The author of this video gives his or her thoughts on the types of people that may come to your door after a societal collapse, as well as a rough timeline of when events will occur. My personal belief is that the local government will show up at some point and forcibly search the homes of anyone they think has supplies and take them; and your neighbors (or one of them) will rat you out.
VIDEO: "Never Answer a Knock Like This After the Collapse"
Fallout Raccoon (24 min.)
The New York Post reports that "Sacramento deploys trash spies to snoop on homeowners so they comply with Newsom vision." From the lede:
Sacramento residents are bracing for tight supervision of what they throw in their trash as Gov. Gavin Newsom’s mandates require the city to lay invasive eyes on them.
Bin inspections are set to be deployed this month due to SB 1383, a law that requires local governments to take steps to reduce methane emissions caused by short-lived climate pollutants.
One of the key goals of the initiative is to see if homeowners are sorting their organic waste properly. City officials say they caught many sorting their trash into the wrong bin.
I have no doubt but that they will be looking for evidence of other items to justify further surveillance or an arrest of particular households.
Some longer and more involved reading for the weekend:
Jon comments:
[Making pre-decisions] is critically important. If you've already made the decision that when X happens we immediately execute Y, you can move much faster than the enemy. It's always the decision that takes time, not the action. You've practiced the action a thousand times, so your execution is fast. You haven't practiced the decision, because ever situation is different and often surprising. So, it's a hard thing to "practice".
Train yourself to immediately gouge the eyes of the attacker, if someone attacks you with our without a weapon. No thought, no decision, just immediate action. It doesn't matter that you succeed or not, this will give you time to get to your gun.
On that topic, when you go into to claw the eyes with the fingers, come up from below rather than a straight shot, because your hand/fingers will be out of view until the last instant making it harder for the target of your attack to blink or otherwise protect their eyes.
Most people assume that the food stockpiled in their pantry, freezer, or basement belongs to them unconditionally. Under normal circumstances, they are absolutely right. But history tells a far more complicated story, and the legal frameworks governing food supply, distribution, and access during emergencies reveal a side of government power that most people rarely think about until a crisis forces them to.
Government food confiscation laws, whether formally codified or embedded within broader emergency statutes, have existed in various forms across nearly every major civilization. And in the modern United States, the legal infrastructure for federally directed food resource management remains very much intact, even if rarely invoked.
Understanding the history of how governments have seized, rationed, and redistributed private food stores is not just an academic exercise. Whether you are a prepper planning for long-term food independence, a policy researcher, or simply a curious citizen, knowing how these laws work and where they come from gives you a clearer picture of the relationship between individual property rights and state power during crisis scenarios.
From Stalin’s grain brigades to the U.S. Office of Price Administration during World War II, and from the Defense Production Act of 1950 to the FDA’s modern mandatory recall authority, the legal machinery behind food control has always been more extensive than most people realize.
While we generally think of OPSEC regarding food stores as necessary to prevent a mob of hungry people from showing up at our doors, the more likely scenario might well be police or other law enforcement showing up to confiscate your food items. You might also want to check out my post, "An Example of Why OPSEC is Important" for an example of the application of anti-hoarding laws in place during WWI which resulted in the prosecution of a couple living in Washington D.C. for hoarding. As I noted, "The 'offenders' were caught because they were informed on by a friend of the local 'Food Administrator.'"
SpaceX’s Starship 12 rocket had a successful launch Friday night, before its suborbital test run around the Earth concluded with a stunning fireball explosion as it splashed down in the Indian Ocean.
The rocket’s launch — the largest and most powerful of its kind — took place at around 6:30 p.m. EST and the 66-minute test flight was deemed a success by SpaceX.
[snip]
During it’s more than hour-long mission, the rocket didn’t go into full orbit and was a pivotal step in testing how new hardware within Starship fares under real flight conditions, SpaceX said.
V3 of Starship 12 contained two key features — the ‘Super Heavy’ bottom booster stage with 33 powerful engines and the Starship, which is the upper part of the spacecraft above the booster that has its own engines.
A few minutes after launch, the ‘Super Heavy’ booster separated and conducted a ‘boostback’ burn to slow down before splashing down in the Gulf of America — unlike previous missions that attempted landing back at the launch site.
Meanwhile, the upper Starship spacecraft continued into space and released 22 fake Starlink satellites 20 minutes into the flight.
