We’ve all heard the prepper mantra, “Two is one, and one is none.” Apparently, this originated with the Navy Seals, for whom I have a great deal of respect. However, I’m not a Navy Seal, and (being totally honest here) I’m pretty broke these days. So, how does one be all prepared when your budget, is well….in the scale of mini or micro?  As inflation sucked the margin of comfort out of my budget over the past few years, I’ve tightened my belt again and again. I do need to eat, and I do need a roof over my head, and (despite how challenging it has become) I do want a car because I live in a rural area where it would be an enormous hardship to live without one.  I know I’m not alone! So, in this article, I wanted to share the hard realities of what prepping and “one is none” looks like in my own life. As always, I look forward to your comments on how all of you are managing in this increasingly difficult financial climate. What I Don’t Have There are lots of things I don’t have and, quite simply, can’t afford to buy now. As I went to write this, I had to chuckle, as the list is pretty staggering. I don’t have a freeze-dryer. Heck, I don’t even have a dehydrator. Having lived off the grid for years, I prefer off-grid food preservation methods. If you want to learn more about what I do, check out this recent article. Heck, I still have months’ worth of vegetables down a hole in the ground. More on that in a future article… I don’t have solar power and a battery set up for the entire cabin. There are several reasons why I don’t. If the grid goes down, I’m just going with candles and lamps for the long term. I’ve lived with these solar battery systems and know they break down. Realistically, I know that I’m not able to maintain, fix, and replace parts on a system like that in a real SHTF.  I don’t have a working generator. I have one. I know how to tune it up. It has an oil leak somewhere. I have other priorities. I may sell it. All aspects of my cabin function without electricity, including my septic, except the fridges. In winter, that’s no prob. In summer, I would be in trouble (see wish list below). In a real SHTF, where would you get the fuel? And the sound of the generator would be bound to bring trouble in my rural area. What I Have One of I have one compound hunting bow. At one time, before my back injury, I could split my own arrows in a group from 50 yards. After I hurt my back, I haven’t been shooting it. As my back heals, I am wondering if I can get back to it one day in the future. I have one admittedly crappy fishing rod I bought from a thrift shop. I have one solar lantern that charges phones. I have one pair of high-quality hiking boots.  Why do I have just one of these items? Mainly because carrying a second of any of these in a real bug-out situation doesn’t seem realistic to me. In terms of fishing, what I do have in my BOB is some line and multiple hooks. My lack of funds means that I will need to make do with what I have in a long-term bug situation. So, given that I’m often choosing what foods I can and can’t afford to eat EACH WEEK, I have left my supplies of these at one is none. What I Have Multiples Of I know in the list above that boots are pretty important. I have a backup pair of boots that are not the same quality, but would be liveable. I keep my eye out in the local thrift shops to upgrade my second pair in the future. When I have backups of things, it’s because it would affect my immediate survival. Take water, for instance. I have so many portable water filters around that I probably forget how many I own. A couple of these are the filters on the drinking bottle type that is particularly good for being on the run. Another is a more bug-in type that can do thousands of gallons of water. So, no, I won’t be drinking funky water, SHTF come what may.  Low-cost multiples make sense to me: lighters, fire-starting methods, and fuel for a small portable stove in my BOB. Another item I have multiples of is knives and super high-quality axes. Can you ever have enough knives, I wonder? Perhaps not in this lifetime. I also have multiple sharpeners. How much real SHTF can you do without a decent knife? That is one question, my prepper friends, that I hope I never have the answer to. My Wishlist There are items that I would love to have, one of which I don’t. While I do not need a full solar array, I would be willing to take my chances with a small setup that could power my off-grid fridge. You see, this compact fridge has a special plug that allows it to be powered directly by DC current straight from a battery. Still, a ballpark estimate on two decent-sized deep cycle batteries and a panel and charge controller is going to run me around a grand. That’s money I just don’t have.  In my neck of the tick-infested woods, I would love to have a set of light tick-repellent clothing in my BOB. I don’t think I want to do SHTF with Lyme disease, either. I wish I had a high-quality winter-rated sleeping bag. I don’t. I hope I never have to bug out in the middle of winter. Yikes! One is None on a Budget It’s not easy making choices on what to spend your hard-earned money on these days. How about you? What are the things you make you have two or more of? What are the things you live with one of and hope it’s not none one day? Please tell us in the comments section. About Rowan Rowan O’Malley is a fourth-generation Irish American who loves all things green: plants (especially shamrocks), trees, herbs, and weeds! She challenges herself daily to live her best life and to be as fit, healthy, and prepared as possible. The post “One is None” on a Homestead and a Budget appeared first on The Organic Prepper.

