Cookies

Notice: This website may or may not use or set cookies used by Google Ad-sense or other third party companies. If you do not wish to have cookies downloaded to your computer, please disable cookie use in your browser. Thank You.
Showing posts with label SHTF. Show all posts
Showing posts with label SHTF. Show all posts

Friday, August 10, 2012

Global Economic Collapse Predicted

Nouriel Roubini, the economist whose dire warnings earned him the nickname “Dr. Doom,” said two weeks ago that the recent slowdowns in the U.S., Europe, and China is proof that the global “perfect storm” scenario he predicted is on its way.

“(The) 2013 perfect storm scenario I wrote on months ago is unfolding,”  say's Roubini.  He is predicting  four specific elements would come together to create the perfect global economic crisis: a stalled U.S. economy, the EU debt crisis, a slowdown in emerging markets (China), and conflict in Iran.

Roubini further declares that this crisis will be far worse than the financial crisis of 2008.  A U.S. recovery is not going to happen at least for many years to, according to Roubini.   The problems in Europe, an economic slowdown in China and oil prices that will rise sharply, due to the fall of the dolar and the crisis in the Middle East, particulary with Iran, will all make a America's economy much worse, say's Roubini. 

Author and Economist James Howard Kunstler claims that we are past the point where solutions
to our economic problems are possible.  He has long been a voice of society's waste of resources and
now that he basically say's there is no hope to correct the course taking us to a brutal collapse, we now
need a response plan to help us best brace for the impact of the coming consequences. And, as Kunstler
advocates, we need it fast.

Europe is taking a turn for the worst as the new French Socialist President François Hollande is driving
captial and businesses out of France with his "tax the rich policy" and Greece just declared that they are
in a Great Depression.  

Even Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner say's that "a wave of tax increases and billions of dollars in
automatic spending cuts will cause a lot of damage to the fragile economy" and this is coming from a
guy who has been all rosy and who has an interest in making the Country believe that things are not as
bad as they really are.

Sunday, August 5, 2012

Forecasted Drought and Food Shortages Will Make the Collapse Much Worse

So what's new with a drought? Haven't we always had some sort of drought warning? Aren't we big enough as a country to mitigate drought effects? The answers Drought Forecasted

A double-barreled dose of bad news came out Thursday: Not only did the drought worsen over the last week, but it's likely to widen and intensify through the end of October, according to the seasonal outlook prepared by government forecasters.

"Unfortunately, all indicators (short and medium-term, August, and August-October) favor above normal temperatures," the National Weather Service's Climate Prediction Center said in its Seasonal Drought report."We don't see a reason to say it will improve," Kelly Helm Smith, a specialist at the National Drought Mitigation Center, told reporters. "I'm in the Midwest," she said, referring to her office at the University of Nebraska in Lincoln, "it's really unpleasant."

The outlook noted that "a dramatic shift in the weather pattern" would be required "to provide significant relief to this drought, and most tools and models do not forecast this." Drought could take hold in the northern plains by October, the Climate Prediction Center added Moreover, last week saw a continued "downward spiral of drought conditions," according to the weekly report.

Adding to the drought concerns is Lester R. Brown, author of an article titled:  "The world is closer to a food crisis than most people realise".  He is the president of the Earth Policy Institute and also the author of Full Planet, Empty Plates: The New Geopolitics of Food Scarcity, due to be published in October

In the early spring this year, US farmers were on their way to planting some 96millon acres in corn, the most in 75 years. A warm early spring got the crop off to a great start. Analysts were predicting the largest corn harvest on record.

The United States is the leading producer and exporter of corn, the world's feedgrain. At home, corn accounts for four-fifths of the US grain harvest. Internationally, the US corn crop exceeds China's rice and wheat harvests combined. Among the big three grains – corn, wheat, and rice – corn is now the leader, with production well above that of wheat and nearly double that of rice.

The corn plant is as sensitive as it is productive. Thirsty and fast-growing, it is vulnerable to both extreme heat and drought. At elevated temperatures, the corn plant, which is normally so productive, goes into thermal shock.

As spring turned into summer, the thermometer began to rise across the corn belt. In St Louis, Missouri, in the southern corn belt, the temperature in late June and early July climbed to 100F or higher 10 days in a row. For the past several weeks, the corn belt has been blanketed with dehydrating heat.

Weekly drought maps published by the University of Nebraska show the drought-stricken area spreading across more and more of the country until, by mid-July, it engulfed virtually the entire corn belt. Soil moisture readings in the corn belt are now among the lowest ever recorded.

While temperature, rainfall, and drought serve as indirect indicators of crop growing conditions, each week the US Department of Agriculture releases a report on the actual state of the corn crop. This year the early reports were promising. On 21 May, 77% of the US corn crop was rated as good to excellent. The following week the share of the crop in this category dropped to 72%. Over the next eight weeks, it dropped to 26%, one of the lowest ratings on record. The other 74% is rated very poor to fair. And the crop is still deteriorating.

Over a span of weeks, we have seen how the more extreme weather events that come with climate change can affect food security. Since the beginning of June, corn prices have increased by nearly one half, reaching an all-time high on 19 July.

Although the world was hoping for a good US harvest to replenish dangerously low grain stocks, this is no longer on the cards. World carryover stocks of grain will fall further at the end of this crop year, making the food situation even more precarious. Food prices, already elevated, will follow the price of corn upward, quite possibly to record highs.

Not only is the current food situation deteriorating, but so is the global food system itself. We saw early signs of the unraveling in 2008 following an abrupt doubling of world grain prices. As world food prices climbed, exporting countries began restricting grain exports to keep their domestic food prices down. In response, governments of importing countries panicked. Some of them turned to buying or leasing land in other countries on which to produce food for themselves.

Welcome to the new geopolitics of food scarcity. As food supplies tighten, we are moving into a new food era, one in which it is every country for itself.

The world is in serious trouble on the food front. But there is little evidence that political leaders have yet grasped the magnitude of what is happening. The progress in reducing hunger in recent decades has been reversed. Unless we move quickly to adopt new population, energy, and water policies, the goal of eradicating hunger will remain just that.

Time is running out. The world may be much closer to an unmanageable food shortage – replete with soaring food prices, spreading food unrest, and ultimately political instability– than most people realise.

Thursday, August 2, 2012

Gun Control Looming

I think I am less inclined then all of my friends and people I have worked with to buy into "conspiracy theories". A change of a few words,...a misperception,....or only hearing one side of the story or issue helps facilitate conspiracy stories. However, what was forwarded to me concerning our current adminstration's seeming dalliance with a concept called World Law really concerns me.

Most of us believe in three things:  1 - That we should not trust a government that does not trust us to own guns, and 2 - The U.S. constitution guarantees the right to own and bear guns. 

This right is necessary and central to the plans of all survivalists preparing for SHTF be it an economic collapse, total infrastructure failure or whatever label someone wants to put on The End Of The World As We Know It. 

A person I know who doesn't even own a gun sent me a link to a Lew Rockwell site referencing an article from Mac Slavo of SHTF Plan, a name all preppers and survivalists should recognize.

Five Words For the United Nations: FROM MY COLD DEAD HANDS by Mac Slavo, SHTF Plan

In January of this year reports began surfacing that members of the United Nations were conspiring with American politicians to further erode the Second Amendment rights of the people of these United States: “In New York, right here on our own shores, we’ve got a Trojan horse. They won’t accept U.S. firearms policy. They want to take the decision away from the U.S. electorate and undermine our Constitution.” ~Ambassador Faith Whittlesey, US Delegate to UN Small Arms Conference, January 2012

While actions at the UN posed a serious threat to our right to bear arms, few acknowledged the legitimacy of the issue and fewer still had even heard anything about it. The Obama administration is now just a matter of weeks away from joining other foreign powers in the signing of the Arms Trade Treaty at United Nations.

