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 “JWR”.

The Rumble of C-46 and C-47 Engines

Fans of old radial engine WWII-vintage transport planes will want to subscribe to this, from Canada: Plane Savers.

You may remember this as the same “air cargo and passengers” airline featured in the popular Ice Pilots television show.

JWR is Accepting Bitcoin

I’m in need of some Bitcoin for an upcoming purchase. Therefore, for at least the next few days, I’m willing to accept Bitcoin for most of the items that I have listed in The SurvivalBlog Classifieds. This is a limited-time offer, and subject to negotiation for a mutually agreed BTC exchange rate. If any of the items that I have listed in the SurvivalBlog Classifieds interest you, then e-mail me to hold that item for you, and for details on making payment to my Bitcoin receiving address. That by the way is: 3GVcXveQGB6V9Py7WKjHN5ZC9KiiavHdgw

Lowered Standards for Special Forces

Reader “DPS Officer” spotted this article: Green Berets Targeted After Anonymous Email Exposed Lowered Standards. JWR’s Comment: Lowering our military readiness for the sake of Political Correctness is nothing short of national suicidal.

SIG P320 Pistols From 80% Complete Blanks!

Fans of the SIG P320 (aka U.S. M17) pistol will want to check out this video: The P320 80% Build Adventure. (Thanks to S.F. for the link.)

Tonga Cable Severed – Entire Nation is Sans Internet

This headline ran on Thursday: Tonga sent back to ‘dark ages’ after underwater Internet cable severed. To those who have written to ask about the status of my Rawles.to (Tonga) domain: That domain name is unaffected by this outage. We don’t have a server in Tonga. We only have our domain registered there.

U.S. Navy’s FitzGerald Probe

Tim J. suggested this, over at The Navy Times: Worse than you thought: inside the secret Fitzgerald probe the Navy doesn’t want you to read

Bill Buppert on Irregular Warfare

Many SurvivalBlog readers are familiar with libertarian author Bill Buppert. I found a recent interview with Bill quite fascinating: Bill Buppert On Irregular Warfare: Audio Discussions With Prof CJ’s Dangerous History Podcast

An Interesting Steath Camper Van Conversion

How I Converted My Van into a Stealth / Off Grid / Tiny Home Van

The West’s Descent Into ‘Cultural Revolution’

Reader H.L. recommended a recent essay by Charles Hugh Smith: The West’s Descent Into ‘Cultural Revolution’

A Better Understanding of Evil

Over at Christian MercenaryA Better Understanding of Evil. Here is a snippet from the essay: “What I had not considered is that the left rejects objective truth as a means of rejecting morality and attacking those seeking truth through the Judeo-Christian culture or scripture. That they see the pursuit and ultimate achievement of power instead of truth as worthy of a purpose as the attainment of peace or the fulfillment of understanding.”

Alternatives to Google Searches

There was a good primer posted  by Kim Komando: Seven ways to search without using Google. JWR’s Comment: It served as good confirmation that Kim now recommends Start Page–the same “no tracking” search engine page that I’ve been recommending in SurvivalBlog for more than five years. Bookmark it and make it your default  search tool, if you haven’t already. Remember Google = Evil.

Please send your news tips to JWR. (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!




14 Comments

    1. What is alarming about this lengthy EMP article more so than others:
      1. An EMP attack is nonchalantly integrated into the military doctrines of these adversaries.
      2. They do not consider detonating a nuke for EMP purposes to be an attack of nuclear war. (even though one can argue more will die or be harmed by the result of such an attack over the next year than an actual detonation near the surface)

      I’m nearly convinced to switch from the “if” column to “when” such an attack occurs.

  1. Re: The Fitz. Low morale and poor leadership will undermine high tech every time. So much of our taxes went to build that vessel. How much is being invested in high-level training and oversight?

    Carry on

  2. Re. Bill Buppert. If there is one thing I have learned in almost 80 years, it is the truth stated by retired career Army officer Bill Buppert , “The only just war is one fought on your soil to defend your own soil.”

    Jesus also taught us about self-defense, non-aggression and the ‘Golden Rule’ (Matthew 7:12).

    Want to see aggression? Just dare to speak out for these principles . Isn’t 28 years of waging wars on foreign soil enough?

    Payback is coming and even Survival Blog might not help us.

  3. “Fun Fact” concerning old aircraft:

    I was at a Commemorative Air Force location around 1999. A Japanese Zero was being restored. It had been found in the Pacific years earlier by a Canadian businessman. The engine was unsalvageable when it was taken to Canada. A C-47/DC-3 engine replaced it. Surprised, I said, “You’re kidding.” I was told that the MItsubishi engine was not ready for use when the Zero went through its tests before the Japanese government accepted it. A C-47 engine was used in its place. Only later was the Mitsubishi engine used in Zeros. (I wonder if the Japanese simply bought C-47 engines or made their own. Japan was heavily engaged in espionage with regard to the US defense industry prior to WWII.) It seems that the Mitsubishi engine was manufactured so that it could be simply dropped in place once the C-47 engine was removed.

    As I recall, according to the pilot who had just landed an F-8 Bearcat, there were only about seven Zeros still flying in the world at that time. Only one had an original Mitsubishi engine.

    I saw a magazine around that time that showed how Canadian crop dusters, Fairchild aircraft, were customized with fiberglass panels to portray Zeros in the movie, “Pearl Harbor.” Frankly, the finished product shown in comparison photos with Zeros was cosmetically quite good.