And Musk must be practicing some OPSEC: "SpaceX confirmed that Friday’s fireball eruption was planned since they don’t plan on reutilizing the experimental spacecraft."
Glenn Reynolds has published a piece entitled "And Away We Go!" which discusses the import of these developments. An except:
There are still bugs to work out, and capabilities to add, but what we saw on Friday was a full-fledged interplanetary spaceship. Starship v.3 is big enough to carry cargoes to the Moon and Mars. It uses methane fuel which — as Bob Zubrin demonstrated in the 1990s in support of his “Mars Direct” exploration/settlement architecture — can be manufactured on-site from the Martian atmosphere using 19th Century chemical technology. (I’m positive that Musk has studied Zubrin’s work carefully too.)
It will also support missions to asteroids, which are loaded with precious and valuable metals, carbon compounds, and other useful stuff. (Even rock is useful for radiation shielding, and using stuff that’s already in space is generally cheaper than launching it from Earth.)
A moon base is practical with Starship. Artemis, for all the hype, uses NASA’s SLS rocket, which is based on technology over half a century old — Congress mandated that it use Space Shuttle technology — and costs literally billions per launch.
Large structures in Earth orbit are practical with Starship. Elon wants to build data centers in orbit, and others are following his lead. (As I wrote decades ago, the first Earth explorers brought back spices because they had an enormous value-to-weight ratio; space-based communications is even better because photons don’t weigh anything. Computation is similar. Also, the anti-AI-data-center movement on Earth is just playing into his hands.) Space solar power plants, converting the 24-hour, unfiltered sunlight of outer space into electricity that is beamed to Earth via microwave (a technology long-since demonstrated) are practical with Starship.
And it’s not just lift capacity. The Musk empire also stresses AI and robotics. When we were thinking about large space structures in the 1970s we assumed they’d be built by humans, like offshore oil rigs. In my Space Law seminar last fall we did some rough modeling on how much faster you could build them using robots controlled by AI. The answer was rough, but clear: Much, much faster. And more cheaply, and without labor issues.
Elon’s other company, The Boring Company, which specializes in tunneling, is often forgotten, but it’s actually revolutionary in itself. And you know what you need for bases and colonies on the moon and Mars? Tunnels. Lots of tunnels. (Also, later, for asteroid habitats.)
It’s like he’s been thinking about this stuff all along. It’s like that because he has.
Read the whole thing.
Just some gun and prepping related links that I thought interesting or useful:
When morning came, the raiders were gone, chased some 15 miles back into Mexico by U.S. Army Maj. Frank Tompkins, leading two troops from the 13th Cavalry. Back in Columbus, the tragic accounting began. Eight civilians lost their lives that night, along with 11 American Soldiers. Several buildings were burned down, while homes and stores were looted. A growing rage gripped both citizens and Soldiers as the locals gathered up the bodies of the men Villa left behind. The dead Mexicans, 63 in all, were dragged about a mile east of Columbus, where the corpses were piled up, soaked with kerosene and burned. Some residents said the horrible smell lingered for months afterward.
Seven of Villa’s men were captured during the raid, and they were quickly tried. One was sentenced to life in prison. The others were hanged—two on June 9th, and the remaining four on June 30th.
... This is one of the most accurate revolvers I’ve ever shot. This was a long-term review, and I used to have a collection of targets that I kept, but I unfortunately lost them during some move or another. Suffice to say, with loads it likes, the gun will hover right around an inch at 25 yards, shooting real five-shot groups. ...
If you have a firearm of any type for home defense, the most critical skill you can possess falls under RULE 4: Be sure of your target; visually identify it before firing. Know what’s around it, on either side of it; what’s behind it and what could step between your muzzle and the target.
And he notes:
You never shoot at a sound. Visually identify the person and situation first.
You have the tools to do that and I don’t mean the latest sun-tan-causing super tactical gun-mounted light.
You could try your voice. The Tactical Professor, Claude Werner, arrived at the tactical solution: “Who’s there?”
If the answer is, “Daddy, it’s me,” put the fowling piece away.
