10:30 – Barbara is cleaning house this morning. We’ll do more kit stuff this afternoon, but we’ll also take some down time. As Barbara commented yesterday, now that she’s retired we don’t have weekends any more. Every day is the same, which doesn’t mean that we don’t still need some time to relax.
We’ve been binge-watching season 9 of Heartland. Three episodes Friday evening, six last evening, with the other nine over the next couple evenings. I need to get the final three DVD’s created and burned today.
We’ve been cooking and baking a lot more from long-term storage. My goal at this point is to test various recipes, with the primary goals of (a) using only LTS ingredients (although we sometimes cheat, such as using fresh eggs, milk, or butter rather than the powdered versions); (b) keeping the number of ingredients as small as possible; and (c) keeping the cooking process as simple and fuel-efficient as possible, for example by Thermos-cooking rice or pasta rather than simmering them on the stove.
For dinner yesterday we had the leftovers of a simple pot/skillet dinner that used the following ingredients:
Macaroni, 1 lb. box, cooked
Chicken, 12.5 oz. (7 oz. dry) can
Corn, 15.25 oz. can
Augason Cheesy Broccoli soup mix, 2 cups (185 g)
1. Cook the pasta, then drain 4.5 cups of the pasta water into a second pot and bring it to a boil. Cover the pasta to keep it hot.
2. Whisk the cheesy broccoli soup mix into the boiling water until it’s thoroughly mixed, add the drained chicken and corn, return to a boil, and allow to simmer for 15 minutes, stirring frequently.
3. Stir the cooked pasta into the sauce, bring to a boil, and allow to simmer for 5 to 10 minutes. Serve.
Calories total about 2,800. Serves four.
Now all Robert needs is to start a YouTube channel to demonstrate his LTS cooking.
I follow this guy for his humorous (not intended?) cooking channel. If he can do it so can Robert. BTW he has recently started a series about Gardening with a fellow “good ol’ boy”. (Sorry the damn YouTubes auto-plays)
https://www.youtube.com/user/jakatak69
In the vein of understanding (know your enemy) the Millennials I provide this link:
http://www.businessinsider.com/origin-of-popular-millennial-phrases-and-words-2016-4
“16 Democrat AGs Begin Inquisition Against ‘Climate Change Disbelievers’”
http://dailysignal.com/2016/04/04/16-democrat-ags-begin-inquisition-against-climate-change-disbelievers/
“Beginning in 1478, the Spanish Inquisition systematically silenced any citizen who held views that did not align with the king’s. Using the powerful arm of the government, the grand inquisitor, Tomas de Torquemada, and his henchmen sought out all those who held religious, scientific, or moral views that conflicted with the monarch’s, punishing the “heretics” with jail sentences; property confiscation; fines; and in severe cases, torture and execution.”
“One of the lasting results of the Spanish Inquisition was a stifling of speech, thought, and scientific debate throughout Spain. By treating one set of scientific views as absolute, infallible, and above critique, Spain silenced many brilliant individuals and stopped the development of new ideas and technological innovations. Spain became a scientific backwater.”
“As an old adage says, those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it. So we now have a new inquisition underway in America in the 21st century—something that would have seemed unimaginable not too long ago.”
Who needs a disaster? We will just shut down the grid on our own.
Note who is standing on the podium. It is Big Al!
I saw a Nixon bumper sticker on an old Oldsmobile 442 convertible today. It was weird yet fitting.
“…with a fellow “good ol’ boy””
Ol’ Jackie boy there sez he’s from Kalifornia and MOVED to TN. And we don’t got no kitchen like he’s got. Gee whiz, granite-topped island?
“In the vein of understanding (know your enemy) the Millennials I provide this link…”
And at least half of it from the inner-city hip-hop underclass, just perfect. Makes me wanna pick up them anthologies I have of 17th- and 18th-C Brit lit.
“Who needs a disaster? We will just shut down the grid on our own.”
All of the AG’s being Dembocraps with one alleged Independent, too. These people just ain’t gonna stop pushing until THEY are stopped. Resist. By any means.
“I saw a Nixon bumper sticker…”
And as creepy as he might have been, it’s becoming clear that he and Carter were probably the best two people in that WH down there since Coolidge. The rest have been outright thieves, liars, perverts and/or war criminals.
Sunny with blue skies here; back to scut and grunge stuff inside the house.
I’ll take the Oldsmobile 442 convertible.
It’s amazing how much the MSM and gummint establishment hate The Mighty Trump ™. Just look at Drudge’s front page. Geeze. Why not hire an assassin and get it over with. TMT will never get the Redumblican nomination. He must run as a third party to destroy the Redumblicans.
Mr. Lynn,
Have you watched The Expanse on SyFy? I kind of like it. Very visual. No aliens, just set a couple hundred of years in the future. Based on the novels.
“Why not hire an assassin and get it over with.”
I wouldn’t put it past them. Unless, of course, this is all just some goofy sideshow to keep us rubes entertained and distracted while the real stuff goes on behind the scenes. Same deal with Sanders on the other “side.”
I’d still predict that Field Marshal Rodham gets in there and she’ll double- and triple-down on the destruction wrought by her husband, Obola, and the Bush crime family. Unless she drops dead or actually gets indicted, but gee, we aren’t hearing much about that anymore, are we.
