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”. Our goal is to educate our readers, to help them to recognize emerging threats and to be better prepared for both disasters and negative societal trends. You can’t mitigate a risk if you haven’t first identified a risk. Today, we look at the ongoing Hong Kong protests.

Hong Kong Protests: It’s Now a Revolution

By way of Whatfinger.com, comes this: In Hong Kong, It’s Now a Revolution. The article begins:

“Defying stern warnings from both the local government and Beijing, people in seven districts in Hong Kong—most notably teachers, airport workers, and civil servants—participated in a general strike Monday, shutting down portions of the territory. For instance, more than a hundred flights were cancelled.

The strike followed weeks of sometimes violent protests in the territory, a semi-autonomous region of the People’s Republic of China. Youthful demonstrators over the weekend surrounded and attacked police stations, and enraged residents drove riot police from their neighborhoods.

Roving protesters, dressed for urban combat, created a series of confrontations across the territory, even closing the main tunnel linking Hong Kong Island with the rest of the territory. A beleaguered police force, demoralized and fatigued, was unable to keep up with the mobile bands of radicalized youth.

Some of the protest messages were impossible to miss. In Wanchai’s Golden Bauhinia Square, a magnet for tourists from other parts of China, kids spray-painted a statue with provocative statements such as “The Heavens will destroy the Communist Party” and “Liberate Hong Kong.”

In Hong Kong, revolution is in the air. What started out as an unexpectedly large demonstration in late April against a piece of legislation—an extradition bill—has become a call for democracy in the territory as well as independence from China and the end of communism on Chinese soil.”

Hot Shots: The Impact of Hot Weather on Your Rifle

Reader C.B. sent this from Shooting Illustrated: Hot Shots: The Impact of Hot Weather on Your Rifle.

Robocall Blocking Apps are Harvesting Data

Reader DSV spotted this from Kim Komando: These robocall [blocking] apps are harvesting your data. Here  is a quote:

“Oh the irony! Just when you thought you had obtained relief from the robocalls that invade your privacy, security researchers have found that a number of call-blocking applications may not be as privacy friendly as you might have assumed.

As it turns out, several of the most popular apps you can download to block robocalls are actually harvesting personal data and sharing them with analytics companies. These companies then sell your data to marketers and advertisers — some of whom may even be robocallers as well. It’s like a never-ending circle of spam!”

More People Killed by Hammers, Clubs than with Rifles of Any Kind

A hat tip to H.L. for sending this link: FBI: More People Killed by Hammers, Clubs than with Rifles of Any Kind

Modern Cave Man Offers ‘Neanderthal’ Survival Courses

Reader K.A. was the first of several folks to send this: Modern cave man offers ‘Neanderthal’ survival courses in Italy. A snippet:

“Guido Camia can show you how to light fires using just a flintstone, survive on a diet of insects and build a forest shelter.

The 37-year-old, who originally trained to be a patisserie chef, now makes a living offering “Neanderthal” survival courses in the Italian Alps.

On one of his weekend trips, you can watch him climb rocks and fish from streams barefoot, dressed in animal skins, carrying a spear and looking like something out of “The Flintstones”.

But Camia’s outdoor survival courses also come with an official stamp of approval.

“For the past five years, my courses have been supervised by Italy’s International Survival Federation (FISSS),” he told AFP.

Camia says he also gives courses in more traditional attire, but his “passion for the paleolithic” gave him the idea of a Neanderthal sidekick.”

The Wood Database

Reader G.P. sent me the link to this fascinating reference site on wood varieties: The Wood Database.

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




14 Comments

  1. My daughter moved to Hong Kong August 1 and a friend is currently traveling there. Both say that reports in American news are overstated and things are not that bad.

    1. I find that hard to jive with international news; 10,000 demonstrators in the streets… overstated? How do you overstate video footage of confrontations? Fresh in Hong Kong August 1st, a couple of weeks ago and they refute international coverage of the events? What’s going on here? This isn’t “American News”, this is international awareness of the situation, considered to be a major event. What was overstated in American and international news was the coverage of the fake racial attack of the Smollet actor in Chicago as well as numerous other events to fit an agenda.

  2. More People Killed by Hammers, Clubs than with Rifles of Any Kind

    More people are killed by cars, and by misdiagnosis in the practice of medicine.

