11:41 – Frances, Al, and their mutual friend Marcie made a day trip up here yesterday. Colin enjoyed himself immensely, as he always does when we have visitors.
As it turns out, Barbara’s friend Marcie is a prepper, or at least recognizes that it’s prudent to be prepared for whatever happens. She’s very concerned about how things are going in this country. She’s also concerned about the fragility of the power grid and transportation network, increasing civil unrest, and so on.
Marcie brought the subject up herself when the two of us were standing out on the front porch talking. She’s a smart woman, so her first hint was probably when she came into the kitchen and saw a 26-pound pail of Augason Farms brown rice sitting on the island. It was Marcie’s first visit here, so of course Barbara showed her around the house, including one of the downstairs bedrooms that’s full of long-term storage food: cans and bottles from Costco/Sam’s, #10 cans from the LDS Home Storage Center, and stuff we’ve repackaged ourselves into PET bottles. Barbara mentioned this morning that she suspected Marcie would be making a trip over to the LDS HSC near the Greensboro airport to load up her SUV. I’ll get Marcie’s email address from Barbara and offer to advise her if she needs help deciding what to do.
I am running into more and more people who are willing to hint about being preppers. Seems like a lot of us are out there, looking for others, and I’m sure getting a little reassurance that what we believe is ‘normal’. [not a big deal for me, but for many folks being odd is a big deal.]
Pretty sure one of the other dads at our rec association is hard core. He’s still tight lipped but we’ve been talking about guns, politics, etc. and the subject of sat phones came up. He seemed taken aback that I had one too, but we talked about plans and the relative cost and utility in a number of cases. He’s also spent a bunch of time sailing mid sized (~50ft) boats and danced around the issue of planning to use one as a bug out….
One of the moms is very into ‘being prepared’ defensively, and for ordinary life events. I haven’t had a chance to see where she sits on the prepping spectrum, but I suspect she’s pretty well prepped.
A lot of the folks who hint or admit to prepping are either working in the secondary economy (like me, so that makes sense that I would run into them) or small business owners. To be a successful small business owner, you have to be disciplined, able to see clearly, make decisions, and execute on them. Those traits would almost surely lead one to become prepared.
Self defense and CHL seem to follow a similar trend, and it’s self reinforcing. As you become aware of other carriers, you see it as normal, and don’t feel strange about it anymore. That helps other new carriers become more comfortable too, leading to even more daily carriers. The affirmation and sense of belonging are a good thing, especially for new carriers.
nick
Ya know, Bob, it occurs to me, and I’d feel better if y’all down there also had close neighbors that you can hook up with if things start getting real sporty; you are a public figure, a published author, and have made no secret of your prepping activities, in fact, just the opposite. OPSEC is a concern and also any future sportiness that breaks out. I realize you and Mrs. T. can defend yourselves in ordinary circumstances, but worry about extraordinary ones.
I’d respectfully suggest that now is a good time to start building neighborly relationships to some extent and maybe seeing just how many are thinking and working along the same lines…
edit: I just x-posted w/Mr. nick; everything he said, +1,000
A nice little post-apocalyptic workout guide.*
Unfortunately, when chaos erupts, you won’t be able to access your local gym or counsel with a personal trainer.
But don’t give up! Hide in the shadows and prepare yourself. If you’re lucky, you’ll have enough time to build your zombie slaying muscles. In the end: get fit or die!
This post-apocalyptic daily workout routine will help you get in kick-butt zombie-slaying shape with limited resources and space.
It’s designed specifically for individuals residing in private homes and fortresses—not gyms, offices, or military bases.
It’s time to fight back!
*Not for Dr. Bob
OFD can barely manage old-skool exercises at nearly 63; sit-ups, push-ups, stretching, fast walking (eventually with loads and longer distances, shorter times, and varied terrain). Maybe dumbbells and a curl bar later, too. OFD sez: KISS.
@OFD
That’s why I’ve emphasized since the beginning being prepared to help others: family, friends, and neighbors.
There are a lot of issues to consider. Many preppers treat level of preparedness of candidates for their group as paramount. I put it way, way, down the list. To me, the sine qua non is trust. I’d much rather have a group made up of people I know well and trust but who are themselves entirely unprepared than I would have people who are super preppers but whom I don’t know well enough to trust.
