The UN Is Preparing to Impose Martial Law On the US

This is an article by Dave Hodges, titled "The UN Is Positioning to Lock Down the US" and published on another site as "The UN Is Preparing to Impose Martial Law On the US", as the word "martial law" spins people up.

Urban Man's Comments: This title stood out for me as I am currently reading the excellent Survivalist series by A. American. The fourth book as recently published and the entire series now includes these titles: Going Home, Surviving Home, Escaping Home and Forsaking Home.

This series prostelizes a collapse of the United States where DHS emerges as the national power, building "refugee camps" where Americans are brutalized and forces into hard, manual labor and where the words freedom or liberty don't mean a damn thing. Can it happen? Essentially, anything is possible when the power and other utilities grid is down for the count.

I think A. American's series is the best series in the Survivalists genre. Realistic as far as what you could expect, and, instructional as you can see potential solutions to the problems that arise in the books. And isn't that why we read these novels? To see problems and situations and ask ourselves what would we do?

While, I do not subscribe to Mr. Hodges fears of a U.N. occupation force enforcing martial law some of the supporting facts either support his hypothesis or are being manipulated to support, namely the purging of the military by the Executive Office, support of the UN small arms (gun ban) treaty which appears to be happening somewhat. As far as FEMA purchases I cannot determine the validity of these.

The UN Is Preparing to Impose Martial Law On the United States?

I have been writing that my military sources tell me that their greatest fears are beginning to become realized because the United States will be, in the relatively near future, this country will be under martial law and the bulk of the occupation force will be comprised by foreign troops operating under the flag of the United Nations. Under the heading, “Hiding in plain sight”, the United Nations is advertising for the following position:

Posting Title: Disarmament, Demobilization and Reintegration Officer, P4 Job Title Code: DISARMAMENT, DEMOBILIBATION AND REINTEGRATION OFFICER
Department/Office: Department of Peacekeeping Operations
Duty Station: New York
Job Description: A minimum of seven years of progressively responsible experience in disarmament, demobilization and reintegration or related area. Experience working within peacekeeping, peace-building or development programs operations is desirable. Experience with small arms control, conflict/post-conflict crisis management, economic recovery is desirable. Experience coordinating multiple partner agencies, funds or programs is desirable.

Analysis of the Job Description

Peacekeeping is normally the euphemism reserved for gun confiscation and population subjugation. If there is any doubt to the veracity of this claim, the following phrase “Experience with small arms control“, should remove any doubt as to what is coming. Further this job description uses phrases such as “demobilization“. Further the phrase “reintegration” is also significant. By definition, what is a re-education camp designed for? Quite simply put, it is designed for reintegration back into society. Back into society from where? This question can be answered with a pair of four letter words, FEMA Camp.

No doubt that some people, wanting to remain in a state of denial, will ignore the term used in the UN job advertisement, “small arms control“, which is significant since because we know that Secretary of State, John Kerry, illegally signed the UN gun ban treaty representing an unconstitutional end run around the Second Amendment. What is highly significant is that nobody seems to be talking with regard to this illegitimate imposition of foreign troops on our soil is represented in the phrase “conflict/post conflict management“! What conflict/post conflict management? Conflict management is another euphemism reserved for one of two possibilities. First, this implies there will be a civil war.

With over 260+ senior military officers fired by Obama for not embracing the future need to fire on American citizens, speaks clearly to this point.

Ask yourself, what would be the one thing that this administration could do that would guarantee a violent response from many of the people? That one thing would be to start seizing private guns. Foreign troops operating under the UN flag. Obama is in the midst of purging the military leadership who will not indiscriminately fire upon American citizens who would resist having their Second Amendment rights obliterated by this present administration. Secondly, in order to create the manufactured need to impose martial law, the administration would need a pretext. I have been covering the pretext for nearly a year. In fact, the pretext has been rehearsed repeatedly since last fall.

Rehearsing for Martial Law

Last fall, FEMA, DHS and select foreign entities extensively rehearsed for the following contingencies in the following list of list of the preparedness and disaster drills planned and carried out over a six week period:

1. FEMA purchase orders for over $14.2 million for MREs and heater meals to be delivered to Region III by October 1st, 2013.
2. FEMA purchase orders for 22 million pouches of emergency water to be delivered to Region III by October 1st, 2013.
3. FEMA purchase orders for $13.6 million for MREs and heater meals to be delivered to Austin, TX. by October 1st, 2013.
4. $11 million in antibiotics to be delivered to FEMA region III by October 1st ordered by CDC
5, Nine-week training course for UN Peacekeepers in CONUS to learn Urban Warfare, English, and US weapons systems beginning late July for 386,000 troops to be completed by October 1st 6. Great Shakeout Drill Scheduled for October 17, 2013
7. More Than 1,000 Banks Plan National Cyber-Attack Drill Oct. 16-17, Oct. 23-24
8. Quantum Dawn’ Is a Cyber-Attack Bank Drill –
9. GridEx2 Nov. 13-14

The Grid EXs drill was the most concerning of these drills because it rehearsed and EMP attack upon our grid and estimates at the time forecasted a 90% mortality rate. in America. following such an event within two years.