    It doesn’t matter to the anti-gunners, because their mission is not about public safety, it’s about disarming people so that the government can have unabated power over the people. These folks are communists they want total government control, because they are ignorant to the true facts about communism. They have never educated themselves about anything, they are typically mouth breathers.

    1. I would argue that they aren’t ignorant of the facts of communism, they just don’t freaking care. Worse still, the facts of communism are their goal for us. Just like any communist revolutionaries, they assume they will be part of the glorious communist leadership of America. They own the universities, they own the Department of Education, they own the Democrat Party (all hail the party), they own all of the neoconservatives in the Republican Party (again, all hail the party), the CommuNazi Party, the UniParty.

      They don’t actually care about how the consequences of their desires affect the rest of us. The main consequence of their desires is the radically increased power and authority they bestow upon themselves. They don’t actually care how many of us have to die for them to achieve their evil goal. In fact, they literally masturbate over the prospect of dead bodies in the streets in America, simply because they wish it.

  3. 1) The thing about the Hong Kong protests that is most relevant to survivalists here in the USA is the possible economic impact. The stock market has been wobbly due to the concern over the trade disputes with China and an escalating war with our main Creditor.

    2) But now a bunch of stupid Congressmen in Washington are siding with Hong Kong while failing to realize that China holds over $1 Trillion of our Debt –due in part to the massive corruption in Congress that allowed Wall Street fraud to almost destroy our economy in 2008. Who do they think financed Democrats’ Big Bailout of 2008-2010?

    Our lying news media has failed to inform the American People that our net debt to foreigners (NIIP) soared to $8 Trillion from $2.5 Trillion during Obama’s 8 years.

    https://www.bea.gov/system/files/2019-06/intinv119annual-fax.pdf

    Maybe our Democrats could try showing some sympathy to Americans for a change — millions of Americans are just beginning to regain some savings after 8 years of long term unemployment. The median real net worth of black Americans fell from $19,000 in 2007 to only $10,000 in 2013. They are just beginning to dig themselves out of the Obama Hole — the last thing they need is another big recession triggered by the Democratic Caucus prostituting themselves for some billionaires.

    I mean , does anyone actually believe the Democratic leaders care about democracy in Hong Kong — given the leaders demonstrated contempt for democracy here in the USA? It wasn’t the Chinese Army trying to disrupt and sabotage Trump rallies in 2016 and beating up conservative speakers at Middlebury and Berkeley. Or banning Alex Jones on the Internet.

  4. The President should support the Hong Kong protesters against the Chinese communists with sanctions, and in every way he can. We are on the side of the Angels, not the Devils.

    1. 1) Hong Kong has 7.5 million people, many of whom can not afford decent housing due to a very small oligarchy controlling the limited land. I suspect those Hong Kong billionaires are behind the protests — they don’t want to be subject to Chinese law.

      https://www.ft.com/content/772e0d06-a921-11e9-984c-fac8325aaa04

      2) Hong Kong got its start as a drug smuggling depot where the British Empire got China hooked on opium — the Mexican cartels of their day. Hong Kong has always needed China’s trade — but China does not need Hong Kong.

      3) Our lying news media is NOT reporting a significant sea change in that area — Beijing is moving to make Shenzhen — to the north of Hong Kong — a major tech and trading center. With Hong Kong left to rot if the protests continue:

      https://www.scmp.com/news/china/politics/article/3020710/why-china-looking-shenzhen-and-not-hong-kong-reinvent-its

      4) I fail to see how turning the population of Hong Kong back into a pack of impoverished fishermen is supporting the people.

      Think it can’t happen? Look at what Reagan did to Detroit and its Democrat unions by supporting the relocation of US auto manufacturing to the South. What would be Washington’s reaction if New York City tried to reject federal law and secede?

      5) So why are some in Washington damaging the US national interest by meddling in a dispute on the far side of the world? Where we are largely ignorant of what’s going on , where our “support” will be limited to lip service and hand waving, and where we will leave the population hung out to dry just as we did in Tiananmen Square?

      We have the highest rate of incarceration on Earth — and one of the highest levels of income inequality. Ask our poor, our sick, and our imprisoned if we are “on the side of the Angels”.

