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 Biometric Scanning.
DHS Backs Off on Mandatory Face Scans
R.J. sent this: DHS Wanted To Add US Citizens To The Long List Of People Subjected To Mandatory Face Scans At Airports… But Has Backed Down For Now. The article begins:
“We knew the DHS would get to this point eventually. Since the beginning of its biometric scanning program rollout, the DHS has planned on adding US citizens to the list of people forced to trade their faces for air travel privileges. So far, the program has been limited to suspicious foreigners (which is all of them, including those here on visas), but a recent filing — caught by Zack Whittaker at TechCrunch — says flying in the United States would soon require adding yourself to the government’s facial recognition databases.”
Tesla in Autopilot Mode Strikes Again
State police cruiser struck by Tesla in autopilot mode on I-95 in Norwalk
Here is a quote:
“A state police cruiser was struck by a Tesla in autopilot mode Saturday morning on I-95 in Norwalk, said police.
Police say the crash happened in the early morning hours just north of Exit 15.
Troopers out of Troop G responded to a disabled vehicle in the left center lane of the highway, officials said.
Police say the troopers had their emergency lights activated and flares behind the cruisers.
As the troopers were waiting for a tow truck for the disabled vehicle a Tesla Model 3 crashed into the back of one of the cruisers.
The Tesla also hit the disabled vehicle.
The driver of the Tesla told police his car was in autopilot while he was checking on his dog in the back seat just before the crash.
Police say the driver was given a misdemeanor summons for Reckless Driving and Reckless Endangerment.”
How Long Does Canned Food Last?
Over at Food Storage Moms: How Long Does Canned Food Last?
Police Use Bystanders as “Human Shields” in UPS Truck Shootout
Outrage After Police Use Bystanders As “Human Shields” In Florida UPS Truck Shootout
An excerpt:
“‘In addition to the UPS driver – who was on his knees – the innocent bystander was shot while sitting in a car waiting at the stop light in the intersection,’ CBS4 News in Miami reporter Jim DeFede has confirmed.
‘The number of shots fired by the officers is not currently known but my source said it could exceed 200 rounds,” he reported. The deceased bystander had been “inside an idle car at the scene.'”
Huge Black Friday Gun Sales Recorded
G.G. flagged this: Americans Bought Enough Guns on Black Friday to Arm the Marine Corps – Yet Again! Here is a pericope:
“According to the FBI, over 200,000 background check requests associated with the purchase of a firearm were submitted to the agency on Black Friday, marking the second highest gun sales day ever. The previous record was set on the day after Thanksgiving in 2016. In both 2017 and 2016, enough guns were potentially purchased on Black Friday to arm every active duty United States Marine.”
Pearl Harbor Murders Were by Active Duty Armed Guard
Linked over at the great Whatfinger.com news aggregation site: Murders/Suicide at Pearl Harbor were by Active Duty Armed Guard. A snippet:
“The incident has dropped off the media radar. The murderer was an active duty sailor officially assigned guard duty. None of the infringements on Second Amendment rights being suggested by those who wish a disarmed population would have made the slightest difference in this case. All have exceptions for people who are engaged in their military missions while being officially armed by the government.”
—
You can send your news tips to JWR. (Either via e-mail of via our Contact form.) Thanks!
RE: Canned food expiration dates, highly acidic foods vs. low acidic foods.
https://www.foodstoragemoms.com/how-long-does-canned-food-last/?mc_cid=407eb0a6d8&mc_eid=bca42eb64f
I am currently eating stewed tomato from metal cans, and spaghetti sauce from commercial glass jars that are about 10 years old. Their appearance and taste is just fine. Both were stored in a shed and exposed to freezing temperatures as low as -30F. None of the glass jars broke. Based upon some experience, the acidic tomato sauces will not corrode, or eat through glass jars. I believe the tomato sauces are more acidic, and will eat through metal cans within a few years after the expiration date. Whole, or diced tomatoes store much longer in metal cans than tomato sauces.
If I wanted to jar up tomato sauce, and attempt to get the longest shelf life, I would use glass jars, and the reusable plastic lids first, and second, standard metal lids. The sauce settles to the bottom, and therefore has little contact with the metal lid. Commercial jar lids appear to have a protective rubber/plastic/polmer coating on their inside. I’ve also eaten lots of commercially canned tuna, and salmon that were 10 years old, and those were just fine as well. Pop top cans are becoming more prevalent, I would avoid those. I have also done some experimenting, and will like do better next time by exposing jarred meats to sub zero temps. Canning trout in it’s own juices in straight walled large mouth jars, and adding a one tsp. of salt/quart, creates a strong salt brine in the jar, and leaves at least 1 to 2 inches of head. The salt brine prevents freezing as low as 10F, and probably could go lower. There was no indication of a freezing process in progress at 10F. The salt brine is easily dispensed with at the time of cooking, or can be diluted in the pot. Once the jar is opened, the salt brine also preserves the fish longer in a refridgerator, or an unrefrigerated environment, if the meat is submerged. I have lived without refrigeration for several years off grid, and there are old timey techniques that do work, but I’d best not share here in this day and age. The advantages of canning techniques that allow the storing glass jars of food that does not freeze easily might be obvious, especially if one must relocate.
