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 inflation the prices of Rawles XL Voyager knives.
Big Brother’s Tech Advances
Reader C.M. sent this: 10 Things Edward Snowden Didn’t Tell You About Big Brother – Our Beloved Uncle Sam, and his cousins – FBI, NSA & DHS.
Supreme Court Denies Hearing 10 Gun Case Appeals
Reader D.S.V. sent this: SCOTUS Rejection of 2A Cases Moves Up Likelihood of a Forced Choice for Gun Owners
Vincent James: No One is Coming to Save Us
Reader R.J. sent us this video link to conservative commentator Vincent James, describing the out of control leftist iconoclasts: No One is Coming to Save Us. One instance that he mentioned particularly struck me: Rioters defaced a statue of a 19th Century abolitionist. I’ve often written that we are living in the age of deception and betrayal. But now I’m beginning to believe that we are living in the age of absurd logical inversion!
Washington Now Requires Face Masks
Washington state to require face masks after county runs out of hospital beds.
Planned Parenthood Endorses Biden
This one came as no surprise: Planned Parenthood Endorses Biden, Says It’s ‘a Life and Death Election’. JWR’s Comment: Well, now we know who has the “death” part covered!
Oregon Xfer Background Check System is Overwhelmed
Editor Pat Cascio wrote to describe just how quickly guns are flying off the shelves in Oregon: “Yesterday, at my local FFL I learned that the system was backed-up well over 4,000 people waiting to get their background checks completed – at least 5+ days to get approval if you had applied to buy a gun the preceding day…”
Cultural Appropriation?
A new meme by JWR: How is it that anyone can be castigated for “cultural appropriation” by the same liberals who have for so long asked me to glorify America as “a cultural melting pot”?
Google’s Latest Spyware
Reader T.K.B. wrote to mention: “I received a Facebook posting showing that Google has updated smartphones to include an app that will notify you if you have been near a person with coronavirus. Android phone users can confirm this by going to SETTINGS = GOOGLE. There is now a new setting: ‘COVID-19 Exposure Notifications’. It is active once you turn on Bluetooth. I am now done with using cellphones.”
The History of Gun Lubricants
Mike Williamson (our Editor At Large) mentioned this: Educate yourself – A History of Firearms Lubricants.
Scottish Man Convicted of “Leprechaun” Slur
Next, over at Zero Hedge: Scottish Man Convicted Of Calling Ex-Girlfriend’s Boyfriend A “Leprechaun”. Here is an excerpt from the article:
“…a Scottish man has been convicted of a message that was grossly offensive, indecent or menacing. According to the Evening Express, the prosecutor (appropriately named Susan Love) cited the fact that Terry Myers, 41, called the Irish boyfriend of his ex-girlfriend a “leprechaun.”
Love declared that the mail was threatening but added that it was a racially aggravated offense due to the use of the word “leprechaun.”
His defense attorney said that the two men had a “petty and pathetic” history and that his client regretted the use of the term.
He was nevertheless found guilty and fined £280 ($350) for the offense.
We have been following (here and here and here and and and here and and here and here) the worsening situation in England concerning free speech. The problem is trying to draw such lines rather than embracing free speech as protecting not just popular but unpopular and even hateful speech. Once you start as a government to criminalize speech, you end up on a slippery slope of censorship.”
Tucker Carlson on the Democratic Power Grab
Over at Fox News, some commentary from Tucker Carlson: No one attempted to stop Democratic power grab
Rawles XL Voyager Price Inflation
I just noticed that genuine Rawles Extra Large Voyager knives are now selling for $225 each. Beware of the many Mainland China counterfeits now on the market. Congrats to the folks who bought the genuine article at under $70 each, when they were first released. By the way, there will probably be another Rawles limited edition from Cold Steel released in 2021. That one will be a variant of the medium-size Voyager. The profits from that knife will also be entirely going to charity.
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You are spot on with the limits being placed on the freedom of speech here in the UK!
We had an aircraft banner fly over the other evening with ‘White Lives Matter Burnley’ emblazoned on it and the libleft, msm and the stasi went nuts!!
The chap who organised it AND his girlfriend have both lost their jobs…
There are still plenty of patriots over here so hopefully we will keep pushing back.
Keep up the good work on here and in the USA, and my God smile on us all.
I have an old fashioned flip phone. I will never have a smart phone.
is covid and the rioting cover up for the total failure of the world economy?
Covid and such are merely an opportunity that has been seeded and nurtured for decades. The term “Round-up” now comes to mind.
