Knot tying has always been one of those key outdoor skills that even the most experienced survivalist’s often take for granted. Any time outdoors can often show you just how much your success or failure can depend on your ability to tie a decent knot

A good knot can save lives when you’re dealing with a survival situation, performing first aid, and when working over heights or water. But, you have to know how to tie it correctly.  Below I have listed a few very basic knots that are extremely helpful to know regardless of if you are in a life or death survival situation or simply pitching a tent on a family camping trip.

Square (Reef) Knot 

 
This Knot is a classic for connecting lines and tying knots and is often the first knot taught in cub scouts or boy scouts. Whether you are tying two ropes together to make a longer rope, or you are securing up a bundle of firewood to carry, the Square Knot is a timeless and easy knot for the job.

While this knot is as ancient as they come, it was coined as the reef knot in the late 1700’s by sailors and used in the reefing and furling of sails.

When made with cloth the knot lies very flat and for this reason it has been used in the tying of bandages for millennia. As a binding knot it was known to ancient Greeks as the Hercules knot and is still used extensively in medicine.

It has also been used since ancient times to tie belts and sashes. A modern use in this manner includes tying the obi (or belt) of a martial arts keikogi(uniform).

How to Tie:  Square knots are extremely simple to tie. You can tie a solid square knot by lapping right over left, and then tying again in the reverse direction (you will essentially create two entwined loops) See the example below:

Bowline

 

The Bowline creates a loop at the end of a rope that cannot shrink or expand.  The bowline is well known as a rescue knot for such purposes as rescuing people who might have fallen down a hole, or off a cliff onto a ledge. They would put it around themselves and sit on the loop. This makes it easy to heft them up away from danger. This knot is often taught using the story of the rabbit coming out of the hole, in front of the tree, going behind the tree, and back down his original hole.

How to Tie: Form a loop on top of the long end of the line.  Pass the free end of the line through the loop and around behind the line. Bring the free end down in the original loop, while maintaining the secondary loop which becomes your Bowline loop. Once the “rabbit” is back down his hole, pull the “tree” up and the Bowline is tightened.

 

Figure 8

 

The Figure 8 makes a stopper knot at the end of a line, and it’s necessary to use this knot in order to tie several other more complex knots. This knot is crucial for keeping a line from slipping completely away and even though it may jam when pulled tight, it is typically quick and easy to untie.

How to Tie: To tie a Figure 8 simply pass the free end of a line over itself to form a loop. Continue under and around the line’s end, and finish the knot by passing the free end down through the loop

 

 

 

Sheet Bend

 

Nothing works better for tying different types of material together and joining different thicknesses of rope. This knot even joins together lines or materials that normally couldn’t be joined together.

This is a crucial knot in a survival situation as you often will not have enough of one length of rope and may need to tie multiple lengths together.

With enough time and material this knot can also be used to create nets for catching fish.  It is so essential that the Ashley Book of Knots lists the sheet bend as knot # 1.

How to Tie: With the sheet bend, you bend the thicker or more slippery rope into a “j” shape (like a fish hook).  You then pass the other rope through the fish hook from behind, wrap around the entire fishhook once and then tuck the smaller line under itself.

 

Taut Line Hitch 

 
The Taut Line Hitch takes the place of a slide to tension or loosen a loop in a line (like a tent guy line). This knot grips well, as long as there is tension on the “taut” side of the loop. If the tension is released from the line the knot can quickly slip.  Once snug and set, the hitch can be adjusted as needed.

To tighten the line with respect to a load attached to the standing part, grasp the standing part with one hand inside of the loop and pull towards the anchor object. Grasp the hitch with the other hand and as slack develops within the loop slide the hitch away from the anchor object, taking up the slack and enlarging the loop. To loosen, slide the hitch toward the anchor object, making the loop smaller and lengthening the standing portion.

How to Tie: Create a loop by wrapping around something like a tree or tent stake. With the free end of the rope, wrap towards the stake twice.  Then wrap the free end of the rope over everything, towards you one time around the rope and cinch these wraps down tight. Pull on the standing line and the Taut Line Hitch should grip the loaded line.

These are just five knots that I find essential. I know I left many knots out and there are literally thousands of knots, each having different variations and uses.  What knot would you consider the most important in a survival situation?

P.S.  To learn more knots than I could ever hope to teach you check out the Ashley Book of Knots by clicking here. This book is a bit pricey for me so I would recommend checking the library for it first.  This book contains over 4000 knots and is considered by many to be the bible of knot tying.

Also, if you want something that you can keep in your pack to help you just in case you ever forget how to tie a certain knot or what one of them is used for, Proknots makes an outdoor knots flashcard set that contains the 17 different crucial knots that you may need. This nifty gadget comes in at around $5.00 on amazon.  Click here to check it out.

Want to know more? Check out these related articles from our site:

How to Tie A Square Knot | Instructions

How To Tie A Fishing Knot

40 Essential Knots Every Survivalist Needs to Know

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Originally posted on: November 8, 2012 @ 3:45 AM

The CDC has announced that there is a newly confirmed coronavirus case in northern California, and authorities have no idea how the victim was exposed to the virus.  This particular individual had not traveled to a foreign country lately and also had not had any contact with a known infected patient.  In other words, it appears that this individual was infected by someone that the CDC does not know about yet.  As soon as this news dropped, financial markets started freaking out and there was an explosion of speculation on social media.  Have the efforts to contain the coronavirus in the United States failed?  And if people are going this crazy even though not a single American has died from this virus yet, what is going to happen if people start dropping dead in the streets?

The global tipping point we have been waiting for has now arrived.  The number of new coronavirus cases outside of China is now surpassing the number of new coronavirus cases being reported inside China each day, and this virus continues to pop up in even more countries.  On Wednesday alone, Norway, Greece, Romania, North Macedonia, Pakistan and Brazil all reported their very first cases.  In fact, the case in Brazil was the very first to be reported in all of South America.

But most Americans don’t care too much about what is going on in the rest of the world.  What they do care about is what is happening within our own borders, and a lot of people are extremely concerned that there is now a confirmed case of “unknown” origin in northern California…

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Wednesday confirmed an infection in California that would represent the first U.S. person to contract the virus despite not visiting a foreign country recently or coming in contact with an infected patient.

“At this time, the patient’s exposure is unknown,” the CDC said in a statement. “It’s possible this could be an instance of community spread of COVID-19, which would be the first time this has happened in the United States. Community spread means spread of an illness for which the source of infection is unknown. It’s also possible, however, that the patient may have been exposed to a returned traveler who was infected.”

This announcement came just one day after Dr. Nancy Messonnier of the CDC warned that the U.S. should get prepared for a widespread outbreak of this virus…

Nancy Messonnier, director of the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said Tuesday the agency expects a sustained transmission of the virus and called for businesses, schools and communities to brace themselves and plan for potential outbreaks.

Also on Tuesday, San Francisco Mayor London Breed declared a state of emergency even though there were no publicly confirmed cases in San Francisco at the time…

“Although there are still zero confirmed cases in San Francisco residents, the global picture is changing rapidly, and we need to step up preparedness,” Breed said. “We see the virus spreading in new parts of the world every day, and we are taking the necessary steps to protect San Franciscans from harm.”

Is it possible that they already knew about this case of “unknown” origin in northern California on Tuesday?

And could it be possible that there are already many more cases that have not been publicly announced yet?