One has to be careful about opening the subject of prepping, even with good friends. Normalcy bias means a lot of people react very badly to the idea of being prepared. It’s like they believe that if they refuse to think about something bad happening it won’t. It’s easy to lose friends because of this. Barbara and I haven’t had any contact with Paul or Mary since last autumn (and may never again) because Mary has normalcy bias in spades. At dinner one evening after a Costco run, Mary basically said she didn’t want any contact with me from now on. So we cut our links, returned each others’ house keys, and so on.
All of that said, they know where we live. If TSHTF big-time, it wouldn’t surprise me at all if they showed up here. If they did, I’d welcome them without a word said, again because I trust them. Neither is going to shoot me in the back, and in that situation, two more adult shooters would come in handy. So it’d be helpful for me to have enough food for them in stock.
“Barbara and I haven’t had any contact with Paul or Mary since last autumn (and may never again) because Mary has normalcy bias in spades. At dinner one evening after a Costco run, Mary basically said she didn’t want any contact with me from now on. So we cut our links, returned each others’ house keys, and so on.”
I’m very sorry to hear that; what a shame. Maybe that will change as larger circumstances outside start to change. I know that several of my own siblings don’t wanna hear about any of this stuff, and it’s hard enough discussing it with Mrs. OFD, to be honest. She gets it that we have to be ready for blizzards and ice storms and power outages, and even groks that we have two-legged vermin threats roaming around the AO, but generally leaves me to that end of things, as, of course, I’m the ex-soldier and ex-cop with the guns. But what if I’m kaput one way or another or unable to do anything for whatever reason/s? So my thoughts bouncing around today include stepping up and getting her squared away on the firearms and home defense stuff.
As for neighbors, I feel fairly comfortable with our two closest, and suspect that they also have some kind of prepping/defense stuff but I don’t have a clue as to how much. That kinda thing takes time to get to know. As you say, trust is yuuuuuuuuge. Ironically I trust my siblings not to shoot me in the back but they’re not prepping.
“It’s like they believe that if they refuse to think about something bad happening it won’t.”
Yup. That old Norman Vincent Peale’s power of positive thinking carried to an extreme; “think good thoughts,” and hide our heads in the sand and nothing bad will strike. That’s the attitude of way too many peeps here and in Europe concerning the musloid invasions for such a long time; now they’re finding out they should have been paying closer attention and maybe cracked the history books.
The other thing that pops out is politics; if peeps who already have a normalcy bias get nervous about prepping chatter also get antsy with political discussions that revolve around the things a lot of us here talk about regularly, that can put the kibosh on a relationship, too.
I guess all we can do is be prepared ourselves and if we have any resources left over we can try to be ready to help and/or take in family and trusted friends and neighbors; but our little house on the bay here is kinda limited for space in that regard.
“Barbara and I haven’t had any contact with Paul or Mary since last autumn ”
well that sucks. They were a staple in your activity reporting for a long time, and I assumed LMIs.
I’m finding it difficult to imagine what happened to cause that strong a reaction. Or how it could be hidden for so long to come out suddenly.
I don’t ask all my friends and acquaintances to believe as I do, but I DO require that they respect my competence to form those beliefs. IE, if they think I’m an idiot or literally stupid for holding a belief, then they aren’t a friend.
nick
I agree completely with Bob that trust is the most important thing. After that skills are the most important. Actually being a prepper comes in a distant third. One of our neighbors has a garden, and I’d be looking for their help in gardening, prepper or not. There are people I know personally who I would trust and have useful skills, but are woefully unprepared. Sadly they’ll probably be worlds away SHTF.
This guy has the right idea. Stealth. But prepare to do some things.
https://youtu.be/hHD10DjxM1g
(Probably autostarts)
Slickest back yard foundry I’ve seen. Glosses a couple of details, but it’s nice!
n
“…IE, if they think I’m an idiot or literally stupid for holding a belief, then they aren’t a friend.”
You forgot “crazy.” i.e., to even bring up chatter about the grid going down, musloid attacks (only in OTHER places), financial house-of-cards, criminality of our rulers, etc., labels you as “some kinda goddam nut.”
“There are people I know personally who I would trust and have useful skills, but are woefully unprepared.”
