09:56 – I’m building and shipping science kits, which will be the story of my life for the next couple of months. We’re in pretty decent shape on kit inventory. As of this morning, we have 40 of the CK01A chemistry kits in stock, with subassemblies on hand to build another two or three dozen; about two dozen of the BK01 biology kits in stock, with subassemblies on hand to build another 30, and bunches of labeled bottles that need to be filled and made up into chemical bags for various kits. We’re running short of a few chemicals, but I just placed an order Friday with Fisher Scientific for those, as well as bulk amounts of some of the chemicals we’ll need for the AP Chemistry kit. By “bulk”, I mean items like 4 kilos each of anhydrous sodium carbonate and anhydrous calcium chloride and a kilo or two each of several other chemicals.
Watching the developing Ukraine situation is like watching the proverbial slow-motion train wreck. Economically, the EU in general and the eurozone in particular are weaker now than they have ever been, even at the height of the crisis. One major shock is all it will take to collapse everything like the house of cards that it is. Tier III economic sanctions against Russia should be more than enough to get the ball rolling, and unless Putin backs off big-time it appears that those sanctions are very likely to be implemented. I admit that I am amazed that the eurozone appears unanimously to be supporting strong sanctions against Russia. I never expected Germany or France to support such sanctions, let alone the Eastern European EU members. I expected the US and the UK to go it alone in terms of implementing sanctions, with at best lip-service from the rest of the world. Just the US would have been sufficient, of course, because the US government has absolute control of the entire world’s banking system. Every foreign bank–including Russian banks–understands that it will be crushed like a bug if it tries to ignore orders from the US government. But with the UK and apparently also the EU on board, Russia doesn’t have a prayer.
12:47 – I was just unpacking and shelving some chemicals when I was struck by a Cunning Plan. I thought about those Stop Aging spams I sometimes see in my junk folder, and realized that I could start selling genuine Stop Aging pills that I could absolutely, positively guarantee to be 100% effective. They could probably be sold for a lot of money per pill, and they’d be very cheap to produce. The only active ingredient would be 1000 milligrams of potassium cyanide. In addition to being a big money-maker, it would also improve the gene pool. Not many products can say that.
I’m going to get busy today praying for peace. I see that once again the Pope is begging for peace, but to no avail as more wars break out. I surmise that he is getting behind and I feel obligated to help him in efforts to stop these wars.
“Every foreign bank–including Russian banks–understands that it will be crushed like a bug if it tries to ignore orders from the US “. The leverage – the only leverage – that the US has is the use of the dollar for international exchange. Any single bank is vulnerable – without foreign exchange, they can only do domestic business.
However, piss of the rest of the world sufficiently, and the US power will evaporate in an instant; banks could switch en masse to another currency. Be assured that such discussions have been ongoing since at least 2008; certainly there are plans already on hand. It’s really only a question of what the final trigger will be.
Since the end of the Cold War, Europe and Russia have built up a huge amount of trade. Russia can sell their natural resources anywhere – for example, to China – even if they have to take reduced prices. Europe doesn’t really have alternative markets for their finished goods. Hence, Europe threatening sanctions is rather like someone threatening “Stop, or I’ll hurt myself!”
That’s reality, which means that I don’t actually believe Europe will implement any hard sanctions unless Putin makes some really huge, spectacular blunder. I mean, if the separatists shooting down an airliner didn’t do it, you can imagine what it will take – maybe a picture of Putin himself pulling the trigger?
That’s like saying that the only leverage Augustus had was the weight of the Roman Empire behind him.
I keep hearing about how easy it would be for the rest of the world to adopt a different reserve currency, but it’s not going to happen in our lifetimes and probably not those of our great-grandchildren. There’s simply no possible alternative. The UK pound? Pardon me while I stop laughing. The euro? Pardon me until I can stop choking. Japan and China are both too small, and likely to get smaller. The BRICS? Geez. What you’re ignoring is that all of those countries are in much, much worse shape than the US is.