I understand that one of their top priorities is to keep the public calm, but the American people deserve to know if they are at risk of potentially catching a very deadly virus.

We have already seen how rapidly this virus can spread.  A week ago, there were hardly any confirmed cases in South Korea, and now there are 1,595.

In Italy, the number of confirmed cases has now risen above 400, and approximately 100,000 Italians have essentially been placed under quarantine…

Italy now has 400 cases — the largest outbreak outside Asia. And the virus is spreading across Europe, with several countries reporting their first cases, including Norway, Romania, Georgia, and North Macedonia. Many European countries are now implementing emergency measures, with Italy effectively placing 100,000 under quarantine with travel restrictions.

But as this virus continues to spread all over the planet, what are we going to do to try to contain it?

After all, we can’t exactly quarantine the entire world.

On Wednesday, President Trump continued to insist that this coronavirus outbreak is “under control”…

Trump has repeatedly downplayed the coronavirus threat, saying it was “under control.”

“The people are getting better. They’re all getting better,” Trump said Tuesday. “I think that whole situation will start working out. A lot of talent, a lot of brainpower is being put behind it.”

Hopefully his very optimistic assessment is 100 percent correct.

Hopefully this outbreak will start to fade when warmer weather arrives, and hopefully we won’t even be talking about it by the time the election rolls around in November.

But a number of experts are insisting that we truly are facing a worst case scenario.  For example, one Harvard epidemiologist is projecting that “40 to 70 percent” of the entire population of the world will get the virus…

But here’s one forecast that caught our eyes from The Atlantic. It is titled, “You’re Likely to Get the Coronavirus.” That piece quotes extensively a Harvard epidemiologist. The article describes him as a cautious professional, the kind of person who carefully considers every word and then backs it with data.

What the professor told the magazine is this: “I think the likely outcome is the coronavirus will ultimately not be containable.” He went on to predict that in the next year 40 to 70 percent of the people on Earth will be infected with coronavirus.

If his projection is accurate, tens of millions will die.

So let us hope that he is dead wrong.

And Zero Hedge has just reported on a brand new study that was just released that has discovered that this coronavirus has “an ‘HIV-like mutation’ which allows it to bind with human cells up to 1,000 times stronger than the Sars virus”…

While mainstream scientists continue to perform mental gymnastics to insist that the new coronavirus wasn’t man-made, new research from scientists in China and Europe reveal that the disease happens to have an ‘HIV-like mutation’ which allows it to bind with human cells up to 1,000 times stronger than the Sars virus, according to SCMP.

Recall that at the end of January, a team of Indian scientists wrote in a now-retracted, scandalous paper claiming that the coronavirus may have been genetically engineered to incorporate parts of the HIV genome, writing “This uncanny similarity of novel inserts in the 2019- nCoV spike protein to HIV-1 gp120 and Gag is unlikely to be fortuitous in nature,” meaning – it was unlikely to have occurred naturally.

Fast forward to new research by a team from Nankai University, which writes that COV-19 has an ‘HIV-like mutation’ that  allows it to quickly enter the human body by binding with a receptor called ACE2 on a cell membrane.

If this information is accurate, that would help to explain why this virus spreads at lightning speed once it hits a particular area.

At this moment, you might not have any confirmed cases in your area.

But by this time next week you could potentially have a thousand people walking around with the virus in your community.

So use the time that you have now to make preparations, because in the not too distant future you might be avoiding going out in public as much as possible.

About the Author: I am a voice crying out for change in a society that generally seems content to stay asleep. My name is Michael Snyder and I am the publisher of 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 have written four books that are available on Amazon.com including The Beginning Of The End, Get Prepared Now, and Living A Life That Really Matters. (#CommissionsEarned) By purchasing those books you help to support my work. I always freely and happily allow others to republish my articles on their own websites, but due to government regulations I need those that republish my articles to include this “About the Author” section with each article. In order to comply with those government regulations, I need to tell you that the controversial opinions in this article are mine alone and do not necessarily reflect the views of the websites where my work is republished. This article may contain opinions on political matters, but it is not intended to promote the candidacy of any particular political candidate. 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. Those responding to this article by making comments are solely responsible for their viewpoints, and those viewpoints do not necessarily represent the viewpoints of Michael Snyder or the operators of the websites where my work is republished. 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 a great help.

This article was originally published by Ron Paul at The Ron Paul Institute for Peace and Prosperity.

One thing we’ve learned from the Trump Presidency is that the “deep state” is not just some crazy conspiracy theory. For the past three years, we’ve seen that deep state launch plot after plot to overturn the election.

It all started with former CIA director John Brennan’s phony “Intelligence Assessment” of Russian involvement in the 2016 election. It was claimed that all 17 US intelligence agencies agreed that Putin put Trump in office, but we found out later that the report was cooked up by a handful of Brennan’s hand-picked agents.

Donald Trump upset the Washington apple cart as a presidential candidate and in so doing he set elements of the deep state in motion against him.

One of the things candidate Donald Trump did to paint a deep state target on his back was his repeated praise of Wikileaks, the pro-transparency media organization headed up by Australian journalist Julian Assange. More than 100 times candidate Trump said “I love Wikileaks” on the campaign trail.

Trump loved it when Wikileaks exposed the criminality of Hillary Clinton and the Democratic Party, as it cheated to deprive Bernie Sanders of the Democratic Party nomination. Wikileaks’ release of the DNC emails exposed the deep corruption at the heart of US politics, and as a candidate, Trump loved the transparency.

Then Trump got elected.

The real tragedy of the Trump presidency is nowhere better demonstrated than in Trump’s 180 degree turn away from Wikileaks and its founder Julian Assange. “I know nothing about Wikileaks,” he said as president. “It’s really not my thing.”

US pressure and bribes to the Ecuadorian government ended Assange’s asylum and his seven years in a room at the Ecuadorian embassy in London. After his dramatic arrest by London’s Metropolitan Police last April, he has been effectively tortured in British jails at the behest of the US deep state.

The Trump administration argues that the Australian Assange should be tried and convicted of espionage against a country of which he is not a citizen. At the same time the Trump administration argues that the First Amendment does not apply to Assange because he is not an American citizen! So Assange is subject to US law when it comes to publishing information embarrassing to the US deep state but he is not subject to the law of the land – the US Constitution – which protects all journalists and is the backbone of our system of government.

It is ironic that a President Trump who has been the victim of so much deep state meddling has done the deep state’s bidding when it comes to Assange and Wikileaks. President Trump should preempt the inevitable US show trial of Assange by granting the journalist blanket pardon under the First Amendment of the United States Constitution.

The deep state Trump is serving by persecuting Assange is the same deep state that continues to plot Trump’s own ouster. Free Assange!

The Democratic establishment has officially shifted into panic mode.  In 2016, they watched a bold political outsider shred a divided field of establishment Republican candidates on his way to winning the White House.  Now they have one and only one shot of denying Donald Trump a second term, and the same thing that happened to the Republicans in 2016 is now happening to them.  So far, Bernie Sanders is trouncing a divided field of establishment Democratic candidates, and that is a huge problem for party leadership for a number of reasons.  For one thing, most top establishment Democrats absolutely detest Sanders.  Secondly, most of them don’t believe that he has a prayer of actually beating Trump in November.  So they are desperate to find a way to deny Sanders the nomination, but with each Sanders victory that is going to become increasingly difficult to do.

