Prepping for the Worst
I no longer view “preppers” as crazy. Maybe they were right, just early. Better early than late.
I don’t mean to alarm anyone, and I’m not panicked. I’m just concerned, and thinking the unthinkable.
The loss of institutions is something I’ve written about regularly, including in our 2017 Anniversary post. So much of our political, educational, media, and corporate commanding heights are run by ideologues devoted to deconstructing and dismantling a society they view as irredeemably flawed.
The military senior leadership worshipping at the altar of wokeness is a huge canary in the coal mine. Look at the military lockdowns in Australia. I’m not saying it’s going to or likely to happen here, but I’m also not saying anymore that it can’t happen here.
The pandemic made clear we live on a thin line that can be disrupted. It’s not unthinkable that our key systems — the electric grid, natural gas supply, gasoline — could fail or be taken down by hacking.
Add to it a federal government bent on weakening the nation as a matter of ideology, and the once-unthinkable is thinkable.
So all in all, I no longer view “preppers” as crazy. Maybe they were right, just early. Better early than late.
I don’t plan to be late.
I’m not going off the grid, but a back up plan is not a bad idea. Why do you think so many people are buying acreage in flyover country?
I have so little faith in the people running this country at various levels that stocking up on long shelf-life food and other prepper-lite protections seems to me, for the first time in my adult life, to be one of the least crazy ideas.
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Some preppers still sound a bit crazy, but they have always been right at the core.
It makes you wonder:
Am I prepared to survive a major disruption of our way of life?
Can I grow my own vegetables?
Fish/hunt for meat?
Clean, prepare and/or preserve game?
Hobbies today, could be life saving skills tomorrow.
Same as guns: It’s Better To Have It And Not Need It, Than To Need It And Not Have It
Remember Rush Limbaugh imploring people not to give up hope, and that he’d promise to tell us when it is ‘time’?
I miss that man very, very much. If was alive today, I wonder if he’d say it was ‘time’?
In these dark moments, some words of wisdom:
~ Those who have tests without having symptoms every week to see if they are sick, should also go to the cemetery every week to see if they are dead.
~ The left controls every major institution in America: Mainstream Media, Acedemia, Administrative Government, Hollywood, Big Tech, Major Corporations, FBI, CIA, DOJ, FDA, ATF, etc. So, if “Institutional Racism” really exists, whose fault would that be?
~ Term limits would increase the likelihood that people who come to Congress would anticipate returning to careers in the private sector and therefore would, as they legislate, think about what it is like to live under the laws they make.
https://iotwreport.com/wise-sayings/
That’s the most important law conservatives MUST enact when we get our control returned from the cheating scum!
Term limits and NO pensions.
How many different ways are there to achieve rigid term limits? Got to be more than one.
Ok Mo Brooks and Ted Cruz are gone, while Facebook offers generous rewards to the now term limited politicians who could provide evidence after their 2 terms end that they helped corporate/industrial interests while in office including ideologically…
The only power center we could potentially take control of is elected government, maybe that should be a solution (see Michael Knowles example of Germany for how culture is downstream of politics as well as politics downstream of culture).
Yes, term limits would be a big help to discouraging legislators from mucking up the private sector, at least those who will leave office young enough to not just retire upon leaving. Perhaps requiring they have some real world experience in the private sector first too before running for office might help.
Or term limits means “private” companies like Facebook become more powerful because no matter how red a district the Republican politician will be gone in a fixed and likely brief period of time while the company will be forever and woke capitalism becomes unbeatable.
The corporations hate us as much or more than the Democrat politicians stop viewing them as a bulwark to be protected.
If we had term limits it would keep people from dying in office. The only way many of these people will leave office is to be carried out on a stretcher. I hope there will not be stretcher shortage.
Conceptually I like the idea of term limits, but California enacted term limits in the 90s, and it is a woke basket-case now.
I just means the politicians have a shorter and more definite time to collect bribes, pad their bank accounts, shake down the public, and position themselves for future wealth by trading favors. It would promote the rate and frenzy of their rapacity.
If the people are virtuous, they will not allow corrupt politicians and a corrupt state to long exist. However, if the people are corrupt, so, too, will be their politicians and their government, and no remedy shall be forthcoming.
But they also enacted first-past-the-post primaries (“only the top two vote-getters in the primary election – regardless of party preference – move on to the general election”), ensuring that your choices are now limited to voting for either Thing 1(D) or Thing 2(D).
Just in on Glen Beck’s program: Obama just bought a fortified island, and Trump just bought a fortified place on the coast.
What must they know?
They both know the whole “climate disaster” with oceans rising narrative is bullshit, but only one of them publicly acknowledges the fact.
1. Your right people shouldn’t be panicked
2. So perhaps time to use political power instead of getting into office and declare that we will cut taxes?
3. Term limits would make the Democrats go much farther to the left. You think they are leftist now? Wait till they have two terms and their future employer Jack Dorsey demands that all prospective ex congressman provide evidence to his office that they helped improve the society they live in while in office. At the same time you will be ending the careers of everybody you think is doing a good job in congress….corporate America hates you and your only leverage is retaking parts of the government via elections.
I miss him too…so many times I’ve wanted to hear what his take would have been
And after the last year and Afghanistan what has become crystal clear is our government has neither the skillset or the mindset to save us from anything. I think they would welcome an event that would finish off most of us.
I suppose the old “Rats fleeing a sinking ship” analogy would be appropriate here. Just remain on the lookout for a large number of politicians fleeing the country at the same time.
See above.
I have always operated on the basis that that a disaster was possible, both natural and caused by civil breakdown. My assumption was such would be short term, now we need to consider longer term.
I designed and built a passive solar house 35 years ago. My front porch is at reinforced concrete room, next to it is a second room where all utilities are located.
