Will 2023 be a year when extremely destructive conflicts erupt all over the world?  We are certainly already living in a time of “wars and rumors of wars”, and tensions are approaching the boiling point in a number of key global flashpoints right now.  If several more major conflicts were to suddenly begin next year, we could potentially witness an extended period of geopolitical instability that would be unlike anything that we have ever witnessed.  It is easy to start wars, but it is much harder to end them.  If you doubt this, just look at what is going on in Ukraine.  There is no end in sight for that conflict, and there are several other wars that could literally erupt at any time.  The following are 5 global flashpoints which could absolutely explode during the early stages of 2023…

#1 Serbia

Are you ready for another war in the Balkans?  Ethnic tensions have risen to the highest level in more than two decades, and the president of Serbia just convened an emergency gathering of his national security council…

Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić has met his national security council as tensions rise in Kosovo between the authorities there and ethnic Serbs.

On Saturday a stun grenade was thrown at EU police in north Kosovo, where Serbs form a majority, and local police exchanged fire with unknown groups.

Ethnic Serbs set up road blocks after Kosovan police were deployed in a dispute over car number plates.

Some in the region now believe that war is “inevitable”, and Kosovo is already asking NATO to step in and intervene…

At a news conference in Kosovo’s capital Pristina on Sunday, Prime Minister Albin Kurti asked the Kosovo Force (KFOR), a NATO-led international peacekeeping force, to guarantee “freedom of movement,” as he accused “criminal gangs” of blocking roads.

A fragile peace has been preserved in Kosovo since it declared independence from Serbia in 2008 following the 1998-99 war in which NATO intervened to protect Kosovo’s Albanian majority. Serbia does not recognize Kosovo’s independence.

#2 The Disputed Border Between China And India

On Tuesday, we learned that there has been yet another violent clash along the hotly disputed border between China and India…

Soldiers from India and China clashed last week along their disputed border, India’s defense minister said Tuesday, in the latest violence along the contested frontier since June 2020, when troops from both countries were killed in a deadly brawl.

Rajnath Singh, who addressed lawmakers in parliament, said Friday’s encounter along the Tawang sector of eastern Arunachal Pradesh state started when Chinese troops “encroached into Indian territory” and “unilaterally tried to change the status quo” along the disputed border near Yangtze.

The Chinese just can’t seem to stop provoking India, and a full-blown conflict between the two nations could escalate out of control very rapidly.

Let us hope that does not happen, because both China and India possess nuclear weapons.

#3 Taiwan

For a long time, we have been warned that China will eventually invade Taiwan.

Unfortunately, tensions in the region just continue to escalate, and on Tuesday the Chinese sent more bombers into Taiwan’s air defense zone than ever before…

China sent a record 18 nuclear-capable bombers into Taiwan’s air defence zone, Taipei said on Tuesday (Dec 13), just days after Beijing banned more Taiwanese imports in the latest sign of deteriorating ties.

Democratic Taiwan lives under the constant threat of invasion by China, which sees the self-ruled island as part of its territory to be seized one day.

#4 Iran

There will be a war between Iran and Israel.

Of course the IDF has already been regularly hitting Iranian-backed forces inside Syria on a regular basis, but we should be thankful that a full-blown war in which missiles are flying back and forth between the two nations hasn’t started yet.

Unfortunately, we are closer than ever to that point.  In fact, it is being reported that Israel is actually warning that it may bomb the airport in Beirut “if it determines that Iran is smuggling weapons on civilian planes”…

According to Israeli media reports, Israel has warned Lebanon that Israel Defense Forces could bomb Beirut’s airport if it determines that Iran is smuggling weapons on civilian planes destined for the terrorist group Hezbollah. The alleged weapons smuggling was reported by a London-based Arabic language newspaper Asharq Al-Awsat, which quoted Israeli sources who said Israel issued the warning.

When a full-blown war between Iran and Israel finally starts, there will be no holding back by either side.

The death and destruction such a war will cause will shock the entire world, and the global oil trade will be thrown into a state of complete and utter chaos.

#5 Ukraine

The United States and Russia both continue to escalate the horrifying conflict in Ukraine.

Now that Russia is bombing the living daylights out of Ukraine’s power grid, the U.S. is choosing to respond by giving Patriot missiles systems to the Ukrainians…

Pentagon officials are in the final stages of preparing a plan to send a Patriot air defense missile system to Ukraine to counter Russian aerial assaults, U.S. officials told CBS News.

The plan has not yet been approved by either the Pentagon or the White House, but that could come as early as this week.

This represents a major escalation, and it is also being reported that the Biden administration has given the Ukrainian government the green light to conduct drone strikes deep inside of Russia.

Needless to say, the Russians are not pleased at all about having to deal with drone strikes deep inside their own territory.  In fact, some prominent Russian voices are warning that the U.S. and Russia are getting dangerously close to the unthinkable.  The following comes from a British news source…

Mad Vlad Putin’s henchmen have fired a warning shot that the Ukraine conflict could turn into a “full-scale nuclear war.”

