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”.
Gun Owners and the Deep State
Gun owners are increasingly violating firearms laws and their numbers are expanding, but not for the reason that the media wants you to think. They are both willfully and/or unwillfully violating these laws because the number of laws outlawing certain firearms or accessories are increasing. This isn’t the result of a violent crime wave, but because they continue to possess things that the government has deemed “bad” and doesn’t want them to possess anymore. The true numbers are unknown, but examples are the Connecticut legislature that passed the ridiculous “assault weapon” ban registration that really targets semi-auto sporting rifles that just look like an assault rifle. Estimates put the number of compliant owners at only 15%. All others are now felons. Thanks to DSV for the link.
Overloaded Hospitals
As America slowly slips towards a single payer health system, we should look towards the UK as an example of what to expect. The official reports are out and it’s clear that socialized medicine cannot handle the patient load. Last year, UK hospitals were plauged with long wait times, delayed procedures and an overstressed medical workforce. A particularly virulent strain of influenza hit Britain and overwhelmed their hospitals. One doctor described the situation as “patients literally everywhere” and noted that they would not have been able to get a cardiac arrest patient through the hallways. Patients routinely wait 18 weeks or more for critical procedures. Thanks to T.Z. for the link.
Public School
Reader H.L. writes in:
For decades educational professionals have wondered why America’s academic standing in the world has been declining, even against poor nations. It has not occurred to the Dept. of Education in D.C., or most School Boards, School Administrators or many teachers that it is the curriculum! The textbooks which are dumbed down, filled with drivel, Common Core Math, whole reading instead of phonics, phonics, phonics. My collection of old textbooks confirms this! Our local school system in a small Connecticut shoreline town publishes the names of the High Honors and Honors students in high school. For the last fifteen years since moving back to Connecticut from West Virginia I have noticed that the number of names has increased in both categories. However, the population has barely budged! Of course, there is “grade inflation”. This is also true in many major American universities, even Ivy League schools!
As one who loves history and antique auctions, I have read letters written from Civil War soldiers to their loved ones. The cursive writing is usually lovely, the grammar almost perfect, and the sentiments heart felt. Most of the soldiers were working class and only completed some elementary school classes! It does NOT take a rocket scientist to realize that the curriculum in the “olden days” was more advanced. McGuffy readers (I have the complete set and it is available on line) taught values via their many stories with always a moral as the theme. Modern textbooks are preaching diversity, “social justice”, Socialism, and NOT critical thinking.
Get your kids out of this corrupt system!
Potato Knife
No, not a knife for cutting potatoes, though it can be used for that. This is a knife literally made from potatoes. Our favorite crazy Japanese knife maker is at it again, this time distilling the starch out of a potato and making a knife out of it. This doesn’t have the usual chart at the end that rates its ability to be sharpened like his other knife projects do though. I suspect the knife is somewhat fragile then, but it is sharp enough to be a chef knife, at least for a while. Once again, kiwami japan shows the futility of trying to regulate weapons and kitchen tools.
Chinese Propaganda
It is a long standing tradition in a propaganda war to set up a radio station in a country neighboring your target country and beam political and social propaganda into the area. The United States was a major player in this sort of thing during the cold war and even Germany used it extensively in World War II to attempt to dishearten the allied troops. Now, authorities are probing the links of a recent radio station buyer in Tijuana to China’s Phoenix TV. Phoenix TV has been identified by U.S. intelligence as a major overseas outlet used to spread propaganda and promote the polices of the communist government in Bejing. The Hong Kong television station also has close ties to China’s intelligence service and military. Thanks to G.P. for the link.
Free Speech
Free speech is obviously under fire and the globalists are betting on the Chinese dominating the Internet’s future. Recently, Apple’s Tim Cook and Google’s Sundar Pichai made their first appearance at China’s World Internet Converence . When Bloomber reporter Peter Elstrom, who also attended the conference, was asked about Chinese government stance of censorship, her replied:
“The implication comes at a time when the U.S. is wrestling with fake news on Facebook and Twitter, allegations about Russians hacking an election, and they feel like this Chinese approach has some merit, so they are making that case.”
The coference is supposed to promote China’s authoritarian vision for the Internet. Thanks to H.L. for the link.
Survival Realty
If you are looking to move to Alaska, Survival Realty has a new listing for an Ocean front home with a dock on Prince of Wales Island. It’s an 1800 square foot home with 144 feet of shoreline and has fantastic views. Check it out.
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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!
