Secret Iranian handbook calls for EMP attack on America

"Here is an article I recently read that makes chills run down my spine. Is our own government playing into the hands of these idiots. You be the judge and prepare."
                                                                                                              ~Urban Man~

WASHINGTON – A “secret” Iranian military handbook, American officials say, confirms that the Islamic Republic of Iran is including in its arsenal a plan to launch a nuclear electromagnetic pulse attack on the American national grid system. To carry out such an attack, from a high-altitude nuclear blast, would require Iran to have not only the missiles to launch such a device but also the technology to produce a nuclear explosion.

The revelation comes as the United States, along with the P5+1 countries that comprise the United Nations Security Council, is about to finalize negotiations over Iran’s nuclear development program. There have been concerns raised that Iran still has the intention of making nuclear bombs using the technology in that program, and the negotiations may not do enough to prevent it.

It’s also an issue on which WND has reported for a decade,  as long ago as 2005 when intelligence sources were quoted, saying, “Iran is not only covertly developing nuclear weapons, it is already testing ballistic missiles specifically designed to destroy America’s technical infrastructure, effectively neutralizing the world’s lone superpower.”

At that time, scientists, including President Reagan’s top science adviser, William R. Graham, said there was no other explanation for such tests than preparation for the deployment of electromagnetic pulse weapons – even one of which could knock out America’s critical electrical and technological infrastructure, effectively sending the continental U.S. back to the 19th century with a recovery time of months or years.

At the time, Sen. John Kyl, R-Ariz., warned, “A terrorist organization might have trouble putting a nuclear warhead ‘on target’ with a Scud, but it would be much easier to simply launch and detonate in the atmosphere. No need for the risk and difficulty of trying to smuggle a nuclear weapon over the border or hit a particular city. Just launch a cheap missile from a freighter in international waters – al-Qaida is believed to own about 80 such vessels – and make sure to get it a few miles in the air.”

In the latest development, the P5+1 countries – Great Britain, France, the United States, Russia and China plus Germany – have sought restrictions on Iran’s nuclear program to prevent that country from turning a program that reportedly is for medical and power production into a bomb factory.

Peter Vincent Pry, who is executive director of a congressional advisory group called the Task Force on National and Homeland Security, raised the alarm as the agreement is about to be finalized. He said U.S. military officials have confirmed such an Iranian plan.

“Iranian military documents describe such a scenario – including a recently translated Iranian military textbook that endorses nuclear EMP attack against the United States,” Pry wrote in a recent column in Israel’s main online media network, Aruz Sheva. “Iran with a small number of nuclear missiles can by EMP attack threaten the existence of modernity and be the death knell of Western principles of international law, humanism and freedom,” he said.

“For the first time in history, a failed state like Iran could destroy the most successful societies on Earth and convert an evolving benign world order into world chaos.”

WND could not immediately independently confirm the military documents cited by Pry. But WND reported in 2014 that there was developing considerable alarm among national security experts that Iran was intending to position its warships off the U.S. coast. Those experts confirmed there would be no warning and that the U.S. missile defense system would not be able to respond in time to prevent the high altitude nuclear explosion that could be launched from one of those ships.

“It shows they could put a weapon on a boat or freighter, and if Iran has ballistic missiles it could put it anywhere on the U.S. coast,” John Bolton, former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations and a senior fellow at the Washington-based American Enterprise Institute, said at the time. The Iranian Fars News Agency had announced that the fleet would undertake a three-month mission and would consist of a destroyer and a helicopter-carrying vessel.

This week’s revelation comes as Israel has just re-elected Benjamin Netanyahu as prime minister. He recently warned a joint session of Congress about reaching any nuclear agreement with Iran. According to sources, the textbook refers to an EMP attack on some 20 locations in the United States.

Pry pointed out that Iran, in fact, would not need an intercontinental missile to launch a high-altitude EMP attack that could knock out the U.S. national grid system and the other life-sustaining critical infrastructures that depend on the grid to function. He said Iran could deliver a nuclear attack from a ship just off the U.S. East Coast either by a missile or by launching into orbit around the Earth a satellite which, in effect, would be a nuclear device.

Critical infrastructures that depend on the already vulnerable U.S. national grid system include communications, water and food delivery systems, financial and banking systems, transportation, regulation of the nearly million miles of oil and natural gas pipelines that traverse the U.S. and the myriad of modern conveniences that function by automated control systems that often are located in remote areas of the country.

