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”. Yes, you should use a rifle for your home defense. Check out Reid Henrichs latest video on the subject in today’s edition.

Federal Reserve Nominee

When you get right down to it, the most powerful political positions don’t actually exist in the government. They exist in the Federal Reserve, a private banking cartel that controls the money. Elected officials like the president ultimately answer to the people, but appointed officials do not. That’s all the more reason to be concerned about the latest Federal Reserve Nominee, Marvin Goodman. You might also think that as much good as President Trump has done for the economy, and as a businessman, that he wouldn’t push Keynesian economics. Yet in 2016, Goodman argued for the Federal Reserve to have the ability to push interest rates negative at the annual Federal Reserve conference in Wyoming. He has also argued for a cash-free society to keep the inevitable flood of people from pulling their cash from the banks to stuff it under their mattresses at home. Thanks to DSV for the link.

Free Speech

From the state that wants to make selling the Bible illegal comes a new threat: California’s Senator Richard Pan, (the same Senator that pushed legislation mandating vaccinations in 2015) introduced a new bill. SB1424 (Internet: social media: false information: strategic plan) would make it a crime to raise any public questions about any “official story” put forth by the government. In other words, the government can lie to you at will and it is illegal for you to challenge that. The bill has far-reaching impacts. The bill would require California to come up with a range of punishments for people using their 1st Amendment right of free speech if the liberal government disagrees with what is said.

We’ve reported this pending legislation before, but now people are getting it. For instance, I’m not against vaccinations, I’m just against mandatory vaccinations as it takes authority away from the parent. This article shows how that pending legislation would impact that. Thanks to G.L. for the link.

Indoor Gardening

Reader D.M. sent in this article on a New Jersey farm that grows food indoors (in greenhouses) and uses 95% less water that traditional farming. They claim that they can grow pesticide-free and agrochemical-free food year round. This really isn’t anything new, they have just apparently been able to make a commercial success with good planning. I would be interested to see a break down of the cost factors though. I would imagine that while the water usage is down and they have much more control over the environment, growing in the winter would have a significant energy cost. We do use greenhouses to extend the growing season here, but they get shut down in the dead of winter.

Eliminate Gun-Free Zones

Reader D.S. sent in this article on Senator Paul Rand’s public comments after the May 18th Santa Fe, Texas school shooting. Senator Rand is pushing for the elimination of the victim rich gun free zones that surround public schools. Instead, it would allow the administration and teachers to be armed and capable of stopping such a massacre. This only makes sense. Of course, you know what would be a better response? How about getting your kids out of these liberal indoctrination centers and either homeschooling them or get them in a private school!

Is Facebook Listening to You

Yet again, Facebook faces allegations that it is using your phone’s microphone to listen in to your conversations. Personally, I’m of the opinion that they don’t really need to do this in order to be as predictive about your habits as they are. I’ve seen the power of mining the meta-data that people casually leave behind and the uncanny accuracy that computer algorithms have when looking at subtle patterns in your behaviors. However, the former employee of Cambridge Analytica claims that they can and do listen in on your conversations. Thanks to DSV for the link.

You Should use a Rifle for Home Defense

Reader T.J. sent in this YouTube video from Reid Henrichs (of Valor Ridge) on why you should use your AR-15 for your home defense. He covers the myth of over penetration as well as the better handling characteristics that result in better accuracy and more controlability. He also shows his favorite home defense rifle and explains why he has the features on it that he does.

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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!




25 Comments

  1. Re: Fed nominee’s push for a cashless society.
    The argument is a non-starter. Studies show that most people don’t have cash to handle a $400 emergency, and almost no savings at all. The Fed has achieved its goal already, they just don’t want us frogs to notice that we are already in the cookpot. NIRP only stalls the inevitable, and the Fed won’t go negative because that would effectively communicate that they have utterly failed to properly shepherd the US money supply.

  2. I am Unimpressed with the AR-15 home defense video, 2-3 attackers on PCP and I seriously doubt he could stop them all before they crossed a room and got to him.

    Take that video and just exchange the $1700 gun he has with a $400 Remington 870 riot gun, a light and 6 x “OO” buckshot and you have way more blunt force stopping power AND all of the advantages of using a long gun.

    Each shell has 9 x .38 caliber pellets, and at “across the room” ranges [the shot spread] will probably be a 30mm [diameter] freight train.

    1. I agree with you on the 12ga. 00=.33cal, 000=.36cal, and 0000=.38cal (rare). An 870 Marine Magnum or an 11-87 Police will hold 6-3” and one 2-3/4”including one in the chamber. 00 in 2-3/4” = 9 pellets and the 3” = 15 pellets. In big bear country I run an 11-87 Police carried in a papoose rig with 3-3” 00 alternated with 3-1oz slugs, and 1 final 2-3/4” 00. Up close and personal 00 is equivalent to a slug.