I generally have a year or more supply of food on hand. I buy in quantity, often sales. Doing so lowers costs of acquisition, fewer trips and less time. I consider this good financially, and being prepared is just a fringe benefit.
I have been preparing to move, and looking closely at demographics, that is probably the best way to avoid trouble.
I have already designed a new house based on insulated foam blocks, poured reinforced wall basement with shipping containers above ground, they will have cement floors inside them, making the whole basement a livable hardened safe room.
” stocking up on long shelf-life food ”
******
A good source for basic long shelf life food at reasonable cost and inexpensive shipping is the LDS store:
https://store.churchofjesuschrist.org/usa/en/food-storage-3074457345616678849-1
I wonder why anyone would downrate that. They are excellent products at good prices..
Some time back we added several cases -mostly pinto beans and white rice and some quick oats- to our hurricane/earthquake supplies. Good products at good prices. They fit under the bed. Should be good for at least another fifteen or twenty years if not needed before then.
I expect that the Covid supply line issues won’t be so bad as to have us delving into the stash, but for a couple hundred bucks it is comforting to know it’s there if needed.
Now, if they just canned toilet paper….😎
I’m not prepared, and don’t know the first thing about doing so. I AM prepared to not be “raus!”-ed into a truck.
https://www.survivalistboards.com/forums/#survival-preparedness-forum.10
Check this site out
It isn’t just buying a cabin in the woods and stocking it with dehydrated food, either. Little things can pay huge rewards even when things just hiccup slightly.
–A few cases of bottled water and toilet paper in the basement that you rotate through (so it doesn’t get old)
–A 20 amp generator can run about $500, but it’s worth a mint when the power goes out and you need something to run the fridge and a few phone chargers.
–If you have a large yard with a bunch of trees, an electric pole saw can run under a hundred bucks and keep those branches away from the house.
–If you don’t have to pay to have it stored, a small used 2-wheel camper can be a useful addition to your collection. Evacuate anywhere and still have a place to sleep (with an AC). Pay close attention to weight and vehicle towing capacity, though, and don’t over-buy. (My parents bought back and forth about five times before they settled on their vacation motor home)
May I add that having a generator is good. Not using it in a conspicuous way [don’t have lights visible from outside or noise drawing unwanted people to you] is also a good thing.
Subotai Bahadur
Check out the lead time in getting a GENERAC unit of any reasonable capacity. Best I saw on Lowe’s for a big enough unit to run everything you can’t survive without was January 2022. And then, of course is the need for a propane/LNG tank big enough to last you until your children are old enough to have their own guns, and a piece of land adequate to raise a year’s worth of produce and enough stock to keep you in protein. That’s for the 1 percent or less of the population who could actually make it on a farm/ranch of their own, assuming the government didn’t come in and confiscate it all for themselves. Let’s face it, this isn’t the 19th Century and all of this is only a rear guard action trying to stave off the inevitable. The USA is finished. It’s just a matter of how long it takes the corpse to rot or be torn apart by the wolves.
Yup. We ordered ours in July. Current expectation is our will be delivered in October. But, if production is disrupted, or any units are damaged in shipping, our slot could slide.
We have one, installed pre-Trump.
The real problem with a generator is it only provides a very temporary solution to a loss of electrical power. You have to supply it with fuel, and they tend to not be very energy efficient. You will go through 1,000 gallons of propane very quickly, then what? Even if physical resupply, exists you could not afford it.
You need solar or have running surface water you can dam and build in a hydro-generator.. That, or learn how to live without electricity if you think you will be in a situation where you will need to rely on a generator more than just a few days for a temporary outage.
Also, finding land that can support a hydro-generator is in very limited supply.
Actually, there are a couple of other options. Learn how to make charcoal, turpentine, and alcohol. It’s not hard. You can use this to power a steam generator. There are also wood-gas engines and generators. They are in common use in North Korea and you can buy specially made engines here. Modification of gasoline engines to use wood gas is pretty easy. This can power you home and your vehicles. You need a lot with a lot of wood to provide a sustainable power source.
Bottom line, though, do not rely on a conventional diesel, natural gas, or propane generator unless it is only to bridge a temporary loss of prime power.
When my 36 yr old daughter was born a hurricane came through and left us without power. I then purchased a 5kw generac generator, had a master electrician hook it up to code which isolates the house from street power when the unit is used and hooked one outlet in every room to be hot, the fridge, furnace, and garage doors were all added and the power draw balanced. I have never regretted that $1,000 purchase and the generator was used by us for 2 days after an ice storm, then by a coworker for two weeks while he was waiting for his house to get electricity after that same winter storm.
Tom
If noise is an issue, on the smaller scale get an inverter generator. They are very quiet. They cost more, but they actually do more compared to a standard generator of equal output. I’m not sure why, but maybe they are “smarter”. They are great for camping.
A good way to muffle generator exhaust is to vent it into a 55 gallon plastic barrel full of washed 6A stone. Condensate from engine combustion produces sulfuric acid, so it have to be stone, not limestone or cement. The barrel needs drain holes in the bottom and and a rain cover over the top. Use stainless pipe with a downward slope from the engine to barrel.
If you have a basement. So we have to find space in a house already short on storage space for any prep goods. Generators need fuel. Depending on size of your generator and the amount of load, even a huge propane tank will only last a few weeks or months, but nice to have for a routine emergency – just make sure the tank is already full before the weather service says Ida’s coming to town. But we can garden. We’ve always grown a few herbs and had fruit trees; grew tomatoes this year – excellent. And have a huge crop of bananas coming in – anyone want some bananas?
A tip I read someplace else: when you garden, don’t buy hybrid seeds unless you need to. Then just save your seeds from your produce and you’re good to go.