As the so-called three-percenter and related sites are saying, we have nine months to get our chit together. Whether or not that’s literally true, it’s a fairly useful motivating measure of time to work with, and we’re doing the best we can up here. I’m still glad we live more or less outside the northern edge of Megalopolis, though, but wish it was farther. We had to take into account jobs and wife’s need for airport proximity for a while longer.
We had to take into account jobs and wife’s need for airport proximity for a while longer.
Same here, but I’ll be living and dying in a high rise condo. I’ll probably Barney Fife myself when the zombies arrive. That reminds me; need to ensure I have at least one round in each caliber of my nonexistent shooster guns.
Enjoy the Decline: Accepting and Living with the Death of the United States:
The blurb:
The “End of America?” Most likely. The “Demise of liberty?” You betcha! The “Destruction of Western Civilization?” Of course! But why let all of the above get you down? Learn to “Enjoy the Decline!” “Enjoy the Decline” is mandatory reading for all conservatives, libertarians, Americans, and lovers of freedom who are mourning the slow, but sure death of their culture and their country. America is over. Freedom will be curtailed. Liberty is dead. And above all else, it is inevitable. But the answer is not to get depressed and give up hope. The answer is to change your attitude and learn how to “Enjoy the Decline.” You get one life on this planet and Aaron Clarey explains how to get the most out of it even though socialism and tyranny are all around you. From learning how to adapt your psychology to learning to let go and take advantage of the socialist system, “Enjoy the Decline” carries the freedom loving American through the 5 stages of grief and puts them on a path to enjoy their life regardless of what is happening to their beloved America. Dark, macabre, and morose, but truthful, helpful, and practical all the same, it is guaranteed to make you happier than your socialist counterparts even though they have everything they want. Make leftists, liberals, and progressives miserable. Enjoy the Decline!
Table of Contents:
1. Psychological Adaptation
2. The New Economic Reality
3. The Art of Minimalism
4. Mortal
5. Family and Friends
6. Career and Education
7. Finance and Investing
8. Plunder
9. SHTF
10. Fight or Flight
11. Revenge
Note that when the author speaks of revenge, it’s as in “The best revenge is living well.” Although it could have benefited from one more pass by a competent editor, the book is generally well-written. AFAICT, the recommendations offered are well-founded albeit somewhat general.
4.5 out of 5 stars.
“I’ll probably Barney Fife myself when the zombies arrive.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQBhUzEsO-Y
Sadly, OFD is ancient enough to remember having to carry one of them old-timey revolvers loose as a Christmas goose in a crummy holster back in my early street cop daze.
“Although it could have benefited from one more pass by a competent editor, the book is generally well-written.”
See the comment below the book description, the one by an “M. Spiller.” That pretty much sez it all. I ain’t under 40 and unmarried anymore by a long shot and am already doing what we need to be doing as best I can. I have two reasons for hope rather than despair: The bastards can’t keep pushing and pushing and not eventually get some major pushback. And: They’re gonna run outta money to finance all their bullshit eventually, too.
Resist. By any means.
Yes, “The Expanse” has been awesome. The books are even better. And the alien invasion has shown up but people don’t recognising it yet.
The past week’s hijinks and buffoonery:
http://takimag.com/article/the_week_that_perished_takimag_april_10_2016/print#axzz45S7tNbfi
The Feebies must be binge-watching “Breaking Bad.”
http://www.kob.com/albuquerque-news/fbi-department-of-homeland-security-flew-secret-surveillance-missions-over-albuquerque-in-recent-months/4100041/?cat=500#.VwqkcKtZXzI
See the comment below the book description, the one by an “M. Spiller.” …
And see the comment on that comment by “Kindle Customer”:
… This is self-published, juvenile garbage by a corporate wash-out who claims to be “a super-awesome economic genius” and who advocates poverty to people in the guise of depriving the government of potential funds for confiscation.
And don’t tell me it’s irony or satire. It’s nothing but adolescent bitterness.
Nobody said the book was perfect. It’s a way of dealing with the decline! 🙂
BTW, here’s a link to Survival, Evasion and Escape, the army manual that Clarey refers to in the book.
“…the army manual that Clarey refers to in the book.”
https://www.baseops.net/militarybooks/usafsurvival.html
OFD had the resistance and water survival training stuff, or a version thereof, in the Philippines TWICE, ditto Security Police AZR Combat Training (in TX twice and again in ‘Nam and Thailand). Total of two weeks for the former trainings and three weeks for the combat stuff. Fortunately never went down over wotta and never got caught by our little pals from various locales in SEA.
“It’s a way of dealing with the decline!”
I heartily agree that a sense of humor will continue to be critical, and I take haht from seeing examples of it on this board, when we all know how bad the chit out there is getting. But most of us are not in any position to emulate the free-wheeling author’s advice anymore. I suppose we COULD, but it would involve leaving a lot behind and just increasing our risks out in the Sprawl.
Small town America isn’t what I thought it was. There are 190 HIV positive IV drug users in a town in Indiana with a population of 4,000. I found that to be shocking.
Heroin users sharing needles. Small town, small scene, even bigger chance of passing it along.
n
More shocking is the heroin problem.
