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 “HJL”. Have you ever wandered exactly what data Facebook was collecting from you? Now you can know.

Election Politics

Here we are, 10 months after last years presidential election and the topic is still as hot as it ever was. On one hand, we have Hillary releasing her book “What Happened” which is probably more aptly titled “It wasn’t my fault”. I’ve yet to see a blurb from it where she takes any kind of responsibility for her lack of integrity or lack of policies (other than get rich quick.) Now we have a report out of New Hampshire that their same-day-registration may have swung the vote for Hillary and the Democrats. While Trump didn’t really need it, the republican Senator could have been that single vote needed to repeal Obamacare.

Hurricane Recovery

The Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms (CCRKBA) is saying to follow SAAMI guidelines for the care of your flood damaged guns. SAAMI offers a very useful guide called: “Guidance on Firearms That Have Been Submerged or Exposed to Extensive Amounts of Water”. Basically, you need to disassemble them, clean them and apply a moisture displacing lubricant to the metal parts. SAAMI also recommends no attempt to salvage ammunition that has been submerged in water. Thanks to Reader D.B. for the link.

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Superesse has published a list of resources that may be helpful for those recovering from Harvey and Irma: Prepping for a Hurricane and tips for the aftermath. Note that this list has some North Carolina specifics in it, but you can still use it as a guide. If you live in another state, you can replace the NC specific links with those from your state and county and store it in your safe along with keeping a copy handy while traveling.

Recycle and Reuse

Reader DSV sent in this article on 23 Things a Prepper Should Never Throw Away. While it is a good list for those who are starting out, I would warn readers that there are some items on the list that are liable to make your preps messy. Really, how many pair of shoes can you store? I’d also warn about storing some food items in old plastic soda bottles. As per our recent experience that Mrs Latimer wrote about in “The Editor’s Preps of the Week”, mice can and will eat through plastic to get at the good stuff. But if you are just starting out, this is a good way to get a healthy start.

Facebook

We don’t like Facebook. In fact, we recommend that our readers don’t use Facebook at all. We do have a minimal Facebook presence intended to reach out to those who populate its halls, but it’s a dangerous place. Mike Williamson, SurvivalBlog’s Editor at Large, sent in this link from someone who researched exactly what data Facebook is collecting and selling. They claim they are collecting 600 terabytes of data on a daily basis of information that people freely upload to them. Did you know that when you use their apps (even the web based ones) that they are logging your every key stroke? If you wrote it in their text box, they have a copy of it. This company is evil.

North Korea

The next few days should be interesting to say the least. Kim duck soup Jong-un continues to show his irresponsible leadership by escalating tensions. Have you ever watched a frustrated parent in the middle of a grocery store as their child threw themselves on the floor in a loud temper-tantrum because they didn’t get what they wanted? Watching North Korea is like watching that child in slow motion, except the child has a nuclear weapon. Trump has now ordered the military to shoot down any missile fired towards Guam or the United States. Trump may also be considering the same order for any missile headed to any U.S. ally in the region. Thanks to P.S. for the link.

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It is also worth noting that North Korea has officially threatened an EMP attack on the U.S. for the first time. At this point, it’s hard for the average person to know if what Kim duck soup Jong-un says is true or if it’s just his standard bravado/temper-tantrum. However, his statement basically reads that all parts of the recent thermonuclear bomb detonated were made in North Korea and that it could be detonated at high altitudes for a super-powerful EMP attack. Thanks to D.B. for the link.

News Tips:

Please send your news tips to HJL. (Either via e-mail of via our Contact form.) These are often especially relevant, because they come from folks who watch news that is important to them. Due to their diligence and focus, we benefit from fresh “on target” news. We often “get the scoop” on news that is most likely ignored (or reported late) by mainstream American news outlets. Thanks!




12 Comments

  1. 1) I noted this yesterday but I’ll repeat: The North Korean test was 300 to 500 kilotons, not
    the 100 kilotons being widely reported in the news media.

    The news media appears desperate to cover up the threat to us posed by Obama’s past policy of appeasement. What Obama called “strategic patience” but which is morely commonly called cowardice.

    http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-41144326 (300 to 500 kilotons, depending on depth)

    http://earthquakes.berkeley.edu/blog/2017/09/03/north-koreas-most-powerful-bomb.html (300 kilotons)

    http://www.popularmechanics.com/military/weapons/news/a28057/north-korea-nuclear-test-expert/ (250 kilotons, maybe more depending on depth )

    2) Part of the news media’s deception is the red herring argument that Kim can’t put his nuke on a NK ICBM that can reach the USA. But there are other ways to deliver a nuke and plenty of people around the world glad to do it. On a ship with detonation in a Los Angeles or San Francisco harbor, for example.