While many will argue that the new treaty will not restrict gun ownership in America, 2nd Amendment proponents disagree and maintain that the new treaty could pave the way for an eventual nationwide gun grab. Dick Morris, who is spearheading a petition to stop Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, and the United States from signing the treaty, explains the inherent dangers within: …Obama is planning, with Hillary, a backdoor move to impose gun control on the United States. It’s totally outrageous.

You know, Obama has not pushed gun control during his administration – a notable absence for a liberal. But it’s because he was saving the best for last. Hillary is now negotiating a small arms treaty in the United Nations… The purpose of the small arms treaty is to stop small arms, which they define as pistols, handguns, rifles, assault weapons, even machine guns from being exported to other countries. … What Obama is doing with Hillary is to negotiate a treaty that would allegedly stop individual citizens and businesses from selling their arms overseas.

To do that each country would be obliged to set up its own system of registration, and controls, and inventory controls… It’s entirely a backdoor effort to force gun registration and eventually bans and restrictions with the act of the United States Congress – to do it with international treaty. One of the deadly parts about this is that when a treaty is signed and made binding in the United States it acquires the force of a Constitutional Amendment. Under the Supremacy Clause, every Congress and every state legislature has to honor that treaty, unless a Constitutional Amendment is passed to the contrary or unless all the other signatories let the U.S. out of the treaty.

Thursday, July 26, 2012

America Heading Towards a Collapse

From an article titled America Heading Towards a Collapse Worse Than 2008 AND Europe! from Peter Schiff by Jeff Macke on Breakout.

According to CEO and Chief Global Strategist of Euro Pacific Capital Peter Schiff, the U.S. economy is heading for an economic crash that will make 2008 look like a walk in the park. Stimulus programs can delay this day of reckoning, but only for so long and only at the expense of making the eventual meltdown much, much worse.

Schiff, who famously warned investors about the housing and financial crisis in his 2007 book Crash Proof, says the Fed's palliative efforts during the housing meltdown have made the next crisis inevitable. "We've got a much bigger collapse coming, and not just of the markets but of the economy," Schiff says in the attached clip (see video below).

"It's like what you're seeing in Europe right now, only worse." In this nightmare scenario detailed in The Real Crash: America's Coming Bankruptcy, the current economic pause is actually the beginning of a material slowdown or recession into year end.

At that point, the Federal Reserve will unleash a third round of Quantitative Easing — weakening the dollar without jump-starting the economy. As a result of dollar weakness, import prices rise, pressing the margins of corporate America.

Lower margins lead to heavy layoffs, sending millions of workers into unemployment during a time when they can least afford it. Banks fail, housing collapses, and taxes are raised in a futile effort to give the tapped-out government the capital to try yet more futile stimulus. "That's when it really is going to get interesting, because that's when we hit our real fiscal cliff, when we're going to have to slash — and I mean slash — government spending," says Schiff.

Those cuts will not be at all unlike the draconian austerity measures in Greece, with programs like Social Security and Medicare being dramatically cut or possibly disappearing entirely. The easiest way to put it, is that everything you don't think could possibly happen in America will come to be. "Alternatively, we can bail everybody out, pretend we can print our way out of a crisis, and, instead, we have runaway inflation, or hyper-inflation, which is going to be far worse than the collapse we would have if we did the right thing and just let everything implode," he offers.

So what should investors do to protect themselves? Schiff has three suggestions:

1. Get Out of Treasuries The U.S. dollar is going to get trashed in Schiff's scenario. Locking in a yield on a government 10-year bond of 1.5% is a paltry return in the first place. Should inflation tick up to even 5%, a level much lower than that seen in the early 1980s, bond owners would have 3.5% less buying power at the end of every year. If they go to sell the bond, they'll only find buyers at a much lower price than what they paid.

2. Own the Right Stocks With bonds and the dollar bearing the brunt of the pain, Schiff says stocks will outperform dramatically, provided you own the right ones. Exporters and multi-national corporations will benefit from a weak dollar. Better still would be to buy foreign stocks and avoid the U.S. entirely.

3. Buy Silver and Gold Schiff says the recent weakness in these precious metals is just a pause as we wait for the other shoe to drop. Most of those on Main Street haven't even taken positions yet in gold or silver. Once they start dropping bonds and looking for a place to hide, the price of these metals will soar. Are you preparing for a major U.S. market and economic meltdown?

Monday, July 23, 2012

Alt-Market Prepper's Site

Came across another preppers site previously unknown to me. I don't know, I may be the last Survivalist in the U.S. to know about it, but in case one or two of you don't, the title of the last article on the site, Americans Are Being Prepared For Full Spectrum Tyranny will take you there.

Alt-Market states that is an organization designed to help you (the prepper) find like-minded activists and preppers in your local area so that you can network and construct communities for mutual aid and defense. I think that local, careful recruitment to a prepared lifestyle provides much more OPSEC that on-line or otherwise non-local exposure on the internet.

It's not like you should be ashamed of being prepared for anyting from natural disasters to total economic collapse, but not every Tom, Dick and Jane needs to know about it.

Back to Alt-Market,....a lead in to the last article begins:

Totalitarian governments, like persistent forms of cancer, have latched onto the long history of man, falling and then reemerging from the deep recesses of our cultural biology to wreak havoc upon one unlucky generation to the next. The assumption by most is that these unfortunate empires are the product of bureaucracies gone awry; overtaken by the chaotic maddening hunger for wealth and power, and usually manipulated by the singular ambitions of a mesmerizing dictator. For those of us in the Liberty Movement who are actually educated on the less acknowledged details of history, oligarchy and globalized centralism is much less random than this, and a far more deliberate and devious process than the general unaware public is willing to consider.

Unfortunately, the final truth is very complex, even for us… ...

So, not an endorsement, just wanted readers to know about this site.

Sunday, July 15, 2012

Debate on Survival Threat Groups

Since I posted the article on Racist Skinheads being a possible threat to survival in a infrastrucuture collapse, particularly a security decayed collapse environment, I have several comments posted and e-mail received debating, if in fact,  racists skinheads are anything to worry about.

My point in posting articles on street gangs, racists skinheads and other groups of fringe, radical or criminal elements as threats to our survival is simply that 1 - they are anti-socially and criminally prediposed, and 2 - are organized.

Organization is a big deal. Our survival in a post collapse world, from a inflationary/hyper- inflationary period to a full out infrastructure collapse, largely hinges on our ability to leverage teamwork. I applaud all of you lone survivors out there who plan and think you are going to "head for the hills" and live out of a Bug Out Bag, but the greatest majority of us need teams to survive.

That organization, from planning, to stockpiling, to providing security, to re-locating (Bugging Out) all accomplished by leveraging the resources and skills available from a group will make the difference.

Organization after the collapse will be much harder to do. Enter these organized threat groups. They are organized. Have chains of command and group rules. Have no reluctance to commit barbaric acts to continue their lifestyle. They probably have some useable common skills within their groups like mechanics, welding, electrical work, etc.  But their base skill is violence and lack of regard for human life.

During the precious first few days or weeks of a really giant collapse,...meaning a collapse where law enforcement and emergency forces are either over whelmed or otherwise ineffective,....these threat groups will be immmediately working to control more resources. Robberies, murders, home invasions, military armory thefts, etc., will skyrocket.