There is certainly a margin of safety that is nice to have, especially when storing precious meats for many years in less than ideal situations, if there is a need to do so. And pint jars are easily stored and transported in 6 gallon buckets when thoroughly wrapped in newspaper or paper towels….
Want a good gift to encourage people to prep? Get them the DVD of the movie “The Reliant” for Christmas
Not long ago in the parkland school shooting near there,several lost their job for not rushing into the school,charges were considered
Now they act,and heads will roll again.
I don’t have any great insight,just like prepping,every situation is different.
Mike Tyson”everyone has a plan until you get punched in the face”
Rushing into a school to save unarmed children from a psycopath is a heck of a lot different than corraling a robbery suspect in traffic and using innocent bystanders as shields?! The fact that even needs to be explained to you says a lot.
Cook: The cop haters have their minds made up.They see no reason to wait for the investigation to be completed.
Because of media and public pressure some police agencies will rush to judgement in an attempt to quite the shit storm surrounding a shooting such as the one in Florida.
It was and is a horrible situation and as long as violent criminals roam the earth events like this will continue.
I’m a little surprised that no one of authority at this blog has weighed in on this subject.
Not really though.
The public has the right to expect and to receive from law enforcement the same care expected of them when handling and “brandishing” weapons. Occasionally, police do ‘heroic’ deeds. But the average police ‘officer’ does nothing to be worshiped as a hero. When a cop injures or kills a civilian, who investigates the alleged crime ? The police. And when police officers act unethically or unlawfully do other cops do or even say anything about it ? Not usually. And just because bad behavior by cops is rarely punished or corrected does not mean that the public does not notice it or care about it. Cops, like everyone else must earn respect.
I currently live in an area where the police are respected for doing a good job and maintaining a high degree of professionalism, but not all law enforcement agencies measure up to these high standards. I have lived in places where the police have been crooked, sometimes openly and sometimes not. In my experience, if you live in such a place it is best to move to an area with better law enforcement than to expect them to change and clean themselves up. You will never see it happen. Unfortunately, we can not move away from the jurisdiction of the Federal police, the crooked FBI or the crooked Justice Department.
To sum it all up, police MUST obey the same laws as the public. Otherwise, they have no moral authority and do not deserve the respect of the citizens.
You bring up a good point but to me the two incidents highlight the same fault IMO.
The cop at Parkland refused to enter without overwhelming odds in his favor regardless of the cost to civilians. In other words he put his safety above the students.
It is too early to tell but it appears the police in this situation may have also put their own safety above that of the public by responding with overwhelming force without regard to public safety.
In both cases the mission of protecting the public failed but protecting the police succeeded. Sometimes this will happen but in light of all the recent events where police use overwhelming force when lesser means were perhaps available this is what we called in the Navy “A pattern of misconduct” that deserve scrutiny and potentially correction.
The Parkland School shooting in Florida revealed the school had an >actual policeman as a permanent School Resource Officer. … People need to start Homeschooling their children, if they can’t afford a good religious affiliated private school.
The public schools are structurally unable to help develop a well-formed conscience; and assisting the kids in living a godly life. … When public schools need permanent police officers stationed on campus, they should be considered dangerous places to be avoided.
Huge Black Friday Gun Sales Recorded
Personally, I’m waiting for Christmas for my new gun. I also usually spend my tax return on a new gun….I can think of no better way to spend my Christmas bonus or my tax return. Well except for maybe a much larger gun safe or two.
Merry Christmas and a happy New Year to all the Survivalblog readers.
God Bless
The two people that was killed on the robbery needs to have an independent autopsy and ballistics preformed from and outside source. That way the families will know who actually killed the UPS driver and the bystander.
One thing that I never see mentioned in many of these police shootings is the “Spray and Pray” lack of fire discipline exhibited. With so many shootings by Police being caught on video these days, it is quite evident that there is insufficient training in regards to fire control, and in this case, it is a miracle that more innocent civilians were not shot. If you look at the UPS van, it looks like a target from the Knob Hill machinegun shoot. Perhaps in the interest of public safety, there should be a move towards rearming LEO’s with six shot revolvers .
