The Contagion Deutsche Bank Is Spreading Is All About Derivatives
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Mark O’Byrne: Euro Will Collapse…As It Is A House Of Cards
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Silver Eagle Demand Returns With A Vengeance As Political & Economic Turmoil Increases
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SurvivalBlog and its editors are not paid investment counselors or advisers. Please see our Provisos page for details.
Study: 1 in 2 American Adults Already In Facial Recognition Network. (Thanks to H.L. for the link.)
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Another DDOS Ping Flood attack: Many sites including Twitter, Shopify and Spotify suffering outage.
And this article explains how it might have been done, by harnessing the processing power of hijacked The Internet of Things linked devices: When the Entire Internet Seems to Break At Once
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Conspiracy Theorists Vindicated: FBI Docs Reveal “Shadow Government” Protecting Hillary Clinton
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“O LORD, thou hast searched me, and known me. Thou knowest my downsitting and mine uprising, thou understandest my thought afar off. Thou compassest my path and my lying down, and art acquainted with all my ways. For there is not a word in my tongue, but, lo, O LORD, thou knowest it altogether. Thou hast beset me behind and before, and laid thine hand upon me. Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; it is high, I cannot attain unto it.” – Psalm 139: 1-6 (KJV)
On this day in 1950, Chinese forces invaded Tibet, beginning a brutal occupation that still continues. For some insight on Tibet in the late 1940s and early 1950s, I recommend the book Seven Years in Tibet.
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Today, we present another entry for Round 67 of the SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing contest. The nearly $12,000 worth of prizes for this round include:
First Prize:
Second Prize:
Third Prize:
Round 67 ends on November 30th, 2016, 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.
In prepping, the details matter. In most articles, blogs, and social media posts about prepping, you read at length about others’ preps: food storage, water filtration, alternative sources of energy, bug out strategies, vehicle maintenance, weapons/ammunition caches and military style training. These are all informative and necessary. However, the one prep that is often overlooked, but the preps that matter most, are the details regarding your human “preps.” I don’t mean physical fitness or skills training, though those are vital. I am talking about choosing potential Schumer Hits The Fan (SHTF) team members to better insure your ‘surthrival’ in one of these scenarios based not just on skill sets, but also on mindset. This is a three-stage process which starts with discernment (in my case spiritual and mental) in choosing your potential team member, an interview and then through a purposeful time of working together.
I will begin my discussion of the team member selection process by stating that my family will always come first when/if SHTF, despite their ‘fit’ on the team. This includes my immediate family of course, but also includes my extended family: my parents, brother and sister and their children, and especially my mother-in-law, who is the best prepper among us and easy to get along with. That being said, there are the extended non-family prospective team members to consider. The first step in discerning whether to even put forward someone for your larger team is a thorough consideration of the person’s skills, personality compatibility and prepper mindset. Once you think they might be a good fit for your team, then you pray sincerely about it and ask for spiritual discernment in the matter. I am a believer and this is vital to me. If you are too, this is the first and last step of this process. You begin in prayer and end in prayer. If you are not, then consider everything else I am sharing, as it is based in research and applicable in the secular world. However, for me, nothing else will work without the finished work of Jesus and the discernment only his Holy Spirit gives us. The process of selection for me is wholly informed by my faith. Should you receive confirmation of a person’s fit for your team, whether through prayer or a gut feeling, you move on to the next step.
Common knowledge dictates that you need to select people for your team that have prerequisite skills sets: doctors, mechanics, horticulturists, security and/or military, logisticians, etc. This is true, but what is often overlooked are the mental competencies needed to be valuable team members. Much research in the education and business world has been done into what it takes to be a “turnaround leader,” one with the competencies to take an organization and turn it around towards a path of success. The forerunner of this is an organization called Public Impact, where I have taken their competencies of the turnaround leader and applied them to prepping. Though my professional background is not important, it’s sufficient to say that I’ve done much training in the public sector in this area and have evaluated many individuals, both professionally and for prepping, mining for these competencies. What I have done is taken these research-based competencies and applied them to prepping, something that is also very important to me. The competencies fall into four clusters and I will only focus on the main competencies needed for each:
How do you find out about an individual’s competencies in taking a terrible situation and making the best of it, and even taking it a step further and being victorious? Though no approach is perfect, the research suggest you interview them. This might sound ludicrous, but think about it for a moment. We interview everyone from wait staff to CEOs. But do we think about interviewing someone who you may have to trust your life and the life of your family to? What is most interesting in my experience and research is that these internal competencies are relatively immutable. Hard skill-sets and the amount of physical resources can be improved upon more easily than the competencies. These are ingrained behaviors and ways of acting that have taken years to develop, and are intrinsic in what makes someone unique, and thus, they are difficult to alter. I am not saying they cannot; it’s just that in a collapse situation, you will not have time to develop someone’s baseline of these competencies.