Regarding reserve currencies, the US Dollar has already lost some of its dominance in a few insignificant areas. A bigger worry is a consortium of currencies, and this could have the combined power to reduce our dominance. If those countries could just get together, but they won’t for the foreseeable future. So, I agree with you, except…
There is already evidence that Asian oil traders have been seeking alternatives. If this were to happen, the tipping point could be near. Trading settlements require large amounts of some tradeable store of value to be held. Large traders will use whatever currency or commodity is fungible, and holds its value reasonably well. Lately, all currencies have been effectively locked together in a pact to devalue themselves. As long as this holds, we are OK. But if some country or small group of countries breaks away and stops inflating, they could take over dominance. If they were to do that, we could counter and reduce our currency inflation, but this would hurt our government’s ability to service our growing debt. The consequences would be higher US prices for the commodity that changes reserve currency.
I agree with Robert that we will probably hold on to our dominance for a while, but maybe not for generations. We are losing our power, and some nations are patiently gaining.
That doesn’t mean individuals can’t profit handsomely for the moment. Just be in whatever does well, and have an exit plan. This is one case where being early is a disadvantage. When the time comes, the next step will be clear, or so I think.
http://www.sovereignman.com/trends/obamas-dumbest-move-to-date-14735/
“US banks still form the nucleus of the global financial system, but this is quickly being replaced.”
“Just last week the BRICS nations met in Fortaleza, Brazil to launch the origins of a brand new, non-US financial system.”
“The US is still the largest economy in the world, but will likely lose this status to China by the end of the year.”
“The US dollar is still the most widely used currency in global trade, but even America’s closest allies (Canada, Western Europe) recognize that the time has come to move beyond the dollar.”
“Just be in whatever does well, and have an exit plan.”
That’s easy; lying, cheating, large-scale thievery, treason, etc., and multiple offshore bank accounts. If one has the money, it is recommended to move to some other country with a second and possibly third passport and also a good idea to have another identity, fully documented.
China’s real economy is nowhere near the size of the US economy. Maybe, at best, a third the size, but I’d be surprised if it was even a quarter. If you take GDP figures seriously, it’s easy to be deluded.
China has built and continues to build whole cities that remain empty, literally, not to mention rail lines that will never see a train and highways and bridges to nowhere. All of that is counted as a positive contribution to GDP when in fact it’s the exact opposite.
Just be in whatever does well, and have an exit plan.
I am reading a book right now about the USA government moving people into FEMA camps after a national emergency. This is the fourth book in a series about an EMP event in the USA destroying the infrastructure.
http://www.amazon.com/Forsaking-Home-The-Survivalist-Series/dp/0142181307/
They pull up in your neighborhood with trucks and turreted Humvees with SAWs and forcibly load everyone into the trucks. The camps are your worst nightmares with separation of families and “subversives” getting moved to the back of the camp with mass graves. Subversives are defined as members of the NRA, all gun owners, etc.
Haha, I’ll go out in a blaze of glory long before it ever gets to that point; you youngsters will just have to deal with it.
“That’s easy; lying, cheating, large-scale thievery, treason, etc., and multiple offshore bank accounts. If one has the money, it is recommended to move to some other country with a second and possibly third passport and also a good idea to have another identity, fully documented.”
Actually, my practices have been much more modest, but I admire your ambitious ideas. Perhaps you have been reading http://ballotpedia.org/Changes_in_Net_Worth_of_U.S._Senators_and_Representatives_%28Personal_Gain_Index%29#Top_100
By exit plan, I meant the ability to quickly liquidate holdings. I doubt things would ever get as apocalyptic as Lynn writes, and I could argue that spending too much time being “ready” for such is counterproductive. Back in the sixties, I believed the dollar could catastrophically inflate, and we would be in a world of hurt. Instead, it was inflated less rapidly, and those who didn’t see that are now in a world of hurt. Important difference. Boiling frogs comes to mind.
