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 upcoming release of the movie Radioflash.
New Survivalist Film: Radioflash
Blog reader William J. wrote to mention that a new post-EMP survivalist film called Radioflash will be released November 15th, 2019. It was made clear by the trailer that this film was not low budget. The lead actress, Brighton Sharbino, played Lizzie Samuels from 2013 to 2015 in The Walking Dead. Folks who live in the American Redoubt will probably recognize some of the locales around Spokane, Washington, Clark Fork, Idaho, and northwestern Montana. Most notably, I quickly recognized Kootenai Falls. I’ve previously dubbed this “best supporting background” scenery for The Revenant and The River Wild.
More About California’s 15 New Anti-Gun Laws
At The Federalist: Gov. Newsom Fiddles With Pointless Gun Restrictions While California Burns. JWR’s Comments: All of these laws are violations of the Second Amendment. The Red Flag laws also violate the 5th and 14th Amendments (the right to due process), the 4th Amendment (search and seizure), and the 6th Amendment (the right to have the representation of an attorney, the right to confront one’s accusers, and the right to cross-examine witnesses.) It is also noteworthy that the ban on the Del Mar gun show is a violation of the Bills of Attainder clause. (Article 1, Section 10, Clause 1). Our federal and state government cannot pass laws singling out just one person or one company for deprivation of property or livelihood. Yet this is precisely what that new law does, because the Del Mar gun show was operated for many years by just one gun show promoter. Shame on Governor Newsom and his minions!
Don’t Use WiFi — Here’s Why
A new piece by Naomi Brockwell: Snowden Says Don’t Use WiFi — Here’s Why.
New Tennessee Law Lets Felons Have Antique Guns
AG opinion: New Tennessee law lets felons have antique guns. JWR Adds: Anyone with a felony conviction should take note that possession of ammunition is also restricted for felons, under Federal law. One way around this is to either handload ammunition or to only buy ammunition that is actually manufactured inside your own state. (Thus, not in “interstate commerce.”) Keep your receipts, so that you can document both the origin of ammunition, and where it was purchased. Be sure to consult an attorney licensed in your state for further details
Feckless ABC News Runs Knob Creek Video as a “Syria Attack”
At Snopes: Did ABC Mistakenly Label a Video from a US Gun Range as Syrian War Footage? JWR’s Comment: What Snopes failed to mention is that ABC refused to make an on-air apology, and only apologized in a Facebook post. It is sad that a major national news organization could make such a ‘bush league” blunder.
Amir Tsarfati on Turkey’s Invasion of Syria
Israeli intelligence analyst Amir Tsarfati’s recent Middle East Update (October 17, 2019), is worth watching. In it, he breaks down Turkey’s recent incursion into Syria. In the civilian world, Tsarfati is a tour guide for Christians visiting Israel. He is also an IDF Reserve Intelligence Corps officer with an active clearance. His observations on geopolitics and military strategy are often insightful.
Gun Confiscation and the Last Stand of The Republic
Warrior Poet Society: Gun Confiscation & The Last Stand of The Republic. JWR’s Comment: Francis, The Man Who Would Be Master Beto has torpedoed his own presidential campaign. There is no need to put him in place with a “Lighten Up, Francis” chiding. He’s already managed to destroy his own political career, with just a few words: “Hell yes, we’re going to take your AR-15, your AK-47…” Thanks, Francis, for saying out loud what you and all of your fellow Democrafty candidates have been thinking. Watch them now try to back pedal and distance themselves, now that Beto has Touched the Third Rail. By the way, Colion Noir concurs with may assessment.
The Strange DNA of the Octopus
A recent article on octupi DNA in the University of Chicago News is fascinating reading. It is based on a paper published in the scientific journal Nature and titled: Landmark sequencing of octopus genome shows basis for intelligence, camouflage”. The paper begins:
“The genome size of the O. bimaculoides, 2.7 billion base-pairs, originally attributed to a duplication in the genome, was found to be partially the result of a massive expansion in a few gene families, notably in those that regulate neuronal development and in those involved in camouflage, suckers and neural tissue.”
—
You can send your news tips to JWR. (Either via e-mail of via our Contact form.) Thanks!
RE: Beto O’Rourke (RFO)… I believe it was at the very first ‘Demorat’ debate that RFO admitted to owning an AR-15, let him be the first in line (publicly and on camera) turning in, not only his AR but ALL his firearms just to prove that he is not a hypocrite, but then again…he’s a politician so I digress.
Give him a break. At least Beto had the cajones to say out loud what the others thought about military-style rifles, but wouldn’t say. Now that the skunk has been released in the room, even the most gullible and trusting gun owner won’t be able to disregard the smell.
