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 some upcoming Big Tech antitrust hearings.
DEA Agents Make Controversial Searches on Amtrak
Reader DSV sent this: Southwest Bust: DEA Agents Ambush Amtrak Passengers With Controversial Searches and Seizures. Here is a quote:
“It’s legal for Perry to search people without probable cause, a warrant, or a dog because travelers supposedly realize that they have the right to decline to submit to his searches. Perry and others in his interdiction unit have testified that they receive manifests ahead of time listing the passengers who will be arriving in Albuquerque. The courts have ruled this is also legal — functioning like a helpful tip sheet on whom to question.
More problematically, Perry has been captured on surveillance footage boarding empty Greyhound buses and pulling bags out of the checked luggage bin. One clip captures him pressing on a bag so aggressively that he appears to be tackling it. But he stops short of opening the bag, which would be blatantly unconstitutional. Several people that Perry has seized cash from insist that they are not drug couriers and, in fact, were never criminally charged as such, though that didn’t help them get their money back.”
JWR’s Comments: The correct response is: “No thank you. I’m sure that that you recognize that you lack probable cause. I do not consent to any search, and I refuse to answer any questions. Have a nice day.” Then start reading a book or magazine and ignore the officer as if he is mute and invisible, even if he persists.
Diet Soft Drinks are Truly Bad for You
Just two diet fizzy drinks a day ‘increases your risk of deadly heart attack or stroke by 50%’
YouTube’s ‘Openness’ Through Censorship
A recent vlog from Matt Christiansen: YouTube Susan Plans ‘Openness’ Through Censorship — My Response
Court Rules ‘Gun Like Hand Gestures’ Are Criminal
SurvivalBlog reader H.L. sent this: Pennsylvania Court Rules ‘Gun Like Hand Gestures’ Are Criminal
Coincidentally, just a few days later, there was this news headline: US Open Tennis Player Fined for Pointing His Racket Like a Gun at a Line Judge
Congressional Panel to Hear Big Tech Antitrust
Linked over at Whatfinger.com is this at Independent Journal Review (IJR): Congressional Antitrust Panel to Discuss Big Tech Competition. The hearing is scheduled for September 24th. The article begins:
“The Senate’s antitrust panel will meet later this month to discuss concerns that tech giants, such as Google or Amazon, seek to buy smaller rivals in order to head off competition.
Senators Mike Lee and Amy Klobuchar, the chairman and top Democrat on the Judiciary Committee’s antitrust panel, said the hearing was scheduled for Sept. 24 but did not list witnesses.
“The Subcommittee also is interested in soliciting input from policy analysts, market participants, and other stakeholders on whether legislative action relating to such mergers is needed to ensure digital markets remain competitive,” Lee said in a statement.
Klobuchar said in the statement that the companies’ acquisitions “have raised serious competition issues.”
“Big technology companies have become some of the most powerful organizations in the world. They face little competition and there are numerous examples of the companies purchasing start-up competitors in various lines of business,” she said.
The tech giants, among the most rich and powerful companies in the world, are facing increasingly intense antitrust scrutiny.”
Julian Assange Issues Warning
A hat tip to Ralph in Kentucky for sending me the link to this recent Lisa Haven video: ‘ALL OF US ARE IN DANGER’ Julian Assange Issues Urgent Warning & It’s Coming True!
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Truth is a lost art. (Julian Assange)
Clint Eastwood is in trouble (gun finger pointing) movie “Gran Torino”.
This is my favorite segment of SurvivalBlog.
Causality was NOT proven –
“But others claim unhealthy adults are more likely to turn to diet drinks, which may explain the findings”.
Clickbait headline. You can find correlations everywhere.
“Just two diet fizzy drinks a day ‘increases your risk of deadly heart attack or stroke by 50%’”
No, that is #FakeNews. And it was 26%. You mean physically fit people who drink 2 fizzy diet drinks are also 50% more at risk and morbidly obese people are 50% more at risk?
People who are ALREADY diabetics tend to drink diet drinks and other sugar free drinks, so they tend to select for diabetes. But it is not like diabetes itself is the risk factor?
But we are all going to die from climate change in a decade or two anyway, and there are 57 or more genders. That is what passes for science in the media.
I question the study about soft drinks. I’m not saying that they are, or aren’t, bad for you. There may be a correlation, but I just don’t see how you can pinpoint that to a causation. I’ll bet there are many other things that correlate to heart attacks, too.
Years ago, my mother used to take a break each day and go next door to a neighbor’s house. She would frequently be offered a piece of pie, and the neighbor, who was considerably overweight, would always use an artificial sweetener in her coffee–which she would drink while she was eating her pie.
30 years have passed, and my mother is gone but the overweight neighbor’s still around.
I give up on keeping track of the “studies” that become publicized every so often. I don’t remember. Is coffee good now, or is coffee bad? Are eggs good now, or are eggs bad? Is cholesterol harmless, or is cholesterol bad? I guess I need to keep better notes.
My siblings, friends & I made a lot of gun-like hand gestures when we were kids, & no one ever got hurt. Looks like they’re gonna arrest a lot of kids. (sigh!)
Common sense needs to be used which is rare unfortunately.
The other day a gang member, already having served 5 sentences for various violent crimes, made the gun hand symbol, pulled the trigger and mouthed the address of where officers lived.
That should be properly addressed but a few kids playing in the yard should be ignored or smiled at because they are outside actually doing something.
