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”. Our goal is to educate our readers, to help them to recognize emerging threats and to be better prepared for both disasters and negative societal trends. You can’t mitigate a risk if you haven’t first identified a risk. Today, we look at the dramatic drop in winter wheat acres planted.
Connecticut State Police Now Has Firearms Sniffing Dogs
Connecticut State Police roll out firearms sniffing dogs. (Thanks to reader G.P. for the link.)
U.S. Winter Wheat Acres Drop Dramatically
Another from G.P.: U.S. Winter-Wheat Acres Set to Drop to Lowest in 110 Years. The article opens with these lines:
“America’s bread basket looks like it’s going gluten free: Dogged by lower prices and tepid demand, U.S. wheat farmers are poised to plant the fewest acres of winter varieties in 110 years.
That’s according to a Bloomberg survey. Analysts are predicting another year of declines for acreage as U.S. producers face stiff competition from global rivals gathering bumper crops. World supplies are so plentiful that futures for hard red winter wheat are down about 15% in 2019, one of the worst performances for commodities this year. In some parts of the southern U.S. Plains, wheat is now cheaper than corn, making the yellow grain a better bet.”
California Undercover Agents Staking Out Nevada Gun Shows
And another from DSV: California Undercover Agents Staking Out Nevada Gun Shows. The aricle begins:
“Undercover California law enforcement agents are prowling gun shows in Nevada, watching for attendees with California license plates on their cars. This article from the LA Times emphasizes that they’re looking for buyers bringing “assault weapons” and “high capacity” magazines back home.
However, now that ammunition is subject to a background check in the Golden State, you can bet that they’re stopping those buyers, too. And while not mentioned in the article, does anyone think they’re not also staking out gun stores near the border as well?”
Cities Using Citations to Balance Budgets
Reader DSV flagged this article: Greedy cities unleash flood of citations to balance budgets. A quote:
“Code enforcement is supposed to be about protecting the public by discouraging – via monetary sanctions – dangerous driving and other hazardous personal conduct or property conditions,” according to the Institute for Justice review of Morrow, Riverdale and Clarkston.
‘But in practice, local governments may also – or instead – use their code enforcement powers to raise revenue. This is taxation by citation. It is not a new phenomenon, but only in the past few years has it become an object of national concern. Despite the fresh spotlight, little is known about cities that engage in taxation by citation, beyond a few particularly egregious examples.’
The organization said that over a five-year period, the towns generated on average 14% to 25% of their revenues from fines and fees, while similarly sized Georgia cities took in just 3%.”
Weekend Power Shutoffs Lead To Water Shortage In Vallejo
Weekend Power Shutoffs Lead To Water Shortage In Vallejo. JWR’s Comments: Most urban and suburban Americans don’t realize that their municipal tap water depends on grid power. Just a few days after the grid fails, then so does tap water. Ironically, the city of San Francisco has one of the very few municipal water supplies in the nation that is gravity-fed from end-to-end. That water is sourced high in the Sierra Nevada mountains at Hetch Hetchy Reservoir. Oh, and the ultra greenies want to have that dam demolished.
Removing 50 U.S. Tactical Nukes From Turkey
SurvivalBlog’s Editor at Large Mike Williamson suggested this Quora query: Why are US State and Energy Department officials now planning to evacuate 50 tactical nuclear weapons that the United States had long stored, under American control, at Incirlik Air Base in Turkey?
Facial Recognition System Networks are Growing
G.P. sent us this: Countries are building facial recognition systems – Understanding reasons behind it
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You can send your news tips to JWR. (Either via e-mail of via our Contact form.) Thanks!
Re: Citation revenue
Texas passed a law that prevents a municipality from receiving more than 25% of its annual budget from citations. It totally shut down several notorious “speed traps”.
I am so tempted to move to Texas sometimes. But I have family here and Texas does have some issues like any place else.
Texas is quickly filling up with Californians and illegal immigrants.
Indeed, I’m slowly being tempted to leave, not because of the people as much as the over-regulation burdens they are increasingly passing in our states voting booths.
