And another day of mixed sun and rain, while being a bit cooler if the rain actually happens. It did get hotter throughout the day, but after the rain it was cooler, and only 78F when I went to bed. I see more of that coming for today.
I spent most of the day in my office at my computer, doing auction stuff. I did some other office things too, but mostly the day was spent on my @ss. Not the productive day I was shooting for. I did learn a lot about WWII rationing and a couple of ersatz recipes. And although the channel creator didn’t emphasize it, it was clear that people knew that both war and rationing were coming. The rationing board in the US was set up some time before the Japanese attack, and promptly sprang into action. Which consisted of mostly following the British model.
Some other things are clear too. Once rationing starts, it gets worse. As time goes by, more items are added to the restricted list. It also won’t work without price controls, and a black market WILL arise to fulfill peoples’ wants and needs. In Italy, the rulers didn’t even pretend to suffer under the same restrictions as the people, but in the US and Britain they did. The black markets in the US and Britain were subsequently smaller due to social pressure and a sense of shared suffering. There may be the Italians’ relationship to law and order at play there too.
Anything imported is easily controlled and will be in short supply if your supply lines or overseas sources are disrupted. For us that is pretty much all the technology we use, and a good deal of the food, especially the luxury food like fruit and veg out of season. And by technology I mean everything, as everything is now touched or incorporates stupid levels of technology, to where the toaster has sensors and a computer inside, and even our lighting is dependent on foreign chip and component makers. Switching power supplies are in everything, and lithium batteries are too.
In the same way I can now recognize that TPTB knew war was coming, I can see them taking steps now. Re-shoring of electronic manufacturing and reopening of mines are pretty big clues. They’ll be putting infrastructure in place too, to restrict access to information, to disseminate the official truths, to look for spies and foreign agents. They can ration power in most areas. They’ve already passed the laws they’ll use to restrict access to money, and to monitor its flow. Restriction of movement will happen too. Real ID was widely feared to be a national id program, which we are adamantly against mainly BECAUSE of WWII…
Nothing I see has changed my mind that war is coming, or that major changes in the way the world is organized will happen in our lifetime, probably sooner rather than later. Secret preps in addition to your public or known preps will be needed. Lots of people remembered how bad WWI got, but few of them took steps to make the inevitable WWII more tolerable.
What will you do? Stack, I hope.
nick