Preparedness Notes for Tuesday — March 10, 2020

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110 years ago today, March 10, 1910, China officially ended slavery. But unofficially, China now has one of the world’s largest slave populations. These are mostly political prisoners, working in prison factories. Sadly, there is no way of reliably knowing whether or not most of the “Made In China” merchandise that you buy might originate from the laogai prison factories.

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Before I get to our feature article and regular columns, here are a few pressing news updates:

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SurvivalBlog Writing Contest

Today we present another entry for Round 87 of the SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing contest. The prizes for this round include:

First Prize:

  1. A gift certificate from Quantum Harvest LLC (up to a $2,200 value) good for 12% off the purchase of any of their sun-tracking models, and 10% off the purchase price of any of their other models.
  2. A Gunsite Academy Three Day Course Certificate. This can be used for any one, two, or three day course (a $1,095 value),
  3. A course certificate from onPoint Tactical for the prize winner’s choice of three-day civilian courses, excluding those restricted for military or government teams. Three day onPoint courses normally cost $795,
  4. DRD Tactical is providing a 5.56 NATO QD Billet upper. These have hammer forged, chrome-lined barrels and a hard case, to go with your own AR lower. It will allow any standard AR-type rifle to have a quick change barrel. This can be assembled in less than one minute without the use of any tools. It also provides a compact carry capability in a hard case or in 3-day pack (an $1,100 value),
  5. Two cases of Mountain House freeze-dried assorted entrees in #10 cans, courtesy of Ready Made Resources (a $350 value),
  6. A $250 gift certificate good for any product from Sunflower Ammo,
  7. American Gunsmithing Institute (AGI) is providing a $300 certificate good towards any of their DVD training courses.

Second Prize:

  1. A Front Sight Lifetime Diamond Membership, providing lifetime free training at any Front Sight Nevada course, with no limit on repeating classes. This prize is courtesy of a SurvivalBlog reader who prefers to be anonymous.
  2. A Glock form factor SIRT laser training pistol and a SIRT AR-15/M4 Laser Training Bolt, courtesy of Next Level Training, which have a combined retail value of $589,
  3. A $300 purchase credit for any of the products from EMPShield.com
  4. A Three-Day Deluxe Emergency Kit from Emergency Essentials (a $190 value),
  5. Two 1,000-foot spools of full mil-spec U.S.-made 750 paracord (in-stock colors only) from www.TOUGHGRID.com (a $240 value).
  6. An assortment of products along with a one hour consultation on health and wellness from Pruitt’s Tree Resin (a $265 value).

Third Prize:

  1. Three sets each of made-in-USA regular and wide-mouth reusable canning lids. (This is a total of 300 lids and 600 gaskets.) This prize is courtesy of Harvest Guard (a $270 value)
  2. A Royal Berkey water filter, courtesy of Directive 21 (a $275 value),
  3. Naturally Cozy is donating a “Prepper Pack” Menstrual Kit.  This kit contains 18 pads and it comes vacuum sealed for long term storage or slips easily into a bugout bag.  The value of this kit is $220.
  4. Two Super Survival Pack seed collections, a $150 value, courtesy of Seed for Security, LLC,
  5. A transferable $100 purchase credit from Elk Creek Company, toward the purchase of any pre-1899 antique gun. There is no paperwork required for delivery of pre-1899 guns into most states, making them the last bastion of firearms purchasing privacy!

Round 87 ends on March 31st, so get busy writing and e-mail us your entry. Remember that there is a 1,500-word minimum, and that articles on practical “how to” skills for survival have an advantage in the judging.


11 Comments

  1. Yes, Israel is taking this virus very seriously, even at the risk of decimating its airlines and tourism industry. It’s a tiny country(size of New Jersey) and densely populated with small apartments and large families so this virus would spread like wildfire. A considerable number of virus infected tourists have visited Israel recently and have spread the virus there to others; currently a man in very critical condition who was a bus driver for Greek tourists. I hope for their sake what they are doing works. And this is happening right in the beginning of a big holiday season(Purim followed by Passover) which would ordinarily bring a huge influx of visitors.