You see the equivalent of a basic version of a “prepper’s interview” in the popular post-apocalyptic zombie television show,
The Walking Dead. When considering a new member of the community, the leader Rick asks, “How many walkers have you killed? How many people have you killed?” The problem with these questions is that they are not open-ended questions. They do not go into what the person was thinking, their feelings or the actions themselves and thus do not lend themselves to providing a clear picture of a person. The research is out there on a new type of interview, one that goes deep into finding out about someone, how they think and what motivates them. Again, this comes from Public Impact and others doing turnaround work. It is called the Behavior Event Interview, and it only consists of the following two questions (which I have tailored for the purpose of vetting a prospective prepper team member):
The Behavior Event Interview goes like this. You have selected someone for your team based on your discernment, deep consideration, and an aforementioned desired skill set they possess. After then assessing their “prepper readiness,” i.e. their openness to the prepper lifestyle and the possibility of joining a team should there be societal instability or collapse, you decide they might be a good fit. Once you understand they are like-minded and/or they know your intent to “recruit them” you schedule time for them either informally, or formally with someone taking notes. Whether you are formal or informal, you are transparent about the process up front. Without giving too many details about the competencies, you explain that you are assessing their fit for your team. You explain that if they should not qualify, it doesn’t speak to their worth as an individual or skills as a leader. It just means that they do not currently demonstrate the competencies you are looking for. Also, set a time limit for the interview. I have been in interviews that lasted up to an hour and half, as unbelievable as that may sound. I recommend an hour to an hour and a half as the time limit. You will know what you need to know at the end of that time. The point in this interview is to get them talking about that time when they were successful and that time when they were challenged. If you are going formally and scheduling a time, ideally you use a note taker, your interview partner and someone who is already on your team, transcribing [the gist of] everything they say which you both will review later. From my experience, the interviewee often doesn’t believe they will be able to talk at length based on these two questions. However, in this kind of interview, the details matter. Some interviewees tend not to want to talk about themselves or their motivations and do not offer much in the way of details. Sometimes this demonstrates evasive behavior, but more often than not, it belies our societal value not to “toot our own horn.” To address this, at the beginning of the interview, again be transparent about the process and then ask them to only use the ‘I’ pronoun even if they feel the temptation to use the preferred ‘we.’ And to really get into that person’s mind and begin to understand them, there are four questions that are asked throughout each person’s scenario:
Having done many of these interviews myself, the tendency for many is to be vague and not offer much in the way of details, and again, to avoid talking about scenarios in the first person. However, when asked one of these prompting questions, I have found that individuals tend to really open up and move past the generalities. I have also seen how someone who I thought might be a good fit, was actually not, based on the details that they ended up sharing.
If you are interviewing a potential team member informally, over coffee, schedule the time with you and someone else close to you and then debrief afterward, discussing whether or not they would be a good fit. If going formally, a rubric is to be developed with committee member(s) beforehand that lists what potential behaviors look like for each competency. The interviewee would then be scored against this rubric on a scale from 1-4 for each competency and a determination would be made on their inclusion on the prepper team. I have such a rubric but for sake of time and length here, I will not be able to include it.
The benefits to this process are two-fold. For one, you make a more objective determination on who will be included in the team, looking for the best fit. Secondly, you are communicating unity to others who are already on the team. You have a process that is sound, agreed upon, and objective. This minimizes any suppositions of favoritism. The opposition for this process might be based on the desire to follow a military model of leadership and recruiting, and if that is already the composition of the team, then by all means follow that. However, in my experience with the prepper community, many of the individuals do not have a military background and do not possess that prior knowledge and way of thinking.