They are Not Like Us (TM)
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3532622/Don-t-mess-Grandma-Shocking-video-emerges-woman-threatening-cut-rude-grandson-KNIFE.html
“Grandmother said: ‘Shut the f*** up now, shut the f*** up, I’ll stick it all the way up your goddamn a**. Shut the f*** up’ ”
nick
I’ve mostly lost the ability to be shocked by now; small towns across the country have been dealing with dope and dope users and the resulting mayhem and disease for decades now. Mainly a result of the Almighty State’s War on Some Drugs. Which drives the prices up to insane levels and makes people do crazy chit, at all levels of society.
Re-watched all the seasons of “The Wire,” recently; also the movie “Sicario.” Currently on a Netflix Original, “Narcos,” third episode and very good so far. Deals with the Pablo Escobar era in Columbia and the U.S. through the POV of a young DEA agent.
These people are all around us, and the gangs in this country have continued growing in power, wealth and access to modern weapons systems and tactics. Many of their “soldiers” got training from our spec ops units in past years.
A couple of hundred HIV-positive users in any given town will pale in comparison to the dangers coming our way from New Wave organized crime.
[snip] More shocking is the heroin problem. [snip]
One of the cops with whom I regularly play golf says that the rate of heroin use jumped as a consequence of the backlash against ‘pill mills’. It’s easier to get smack than pharmaceutical opiates, and in Florida the dealers are mixing it with Fentanyl to give a more powerful high.
Same deal with the heroin capers up here in northern (and rural, small-town) Vermont; when the crackdowns and busts got going good with the pills, we could see the smack go up correspondingly, and yeah, dusting it with Fentanyl, which has caused several fatal ODs, one with an idiot driving up on the interstate going 85+ who croaked behind the wheel.
On a totally unrelated note, for any geeks who might be interested:
“Join the TWiT crew as we broadcast from the LiveU booth at the National Association of Broadcasters annual show in Las Vegas April 18-20. We’ll be there covering the newest in virtual reality, special effects, video cameras, content production, photography drones, 4K and UHD monitors, plus filmmaking. Follow @TWiT and @TWiTLive to stay up to date with all our coverage and check the TWiT Live Specials page for full episodes.”
I assume MrAtoz will be on-site taking notes and reporting back here. TWiT tee-vee on the net seems to be mostly a Leo Laporte Empire production, and the guy is good. Used to watch the original Screensavers years ago and several of his crew from back then are with him again.
Don’t forget to VOTE!
http://comeandmakeit.blogspot.co.uk/2016/04/a-psa-from-your-clown-rulers.html
“Nothing is as nauseating as thieves demonstrating their “virtue” by using stolen funds to maintain themselves in power. Of course they keep a generous portion of what they steal; the Washington metropolitan area is the richest in the country. The capital is doing to the rest of the country what the Mafia did to Sicily: draining it of all vitality and life.”
https://straightlinelogic.com/2016/04/09/panama-is-small-change-by-robert-gore/
Murphy’s law… I had an easier couple of weeks coming up. Then my employer decides to replace my laptop – which means a couple of days of getting everything installed and set up. Today, my main home PC refused to start – I can’t even get into the BIOS menu. It has been getting flaky, so this isn’t a total surprise, but I was hoping it would hold out till summer. So that needs replaced, and the replacement set up.
We’ve used Dell computers almost exclusively in the past, so that’s where I went first. First time since they went private, and…what are they thinking? It used to be you would pick a model, and then you could configure it the way you wanted. More memory? A bigger disk? All no problem.
Not any more. When I went shopping for a new machine this morning, every model I looked at had the familiar configuration menu, but there was only one option for each component. You can have 8GB of memory…or nothing. This processor…or nothing. This hard disk…or nothing. And none of the models had anything close to what I actually want. WTF?
If I’m going to buy off the shelf, then… I went to a local webshop that carries all sorts of brands (including Dell), has decent prices, and – importantly – has a really nice search filter. You set what you want in the filter, and see what pops up. There were lots of systems that met my specs (which aren’t that weird – mostly lots of RAM and a big SSD). The system I ordered is officially a “gaming PC”, so it looks kind of funky, but who cares? It has the specs, and that’s all that matters in the end.
Now you’ve done it. You’ve pretty well dared Murphy’s Law to kick in.
So about those “rich assh0les who don’t pay enough taxes:”
“How one man moving to Florida could cause a devastating $140MILLION tax hole in New Jersey: Hedge fund billionaire causes budget deficit”
“Frank Haines, a budget officer with the Office of Legislative Services, said: ‘We may be facing an unusual degree of income-tax forecast risk,’ Bloomberg News reported.
This was due to the fact 40 per cent of the state’s revenue comes from income taxes, and a third of this comes from the state’s richest 1 percent.”
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3533539/How-one-man-moving-Florida-cause-devastating-140MILLION-tax-hole-New-Jersey-Hedge-fund-billionaire-causes-budget-deficit-crisis.html
That’s right, one third of NJ’s tax revenue comes from 1% of its population. NJ is in no way unique. Cali has similar numbers, and most states get almost all of their tax money from the top 5-10%. 90-95% of people in every state don’t contribute to state funding in any meaningful way.
nick
(note the language use too- bureaucrat nonsense – “unusual degree of income-tax forecast risk”-and the ‘could cause’. WILL cause, unless they find some way to stick it to the guy. He’s already moved his residency.
And this is why I drive an Expedition.