So again, yes all of these criminal groups, from common street gangs, to Outlaw Motorcycle Gangs to Racist Skinheads are threats to our survival especially those who choose to or be forced to "Bug In' in urban areas and adjacent suburban areas. The counter measures are knowing these threats, being prepared for security threats and having a survival team.

Saturday, July 7, 2012

Survival Solutions from Solutions from Science

Solutions from Science, a long time provider of robust solar power generators such as the Power Source 1800 now offers many other items for the survivalist planning on the collapse.
 
Survival Foods, Seeds, Solar Power Solutions, Books, DVD's, Clothing, Crisis Cookers, and other Emergency supplies are available. The book store is pretty impressive and contains all the "how to" books a prepper would need, including one I found on harvesting and saving non-hybrid seeds.
 
One of their most interesting books is entitled "Christian Liberty or Martial Law" which unfortunately maybe be the only choices left to us as life as we know if is rapidly disintegrating right before our eyes. Anyway, check out and book mark this site and check back from time to time.
 
 


This notion of Martial Law is not some far out, whack job theory. With close to 50 million people, about one sixth of our population on some sort of government subsistence, and that number is growing every day, it is only a matter of time until the need for subsistence out grows the Government's ability to provide that subsistence. We will most likely see food riots in huge numbers, making the Occupy Wall Street movement look like family picnics. The government's only control measure will be martial law. I hope like hell this doesn't happen, but the forecast looks good.

Wednesday, July 4, 2012

Motorcycles Good for SHTF?

Mikali wrote and ask my opinion on motorcycles for SHTF use: "Hello Urbanman. What do you think about off road motorcycles for during SHTF? I think they would come in handy doing all sorts of things and not just running the Bug out. We could use them for tac recons, hunting trips, etc. Just saying."

UrbanMan replies:There advantages and disadvantages to motorcycles in my opinion. The military uses motorcycles for scout platforms, to recon routes and such. Also to take communications gear to higher terrain that can’t be accessed with larger four wheel drive vehicles. Motorcycles in past conflicts have been used as messengers. In law enforcement, motorcycles allow for patrolling of remote or otherwise inaccessible areas, or to rapidly move to a subject(s) location.

These are what I think are the common disadvantages and advantages of motorcycles for use in the collapse.

Advantages

· High Mobility. Motorcycles because of their narrow width and high clearance are much more mobile than four wheeled vehicles including All Terrain Vehicles.

· Economic Fuel Consumption. Motorcycles are much more fuel miserly than the common four wheel car,….with the possible exception new of the VW Diesel Jetta, which a couple people have reported 50+mph miles per gallon!

· Speed. Motorcycles are very quick both in flat out speed, but agility as well. May save you butt in egressing from a threat.

Disadvantages

· Maintenance intensive. I hated owning motorcycles because of their intensive maintenance requirements. Maybe be easy for a motorhead, but not for me. When I had government maintenance workers maintain and repairing my bikes, I made sure to smooze them from time to time. When I used commercial mechanical support,…..well you paid through the nose. I include tires in this maintenance category as a disadvantage.  I have treid the green slime that you pump into tires to seal punctures, and that never worked very well for us.  The canned Fix-a-Flat actually worked better as it also provided air to inflat the tire. 

· Noisy. Motorcycles are noisy so they are hard to hear over. This takes away one of your best threat detectors and that is your hearing.

· Substantial Skills Required. Not everyone can ride a motorcycle. Most people can be trained, but how much time and fuel are you going to have for that.

· Can’t Fight very well from the Motorcycle when moving. You generally have to have both hands on the machine when you are moving. You may be able to operate the motorcycle for short periods of time with one hand if you can shoot a handgun or operate a radio with the left hand, as most throttles are on the right hand side of the handlebars, but when maneuvering in rough terrain this would be very tough.

In closing Mikali, I choose not to procure or maintain motorcycles for SHTF. A couple of the guy on my team have ATV’s which we may use for specialty purposes. We can more easily carry two people on an ATV with the possibility of the passenger engaging threats, at least with a handgun.

Tuesday, June 26, 2012

Should I Buy Gold for SHTF?

I recently had a friend of mine, not in my immediate survival group, but a prepper none the less, ask me if he should buy some Gold, and if so, should he buy one ounce rounds, or smaller weights. He had around $6,000 to spend. Part of his question was should he wait awhile as Gold and Silver prices seemed to be going down.

I told him that trying to time the market now would require some constant observation and some luck. Sure, Gold and Silver may yet go down more, in light of some good economic news the last few weeks, but that "good" economic news was really just "not as bad of news as usual".

I told him that while the Greece, Italy and Spain economic problems seemed to have leveled off, we will certainly see more bad economic news in the very near future. I told him to watch for more banks defaulting, instability in the U.S. and Foreign exchanges, higher U.S. deficit and national debt, worsening unemployment, lower oil imports, higher oil prices, higher inflation and downward spiral of the housing market all would be factors signaling a rise in precious metals.

This conversation was about two weeks ago and now we are seeing the following headlines:

World stocks fall amid economic reports from the largest economies forecasting a global downturn.

Job growth much lower than expected and fears of heightening unemployment amid reports that applications for unemployment benefits jumped to the highest level in nine months.

Housing gloom ahead as sales of previously owned homes fell 1.5 percent in May and are forecsted to be even lower in June and July.

Eurpoean leaders are trying to work out a solution to a spreading financial crisis across the European Union and global lessening confidence in a solution and the value of the Euro.

Major banks being downgraded. Moody's lowered the credit ratings of 15 major banks, including Bank of America, JPMorgan Chase and Goldman Sachs, saying their long-term prospects for profitability and growth are shrinking.

So yes, the time is right to buy Precious Metals. However I would not put all of the $6,000 into Gold. I would spread it out with Silver bullion and maybe some junk silver as well. All this would depend upon how much precious metals I already had and any other holes or lack of essential equipment, material and supplies in my Collapse Preparation Plan.

Maybe one ounce of Gold, 4 one-quarter Gold rounds, $1,000 into Silver rounds and the rest in long term food maybe a good choice for my friend as I know he primarily focusing on survival guns and gear for SHTF and is well preparaed in that aspect.

Him having some viable precious metals for bartering and some long term food would also possibly benefit me as he is one of the families on a short list my survival group keeps of possible recruits or straphangers we would accept into our group as his ethics, morals and skills are known to us. Anyway, if you don't have very much or any precious metals at all, then what are you waiting for? An invitation? Okay, consider this an invitation.

Tuesday, June 19, 2012

Is The Army To Be Used for Domestic Enforcement?



This was written by Joe Wolverton in The New American, titled "Use Army for Domestic Enforcement"

The Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) proposes that the U.S. Army be used to plan, command, and
carry out (with the help of civilian law enforcement) domestic police missions. So says a story appearing in the May/June issue of the influential organization’s official journal, Foreign Affairs.

The article lacks a single reference to the Posse Comitatus Act, which prohibits such actions.  In an article penned by Chief of Staff of the U.S. Army, General Raymond T. Odierno, the CFR would see the Army used to address “challenges in the United States itself” in order to keep the homeland safe from domestic disasters, including terrorist attacks.

Odierno writes:
Where appropriate we will also dedicate active-duty forces, especially those with niche skills and equipment, to provide civilian officials with a robust set of reliable and rapid response options.