They made the stark comments after the US gave the go-ahead for Kyiv to kick off drone strikes into Russia.

We don’t see such talk on U.S. television.

The Biden administration continues to assure all of us that the risk of nuclear war is extremely low, but the Russians see things very differently…

One source in Putin’s circle said: “This is playing with fire, risking full-scale war which could easily go nuclear.”

Another added: “Who will now give Moscow the green light for strikes against Ukrainian decision-making centres?”

Most people never imagined that World War I would get as bad as it did.

And most people never imagined that World War II would result in tens of millions of deaths.

Now we have entered the early stages of a third world war, and this time the major participants are armed with nuclear weapons.

If we don’t pull back from the brink, the consequences could potentially be far beyond what most people could even imagine right now.

So let us pray for peace, because a global war in which hundreds of millions of people die is not an acceptable option.

***It is finally here! Michael’s new book entitled “End Times” is now available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.***

About the Author: My name is Michael and my brand new book entitled “End Times” is now available on Amazon.com.  In addition to my new book I have written six other books that are available on Amazon.com including “7 Year Apocalypse”, “Lost Prophecies Of The Future Of America”, “The Beginning Of The End”, and “Living A Life That Really Matters”. (#CommissionsEarned)  When you purchase any of these books you help to support the work that I am doing, and one way that you can really help is by sending copies as gifts to family and friends.  Time is short, and I need help getting these warnings into the hands of as many people as possible.  I have published thousands of articles on The Economic Collapse Blog, End Of The American Dream and The Most Important News, and the articles that I publish on those sites are republished on dozens of other prominent websites all over the globe.  I always freely and happily allow others to republish my articles on their own websites, but I also ask that they include this “About the Author” section with each article.  The material contained in this article is for general information purposes only, and readers should consult licensed professionals before making any legal, business, financial or health decisions.  I encourage you to follow me on social media on Facebook and Twitter, and any way that you can share these articles with others is definitely a great help.  These are such troubled times, and people need hope.  John 3:16 tells us about the hope that God has given us through Jesus Christ: “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”  If you have not already done so, I strongly urge you to invite Jesus Christ to be your Lord and Savior today.

The post 5 Global Flashpoints Which Could Absolutely Explode During The Early Stages Of 2023 appeared first on End Of The American Dream.

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Is your job secure?  Over the past couple of years, American workers generally didn’t need to be concerned about job security.  Even if someone got fired unexpectedly, it was just so easy to find new employment because there simply was not enough able-bodied workers out there.  But now everything is changing.  Some of the largest corporations in the entire country are starting to conduct mass layoffs as the U.S. economy steadily slows down.  Unfortunately, it appears that a lot more pain is ahead.  In fact, as you will see below, one of Wall Street’s biggest banks is ominously warning that millions of American workers will lose their jobs next year.

Stories about mass layoffs are hitting the news at a fast and furious pace these days.  For example, we just learned that a factory that makes Jeep Cherokees in northern Illinois will be laying off 1,350 workers…

The company, which employs about 1,350 workers at the plant in Belvidere, Illinois, said the action will result in indefinite layoffs and it may not resume operations as it considers other options.

Stellantis said the industry ‘has been adversely affected by a multitude of factors like the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and the global microchip shortage, but the most impactful challenge is the increasing cost related to the electrification of the automotive market.’

I was very sad to see that happen.

Those that work in our automotive factories are some of the hardest working people in the entire nation.

Other types of workers are losing their jobs in very large numbers as well.

Earlier today, I came across a story about layoffs that will affect 1,800 employees that worked in phone kiosks inside Costco stores…

Over 1800 employees were laid off at Wireless Advocate which operates the phone kiosks inside Costco Wholesale stores.

A local Costco representative said staff is just becoming aware that all their phone kiosks abruptly ceased operations at all Costco Warehouses on December 5, 2022.

If you lose your job, I would try to find another one as rapidly as possible, because the longer you wait the more people you are going to be competing against.

As I mentioned earlier, even some of the largest corporations in the U.S. are now laying off large numbers of people.  In a previous article I discussed the layoffs that are coming at Amazon, and now it appears that those layoffs will be even larger than originally anticipated…

It appears that Amazon plans to fire 20,000 people, which is twice as many as previously estimated. Workers from distribution centers, IT professionals, and corporate leaders will all be let go by Amazon across a number of areas. According to those with knowledge of the situation, Amazon layoffs will happen in the upcoming months. Staff at all levels are likely to be impacted because Amazon workers are ranked from level 1 to level 7. The NYT originally revealed that Amazon plans layoffs in mid-November, citing sources who said that as many as 10,000 workers would be let go.

Sadly, the truth is that we are still only in the very early stages of this new crisis.