The most telling part of these drills is that they all have in common the need to impose strict martial law in which the tenets of EO 13603 will come into play.

Last fall, I expressed serious concerns over so many of these drills taking place in such a short period of time. I raised the question of martial law arising from any one of these events going hot. In hindsight, I think I was too close to the truth as to what is coming because even the Russian media invited me on a news show that is distributed in New York City and Washington DC, as well as in 35 other countries.

On October 28, 2013, I was contacted by reporter and producer, Victoria Mashkova, from the Voice of Russia (formerly Radio Moscow), and was invited on to their radio program to discuss the possibility of martial law coming to America. I accepted and in the early morning hours I participated in a 10 minute interview.

Inside of the United States today, there are untold numbers of Russian troops for which I have received reports of sightings from first-hand witnesses. It is quite apparent that Russian troops will be used as a UN force whose purpose is gun confiscation, American citizen detention and Lord knows what else when martial law is finally declared.

The Russians have a vested interest to conceal their true intentions related to why they have thousands of troops inside of our country. As I lay out the events connected to the interview it will become increasingly clear that I was invited to appear on VOR to completely discredit the notion that America would be going into martial law.

Now, if I was a merely some crazed conspiracy theorist, this Russian version of the mainstream media would just simply ignore me. However, when they go out of their way to discredit my views as it relates to them, they clearly have something to hide and were operating from a state-sponsored agenda.

Voice of Russia Attacked Dave Hodges to Conceal Russian Participation In Martial Law Preparations

After inviting me to appear on the VOR, the producer, Victoria Maskova, had requested a bio which I provided as detailed below:

“I am a retired college basketball coach. A former mental health counselor. I have taught graduate and undergraduate psychology, sociology and research classes.”

At the beginning of the interview, the Russian host, Kate Zickel, introduced me as merely the “Host of The Common Sense Show” and there was no mention of my academic credentials. Immediately, I felt this was an attempt to marginalize my credibility by ignoring the requested credentials I provided VOR with regard to my background in which I characterized myself as a researcher, someone who is knowledgeable about social systems as well as human nature.

Over the past several years, I have done enough mainstream radio media interviews to recognize a “set up” when I see it coming.

Make no mistake about it, VOR is a propaganda instrument of the Russian government and their handling of the interview and post-interview situations pointed to their propagandizing of their interview of me. After the interview, their post-show analysis categorized me as an extremist for stating that America was prepping for martial law. If we were not prepping for martial law then what the hell were the nine referenced FEMA/DHS drills, taking place in a six week period, in which foreign troops played a prominent role, used for?

Look at item number five in last year’s martial law preparation drills. “5, Nine week training course for UN Peacekeepers in CONUS to learn Urban Warfare, English, and US weapons systems beginning late July for 386,000 troops to be completed by October 1st“.

Please note the designation and use of terms for “386,000 troops” and, “UN Peacekeepers in CONUS to learn urban warfare”. This does not leave much to the imagination now does it?

And when the UN does take control, they won't have to round up a large percentage of Americans. Many of them will come willingly to the camps. You can bet on it.

Urban Man

Pandemic Disease as a Collapse Catalyst

Note:  Since I wrote this story preparing to post it there have been two related incidents involving disease or pandemic catalysts:  1 - vials of  small pox being found in the closet of the National Institute of Health,...obviously some employee planning, maybe years ago, to steal this deadly virus, and 2 - a case of Pneumonic Plague found in Colorado - and this disease killed millions of people in the Middle Ages. 

Friends of mine in Texas have been sending me e-mails and links about the mass of illegal aliens, many of whom are "unaccompanied alien children", that are flooding the border. We have all seen the news article of the federal government busing groups of these illegals to military bases and other towns where they will be released after being given a date to come back for an immigration court hearing. I am being told that 99 - 100% of these released aliens do not come back or otherwise appear for an immigration hearing nor does the federal government know where these illegal aliens are.

Some of the other related stories are that there are many sick illegal aliens having H1N1 Flu, Scabies, Dengue fever and even TB, then not only being released but being bused to locations in the interior U.S. before being released.

As we know about communicable diseases and the incubation timeline, some aliens who are sick or carrying a communicable disease will be asymptomatic for a numbers of days until they become disease spreaders.