That’s right. Should the sheriff suspect that a particular citizen in his county poses a threat to security and feels he doesn’t have the proper “skills and equipment” to deal with the situation, he can just call out the U.S. Army and bring a “rapid response” force that is robust enough to eliminate the problem.

These are not the musings of an unknown academic written in an obscure journal of little importance.  These are the black-and-white plans for “building a flexible force” as laid out by the man in charge and published for all the world to read by the people who may have put him there.

In order to justify this new (and illegal) mission for the Army, General Odierno points to three “major changes” that have precipitated the re-tasking of the troops: First, “declining budgets due to the country’s worsened fiscal situation; second, “a shift in emphasis to the Asia-Pacific region; and third, a “broadening of focus from counterinsurgency, counterterrorism, and training of partners to shaping the strategic environment, preventing the outbreak of dangerous regional conflicts, and improving the army’s readiness to respond in force to a range of complex contingencies worldwide.”

There are so many things wrong with every one of these points that each deserves its own article focused solely on its deconstruction. Unfortunately, there is only so much space and each of these considerations has one critical flaw in common: no constitutional authority for any of it.

Start with the woeful economic state of American affairs. Odierno lists this first among his unholy trinity of reasons the army must “transition” from its traditional role to one with a wider domestic and international scope.

Perhaps it has escaped General Odierno’s attention, but the decline of America’s economic fortunes may be in some significant part tied to the illegal wars in Iraq and Afghanistan that siphon about $13 billion per month from the U.S. Treasury. Since the attacks of September 11, 2001, estimates are that Congress has approved a total of $1.283 trillion in military operations, base security, reconstruction, foreign aid, embassy costs, and veterans’ health care spread over three operations: Operation Enduring Freedom (OEF) Afghanistan and other counter terror operations; Operation Noble Eagle (ONE), providing enhanced security at military bases; and Operation Iraqi Freedom (OIF).

There is a certain macabre irony to the claim by a military leader that his troops are forced to adapt to
stringent budget considerations partially brought about by the use of his troops as the tip of America’s
sword of empire.

General Odierno’s third “major change” is the need to use the Army to solve complex international
conflicts. Again, these conflicts and the solutions to them are made more complex by the fact that there
is not a single syllable in the Constitution that grants the President or Congress the authority to deploy
American armed forces to work out the world’s difficult dilemmas.

On this point, regarding the rules to govern the creation and governing of a federal army, the Constitution says very little. In Article I, Section 8, Congress is authorized to “raise and support Armies” and to “make rules for the government and regulation of the land and naval forces.” That’s it.

That paucity of information has been magnified by the Council on Foreign Relations and their members in positions of power to include the use of the Army in ways and means that would seem unimaginable even to the most martial of our Founding Fathers.

One of the unconstitutional missions advocated by Odierno and the CFR is the use of the U.S. Army as
“a critical guarantor of stability in the Asia-Pacific region.” This is one of the many new “assigned missions” promoted by Odierno in his Foreign Affairs article.

This echoes the pronouncement by his Commander-in-Chief made in Australia last November:
This is the future we seek for the Asia-Pacific — security, prosperity and dignity for all. That’s what we stand for. That’s who we are. That’s the future we will pursue in partnership with allies and friends and
with every element of American power.

That is to say, General Odierno and President Obama believe that deterring aggression against our
allies in Asia and the Pacific trumps any constitutional stricture on the appropriate use of the Army.

There is nothing it seems that will stand in the way of our Army being placed at the disposal of foreign
princes and presidents, provided they appreciate their resulting status as satraps of the American
Emperor.

Not to worry; other provinces of the emerging American empire are accounted for in the Odierno/CFR
plan.

“The posture of the U.S. military in the Middle East is critical to maintaining regional stability there,” writes Odierno, again without any noticeable sense of irony.

Is the general privy to some reports of stability in the Middle East kept secret from the rest of us? There is no end to the media’s reminders of the instability in the Middle East. In fact, it is this very unsettled
foundation upon which the need for ongoing American military presence there is built.

In other words, the Middle East is stable because of the Army, the Middle East will remain stable only so long as the Army remains on permanent patrol, and if we were to completely abandon our posts, the region would devolve into outright — instability. Thus is the quality of the reasoning demonstrated by those with command and control of the armed forces of the United States.

One of the timeliest tenets of the Odierno/CFR proposal is the integration of “cyberspace capabilities into our tactical and operational units.” According to an article published last Friday in the New York Times:

From his first months in office, President Obama secretly ordered increasingly sophisticated attacks on the computer systems that run Iran’s main nuclear enrichment facilities, significantly expanding America’s first sustained use of cyberweapons, according to participants in the program.

For the CFR it seems the message from the Obama administration is ask and ye shall receive.  Lest there remain any doubt as to America’s resolve, Odierno wants our nation’s enemies (foreign and domestic) to understand that we are not afraid to “compel capitulation.” Should those “potential adversaries” be American, moreover, Odierno promises that the Army will “be ready to decisively achieve American ends, whatever they may be.”

Finally, we will, Odierno declares, demonstrate “our country’s commitment to global security.”  Sadly, Americans know this too well, as there are rows and rows of white headstones and flag-draped coffins already demonstrating the seriousness of that commitment.

Saturday, June 16, 2012

Apocalypse Fairly Soon?

Apocalypse Fairly Soon? That is the title of an article posted on the New York Times by Paul Krugman. Krugman writes about the possible fall of Euro, beginning in Greece, then making its way through the other financially unstable countries. This impacts in the U.S. as Europe holds a alot of our debt and our banks are holding European debt as well.

Krugman’s article: Suddenly, it has become easy to see how the euro — that grand, flawed experiment in monetary union without political union — could come apart at the seams. We’re not talking about a distant prospect, either. Things could fall apart with stunning speed, in a matter of months, not years. And the costs — both economic and, arguably even more important, political — could be huge.

This doesn’t have to happen; the euro (or at least most of it) could still be saved. But this will require that European leaders, especially in Germany and at the European Central Bank, start acting very differently from the way they’ve acted these past few years. They need to stop moralizing and deal with reality; they need to stop temporizing and, for once, get ahead of the curve. I wish I could say that I was optimistic. The story so far:

When the euro came into existence, there was a great wave of optimism in Europe — and that, it turned out, was the worst thing that could have happened. Money poured into Spain and other nations, which were now seen as safe investments; this flood of capital fueled huge housing bubbles and huge trade deficits. Then, with the financial crisis of 2008, the flood dried up, causing severe slumps in the very nations that had boomed before. At that point, Europe’s lack of political union became a severe liability.

Florida and Spain both had housing bubbles, but when Florida’s bubble burst, retirees could still count on getting their Social Security and Medicare checks from Washington. Spain receives no comparable support. So the burst bubble turned into a fiscal crisis, too. Europe’s answer has been austerity: savage spending cuts in an attempt to reassure bond markets. Yet as any sensible economist could have told you (and we did, we did), these cuts deepened the depression in Europe’s troubled economies, which both further undermined investor confidence and led to growing political instability.

And now comes the moment of truth. Greece is, for the moment, the focal point. Voters who are understandably angry at policies that have produced 22 percent unemployment — more than 50 percent among the young — turned on the parties enforcing those policies. And because the entire Greek political establishment was, in effect, bullied into endorsing a doomed economic orthodoxy, the result of voter revulsion has been rising power for extremists.

