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 how a Federal judge declared the California 11+ round magazine ban unconstitutional.

Your Car and Phone are Selling Your Data

James C. sent us a link to this 9-minute video: Your Car is Selling Your Data.

Oh, and speaking for data, check out this piece at CNBC: Stores are starting to track your every move.

Bottom line: Either drive an older low tech car or disable your car’s satellite and cellular connectivity. And if you must have a cell phone, then make it an older-generation flip phone with a removable battery–not a smartphone.

Federal Judge Strikes Down California Magazine Ban

Some great news! Fed Judge: California’s ‘High-Capacity’ Magazine Ban Unconstitutional. JWR’s Comments:  Even if this court order is eventually reversed by the Ninth Circuit Court, it created a window of opportunity for magazine acquisition for Californians. They should stock up, heavily, ASAP. It is also noteworthy that there was heretofore no “plausible deniability” for any magazine manufactured between 2000 and 2019. For example, MagPul PMAGs were not released for sale until 2008. So any Californian caught with one over 10-round capacity couldn’t claim that they had it “before the ban.” But now…  What a great window of opportunity.

Thomas Sowell on a Socialist America

A good read, over at The American Thinker: Thomas Sowell Is Right to Predict a Socialist America. The article also has some great quotes from Alexis de Tocqueville.

In Europe: “Speed Assistance” = Speed Nanny

Forbes reports: New Cars in Europe Will Be Prevented From Speeding. The article begins:

“Drivers in Europe will soon have to get used to anti-speeding devices in their cars, after EU legislators agreed this morning on new legislation requiring them.

The agreement came after months of often tense negotiations which pitted safety against freedom, and prompted concerns over “big brother” watching driving behavior.

The legislation will require all new vehicles put on the market to be equipped with Intelligent Speed Assistance (ISA) technology. The devices can use sign-recognition video cameras or GPS-linked data to automatically limit the speed of a vehicle. They do so by limiting the engine power to prevent the vehicle from accelerating past the limit, rather than by throwing on the brakes.” [Emphasis added.]

Lindsey Graham Touts Red Flag Gun Confiscation

Reader H.L. sent this: Lindsey Graham on Gun Confiscation Laws: ‘Every Right Has Limits’. JWR’sa Comments:  Beware of Red Flag gun confiscation laws! These are also known as Extreme Risk Protection Orders (ERPOs). Please see through the smokescreen of soothing statist rhetoric. These laws are a gross violation of Due Process!  In essence, they deprive gun owner so their rights in absentia, with no opportunity to face their accusers. Please contact both your congressman and both of your Senators and insist that they oppose proposed Red Flag laws. And while you are at, encourage them to oppose all of the currently-proposed “gun control” legislation.

Get a HughesNet Dish and Support SurvivalBlog

A reminder: There is now an ad for HughesNet Satellite Internet in our right-hand ad bar. We are now earning commissions whenever anyone sees that ad and signs up to get a HughesNet dish installed. We’ve had one of those here at our ranch for more than three years, and it functions flawlessly, even with skies covered by dark storm clouds. The upload speed is quite good while the download speed is amazingly fast! (25 Mbps.) If you live out in the boonies beyond cable Internet or DSL Internet, you can now have an Internet connection that provides faster download than DSL! (Typically DSL provides just 1.5 Mbps to 8 Mbps in the boonies and perhaps 16 Mbps in some towns.) It is compatible with most VPNs, with Skype, with Vonage and with other VOIP phones. You can even use it off grid with no phone line required. In fact, if you’ve been living without phone service, you can have a Vonage phone line and/or a Verizon cell phone signal available 24 hours a day–even if you live way out beyond cellular coverage. All you need is stable 120 volt AC power–such as from a modified sine wave inverter. Please be sure to mention Tech ID: 0634 when you place your installation order with HughesNet. Many Thanks!

Illinois Judge Rules FOID Unconstitutional

From G.P.: White County, IL judge rules FOID *unconstitutional*; IL AG appeals to Illinois Supreme Court.

CDC Skewing Gun Death Data

A hat tip to DSV for sending this: Why is the CDC Lying To Us About Gunshot Data?

New Zealand Criminalizing Thought Crimes

The latest from Montana vlogger Matt Christenson: ‘Chief Censor’ Explains New Zealand Criminalizing Possession of the Manifesto — It’s Not For You. It is richly ironic that in reaction, the government of New Zealand is doing exactly what the terrorist intended them to do.