    2. Being one of millions having been trained on the M-16/M-4 family of weapons at taxpayer expense, I see no issue with it for home defense in the form of the AR-15 line. Know your tool, Know your adversary-meaning someone amped up on PCP gets the warning shot between the ears. Actually, anyone invading your home should get that warning shot. However, I’ve not heard a peep about PCP since televsion cop T.J. Hooker went off the air in whatever decade that ran in. I agree that a 12 gauge is the best at what it does, but not everyone has 180 pounds of body mass to back that up. Regardless of whatever gun you use for home defense, know what it can do and what it can’t do. As far as hopped up druggies, plan for the realistic and aim for center of mass. Can’t be thug with an exploded heart.

    3. 1 5.56 round has only ~15% less energy than 1 standard 00 buckshot shell. Each 00 buck pellet has energy in an amount between 38 spl and 380 acp. Since buckshot performs like a pistol bullet, there are no hydrostatic effects which means accuracy is everything.

      And at across the room distance, you’re talking shot spread in the diameter of a grapefruit at most.

      No way you can fire 3 shots at 3 different targets faster w/ a shotgun than an AR. And that is the primary consideration… Also w/ hydrostatic effects, you don’t have to hit vital organs, just near them to cause major damage.

      And to be clear, I’m not an AR fan, but I respect the weapon system. And the notion that a shotgun is more lethal than an AR is just silly.

      Shotguns are more lethal than a pistol, and that’s about it, outside of some niche uses.

  3. Yes it would be possible for someone to hack your phone and listen. Perhaps a few foreign and maybe some domestic spies have done it. But very unlikely that facebook has done it and to what end??? To find out that Mary Jo is sleeping with John Doe? Give me a break, this is silly rumor.

    1. It’s not so much that Facebook needs to hack the phone, as users willingly install the Facebook app, then grant permission to the app to access microphones, cameras, location data, and internal storage (or cloud based in some cases). The user assumes that Facebook can only access these resources when the user invoked a given function (I.E. post a photo, or send a voice message) but that this isn’t the case as Facebook can access the resources pretty much whenever they want to under the guise of providing a “better user experience”.

    2. The nature of humans is to have a grapevine means of communication. Early telephone systems had a ‘party line’ which is how you found out what went on in the neighborhood. What an outrage there would be over that today. There’s nothing new under the sun, just a different means of doing it.

    3. OneGuy doesn’t get it – it’s not the ‘person’ that does the spying. It’s the computerized collection of the always on microphone, camera and GPS. Modern multplexing techniques and data compression methods allow it ALL to be analyzed, cataloged and stored. Most people cannot comprehend how efficient and automated this is. Why was Facebook launching a satellite? Imagine what someone like Himmler, Mao, Stalin or Pol Pot could do with information like this. A tyrant could stitch together snippets of data and convict millions of people with crimes against the regime with little effort.

      But it could never happen here, right?

      1. I get it I just don’t get all paranoid and crazy about it. People do strange things, like join facebook and download apps. I haven’t yet.

        But the greater point is how much data can they possibly acquire and keep? There are hundreds of millions of phones and each of them are on 16-24 hours a day. We are talking about more data points than grains of sand in the world. Where would they keep it and what would do with it. Because of this problem I know they are NOT collecting tons of data on everyone. Because they can’t. They might collect a count of how many times people use their app or a count of other things but to collect everything that everyone says/texts/does/writes/emails… NOPE

        Worry about real things. It is likely one of your neighbor’s teen boys is scoping out your house to break into it some day. But it is unlikely that facebook is doing you any harm at all. It is likely that if you go downtown for dinner and afew drinks on a Friday night that you could be mugged or killed by a drunk driver on the way home. But it is unlikely that facebook will tell the FBI that you did 60 mph in a 55 mph zone. Just keep it all in perspective.

        1. OneGuy, I can’t help but notice a consistent theme to your comments on numerous articles: don’t worry, don’t be so cautious, don’t be so suspicious, be more trusting. It strikes me as an odd emphasis, and I’m inclined to question your motives.

          1. Without specific examples I can’t respond. But I don’t download apps exactly so I won’t get hacked or have nefarious malware on my computer and my cell phone. I have a piece of tape over my laptop camera. I don’t wear a Trump hat or have bumper stickers on my car. I do in fact share some of the same concerns as others on these things. But in this instance if you worry about what a face book app can do why use it? Having said that I am less worried about facebook than I am about real risks. Right now the biggest risk to America and citizens like me is gun control, uncontrolled immigration legal and illegal, immigrants from shithole countries and muslim immigrants. the emasculation of our military, poor public education, race pimps, So many other real things that I just don’t see the risk that a facebook app might listen to you is even in the top 100 things to worry about.