OTOH, being prepared for natural or man-caused disasters is prudent. Having sufficient food and fuel, and some other preparedness is wise, and most here would agree.
“Perhaps you have been reading…”
I have always found it mildly astonishing that most peeps don’t seem to recognize that their elected reps in gummint somehow acquire vastly more wealth while in office and leave that office many times richer, nor do those same peeps see the probable connection between that increased wealth and the ferocious striving candidates engage in to reach elective office in this country.
Yes, being prepped for just the ordinary run of emergencies is prudent; I would argue that we most likely face something more than the ordinary in the years and decades ahead, though. I think Dr. Bob’s preps are the minimum and well thought out, including the bit about hooking up with less prepped and less fortunate neighbors.
Steady drizzle here today, but the rain is welcome after a week of sun and temps in the 80s.
Our one car will have to be towed 60 miles and I have a job interview, natch, (perfect timing) on Wednesday afternoon. So will have to either rent a car for the day or get a loaner from the garage. Or failing either, re-schedule the interview, which would be just great in this job market. No interviews for months and then I get one this week with our vehicles kaput. Perfect.
As I remarked to the missus yesterday, I’ll feel better when we have two working, reliable vehicles again here, one of them a pickup truck.
I have to say that if this is you, you’re looking pretty good for your age…
http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http%3A%2F%2Flh6.ggpht.com%2FMKOT39V8NV6TjrXxy-ba27DLR2RcGijOjZF7AKz6AMVMN_vSkMyumDRGbXiIx8aceIKCyJrGQY0rLlDnBLduA08%253Ds285-c&imgrefurl=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.pixoto.com%2Fdavid.hardy.14811&h=285&w=285&tbnid=xaI-0jFOGVXSaM%3A&zoom=1&docid=lxxem1EjtgEvpM&hl=en&ei=yJ7WU-rGJIGMyASo1IGQAQ&tbm=isch&ved=0CEEQMygaMBo&iact=rc&uact=3&dur=1200&page=2&start=20&ndsp=26
I doubt things would ever get as apocalyptic as Lynn writes, and I could argue that spending too much time being “ready” for such is counterproductive.
I totally agree. That said, it makes for good reading. And, I can see this President doing something drastic to stay in power. He has dictator wannabee written all over him.
Back in the sixties, I believed the dollar could catastrophically inflate, and we would be in a world of hurt. Instead, it was inflated less rapidly, and those who didn’t see that are now in a world of hurt.
I just asked my banker brother about building a new home over the next twelve months on a two acre lot. He said it would take 18 months to build with the busyness of the subcontractors around here and be ready for a two percent increase in the interest rates before the house is completed. Slow boil indeed.
I remember the late 1970s and early 1980s well. I got a mortgage for 14.97% in 1982 on a two bedroom, one bath home in west Texas. That was crazy.
“…you’re looking pretty good for your age…”
I took Mr. Ray’s and Mr. Atoz’s advice and had the operation finally. I’m now a TGP or whatever the correct acronym is and am lined up for all kinds of preferential treatment and bennies forever. There aren’t many 6’5″ chicks like me around, hell, 6’9″ in heels, and I had to lose a bunch of weight and a lot of body hair real fast. Them Indonesian docs did a good job, didn’t they?
Not bad for 61!
(actually if you click on that pic, I look considerably more like the old geezers with the beards)
“… I can see this President doing something drastic to stay in power. He has dictator wannabee written all over him.”
No chit, homes. A “national emergency” in the next year or two, plus no really viable Dem party candidates on the horizon, least of all Field Marshal Rodham. While they prep La Mooch for the following two or three terms. Evidently the corporate fascists who run the show for the 1/10th of one-percent are good with Bolshevik figureheads.
RBT, I highly approve of your Stop Aging pills, particularly for the beneficial effect on the gene pool. Just be careful not to make any medical-related claims, because then the FDA will claim jurisdiction.
