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”. Today, we focus on winter warfare training. The photo for this column is a historical shot of Italian army alpine troops on skis. Some tactics and techniques are time-proven.
SurvivalBlog Archive USB Sticks Back in Stock
They’re back in stock! The first batch of 1,000 of the SurvivalBlog 2005-2018 Archive Waterproof 16 GB USB sticks sold out in just five weeks. After a brief delay, the second batch of just 550 is now in hand, tested, and available for shipment. This may be our final batch of this year’s edition, so order yours, soon. Many folks place order for two or three of them at a time. When I last checked, there were 485 of the batch of 550 remaining.
79-Year-Old Georgia Woman Versus Home Invader
Reader DSV spotted this: 79-Year-Old Georgia Woman Fends Off 20-Year-Old Home Invader With a Gun
DNA Databases
Also from DSV: FBI plotting to keep DNA of entire population on file to create ‘nation of suspects’
And, in related news: Gregg sent us this news from Arizona: You may soon have to give your DNA to the state and pay $250 for the privilege
And meanwhile in the People’s Republic of China: China Uses DNA to Track Its People, With the Help of American Expertise
Supreme Court Rules Against Property Seizures
And DSV was the first of several readers to send us this: Supreme Court rules against ‘excessive’ seizure of property by states. The article begins:
“A constitutional provision prohibiting the imposition of excessive fines extends beyond the federal government to states and cities, the Supreme Court ruled Wednesday.
The high court’s unanimous decision expanding the Eighth Amendment’s excessive fines clause delivered a victory to an Indiana man who challenged the state’s seizure of his $42,000 Land Rover. The ruling means in states and cities — like the feds — the amount of the forfeiture must bear some relationship to the gravity of the offense that it is designed to punish.
Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who returned to the bench for the first time since undergoing lung cancer surgery in December, wrote the opinion. ‘For good reason, the protection against excessive fines has been a constant shield throughout Anglo-American history: Exorbitant tolls undermine other constitutional liberties,’ Ginsburg wrote.”
Slow-Walking NICS?
Next, there was this from the NRA-ILA: Turning a Right into a Privilege: HR 1112 Gives Feds Unfettered Power to Block Gun Sales. (Thanks to Gregg for the link.)
U.S. Emphasizing Winter Warfare Training
From the AP news wire: US steps up winter-warfare training as global threat shifts. JWR’s Comments: That could also come in handy, in the event of a Grand Solar Minimum. As an aside: I had the privilege of attending the U.S. Army Northern Warfare School at Fort Greeley and at Black Rapids Training Center, Alaska, back in 1980. Here is a useful passage about the current USMC training:
“After 17 years of war against Taliban and al-Qaida-linked insurgents, the military is shifting its focus to better prepare for great-power competition with Russia and China, and against unpredictable foes such as North Korea and Iran. U.S. forces must be able to survive and fight while countering drones, sophisticated jamming equipment and other electronic and cyber warfare that can track them, disrupt communications and kill them — technology they didn’t routinely face over the last decade.
“If you were to draw a line from here to the DMZ between North and South Korea, both of these sites are on the 38th parallel. And so the weather here accurately replicates the weather that we would encounter in North and South Korea,” said Col. Kevin Hutchison, the training center commander. “What you’re seeing here is Marines fighting Marines, so we are replicating a near-peer threat.”
As a snowstorm swirls around them, Mullen and Hutchison move through the woods, checking in with the young Marines designated as the adversary force of about 250 troops who must prevent more than 800 attackers from gaining control of nearby Wolf Creek Bridge. An Associated Press team was allowed to accompany them to the Marine Corps’ Mountain Warfare Training Center south of Lake Tahoe and watch the training.”
Your Phone and TV are Tracking You
A hat tip to reader O.S. who sent this from the Los Angeles Times: Your phone and TV are tracking you, and political campaigns are listening in.
Costner Stars in New Frank Hamer Biopic
I ran across this movie trailer: The Highwaymen. Kevin Costner and Woody Harrelson–both showing their age–star in this big-budget film. Costner plays Texas Ranger Frank Hamer. It is interesting to make note of the guns seen in the trailer. Seeing a Winchester Model 1907 in .351 Winchester Self-loading was quite correct for the era. And both lawmen and bad guys used the Browning BAR and its commercial equivalent, the Colt Monitor. Up until 1934 folks could buy full autos by mail order. Not shown (at least in the trailer) was Frank Hamer’s preference for the .35 Remington Model 8 Police Model, with an extended magazine. That was what Hamer used when he ambushed Clyde Barrow and Bonnie Parker. I surmise that they couldn’t use a Model 8 because they are delayed recoil-operated rather than gas-operated. Hence, they won’t run when shooting theatrical blanks.