At this point, an all-out civil war has just about erupted on the left.  Establishment Democrats are all in a tizzy about potentially nominating a “socialist”, but of course the truth is that America has been drifting toward socialism ever since FDR first entered the White House.  Yes, there have been a few times when we have attempted to change course (the Reagan administration for example), but in general the federal government has just gotten bigger and bigger over the decades.  Today we have the biggest government in the entire history of the planet, and the Democrats are primarily to blame.

Ultimately, what this conflict is about is power.  Bernie Sanders may have won the hearts of the voters, but he isn’t supposed to actually win the nomination, and the Democratic establishment will pull out all the stops in order to keep that from happening.

All of a sudden, operatives on the left can’t stop talking about how the Russians want Bernie Sanders to win.  This is coming from the same people that spent years trying to find evidence that President Trump colluded with Russian President Vladimir Putin during the 2016 election and that accused Tulsi Gabbard of being a “Russian operative” in order to derail her quest for the Democratic nomination.

Are there people out there that actually believe this stuff?

Apparently there must be, because establishment Democrats just keep going back to the same playbook over and over again.

In the weeks ahead, we should expect the attacks on Sanders to continue to escalate.  The following are 11 of the most outrageous things that establishment Democrats have said about Bernie Sanders so far, but this is probably just the beginning…

#1 Rahm Emanuel: “Putin and Trump are picking their opponent.”

#2 Joe Biden: “The Russians don’t want me to be the nominee,” Biden said on CBS News’ “Face the Nation,” later adding, “they like Bernie.”

#3 James Carville: “Right now, it’s about 1:15 Moscow time. This thing is going very well for Vladimir Putin. I promise you. He’s probably staying up watching this right now. How you doing, Vlad?”

#4 MSNBC’s Joy Reid regarding the tremendous enthusiasm of Bernie’s voters: “Democrats need to sober up, and figure out what the hell they’re going to do about that.”

#5 Democratic House Majority Whip Jim Clyburn: “If you know how well we did the last time and look at the congressional districts, these are not liberal or progressive districts. These are moderate and conservative districts that we did well in. And in those districts it’s going to be tough to hold on to these jobs if you have to make the case for accepting a self-proclaimed democratic socialist.”

#6 NPR’s Maria Hinojosa: “As somebody who has been around for a while…I want receipts. What has he done in all his time to actually deliver for Latino/a voters?”

#7 Pete Buttigieg: “Before we rush to nominate Senator Sanders in our one shot to take on this president, let us take a sober look at what is at stake for our party, for our values and for those with the most to lose.”

#8 Joe Lockhart: “In any political campaign, candidates need to know what they stand for, and who — or what — they’re up against. At this stage in the game for Bloomberg, that enemy is not Trump. It’s Sen. Bernie Sanders and the election calendar.”

#9 James Carville: “If you’re voting for him because you think he’ll win the election, because he’ll galvanize heretofore sleepy parts of an electorate, then politically, you’re a fool.”

#10 Hillary Clinton: “Nobody likes him, nobody wants to work with him, he got nothing done,” Clinton said of Sanders in a documentary about the campaign, released this year. “He was a career politician. It’s all just baloney and I feel so bad that people got sucked into it.”

#11 MSNBC’s Chris Matthews: No pundit on the left has been more critical of Sanders than MSNBC’s Chris Matthews.  In the aftermath of the vote in Nevada, Matthews actually compared the Sanders campaign “to the Nazi invasion of France in 1940″…

MSNBC’s Chris Matthews is under fire after comparing Sen. Bernie Sanders‘s (I-Vt.) decisive win in the Nevada caucuses to the Nazi invasion of France in 1940, with some on social media calling for the “Hardball” host to resign.

“I was reading last night about the fall of France in the summer of 1940,” Matthews said during MSNBC’s live coverage of the caucuses on Saturday. “And the general, Reynaud, calls up Churchill and says, ‘It’s over.’ And Churchill says, ‘How can that be? You’ve got the greatest army in Europe. How can it be over?’ He said, ‘It’s over.’”

Needless to say, that comment sparked a tremendous backlash.

In addition, Matthews suggested that the Democrats might be better off waiting four years and then putting in “a Democrat that they like”…

“I’m wondering whether the Democratic moderates want Bernie Sanders to be president. That’s maybe too exciting a question to raise. They don’t like Trump at all. Do they want Bernie Sanders to take over the Democratic Party in perpetuity?” he said.

“I mean, he takes it over, he sets the direction of the future of the party — maybe they’d rather wait four years and put in a Democrat that they like.”

Matthews must not understand that the only reason he has a job is because the radical left has embraced MSNBC over the years.  Now Matthews and the other commentators on MSNBC are greatly alienating their core viewers, and that could potentially be absolutely disastrous for the network.

But Matthews is not likely to back down.  Earlier this month, he explained why he detests socialists so much…

“You know, I have my own views of the word ‘socialist,’” Matthews said earlier this month. “They go back to the early 1950s. I have an attitude about them. I remember the Cold War. I have an attitude towards Castro. I believe if Castro and the Reds had won the Cold War, there would have been executions in Central Park, and I might have been one of the ones getting executed, and certain other people would be there cheering, OK? So, I have a problem with people who took the other side.”

This is coming from the same guy who was so giddy about the candidacy of Barack Obama in 2008.

Very strange.

In any event, I think that President Trump did a great job of summarizing the current state of the race for the Democratic nomination when he tweeted the following…

Looks like Crazy Bernie is doing well in the Great State of Nevada. Biden & the rest look weak, & no way Mini Mike can restart his campaign after the worst debate performance in the history of Presidential Debates. Congratulations Bernie, & don’t let them take it away from you!

None of the establishment candidates currently in the race has a prayer of winning enough delegates to secure the nomination before the convention.

So at this point the Democratic establishment has two options if they want to prevent Sanders from becoming the nominee.

Firstly, they can encourage everyone to stay in the race and try to divide the delegates enough ways so that Sanders cannot clinch the nomination prior to the convention.  Then once the convention rolls around, they could try to put forward a “compromise candidate” as an alternative to Sanders.

Secondly, they could try to convince the one person that could actually beat Sanders during this process to enter the race.  But Michelle Obama has said over and over again that she will absolutely not run for president.  Unfortunately for the Democrats, she is probably the only one that could pull off such a miracle at this point.

Assuming that Michelle Obama is out of the picture, the Democratic establishment’s only hope of stopping Sanders is probably at the convention.

Usually the conventions are rather sleepy affairs, but this year might be an exception.

So you might want to stock up on popcorn, because a contested Democratic convention would be very strange, but it would also likely be very entertaining.

About the Author: I am a voice crying out for change in a society that generally seems content to stay asleep. My name is Michael Snyder and I am the publisher of 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 have written four books that are available on Amazon.com including The Beginning Of The End, Get Prepared Now, and Living A Life That Really Matters. (#CommissionsEarned) By purchasing those books you help to support my work. I always freely and happily allow others to republish my articles on their own websites, but due to government regulations I need those that republish my articles to include this “About the Author” section with each article. In order to comply with those government regulations, I need to tell you that the controversial opinions in this article are mine alone and do not necessarily reflect the views of the websites where my work is republished. This article may contain opinions on political matters, but it is not intended to promote the candidacy of any particular political candidate. 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. Those responding to this article by making comments are solely responsible for their viewpoints, and those viewpoints do not necessarily represent the viewpoints of Michael Snyder or the operators of the websites where my work is republished. 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 a great help.