            My views and comments are fairly consistent. But I understand how if it is your ox that is gored you are offended. Not my intent, just expressing an opinion. I have been wrong before in my life and I’m ready to change my mind on anything if I see evidence that I’m wrong.

            By the way I am not trusting and I am suspicious of almost everything. I take steps to protect myself and my privacy but mostly I don’t let things worry me. And that is how I feel about facebook; not worried.

        2. Facebook, and google and amazon and apple and others, collect the data — data storage in the cloud is cheap — and then figures out how to monetize it. Not vice versa.

  4. Once again we have another reason to eliminate the illegal Bankster run Federal Reserve. Just look at their stewardship of the economy since 1913. recessions and depressions resulting in untold misery and deaths for the citizens they are supposed to protect. Any non Government protected entity would have been eliminated long ago. Bankers belong in Banks or Jails, not controlling our government or economy. I give you Wells Fargo as an example of a bank run amuck, any body gone to jail over their illegal activities? What ever happened to Ron Paul’s demand for an audit of the Federal Reserve? We need answers.

  5. The article in the link describes an event in a Tulsa suburb where three teens broke into a home with brass nuckles and a knife, and the homeowners son shot all three with an AR15.

  6. I looked and couldn’t find a story on CA trying to outlaw Bible sales. But eliminating free speech only makes sense in a state that views the legal citizens as super cargo, and illegal aliens as angels to be showered with free goodies. It seems to be a state run by crazy people, for the crazy people. I am mystified as to why people follow socialists like they do, when the wreckage of what the socialists do is all around them to plainly see. I expect that the pushback to all this idiocy will be something not seen since the 1860’s.

    1. @Sean,

      It doesn’t specifically outlaw the Bible. What it does outlaw is the sale of written material that calls out deviant sexual behavior. It was intended to stop the “conversion therapy” where parents attempt to curb the destructive liberal behavior of their children. It just so happens that the wording of the law pretty much outlaws the Bible because the Bible is written material that deals specifically with the sinful nature of man that liberal/progressive/leftists wan’t to call normal.

  7. It’s too big, the swamp, it has taken hold from city to federal, the only hope to “start over” is a EMP from Iran or n Korea that shuts down power on the entire US. nothing short of that. Too many commies are rooted into it all.

    1. Well, WW. An EMP isn’t going to stamp out commies. It might fry your electronics, and theirs, but the weasels will survive in the bunkers we paid for. Keep your own paper list of the offenders with printed out pictures of them for certain identification, so that if the time comes to REALLY flush the toilet you can be certain you got the guilty parties.

  8. How much data can they keep? Answer: all they want to keep. That doesn’t need to be every grain of sand on the beach. An automated “key word” searching and storing system can store everything they think they could probably use. It’s kinda like being on a “Shoes Now” web site and searching for size 10 orange running shoes rather than scrolling through every shoe the web site sells. Who would want personal data and for what? Answer: Anyone or any group that wants to sell you something, anyone or group that wants to solicit a donation, Any troll that wants to interrupt your communication of political speech, any bureaucrat that wants to keep you from advocating against their party or policies, the FBI, IRS & EPA are recent examples. Then there is also any law enforcement agents that are task with arresting you for doing something you believe you have a right to do. Face Book may not want to do all of this but I bet they would sell the data to someone who does! Of course there is many ways for others to mine the data they want but hey, what, ME – WORRY?

  9. I was in a cemetery in Austria today where were buried the remains of Viennese who spoke against the official proclamations of the Nazis during their occupation. The lucky ones were shot. The others used for medical experimentation. Will we never learn?

  10. It’s a given. They can mine you like it was the Gold rush days. No shortage of storage space and easy retreival for future inspection, as desired. Imagine, just one visit here, triggers a deeper, constant watch. Then all your friends are on another list, triggered by association. This is a police state. We the People do not want a police state. The powers that be have made clear their goals and agenda. We are watching the mechanisms needed to implement their final solutions. Me worry, no. Me understand, yes. Me living the dream, Amen. But I do watch my six, as I go about educating others to the tyranny, and the Prophetic Word of God unfolding in real time. His Will be done, that’s just how it is for me.

    We all know the Federal Reserve should be abolished. It was created in the cover of darkness, it should be dismanlted in the light of day. I’m hoping that’s what Trump was eluding too when he said he’s have our 20 some trillion dollar debt paid by the end of his second term.

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