My wife’s garden has actually been self-seeding lately when she hasn’t been able to tend it as she’d like. It’s not perfect — it means that some crops die out and others (like carrots) proliferate way past our ability to use them, but our horses don’t complain.
Don’t forget communications – amateur radio, GMRS – go to http://arrl.org to find out how to do it.
I don’t understand Chinese.
I’m available for translation support–spoken and written.
I don’t consider myself a prepper but I did buy 60 acres ( I just added 10 acres) with a house in a remote part of my county. House, steel garage, well, septic… and solar. A propane generator for the few times a year the weather turns to crap. Wood stove heating. Even if things don’t go pear shaped, I’m pretty much done with everything.
lol…wanna be friends??
He’s gonna need help running that campground.
If I had the stamina and knowledge…
Before bears started becoming dependent on picnic baskets they used know how to forage in the forest for food. (ducking from rotten tomatoes)
The human parallel is when folks stopped growing food in little home gardens, or allotments.
I thought the human parallel was government handouts.
I have a garden. Between my labor and the trips to the store for various chemicals, seeds, fencing, posts, etc… I figure our tomatoes are worth ten bucks a piece. The okra is worth it, though. Nobody sells raw okra around here for frying purposes. (yuch to the frozen stuff)
To UserP: it is for those who never learned either to garden, or how to do a day’s work. (Not counting the crippled or otherwise legitimately disabled.)
As for picnic baskets: It breaks my heart to see bears (and others) scavenging the landfills at national parks because they acquired a taste for “people-food”, and really can’t fend for themselves.
Luckily, Anericans have gotten so stupid that bears can make up the slack in their diets with long pork.
Us too, and paid for! Until the dems enact/enforce eminent domain and confiscate everything
If enough people make use of the 2nd Amendment, that will stop in short order.
Cloward and Piven…. or as the Massachusetts AG said… to start a new forest you have to burn down the old one. Gee, I wonder what he meant?
Survival Blog is a good site over the years. Being prepared for any natural disaster is a good move. The Mormons have taken that to heart. Going off grid takes far more resources than most realize…. just outlasting any disaster is a good start.
Outlasting the typical disasters = prepper lite. There’s nothing wrong with that. I just moved to the country (13 acres, wooded, pond, some open space, pole barn) and am paying attention to what I need to do to handle the disasters that the midwest would suffer. I’m not going to have five years of dehydrated food, nor am I going to take up farming. But being prepared to manage a couple weeks without power and water is a good start.
About a year after moving out here, a microburst took out 16 utility poles on the main drag. We were forced to spend two weeks with no power, water (because no power to run the well), or phone (no power for the cell tower). We learned many lessons (including the unexpected value of a swimming pool to rinse off daily work sweat and flush our toilets). I would recommend that anyone who is serious about prepping would do well to schedule themselves a trial run of a week with all their main breakers off.
There is prepping and there is prepping. I have no plans on living off the land, eating tree bark and trapping bunnies. But I have also been buying some food that has a long shelf life. Come to think of it,, bunnies can be darn tasty, squirrels too.
No one does, until they get really hungry:)
Move as far away from big cities as you can. Especially from Dem controlled big cities.
Thus my choice to live in conservative country that has wonderful people, and a very low “vibrancy” index.
Sir, a minority of Americans have always been the ones to embrace liberty over safety or security. I hope these next few years teach those Americans to be strong, as what happened after the Nixon, Ford, and Carter years. Prepping for a year is good (we built our current house with prepping in mind), but I have faith in those 30% of freedom loving Americans that we shall pull through these times.
We seem to have returned to 1999 when everyone was talking about where they would go were everything to shut down due to Y2K. Playing musical chairs because wherever your were, it was the wrong place and you needed to go somewhere else. We were headed for a massive traffic jam on 1/1/2000. My main plan is the same as it would be for “The Big One”, bug in and wait it out.
I have enough supplies to last me a year, even water, but any emergency that lasted that long would indicate a major catastrophe where all semblance of law and order had disintegrated. Realistically, 3 months would be about the time it would take to assess the situation and make a decision. That means I have plenty of supplies to help a few friends (rather than shoot them as zombies) and/or barter (the main value of stockpiling ammo).
About ten years ago, a few friends and I mapped out a backup plan on what to do if we had to evacuate (armed caravan) and where to go (known destination in flyover country). I am sure we will soon have that conversation again soon. It’s all about getting organized, stocked, armed and being able to communicate (ham radio) during and after the catastrophic. Have a plan with people you can trust (the hardest part… people who talk prepping are mostly full of crap. It’s about strength in numbers, being organized and having a workable plan. If we can’t find a way to form workable communities within 6-9 months, we head for the caves and hide like Taliban.
THat sounds well thought out. If there is a permanent breakdown, the people with the most ammo will survive until the next season of crops come in.
As I recall, in any number of dystopian novels (zombies, pandemic, etc) the basic unit of currency becomes the .22LR cartridge and bullet. One adds/multiplies from there.
Dang. Here I am storing up bottlecaps.
Keep in mind that once the grid fails, your bitcoins turn into St. Elmo’s Fire.
In the event that our key systems — the electric grid, natural gas supply, gasoline, etc. should fail or be taken down by hacking — how long shoud be plan to prep for?
That’s a good question, though I don’t think there is one objectively correct answer.
I’d change it a bit and ask: What are the most likely problems in my area, what are less likely but so serious that I want to prepare for them as well, and what do I need to do to be prepared?
The most likely in our area -Hawaii- are very short term power outages, hurricanes and earthquakes and the longer term power outages, food/water shortages, and injuries they would create. Also possible looting post earthquake/hurricane.