My situation exactly; the peeps I trust ain’t prepping and don’t wanna hear about it; the ones I don’t know real well yet ARE probably prepping or at least doing due diligence for this AO and climate.
Mary, like me, tends strongly Aspergers, much more so than either Paul or Barbara. I can control myself much better than Mary can control herself. When we took that Aspergers diagnostic test, I got a very high score but Mary’s was up in Border Collie territory.
Years ago, when Paul became aware I was a prepper, he commented that if TSEDHTF he knew where he and Mary would go. That conversation started when he mentioned how many guns and how much ammunition they had. I told him he worried me and he asked why. I told him that most people who prepare store not just guns and ammo, but food, water, etc., so I wondered if he and Mary planned to use those guns and ammo to take what they needed. He just laughed, and I told him seriously that of course we’d expect them at our place if TSEDHTF, and to please bring all their guns and ammo, medicines, any food they had in the house, etc. etc.
“This guy has the right idea. Stealth. But prepare to do some things.”
That IS pretty slick; even I could manage that caper; I wonder how it might relate, possibly, to bullet casting?
And come to find out, I’d already subscribed to the guy’s channel at some point; he presents the stuff very well, not pedantic, smooth, friendly, etc.
“When we took that Aspergers diagnostic test…”
Is there a reputable online test for that anywhere?
I watched part of a Youtube video by some guy who said you need to be equally prepared in about a half dozen subject areas. He was very critical of people who are way more prepared in one area than the rest. Like everyone on the Internet, he has a point, but he misses the far larger point. Yes, you need to be prepared to a certain level in everything. But the far more important thing is having prepping friends you trust with different strengths and weaknesses. Everyone having completed the Red Cross First Aid course would be good. Having at least one person with more expertise would be even better.
Yep. I don’t have the link handy, but it’s not one of those bogus pop-culture things. It’s the actual test used diagnostically for Aspergers. IIRC, a normal score was around 14 for women and 15 or 16 for men. The four of us all took it. Paul and I scored upper 20’s or lower 30’s, which is strongly suggestive. Barbara was low- to mid-20’s, which is very high for a woman. IIRC, Mary’s score was up in the mid- to upper-40’s. Colin (or maybe it was Malcolm back then) got something like 68.
Well, I have Surgery and Internal Medicine for Dummies (actually, a 1970’s edition of Emergency War Surgery, Ship’s Medicine Chest and Medical Aid at Sea, the … No Doctor series, and a bunch of similar titles), so I figure I’ll just wing it should it become necessary. What’s interesting to me is that earlier editions of most of these titles assume that a non-MD will be doing it, while later editions all assume an MD on site or on the radio. For example, the earlier edition of EWS specifically says that it’s intended for non-MD people such as dentists, nurses, vets, etc. The later editions assume that you’re an MD working out of his specialty. For obvious reasons, the earlier editions are much more useful for most of us.
The guy whose video I saw would be overly critical of our host for being heavier on the food storage side of things than the gardening side of things. My point is that Bob is working on the gardening side of things, and second that post SHTF, nobody is showing up at Bob’s house with an 18 wheeler full of supplies. A master gardener might show up, and Bob and the master gardener would both be better off.
I’ve been stocking the medical library assuming there would be someone outside his/her experience or training, but reasonably familiar with SOME aspect of medicine. My BIL who is a very specialist and limited Dr, or a nurse, or even a PA or VetTech if need be. Better to have the reference and never need it… etc..
WRT trust, how do you trust them, outside of very narrow areas, if their judgement and awareness are so bad that they reject you outright? You might trust her not to shoot you in your sleep, but could you trust her not to dime you if a suitably impressive (to her) authority demanded it? Or to allow another person into your sphere who might harm you? (aspies being famously bad at reading people, for example)
“He’s good people but makes really bad choices in life” doesn’t sound appealing to me, it sounds like excuses. It’s been my experience that people WILL NOT thank you for being right when bad things happen to them. Very few people are flexible enough to accept the new reality and embrace the new life, MOST of them will instead lash out and attack you, because to their way of thinking YOU brought the calamity down on them with your bad thinking.
They are currently very good at finding reasons why those bad things will never happen to them, and they become very good at finding reasons why you are to blame when the bad things DO happen.