  4. Despite the fact that someone will accuse me of being a misogynist, I will violate political correctness and say the following.

    About lowered standards in the Special Forces, our society has deteriorated to the point where political correctness is more important than national security. Women want careers in places where they have no business to be–and they vote.

    In the late 70s or early 80s, the Army reduced the distance women were required to be able to throw a hand grenade because so many women failed the test. A soldier who found himself serving in a unit with women had to hope that the little lady was in a very good position and with feet planted well in order to be able to throw the grenade, because the distance she was required to throw it in training was only about 5 meters more than the grenade’s “kill zone.” He’d better hope that she didn’t “throw like a girl.”

    It was either LA County or City of LA Fire Department officials have admitted to news reporters that women have graduated from the Fire Academy who should never have made it due to political pressure. One requirement has to do with carrying 90 lbs. of hose up a ladder for a certain distance that I forget.

    I was on a train maybe 7-8 years ago. The locomotive experienced a small fire. A fire unit responded. Strapping firemen on the unit were up on the platform. Staying with the fire engine was the driver, a women maybe 5’5″ tall, at best, and 110 lbs. at most. I suppose that if the department was okay with having weak firemen who always drove the engines, it was a “workaround.” I am reminded, however, of a friend who, in his youth, worked on a road crew. One day a week, each man would get a day of rest and use a flag to control cars. When women were added to the crew-and at the same pay rate–only women used the flags, so his day of “loafing” ended. He wasn’t happy about this.

    I was in the Marine Corps. I had never been in a unit with women. I later joined the Army guard. On my first trip to Fort Knox, a woman in my HQ unit grabbed her hair dryer and made it her first mission when we arrived at our bivouac area to figure out where she could plug it in the next morning. I remember thinking, “Ah, jeez…”

    I recall how National Guard women were the first heat casualties, and the first ones to get injured when physical work such as erecting GP Medium tents took place. As a result, men were forced to pick up the slack. (A man’s eagerness to replace a woman in physical labor seemed directly proportional to how attractive the woman was–another issue to deal with.)

    Don’t get me wrong. Women can and do make a valuable contribution to the military. I expect that they can do 90% of the jobs in the Navy and Air Force, and 50% of the jobs in the Army. Political correctness, however, must be controlled if the concern for national security is paramount, which it should be.

    Were I to be able to rewind the clock, if I had a sucking chest wound, I would certainly hope that the soldiers carrying the front corners of the poncho used to get my butt to a chopper weren’t women. Just sayin’.

    1. After posting the comment above, i heard within the last five minutes or so on Fox News a person described as being an “aviation analyst” who was commenting about the governmental shut down and its effect on air traffic control personnel.

      He said that during the Obama Administration, the standards for air traffic controllers were lowered, and that applicants who had the proper training were treated secondarily in order to benefit those who had “…other social needs. That’s not safety. That was an outrage.” The Fox Anchor then said, “It seems like there was some level of affirmative action taking place.” He did not respond, which tells me that what the anchor said was spot on.

      So, the takeaway here is that what is happening with the Special Forces is simply reflective of what is happening in our increasingly diverse society. We’ve all known this for a very long time. Those in charge in various sectors of government, the military, and the private sector will fill and already have filled job openings with people who don’t meet standards, while the rest of us pay for it.

      Take a seat, fasten your belt, and get used to it. It will only get worse in the future.

  5. StartPage just screwed up. I used to use it. But I refuse to use Windows 10 because Microsoft has become as bad as Google if not worse in wanting to track. And the Edge Browser (now with Gobbels type News censorship included by default – NewsGuard) which is the only Microsoft browser they support doesn’t work on Windows 7 (this was for a company supplied work computer). So I can’t change themes or much else.

    This was a recent update and change “You’ll love the new look”. No, you broke your own site.

    Their attitude was “Upgrade to a better (privacy destroying) modern browser!”.

    Guess what, I know how to make things work in HTML STANDARDS back to Mosaic! But apparently StartPage’s programmers are too stupid or something else is happening where they are pushing anti-privacy browsers so you can pretend it is being protected by using StartPage.

    I default to DDG, but switch to StartPage or Bing when it doesn’t return good results.

  6. I have Start Page as my default search engine. I prefer this over DuckDuckGo since it is “allegedly” not US based. DuckDuckGo is US based, or so I have been told.

  7. @ suriviormann99, I remember a little blonde who went to civil engineer school in Gulfport M, who came back and told everyone that she could do any job in CE. They put her to work in the office with the other 4 or 5 women in the unit. Her civilian job was hostess in a steak house, she later moved to Las Vegas, went to law school and married a lawyer.

    1. I know little about engineering, but if she actually could do any job in CE, more power to her. It seems to me that very little of that job would involve physical issues. The problem would arise when she couldn’t do the job and other people had to help carry her share of the load.

      She has my sympathy if she married a lawyer. Bad Karma maybe?

        1. I had to think about your reference for a few seconds, but I get it now.

          I think that the critical issue is the “if” in my comment, in that “if she actually could do any job in CE…” From my limited knowledge of the bridge incident, it seems apparent that the all female engineering firm COULDN’T do the job.

          While some will likely accuse me of being a sexist with regard to women performing physical jobs in fields that I believe should be limited to men, I’m not willing to shut the door entirely on competent women who really CAN do the job in their particular fields.

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