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 Earth’s weakening magnetic field.

Suicide Deaths Exceed Coronavirus Fatalities?

Over at Lew Rockwell’s site: California Doctors Say Suicide Deaths Exceed Coronavirus Fatalities

Aussie Collegian Expelled for Criticizing China

A video linked over at the Whatfinger.com news aggregation site: Expelled for Criticizing China. A quote:

“Drew Pavlou is an Australian student at the University of Queensland. But he might not be for long. After staging several high profile demonstrations in support of Hong Kong protesters and criticizing China’s human rights abuses, his university wanted to expel him from school. Turns out the university has very close ties to the Chinese Communist Party. And it’s sparked media outrage in Australia.

The Upcoming Big Pig Cull

H.L. sent this: DOJ clears pork industry’s plan to collaborate on euthanizing hogs

Earth’s Weakening Magnetic Field

Reader D.S.V. sent us this from the ESA: Earth’s Strangely Weakening Magnetic Field Disrupts Satellites. Here is an excerpt:

“In an area stretching from Africa to South America, Earth’s magnetic field is gradually weakening. This strange behaviour has geophysicists puzzled and is causing technical disturbances in satellites orbiting Earth.

Scientists are using data from ESA’s Swarm constellation to improve our understanding of this area known as the ‘South Atlantic Anomaly.’

Earth’s  is vital to life on our planet. It is a complex and dynamic force that protects us from  and charged particles from the Sun. The magnetic field is largely generated by an ocean of superheated, swirling liquid iron that makes up the outer core around 3000 km beneath our feet. Acting as a spinning conductor in a bicycle dynamo, it creates electrical currents, which in turn, generate our continuously changing .

This field is far from static and varies both in strength and direction. For example, recent studies have shown that the position of the north  is changing rapidly.

Over the last 200 years, the magnetic field has lost around 9% of its strength on a global average. A large region of reduced magnetic intensity has developed between Africa and South America and is known as the South Atlantic Anomaly.”

JWR’s Comment: On a macro scale, the Earth’s geophysics, climate, weather, radio propagation, wandering poles, and intermittent phenomena like auroras are primarily an extension of the Sun’s influence. If you want to understand Earth, then study the Sun’s seasons. To use the parts of a generator as an analogy, the Earth’s metallic core is more of a rotor, than a stator. The Big Machine is the entire Solar System.

And, in related news, the South Atlantic Magnetic Anomaly appears to be splitting.

‘Gun Jugging’ on the Rise in Houston

Tim J. sent us this one: ‘Gun Jugging’ on the Rise in Houston.  Here is a snippet from the article:

“Ranges are a popular hangout for gun juggers because shooters are coming and going all the time, and sometimes they don’t take all their firearms out of their vehicles at once.  Any firearms left behind are easy pickings.”

Dershowitz Says State Can Force Vaccination

Reader DSV sent this troubling news: Dershowitz doubles down: State can force vaccination if it’s ‘safe’

Rats are Out Searching for Food During the Pandemic

Another piece linked over at the Whatfinger.com site: Desperate rats are brazenly searching for food during the coronavirus pandemic, CDC warns.

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




46 Comments

  1. Gun Jugging isn’t the only thing happening. Vehicles with all the 2A stickers are being targeted across the country. They have learned that the stickers correlate to having them in the vehicle but rarely actually carrying them. The average time spent is 5-20 seconds with most focus on the console area and under the seat.
    Watch yourselves coming home not only from the range but competitions and classes as well. They use the internet to look at times then follow the vehicle home and it’s amazing how many don’t immediately unload their vehicles upon arrival.
    Stay safe

    1. You make a good point, Matt in Oklahoma, about the fact that opportunistic predators observe people and points of vulnerability. They do this with all kinds of theft.

      We know a lady who put her purse in a locked trunk before heading into a restaurant. Thieves observed this, and cracked the trunk while the lady and her companion were enjoying their meal.

