Urban Survival Planning - Don't Forget the "No Comms" Plan

To be well prepared communications technology wise to survive a total collapse, most survival planners would develop a list of communications equipment that may look like this:

Hand Held FRS/GMRS radios. Used for small group to small group communications such as from someone on security at a listening post/observation post to other in the Survival Group. Used for inter-team communications such as conducting a patrol around the Survival site.

Solar Crank AM/FM/SSB radio with Wx alert channel. Not only can you pickup any AM or FM radios stations and weather alerts would be excellent in the advent of an internet disruption, but you can listen to Ham radio operators and pickup intelligence helping you piece together an assessment of the situation sometimes from faraway locations.

CB radios. A capability to think about, since they are so common. Listening to CB transmission, which are predominantly in vehicles, can provide an excellent source of intelligence concerning events in and around your Survival location as well as on major lines of communications (highways, interstates and other roadways).

HF Ham Radio System and Upper grade UHF/VHF transceivers. Which are often outside the grasp of your basic Survivalist, both in scope of use and cost.

Anyway, we’ll be writing more articles on communications and radio systems. What I wanted to address this post was that no matter how robust your communications capabilities are,…no matter how many radios in various frequencies and modulations you possess, the thinking Survival Planner needs to have a plan for no communications. This is typical called the “No Communications” plan.

An example would be a lack of communications for whatever reason (dead batteries, radios out of range, broken equipment, etc.). What would be your planned actions and protocols for a patrol returning to your Survival site? Maybe you have a procedure, where at the time the patrol is expected to return, someone at the Survival base hoists a flag, or opens curtains or whatever visual signal you determine annotating that the site is safe to return to. The patrol would in turn have an arm and hand signal or another visual signal such as the lead man wearing a red cap or walking into the site with his weapon held in front vertical, muzzle down. Lack of either signal would mean the site or the patrol is under duress. And duress simply means someone is making you do something,….consider it a gun to your head. Some people simply call this a “safe” signal and lack of a safe signal would be mean duress.

Maybe the Patrol has a procedure where in the absence of the safe signal, the action would be to withdrawal and linkup with anyone who may have vacated the Survival Site at a pre-determined Emergency Rally Point or Emergency Rendezvous Point (ERP) that you have planned in case the Survival Site gets over ran.

Another example of a “No communications” plan may be between you and other members of your Survival Group who are now living apart. Maybe your plan is to communicate as things gets worse and at some point communicate to coordinate a move to your interim Survival Site or Safe Site. Maybe you plan for several communications means: landline telephone (primary), cell phones (alternate), and radios (contingency on a pre-planned contact time each day or night). You still need a “no-comms” plan which may be in the event of no communications for a period of 48 hours, Survival Group members will initiate a move to the planned Survival Site, stopping a certain distance away to covertly approach and look for the “safe” signal, then approach the house with the return or replying “safe” procedure.

Another example, would be Jim’s (from Survival Chronicles of Jim) example. His son is attending college about 60 miles away. Jim’s simple “No Comms” plan is in the event of a decayed situation or a full out collapse, AND, after two missed communications contacts which are scheduled for 8:00 pm each night, is that on what would be the night of the third missed scheduled contact, Jim will meet his son at a turn in off the access road near the Interstate. Jim will pull in with his vehicle and flash the lights three times. Jim’s son will in turn flash the lights four times then make his approach. Jim will wait 30 minutes, if his son does not show, then Jim will leave a small bag of water and food ten feet behind a road sign. They will repeat this 24 hours later if possible. Then his son is on his own to get to Jim’s Survival location. Failing all this, Jim’s son knows that the Bug Out location is the family cabin about 200 miles North, and he knows the safe signal that will be displayed if it is safe to approach the cabin.

Jim and his son also have a challenge and password.

So your “No Communications” plan is used in the event of all communications systems being down. The “No Communications” plan are procedures based on missed communications from a schedule and compromise a series of actions and visual signals in order for Survivors to eventually link up in safe manner.

Urban Survival Planning - Getting your Relatives and Friends to Prepare

I have wrote on this site many times about the likelihood of all of us Survival Preppers having to deal with straphangers at some point in time after the collapse. Some of these straphangers will be relatives,...some will be friends,...some will just be acquaintances,...and other will be strangers. I would say that most of us are going to take in without question any of our relatives and close friends. I think that as much as we plan in our heads and prepare on the ground to receive, assess, absorb or turn away strangers,...it will be much different than we plan for.

But for now I want to talk to our family and friends. How nice would it be that everyone we know was as prepared as we are. Well that just ain't going to happen for a variety of reasons,...religious, financial and political beliefs and practices will get in the way. For some it just may be the creeping entitlement mindset that Americans have been given in increasingly larger doses over the past decades.

In any event, a lot of your family and friends,...I would think the vast majority of them, simply have not considered a collapse of any kind and what it would take to survive.

So what do you do? Have a sit down talk about the virtues of preparedness? Probably not. This is a two edged sword - you are exposing yourself and the fact that you are most likely prepared. If these people don't prepare at all they'll be knocking on your door.

Better to use the "drip" concept. Maybe your having a conversation with your someone, and a news report on a disaster comes up. You say "I wonder if those families in that area have stockpiled food and water?". Your relative say's "Why would you say that?" You reply: "Well, it just seems like a good idea, having some food put away and generally being prepared if you live in a disaster area.
If you friend of relative looks at you like you have two heads - then cross them off the list.

On the other hand you can always send a massive e-mail out to all your friends and family in the local commuting distance and declare yourself to be a survivalist stocking guns, ammunition, gear, food, water, medical supplies and you won't be receiving any visitors after the collapse unless they are similar prepared or can contribute to the survival team they will be joining. If you do this, you will probably be removed from several Christmas card lists.

I having lunch with several, lets call them "mid level managers" where I work. The topic of the Television Survival guys came up. Then the topic shifted to surviving in a city during a period of anarchy. One of the guys said "You know, I've been hearing on the radio and television about Food Insurance and all this talk about buying Gold." I replied "Sure, since all the mainstream analysts are predicting an economic collapse, people are getting ready."

This same guys then asks: "Getting ready for what?" I reply: "Since this economy is going to collapse,...probably preceded by massive hyper inflation,.....since most people only have three to five days food supply,...no cash on hand or means of payment such as silver or gold,....and since grocery stores would be overwhelmed by mobs during any collapse significant enough to impede commodities shipments or the real probability of hyper inflation which would create large groups of people who could not afford food,...since all this is not only possible by probable, it makes good sense to have some food, water and means for protection on hand."

This guy kinda chuckles then say's "Do you have food stocked for a collapse?" I said "Of course I do,..don't you? If you don't then it's something to think about. Maybe buying some silver as well." This guy then say's with a laugh "Well, I guess I know where to go." And I end the conversation saying, "Sure, just don't come empty handed."

Anybody out there having a hard time strategizing about how to approach their friends and relatives?

Urban Survival - USA FEMA Camps Controversy Is Still Around

I received three e-mails the past couple weeks on the notion of "FEMA Concentration Camps". Since in four months past, I did not get any comments or queries on these, I thought there may be some new information on the internet information or disinformation sites. While I did not spend a great deal of time looking into these, I did not find anything new,...no smoking gun,....nothing but old information.

