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 power grid vulnerability.

Preventing Wildfires by Shutting Off Power?

From reader G.P.: California Utility’s Plan To Prevent Wildfires Includes Shutting Off Power To 5 Million People: Report. I selected this quote:

“PG&E, California’s largest utility, is reportedly considering shutting off power to as much as an eighth of Californians during times of high fire danger.PG&E’s service area covers 5.4 million people in fire-prone areas. The utility might initiate a blackout to keep its electric lines from sparking and starting fires during high winds. The plan is tacit acknowledgement the utility cannot always fulfill its mission of providing electricity safely and reliably, according to The Wall Street Journal.The utility is “essentially shifting all of the burden, all of the losses onto everyone else,” Dylan Feik, the former city manager of Calistoga, California, told The WSJ.”

‘Cyber Event’ Disrupted Power Grid Networks

In the E.&E. News: ‘Cyber event’ disrupted U.S. grid networks — DOE. (Thanks to J.M. for the link.) Here is an excerpt:

“A ‘cyber event’ interrupted grid operations in parts of the western United States last month, according to a cryptic report posted by the Department of Energy.

The March 5 incident lasted from 9 a.m. until nearly 7 p.m. but didn’t lead to a power outage, based on a brief summary of the electric disturbance report filed by the victim utility.

If remote hackers interfered with grid networks in California, Utah and Wyoming, as the DOE filing suggests, the event would be unprecedented. A cyberattack is not known to have ever disrupted the flow of electricity anywhere in the United States, though Russian hackers briefly cut off power to parts of Ukraine in 2015 and again in 2016.

DOE uses a broad definition of “cyber event,” describing it as any disruption to an electrical system or grid communication network “caused by unauthorized access” to hardware, software or data. That leaves open the possibility that a utility employee or trespasser, rather than a remote hacker, triggered the March 5 event.”

Goodbye to Handshakes?

Goodbye Handshakes? Some Companies Considering Banning All Physical Contact In Workplace

African Swine Fever Hits Chinese Pigs

Reader C.M. sent us a link to this article by Michael Snyder: “An Estimated 150-200 Million Pigs” Have Been Hit By A Global Plague Of Biblical Proportions. It begins:

“African Swine Fever is the greatest threat to global food production that we have seen since World War II ended. As you will see below, the disease has now spread “to every province in mainland China”, and it has now infected “an estimated 150-200 million pigs”. To put that number in perspective, that is more pigs than the entire U.S. pork industry produces in an entire year. In other words, the equivalent of the entire U.S. pork industry has just been wiped out. On top of that, African Swine Fever has also spread to Cambodia, Tibet, Romania, South Africa and Vietnam. The losses are staggering, and this crisis continues to get worse with each passing week.”

Congressional Intrigue at House of Borgia Level

This National Review piece show just how despicable the maneuverings of congress have become: The Big Lie That Barr Lied.

Another Anti-Gun Mayor Disgraced

A recent headline: Baltimore Mayor Bolts — Pugh Missing After FBI-IRS Raid. Following in the footsteps of Sheila “Gift Cards” Dixon, Democrat Baltimore Mayor Catherine Pugh has thoroughly disgraced herself and her office with flagrant corruption. Pugh is a member of Michael  Bloomberg’s Anytown for Gun Safety political pressure group–the successor the notorious Mayors Against Illegal Guns (MAIG). The Bloomberg-funded group had to be re-branded because so many of the participating “crime-fighting” mayors ended up being charged with various felonies.

Seattle Crane Collapse Analysis

Video: Seattle Crane Collapse: Ironworkers Removed The Pins?. (Warning: Some foul language.)

Antifa Plotting to ‘Stage An Armed Rebellion’

Lastly, G.P. sent this: FBI investigating alleged antifa scheme to ‘stage an armed rebellion at the border’. An excerpt:

“The FBI is investigating anti-fascist activists for an alleged plot to buy guns from a Mexican cartel in order to “stage an armed rebellion” at the southern border, according to an unclassified document obtained by The Chicago Tribune.

The FBI document, from December of 2018, warns of militant antifa activists planning to “disrupt security operations” at the U.S.-Mexico border. The group allegedly planned to buy guns from a Mexican cartel associate known as Cobra Commander, in order to “stage an armed rebellion at the border.”

The FBI has reportedly warned dozens of law enforcement agencies in both Mexico and the United States of the alleged plot.

The report, according to the San Diego Union-Tribune, stated that it was “an information report, not finally evaluated intelligence” and instructed agencies that received it “not to take action based on this raw reporting without prior coordination with the FBI.””