      In my own experience, and many years ago, I was shopping in a Target store near my home at that time. Standing right next to my cart in the detergent aisle, a man walked by and casually strolled off with my buggy — and my purse! I pursued him immediately, retrieving both — and then he did it again. After the first event, I was watching this guy very closely, but this did not stop him from making another attempt. Both times he apologized saying he didn’t realize it wasn’t his cart — but he never had his own cart. He was rather benign in appearance, and relaxed in his demeanor. Criminals don’t always “look like” criminals. This character would not necessarily have set off any observational alarms except for the fact that he was attempting to steal carts, and obviously handbags with money, credit cards, identity information and more.

      Remain steady. Be safe. Stay well everyone!

      1. @Telisilla of Argos – As spicy times increase, this kind of behavior will escalate, and quickly. Everyone is well advised to keep this in mind, watch everyone, and trust no one except those you already know. And always trust that inner voice that causes the hair on the back of your neck to straighten up… our God-given intuition will NEVER lie to us.

      2. Telesilla of Argos,

        Great points!! When my mom was still driving & even now when we go out I have to constantly warn her to keep her handbag on her shoulder and zipped up!!
        She always asks me why I won’t put my bag in the cart & I have to explain to her about the fact that thieves will case out grocery stores and elderly ladies to try and steal their purses and they won’t even know it has happened until its too late!!

        My mom has a really bad habit of plopping her handbag wide open into the seat of the grocery cart and then wandering off to look at something!! I have also had to speak with her on more than one occasion about NOT keeping a whole bunch of cash in her wallet. (I have taken to going through her wallet with her and taking out most of the cash & leaving the rest at home). She would sometimes have hundreds of dollars in her wallet at one time. I can’t believe no one ever lifted her purse!!!
        My dad would be furious if he knew what kind of risks she had been taking. She’s very trusting and doesn’t understand that there are bad people out there. It’s weird too because my dad was a Police officer for 35 years!!

        Thanks and have a Rockin great day!!

        1. Thank you, RKRGRL68, for sharing your experience! It’s a terrible thing that people who step away from a shopping cart should have to be afraid that their belongings will be stolen. How heartbreaking it is that this is the news of the world we must deliver to our aging and elderly parents. We want to lift their spirits, to let them rest in confidence that they are living the last years of their earthly lives in a good world, and to have them feel safe. But in these times, we find ourselves trying to shield them from the ugliness and danger before us. What a sad commentary about the world in which we are living.

          Your story reminded me of another event involving my Mom. Mom was shopping in the pharmacy section of Walmart (long before coronavirus) when she walked just a few feet from her cart, leaving her purse in the cart. Another lady, in an attempt to help and clearly having been a victim at some point in time herself, rushed up to let her know it was too risky to step away from the cart, and that Mom’s purse should be with her at all times. This lady was trying hard to look out for Mom, and to warn her.

    2. Matt,
      You are absolutely correct: The thugs are not the only ones who target vehicles with 2A stickers. I was stopped in the mountains west of Colorado Springs once by a young deputy- his sole reason was because of the Gadsden Flags, III%UP, S&W, and other stickers that adorned my rig. His only question when he approached was, “How many guns do you have in your truck?” I said, “One.” After going back and forth about his subsequent unlawful request to search my Expedition, he ordered me out and had me stand at the front bumper (behind him) while he tried to get a glimpse of anything suspicious in the interior, while I was open-carrying on my right hip. He then angrily said, “I’m only gonna ask one more time… how many guns are in your truck?” I replied, “None.”
      He soured quickly and started getting more aggressive. I tried to calm him with logic: “Deputy, when I was in the truck, there was ONE gun in the truck. When you ordered me out, the gun came with me; thus there are currently zero guns in the truck.” FWIW- in Colorado, one can legally carry almost anything concealed in their vehicle, as it is an extension of their domicile.
      After some back and forth, and a request for a supervisor if he was going to go through with an illegal search, he let me go with ‘a warning’ for a still unspecified mythical offense. I later asked a few friends of mine from the same sheriff’s department what the deal was. Turns out they had just had a Homeland Security seminar on domestic terrorist groups and this clown was eager to bag himself a patriot gun nut. DHS told them to target Patriot Movement stickers!
      I scraped everything off my vehicle after that and went fully grey man.