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I too had ‘the privilege’ of training both, at Ft. Greely and attending NWTC at Black Rapids, multiple times during 75-78 but since I was ‘permanent party’, doing 3 years (2 long tours, as they were called, of 16 months each) we didn’t attend the actual course’s. We did however, go there and do several training cycles to include everything from cross country skiing (the normal method of movement during the winter along with snowshoes, downhill skiing while wearing heavy rucksacks (more for coordination and balance than actual tactical reason) and winter survival. In summer the training consisted of rock climbing, glacier work, small river craft (boat) handling and inland waterways navigation and other back country military operations. It was great! Keep in mind that the Interior of Alaska is one of the coldest places in North America, equal to far Northern Canada, Siberia, etc. -40 and -50 degrees below zero is common and I’ve seen it -80 windchill at Ft. Greely (-50 +- with 30-40 mph winds and gust), it was absolutely miserable! That was 40 years ago but I remember it like it was yesterday, but that’s a story for around the campfire…
One other course I was able to attend was the Air Force “Cool School” winter survival course at Eileson AFB. It was a ‘Gentlemen’s course’ but very informative and yes, we did sleep outside in ‘brush/debris shelters’ w/out sleeping bags in below zero weather and yes, we all survived.
One interesting sidenote was that school, at the time anyways, was open to selected civilians. We had both a bush dentist and a bush school teacher in our group, since they did an increased amount of flying to get to the various villages for their jobs.
Chaves county New Mexico county commissioners Thursday passed ‘The Second Amendment Sanctuary’ statute making Chaves one of 9 other counties in New Mexico pushing back against new governor Michelle Lujan-Grisham’s gun grab.
The statute basically affirms the intent of the 2nd Amendment and that the county will not enforce or use county funds to enforce any new gun legislation.
Kudos to newly elected Sheriff Mike Herrington and county commissioner Will Cavin for spearheading the effort.
Approximately 750 citizens jammed the courthouse Thursday and raised their right hand in support of the statute.
There was 1 hand raised in opposition to it.
But will they arrest and prosecute city, state and federal agents? Of course not. It’s a meaningless gesture.
“Exorbitant tolls undermine other constitutional liberties” Supreme Court Justice Ginsberg. To me this speaks against high taxes, permits and other special requirements for purchasing fire arms, ammo, sales, or gifts. Surprising from a liberal judge. It is of course going to have a lot of unintended consequences, taxing of commerce, inheritance taxes, luxury taxes, property appreciation, etc. Might even be the end of tax brackets which are unquestionably discriminative. Humm somethings to ponder. This may also destroy the entire Liberal agenda. Makes me think of the old saying. ” Hoisted on his on Petard.”
The FBI collection this DNA data can do nothing but harm, they have proven to be corrupted and untrustworthy. It started with Hoover and has continued thru today. A lot more swamp draining is in order. This is very obvious in the upper echelon of government beauracracies. They should be termed out at 20 years of civil service with pensions starting under the guide lines of the Social Security System and at the same rate and Medicare that the rest of us have to accept, not a penny more and no civil service retirement double dipping. Congress should be under the same guide lines.
I watched the trailer. I definitely won’t miss this movie. It doesn’t look as if Bonnie and Clyde are going to be portrayed as anything other than the cold-blooded killers they were, so that’s good news.
Unfortunately, there is something endemic to the American character that caused (and still does cause) people to regard people like Barrow and Parker, as well as Jesse James and John Dillinger and their like, as romantic figures. Some people seem to enjoy transforming certain criminals into Robin Hoods, as if their crime spree was simply an effort to improve the community.
Pablo Escobar and El Chapo learned that if a few pesos were spent in the community while they were pocketing billions, the peasants would regard them as being God-like. Currently, in the inner cities of America, many drug dealers are regarded similarly. I am very confident that El Chapo’s conviction within the last two weeks left many Sinoloans grieving. Those benefiting, both directly and indirectly, from the drug trade south of the border, and those American consumers who were/are end users of the drug trade could not care less about the damage toll, as long as their needs are met.
About Costner showing his age, I expect that the average guy his age would like to trade places with him in the looks department. 🙂
Supreme Court Rules Against Property Seizures
Want to read some brainwashing propaganda, read that article?
“expanding” the 8A
Rights are granted to States
People have no rights except the few, but not all, listed in the BoR
the 14A expanded individual rights
States are subject to the BoR
Constitutional Amendments prevent things
The 2A is for self-defense
I just don’t have time to correct it all and it doesn’t matter any more anyway. Nobody is getting their freedom back without a bloody fight. I’ll give Ginsburg credit though, she sounds like me ranting and raving about the entirety of Western Jurisprudence. Weird, with a name like that you would think that she might know the source of our supposed Liberty.
Shades of the Third Reich! American company(ies?) helping China track its people parallels the sales (by IBM) to the Hitler regime that helped them track their victims: motorized punch-card sorters. The Hollerith cards were the predecessors to electronic computerized databases, and permitted easy searches for any catalogued characteristic desired.
Hey rucksack rob and JWR, one of the best memories of nwtc was this older gentleman that was a civilian contractor working there. Turns out he was with tenth mountain in ww2 and was still putting us youngsters to shame on the slopes in the early eighty s. He could make those old suicide slates do the job of the best skis on the market