Should the interview reveal a person who you may feel is right for your team, the next step is to schedule time to work with the individual on a project. Spend two to three days working on something together, a project that might raise stress levels. I did this recently. After spending much time with a young couple who my wife and I had often prayed with and for, who had worked with us in ministry, and even watched our children many times, we agreed that we thought they would be an ideal fit. To all prepper observers, the husband, who is a late twenty-something artistic college student, seems to be a poor choice. His wife, however, would seem to be a perfect fit as she is a physician’s assistant, the closest to a doctor I personally know. I chose them because I had spent much time with them and found them to be open to suggestion, seeking our guidance and leadership. They are also both hard working in their own ways. For my husband and wife prospective team members’ final test, we had a thick 3-acre field of huisache brush that needed clearing and disposal. Huisache is the nastiest invasive plant species ever known to man, fitted with sharp thorns and gnarly trunks that are difficult to cut. Over a series of 5-6 Saturdays, we scheduled time to clear out that field using hand clippers and saws, also inviting others from our church to come and help us. From this, I learned about my potential teammates’ work ethic, physical stamina, competencies in dealing with adversity and increased stress levels. I paid attention to my understanding of the competencies and got to see them at work. Of the seven individuals who worked with me over those days, I was glad to see that my discernment had proven to be accurate. The twenty something college student worked without complaint and proved to be able to put his artistic carpentry skills to work. His strongest competency turned out to be Developing Others, as he worked alongside some youth and guided them well, always patient, but holding them to our expectations. It came as no surprise that his wife’s greatest competency was in Analytical Thinking, as she has a scientific mind. They had both already scored high based on all of the stories they had told me over a period of four years, and now they demonstrated the competencies in real life. They also complement one another as he demonstrates patience with others and an ability to motivate even the most difficult worker, while she is a no-nonsense thinker who is always rational. I am blessed to have them on my team, should the need arise.
The details matter. What kinds of food you have and how long it will last matters. Your security details, ammo counts, and variety of firearms matter. Your teammates’ medical, tactical, horticultural and mechanical skills matter. Your sustainability matters. However, the innate competencies of your team members, in the face of overwhelming odds, matter the most. Isn’t it time you started prepping for this?
James,
Yes, the national Do Not Call service will greatly reduce junk phone calls. I’ve used it for years and have found that once every three or four years I need to reenter my information on the list. I suppose my number starts floating around out there and gets picked up and the junk calls start again.
As for political calls and political junk mail: When I register to vote I registered as an independent or unaffiliated voter. I can still vote in the primary, but the best part is I no longer get a bunch of email from a specific party telling me who and why I should vote for my party’s nominee. I still get local political mail telling me I should vote for a bond issue, or dog catcher. You can also go to the courthouse a few days after the election and tell them to remove your registration and then re-register the next election day if your state allows same-day registration. It all depends how much effort you want to put into it.
As for robo calls as the election approaches, I do not put my phone number on the voter registration form. I politely decline if the clerk pushes me. I might “accidentally” transpose two of the numbers in order to throw the callers off track if I absolutely must give my phone number when registering. Heck, I don’t even have to be a US citizen to register to vote. Do they want my phone number in Mexico?
As for junk mail, there is also a place to go to remove your name from junk mail or direct marketing lists. Direct your web browser to: http://www.directmail.com/mail_preference/
You may have to register your name 3 or 4 ways to get all of the addresses removed, but it is worth it. For example, you might have to do Mr. James Wesley Rawles, James Wesley Rawles, and Jim Wesley Rawles and Mr. Jim Wesley Rawles–you get the idea. And don’t forget the famous “Or Current Resident” address.
I have taught family financial planning in our local church. One evening I told people how to get off of the junk mail list. A lady in the audience became quite upset about this. When I asked her why she informed everyone that her brother worked for the US Postal Service and he said if it weren’t for junk mail the US Postal Service would be out of business. – S.M.