Many more layoff announcements will be coming in the months ahead, and at this point a division of Citibank is projecting that the U.S. economy will lose approximately 2 million jobs next year…

The group said in its latest outlook report published this week that the economy could lose an estimated 2 million jobs in 2023 as the jobless rate climbs to 5.25%.

“We believe that the Fed’s rate hikes and shrinking bond portfolio have been stringent enough to cause an economic contraction within 2023,” the economists said in the report. “And if the Fed does not pause rate hikes until it sees the contraction, a deeper recession may ensue.”

If we actually lose that many jobs, it will be catastrophic.

Meanwhile, Americans are steadily getting poorer.

From January to September, U.S. household wealth plunged by a whopping 13.5 trillion dollars.

Part of the reason this is happening is because home values are starting to fall quite rapidly.

And they are going to fall even more if the Federal Reserve continues to raise interest rates.

Unfortunately, Fed officials just keep telling us that more rate hikes are coming.

Homebuilders are being hit extremely hard as well.  They started lots of new houses when times were still good, and now they have lots of inventory and very few buyers…

If a homebuilder cannot sell their ballooning inventory of unsold new houses to households, at current prices and mortgage rates, amid plunging sales and soaring cancellation rates of signed contracts – topping out at 45% in the Southwest and at 38% in Texas – despite aggressive incentives such as mortgage-rate buydowns to stimulate sales and prevent cancellations, well, whom are homebuilders supposed to sell those houses to?

Thanks to the Fed, the entire housing market is a giant mess at this point.

Hundreds of thousands of homeowners are now underwater on their mortgages, and the early payment default rate has risen to heights that we saw back during the peak of the last housing crash in 2009…

Digging deeper into the month’s data, Black Knight found that, while still relatively low among conforming loans, the early-payment default (EPD) rate – which captures mortgages that have become delinquent within six months of origination –– has risen among FHA loans for much of the past year to reach its highest level since 2009, excluding the months in the immediate wake of the pandemic.

Economic conditions are already really bad, and they will soon get a whole lot worse.

Signs of trouble are erupting all around us.  For instance, I was deeply alarmed when I read that Orlando International Airport is experiencing a very serious fuel shortage…

The Federal Aviation Administration is warning pilots that Orlando International Airport (MCO) is running low on fuel, and that could mean hiccups in the days ahead for travelers.

In an official notice, the agency said that the airport could continue having supply issues through about 7 p.m. Tuesday, and suggests that airlines should be prepared to operate flights into the airport with enough fuel on board to fly back out.

I have never heard of an entire airport being short on fuel for an extended period of time before.

Hopefully this is just a temporary setback.

But what isn’t temporary are the long-term economic trends.  They have all been going in the wrong direction for a long time, and now a moment of reckoning has arrived.

Enjoy the next few weeks while you still can, because it appears that 2023 is going to be a very painful year.

***It is finally here! Michael’s new book entitled “End Times” is now available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.***

About the Author: My name is Michael and my brand new book entitled “End Times” is now available on Amazon.com.  In addition to my new book I have written six other books that are available on Amazon.com including “7 Year Apocalypse”, “Lost Prophecies Of The Future Of America”, “The Beginning Of The End”, and “Living A Life That Really Matters”. (#CommissionsEarned)  When you purchase any of these books you help to support the work that I am doing, and one way that you can really help is by sending copies as gifts to family and friends.  Time is short, and I need help getting these warnings into the hands of as many people as possible.  I have published thousands of articles on The Economic Collapse Blog, End Of The American Dream and The Most Important News, and the articles that I publish on those sites are republished on dozens of other prominent websites all over the globe.  I always freely and happily allow others to republish my articles on their own websites, but I also ask that they include this “About the Author” section with each article.  The material contained in this article is for general information purposes only, and readers should consult licensed professionals before making any legal, business, financial or health decisions.  I encourage you to follow me on social media on Facebook and Twitter, and any way that you can share these articles with others is definitely a great help.  These are such troubled times, and people need hope.  John 3:16 tells us about the hope that God has given us through Jesus Christ: “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”  If you have not already done so, I strongly urge you to invite Jesus Christ to be your Lord and Savior today.

The post A Wall Street Bank Is Warning That Millions Of Americans Will Lose Their Jobs In 2023 appeared first on The Economic Collapse.

Finding the perfect gift for my family and friends is always a challenge.

Every year, I’m never sure what to get my Dad, wife, friends, kids, grandkids, etc.

Christmas, Birthdays, Anniversaries, Valentine’s Day, or just because…ugh!

It never ends…

Every year, I rack my brain, I search the web, but none of the “best gifts for men” or “best gifts for women” articles are worth a crap.

Those articles only list the most obvious, boring gifts and lack any creativity.

Getting someone a gift from one of those lists says, “Here’s a boring, safe generic gift that you probably don’t want, but it’s all I could find, sorry!”