What caused a stir on "FEMA Concentration Camps" was the initial attempt by Glenn Beck to de-bunk these camps. When Glenn Beck couldn't initially de-bunk these claims - that caused a stir,..."Oh My God, it must be true,..the Government is planning on putting us in concentration camps!!

Okay, lets hold on. Review the video below, showing one side, then go to the following websites, where Fox News, Glenn Beck and Popular Mechanics debunk the claim of FEMA planning and building camps to detain Americans in.

I do not believe the claim that there are detention camps being built for the explict purpose of detaining Americans. I know that FEMA has planned refugee camps in order to house Americans displaced from natural disasters ot other emergencies. Can these camps be used to forceably detain Americans? Of course they could be. Is there a nefarious government plan to incarcerate Americans for any reason? Probably so as the Government and especially the Military plans and develops Operational Plans for all contingencies. I would be surprised if the Government did not have a OPLAN on the books on how to deal with large groups of citizens disaffected by pandemics, nuclear strikes, large scale disasters and such.

However, is this plan specifically oriented towards detaining Americans under insurrection or martial law? I don't think so, but the distinction of what the reason is really doesn't matter as long as the plan, facilities and material are in place.

Anyway, I promised a couple readers to respond, but I wanted to thread the needle,....not inciting those who believe the worst about our Government, nor witness on the other side of the coin. Everybody needs to make up their own mind. And the bottom line is just how does this change the need or your individual plan on preparing for the coming collapse? Not much I guess.

Glenn Beck interview on Fox News on the FEMA Camps:



Other websites for both sides of the story:

http://www.lewrockwell.com/rep/fema-camps-jesse-ventura.html

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,513024,00.html

http://www.glennbeck.com/content/articles/article/198/23671/

Reader Response on Military Set to Intervene on the Coming Food Crisis

UrbanSurvivalSkills.com received the following anonymous comment on the post Food Riots Possible - Military Prepared to Intervene......"I do expect the problems to get worse and surely food will be one of those problems. As tempting as it is to jump on the bandwagon here I just don't buy this story. The funny thing is that I don't think Obama is really as smart as he thinks he is and therefore I doubt he has a clue about food problems. When and if that happens Obama and his administration will be caught flat-footed and will in all likelihood blame it all on something Rush or Beck said on air."

UrbanMan replies: 10-4 on Obama and his cabinent, legitmately appointed and confirmed by congress and the others (the Czars) all not being smart enough to get us out of this mess....but I think we are at the point that there is nothing the Administration nor Congress can do. The collapse WILL hit, the only questions are how soon and how bad; will it be influenced by other incidents such as war (possibly with Iran or North Korea, or wars between two non U.S. actors); or a calamity inflicted upon the U.S. like a pandemic or a terrorist attack - physical or otherwise like a cyber attack on the banking system.

side note: As I write this Gen. (ret) Colin Powell who was also former Secretary of State under President George W. Bush, was on T.V. saying the economy was getting better.....well, I guess he skipped Economic AND History at West Point.

The post on Food Riots Possible - Military Prepared to Intervene was intended to get people to think how they can mitigate the coming food shortage, riots by the hungry and possible homeless hundreds of thousands, and living in a military controlled environment. The military is prepared to act in side the United States in peacekeeping, population control, anti-riot roles with law enforcement powers. Go check the "Insurrection Act."

The military, including the National Guard, Reserves and Active Duty components are much too small to effect the control that will be necessary upon the large scale food riots and resulting problems across the U.S.

So what do we do? Well, the safest thing is to re-locate to a small population density area that is agricultural in nature, AND, prepare for shipment of food stuffs and other commodities to stop. However, that is just not possible for most of us. We have need our jobs and our lives entrenched where we are. SO, it all boils down to the basics,.....food, water, shelter, protection,...and a plan.

I was asked the other day just how much food stocked was necessary. My answer was as much as you can afford and physically stock. I don't think anybody can say "stock six months", or "stock 12 months supply". I do think the first objective would be to stock food to take you from late summer through the next harvest season which would be around nine months in most locales. But nine months does not take into consideration what if you can't grow enough food? What happens if commodities trade does not grow enough to provide the critical levels to survive?

All the food, water, and firearms won't be enough if you live in a riot infested and hence government targeted area. The government and it's principal actors, the military, is not going to be surgical in their application of control. I envision a confiscation and re-location program particularly in the denser populated areas to be necessary for government control to be effective.

Here's where your plan is necessary. You simply have to have a plan, preferably with contingencies (remember the PACE planning?), where you have a safe place to Bug Out to. This may be a rendezvous (aka RV or rally point) where other like minded people and families will meet you,...it may be a place where you have done some level of preparation on, such as pre-position of supplies and caches. It has to be defensible to some degree and have water accessible. And you have to execute that plan before you are caught up in military operations ordered by the Government to control the hungry masses before anarchy reaches critical mass.

Urban Survival Planning - Collapse Indicators: The Daily Crux

UrbanSurvivalSkills.com is now a fan of The Daily Crux by Porter Stansberry as he provides good insight into how the World economy and geo-political events will affect the United States through his site, The Daily Crux.

A couple of post headlines and orientation from each, from his website are posted below. You can go to his site to read the complete article. The take home lesson here is that Stansberry's Daily Crux is an essential information provider for us to format our own conclusions and indicators of the coming collapse. If I was you, I would bookmark it and refer back to it as often as you can, even several times a day.

Porter Stansberry: You must prepare for a crisis NOW
Wednesday, January 12, 2011
The collapse of the euro will cause all kinds of big problems this year and almost surely lead to a huge correction in commodities. Does that mean the U.S. dollar's problems are just a mirage? Nope. Sooner or later the U.S. will face a stark choice...
If we let the euro fail, it will result in terrible short-term consequences. So the Fed will crank up the presses yet again. Quantitative easing 3 will be another $1 trillion effort, this time focused on buying European sovereign debt. The Fed must become the lender of last resort not only for the U.S. , but for the world. That's the last step before its eventual collapse. After that point, people will no longer flee to Treasurys (Treasury Bonds) when a crisis erupts. They will flee to gold.

These "nightmare scenarios" could plunge the world into a new crisis
Thursday, January 20, 2011
What could cause an economic collapse in 2011? Well, unfortunately there are quite a few "nightmare scenarios" that could plunge the entire globe into another massive financial crisis.
The United States, Japan, and most of the nations in Europe are absolutely drowning in debt. The Federal Reserve continues to play reckless games with the U.S. dollar. The price of oil is skyrocketing and the global price of food just hit a new record high. Food riots are already breaking out all over the world. Meanwhile, the rampant fraud and corruption going on in world financial markets is starting to be exposed and the whole house of cards could come crashing down at any time.
... So we had all better be getting prepared for hard times. The following are 12 economic collapse scenarios that we could potentially see in 2011...

#1 U.S. debt could become a massive crisis at any moment.

#2 Speaking of threats to the global financial system, it turns out that "quantitative easing 2" has had the exact opposite effect that Ben Bernanke planned for it to have.

#3 The debt bubble that the entire global economy is based on could burst at any time and throw the whole planet into chaos.

#4 As the U.S. government and the Federal Reserve continue to pump massive amounts of new dollars into the system, the floor could fall out from underneath the U.S. dollar at any time.

