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”.  Today, we focus on the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA).

FEMA Reports Admits Failures

Reader G.P sent this:  New FEMA Report Admits Preparedness Failures.  A brief quote:

“Attempts to enhance levels of preparedness among individual households, communities, and various organizations which lie outside the emergency management profession’s immediate sphere of control have shown little to no sign of improvement. Preparedness campaigns such as Ready.gov, America’s PrepareAthon, and National Preparedness Month, all aimed at individual households and communities, have not produced the desired results…  Past efforts to apply top-down or one-size-fits-all solutions have too often ended in disappointment.”

The Christchurch Massacre: Keep Calm

Sargon of Akkad has posted some incisive commentary on the Christchurch Massacre: Keep Calm.

And on the same topic, there is this great commentary by Matt Christiansen: On the Christchurch Shooting | When Self Defense Is ‘Not a Valid Reason’

EU Implementing Biometiric ID Cards

The latest bit of Big Brother encroachment, directly from the EU web site: Better security for ID documents: Council Presidency and European Parliament reach provisional agreement. A quote:

“Under the proposed new rules, identity cards will have to be produced in a uniform, credit card format (ID-1), include a machine-readable zone, and follow the minimum security standards set out by ICAO (International Civil Aviation Organisation). They will also need to include a photo and two fingerprints of the cardholder, stored in a digital format, on a contactless chip. ID cards will indicate the country code of the member state issuing them, inside an EU flag.”  [Emphasis added.]

Our Tattered Fourth Amendment

Reader H.L. sent us a link to this essay by John Whtehead: Forced Blood Draws & Implied Consent Laws Make a Mockery of the Fourth Amendment. I’ll offer a quite from his article:

“You think you’ve got rights? Think again. All of those freedoms we cherish—the ones enshrined in the Constitution, the ones that affirm our right to free speech and assembly, due process, privacy, bodily integrity, the right to not have police seize our property without a warrant, or search and detain us without probable cause—amount to nothing when the government and its agents are allowed to disregard those prohibitions on government overreach at will.

This is the grim reality of life in the American police state.

Our so-called rights have been reduced to technicalities in the face of the government’s ongoing power grabs.

Consider a case before the U.S. Supreme Court (Mitchell vs. Wisconsin) in which Wisconsin police officers read an unconscious man his rights and then proceeded to forcibly and warrantlessly draw his blood while he was still unconscious in order to determine if he could be charged with a DUI.”

Banning Pictures of Guns on Social Media?

Over at AmmoLand: Proposed Ban on Social Media Gun Pictures Proves Gun Control is Total Control. Here is a quote:

“If you post it on social media, that’s probable cause for us to come get the guns out of your house,” Democrat Florida State Senator Jason Pizzo proclaimed in a Facebook video three years ago. “That’s it. It’s now on you to explain why you have a gun in your house and why it’s on social media…”

He was stumping at the time to change the law to deny the right to keep and bear arms to young adults old enough to vote, marry, sign binding contracts and serve in the military. Pending that, he wanted parents to call the police on their children if they saw them posting pictures and videos with guns online.

There’s no question that if you’re a parent and have a dependent child in your home, what they are doing, what they have access to, and what goes on under your roof are your business. How you handle that parental authority is your call, or it should be. Depending on circumstances, alerting the police may be a viable option. Just be aware that their vested interest in their own safety, and the protocols they will follow to ensure it, will take precedence, and you may come to regret that you didn’t try to resolve matters another way.

Fast forward to the present, and the new climate in Florida where even some Republicans are scrambling to support citizen disarmament edicts. Pizzo is now pushing a bill that, along with “lock up your safety” infringements, makes “posting or publishing of a picture of a firearm, BB gun, air or gas-operated gun, or device displayed to resemble a firearm to social media” by minors a criminal act that will result in guns being “promptly seized by a law enforcement officer and disposed of,” and other penalties.”

(A hat tip to H.L. for sending the link.)

You can send your news tips to JWR. (Either via e-mail of via our Contact form.) Thanks!




15 Comments

  1. In this day and age why would ANYone want to post a photo of anything they own on aa system monitored by law enforcement… bad guys,,, Social Justice A-holes (Warriors they are not and never will be)? And, yes- each of these groups have been found doing so repeatedly over the last few years.
    But then, they post pics of their empty house and pile of mail while they’re in another country, pics of their new electronics, their new car, their over priced toys… then scream when it’s stolen while they’re out of the house.
    If I won a 100 million dollar Lotto I’d offer it to anyone who could devise a virus to destroy cell phones for at least 10 years. Liv 60+ years without a phone in my pocket and without 100 million… so, yes I’m serious.