Your ad copy can be something like Take advantage of the secret doctors don’t want you to know! Never grow a day older! Act now and we’ll send a second dose for your spouse!
re replacement for the dollar, and especially the PRC’s GDP, I mostly agree with RBT. There is nothing currently existing that can replace the USD. It would be irrational for any government or corporation to push for another nation’s currency as the international reserve. It would be more irrational to go with a basket of currencies. That said, there’s an awful lot of suboptimal decision making out there, and it wouldn’t surprise me to see oil denominated in RMB or something, out of spite for the US. It seems a sharp operator ought to be able to figure out how to profit from the inevitable disaster, but that sharp operator would not be me.
As for the PRC’s GDP, it’s a lie. It’s been a lie for at least ten years. On the rare occasion that someone attempts to dig into any part of the published national or corporate numbers, they either have no basis in fact or they’re lies or at best exaggerations. I don’t know of any exceptions.
Even without knowledge of that, though, it should be obvious that the numbers are a lie: knowledge of human nature is all you need. Lies and theft flourish in secrecy, and the Chinese economy is nothing but secrecy.
Ha ha! Citizens in the Great State of Texas can suck it during the next natural disaster. Save the crimmigrants first! After all, Ochooma has given his promise to take care of them. lol
I can see this President doing something drastic to stay in power. He has dictator wannabee written all over him.
The left said the same thing about Bush.
The president can issue all the decrees that he wants, but he’s got to have someone to carry them out. Unlike Germany in the 1930s, our military takes an oath to support and defend the Constitution, not to obey the person of the President. I’ve worked with a number of retired military officers and reserve officers. There is no way they would obey orders to round up and detain large number of civilians in peacetime.
I’ve worked with a number of retired military officers and reserve officers. There is no way they would obey orders to round up and detain large number of civilians in peacetime.
Ah, but is that true of those who are on active duty now?
Well crap. My SSD boot drive crapped out. Got a message from Windows saying it detected a drive problem. System hung up. Tried to restart. No dice. So now I am rebuilding my system using a spinning platter. I have backups and my data files were on a spinning drive having just used the SSD for boot and program.
Drive is an Intel and is still under warranty. I will get Intel to hopefully replace the drive. When I get it back I don’t know that I want to install it again.
“Sinkhole of bureaucracy”
http://www.washingtonpost.com/sf/national/2014/03/22/sinkhole-of-bureaucracy/
“Deep underground, federal employees process paperwork by hand in a long-outdated, inefficient system”
Only in America.
I’ve worked with a number of retired military officers and reserve officers. There is no way they would obey orders to round up and detain large number of civilians in peacetime.
The prepper book has the bad deeds done by FEMA officers. They are not military, active duty or reservists or inactive duty. They are the rejects from the military and police forces. Wannabe peace officers, etc that cannot be certified military due to bad experiences in their records.
In the book, there in no internet, no tv, no newspapers. Nobody knows anything except these FEMA people who popped out of nowhere with heavy arms, lots of ammo, lots of MREs and lots of troops. There is communication via old shortwave radios but the FEMA units are tracking them down and destroying them using HARM missiles from helicopters. There is actually a confrontation between two guard A-10s and four FEMA apache helicopters. One A-10 down and four apaches down.
The military leadership appears to be sitting things out and are incommunicado. The bases and such do not have a clue what to do so they are hunkered up, waiting for orders while they run out of diesel and food.
The book actually has a national guard engineering small battalion attacking a FEMA camp and taking it over. Several other FEMA camps are simultaneously taken out by other military units operating in a loose coalition. I haven’t found out what happened to the FEMA guards yet, it look bad for them. The guardsmen / women are not happy with the mass graves and women claiming serial rapes in the camp.
The prepper book has the bad deeds done by FEMA officers. They are not military, active duty or reservists or inactive duty.