Headlamps are like flashlights. And flashlights are like knives. Ergo, headlamps are like knives. Where I’m going with this is to highlight the fact that we are rarely completely satisfied with our current selection. We are always looking around, even if just out of the corner of our eye, for the next better one.

By Doc Montana, contributing author to Survival Cache and SHTFblog

Fortunately, or perhaps not, depending on how you personally handle choices, is the fact that companies today rarely leave a design untouched for long. There’s always something better. Something new. Something more powerful, lighter, stronger. It never ends until you end it personally. To be truly content with an outdoor tool, the very existence of the tool must become invisible in the presence of its task. The object itself must melt into the background completely overshadowed by its capabilities.

Invisible ‘Till It’s Visible

The BioLite HeadLamp 200 is quickly becoming one of those pieces of gear that disappears when you use it. In fact, that is one of the headlight’s best features. At only 49 grams and a svelte thickness nowhere exceeding 18 millimeters, the BioLite HeadLamp 200 wears a cloak of near-invisibility when not in use.

The specifications of the BioLite HeadLamp 200 include light weight, four lighting modes including a dimmable white spotlight, a dimmable red colored flood, and red and white strobes. Powering the BioLite HeadLamp 200 is a USB rechargeable 700mAh lithium ion battery, which for reference, is about a third or forth of the capacity of an iPhone battery depending on phone model.

Also Read: Survival Gear Review: The BioLite Prep Kit

I’ve been a big fan of headlamps ever since my first one that used four D-cell batteries carried in a red plastic belt-mounted case with a heavy wire leading to a rubber headband containing a large plastic flashlight-like head.  Although that particular light worn on the head (or helmet) was heavy, dim, and had a short runtime, it opened up the world of hands-free lighting.

When at full speed, the BioLite HeadLamp 200 will pump out lumens for about three hours. On low that range extends to 40 hours. But unlike battery-fed headlamps, you can leave home or camp with a full charge rather than whatever is left in the little disposable alkaline tanks.

Where this BioLite HeadLamp 200 fits into the userspace is with its tiny forehead footprint stressing comfort and bounce-free lighting. By keeping the weight low and the headband wide, you will forget you’re wearing the BioLite HeadLamp 200 regardless of which of the four colors you have on. So confident is BioLite in the comfort of this headlamp that they have a 30-day HolyFit Guarantee.

The microUSB charging port on the BioLite HeadLamp 200 is at the nine-o’clock position (facing forward). A green light breathes in and out, pulsing gently as the battery drinks in the electrons. The onboard lithium cell takes about two and a half hours to go from bone dry to stuffed to the gills. Plus, the BioLite HeadLamp 200 gives a brief blip of green light when powering down that indicates good or low battery life.

As a comparison, my other superlight headlamp is the Streamlight Bandit LED headlamp. However, the Bandit has never seemed to be much of a performer outside of it’s tiny footprint and low weight. The light it casts is bland and shallow, and the on-off button is troublesome with bare fingers and near-impossible with gloves. Until new interfaces are discovered, the finger-push button will remain the industry standard as long as the finger is also the standard. That fact limits how small or sensitive a headlamp interface can be. Black Diamond does have some touch control headlamps, but only minor systems like brightness. The main I/O is still a rubber-covered index-finger-ready switch.

The Streamlight Bandit weighs about a tenth of an ounce less than the BioLite, but throws much less light than the 20 lumen difference between them in the specs. I find the Bandit to be less comfortable with its narrow band, and the light from the Bandit has much less reach. Great for reading in a sleeping bag, but not for forest travel any faster than a walk. The BioLite HeadLamp 200 provides enough of the right kind of light for an easy jog through the woods, and a full on run across the flats. Plus the wider “Smart Fabric” headband is vastly more effective at holding the light in place. However, it did seem to loosen over time a little under certain conditions.

Illumination Education

The Bandit actually contains 10 individual LEDs in a row across the front of the headlamp window. Rated at 180 lumens, I suspect that it means that each of those individual LEDs is about 18 lumens thus totaling 180. You can do that. But the human eye does not agree. Two 50 lumen flashlights do not appear as bright as a single LED 100 lumen one. So lumens are only one kind of reference point. Imagine fighting a fire with a garden hose that sprays water at 10 gallons per minute. Now get nine more hoses giving you 100 gallons per minute output. Compare that to a single hose blasting out 100 gallons per minute. While not quite the same as our eye’s logarithmic interpretation of brightness, you can see that there is more behind the lumen number than just quantity. The initial single-point brute force lumen number is appears greater than the sum of multiple lesser lumens with an equivalent total.

Also Read: Survival Gear Review: Fenix HMR50 Headlamp

Both the BioLite HeadLamp 200 and the Bandit tilt downward. It seems that around 60 degrees down (a little more than half way) is about right for most close tasks and is the limit of theBioLite HeadLamp 200. Any more and the glare off your nose will be a problem. But that doesn’t stop the Bandit. Since it uses a dual clip mechanism to allow it to attach (and shortly thereafter fall off of) a baseball cap brim, it can fold 180 degrees allowing you to point the light directly into your own eyes. But the big difference is the operation of the on/off switch. Both the BioLite HeadLamp 200 and the Bandit have the switch in the center of the light, but while the BioLite HeadLamp 200 button points up, the Bandits is on a slope pointing about 45 degrees forward. That minor point makes the Bandit much harder to ignite especially with gloves. And again with both, the switch rotates with the light so it must be indexed with the lens rather than the headband. This is a common situation with headlamps, but in most other cases there is considerably more mass and volume to push back when operating the switch. While a little practice is helpful, operating the BioLite HeadLamp 200 requires attention to the fact that the switch is also the handle to pull the light downward.

Beyond lumens are features. The BioLite HeadLamp 200 has two outputs; a minimum of 5 lumens and a max of 200. Burntime is about 40 hours on low and three hours on maximum output. However, while maximum output begins at 200 lumens, the number drops over time. Essentially, any maximum output runtime just means that the lamp is giving its all until death even if that means an hour of very low output.

For fans of a red light, there is both a red flood (solid on) and a red strobe option. Red light is the longest wavelength our eyes can see. Anything longer is infrared or beyond (microwaves, radio waves, etc.). By using a red light source, the retina stays within its scotopic (rods) black and white vision mode. A white light would cause the retina to transition into the photopic (cones) color vision mode which is much less sensitive in low light. So even though you are using an artificial light source, the red wavelengths are as close to dark as possible meaning when you turn off the red light, you still have dark-adapted vision. There is little to no time delay between seeing under the red light, and with ambient moon light.

The BioLite HeadLamp 200 weighs about 1.7 ounces. And that gave me an idea. What if I used the sub-2 ounce rule to build a quick survival kit. Of the four big ones of knife-water-fire-light, I found that my Benchmade Bugout knife weighs in at 1.8oz, my LifeStraw at 1.6oz, and my Bic Lighter inside a waterproof Exotac FireSLEEVE was a scant 1.5oz. All four combined weigh in at under seven ounces. Not a bad footprint for a grab-and-go set of kit.

BioLite retails the BioLite HeadLamp 200 for about $45,which puts it in about the middle of the cost spectrum for general purpose headlamps. You can spend half that or twice that and still get what you pay for. But when cutting weight and size is important, the price dynamic becomes nuanced since both less is less and less is more are at play. And with the BioLite HeadLamp 200, less is more.