That’s been my experience with business failures, bad decisions, and calamities, and personal disasters. Thankfully, I haven’t had it happen during one of the many real disasters I’ve been near or involved in, mainly thru luck and not associating with those kinds of people.
as always, YMMV,
nick
I’ll be registering for the Vermont Master Gardener and the Master Composter courses and certifications this coming November; the earlier classes this year were filled up when I looked into them.
At that point I’ll have those, the Red Cross certified First Aid/First Responder cert, and at least the Technician ham license. I’m also working on a series of NRA classes and certs this year and hope to make it to a Project Appleseed event down in MA this fall (yes, I was an expert marksman and counter-sniper forty years ago and had the additional cop training (which sucked) but an old dawg can always learn new tricks and we have better chit now, in terms of pistols, rifles, and ammo). Also wanna try to make it to a Glock armorer’s course when they hold the class here in Vermont.
“They are currently very good at finding reasons why those bad things will never happen to them, and they become very good at finding reasons why you are to blame when the bad things DO happen.”
They’re resentful, actually, that you KNEW what was gonna happen and made the right decisions, making THEM look bad. If they’re so fucked up that they actually blame you for THINKING the bad events into reality, then they’re past hope, IMHO.
Sympathies on the friends, RBT. However,
I don’t think I’d be able to do that. For one thing, I don’t think I’d be able to resist a sarcastic remark, or at least a skeptically raised eyebrow.
For another, I’m very strongly of the “You made your bed” school of thought. That’s why my own preps are for myself, my kids, and my mom and siblings if needed. They are not for my wife and her mother. After the amount of active resistance they’ve given me regarding stocking up on stuff, they get nothing.
Well put, nick. Very well put. Also relevant to what I said in the previous paragraph.
EDIT: The following added:
Yep, my experience, too.
Holy smokes, nick is shaping up to be the wise man on the mountain here! But he lives down near the hot tub! The cognitive dissonance is destroying my brain and turning me into… into… a Bernie voter!
All of those are excellent things to do. My point is that you are going to better at some of those things than the others. You need to know all those things, but more important you need to find friends who you can trust. Once you find friends you can trust, you need to have skills that complement each other. If my sister in law the nurse was nearby, buying her a copy of Where There Is No Doctor would be an even better idea than buying one for myself.
“The cognitive dissonance is destroying my brain and turning me into… into… a Bernie voter!”
Funny U should mention that; wife just drove off with a newly-pasted “Bernie 2016” sticker on the back of her Saab convertible which we just got back from the shop after sinking another $5-grand into it, which is more then she paid for it originally. With two more Bernie stickers on the front seat and Bernie button on the floor. Jesus wept, as the saying goes. And if I’d thought of it in time, I woulda told her that beloved Bernie just said he was gonna vote for Empress Cankles but not ready yet to endorse her, which he will of course do when it suits his own political purposes, i.e., himself or lovely and brilliant wife Jane in some kind of major appointment or other relatives hooking into the coming piggie trough somehow. Because wife and Princess suddenly can’t stand Cankles; we’ll see when the time comes how they vote if Trump is still in the running and hasn’t been whacked by a “lone gunman” and they are damn sure not gonna vote for HIM. OFD will be writing in either Pat Buchanan again or Jim Goad. And otherwise sticking to the local town stuff, per usual.
“…but more important you need to find friends who you can trust. Once you find friends you can trust, you need to have skills that complement each other.”
Agreed, which is why I keep ranting about “meatspace” and getting to know peeps in one’s AO, which I am slowly working on now; trust takes a good long time and probably a few events to iron out. But the sad fact right now is that all I’ve got are my wife and my next-older brother who lives down in MA; that’s IT! Maybe a chance my fellow combat vets up here would be trustworthy, that I’ve been meeting with weekly for the past few years. Not sure. The thing is, I wasn’t in combat with THEM in particular. It’s all very tricky.
Hah, I think older and curmudgeonly, but if that looks wise from a distance and with a squint, I guess I’ll take it 🙂
It’s funny that you used to see the attitude with seat belts. “Why should I wear one, I’m not getting into an accident.”
Flood insurance too.
It’s a bit amazing how close people are to their pre-rational ancestors. Talismans, words of power, magical thinking, signs and portents, they’re all present now, still. Gun buster signs are nothing but a magic hex to keep evil away. I’ve started mocking (gently) christians for their witchcraft and magic use when I run into it with the antigunners and gun banners. “Huh, I thought you were Christian, why are you using magical incantations to keep yourself safe?” One of our board members at our rec association really believes that the correctly worded sign will keep guns away from her kids.
