Month: March 2022

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By the author of The Faithful Prepper and Zombie Choices

Throughout human history, mankind has recognized the importance of waterways. It is for this reason that cities and towns throughout the world are commonly found clustered along rivers, lakes, or by the shore. Water makes the transportation of large amounts of goods both efficient and economical.

Water also makes moving large amounts of soldiers, munitions, weaponry, food, or other wartime logistical goods both efficient and economical.

It’s because of this recognition that throughout history, nations have built as powerful of navies as they could manage. Not only did this help to protect their nation’s borders (enemies would have a more difficult time with logistics for an amphibious invasion), but it helped to protect a nation’s mercantile ships and gave nations the means to strike back at an overseas invader.

Pain as a deterrence works.

One doesn’t have to look far to see the military importance here. The birth of the US Marines as they fought the pirates of Tripoli would be a prime example. An American navy not only made it possible for us to rescue enslaved Americans in Africa, but it made it so that Tripoli was afraid to enslave Americans again in the future.

In World War II, the reason the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor was that they knew it was the site of the bulk of America’s Pacific fleet. With the US Navy on its knees, Japan would have fuller control over the Pacific Theater, able to invade nations as it pleased them.

World War II also caused the world to realize the importance of the aircraft carrier. Here was an invention that perfectly melded both air and sea capability. Without air superiority in modern conventional warfare, one stands a slim chance of victory. Aircraft carriers help to provide that air superiority.

What’s the point?

The point is this: what if there were a way to take out an entire fleet at the push of a button? If so, could it not render an opponent completely incapable of a military response in a geographic region? All troops on the ground would be left without any form of resupply other than that which was available via land or by air. Planes would have to utilize accommodating air strips. Bombardment by sea would no longer be a possibility.

How long would it take for resupply to take place? What would the cost be? How long would it take for an opponent’s remaining naval forces to rebuild and come back to the area?

The destruction of…

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For users determined to flout rules, “there are going to be straightforward workarounds,” says Jake Wiener, domestic surveillance law fellow at the Electronic Privacy Information Center, a nonprofit research group.

For instance, children could use a parent’s cellphone or a prepaid credit card to sign up for a site, or an older sibling could help them. Also, giving out sensitive information to websites can create vulnerabilities for users. Credit-card information and other identity documents held by websites could be hacked or leaked. 

At the same time, adults will have to jump through more hoops to do legal things online, like looking at pornography. And it puts groups with less access to identification or in more need of privacy—such as undocumented people, LGBT youth and sex workers—at higher risk. “History has shown that marginal communities will be impacted more severely by these laws,” says Daly Barnett, staff technologist at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a nonprofit online-rights organization.

Read more here.

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A proposed $90 million settlement over Facebook’s unlawful tracking of web browsing would represent “a complete disgorgement of all net profits earned” on improperly collected data, according to a recent court filing. Earlier this month, plaintiffs in the case asked a federal court to give preliminary approval to a settlement reached with Facebook. In addition to establishing a $90 million fund to benefit injured class members—which would represent “one of the ten largest data privacy class action settlements ever”—the agreement would force Facebook to “sequester and delete the data that Plaintiffs alleged was wrongfully collected.” EPIC filed an amicus brief in a previous appeal from the case explaining that “Facebook’s tracking techniques are designed to escape detection” and that “the company routinely ignores users’ privacy protections.” EPIC told the Ninth Circuit that Facebook’s “cookie tracking practices” cause “harm to the privacy of the large and diffuse group of Facebook users.” EPIC first highlighted the privacy risks of cookie tracking in the 1997 report “Surfer Beware: Personal Privacy and the Internet.” EPIC frequently participates as amicus curiae in consumer privacy cases.

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If you’re new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!

(Psst: The FTC wants me to remind you that this website contains affiliate links. That means if you make a purchase from a link you click on, I might receive a small commission. This does not increase the price you’ll pay for that item nor does it decrease the awesomeness of the item. ~ Daisy)

I firmly believe that the Ukraine-Russia war is only going to escalate. It doesn’t matter what you’re currently hoping for; it matters what the signs are indicating. And right now, all the signs I see only seem to imply that this is going to get worse. Do you prep for this?

Ukrainian soldiers at an old parade.

Yes, I do think a part of this is to draw Americans’ attention away from what is currently happening in the United States (like this), but I also think that these global events warrant our paying attention, too, regardless. I’ve given my reasoning as to why previously.

We are seeing continued attacks on mercantile ships throughout the European theater at the moment. A Japanese cargo ship was recently hit by a missile. The same happened to a Turkish ship. France recently intercepted a Russian cargo ship. It is only a matter of time until yet another Lusitania moment takes place. And no, it doesn’t matter whether the Lusitania moment will be staged or not. What matters are the end results, and the end results you’re going to see are an expansion of war.