The enemy isn’t going to call timeout and let you fix your rifle. You either need to skin out a pistol or fix your rifle as fast as possible. For the Type 1 and Type 2 stoppages, we clear them by dropping our elbows to our ribs (ejection port toward the ground), tap the magazine (once), rack the charging handle vigorously (let it go, allowing a full compression of the recoil spring to drive the bolt home) and attempt to fire if the situation warrants.
Type 3 (the double-feed) is more involved but still simpler than the SPORTS method. I have to admit that I'd never heard of SPORTS before this article.
INCH stands for I’m Never Coming Home. It is a large survival bag that is packed full of all the essentials tools and gear you will need to survive while you find a new place to call home. A BOB – or bugout bag, holds enough gear to keep you alive UNTIL you get home, or up to 72 hours.
While you will some of the same items in each bag, there are vast differences in both the gear packed and the rucksack used to carry them. Think of an INCH bag as a bugout bag on steroids! In this article we’ll talk about the items you need to consider when you put it together.
The principle difference is that the INCH bag will have equipment and supplies to help you live off the land, thus there is going to be gear for hunting or fishing that you probably would not fine in a BOB, as well as more tools and other gear that you probably would not need in a BOB. But that also makes the INCH bag larger and heavier. Frankly, I doubt most people could successfully live off the land, even if they had practiced it; and there is enough gear here that it probably would need to split between multiple packs among your family or group.
"Do I share my preps with the unprepared or do I keep them for myself?" is an age-old prepper question with, unfortunately, no good answers.
On the one hand, it makes cold-blooded sense not to share with other people in an emergency or after a disaster; after all, anything you give to them now is a resource you won't have later when you might need it. If you have a family, the stakes become higher: why should you risk their health and well-being by taking away from them to give to a stranger? And what if others hear about it and come begging -- or worse, demanding, that demand backed up by force of arms?
On the other hand, will your conscience allow you to send away the sickly, the starving and the cold empty-handed? What if they have children with them? There's not much point in having a lifetime's worth of food if you can't live with yourself, and if you lose your essential humanity in the name of protecting your family then you risk alienating them as you become emotionally hardened.
Fortunately, there are options between "Give" and "Don't Give".
The options she discusses are: (i) hide yourself and your preps--if they don't know you're there they won't ask--(ii) direct them to a cache which both helps them but gets them out of your area; (iii) sell them the food in exchange for items they may have or for their labor.
No matter how optimistic you may be about humans and their nature, when Shit Hits The Fan, societal norms and rule of law might not apply. No sane prepper would put a big sign on their house saying “I have emergency food,” for example.
But many preppers don’t realize that people around them, like friends and neighbors, probably already know. People who prepare naturally give off a vibe of being thoughtful and “having their act together.”
[snip]
Even if they have no idea you’ve got a basement stocked full of supplies, it’s very likely they’d come knocking on your door in an emergency anyway. It’s the disaster equivalent of “can I borrow a cup of sugar?”
In "How to encrypt your PC’s disk without giving the keys to Microsoft" from ArsTechnica, its explains how to use Microsoft's whole disk encryption, BitLocker, without uploading the recovery key to Microsoft (who will give it over to government authorities if asked). The article is, by its own admission, intended for the Communists involved in the current insurrection, but who knows who the federal government will be targeting after the next election? The instructions in the article are for those using Windows 11 Pro, but it also tells you how to upgrade to the Pro version.
Just some gun and prepping related links that I thought interesting or useful:
As a varmint or target shooting cartridge, the .223 is an outstanding performer, inexpensive and capable of great accuracy. As a medium game cartridge, the .223 is under powered if fast killing is to be expected with ordinary chest shots.
There are however some exceptions to this general rule, though each has its caveats. Some years ago, I discovered that certain heavy weight match bullets can produce relatively good results on some species of medium game. But not all match bullets are equal and one must be mindful of poor downrange energy, limiting the effective range to about 300 yards. One must also have a suitable twist rate to launch these projectiles. I also discovered, many years ago, that tumbling FMJ ammunition had the potential to change the performance of this cartridge on medium game.
A tumbling 55 grain bullet can produce violent, fast killing wounds on lighter medium game along with large exit wounds as wide as 3”. When full metal jacket ammunition tumbles, the bullet very gradually falls to pieces due to the unsealed base of the bullet allowing jacket core separation. Because the process is gradual, wounding occurs through vitals and bone, rather than on impact resulting in adequate penetration for all but tail on shots on medium game.