This, another common sense issue, is why you need to be very careful on elected judges and not just check the box at the poll.
And collect a lot of fines… ‘See how this works?…
Re: Julian Assange. This is worth paying attention to. One of the comments caught my eye: Trump’s refusal to acknowledge and grant Julian Assange immunity makes me seriously question his integrity.
Is Trump really taking on the deep state? Or, does he work for it?
Carry on
Look at who he put on his cabinet for your answer.
Good comment on correlation vs causation. Look at the study – the statistics stink. 100% of people that die drink water – doesn’t mean one causes the other.
On a long enough time line the survival rate is zero
Good comment on correlation vs causation; having said that, I was found to have “fatty liver” and I was drinking a lot of diet drinks. At my doctors behest, I stopped…it took about two years before all the tests indicated no more fatty liver. The stuff may or may not cause heart problems, but it can cause problems. Maybe they’re right for the wrong reasons. YMMV.
In regards to the Amtrak searches, the TSA’s V.I.P.R. teams have also begun performing searches on people as they’ve *exited* trains at their destinations. In 2011, the TSA announced on their own blog that their new VIPR teams had performed 8000 such searches. And in 2016, the TSA announced that these teams (beginning with New York at the time) would be assigned to railways:
https://www.tsa.gov/news/releases/2016/05/27/tsa-helping-make-rail-travel-secure
However, you are not obligated to participate in any exit searches without a specific warrant. JWR is correct that the best course of action – if you are approached by any agent – is to request to see a warrant (or an explanation of any exigent circumstances), and then state plainly that you do not consent to any searches or agree to answer any questions. Then ignore them and walk away if no warrant is provided. Multiple people have done this and posted video recordings of their interactions on YouTube, which show agents rudely yelling or threatening, but not pursuing.
Good way to get tackled,strip searched,disappeared or murdered. Cops use refusal to search as probable cause to search or charge inferering with a officer,obstruction,refusing a lawful order or resisting arrest.
Re: “Cops use refusal to search as probable cause”. That may be what they claim, but that doesn’t make it right. A request for a search can be refused if the officer lacks probable cause. Any officer that persists can be sued personally for deprivation of rights. Any officer that roughs you up in attempting an unconstitutional search can be sued personally for deprivation of rights. Their Department can also be sued. Furthermore, any illegal items found in an unlawful search are not admissible evidence, per the Fruit of the Poisonous Tree Doctrine.
Exactly what constitutes a “gun-like” gesture? If the judge involved knew the manual alphabet, which is used by the deaf, he/she would have known that the finger sign for G is an extended index finger with the other fingers hidden and the index finger pointed outward–exactly the sign we kids used for a gun in the 50s, 60s, 70s, 80s, 90s, and probably the entire sequence of time from when handguns were invented until the Snowflake invasion. Limitations on gestures are as stupid as the people who enforce them, as these people seem to have no realization that the meaning of gestures vary between cultures. Neither I nor any of my friends became killers despite “shooting” each other as we played Cowboys and Indians and refought World War II.
Give it to them with the middle finger instead just to make it a 2-fer.
There was a time when my “gun” was my left hand with my thumb extended up. I would then use the index and middle finger on my right hand to squeeze my left thumb while snapping my right hand back. That was my ammo. My knuckles coming together.
Yes we were poor.
I can still do it now even with a little arthritis. I guess I can’t share that with my grandchildren now.
Maybe I can teach them to grow carrots and potatoes but I better cut the barrel off of gun shaped vegetables.
Socialism is no fun!
I am very ‘not happy’ about Assange. He is a true hero. Either Trump is ‘all in’, or he will be ineffective. He has clearly demonstrated he is not ‘all in’, in so many ways. I do not ignore his early victories, yet he has lost the momentum needed to win. Is he hoping to play ‘nice-nice’ to get re-elected? If he is, he would likely lose anyway, yet he thinks he’s got ‘it’ in-the-bag. I say, at the end of the day, Trump will be ‘holding the bag”, and ‘kicked to the curb’. However, if the rumor is true about Hillary running again, then a vote to keep Hillary out, it the only reason that would get Trump re-elected, especially if he signs any new gun regulation.
Trump’s swelling head is alienating the hard-core base that pushed him over the top in 2016. I realize Trump is not in control of the Deep State, and is blocked. It is then better to stand on principle, and tell the truth, rather than remain quiet to avoid the truth, and allow the Deep State to continue to operate secretly, and with impunity. He should admit defeat where there is defeat, and tell the truth to expose them to the American people. We should think that failure is a better teacher. However, excessive pride can create illusions of grandeur, the fantasy that we will win next time, when we are actually loosing the war. So goes Trump, so goes the United States of America.
Proverbs 16:18
“Pride goeth before destruction, and an haughty spirit before a fall”
The only thing Trump has done about Assange, is state he’s not involved, doesn’t know, other folks are involved. There has to be a reason he’s staying out of it. Remember this: Attorney General Barr is investigating all that went into the past many years of corrupt government actions. Killary is the one who wanted to “drone” Assange, not Trump. There is a legal process that must occur in regards to Assange. My belief is he is a Hero. But, I don’t know. I pray God protects him and that the truth comes out. I used to believe that Snowden was a hero, but no, he’s ex-CIA and what he did was cripple NSA sources and methods that may have led to some American deaths. I do agree that we are living in Orwellian times, which is why we prep.