 

All photos by Doc Montana

The post Survival Gear Review: BioLite HeadLamp 200 appeared first on Survival Cache.

When was the last time that we witnessed a disaster that severely disrupted the supply chains of over 5 million companies around the globe simultaneously?  Looking back over the past couple of decades, I can’t think of one.  In recent days I have written a number of articles about the economic impact of this coronavirus outbreak, and what we have seen so far could be just the beginning.  With each additional week that much of the Chinese economy remains at a virtual standstill, things are going to get even worse.  Today, China accounts for approximately 20 percent of global GDP, but that doesn’t tell the entire story.  At this point the rest of the world has become so dependent on Chinese exports that any sort of an extended shutdown for Chinese manufacturing would be a complete and utter nightmare for global supply chains.  In fact, a brand new study that was just released by Dun & Bradstreet has concluded that the coronavirus outbreak in China “could impact more than 5 million businesses worldwide”…

The new coronavirus outbreak and subsequent shutdown of huge swathes of China could impact more than 5 million businesses worldwide, according to a new study.

A special briefing issued by global business research firm Dun & Bradstreet analyzed the Chinese provinces most impacted by the virus, and found they are intricately linked to the global business network.

Many people may assume that we could just “make these things somewhere else”, but that isn’t so easy.

New factories would have to be built, workers would have to be trained, etc.

And as Harvard Business School’s Willy Shih has pointed out, there are “some things that are only made in China these days”…

There are some things that are only made in China these days, and not just the usual electronics and toys — consumer products — it’s active pharmaceutical ingredients that go into pharmaceutical supply chains worldwide.

So what is going to happen if economic activity in China does not return to normal any time soon?

That is a very good question.  Unfortunately, there will be shortages, and global supply chains will become incredibly strained.

According to the brand new study from Dun & Bradstreet that I mentioned above, 938 of the Fortune 1000 companies have at least a “tier 2” supplier in the region…

Dun & Bradstreet researchers found that at least 51,000 companies worldwide, 163 of which are in the Fortune 1000, have one or more direct or “tier 1” suppliers in the impacted region, while at least 5 million — and 938 in the Fortune 1000 — have one or more “tier 2″ suppliers.

The impact on businesses in China and around the world is already dragging down economic growth forecasts for the year.

In some cases, the breakdown of global supply chains will simply lead to higher prices for western consumers.

But in other cases there will come a point when certain products are not available at all.  The following comes from Zero Hedge…

A new poll via Shanghai’s American Chamber of Commerce (AmCham) discovered that 50% of US firms operating in China say shutdowns of factories have impacted their global operations due to the Covid-19 outbreak, reported Reuters.

About 78% of these firms warn that their staffing is currently short at the moment, which would prevent the resumption of full production, leading to massive shortages of products in the next several months for Western markets.

Massive shortages of products?

That doesn’t sound good at all.

Hopefully this outbreak will start to fizzle out and such an ominous scenario will not materialize.  But at this point even Apple is admitting that revenue will be well below expectations this quarter.  In explaining this to the public, Apple cited a couple of reasons…

• The first is that worldwide iPhone® supply will be temporarily constrained. While our iPhone manufacturing partner sites are located outside the Hubei province — and while all of these facilities have reopened — they are ramping up more slowly than we had anticipated. The health and well-being of every person who helps make these products possible is our paramount priority, and we are working in close consultation with our suppliers and public health experts as this ramp continues. These iPhone supply shortages will temporarily affect revenues worldwide.
• The second is that demand for our products within China has been affected. All of our stores in China and many of our partner stores have been closed. Additionally, stores that are open have been operating at reduced hours and with very low customer traffic. We are gradually reopening our retail stores and will continue to do so as steadily and safely as we can. Our corporate offices and contact centers in China are open, and our online stores have remained open throughout.

Needless to say, U.S. financial markets are not responding favorably to this announcement.

But what is happening elsewhere is nothing compared to the economic nightmare that is unfolding inside of China right now.

Because of the virus, very few people even want to leave their homes.  As a result, consumer spending has almost entirely disappeared.

In fact, one CEO claims that there is virtually “no domestic consumption” in China right now…

Alan Lim of E-Services Group says there is “completely no domestic consumption” now and “factories are, at best, this week at 25% production … you need approval by the government to say you [can] work.”

Of course it is entirely possible that what is taking place in China could start happening elsewhere if this virus continues to spread.

The total number of confirmed cases outside of China is rapidly approaching the 1,000 mark, and that isn’t something to be extremely alarmed about yet.

But if that number continues to rise at an exponential rate, we will soon see a tremendous amount of panic all over the globe, and that will be extremely bad news for the entire global economy.

About the Author: I am a voice crying out for change in a society that generally seems content to stay asleep. My name is Michael Snyder and I am the publisher of 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 have written four books that are available on Amazon.com including The Beginning Of The End, Get Prepared Now, and Living A Life That Really Matters. (#CommissionsEarned) By purchasing those books you help to support my work. I always freely and happily allow others to republish my articles on their own websites, but due to government regulations I need those that republish my articles to include this “About the Author” section with each article. In order to comply with those government regulations, I need to tell you that the controversial opinions in this article are mine alone and do not necessarily reflect the views of the websites where my work is republished. This article may contain opinions on political matters, but it is not intended to promote the candidacy of any particular political candidate. 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. Those responding to this article by making comments are solely responsible for their viewpoints, and those viewpoints do not necessarily represent the viewpoints of Michael Snyder or the operators of the websites where my work is republished. 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 a great help.

The post Shocking New Study Says The Coronavirus “Could Impact More Than 5 Million Businesses Worldwide” appeared first on The Economic Collapse.

Global food production is being hit from seemingly every side.  Thanks to absolutely crazy weather patterns, giant locust armies in Africa and the Middle East, and an unprecedented outbreak of African Swine Fever in China, a lot less food is being produced around the world than originally anticipated.  Even during the best of years we really struggle to feed everyone on the planet, and so a lot of people are wondering what is going to happen as global food supplies become tighter and tighter.  The mainstream media in the United States is so obsessed with politics right now that they haven’t been paying much attention to this emerging crisis, but the truth is that this growing nightmare is only going to intensify in the months ahead.

In Australia, conditions have been extremely hot and extremely dry, and that helped to fuel the horrific wildfires that we recently witnessed.

And everyone knew that agricultural production in Australia was going to be disappointing this year, but it turns out that it is actually going to be the worst ever recorded…

Australia’s hottest and driest year on record has slashed crop production, with summer output expected to fall to the lowest levels on record, according to official projections released Tuesday.

The country’s agriculture department said it expects production of crops like sorghum, cotton and rice to fall 66 percent — the lowest levels since records began in 1980-81.

The continent of Australia is considered to be one of the breadbaskets of the world.  According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, in 2018/19 Australia exported over 9 million tons of wheat to the rest of the world.

But thanks to relentless crop failures, Australia has started to import wheat, and that is likely to continue for the foreseeable future.

So instead of helping to feed the rest of the world, Australia is now relying on the rest of us to help feed them.

And what is happening this year didn’t just barely break the old records.  In fact, one senior economist says that this will be the worst summer crop production the country has ever seen “by a large margin”…

“It is the lowest summer crop production in this period by a large margin,” Peter Collins, a senior economist with the department’s statistical body ABARES told AFP.

Of course if the rest of the world was doing great we could certainly survive a downturn in Australia.

Unfortunately, that is definitely not the case.