I’m going to go out on a limb and make a prediction as of today (October 21, 2016): I am convinced that as long as the Negative Interest Rate Policy (NIRP) continues, there will be a strong demand for not just mattress money but also for physical silver and gold. So I’m now going on record as saying: There should be a steady bull market in the monetary metals for as long as NIRP is in place. Meanwhile the industrial metals will probably continue to be in the doldrums. This explains why an ounce of platinum is now selling for $330 less than an ounce than gold. This is a historical aberration that will be reversed only at the end of the current depression. – JWR
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I stumbled into this great set of precious metals links: Goldsheet Mining Directory. It looks worthy of what Winnie called: “taking a long explore.” – JWR
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Reader G.G. flagged this: Obama administration: Budget deficit increases to $587 Billion
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Over at OilPrice.com: The Truth About Permian Shale Break-Even Prices
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SurvivalBlog and its editors are not paid investment counselors
or advisers. Please see our Provisos page for details.
Reader C.S. recommended this web site for trauma care training resources: NAEMT.org TCCC.
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BHO’s latest Executive Order: Coordinating Efforts to Prepare the Nation for Space Weather Events.
JWR’s Comment: Someone must have reminded his cabinet Science Adviser that the risk of X-Class solar flares is greatest during prolonged sunspot minimums–just as we are now experiencing. And it is noteworthy that many of the same infrastructure protective steps for surviving solar flares also protect systems from electromagnetic pulse (EMP.)
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Reader B.B. sent us this: NRA-ILA: Hillary Clinton Supports Australia-style Gun Confiscation
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H.L. spotted this: How a Great Solar Storm Almost Led to a Nuclear War
“I put my faith in God and the Mauser.” – Boer General Ben Johannis Viljoen
October 20th is the 58th birthday of actor Viggo Mortensen (born 1958.) He normally lives in the American Redoubt, but it has been reported that he’s presently attending his father, who is in ailing health, in the Northeast. On his ranch in the Redoubt is his horse-for-life “TJ”–one of the five paint horses used in the filming of the movie Hidalgo. Most SurvivalBlog readers probably know him best for his starring role in The Road.
This is also the birthday of “fast and fancy” shootist Ed McGivern (born 1874, died December 12, 1957.) He was born in Nebraska, but was a long-time resident of Butte, Montana.
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SurvivalBlog’s Editor-At-Large Michael Z. Williamson is a prolific science fiction author. He has made his short story Starhome available free of charge at the Baen Books web site. Mike is currently editing an upcoming military sci-fi anthology for Baen that includes some brilliant contributions with historical basis in Medieval Japan, The Russo-Japanese War, WWII, and the modern day, before going to the future.
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Today, we present another entry for Round 67 of the SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing contest. The nearly $12,000 worth of prizes for this round include:
First Prize:
Second Prize:
Third Prize:
Round 67 ends on November 30th, 2016, 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.
In any survival situation a defective tool is pretty much worthless and will cost you dearly in frustration or even your life. I’m sure you can think of a lot of examples. Effective tools are a big part of my life and most all of them need to be sharp, and some of them very sharp, like chisels and planer blades. When I started thinking of all the tools that I keep sharp the list started running into the dozens, everything from a potato peeler to a chainsaw. A lot of you are like me in one way or another as far as needing something with a keen edge to get the job done. For instance, the little scissors for trimming those pesky nose hairs or loping shears for the trees and shrubs. All of us have knives in the kitchen drawer or knife block, but how many of them are sharp and I mean really sharp. From experience I can tell you that most are not very sharp at all. Many examples of this come to mind like taking fresh baked bread to a neighbors party and asking for a bread knife that turned out to be so dull I could have done a better job with my shoe. Or someone pulls out the trusty chainsaw to cut a pine that fell across the drive, and when they finally get it started it whines and bogs and sticks and smokes until the poor guy gives up and calls his brother-in-law. In a normal world these are frustrations, but in a situation where you cannot replace that chain or that blade or those shears, things will become a lot more serious and important. Think of all the items you use during the week or month that work so much better when they are sharp. In hard times these tools will not just be a convenience they will become a necessity , and the more effective they are the greater your chance of survival. The reason being they will save you energy and time.