Pry said it would cost only about $2 billion to harden the grid from such an attack or a direct hit from solar flares – which could produce similar damage and is occurring now. He added that protection of the grid could include the installation of devices like geomagnetically induced current, or GICs, blockers. Pry’s warning about the Iranian military textbook coincided with a threat from Gen. Hassan Firouzabad, the Iranian armed forces chief of staff.

“We are ready for the decisive battle against the U.S. and the Zionist regime,” Firouzabad recently told the Iranian Fars News Agency. “Iran armed with nuclear missiles poses an unprecedented threat to global civilization,” Pry said.

In 2012, when Iran was reporting the successful testing of a variety of missiles, including those that could strike targets 1,250 miles away, WND reported that the rogue nation also was working on an intercontinental ballistic missiles under the guise of it is space program. One nuclear warhead detonated at high-altitude over the United States would black out the national electric grid and other life-sustaining critical infrastructures for months or years by means of an electromagnetic pulse, Pry said. He said the chaos could result in the deaths of 90 percent of the American population. Such an attack would not be exclusive to the United States.

Dr. Emily Landau, director of the Arms Control and Regional Security Program at Israel’s Institute for National Security Studies, said Iran also could target Israel.

Landau, who is an expert on Iran’s nuclear program, said Iran could very well be planning an EMP attack on Israel, based on statements from high-level Iranian officials. She said Iran already has the missiles but only needs the nuclear device to launch an EMP that would be capable of destroying Israel’s electrical grid.

“Iran doesn’t have a nuclear bomb yet, and hopefully it won’t have one, but if it does manage to build a bomb, an EMP attack is a real possibility,” Landau said.
Pry went so far as to say Iran is actively preparing for an EMP attack.

Tehran has undertaken offshore exercises using Scud missiles fired and positioned in such a way that they exploded in the atmosphere, exactly the method you would use for an EMP attack, he said. “(Iran) could even marshal a major Islamic invasion of Israel, massacring the Jews and ushering in the era of the 12th imam, the Islamic messiah, whose arrival Iran’s leadership believes is imminent,” Pry said.

WND also reported at the time that a 2004 report by a congressional commission found “several potential adversaries have or can acquire the capability to attack the United States with a high-altitude nuclear weapons-generated electromagnetic pulse (EMP). A determined adversary can achieve an EMP attack capability without having a high level of sophistication.”

“EMP is one of a small number of threats that can hold our society at risk of catastrophic consequences,” the report said. “EMP will cover the wide geographic region within line of sight to the nuclear weapon. It has the capability to produce significant damage to critical infrastructures and thus to the very fabric of U.S. society, as well as to the ability of the United States and Western nations to project influence and military power.”

Some individual states have adopted various requirements to minimize the damage from such an attack, but federal legislation has not yet succeeded in setting those standards. It’s the SHIELD Act, from Rep. Trent Franks, that has been introduced several times.

The Shield Act stands for Secure High-voltage Infrastructure for Electricity from Lethal Damage. It calls on industry and government to develop, promulgate and implement standards and processes that are necessary to address the electric grid’s current vulnerabilities and shortcomings that would be affected by an EMP.

[source: Posted By F. Michael Maloof On 03/19/2015 @ 9:48 pm In Front Page,Politics,U.S.,World | No Comments]

P.S. Here is an interesting video to watch regarding Iran and its nuclear intentions.

Urban Man

The Collapse Calendar

This article, by Mike Adams, appeared in The International Forecaster under the title: "The Collapse Calendar reveals when failures likely to occur in banking, agriculture, nuclear power, pandemic disease and more". You'll be tempted to shoot yourself in the head after reading this, but don't!  Adams obviously put a lot of work into this article, but it is still his opinion and not preordained. Use it to fuel your will to survive and your commitment to prepare for the collapse.

Adam's article:

In the movie Knowing, starring Nicholas Cage, the main character is faced with the burden of comprehending a written code revealing the exact dates and GPS coordinates of large-scale catastrophic events. The movie is outstanding and well worth watching, by the way, but could it ever be true?

Not at such precision, I would submit, but we can know when certain catastrophes are likely to occur based on an understanding of human behavior, historical patterns and modern-day trends. In fact, much of modern-day human behavior is pushing us directly into a long list of catastrophic, systemic failures which are mathematically inevitable. This article aims to help sort out the likely calendar years of likely emergence for such events, which include things like the irrigation aquifers running dry, the world's oil supply running dry, nuclear energy disasters, a global banking collapse and more.