China is continuing to posture against Taiwan, and the waters between China and Taiwan will become suitable for an amphibious invasion this month. I’m not saying an invasion of Taiwan will happen this month, but I am saying logistics matter.

Considering all of these factors – regardless of what you think about who is the victim or who is at fault – here are the preps I think you need to double down on now and why:

What food to prep?

As has been pointed out here at The Organic Prepper before, the United States is going to experience a fertilizer shortage this year, and that is going to be just one factor impacting our food supply. I’ve discussed the other factors HERE.

Yes, I do think that stocking up on seed for your garden is a good prep idea, but I also think that you really need to consider canned goods at the moment. They’re ready to eat, they’re highly portable, and they store well. They make good barter currency, to boot. Canned goods don’t have to worry about radioactive fallout, as does a growing corn crop, either.

I’m a fan of freeze-dried meals, but I sincerely think that cyberattacks against our power grid are highly likely in the near future. You need warm water to make those….

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If you are someone who likes to be prepared for emergencies, you may have already done some research on how to find food in the wild. However, most of the information you’re likely to find on this topic deals with woodlands. It’s another thing entirely to find food in a desert landscape.

By definition, a desert is “a region so arid because of little rainfall that it supports only sparse and widely spaced vegetation or no vegetation at all.” So, knowing how to fish with limited supplies, roast acorns, or forage for roots and berries will not be of much use in a desert. 

Article continues below.

However hostile an environment a desert may seem, it does offer a variety of ways to sustain yourself – if you know where to look. Before we get to a list of some of the food sources in a desert, though, it is critical to point out that your first step is to find water.

You can survive for a few weeks with little to no food, but you will not survive for more than a few days without water. Furthermore, eating food without water only serves to hasten the dehydration process.

If you have enough water and need to find something to eat, here are some plants sources for food in the desert. 

Cactus

Saguaro Cactus

These common desert plants are sources of both water and nutrition. Let’s look at three varieties found in the Sonoran Desert, the largest desert in the U.S., that are useful as a food source.

• Prickly Pear Cactus. The prickly pear plant has three different edible sections, which are high in water, sugar, and fiber content. The sections are the spiky leaves (pads), which can be eaten like a vegetable; the flower petals, which can be used in salads; and the pear (tuna), which can be eaten as a fruit. 
• Saguaro Cactus. This large cactus grows edible flowers in the early spring and then bears edible fruit over the next couple of months. The plant’s spongy interior is an excellent water source at all times of the year.
• Desert Christmas Cactus. The small berries this small plant produces contain Vitamins A and C and have a sweet strawberry-like taste.

Agave

The leaves, flowers, flower stalks, and seeds of the agave plant are edible. Boiling makes these parts of the plant easier to eat. Some of the species also produce a nectar, which has become a popular natural sweetener.

Chia Sage

The entire chia sage plant is edible. Even its seeds are nutritious and can provide a short-term energy boost. The plant’s flowers and leaves can be eaten raw or used to season…

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U.S. Rep. Bryan Steil, R-Wis., highlighted personally identifiable information—like biometric and genetic data—deserving stricter privacy regulation during the hearing. Steil emphasized that Americans mistakenly believe that the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) protects medical data in the tech context, but one hearing witness, Caitriona Fitzgerald, deputy director of the Electronic Privacy Information Center, noted that HIPAA applies only to information shared between health insurers and medical providers, and data protection is not extended to health care apps. Fitzgerald further cautioned about potential uses of medical data against consumer interests, including in insurance rates and employment hiring.

Fitzgerald called for a comprehensive law—rather than sectoral laws—that moves beyond the failed notice and consent regime. Witness Shoshanna Zuboff, the Charles Edward Wilson Professor Emerita at Harvard Business School, added that democratic governance must be put back in control of the information and communication spaces, rather than an unimpeded private sector force.

Read more here.

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EPIC Deputy Director Caitriona Fitzgerald is testifying today before the Judiciary Committee of the Maine State Legislature in support of legislation protecting biometric information privacy. LD 1945 is modeled after the Illinois Biometric Information Privacy Act (BIPA). Passed in 2008, BIPA has been referred to as one of the most effective and important privacy laws in America. EPIC stressed the importance of strong enforcement measures in privacy laws, particularly a private right of action. “The inclusion of a private right of action in LD 1945 is the most important tool the Legislature can give to Mainers to protect their privacy,” EPIC told the Committee. EPIC previously filed an amicus brief in Rosenbach v. Six Flags, where the Illinois Supreme Court unanimously decided that consumers can sue companies that violate the state’s biometric privacy law. [Listen to the hearing]

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[]By Dana Khabbaz, EPIC Law Fellow

[]U.S. Customs and Border Protection (“CBP”) continues to search travelers’ electronic devices at the border without a warrant despite years of advocacy from EPIC and others calling for an end to this practice. CBP reports that in Fiscal Year 2021, it conducted 37,450 searches of international travelers’ electronic devices. These devices can include cell phones, computers, tablets, cameras, and hard drives. The agency maintains that these searches constitute a small percentage of CBP’s total interactions with international travelers. But in today’s world, devices like cell phones are keepers of a person’s most intimate information. For those travelers whose devices are being searched without probable cause, the invasion of privacy is anything but trivial.