As with match loads, FMJ ammunition has its caveats. Such performance tends to be unpredictable. The twist rate also in this case, needs to be so slow that the bullet is near the point of poor accuracy. I cannot therefore recommend such a load as being ethical.
When clearing your pistol at the range, take a sight picture on some particular target and observe what the sights do when you press the trigger. When you have to press the trigger to disassemble the pistol, aim at something that will involve the least amount of “damage to property and/or injury to personnel.” Aim at a door frame or something else solid that is more likely to stop a bullet than an interior wall made of Sheetrock.
[snip]
Establishing grip and taking a sight picture even when you don’t expect the pistol to fire reinforces good marksmanship principles and mitigates safety risks simultaneously. It’s a total WIN WIN.
I was able to get some decent groups out of the ammo, but given its slightly wider standard deviation, this definitely isn’t a contender for a high velocity match ammo. Those outliers that make up the extreme spread are likely responsible for some of those fliers.
But he thought it good enough for hunting small game.
I wouldn’t necessarily run it in a bolt action, as I saw roughly equivalent accuracy out of my 11/22 takedown, even while using just a red dot. I think for its job description, it’ll probably find itself best suited to semi-automatic guns, possibly used by ranch hands.
The lion in this dream is not evil or vindictive. It is not driven by anger or cruelty. It operates according to its nature. Overwhelming power that does not negotiate or reconsider once it is engaged.
For private citizens in the self-defense world, the lion represents the criminal justice system after a shooting or serious use of force incident draws its full attention. Jailers taking your book-in photo. Prosecutors building a case. Judges enforcing procedure. Juries forming their own narratives. An impersonal, methodical system that becomes largely indifferent to individual intent once momentum takes hold.
The lion does not care how articulate your explanation is, or how sorry you are.
And, the small mammals "represent armed citizens who take unnecessary risks. People who intervene in volatile situations that don’t involve them. People who knowingly enter environments where violence is probable. Those who willingly initiate conflicts with strangers."
The OMSsc’s clear acrylic “roof” is its most eye-catching feature. Shield Sights' impetus behind this design choice is that it wanted to provide its end-users with the clearest sight picture possible, the idea being the acrylic’s clear qualities will not obstruct the view downrange, especially around the edges of the sight’s housing. I’ll admit that the OMSsc is the first time I’ve gone hands-on with any Shield Sights product despite the company’s longtime industry presence. But, the fact that it sells both the clear-top OMSsc alongside the more conventional RMSsc indicates how strongly the company feels about the split 6082-T6 aluminum and acrylic housing design.
Over the summer I attended a morning conference on Church Security over in Illinois, after the murder of the Reverend Fred Winters back in March. The panel was made entirely of law enforcement officers which held a variety of opinions. Panel members where mainly small town police chiefs and most agreed that ultimately in a mass shooting that members of the church would be the first responders to the crisis. Given Illinois anti self-defense laws their were questions concerning what weapons could be legally carried and used.
One local police chief went against the grain of his fellow panel members and said
"you have to remember that this is a law enforcement matter and it is for the Police to respond to. I know you all want to carry a gun, but let me say this as a Chief of Police I don't even let my wife carry pepper spray nor do my teenage children. Any so called self-defense weapon can be taken from you and used against you and they simply aren't worth the risk."
It was an arrogant and disgusting statement.
For someone to say likewise that you can be over burden with to many tools is.....well absurd, because frankly I have yet to find in Sun Tsu's Art of War any quote that reads "stick with the basic levels of training and your campaign will go ok."
Fundamentals are important, but they are the building blocks to further our mindset. We all (myself very included) should always be striving to learn more, train more, think and out think the bad men of the world.
I had an encounter yesterday with some unpleasant people while grocery shopping. When I got back to my car, they pulled up nearby at a somewhat odd angle in the parking lot. Since I wasn’t sure if they planned to initiate a confrontation, I quickly drove out of the lot.
After such an encounter, it’s prudent to take a Surveillance Detection Route that does not lead directly home afterward. Doing so isn’t particularly difficult but it does require a little thought at the time. You also need to use your rear view and side mirrors regularly during the process. And have a safe place to go if it turns out you are being followed.