#5 One of the primary drivers of global inflation during 2011 could be the price of oil. A large number of economists are now projecting that the price of oil could surge well past $100 dollars a barrel in 2011.

#6 Food inflation, massive food riots in various spots in the World; what is going to happen if global food prices go up another 10 or 20 percent and food riots spread literally all over the globe during 2011?

#7 There are rumors that simply will not go away of massive physical gold and silver shortages. Demand for precious metals has never been higher.

#8 The U.S. housing industry could plunge the U.S. economy into another recession at any time. Record low new houses and massive foreclosures scheduled.

#9 A combination of extreme weather and disease could make this an absolutely brutal year for U.S. farmers. A winter of new cold weather and snowfall records set across the United States .

#10 The municipal bond crisis could go "supernova" at any time. Already, investors are bailing out of bonds at a frightening pace. State and local government debt is now sitting at an all-time high.

#11 The quadrillion dollar derivatives bubble could burst at any time.

#12 The biggest wildcard of all is war. The Korean peninsula came closer to war in 2010 than it had in decades. The Middle East could literally explode at any time.

Mayors of major U.S. cities say defaults are certain
Thursday, January 20, 2011
The mayors of Los Angeles and Chicago said the financial strains still weighing on local governments in the wake of the recession may cause cities to default on their bonds.
Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, a Democrat, said municipalities are being squeezed as states move to balance their own budgets, a step that can involve taking more funds that would otherwise be sent to towns and cities.
"There's no question you'll see some cities in default," Villaraigosa told reporters today at a press conference in Washington , where the U.S. Conference of Mayors is meeting. "The difference between us and the federal government is they can print money.

America 's "day of reckoning" has arrived
Wednesday, January 19, 2011
Call it a Day of Reckoning or a Point of No Return. Either way, it has arrived. Cities and states are in forced cutback mode except for Illinois , which managed to kick the can down the road with massive increases in taxes.

A huge threat to your freedom is gathering strength (WARNING: extremely controversial post)
Friday, January 14, 2011
"What is government if words have no meaning?"
Jared Loughner reportedly posed that question to Rep. Gabrielle Giffords at a forum two years ago. Perhaps unwittingly, Loughner answered that question himself by murdering six people and attempting to murder fourteen others, including Giffords. In doing so, the young nihilist effectively privatized government's central function.
Shorn of the sophistries that provide it with a moral disguise, pared down to its essentials, political government is the systematic use of exactly the same kind of criminal violence employed by Loughner, only on a much grander scale. This was illustrated the day before Loughner's murderous rampage, when agents of the government ruling us used a remote-controlled drone operated from the safety of an office building in Nevada to murder six people in Pakistan 's North Waziristan region.

Americans were not admonished to observe a moment of chastened silence in memory of the victims of that exercise in criminal violence. This is, in part, because observances of that kind would quickly become tedious: Since 2008, Pakistan – a country with which the government ruling us is not formally at war – has endured at least 250 drone attacks, in which roughly 1,400 people have been killed.

According to the most conservative estimate of "collateral damage," only a tithe of those slaughtered through drone strikes are "militants."

Hundreds of civilians have likewise been massacred in the ongoing "surge" in Afghanistan , many of them in nighttime raids by "Special Operations Forces" – that is, death squads – whose behavior is not easily distinguishable from that of Jared Loughner. At least a hundred thousand civilians have been annihilated in the continuing war in Iraq , which was inaugurated for reasons just as delusional as anything that percolated in Loughner's distressed mind.

For those who worship at the altar of the omnipotent State, mass murder of this kind is an exercise in sanctified violence. In a 2009 interview with Foreign Policy magazine, Bill Clinton – who has repeatedly denounced "anti-government" speech as a form of criminal sedition – defined terrorism as "killing and robbery and coercion by people who do not have state authority." (Emphasis added.) What this means, of course, is that "killing and robbery and coercion" by duly authorized agents of the State isn't terrorism,…it’s policy.

Food Riots Possible - Military Prepared to Intervene

From an article entitled "Obama Orders Military To Prepare For Spring Food Riots", posted by the Posted by EU Times on Jan 13th, 2011

A grim report prepared by France’s General Directorate for External Security (DGSE) obtained by Russia’s Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR) states that president’s Obama and Sarkozy have “agreed in principal” to create a joint US-European military force to deal exclusively with a Global uprising expected this spring as our World runs out of food.

According to this report, Sarkozy, as head of the G-20 group of developed Nations, called for and received an emergency meeting with Obama this past Monday at the White House wherein he warned his American counterpart that the shock rise in food prices occurring due to an unprecedented series of disasters was threatening the stability of the entire World and could lead to the outbreak of Total Global War.

Just last week French Prime Minister Francois Fillon underlined that one of France’s top G-20 priorities was to find a collective response to “excessive volatility” in food prices now occurring, a statement joined by Philippe Chalmin, a top economic adviser to the French government, who warned the World may face social unrest including food riots in April as grain prices increase to unprecedented highs.

The fears of the French government over growing Global instability was realized this past week after food riots erupted in Algeria and Tunisia and left over 50 dead. So dire has the situation become in Tunisia that their government this morning rushed in massive amounts of troops and tanks to their capital city Tunis and instituted a Nationwide curfew in an order to quell the growing violence.

The United Nations, also, warned this past Friday that millions of people are now at risk after food prices hit their highest level ever as Global wheat stocks fell to 175.2 million tons from 196.7 million tons a year ago; Global corn stocks are said may be 127.3 million tons at the end of this season, compared with last month’s USDA outlook for 130 million tons; and Global soybean inventories will drop to 58.78 million tons at the end of this season, from 60.4 million tons a year earlier.

Robert Zoellick, president of the World Bank, further warned this past week that rising food prices are “a threat to global growth and social stability” as our World, for the first time in living memory, has been warned is just “one poor harvest away from chaos”.

Important to note about how dire the Global food situation has become is to understand the disasters that have befallen our World’s top wheat growing Nations this past year, and who in descending order are: China, India, United States, Russia, France, Canada, Germany, Ukraine, Australia and Pakistan.

From China’s disaster: 2010 China drought and dust storms were a series of severe droughts during the spring of 2010 that affected Yunnan, Guizhou, Guangxi, Sichuan, Shanxi, Henan, Shaanxi, Chongqing, Hebei and Gansu in the People’s Republic of China as well as parts of Southeast Asia including Vietnam and Thailand, and dust storms in March and April that affected much of East Asia. The drought has been referred to as the worst in a century in southwestern China.

From India’s disaster: A record heat wave and growing water crisis in India are forcing politicians to consider implementing user fees and other measures to conserve water. Sri Lanka’s President Mahinda Rajapaksa yesterday instructed ministers and officials to prepare a strategic plan to face an impending food crisis as there were signs that the World is to confront a food shortage by next April.

From Russia’s disaster: (10% of total World’s output, 20% for export) they were hit by the highest recorded temperatures Russia has seen in 130 years of recordkeeping; the most widespread drought in more than three decades; and massive wildfires that have stretched across seven regions, including Moscow.

From France’s disaster: The French government lowered their wheat crop forecast by 2.7% over last year due to drought and cold weather.

From Canada’s disaster: Record setting drought has affected their main grain producing provinces in the Western part of their Nation.

From Ukraine’s disaster: (the World’s top producer of barley and sixth biggest of wheat) hit as hard as Russia by fire and drought to the point they have halted all their exports of grains in 2011.