In our situation, we expect that things will either be more or less under control -not necessarily back to normal- or we will be able to evacuate within a month. A month is a long time without being able to escape to some place unaffected, and we can get by a good deal longer than that.
In a major attack on the power grid, especially one which actually damages the generators and/or transformers and power lines, all bets on the time line are off.
However, I do have some small experience with a near total social breakdown: Lebanon in the mid-1970s as their civil war started. In that particular case the food and fuel supplies did not get shut down permanently. We did have intermittent cut offs which could be muddled through with supplies on hand and some improvisation. (Think: cooking apples and Spam on the kerosene space heater, by candlelight. It worked.) Then supplies would be available and we could top off. More intermittent shut downs, followed by more topping off.
So in that case a month worth of supplies could actually last a great deal longer because food etc was available intermittently, even more often than it wasn’t. So ‘Stock up, draw down, top off, repeat’ would work under that particular scenario.
More than a month’s worth would certainly be comforting though, because it might be needed. However, the longer one needs to be totally self sufficient, the further out on the Bell Curve of probability, so everyone needs to decide for themselves what is worth prepping for and what isn’t.
For nearly any scenario up to a year, one’s normal canned goods, rice, and pasta would be nearly ideal (assuming you had a first in, first out program so nothing would ever expire) because canned goods are good for well over a year, as are rice and pasta.
I’ve found that making a bit of a hobby of preparing works well for us, better than the grim, jaw clenching determination some prefer. If you look at learning skills and improving preps as fun you’ll be more likely to stick with it.
It’s not unthinkable that our key systems — the electric grid, natural gas supply, gasoline — could fail or be taken down by hacking.
I would not rule out collapse due to total incompetence, either. Forget energy and technology: a distinguishing feature of Communism is its near absolute failure to produce enough food to feed its slaves.
Instead of planning to run, better to plan on a new nation, a separate America, smaller and much more free, and much more wealthy (if we leave the trash behind).
We shouldn’t be running anywhere: the majority of US soldiers won’t obey commands to fire on US citizens and will wind up turning their guns on their swamp commanders.
It’s not so much as running away but finding someplace to congregate and get a community established. If you don’t have that now, you won’t find that after SHTF. It will be those who prepared vs the zombies who mocked us and failed to prepare even for an earthquake (that’s most people). You need a plan way ahead of time with reliable people and few of us have enough true friends to make it work.
Save yourself time establishing a community by finding an established community. Not just preppers, but heavily red/rural/blue-collar/Fundamentalist/Mormon/Adventist/Amish, whatever. Find the biggest genuine “right-wing wackos” in Congress and see what districts they come from. Why take on more of a load than you have to.
one element we’ve been focusing on (and is important, regardless of your location) is transport
we’ve got a serious all-terrain 4X4 and are looking at acquiring a couple of mid-range scooters if required for the particular locale where we end up–one thing to consider about scooters is the noise–they can be modified so as to be nearly silent when in operation, if stealth is required for travel
the other requisite for us (and we are actively looking) is a flying machine–fixed wing, while having advantages, requires the space to take off and return to earth which may not be available/accessibile at any given time so we’ve been looking into small helos–specifically gyros–though not heavy lifters or designed for great range they are very versatile and relatively easy to fly
regards weapons, the most important things about them are familiarity and proficiency which requires regular practice
My family grew up in the Soviet Union and we always dreamed of living here. And for a while it was everything we had wanted.
But this is no longer the same country.
Sorry for the negative….mistake, should have been positive.
This is no longer the same country. Neither is the Soviet Union.
If you had told me, as a kid, that I would someday be relying on media outlets with names like Sputnik News and Russia Today in order to read the truth, I would have kicked you in the shin.
My wife and many friends grew up in the USSR. They are horrified at what the USA is becoming. I don’t tell them that we are becoming a prototypical fascist state that Mussolini would love.
You’re not alone in this awakening. I’ve trying to buy powdered eggs at Walmart for a couple of weeks- they are sold out w/in a day of each new shipment. I may have to order online. Your 2A friends will give you a long talk about the impacts of the Russian ammo ban.
It’s not crazy to have a good buffer between yourself and supply chain that is far more fragile than you think.
Some of my happier moments in recent months have been watching videos of mormon pantries on youtube.
Aside from that- I defy you to find a picture of an unhappy adult in a vegetable garden.
I wonder where I can pick up a year’s supply of powdered Novolog?
Make your own powdered eggs, it is not hard. A good source of larger quantity foods and spices is:
WebstaurantStore: Restaurant Supplies & Foodservice https://www.webstaurantstore.com
….and so now we all know what it means to be a character in an Ayn Rand novel.
One of the down sides of having a degree in Classical studies is looking around and thinking, “yup, it’s 376AD”.
The Goth’s are coming! The Goth’s are coming!
Coming, or here?
Look out our window.
in a way it is gratifying to see the shift away from the complacent ” it can never happen here ” to the more realistic ” if/when it happens here ”
we are so fortunate to live under the lone star–so many of our countrymen are trapped in places that are no longer free in the truest sense–even here, over the last 3 or 4 years in particular, we have begun to sense the oncoming tsunami of progressives–they seem intent on transformation, on the destruction of a way of life so sacred and precious to our ancestors and the establishment of some kind of alternate reality that, in some respects, denies the fundamental facts of our species, the very real parameters of our life here on earth
and it will be our task to stop them–believe we will see a coming together of our countrymen from all walks of life, from all colors/groups/tribes that want only to be left alone to live this life in peace–where the progressives offer control/mandates/limits/edicts in their quest for power, the rest of us (and there are a great many of us) seek to reestablish personal freedom and individual liberty as the law of the land
believe the love of freedom will once more unify and sustain us in the years ahead
All that, and to utilize the 2A for it’s intended purpose.
