Increasing interest in homeschooling by families in the United States

SurvivalBlog presents another edition of The Survivalist’s Odds ‘n Sods. This column is a collection of news bits and pieces that are relevant to the modern survivalist and prepper from JWR. Our goal is to educate our readers, to help them to recognize emerging threats, and to be better prepared for both disasters and negative societal trends. You can’t mitigate a risk if you haven’t first identified a risk. In today’s column, we look at gradually increasing interest in homeschooling by families in the United States.

Homeschooling Increases Across the US, Post-Pandemic

Over at The Christian Post: Homeschooling continues to increase across the US post-pandemic: report. (A hat to SurvivalBlog reader D.S.V. fo the link.)

Florida Hit With a Category 3 Hurricane

Hurricane Milton video — Storm spawned multiple tornadoes in Florida. JWR’s Comment: Please pray for the safety of everyone in the storm’s path.

The Sun Unleashes its Strongest Flare This Cycle

On October 4th, the editors of Phys.Org reported: The sun unleashes its strongest flare this cycle. The article begins:

“Yesterday the sun released a huge solar flare, and it’s heading toward Earth. It’s nothing to worry about since it’s nowhere near as large as the Carrington Event of 1859, but it is large enough to give us some amazing aurora.

Large solar flares happen periodically. Quite literally, because the sun goes through an 11-year cycle of lower and higher activity. Right now the sun is near the maximum of a cycle, so we see lots of sunspots and flares. When astronomers first studied the cycle they could only measure the number of sunspots at a given time. Solar flares were largely invisible to early telescopes.

But now with orbiting observatories such as the Solar Dynamics Observatory, we can capture images of solar flares in real time. Astronomers now categorize the strength of solar flares by the intensity of X-rays they emit, known as their x-class. The categories are numbered by power level, with each category double the previous one. So, for example, an X2 flare is twice as powerful as an X1 and half as strong as an X3.

This latest flare is rated as X9, which is much stronger than most solar flares.”

U.S. Shrugs as World War III Approaches

Our own Tom Christianson suggested this WSJ opinion piece: U.S. Shrugs as World War III Approaches.

Democratic Party’s Hard Left Turn is Alienating Voters

Even Democrat-faithful voters at The Hill are dismayed: Democrats must again become a big-tent party or face becoming irrelevant. JWR’s Comments: The Democratic Party’s 2024 Platform is a litany of ultra-liberal causes, irrational multi-gender pandering, unaffordable pipe dreams, and apologies. (The whole platform begins with a lengthy apology to Indian tribes for having their party convention in Chicago — on land that in the minds of the Democrat leadership was stolen from Indians.)

In Old Fort, North Carolina: Living Survivalist Style

A Rumble video: A woman in Old Fort, North Carolina is living like a survivalist following the hurricane…

Blinken Wants Long-Range Missiles for Ukraine to Hit Russia

Linked over at the Whatfinger.com news aggregation site: Blinken pushing for Long-Range Missiles for Ukraine to Destroy Russia.

Addressing America’s Debilitating Federal Debt Spiral

Tony sent this from the Congressional Budget Office website: Via the Daily Caller: We Must Address America’s Debilitating Federal Debt Spiral. Here is a key quote:

“Since Biden took office, 10-year deficit projections have grown by 80 percent. The revised baseline is another disturbing wakeup call. Our growing deficit is a national security risk and harms hardworking American families.

If we don’t act, we will be the first of our nation’s leaders to leave the next generation not with a better and brighter future, but with a worse and weaker country than we inherited. The House Budget Committee’s Fiscal Year (FY) 2025 Budget supports rooting out wasteful spending and redirecting funds toward initiatives that serve the public interest.”