From Australia’s disaster: Fears of a Global wheat shortage have risen after the Queensland area of Australia was hit by calamitous flooding. Andrew Fraser, Queensland’s State Treasurer, described the floods as a “disaster of biblical proportions”. Water is covering land the size of France and Germany. It is expected to reach over 30 feet deep in some areas in coming days.

From Pakistan’s disaster: Floods have submerged 17 million acres of Pakistan’s most fertile crop land, have killed 200,000 herd of livestock and have washed away massive amounts of grain and left farmers unable to meet the fall deadline for planting new seeds, which implies a massive loss of food production in 2011, and potential long term food shortages.

Not only have the vast majority of our World’s top wheat producers been affected, but also one of the main grain producing regions on the Planet, South America, has been hit by disasters too where an historic drought has crippled Argentina and Bolivia, and Brazil, that regions largest Nation, has been hit with catastrophic floods that have killed nearly 400 people in the past few days alone.

Even the United States has been hit as a catastrophic winter has seen 49 of their 50 States covered by snow causing unprecedented damage to their crops in Florida due to freezing weather, and record setting rains destroying massive numbers of crops in their most important growing region of California.

And if you think that things couldn’t get any worse you couldn’t be more mistaken as South Korea (one of the most important meat exporters in Asia) has just this past week had to destroy millions of farm animals after an outbreak of the dreaded foot-and-mouth disease was discovered.

To how horrific the Global food situation will become this year was made even more grim this past month when the United States reported that nearly all of their honey bee and bumblebee populations have died out, and when coupled with the “mysterious” die-off of the entire bat population in America means that the two main pollinators of fruit and vegetable plants will no longer be able to do their jobs leading to crop losses this report warns will be “biblical and catastrophic”.

Chillingly to note is that after meeting with Sarkozy, Obama began implementing his Nation’s strategy for keeping the truth of this dire events from reaching the American people by ordering all US citizens to have an Internet ID so that they can be tracked and jailed should they begin telling the truth.

And so today, as agricultural traders and analysts warn that the latest revision to US and Global stocks means there is no further room for weather problems, a new cyclone is preparing to hit Australia, brutal winter weather in India has killed nearly 130, and more snow is warned to hit America, and we’re not even two full weeks into 2011… may God have mercy on us all.

But He also expects us to take care of ourselves and others. Prepare and prepare well.

Seeds and Growing Food Needs to Be Important to the Urban Survivor

Possibly the hardest things for Survival Preppers, especially Urban Survival preppers to get their heads around is stockpiling seeds in order to grow their own food.

I know many Survivalists who have stocked food, suitable firearms, plenty of ammunition, Bug Out Bags packed, and all the latest tactical and survival gear. More often than not the biggest deficiency in Survival plans is planning to grow your own food and to stockpile seeds to enable this.

Growing your own food is also a very good and viable way to reduce your dependency on commercial foods and this would become important during a slow gradual economic collapse, as we are in right now.

The Urban Survivor has two choices when it comes to stockpiling seeds; hybrid and non-hybrid seeds.

Non-Hybrid Seeds: Are natural, non-engineered seeds that when they grow also produce seeds that can be collected and used to grow more food. They are also referred to as Open Pollinated seeds, which generally are more robust and hardier than hybrids. It is thought that non-hybrids produce vegetables or fruits with better flavor.

Hybrid Seeds: Hybrid seeds are intentionally bred to create a better yield, better resistant to disease and drought and product a more standard fruit or vegetable with uniform color.

The Survival Planner should stock non-hybrid seeds – and a lot of them. One of the reasons to stock hybrid seeds, as well, is to be able to grow food in temporary locations that you may depart before the harvest is completed and seeds for the future can be recovered. Hybrid seed’s are cheaper and available at most any hardware or home improvement store, and, can be excellent barter material.

There will be some people that advise Survival Planners to only buy non-hybrid seeds. I think the priority should be: 1 – have seeds, hybrid or non-hybrid, 2 – have seeds both hybrid and non-hybrid, 3 – have hybrid seeds for year to year grows. Get my point?

But planning on a continuous food supply doesn’t stop with stockpiling seeds. The complete Urban Survivor should have a working knowledge about composting (creating your own fertilizer); container gardening, indoor gardening, hydroponics gardening, harvesting and preserving vegetables and fruits through canning and drying.

You should start your own garden immediately, indoors if necessary and when the frost threat and cold weather ends, plant outdoors. The experience will be invaluable, the achievement in growing your own food is substantial and the feeling that you can cut the threat of inflation and food shortages is a great feeling.

Having seeds and the ability to grow your own food IS survival!

Urban Survival - World Economy Affects the U.S. and the Coming Collapse

Whether we like it or not, and most of us certainly don’t, a World economy exists and disruptions within this economy have major effects on the U.S. economy. For some of you knuckle draggers out there, the World economy s not the same as the infamous “One World Government” concept, however make no mistake about it there are people, and people in powerful positions who desire a one world government. But what I am talking about it the global economy and how inflation and collapses in other countries combined with nationalistic trends greatly effects not only how the U.S. economy reacts but dials up the chances and effects of a economic collapse in this Country.

The United States is a consumer and much less the manufacturer or provider like we were 50 years ago. We are simply dependent on other countries not only for consumer goods, but largely for foods and particularly so for oil. Without the our military power and demonstrated willingness to use it, our need for oil can be leveraged by the world’s producers and other large consumers (China, Russia and others). This can, and will, as some experts predict, drive the price of gasoline up to $7 a gallon by the end of this calendar year.

In China , trying for an orderly transition to new civilian leadership in the near future will face a threat from their own military which is executing an unprecedented growth in military expansion and technological development. There is a rift between the civilian Chinese leadership and the military that will only grow as their own economy suffers from reverberations from the decaying U.S. and global economy. If the U.S. defaults on debt owed to China , and as the U.S. necessarily voids or changes trade agreements as an effort in self preservation – the China problem will pick up steam.

Chinese needs for oil that grown at an incredible rate. It will only further grow not only driving the price up but create potential political firestorms as the global economy competes for a limited supply.

Just image gasoline at $7 a gallon. That means Diesel fuel even higher. That means all consumer goods, being trucked across the country, at never to expected high prices. Imagine bread at $6 a loaf,…..milk at $12 a gallon and you start to get the picture. Most people don’t know it now, but consumer commodities have risen an average of 43%. Some of you may admit that in the back fo your head you are aware of growing prices, but it will be really evident when that percentage increases to 400%, 600% or even $1000.

Fuel oil for heating will be at astronomical prices. Electricity, since much of it is produced by fuel oil driven plants, at twice to three times what you pay now. In short everything will go up in price and go up exponentially. This is inflation,…no,…this will be hyper inflation.

What will not go up is your income or buying power. In fact, that will take a dive. If you near the poverty level, this will have incredible and dire consequences for you and your family’s ability to survive. This will also produce a large class of people that will be desperate. This number may reach 60 million. Imagine 60 million people, a full 20% of the U.S. population who cannot sustain themselves.

The U.S. government will have to create large scale entitlement programs just in order to feed these people and keep anarchy at bay. I fully expect the deployment of first line U.S. military combat units to enforce martial laws in some high population density areas. The U.S. government will not be able to borrow more money, so they will print more fiat currency further driving us into hyper inflation….and eventual anarchy.