Beto cut to the chase and put into words the ultimate goal of the Left. I fully expect that eyes rolled to the back of some heads at the DNC. Frankly, you could say that Beto’s comment was not “politically correct” for a Democrat, given that Democrat politicians will say one thing about guns in order to get elected, yet take a quite different course after they are elected.
The ultimate result here? Beto’s comments helped to badly damage the momentum of Congressional anti-AR15 forces following the El Paso and Dayton shootings. How much talk about that have you heard lately? Thank you, Beto.
I have a USB cellular data device that appears as an ethernet device
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07JWGN9TK
It works with an adapter for most phones with “On the Go”, or at worst a powered hub. No Wifi, except…
I also have a wifi and/or ethernet router that can use it (as well as blocking trackers, malware, etc. at the router), so it acts as a shield. So I can connect vie ethernet or wifi but to this firewall router (which I can do things to randomize or hide). Right now I’m waiting for a sale to update because I can’t charge and use ethernet at the same time, but the new hardware will let me.
Also the originating ethernet address (without a VPN) can also reveal your location, since there IP address shows who is serving you. Just try whatsmyip (dot) com and see how close the GPS coordinates are to you.
Beyond that for both VPN and this “Ethernet”, if you are on any site and not using ad/tracking blockers, they are still tracking you, often by other means. There was a tech site “Why is it trying to start audio” – it wasn’t, an Ad auditing service was seeing what the audio capabilities were to create a user fingerprint. Even HTTPS “security”, your browser sends it’s app name, version, the operating system, and often many more details when connecting. And trackers can get around VPN.
It is worse if you are logged in to Twitter, Facebook, Google, Microsoft or whomever else because your login is unique and Facebook and Google are specifically tracking your activity. That little F – share on facebook – on many sites just by grabbing the icon and underlying javascript will know it is you are visiting the site since you are logged in. Also background things like google-analytics. If you aren’t logged in they have much less to go on.
The only way to avoid tracking is to be completely offline, in the same way that the only way you can avoid theft is not to have any property. But you can make it more difficult for burglars or trackers so they will go for a soft target instead of a firm or hard or heavily armored and shielded target.
Robert Francis O’Rourke: If one were actually looking for a way to start a Civil War in America, I would think that this would be it. The government actually physically going around and taking weapons from citizens. Last time that happened America was still called the colonies. Tyranny indeed! And as a Texan allow me to add a personal note, what a jackass.
Decoding the Genome of the octopi: I love science and all of its wonderful, thought provoking intelligence. But it is the scientists who scare me. Some are very intelligent and humble men and women. Others are so arrogant that it breaches to hubris. The latter are the ones who have given us nuclear weapons and human engineered plagues that are just waiting in vials in “secure” storage facilities around the world. I do worry what hideous intentions lurk within the minds of some of these individuals. What manner of fresh hell awaits Humanity regarding bioengineering and the creation of interspecies creatures with mixed DNA? Sadly, often man’s reach exceeds his grasp.
O’Rourke types, the scientists, the educators, the judges and most politicians actually lead approximately 50% of the U.S. population. Think about that.
The biggest worry should be the leadership of our security agencies. Here lies proof that a substantial part of our government is infected with un-American personnel:
George Soros is still alive.
The Radioflash trailer looks good, thanks for posting it, I’ll defiantly go see it.
I don’t know if has already been mentioned in SB, but the movie “THE RELIANT, Protect Faith and Family at all costs” looks pretty good also. It stars Kevin Sorbo, and plays one night only. In North Idaho, it’s playing Oct 24 in Coeur D Alene at the Regal Riverstone.
Even if the quality is not first rate, and I don’t know that it’s not, I will support movies that counter the SJW propaganda from Hollywood and are in line with my beliefs and values.
Trailer and times here: https://www.thereliantmovie.com
Thanks for recommending “The Reliant”.
We enjoyed it.
Computer Security- tracking.
I am no computer wiz, but I do know radio, and wifi is essentially radio. I would like any one with more experience to please correct me if I am off on this.