Even if the polls are wrong and the governing coalition somehow ekes out a majority in the next round of voting, this game is basically up: Greece won’t, can’t pursue the policies that Germany and the European Central Bank are demanding. So now what? Right now, Greece is experiencing what’s being called a “bank jog” — a somewhat slow-motion bank run, as more and more depositors pull out their cash in anticipation of a possible Greek exit from the euro.

Europe’s central bank is, in effect, financing this bank run by lending Greece the necessary euros; if and (probably) when the central bank decides it can lend no more, Greece will be forced to abandon the euro and issue its own currency again. This demonstration that the euro is, in fact, reversible would lead, in turn, to runs on Spanish and Italian banks.

Once again the European Central Bank would have to choose whether to provide open-ended financing; if it were to say no, the euro as a whole would blow up. Yet financing isn’t enough. Italy and, in particular, Spain must be offered hope — an economic environment in which they have some reasonable prospect of emerging from austerity and depression. Realistically, the only way to provide such an environment would be for the central bank to drop its obsession with price stability, to accept and indeed encourage several years of 3 percent or 4 percent inflation in Europe (and more than that in Germany).

Both the central bankers and the Germans hate this idea, but it’s the only plausible way the euro might be saved. For the past two-and-a-half years, European leaders have responded to crisis with half-measures that buy time, yet they have made no use of that time.

Now time has run out. So will Europe finally rise to the occasion? Let’s hope so — and not just because a euro breakup would have negative ripple effects throughout the world. For the biggest costs of European policy failure would probably be political. Think of it this way: Failure of the euro would amount to a huge defeat for the broader European project, the attempt to bring peace, prosperity and democracy to a continent with a terrible history. It would also have much the same effect that the failure of austerity is having in Greece, discrediting the political mainstream and empowering extremists.

All of us, then, have a big stake in European success — yet it’s up to the Europeans themselves to deliver that success. The whole world is waiting to see whether they’re up to the task. What can U.S. preppers do to protect themselves? The same thing we have been doing. Stock food for the possibility/probability of inflated food prices and diminished supply, and, protect against inflation/hyper-inflationary prices and/or bank runs/reduced monetary supply by having some cash on hand, and ensuring that we have some precious metals (gold and silver).

Monday, June 11, 2012

The Day the Economic Collapse Started

A well put together 7 minute video on You Tube titled "The Day The Dollar Died", offers fictional but realistic look at what we could see shortly. All the pieces of the puzzle are in place and we are moving towards what the video describes.

I would have liked to see the video expand a bit on the food shortages and civil unrest that will be a result of the Death of the Dollar, but again this video is only Day One of the Dollar Collapse. The video explain how the Oil and Petroleum Export Countries (OPEC) will stop trading Oil in U.S> Dollars furthering the economic collapse that we will see in this country.

Perhaps one of the best lines in the video below is: "Educate yourself before time runs out." Go to http://inflation.us/ and sign up for thier newsletter as one way to edcuate and help prepare yourself. Good luck everyone,.....we are going to need it,...but as Vince Lombardi said "Luck is when preparation meets opportunity".


Saturday, June 2, 2012

Martial Law in America?

This is a article posted with the title "Obama 'Reichstag' Event" - Scary Stuff,....if true. Never hurts to read or listen to anything potentially destroying our individual rights and constitutional protections, no matter how outlandish it may seem on the outset. The below was sent to me by a fellow known to me to be a law abiding Patriot, however fed up with the direction this country is going with massive federal debt, unchecked growth of government, incredibly overwhelming regulation choking the economy, gas prices over twice as high as where they were three years ago,...shall I go on? In any case, the author claims to have a source in Homeland Security, who has given information pertaining to what amounts to a government conspiracy to suspend the constitution. I say it will never happen. But I also think the open debate over the possibility even makes it more unlikely. But this is what the author says:

Will Obama stage a 'Reichstag' type Event as trigger for Martial Law? The Obama agents, through the DHS and other assorted colluders, are plotting a major 'Reichstag' event to generate racial riots and produce the justification for martial law, delaying the November 2012 elections, possibly indefinitely, a DHS histleblower informed the Canada Free Press on Tuesday. The 'Reichstag Event' would take the form of a staged assassination attempt against Barack Obama, "carefully choreographed" and manufactured by Obama operatives. It would subsequently be blamed on "white supremacists" and used to enrage the black community to rioting and looting, the DHS source warned.

The Obama administration would then use the violence and chaos they created as justification for the imposition of martial law in major urban cities in America, the creation of DHS checkpoints, restriction of travel, and the indefinite delay of the November 2012 elections.  

UrbanMan: I just don't see it happening, even though it seems there is much to do about "class warfare" and the separation of economic groups with the increased poverty status in this country.

The "Reichstag" event refers to a fire started during Hitler's rise to power. The fire allowed him to grab emergency powers and murder his opposition. Historians have long believed that Hitler started the fire himself, while he blamed it on the Communists We know the DHS has ordered 450 million rounds of 40 caliber hollow point ammo which cannot be used anywhere except in America because it is banned by the UN. i.e. - It can only be used on American citizens. DHS has also ordered up to 175 million rounds of 223 ammo for assault rifles in an open bid.  

The Contact

It was not the proverbial 3:00 a.m. phone call, but close enough. And it was not made to the White House, but to my house, which is not white, nor is it in DC. It was about 2:30 a.m. on 25 April 2012, and the call itself was somewhat unexpected. I had anticipated the telephone call from my DHS insider much earlier the previous day, but our schedules didn’t synch up. I was traveling on an investigative assignment, while my source was in meetings all day. I had just fallen asleep, and was slumbering no more than 20 minutes when the phone rang. In most households, a ringing phone at that time of night causes concern for everyone who hears it. In my household, it seems to surprise only my surly, 140 pound light-sleeping German Shepherd. He let out an objective grunt as I stepped over him to take the call in another room. It was “Rosebud,” the code name given my insider source.  

About Rosebud

Just a little bit here about my source and his “super-secret code name.” I’ve known this government insider since 1979, when he first became a municipal patrol officer. He took a job in a bigger city and had a very successful run as a cop. Before retirement and after the events of 9/11, he was tapped by the feds, where he worked in various capacities under the umbrella of DHS. He worked his way up, and suddenly found himself in what he terms the inner sanctum of the “TEC” building. TEC, he explains, is an acronym for what he calls “The Estrogen Challenged,” which houses the upper echelon of the Department of Homeland Security. I’ll leave it at that. As far as his code name, it originates from an incident that occurred at the end of the disco era. It is something that we both privately laugh about, but rarely ever talk about. His “code name” is known to him, me, and at the time, a young woman who has since vanished amid the glitter of disco balls and constant replays of the Bee Gees in a dark nightclub some 32 years ago, and has no “cloak and dagger” origins. But he is real, his position serious, and his knowledge vast. Unfortunately, that’s what makes the whole situation frightening and deadly serious.  

The Information

 It began on Wednesday, 2 May 2012 with a 45-minute interview on TruNews with Rick Wiles when I first disclosed the information I received the previous week from my source. The information I relayed “went viral,” as they say, across the internet. To support the statements I made during that interview, I am showing my handwritten notes taken contemporaneously during our conversation. My notes consist of two pages and are, at various points, admittedly difficult to decipher. I ask that points not be deducted for my penmanship given the time of the morning which they were taken.

According to my source, there is talk among the highest levels of the uppermost echelon of the Department of Homeland Security, which he describes as effectively under the control of Barack Hussein Obama. During this call, he said that the DHS is actively preparing for massive social unrest inside the United States. He then corrected himself, stating that “a civil war” is the more appropriate term. Certain elements of the government are not only expecting and preparing for it, they are actually facilitating it,” stated my source. “The DHS takes their marching orders from the Obama administration, from Obama himself, but mostly from his unappointed czars. And Jarrett, especially Valerie Jarrett.