      Like Telesilla said above, ‘Criminals don’t always look like criminals’: indeed, some carry a badge. Stay frosty everyone.

      1. I’m kinda doubtful thats what he was told in the class as to go forth and target you. The training is pretty much the same. You get the introduction, history of topic, INDICATORS of topic, a little show n tell then it’s over.
        Indicators are just that in that they are not proof. Most classes in fact will say “you must still have Probable Cause, Reasonable Suspicion etc in order to initiate any activity in building a case” or something along those lines. In other words because I see 2 kids doing a dance in the street I can’t just assume that they are doing the C Walk, or because a guy has a motorcycle and a 3 piece patched vest that he is an Outlaw Motorcycle Gang (in fact a local riding preachers group mimicked too closely a while back and got pulled over by the real deal and forced to remove the rocker) or that because a guy has stickers on his truck that he will go to the nearest wildlife refugee and take over the secretaries office in full Hacksaw Jim Dugan style.
        While it’s true in law enforcement that little things lead to big things training and common sense go a long ways and hopefully once you left perhaps he was educated by his peers in what constitutes a good stop and course of direction. Being as we live in America just the action of belonging isn’t illegal.
        I myself attend several meeting of the 90s Patriots Movement as an active duty soldier all the way up until we had a falling out and almost gunplay over troops going door to door doing confiscations and taking sides with the UN. Yes the horsehockey was being spewed back in the 80-90s even.
        It’s unfortunate that you endured that event but also not a bad thing in keeping you from being criminally targeted by “anyone”. I’m not advocating hiding who we are I’m just stating that sometimes our advertising gets us targeted by those who are not obeying the law.

      2. Spy4Hyre… Thank you for sharing this experience, and for detailing the logic of your approach with the young deputy. We all learn from these personal stories, and we are more prepared for having heard them!

  2. Is libertarian Dershowitz an oxymoron? His forced vaccine argument isn’t base on the Constitution or individual liberty. Rather, precedence rulings, democracy, common good and lastly police state forced vaccination. Of course, a individual does at first have a choice. Then AGAIN what’s a “choice” if everybody is forced to only make THEY’RE CHOICE, because THEY don’t agree with your choice.

    Dershowitz is possibly a good choice as an acute moron.

    1. Dershowitz is no libertarian. Despite his occasional disagreements with them based on the Constitution, he is a full-on liberal/democrat/communist. He DOES respect parts of the Constitution, and occasionally sides with Constitutionalists on some issues, but he is not a strict constructionist or a supporter of the original meaning of the document as a whole.

  3. OK Allen, we get it, “..render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s.” Who decides ownership sir?

    BTW ~ The BIGGEST rats are always seen when food is scarce.

    1. Good question . . . “who decides ownership sir?” the answer is crystal clear from Scripture. The Lord, Who being the Supreme Sovereign above all creation and ordains all authority on earth, decides both what is Caesar’s and His. Nearly all Caesars, however, will take whatever they want, but not without full consequences from His Maker . . . though often not in our human impatient timing. The more important question is this: When Caesar comes to take that which belongs to the Lord, what is the believer to do? Many over the ages have agonized over this difficult question. American Caesars have for may may decades been taking that which is not his to take, while Americans wring their hands in silent consent. Now, all is going to be required of us. Disobedience to God has far greater consequences . . . sow the wind and reap the whirlwind. Even so, come Lord Jesus and in your mercy chastise and humble your people and bring them back to faithful covenant keeping, while grinding to powder the wicked ones who do the will of their father the devil, in plundering, raping, murdering and destroying mankind.

    2. It’s true… The biggest rats come out when food is scarce. …and criminals of all kinds come out in increasing numbers when there is any kind of economic stress or strain. In these times, we hope everyone will be especially observant and careful.

  4. Good comment Matt.
    OPSEC always.
    Most of us have that little voice of reason that causes us to look twice when our hair stands up. I believe God gives us a nudge from time to time. I choose to listen.

    No NRA, 2A stickers, or any stickers on any vehicles. No ham radio vanity plates.
    I pay special attention when I leave my drive and I like to vary my route when driving home.