[]For searches at the border—including airports when entering the United States—CBP follows a 2018 directive that dictates the procedures officers must follow when searching electronic devices. The directive allows agents searching devices to access any information that is stored directly on the electronic device. Data stored on cloud services is not retrievable unless the CBP officer has a warrant or receives consent from the traveler. Audit charts obtained by EPIC through a Freedom of Information Act (“FOIA”) request also show that CBP does not always notify travelers of the search. How thoroughly CBP can search a digital device depends on their level of suspicion—a legal standard—as well as whether there is a “national security concern.”

[]Without having to show any suspicion, a CBP officer can conduct what’s called a “basic search,” which means examining a digital device and “review[ing] and analyz[ing] information encountered at the border.” Travelers are required to provide their passcodes. If they refuse, an officer is permitted to “detain the device” for up to five days. Officers can only keep information relating to immigration, customs, and other enforcement matters.

[]With reasonable suspicion or a national security concern, a CBP officer can conduct what’s called an “advanced search” or a forensic search. This means an officer can “connect[] external equipment . . . not merely to gain access to the device, but to review, copy, and/or analyze its contents.” A document regarding “Border Searches of Electronic Media” that EPIC obtained through a FOIA request instructs officers to place devices in airplane mode or to disable the data connection before the search begins. Officers can only keep information relating to immigration, customs, and other enforcement matters. Under CBP’s guidelines, the reasonable suspicion requirement is met if there’s a “national security concern” or reasonable suspicion of a law violation. Being on a “government-vetted terrorist watch list” can create reasonable suspicion.

[]Finally, with probable cause that the digital device has “evidence of a violation of law that CBP is authorized to enforce or administer,” CBP can seize the electronic device.

[]To conduct its “advanced searches,” CBP uses mobile extraction software from firms including Cellebrite, Grayshift, PenLink, and Magnet Forensics. Many of these firms also contract with other DHS agencies including with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (“ICE”) and <a…

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If you’re new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!

(Psst: The FTC wants me to remind you that this website contains affiliate links. That means if you make a purchase from a link you click on, I might receive a small commission. This does not increase the price you’ll pay for that item nor does it decrease the awesomeness of the item. ~ Daisy)

My family was lucky enough to leave Venezuela for Ecuador and Peru before things got to the peak of craziness, and people struggled with the question of where to find food. We didn’t experience many of the terrible things as other Venezuelans who stayed as a result.

We suffered mostly because we kept using our national currency rather than the US dollar, but there wasn’t much we could do to rectify the situation. Our useless fiat currency was everywhere. The USD was not. Hyperinflation blew everything, and people did not have the means to adjust. For a while. We’re now better, but far from going back on track.

As a result of this hyperinflation, those living in the larger cities had a VERY rough ride back in 2017-2019. This was to be expected. In the smaller towns, where vegetables, meat, poultry, beef, pork, grain, and fruits were raised, things were not as hard.

What are some basics of where to find food during a starving time?

Given the fair weather and our own culture appreciating freshly cooked meals, getting processed food is not that important. We can live without, say, bacon or commercially made ham.

With hyperinflation, raw ingredients will likely still be available. Brand products are going to disappear. Shareholders will close a plant long before any loss can affect their patrimony.

Therefore, the urban prepper should be already prepared to deal with this. Stocking up? Unless you have an extra warehouse to fill up to the roof and be stocked up for the next 5-6 years, I would say that you need to review your plan if this is your main option. Oh, and just for the record: gardening, raising livestock, and growing stuff is incredibly hard for those urbanite fellas.

My suggestion would be to give serious thought to decide what is better for you: investing in some patch of land far away where you can produce (which is NOT easy at all no matter what the permaculture people say!) at least some basic staples, or using that money to stockpile long-term supplies.

(For more information on how to stay fed during a disaster, check out our free QUICKSTART Guide on building a 3-layer food storage system.)

Here are my thoughts on where to find food in collapsed Venezuela…

Let’s take a look at each food product in turn:

Spices

Most houses here have an herb garden. If your plot is small, you could use raised beds to save on fertilizer, using scraps for compost, but you will have to learn a lot before you can produce anything else more than a salad per week for…

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