Don’t think for a minute that the administration is doing anything to stabilize events in the U.S. They are revolutionaries, and revolutionaries thrive on chaos,” he added. My source stated that he has not seen things this bad since he began working within DHS. “It’s like they [DHS agency heads] don’t care about what the American people see or feel about what the DHS agencies are doing. They figure that if the average American will put up with being “sexually groped and nuked” just to fly, they’ll accept almost anything. “That’s why their actions are becoming more overt. “It’s in your face and the brass actually chuckle about it” said my source.  

New Information

Astounded by the information my source provided “going viral,” I spoke to him again early Sunday morning. This was a scheduled telephone call (as noted on page 2 of my notes) based on a high level meeting of DHS personnel that was scheduled for and took place in Chantilly, Virginia, on Saturday, 5 May 2012. He hoped to provide me with more information to supplement that which he already given. Although he was not personally present, his source was.

While he would not say who was at the meeting on Saturday or give its precise location, he said that the many of the names would be recognizable. He spoke to his source late Saturday night. I contacted him on his cellular phone early Sunday morning to get the promised update. “Geez, nice job on getting the word out about what’s really going on at DHS and in this administration,” were the first words out of his mouth, followed by “thanks a lot.” I asked him why he would be thanking me. “I just wanna’ tell you that I’m going to have to hire someone to start my car, and I’m surely not going for any rides in small planes in the immediate future,” he said with a bit of nervous laughter. “I hope no one finds out who I am or it’s going to be more than my pension I’ll have to worry about.” “I can tell you word is getting out that people are starting to wake up, which is causing a lot of ‘pissed off brass.’ I can’t tell if they are more desperate or upset about the exposure, but the tone is starting to become a lot more tense. I hope that we’re having something to do with that,” he added.

With that, he provided me with additional information to supplement that which he already given me on 25 April. For clarity purposes, I have combined the information together from both contacts. The following information includes the updated information provided to me Sunday morning.

Obama the revolutionary

Metaphorically speaking, there’s a revolution going on in the U.S., propped up by three legs. Economic chaos, chaos through racial division, and chaos through class division, all joined by one core element: Barack Hussein Obama and his stable of unelected czars. Obama is using the lessons learned in 1968 as the template for 2012, and many of those who were active in the late 1960s are now calling the shots for 2012.

“The Obama administration and many of the un-elected ‘czars,’ either directly or indirectly, are engaged in covert activities with the occupy movement, various labor protests, and other subversive activities inside the U.S.,” stated my source. Using untracked campaign funds, they are paying people to infiltrate the various movements to cause physical destruction of property and disrupt commerce. That began last year, but has increased ten-fold already this year,” stated this source. He added that they are using some lower level DHS agents to make the payments under the context of tracking subversives, but they are the unwitting subversives.

“It’s like Fast and Furious” but in the social realm,” he added. “Obama is using some high profile people as pawns to foment the revolution. I heard several times through very credible sources that [Louis] Farrakhan is on the CIA payroll. Other have been named as well, but I’m not prepared to identify them yet. Farrakhan is to coordinate the Blacks and the Muslims to prepare for riots this summer, using any means necessary.”

“Mentioned at the meeting Saturday were methods to use pawns to simulate the rioting in the Arab Spring countries, but to the benefit of this administration. A controlled chaos thing,” stated my source. They envision rioting starting in the urban areas first, such as New York and other major cities, followed by a disruption of business and commerce. This will allow the DHS to mobilize their various teams into the streets of America without objection of the people,” stated my source. “They want to restrict travel, if not through high energy prices, then by checkpoints and curfews mandated by rioting and unrest. They understand we are the most well-armed nation in the world, yet they are aware of our vulnerabilities and intend to fully exploit them,” he added.

The whole purpose is to keep Obama in office for another term, no matter how unpopular he is, as he is not finished changing our country from a Constitutional Republic. This is the run-up to the 2012 elections, or perhaps causing enough chaos to delay them - indefinitely.” One statement that rattled me more than anything was that a great number of those already in power, whether in appointed or elected positions, actually want to see Obama stay in power, according to this source. “This is what we’ve been working toward and we’re closer now than we’ve ever been. If we lose now, we might not have another chance.”

 This chilling common goal also explains the lack of interest in the Constitutional legitimacy of Obama. It is common knowledge that Obama is not an American, and neither is his agenda. Of course, criticism of his bona-fides feeds into the cries of racism, despite the massive fraud perpetrated on the American people. Party lines are meaningless when the common objective is the revolutionary overtaking of America.

 Obama, the professor of Keynesian economics

 The Obama administration is working closely with Bernanke, Geithner and others not to save our economy, but to outright destroy it. He is not the first or only one to try this, but the most effective and most vetted for that purpose. Do you actually think that the fact that Timothy Geithner’s father worked with Obama’s mother in Indonesia was coincidental,” stated my source rhetorically. “What we’re seeing now is the fourth quarter of a game that started long ago, which also currently involves the Clintons.

Obama would not be where he is if it were not for the Clintons, and to a lesser extent, Bush, but that’s for other reasons. Don’t be fooled, the Clintons never left or lost power,” he added. “There are file drawers full of papers, heavily guarded papers at the ‘TEC building’ so I can only imagine what’s in them, about international financial dealings going back decades. I do know, or at least I was told, that they involve organizations that are the so-called conspiracy fringe groups, such as the Bilderberg group, the Trilateral Commission, and people including George Soros, Henry Kissinger, and current leaders of big industry. Some are fossils. They’ve been around a long time. Others are up-and-coming. They’ve got one thing in common, though, and that is to put in place a global system of governance, including a common currency.

Economics is a huge part of this revolution, and they want to replace the dollar, to see it collapse. They expect, that is, they are working toward this very goal, and when this happens, it will cause chaos like never seen before in the history of this country.” “Why do you think Jon Corzine is not only walking around, but heavily involved in Obama fundraising? They know it’s just a matter of time that Europe will implode economically, and when it does, start counting the days before we see massive hyperinflation and the ultimate collapse of the U.S. dollar,” stated this insider. “What will it look like in the streets of America when the general population realizes that there is no money? That’s right, chaos.”  

Obama and the planned racial divide

According to this insider, the Trayvon Martin case is just the tip of the iceberg. “You certainly don’t have to be a genius to understand how Obama and his team played the public on this issue, and it’s far from over. But that’s not the sole element of what we’ll see this summer.” “Remember the shots fired at the White House not too long ago?” asked my source. There was an element of outrage that was squandered, according to ‘team Obama.’ In fact, Obama and some of his closest advisors, especially [Valerie] Jarrett were incredibly angered that the outrage was seemingly tempered.

It should have been an opportunity to use our force against the Tea Parties, the gun clingers, the Constitutionalists, and everyone who has complained about Obama. DHS should have stepped in right then, and used that event to start the clampdown,” this source stated about White House comments. This source stated that from that point on, the DHS must become more responsive and aggressive. Watch for a false flag event against Obama or his family, something that will outrage ‘black America.’ It will be carefully choreographed, but executed in a manner that will evoke the ugliest of reactions and create racial chaos in this country that will make the Watts riots, 1968 and the Rodney King riots pale in comparison.