So this article is your solution. Here’s the secret to getting a great gift this time around. 

“Everybody loves survival gifts.”

They are unique, they are interesting, they are creative, they say you care, and they are awesome.

This list has something for everyone (as you’ll soon discover). And if you happen to be buying for someone who is truly interested in survival, then this list is an absolute gold mine.

You may have just found the last “gift list” you’ll ever need.

This is Skilled Survival’s 10 Best Survival Gifts List:

As A Way To Introduce You To Skilled Survival, We’re Giving Away Our #78 Item Complete Prepper Checklist. Click Here To Get Your FREE Copy Of It.

1. FireHawk Tactical Flashlight

I listed Skilled Survival’s FireHawk Tactical Flashlight first because I honestly believe everyone should own at least one.

This super bright tactical flashlight gets rave testimonials from our readers daily. Not only does this LED flashlight look badass, but your family or friends will use it every day.

It’s ideally sized to fit comfortably in your pocket. But you should also stash one in your vehicle and survival bag. I even know several ladies who carry one in their purses and love it.

It’s the perfect stocking stuffer for Christmas. It makes a great Birthday present, too. We’ve even sold them as an awesome Groomsman gift.

Get several FireHawk Tactical Flashlights, and your survival gift buying may just be done for the year.

For A Limited Time Only: Get a FREE FireHawk Tactical Flashlight For Visiting Skilled Survival! Just pay s&h. Click Here To Learn More.

2. TACT Bivvy Survival Sleeping Bag

This survival gift is great for anyone who loves heading into the outdoors. The

The TACT Bivvy is an ingenious emergency sleeping bag that fits in size of your hand. This is a survival gift that shows you care.

It says, “I value your friendship enough to give you a valuable survival tool. One that will help keep you safe on all your outdoor adventures”.

The TACT Bivvy is incredibly light-weight and compact. It only weighs 6.2 oz., so it’s not a burden to take with you into the wilderness. It stores wherever it’s most convenient which makes this survival gift versatile.

The TACT Bivvy is made from heat-reflecting Mylar and coated with a unique material called Heatsheets. This material is highly durable, resistant to tearing, and stretches so it can be used over and over again.

The TACT Bivvy protects you from the elements. The HeatSheets material reflects 90% of your body’s heat back to you it keeping you warm in brutally cold temps.

It will keep both rain and wind off of you, helping to avoid deadly hypothermia.

And unlike an emergency blanket, it has taped seams to ensure a sealed barrier between you and what could kill you (freezing temps).

Use it as a stand-alone survival blanket or slide it inside a traditional sleeping bag to improve your sleeping bag’s rating by up to 20 degrees!

It’s a fantastic survival gift for everyone on your list.

3. Pocket Jumper Pro 2.0

The Pocket Jumper Pro 2.0 is the perfect survival gift for that practical person on your list.

Listen; jumper cables are clunky, and they rely on a second vehicle.

So if you’re stranded in the middle of nowhere, how are jumper cables going to save you?

They’re not.

Instead, give your loved ones and friends a portable vehicle jump starter.

The Pocket Jumper Pro 2.0 is a practical person’s dream gift, and it’s so small it will fit in most Christmas stockings.

4. Paracord Survival Kit

If you’ve read any Skilled Survival articles in the past, you may have noticed that we advocate owning and wearing paracord. Paracord has many survival uses and can be incorporated into lots of paracord projects.

This paracord survival kit contains 15 survival items all wrapped up into one small package that you can attach to your EDC bag or bug out bag.

When a survival item can do more than 1 thing, that’s an item worth carrying. So the fact that this paracord survival kit can help you catch fish, start a fire, and more means it should be part of your gear.

Plus, at the time this article was published, you could get one for Free. Click here to see if this deal is still available.

5. Luci EMRG Solar Powered Lantern

This is one survival gift I hope my wife and kids get me (and I hope they read this post – hint, hint). To me, solar is a revolutionary technology for those who are striving to be self-reliant.

From off-grid solar power to solar chargers, if a device includes solar, it no longer depends on electricity.

Plus, illumination is often critical to survival success. Being able to see what you’re doing (or where you’re going) in the dark will help avoid dangerous mistakes.

That’s why this portable, lightweight, Luci EMRG Solar Lantern is a perfect survival gift (plus, great for those who enjoy camping or backpacking).

Leave a solar lantern out in the sun for a few hours to charge it up, then turn it on when needed.

• No Batteries Needed
• A Single Charge Provides Up To 12 Hours Of Illumination
• Compact (1 inch tall when deflated)
• Shatterproof
• Waterproof

6. BioLite Wood Burning CampStove 2+

The Biolite CampStove 2+ is a newer piece of survival gear that I recently discovered. It uses heat from biomass to generate electricity.

The tagline for the Biolite Wood Burning Camping Stove is, “Worlds first camp stove & portable phone charger.”