Rural anarchists are at work: https://crimethinc.com/2020/06/20/a-letter-from-the-other-front-on-rural-anarchist-participation
Re: Rawles XL Voyager Price Inflation
Congratulations, JWR on the news of plans for the limited edition 2021 Cold Steel release!
The matter of counterfeit products captured my attention. Some years ago I was speaking a person whose work focus was licensing and other protections of the work of artists and designers. The problem of theft was rampant even then, and the remedies were few. Thieves are thieves, and they will steal whatever they can steal.
President Trump was moving proactively to protect American intellectual property and prevent the sale of counterfeit goods early in the year before the virus hit hardest. This was — and remains — important work.
I’d love some advice from the WV readership. My husband and I are considering retreating permanently from our beloved Virginia, which is currently NOT the state we grew up in. We are looking at WV. Any advice you have to share would be gratefully received. We have seen, online, properties of 10-200 acres, but are completely unaware of the details of the various locales we are considering. Many thanks in advance for advice you might provide.
Hi Amy. WV Joe here. I rarely post here but have been a daily reader of SB for years. I could help give you insight into demographics or politics of different counties if you can provide that info.
Thank you, WV Joe!
We are currently looking at a couple of properties in Rupert (Greenbrier Co.) WV. Any insight?
Amy
Hi again Amy. That part of the state is beautiful. Youre in the more mountainous parts of the state in those eastern counties. Skiing tourists in the winter but that’s snowshoe resort in Pocahontas county. Mostly tourist area for hunting and fishing and hiking. But its never overrun with tourists. Im from the western part of the state in the Ohio valley. But I would move to the eastern part if I could. Except for eastern panhandle. That’s too close to D.C.!
WV is definitely Trump country for the most part. Anything east of Charleston is by far the prettiest part of the state there is just less employment except for tourist industry. Lots of churches and guns.
Hope this helps
Hi Amy, I agree with your statement that it’s not my Virginia anymore. My family have been working towards moving across the mountain for several years now, but things have gotten untenable since the last election. We will be moving before the summer is over. The main problem I’ve seen with WV is the lack of jobs at this time. I’ll be making a longer commute to work once we move but it will be worth it. We’re hoping to get into niche farming for livestock, poultry and produce to keep ourselves fed and sell excess to extra spending money.
I can’t advise on greenbrier county besides to say that it’s a beautiful area and has more amenities than other areas. We’ll be north in Pendleton Co. I know many other making the same move.
http://www.usa.com/
This website can give some facts on various cities and counties.
It is Reasonably accurate, although checking my city, it is not listed.
Some real estate websites, National board of realtors, has data
Thank you! I spent some time there yesterday reviewing the data!
Amy
Quote of the Day
“By producing prosperity, capitalism creates its own gravediggers in the form of a comfortable class of intellectuals and politicians.” – Alan Greenspan
Comment
The real grave diggers are equally adept with shovels and firearms – where intellectuals and politicians idea of dirt is what they sling at opponents.
Re:phones – a different approach to staying ‘connected’…
I got a tough mil-spec flip phone when I pRetired ™ three years ago to spend some downtime working on our new place, while my tired old body could still do some physical tasks.
Back in March I got hired for a short three month job (to help rebuild the bank account) that would require the ability to once again email as well as calls & texting. (The new job shut down four days into the contract due to CoVid-1984, of course.)
I took my old smartphone, which was already lobotomized (i.e. de-Googled) as much possible, and now connect through my wifi hotspot, and only when I’m actively using it.
This works quite well. It strips away much of the background data & location tracking.
Thought this method might work for some others amongst our little community. Peace.
Amy, I migrated to an off-grid farm in WV 30 yrs ago, and have not regretted it. Lots of places with rural culture, low taxes, no building codes, abundant water. But huge variations from place to place, in microclimates, accessibility, soils, jobs, politics, pollution. Your experience will hinge on exactly what you are looking for in terms of lifestyle, and who you are. Happy to have the management here give you my contact info, if that is possible. Seems like that would be a useful process.
Per your request, I forwarded your contact info, along with our standard warning on OPSEC.
Thank you all for your help!
Also, one might check out JWR’s son’s realty site, survivalrealty.com, they have 3 listings in WV and although 2 are over $1 million, there’s also a 5 acre plot of land for $50,000.
Get John, can you recommend two or three counties for further investigation? Perfectly understand if you can’t.
