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”. The onslaught against the Second Amendment continues and the Middle East Tensions are on fire again. I’m starting to get whiplash from looking east and west so quickly.
Second Amendment
The Democrats have now added a 3 day waiting period and Tannerite regulations to the bills waiting in the wings of the House. Refer to the Preparedness Notes for Wednesday – October 18, 2017 for a list of these proposed bills. Note that it is still the case that not a single one of the proposed bills, nor any of the existing laws on the books would have stopped the Las Vegas tragedy. This is clearly a case where the Congress (including Republicans) is pushing a gun control narrative and using this horrific shooting to justify their actions.
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The Legal Brief has posted a video about the gun control onslaught and what we are up against. They break the proposed legislation down and give you a good overview of the bill and the real-world issues the proposed legislation will cause. In any case, the laws only affect law abiding citizens. Those who would commit atrocities such as the Las Vegas shooting would simply ignore these new bills just as they ignore existing gun laws.
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The one thing that actually could have made a difference is the ability for citizens to carry concealed. Reader DSV sent in this link showing that that there are over three million people who carry concealed and they are not shooting at each other.
JWR’s Comment: Despite the histrionic predictions from the leftist gun grabbers, all these newly-enfranchised responsible gun carriers did not create “Blood in the Streets”
Middle East Tensions
As tensions between the Arab world and Israel continue to rise, Russia has taken on a key role in de-escalating those tensions. Israeli, Russian and Iranian interests are colliding as the government of Syria struggles to remain in power. Russia has it’s campaign to prop up Assad and defeat the Anti-Assad insurgents, Iran is using Hezbollah to assert greater influence in Syria and Israel is determined to protect it’s sovereignty and the safety of it’s citizens from Arabs who are determined to wipe it off the face of the planet. Thanks to D.S. for the link.
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While Syria is continuing to destabilize the Middle East, Turkey is acting more as an enemy than a member of NATO. Turkeys actions are going so far off the democratic rails so quickly that it is hard to keep up with. As the article states, unless you are a professional following the politics, you probably are missing much of what’s going on (unless you are using something like Google alerts). If you are an American, Turkey is not a good place to be right now.
Learning from History
Reader D.S. sent in this article that reviews an older book Second World Wars by Victor Davis Hanson. The book is written in a thematic way rather than a chronological way which emphasizes that the war was not a unified war, but a series of smaller conflicts that merged together. It points out many of the political landscapes and alliances that created the circumstances for war to break out as well as the progress of the war. It is well worth a read if you can get your hands of a copy of it.
Plague
WHO is reporting that the Plague has killed 94 in Madagascar. While the plague is endemic in Madagascar, the current outbreak has officials concerned because it started earlier in the season than norm and is mostly caused by pneumonic plague, the most deadly form of the disease. WHO has delivered medicine to treat up to 5,000 patients and 100,000 who might be at risk. As previous commenters on SurvivalBlog have noted, there is concern over the health workers though.
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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!
Regarding the article about VDH’s book. His writing is always excellent IMO. I believe the WW2 narrative has always been skewed. I am heavily influenced by Buchanan’s book Churchill, Hitler and the Unnecessary War. It outlines the significant failures of British statecraft that lead to WW1 which then made WW2 almost inevitable. It also outlines the fact that Hitler had some reasonable grievances and was not in fact looking to take over the world. He was looking to take the Rhineland back and the turn east and misjudged the West’s response. Buchanan got in hot water for his views because he was accused of being a Nazi/Hitler sympathizer. He made it crystal clear that viewed Hitler as absolutely evil. However so was the Polish leadership of the time.
To put a little nugget out of what I am speaking of think of this. The French gave up the Rhineland prior to the war without a shot. There own land although historically disputed with Germany. BTW Hitler’s troops had been ordered to turn back at any French resistance. He was surprised his Gambit worked. Then England declares war against Germany over Poland, a police state that it had no reasonable means to defend. This is the beginning of the European side of the war. Flash forward to the end, and Poland is given up to another police state for decades. Does this make sense? In the mean time 60m die.
I also share Buchanan’s view that you have to divide your evaluation of the war into numerous parts. The statecraft that lead to it was borderline criminal and at the least incompetent. The prosecution of the war was heroic. The citizens response was heroic. The end result was a weakening of Western Civilization that we may or may not ever recover from. The weakening being largely political, spiritual, economic and not necessarily military. Buchanan views WW1 and WW2 as a single Western Civilization War which weakened the West as a whole and is allowing the East to rise up now in a manner that may not end up good for the West.
IMHO, WW1 never actually ended. It has been on a few “time-outs”, but never really ended. If you look, in our current conflicts we have the same cast of characters. There is the UK, France, Germany, Turkey, Persia (Iran), the Middle East Arab states, even Afghanistan, Russia, and of course, the good old USA. The middle east problems today relate directly the the Sykes-Picot treaty and, of course our intervention in the war in Europe in 1917. Without our intervention, the European war would have ended in a stalemate (the war was almost over when we stepped in), no treaty of Versailles, and oh by the way, no Hitler. He would have been left as another failed whiny socialist with no audience. No Nazi support for the Muslim Brotherhood, because, oops, no Nazi Party to extend the growth of National Socialism to the new nations in the middle east.
Shame on Wilson and his neo-conservative and neo-liberal supporters, progressives all. That would be the same neo-conservative and neo-liberal that support our perpetual warfare that continues to this day. Just think, I’m 66 years old and the USA has been at war, somewhere in the world, every single day of my life, non-stop. That is why we need, desperately, to bring our global interventionism to an abrupt end. Too bad Trump has succumbed to the neocons in his administration, and both political parties.
Thank you for allowing my rant.
I think you are correct.