In a survival situation, you’re going to want to build a fire. And it will be handy to keep your cell phone working for a quick rescue.

So how about using the heat from that fire to charge your cell phone, smartphone, GPS device, or computer? Brilliant!

The Biolite Wood Burning CampStove 2+ is also excellent for those who like to camp in remote locations.

Amazing places without toilets or electrical outlets. So needless to say, backpackers and adventurers will love this unique survival gift.

This is one of those gifts that nobody even knows to put on their list, but once they get it they light up immediately.

It’s a guaranteed winner.

7. Survival Seed Vault

This is the ideal survival gift for those with a green thumb. The Survival Seed Vault includes:

• 20 Simple To Grow Seed Varieties
• 100% Heirloom (no hybrid or GMO’s)
• High Yield and High Germination Rates
• Sealed Can For Long Term Storage (5+ years)

This is literally a garden in a can! Store it for a “rainy day” or use it next spring, either way, it’s a great survival gift.

As A Way To Introduce You To Skilled Survival, We’re Giving Away Our Ultimate Survival Gear Checklist. Click Here To Get Your FREE Copy Of It.

8. Tesla Double Arc Electric Lighter

This is another newer technology that the survival world has just started to embrace.

The key to the Tesla Double Arc Electric Lighter is the fact that it uses electricity and not fuel to spark a fire. Which makes it both windproof and waterproof.

Can your cheapo plastic lighter catch flame in a violent rainstorm? Not likely.

However, with This Telsa Electric Lighter, you can confidently get a fire built in the most adverse conditions.

When the skies turn dark, this reliable lighter won’t let you down.

The bottom line is: This is the simplest fire starter you’ll ever use. Just hold the side button down, and you’ll ignite a double arc of electricity that’ll get your outdoor cooking going in no time.

Once completely charged, the double arc lighter allows for 300 sparks. That’s about 100 more than the competition. The USB lighter includes a small charging port at the base, as well as a blue indicator light to show you it’s charging.

This Telsa lighter is built to last and makes for an excellent survival gift.

9. Paracord Fire Laces

Paracord Fire Laces are a survival gift idea that few people have heard about.

These unique boot laces are made from 7 strands 550 paracord with 2 ferrod rods and a fire striker built in.

The rods are on each end of the lace, and the striker is stashed at the halfway point of your laces.

Easy to Use: Simply remove the plastic covering on the end of your shoelaces to expose the small Ferro rod. Then use the included metal striker to scrap the rod and create sparks into a pile of tinder.

Starting A Fire Is As Easy As 1-2-3:

1. Remove the protective rubber tip from the lace end, exposing the ferrod tip
2. Quickly scrape the provided metal plate on the ferrod tip
3. Direct the hot sparks at your intended tinder bundle

This survival gift is easy to use, lightweight, decreet, sturdy, waterproof, and versatile. What’s not to love?

It’s ideal for anyone with a pair of work boots or hiking boots. Seriously, everyone should replace their boot’s laces immediately with these paracord fire laces.

10. All American Sun Oven

This is a perfect gift for any survivalist who loves to cook. The All American Sun Oven brand is known for its quality solar cooking products.

There’s nothing quite like enjoying a solar meal powered by the sun.

The Sun Oven is specifically designed to reach oven temperatures of up to 400 degrees Fahrenheit.

This means you can cook all your favorite meals you cook in your conventional oven.

It’s ideal for hot summer days when you’d rather avoid using your oven. It’s great for cooking when the power is out.

And it’s a must-have for those who like oven cooked meals in a campground.

The All American Sun Oven bundle includes:

• • 3-Piece  Roaster with Lid and Rack, Multi-Level Dehydrating & Baking Rack Set, Easy-Stack Pots with interchangeable Lids and Multi-Fuel Water Pasteurization Indicator
  • The lightweight, portable solar oven reaches 360-400 degrees Fahrenheit
  • Made in America
  • Comes with a Cookbook with 600 recipes

11. Door Stop Alarm

Sometimes the simplest ideas are best.

Sure, there are crazy expensive home security systems you could install in your home. But this door stop alarm creates an intense, noisy racket that will scare off intruders at an incredibly low price point.

Here’s how this clever little door stop alarm works:

• It acts as a door wedge to prevent entry
• It blasts a high decibel siren when the door is pushed open
• Works on carpet and hardwood (and virtually any flooring surface)
• Can be used in your home, your office, and even a hotel room
• Perfect for a college dorm room or a rental unit (where you can’t install another security system)
• It cannot be disabled, before entry, by would-be intruders (like some home security systems)

All you need to do is place the door stop alarm on the inside of the door and arm it.

If someone tries to open the door, the door stopper will make it much much harder for the would-be intruder to gain access to your home through the doorway.

On top of the mechanical stopping power, this door stop alarm will sound the alarm once the door has made contact with it. Watch the video below for a quick demo.

12. Water Storage Containers

These are one of my favorite preparedness items on this list because they’re so versatile.