That’s the third leg in this.” The planned end-game Does Obama look worried about the upcoming elections? Look at his lavish vacations, his limited work schedule, and those with whom he is working. This is a very dangerous man who has, as his closest advisors, people who have orchestrated the revolutions of the 1960s. They know the “trigger points” in America.

The Obama administration, including his czars and along with his closets Progressive supporters, are planning a manufactured insurgency against America. He is using the media to his advantage to garner both sympathy and support for his unfinished goals. He is desperately seeking a way to remain in office, even if it means the surreal prospect of an indefinite postponement of elections - if it can be pulled off. So far, he’s got the support of the majority of the DHS “brass” behind him, according to my source. “They’re power hungry, and they want to remain in charge,” stated this source. The “surreal” aspect of suspended elections won’t look so surreal when you see any or all of the “trigger points” take place in the not-so-distant future. “The end-game plan for America is its destruction as a Constitutional Republic, with the assistance of the agencies under the umbrella of the DHS.”

My sourced stated one more thing that seemed to tie things together. He urged me to recall the quote by Henry Kissinger who was speaking at a Bilderberg meeting at Evian, France, on 21 May 1992: Today Americans would be outraged if U.N. troops entered Los Angeles to restore order; tomorrow they will be grateful. This is especially true if they were told there was an outside threat from beyond, whether real or promulgated, that threatened our very existence. It is then that all peoples of the world will plead with world leaders to deliver them from this evil.

The one thing every man fears is the unknown. When presented with this scenario, individual rights will be willingly relinquished for the guarantee of their well being granted to them by their world government. That threat need not be from beyond. All it might take is a world of starving, broke and desperate people. Note: My source promised more information at a later time. Stay tuned.  

UrbanMan: Wow! Almost lost me at the point where the claim about Farrahkan being a CIA plant - pretty damn far fetched.  But each reader will have work to do to separate possible political agendas and simple mud slinging. But the scary part is that we all work to prepare against many different threats,..food famine, economic collapse, peak oil, terrorist attack, natural disasters,...we often over look any possible, no mater how remote, about internal chaos such as what would be created by any events described above.

Thursday, May 31, 2012

The Coming Zombie Apocalypse, or, Police Shoot Zombie in Florida

Proof of Zombies. A Miami police officer shot and killed a naked homeless man found chewing on another man's face on an exit ramp of a major causeway, local media reported on Sunday. The incident occurred on Saturday when a woman flagged down a police officer after seeing two men fighting on a pedestrian walkway near downtown Miami. The Miami Herald reported the police officer approached the scene and saw a naked man gnawing on the of another man.

The officer called for the man to back away but he ignored the order and the policeman responded by shooting him once, the Herald said. The man continued his attack after being shot, leading the officer to fire several more shots, the Herald said, citing police sources. A Miami police spokesperson could not be immediately reached for comment. Several witnesses recounted details of the incident to local television stations. The man who was attacked was in intensive care on Sunday at a Miami hospital, the Herald reported.

Now here comes the good part. The guy eating the face off the homeless guy was shot several times, and only stopped after he received a bullet in the head. The homeless guy was taken to the morgue where it was determined he was not dead after all as he sat up and attack one of the Medical Examiner's staff, forcing one of the morgue technicans to stab the homeless man in the head with a pair of foreceps putting him down for good. Who say's Zombies are not real?.......Okay, okay, I made up this last part, but the actual face eating attack took place and the attacker took several bullets until he was put down for good.

Friday, May 25, 2012

Upgrading My SHTF Medical Kit

One of the primary efforts I am trying to make in my Preparation for the Coming Collapse is to upgrade my Medical Kits. I recently bought 12 bottles of Hydrogen Peroxide and 12 bottles of Alcohol, six cases of 4 x 4 inch gauze pads, and 12 rolls of 3M VetWrap self adherent Bandaging Tape.

A friend of mine who is a currently serving medic on an law enforcement warrant service team gave me a couple different sizes of a Trauma Wound Dressing called The Emergency Bandage, which apparently has been in service for for a few years. This particular product is made in Israel and one distributor of this excellent product is PerSysMedical, 5310 Elm Street Houston, Texas 77081, phone 713.723.6000, or e-mail at info@ps-med.com http://ps-med.com/index.php

They are cheap enough that everyone can afford several for their Individual First Aid Kit (IFAK), vehicle Medical Kit and/or to support their Fixed Site Medical-Trauma Kit.  Much like the photo above left, I have two different versions (sizes) of this trauma dressing. The version that has a mobile secondary pad is a great idea for 'through and through' GSW's. All of these Emergency Bandages have the ability to use as a pressure dressing, and/or a tourniquet.

Go to the PerSysMedical website, hyperlinked above, to see what these are all about and for pricing. I have included a PerSysMedical video below so the capabilities of this Emergency Bandage can be explained much better than I can do via text.  

FCP-01 (4 inch Pad) This 4" wide, all-in-one bandage consolidates multiple first-aid devices such as a primary dressing, pressure applicator, secondary dressing, and a foolproof closure bar to secure the bandage in place.  

FCP-05 (w/ 6 inch Mobile Pad) This 6" wide, all-in-one bandage consolidates multiple first-aid devices such as a primary dressing, pressure applicator, secondary dressing, and a foolproof closure apparatus to secure the bandage in place. This model includes a sliding/mobile pad for coverage of entry and exit wounds.

 PerSysMed Emergency Bandage (Israeli Military Bandage) Demonstrated 

 

Tuesday, May 22, 2012

Peak Oil and the Coming Collapse

Peak Oil and the Coming Collapse from the SGT Report and reprinted on the Martenson report the audio interview below with researcher and author of ‘The Crash Course’ Chris Martenson.

Chris has been following economical trends for decades now and has been one of the early guys warning of the coming collapse. Chris makes the case for "peak oil" being a fact and that because of it, our lives are about to change forever as the days of cheap liquid fuel are nearly over. Chris also covers the coming collapse and the need to continue stacking physical material goods.

There is just so much of the economy and life centered around our oil products, from basic homes energy needs,..heating, cooking and basic electrical service, to the freedoms we enjoy being able to use vehicles for personal mobility. Vehicles and fuel are vital for commerce,...from food stuffs being delivered by tractor-trailer rigs to people getting to and from work each day.

Part 1: PEAK OIL: A Fact? Life As We Know It WILL Change

Saturday, May 19, 2012

More Predictors of the Coming Economic Collapse

From the ETF Daily we get 25 reasons the Economic Collapse is probable. The entire article is too much to re-print here, please go to ETF Daily to read the whole enchilada. The following are 25 horrible statistics about the U.S. economy that Barack Obama, and probably the entire Congress, does not want you to know.....together they spell a coming economic doom.

#1 The percentage of Americans that own homes is dropping rapidly. According to Gallup, the current level of homeownership in the United States is the lowest that Gallup has ever measured.

#2 Home prices in the U.S. continue to fall like a rock as well. They have declined for six months in a row and are now down a total of 35 percent from the peak of the housing bubble. The last time that home prices in the United States were this low was back in 2002.

#3 Last year, an astounding 53 percent of all U.S. college graduates under the age of 25 were either unemployed or underemployed.

#4 Back in 2007, about 10 percent of all unemployed Americans had been out of work for 52 weeks or longer. Today, that number is above 30 percent.

#5 When Barack Obama first became president, the number of “long-term unemployed workers” in the United States was 2.6 million. Today, it is 5.3 million.

#6 The average duration of unemployment in the United States is about three times as long as it was back in the year 2000.