    1. I was always told you can sit in a room full of people keep your mouth shut, and they think you are an idiot. Or you can open your mouth and prove them right. Social media helps them open their mouths.

      1. Which is why I rarely comment on these things… you don’t know me and I don’t know you. Neither of us should give a d**n about the other’s comments and our opinions are our own and one else’s business.

  2. “or device displayed to resemble a firearm to social media” -Pizzo

    Remember the kid that ate a pop tart into the shape of a gun, and got suspended?

    “He wanted parents to call the police on their children” -Pizzo

    What kind of parent sicks the government on their own children for taking an interest in guns? There is definitely a witch hunt going on.

  3. Re: FEMA’s failure…
    It really is no different today than it was back in early 1958-65 when the gov’t not only sent several different Civil Defense booklets to literally every address in America, but also provided tinned crackers, hard candies and sanitation kits just for the asking at your local county civil defense coordinator (usually the Sheriffs Office), along with multiple ‘lists’ of supplies to put in your basement or homemade ‘bomb / fallout shelters’. (I know this because that’s what my family did in 61′)
    Even then, with a very real threat of nuclear war just 90 miles off the Florida coast or 30 minutes away over the Polar Ice Cap, lazy Americans did little but watch Walter Cronkite or Huntley & Brinkley and wait for the end to come except now, they watch CNN and cry when their SSI or disability checks are late or their S.N.A.P. cards didn’t get filled and Mega-Lo-Mart is out of bread “so we’ll just go back tomorrow” or they’re too busy to prepare cuz it’s Saturday and college football has 3 games today and tomorrow on Sunday is the NFL and March is a full month of college basketball playoffs and next Friday the new super hero flick is coming to a theatre near you…

    Do I blame FEMA? No!
    I blame lazy people who neglect the safety and welfare of their family, their community and their country (many of my family members included.)
    I’m a charitable person, and I do have charity-buckets ready to pass out when the time DOES come, but do not come knockin on my door because you were too lazy, negligent or ignorant to help yourselves, You won’t like the what it says on the welcome mat.

    WAKE UP AMERICA! (I know I’m preaching to the choir here…)

  4. About the FEMA report, most people still think that in the event of a disaster of any magnitude the government will be there within a day to give them food, shelter, clean water. Why should they spent money on such trivial things when uncle sugar will show up to take care of them. As long as they are able to watch TV, order pizza, and beer is in the fridge, why worry.

  5. I do not want to be on the same road as a drunk driver. I understand that by driving I agree to be sober and not put other lives at risk. If you do not agree and feel your 4th amendment rights should allow you to drive drunk I cannot agree with you. I know that if I am stopped for DUI and refuse the various field tests that they can legally draw blood to detect my alcohol (or other drug) levels. I know this in advance and have agreed to it as has every licensed driver. So the fact that the driver in this case was unconscious does not seem to matter in my opinion.

  6. I was dropping a family member off at the airport last month.
    A company named Clear ID was hustling passengers over to their indoctrination terminals as fast as could be. Like lambs to slaughter, people blindly followed the sales people. “All you need is a government issued ID and two fingerprints and for a small monthly fee you can save 5 minutes in line”.
    Any of us who have worked in the government, served in the military, or coached children have already been fingerprinted as law abiding citizens.
    Like the DNA data miners, Clear ID seems to be a private company preying on the sheep.
    Interesting times we live in, hence the “End of Times” article started today.
    God bless all of you.

    1. When in public and approached by someone selling something or panhandling I make believe I am looking at something else, keep moving and play deaf. The most important thing is to keep moving. My wife thinks it’s rude and it may be but it works.

      1. This is a global ID, despite what Homeland Security says. REAL ID is exactly this — minus the fingerprints, but that’s just dressing. There are still a few states where you can get a drivers license without a biometric photo. The non-compliant DL will not get you into federal facilities or allow you to fly on the airlines after October 2020, but you get to decide whether that is important to you relative to freedom from the global ID managers. (You can still travel without your REAL ID, you just have to produce literal papers.)

    2. This is a good heads-up for any of us who might be taken in, Lee. Sometimes I wonder if the most common religion in our country isn’t Christianity but convenience.

      I certainly observe many who worship at the altar of “faster, cheaper, better”.

      Carry on

  7. Did anyone else actually go and read the FEMA report? The whole stupid thing is nothing by a liberal-slanted culture and diversity think-piece. Almost nothing to do with actual preparedness.

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