Right now, billions upon billions of locusts are voraciously devouring farms in eastern Africa and the Middle East.  As I detailed the other day, giant armies of locusts the size of large cities are traveling up to 100 miles per day as they search for food.  When they descend on a farm, all the crops can be consumed literally within 30 seconds.  It is a nightmare of epic proportions, and UN officials are telling us that this crisis is only going to get worse over the next couple of months.

In Uganda, the army has been called out to help fight this locust plague, but it is making very little difference…

Under a warm morning sun scores of weary soldiers stare as millions of yellow locusts rise into the northern Ugandan sky, despite hours spent spraying vegetation with chemicals in an attempt to kill them.

From the tops of shea trees, fields of pea plants and tall grass savanna, the insects rise in a hypnotic murmuration, disappearing quickly to wreak devastation elsewhere.

The most effective way of fighting these locust swarms is to spray insecticide on them from the air, but even that only produces very limited results.

However, at least it is better than doing nothing.

The UN is trying to raise a lot more money to get more planes into the air, because if nothing is done the number of locusts “could grow up to 500 times by June”…

The U.N. has said $76 million is needed immediately. On Tuesday, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo during a visit to Ethiopia said the U.S. would donate another $8 million to the effort. That follows an earlier $800,000.

The number of overall locusts could grow up to 500 times by June, when drier weather begins, experts have said. Until then, the fear is that more rains in the coming weeks will bring fresh vegetation to feed a new generation of the voracious insects.

Overall, these locusts are affecting nations “with a combined population of nearly 2 billion”, and the amount of food that these locusts are destroying is unprecedented.

Meanwhile, China has been dealing with the worst outbreak of African Swine Fever in history.

African Swine Fever does not affect humans, but it sweeps through herds of pigs like wildfire.  There is no vaccine, there is no cure, and once African Swine Fever starts infecting pigs in a certain area the only thing that can be done is to kill the rest of the pigs to keep it from spreading anywhere else.

Unfortunately, China has not been able to get this outbreak under control, and the losses have been staggering.

According to the New York Times, the number of pigs that have been wiped out in China already is equivalent to “nearly one-quarter of all the world’s pigs”…

The disease was first reported in Shenyang, Liaoning Province, in early August 2018. By the end of August 2019, the entire pig population of China had dropped by about 40 percent. China accounted for more than half of the global pig population in 2018, and the epidemic there alone has killed nearly one-quarter of all the world’s pigs.

But of course China is not the only one dealing with African Swine Fever.

In fact, cases of African Swine Fever have now been identified “in 50 countries”, and U.S. pig farmers are deathly afraid of what would happen if this disease starts spreading here.

As a result of this crisis, pork prices in China have gone through the roof, and many families are no longer able to eat pork at all.

Never before in the modern era have we seen so many major threats to global food production emerge simultaneously.

There are more than 7 billion people living on our planet today, and we need to be able to grow enough food to feed everyone.

If we aren’t able to do that, food prices will start to get really high, and people in the poorest areas simply will not have enough food to feed their families.

About the Author: I am a voice crying out for change in a society that generally seems content to stay asleep. My name is Michael Snyder and I am the publisher of 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 have written four books that are available on Amazon.com including The Beginning Of The End, Get Prepared Now, and Living A Life That Really Matters. (#CommissionsEarned) By purchasing those books you help to support my work. I always freely and happily allow others to republish my articles on their own websites, but due to government regulations I need those that republish my articles to include this “About the Author” section with each article. In order to comply with those government regulations, I need to tell you that the controversial opinions in this article are mine alone and do not necessarily reflect the views of the websites where my work is republished. This article may contain opinions on political matters, but it is not intended to promote the candidacy of any particular political candidate. 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. Those responding to this article by making comments are solely responsible for their viewpoints, and those viewpoints do not necessarily represent the viewpoints of Michael Snyder or the operators of the websites where my work is republished. 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 a great help.

The post Global Crop Failures Continue: In Australia This Is Going To Be The WORST HARVEST Ever Recorded appeared first on The Economic Collapse.

We still don’t know if this coronavirus outbreak will become a horrific worldwide pandemic or not, but what we have seen so far is definitely very alarming.  People have literally been dropping dead in the streets, the Chinese government has locked down major city after major city, and the virus kept spreading very rapidly on a cruise ship off the coast of Japan even though a strict quarantine was instituted.  Scientists that have studied the virus are telling us that it “could be 20 times more lethal than the flu”, and it binds to human cell receptors much more easily than the SARS virus did.  Unfortunately, because the epicenter of this crisis is on the other side of the globe, most Americans are simply not paying much attention to it.  In fact, most of the people that my wife and I have been talking to and hearing from don’t think that the coronavirus is much of a threat to the United States at all.

And if the coronavirus does start to become a problem in this country, a new survey has found that most Americans are quite confident that the government can handle it…

More than three in four Americans say they are very confident or somewhat confident in the US federal government’s ability to handle a coronavirus outbreak, a Gallup poll has found, a higher level of confidence than in previous health scares.

Gallup said the results were from a February 3 to February 16 poll that began just days after the Trump administration announced it would suspend entry of foreign nationals who had been to China in the previous two weeks.

Hopefully this coronavirus outbreak will not explode in North America and our normal lives will not be disrupted.

But considering what is happening over in Asia, it would definitely be prudent to take some precautions.  Unfortunately, most Americans are not really doing much of anything to prepare for a potential pandemic at this point.

If a pandemic does not materialize, that won’t be a problem.  But if this virus starts spreading like wildfire in the U.S., we are going to have a massive crisis on our hands.

The time to stop an outbreak from happening is at the very beginning, and the lack of urgency about this virus that we are witnessing from local health officials around the country is absolutely stunning.

According to NBC News, there are thousands of Americans that are currently “under voluntary self-quarantine”.  These individuals have either recently traveled to China or they have recently had contact with someone that was infected.

As you might assume, a “voluntary self-quarantine” is not mandatory.  Instead, NBC News says that it is “strongly encouraged”…

Self-quarantining isn’t mandatory, but it is strongly encouraged.

It’s up to the state and local health departments to decide how to manage residents under self-quarantine.

So anyone that doesn’t want to participate can feel free to mix with the general public as much as they want.

Isn’t that great?

And since it is “up to the state and local health departments to decide how to manage residents under self-quarantine”, there is no single set of standards that is being followed.

In other words, state and local health officials are free to make things up as they go along.

We aren’t talking about a small number of people either.  In fact, more than 5,000 people are under self-quarantine in California alone…

The California Public Health Department said there are more than 5,400 such people in the state. In Washington state, 745 people have been asked to self-quarantine. Georgia health officials identified about 200 travelers.

The Michigan Department of Health and Human Services said more than 300 people were referred for monitoring.

All it takes is a couple of “super spreaders” to get a real good outbreak going, and to see such a lack of concern about preventing the spread of this disease is quite disheartening.

And this lackadaisical attitude has even extended to actual victims that have been confirmed to have the virus.  The CDC specifically warned against putting infected people on the same flight with non-infected people, but the U.S. government did it anyway…

Fourteen Americans who tested positive for the Coronavirus were flown back to the US on a flight with over 300 people who were not infected, despite objections from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The flight was filled with people who were evacuated from the Diamond Princess cruise ship in Japan, which had been quarantined due to an outbreak of the virus.

Reading this sort of thing makes you want to tear your hair out.

