'I thought I'd be stronger than this'

Find out how you can get started on being self-sufficient with these 6 things you should incorporate in your routine. Start the habit and let's get started! 6 Things You Should Incorporate in Your Routine Become self-sufficient by doing 6 things There are a ton of tips and tricks out there that focus on things that are ultimately not beneficial in a survival situation. Sure, there are lots of items that would be great to have around in a post-event environment. Does this mean you should be focusing on these lists of gear and other items as a means of preparation? Absolutely not. We believe to stay really prepared, you have to try and integrate certain habits into your life to improve your chance of survival. Our friends at Survival Life have provided six things you should incorporate in your routine to help prepare you for a survival situation:   1. Incorporate solar electricity in your daily life Incorporating solar into your daily life is easy, relatively cheap, and important to do. It's going to get you into the habit of being battery-conscious and sun-conscious. You need sun for electricity so you'll begin to look out for it and learn what works for your solar kit and what doesn't. You'll save a little on electricity charging things with solar every night. Yes, this is going to be a negligible savings, but its a savings nonetheless. What do I need to do? Buy a small, relatively inexpensive, and versatile solar kit and use it to power your daily electronics. Using solar electricity is also great practice should a natural disaster hit. Never run out of batteries with this tool that charges many of the things you need. Shop for it here.   2. Cook one meal a week with your bug out kit Cooking just one meal a week using your bug out cooking gear can make a drastic difference in the comfort level and safety of your bug out group. You need to be an expert at cooking using the things you'll be stuck with in case of a survival situation. You also need to know if that gear is worn and needs to be replaced, upgraded or downgraded. Finally, it's going to take a ton of stress off of you during an already stressful time. When your whole world changes in a matter of (weeks, days, hours), you're going to be pretty cranky. Dinner time needs to be as peaceful and stress-free as you can make it. Remember, morale is important for yourself and your group. If you're not the warm and fuzzy kind, just remember that stress can drastically impact your health – especially your immune function and risk of heart attack or stroke. That's important if you're the leader of your bug out group (family) and there aren't any hospitals. Try cooking just one meal a week (preferably a dinner meal, as they tend to be larger and more complex) using the cooking items in your bug out kit. Notice I said cooking items and not food items. Your stove, cookware, utensils, etc are cooking items. The point here is to be proficient with your tools. Check out the Biolite perfect for cooking your food and charging your mobile devices! Shop for it here. 3. Incorporate your ‘food storage' into your routine Incorporating your prepping food storage into your regular meal plan will reap large benefits. You need to know what's in your food storage and what is not. You also need to learn to cook with that type of food (whether it be dehydrated, freeze-dried, etc). Water-absent foods like those we popularly use for food storage require extra steps in the meal-prep phase. You need to know how to get the best results from your food. This is going to keep you from ending up with water-flavored strawberries – and anyone who has reconstituted freeze- dried fruit knows exactly what I'm talking about. It is also important to rotate your food stores. Believe it or not, it does go bad eventually. Don't assume everything in your storage has the same expiration date. Check, label, know! Finally, you need to know what is working in your food storage and what is not; what you need more or less of. Some families (like mine) like waffles for breakfast. So I'm going to have more Bisquick-like dry foods in my storage than someone who hates waffles. Appetizing meals will help raise morale, keep your group healthy, and decrease stress. What do I need to do? Incorporate your prepping food into your regular meals. This could be once a week or once a month, but you need to occasionally cook one entire meal completely from your food store. By “completely,” I mean that you can use no ingredients that don't come from your food store. It's a good idea to rotate the meal, as well. Cook dinner this time, breakfast next. If you don't use your food stores routinely, you're not going to know what's in there, and not going to know how to use it. This is going to frustrate you in a post-disaster