These water storage containers have an ingenious design that allows you to store and pour water.

These bricks interlock to maximize the amount of water you can store in the least amount of space.

They are obviously perfect for storing water but can also store:

• Food
• Dry Goods
• Important documents
• Ammo
• Ice

They can even be used in other creative ways, like weighing down the trunk of your car for better traction on slippery winter roads.

These are the containers that I personally use for my water stockpile.

13. LifeStraw Personal Water Filter

Speaking of water, there’ll come a time when you need to purify a water source while you’re on the go.

This is where the LifeStraw Personal Water Filter comes in handy.

It’s hard to believe that these little guys can do all of the following:

• Filter 1,000 liters of contaminated water without iodine or other chemicals
• Remove 99.9999% of waterborne bacteria like E. Coli & Cholera
• Remove 99.9% of waterborne parasites like Giardia & Crypto
• Exceeds EPA standards for water filters
• Chemical-free filtration
• Filters particles of 0.2 microns
• Made from BPA-free plastic
• No batteries; requires no power supply
• It comes in a protective sealed bag
• It weighs only 2 ounces
• Dimensions: 1 x 1 x 9 inches

The LifeStraw water filter is a great survival gift for campers, hikers, preppers, survivalists, and anyone who needs to purify water on the go.

Every bug out bag and vehicle glovebox should have at least one LifeStraw inside.

Click here to order your LifeStraw today

14. RFID Shield Wallet

Does your credit card or debit card have one of those new scan chips in it?

If you do, you’re at risk.

A bad person can scan your card while it’s in your wallet or purse and steal all your credit card information.

If they do, you’ll likely find yourself with some unexpected charges on your next statement.

The easiest way to protect yourself is to put your chipped cards into an RFID Safe Wallet. When in this safe shield, RFID scanners are blocked from stealing your sensitive information.

15. The Scream Whistle

Every set of keys needs a Scream Whistle.

It’s proven that loud whistle noises get people to STOP doing something they shouldn’t be doing (just like the door stop alarm listed at #11 above).

That’s exactly what this low-tech security device can do.

With one puff of air, you’re able to create a piercing, high-pitched sound as loud as 100 decibels which will get attention. And if you’re being attacked, attention is exactly what you want.

16. Survival Playing Cards

Everyone loves a good deck of playing cards. So why not give them a deck with some useful survival information?

Each of these Survival Playing Cards details a unique survival emergency scenario as well as specific tips on how to survive.

Survival playing cards are another great stocking stuffer or office gift exchange idea.

17. Anytime Charge Solar Bank

The Anytime Charge Solar Bank is my new favorite survival gift. Why? Because it’s brand new technology – making it a cool survival gadget.

It’s extremely useful every single day to power their smartphone while they’re on the go.

And from a survival perspective, you’re giving the gift of free electrical power – the gift that keeps on giving.

This is one of those survival gifts where you buy two because you want one too!

A Bunch Of Bonus Ideas

Ok, I have a hard time believing at least one of the previous survival gift ideas didn’t fit the bill.

But on the off chance that it did not, I’ll give you some more gear ideas for your “impossible-to-buy -for” friends.

Here’s a list of Skilled Survival articles that include survival gear recommendations.

While many of these articles focus on more than just gear, they do touch on some decent ideas for you to consider.

 

Looking For Even More Survival Gifts?

Here’s a video I made where I reviewed 19 affordable and high-quality survival gifts.

Survival Gifts Wrap Up

Hopefully, you were able to find that perfect survival gift for that “hard-to-shop-for” person in your life.

I still struggle occasionally to find good survival gift ideas, but with this list, I have a few years’ worth of ideas to work through before I run out.

Time to share:

What survival gift ideas do you recommend? I’m always looking for new ideas and so are the Skilled Survival readers. So make sure to let us know of your favorite survival gift ideas are in the comments below.

As A Way To Introduce You To Skilled Survival, We’re Giving Away Our Ultimate Survival Gear Checklist. Click Here To Get Your FREE Copy Of It.

Remember: Prepare, Adapt, and Overcome,

“Just In Case” Jack

P.s. Do you know where the closest nuclear bunker is from your home?

There are a lot of natural nuclear shelters in the US that are absolutely free. And one of them is near your home.

Click here to see the Closest Natural Nuclear Bunker to Your Home?

Click on the image above to find out where you need to take shelter.

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If you’ve ever longed for a bunker or underground shelter, the fallout shelter designs from the Cold War era offer…

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This article was originally published by Antony Sammeroff at The Mises Institute. 

In 2008, the State of Oregon inadvertently ran a randomized health insurance experiment. They decided they had just enough money in their annual budget to give Medicaid coverage to an additional ten thousand citizens randomly chosen via a lottery. While there was no improvement in health outcomes, hospital admissions increased by 30 percent, outpatient visits by 35 percent, and ER visits by 40 percent. The experiment cost a lot of money—36 percent more—with no tangible benefit.