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




18 Comments

  1. Re: Lindsey Graham (R)
    Failure to understand that Republicans are an enemy of liberty is to have missed the whole lesson of America’s slide into tyranny. It’s the old Good Cop-Bad Cop game and they have been cleverly played.

  2. Senator Graham says “Every right has limits.” The purpose of our “Rights” is to rein in the government, not the citizens! So, does the Government have the power to place limits on how much the citizens’ rights can control it?

    1. Oh rest assured that the government has the POWER to place limits on the rights of the people, but they do not have the moral right or the lawful authority to do so.

      There is the difference.

  3. This whole extreme risk red flag doesn’t even make sense to me. So the government thinks some is about to “go postal” so the confiscate their firearms. Is the government going to confiscate their vehicles so they don’t run a bunch of people over? Are they going to confiscate their pressure cooks, knives, and a host of other things that can be used as weapons?

  4. Red Flag Laws=Minority Report… If you haven’t seen it the movie is about arresting you before a crime is committed because you thought about doing the crime…Let me ask you a question if a person is too dangerous to have a firearm then are they not too dangerous to be out on the streets…So the next step is lock someone up because someone said they are dangerous…It’s a slippery slope that we are sliding down… Pretty soon we will be out of control and no way to stop it…

  5. Re: the Magazine Ban… This is indeed a rare window of opportunity for magazine purchasing, even at $7-$10ea in bulk, buying 10, 20 100 magazines is a hefty chunk of change to spend for many people. Maybe MagPul (and other mfg’s) will have a mega-warehouse sale at prices so low, politicians will have nothing to do but cry into their sanctimonious martini’s, giving not only Californians a big chance to stock up but the rest of America also…

  6. Not to worry too much about locking everyone up. The jails are so overcrowded now Utah releases dangerous felons, people arrested for drive-bys, robbery, attempted murder- in less than a week with a court date and promise to appear. But we have PLENTY of money for new recreation centers, dog parks, PAVED bike trails (some as long as 100 miles).
    Somehow, local government has moved over into the entertainment industry. They’ve forgotten their basic purpose: Clean water in the pipes, sewer, trash pickup, pave the streets, and [lock up] the bad guys. That’s IT. Private industry can be relied on to entertain us.

    So….traveling to California in a week….do I take my Glock or not? Oh, the drudgery of dusting off a 1911.

  7. I’m going to disagree with you on HughesNet. Being on top of a mountain around 7000 ft., we tried this service for two years. Our experience was not as shiny as yours. We now use just a hotspot connection which is a 100 percent better than Hughes. The irony is we worked for Hughes for years.

    1. We worked for Hughes for a while too, but back then, the service didn’t offer more than about 8 Mbps with the priciest package, and weather routinely messed it up. When a ground-mounted repeater system came to town, offering 0.8 Mbps for half the price of the bottom-tier Hughes package, we jumped on it. Haven’t looked back. Even got a free upgrade to 1 Mbps (usually clocks at 1.2) with no added cost. Biggest benefit–NO BANDWIDTH LIMITS!!! We could watch videos 24/7 if we wanted to.

    2. I live so remote cell reception is sometimes questionable. The nearest hotspot (I assume you mean Wi-Fi) is probably 15 miles away. I have had HughesNet for 6 years and never a problem. I have their least expensive plan and have never noticed any download rate change from the first day to the last day of the month. When I do notice a slowdown or connection problem I know it’s time to go out and brush the 4 plus inches of snow off the dish. No other weather condition seems to bother it.

  8. I found this info last night on http://www.calguns.net concerning current dealers who will ship “standard capacity,” not “high capacity,” magazines to California right now:
    https://www.calguns.net/calgunforum/showthread.php?t=1521211

    I expect that prices might jump as the rush to purchase increases. JWR nailed it. This is a window of opportunity for Californians. The genie is out of the bottle. No matter what happens in Sacramento, it will be difficult for the crazy Libs in Sacramento to put the genie back.

    I am sure that Diane Feinstein has had a couple of sleepless nights so far, and many more are coming.

  9. Woohoo!!! As a native and lifelong Californian, you’d better believe I jumped on the opportunity to get a boatload of ‘standard capacity’ mags! Literally only hours after I learned of the ruling, I place my PMAG and Glock mag order (got almost two dozen confirmed). Later that same day, online forums began to fill with comments from people saying sellers were already out of stock and beginning to backorder.