“A Honda Civic carrying the identified victims and two others crashed head-on into a Chevy Silverado carrying a family of four
Another three-year-old died a few hours later at a hospital and the fifth victim hasn’t been identified
The four people in the Silverado, a married couple and two older children, were hospitalized but not seriously injured
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3533335/Tragedy-two-toddlers-three-women-die-head-crash-California.html
Three ‘adults’ and 2 kids in the honda, one car seat. Passing in the rain = 5 dead.
Two adults, and 2 kids, all wearing seatbelts in the silverado – head on collision – minor injuries. There’s a whole history of poor decision making buried in this one article.
nick
In re: taxes: The rulers and socialists like Sanders pretend that if only we sock it to the rich then we could fix all our problems, only thing holding us up. Redistribution. And reparations for various mobs of grievance whores and pimps, of course. So the consequences of that are that the rich use batteries of accountants and lawyers to avoid paying those taxes and/or they simply move their money and/or themselves out of the country. The rest of us pick up the slack, eventually, and they’re gonna continue looting us and bleeding us white until we’re pretty much like a nuclear-armed Brazil of 330 million with hundreds of millions of guns. That should be interesting.
Overcast today (Monday) and VERY windy again. Dunno if I’m driving Princess back up to Montreal later or not; dunno where she is; I’m sure she’ll call at the last minute if this is the plan. Otherwise I’m back on a mix of scut/grunge work and some minor prepping activity.
Also, after three episodes of “Narcos” on Netflix Originals, I think I can safely recommend it. I knew theoretically that tons of dope have been coming into this country for decades but they really spell it out and you can see it being made down there in South Murka. And many tens of billions in cold hard cash and laundered funds everywhere, with the expected accompanying violence. Also with the direct involvement of our government and at least three Presidents.
There are chickens from all this that have yet to come home to roost.
Taxes on the rich… There are quite a few wealthy individuals who have moved to Switzerland for the low tax rates. In some cases, they don’t spend a lot of time here, but this is where their official residence is. Tina Turner, for example.
Some towns follow a practice that gets a lot of criticism: They offer the individual a personally negotiated flat tax. This, because if it’s a small town, the taxes from one or two wealthy individuals can make up most of the town’s budget. This pisses off other towns that lost out in the bidding war, or that aren’t attractive enough locations to be in the running in the first place.
I’m not generally a fan of redistribution, but I do think that multi-generational wealth should be broken up over time. Just because you strike it rich is no reason for your grandkids to be wealthy. In that sense, and since government does need a source of revenue, I think inheritance taxes are a good thing.
The argument against this is always “the family farm”. That’s a red herring. There is this idealistic notion of the romantic family farm, but there aren’t really many such things left. A successful farm today is a business like any other. If a business is viable, it has reserves, and makes a profit, and the inheriting generation can pay the taxes themselves or get a loan.
…and bleeding us white…
Raycisssss! Bleeding us “neutral color” is the correct way to say this Mr. OFD
50 with the noodle for you.
“Tina Turner, for example.”
I thought she moved to Germany with her German bf/husband?
“Just because you strike it rich is no reason for your grandkids to be wealthy.”
1.) It’s YOUR property. You can do with it what you like, and if that means you give it to your kids and grandkids, so be it. If they piss it away, that’s on their heads.
2.) Why give the bloated Leviathan government yet another source of tax revenue, which THEY mos def piss away every second of every day? Starve the fuckers, and bleed THEM (neutral color).
“…the correct way to say this Mr. OFD…”
Yes, I have corrected my scribbling accordingly. And us neutral color peeps better get on the stick; nine months, baby! Resist. By any means.
“Don’t forget to VOTE!”
No longer a necessity, both the Republicrats (most recently in Colorado) and the Democrans have eliminated that need. They just write in the result they want. A fine prelude to the General Election.
Gone are the good ol’ days of “vote early and vote often”.
WRT inheritance taxes…. NO FUCKING WAY. IT’S MY MONEY TO DO WITH AS I SEE FIT. I didn’t just ‘borrow’ it from a big pool of the government’s money, to be returned after my death. IT’S MINE.
Can you tell I feel strongly about this?
It’s also a truism that most family wealth is gone in only a couple generations anyway.
In the mean time, who has money to spend???? RICH PEOPLE. Who doesn’t have money to spend??? POOR PEOPLE. Poor people don’t start factories, they don’t buy yachts, they don’t have staff, they don’t travel or throw lavish parties, they don’t hire personal trainers, nutritionists, accountants, or anyone else. RICH people and the money they spend fund the whole world. More rich people = more spending = more money that I can potentially harvest…and more jobs for everyone.
nick
“They just write in the result they want.”
Shit, that’s what I’ve been doing for years now, writing in who I want (Pat Buchanan) but it never works out for ME!
Plus, the rulers are really rubbing it in our faces now. Write off a million Colorado voters just like that and laugh while they do it. Keep it up, fummamuckers. And reap the whirlwind.
“Can you tell I feel strongly about this?”
Not only is it just morally wrong, but even if such redistribution (because that’s what it is) was OK, how could we trust the State to do it right and then make good use of it once they had it? We can’t.
I don’t find any way to justify another means for our criminal scum rulers to rob us.
Fair enough, but I feel more strongly about income taxes. Money that I’ve earned, I should be able to keep. I’d rather eliminate income taxes and have inheritance taxes. Of course, it’s not a binary choice: government would rather have both.