Amazingly, there is not a strong relationship between healthcare spending and health outcomes. America spends almost $4 trillion a year on healthcare, around twice what most other developed nations spend per head, and approximately half of it is taxpayer funded. With only 4 percent of the world’s population, the US accounts for half of the pharmaceuticals consumed worldwide. If more healthcare were the answer, the US would be the healthiest country on the planet. Yet while Japan’s and Singapore’s healthcare expenditures per head are only a fraction of those of the US, Japanese and Singaporeans live over five years longer than Americans.

The US’s excess spending on healthcare mostly goes to overpriced, ineffective, and unnecessary treatments. It is generally assumed that more care is caring more, but the reality echoes the eerily astute insight that Ivan Illich put forth in the initial pages of his 1970 book Deschooling Society, in which he deconstructed the bureaucratic ethos. He noted that bureaucrats

confuse process and substance. Once these become blurred, a new logic is assumed: the more treatment there is, the better are the results; or escalation leads to success. The pupil is thereby “schooled” to confuse teaching with learning, grade advancement with education, a diploma with competence, and fluency with the ability to say something new. . . . Medical treatment is mistaken for health care, social work for the improvement of community life, police protection for safety, military poise for national security, the rat race for productive work.

Actually, clean drinking water, nutritious food, workplace safety, sanitary living conditions, employment, and a supportive social network have a bigger effect on health outcomes than access to healthcare does. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention told us in 1999 that while “the average lifespan of persons in the United States has lengthened by >30 years” since 1900, “25 years of this gain are attributable to advances in public health” rather than to medicine. In 2000, the prestigious journal Pediatrics released a comprehensive study that attributed the 90 percent decline in infectious disease mortality to improvements in sanitary conditions and nutrition rather than medical treatments. Cleaner drinking water was responsible for nearly half of the reduction in total mortality and nearly two-thirds of the reduction in child mortality in the twentieth century.

Longer lifespans and better health, wherever they are still enjoyed—as life expectancy has been falling since 2014, and chronic disease is more prevalent than ever—are largely due to better nutrition and hygiene, ventilated housing, indoor heating, garbage collection, sanitary sewage systems, and cleaner water and food. In the nineteenth century, people’s housing and working conditions improved dramatically. Most of the basic conveniences we take for granted today, like indoor flushing toilets and clean running water, were not widely available in the first half of the twentieth century. Before the internal combustion engine, city streets were lined with horse dung. People lived several to a room, sharing disease. The average living space per person in America doubled between 1973 and 2014, a very recent change.

Poor people typically have worse health outcomes than affluent people do, and the healthcare that poor people consume largely comes at the taxpayer’s expense. So, even from the statist “welfarist” perspective, if someone getting into government really wanted to do something to improve health and longevity, he could redirect a percentage of the huge sums squandered on Medicaid toward improving housing quality in the areas where living conditions are worst and health outcomes poorest.

Go after low-hanging fruit, like eliminating mold in apartments. The program would more than pay for itself with the drop-off in health visits. Go to the places with the worst water quality and improve it. Go where the air is dirty and clean it up, or litigate against the polluters. Publicize the effects of poisonous herbicides like Roundup on the microbiome. Improve the quality of the soil so that people can have access to more nutritious produce. Every dollar spent would likely result in several dollars saved from not having to treat preventable illnesses.

The fact that this is never proposed either indicates that I am uniquely original in my genius (plausible) and should give up economics to run for office or that our so-called public servants are less interested in improving people’s health than they are in shoveling public money into the hands of their cronies in the medical industry.

 

I recently came back from an extended camping trip with friends in the north woods of Maine where we took…

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This article was originally published by Caitlin Johnstone at Caitlin Johnston.com. 

I don’t desire a future for humanity like the ones imagined by our culturally designated future imaginers. I don’t want humans living in Elon Musk Mars colonies or Jeff Bezos space cylinders. I don’t want us to fly out into the stars, to disappear into virtual reality universes, or to move away from our humanness by becoming cybernetic organisms.

Not yet anyway. Not for a long time. Not until we’ve done what we need to do here first.

Have you ever noticed that most books, shows, and movies set in the future tend to depict a humanity that’s more technologically advanced than our own, but thinks and behaves in basically the same way? In the average sci-fi story people are still waging wars, still fighting, conquering, subjugating, toiling, and surviving just like today, except they’re doing it out in space surrounded by a bunch of aliens (who are also oddly entangled in the same egoic patternings as humans in the 21st century).

In this common vision for the future, we have mastered space travel but still haven’t mastered basic psychological health. Our technology has enabled us to kill, enslave, manipulate and exploit among the stars so that we are no longer confined to killing, enslaving, manipulating, and exploiting down here.