  2. 1) From the UK’s International Institute for Strategic Studies:

    “Early press reports ascribing a 100-kiloton yield to the bomb probably underestimated its power. Without knowing the depth of the explosion and the geology of the test site, the yield is difficult to calculate. But reasonable estimates range up to 500 kilotons, with 140kt being the US intelligence community’s approximation and 300kt being the estimate from two different models.”

    https://www.iiss.org/en/publications/strategic%20comments/sections/2017-6df9/the-north-korea-crisis-4780

    2) Note that the US intelligence community has NOT released the 140 kt estimate. That estimate was published in The Diplomat with the unsubstantiated claim that it was a leak from an intel officer.

    http://thediplomat.com/2017/09/us-intelligence-north-koreas-sixth-test-was-a-140-kiloton-advanced-nuclear-device/

  3. If I was North Korea, I’d launch during Irma’s ravaging of south Florida in the wee hours of tomorrow morning.
    Preemptive strikes really should be more socially acceptable.

    1. If I was the US I’d do the same thing, preemptive strike to put this thug in his place. And 9/9 is the anniversary of the creation of NK. Perfect day to demoralize them. Happy Anniversary, we just wiped out your nuke capability! I’m not sure what the US is waiting for…

      1. At least 10,000,000 dead in Seoul South Korea if we attack. This includes some 80,000 American civilians. This does not include the 30,000 military along the DMZ. They will be among the first to die.

        How many more Americans have to die for the glory of Rome (Washington, DC), or for the glory of the War Party (the NeoCon/NeoLiberalCon cabal that runs leviathan)? And no one ever mentions the massive deaths of the North Koreans who have no choice in the matter about what their leader does or the consequences of HIS actions, not theirs.

  4. Re:Florida, we’re seeing once again the wisdom of SB’s long standing advice of getting out early. Anyone left there now is screwed. My sister left early (Wednesday) from Key West, went to Tampa. Now the storm shifted so she’s off to Gainesville. Has extra gas in the bed of the truck, hotel booked for a week, friends house available if needed, her house is all shuttered, nothing she can do now but wait. She’s no prepper-as far as I know!-but doing a great impersonation so far. Prayers for all in Irma’s path.

  5. I’m no sure after what we did to Saddam and Quadaffi (sodomized with a bayonet) that Kim could be described as either irresponsible or irrational.

    People here are prepping and are armed because there is a perfectly rational fear of both the Government and Anarchy.

    With the USA’s history of overthrowing dictators – Iran 1953 may have been the first (whether you agree or not, but if Iran isn’t sovereign, is Idaho?) – what Kim is doing is perfectly rational. He is making it too costly to overthrow and kill him in a horrible manner.

    Even most here will understand it is unwise to corner animals leaving them no means of retreat because they will fight to the death. The US Government has been doing so for decades. Do not expect a good result from bad policy.

  6. @tz
    1) Actually, the Iranian government (Mossadagh) overthrown by the CIA in the 1950s had been democratically elected. It was the CIA’s puppet Shah who was the dictator — the one with Savak torturers.

    2) Kermit Roosevelt, the CIA officer who led the coup, issued a book in 1979 –“Countercoup”. His first edition said that the coup had been proposed by the British Anglo-Iranian oil company –since renamed to BP. BP was angry that Mossadagh had nationalized its oils wells due to a royalty dispute.

    That first edition was pulled off the book shelves after the first day because of a threatened lawsuit by BP — I managed to get a copy before they were yanked.

    3) The question of North Korea policy can be debated. What angers me is seeing the giant news corporations –with their near monopoly on information provided to the American People — engaged in what I judge is deliberate deceit.

    4) I’ve seen this on other occasions. The claim after Sept 11, 2001 that we were attacked “because they hate our freedoms”.

    When the news media’s own archives had interviews with Bin Laden in 1997-98 where Bin Laden gave the three reasons Al Qaeda was declaring war. Past acts that the News Media decided it had to cover up after discovering Bin Laden was not just some funny clown. Protect the powerful US elites whose acts had provoked the deaths of 3000 Americans. Set up a 911 Commission whose Republican and Democrat members agreed on one thing: that the victims families could NOT be told what motivated the attack. (As recounted to The New Republic by Harvard Professor and 911 Commission consultant Ernest May before his death.)

    5) And of course we had the Director of National Intelligence lie –under oath — to the US Congress and American People about NSA’s massive surveillance of us. A lie that was supported by the silence of President Obama and the Congressional Intel Oversight Committees. A lie that was only revealed because a young man named Edward Snowden ruined his life to warn us.

    6) So it is a real problem. Our tax dollars go to create awesome weapon systems that are to be applied against foreign enemies. But which end up being used to create foreign investments that enrich the few while impoverishing the rest of us under massive debt. Weapons which end up being targeted against us if we protest. What the ancient Romans called “The Punic Curse”.

    https://www.waysideinstitute.org/article
    We defeated our Carthage — the Soviet Union. What now?

  7. Regarding facebook – even having that facebook button on this page allows that site to track you. I have always wondered why you have it on here, this just triggered my response.
    Please (!) take it off

    1. Actually, the Facebook button only tracks you if you use their code. If you use an analyzer, you will notice that we do not use Facebook Code anywhere on our pages and Facebook cannot track our readers unless they deliberately click on the Facebook button. that button is there for those who wish to reach out to others on social media and it, in no way, affects the general readership.

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