First of all, turn out of the parking lot in the opposite direction that you would take to go home. As you drive, look for signalized intersections to turn onto non-arterial through streets. If possible, hit the red light. Sitting at the red light for a minute will allow you to scan the cars behind you without being an inattentive driver. Make at least three turns watching your mirrors after you turn. Contrary to popular opinion, they don’t all have to be Right Turns. Sitting in the Left Turn lane at a signal will frequently give you a better scan of the cars behind you by using your driver’s side mirror than you can get through the rear view mirror. You’ll also have a slightly longer view of the traffic behind you as they turn.
What you are looking for is vehicles that repeatedly make the same turns as you do. It doesn’t have to be the same vehicle that was involved in the initial encounter. Pairs of people often have two cars and the other vehicle might be the one following you.
If you think someone is following you, he advises that you don't go home, but go somewhere safe. Although most people think "police station," he actually suggests going someplace where you can be sure to find first responders: fire stations or emergency rooms at hospitals. Read the whole thing.
Use cool or cold water.
“Never use warm or hot water or freeze the Black Berkeys as this will likely damage the integrity of the compressed carbon and proprietary impregnated media.” says Berkey.
Don’t use soap.
Simply let the water run over the filter while gently or firmly scrubbing the surface area. You might use a type of nail cleaning brush or a slightly abrasive pad like a Scotch-Brite pad.
He has lengthier instructions for cleaning them in a sink and cleaning them in a bucket.
This is because the materials they are made from are thicker, more abrasion resistant, more difficult to puncture and less likely to come undone when they are damaged.
Conversely, the thinner and more delicate the material that an average hiking backpack is made from can be easily damaged from a slash or scrape, and is highly likely to get worse quickly.
Of course, manufacturer procedures and quality control makes a big difference here: a top of the line hiking backpack will probably prove to be more durable overall than a “flea market special” tactical pack.
The reverse is also true, with very cheap hiking packs proving to be shockingly frail, and top of the line tactical packs being almost impervious to damage.
Another difference he notes is color differences with tactical backpacks using subdued colors or even camouflage patterns in order to avoid attention, whereas hiking backpacks are generally brighter or lighter colors and might be bright enough to draw attention and potential rescue (although I've noticed that hiking backpacks do seem to be more subdued than they were even 5 or 10 years ago). Other difference he notes are that tactical backpacks have more attachment points (e.g., MOLLE) and internal compartments while hiking backpacks tend to be more water resistant.
American cities are in a “Doom Loop.” Quality of life collapses, residents flee or stay home, and cities fall into economic decline. As the economy falters, even more locals flee, and the cycle repeats. Cities may stabilize into something like Detroit or St. Louis.
Crime is central to the decline, but newspaper headlines and statistics don’t capture it. Statistics may not even be credible, because crime can be “eliminated” by misclassifying it or not enforcing the law. Less obvious but more consequential in the long run, is fear of crime. ...
This fear, the author continues, can be due to large numbers of minorities, numerous homeless people and vagrants.
Compounding this dread is the ever-diminishing prospect of help from bystanders or even the police. High-profile incidents such as the arrest of would-be Good Samaritan Daniel Penny when he intervened to stop a likely felony-in-progress in the subway are a powerful deterrent, not to mention hesitant police officers in the post-George Floyd era. You’re on your own.
He concludes:
Reversing the Doom Loop is about defending civilization. The United States spends billions on exotic high-tech weapons to defend against foreign enemies but refuses to let police stop bands of “youths” headed to Nordstrom to steal Gucci handbags. We now have a Space Force, but elected leaders won’t let Walmart stop shoplifters. Stopping the Doom Loop is not about therapy for crazies or homes for winos; it is about therapy for those who refuse to defend their own civilization.
Just some gun and prepping related links that I thought interesting or useful:
And after three decades of studying how violence really works . . . After training both the heroes and witnessing the methods of monsters . . . I've learned something that will disturb you. The "bad guys" are better at violence than the "good guys." Not because they're stronger. Not because they're smarter. But because they understand something our heroes have forgotten. Violence isn't about technique. It's not about style. It's not about fighting "fair". Violence is a tool. And like any tool, it works best when you understand its true purpose. A hammer isn't designed to be pretty. It's designed to drive nails. Violence isn't designed to be civilized. It's designed to end threats.
Old cops give young cops a warning: “Every time you’re in a fight, there’s a loaded gun present. Yours.”