Imagine a terrorist group either unwittingly infecting aliens right before they cross into the U.S. Or infecting jihadist volunteers who enter the U.S. to spread a disease. What would that be like if that disease was a weaponized disease?

At the very least this should bring to light medical screening processes and standards for prepper groups if/when they encounter refugees knocking at the gates. Do you have procedures? Protective equipment? AT the very least rubber gloves and masks!  Any test equipment aside from visual inspection? If you plan on the possibility of accepting refugees, do you have a quarantine process?

I was sent this news article written by Todd Starnes of Fox News concerning this threat of contagious diseases, and the Federal governments desire to minimize reports of the border being over run and the disease threat these illegal immigrants bring.

Medical staff warned: Keep your mouths shut about illegal immigrants or face arrest

A government-contracted security force threatened to arrest doctors and nurses if they divulged any information about the contagion threat at a refugee camp housing illegal alien children at Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio, Texas, sources say.

In spite of the threat, several former camp workers broke their confidentiality agreements and shared exclusive details with me about the dangerous conditions at the camp. They said taxpayers deserve to know about the contagious diseases and the risks the children pose to Americans. I have agreed to not to disclose their identities because they fear retaliation and prosecution.

My sources say Americans should be very concerned about the secrecy of the government camps.

“There were several of us who wanted to talk about the camps, but the agents made it clear we would be arrested,” a psychiatric counselor told me. “We were under orders not to say anything.”

The sources said workers were guarded by a security force from the BCFS, which the Department of Health and Human Services hired to run the Lackland Camp.

The sources say security forces called themselves the “Brown Shirts.”

“It was a very submissive atmosphere,” the counselor said. “Once you stepped onto the grounds, you abided by their laws – the Brown Shirt laws.”

She said the workers were stripped of their cellphones and other communication devices. Anyone caught with a phone was immediately fired.

“Everyone was paranoid,” she said. “The children had more rights than the workers.”

She said children in the camp had measles, scabies, chicken pox and strep throat as well as mental and emotional issues.

“It was not a good atmosphere in terms of health,” she said. “I would be talking to children and lice would just be climbing down their hair.”

A former nurse at the camp told me she was horrified by what she saw.

“We have so many kids coming in that there was no way to control all of the sickness – all this stuff coming into the country,” she said. “We were very concerned at one point about strep going around the base.”

Both the counselor and the nurse said their superiors tried to cover up the extent of the illnesses.

“When they found out the kids had scabies, the charge nurse was adamant – ‘Don’t mention that. Don’t say scabies,’” the nurse recounted. “But everybody knew they had scabies. Some of the workers were very concerned about touching things and picking things up. They asked if they should be concerned, but they were told don’t worry about it.”

The nurse said the lice issue was epidemic – but everything was kept “hush-hush.”

“You could see the bugs crawling through their hair,” she said. “After we would rinse out their hair, the sink would be loaded with black bugs.”

The nurse told me she became especially alarmed because their files indicated the children had been transported to Lackland on domestic charter buses and airplanes.

“That’s what alerted me,” she said. “Oh, my God. They’re flying these kids around. Nobody knows that these children have scabies and lice. To tell you the truth, there’s no way to control it.”

I don't mean to upset anyone's Independence Day vacation plans, but were these kids transported to the camps before or after they were deloused? Anyone who flies the friendly skies could be facing a public health concern.

The counselor told me the refugee camp resembled a giant emergency room – off limits to the public. “They did not want the community to know,” she said. “I initially spoke out at Lackland because I had a concern the children’s mental health care was not being taken care of.”

She said the breaking point came when camp officials refused to hospitalize several children who were suicidal. “I made a recommendation that a child needed to be sent to a psychiatric unit,” the counselor told me. “He was reaching psychosis. He was suicidal. Instead of treating him, they sent him off to a family in the United States.”

She said she filed a Child Protective Services report and quit her job. “I didn’t want to lose my license if this kid committed suicide,” she told me. “I was done.”

The counselor kept a detailed journal about what happened during her tenure at the facility. “When people read that journal they are going to be astonished,” she said. ‘I don’t think they will believe what is going on in America.”

So it was not a great surprise, she said, when she received a call from federal agents demanding that she return to the military base and hand over her journal.

She said she declined to do so. “I didn’t go back to Lackland,” she said. Both workers told me while they have no regrets, they want to remain anonymous for fear of reprisals.

“They’re going to crush the system,” the nurse told me. “We can’t sustain this. They are overwhelming the system and I think it’s a travesty.”

BCFS spokeswoman Krista Piferrer tells me the agency takes “any allegation of malfeasance or inappropriate care of a child very seriously.” “There are a number of checks and balances to ensure children are receiving appropriate and adequate mental health care,” she said.