Also, just get a rental car for a day. That’ll cover the license plate angle. Simple.
on Facial Recognition System Networks are Growing
I have stopped shopping at Walmart. There’s the left wing gun issue. Before that was the self checkout. I refuse on principle to use those things and started minimizing my shopping at stores that have them. When I do have to shop somewhere that has them, I make a point of using a register with a cashier. And now at the checkout stations there are facial recognition cameras that project on big screens with faces boxed in green squares. Anyone within sight line of them can see everyone going through checkout.
The hard part is that the price difference on some items is so significant that it is painful on the grocery budget to take my business elsewhere.
No worries. My wife and I use ball caps tight around the brim of our heads. We look downward past the two entrance cameras (both sides about 5 foot high) and also at the self check out we never ever let the camera take our face. It’s easy, just look right at the floor the whole time and pay cash and your safe. Oh BTW, we each use an infrared flashlight clipped to our ball caps bill and that does the trick–blinds all facial recognition cameras at Wal-mart.
God bless!
On “California Undercover Agents Staking Out Nevada Gun Shows”
A quote:
“We invite them, but they come at their own leisure and they don’t announce anything,” Tarbell said of the agents. “The only ones they’d scare away are the ones that got no good on their mind.”
How very goodthinkful
If you can id them call local LEO on them as “suspicious” or “possible terrorists” and insist on prosecution for “disorderly conduct” or anything else.
Let the ultra greenies have the Hetch Hechey dam removed. Perhaps the SF lefties will figure out that water is essential to life and doesn’t come naturally out of a plastic bottle. Notably most of the PG&E power outages are in rural areas where the transmission lines have been neglected for years, much like our political preferences. As Marie Antoinette said “Let them Drink Perrier” in the dark.
I am no expert on this issue, but I have heard it said here in the past few days that, due to the Green Energy mandates coming out of Sacramento regarding solar and wind generated power, that, rather than deal with the heavy resistance that would come with an effort to obtain rate hikes, the power companies trimmed back on maintenance expense. The chickens have come home to roost now.
Socialists always believe that there should be free lunches as long as someone else is paying the tab. It actually goes beyond those running the show in Sacramento. Voters in California seldom turn down a ballot proposition that involves millions, even billions of dollars for public projects, e.g., the bullet train boondoggle, and the homeless initiative in Los Angeles that has produced no tangible results so far. Voters can’t seem to do the math in determining just how that expense will affect the state’s or their city’s overall spending, and just how much will be left to spend on infrastructure, government services, or the host of social programs.
It has been said for many years that important social trends usually begin in California (which is one reason why those who live elsewhere in the country should not be unconcerned about, say, gun law developments here.) While this liberal attitude about spending on social programs, alternative energy, and means of transportation is clearly manifested in California, it is obviously growing nationally among Millennials. The Green New Deal and AOC and her crowd are very popular among those under 40. Were AOC eligible to run for President, she would no doubt be leading the pack among Democratic hopefuls.
For those over 50, while making it a universal would obviously be a mistake, perhaps it is not that far from the mark to paraphrase a saying from the 60s, “Never trust a person under 40.”
I read many years ago that people don’t really change their attitudes much about important social issues. They simply pass on from this life and are replaced by younger people. My 95-year-old mother-in-law has said several times, “I am just glad that I lived in my time.” I suspect that many of us will be saying the same thing before we make our grand exit from this vale of tears.
Survivormann99, I agree with you about the short-sightedness of socialists. Although, I have seen this happen across the spectrum of humanity. Most people want something for nothing. Few actually look at the big picture. I’m note that many of our fellow commenters seem to be grounded big picture realists.
BTW, “this vale of tears” was one of my fathers favorite phrases. I appreciate the tickle to remember.
