Reader Response on Riots

UrbanSurvivalSkills.com received the following (very interesting) reader response on riots,.....Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "Urban Survival Planning - More Riots and Scenarios..."I'm a creature of the 60s. As to these riots: Been there, done that. Let me explain: Suspect the obvious. As in the 60s when "the whole world [was] watching" at the Chicago 8 trials and the Kent state killings, and Watts and Hough suburbs were burning, each one of those were concerted efforts designed and carried out by Saul Alinsky followers like Students for Democratic Action and The Weathermen Underground and the Black Panthers.WITHOUT EXCEPTION !!

None of this is by inspiration of a angst-be-sodden crowd of like-minded sophisticates. It is a cold - hearted plan carried out by nation-busting global governance freaks who use their expendable useless idiots/minions to do their dirty deeds. Meanwhile, where is the FIRE in the USA? There ain't none...yet....just gentlemanly middle class activists drinking a toast to their latter-day icon, Glen Beck...but YOU WAIT....and see...

UrbanMan replies:I get it. I also believe there is a group in this Country actively wanting, planning and acting to make this Country a third world socialist shithole. We're heading this way now without large scale, across the board corrective action. Many of us are doing the survival planning and preparation because if we don't know what the results can be, at least we instinctively know that this Country is in trouble.

I was writing about the threat of riots to be fueled by discontent, anger and hate and take on a live of their own. I think the coming riots, based on the extinction of the middle class and development of a large percentage of Americans that can't afford to live, will vastly over shadowed the anti-war, anti-government riots of the 60's. It's one thing not getting your way and having a tantrum,...it's a total different thing when you can't feed your family.

Add in a an initial lack of protection and control by our Government then installment of heavy handed government control, maybe even martial law, and their will be chaos.

And this is a gradual economic collapse scenario. Factor in a rapid economic collapse and maybe even a terrorist strike to precede this and the stakes go up.

The survivor needs to consider riots and their impact on the survivor's immediate safety and escape routes. Grocery stores, food distribution warehouse, hospitals, probably urban shopping malls will be ground zero for massive protests then riots and looting.

You can simply wargame these possibilities by looking at likely sites that would attract large groups of angry, disenfranchised people who by then may not have anything to lose. Add the phenomenon of the mob mentality and you have a dangerous situation. Wargame (or "what if") the danger to you and your family from the flow of these riots. A friend of mine lives in a old house on a street next to a hospital and a multi-story building of Doctor's offices. The house is pushed back against a steep mountain. This basically boxes him and his family in, once the hospital are overwhelmed with people seeking help, then later by mobs and looters. This basically eliminates one entire direction and network of roads for his escape.

Another friend of mine lives in a home abutting a military installation. This does not forebode well as I think it is likely you'll see the government, through the military, initially try to feed people and triage needs, but the military installation is also a likely place for detention camps for both large groups of criminals or later on maybe just the general hungry population. I don't want to be caught up in any of that, as I am prepared to protect and feed my own

Anyway, the point to all of this is that is a more likely danger of out of control riots then there is of organized para-military type bands of looters. Just prepare yourselves for this.

Urban Survival Planning - Hyper-Inflation will precede the Collapse

A buddy of mine sent me this video from the National Inflation Association with the theory that our Government isn't stupid. He justified this by stating all the things are government has done to stave off economic disasters,....cash for clunkers, bailout of Fannie Mae and Fredie Max,...Stimlus I and II,....the bailout of AIG,.....nationalizing half of the automotive industry,.....passing Obamacare,...trying to pass Cap and Trade,....extending unemployment benefits (twice actually),....and the list goes on,...are not things a rational government does,..UNLESS they are very scared of the future economic viability of this Country, and indeed the viability of this Country as a country.

He sees it as a time buying plan and/or a plan to orient the historical record to efforts made and not results. He sees the end as a economic collapse of this Country preceded by hyper-inflation. He forecasts two scenarios a rapid collapse the speed of which as never been seen before, or less probable, a gradual collapse that will plunge this country into anarchy which will results in the Government suspended the Constitution in an effort, doomed to failure, to control the chaos.



God, I hope not, but I don't see any way out of it. His prediction mirrors that of Gonzalo Lira, although he said he has heard of Lira but not read any of his writings. But I see the writing and it is on the proverbial wall....Get prepared, have a plan and do it now.

Reader Response on Imminent Collapse

UrbanSurvivalSkills.com received an Anonymous comment on the Collapse is Imminent post,….” Every morning I turn on news as I make coffee. I did this on 9/11 and sat there in my underwear watching for about an hour. I fully expect one morning to hear Israel or South Korea has been nuked or to see a grim faced Obama on the TV in the Oval office saying "My fellow Americans...". One day it will happen. I have a list of a years supply of food I will buy. I have my stored food and my cupboards are full of everyday food but if I am given notice I will go and buy from my list. I figure it will take me 4 trips through the checkout line and it will just about fill my mini-van. I intend to do it early then stop by the bank for a large withdrawal. We may not get notice of whatever it is that ends life as we know it but we just might.”

UrbanMan’s comment: I think it is problematic that you are planning on buying food, since it mans that you have not yet procured it.

Not only are mainstream television commentators such as Glenn Beck advocating the stocking on long term food supplies, the local health guy hawking crappy vitamins on the radio said the other day that he recommends everyone procuring and stocking one years worth of long term food supplies, because he see’s the collapse coming.