Magical thinking and irrationality, still everywhere while the lights are on and the shelves are full. Just think what it will be like when people are reeling in the aftermath of an event.
nick
“Yes, the EU is the Globalist bad guy, this is a no-brainer, but it is such within the above outlined historical and geopolitical context. By the time the British people had awoken the day after their historic vote, their standard of living had been shaved by ten percent. The international markets had spoken; the pound was kicked to its lowest level in 30 years; the flight of capital was on. For how long and to what extent are the British people prepared to sacrifice in order to uphold their “revolution?” More to the point, for how long are the British parliamentarians prepared to allow their overseers to take a hit to the tune of $127 billion in the span of 24 hours? The stakes are real. This ain’t no disco.”
Another view on the Brexit caper:
https://hammerandanvilmyblog.wordpress.com/2016/06/26/the-brexit-victory-now-things-get-realpolitik/
The cost of everything imported in Britain just went up ten percent. The cost of everything Britain exports just dropped 10 percent. The cost of everything made and consumed in Britain may well be unchanged. Standard of living just dropped between zero and ten percent depending on how much a Brit actually buys imported goods.
So much scaremongering.
Good exercise in meta analysis– watch for who is pushing which story.
Where is the scare story about how much it would cost Brits to STAY in the EU due to burdensome regulations, social programs for unwanted refugees, their share of propping up bad banks in other countries, and on and on.
There should be an immediate SAVINGS just by NOT writing the check to the EU.
nick
“There should be an immediate SAVINGS just by NOT writing the check to the EU.”
To write one up, the story would require a massive research effort by a team of dedicated and honest peeps, in the face of nonstop gummint and media lying on all sides. The main motivation for the “Leave” vote seems to have been that the rank-and-file Brits got sick of being told what to do by Brussels, and now they’ll be told what to do by London, of course, but that’s OK, ’cause it’s other Brits. So they think they’re turning the clock back, but like Ronin says, the gummint will take the full two and maybe more years to dick around with it and then say it’s no good, they’re not gonna actually leave. Like he also says, they’re the frog in the pot of water coming to a very slow boil, just as we are here.
Ronin is not in any enviable position to be “pushing” any kind of scare story; he’s been writing and talking about all this stuff for YEARS. He lives in a dumpy old farmhouse in very rural New Brunswick and lives hand to mouth, basically, and is too old to benefit from any largess resulting from his book or speaking engagements. And his dad was a Wehrmacht veteran of the Good War, via Austria.
Scare stories were pushed by both sides in the Brexit caper; the one declaring imminent Apocalypse and the other prophesying utter slavery to Brussels commies, which is the more truthful, of course. But it looks like it will amount to mostly a tempest in a teapot, except for what agitprop value it may have for other groups in Europe and here who are now thinking more seriously about kicking over the ruling Establishment beehive.
More possible dominoes, however:
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2016-06-26/civil-uprising-escalates-8th-eu-nation-threatens-referendum
A drunk, doper, and bloodthirsty psychotic war criminal.
https://earloftaint.files.wordpress.com/2016/06/steady.jpg
She’ll fit right in with Larry, LBJ, Shrub, et. al.
You’re giving drunks a bad name…
My bad. I sorry. No do again.
I gave junkies a bad name, too. Damn. My bad again.
Oh no! Now I’ve dissed war criminals and psychotics, too!
Seriously, folks, haha; the documented stories concerning the drug and alcohol abuse by Larry Klinton and his lovely wife Bruno, Obola in his younger years, Bush Junior, and LBJ are such as will make even OFD’s hair stand on end. You can see the after-effects in Larry as he ages out; he looks like death warmed over now. Bush Junior is a dry drunk; mind permanently damaged; LBJ was not only a drunk but a serial adulterer and rapist like Larry, and a hands-on murderer on a couple of occasions. So was Andrew Jackson but his killings were in war and duels. You wouldn’t wanna run into either character in a dark alley.