Gun sales. I asked my local FFL dealer about how many guns the average buyer bought on Black Friday, his best guess was 1.5-2 per sale. 1 being the high end guns while multiples tending more to the moderately priced. What ever the actual amount is not that relative. Point being is that the liberal political hacks are doing what they always do and that is taking a policy that has no measurable actual results and doubling down on it again and again; the hallmark of the liberals.This is the definition of lunacy. If most of us have a tool in our shop that is worthless we retire it. We either throw it away or hang it on the wall as a reminder to never buy another like it. More and more of the public funds being wasted on ineffective social engineering, but that is not the worst of what they are doing. They are indenturing my grand children with massive debt that can only be reduced by inflating their way out of it. I give you the example of Argentina where this is practiced with regularity, all to the detriment of the people. This is coming soon to a neighborhood near you. I always look on the holiday season as a time to reflect and give thanks for what we have. Many of my gifts this season to my family may never be seen by them, but these gifts reside In my basement waiting for when they will be appreciated, long after the latest electronic gadgets are worthless and hunger becomes the norm.
Re: Police Shooting
I was in Florida when this event happened and people seemed to be quite angry about it. Perhaps something will come of it.
I have a friend whose wife decided to become a cop. They subsequently divorced so his views may be biased but prior to the divorce she related many disturbing things to him. From his/her observation a disproportionate number of the officers in her department were borderline sociopaths. Not all or even most but more than you would run across in general society. They had a very high rate of infidelity. From his statements I would guess many were adrenaline junkies.
I emphasize not all but way too many.
Recently an acquaintance who is a cop divorced his wife of probably 20 years and left her for a fellow officer. This follows the pattern my friend described.
After the stories I have heard and the videos I have watched I am very careful around law enforcement these days. I still believe most are honorable but too many are not. And they do appear to be trained to unload their weapons in a fire fight. And I have been told by some cops that the bulk of cops don’t shoot very straight.
Unfortunately….if the truth be told, and a few forewarned, as a generalization, I have to concur. Our society has deteriorated so badly, and thoroughly, that this should not be a surprise. In the 70’s, roughly 20% of persons could be considered sociopaths. It is a genetic personality trait, and learned behavior. In recent decades, the percentage has grown well past 50%. It would depend upon your source, yet real life experiences with people verifies that might be generally true. It is why I left a good job in a Sheriff’s Dept. The deceit and immorality went off the charts in the latter years. I was told by a supervisor: “I will lie about you when I feel like it”. This is not an exceptional circumstance. I could tell a lot of ugly stories.
It became so bad, you could trust on one. I now see it in the general population. It is now so prevalent, and because it tends to pool in certain areas of society, the behavior it is more visible than ever. As the economy becomes worse, and when it finally falls apart, be prepared to be shocked by the depravity. Even in this beautiful part of the planet, one of the last bastions of liberty, I can trust very few persons. I must also agree with John Adams:
“Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.”
The problem is that in a violent situation there is no “right thing” to do. You may be lucky and only shoot the bad guys. You may be unlucky and bystanders get shot too. Clearly with the advantage of retrospect and calmness of your comfortable armchair we can easily see errors. Some here actually believe that the police should not have taken cover. That astounds me. I do agree that the police should not have taken advantage of the opportunity of the truck being stopped in traffic. Rather they should have waited and hoped that that decision didn’t actually cause more deaths. But again there are no good choices in violent situations. The guilty people where the thieves. Police departments should have better internal checks and balances to identify bad decisions and actions and take steps to give officers better training and feedback. But I would warn anyone who wants to punish officers for their efforts to look at Baltimore after the mayor and AG decided to blame the police for the results of normal actions. Since then Baltimore has descended into a crime wave with a lot of people killed because the police are afraid to make decisions that will later be criminalized.
I recently read Mattis’ autobiography. He addresses this issue extensively. He saw a lot of combat but he clearly emphasized clear rules of engagement that minimized civilian casualties and kept the honor of his Marines. He investigated situations such as this and those who followed the rules of engagement and behaved honorably were cleared but those who did not were punished. From what I read those who were punished were frequently the more senior personnel who should have been controlling the tactical situation.
As a citizen and tax payer, I do have the right to Monday Morning quarterback these situations. I pay for law enforcement. If the performance is inadequate it is fully within my right to demand answers or even punishment.
This was a gross mission failure. When I was in the military (for 23 years) gross failure resulted in Special High Intensity Training as a minimum and possible disciplinary action. It may not seem fair but that is the price of public trust.