I do not have the space or time to teach you how to sharpen all of the items in your home or retreat but I can tell you what tools I use to keep things edgy. Having some or all of them and a little knowledge will be a huge help in your current or post collapse life, and most or all sharpening tools come with easy to follow instructions. Some of the tools I will list can be used on a multitude of things. The reason I list them all is because some work best on specific things. The old song says that “Diamonds are a girls best friend “ I don’t know but I sure love those things. I’m talking about the industrial diamonds used to sharpen steel. I use about six different types but will only list four to keep it a little less boring. Starting with the Kitchen knives the first tool up is: (1)The Ultimate Edge sharpener. Good tools are not cheap. It has a 10” long by 1/2” wide sharping surface and a plastic handle. If you have one of those steel rods with the little groves down it to sharpen with, you need to upgrade. This thing uses a diamond coated surface and is convex on both sides and thin at the edges. With a little practice and finding the right angle you will be amazed at the results. Again, I will not belabor the technique. Most tools have a guide or a quick internet search will do. This is one of the cross over tools because of its shape and length, it can sharpen serrated and flat blades and pretty much anything else that only needs a tune up. One key thing to know about this process of sharpening is think in terms of grit. Coarse for really dull followed with Medium and then Fine to finish. Most of the time if you maintain your tools Fine is all you will need. The diamond coated sharpeners will last a lifetime if only used on steel, although my water saws use diamond blades and they cut granite and concrete. Just wash them with soap and water occasionally and they’re good to go. I have some with a 20 year service warranty and they work perfectly.
Next up: (2) the DMT Diamond Sharpening Kit. This comes with all three Grits I mentioned plus a tapered Diamond Rod for use on serrated blades. This is a great tool and will sharpen anything from a Kukri knife to a paring blade and the tapered rod works on the steak and bread knives, it packs away in a zippered bag and weighs about 8.5oz. The instructions are very easy to follow and allows seven angles to work with and tells which knives to use them on. If you have a lot of dull knives this might be a good way to develop this skill. With this set the clamp and rod guide take all the guess work out. Just clamp the guide to the back of the blade and select the angle you want 1 thru 7 then place the desired Grit in the holder and you can sharpen both sides at exactly the same angle. I really like this tool as it always gets good results and quickly.
Another tool I use frequently is the (3) EZE-LAP Diamond Hones.These can be purchased as a set or single. They look like a plastic tongue depressor with a 2” x 3/4” Diamond surface on one end. Different Grits can be had from Coarse to Super Fine. These small little hones work on things like wood boring bits or fish hooks. I have used the Super Fine Grit to put a fine smooth finish on such things as a trigger sear and other bearing surfaces. A great design feature is the way that the gritty end tapers down the last 1 1/4” and at the end is another small bevel that leaves a tiny portion of the steel Grit surface showing. This is extremely handy for working on small things such as veggie peelers or cuticle scissors. I even use them to sharpen the carbide cutters on my router bits.
Another item that is on the bench top often is the (4) Smith’s Micro-Tool Sharpening Pad. More of a traditional looking sharpener, mine is 21/2” wide and 6” long. Again, it is a Diamond coated surface that looks like the one on the DMT tool. I use this one for chisels and hand plane blades but it is not limited to that. It can be used for large knives and many other items. For me the big advantage of this tool is the ability to handle large blades. Chisel and plane blades can be free handed with practice on the MicroTool Pad but I use it in conjunction with a pricey (5) Veritas Precision Honing Guide–but not so pricey if purchased used.I have the basic model of this guide and use it a lot, it holds the blade in a screw clamp with a brass wheel underneath. After the blade lies nice and flat on the diamond surface glide it back and forth with light pressure and a few drops of oil, it works well. Some of the hand planes I use are nearly 100 years old but I can zip down the edge of a board and peel off a long ribbon of wood thin enough to see through. This happens because the blade is sharp so I do not have to force the tool thus saving me time and energy. The Veritas Guide is a little more versatile than it might seem. Sometimes I use it on long bladed type framing chisels, but instead of the Diamond Pad I just use different grits of wet or dry sandpaper with oil right on the bench top and work it with the Guide.