And these are our wunnerful Presidents and Leaders of the Free World. Voting really worked out well with them, didn’t it…
Trump by comparison is reportedly as pure as the driven snow in this regard, but at bottom he’s just another Establishment tool and big-gummint fanboy.
http://www.theamericanmirror.com/photos-un-tactical-vehicles-seen-rolling-virginia-interstate/
Here comes the UN gun seizers.
If you check the comments below, which I always do for these things, you’ll see that it’s just a convoy shipment to a port from which they’ll go overseas.
Then there is this, from those golden days of yesteryear, and Dr. Gary North:
“Gun Control Through the Department of Homeland Security
Gary North – June 16, 2016
You know the drill: (1) a terrorist shoots people; (2) gun sales rise by the end of the day; (3) a government official calls for a ban on guns.
Here is yet another example, reported here.
Just days after the massacre in an Orlando nightclub left 49 people dead and 53 wounded, Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson on Tuesday said that gun control is now a critical element of protecting the U.S. homeland and keeping Americans safe.
“We have to face the fact that meaningful gun control has to be a part of homeland security,” Johnson said in an interview on “CBS This Morning.” “We need to do something to minimize the opportunity for terrorists to get a gun in this country.”
On the issue of people on the no-fly list and various other lists being able to purchase a weapon in the U.S., Johnson said, “I believe that that’s something that has to be addressed.”
Johnson said that President Obama is “frustrated” with the lack of action on preventing gun violence, but he’s still “determined.”
“I thought frankly after Sandy Hook where you have schoolchildren murdered in a classroom that maybe finally this will be the tipping point and we were not able to move the needle in Congress, unfortunately,” Johnson said.
Efforts to make gun laws stricter have failed in Congress over the last decade. The assault weapons ban, for example, expired in 2004 and lawmakers have not renewed that legislation. Democrats on Capitol Hill have grown increasingly frustrated and on Monday evening, shouted down Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wisconsin, after a moment of silence, demanding to know why the House isn’t considering gun control legislation.
TWO SCENARIOS
Let me return to a pair of scenarios that I came up with about 30 years ago, when I was living in east Texas.
The government has announced a ban on guns. Now that ban must be enforced. So, the government hires people to collect the guns.
There is the General Schedule ranking to consider. This is the system of federal pay and responsibility.
The GS-1 through GS-7 range generally marks entry-level positions, while mid-level positions are in the GS-8 to GS-12 range and top-level positions (senior managers, high-level technical specialists, or physicians) are in the GS-13 to GS-15 range. A new GS employee is normally employed in the first step of their assigned GS grade, although the employer has discretion to, as a recruiting incentive, authorize initial appointment at a higher step (other agencies may place the employee at a higher grade).
So, because this job will have some risk attached to it, it will be about GS-8. It might be GS-9.
A new employee is Jennifer Jones. There are rules against gender discrimination, so Miss Jones, who majored in sociology before she graduated from the University of Southern North Dakota last year, is assigned to speak with Billy Ray Suggs, who lives in the east Texas town of Quitman.
She knocks at the door. A man weighing about 280 pounds answers. He is carrying a beer can. “What do you want?”
“Are you Mr. Suggs? Billy Ray Suggs?”
“What if I am?”
“Mr. Suggs, I have come to see if you own a gun.”
“What kind of gun?”
“I don’t know. Any gun, I guess.”
“You talking about rifles? Shotguns? Large caliber pistols? Or do you mean one of them purse-type guns?”
“I don’t know. Maybe an assault rifle. Do you own an assault rifle?”
“Around here, that’s what rifles are for. Assault. We don’t worry too much about aggressive deer. If you want defense, a shotgun is good. Double-ought buck. You heard of that, missy?”
“I don’t think I have.”
“Well, missy, you hustle back here with a warrant about what kind of gun you are looking for, and take a look around.” He shuts the door.
Then there is Houston Cabot, Harvard, B.A., political science, 2014. He has been assigned one apartment house. In Harlem.
He knocks at the door. A man weighing 280 pounds comes to the door. He is carrying a can of beer.
“Are you Willie Williams?”
“Who wants to know?”
“I have been sent by the government to talk to Mr. Willie Williams about any guns he may have. Are you Mr. Williams?”
“Never heard of no Willie Williams.”
“We have his address listed here.”
“Well, he don’t live here.”
Mr. Cabot now faces a problem. He can press the point. He can demand to see an ID. But what ID applies in a Harlem apartment?
