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 from “HJL”. Make sure you comment on the ATF bumpstocks ban today.

ATF and Bumpstocks

The ATF’s comment period on the proposed Bumpfire Stock Ban is still open. There have already been 15,200+ comments. More are needed. Let’s absolutely bury them in politely-worded specific objections. Thanks!

Danish Television Series

A new Danish television series that will start airing on May 4th looks to be pretty fascinating: The Rain. The series picks up six years after a brutal virus wipes out most of Scandinavia’s population. Two siblings join a band of young survivors and the adventure begins. Lately, Netflix has been pushing the SJW movement through the series and movies that they have been picking up and I would expect that since this one is from Europe, it will be no different. Perhaps the telling of the stories will make up for the obvious SJW problems. I plan on giving at least the first episode a chance.

Cashless Could Mean Gunless

Reader H.L. sent in this article on how easy it would be to push the American economy into a cashless state without government intervention. Banks still tolerate small amounts of cash transactions, but they would obviously prefer to go cashless. With debit or credit cards, they skim a small fee off of every transaction, something they can’t do with cash. But this very same process where banks convince you to trade independence for ease of use gives the government vast power to the government. Cash transactions are difficult to trace, but in a cashless society, every transaction can be traced, taxed and monitored. They can even block them if they so desire. Notice that all it takes is for a bank to classify firearms transactions as “high risk” transactions (in the same category of online gambling) and your days of firearm ownership are nearly done. The New York State comptroller has already requested that large financial institutions do just that.

Stealing Data

We’ve already reported on how stealing data from analog Selectric typewriters was possible. Now Mordechai Gury, from Ben Gurion University, has supposedly devised a bewildering array of innovative techniques for getting data off of air-gapped (not connected to a data network) computers. Air-Gapping is supposed to constitute an advanced defense, but there are still weaknesses. The human interface has an incredible number of ways it can be fooled and compromised, but even pulling data from the connected power lines is possible. Most of these techniques require a nefarious physical presence at the computer terminal, but human engineering has shown the ease at which this can be accomplished.

Everything Bubble

Reader G.G. reports that we just don’t learn from our mistakes. This latest economic bubble we are in appears to be an everything bubble. We have record student loan balances and trillion dollar credit card debt. Only six tech stocks are dominating the Nasdaq and subprime auto loans are at record levels. Even the devestating subprime mortgage bonds are back! Supposedly, safeguards are being put in place to keep the risks down, but they are still here. How long do you think this will last?

Making a Living from Your Data

The visual capitalist has an info-graph that shows how the multi-billion dollar data industry makes its living from your personal data. It truly is surprising how many ways the data is collected and collated I normally don’t like info-graphs, but this one is a must see.

British Knock-Out Game

America has it’s “knock-out” game where a criminal randomly sucker punches some unaware person in an attempt to knock them out with one punch. Over the years, it has made a couple of comebacks in popularity and it occasionally ends in serious injury for the victim. Britain thugs have taken the game to an all new level. In their version, called “scores”, the criminal stabs the innocent victim and the more gruesome the crime, the more points are awarded. The competition is usually bragged about on social media and children as young as nine are playing the game. This is just sick!

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Please send your news tips to HJL. (Either via e-mail of via our Contact form.) These are often especially relevant, because they come from folks who watch news that is important to them. Due to their diligence and focus, we benefit from fresh “on target” news. We often “get the scoop” on news that is most likely ignored (or reported late) by mainstream American news outlets. Thanks!