      1. Yes, Don Williams. I seldom see conservative commentators make note of the U.S. incarceration rate. Liberals jump up and down about it while most conservatives act like all those imprisoned “had it coming”.

        Your voice is important for us to hear, brother.

        Carry on

  5. About hammers, clubs, and knives, OH MY! Don’t tell the democrats, they’ll ban my collection of hammers and cold steel Irish blackthorn walking cane and extensive collection of fixed blades. I see where the democrat O’rourke running for president went to an Arkansas gun show for photo opps and to scold the bad, bad gun people. A few quotes for the democrats:
    “Guard with jealous attention the public liberty… Unfortunately, nothing will preserve it but down right force. Whenever you give up that force, you are ruined.” -Patrick Henry-
    “The supreme power in America cannot enforce unjust laws by the sword; because the whole body of the people are armed, and constitute a force superior to any band of regular troops that can be on any pretense, raised in the United States.”
    -Noah Webster-
    “Germans who wish to use firearms should join the SS or the SA. Ordinary citizens don’t need guns, as their having guns doesn’t serve the state.”
    -Heinrich Himmler-
    “The most foolish mistake we could possibly make would be to allow the subject races to possess arms.”
    -Adolf Hitler-
    “The communist party must command all the guns, that way no guns can ever be used to command the party.”
    -Mao Tse Tung-
    “If the opposition disarms, well and good. If it refuses to disarm, we shall disarm it ourselves.”
    -Joseph Stalin-
    “If I could have gotten 51 votes in the Senate of the United States, for an outright ban, picking up everyone one of them, ‘Mr. and Mrs. America, turn them all in’, I would have done that.”
    -U.S. Senator Dianne Feinstein-
    “Waiting periods are only a step. Registration is only a step. The prohibition of private firearms is the goal,”
    -Janet Reno- (US Attorney General under Bill Clinton)
    “The measures adopted to restore public order are: First of all, the elimination of the so-called subversive elements. … On the morrow of each conflict, I give the categorical order to confiscate the largest possible number of weapons of every sort and kind.”
    Benito Mussolini-

    The present democrat clown bus running for president of the United States sounds very much like past historical figures on taking guns from citizens. These past historical figures ruled with absolute tyrannical power because as Patrick Henry and Noah Webster believed your ruined if you allow them to ban and confiscate.

  6. 1) This update just in from Japan’s Nikkei Asian Review re Beijing’s decision today to definitely promote Shenzhen over Hong Kong:

    “HONG KONG — The Chinese government aims to transform Shenzhen into a global business center, in an apparent gambit to position the southern city as a model of stable prosperity compared with neighboring Hong Kong.

    Shenzhen will receive business regulations that conform to international standards, as well as more favorable rules to spur investments and acquisitions, according to a document released Sunday by the State Council, China’s cabinet.

    China looks to draw multinationals worldwide to the tech hub, a move that essentially would rob Hong Kong of its forte as a magnet for investment.

    The guidelines come as Chinese paramilitary officers train in Shenzhen amid the weeks-old protests in Hong Kong, suggesting that Beijing may apply both economic pressure and armed force to the restive territory.”

    https://asia.nikkei.com/Spotlight/Hong-Kong-protests/China-works-to-turn-Shenzhen-into-the-new-Hong-Kong

    2) Meanwhile, the article also notes that Hong Kong’s government just released an economic stimulus ($2,4 Billion US) to try to halt the city’s slide into recession from the protests:

    “Meanwhile, in Hong Kong, the territory’s government is rolling out a stimulus package worth 19.1 billion Hong Kong dollars ($2.43 billion) to counter the economic impact of the protests. The measures, announced Thursday, include HK$2,500 in per-capita support for school-age children, along with HK$2,000 in electricity subsidies for each household. Corporations also will receive tax breaks.

    “The risk for a recession is growing,” Hong Kong Financial Secretary Paul Chan said in explaining the outlay.”

    3) Hong Kong.s Hang Seng stock index is down about 16% from April.

    4) On shortwave, China Radio International’s leading story was Beijing’s plan to promote ShenZhen.

  7. I read and watch live reports from Micheal Yon. He’s an ex-special forces war correspondent who has been reporting from HK for over a month. He pro-USA, pro-gun, anti-commie who reports live from the protests.

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