Just to raise your hackles farther, Switzerland also has a wealth tax – on all of your property. It’s a fraction of a percent, so if you have a $1 million net worth, you can expect to pay a few $thousands in tax.
I generally agree with the excoriation of Brad’s expressed philosophy here. The only caveat I’ll make concerns the way “the rich” set up the system to benefit themselves, their heirs, and their “class” — buying laws, buying politicians, getting special treatment, one law for thee, another for me.
One example of special treatment that I’ve seen was a rich guy where I grew up. Self-made millionaire, nothing wrong there, bought a big piece of land worth millions, and negotiated a special tax rate with the township. Sure, he was still paying a big chunk every year, but the rate was half of what everyone else was paying. One law for thee, another for me.
Exactly. I still tend to think of heroin as a big city problem. I tend to think of drugs as an underclass thing, and if it is, it’s saying that 5% of a small town is underclass. How much of the population fits other definitions of underclass?
Read all “The Expanse” novels and eagerly awaited the TV Series. That said, having read the novels I was hard pressed to keep track of things in the series. The visuals were stunning but I don’t see how anyone not familiar with the books could possibly understand what was happening, where, and in what sequence. My only gripe about the visuals was that I had envisioned Martian Marines Powered Armor as much larger and more impressive.
How to deal with the collapse? I came across this site http://shtfschool.com/ run by a survivor of the Balkan war of the 90s in a city under siege, without electricity, running water, or food distribution. He publishes a Blog and teaches urban survival tactics in Sarajevo. He posts real, practical advice from personal experience. Will Memphis become another Sarajevo? I doubt it but good advice is good advice.
Inheritance Taxes IE: The Death Tax, has devastating consequences most don’t realize. A man who built a family business worth 4 million dies. His survivors are hit with a HUGE tax bill. The only way to pay the tax is to sell off the family business. A small farmer, just getting by but owns land worth millions, when he dies his family has to sell off the family farm to pay the taxes. My parents sold all their property and bought a nice mansion on the San Francisco bay to enjoy their retirement. When they passed, we wanted to keep the home, rent it our or share it among the brothers. But the Tax Man had different ideas. We had to sell the home quickly, at far less than market value, to pay the huge death tax.
“The only caveat I’ll make concerns the way “the rich” set up the system…”
I approve of Mr. SteveF’s caveat. And would add another caveat to his caveat: I worry less about what special treatment some millionaire or other may get and more about how the “one law for me and one law for thee” plays out in other arenas in this country. Especially when we incarcerate millions of people for non-violent offenses that they allegedly committed and our rulers skate when it’s known they’ve done the same or worse. Or the case of Field Marshal Rodham’s private email server, where she skates on questions of national security that would have gotten any of us here into orange jumpsuits long since.
“How much of the population fits other definitions of underclass?”
And a good local intel exercise is to research it in YOUR town or city. As for drugs, they are a staple not only of the underclass but pretty much across class lines. Rich actors and musicians do them; so do politicians like Larry Klinton and Jeb Bush. Who are the dopers and boozers in YOUR particular ‘hood? Does any of their behavior constitute a threat or potential threat to YOU? Is there a public safety “oversight” committee on the town or city gummint? A police blotter feature in the local nooz rags?
“He posts real, practical advice from personal experience.”
Indeed, and he is well-known to several of us here; some hard facts of life and death:
http://shtfschool.com/security/post-disaster-violence/
I would not find it that hard to imagine Memphis or Boston or Chicago or any other large North Murkan city becoming another Sarajevo or Beirut eventually, once the rulers can no longer pay or control their soldiers and police, that is. But in Murkan cities, we would see it kicked up by a geometric order of magnitude from the historical situation in the former Yugoslavia. And as it is NOW, there are no-go areas in some of our cities where the police won’t venture unless in heavily armed force.
@harold, that’s Selco. He’s internet famous. Everything he’s written is worth reading and considering. You may choose to follow a different path, but at least consider his real world experience.
I’ve been reading him periodically for a couple years seems like, and no one has ever called him out or challenged his veracity. That’s pretty big for a prepper site.
In particular, his articles about foraging, barter, and urban vs countryside are particularly telling and upset some traditional prepper applecarts.
As a compliment, read Ferfal’s blog, and especially his book about living the Argentinian currency collapse. http://ferfal.blogspot.com/ I think where ferfal goes astray is in his self defense chapters, and his current blog is less informative than the book, but still interesting. The book, and selco’s site will cover what I think are the 2 most likely scenarios for sudden but temporary collapse– living in a city destroyed by violence, and living thru a currency collapse.
Some quick things that struck me-
Selco- you will do stupid things, you might not survive them. Barter items change value with time. Antibiotics and medical supplies are critical to survival.
Ferfal- gold chains are an excellent alternate currency- and you don’t have to sell them all at once. An inch at a time, bargaining hard for every inch, will save you money. No one but criminals will want your Krugerrands, and they’ll just take them. Living in the country, no one can hear you scream. You will still have to go to work and earn money, and buy food throughout the crisis.
nick
I’m not generally a fan of redistribution, but I do think that multi-generational wealth should be broken up over time.
It tends to do this on it’s own. Usually by the time you get to the grandkids or their kids, it’s mostly squandered. The Kennedy clan is an example of that.
