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 Your Sift Score — your secret tustworthiness score. This is the latest manifestation of a Big Brother mentality.

Floridians Can Now Garden in Their Front Yards

Florida Will Generously Allow Homeowners to Garden in Their Own Yards. (A hat tip to H.L. for the link.)

Google’s News Blacklist

Documents Detailing Google’s ‘News Blacklist’ Show Manual Manipulation Of Special Search Results.

A New CBD Oil Vendor

SurvivalBlog’s newest advertiser, Touchstone Essentials, sells CBD oil–commonly called Hemp Oil. This is a semi-controversial product.  At least for now, the low-THC variety that they sell is reportedly legal in all 50 States. Given it’s many uses, I recommend stocking some for your retreat medical supplies. It also makes a very compact barter item–so consider stocking up on some for barter, as well. Touchstone Essentials also sells Zeolite for detoxing and Super Green Juice.

Your Secret Trustworthiness Score

From Reader H.L.: We’re All Being Judged By A Secret “Trustworthiness” Score.  I pulled out this key passage:

“Nearly everything we buy, how we buy, and where we’re buying from is secretly fed into AI-powered verification services that help companies guard against credit-card and other forms of fraud, according to the Wall Street Journal.

More than 16,000 signals are analyzed by a service called Sift, which generates a “Sift score” ranging from 1 – 100. The score is used to flag devices, credit cards and accounts that a vendor may want to block based on a person or entity’s overall “trustworthiness” score, according to a company spokeswoman. From the Sift website:

Each time we get an event — be it a page view or an API event — we extract features related to those events and compute the Sift Score. These features are then weighed based on fraud we’ve seen both on your site and within our global network, and determine a user’s Score. There are features that can negatively impact a Score as well as ones which have a positive impact.”

More About the SPLC

Reader G.P. suggested this link: Opinion: Southern Poverty Law Center should be investigated

Chris Martenson on the Control Grid

Chris Martenson: The Lab Rat That Survives Is The One Who Escapes.  Here is a pointed quote:

“I’ve written consistently about these forces over the years seeking to help you see the structure of the cultural walls that contain us all. I’ve been doing this because achieving success, as well as finding deeper meaning and purpose in life, rests upon increasing our awareness of the forces shaping our beliefs and actions.

This includes being aware of the propaganda, the sophisticated marketing ploys, and the controlling nature of our dominant cultural belief system. Once you can recognize them for what they are, you free yourself from their influence over you.

These systems of diversion and distraction have gotten orders of magnitude more potent over the recent years, pacing with advances in technology.  Our brains’ biological wiring is so well-understood now that it’s routinely used against us.

For example, at one particular video gaming company, as part of their orientation, newly-hired developers are required to attend a “dopamine boot camp” in which they learn the best ways to deliver paced rushes of “brain pleasure” chemicals to video game players. Just as a caged rat quickly learns how to depress a bar in order to receive a sip of cocaine-infused water, video game players are intentionally hooked on the carefully-tuned dopamine stimulations that video games are designed to provide.

The stereotype of the non-stop gamer who ignores everything else in life to play videogames throughout the night? There’s a lot of science behind that. Gamers are simply being intentionally turned into addicts by the video game companies. Addicted customers are profitable customers.””

Our Southern Border is Being Overwhelmed

Mark recommended this six-minute video at Fox News: Border Patrol official: Caravan-size influx of migrants arriving every week in Rio Grande Valley. This is a sobering evaluation of the situation.

NY Supreme Court: No More Ban on Unvaccinated Children

DSV sent us this: NY Supreme Court Rules Against Unconstitutional Ban on Unvaccinated Children

For The Man Who Has Everything…

Lastly, G.P. sent us a link to the announcement of a gift “for the man who has everything”: New Products: Brownells BRN-134D™ Minigun

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




25 Comments

  1. Food, literally malnourishment, plays a major role in addiction too. My addictions are mostly gone after switching to a meat and veggies diet. They’re lying about red meat being bad for you, but do favor pasture raised meat both because healthier livestock makes for healthier meat and because such farms aren’t dependent on trucking in countless tons of poison-soaked Iowa GMO corn and soy.

    There are multiple synergistic components to the stack of tricks used to drive behavior. Food is the simplest one to tackle. Biggest bang for the buck. Start there.

    1. You must be right JML. … But, for a $125,000, surely Brownells would sell their ~semi-auto version of the Brownells BRN-134D™ Minigun, in the US States where full sized magazines are still allowed (Included by Brownells is the ~3,000 round Ammo-Canister).