  2. Scientists Warn About Dangerous “Tipping Point” Where Covid-19 Goes From Mild To Deadly
    https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/scientists-warn-about-dangerous-tipping-point-where-covid-19-goes-mild-deadly

    posted by Andrew Skousen of World Affairs Brief – Tuesday, March 10 2020
    …According to research, while many patients experience nothing more than a mild cold, one in seven patients develops difficulty breathing and other “severe” complications, while 6% become critically ill and require hospitalization to stabilize their condition, risking death if they can’t receive the highest level of care. — ZeroHedge

  3. Matthew BrackenVerified Account@Matt_Bracken
    I deeply regret to say that our POTUS, Donald Trump, does NOT understand the threat of an exponentially growing pandemic virus.

    This can easily cost him re-election.
    Hello President Biden/Sanders.

    “So last year 37,000 Americans died from the common Flu. It averages between 27,000 and 70,000 per year. Nothing is shut down, life & the economy go on. At this moment there are 546 confirmed cases of CoronaVirus, with 22 deaths. Think about that!” D.J. Trump, March 9, 2020

    https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1237027356314869761

    1. Matt Bracken wrote:

      “Why Is the CDC Lowballing Numbers for the Coronavirus?
      March 8
      [This can be Trump’s “Super Katrina” and lose him re-election.]
      The CDC is America’s lead agency for expertise and guidance on the Wuhan virus, so the CDC web site is where you’d look for up-to-the-minute data on this outbreak, right? Umm, nope, don’t even think about it. As confirmed case numbers nation-wide soared over the weekend, the numbers posted Friday on the CDC web site didn’t budge: 164 total cases, 11 deaths. No change. In CDC-world, the virus took a break over the weekend. Meantime, in the real world, the far more timely and accurate online dashboard provided by Johns Hopkins was reporting on the soaring case numbers for this virus, which by Sunday afternoon had topped 500 (more than triple the CDC’s number) and 21 deaths (almost double the CDC figure).”

      1. I must be missing something. What do you want the President to do? Should he be asking everyone to panic because the sky is falling? Declare martial law?

        Think about the situation. The virus is real and is airborne. It will be very difficult to block. WE HAVE BEEN NOTIFIED OF PROPER HEALTH PROCEDURES OVER AND OVER. A vaccine will take some time FOR THOSE WHO MIGHT WANT IT. Our only option is to not panic and use common sense.

        I plan to stay home as much as possible and take the wait and see approach. Perhaps the hot summer sun will sterilize the earth a bit.
        Luckily, I have prepared for this.

        The good news: this situation has brought to light that the United States has to rebuild manufacturing facilities to produce medical supplies, antibiotics and medicines. And everything else that was farmed out to overseas plants.

        The United States quickly became a manufacturing giant during World War Two. Let’s do it again.

        2. TominAlaska wrote:

          “What do you want the President to do? ”

          I want the President to protect himself and the country, but those around him are lying to him. Likely he will become infected, sick, and ineffectual during the worst crisis this country has faced.

          1. The CDC and HHS were both actively spreading the virus from the first importation from the Japanese plague ship (purosely breaking quarantine procedure) to purposely creating carriers by unproptected contact by untrained personnel and then sending them into public contact. Deep State wants a panic?

  4. Regarding prison labor, don’t mind China, the United States has the highest incarceration rate in the world. And a number of American companies depend on prison labor, including Whole Foods. Read Jesse Ventura’s Marijuana Manifesto for the complete expose.

  5. Here’s a little fun fact I learned today, Leonardo da Vinci is credited with inventing the first respirator during the 16th century… Who knew?!

    I learned this in a new book I ordered called “The PPE Handbook for Healthcare Facilities. By Marjorie Quint-Bouzid, MPA, RN

    Handy little book to have in case you have to use your PPE and how to properly don/doff

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