The Survivalist’s Odds ‘n Sods

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.

Jobs (or is that Immigration)

Two GOP RINOs are getting ready to introduce legislation to allow the states to legally import 500,000 blue-collar workers and white-collar professionals to replace lost American workers. They blame depressed workers turning to drugs (through Medicaid) but rather than fix the problem, the’ll just import cheap labor and keep doing the same old things. Thanks to M.G. for the link.

Essential Field Gear

Reader H.L. sent in this post over at Activist Post on what they feel are the top 10 critical items you need for survival. If you are down to 10 items, it’s a decent list. A firearm is conspicuously missing though. I’d consider that a necessity in SHTF. You might want to take a look at the SurvivalBlog article “Armed To The Teeth: Essential Survival Contingency” by Michael S for a more comprehensive look at some basics that are missed.

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The Editors’ Quote of the Day

Wherefore gird up the loins of your mind, be sober, and hope to the end for the grace that is to be brought unto you at the revelation of Jesus Christ;  as obedient children, not fashioning yourselves according to the former lusts in your ignorance:  but as he which hath called you is holy, so be ye holy in all manner of conversation;  because it is written, Be ye holy; for I am holy.  And if ye call on the Father, who without respect of persons judgeth according to every man’s work, pass the time of your sojourning here in fear:  forasmuch as ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold, from your vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers;  but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot:  who verily was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last times for you,  who by him do believe in God, that raised him up from the dead, and gave him glory; that your faith and hope might be in God. – 1 Peter 1:13-21 (KJV)



Notes for Saturday – May 06, 2017

Today is the birthday of bluegrass musician Earl Scruggs, (1924-2012) and British comic actor Rowan Atkinson (born 1955).

Earl Scruggs

Earl Scruggs was an American musician who popularized a three-finger banjo picking style, now called “Scruggs style”. This style is a defining characteristic of bluegrass music. His radically different three-finger style of playing the five-string banjo is radically different. Previously, the banjo was typically played with a frailing or clawhammer technique. He  also popularized the instrument in several genres of music and elevated the banjo from its role as a background rhythm instrument, or a comedian’s prop, into featured solo status.

On his 80th birthday, singer Porter Wagoner said “Earl is to the five-string banjo what Babe Ruth was to baseball. He is the best there ever was and the best there ever will be.”

At age 88, Earl Scruggs died from natural causes on the morning of March 28, 2012, in a Nashville hospital

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Nurse’s Perspective for Survival, by L.S.

As a nurse who believes in making preparations for long-term survival, it has come to my attention that there are a few simple preventive healthcare measures that everyone should consider. However, obtaining important preventive healthcare and taking general measures related to maintaining general health is often overlooked or delayed. The focused attention to the more obvious important prepping activities often wins out. Having enough food, water, or a safe, sheltered environment are examples

Tetanus Vaccine

My favorite approach to staying healthy is a more naturopathic way. I must admit that I am not a strong advocate of most vaccines in general. This is due to a variety of chemicals that are added into vaccines. This has recorded side effects in some vaccines after administration. However, there is one particular vaccination that I do believe is important to obtain in emergency preparation. This is the tetanus vaccination.

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The Survivalist’s Odds ‘n Sods

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.

Social Unrest

Continuing on the antifa subject of last time, reader T.J. sent in the link to a propaganda film by the agitators. I couldn’t make it very far into the piece without feeling sick to my stomach, but an anonymous person posted these notes:

  • Notice the high-quality, professional production value of the piece.
  • Aiming at young people – effectiveness unknown; try it on some test subjects.
  • Uniforms look stupid 99% of the time and are tactically unwise almost as often.
  • The odds of a Team Freedom “Only Good Red Is Dead” counter prop is near zero at this time.

I would add that it is amazing that it is the antifa movement that seeks to hide its identity. (Usually that is a mark of those who are ashamed or pursue terrorist goals.) It is also equally amazing to me that these people are trying to portray their “enemies” as fascists while using fascist tactics and goals themselves.