Beginning in maybe April, certainly no later than July, the banks, lenders, housing market and certainly the people will take a giant hit as adjustable rate mortgages will be re-set causing a large number of people to be upside down in their homes (that is owing much more than the property is worth), and interest rates will skyrocket. Foreclosures will exceed previous record highs. The government will try to control this with more stimulus money drawn from a empty bank account further deflating money and adding to the hyper inflation, and may try to control the dive through government take over (nationalizing) of banks and maybe the whole mortgage industry. This will embolden the U.S. Government to nationalize other segments of the economy such as health care, insurance, and possibly the oil industry.

All of this spells doom for us. What can you do? Do what you are doing now,…..preparing for inevitable. But do it smarter. And do it at an increase pace. And above all, wargame your plan against all the possible scenarios. I have long said that Survival is a Team Sport,..but it is also a thinking man’s game.

Reader Question on Survival Group Networking

An UrbanSurvivalSkills.com reader wrote: "Urban Man, This site has got me going, I am like so many people, caught on my heals.

I live in a major city in the West (City and State deleted), do you know of any survival prep networks out here? I'm feeling very isolated and alone in these suburbs. I am not a home owner, but I have some bug out provisions (and will purchase a Henry AR-7)...My main concern is that I don't have a survival group...how can I find partners?"

There are several survival forums where people are private messaging each other for survival networking and coordination. Some of the better survival forums are: NoBullShitSurvival Forum

Survivalistboards.com

WhenSHTF.com

Survivalmonkey.com

However I would be very wary about linking with people you don't know. You have no idea about their morals, religious beliefs, etc. Maintain your Operational Security. Last thing you want to do is to advertise what you have and where you are located to people with evil intentions.

I think you're Survival Group is going to be mostly people you know prior to the collapse. Some of these people also know people you don't, so any planned Survival Group will grow. You need to be able to control that growth somewhat. You don't want a bunch of dickheads, losers, criminals or slackers as part of your group.

I would simply make a list of people you know, like and trust. Maybe you can also do an inventory on their skills and what they would bring to a Survival Group. I have spent over 30 years in various Government positions carrying a gun. Having said that I would much rather than a bunch of people un-skilled with firearms who I trust and could train, then a bunch of Special Operators with type A personalities who would be problems.

I would approach people on your list and just ask some simple questions to gauge their ability to comprehend the concept of preparedness and whether or not they'll think you are a nut.

There are a couple of government sites that recommend preparing such as ready.gov which preaches preparedness.

You could tell people "Hey, I found this government site which advocates preparedness for natural disasters and such. After looking at it I realized I wasn't prepared at all? What about you? Have you thought about this?

People that you talk to and expose yourself as planning (at some level) for a disaster or collapse, may be the first ones showing up at your house if a collapse hits.

The AR-7 survival rifle is a good tool, but not nearly as accurate are other .22 LR long guns. I think everyone needs .22LR firearms in their survival battery, both handguns and long guns. But make no mistake about it .22LR firearms are pathetic for defense.

Some of the "non-gun" people I advise on Urban Survival prep now have at least a centerfire handgun and a 12 gauge shotgun, but defense is absolutely necessary.

Above all have a Bug Out plan. If there is no food in the stores, electricity goes out, riots in the streets, etc. where are you going to go? What are your routes? (plan for multiple routes - Pri, Alt, Contingency and Emergency); how are going to survive (food, water, shelter) when you get where you are going?

Lastly, buy some silver if you are able to. Whatever you can afford.

Hope this helps.

UrbanMan

Survival Chronicles of Jim - Chapter 22, Post Collapse Financial Planning

When I told UrbanMan what I have been doing the past month and wanted to write about it, at first he was a little skeptical but relented after I sent him some stuff to read. UrbanMan’s note: I took the liberty of editing Jim’s letter just a little before posting here. However, it is substantially the same as what he sent me. For the past two months I have been in crazy mode reading stacks of books and on-line information concerning economic collapse of nations as well as the predictions of the collapse of this country; and, historical information and data on currency failing, recessions and depressions; etc. I am sure most of you know that the life span on non-gold backed fiat currency is about 40 years. We are past that, and we (the U.S.) is heading for a reckoning.

Maybe you stop there in your research and study on economic collapses,...I didn't. There is no doubt that a currency collapse is coming. It doesn't matter if it is caused by the devaluation of the dollar or by other economic factors. This has taken place all throughout history. We (the United States ) set this course when we took the dollar off the Gold standard. This is an irreversible course now. What this generates, other than pain and suffering, is a giant
re-distribution of wealth......and benefits those who are prepared. Sure, the first order is to get prepared for a total collapse - this is the most dangerous scenario - where the infrastructure is gone and doesn't come back. The ability to protect yourself and your family; survive the hardest period of degradation; have the material and skills to live - grow your own food, etc., are essential,...and again the first order to business.

But what if the collapse is a gradual collapse and rebounds in some fashion, albeit with a different currency and maybe backed by precious metals?

I work as a computer programmer, on contract to the Government, and make a good salary. However, most of my wealth (currently about 65%) comes from my network marketing business. Since I have minimal expenses, other than buying survival equipment, gear, guns and food - ha ha the same boat we are all in, but I don’t have a wife I have to placate. I have taken much of my available money and have bought much more Gold and Silver.

Again, herein lies the rub,…most people are planning for a chaos; an end of the world scenario and are not planning for a rebound sometime in the future. I wasn’t prepared for anything previous to one year ago, now I am somewhat prepared for a worst case scenario. Like I said, I have bought quite a bit of Gold and Silver over the past month as well as long term survival food. I have also purchased a food saver and vacuum packed twelve buckets of food and counting. I am going to buy a couple more firearms and probably trade my old Toyota RAV in for a new and larger pickup or SUV.

The experts I have been reading,....R.G. Allen, Robert Kiyosaki, Gonzalo Lira, Mike Maloney, Mike Dillard, and more recently the National Inflation Association, Porter Stansberry, and Sandy Leeds,….all have great things to say about what you can do to prepare yourself to come out the next crisis (and it will be a big crisis) if, in fact, this coming collapse will have an upswing in the short or long term future. Most of the advisors and experts I read say to buy Gold and Silver (done, but I’m still buying); stocking food (done, but still I’m still buying and stocking); make a Survival plan (done, but still evaluating it and will changes if necessary); and, develop multiple streams of income (done, but still building my networking marketing business) – almost everyone has, or can develop or can sell a product, services or information (PSI) – a good book on this is “Cash in a Flash” by Robert Allen and Mark Victor Hansen. So I am expanding my multiple streams of income, not only to provide more near term income for survival preparation, but to position myself to come out of the giant redistribution of wealth on the high side.

I advise all of you reading this, who are obvious interested in planning and preparing to survive a collapse, to look at developing additional streams of income – this is the Multiple Streams of Income concept so you make your financial situation more stable and therefore better able to take the disruption of losing one or more streams of income. Again look at PSI (Product, Services and Income) as almost everyone has something they can do to create more income. Know the difference between linear income and residual income. Linear income is money earned for performing work for a period of time. Residual income is money generated time and time again from one period of work.