environment when you're messing with a whole new culinary realm. Keep morale in mind because humans can do anything with hope and a positive attitude. Check out Certain Foods canned meat, perfect for home survival kits. Shop for the food with NO EXPIRATION DATE right here.   4. Take one day a week off from all electronics Disconnecting from the electronic world for a day can help you in a post-disaster world. I could tell you about the scientific research showing how occasionally “disconnecting” is having a profoundly positive impact on people, but I'd rather state the obvious. Going from a world where technology permeates every part of your life to one where technology is almost entirely absent will be a massive culture shock – and one that can be avoided by learning to live without the tech. This is going to make your life much easier when you don't have a phone to quickly call someone, quickly Google that question or hop on Youtube for a ‘how-to.' You need to learn to replace those things and you'll never learn what needs replacing until you ditch the tech. What do I need to do? One day a week, turn off your phone, leave the computer alone, keep the TV off, and get out of your house. Go to the park, go canoeing, anything but interact with technology for 24 hours. Basically, be Amish for one day each week. If you let technology permeate your life until the very last day, you're going to have a hell of a hard road to go in a survival situation when you can't entertain yourself to keep you morale up.   Don't even think about going off grid until you've mastered these 8 Survival Skills. https://t.co/CZqSoUWBOz pic.twitter.com/iXkqnaXlOF — Homesteading (@HomesteadingUSA) March 8, 2016   5. Buy knowledgeable books and sources Stock up on books that cover any major survival factor you're not a total expert on. Succeeding in adverse environments depends very largely on two things: one's knowledge and one's motivation. If someone is a survival genius but is depressed and believes it's all for naught, they will sit down and die. If someone is highly motivated but has no survival knowledge, they will waste away all their energy and die trying, having accomplished nothing. Building up a library to replace Google in the post-disaster world. Buy books in areas that you lack knowledge. If you can't tear apart your car's engine, go get the book from Autozone. If you're not a master gardener, go get an organic gardening book. If you know nothing about electricity, canning, or medicine, buy books. You don't have to read them immediately (although it would help you later) but you do need to have them. The best thing is to write down all the topics you read articles about online and get books to cover them. If your primary source of survival information is the internet, you’re going to be royally screwed post-disaster. You aren’t going to know any remedies for headaches, ways to repair things, gardening tips or any number of other things you’re not an expert at.   6. Embrace challenges Do things the hard way, the more productive way, the way that instills discipline and character in yourself. This will help you adapt to rapidly changing, often uncomfortable environments. I love a hot, hot shower. Conversely, I hate cold showers. It isn’t just uncomfortable, it puts me in a bad mood. However, I make it a point to take cooler (even borderline cold) showers occasionally. Another thing I loathe are wet clothes – shirts, underwear, socks, anything. I hate it when my clothes stick to me and I have to peel them off. My goal is to make myself endure uncomfortable things and find some sort of aspect to them that ‘isn’t so bad’ – some sort of mental solace. This way, when cold showers are the standard, I don’t dread them and then act like a jerk to my bug out group afterward. Morale is a crucial element to survival and learning to find the positive in the things you dislike will be easier to do later. What do I need to do? Deliberately put yourself in situations and environments that force you to overcome your discomfort and find ways to mentally cope. This could mean taking cooler showers, eating food room-temp or cold, or walking to the store instead of driving. You could also eat foods you dislike, sleep with lights or noise, or choose the longest line at WalMart to learn patience.   Need more tips on how to become self-sufficient? Watch it here from mhpgardener:   Does this make you feel more confident on getting started? Let us know what you think about these tips and how you plan on incorporating them in your routine. Share it in the comments below! Follow us on Instagram, Twitter, Pinterest, and Facebook! LIKE this? I'm sure you'll LOVE: 9 Things I Always Have at the Barn | Homesteading Essentials Ways To Make Money While Homesteading Homesteading On A Budget