    JWR is right…if you live in CA, get as many as you can NOW. The massive flood of legal mags coming in will make it logistically impossible for the Dems to successfully pull off another ban. Sure, they might put some tough-sounding words onto a piece of paper and spout that they created another “law”, but they won’t be able to do a darned thing about the hundreds of thousands (perhaps millions?) of new mags physically present within the state and held by gun owners everywhere.

    Good times! Now let’s regroup and get rid of the absurd “Safe Gun Roster” and “Assault Weapon” classifications while we’re at it.

  10. I felt bad for liberty loving, constitutional Californians. This is a ray of hope. To celebrate I’m going to talk the half mile to my local southern small town gun shop and buy a few 30 round AR and AK magazines. They also have plenty of Glock fun sticks on the rack, AR-10 mags and racks of standard cap mags from other manufacturers are available for cash prices. Many people come in to buy a few each paycheck as a savings plan. I like living in a “more or less” free state.

  11. “We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.”

    The important point I wish to point out in the quote above is that “We the People” are the ordinating authority in this Republic. If you wanted to be a Catholic priest, or Baptist minister, etc; you would have to pursue a process of training and education, live a life style that meets the requirements for the office sought, and then upon the finding of an ordination authority be ordained into the position wanted. My point is this: “We the People” have either never learned this or have forgotten this salient point of our founding document. Thus we decry party politics and blame everything and everyone except ourselves for the failure of government to be held within the chains which binds it down; the Constitution.

    I urge all readers of this post please seek education on our Constitution; the website https://www.theamericanview.com/ has an excellent course available. There are many such courses, some free, some cost money.

    I have hosted many courses from the American View over the years, because so many of “We the People” do not know the Christian, biblical principles contained in our founding documents, thus we cannot hold our elected leaders accountable either at the soapbox, the jury box, the ballot box .. and certainly not at the bullet box.

    If “government” has failed, then it is only because “We the People” have failed.

    It is time to raise the bar, it is time to elect only those candidates who can pass a Constitutional test that is based upon truth, knowledge, understanding, and wisdom, which can only be gained by accurate education and righteous living.

    It is time for the fervent and effective prayers of American prayer warriors to come to bear upon the illness of our Republic, when the Lord moves in a persons heart and inculcates their actions with His Holy Spirit, then and only then can our land be healed and restored. If you do not believe this, or cannot grasp it, then you need to humble yourself, ask for forgiveness, seek Gods face, and ask for the blessings promised us in Second Chronicles 7:14 “Then if my people who are called by my name will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sins and restore their land.”

  12. Government- Let’s take a look at what the word means. When you put a GOVERNOR on a truck engine, you limit the power that it has. The same thing applies to you. When you are under the restrictions of the government, you have given control of your life to someone else. ONE HUNDRED PERCENT of the time, the people that you have ceded your decision-making powers to are not the type of people that you would invite into your home, not the type of people that you would trust to be alone with your wife or daughter, and not the type of people that you would want to go into business with.
    They are the most greedy, power-hungry, ruthless, unethical people that you could imagine. Otherwise, they would not seek the positions that they are in and so desperately crave. Do they want to do good ? They always say so, but what they REALLY want to do is to be in a position to boss you around, control your life, and make you do things and pay for things that you would never agree to.
    Now, I am a Trump supporter. I voted for him to turn our country around. Further, I believe that he was chosen by Almighty God for this purpose in response to millions and millions of prayers from patriots and Christians. I want President Trump to 1) restore the rule of law to our country, 2) make it strong again so that our enemies will be afraid to attack us, 3) stop the invasion of illegal foreigners coming into our country to game the system and soak up freebies such as medical care, education, welfare, food stamps and other bennies, and stop them from corrupting our electoral process, 4) manage the inevitable coming financial collapse/reset to minimize the amount of pain suffered by our citizens, and damage to our economy, 5) reduce the size of government (I doubt that he will), and 6) make America first in trade and jobs.
    I DO NOT want him to insert his personal preferences into matters such as further losses of our liberties under the Bill of Rights and the Constitution,
    no matter HOW well-intentioned he intends to be. Remember, he used to be a liberal, and he still is a human, prone to making mistakes. I have written to him many times to make my opinions known to him. There is such a thing as a so-called ‘Presidential Advisory Board’, and I am honored to be a member.
    does he take our advice ? Sometimes. As I said, I do not trust ANYONE with the safety of my family, the keys to my house, and the freedoms which I hold dear. My President included. And that goes double for any stinking politician. At least President Trump is not one of those.

Comments are closed.