@Harold and @nick, thanks for the links. A couple new bookmarks and RSS Feeds.
WRT the “death tax”: when my Aunt passed away the State of IL and the Feds came to collect. Claimed that we owed $2 million in taxes. Long story short, we had to sell the Family Homestead (maternal side), an Illinois Heritage Farm that my Mom’s family had “homesteaded” back before 1814. 160 acres of fully fenced prime farmland, all water and mineral rights, house, out building, and barn (all in good shape) sold for $250,000.00 (rounded number). The State and the Feds took a total of 75%.
These examples provided here are prima facie evidence of how we ruled by what the late, great Murray Rothbard referred to as “a band of thieves writ large.” They are nothing more than criminal brigands, robbers and murderers. Don’t file your taxes? We’ll seize your accounts. Our mistake? Tough shit and fuck you. Don’t pay your taxes? We’ll put you in prison at gunpoint. Advocate that others don’t pay their taxes? We’ll fucking kill your ass dead.
Cue up George Harrison’s “Taxman.”
Kick it up a notch with the version by Stevie Ray Vaughn.
Resist. By any means.
160 acres of fully fenced prime farmland
Wow, just wow. What a loss Mr. DadCooks. What a place to own and live on. Sad.
And I’ll be that the terms of the sale were such that the family couldn’t bid, and there were requirements for payment that blocked out ordinary folks, and gave preference to connected insiders, like someone who can write a check for 40% day of and the rest within 10 days.
nick
@MrAtoz, I could have been more specific regarding the fencing. It was not just the perimeter but also cross fencing to separate pastures, timber, tilled land for corn alfalfa oats. We had been renting the whole thing to the long time neighbor across the road. He kept everything tip top like it was his own. He got outbid by a “developer”. Family farmers don’t have a lot of free cash floating around and the “bank” is no longer friendly to the family farmer.
@nick, you are right.
“The State and the Feds took a total of 75%.”
Just to be clear: my idea of inheritance tax wouldn’t be anywhere near that high. 10% to 25% sounds about right. And again, income tax should be eliminated.
As far as the stories about lost family farms and businesses, that can be planned for. If you know you and your siblings stand to inherit a farmstead or a business, and you know there will be inheritance tax, then get it appraised. Multiply by the inheritance tax rate and you know the minimum value for a life insurance policy. If the parents are otherwise destitute, then the kids pay the premiums. Life insurance isn’t that expensive if you get it at a reasonable age, avoid the scams and get just a simple death benefit.
I don’t mean to be heartless about losing a lovely family farmstead. My grandfather took a different approach to the same end, and just sold off our family ranch in West Texas without asking anyone. I don’t know if he was already a bit senile, or just didn’t think anyone cared. It’s sad to lose things like that, I do understand…
@brad, this is a very condensed version of what was going on at the time of my Aunt’s death. All of the grandchildren (there are 7 of us) were in the process of obtaining possession of the farm and creating a form of a living trust. Unfortunately the lawyers were too slow and my Aunt too fast in her dying.
What your Grandfather did sounds like what my Father did with the 40-acres he owned in Missouri. When my Father started to show signs of early onset Alzheimer’s my Sister and I started all the legal work to protect him and his assets. As we were going through all his papers we came across a bill of sale and other papers where the year previous he had sold the farm, literally and figuratively. Try as we might we could not convince the courts that he was not mentally competent at the time. All the cash he had spent to pay off bills from my Mother’s long final stay in a nursing home. We could not account for all the cash. We finally found a receipt for a storage unit and found it full of every “As Seem On TV” item you can imagine. He had blown it and was embarrassed. We ended up getting pennies on the dollar (I bet @nick would have passed on 99.9% of it).
Lesson, don’t avoid the embarrassing questions with your parents. Get a good lawyer and set up living trusts, powers of attorney, medical directives, final directive. Protect your assets. My Kids’ think Mom and I will live forever and reluctantly went with us on the several attorney visits to get all things covered.
The mistakes of the father will not be the mistakes of the son.
“(I bet @nick would have passed on 99.9% of it).”
I generally pass on cheap junk, but I have a friend here who will buy anything still in the package with a barcode. He boxes it up and sends it to Amazon, for their “fulfilled by amazon” program.
In my youth, I helped family clean out the NYC apartment of a dead relative on their side of the family. The old guy had spent every penny on books. He didn’t care what kind, cook books, fiction, non-fiction, but mostly all hardback. He belonged to dozens of book -o-the-month clubs. When he received the books he’d make a slip jacket/cover, number each one, write it down in his book, then bundle the books in paper and string, number the bundles, and write that down in his book. He had a record of every book and which bundle it was in. ‘Course the bundles were stacked floor to ceiling with only narrow pathways thru them. He was in a fifth floor walk up, with no running water or toilets that worked. There was a 6 inch high pile of spent wooden matches on the stove, and the tub was full of feces. After his death, neighbors and other thieves had entered and torn apart bundles looking for treasure. I’m sure not a single book was missing, but a whole lot were ruined. I’ve seen worse hoarder houses on TV, but this was bleak…
My relatives had gone thru the index, found some collections and sets that were worth having, and that’s what we went there for. We skimmed off the cream, and just boxed and moved the rest. I don’t know what happened to them, but there was a couple of tons. No one realized the extent of the guy’s problem. The family usually doesn’t.
nick
(the apt was just off time square, back in the bad old days. my 15 yo suburban self was having a serious case of culture shock, and quite a bit of fear standing on the sidewalk next to a 6 foot high pile of Heineken boxes, as the endless variety of street life swarmed around me….vibrant diversity, yeah, that’s what it was.)