    One example.
    There is a boat that I really like that is a half mile away from our street on the main road. I will tell my wife that I want to see “my boat” and I drive by our street. She knows that I don’t like what I see behind me.
    Sometimes she tells me that the boat is still there, that translates to she doesn’t share my concern and wants me to drive her home now.

    If you are fortunate enough to be able to shop for groceries, farm supplies or visit the bait shop pay attention.

    1. Totally agree, Fish. Friends and family know my beliefs, and get me stuff like T-shirts, bumper stickers, license plate frames etc., but I don’t display anything like that for the same reasons I carry concealed:

      a.) I never ask permission to do what is my right as a sentient human being. Its no ones business.
      b.) I don’t need to proselytize because I don’t care what anyone thinks.
      c.) I want the advantage.

    2. So, all excellent points. I might make one observation, and this is experiential, not scientific. Some years ago I took all the bumper stickers off my truck. What happened after that was nothing less than astonishing… the number of people who tailgated me, tried to intimidate me, and outright pester me skyrocketed. This had not happened AT ALL before I removed the stickers. BTW, it is not a small or diminutive truck to be sure.

      So I did an experiment. I put exactly one sticker back on my vehicle… the round one that says Sig Sauer.

      Yes, you guessed it. The harassment and driver abuse STOPPED. So, I NEVER, EVER leave my gun(s) in my truck, and I NEVER, EVER go anywhere that I could not carry it/them with me. And, so far, knocking on wood right now, never a break in.

    1. I’m going to try and watch this video fully Lily, but after about 5 – 10 minutes, it seemed that this person was saying the exact opposite of the purpose of the Executive order. The purpose of it is to make the social media “platforms” accountable as “publishers”, which means they cannot continue to censor christians, conservatives, Trump supporters, or any other group of persons that the Liberal Media has been censoring. Basically, what’s going to happen is the monopoly in social media will begin to be treated legally as the monopoly they are, controlling free speech, and there will be anti-trust lawsuits. All this is good news. What was your understanding of the video?

  5. The weakening magnetic field will have a number of repercussions… one is that, as it weakens, the surface of the Earth will be exposed to greater levels of cosmic rays, which can affect our health. Another effect of increased cosmic rays is cloud nucleation, which will increase cloud cover. This makes the Earth more reflective, and will have the effect of cooling temperatures.

    As JWR indicates above, the interaction with the sun is significant, as our weather is driven primarily by the sun, but also by our interaction with the entire galaxy. Just like a heartbeat, the earth is subject to cycles of the sun and the entire galaxy… the 11 year sunspot cycle, which can have significant effects on our weather. Imagine tossing a rock into a pond… each ripple is 11 years apart.

    Now, our galaxy does the same thing on a much grander scale. The galactic center has a cycle as well… about 12,000 years (think again the ripples in the pond) That wave is called the galactic current sheet and is a plasma wave that hits our solar system approximately every 12,000 years. Interestingly, and not coincidentally, this corresponds to the Earth’s pole flip.

    Another product of this is the theory of a solar micronova (think giant solar flare, except the entire sun flares) and has significant effects on our climate… the Earth warms radically and suddenly, causing major ocean evaporation, then cools down almost as fast (100% cloud cover) and drops the temperature to glacial temps (think Wooly Mammoths, frozen solid with freshly eaten food in their stomachs – this happened about 12,000 years ago – again, not coincidentally). Remember that we have been living in an interglacial time period, and it is about to end.