Also, the word “demand” may not be appropriate.
I have difficulty seeing how Miss Jones and Mr. Cabot are going to be successful.
CONCLUSIONS
Exactly how is the Department of Homeland Security going to do anything about the 300 million guns in America.
Congress will do nothing. It never does.
The courts will not be clear about the limits involved.
Mr. Jeh thinks that guns are under his jurisdiction. But how long will he be with the DHS? A year? Less?
I don’t see a gun ban coming.”
MOLON LABE.
Woody kicks some more ass:
http://www.woodpilereport.com/html/index-431.htm
And so does our guy Fred:
http://fredoneverything.org/hussein-obama-50-america-0more-adventures-in-multiculturalism/
That “Suicide of the West” book of thirty or forty years ago was right on the money.
Good morning, sleepyheads!
https://www.flickr.com/photos/expd/26988479764/
OFD wrote:
“OFD will be writing in either Pat Buchanan again or Jim Goad. And otherwise sticking to the local town stuff, per usual. ”
Vote for me please! I’ll abolish the IRS and let you keep your guns… 🙂
Sorry to hear about you falling out with Mary. I wondered why she and Paul haven’t been mentioned for a while.
A very strange reaction, if she’d just discovered that you were sacrificing babies to Moloch I’d understand, but because you’re a prepper? At worst prepping is harmless, at best it’s very wise. I prep a bit and have explained why to some of my family. They don’t think I’m nuts but haven’t come on board.
Personally I would have gone out and bought a “new” $5,000 car and sold the old one and put the money
in the bankunder the mattress for future repairs.Thanks, Barry!
http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/gun-salesman-in-chief-52600-a-day-under-obama-more-seen-under-hillary/article/2594961
http://motherboard.vice.com/read/fema-contractor-predicts-social-unrest-caused-by-395-food-price-spikes
Interesting. One wonders what FEMA is up to by publishing this? Like I’ve said recently, my respect for FEMA is way up due to their proactive approach to the flooding issues in Fort Bend County which is basically a swamp. I am amazed that just 1,400 homes were flooded by the river and could handle more due to FEMA’s preparations.
“One wonders what FEMA is up to by publishing this?”
Who knows? It was a simulation anyway, like the military’s war games. But we must bear in mind that food has been used as a weapon since ancient times.
Even if that scenario plays out, I don’t see the problem. Wealthy first-world nations will continue to eat. It’s only the poor third-world nations where starvation would occur on a large scale. It’s a self-solving problem.
The scenario was “driven largely by climate change, oil price spikes, and confused responses from the international community.”
While we can certainly count on number three, assuming numbers one and two might be considered a stretch by some…..
n
We can always eat our grain instead of exporting it or burning it as fuel. Sucks for the rest of the world though. Bangledesh certainly isn’t going to be invading the US to seize food for their people, but desperate people do desperate things.
I DO expect food riot here at some point.
n
“I DO expect food riot here at some point.”
With any long-term disruption of the EBT cards, whether Grid issues or computer/network involvement. Or simply much higher prices than people can pay. Riots would be in the cities, of course; and all things being equal, North Murka has a veritable treasure of fertile farmland and grazing land, enough to feed much of the world. Ditto fossil energy. But that sorta thing would require savvy political leadership and economic common sense, which we most emphatically do NOT have.
dear host
Even if that scenario plays out, I don’t see the problem…..
mmm, unless you think in an URSS / Ukraine solution in 1920s/30s, it is not true, UK imports everything as example, Germany also, France a lot, Norwegian countries are useless to plant anything worth
Here down maybe will be happy if this happens, God forbid, down equator I mean. There are 3 sites with a lot of arable and usable land, US, Ukraine and here
Just about every nation plants what they can. The last time I was in Japan, I noted that every piece of land of 100 ft by 100 ft or bigger was planted in something. The Japanese government subsidizes all crops as they remember that food is a war weapon.
The “Wartime Farm” episodes talk extensively about how Britain found itself suddenly cut off from food imports, which they had foolishly allowed to provide MOST of their food supply. They were able to return arable land to production, but suffered shortages of labor, machinery, skill, and fertilizer. They suffered lack of FOOD too.
In any prolonged conflict locally, it ALWAYS comes down to eating grass.