That’s a wrap. Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and former Rep. Tulsi Gabbard (D-Hawaii) are on their way to confirmation by the U.S. Senate to direct the Department of Health and Human Services and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, respectively. All that remains is Kash Patel for director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation — an essential White House nomination that Democrats are working hard to torpedo. There was plenty of hand-wringing over Kennedy and Gabbard, two of the three more controversial nominees to President Donald Trump's Cabinet remaining. Would Senate Republicans tank their nominations in committee? Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Chair Bill Cassidy (R-La.) was well primed to vote “nay” on Kennedy. The hearing he chaired considering RFK’s nomination was contentious; his questioning of the nominee even led to a back-and-forth on the importance of long-lacking scientific humility between Cassidy and his fellow Republican, Sen. Rand Paul (Ky.). Combined, the White House’s victories represent a near-total rout of Senate uniparty opposition to the president’s “Make America Great Again” agenda. In the end, momentous outside pressure combined with a series of commitments from RFK to secure Cassidy’s final decision. In a tweet sent as he voted, the chairman credited his change of heart to "very intense conversations with Bobby and the White House over the weekend and even [Tuesday] morning," led by Vice President JD Vance. It definitely didn’t hurt that Cassidy, who voted to impeach Trump on the second Democrat-led go-around, is up for re-election next year in Trump-loving Louisiana. He's already drawn a primary challenger. It’s important to play nice when you now claim to represent the interests of the most popular Republican president in decades. Gabbard’s confirmation — arguably more imperiled than even RFK’s was, given her direct threat to deep-state intelligence community interests — was all but secured over the weekend, when Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) confirmed her support. Collins’ decision put the last remaining holdout, Sen. Todd Young (R-Ind.), in the hot seat. If Collins had stayed the course as a “nay” vote, Young, a hawk who doesn’t face re-election for three years, could have counted on the Senate Intelligence Committee’s inexplicable decision to hold its vote in secret to shield him from backlash from the president and his supporters. By Monday, he looked less sure. “He doesn’t have the balls,” one veteran D.C. conservative predicted Monday evening. There’s good reason for that. In the days leading up to Tuesday’s vote, Young took incoming fire from Republicans as diverse as Meghan McCain and Elon Musk. McCain, a personal friend of Gabbard’s, called him “the new Liz Cheney,” and in a since-deleted tweet, Musk called him “a deep-state puppet.” In a tweet before Tuesday afternoon’s vote, Young announced his support for Gabbard’s nomination. Cassidy, Collins, and Young’s shifts follow Republican North Carolina Sen. Thom Tillis’ literally last-minute decision to break with Sens. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska), and Collins to confirm Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth last week. His commitment was secured after a full-court press that included late-night/early-morning White House meetings. It figures that Tillis, a close McConnell ally, also faces re-election in red North Carolina next year. It pays to have friends in high places — and it hurts to have enemies. “They bent the knee,” one Trump team adviser told the Beltway Brief. “The MAHA/MAGA/anti-deep-state agenda rolls on.” Combined, the White House’s victories represent a near-total rout of Senate uniparty opposition to the president’s “Make America Great Again” agenda. The next test — confirming Patel to the FBI — will come later this month. A Trump victory here would signify the end of Senate GOP opposition to his chosen Cabinet and the beginning a new Republican Party. Patel’s confirmation has the most Republican momentum of the three remaining contested nominations. A dyed-in-the-wool MAGA Republican and proven enemy of partisan, deep-state, Department of Justice lawfare, Patel has secured the public support of key senators, but his confirmation isn’t for two weeks — giving Democrats plenty of time to undermine that support. The delay is based on a committee rule that allows senators to request more questioning time — a rule Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) should have nixed at the beginning of the Congress but didn’t. Now Democrats are using the time to dig up anything they can on a nominee who has exposed partisanship in the FBI in the past and pledges to root it out from the top office if confirmed. Republicans need to understand that a vote against Patel is a vote against the core of the president’s agenda. All signs say he's set to pass, but for all the turmoil in this city, the