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




12 Comments

  1. Well they won’t let them trim the trees in a lot of areas, nor clear the deadwood and brush, same as here, “wild” areas where no one is allowed to modify or “profit” from the forest, then they put out the fires in order to “protect” the forest and when it finally does go it has all kinds of fuel and no roads to get into the area and it is the power company fault for their lines sparking fires. A good high tension line is a bit of an eyesore, a straight line cleared a hundred or so feet each side and basically down to grass and a good all weather road running along side of the poles. Up to the people, do you want power or wild nature, getting more difficult all the time to have both. Problem in New Hampshire is people in California want to stop us from having power from Canada, but insist that they have power in California. [The same] old “flying on jets to get to the climate change conference.”

  2. When I was working in California last summer near Cleark Lake, the power was shutoff for the better part of a day because of a wind storm. From what the locals told me that was the new normal to prevent more fires. To bad the power companies and consumers have to pay for the poor forest management and frivolous lawsuits by tree huggers.

  3. Re. The California fires

    The knee-jerk reaction to blame tree/shrub management in CA is a red herring and distraction from finding the truth. Like the saying goes, ‘It’s the sparks stupid’.

    PG&E has finally fessed up to the ‘Why?’ question for these fires but what about the ‘Why NOW?’ question?

    If I (a retired utility field engineer) am a conspiracy theorist then please explain this video. Start at 4:24. I see a very possible ‘smoking gun’ @6:29. Specifically the email of 2011 from Brian Cherry of PG&E and his mention of moving their proposed solar generator receptor site to Sebastopol CA.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fTvjS1-skFM

  4. I hope the FBI makes their findings on the ANTIFA, want to be thugs, public. It seems like if you only just follow where their money comes from you can determine who the puppet masters are. I am also speculating that if they were trying to buy guns illegaly they are not using their own money as they do not seem to be the types that actually work for a living. They should have bought their guns we Eric Holder was in charge. Calling people names doesn’t work out well, just ask arrogant Hilary. It is a shame that the FBI can no longer be trusted. They have come back full circle to the Hoover era. We should follow this just to see if further house cleaning is merited.

    1. The same people who pulled the Peruvian President’s strings to kick Assange out of the embassy in Great Britain is also behind the funding of Antifa. There’s a massive controlling force I. The world which the likes we may never know. Prepare folks.

  5. if antifa is actually able to stage an armed rebellion at the border, this will be a good thing, since the U S military will crush it and then we can round up all antifa members and deal with them in an appropriate manner.

  6. Last I heard, the ROE for the troops on the border did not include any ammunition for any weapons. Basically they are moving targets if thing go bad. Very poor situation from so many angles.

  7. Fully expected so sort of push back on the border wall by Antifa types. Just another step to destabilize this country. ” Out of Chaos comes power” !

    About the Pig flu, pretty scary stuff. Expect some Jihadi Johnny to spread it to the U.S.. Bye-bye pork chops, Bacon, and millions of dollars.

  8. The California utility news isn’t the least bit surprising. I’ve been to many third world countries and rolling blackouts is the norm. Meh.

    Barr is a CFR NWO Globalist and a traitor to the Republic. He should be swinging from a rope. Who cares what some commies said about him. They should be right there with him. The ‘news’ is propaganda and these Barr stories are only there to elicit support for Trump’s AG, a pro government Ruby Ridge lawyer.

  9. Consider this: if only 10% of the illegals in this country were military trained invaders their “Army” would be somewhere near 2.6 million strong according to the data the government will admit to … folks, cover your six. Being on the border is not the front lines, just the supply lines.

  10. RE: California wild fires. I had the opportunity to eat lunch with 2 guys from California, one had lost his home, and another had survived, but many in his neighborhood had lost homes. Both mentioned their neighbors had been unable to get their vehicles out of the garage after the power went off. Since the power goes off regularly in my neck of the woods, I asked, ‘why not just pull the rope handle, disengage the device the pulls the door up, and manually pull up the door? That’s what we do?” He said, most Californian’s had cut the rope handle off, since they did not like the way it looked, and were unable to open their doors, his neighbor had lost a Porsche and Rolls Royce. California, he said, was going to pass a law for all garage doors to have a battery back up. (you are kidding I thought), later I checked and it was true….

    https://www.sacbee.com/news/politics-government/capitol-alert/article218811560.html

    Reminds me of Forest Gump, stupid is as stupid does. I guess if you are so stupid you can’t manually roll up your garage door, you deserve to lose your Porche or Rolls Royce.

  11. See this also. Is this another cyber attack? This sounds like something computer related. What else could cause this?

    :
    February 02/28/2019 7:02 AM 02/28/2019 7:33 AM
    Oklahoma, Arkansas,
    Louisiana
    SPP RE
    Complete loss of monitoring or control
    capability at its staffed Bulk Electric
    System control center for 30 continuous
    minutes or more.
    System Operations 0 0

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