No one realized the extent of the guy’s problem. The family usually doesn’t.
As it was with my aunt.
My wife and I got called by her bank because some lawyer was removing all her money and selling her stocks. We got there as soon as we could (I had POA) and stopped all the activity. Contacted the lawyer and lit him up one side and down another. He was converting all her assets into a trust that paid her monthly and upon her death his I got a monthly income and when I died his law firm got the rest.
I told him to revoke the trust. He said no. I contacted another lawyer and explained the situation. This new lawyer lit the other lawyer up one side and down another. I got the trust revoked, the original lawyer lost his license in Washington (probably moved to another state and started the same crap). He charged my aunt $8,000 for the paperwork and triggered a massive tax bill from capital gains. I could not get any of that money back.
Her living conditions were not great but we let it slide. Let her do her yearly journey to Mexico to spend the winter. Got a call about February from the place she stayed in Mexico that I needed to get there quick as the neighbors were complaining. She was being disruptive at their events and causing problems. So down to Mexico I went. Struck a deal to let her stay until March when I could things in place to bring her back. Her living conditions were terrible. Sent my mother a plane ticket to escort my aunt back to Washington state.
I then arranged for a service to come in twice weekly, cook some meals, do laundry, and clean the house. That didn’t work as my aunt threw them out as she legally could.
Wife headed back to Washington and brought my aunt back to Oak Ridge to stay in an assisted living facility. A challenge of it’s own but we made it work for the most part.
Six months later wife and I returned to Washington state and discovered the true extent of the problem. There were about a thousand cans of soda hidden everywhere thinkable. The freezer was stuffed with food that wasn’t fit for a dog. A couple thousand dollars worth of postage stamps. Figured out what she was doing was going to town, forgetting why she was there, and would buy soda or stamps.
Also found about $3K worth of Avon products. Sent that all to the thrift store. The Avon rep called and demanded we pay for some items that had not been paid for. We told the agent to go pound sand as what she was doing was scamming my aunt, convincing her to buy stuff she did not need. Now that we had the agent’s name we contacted Avon headquarters and explained what was going on. Avon apologized, told us to keep everything, and fired the representative.
One one of our visits my aunt did not have a car, said it was stolen. OK, plausible. So we went to buy her a new car. Dealer’s first offer was $23K and my aunt started to say OK. We balked and quickly shut her up. Got the cost down to about $12K after rebates and such. The car dealer was trying to rip her off.
A week later the police found her car, at the bank across the street from where she got her hair done. She had just parked in a different location, forgot, came out and her car was gone so she called the police to report it stolen. She was amazed that the police found her car, tank full of gas, nothing broken, everything as she left. She thought she was dealing with nice thieves. I wondered how come it took a week for the bank to report the car in the lot or the police to not find the car because of being parked in the bank lot. Port Townsend Washington is not a large city.
In hindsight we should have done something sooner. Would have saved a lot of money and aggravation. Problem is these type of people have moments where their mind works 100% and they realize what you are doing. It makes for unpleasant confrontation.
People are out there that are wanting to rip off old people. Case in point would be the sale of Dadcooks grandfather. The courts are not willing to step in this disputes and the con artists know it and thus keep at their trade.
As for me when I get to be about 75 I am turning all my assets over to my son (I can trust him) so that I have zero net worth. I figure by the time I am about 80-85 I will be senile and have nothing. Thus the state can then pay for my care in a nursing at $200 a day. My son meanwhile will have something that the state, or the feds, cannot touch.
“The mistakes of the father will not be the mistakes of the son.”
As is true for other things; my brothers and I never laid a hand on our kids. And did not belittle them and humiliate them.
“Problem is these type of people have moments where their mind works 100%…”
Yeah, it’s kinda eerie to witness. When they’re completely out-to-lunch in some other dimension 99.9% of the time and then for a second or two they look at you and know who you are and what’s happened to them. Eerie.
“As for me when I get to be about 75 I am turning all my assets over to my son (I can trust him) so that I have zero net worth.”
It’s a coin toss here and negating the usual actuary tables as to which of us, me or wife, will croak first; she has a potentially terminal medical condition and other stuff going on; I SHOULD go first as I’m two years older, but am in fah betta shape, medically and physically. Also don’t smoke, drink or do drugs and have been mostly successfully dealing with anger, depression and stress issues/PTSD since all my treatment programs with the VA and friggin’ WILLPOWER.
I would imagine we will simply do roughly the same thing and turn over all assets to the kids before we could be labeled as being senile or whatever. Frankly I don’t expect to get to that stage before I’m taken out by some other means as the Current Situation continues to deteriorate.