He then goes on to describe some items that can help in a fight over the gun: a manual safety (the person grabbing your weapon may not know its there or how to disengage it), using a retention holster, and learning retention skills. As for retention holsters, Ayoob recommends the Rogers/Safariland SS-III/070 holster.
The point is, before you load up – particularly if it’s duty/carry ammo – visually inspect each round. A smart move is to remove the barrel from the pistol the ammo’s meant for (or the revolver’s cylinder) and drop each round into the chamber.
This checks easy fit. Upend the barrel/cylinder; does the round fall out? That’s also a good sign.
If
the rounds are loaded in those factory boxes with individual round
trays, take that opportunity to check the case heads for dings,
deformation – and check the primers to ensure they’re seated in the
proper orientation and seated just below flush.
I wanted to take the class because I am a firm believer in carrying what I call ‘Intermediate Force Options.’ Pepper spray is one of those weapons that give us a response to predatory behavior not requiring deadly force. As I state in all my classes “Lacking an intermediate force option while you are armed with a firearm implies that all you are willing to do to protect yourself is kill someone.” That’s not a position most reasonable people would be comfortable in taking, given a little bit of thought.
A
rarely observed solar pattern—known as the Centennial Gleissberg Cycle
(CGC)—may have just “restarted,” according to scientists monitoring
long-term solar trends. If confirmed, this transition could mark the
beginning of decades of intensified solar activity, with potentially
serious implications for satellites, astronauts, and space-based
infrastructure on Earth.
Having an operational computer network running in a post-SHTF world may seem frivolous to some people. But if you have any plans to use computers, tablets, or cell phones as part of your post-disaster operations, it can provide the capability for those devices to communicate, share data and synchronize their activities. It can also provide some support for important things like WiFi security cameras and WiFi sensor monitoring.
The author had previously authored a series of articles on how to set up a mobile WiFi/Ethernet network. But he had some people complain it was too complicated and whether there was a simpler alternative. These two articles offer that simpler alternative. The first article goes over hardware and configuration. The second article goes over synchronizing files and "packaging" of all of the equipment to make it portable, along with some odds and ends.
Remember that this is just one part of a system of defeating businesses and other entities from monitoring and gathering information about you.
VIDEO: "How to Block Facial Recognition Cameras (IRL Tested!)"
Business Reform (13 min.)
VIDEO: "Defeating Facial Recognition: 13 Products Tested (Only 2 Worked!)"
Business Reform (13 min.)
The author of this video tests several different Faraday bags and some other methods commonly cited as ways to block signals from your cell phone. Note that one brand of Faraday bags completely failed the various tests. Of the various other methods sometimes suggest--putting a phone in a foil lined bag chips bag, wrapping in aluminum foil, or putting it in a freezer or microwave--only the wrapping in aluminum foil worked, but it was intermittent.
VIDEO: "How To Make Your Phone INVISIBLE To Tracking in 2025"
Business Reform (11 min.)
The host of this video spots some sort of surveillance aircraft circling near his neighborhood and discusses some the the tell-tale signs, as well as noting information that has come out about these aircraft (at least those operated by the FBI). They are not just taking video, but hoovering up cell phone communications.
VIDEO: "There's A Spy Plane Circling My Neighborhood"
saveitforparts (7 min.)
"Your smartphone apps are tracking you"--Behind
the Black. We've probably all had the experience of talking about some
product or issue with someone, only to suddenly have advertisements
start popping up about that very thing. But this goes a bit beyond that.
From the article:
You probably saw this the other day on the Western Rifles Shooter's Association website, but if not:
The tech companies have assembled profiles on each of us that far exceed anything Orwell could dream of. They listen to us through various devices, know what websites we visit, what we watch, in many cases know what we read, know where we go and our usual routes, and our networks of friends, relatives and acquaintances. License plate readers and surveillance can be used to track our movements. Based on this information, an intelligence service or tech company can figure out hidden networks of associates (see, "How They Hunt" by Lizard Farmer). This is how they identified the J6 protestors.
The Daily Mail has an article entitled "Private investigator reveals how to identify if you are being FOLLOWED while driving home - and details top tips for evading potential suspects." It is actually pretty standard advice: use your review mirror; if you think you are being followed, make three consecutive right hand turns; if the person is still behind you, they are probably following you. If you think you are being followed, don't drive to your home (or work) but instead go to a police station. Take down the license number, if possible. The investigator also noted that there are websites where you can look up information concerning license plates, such as FindByPlate.