uniparty is just a little too quiet. It’s enough to make a man nervous. Blaze News: Swamp starts draining itself as 20,000 deep-staters accept Trump buyout: Report Blaze News: Tulsi Gabbard's confirmation advances to the Senate floor Blaze News: RFK Jr. clears key confirmation hurdle in the Senate Politico: Bill Cassidy’s decision on RFK Jr. could jeopardize his Senate career The Wall Street Journal: The 24-hour blitz that flipped one senator’s vote from no to yes on Hegseth NBC News: Report: White House preparing executive order to abolish the Department of Education Sign up for Bedford’s newsletter Sign up to get Blaze Media senior politics editor Christopher Bedford's newsletter. THE FIRE RISES City Journal: It’s time to end DEI in immigration. We all know American immigration is broken. We can see the results in the streets of small towns and big cities from El Paso to Albany, from Miami to Portland. But it's not just illegal, but also legal immigration that is in need of serious reform. As with much of our decline, the problems are by human design. Daniel Di Martino reports: ... Today’s immigration system prioritizes diversity and inclusion over merit and skill. About 1 million new permanent residents arrive annually, according to the Department of Homeland Security. That number includes roughly 140,000 older parents of previous migrants coming through chain migration. The current system also randomly selects 55,000 people from “underrepresented” countries and gives them green cards. These relatively unskilled and older immigrants are admitted immediately, while highly skilled immigrants can wait decades for green cards, even after paying more than $100,000 in taxes as temporary workers. Even a Nobel prizewinner from India, who would qualify for the so-called Einstein visa reserved for the highest-skilled workers (EB-1), cannot obtain a green card without waiting for more than a decade ...

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Rather than double down on the Biden-Harris approach, as Senator Hawley proposes, the GOP can choose to put the American worker first.

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This past year, Apple released two new apps: Apple Invites and Apple Sports. Besides that, with iOS 18, the company unveiled two unique UIs for the Action Button and the iMessage menu. With all that in mind, some iPhone users think Apple might be preparing a big iOS 19 redesign, and they might be correct. Before iOS 18 was introduced, there was an ongoing rumor that Apple was planning a visionOS-like redesign for this software update. While it didn't happen, it's only natural that this rumor might be passed to iOS 19. In January, Front Page Tech also suggested iOS 19 might get a redesign inspired by visionOS, especially the Camera app, which several users find more confusing than ever. With several layers of interaction, some have suggested Apple might need to make the Camera app simple again, and redesigning it with the visionOS UI might be a possibility. https://twitter.com/zellzoi/status/1886911795639562743 On social media, one X user shared several screenshots of the Apple Invites app and asked, "Does this mean iOS 19 is getting a UI redesign?" Another was more confident: "iOS 19 is redesign year. I'm calling it." So far, it's unclear if Apple plans to redesign iOS 19. Since the significant iOS 7 overhaul, Apple has been cautious enough to make slight changes over the updates. While the company hasn't completely overhauled its system at once, the iPhone operating system is far different from what it was a decade ago. Image source: Apple Inc. Still, that didn't stop Apple from revamping the Control Center and the Home Screen with customizable widgets, tinted icons, and so on. Users have been asking for a visionOS-inspired iOS update as Apple has prioritized rounder cards, glassy effects, and other UI changes previously unavailable on iOS. In addition, with less exciting iPhone updates, Apple needs to make the software stand out so upgrading becomes more enticing. Otherwise, the company might have its Samsung Galaxy S25 moment, with the same smartphone with a few software tweaks as new features. Wrap up BGR has a comprehensive iOS 19 guide. We'll keep updating it as we learn more about this future software update, which is expected to be announced at WWDC 2025 around June. Don't Miss: iOS 19: Rumors, features, release date, supported devices, more The post Apple Invites and Sports apps could hint at major iOS 19 redesign appeared first on BGR. Today's Top Deals Today’s deals: $23 space heater, $50 off Meta Quest 3S, Roku smart TVs from $170, $50 wireless CarPlay, more Best deals: Tech, laptops, TVs, and more sales Today’s deals: $20 Amazon credit, $4 Anker UDB-C cables, $30 Magic Bullet, $160 TP-Link mesh WiFi, more Best Apple deals for February 2025

The U.S. Department of Defense is developing plans to withdraw all U.S. troops from Syria, NBC News reported Wednesday, citing two U.S. defense officials.