As an example, I know a lady who makes custom greeting cards. This is her passion. She is now marketing them to friends and to friends of her friends. I advised her to start a website or blog site to advertise her cards and generate more business. UrbanMan for instance, generates income from teaching firearms and related classes to private citizens. I know yet another person who does property inspections on the side to generate linear income. Many different ways, beside the network marketing business that I do, to create Multiple Streams of Income. Take a personal inventory of your skills and capabilities then look at your options. Get prepared, not just for the total collapse but prepare to come out of a collapse on the top side of the wealth redistribution curve. Good luck.

Statistics That Show We Are Already In A Collapse

Another good website to research and understand all the economic and financial factors that will influence just how fast and deep the coming collapse will be is
The Economic Collapse Blog

Great site, bookmark it and follow it would be my advice.

The following statistics are from their website which was introduced, in part, with the following: Most Americans have become so accustomed to the "new normal" of continual economic decline that they don't even remember how good things were just a few short years ago. Back in 2007, unemployment was very low, good jobs were much easier to get, far fewer Americans were living in poverty or enrolled in welfare programs and government finances were in much better shape. Of course most of this prosperity was fueled by massive amounts of debt, but at least times were better. Unfortunately, things have really deteriorated over the last several years. Since 2007, unemployment has skyrocketed, foreclosures have set new all-time records, personal bankruptcies have soared and U.S. government debt has gotten completely and totally out of control. Poll after poll has shown that Americans are now far less optimistic about the future than they were in 2007.

#1 In November 2007, the official U.S. unemployment rate was just 4.7 percent. Today, the official U.S. unemployment rate is 9.4 percent.

#2 In November 2007, 18.8% of unemployed Americans had been out of work for 27 weeks or longer. Today that percentage is up to 41.9%.

#3 As 2007 began, there were just over 1 million Americans that had been unemployed for half a year or longer. Today, there are over 6 million Americans that have been unemployed for half a year or longer.

#4 Nearly 10 million Americans now receive unemployment insurance, which is almost four times as many as were receiving it back in 2007.

#5 More than half of the U.S. labor force (55 percent) has “suffered a spell of unemployment, a cut in pay, a reduction in hours or have become involuntary part-time workers” since the "recession" began in December 2007.

#6 According to one analysis, the United States has lost a total of approximately 10.5 million jobs since 2007.

#7 As 2007 began, only 26 million Americans were on food stamps. Today, an all-time record of 43.2 million Americans are enrolled in the food stamp program.

#8 In 2007, the U.S. government held a total of $725 billion in mortgage debt. As of the middle of 2010, the U.S. government held a total of $5.148 trillion in mortgage debt.

#9 In the year prior to the "official" beginning of the most recent recession in 2007, the IRS filed just 684,000 tax liens against U.S. taxpayers. During 2010, the IRS filed over a million tax liens against U.S. taxpayers.

#10 From the year 2000 through the year 2007, there were 27 bank failures in the United States. From 2008 through 2010, there were 314 bank failures in the United States.

#11 According to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, the number of U.S. families with children living in homeless shelters increased from 131,000 to 170,000 between 2007 and 2009.

#12 In 2007, one poll found that 43 percent of Americans were living "paycheck to paycheck". Sadly, according to a survey released very close to the end of 2010, approximately 55 percent of all Americans are now living paycheck to paycheck.

#13 In 2007, the "official" federal budget deficit was just 161 billion dollars. In 2010, the "official" federal budget deficit was approximately 1.3 trillion dollars.

#14 As 2007 began, the U.S. national debt was just under 8.7 trillion dollars. Today, the U.S. national debt has just surpassed 14 trillion dollars and it continues to soar into the stratosphere.

So is there any hope that we can turn all of this around?

Unfortunately, the massive amount of debt that we have piled up as a society over the last several decades has made that impossible.

If you add up all forms of debt (government debt, business debt, individual debt), it comes to approximately 360 percent of GDP. It is the biggest debt bubble in the history of the world.

If the federal government and our state governments stop borrowing and spending so much money, our economy would collapse. But if they keep borrowing and spending so much money they will continually make the eventual economic collapse even worse.

We are in the terminal stages of the most horrific debt spiral the world has ever seen, and when the debt spiral gets stopped the house of cards is going to finally come down for good.

So enjoy these times while you still have them. Yes, today is not nearly as prosperous as 2007 was, but today is most definitely a whole lot better than 2015 or 2020 is going to be.

Go to The Economic Collapse and read the entire article.

Urban Survival Preparation - Stand Alone Food Buckets

I had previously written a post about vacuum packing foods in usable amounts and storing in buckets. The idea was rather than have a large bucket with nothing but rice, have several different types of foods and accessories in the buckets so they stand alone. Imagine having the ability to only grab one bucket during a Bug Out,......wouldn't you rather have a smaller amount if many different foods and items?...or would 25 lbs of rice make you happy.

Recently a friend called me to let me know he packed six buckets that he bought at Home Depot, with various foods including white and brown rice, pinto and black beans, spit peas, bouillon cubes and some peanut butter. He wanted to know if I thought he forgot something.

I told my friend to wargame grabbing the bucket, Bugging Out, then stopping at a secure, defensible location to rest and eat. Visualize opening the bucket and now what do you wish to find in it?

Some things to consider may be:

Vacuum packed bags of Nuts. Peanuts, dry roasted or plain or cocktail Nuts. I include two cans in each of my stand alone food buckets.

Butane lighters. I like to put a two of these with fire starters in a soap dish and vacuum pack.

Hand Soap. A squeeze tube of waterless hand cleaner and maybe even a small bar of soap.

Extra zip lock bags. These are good to place some dry goods like rice, beans, lentils, split peas, etc., into with water to soak, especially while you move so you can eat them cold if the security considerations dictate or have a quicker time cooking them.

Vacuumed packed coffee. I place a small can of coffee in my stand alone buckets. I can boil water to make coffee. I can put the coffee into a zip lock bag and use the can to cook in or to store other things.

Spices. I vacuum pack black pepper and garlic as well as include salt. Some of my buckets have a can of Morton's Iodized Salt while others have a vacuum pack of little table packets of salt.

Surplus Canteen Cup. These aluminum canteen cups with the folding handle are great to cook small amounts of food in. They are useful to catch or collect water from shallow sources for later purifying as well.

Hex Fuel Tablets.You can use them to cook over when building a fire is un-advised or the fuel for a fire is too wet. You can also use them for warmth, but beware the toxic fumes.

Small Travel Pack of Hand Wipes.These can double as toilet paper and take up less room.

Small Can Opener. P38 style military can opener. Indispensable. You may come across or barter for canned goods, and will need a can opener. I put 4 or 5 in stand alone food buckets. They are also great barter items.

Small bottle of mixed Aspirin and Ibuprofen. This stand alone food bucket is not designed to be your medical kit, however aspirin or Motrin takes up a small amount of room and may be routinely needed, also an great item for barter.

One last thing that I recently added to my stand alone Food Buckets are vacuumed packed complete dry soup and stew mixes. They don;t take up much room and can be added with one half pound of rice to make a big enough pot of chow to feed at least four hungry people.

I think food is going to be a really important aspect of not only a total collapse into chaos, but for a slow gradual period of hyper-inflation leading into a great depression. We need to be able to feed ourselves from stored food supplies and grow our own food as well. Be safe, stay prepared!