Understand that you are keeping a close tab on the news and therefore collapse indicators, however you risk mistiming this and be left with nothing. Even if you just buy a few days extra food when you can, then you should.

There was a news report of a Gold vending machine in Florida . Imagine a vending machine where you insert your credit card then get grams or ounces of Gold. I can imagine mutts using stolen credit cards at this machine just as fast as they can. I can imagine those machines being targets of theft. I certainly can imagine the mindset that makes this a good idea….but Gold and Silver,…..whatever you can. If all you can afford is an occasional one ounce Silver Round or some junk silver coins for their melt value, then so be it, go get it.

But what capability you do have is to buy extra food. Even if it is a couple of $1 bags of rice or black beans or bouillon cubes. Get it done now and continue doing it. Don’t take a chance on having the warning. I have been at this for a long time and constantly re-assess not on the collapse indicators, but my ability to foresee the indicators I do get and forecast the effect.

Congress has passed an extension of the Bush tax rates. It was problematic that $200 billion in un-funded spending was also added. But I think the immediate threat of a collapse happening by December 31 is greatly reduced. However the long term threat of a collapse happening in maybe the Spring of 2011 has increased since commodities prices are still going up; the U.S. debt continues to grow leaps and bounds; and the worldwide situation which will lend itself to a dollar failure is more profound. Be prepared.

Survival Firearms - A Basic Need Under Attack

The fundamentals for Surviving a collapse, be it an economic collapse, terrorist or nation-state nuclear attack or even a pandemic, are basically having Food, Shelter, Water and Protection. I know, I know,….. this doesn’t begin to describe the preparation and planning it takes to give any given a group a good chance of surviving chaos. But we do know that a gaping hole in any of these basic Survival areas will doom you.

Enter the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (BATFE) who are attempting to get authority, not previously existing, that will at least dampen our ability to purchase firearms to fill the Protection basics of Survival preparedness.

The Legislative Alert I received from the National rifle Association is as follows:

The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives has proposed that it be given emergency authority for six months, beginning January 5, to require about 8,500 firearms dealers along the border with Mexico “to alert authorities when they sell within five consecutive business days two or more semiautomatic rifles greater than .22 caliber with detachable magazines.” A Washington Post story reporting on the BATFE proposal described that definition as being applicable to “so-called assault weapons,” but it would also apply to many rifles that have never been labeled with that term.

The reporting requirement will apparently be imposed under the “authority” the BATFE has used in the past to demand reporting of other types of transactions from certain limited groups of dealers over the past 10 years, but the new proposal is far broader than any previous use of this authority. Of course, there's no law today that prevents dealers from reporting suspicious transactions (or attempted transactions) to the BATFE, and dealers often do so. The BATFE is also free to inspect dealers' sales records—either for annual compliance inspections or during a criminal investigation.

UrbanMan’s comment: I cannot help but see this as an invasive inroad to gun owners rights and therefore our ability to protect ourselves. The conventional wisdom that the Mexican cartels are armed from American gun shops is a lie.

Additionally, on Sunday, December 17, 2010, Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer reminded Americans why it is important to vote for a president whose nominees to the court will likely be faithful to the Constitution, to vote for U.S. senators who will reject nominees who likely will not be faithful, and to vote for federal and state legislators who can check and balance justices like Stephen Breyer who don't believe the Second Amendment protects any meaningful right.

On Sunday, during an interview with Chris Wallace on “Fox News Sunday,” Clinton nominee Breyer, who dissented from the Supreme Court's decisions in District of Columbia v. Heller (2008) and McDonald v. Chicago (2010), claimed that the role of the court is to interpret the Constitution flexibly, in light of ever-changing circumstances. Breyer argues that the court should give consideration not to the Constitution’s “words,” but to the “values” that the Framers had in mind. Fox News’ article on the interview can be viewed here.

The Framers’ “values,” Breyer suggested, would allow a total ban on handguns in Washington, D.C. “It’s not a matter of policy, it’s a matter of what those Framers [of the Bill of Rights] intended,” he said.

What Second Amendment author James Madison intended, Breyer said, was only to prevent Congress from nationalizing state militias. That, of course, is not what Breyer said in his dissent in the Heller case. Then, Breyer said that the amendment was intended to prohibit Congress from disarming state militias.

Regardless of what Breyer was trying to sell on Sunday, Wallace didn’t seem to be buying it. Pointing out the plain language of the amendment’s “keep and bear arms” clause, Wallace asked Breyer whether, in ignoring those words, he was assuming the role of politician or policy-maker, rather than that of a judge.

Breyer grinned smugly, said “no,” and sarcastically asked whether the amendment should be interpreted to allow the ownership of machine guns and torpedoes, as well as handguns. Wallace countered that at the very least, the amendment “certainly didn’t provide for a ban on all handguns, as we have here in Washington, D.C.” To that, Breyer, still grinning, asked Wallace, “Are you a sportsman? Do you like to shoot pistols at targets? Well, get on the subway and go to Maryland.”

Realizing that Madison and the other Framers surely did not intend for the Second Amendment to mean one thing in Maryland and another in D.C., Wallace pointed out that allowing a ban on handguns in D.C. while not allowing it in Maryland would be “a policy issue, not a constitutional issue.” Breyer changed the subject.

UrbanMan’s comment: The liberal, left wing side of American politics has no given up; the fight to restrict American gun owning rights. My suggestion is to not only get into the fight by letting your Congressman and Senators know how you want them to vote, but you ought to consider getting the firearms you need now, before something happens to reduce the availability.