Isn’t this exactly what Ochooma is building with Fed SWAT teams in every fucking agency. Never know when the Dept of Education will come a knocking, I mean, battering your door down. Pay your debt or die.
“I’ve worked with a number of retired military officers and reserve officers. There is no way they would obey orders to round up and detain large number of civilians in peacetime.”
They are not in a position to obey or disobey, being retired and reserve.
“Ah, but is that true of those who are on active duty now?”
An excellent question, which I would answer in the negative. They’ll do what they’re told. So long as the pay holds out. Which is another possible issue eventually.
As for the dystopian fiction, my guess is that things will be quite different from it in real life events coming up.
The key to writing good dystopian speculative fiction is whenever you, the writer, come to a fork, take the bad road. In other words, what now can you do to these people to make their lives worse? The “going home” guy, Mr. Angery American, is quite good at this.
Real life is never that bad. Usually the good outweighs the bad. Unless they bring out the guillotines. Then life is really going to suck for quite a few people for a while. Then it will get better again.
Maybe.
So will have to either rent a car for the day or get a loaner from the garage.
In the spirit of the “Going Home” guy, I would walk to the interview if necessary. You will not get a postponement interview.
If I had to walk to the interview, I would have to start at 3:00 PM tomorrow afternoon and keep walking for 24 hours straight. I could do it as the crow flies, but it would take me over mountains, hills, dales, and vales, and at the end of that my tie would most likely be slightly askew and my dress shoes reduced to tatters. And I’d also probably be soaked from the various bogs and cricks. The interview is at a resort/lodge up on one of them mountains, and is run by a famous family, overlooking hills which are alive with the sound of music occasionally.
“In other words, what now can you do to these people to make their lives worse?”
In that case, President Obummer is one hell of a dystopian fiction writer in the making.
Ah, but is that true of those who are on active duty now?
Yes. Several of the officers were current reservists. It’s drummed into their heads that “just following orders” is no excuse for doing illegal acts. In fact, the military and a number of the federal police forces (including the FBI) send officers to the Holocaust museum in DC for training.
It would be irrational for any government or corporation to push for another nation’s currency as the international reserve.
Perhaps y’all can clue me in here: Why is it even important for there to be a single, standard reserve currency? National banks, and I assume any large bank, already have stocks of all sorts of different currencies. For example, the Swiss national bank owns some ridiculous amount of Euros, bought in order to inflate the Swiss Franc in pace with the Euro.
Seems to me that they could reckon in all sorts of different currencies, depending on what is mutually perceived as useful for any particular transaction. So why is it useful/normal/whatever to have all major transactions take place in a single, particular currency?
– – –
It’s drummed into their heads that “just following orders” is no excuse for doing illegal acts.
This was certainly true when I went through OCS and later schools. However, it always seemed to me that some sort of brain transplant occurs around the O6 level – by the time you have that first star, the process is complete. After that, they seem to be purely political animals. Otherwise, the JCS would have been obligated – how many times since WWII? – to tell the President to stuff his military ideas where the sun don’t shine.
Just to name one example: Guantanamo. Take a country that the US has embargoed since the 1960s, put a military prison there so that it is outside of any legal jurisdiction. Is anything shady going on? As it happens, Guantanamo is a pretty clear violation of the Geneva Conventions, to which the US is a signatory. Therefor running it is illegal, but the military happily does it anyway.
Brad, your comments are usually sensible but you fell off the edge with that last one. The Taliban, al Qaeda, and Hussein’s* Iraq were not signatories to the various Geneva and Hague and whatever conventions, therefore the US is not bound by them. No international agreement covers the treatment of captured Taliban and what-not. Moreover, even if those other groups had signed the accords, they all violated them badly (hint: beheading prisoners is a gross violation) and, again, that releases the US and other signatories. The US military could torture them to death on live TV without violating any of the so-precious accords.
* Saddam Hussein, that is, not Barack Hussein.