The legacy of human civilization and its tragic self-destruction

To date, the legacy of humankind is a tragedy of chemical poisoning, nuclear weapons, short-sighted resource extraction and corporate-driven war. Humans are a species suffering from astonishing tunnel vision interwoven with insatiable greed and a thirst for violence. The fall of human civilization from its current unsustainable exploitations is not in question... only the timing of events remains unknown. As the final chapter of human civilization seems to draw ever closer with each passing crisis, many of the more observant people wonder what's going to spark the collapse first. Pope Francis (yes, the Pope) recently warned that the global economy is approaching a moment of collapse.

At the same time, many of our world's most brilliant computer scientists are warning about the rise of AI and why super intelligent machines will soon make humanity obsolete.

Those concerned about global warming say climate change will collapse the food supply (due to weather radicalization) and cause mass starvation while drowning the world's largest cities under ocean water. This scenario, fortunately, is one of the longer term predictions, taking centuries to fully unfold.

Peak Oil observers point out that the petroleum economy upon which the world is based is rapidly heading to "EMPTY." Once the oil runs out, what will power the transportation system upon which nearly everything in the economy is based? (Food, medicine, manufacturing, agriculture, employment, etc.)

UrbanMan's comment: Oil and therefore gasoline will become unaffordable long before the world run's out of it. We may see that this year for some people as gasoline is projected to hit $5.50 a gallon, which of course will drive up every single commodity,...food, clothing,...everything, and perhaps fuel a food crisis and economic collapse.

Independent economists warn that the global debt-based banking system is headed for imminent collapse that will shutter the world's largest banks and cause all customer deposits to be forfeit.

Meanwhile, environmentalists rightly warn about genetic pollution from engineered crops, the mass poisoning of our farms and oceans with toxic pesticide chemicals, and the dumping of heavy metals, pharmaceuticals and hormone disruptors into the environment. How can life be sustained on a planet that's increasingly covered in industrial poison?

In truth, every one of these groups has a valid point in one way or another. But each of these risks for humanity has a very different likely timeline of likely emergence. So for the "Collapse Calendar" shown here, I've put together a "best guess" of the likely times in which each of these issues might become a legitimate concern. These years are not entirely my own personal guesses but rather an aggregate extrapolation of trends and predictions I've observed across many fields: the scientific community, environmentalists, alternative economists, geologists, astrophysicists and so on.

The Collapse Calendar: when the events are most likely to unfold. This list is ordered from the most near-term to long-term. The year range indicate years in which the named events MAY occur (are most likely to occur based on current trends).

2014 - 2025 World's debt-based banking system suffers catastrophic debt collapse due to wildly over-leverage derivatives combined with endless money creation by central banks.

2014 - 2034 Over the next 20 years or so, the odds of either a major nuclear power disaster -- or a catastrophic worsening of the Fukushima Daiichi facility -- is shockingly high. As we've already seen, nuclear disasters can be set off by natural disasters such as earthquakes. Nuclear power plants can also be compromised by power grid failures and EMP weapons (see below).

2015 - 2035 Over the next two decades, the chances of a deadly global superbug rising out of the failed medical deployment of antibiotics is extremely high. We have entered the "post-antibiotics era," medical authorities have now admitted, and superbugs are widely circulating in hospitals and among the public that have no known treatment or cure. Just this last week, over 75 scientists working at the CDC accidentally infected each other with anthrax, proving that even the government's own infectious disease experts can't reliably contain these diseases even under strict laboratory conditions.

2015 - 2035 Nuclear war: The risk of nuclear war or nuclear terrorism is higher than ever, with new conflicts now taking place in Ukraine as well as Iraq. Tensions are heating up between America, Russia and China, in large part over the choice of which global currency will be used for petroleum exchanges (presently it is largely the dollar, but Russia wants to change that). There's also the ever-present wildcard nation of North Korea, which continues to possess and test nuclear weapons.

2018 - 2060 EMP attack on America's power grid: Once North Korea manages to figure out how to affix high-yield nuclear weapons to long-range intercontinental ballistic missiles, it will be able to fire those missiles into high-altitude detonation patterns over North America, causing a voltage cascade that will destroy the entire power grid across the nation. It's called an "EMP weapon," and the threat is very real. Fortunately, North Korea is still several years away from successfully deploying a long-range missile. Should it ever get close to actually being able to deploy such a weapon, I have full faith that the American CIA will find some covert, off-the-books method of nuking the North Korean government back into the Stone Age (and maybe even setting the Korean people free from the "Kim Kult" in the process).