Carry on
There is a case to be made that everyone wants something for nothing and few believe in shared sacrifice. I wouldn’t be so quick to condemn young people. I work with everyone from recent college graduates to people with 40 years of experience getting ready to retire. Sure, some of the younger ones don’t want to pay their dues and develop the experience to justify higher wages, but they also care about people, life, friends, experiences, and doing good in the world to a greater extent than many in older generations. The questions are what do they want and why would they feel the way they do? History suggests that life experiences shape people more than schools & teachers, and probably even more than some parents. Look at what the depression did to kids. That generation was very conservative with money with high savings rates from their memory of the depression. WWII shaped the next generation differently with the rationing and sacrifice. The Vietnam war also shaped people differently. As to young people, what is going on in the country that might be shaping them? These kids see their parents lose middle class jobs to only find minimum wage jobs to replace such, they see their parents lose houses to bankruptcy from medical bills, they see college educations that cost 80-100K, they see few paths to a middle class life, they see their parents and grandparents skip medications and even die because they can’t afford the drugs, they live at home because they can’t afford their own place working 40 hours per week, they see the planet warming, storms becoming more intense, they see a tiny sliver of the population getting richer while the rest suffer, they see 40% of the US that would struggle to find $400 for a car repair bill and 60% who would have trouble with a $1000 bill, they see a lot of pain and suffering. This has to be shaping them. Per Websters socialism is “any of various economic and political theories advocating collective or governmental ownership and administration of the means of production and distribution of goods.” If you look at candidates young people support, none of these candidates advocate for Websters definition. Who can even name the socialist party’s candidate? I can’t. What the candidates want and and I believe those young people want is a stronger safety net, they want a fair economic system (they aren’t fans of crony capitalism where the economy is rigged), they want jobs that pay enough to live on and raise a family, they want an economy where the wealth generated by everyone in the economy is shared with everyone in the economy who contributed to its generation instead of mainly to the owners of capital, they want affordable education and training, they want affordable healthcare, they want the planet to support human life in the billions in 25, 50 or 100 years from now, they want what the baby boomers had before the boomers screwed it up. Kids call this socialism because 4/10s of the country labels these socialism even though they are not. These policies are closer to what you find in capitalistic European countries. Now if the kids start advocating for government ownership and operation of the means of production and distribution we all should be concerned, scared, and planning for an economic collapse in short order. This article is an interesting look 40 years ago vs now. https://www.vox.com/2017/12/20/16772670/baby-boomers-millennials-congress-debt
On the gun/shell casing sniffing dogs:
For fun, pick-up brass/steel expended casings at local ranges, smash them with a hammer, and drop them EVERYWHERE. Parks, grassy areas besides public sidewalks, neighborhoods, under bus/transit seats, corners of public bathrooms, in the middle of clothes/product shelves…this will ensure that the dogs are well trained by ‘alerting’ all the time. Bonus for the latent evidence folks having to secure, log, investigate, and write a report about hundreds to thousands of pieces of waste metal.
Smashing with a hammer reduces the ability of getting accurate marks and fingerprints…use common sense for this prank.
I was thinking about just dribbling gun powder at all event locations..
a little dropper full of Hoppes #9 would make a cleaner process. Like Franks Red Hot, sprinkle that $*(% everywhere.
California “greenies” have a serious morality problem, they don’t have any. They don’t care how many humans they kill. They don’t care how much damage their policies cause. Like their antifa brethren, they are filled with hatred toward most of humanity. If they have their way, billions will die, and they will relish the result with orgasmic ecstasy. Sorry for they imagery, but this stuff is almost sexual with these leftist lunatics.
Re. U.S. Tactical Nukes Stored in Turkey
A simple yet absolutely fundamental question: How and from whom does the U.S. Military get the right to invade or occupy any foreign soil much less nukes?
Although as you know I agree with your basic premise, in the case of Turkey, the nukes being there likely had something to do with big money and some kind of treaty.
Carry on
One word- NATO. Turkey is a member, although not in good standing.
Nukes have been in Turkey a long, long time. IRBM’s were removed as part of the Cuban Missile crisis deal with the Soviets, but tac nukes have been there to prop up the Turkish gov’t and deter Soviet, and later Russian, aggression. As an opinion, they should have been removed long ago, back when Turkey failed to support the initial US operations against Iraq and Afghanistan, but they were “strategic partners”. At least I’m glad someone realizes that leaving them in an increasingly militant Muslim Turkey might not be such a good idea.