This tendency is partly due to the limits of imagination; it’s easy to imagine more advanced versions of our own technology, but trying to imagine a mind frame that’s very different from your own is like trying to imagine being twice as intelligent as you are. Trying to imagine living in a conscious civilization while your own civilization is deeply unconscious is like a dream character trying to imagine life outside the dream. It’s not hard to extrapolate upon existing patterns, but envisioning the complete dissolution of patterns can be much more difficult.

This tendency is also due to the fact that science fiction writers are telling stories for an immature civilization full of restless minds who would be easily bored by tales of a peaceful future without any major problems. But that’s the kind of future that I want for humanity. A peaceful one without any major problems. One that wouldn’t make a good Hollywood blockbuster.

And it’s actually kind of a problem that the future that humanity is mentally pointing itself toward is one in which all our restlessness and dysfunction persists. Our steps into the future will be guided by our collective vision for it, and when those visions are about space colonization, virtual reality, and transhumanism, our collective compass is going to be skewed toward dysfunction.

Right now for example, most human innovation goes toward generating profits and/or military dominance, which puts us on a trajectory toward more and more technologically advanced personal doodads to buy at the store and more and more ways of killing large numbers of people at a time. It doesn’t put us on a trajectory toward finding ways to make sure everyone has enough, to helping people have more leisure time, and to helping humanity move in harmony with our ecosystem. All of those innovations would do infinitely more to create a more pleasant future for humanity than spaceships and laser guns, but our systems do not give rise to them, because they are not profitable and don’t help increase a government’s military power.

There are so many assumptions baked into our collective visions for the future and the systems we’ve set up to carry us there. Assumptions like we’ll never have peace; we’ll always have violence, conflict, and domination; we’ll always have poverty and the need for endless toil; we’ll never be able to stop consuming our biosphere to death so we’d better get out into space so that capitalism can keep expanding. All of those assumptions point us away from a healthy and harmonious future.

And of course, that’s what you’d expect from a deeply unconscious species, which is what we still are currently. We’re still largely operating on autopilot like any other animal, whipped about by the forces of conditioning patterns that have been reverberating from the most distant reaches of our evolutionary ancestry. A collective history of trauma and fear combined with our newly evolved capacity for abstract thought has left us confused and disoriented in ways we haven’t yet gained lucidity on; an adolescent species in an awkward transition phase.

And I can’t help but think how productive it would be if, rather than spending our energy trying to dash off into outer space or bury our heads in virtual reality, our movement into the future was focused more on resolving all that? If rather than feeding into our unconscious restlessness by giving ourselves more and more places to try and escape to, we set about learning to simply be here now?

What if instead of trying to be anywhere but here, humanity made a mad push for enlightenment? What if instead of spending the next centuries trying to get away from the present reality, our society began emphasizing things like meditation and self-inquiry to help us finally truly meet the present reality? What if our science became less focused on profit and destruction and more on trying to find ways to help people be okay with themselves? What if psychedelic institutions were set up around the world to help everyone explore their inner realms and bring the unconscious into consciousness using skillful methods and entheogenic compounds?

I mean, most of us can’t even sit still in meditation for an hour without their mind racing all over the place and doing everything except what it’s asked to do. Does that sound natural to you? Does that sound like a conscious, healthy species? Or does it sound like a species that, if handed paradise on a golden platter, would immediately destroy it out of boredom?

A lot of what we see the most influential minds envisioning for our future just looks like restlessness to me, a relentless compulsion to be anywhere but here, much like the mental fidgeting of an individual attempting to meditate. We don’t even have any evidence that humans can live completely independent of Earth’s biosphere, yet it’s taken as a given that we’ll be running off into the stars so we don’t have to make the drastic changes in ourselves that will be necessary to sustain human life on this planet. The idea of simply settling down and learning to be here sounds unthinkably hellish to a mind enslaved to restlessness, to such an extent that it will concoct unrealistic fictions about the future rather than facing reality.

Even if we did succeed in colonizing space, it wouldn’t solve any of our problems, and it wouldn’t make our future any more pleasant. We’d just be moving our restless, violent, insatiable, discontented minds off-world, where we’ll immediately recreate all the same problems we created down here except we’ll be doing it in artificial bubbles surrounded by deadly black desert on all sides. I mean, you think Thanksgiving is hell? Imagine cooped up with your family all day every day in what’s essentially a mall that you can never leave. Is your head really ready for that?

A head rattling with mental chatter would be incapable of experiencing any wonder in space exploration and would be incapable of experiencing joy in the creation of virtual worlds. A serene mind experiences wonder and joy walking across a parking lot. What we really want is equanimity, not space colonization and VR. Deep down we don’t really want to be somewhere else, we want to be able to truly be here.

I’d really like to see humanity begin recalibrating its visions for the future away from these pathways toward glorified escapism and toward the creation of a healthy and harmonious world. It might not sell books and movie tickets (at least not right away), but it will point us toward where we all really want to be in our heart of hearts.

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