Biden Administration Cuts Funding to the World Anti-Doping Agency

Hamas Defies Trump, Demands Israel End War for Hostage Deal

On Monday and Tuesday, CBS, CNN, and MSNBC each dedicated a segment to the self-described geopolitical consultant firm Eurasia Group’s annual release of its Top Risks for the coming year. Unsurprisingly, the list was dominated by anti-Trump fearmongering, ranging from his aversion to globalist organizations (first) to a cartoonish view of his presidency being one of creeping authoritarianism (second) to a second Trump administration cracking down on China (third). Those were just the top three as fourth was fearmongering about Trump’s economic policies in fourth, “Russia still rogue” at five, a struggling Iran, the global economy struggling because U.S. vs. China tensions, artificial intelligence, “ungoverned spaces,” and Trump’s border plans to round out the top ten. CBS Mornings co-host Tony Dokoupil explained the top risk was “a world in which — you’ve heard of the G-7, G-8, the G-Zero wins. That’s the idea that we could be in an era with a total lack of international leadership where ‘no powers drive a global agenda and maintain international order.’ No one’s at the wheel.”     President and frequent TV news guest Ian Bremmer said it was reminiscent of the 1930s and “a return to the law of the jungle, where the powerful do what they will, and the weak do what they must, and no one is really protecting them and a G Zero world is very aligned with also an America First world.” Noting America’s traditional allies have been beset with their own problems, Bremmer said they’re also petrified of being targeted by Trump on social media and lamented the new administration “want[s] to set rules that benefit us and we are going to go and talk to all of those leaders, and we’ll put tariffs on them if we have to” and not thinking about the benefit of the collective. Co-host and Democratic donor Gayle King cued him up to attack X owner and Trump ally Elon Musk (click “expand”): KING: What role do you think Elon Musk plays here? He is not an elected leader, but he seems to be a very — quickly becoming a very powerful force on the world stage, and seems to be weighing in on many key issues that are facing the United States and the world. BREMMER: Well, now he is — KING: How do we navigate that? BREMMER: — for now, he seems to be the bomb thrower in chief of the United States. I mean, he’s the one out there with 200 million followers, you know, saying that the UK government has to be overthrown, that the AFD, the Euro-skeptic, far right, alternatives for Deutschland, they should be in charge of Germany. American allies are panicked about this. They are right now in crisis talks about what they can do, and what they can do could include actually putting some restraints on Twitter/X, but at the same time they’re deeply concerned, well, if he’s that close to Trump, is that going to affect — KING: He is speaking for Trump. BREMMER: — our relationship? Is he speaking for them? Is Twitter/X a part of the military industrial complex of the United States? Are they a national champion? It’s hard to imagine that Elon would be making all of these statements if Trump wasn’t okay with them. Co-host Nate Burleson pivoted to second place by wondering “what about [Trump’s] presidency is so risky,” which Bremmer replied the concern is he’s “consolidated so much more power this time around” and his staff “are directly loyal[.]” Showing his elitist side, he also alluded to number ten and the border, lamenting deportations will have an effect “on inflation in the United States, for example, on you know, consumption.” CBS’s morning show also had Bremmer on in both 2021 and 2022, which we chronicled as they lamented top risks as respectively having been political opposition to a Biden presidency and then a GOP midterm victory. A day earlier on MSNBC, Dokoupil’s wife Katy Tur brought Bremmer on to explain the G-Zero point about Americans being less interested “in promoting global free trade or collective security or even promoting democracy around the world” (click “expand”):     BREMMER: Well, I’m glad you started with all of those leaders, erstwhile allies of the United States but incredibly weak, and we could add, you know, the Japanese to that list. We could add, you know, a bunch of other Europeans facing anti-incumbent threats to that list, so what’s happened, I say the law of the jungle, those countries are playing defense, they’re trying to stay out of the headlines. We saw what just happened with Justin Trudeau by making the trip down to Mar-a-Lago. It didn’t go very well for him. While the United States, which is comparatively much more powerful, but is absolutely not interested in promoting global free trade or collective security or even promoting democracy around the world, it’s much more interested in transactional relationships, one-on-one, where it, us, the United States is more powerful. So, it’s kind of a breakdown of the old global order and replacing it with something that is much more uncertain, volatile, and dangerous. TUR: How do you do that when we live in a world that is so intertwined? We’re very tangled up in each other, especially economically. How do you turn instead to more insular nations with leaders who are less — less easy to work with who don’t want to rely on other nations? BREMMER: Well, one, is if you’re a more powerful country, you try to force those other countries to bend to your will and change the rules in your favor, hence incoming President-Elect Trump talking a lot about using tariffs to get not only trade balances in a direction that he prefers them, but also get countries to pay more for national security, get countries to tighten their borders, all sorts of different things. So, if you’re a very powerful country, it’s a much easier place to be. Having said that, you know, we all know that there are economic costs of those sorts of policies, the dollar is going to be stronger, inflation is going to go up. You know, growth is going slow, and even a decoupling from China, everyone understands that China is a very big adversary, competitor of the U.S. It’s not a trusted relationship, but that was a relationship that both Biden and Xi Jinping tried over the last year to manage, to create more stability, and China is in a very difficult position economically right now, but Trump is coming in and saying, I’m going to hit you guys with 60 percent tariffs. Well, unless the Chinese cry uncle and offer a deal that Trump is prepared to accept, the reality is we will be decoupling further our economies, and there will be a global cost to that. There will be a cost to American consumers for that as well. Later, the two focused in on Iran and the Middle East, which Bremmer seemed hopeful as America’s “in a stronger position today in the Middle East, in part because of the Abraham Accords and in part, Israel has escalation dominance over Iran, over Hamas, over Hezbollah, over everyone that’s an adversary in the region.” Eurasia Group chairman Cliff Kupchan made the CNN appearance on Monday mornings’s News Central and said the world’s “been in a declining geopolitical system” and “the unilateralist administration of Donald Trump” will “put the decline of international leadership on jet skis.”     “That leaves a lot of room for rogue actors, a lot of room for market disruption. It’s that complete absence, which is rare in diplomatic history, that complete absence of international leadership which leaves us so exposed this year. That’s why it’s our top risk,” he added. Berman shifted to number two and what Kupchan called “the slow erosion of the rule of law that really worries us” under a second Trump presidency, accompanied by “a very loyalist, more experienced team” that’ll target “the military, the courts, adversarial media, and especially federalism.”     To see the relevant transcripts from January 6 and 7, click here (for CNN), here (for MSNBC), and here (for CBS).