The possibility of being shot and killed over your actions is still a good deterrant against abberant behavior.
A question everyone needs to ask themselves, especially conservatives.
Are you willing to take out cops?
THEY were the ones confiscating firearms during Katrina.
THEY were the ones standing down during the Antifa riots.
THEY get a free pass, or a very chap one, if they gun down whites.
THEY, according to the Supreme Court, have no duty to protect anyone but themselves.
THEY, again according to the Supreme Court, can lie to you without penalty.
Reel it back in, Bear, the Professor’s blog is not the place for that.
Why not?
A cop’s uniform is no more a guarantee of respectability than a clergyman’s collar.
An honorable person does the right thing regardless of what his boss orders him.
Although I believe that the vast majority of people are honorable in the vast majority of (unconstrained) circumstances, I believe this is one circumstance where they are not. They will follow bad orders rather than risk their employment. Not just cops, but salesmen, clerks, telephone support staff, bureaucrats, even doctors.
Whether someone is acting “to secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity” depends on what they are doing, not what they are wearing or whose ID they are carrying.
If cops array themselves against constitutional rights and liberties, it’s not rocket surgery to recognize that. We saw that in Charlottesville, we saw it in Portland, we saw it in Minneapolis.
We often say here that one of the things wrong with America today is that government employees who do bad things never receive punishment.
Well, in certain circumstances, we ourselves may be the only possible engine of that punishment, and we may need to reconcile ourselves to owning that.
Those of us who have cops as friends, it’s time to talk to them now. You’ll be surprised how many of them are preppers. The question is… are YOU as asset or a liability? You need to become an asset.
That is the point … Most will first and foremost (and rightfully) so think of their own. Some will abuse their authority to get what they perceive they need. And, “We / them” will become exaggerated. Cops are just people.
I think the 2A is possibly the only solution. They can have a gun, but they will never find them all.
As for taking out an LEO….let’s wait to see what happens and weigh the variables of the situation before commitment.
“we have begun to sense the oncoming tsunami of progressives–they seem intent on transformation, on the destruction of a way of life”
The operable metaphor is locusts.
When they have denuded one area, they move on to another.
All you can do is make the new area unattractive to free-feeders… and that’s hard.
A couple of years ago I would have considered that crazy talk. Now I don’t. History shows that when the stuff hits the fan, it usually happens sooner and faster than people expect.
Collapse happens very slowly, then very quickly.
If there were a collapse of the magnitude we are talking about here it would no doubt be a world-wide even because everything is connected to everything. It would take awhile for us to get up and running if our supplies were cut off from China but in the long run that would be a good thing.
If the US collapsed, the western world would feel pain the worst, because they’re not used to chaos. The third world would see starvation, but they’red used to chaos. Canada would fare the best, because it is so isolated geographically – assuming they’d lynch Trudeau as a housekeeping measure.
China, Russia, Iran, North Korea: they’d fare the best. Just want Obama/Biden/Harris dream about.
Agree with this wholeheartedly. Negative trends develop and converge. Then, at some point, the underlying system can no longer take the stress and simply snaps. The catastrophic finale catches most people by utter surprise.
On the upside, people tend to be quite resilient, and surprisingly hard to kill. Not quite cockroach hard, but hard nonetheless.
I have lived through both the Great Depression and WWII. Most of you and your children will survive the next 10 years…. most. Very unlikely I will, but that has nothing to do with the future course of global or national events.
As I have said here before, I have been around for a very long time. But I have never before had such a sense of foreboding. Perhaps it is my age and the my quite limited future prospects. But I do not think so. I try and be objective, and this time just feels different.
” But I have never before had such a sense of foreboding….”
Read books by people who lived in Austria, Poland, etc during the rise of Hitler. If you were there, you’d know exactly what they felt.
I miss Rush Limbaught terribly, but I’m also glad he’s not here to see the coming disintegration.
Well said. Not quite as old as you with, statistically, a chance of living slightly longer than ten more years, the sense of foreboding becomes more fixed each day, a bit of a nagging constant rather than the occasional interesting musing of others.
Indeed. We’re all old enough to remember the collapse of the USSR. It took everybody by surprise, including all the free-world intelligence services.
As we have seen adnauseum, the free-world intelligence services are not worth a crap – or are horribly corrupted.
I’ve been prepared for a major emergency for years, beyond The Big One. The evidence has been in our faces for many years but so few were willing to have that conversation. All is not lost if we could once again be able to have those frank discussions with family and friends about core values. We’ve allowed our lives to be shattered by politics at every single level. It used to be about God, family and country for eons.
Today, we are just amoeba being returned to the primordial soup we originated from billions of years ago. Life has no value and thus, no meaning. We have surrendered to the all-encompassing fear of not being “cool” and left behind our core values that made us strong in the face of so many perils. THAT is our problem. If there is nothing that we are willing to die for, maybe we have nothing to live for.
It would also help a lot if we could re-introduce Trump into our discussions. Why is that such a bad thing????? Stop taking baby steps. We are running out of time and need to focus on helping those who are risking everything trying to lead us out of this. Instead, we cower to our fear of not being “cool” and abandon those who are actually fighting (Proud Boys, e.g.? Did I just lose everyone again?).
Think it, believe it, say it, do it. Let’s get out of this incessant back-pedaling and surrendering. Time to stand our ground. It is happening. We just need to wake up and get involved.
It would also help a lot if we could re-introduce Trump into our discussions.
While I am not averse to that, we really need to understand that no single man will be our savior. If we do not evangelize enough of the electorate to take our inherent power back to us, no single man can be anything more than a tyrant well-disposed to us. We can vote in people who will aid our process, but we must get enough of the electorate thinking and believing properly again to preserve the republic.