A little black pepper here and there will foil the best canine noses, for a good long time. A mix of pepper, snuff, and mint, and they won’t be able to smell anything for a good hour or two.
So the wheat I prefer to store ought to be getting really cheap soon? I doubt it.
Is there such a thing as straw man purchases on ammo? So take an Uber or the bus to the gun show, and leave your POV at the hotel, parking lot, or someplace away from prying eyes.
Years ago I had a business in eastern Washington and regularly worked on municipal comms systems. I got falsely tagged by one of those traps, and argued as an expert that the radar tag was false. The judge told me I was probably right, but he was going to find me guilty anyways. I paid the fine, and for the next year marked up every bill I sent the county for the amount I paid on that ticket. Let’s say I got back well over ten fold what they took. Ethics is a two way street, and I was lucky enough to have an exclusive access to a revenue source for remuneration. YMMV.
I see some tech opportunity coming up with a FR foiler along the lines of “A Scanner Darkly”. Wearing a necktie with an IR emitter might make most of the FR cameras useless.
Turkey is not our friend, never has been. They were an expedient remedy to a problem we had 70 years ago. Their usefulness has long passed, and it is time we treat them they way they deserve. They have not forgotten what was done to them when the Ottoman empire fell, and they still hold a grudge. They can never be trusted. It’s not the people, it’s the govt.
RE: IR Necktie
Let this IR flashlight hang from the neck. It should have a reflector attached that would scatter the infrared light away and some what upward. Or we could simply use wire ties to strap it on a the bill of a baseball cap. Remove the lens on the flashlight so that the IR is dispensed broadly. At the very least, it would be a fashion statement, and a talking point. I would rather live in the boonies where such is not accepted by the locals. They probably know where I live anyway. Well, maybe.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01DZ78PVA/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=B01DZ78PVA&linkCode=as2&tag=survivalcom-20&linkId=2dbe1d7d238f117b909184c25a3a2906
TSA has been using those type trained dogs at the airport and train stations here for many years. The state police want to utilize them at other large venues for crowd security.
Tim, “crowd security”? Surely you realize that you are 8 times more likely to be killed by a police officer than by a terrorist.
Re: Citations
Several years ago National Review had a story about a city near St. Louis that was fining their people so much that they finally sued the city. It is interesting to note that this area was near Ferguson Mo where the infamous Michael Brown affair took place and it is likely Ferguson was doing the very same thing.
When you look into some of these places where this is happening they seem to disproportionately poor and often black neighborhoods. I don’t think this is intentional targeting. I think the tax revenue in these places start to drop due to dropping property values and then the cities start trying to make up the revenue. And poor people are less able to fight back further enticing the cities to use this immoral policy.
I have always felt, Michael Brown had to be shot in that moment of time for what he was doing at that time and basically who he had become in his short life. But I also wondered what made him who he was? I suspect part of it was this very system of shaking down the poor for money when you cannot find another way to tax them. Do I think Michael Brown could have articulated this? Not likely but I think it likely contributed to the environment that turned him into a monster.
I have often thought that under the right circumstances I could easily find myself out of control robbing a store and then stupidly charging a police officer who challenged me on the street. I say this because I know how stupid, angry and aggressive I would likely be if I had not been sat on so hard when young, by my mother in particular. I know my heart and if not controlled it can be quite dark. I do not think I am better than Michael Brown. Just lucky to have been raised better.
I am not onboard with the pity party attitude that often comes out of some members of the black community, however I think that some of what goes on needs to be examined in a certain way. Many prosperous white people are (justifiably) fed up with excessive property taxes, fees, etc. Many poor black (and white) people are putting up with excessive fines and harassment because the cities and counties cannot get the money out of them any other way.
And then guess what? Everybody is getting ripped off by the same corrupt system and everybody is angry. But because we are getting ripped off in different ways, we do not unite to fight the system that is ripping us off. We stay divided along racial and income lines and get nothing done to fix the problem.
If we can ever somehow unite on these issues, the corrupt powers that be are in serious trouble.