Despite such extreme negligence, hopefully everything will be okay.  But it should be noted that the CDC is telling hospitals that now “is the time to open up your pandemic plans and see that things are in order”…

“This is the time to open up your pandemic plans and see that things are in order,” Dr. Anne Schuchat, a top official of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, urged hospitals last week as an outbreak of a deadly new coronavirus ravaged much of China.

“For instance,” she continued, health-care providers need to plan for a “surge at a hospital, the ability to provide personal protective equipment for your workforce, the administrative controls and so forth that you might put place in a health care setting.”

Anyone that assumed that this crisis would be largely confined to China has been proven wrong.  At this point, we have already seen significant outbreaks erupt in several other countries in Asia.  In fact, there are now six other nations where “community spread” is taking place…

• Japan
• Singapore
• South Korea
• Taiwan
• Thailand
• Vietnam

Perhaps the most notable outbreak on that list is in South Korea.  According to the Guardian, 31 brand new cases were announced on Thursday…

The South Korean city of Daegu was facing an “unprecedented crisis” after coronavirus infections that centred on a controversial “cult” church surged to 38 cases, accounting for nearly half of the country’s total.

The city of 2.5 million people, which is two hours south of the capital Seoul, was turned into a ghost town after health officials said the bulk of country’s 31 new cases announced on Thursday were linked to a branch of the Shincheonji Church of Jesus.

If we don’t want the same thing to happen here, we need to take this virus very seriously.

Unfortunately, that is simply not happening, and all of us could end up paying a great price as a result.

About the Author: I am a voice crying out for change in a society that generally seems content to stay asleep. My name is Michael Snyder and I am the publisher of 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 have written four books that are available on Amazon.com including The Beginning Of The End, Get Prepared Now, and Living A Life That Really Matters. (#CommissionsEarned) By purchasing those books you help to support my work. I always freely and happily allow others to republish my articles on their own websites, but due to government regulations I need those that republish my articles to include this “About the Author” section with each article. In order to comply with those government regulations, I need to tell you that the controversial opinions in this article are mine alone and do not necessarily reflect the views of the websites where my work is republished. This article may contain opinions on political matters, but it is not intended to promote the candidacy of any particular political candidate. 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. Those responding to this article by making comments are solely responsible for their viewpoints, and those viewpoints do not necessarily represent the viewpoints of Michael Snyder or the operators of the websites where my work is republished. 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 a great help.

The post Most Americans Are Not Taking This Coronavirus Outbreak Seriously, And That Is Potentially Very Dangerous appeared first on The Economic Collapse.

Is the state of Idaho going to get a whole lot bigger?  A group known as Greater Idaho is pushing for rural counties in Oregon and northern California to secede and become part of the state of Idaho.  In fact, as you will see below, this effort has actually been endorsed by some of the top Republicans in the Oregon legislature.  Today, the Oregon state government is completely and utterly dominated by the left, and due to the demographics of the state that is not likely to change any time soon.  So conservatives in rural areas that are deeply upset over the direction of the state essentially have just two options.  They can either move to a more conservative state, or they can attempt to redraw state lines.

Of course attempting to redraw state lines is a very complicated process, but at this point conservatives in Oregon are so fed up with the state legislature that they have decided to push ahead with this effort.

In fact, it is being reported that signatures are being collected right now in order to “put the proposal on ballots in November”…

Frustrated by liberal policies, some Oregon residents petitioned to leave the state – by moving the border with Idaho westward.

The movement secured initial approval from two counties and aims to get enough signatures to put the proposal on ballots in November, according to the group called Greater Idaho.

This is a very viable political movement, and it will be quite interesting to see where this goes.

For years, rural counties in Oregon have felt shortchanged by a state legislature that is dominated by the Portland area, and things have finally come to a breaking point.  One of the chief organizers of this movement, Mike McCarter, says that this secession push “is our last resort”…

“Rural counties have become increasingly outraged by laws coming out of the Oregon Legislature that threaten our livelihoods, our industries, our wallet, our gun rights, and our values,” Mike McCarter, one of the chief petitioners, said in a news release. “We tried voting those legislators out, but rural Oregon is outnumbered and our voices are now ignored. This is our last resort.”

Initial efforts are focused on just a few counties, but eventually the goal of Greater Idaho is to get dozens of counties in Oregon and northern California to secede.

The following comes from Greater Idaho’s official website…

We are trying to change the present borders of Idaho, Oregon & Northern California so that certain counties & communities presently in Oregon & Northern California will become part of the State of Idaho.

Out of Oregon’s existing 36 counties, only 14 would remain in the state if Greater Idaho is able to achieve their goals, and a big chunk of northern California would become Idaho territory as well.

But getting this accomplished will not be easy.  Approval would be needed from the state legislatures of Oregon, California and Idaho, and that would be a real challenge.

On top of that, the U.S. Congress would have to approve any plan, and getting that to happen would probably require a miracle.

But one thing that this movement has going for it is the fact that it has been endorsed by some big name state lawmakers in Oregon, and that includes the top Republican in the state Senate…

The Republican leader in the state Senate, Sen. Herman Baertschiger, supports the idea and told CNN he’d even help write the secession legislation.

“Democrats should be paying attention to how unhappy these Oregonians are with the current regime to seek secession from Oregon. I would welcome the idea to serve on the Greater Idaho legislature!” he said.

And Representative Gary Leif actually has a map of “Greater Idaho” hanging in his office…

Rep. Gary Leif, a Republican in the Oregon House of Representatives, has a poster of the “Greater Idaho” map hanging in his office.

“The Greater Idaho would then be the only West Coast state that is a conservative red coastal state. We would then truly be representing conservative values with rural constituents,” Leif explained.

It is certainly encouraging to see people take a really big idea and try to run with it.

But of course the liberals in Oregon are not exactly thrilled with the idea that most of their state could be ripped away from them and given to someone else.  And as long as they are in firm control of the state legislature, it is going to be exceedingly difficult for this plan to get too far.

A similar scenario is playing out in Virginia.  The Democrats have taken control of the state government, and the state continues to drift left with each passing year.

Obviously many of those living in rural Virginia counties do not like this one bit, and the recent attacks on Second Amendment rights brought things to a boiling point.

There has been a lot of talk that rural countries in Virginia could try to secede and join West Virginia, and West Virginia’s governor Jim Justice has publicly said that he would welcome those counties “with open arms”…

In an unlikely bid, West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice says he would welcome neighboring Virginia counties to join his state amid Democrats’ control of Virginia’s government.

“If you’re not truly happy where you are, we stand with open arms to take you from Virginia or anywhere where you may be,” said Justice, a Republican. “We stand strongly behind the Second Amendment, and we stand strongly for the unborn.”

But once again, this effort in Virginia is facing the same sorts of obstacles that the Greater Idaho movement is facing.

Of course anything that is worth doing in life is going to require effort.  And those that are trying to secure a better future for themselves, their families and their communities should be greatly applauded for doing so.

Ultimately, this is yet another sign of how incredibly divided we have become as a nation.  In recent years we have seen multitudes of conservatives move to “red states” and multitudes of liberals move to “blue states”, and that trend is likely to accelerate in the years ahead.

It has gotten to the point where many of us literally do not even want to live in an area that is controlled by the other side, and the 2020 election is going to deepen our existing political divisions no matter who ends up winning.