#7 Despite what the mainstream media would have us to believe, the truth is that the percentage of working age Americans that are employed is not increasing. Back in March 2010, 58.5 percent of all working age Americans were employed. In March 2011, 58.5 percent of all working age Americans were employed. In March 2012, 58.5 percent of all working age Americans were employed. So how can Barack Obama and the mainstream media claim that the employment situation in the United States is getting better? The employment rate is still essentially exactly where it was when the last recession supposedly ended.

#8 Back in 1950, more than 80 percent of all men in the United States had jobs. Today, less than 65 percent of all men in the United States have jobs.

#9 In 1962, 28 percent of all jobs in America were manufacturing jobs. In 2011, only 9 percent of all jobs in America were manufacturing jobs.

#10 In some areas of Detroit, Michigan you can buy a three bedroom home for just $500.

#11 According to one recent survey, approximately one-third of all Americans are not paying their bills on time at this point.

#12 Since Barack Obama entered the White House, the price of gasoline has risen by more than 100 percent.

#13 The student loan debt bubble continues to expand at a very frightening pace. Recently it was announced that total student loan debt in the United States has passed the one trillion dollar mark.

#14 Incredibly, one out of every four jobs in the United States pays $10 an hour or less at this point.

#15 Household incomes all over the United States continue to fall. After adjusting for inflation, median household income in America has declined by 7.8 percent since December 2007.

#16 Over the past several decades, government dependence has risen to unprecedented heights in the United States. The following is how I described the explosive growth of social welfare benefits in one recent article. Back in 1960, social welfare benefits made up approximately 10 percent of all salaries and wages. In the year 2000, social welfare benefits made up approximately 21 percent of all salaries and wages. Today, social welfare benefits make up approximately 35 percent of all salaries and wages.

#17 In November 2008, 30.8 million Americans were on food stamps. Today, more than 46 million Americans are on food stamps.

#18 Right now, more than 25 percent of all American children are on food stamps.

#19 According to the U.S. Census Bureau, today 49 percent of all Americans live in a home that receives some form of benefits from the federal government.

#20 Over the next 75 years, Medicare is facing unfunded liabilities of more than 38 trillion dollars. That comes to $328,404for each and every household in the United States.

#21 During the first quarter of 2012, U.S. public debt rose by 359.1 billion dollars. U.S. GDP only rose by 142.4 billion dollars.

#22 At this point, the U.S. national debt is rising by more than 2 million dollars every single minute.

#23 The U.S. national debt has risen by more than 5 trillion dollars since the day that Barack Obama first took office. In a little more than 3 years Obama has added more to the national debt than the first 41 presidents combined.

#24 The Federal Reserve bought up approximately 61 percent of all government debt issued by the U.S. Treasury Department during 2011.

#25 The Federal Reserve continues to systematically destroy the value of the U.S. dollar. Since 1970, the U.S. dollar has lost more than 83 percent of its value.

Can we survive this as a Nation? or will this be Survival of individuals, groups and small communities?

Sunday, May 6, 2012

There are many of us out there preparing for a economic collapse within the United States. I am convinced that many of us could not really articulate the factors of an economic SHFT, or why this collapse is likely to occur. The video below is very sobering and a fairly non-partisan explanation of the Federal financial problem. It serves two purposes: 1 – to articulate the “why” of a probable collapse, 2 – scare the hell out of you that the problem(s) are not solvable therefore the economic collapse probable. The video explains that the U.S. debt is 32 times greater than Greece. While the U.S. obviously has much more means to re-pay debt, we also have much more discretionary obligations, read entitlements, that Greece doesn’t have. Without a dynamic course change the U.S. will see a substantial if not catastrophic economic collapse like Greece,......but the riots will not be like Greece. They will be much more wide spread and violent. While the economic problems in Greece did lead to a short duration food and commodities shortage, the shortage we’ll see here in the U.S. will be substantial. Like the video states, It’s when, not if, the U.S. will collapse from this soaring debt.

Thursday, May 3, 2012

Possibility of World War III?

While most of us probably feel that a slow economic or even dyanmic economic collapse is a much more likely scenario for SHTF, nobody should discount conventional attack or attacks using Weapons of Mass Destruction/Effect by terrorists groups to either precipitate the collapse or to add speed and chaos to an already impending economic collapse. When you think about people on foot, or trucks or even ultra light aircraft bringing loads of narcotics across the U.S.-Mexican border each day, how hard would it be to bring in four pounds of a biological toxin?,.....or chemical weapons?,......or, God forbid, a small nuclear device? When you add the growing anger along socio-economic groups and what seems to be an agenda among many to divide us racially, we have a wide and immense catastophy sitting in front of us. The video below is long, but worth watching and it certainly gives us a lot to think about.

Monday, April 30, 2012

Reggie Bennett, Survival Instructor and High Tech Survival Tools

In my mind's eye I see a person surviving in the wilderness as a short term venture. A person spending all day working on survival tasks such as repairing or improving a lean to or dug out shelter; procuring fire wood; checking and setting traps and snares; maybe laying in fishing lines; repiaring gear or clothing; procuring edible or medicinal plants; constructing hunting weapons and tools.

Again, all of this is short range survival - very few people can do this for even weeks on end, let alone year in and year out, through all sesons and weather conditions. But this does not mean that the well prepared Survivor should discount these wilderness survival skills. Perhaps the main objective of these skills is to give a person confidence for all situations and to orient the survival mindset or what Reggie Bennett calls the positive mental attitude.

I stumbled across this article on Reggie Bennett, Virginia based wilderness survival instructor, from a Yahoo! article by Marc Istook:

If you want to learn survival skills, be it low or high tech, Reggie Bennett is the man. Friendly and unassuming, at first glance you may not realize that he is the quintessential survivalist. But with U.S. military training that taught him how to brave some of the globe's harshest conditions, and his time spent instructing Air Force pilots on how to survive, he is uniquely equipped to teach others at his Mountain Shepherd Wilderness Survival School in Catawba, Virginia.

On a sprawling 100 acres, Reggie and his wife Dina host everyone from housewives to schoolkids, CEOs to active-duty armed forces, and one lucky Yahoo! News host — yours truly. You don't mess around with Reggie.

The open spaces in Virginia make a great location for this kind of training. It's close enough to Roanoke that it's easy for guests to fly in. But it's remote enough that you feel at one with nature — even if that does mean I spent hours searching in vain for a cell phone signal. To sum up Reggie's vast knowledge in one training session would be impossible. So he makes his survival tips simple, boiling them down to seven key priorities. They involve the basics, like finding food, water and shelter.

A bit more complicated — starting a fire, signaling for help and providing first aid. But the most important aspect according to Reggie: maintaining a positive mental attitude. It's a perspective that's accessible to anyone braving the elements. And without it, he says, surviving becomes significantly more difficult. Reggie's training taught him how to make it out of the wilderness with nothing but the most primitive tools.

But with the help of a little technology, we can increase our odds of survival in almost any situation. Modern water purifiers use advanced filtration methods to keep us hydrated. Cell phone and GPS technology can help us find our way, or help rescuers locate us more quickly than ever. Today's compact, efficient batteries and solar power units keep our gadgets charged, long after the power — and cell phone signal - has gone out.

Don't forget to keep a positive mental attitude! Low tech or high tech, Reggie has found a way to make the idea of surviving fun. His school takes all comers, from those wanting to learn simple camping tips to mountain men looking to conquer the wild. I highly recommend meeting Reggie and checking out his survival school. Maybe I'll even see you there… just keep your eyes peeled for the slightly lost Yahoo! host, desperately seeking a cell phone signal.