Weapons - Army XM25 to debut

No hiding place from new U.S. Army rifles that use radio-controlled smart bullets. Weapon hailed as a game-changer that can fire up and over barriers and down into trenches. Soldiers will start using them in Afghanistan later this month

The U.S. army is to begin using a futuristic rifle that fires radio-controlled 'smart' bullets in Afghanistan for the first time, it has emerged. The XM25 rifle uses bullets that be programmed to explode when they have traveled a set distance, allowing enemies to be targeted no matter where they are hiding. The rifle also has a range of 2,300 feet making it possible to hit target which are well out of the reach of conventional rifles. The XM25 is being developed specially for the U.S. army and will be deployed with troops from later this month, it was revealed today.

The XM25 Counter Defilade Target Engagement System has a range of roughly 2,300 feet - and is to be deployed in Afghanistan this month.

The rifle's gun sight uses a laser rangefinder to determine the exact distance to the obstruction, after which the soldier can add or subtract up to 3 meters from that distance to enable the bullets to clear the barrier and explode above or beside the target. Soldiers will be able to use them to target snipers hidden in trenches rather than calling in air strikes.

The 25-millimetre round contains a chip that receives a radio signal from the gun sight as to the precise distance to the target. Lt. Col. Christopher Lehner, project manager for the system, described the weapon as a ‘game-changer’ that other nations will try and copy.

He expects the Army to buy 12,500 of the XM25 rifles this year, enough for every member of the infantry and special forces. Lehner told Fox News: ‘With this weapon system, we take away cover from [enemy targets] forever. ‘Tactics are going to have to be rewritten. The only thing we can see [enemies] being able to do is run away.’

Experts say the rifle means that enemy troops will no longer be safe if they take cover. The XM25 appears perfect weapon for street-to-street fighting that troops in Afghanistan have to engage in, with enemy fighters hiding behind walls and only breaking cover to fire occasionally.

The weapon's laser finder would work out how far away the enemy was and then the U.S. soldier would add one meter using a button near the trigger. When fired, the explosive round would carry exactly one meter past the wall and explode with the force of a hand grenade above the Taliban fighter.

The army's project manager for new weapons, Douglas Tamilio, said: ''This is the first leap-ahead technology for troops that we've been able to develop and deploy.' A patent granted to the bullet's maker, Alliant Techsystems, reveals that the chip can calculate how far it has traveled.
Mr. Tamilio said: 'You could shoot a Javelin missile, and it would cost £ 43,000 (British Pounds). These rounds will end up costing £ 15.50 apiece. They're relatively cheap. Lehner added: ‘This is a game-changer. The enemy has learned to get cover, for hundreds if not thousands of years.
‘Well, they can't do that anymore. We're taking that cover from them and there's only two outcomes: We're going to get you behind that cover or force you to flee.’ The rifle will initially use high-explosive rounds, but its makers say that it might later use versions with smaller explosive charges that aim to stun rather than kill.

Urban Survival - Radiation Detection and Symptoms

Of the many collapse scenarios that we plan for, possibly the hardest would be the nuclear blast and radiation threat from either a nuclear missile strike by another country or devices smuggled into this country either at port of entry or into a major city in the interior.

Obviously the best possible course of action is to situated in a location well outside of the major target areas and away from prevailing winds which would drive the radiation fallout.

There are other nuclear events that would necessitate some level of preparedness and protection. These may include: nuclear power plant accidents; nuclear weapons accidents; international incidents involving radioactive materials; lost (orphan) radiation sources and devices; and, accidents involving satellites containing radioactive material.

The amount of radiation exposure is usually expressed in a unit called millirem (mrem). In the United States , the average person is exposed to an effective dose equivalent of approximately 360 mrem (whole-body exposure) per year from all sources, however the medical community often expresses exposure in terms of Gray (Gy). One Gy equals 100 roentgens.

The dose calculator is based on the American Nuclear Society's brochure, "Personal Radiation Dose Chart". These values used in the calculator are general averages and do not provide precise individual dose calculations.

There are two basic types of radiation: ionizing and non-ionizing. Non-ionizing radiation comes in the form of radio waves, solar light, microwaves and radar. This kind of radiation usually does not cause tissue damage. Ionizing radiation is radiation that produces immediate chemical effects on human tissue and sickness.

The bigger the exposure dose, the faster the symptoms of radiation sickness will come upon you. Use the following symptoms and timelines to determine level of dose. Severe and Very severe exposure almost always means death. Moderate exposure may also mean death if competent medical treatment is not immediately received.

Nausea and vomiting

Mild exposure – within 6 hours
Moderate exposure – within 2 hours
Severe exposure – within 1 hour
Very severe exposure - within 10 minutes

Diarrhea

Moderate exposure – within 8 hours
Severe exposure – within 3 hours
Very severe exposure - within 60 minutes

Headache

Moderate exposure – within 24 hours
Severe exposure – within 4 hours
Very severe exposure - within 2 hours

Fever

Moderate exposure – within 3 hours
Severe exposure – within 1 hour
Very severe exposure - within 1 hour

Dizziness, Weakness and Hair Loss

Severe exposure – within 1 week
Very severe exposure - Immediate

Radiation detection. Most of us do not have radiation detection equipment simply because it is too expensive. However, there is a small device called a “RADsticker” which is a miniature radiation detector that is inexpensive and easy to use to monitor personal exposure or exposure to an area.

Available from the World Net Daily Superstore, the RADSticker is a peel & stick, postage stamp sized, instant color developing dosimeter, is always ready and with you 24/7, stuck onto the back your drivers license or anything you keep close, for any future radiation emergency.

The RADsticker is a non-electrical, reliable, rugged and useful for determining radiation exposure and if medical treatment required in a major radiological incident, such as a nuclear or dirty bomb explosion, nuclear power plant accident or mishandled radiation sources.

Urban Survival Firearms - Primary Survival Handguns

UrbanSurvivalSkills.com received a question on handguns suitable for use as a primary Survival handgun. Jaime wrote….”I am in a group that is pretty squared away. We are following Rawles from survival blog (note: www.survivalblog.com) and read the book Patriots, probably several times each. Each of us in our Survival team bought M4 carbines and tactical gear in OD Green. We are now determining what uniforms to buy and most important what handgun. We have agreed that the handgun is going to be an H&K in .40 caliber S&W. My question is do you have any comments on the H&K handguns in generally, and what model would you pick as a primary handgun for a Survival Team?”

UrbanMan replies: Jaime, good for you using Rawles’ examples and guidance for Survival planning,…..equally good that you recognize that Survival is a team sport and you have organized a group. Commonality on equipment is a good idea. You didn’t ask about the uniforms, but I am inclined to comment on that. Durable field uniforms such as military fatigues in the MARPAT (US Marine pattern), Army ACU camouflage pattern and such, are a good idea, but also a good idea is to have durable clothing that you can wear and not give you the para-military look.

5.11 makes a great tactical pant in a solid color and in fact brown or tan jeans from Wrangler also are durable and will not make you standout as a para-military type group in siituations that would require blending in or not looking so "threatening". Like heading to the grocery store or other public places before there is a total collapse,..if in fact, that is what happens. Regular jeans do not have the pockets, we call them bells and whistles, like the 5.11 or the military fatigue pants have – one drawback.