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The Editors’ Quote Of The Day

“Sometimes fate is like a small sandstorm that keeps changing directions. You change direction but the sandstorm chases you. You turn again, but the storm adjusts. Over and over you play this out, like some ominous dance with death just before dawn. Why? Because this storm isn’t something that blew in from far away, something that has nothing to do with you. This storm is you. Something inside of you. So all you can do is give in to it, step right inside the storm, closing your eyes and plugging up your ears so the sand doesn’t get in, and walk through it, step by step. There’s no sun there, no moon, no direction, no sense of time. Just fine white sand swirling up into the sky like pulverized bones. That’s the kind of sandstorm you need to imagine.
And you really will have to make it through that violent, metaphysical, symbolic storm. No matter how metaphysical or symbolic it might be, make no mistake about it: it will cut through flesh like a thousand razor blades. People will bleed there, and you will bleed too. Hot, red blood. You’ll catch that blood in your hands, your own blood and the blood of others.
And once the storm is over you won’t remember how you made it through, how you managed to survive. You won’t even be sure, in fact, whether the storm is really over. But one thing is certain. When you come out of the storm you won’t be the same person who walked in. That’s what this storm’s all about.” – Haruki Murakami, Kafka On The Shore



Notes for Friday – May 05, 2017

Don’t forget about the SurvivalBlog writing contest. With $11,000 worth of prizes it can be well worth your time to finish up that article you have been writing. Round 70 ends on May 31st, 2017 so get it wrapped up and submitted!

o o o

May 5th is the birthday of Pat Frank (1908-1964). This was the pen name of newspaper journalist Harry Hart Frank. His novel Alas, Babylon is a survivalist classic. His personal life was marred by alcoholism, but his writing is admired and still surprisingly popular, today. (Alas, Babylon is still in print, after more than 50 years!) As an homage to Pat Frank, one of the settings in JWR’s novel Expatriates is Mt. Dora, Florida, which was fictionalized by Pat Frank as Fort Repose in Alas, Babylon.



Krav Maga – Militarized MMA, By krav maga practitioner

Krav Maga  allows fast competency

Let me begin by stating that any martial art training is a good training. However, some martial arts take many years or repeating the same form until the repetition is perfect. And sparring in many (not all) martial arts is frequently with someone of the same size and power level with many rules to keep it a fair fight.

Origins

Krav Maga was originally developed by Imi Lichtenfeld for the Israeli military.  to quickly train their new military. Imi Lichenfeld initially based the training on his experiences fighting fascist groups prior to WW2. Krav Maga is constantly evolving. It is now based loosely on many martial arts, boxing, wrestling, Muay Thai, Akido, and Ju Jitsu/BJJ. Krav Maga uses the most efficient aspects of other martial arts as well as training for new types of emerging threats. It is a martial art that is very heavy on the martial and light on the art! One portion of this efficiency is to quickly train you how to deal with a threat. As you advance through the training, you obtain more and more tools to deal with threats on many levels.

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Economics & Investing

Here are the latest items and commentary on current economics news, market trends, stocks to watch, investing opportunities, hedges, derivatives, and the precious metals markets. These are all from the quirky “tangibles heavy” contrarian perspective of SurvivalBlog’s Founder and Senior Editor, JWR:

Precious Metals:

Richard Postma was recently a guest on the Korelin Economics Report radio show. Doc says: “There are some moving averages that have turned against the metals and will take time to recover. Summer is typically a rough time for the metals but we could see a the turn by the end of the year.”

Commodities Economics:

The price of nickel ore has been fairly steady for the past two weeks. For those readers who took a hedge position in U.S. Nickel coins, my advice is to continue to hold them. Regardless, time is on your side!

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The Editors’ Quote Of The Day

“The first pressing issue facing us is living space. This is the biggest focus of the revitalization of the Chinese race. In my last speech, I said that the fight over basic living resources (including land and ocean) is the source of the vast majority of wars in history. This may change in the information age, but not fundamentally. Our per capita resources are much less than those of Germany’s back then. In addition, economic development in the last twenty-plus years had a negative impact, and climates are rapidly changing for the worse. Our resources are in very short supply. The environment is severely polluted, especially that of soil, water, and air. Not only our ability to sustain and develop our race, but even its survival is gravely threatened, to a degree much greater than faced Germany back then Anybody who has been to Western countries knows that their living space is much better than ours. They have forests alongside the highways, while we hardly have any trees by our streets. Their sky is often blue with white clouds, while our sky is covered with a layer of dark haze. Their tap water is clean enough for drinking, while even our ground water is so polluted that it can’t be drunk without filtering. They have few people in the streets, and two or three people can occupy a small residential building; in contrast our streets are always crawling with people, and several people have to share one room.