This does not get to the question of whether the jail at Guantanimo is a good idea. I’m inclined to say it isn’t, having been given no evidence that it is. Good idea or bad, though, it’s not illegal.
Steve, what bugs me most about Guantanamo is that the US ought to have taken the high ground. Instead, the government did the exact opposite.
Treating the prisoners neither as civilians (entitled to due process) nor as prisoners of war? Perhaps it really is possible to read a loophole into the Geneva conventions, because the other side isn’t an identifiable national entity, or because the enemy combatants don’t have a formal uniform, or because of whatever reason – perhaps possible, but not right.
Indefinite imprisonment and interrogation in a legal no-mans-land – and in order to avoid problems with domestic law, the prison is opened on the shores of Cuba, of all places.
If this isn’t illegal, it is surely evil.
Brad, by international law the US military could have shot those prisoners out of hand. They are outlaws in the original sense of that word.
Yes, that is a third category, used for spies, etc.. I have zero problem with that being used for terrorists – I’m not arguing on humanitarian grounds.
Indefinite detainment, torture, existence at the whim of your captors, all outside of any legal framework? This is morally and ethically corrosive, self-inflicted damage on the character of the nation.
I think the US government did it this way because they didn’t want to shoot the SOB’s out-of-hand and without trial. If it had been me, I’d have tortured leaders until I was convinced they had nothing more useful to tell me, and then shot them. The rest of them, I’d have just shot immediately.
The US could have given each of them a court martial and executed them. We did that in WWII for the German spies that were landed on the East coast.
The Taliban and others don’t follow the Geneva convention and most importantly, don’t have any kind of uniform or command structure. The uniform part, which can be as simple as an armband that can be seen at a distance, is critical because it protects non-combatants. It allows the military to shoot at the enemy and not at civilians, and is the foundation the rest of the convention is based on. Also, their indefinite detention is legal under the Geneva convention as the “war” is ongoing and you don’t repatriate enemy soldiers during a war.
This:
“This is morally and ethically corrosive, self-inflicted damage on the character of the nation.”
Agreed.
And this:
“If it had been me, I’d have tortured leaders until I was convinced they had nothing more useful to tell me, and then shot them. The rest of them, I’d have just shot immediately.”
I have zero mercy for hadji terrorists, or any terrorists who deliberately target defenseless civilians, but then we open another can of worms; the State also targets civilians around the world, including our own now. And once we give the State the unlimited power to kidnap, torture and kill “terrorists,” while keeping in mind that people like Menachem Begin, Golda Meir, Oliver Cromwell, George Washington, and Nathan Bedford Forrest were considered as such in their day, what is to prevent the State from expanding its powers, as ours has done since 9/11, and doing likewise to its own citizens, when it deems such action necessary?
Some bureaucrat or politician working for the State decides that we have to launch a Hellfire missile via drone at some hadji bastards assembling an IED in Iraq. Leaving aside for now why the hell we’re even concerned with crap over there, I’m down with that, as the kidz used to say. But now that faceless bureaucrat gets a call in her office down in Mordor; someone claims Dr. Bob has been assembling some kind of WMD in his house in North Carolina and he’s an experienced chemist, runs a home-schooling enterprise, and is a gun nut, to boot. Also an atheist, wow, we gotta do sumthin! OK, maybe she doesn’t order up a Hellfire. Yet. But she notifies the local Feebies and the police, and they just about have an orgasm on the spot; saddle up a SWAT and swing on out to Dr. Bob’s place. He answers the door before they can bash it in, thus taking some of the fun out of it, (Colin has been barking like mad, of course, another reason to immediately open fire.) and he’s holding some kind of lab beaker or other shiny metal instrument, bad call, Dr. Bob!
And it’s all legal!
Naturally the nooz reports afterward give an account entirely from the State’s POV, just like they do with their War on Some Islam, their War on Some Drugs, etc.
“The US could have given each of them a court martial and executed them.”