    Corresponding with the magnetic reversal, the tremendous weakening of the magnetic field, and the significant quietness of the sun (calm before the storm perhaps?), all points to an event that most of us will live to see, and I hope, live through. A great resource on the magnetic reversal is http://magneticreversal.org/, and a must-see video, when you have about 8 minutes to invest, is Signs in the Sky Now, which shows, in a scientific way, how the other planets in our solar system, as well as Proximi Centari in the Alpha Centari star system, which is directly between the galactic center and our star system… https://youtu.be/nkohSBEHhjo

    1. Apologies… that was an incomplete sentence (proofread, Klaude!)

      …when you have about 8 minutes to invest, is “Signs in the Sky Now” (linked above), which shows, in a scientific way, how the other planets in our solar system, as well as Proximi Centari in the Alpha Centari star system, which is directly between the galactic center and our star system, are showing significant signs of the effects of the galactic current sheet…

  6. A follow up on the culling of pigs… We consider this a serious sign that not only are COVID-19 infections continuing to ravage meat processing plants (even beyond what is covered in the news). There continue to be other issues as well including problems with meat market contract mechanics, and the financial considerations of large commercial scale ranches. Our thoughts are that conditions will get worse before they get better. Our hope is that we will see significant decentralization — in this industry, and in many others too. Simply stated — food supply a matter of national security.

    1. For all: Write your Congress critter and your Senators and demand they support what is called the PRIME Act. Rep. Thomas Massie has put forth this bill, not for the first time. This would decentralize the meat processing industry and support the smaller meat processing businesses. This would clearly help with cattle and pork producers getting their product to market, while keeping the cost of both products in check. More and more Republicans are supporting this, Democrats, not so much; certainly not enough to get it out of the House. If it gets through the house, it stands a decent chance of getting through the Senate. I may be mistaken, but I believe Trump has already said he’d sign it if it gets to his desk.

      1. Thank you, Charles K! An excellent suggestion. Even though we may often feel that our members of Congress are not listening, we should make our voices heard — lawfully, of course, but most assuredly heard.

  7. Re: fading magnetic field –

    As the magnetic field fades towards either an excursion or a reversal, space weather levels that used to not bother us (sats, tech, etc) now has much greater effects. The next few years will be ‘interesting’ as the sun cycle heats back up.

    https://suspicious0bservers.org/ is a great resource for both earth and space weather and their consequences. He posts a ~5 minute news update daily, all science based with sources cited.

    Vid – The #1 Risk to Earth – https://youtu.be/VVgUZv9ccyQ

    1. @Grey – SO is probably the BEST resource out there… we watch his morning update every day. It’s also important to read the links he posts below the daily update, which go a long way to understanding what he talks about.

    2. Grey & Klaipeda,

      Thank you for all this information! I find this all so interesting but a lot of it is above my head. I still love to learn about such things.

      Have a Rockin great day!

    1. Unfortunately these unconstitutional executive orders are the only way Trump can attempt to mitigate Big Tech’s strangle hold on our collective throats. Without the ability to speak out, we have lost it all. Trump could loose the election if he did not do this. One of Trump’s strengths is that he crowd sources. I believe he is finally following the advice of patriots. The Second Amendment is the last resort, and there to protect the First Amendment. If they can completely control our speech, then we are forced to go for the cartridge box.

      Trump is not in control of his administration, let alone the government. He is like the apparent captain of a massive ship, yet his staff and crew do not carry out his orders. They intentionally keep him in the dark and feed him lies, and often he takes their advice, and he looks like a bad guy in the process. They are constantly at war with him and would rather see him and us dead. It is lonely at the top. I spent 20 years in a snake pit, and learned the hard way and how it worked. It is actually a spiritual battle. Trump did not understand this going in. If one has not worked in such an environment, then there is no way to appreciate his predicament. Trump is a top business man and chess player thrust into a foreign environment, or alien world. He has never experienced this level, nor has the other side experienced an executive of his type. Trump is actually a softy, an old school New Yorker and Democrat, somewhat like JFK, but much smarter. And he has those flaws. He should have fired half the administration on day one, and then replaced the other half over time.

      His greatest misstep was not understanding the spiritual warfare, and intense and insatiable hate toward him and us, the lust for raw power that is evil incarnate, and the driving force behind their effort to destroy this country. He and the country did not understand this in 2016, that they would rather utterly destroy the country and rule over the ruins, rather than let the nation be restored in any way.