Get your food stores in order.
nick
(taking the advice to heart, I have significantly increased bulk and LTS in the past year.)
Any idea on how much food the USA imports each year, percentage wise? I see a LOT of food from Chile in my grocery store.
That is food that is out of season here, generally.
We could grow more of those things, but we’d be back to seasonal availability.
Cost is a concern too.
Since we export food, we have enough, but maybe not of everything.
n
CIA world factbook probably has the info
“(taking the advice to heart, I have significantly increased bulk and LTS in the past year.)”
Just out of curiosity, how many tons do you have?
The only problem with the USA continuing to be a first world nation is that our current leaders are trying to convert us to a third world nation. I am betting that you will not recognize the USA in 20 years.
+1
It’ll take a lot to change the US into a third-world nation.
@rbt, starting from zero bulk, I’ve got some way to go to get to ” tons”. I DO have 500 to 750 I think in dry bulk.
I don’t stock #10 cans due to not being able to eat them fast enough, but I DO have cases of regular cans.
Long way to go still. Fortunately bulk staples are cheap. They do take up a lot of space though.
Nick
Wrt third world, the whole nation might not change but large swaths are well on the way. Detroit, Pittsburg, Gary, East Chicago, Minneapolis, Oakland, most of the Rust Belt….. Anywhere within 20 miles of Mexico
Nick
Hey, don’t criticize our glorious leaders. They’re working as fast as they can.
“… the whole nation might not change but large swaths are well on the way. Detroit, Pittsburg, Gary, East Chicago, Minneapolis, Oakland, most of the Rust Belt….. Anywhere within 20 miles of Mexico…
Most of those places I would regard as well on the way, it not there already, as Second World, i.e., much like East Germany and the former Eastern Bloc countries after WWII. Large swaths heading Turd World are LA, south Floriduh, parts of Mississippi and Louisiana, and of course within a few miles of our southern border. Areas within most of those cities mentioned and most other large cities are going Turd World, however, and are often no-go for LE, esp. at night.
“… don’t criticize our glorious leaders. They’re working as fast as they can.”
No kidding. I guess the main idea is to render it mostly Turd World with large uninhabited areas that are being sold to the Chicoms, for instance, and can be mined or grazed to feed the hungry billions over there. The elites will live in large estate complexes, with heavy security, and the rest of us will be on our own, like we’re seeing more and more now anyway. They’ll probably try to control the entire country and suppress dissent and opposition as much as they can, but will eventually find out they can’t do it all, not all the time, and some areas of the country will revert to being out of their purview, except from drones and satellites.
But also eventually, they won’t be able to pay for their security, their troops, and their police, as money denominated in endlessly printed fiat currency and money in the form of digital integers in cyberspace won’t cut the mustard anymore.
We may see some major chit within the next six months here but I’m betting the really big chit will be going down in the next five to ten years. That may give more of us time to get set, to some extent, with our preps and forging community and neighborhood ties. Or the chit can hit the fan and splatter the entire room tomorrow afternoon and we’ll all have to go with what we’ve got, which in our case up here is precious little, but still WAY more than Mr. and Mrs. Boobus Americanus and Derp Central.
Our so called betters are bring the third world to us. 50,000,000 refugees and illegals in the last 20 years alone.
except from drones and satellites.
Yay! Future employment for me!
“Yay! Future employment for me!”
Nope, real pilots not allowed to fly drones. Only enlisted….
n
“Our so called betters are bring the third world to us. 50,000,000 refugees and illegals in the last 20 years alone.”
+1,000
Indeed, and it was originated back in the 1960s, with malice aforethought. With any luck, the law of percentages will have it so we only have to worry about a small minority of them being serious problems, but in this day and age, even one piece of shit can wreak untold havoc. I used to tell folks that our open southern border was a giant sieve, and among the tens of thousands, and then hundreds of thousands crossing, some of them were going to obviously be narcotrafficantes, terrorist cells, and common criminals. Know what I got in response? Ridicule and then crickets.
“Nope, real pilots not allowed to fly drones. Only enlisted….”
…scum. There, Finished That For Ya. Sure, put a bunch of enlisted drones in underground bunkers, no need for trained pilots anymore. It will be like just another video game to them. But once again, from OFD’s playbook page: these people can be ID’d and gotten to.