I was thinking yesterday that this seems similar to 1935 Europe, when everyone thought “something like that” couldn’t happen, and it certainly wouldn’t happen to them. But the ones who saw it coming could go the US for safety back then. We don’t have an option like that today.
In that context, read this:
https://oilprice.com/Energy/Energy-General/9-Major-Consequences-Of-The-US-Failure-In-Afghanistan.html
We are in for a long dark age if we don’t start decapitating our institutions starting with the immediate removal of Biden. This year has been a all-encompassing disaster. Our government across the board is NOT prepared for this or anything else other than lining their own pockets.
Ask your Republican “representatives” why they’re still doing f**-all about this.
They’re the only ones who can.
Biden’s ‘election’ was a disaster. That said, I believe “removing” him would be a bigger disaster…..hold on, hear me out. I believe the best chance for the survival of the country’s republican system of government to continue on, in the sense that it can be honestly elected, responsive, and limited as designed is to see a strong, overwhelming, electoral win for conservatism – not Republican, conservatism – in 2020 in the House, the Senate, state legislatures, and in local contests.
“Removing” Biden gets us what, Kamala Harris? Nancy Pelosi? Susan Rice? Good Lord! Any other outcome is nothing short of civil war and we don’t want that. I’m so concerned that I believe his handlers could talk him into resigning at an opportune time effectively permitting a reenergizing of their disastrous programs by installing a younger, more dynamic and attractive figurehead. Democrats and Progressives won’t make the Ruth Bader Ginsburg mistake again, Biden must be only be replaced by an (honest) election, he and “his” administration must be crippled until then.
Hound Biden, call out Democrats; expose their corruption, self- and double-dealing constantly, relentlessly, 24/7. Do the same with the media and other institutions. There are thousands of administrative actions to be taken along the way; kill the bureaucracy, make elections honest, cut/eliminate pensions, benefits and pay, eliminate the “executive order” as a substitute for laws, clean up our ‘laws,’ reduce regulations, term limits perhaps, close borders..…all the things Trump wanted to do/was doing. Grind them down, haunt them, stop them, then replace them at the first opportunity. It’s the only way the Republic can survive. The first step is to WIN EVERYTHING in 2022.
Costa Rica, maybe, or Belize. (How’s your Spanish?)
Some warrior leaders would put their soliders in positions to either win the battle or die trying. We’re in that position today.
Door-to-door executions are already happening in Kabul
https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2021/08/30/afghanistan-post-withdrawal-executions-taliban-american-gear/
How long before those police and military helicopters in Australia/New Zealand “policing” their latest lock down escalate the violence? They are already beating up peaceful protestors in the streets. Men, women and children. How long before that happens here? What are we going to do? Sue them?
Right now, citizens in general (not Republicans or Democrats or other) are rising up to confront the front lines of the tyranny. Mainly over the WuFlu restrictions in schools and CRT. So far we are winning in court against the puppets and mask-wearers, the useful fools. We need to win these battles quickly and force the true enemies to show their faces. Can we count on our police and military to hold the line for us? For most of them, their career dreams are probably already over. It’s time to step up and do the right thing. And we have be ready to support them when they risk it all. No one is safe anymore.
When are they getting to Biden’s house?
We started our Prepping journey before Y2K. One of the places we discovered early on was Lehman’s Hardware store which served the Amish as well as us English.
Check them out : https://www.lehmans.com/kidron_store
Thanks!
Finally, someone who’s not pimping for LDS/Mormons, sorry, they’re a group to stay well away from … whether it’s genealogy research or prepping. JMHO.
While I wouldn’t take lessons from Taliban on trigger control or how to raise my daughter, they are 2 and 0 on winning wars on their own soil against richer foes. Just saying, you don’t have to like them or agree with them, but the Mormons know how to prep.
More than 2 and 0. Let’s not forget England.
If such a disaster comes people won’t be making Amish jokes anymore.
Indeed. What it means is that a great many loyal American soldiers, etc., will not be staying in the uniform, and a great many loyal American young people won’t be putting it on for the foreseeable future.
What it does not mean is that all those loyal Americans no longer exist, or won’t. They just won’t be in the squads those woke “leaders” send after us. Many will be standing beside us instead.
Welcome to the club. Everybody thinks you’re nuts until you’re right.
It doesn’t take up too much room to have 3 months or so of food stocked up. Hell, a lot of us have a big chunk of that on our waistline.
This was “crazy talk” mere months ago.
Kinda telling fir the Biden admin, huh?
More than ever before, today’s millinery stores are overflowing with last year’s tinfoil hats.
Skepticism pays life dividends. Those of us old enough to have been taught “how to think” instead of “what to think” do a lot of that thinking on a subconscious level. I guess that’s what human societies have always celebrated as “elder wisdom.” It’s not about what we have taught, it’s about how many times we have seen the same pattern and can quickly recognize it.
Skepticism pays life dividends.
QFT
If you really think we’re headed back to a pre-industrial society, packing away a few supplies won’t do it. It takes agriculture-based communities independent of the power grid and fuel supply grid, who also have access to the needed merchants, doctors, etc. Not so simple!
More aptly we are headed to a third world supply chain.
That’s why you need a plan. “From my cold dead hands!” and “Buy more ammo!” is not a plan. Get enough people involved and you will be surprised how resourceful people can be.
Yes, and you need to stockpile “heirloom” seeds for your food. That is, not hybridized so they can’t produce viable seeded fruit of their own.
Good post and observations, Professor J. If I didn’t live in a Dhimmi-crat-run city that makes firearms ownership applications as expensive and onerous as possible, I’d own some rifles and revolvers. As it is, I do what I can, with canned food stores, dry goods, a nice collection of knives from Ka-Bar, Esee and others, Fiskar axes and saws, basic medical gear, firestarting, water purification, etc.