From the beginning of June through the end of December, the late night comedy shows welcomed 120 liberal guests and only one conservative, according to a new NewsBusters study. The 99 percent figure came during the heat of the presidential campaign season, including both party conventions, and its aftermath from June 3 through December 19. The study looked at the five daily late night comedy shows: ABC’s Jimmy Kimmel Live!, NBC’s Late Night with Seth Meyers and The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, CBS’s The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, and Comedy Central’s The Daily Show.  MRC analysts also divided the guests into two categories: partisan officials and then journalists and celebrities. When it came to partisan officials, the count was 35 Democrats to 0 Republicans. Colbert led the pack with 16 Democrats while The Daily Show came in a close second with 14. Kimmel was third with four, while Fallon had one. Seth Meyers did not have any Democrats on during the study’s run. Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer was the only guest to appear three times, but Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, and Vice Presidential nominee Tim Walz each had multiple appearances. For journalists and celebrities, the results were 84 liberals to 1 conservative. The Daily Show led all with 29 liberal guests, while Colbert was second with 25. Kimmel again placed third with 16, while Meyers had ten, and Fallon had four. Bill O’Reilly’s July 16 appearance on The Daily Show was the lone conservative appearance. CBS’s John Dickerson and CNN’s Adam Kinzinger led all guests with three. Others that made multiple appearances included The View’s Whoopi Goldberg, MSNBC’s Chris Hayes, CNN’s Anderson Cooper, radical left-wing author Ta-Nehisi Coates, and retiring NBC Today co-host Hoda Kotb. (Click here for a complete guest count breakdown.) CNN was the most common media outlet to be represented with ten appearances. MSNBC was a close second with nine, while parent company NBC had five. CBS came in fourth with four, while the New York Times rounded up the top five with three. This was the fifth MRC guest count study since September 2022 (see the first, second, third, and fourth, studies here) and it brings the totals since then to 403 liberals and 13 conservatives, or 97 percent liberal. Methodology: Journalists were defined as either liberal or conservative, regardless of the segment’s subject matter. A celebrity was defined as either a current late night host if that host was on to be interviewed, political activist, or anyone famous who discussed politics or a religious project. If a celebrity is known to have strong political beliefs, but did not discuss them, they were not included. A politician was defined as any currently or previously elected American office holder, White House staffer, cabinet secretary, their spouse, or any of their children who were on to discuss political matters. A politician who has since entered the media is considered to be a journalist.  

