieu, The Spirit of the Laws (1748)