Re: No One Is Coming To Save Us
As the City of Minneapolis plots and plans the disbanding of its police department, Minnesota state Rep. Steve Green on Tuesday (06 23 2020) asserted that ANTIFA and Muslim organizations plan to “police Minneapolis under Muslim rule.”
ANTIFA and Muslim organizations plan to “police Minneapolis under Muslim rule.”
That means Sharia Law, which they have been working toward for at least the past 12 years (since Oblama)
Everyone needs to understand this is less about defunding the police than it is about redistributing that funding. If they defunded the police and returned the money to taxpayers that would be the only honest thing they could do. But this is a bait and switch, they want that money and once “they” get their hands on it you will never see it again or know what it was spent on.
Defunding and Eliminating the Police is not the point.
A National police force controlled by Washington is…
Obama National Police Force
(YouTube Video, 2:18)
BrainDeadRepublican
Oct 19, 2008
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZEnNYN8sKbQ
“We’ve got to have a Civilian National Security Force, that is just as powerful, just as strong, just as well funded…”
Does any of this sound familar…
The Obama Youth are now all adults…
With a National police force, there are no more sheriffs or police chiefs…
The police report to Washington, not the local electorate.
It is for the safety of the people…
It is the only way for the oppressed to be safe…
First they stultify the police, defund and eliminate them, after a period of chaos, a new solution is proposed…
We already have a(n unconstitutional) national police force in the form of the Female Body Inspectors, and all of the other federal agencies that are armed- AS OF 2014. https://www.thetruthaboutguns.com/full-list-of-armed-federal-agencies/
You are obviously paying attention, Nathan.
All of us would do well to pay close attention to this list. BTW, you COULD blame Obama. Or, you could look up the origin date of each of these agencies.
My bet is on a bi-partisan creation of outfits with armed “agents”.
Carry on in grace
FWIW, I believe if you follow the trail on this it will end at the White House when it was controlled by the Clintons.
My phone. 3G, touch screen, Java operating system, no GPS, removable battery, Bluetooth turned off, WiFi turned off, can send and receive texts, can send and receive email as text. My wife’s phone is a flip-phone with pretty much the same attributes. Thank you TracFone. I guess these would be called burner phones except we’ve had the same phone numbers for years, just different phones. I just checked, it’s still possible to replace both phones with the same phones, through Amazon, not TracFone. The price is actually going up on these, not down. Newer phones are all 4G-LTE phones with either iOS or Android operating systems. Most newer phones do not have readily removable batteries. So I guess I’m good as long as TracFone supports 3G phones.
My phone: Don’t know the brand name, the operating system but it is turned off on my bureau or maybe my desk, not sure. Haven’t used it in a month or two. So quiet without a phone.
Hi Charles K.
I received notice on my Tracfone that the service would be canceled at the end of 2020. Apparently Verizon is doing away with the 3G service. Hope we find an alternative.
I have not received a notice like that. If I have to I will get the cheapest 4G phone they offer. This would be the LG Rebel 4 (LML212VL). It has a removable battery which is a plus. The downside is it has an older Android operating system. I’d rather have a Linux based phone, so far they are few and far between.
My phone is on an ATT system rather than Verizon. That may be why no notice so far. If worse comes to worse, I just won’t get another cell phone. If my TracFone was being fazed out I doubt I’d have been able to add another year of service time like I did just last week. Who knows?
This message is for Amy about West Virginia. I lived there in the 1990’s and returned to my native state CT in 2001 due to circumstances beyond my control. There are so many websites and information about WV which I dearly love, that I welcome you to email me.
Thank you! Done!
Re: Washington Now Requires Face Masks, Nevada has joined the ‘Masked when in Public’ swelling ranks, a decree from our Benevolent [Dictator] Governor by EO Tuesday. During his televised decree, he hinted at fines for non- compliance, but made references to restrict intra-state travel and inter state travel restrictions a la Hawai’i currently.
You can no longer activate any new 3G phones with any carrier. All new activations must be a phone capable of 4G VoLTE or Voice over LTE. I have been using an android smart phone for years and never had a google account. All google apps are disabled. Just checked for the COVID app and it is not on any of my phones. Best way is to have a de-googled phone using LineageOS or GrapheneOS. Look up on youtube for more info. For a simple flip phone there is the Doro 7050 by Consumer Cellular. No wifi or gps. You can text and call. You can find on ebay unlocked versions to use with different carriers. Hope this info helps.
Super glad I purchased my Voyager when they came out. Along with my Redoubt Silver Dollars, BaoFeng radios and a handful of other JWR tangible recommendations, I have yet to be steered wrong.