With the vile, narcissistic and utterly incompetent Dhimmi-crats running things, more civil unrest and Dhimmi-crat-sanctioned/encouraged/enabled domestic bloodshed is a certainty.
You might want to see about establishing a second legal residence elsewhere and stockpile some weaponry there.
Not a useful loophole. Legitimate gun dealers all have Federal Firearms Licenses, and are required to sell you only firearms that are legal for you to own in your state of residence. You can’t have two states of residence, or two driver’s licenses, so you end up having to formally move your domain after all.
Welcome, William, to the awakening. We live a preparedness lifestyle not just in response to a faltering current Administration but just in case any of a number of events befall us. Personal disasters of job loss or illness; storms, forest fires, and other “natural” events; space weather; bad acts from our adversaries; you get the picture. There are a number of on-line sites that can get one started with helpful information; I participate over at Modern Survival Blog, though I read in regularly at a number of them. A recent article of mine discussed how to calculate food storage needs: https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2021/06/preparing_for_the_coming_food_shortages_associated_with_the_dark_cold_years.html
I’m all in, too, finally, and thus game for what could be — but, I hope, doesn’t have to be — the final chapter in the long slog called “humanity”.
It’s all gonna get most interesting, I suspect, before the destructive, depopulating effects of the so-called “vaccine” become undeniable and established.
What a rip-off we civil survivalists will likely face and need to overcome, brought about by our human racial “betters” and “superiors,” Satanistic pedophiles and death-worshippers all, it seems.
How did that female Army staff sergeant’s dystopian point of view on martial law, moving around the Web these days –https://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=army+staff+sergeant+bronson+video&docid=13906750701416&mid=2B64D1414562830A2FF12B64D1414562830A2FF1&view=detail&FORM=VIRE — make you feel?
It made me feel pretty good, once I was able to view the entire speech in context, and not the trimmed version that went around at first. She started off her spiel by saying, “Those of you [leftist] idiots out there who are screaming for martial law have no idea what you’re asking for. Here’s what happens under martial law:” She wasn’t advocating it, she was warning against it. I have to seriously wonder about the motives of whoever trimmed that advisory off the video. I’d guess it was dislike of lesbians. I don’t care how that soldier wears her hair or who she screws as long as her head is on right, and I would offer that particular lady a nice lunch on me.
It made me feel vindicated.
All comments are appropriate, but make me smile. I suggest:
i) watch videos of “peaceful protests” by Antifa and BLM (even Washington DC “women’s march” (?)) and realize they are neither hungry / thristy nor unleashed;
ii) pick up a few of your kitchen knives (one at a time) – How would you defend yourself with it ? How would you retain control of it ? Would you use stabbing tactics or do you know where to slash ?
iii) how long would it take you (be honest) to decide to use lethal violence to stop an attack on your person, a member of your family, a neighbor, your friend, an acquaintance ?
iv) you’re in your vehicle (by yourself or with others) your refuge is your destination, you get stuck in grid lock and / or a mob of two or 20 start threatening you – they want your stuff / your vehicle – What are you going to do, once you decide to act (after calling 911, assume you get through) ?
v) are you familiar with the principle “that the one who has more to lose, is always on defense” ?
vi) do you know how loud your firearm will sound / how bright the flash if you fire it in your house, car, at night ?
vii) if you make it to your refuge – what are you going to do about the urban exiles who come foraging and looking for safety ? And,
viii) you need to assess how big your tribe is and who are the chiefs.
Let’s watch how the people in New Orleans make out this time around, remember they’re getting outside help (and hopefully this time LEOs will not opportunistically murder survivors (Katrina)).
“All comments are appropriate, but make me smile. ”
****
In line with that thought, reading comments about “civil war”, civil unrest, etc., really underestimate how bad it would be. Perhaps the most current example of social breakdown/civil war are accounts of life during the siege of Sarajevo. One account kept referring to the pervasive “smell” of uncollected garbage, raw sewage and rotting bodies of animals and people in the streets. There was a constant need to acquire clean water and food but only at night, otherwise, during the day, you would be shot by snippers. Also there will likely be a group that is larger and more vicious that will take your groups supplies, etc., etc.
“One account kept referring to the pervasive “smell” of uncollected garbage, raw sewage and rotting bodies of animals and people in the streets.”
We are extremely solicitous of our local vulture population, because we understand their value to the ecosystem. We bribe them with rabbit offerings at every opportunity.
The people used to rioting (tougher types, who are physically more dangerous) will turn into rulers of no-go zones. The college educated white women who joined in on the 2020 rioting will be destroyed – or become slaves.
Anyone know of a group I can join in austin area for survival ?
Try the US Marine Corps. They have a good training program.
To survive, first thing you must do is to head out of Austin in almost any direction (compared to Austin, they’re all an improvement, but west would be optimal.) Find a town that has an extremely healthy gun club, and start your inquiries there. If the club has banned “scary guns” from their range, leave and look further. If you happen to come across one with a full-auto rangehead, there’s no point in looking further. Bring your earmuffs.
Obama’s dream are coming true. Kudos to the GOPe – he couldn’t have done it without them.
It’s better we start these discussions, but not about running like rabbits. The time to get militant is now – zero tolerance for any rino, GOP rat or milquetoast. MTG is the standard. McConnell and Graham are the the posterboys for all that is wrong, as is MCain’s gravestone.
Start fighting back now in ways you were too ‘gentlemenly’ to do before. Get in their faces. Use your economic power ruthlessly. Don’t gift your children your estate if they are progs. Don’t pay for prog education. Boycott the hell out of woke institutions (change banks, etc). Bomb the GOP with phone calls. Donate to Trump and MTG and the like. Make progs who rely on you for income find another payer.