As far as the H&K handgun is concerned. I prefer other brands, but if you are set on an H&K handgun I think the P2000 is the clear winner. Note the photograph above, from top to bottom: P2000SK, USP-C and P2000.

Other choices are the P2000SK which is slightly smaller in barrel length, grip length and magazine capacity....like comparing a Glock 17 to a Glock 19. The older USP-C can be more easily found in a used configuration and all are good, durable guns. I just don’t like the ergometrics on the USP-C or the bigger USP, nor the trigger on any H&K.

The USP-C and P2000 uses the same magazine whereas the P2000SK uses a shorter magazine. USP-C and P2000 magazines will work in the P2000SK, just extend out alittle further, but P2000SK magazines will not lock in an USP-C or P2000.

Another advantage of the P2000 is that the grip is adjustable through a series of different sized backstraps. Plus I like the grip ergometrics of the P2000 much better than the USP-C.

Be aware that these handguns are more expensive than other models from different makers such as the Glock series of handguns or the Smith and Wesson M&P semi-automatics. Good luck.

More Dire Collapse Predictions for 2011

I was asked the other day what I trying to accomplish with stockpiling food, buying Survival equipment and material,and all the other little things I'm doing to prepare. My answer was "I wasn't accomplishing as much as I want". Not really the answer my questioner was anticipating, so they came back with "What exactly do you think is going to happen?". My answer to that was "I hope nothing will happen, but I do not want to get caught with my pants down." I continued with explaining that I was just preparing for bad times because too many indicators of a collapse were visible and a heavy list of people that I have listened to for years, as well as many other learned people, are saying get ready.

My questioner continued with "Who are these people and what are they saying, and why haven't I heard people on television saying get ready?". I replied "You have to pay attention, but my reply is how can you NOT have heard people like Glenn Beck, Mark Levin, Gonzalo Lira, Gerald Celente and the list goes on.

In fact I heard some of Gerald Celente 2011 predictions,....you can see all of them at his web site, Trends Research

Some of what Gerald Celente predicted,..this is my recollection of what he said or alluded to, but please go to his Trends Research to view them firsthand:

Gold will go up,...way up. Over $2,000 an ounce before the year is out.

Crime will increase as there will be more desperate people. As these people lose everything they will lose it (meaning I guess their sense of morality)....wouldn't you if you couldn't feed your family?

The Government will extract through executive order or through legislation more money from the tax payers to pay for their financial obligations.

Civil Liberties will decrease, as chaos increases and another Great (Greater) Depression nears. Celente mentioned something about the Government using Predator drones over Miami and Houston. Now I know Homeland Security uses them routinely on the border, but over in-land American Cities? I hope not. I think most of us are fearful of the U.S. Government using the military in a domestic law enforcement role.

Not to be left out, a couple of other people in the Fuel Industry are giving us some warnings as well:

Gasoline expert Fred Rozell predicts that 15 states -- including Alaska, Hawaii, Connecticut and Rhode Island -- will see gasoline prices top $4 a gallon by Memorial Day. "A dollar more per gallon

John Hofmeister, former president of Shell Oil and author of "Why We Hate The Oil Companies," predicts Americans will pay $5 per gallon for gasoline by 2012. Other experts say that's a long shot.

Analyst and Trader Stephen Schork said "We can see it, but we could also see a global depression, too."

You can read the entire article at Yahoo! News.

Urban Survival Planning - End of America

Yet another prominent Financial Analyst predicting a collapse.

Porter Stansberry, just over 10 years ago, founded Stansberry & Associates Investment Research. It has become one of the largest and most recognized investment research companies in the world, serving hundreds of thousands of subscribers in more than 120 countries.

You may have heard of it due to the work they did over the last several years – helping investors avoid the big disasters associated with Wall Street's collapse.

Stansberry warned investors to avoid Fannie and Freddie, Bear Stearns, Lehman Brothers and General Motors and dozens of other companies that have since collapsed. They helped their clients and newsletter subscribers find opportunities to profit from these moves by shorting stocks and buying put options. Stansberry Associates credit themselves having an unmatched record of correctly predicting the catastrophe that occurred in 2008.

Stansberry says this looming crisis is related to the financial crisis of 2008... but it is infinitely more dangerous, which could actually bring our country and our way of life to a grinding halt. He fully expects as the dollar to collapse, first discounted, then refused to be accepted then collapsing. Stansberry also expects there to be riots in the streets... arrests on an unprecedented scale... and martial law, enforced by the U.S. military as this crisis will threaten our very way of life.

The savings of millions will be wiped out. This disaster will change your business and your work. It will dramatically affect your savings accounts, investments, and retirement. It will change everything about your normal way of life: where you vacation... where you send you kids or grandkids to school... how and where you shop... the way you protect your family and home.

Watch the video below and go to the following website to read the full text of his letter advertising his newsletter which would be a god idea to receive if you want to stay on top of the economic indicators that will precede a collapse.


http://www.stansberryresearch.com/pro/1011PSIENDVD/WPSILC13/PR

Urban Survival Planning - Dental Care Planning

How many people are thinking about dental care either emergency or long term care in an environment where dentists may not be available? Do you have years worth of toothpaste, dental floss and new toothbrushes stockpiled?

I broke a tooth last week which got me thinking about unilateral dental care. Obviously prevention is key. In a post collapse world processed foods, fast foods and all the normal foods we see today laden with sugar will most likely not be available which will be actually good for our bodies and better for the health of our teeth.

I have personal hygiene kits vacuum packed in our Bug Out Bags,....soap, tooth brush, toothpaste, dental floss but am only now starting to stock more dental care items in my base station medical kits. I have a old complete set of military dental tools consisting of various picks, mirrors, dental spatulas and tooth extractors.

Survivor planners beginning a dental kit can find dental tools at the following sites:

http://www.duluthtrading.com/

http://www.surgicalsindia.com/

The Survival Group needs to plan on dental care well into a collapse, which, worst case, no routine dental care nor material and supplies will be available.

One thing you probably already stock in your medical supplies is hydrogen peroxide. And you may have had the foresight to stock baking soda in your stored long term food supplies. If so, you can make field expedient tooth paste by mixing 1 tablespoon of Baking Soda with one-quarter Tablespoon of Hydrogen peroxide. While not necessary, you could also add a drop of lemon juice or oil or cinnamon to add flavor.

Some other dental supplies and material you should think abut adding to your survival kit are dental cement and adhesives.

Dentemp One Step Dental Cement is available at Walgreens or Wal-Mart . Lost crowns as can either reapplied, once cleaned, or replaced using dental cement. Same for lost fillings. These will not be permanent but can last awhile if you are careful then re-done.

It may be necessary to pull a tooth - hence the necessary tooth extractors in your dental kit. You would probably be doing this without anesthesia. I got fortunate to pull a man's bottom molar without anesthesia (in Africa) and he actually thanked me for it. Maybe this is an excuse to stock some decent whiskey. Use your own judgment.

A couple of other possible problems are infections or abscesses occurring in the gum line. Competent medical treatment using anti-biotics is the preferred course of action, but if you don't have any other recourse, warm salt water (1 Teaspoon of salt in 6 ounces of water) will help and ease the pain, and may help to draw the infection or pus out of the gum tissue.

So, get any needed dental care done now and start planning and preparing for dental care and treatment in a degraded environment.