I think you are wrong in your speculation that some form of bigotry is behind some minorities being arrested or ticketed for breaking the law. The simple truth is that some minorities choose to break the law by as much as ten times the average for whites. A part of the problem is welfare; i.e. welfare has made it desirable to have many children and to not have a father in the household. The result of this intentional and failed system is many minority teens have no father figure and often even the mother figure is not there or high on drugs.
I am not wrong in speculating that bigotry is behind the issue because I did not say that bigotry was behind the issue. I said the opposite.
I specifically stated, “I do not think this is intentional targeting.” If this was not clear enough I will restate this to say I do not think this is racial targeting or bigotry.
Nor am I talking about ticketing as I think you are referencing it. Which I would assume would be traffic stops and such. I am speaking of citations for not mowing your lawn, having a BBQ in you yard with more than a few people, having a car jacked up, etc. Basically the stuff that HOAs harass and anger people about in upscale neighborhoods. Cities are aggressively fining people for these things in lower end neighborhoods to generate revenue and that is what the Missouri lawsuit I referenced was addressing. This is not about “profiling” on the street. This is about harassing and fining people on their own property.
To repeat and hopefully clarify, I think this is entirely about revenue generation and the reason it falls on poor and often blacks is because they live in neighborhoods where property values are low and therefore property tax revenue is low. The politicians still require ever more money and therefore they find more and more ways to fine people and generate the revenue that they cannot get through regular taxation or other means.
And I think it would be beneficial if the white guy trying to build a garage and getting raked over by the county/city with excessive permitting and regulation to generate revenue could somehow come together with the old, not so, prosperous black guy that got behind on his lawn and got fined by his city for revenue generation. Different faces of the same problem. If both sides of this economic and racial divide had empathy (not sympathy but empathy) for the other side, they might have a better shot at shutting the robber politicians down.
As to my comments that said I was basically empathetic to Michael Brown, I think the excessive citations in these black neighborhoods are one factor in generating the anger in those neighborhoods. I do think the things you speak of are also factors but government harassment is aggravating an already bad situation.
The excessive citations are the result of excessive criminal activity. Part of the problem is that many people who live in these neighborhoods WANT more policing because the thugs are harming them. But when the inevitable confrontations result in bodily harm those same people blame the police. To be honest you sound like you mean well but simply don’t know what you are talking about. I have lived in these neighborhoods and they are crazy dangerous for everyone including the police. I can also assure you that cars up on blocks are the least of the problems the police deal with AND if the car is up on blocks in one of these places it is usually stolen.
JBH, I have often reflected on some of the same issues you raise. Your candor is refreshing.
Carry on
Re CT SP Firearms scent dogs: Outside of a “gun free zone” I don’t see a valid use for them. As the article points out, using dogs to search for legal items is on shaky constitutional ground (and in the “Constitution State” no less lol). I could see the State Police using them at the various venues mentioned (although I imagine most of the “hits” will be on off duty or retired cops), but why would Meriden and Hartford need them for their violent crime units? If you have a search warrant, you don’t need the dog to find a gun and an air sniff on a vehicle is going to be a problem unless the car is loaded with known felons. Side note: cops shouldn’t have beards unless they’re undercover (in which case you probably shouldn’t be pictured in a Facebook post as a cop!)
Connecticut State Police Now Has Firearms Sniffing Dogs
This is an bulls**t excuse / ploy to get around illegal searches.
The police are not your friends.
Those are NATO nukes. They should have been removed when Erdogan became a dictator. They are barely a NATO nation.
RE: Gun sniffing police dogs…. You can be that the sale of doe-in-heat scent will be used to bask holsters and firearm handles in to thwart the detection of the gun powder the dogs seek to sniff. It reminds us to clean our guns regularly because the Hoppes Number 9 is not in the expended shells the dogs detect.