Don’r cede control yet. Fight like hell first
And get Kevin McCarthy to the back of the line for Speaker, if we take the House next year.
In the face of Pelosi’s monsterous tyranny, think: Marjorie Taylor Greene.
Well the LI folks are generally good with their history. Does anyone recall what happened after the last country left Afghanistan after war?… They collapsed a year later (Soviet Union) and their leader was not demented. So preparations seem most appropriate
The election of Biden/Harris as a harbinger of horrible things to come is on an obamian scale of terrible.
Dont’ delude yourselves thinking we’ll survive another three and a half years of this horror, unless we take the House in 2020 – and IF we put a warrior in as Speaker, versus the Kevin McCarthy all-talk-do-nothings.
“So all in all, I no longer view “preppers” as crazy. Maybe they were right, just early. Better early than late.”
Most preppers prepped for nonspecific scenarios. The bulk of them didn’t pretend to be able to predict whose S was going to hit which F.
Our own family didn’t hardcore prep, we just sort of went semi-Galt “gray man.” Bought high-ground rural property in the middle of Nobody Cares About There (a very red region), not just as a bugout destination, but as a full-time residence. Well clear of not just strategic targets but the continental fallout drift map. Went totally self-employed (skilled personal services). Kept a steel-shelved “Mormon Pantry.” Added livestock, a modest garden, and a healthy gun safe and ammo cabinet. We keep on great terms with like-minded neighbors in a five-mile radius. The claymore rumors we will neither confirm nor deny.
And, unlike a healthy free economy, prepping is indeed a zero-sum game, so early counts for big. It took five years, literal tons of horse and chicken manure, and thousands of earthworms you won’t find anywhere else in the Sonoran Desert to make that little garden patch viable, never mind productive.
Good terms with like minded neighbors.
This is just as important as a stocked pantry!
First, the felt lack of need to prepare for societal disaster is a result of the progressive mindset that all of us, to some extent, have been marinated in for decades. “It can’t happen here” because we’re better, smarter, more advanced…. All those are progressive mindsets, that we will just keep getting better over time, and ignore actual human nature.
Second, if you’re not buying ammo, you’re not serious.
Remember the parable of the Ten Virgins. Get your oil now, and prepare.
“Remember the parable of the Ten Virgins”
All ten went to sleep. When they woke up it was too late to do anything. Five were prepared. Five were not. The teaching is some things should not be put off till the last minute. And also there are some things that cannot be borrowed.
The five who could not get laid enrolled in Oberlin.
They still have not gotten laid.
In addition to ammo, buy magazines. Without them, even the finest semi-auto pistol or rifle is nothing more than an expensive single shot.
Buy enough magazines to get you through any particular need for rapid reloading. Hopefully you don’t need all 2,000 rounds already in magazines.
And, if you do, hopefully you have a hottie to hand you fresh weapons and reload the used ones.
(Firefly, “Heart of Gold”, Jayne)
Jayne!
I loved that series. Adam Baldwin, and the entire cast were great. They put a new twist into the whole Space Western concept.
To see what will happen in an economic and governmental collapse, you must look at real-life examples, not what you imagine. In the Soviet Union’s collapse, those who did well had some desired product (like Vodka), or foreign currency (Dollars), or skill to trade for the free market that gradually popped up afterwards. The trains continued running, but not automobiles, because gasoline was hard to get. So, travel and food availability was better in the cities than the country. The free market that arose took over three years, before the scarcities started to end.
South Africa????? Venezuela???? Puerto Rico???
Two things I usually think about when this topic comes up:
-Exactly how long after a collapse until somebody (China, Russia, Canada) decides to come in to “help” the suffering Americans and engage in some nation-building activity?
-Given the state of modern education, how many young people are capable of critically evaluating their situation and developing plans to survive, thrive, and rebuild a free society? How many parents are prepared to take over the education of their children in the event the government stops running schools (as is still happening in many places)?
For the most part: none.
Better to say “not enough, yet.”
Reading articles like this makes me glad I no longer live in a blue state.
Circa 2010, I began getting a feeling in my gut that felt crazy, but at the same time I knew it to be true to the very core of my being. I felt as if we were at the dawn of an unraveling of American Society. I felt as if we were spiraling in an increasingly rapid manner towards Civil War 2.0, economic collapse, I didn’t know, but sensed something very dark on the horizon. No, I don’t have a 6th sense, but believe my subconscious had picked up on something K had learned in school, but never connected the dots. 2 years ago I all but confirmed this when I read “The Fourth Turning”. In short, we are now in one and it won’t end until 2030 when the world as we know it will be completely different.
80yrs ago was Great Depression and WWII, 80 yrs prior to that was the Civil War. 80 yrs prior to that, the Revolution. You get the picture. I was certain it would be civil war 2.0 and that may be, but I’m beginning to lean more and more towards a global war against China. For my children’s sake, I pray I’m wrong, We may not know what the future might hold, but If we allow the light of history to guide us, we’ll be ready when we are confronted by the greatest challenge of our time (whatever that may be.)
15 years ago I realized my dream of buying a multi-acre plot of land with my idea of a practical and comfortable home away from anything resembling a town, or even a wide spot in the road.
I enjoy the solitude and the self sufficient nature of living where I do. Out here, being prepared isn’t a passing fad, it’s an absolute necessity.
Been cut off from everything for extended periods many times over the years due to the harsh weather here, and did just fine. I always kind of laughed about the potential benefits of this level of preparedness should the status of our country and society take a sudden downturn.
I’m no longer laughing, just thankful to be where I am.
“One can only have as much preparation as one has foresight.”
Welcome to the party