UrbanMan's comment: Nuclear war, nuclear disaster, EMP attack are all very possible and doubly so if radical Muslims gain a caliphate in the Middle East. Imagine these ass wipes gaining control of Syria, Iraq and Jordan. Access to weapons of mass destruction and drawing the U.S. and a host of other nations into a giant middle eatern war - well, sounds like Aramgeddon to me.

2020 - 2120 Peak Oil kicks in, causing a century-long steady decline in global oil production combined with a steady rise in oil prices (which translate into more expensive food and other consumer goods). Look for massive socioeconomic changes across the Middle East, and especially in Saudi Arabia which is likely to experience a popular revolt and violent government overthrow before the year 2040.

2025 - 2090 Many of the world's water aquifers that irrigate the mass food supply run out of water, turning agricultural lands into deserts. The map on the right shows the Ogallala aquifer that provides irrigation for much of Nebraska, Kansas, Colorado, Oklahoma, Texas and even New Mexico. Once this water runs out, it can take centuries for it to be replenished.

2029 - 2099 Futurist Ray Kurzweil predicts that 2029 is the year AI machines become "smarter" than humans. Right now, Google and DARPA are developing advanced humanoid robotics that can walk, climb stairs, run, carry weapons and track humans. Once AI systems take command of these hardware platforms, many experts predict humanity's days may be numbered. If true, the remainder of this list is irrelevant unless you are a machine reading this for the historical record.

2014 - 2114 The Earth is struck by a massive space rock that destroys a major world city. Technically, this prediction timeframe is not a true indication of the situation. The reason I chose to show 2014 - 2114 is because a very large meteor strikes the planet (actually, exploding in the atmosphere and causing widespread devastation) roughly once every century. In 1908, for example, a meteor exploded over Tunguska, Russia, devastating nearly all complex life across an area of 1,000 square miles.

2030 - 2100 The chronic loss of farming top soils starts turning once-arable lands into Dust Bowl deserts. As Eddie Albert wrote in 1980 (yes, over 30 years ago!) In the past 30 or 40 years, the heavy use of synthetic fertilizers, anhydrous ammonia, nitrates, pesticides and herbicides, DDT, etc. have doubled and tripled the yield of grain per acre . . . but at the expense of the organic matter in the soil. Rotation of crops has been replaced with monoculture: corn, corn, corn, or wheat, wheat, wheat. Everyone knows this method exhausts the soil and increases pest infestation, but people are hungry and the cash register is jingling. Yet for every bushel of corn we harvest, we lose two bushels of topsoil.

2040 - 2140 Environmental collapse accelerates after tipping point of chemicals and heavy metals is reached. Mass extinction events ravage the planet, collapsing the fragile web of life and leading to the widespread emergence of infectious disease (Mother Nature's "CTRL-ALT-DEL" for rebooting civilization).

2100 - 2500 Oceans rise enough from global warming to start flooding lower elevation cities, but this disaster, if it turns out to be true at all, will happen in slow-motion, with ocean levels rising only fractions of an inch per year.

2014 - 202,014 Yes, the window of this prediction is 200,000 years, during which time the massive caldera known as Yellowstone National Park is likely to violently explode, blanketing much of North America in ash and causing extreme global dimming for 1-3 years which would result in a global food supply collapse. Yellowstone explodes roughly every 600,000 years and is currently understood to be "late." But in terms of a human lifespan, the odds of Yellowstone erupting while any of us is alive remains extremely remote.

Year 2,800,000,000 Approximately 2.8 billion years from now, the sun will balloon into a massive "red giant" whose diameter is so large, it will physically engulf the entire orbit of planet Earth.  As this happens, of course, all life will be extinguished on our planet. But don't worry... humans are far more likely to have already destroyed themselves before then.

The Domino Effect of EMP - Catalyst for Complete Collapse

This is an article by Bill White from The International Forecaster. I would have called the article "EMP is Forever". An EMP catalyst to the collapse is a viable threat, much easier executed by terrorist groups or enemy nations than people think. Nuclear devices coming into the sea ports could do it.

What are our counter measures or preparedness steps for EMP? Essentially the same as getting ready for any other collapse mechanism. Shelter, food, water and security and all the little drab, meticulous steps we need to take to ensure those vital and main areas are covered.