      Regardless of what Trump does, the Deep State will behave and continue it efforts as if Trump and the rising tide of nationalism did not exist. This is unconventional warfare, a fight to the death. Trump’s presents only slows the process. If he wins the election, half the country will be very upset and the odds of low level civil unrest increase. Hopefully Trump has learned the hard way, and will be able to at least prosecute some of the these criminals. Some of them are terrified by this prospect, and are highly motivated by the executioner’s rope to destroy us or die. Sadly, Trump cannot save the country. The government and country is too corrupt from top to bottom. It is written, and we are headed toward judgement. We are in the calm before the storm. Get right with God.

        1. This the short version.

          For the most part, yes. And they forced out the few good guys that could make a difference and advise. Gen. Flynn was the most important. Flynn knew in part what Trump needed to know. That is why they had to get rid of him. Trump is very smart guy, but without the experience that life long government bureaucrats have. The good news is that Trump has now had the time to learn the hard way, and finally learned that this is not the gentleman’s game that he is accustomed to, that he is surrounded by scumbags in suits, and that he must continually attack and destroy. They only respect brute force. He should have fired half of the State Department on Jan 1, 2017 just to set the pace. Until he does something like that, he is not where he needs to be. In the end, IMHO, he can’t fix the country, the country must fix itself. The Globalist/NWO understands the Trump is increasingly more of threat the longer he is in, especially to their henchmen (Deep State) high ranking bureaucrats that control the U.S. government, and must accelerate it’s plans to take down the U.S. as soon as possible as enough people are finally beginning to waking up.

          Expect things to get real crazy real soon. There are no guarantees that Trump will be elected. Desperate rats are capable of anything, and the NWO is desperate. There are no limits…

          This is the same thing I was yammering about in 2016. It is easy to see for those who know this game. If only Trump had one guy like Flyn to help him, it would have been a very different story. And because it has played out as expected, I believe my understanding is more on target than not.

          Gotta git going, lots to do.

          1. As head of state and goverment he is fully and absolutly responsible for the Quality of his staff and his advisors.
            If they´re wrong it´s his fault, nobody else.

      1. Very well said, Tunnel Rabbit, and we agree. As a nation, what we face is dire.

        From your post: “His greatest misstep was not understanding the spiritual warfare, and intense and insatiable hate toward him and us, the lust for raw power that is evil incarnate, and the driving force behind their effort to destroy this country. He and the country did not understand this in 2016, that they would rather utterly destroy the country and rule over the ruins, rather than let the nation be restored in any way.”

  8. Peoples guns get stolen at ranges for the same reason houses get robbed during funerals. You don’t need to look far, it’s in the papers.

    1. All my guns were stolen while I went inside to get a cup of coffee. Darn ! And I had just replaced the ones that fell out of my boat last year while I was fishing.

  9. Rats!

    Rodents can be the plague on a farm. One advantage to have rabbits running around is that they control other rodents from rats to weasels. Rabbits are very territorial and hunt weasels down. Weasels are tough and tenacious, but the bunny’s are bigger and determined. And rarely do mice squeak through their defenses. We can have barn cats to feed, but the rabbits do a better job of it.

    1. Do rabbits also kill snakes and large rats? That they kill weasels and some rats is very interesting; I did not know that.

      But a cat can kill a rat that is larger than itself. And they hate snakes, and will attack and kill them. One of mine proudly brought me a dead rattler as a breakfast treat, to go with my morning coffee. Will your rabbit do that?

      I do not think that cats and rabbits should be pitted against each other. Both have their purposes.

      And I will be buying some rabbits to stock up on my property. Thank you for the tip.

  10. On the forced vaccinations

    “The principle that sustains compulsory vaccination is broad enough to cover cutting the Fallopian tubes. Three generations of imbeciles are enough.” Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. on Buck v Bell (1927) which was deciding on forced sterilizations.

  11. There was an old (black and white, 30’s maybe) movie about a forced sterilization. Really tugged on the heart strings. I don’t remember what it was called, or I’d find and post it. It is barely a step removed from forced vaccination.

  12. Well if the Federal Government can force invasive things on peoples bodies because Vaccines (and see Buck V. Bell where it says vaccinations means they can tie fallopian tubes!), Trump should sign an EO tomorrow banning abortion.
    “It’s my body!” – so what, we need to save lives!

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