This article is about the tiny spy cameras with pin-hole sized lenses that can be discretely hidden. The primary concern for most people would be the presence of such a camera (or more) in a hotel room or Airbnb. Sometimes these cameras are connected to a WiFi connection to broadcast the video to a remote computer; other can save the video to an SD card.
In any event, CNBC tested various methods/tools to locate such hidden cameras and reported the results in this piece: "How to find hidden cameras in hotels and house rentals: We tested five ways — and one’s the clear winner." There were 27 cameras hidden in a home but they were only able to find 17 cameras between all of the tested methods/tools. The methods/tools used were:
What with Christmas and rush project at work, I wasn't able to get to this earlier. But both Greg Ellifritz and Jon Low posted links to various articles and commentary.
First up is the latest Weekend Knowledge Dump from Greg at Active Response Training. A few articles that caught my attention:
I took the Vehicle Tactics course from Joe Shelton, Tyler Van Zant, and Bob Allenat Royal Range in Nashville, TN last night. Some of the things I learned:
Bullets will go through side windows and door panels easily without deflection.
Much more difficult to penetrate front and rear windshields, and deflection is expected. When firing into the car through the front windshield with a horizontal trajectory, expect the bullet to deflect down if it penetrates. It might glance off and notpenetrate. When firing out of the car through the front windshield with horizontal trajectory, expect the bullet to deflect up, if it penetrates. It might not.
Head rests generally have steel plates in them that pistol bullets will not penetrate.
He has a lot more tips from the class, so be sure to check it out.
From the continuing education at Allied Universal Security Services.
On September 11th of 2021, 90% of the people in the World Trade Center evacuated safely. [This should be considered a significant success.]
Work place homicides:
85% Criminal (outsider, stranger)
7% Worker on worker (both parties employed at venue)
5% Domestic (domestic dispute that spilled over into the work place)
3% Customer / client
[So security should primarily be facing outward with the goal of preventing the bad persons from entering.]
Oh, so you were sweeping and found a bug (and an interesting one at that). Best not to dig it out of the wall and kill it. Don't want the enemy to know that you know about it. Might want to feed it (false info)? But then the enemy will figure out that you know about it. Let's just turn it off, gently.
It's wintertime and cold. Thermal stress will break the microscopic wires in the IC chips. Get a "Presto Heat Dish + Tilt" from Costco for under $100. This is not a space heater. It will not warm the air in the room. It is a heating element with a parabolic reflector. It heats things up.
The wires will crack in about 30 thermal cycles. So you can get this done in a month. When you come into work, turn the heater on the bug. When you go home at the end of the day, make sure to turn the air conditioning off.
Just a suggestion. Let your imagination run wild.
From PJ Media: "Spyware on Wheels: Your Car Reports on Your Activities, Even Those in the Back Seat." An excerpt:
While you’ve got your eye on the road, your car has its spyware on you — and is reporting your every move back to Detroit, Tokyo, or Stuttgart. According to a new study by the Mozilla Foundation, “cars are the worst product category” the organization has ever reviewed for privacy, collecting and reporting “how fast you drive, where you drive, and what songs you play in your car,” and even whatever details they can glean about your sex life.
Of the 25 car brands analyzed by Mozilla, the overwhelming majority — 84% — sold car owners’ data to third parties. That’s 21 out of 25, for those keeping score at home.
You didn’t think all those cameras and sensors in recent vintage cars were there for your convenience, did you?
“Car companies have so many more data-collecting opportunities than other products and apps we use,” Mozilla warns, “and can gather even more information about you from third party sources like Sirius XM or Google Maps. It’s a mess.”
Worse, more than half the companies surveyed “also say they can share your information with the government or law enforcement in response to a ‘request.'”
Not a subpoena. Not a court order. Just a request.
“Car brands,” the report concludes, “often do whatever they can legally get away with to your personal data.” ...
Something you might want to think about if you are checking on caches of supplies or visiting a favorite fishing hole or hunting site or just meeting up with friends.
