SurvivalBlog presents another edition of The Survivalist’s Odds ‘n Sods— a collection of news bits and pieces that are relevant to the modern survivalist and prepper from “JWR”. Today, we focus on Venezuela’s plight.
Venezuela Plunged Into Anarchy
Peter sent this video link: Venezuela plunged into anarchy. JWR’s Comments: The bottom line for survival: Who is armed, and who is not. Watching news reports like these underscore why we emphasize firearms ownership and training so much in SurvivalBlog.
A Man Who Fled Cuba Derides Oregon Gun Control
Also from Peter: Man Who Fled Cuba Won’t Stand For Oregon Gun Control Measures.
Iron Edison’s New Lithium Batteries
Iron Edison has announced a new line of Lithium-Iron (LiFe) batteries, available as direct replacements for lead acid batteries. These new “4LiFe ” batteries have an expected cycle life of 7,500+ cycles at 80% depth of discharge.
Few Englishmen Have a View of Stars
From The Daily Mail (UK): Just one in 50 people can see stars as nature intended because the night skies are being masked under veil of light pollution, cosmic census shows. JWRs Comments: Similar light pollution is the norm up and down the U.S. eastern seaboard and other urbanized regions. But thankfully, here in The America Redoubt, more than half of the citizenry lives under Dark Skies.
Islamic Honor Killings Ignored by National Media
Nathan Barton of The Price of Liberty blog asks: Where’s the Media?
California’s New Ammo Purchase Nightmare
Fred. V. forwarded a link to a warning from the NRA-ILA: “Today, the California Department of Justice issued a “Notice of Modification” to their proposed regulations regarding the soon to be implemented ammunition background check procedures. As a result of these changes, a second 15-day public comment period has been initiated.” [Emphasis added.]
Oregon Cattlemen Oppose Gun Bill
H.L. spotted this article: Oregon Cattlemen Lodge Opposition To Gun Bill. Aquote from the article:
“From a cattleman’s standpoint, I can see a number of reasons this would be problematic. For one, requiring guns to be locked up means they’re not available should the need arise to defend their herd from a predator. Further, ranches aren’t exactly in the city. That means help may be hours away, making ranches inviting targets to some of the worst excuses of humanity.
By requiring guns to be locked up, it means these threats are far more difficult to meet.
Further, those in the cattle industry do occasionally leave home. Even if they do lock their guns up, while they’re gone their homes could easily be targeted by those who want something to steal and don’t want neighbors to notice. Under this law, they could be held liable for actions undertaken with their stolen guns.”
Mountain House Pouches Sale
From now through May 2rd, 2019, Mountain House (one of our Affiliate advertisers) is offering a 15% discount on all their Breakfast Pouches, with free shipping! This is a great way to stock up, for both your bug out bags and for any planned backpacking trips.
Zero Mag Ban Compliance in New Jersey
Tim J. liked this recent piece: FOIA Request Confirms Zero Standard Capacity Magazines Turned In to NJ State Police. A pericope:
“There are an estimated one million-gun owners with standard capacity magazines (10+ rounds) in the State of New Jersey, bringing an estimated number of magazines holding more than ten rounds to around ten million. Some estimates even have this number being higher.
When New Jersey passed a law making these magazines illegal in 2018, there was a debate on whether the gun owners of the state would hand in their magazines. When the law went into effect at the end of last year, New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy and Attorney General Gurbir Grewal celebrated it as a victory against gun rights advocates.
AmmoLand news reached out to departments across the Garden State and the New Jersey State Police to see how many magazines were turned in for destruction. Local departments were quick to confirm that they did not receive any magazines turned in by the citizens of New Jersey.” [Emphasis added.]
Brooklyn’s Islamist Vigilantes
Brooklyn’s Islamist Vigilantes–Not to be mistaken for a neighborhood watch
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You can send your news tips to JWR. (Either via e-mail of via our Contact form.) Thanks!
In California they will soon be like Barney Fife with a single bullet in their pocket (likely with a CA mandated serial number on it too).
Re. View of stars. Dark skies and the ability to view the vast number of stars is truly a blessing. It’s a breath-taking sight that I just never get over.
Head to Cherry Spring park in upstate Pennsylvania then.
I spent eight years in the USN and seeing the milky way from a blacked out ship, at night, in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, is something I will never forget.
For me, it showed just an inkling of how majestic and awesome the Creator of the universe is.
Hey Snotty Boy, how have you been!
I am well, thank you.
And you?
Working on some builds. I am short one lower.
Re: NJ mag turn-ins… Good for you NJ residents. NO RETREAT! STAND YOUR GROUND!
Re: California ammo… as a 4th gen. (expat) Californian whose family has been there since the gold rush, I am so glad I left there 15 years ago. I feel sorry for all my friends, family members and other like minded patriots who are unable to leave. You’re in my prayers.