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Notes for Thursday – May 04, 2017

SurvivalBlog readers will notice some changes in our look this morning. We’ve been listening to our readership over the last year and have compiled a list of desired formatting options that they want to see. Primarily, you’ll notice we are now in a two column format. This gives us a bit more editorial space so things like tables are formatted better. There are other changes so we invite you to explore the site.

Important Anniversaries

On May 4, 1970, Ohio National Guardsmen opened fire on anti-war protesters at Kent State University, killing four students and wounding nine others.

Also on this day in 1994, Israeli Prime Minister Rabin and PLO leader Arafat signed an accord on Palestinian autonomy. The accord granted self-rule in the Gaza Strip and Jericho. The world believed that this created  peace at last in the Middle East. Of course, the Palestinians then, as now, threw away the peace agreement and resumed hostilities towards Israel.

 



Where To Start Prepping, by S.H.

If you are reading this, you are probably like many people trying to get a grasp on “prepping” and a general idea of what you need to do or not do to start prepping. If you’re reading articles in this blog then you are doing one of the first steps in the “prepper” lifestyle. You are educating yourself. Make no mistake, that is one of the most important steps. Now I’m no expert by any means, but I have been down this road. I’m going to give a few tips to at least help get you started in the right direction.

Knowledge

Again, if you are reading this you are well into this step. There is truth in the statement that knowledge is power. There are books, articles, YouTube videos, and blogs on any range of topics that you could remotely be interested in. So, finding information on weapons, medical issues, and homesteading is available. Well, you get the idea. Any special skill you want to learn is out there. There is no excuse for not getting the information you need. Don’t forget to research what has happened in areas where disasters have happened, like Katrina.

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Letter Re: SurvivalBlog Archive

SurvivalBlog gets a letter about the Archive:

I am very pleased with my purchase of the SurvivalBlog Archive. The search function is very impressive, and the content rivals and surpasses any resource that I’ve ever seen. Its number one asset is that it is wholly portable and Internet independent.

In comparison, the other day I spent way too much time on a government website trying to get information on some basic topics that they claimed to be the authority on. It was a numbing experience of being led to dead links. I left the building discouraged. Endless round-a-bout links were also painful. Every so often I hear the saying “we have the best government that money can buy”. Imagine how dysfunctional the archive would be  if it was commissioned by a committee out of Washington D.C.  Remember the inauguration of the Affordable Health Care Act website? Thanks again. – RT



The Survivalist’s Odds ‘n Sods

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.

Social Unrest

Many of our readers took notice when we posted the link to Arizona’s John Brown Gun Club. The irony was in the “fake” rifles that many carried as an open-carry protest. Today, SurvivalBlog reader B.B. updated us on their progress. Apparently, they were offended at being caught carrying toys under the guise of open-carry, so this time they posted a video of their range practice. I know they are trying to show how mean and tough they are, but it’s hard not to laugh. They really seem to want to pick a fight though.

Reader P.S. sent in this link from All Outdoor on dangerous gangs when the SHTF. I tend to agree with the author. I know that there are alot of quality officers out there, but I also know that ethics are already out the window and we are just barely managing to stay civilized. When pushed over the brink, the uniform is a symbol of power. It’s not even that they are bad people (though they may be). If you dehumanize the target, they think they are doing the right thing.

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The Editors’ Quote Of The Day

“The world is now witnessing the final stage of pre-war preparations. The communists have always planned to use North Korea as a trip wire for war with the West. As the current tensions escalate, military experts believe that war could begin on the Korean peninsula before summer. Russia and China have also begun full scale mobilizations, and experts in Europe are now warning that a world war could come as soon as fall.

Donald Trump has warned that ‘North Korea is looking for trouble’, insisting that if China does not decide to help the US ‘will solve the problem without them.’ The US President made this extraordinary statement on Twitter, his warnings backed up by sending a US carrier battle group to the area.

The general public in the West assumes the United States is a lone super power and therefore can act unilaterally without serious consequence. The thought that US forces might be defeated by the communist nations is dismissed as absurd. Unfortunately, this confidence in American military supremacy is no longer based upon reality, and rather now relies upon hubris alone. The belief that the US remains the world’s lone superpower is seriously misplaced as the balance of military power has shifted dramatically over the last fifteen years only no one bothered to inform the American public. The US no longer holds a clear upper hand in today’s conventional or nuclear battlefield.” – Benjamin Baruch, in an April, 2017 essay titled: The March to World War III