RE: California agents in Nevada. We live in Nevada, tossed out of California due to liberalism, and if I see a CA agent in Nevada he will be tossed out physically by me. In addition, CA just put up that new border check 6 miles from Nevada and it backs up traffic into Las Vegas everyday now with facial recognition cameras, inquisitive attendants asking what your purpose was in NV, license plate readers and their new CHP station with mini-jail. Those Agents just radio the license plates to the check point and stop the cars to harass law abiding gun owners. Imagine if CA secured their international border as they do their state borders??? This is good info for me and I will be on the lookout for CA Agents at our next gun show to be sure they are removed immediately. I am a disgruntled California and have ZERO tolerance for anything law enforcement from California in my state. I’m already got a letter I’m writing now to the state legislature.
Taxation by citation. I had a friend start driving in California in 2002 and by 2006 he had 10 traffic violations and a license suspended and car impounded once. He moved out, then I read an article about Jesse Ventura having stated the same of the Law Harassment instead of the Law Enforcement in California in a money making scheme.
Please write the State legislature in California to remove PROP 65–that’s those harassing message on every box of tools, nails, bolts, electronics and what not you purchase in other states which say, “We in the state of California believe this product could cause cancer at some time.” I was thrown out of California due to improper management – I don’t want to leave a state and then have their name plastered all over my face when I’m in another state. Please write.
God Bless!
Connecticut State Police Now Has Firearms Sniffing Dogs
The totalitarian state keeps moving forward. That’s why we call them progressives, the progress the ball down the field to an authoritarian dictatorship one step at a time.
I was pleased today to see a Senator actually admit that we are heading for a civil war. Congrats Mr. Gohmert. It’s about time you politicians realize what all your stupidity is going to lead too.
Practice your skills, stockpile supplies, be ready to fight.
God bless
I think the “civil war” will be only in select cities where there are already racial tensions. It won’t be a civil war as much as a racial war. But the war we’re likely to see on a national level will be a war of the people against the government. The term government would include soldiers as well as the police. That’s my prediction and I hope I’m proven wrong.
The civil war will be conservatives against the liberals. God fearing believers against the HOAs, Antifa, city councils, Marxist federal judges, published school/universities mantas, lawmakers running this country to communism, and the local and state and federal law enforcers will be caught in the cross fire by stepping in.
My prediction.
>> local governments may also – or instead – use their
>> code enforcement powers to raise revenue.
>> This is taxation by citation.
Homeowner Associations (HOAs) have been doing this for decades.
And those fines are backed by the power to foreclose in order to collect. HOA fees are, in effect, privatized taxation.
I would think that conservatives would be happy to see government being run like a business.
> The civil war will be conservatives against the liberals.
> God fearing believers against the HOAs, Antifa,
> city councils, Marxist
HOAs? What is more conservative/libertarian than governance by a private corporation under the guise of contract law with no consumer protection regulations?
While I have – to my surprise – met many individual conservatives and libertarians who hate HOAs, most “thought leaders” on the political Right have nothing but praise for them. SurvivalBlog has thankfully been a notable exception.
If the Republican Party were smart – pause for the laughter to die down – they would seek to protect Americans from involuntary membership homeowner associations in the same manner that they seek to protect workers from involuntary membership labor unions.
It’s an incredibly large constituency – 70 million Americans, or 20% of the population, think CA and TX combined – that our political leaders have ignored. Fortunately for the $90 billion per year HOA industry special interests, the Democrat Party has no interest in curtailing their abusive, fraudulent, and predatory practices.
The Republican “no government interference in private contracts” defense of HOAs should have been forfeit a long time ago when they decided to adopt “right to work” laws, which are government interference in private contracts with labor unions.
But there is no monopoly on cognitive dissonance across the ideological spectrum.
I was stopped by a sheriff’s deputy in VT who had a speed trap at the end of a freeway. The trap was about 1000 ft before the road entered NY just after a reduction in the allowed speed.
I have friends who have lived in China for years and when their local municipality ran low on funds, they waited until 5,000 employees parked their bicycles next to the factory, put up no parking signs and wrote them all tickets!
Lol y’all worried bout defeating dogs and we are celebrating CONSTITUTIONAL CARRY today.
1984 is for sure here. The militarization of local and state police is disturbing and I served as a military policeman so seeing my local deputies in plate carriers and bdus is ridiculous. The two party system as far as I can see is just an illusion, they’re all in the same gang.