Most chainsaws I see have died a terrible death, often because chains never sharpened or they were run dry with no bar lube and never a thought about chain tension. The filters were never checked or changed and the carburetor, what carburetor? So when the thing cannot be started anymore it is tossed into the corner of the garage to collect spiders and await the next yard sale. If you live in a wooded area where power is out frequently, or a place where a fallen tree on a rural road may block your escape route, you need to have a decent chainsaw and develop some skill with it. I keep two good saws in ready to cut shape all the time. In 1993, a huge snowstorm and power outage forced me with the help of one man to clear about 25 pines from my home to the road. From there we cleared another 25 to 30 pines in order to reach the main road. My failure to have kerosene in storage sent me on that trip, so I get an “F” grade on that one. However my $139 Poulan saw was well tuned and sharp and the fuel can was full with pre-mix as well, so I get an “A” grade there. If you own a chainsaw or are going to need one, learn to sharpen and maintain it. The (6) Oregon File Guide comes in different models. It clamps onto the bar and uses a round file for the teeth and a flat file for the rakers. The process is pretty simple, a bit of technique here. Always use the same number of file strokes on each tooth and when you start, mark the first tooth on top with a Sharpie marker to keep track of when you’ve made each full circuit of the chain loop. The teeth alternate cutting sides so the guide is swung around to file the other direction, be sure to also mark that starting tooth (I use blue and green pens). This tool can be used in the field but is most effective when the bar is clamped in a bench vise because that way the chain runs free and the filing is more precise. You will need to know what size of round file to use on your chain, (one size does not fit all)and buy two or three.
This brings me to another important tool: (7) Files. There are a great number of different kinds files, for most uses a Mill Bastard or Flat Bastard type will do. For example for sharpening axes and hatchets or heavy garden tools. A set of needle files is also handy for delicate jobs. At most flea markets or estate sales you will find a box of barely used tools. I did not say clean. With files If you press your thumb lightly in the cutting direction and feel a good bite, that thing will cut metal. And for 50 cents or a dollar it’s yours. Files are very useful not just for sharpening but also for the fitting of metal parts one to another. Just remember to cut in one direction and tap the filings out of the file often. If you sharpen a mower blade or such, use the same number of cutting strokes on each edge. This will help to keep the weight balanced and avoid vibration.
One last sharpening tool I use nearly every day is an (8) Opti-Visor. That is a magnifying visor with changeable lens of different powers. Maybe the most important lesson I have learned about getting things sharp is being able to see the edge. This tells me exactly where the tool is cutting because of the shiny cut marks on the metal. I use the 5 power lens for most work but 7 and 10 power are handy, the drawback to the higher powers is that the higher the magnification the closer you must be to the work. The Opti-Visor would be at the top of my list of things to own, It is indispensable for gunsmithing and digging thorns and metal out of skin. I also use it to look at suspect skin tags and moles, it’s perfect when soldering small wires or to keep a close eye on things when reloading.
I can not help but mention another simple and effective tool. Although not designed for this purpose a 3”x5”x1” thick foam sanding sponge works great in a pinch. These cost about $4 each and can be had in different grits. I use a 120 and a 240 grit to keep dry wall blades and knives sharp on the job. The sponges are coated with aluminum oxide or a ceramic blend material on all sides which gives you 40 square inches of cutting surface. They can also be washed with soap and water to expose the grit when dirty. It was a great complement when my wife visited the shop with a grandson. As they entered the door she looked at him and he immediately said,“ I know, everything in here is sharp.”
I will close with these Bible verses: “Now there was no smith found throughout all the land of Israel: for the Philistines said, Lest the Hebrews make them swords or spears: But all the Israelites went down to the Philistines, to sharpen every man his share, and his coulter, and his axe, and his mattock.” – 1 Samuel 13: 19-20
Mr. Rawles,
I am now reading your book “How to Survive the End of the World As We Know It“ for the third time. I am wondering why you did not mention the use of charcoal barbecues for cooking. I envision using a small one [such as a hibachi] for small meals, and a larger one for larger meals. Charcoal is storable. I am wondering if one can get a barbecue going by starting with wood, building up a hot base, then adding charcoal? (That’s for when you run out of starter fluid.) Has anybody done this? Love the book. Regards, – Eric C.