One neglected aspect to preparing for the collapse may be the initial steps we need to take, a checklist if you will, for those first couple of days when the collapse is beginning but it is not yet widely believed. Cash on hand and small denomination silver and gold are going to necessary to purchase or barter for last minute items when the banks and ATM's shut down.

Having some type of power generation, and not solely relying on fuel generators, is a good and really necessary idea. This means solar panels and wind mills for the most part. Having the ability to recharge batteries, store power in deep cycle batteries is going to be huge in a collapse, especially a long term collapse.

The long term side of things has to be focused on how are we going to feed ourselves once our stocked food is gone? We simply have to have the skills and material to grow our own food. That means skills, tools and seeds. Anyway, enough from me, read this excellent article from Bill White.

The Domino Effect of EMP, by Bill White

Of all the myriad of different disasters that could strike the United States, an EMP would be one of the most devastating. Our modern society depends so much upon electronics, as well as the computers that run just about anything.

Very little of this is protected from the effects of EMP, including the power grid that we need to run it all. It is even questionable whether our nuclear power plants could survive an EMP, without the possibility of catastrophe.

The United States has many enemies around the world, some of whom have blatantly declared their desire to destroy us. While not all of these countries have the capability of shooting a nuclear device into the stratosphere, in order to create an EMP over the United States, some do. What technology our enemies don’t have could easily be bought on the world market.

How It Starts

In the first few moments, the effects of an EMP will be just like a power outage. Actually, most people won’t be able to tell the difference between an EMP and any other power outage. There is no obvious sign that an EMP has occurred, other than the loss of power. In fact, most of the power generating stations and other services won’t even recognize what had happened, instead thinking that the problems they were experiencing were localized.

The first hours to a day of any EMP will look to everyone just as if they were having a regional blackout. People will be surprised to see that their whole city is blacked out, rather than just their neighborhood. They’ll probably speculate about what has happened, but few will think of suggesting an EMP.

With the power out, a number of things we all depend upon will stop working immediately. Most stores won’t be able to sell their merchandise, as their computerized cash registers won’t work. Gas stations won’t be able to pump gas and traffic lights will go out. City water will probably still flow for that first day, as most cities have water towers to store water for high usage times and maintain water pressure.

Nobody is going to realize that anything more major than a localized power outage is going on, because communications will break down. At the beginning everyone from individuals to state governments will deal with the problem as if it is a localized problem.

It will probably take the better part of a day for the government to verify that an EMP had occurred and several days for them to get the word out, as all means of communications will be down.

Many hospitals and other critical operations will be able to continue functioning for at least a week, as they almost always have backup diesel generators with enough fuel storage to keep them operating for at least a week. Although the electronic controls to automatically switch on the generators won’t be functional, the manual controls will be. Of course, the electronic equipment in the hospital, which doctors depend on so much, won’t be working.

When the Panic Attacks

The panic probably won’t start until the second or third day. The first sign of that panic will be a run on the stores. Actually, we’ll probably see a two wave run on the stores.

The first wave will happen within a couple of hours of losing power, as people run to the store for flashlights, batteries and candles. The second wave will happen once they realize that things aren’t going to get better quickly and try to buy all the food, water and survival supplies they can.

As most people won’t have cash to use in the stores, being used to using credit and debit cards, they will steak what they want, causing riots and violence in the stores.

Stores will attempt to lock their doors to keep people out, but looters will break the glass in the doors and windows, stealing what they want.

This will start with food stores and quickly spread to liquor stores, pharmacies, hardware stores and sporting goods stores. Within a few days, widespread looting will become commonplace, with no stores being safe.

By the end of the first week the news will have spread throughout the country that we have been the victim of an EMP. This will cause fear, as people misunderstand what has happened and wonder what will happen next. Companies will be shut down “temporarily” as it will be impossible for most people to work. This will begin to create concern as well, as people won’t be earning money.

Without the ability to pump gas our distribution networks will break down. This will cause widespread shortages, most especially of food. About the only food that will be available will be what people have on hand and what is produced locally. Even local produce will be limited, as there won’t be fuel available to get it to market.

When people’s food stocks start running out, we’ll see the next wave of violence. This one will start as public protests, but turn into mob violence. People will want someone to blame for their problems and will seek out those that they can accuse. Anyone could end up a victim, but the most likely are politicians, business owners and the wealthy; people who would normally be in a position to do something about the problem.