Public School
“For decades educational professionals have wondered why America’s academic standing in the world has been declining, even against poor nations. It has not occurred to the Dept. of Education in D.C., or most School Boards, School Administrators or many teachers that it is the curriculum! ”
They know this, exactly — and its all going according to plan, to support the Agenda(tm)
Statistics can be misleading. The primary reason America has lower academic standing in the world is because we have large minority populations who neither value education or attempt to learn. If you take that large population out of the stats our standing is actually quite good. Also countries like China produce students who do quite well in math and science but they have a far greater percentage of students who simply aren’t counted because they drop out to be part of the manual labor work force. Thus when you look at the stats of a typical Asian country you only get the data on the students who are graduating and that skews their statistics.
“large minority populations”
public schools housing such populations aren’t really schools anymore, they’re just day prisons.
Your comments regarding the manipulation of statistics make sense, although it does seem that America and Asia both have large drop-out populations, albeit for different reasons, and they are still ahead of us..so I want to ponder that further…
I recently retired from a career in workforce development in a large financial corporation where I had a front-row view of the new crop of college graduates. Year after year, I received an increasing number of training requests from management for basic skills like letter-writing, professional behavior and teamwork. Where these “good students”were most proficient was in sending text messages to one another and not in the basics of going to work. While there were always exceptions, I often found the “best and brightest” of these new employees were those who had completed some military service.
re: Free Speech – China – Google
Apparently Google is building a “censored search engine” called “Dragonfly”, so they can do business in China.
Its incredibly disturbing that this multi-billion dollar, US internet company is willing to bow down to a communist government, creating a search engine that censors information and search results, helping the Chinese government repress its people.
In true Orwellian style, Google’s corporate motto is “don’t be evil.” (I can’t help but laugh)
This confirms my belief that these companies believe in and follow a fascist model, more than anything else, willing to put themselves at the service of any repressive government as long as they have a protected market.
If the US government asked Google to create an AI program that compiles a dossier on anyone who ever searched for firearms related information, do you have any doubt they’d not only jump, but ask how high?
(you can hear John Batchelor’s entire report on audioboom.com, “Goggle sneaking back into partnership with Red China”)
Drop Google folks. There are better alternatives… duckduckgo, TOR browser, etc
Hate to tell you Proof, but the government doesn’t have to ask Google to build that database….. they’ve been using it for years!
Also, Brave browser and Startpage search engine. DO NOT USE Firefox — Mozilla is the company that sacked it’s CEO when the guy donated some money in support of traditional marriage in California.
Many years ago a reporter asked a congressman ( I think ) why public education in America was so poor, in a lapse into truthfulness he explained that ALL the Rich and Powerful have their children in PRIVATE schools and were getting excellent educations, also that in business there are a finite number of six to eight figure Jobs out there so why would it be in their best interest to educate your children well enough to compete with their children for those few jobs. Also I read but did not verify that virtually EVERY Congressman and Senator are Harvard grads.
Our family is neither rich now powerful, but we do have our children in private school. (I would homeschool if my husband would allow me.) If there is a will there is a way.
Anyone can afford to give their children a good education, but few are willing to put their children above aquiring material possessions.
Private(religious) are not always a reliable alternative to public schools. My personal experience(family) was these can be little more than christian madrassas,with everything(reading,writing,math and especially science) but bible study(not even being read but opined on-Hello Martin Luther!) being the majority of the curriculum. A later poster claimed children with engineering degrees,I would like to see that with current math teaching(much less algebra or calculus). As a society we are being dumbed down and the one institution to prevent it(public libraries-you can get a top education for the cost of 50 cents in overdue fines,your time and effort) are under attack(book bans)to facilitate our decline. Do not forget that religious schools are also hideouts for pedophiles that are protected by instituions to prevent their criminal prosecution. The major advantage of very selective private schools is the “social connections” of knowing the “right” people(old wealth,society) that can get you a offer for the high six,seven or eight figure job or the opportunity to create a company that anyone else would be prosecuted for(Rockefeller,Gates). Use the public schools,be active(school boards etc.) but be ready to home suppliment with real education(3 R’s,logic,reasoning,critical thought,creativity) to give your children the best opportunitys.
” Also I read but did not verify that virtually EVERY Congressman and Senator are Harvard grads.”
Seriously?
Seriously?