About the Author: I am a voice crying out for change in a society that generally seems content to stay asleep. My name is Michael Snyder and I am the publisher of 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 have written four books that are available on Amazon.com including The Beginning Of The End, Get Prepared Now, and Living A Life That Really Matters. (#CommissionsEarned) By purchasing those books you help to support my work. I always freely and happily allow others to republish my articles on their own websites, but due to government regulations I need those that republish my articles to include this “About the Author” section with each article. In order to comply with those government regulations, I need to tell you that the controversial opinions in this article are mine alone and do not necessarily reflect the views of the websites where my work is republished. This article may contain opinions on political matters, but it is not intended to promote the candidacy of any particular political candidate. 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. Those responding to this article by making comments are solely responsible for their viewpoints, and those viewpoints do not necessarily represent the viewpoints of Michael Snyder or the operators of the websites where my work is republished. 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 a great help.

The post “Greater Idaho”: Conservatives In Oregon Want 22 Rural Counties To Secede And Become Part Of Idaho appeared first on The Economic Collapse.

Why is the mainstream media so scared of asking difficult questions about this coronavirus outbreak?  At one time the United States had the greatest investigative journalists in the entire world, but today it is very rare to see any of our major news outlets go much beyond the basic facts of a story.  In particular, the coverage of this coronavirus outbreak has been absolutely abysmal.  Other than dutifully repeating the basic information being fed to them by the CDC and the Chinese government, mainstream media coverage of this crisis has amounted to little more than assuring everyone that everything is going to be just fine.  As a result, Americans are increasingly turning to independent journalists for some honest coverage of this outbreak, because they know that they aren’t getting the whole truth from the usual suspects.

There is still so much we don’t know about this virus, and very few of our “journalists” are willing to dig deeper to find the answers we need.

The public is hungry for information, and getting to the truth starts with asking the right questions.  The following are 10 very important questions that the mainstream media should be asking about this very alarming coronavirus outbreak…

#1 The Washington State Department of Health has announced that 746 people are currently being “monitored” for coronavirus symptoms.  Are all 746 being quarantined, or are they being allowed to mix with the general public?  According to the agency’s official website, it is unclear what “monitoring their health” actually entails…

The number of people under public health supervision includes those at risk of having been exposed to novel coronavirus who are monitoring their health under the supervision of public health officials. This number includes close contacts of laboratory confirmed cases, as well as people who have returned from China in the past 14 days and are included in federal quarantine guidance.

#2 In Hawaii, a local resident named John Fukiwara recently had very close contact with a Japanese man that later was confirmed to be infected by the coronavirus.  After contacting health officials, why was Fukiwara told to “go about his normal day-to-day routine”?…

That said, the Times reporter did manage to find John Fukiwara, a local resident who said he believes the Japanese man is a friend of his whom he would not identify by name. The man recently visited the island and had coffee with Fukiwara before they exchanged gifts of chocolate.

Fukiwara then contacted a local newspaper and then reached out to state health officials, with whom he offered to self-quarantine. But amazingly, state health officials told him to simply go about his normal day-to-day routine and to be sure to report any symptoms.

#3 If this coronavirus outbreak “isn’t that serious”, then why has everyone in Hubei province now been ordered to stay at home until further notice?

The central Chinese province of Hubei escalated its restrictions to contain a coronavirus epidemic on the weekend, ordering the province’s residents – including 24 million people in rural areas – to stay home until further notice.

#4 If this coronavirus outbreak “isn’t that serious”, then why did Russia just ban all Chinese citizens from entering the country?…

Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin signed an order temporarily banning Chinese citizens from entering Russia for tourism, personal reasons or work starting Thursday, Interfax reported, citing Deputy PM Tatyana Golikova’s office.

#5 Chinese officials have just released data which show that this virus “could be 20 times more lethal than the flu”.  Why does hardly anyone in the western world know about this?…

The director of a Chinese hospital at the epicenter of the coronavirus outbreak became one of its victims Tuesday despite “all-out” efforts to save his life, Chinese health officials said.

The death came the same day Chinese officials released data indicating the new virus could be 20 times more lethal than the flu.

#6 Why is this virus killing 15 percent of all victims that are over the age of 80?…

The deadly coronavirus rapidly sweeping the world kills up to 15 per cent of patients over the age of 80, scientists have revealed.

Chinese health officials carried out the biggest ever study on the never-before-seen strain of the virus, using data from 72,000 cases.

#7 On the flip side, why are so few children being infected by this virus?…

Scientists are still learning about the coronavirus outbreak that has killed 1,384 people and infected more than 64,000 in China. One of the biggest mysteries is why so few children have gotten sick.

The outbreak was first reported on December 31, but no children younger than 15 years old had been diagnosed as of January 22. A study in the New England Journal of Medicine said at the time that “children might be less likely to become infected or, if infected, may show milder symptoms” than adults.

#8 What is this coronavirus outbreak going to mean for the entire global economy?  This is something that I have written about repeatedly in recent days, but the mainstream media in the western world continues to insist that this crisis will just be a small bump in the road.  Meanwhile, over in India there are warnings that there could be “massive disruptions” and “shortages” if this crisis doesn’t end soon…

Pankaj R. Patel, chairman of Zydus Cadila, said prices of medicine in India have exponentially jumped in the last several weeks, thanks to much of the medicine is sourced from China.

The Indian pharmaceutical industry is experiencing massive disruptions that could face shortages starting in April if supplies aren’t replenished in the next couple weeks, Patel warned.

#9 Why did the coronavirus continue to spread like wildfire aboard the Diamond Princess cruise ship even after a quarantine was initiated?…

A top health official at the National Institutes of Health acknowledged that the quarantine aboard the coronavirus-infected Diamond Princess Cruises ship failed while discussing the decision to evacuate hundreds of American passengers – 14 of whom tested positive for the virus.

Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases at the National Institutes of Health, said the original idea to keep people safely quarantined on the ship wasn’t unreasonable. But even with the quarantine process on the ship, virus transmission still occurred.

#10 The number of confirmed cases outside of China has doubled in less than a week.  If the number of cases continues to double every week, how bad will this crisis eventually become?

I’ll answer that one.

If the number of confirmed cases outside of China doubles every week, there will be a million cases just 10 weeks from now.

And once there are a million people with coronavirus walking around all over the planet, nobody is going to be able to “contain” it.

So let us hope that the measures that authorities are currently taking to control the spread of this disease will work.

President Trump believes that this outbreak will start to fizzle when warmer weather arrives, and I truly hope that he is correct.

Because right now this outbreak is getting worse with each passing day, and we definitely aren’t getting good information about this crisis from the mainstream media.

About the Author: I am a voice crying out for change in a society that generally seems content to stay asleep. My name is Michael Snyder and I am the publisher of 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 have written four books that are available on Amazon.com including The Beginning Of The End, Get Prepared Now, and Living A Life That Really Matters. (#CommissionsEarned) By purchasing those books you help to support my work. I always freely and happily allow others to republish my articles on their own websites, but due to government regulations I need those that republish my articles to include this “About the Author” section with each article. In order to comply with those government regulations, I need to tell you that the controversial opinions in this article are mine alone and do not necessarily reflect the views of the websites where my work is republished. This article may contain opinions on political matters, but it is not intended to promote the candidacy of any particular political candidate. 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. Those responding to this article by making comments are solely responsible for their viewpoints, and those viewpoints do not necessarily represent the viewpoints of Michael Snyder or the operators of the websites where my work is republished. 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 a great help.