The fact that they are impotent to do anything won’t make a difference. By this point, we’ll see a general breakdown of society.

The End of the Society As We Know It

Most people will be unable to work and earn a living. Even if they could, they won’t be able to buy the things they need. People will have to turn to survival mode, seeking out what they can do to survive.

Those who are prepared will hunker down, trying to make the best of the situation and avoid drawing attention to themselves. Some others will turn to violence, seeking to steal what they need. The vast majority of people will sink into a quiet desperation, trying to find out a living in any way possible.

The EMP will not only cause a collapse of society, but a financial collapse as well. A huge portion of the population will be out of work. Everyone’s money will be frozen, as there won’t be any way to get to it. The small amount of currency that is available in the open market will quickly fall away to bartering, as people try to get what they need. Many will die, either of starvation or freezing to death when they can’t heat their homes.

Recovering from the effects of an EMP will be a long, drawn out affair, lasting years. It won’t be possible to rebuild the electrical grid quickly, as the suppliers for the equipment will be unable to work without power. Rebuilding will require replacing and reconstructing an enormous amount of equipment. In the time that the electrical grid is being rebuilt, people will gradually find other ways of doing things which don’t require electrical power or electrical energy.

Although repairs to the electrical grid will probably be completed in three to four years, the country as a whole will be set back by decades. People won’t be able to just pick their lives up where they left off, as much of what they did before will no longer exist. New companies will have to be started and people will have to find new ways to live their lives. The effects of an EMP would be with us for the rest of our lives.

The State of Today

I wanted to titled this "Urban's Man Rant", but a rant insinuates an emotional aspect to one's opinion. And I am stone, cold sober and rational looking that these issues.......not angry,...but a lot concenred, maybe somewhat scared.

It started the other night as my wife and I were watching "Revolution the television show". My wife commented to the effect that it seems like everyone is preaching armagedon and collapse, or, capitalizing on the general belief that things are going downhill and collectively we expect bad things to occur.

I told her she was right and that while you can fool some of the pople some of the time, you can't fool all of the people all of the time. And that people's intuition is stronger than their analytical skills.

Back to the television,.........I don't think I'll be sitting through another episode of "Revolution". The first few minutes showing years after a EMP event where the main characters have built a agricultural enclave on a suburban street (totally realistic and necessary) but then a militia group on horseback enters the community unannounced, no early warning systems, no barriers or obstacles, no weapons nor trained response left me wondering if the entertainment value would supercede the non-enjoyment of seeing un-realistic bad examples.

While my wife understands and supports our preparation aspects and the development of several families in our "survival group", she like many Americans usually decides to ignore analysis of the possible bad things,...she basically leaves it to me to plan and prepare.

I placed the television on mute to explain (again) what Electro Magnetic Pulse was and the possible sources or causes of an EMP event. While many of you believe that EMP is vastly over rated for it's effects it would have on the U.S. infrastructure, I assure you that it is not over estimated.

In a previous life I have done threat and vulnerability assessments on utilities facilities and some of the management was pretty open about how easy it is to bring down major power and telecommunications facilities,...but more importantly in the apsects of an EMP,....very difficult to re-build.

If the threat of EMP isn't enough, we have a good 1/3 of the world pissed off at the U.S.  Doesn't matter if the complaint is legit or not,. there are currently large scale anti-American demonstrations in Libya, Algeria, Tunisia, Egypt, Niger, Mali, Lebanon, United Arab Emirates, Indonesia, Pakistan, Afghanistan and even Austrailia. Political corruption is not only wide spread,.....but the perpetrators aren't even trying to hide it now. Openly disregarding the constitution in many cases. Reminds historians of the last great act of the Roman empire, and that was to loot the treasury.

This country is a year, maybe months away from more people being on welfare than not. Think about that once the treasury is empty.

The only way we are going to be able to survive as individuals and as a culture is to develop some type of team. Let me back up a bit. Meaning by beliefs not segregated by race or ethnic groups. This is a culture that aspires individual rights, a moral code and compassion for those who cannot help themselves. I have talked at length before on the necessity of developing a survival group. This does not mean that you have to live in a commune now,.....it can,...but it is unrealistic for 90% of Americans. Your survival team can be just a network of alike minded individuals and families.

It's important to vet your people as to their ability to live together and get along. I would much rather have straphangers, with skills and without supplies or equipment, integrating into my team, than to accept some exceptional trained and prepared person who cannot act with the team foremost on his mind.