Re: 4LiFe lithium Batteries… Great innovation but I will have to wait til the price drops considerably. Starting at $5K and going as high as $47K, that’s a lot of beans, bullets and band-aids. Sadly I will have to stick with $150 12vdc Deep Cycles for my little ‘commo shed’ system
Yea how do you justify something like that in your prep money when your paying only .06 per kwh and it’s cost factor is .12 and that’s not including your solar and inverter cost…Maybe for something like a hospital but for home use that’s not feasible…
Check out https://dakotalithium.com/our-batteries/?v=7516fd43adaa for an alternative source of LiFePo batteries. Smaller. You can afford to play, test and gain comfort. The thing that is impressive is the hockey stick graph of the voltage out to 80% of its amp hour limit. Voltage stays close to 12v the whole time. when you plan capacity on the lead acid $150 model you are only supposed to count on 25% of the ah rating.
I have these in a Commander 857 from https://www.portableuniversalpower.com/commander-857/. I like it.
I have to agree with Rucksack Bob on the lithium batteries. When you use the words ” expected cycles ” that does not give me a warm fuzzy feeling, time will tell as to the life span of these batteries. Having lived with solar battery storage since 1992 I have tried many kinds of batteries with some disappointment and some success. Iron Edison carries the Edison nickel iron batteries and these have a life span estimated at 200 years if properly maintained, I know of 50 year old banks that are functioning as new. Cost wise they seem to be about the same as the lithium batteries that you have no way to maintain them, if they fail you are just out of luck. Personally I have gone to fork lift batteries as they should last 25 years under solar service and price wise you get a heck of a lot more kw storage per $. They are a lot easier to maintain than L-16’s or other deep cycle batteries as there is no need to clean all the interconnecting cables 1or 2 times per year. Batteries are like most things you need to evaluate your use, vs amortized cost, convivence and life span. Me I will go with proven long term performance as there will be no returning a bad battery after the poo hits the fan. I am going to submit an article soon with much greater detail.
I am a little surprised that the folks in NJ have not turned in any Mags, usually there are a few shills or toady lickspittles that willingly comply with any un Constitutional laws. This non compliance certainly speaks volumes about the hearts and souls of Americans. It is a sign that the latest crop of politicians are totally out of touch with the majority of the citizens. What is also odd is that realizing these facts the politicians did not fund some idealist to turn in mags so they could point out how well their failed legislation is working. Do not doubt they will try this ploy in the future, so be on the look out for fake news about mag and gun turn ins. It is a certainty that California will try some BS to cover up their failed efforts of controlling real crime by diverting their stupidity to gun owners and not the perps.
Joe,
The politicians aren’t quite dumb enough to try wholesale confiscation. YET. As I said before, they will use the law on a case by case basis and pity the people that might be caught. They will be used as an intimidating example for other “formerly honest” citizens.
I still prefer good ‘ol deep cycling marine batteries for the cost….
MCPS a neighborhood patrol Huh? If a bunch of good ole American boys decided to do the same thing and patrol a city on the citizens behalf and if that patrol happened to be comprised of Christian men and women the government would no doubt turn every law enforcement resource against them. They would be labeled crazy militias, racist and dangerous white supremacists.
In response to California gun laws… while I no longer live there, I know for a fact that the majority of the land mass of California is filled with American patriots who have guns of all shapes and sizes, along with the requisite ammunition. It’s a loosely held secret amongst Californians. The lunatic politicians (along with most of Hollyweird) in the 3 major metro areas, San Francisco, San Jose, and Los Angeles, can try as they may, they will never be able to enforce draconian gun laws. Unless… they successfully brainwash law enforcement en masse (not possible, they have families too and most are Patriots), close the borders (north, east, south) and close the ports (west), search every single person or car, every home, and every hidey hole. Not gonna happen. California is mostly rural, and people who haven’t lived there don’t get that. The biggest threat to Californians is public education, brainwashing the children. Bet you didn’t know that there exists a huge home schooling community, and Christian private schools abound. The majority of Californians have learned to be “Grey” citizens (no bumper stickers, no political conversation, quietly preparing, etc). As much as I hate what California has become, I know Californians. If illegal immigration and illegal voting were stopped, the state would turn back to Red in the blink of an eye. I pray for those two things to happen because as it stands right now, voting is a joke. Think kindly upon your California neighbors and pray for them.
I just returned from CA. Stayed with delightful folks, off-grid and self-reliant. They tried L16 batteries and they died in three years. Have been using fork lift batteries for the last 15 years with great success….expect at least five more years out of this set. Wind turbine might be in my future after observing their set up. Runs most of the night while the solar panels loaf….and during the day, too.
Ditch the RV deep cycle batteries. False economy unless you are only using them for radios, etc.