JWR Replies: A charcoal fire can indeed be started by using paper and kindling sticks. It just takes a bit of patience and practice. It is also a safer method than charcoal lighting fluid.
You are correct that charcoal briquettes will store for many years, and long as they are kept dry. I recommend buying a couple of extra 40 gallon galvanized steel trash cans for storing charcoal briquettes, to keep them dry. I do not recommend buying the more expensive “self-igniting” charcoal that is saturated with a starter. Not only will the briquette starter gradually evaporate to the point where they won’t light, but but they also emit fumes that are noxious.
Over the past decade, many preppers have switched to using propane ranges, in part because 20 pound propane cylinders have become ubiquitous in the U.S. and Canada. The low cost of propane makes it more cost effective than charcoal. (It costs roughly $1.50 less per meal, to barbecue a dinner with propane.)
As previously mentioned in SurvivalBlog, portable propane tanks and even torch cylinders can be repeatedly refilled from a larger home storage tank, if it is equipped with a “wet leg.” (Ask your local propane deliveryman for details.) And of course propane has an unlimited storage life.
However, in a really long term societal collapse consider that propane may not be available, whereas charcoal may again be produced locally, using the traditional heaped earth or pit methods.
So if you have sufficient storage space, then the best solution is probably to have both types of barbecues, and store both types of fuel. – JWR
Martin Armstrong: Nonperforming Loans in European Banks 10x that of U.S. Banks
Understanding Deutsche Bank’s $47 Trillion Derivatives Book . (SurvivalBlog readers have been warned about derivatives counterparty risks for a full decade. When the global OTC derivatives implosion finally occurs, it will be traumatic and have far-reaching effects, possibly toppling entire nations states.
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I missed seeing this article when it was published last month: Britain’s May meets Goldman, Amazon, IBM to discuss post-Brexit investment
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SurvivalBlog and its editors are not paid investment counselors or advisers. Please see our Provisos page for details.
The editors of the Middle East Forum note: Hungary has become “the first government to open an office specifically to address the persecution of Christians in the Middle East and Europe.”
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Reader W.C. suggested this Link: CIA Prepping for Possible Cyber Strike Against Russia – NBC News. W.C. asks: “How can it be covert if they are telling everyone?”
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Mike E. sent a link to this at Front Page Mag: The Hijrah Into Europe.
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DIY submachineguns are popping up across the West Bank. (Kudos
to Tim J. for the link.)
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Thank to Peter S. for spotting this: ISIS using consumer drones for attacks. [JWR Adds:12 years ago, I coined the acronym UAVIED, which stands for Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Improvised Explosive Device. I’m sad to see that it is the bad guys who are bringing it to fruition.]
“As I write this, the New York Times has a couple of stories about a rumor about the rumors of rumors of Trump being rude to a woman on their front page. Nothing about the Wikileaks stuff. The [Washington] Post has the same made up story about Trump and a story about how vexed the Clinton camp is over their e-mails being released.The official newspaper of the Imperial Capital cannot be bothered to cover the biggest scandal since Watergate. It’s as if it never happened.
This is just another aspect of the tsunami of bull***t that is the major media today. It’s not that they color the news or that they make up stories. The actors posing as a journalists on TV can be written off as grifters working the system so they can land lucrative TV gigs. There’s no excusing what appears to be an organized and coordinated attempt by major media to suppress the news. If you want to know about Wikileaks, you have to go to the alternative media or read through the database of released documents on your own.
It is one thing when the news is slanted. People adjust to the bias. We are in a strange age in that the mass media is entirely made up. None of of it is on the level. It’s layers and layers of manufactured stories, crowding out real news, to the point where it is impossible to take any of it at face value. You can’t even be sure the people in the stories are real. The Clinton campaign is planting child actors in crowds, posing as adorable local kids, to ask questions. Our public life is now less authentic than professional wrestling.” – Editor of The Z Man blog.