The foundation said most car companies can comb through a variety of sources to glean personal information about drivers after they pair their smartphones with a vehicle’s connected services.“This invasive harvesting of information is collected via a web of sensors, microphones, cameras and the phones, apps, and connected services you use in your vehicle,” according to Mozilla Foundation.The car firms can then take that data and sell it to or share it with vendors, insurance companies and others, according to watchdog.
These types of laws typically grant broad powers to a local or state government to deal with a catastrophe or emergency including to enter property, seize property (although later having to compensate the owner), require people to evacuate, and to a greater or lessor extent, control the sale or distribution of goods. The intention of all of this is, for instance, to allow government agencies to respond to a fast moving or quickly evolving disaster such as flooding, a forest fire, an earthquake, etc. These laws are intended to allow a government to enter your property (even if you aren't there to give permission or if you refuse permission) to build barriers to fires or floods, shut off gas or electricity to prevent an explosion, requisition or commandeer equipment or material needed to combat the disaster, and so on. This is part of the traditional "police powers" of a government and have existed, in one form or another, for centuries.
The problem crops up when the statutes are left too vague--because they can then be applied to "emergencies" never envisioned by the authors or supporters of such measures--or when they extend beyond a natural and man-made disasters to matters of law enforcement (such as dealing with riots or civil unrest). Such is the case here. The ordinance in question defines a disaster not only as a natural or man-made disaster, but to also include a "civil disturbance or hostile military, or para-military action." Useful in times when slave revolts might have been feared, but antiquated today.
While these types of ordinances and laws are rarely controversial, and therefore garner little attention, preppers should be aware of what they say. For instance, the ordinance here allows as emergency powers the authority to impose curfews; impose control over the purchase, sale or distribution of goods and services including food, water and clothing; closing "non-essential" businesses; and to limit the sale, distribution and transportation of various goods including firearms.
As such, this ordinance is probably fairly typical. For instance, other than not including restrictions on the sale and transportation of firearms, Idaho Code § 46-1008 gives the Idaho governor very similar powers to those outlined in the ordinance.
We have seen much worse. Way back in 2011, I wrote about a 1918 New York Times article describing how a Navy officer and his wife had been criminally charged for food hoarding. (The article is now, unfortunately, behind a pay wall). The "anti-hoarding" law was part of The Food and Fuel Control Act of 1917 ("The Lever Act"). (See here for the text of the Act). The law, in Section 4, specifically made it a felony to "hoard ... any necessaries". Hoarding was defined in Section 6 of the Act to include holding in an amount more than reasonably needed by a person and his dependents for a reasonable amount of time (although it did not include the produce of your own garden). Besides prison time and money penalties, the law also permitted the government to sue the owner in order to force the owner to "sell" the items in a manner determined to be equitable. Similar laws were enacted during World War II and during the Cold War, the latter of which is still on the books. (See, e.g., 50 U.S. Code § 4512). (See also "Usage of the Defense Production Act throughout history and to combat COVID-19").
As I noted in my 2011 post, the couple that were prosecuted under the Lever Act after someone informed on the couple for selling food to local businesses. Thus, they violated the rule of "keep your mouth shut". If times were tough and food rationing were required and hoarding outlawed, do not doubt for one moment that some acquaintance, friend, or even a relative might turn you in to authorities out of some sense of duty, revenge, spite, and/or the opportunity to gain a reward. The same goes for your firearms and ammunition stores.
The other matter to be considered is the threat of limitations on movement, such as curfews, blocking roads, and preventing or limiting ingress or egress. This is where your knowledge of your "area of operation" can come in handy. You may be able to figure out a way to move in and out of your AO or within your AO. This is going to be particularly important to suburban preppers who, more likely than not, are living in developments designed to minimize the number of entrances or exits, and for that reason are more easily cut off.
A good way to prepare for this is to use the satellite images available in Google Maps for your neighborhood. Perhaps you are closed in, but maybe that ditch, empty field, or bike trail can offer an alternate route. Maybe you think you can't cross the river, but maybe the pedestrian bridge, railroad bridge, or even a pipeline across a river might give you a means of doing so.
It is also useful to locate and mark manholes, as the sewers and maintenance tunnels can be used to move into or out of an area unseen. For that matter, you should know all of this information for defense of your neighborhood, if necessary.
Additional items to map would be utility junction boxes and transformers, fire-hydrants, and surveillance and/or traffic cameras.