So why don’t we, then? Why is everything done half-ass all the time; if we’re gonna run a bloody Empire we need to start being a lot more hard-ass about it, amirite?
Or get out of the Empire business. What’s the point of indefinite detention? Are they some kind of future bargaining chips? An example to the hadji masses of some kind? I don’t get it.
If I had to walk to the interview, I would have to start at 3:00 PM tomorrow afternoon and keep walking for 24 hours straight. I could do it as the crow flies, but it would take me over mountains, hills, dales, and vales, and at the end of that my tie would most likely be slightly askew and my dress shoes reduced to tatters. And I’d also probably be soaked from the various bogs and cricks. The interview is at a resort/lodge up on one of them mountains, and is run by a famous family, overlooking hills which are alive with the sound of music occasionally.
Dude, I was typing figuratively. Not literally. I would find a way to be up there in my nice dress shoes. People notice your shoes first so you gotta have them clean. If you are walking then you need to hike in the boots / sneakers and put the dress shoes and pants in your rucksack (BFG).
BTW, sounds like they are far away from you. That sucks. That is the problem with living in the sticks and needing outside employment, you usually have to travel a ways to get to your job. I love my 3.8 mile commute! I’m not sure that I could handle Bob’s commute, I might never finish the honey-do’s and get to work on income producing stuff.
Or get out of the Empire business. What’s the point of indefinite detention? Are they some kind of future bargaining chips? An example to the hadji masses of some kind? I don’t get it.
We are incompetent empire. I’m worried that this is the last tortured throws of a once fine nation.
“BTW, sounds like they are far away from you. That sucks. That is the problem with living in the sticks and needing outside employment, you usually have to travel a ways to get to your job. I love my 3.8 mile commute! I’m not sure that I could handle Bob’s commute, I might never finish the honey-do’s and get to work on income producing stuff.”
Yep, it would be an hour commute in the summuh and add another fifteen minutes for the wintuh roundabout loop; I’d be listening to the radio or a CD each way, I guess. I’ve had much shorter commutes in the past but most of them have been around a half-hour, a happy medium between long and the working-at-home situation, where, indeed, there are many potential disruptions and ‘things to do’ on a list.
” I’m worried that this is the last tortured throws of a once fine nation.”
There is some debate on just how fine it once was. Invading the South was a monumental tragedy, as was slavery and exterminating the Indians. Not to mention all the wars and the enormous growth of Leviathan and our ruling class. But the first toxic seeds were sown at the secret proceedings and debates of the Constitutional Convention in 1787 Philadelphia. Also a minor tragedy that Hamilton didn’t get shot earlier, say, on the Revolutionary battlefields, before he could do much damage.
BTW, the prepper book that I noted above is “Forsaking Home” (The Survivalist Series) by Angery American:
http://www.amazon.com/Forsaking-Home-The-Survivalist-Series/dp/0142181307/
Book four of a four book series. I suspect that there will be more in the series as the author’s facebook page is talking about at least two more books and some ebook only novellas:
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Angery-American/520619637966061
In the book, there in no internet, no tv, no newspapers. All the infrastructure in the USA was destroyed by the massive EMP blast. Nobody knows anything except the FEMA people who popped out of nowhere with heavy arms, lots of ammo, lots of MREs and lots of troops. There is communication via old shortwave radios but the FEMA units are tracking them down and destroying them using HARM missiles from helicopters. There is actually a confrontation between two Guard A-10s and four FEMA Apache helicopters. One A-10 down and four Apaches down.
The nearby FEMA refugee camp has turned into a detainment camp with mass graves and other fun stuff. The FEMA guys are harrassing Morgan and his neighbors, forcing them to dehouse further into the Florida swamp. Morgan and Sarge have found a friendly Guard Company and have a cleanup job for them to perform.
My rating: 4 out of 5 stars
Amazon rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars (250 reviews)
I gather that the author is making enough on book sales to quit his day job and write books. Amazing.