Los Angeles is in flames, fire hydrants have run dry, and California's government has been absent. As the devastating fires continue to rage on in the Pacific Palisades, President-elect Donald Trump pointed the finger at none other than California's Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom. Trump called Newsom's handling of the fires a "true disaster," citing the lack of proper infrastructure and leadership. As of Wednesday afternoon, the wildfire has decimated over 10,600 acres of land, forcing tens of thousands of residents to vacate. 'NO WATER IN THE FIRE HYDRANTS, NO MONEY IN FEMA,' Trump said. 'THIS IS WHAT JOE BIDEN IS LEAVING ME. THANKS JOE!'"As of this moment, Gavin Newscum and his Los Angeles crew have contained exactly ZERO percent of the fire. It is burning at levels that even surpass last night," Trump said in a Wednesday post on Truth Social. "This is not Government. I can’t wait till January 20th!"Newsom flew to Los Angeles on Tuesday, calling for "all hands on deck." President Joe Biden also joined Newsom on Wednesday. Despite the outpouring effort to, in Newsom's words, "combat these unprecedented fires," Trump argued that the fires were entirely preventable. A person uses a garden hose in an effort to save a neighboring home from catching fire during the Eaton Fire on January 8, 2025, in Altadena, California. Over 1,000 structures have burned, with two people dead, in wildfires fueled by intense Santa Ana winds across L.A. County. Photo by Mario Tama/Getty Images"Governor Gavin Newscum refused to sign the water restoration declaration put before him that would have allowed millions of gallons of water, from excess rain and snow melt from the North, to flow daily into many parts of California, including the areas that are currently burning in a virtually apocalyptic way," Trump said. "He wanted to protect an essentially worthless fish called a smelt, by giving it less water (it didn’t work!), but didn’t care about the people of California," Trump continued. "Now the ultimate price is being paid. I will demand that this incompetent governor allow beautiful, clean, fresh water to FLOW INTO CALIFORNIA! He is the blame for this. On top of it all, no water for fire hydrants, not firefighting planes. A true disaster!"Trump expressed frustration not just with Newsom but with Biden as well. "NO WATER IN THE FIRE HYDRANTS, NO MONEY IN FEMA," Trump said. "THIS IS WHAT JOE BIDEN IS LEAVING ME. THANKS JOE!"Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!

The Biden administration is preparing to issue roughly $55 million in refunds to illegal aliens who applied for its Keeping Families Together program.In August, Biden's Department of Homeland Security implemented the program, which would have granted temporary legal status to "certain noncitizen spouses and noncitizen stepchildren of U.S. citizens." The program promised to streamline the path to permanent residency.'In the public interest and consistent with applicable law.'To be eligible, spousal applicants had to be married to an American citizen and have resided in the country for the past 10 years. Stepchildren needed to be under 21 years old, unmarried, and have an illegal alien parent who is married to a citizen.While those who had committed serious violent offenses were not eligible, the program carved out exceptions for other crimes. Illegal aliens facing removal proceedings could also apply.Under U.S. law, those who enter the country illegally must first leave and re-enter legally to qualify for permanent residency. The Biden administration's program allowed beneficiaries to parole in place, or remain in the country while awaiting a status adjustment.The Biden administration's Customs and Immigration Services estimated that 500,000 illegal alien spouses and 50,000 illegal alien stepchildren would be eligible to apply for the process.Republicans pushed back on the administration's plan, calling it a mass amnesty program that attempted to circumvent federal immigration law.A coalition of 16 Republican-led states filed a lawsuit against Biden's program. The lawsuit contended that the administration likely severely underestimated the number of eligible applicants.U.S. District Judge J. Campbell Barker struck down the administration's program in November.Barker argued that the Keeping Families Together process "is not in accordance with law" and claimed the administration lacked statutory authority to grant parole in place to illegal aliens.Internal government documents obtained this week by CBS News revealed that the administration plans to issue refunds to the illegal alien applicants who paid the $580 application fee. The news outlet reported that roughly 94,000 people applied, totaling about $55 million in paid fees.USCIS confirmed to CBS News that it is closing all pending applications and plans to issue refunds."The court order vacating the [Keeping Families Together] process has resulted in requestors paying a fee for an immigration benefit request that, through no fault of their own, cannot be considered," the agency said.It noted that the refunds were "in the public interest and consistent with applicable law."Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!

Cue the Lefty Meltdowns! Donald Trump Takes Gavin Newsom to Task Over Disastrous LA Wildfires

WOMP WOMP: Trans Activist Thought He Found FL Driver License Loophole, Ends Up in Legal Hot Water Instead