The first one in need of training is the guy that glibly announced that no LEOs were killed when two Innocents were. Having been in Florida recently when this situation happened that went over like a lead balloon.
JBH- i agree with both your posts. If you trust your training and rely on it, you get the best result(s) possible.
Hey !
What good is having a sidearm that holds 18 rounds if you can’t use them, preferably all at once ?
Being a retired LEO, and having been in a firefight, I can tell you that the natural reaction (instinct) is to just keep pulling that trigger !
I recall, years ago as a Detective, when the standard sidearm was a 5 or 6 shot revolver. (Colt Detective Special or SW Chief’s Special. Mine was the 5 shot SW.)
Inside a small apartment in Boston, my partner and I engaged an Armed Robbery suspect in a gunfight. Myself, my partner, and the suspect, all armed with revolvers, emptied our weapons and rapidly as was possibly. None of us was hit, and the suspect ran out and was captured outside. I distinctly recall hearing the clicking as my trigger was being pulled on empty chambers.
(This was back then, when the only time you fired your weapon, was during the Basic Academy. Many officers never fired their weapon again – ever.)
So, as Mike Tyson has so aptly put it, “Everyone has a plan, until they get punched in the face.”
First I applaud your service and I can truly say I am glad you were not shot.
However I respectfully find issue with one of your statements. Having been military for 23 years I can say that personnel should be resorting to training not instinct under stress. If they are not, training was not adequate. From what you have said (and what I have heard from others) police firearm training is not always adequate.
Being in the military for that many years (I am a Viet combat vet, Purple Heart.), I am sure you are familiar with the term ‘Firepower’.
If you have it – use it !
Thank you for your service and I despise disagreeing with a fellow vet but…
Not in a civilian environment. IMO we should be using the minimum effective force and more importantly superior tactics.
And my military experience kind of illustrates that. I was involved with nuclear weapons. I don’t think we want to go to nukes for armed robbery. I bet we agree on that but where to draw the line is tricky.
Yet again no blame for the criminals.
I don’t care who’s shooting who. Your job is to get out of there. PERIOD
Your jobs not to sit and see what happens, pull out your phone and record, start yelling at anyone or anything else.
“Just think- the next time I shoot someone, I could be arrested.”- Officer Frank Drebbin after being suspended, in Naked Gun.
Matt, this is not about the robbers. They were killed. They were committing a crime. They deserve no sympathy. This is about police officers recklessly endangering and killing members of the public needlessly. If the only solution to the situation is shooting the criminals, and it may have been, then have a trained sniper do it. Don’t send in 19 wild men to spray and pray while hiding behind the bodies of innocent citizens.
They should be arrested and suspended, prosecuted and fired from their jobs if found guilty. Just as you or I would be if we had killed two innocent civilians.
I didn’t say they weren’t right or wrong. I said no blame for the criminals and yet again you and everyone else skirts the issue.
If I could just get all the experts here, including the hosts, to apply we’d be golden seeing as how short we are and have been for years. Everyone has all the answers all the time to every single critical situation as it unfolds and yet not one will step up. Just think if the 19 here commenting on how bad LEOs are would have been there it woulda all been different.
I’m sure you all have an excuse that will be posted shortly telling us all why you can’t/won’t.
For that you must´ve a Sniper and the practicable opprtunity to use them
In my opinion, the mindset of people in authority is that we are all sheep for the slaughter. They are also, in the minds of people farther up the chain. The lower level guys and gals are just useful idiots to the people at the very top.
re:
Florida massacre
Yes, I call the murders of several people a ‘massacre’.
A couple points:
a)
Presuming guilt exceeds the authority of TheGovernmentAgents.
Nor do we, reading assorted propaganda in TheMainStreamMedia, possess any more information than any body else.
The people in the van are presumed innocent until proven guilty, and that did not happen.
They were murdered prior to standing before their peer jurors.
Only jurors can determine guilt.
The purpose of TheGovernmentAgents is negotiating treaties with other GovernmentAgents.
Any attempt at any other position is an assumption of non-existent authority.
b)
The murdered folks were ‘civilian’ if they were not in TheArmedForces.
TheGovernmentAgents are ‘civilian’ if they are not in TheArmedForces.
In my understanding of TheLaw, TheArmedForces are prohibited from acting as domestic LawEnforcementOfficials.
Using the word ‘civilian’ to describe the murdered folks is disingenuous.
I expect disingenuous from TheMainStreamMedia.
I expect disingenuous from TheGovernmentAgents.
[Two un-kind lines deleted by the Editor.]