      1. Yeah, I was wondering how long it would take a fella to exhaust that 3,000 round magazine on semi-auto. Pretty cute little joke on us.

        Cheers to you April Fools hoax sniffers.

        Carry on

    2. Bother!!! Before looking at any of these comments, I followed the Minigun Youtube link then immediately thereafter went to the Brownell’s web site and searched for “minigun” and “134D” with zero hits. I have been “April Fooled” – I took the bait – hook, line, and sinker.

    1. I never did see where Jesse Ventura was hiding the magazine for his mini-gun in order to shoot all of that ammo in that scene in “Predator.” 🙂

  2. Making everyone vaccinated is like forcing everyone in the building to wear a coat. Just close the door and keep the cold out, close the borders to carriers of communicable diseases.

        1. I know little about agriculture, and I didn’t spend the night at Holiday Inn Express, but speaking of quarantines, I just heard from my brother that there is a huge African Swine Fever outbreak in China affecting pork. (I had never even heard of African Swine Fever.) There is no vaccine for it and it has affected a huge percent of the Chinese pork industry.

          As a result, the annual World Pork Expo in Des Moines has been canceled because of concerns that contamination will be introduced in the US by foreign visitors. https://www.thegazette.com/subject/news/nation-and-world/world-pork-expo-set-for-des-moines-canceled-due-to-fears-of-african-swine-fever-virus-20190412

          Note that the devastation in China will likely drive up pork prices world wide.

          And, by the way, quarantines certainly help, but quarantines only reduce the societal impact of a disease after individuals become infected. That often means that the infected individuals are interacting with their families and communities while in the infected state, but before the disease’s symptoms manifest themselves. Malaria, for example, was introduced to the New World by previously infected Europeans who arrived when their disease was in the dormant state and when they appeared to be healthy and active.

          If you haven’t seen the 2011 movie, “Contagion,” do so. It seems to be a fairly accurate cinematic treatment of a mass flu pandemic introduced from China: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1598778/ There are many good survival/preparedness issues addressed in it.

  3. CBD for pets.
    We have a old grouchy German Shepherd. She is nearly 12 human years old and she has been diagnosed with arthritis, and a few other maladies.
    She was on the verge of visiting the Rainbow Bridge due to separation anxiety when our Vet recommended that we try some Chinese herbs or CBD. The herbs made her puke so we moved on to CBD as a last resort. CBD has worked wonders for her.
    I have heard that it does not work for all pets.

    I have never had a dog like her. She minds me better than my grandkids, easier to train too. She is an exceptional friend. I know she is just an animal but she is a really good one so I would like to keep her around for a little while longer.

  4. Re. Florida allowing gardens.
    One small step for liberty, one giant leap against Lincolnesque Yankee control freaks.

    Ridiculous you say? Look up the ancestry of HOA ‘officials’ in Broward, Palm Beach and Miami-Dade counties. Find any Florida Crackers? Sorry but I am just stating the obvious.

  5. Re. Illegal aliens breaching America’s southern border.
    Trump is making Obama’s 8 years look like ‘The Good Old Days’.

    Don’t blame me, I wanted the only vote that ever mattered in history, a vote for secession.

      1. Yankee state? Ha, Lincoln was ready to grab Montana’s gold but then he decided to go to the theater.

        Ironically Montana has the SAME problem as Florida but it’s with Californians flooding us and bringing their California mindsets (and prices) with them. Not all of them but I’d say most.

        1. I had to laugh when I saw S99s comment. Seriously have you looked at the demographics lately of the south compared to the Redoubt? That alone should have you thinking twice about your choice of your SHTF place…

  6. Take note the SPLC was the primary source the FBI used to identify “hate” groups. Now we find the splc corrupt and the fbi weaponized into a kgb like political tool. Folks we have problems when the lead federal law enforcement agency is fully and utterly corrupt. And with that in mind we have a fight coming. Makes one wonder which Feds are not compromised.

  7. At this time in history, it’s hard to believe anyone still uses Google searches. We have options. Avoid Google as you would a rattlesnake.

  8. “This is a semi-controversial product.”

    If you have doubts about the value of cannabinoids as medicine, please watch this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=seJVDDRNpuA
    It changed my attitudes. Maybe others can overcome their programming as well.
    Industrial hemp, and any products from it (defined as containing less than .3 Delta 9 THC), is no longer illegal as of the 2018 Farm Bill. You cannot get high from smoking or consuming hemp products that meet this definition, but there are many medical uses for such products.

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