I use something that is not often discussed as one layer of my security. I see the commentor TZ has a very interesting option that might even be used as apart of long distance WIFI that uses a directional antenna. Simplywifi.com is one of many outlets of this sort of thing. This allows one to connect at distance of up to many miles, to a wifi source. Because the antenna is directional, and because there are no other Hot Spots in the area, my location can not be pin pointed. Our local provider is phone company that has been slowly installing wifi hotspots, in and around population centers, that are now numerous, and now provide several wifi ‘hot spots’ selections at a given location. This makes it easy to use a smart phones, or laptops almost anywhere. These may exist in your area, and provide an opportunity to use a directional wifi antenna that allows the user to use one ‘hot spot’ and not let the other ‘hot spots’ hear you, therefore they cannot have a ‘fix’ on your location. The 24dbi antenna is ideal for this. One can also go peer to peer, talking to only one other computer, or one can create their own net in a larger area of more than 1 mile, and perhaps up to 10 miles, the area of a small city. We could have an Intranet. This means using text, encrypted or not, and would be an unusual way to communicate, especially if the Internet is down.
Perhaps I’ll some day write more on this. However, interest in this sort of thing is probably low, as it is definitely ‘outside the box’ where few dare or care to go! It is also not practical as this technology is not in wide spread use. However, that is what makes this simple device so powerful. These other options that I am now aware of may provide better security, and may be easier to use. I would look into those as well. If you wish to experiment, I would start with 14dBi yagi, and the shorter length LMR 240 cable that is around 10 feet, and the amplifier. This is the lowest cost way to find out if this could work for you. This can also connect your shop or garage to the router in the house as well. It is multi-purpose for those who like to experiment. The future belongs to those who can innovated and over come.
I am glad I was not a victim of public education, and other dogmas.
Mesh Net is what you are talking about. It is my understanding that you would still be able to operate among yourselves if the internet where down.
Thanks for the reply.
I went to the source of Snowden’s comments since I couldn’t bring up the page at the link provided because my browser doesn’t allow tracking, cookies, ads, etc. so I was blocked. The browser is called Brave and you can download it and use it. It’s awesome. Back to topic, my background is network security, 25+ years. It does not matter if you are connected to a cellular network, a wireless network, or ethernet, or satellite. The entire Internet runs based on IP addresses and routing. IPs are associated with a physical location. Even if you are IP hopping, even if you’re running traffic through Tor, install VPNs, have physical and virtual firewalls in place, encrypted email, etc., you can be tracked. The questions to ask oneself is, what level of privacy do I need and why do I need it? I recently read where the Feds actually tracked a transaction through the blockchain of bitcoin and were able to identify the criminals and indict them. Pretty impressive. I used to use layers upon layers of security, but I don’t any more. Reason being: the only threat I fear is identify theft. I’m not running from the law. I use an encrypted email app just to avoid local snooping, and don’t do social media or browse the Internet indiscriminately. I have credit monitoring. That’s about it. If you have a payroll job, if you have a bank account, if you login to Amazon or Costco, if you use a credit or debit card, if you file taxes, if you take social security, etc., you are tracked by the powers that be and the snoops along the way. Your information is in numerous databases. Those databases are breached often. There’s really no such thing as privacy any more. What you can do is be intentional, conscious, of what you are exposing yourself to and take measured steps to prevent that which might negatively affect you. So WiFi? I use it all the time. My two cents.
SaraSue,
Makes sense. I don’t try to hide from the feds. Everything on my computer and in my browsing is benign. If I was a fed and someone was busy trying to hide all their activities I would wonder what they were doing. I do my online shopping and banking at work over lunch where the network is constantly monitored. I’m not a computer expert but the only way I can find to protect a computer is to never hook it up to the internet. I have a couple computers that have never touched the internet since set up. I use them to store and archive my camera pictures, pictures of family, friends and vacations that could never be replaced. The SD cards never touch an internet computer. I also have about 700GB of WAV files from my vinyl albums and CDs that I ripped many years ago before I was the prepper of today. That ripping took over 1000 hours over a couple years. Everything comes off these computers on an optical disc. The data is duplicated on multiple computers and external hard drives, some of which are stored off site, for redundancy.
Don’t exclude a driver’s licence,ID card or file taxes-all this information is being sold or given away by your local or state gov. for profit to supplement bloated budgets
Thank you for the reply. You are way ahead of me Greg since I’m terrible at backing up my data. I used to! Gosh I used to be crazy picky about security. One of my goals was to “become invisible”, sort of disappear in the noise, but I found it not impossible but incredibly difficult. One very possible approach to security is to “obfuscate” – meaning to muddy the waters of information about oneself so that someone who wishes to do you harm will have a difficult time messing with you. It’s kind of an art form that I’ve dabbled in, and too long of a discussion for this post. I’ve run all the worst case scenarios for my life and came up with a plan that meets most of those, knowing that in the end God has His plan for my life and whatever that is, I’m in. I’ve done my best to “fill my lamp with oil” while I await the bridegroom, Jesus’, return.