Swedish leader voices anger after dozens of cars are burned
By JAN M. OLSEN
(2018, August 14)
Associated Press
http://www.foxnews.com/auto/2018/08/14/swedish-leader-voices-anger-after-dozens-cars-are-burned.html
Déjà vu
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2005_French_riots
Having grown up homeschooled, I will throw in my opinion on the education that is happening in America. I am not here to brag on myself. I have had to work hard and learn a lot of stuff since I left school. But the difference I see in myself and my peers (and younger) is that I know how to teach myself. Perhaps I am really unique (yes, very…) and worked really hard at it. But I am fully convinced that anyone can do this if they choose to. It’s amazing the abilities God gave us to reason and think things through. We are not victims. We have what we need to live and thrive. It’s our brain and the raw materials God gave us. Even in the public school system, a person can rise above it. It is possible, though hard.
“anyone can do this if they choose to.”
… if they don’t grow up this way, is it still possible for them to learn it?
What “this way” is, isn’t necessarily the same for everyone. So yes, they can learn to think outside the box, to be a critical thinker. I think it is possible. Probable? Maybe not. But my thinking has changed on this recently too. I used to think that people are set to be a certain way. They aren’t. I am reading a book on epigenetics. In there, the author pointed out that the thinking that you are born a certain way and thus your fate is set, is evolutionary, globalist thinking. I had already refused to believe that way of thinking, but this book is really empowering me to imagine a bigger way of thinking, of refusing to accept “the way things are.” What if I don’t want my life to be like that? I can change it! It’s awesome!
“I can change it!”
well, you can, sure, since as you stated you were raised to be/think/act that way. but to learn it as an adult seems not so easy. as jesus is quoted as saying, “new wine is put into new wineskins” and all that.
Yes, I am a perfect example of it. All my family save one uses the welfare system in some fashion; and has for over 30 plus years. I grew up on welfare since I was 6 or 7 years old. I was on welfare for my daughters’ first 4 years of life in which I made a few life changing decisions. I have to work incredibly hard to learn what I do but I am light years a head of my family in knowledge and certainly wisdom. It can be done. It takes tremendous effort though. I teach my children, whom are homeschooled that learning is their responsibility. Non Scholae Sed Vitae. “We do not learn for such but for life.”
Blame standardized testing. I had to learn on my own, instead of in a “classroom”. The teachers taught ONLY standardized testing and nothing more. We had to do pre-standardized math testing questions in biology! If I’d known how worthless my actual education was there, I would’ve preferred to learn a trade instead of eight hours of useless drivel.
H.L. You offer an opinion with no proof, no cause and effect, no supported explanation. I agree that curriculum has changed but it had to. Ponder the body of knowledge 100 years ago compared to today. We know exponentially more. Humans have invented tens of thousand of new chemicals, we know more about physics, there are hundreds if not thousands of new drugs, we can transplant organs, we know more about economics, social sciences, physics, we’ve been to the moon, transistors, ICs, PCs, smart phones, the list goes on and on. Has the length of the school day changed? As they teach more in some subjects they taught less in others. There can be a valid discussion of what is important to teach but there are no easy answers. Public education is not the problem. I received a good public education and my son received a good one in multiple public systems, each education good enough to go on and earn engineering degrees from top engineering schools. We were successful because we had parents who set limits, who set expectations of educational work and achievement, because we had parents who participated in our educations and lives, because our parents were around and not working two or three jobs to provide basic necessities, because we didn’t worry about being shot on the way to school, because we had plenty of food to eat and stable households with loving parents, because we had good teachers, because the schools were filled with other students who wanted to learn, because we studied, and this is an abbreviated list. I do miss that cursive isn’t taught. I did calligraphy in high school.
Prince of Wales Island, Southeast Alaska is the maritime redoubt. It is a temperate rain forest, which means the dead fallen timber is plentiful, it needs to be cut split and stacked for drying. Then any and all manner of wood fired heat will work. Protein from the sea is plentiful enough that is salmon and halibut. And most of all a very very low population density and a very long way from major population centers. Downside, it rains A LOT. Many people cannot handle the grey skies. Green houses are necessary to grow vegetables due to the rainfall washing the nutrients out of the soil. Renewable energy is a MUST for survival since you are vulnerable to petrochemical supply interruption in a crunch. Additional plus is a very liberty minded populace.
Don’t forget the impact of teacher unions on our wonderful indoctrination centers. A teacher union boss was asked about the students and his reply was “I will care about the students when they pay union dues”. Don’t expect it to get better any time soon, well ok never, it is never going to get better.
Goverment run healthcare,the efficiency of communist burecracy with the compassion of the IRS ,the motivation of complacency and the innovation of luddites. Maybe we need to start medical tourism to Cuba,it would be superior