My wife and I almost had it easy with my mother in comparison. We had her all set to move to an assisted living until she found out the cost. So my wife and I carried my mother down the steps in a wheelchair purchased for the occasion. Took her to the doctor and then out to lunch with our daughter. My wife’s parents dropped our daughter off at the assisted living and we had a lovely lunch. While we were there, we showed my mother a room in the assisted living facility. She didn’t realize that having power of attorney, I had already rented the room and furnished it. She was quite irate when she realized what I had done. After throwing a temper tantrum, she was exhausted and sat down and took a nap. The staff at the assisted living pointed out that this was our cue to exit. We did this the day before Thanksgiving. My mother was still too mad to come to Thanksgiving dinner. By Christmas she had accepted the assisted living was home.
The harsh reality is that unless there is at LEAST one functioning adult who can stay with them 7×24, which is rare, often because BOTH working parents have to work, just to tread water in this economy, then assisted living is all that we can do for them. Esp. when they get to the stage when they’re turning on all the stove burners at 03:00 and walking out the front door to parts unknown, while leaving said door wide open. Or becoming violent and not recognizing immediate family. Frequently incontinent. Exhibitionist. Etc.
My dad caught early-onset Alzheimer’s, most likely due to previous decades of environmental factors being a prime contributor, and he was gone by 71, only eight years older than I am now. My mom has Pick’s Disease, a lovely variant of Alzheimer’s, and is 84; remembers details from 3/4 of a century ago but logic and proportion and contemporary stuff is long gone. I’ll be seeing her next week, along with the rest of my four siblings and their families, down in Maffachufetts.
After throwing a temper tantrum, she was exhausted and sat down and took a nap
Oh my aunt was severely pissed. Wrote a most scathing letter directed at me.
During one of her moments of clarity she managed to call Delta Airlines and make a reservation back to Washington State. Also had a cab booked to take her to the airport. We found the papers by accident. No problem calling the cab company and cancelling. Delta refused to talk with me about the reservation. So I told Delta their upcoming passenger had dementia and was almost always confused. I told Delta that unless they cancelled the reservation I would just let my aunt travel with them and once my aunt stepped on the plane she was their problem. Delta immediately cancelled the reservation.
Every once in awhile she would be lucid and the wrath and anger would come out. When she did that we just walked out the door. After about a year these moments waned and she accepted her position. Well, except for that nasty skunk incident.
Eventually she ran out of money, went through over $350K. When that ran out we had to put her in a nursing as medicaid will only pay for a nursing home. Spent 4.5 years in a holding pattern in the nursing home eventually rotting away then finally dying and not really knowing she was dying.
@ray,
That’s terrible. You have my sympathy and respect. I’m dreading this with my own parents.
nick
“Delta refused to talk with me about the reservation. So I told Delta their upcoming passenger had dementia and was almost always confused. I told Delta that unless they cancelled the reservation I would just let my aunt travel with them and once my aunt stepped on the plane she was their problem. Delta immediately cancelled the reservation.”
Mr. Ray’s a hardcore bastid. He is my mentor and inspiration for dealing with assholes who won’t listen to reason and who try to fuck us over. My own inclination is to murderize them, but Mr. Ray is smarter than that and screws them around so it’s “an offer they can’t refuse.”
@DadCooks: Yep, that sounds about right. It’s hard for kids to have financial discussions with their parents, because one just doesn’t want to face the fact of their mortality. Or you feel like a vulture, or whatever – it’s just difficult.
The mistakes of the father will not be the mistakes of the son.
Of course, we’ll make new and different mistakes 😉
a storage unit and found it full of every “As Seem On TV” item you can imagine
In my mother’s case, she “invested” in all sorts of official collectibles. Dolls, ceramics, etc.. Of course, anything that is officially collectible is issued in thousands, and is therefore basically worthless. So, yep, I understand all too well…
Esp. when they get to the stage when they’re turning on all the stove burners at 03:00 and walking out the front door to parts unknown
Geez, yes. On my wife’s side, we went to visit an elderly aunt for Christmas. She had hauled out last year’s decorations, including a pine wreath with candles in it. Literally just as we walked in the door, that old and dry pine burst into flames. I was just able to throw it into the fireplace, but if we hadn’t come to visit just at that moment…
Brad wrote:
“Just to be clear: my idea of inheritance tax wouldn’t be anywhere near that high. 10% to 25% sounds about right. And again, income tax should be eliminated.”
Thin edge of the wedge Brad. If you think some “emergency” or other won’t crop up and the rate is increased “temporarily” to 50% or more, then I have a bridge I’d like to sell you.
I’ve been an opponent of death taxes since I was a teenager. I’d read horror stories of the government freezing peoples’ property while they tallied up its worth and took their cut, just at a time families are upset.
Here in Oz the “Liberal” (i.e. moderate conservative) prime minister is talking about building a “very fast train” track between Brisbane, Sydney, Canberra and Melbourne. I love trains but I don’t think this scheme will fly – they’ve been talking about it for 30+ years. I’ll bet London to a brick the taxpayer will be left on the hook for it.
The idea of putting governments on a diet appeals to me very much, except I’d like to see a tax on cigarettes raise more of the governments’ take. I’d rather the government have the dough than the suckers.
“…except…”
I would rather have no exceptions. Let people pursue their own happiness, however they like. I like beer & I don’t like cigarettes. A tea-totaling smoker has as much right to keep his money as I do.
Which is no right at all, according to our self-described Best and Brightest.
“I’ll bet London to a brick…”
I’ll be stealing this phrase, but using alliteration:
“I’ll bet Boston to a brick…”
Thanks!