Piferrer said the clinicians are supervised by a federal field specialist from HHS’s Office of Refugee Resettlement. She also said BCFS have 58 medical professionals serving at Lackland.

“Every illness, whether it is a headache or something more serious, is recorded in a child’s electronic medical record and posted on WebEOC – a real-time, web-based platform that is visible to not only BCFS but the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services,” she said. As for those brown shirts, the BCFS said they are “incident management team personnel” – who happen to wear tan shirts.

My sources say Americans should be very concerned about the secrecy of the government camps. “This is just the beginning,” one source told me. "It is a long-term financial responsibility.”

Survival Planning, Prepping and Bugging Out With a Handicapped Family Member

Urban Survival Skills received this request for advice concerning prepping and bug out with a disabled child. I edited the letter to provide some semblance of OPSEC for the writer but want to post this to reach a larger group for potential advice to this prepper with a special needs child.

I am a single parent of a severely disabled child. My child is wheelchair bound, tube fed, in diapers, and developmentally at a pre-schooler level. My child is on medication for seizures. I'm stockpiling Nutren, diapers, and feeding supplies at our family farm which is a fairly short drive away (approx. 28 miles) though a suburban area. I am very concerned about getting myself and my child to the famr as well as having meds for long term care in the case of disaster. Could you please give advice on:

1) How do I know when to bug out?
2) Bug out bags. My child is 80 lbs and I'm 115 lbs. I can put a bag on the wheelchair chair and carry a bug out bag myself, but what weight? What are top priority items?
3) I have a small 4 wheel drive vehicle if driving is an option. Any advice on choosing route, stopping for extra fuel, etc.?
4) I have safety concerns about walking alone with my child. Advice? I am still learning to shoot and getting a gun soon. I am in pretty good shape, but small.
5) What can I do to get seizure meds for long term?

We are working on getting the farm prepared with food, water systems, generators, etc. at the my relatives adjoining property. Getting there with my child safely is my biggest concern. Any advice you have is appreciated. Thank you!
Okay readers, lets help this person out. Here is my initial response:

When to Bug Out. This is an individual call and not a one size fits all protocol. It is based on how safe and prepared you are where you are currently at, and, how far you have to go and the associated risks involved with that movement. I can advise that it would be too late when there are riots in the streets over food, or lack of food; too late when mass of refugees flood the routes; too late when cell phone communications are down; and, too late when martial law and therefore freedom of movement is restricted.

  It may be time to Bug Out when utilities (water and electricity) are intermittent and there are long lines at gas stations and grocery stores with associated shortages. It may be time when your and instincts tell you things are not going to get better. I advise multiple means of communications between you and your family members or friends that are going to bug out and rally on the farm. Develop a brevity code as well so if and when you have comms (voice or text) you can minimize transmission times and therefore chances of misunderstandings or intermittent service cutting you off.

Bug Out Bags. I think the priority are all the meds and supplies necessary for your child. Food, water and all gear necessary to support a walk from your house to the Bug Out location (the farm). This may include food that does not have to be cooked. Depending upon where you live and the seasons, e.g..weather factors, you may need sleeping bags or cold weather gear and things like that. In your case a short walk to your Bug Out location (the farm) could be accomplished in one day, but if you are pushing a wheelchair this may turn into 2 maybe even 4 days depending again on factors outside your control such as weather, threat, etc.

If you have selected Bug Out routes you may elect to emplace a small cache or two to support the movement to your Bug Out location (the farm) as support in case you can't make the distance as planned or the threat is too much that it reduces your travel speed.         

Bug Out Vehicle. A 4x4 is ideal, especially one that's good on gas and has a short wheel base for mobility. If you never let your vehicle get below 1/2 tank of gas you'll have plenty to make the Bug Out movement, based on the travel distance you mentioned. But I would advise an extra 5 gallon fuel can or two. Keep these full and rotate fuel every month. Or you can just get them filed when you think the collapse is beginning and when fuel is till available. You should have several routes if possible. When you have to Bug Out, choose the route based on the current events and threats. You need to drive routes as a rehearsal. You should also look at several foot routes in case you have to move over land on foot. Look for routes that provide cover and concealment and will not be routes for the refugee traffic or obvious routes for anyone else.  This is going to be hard to move a wheel chair over.  Maybe you can look at an ATV with a small trailer to move your child with?    

Walking Alone/Security/Weapon Choice.   By all means learn how to shoot and buy a gun. Actually a handgun and a rifle would be good. Weight and bulk of ammunition is going to impact what you can carry overland on foot. Think about pre-positioning additional ammunition and firearms at the farm. But if you are planning on Bugging Out by yourself, driving or walking, you will need to protect yourself. A semi-auto, magazine fed rifle such as an M-1 carbine, Mini-14, M-4/AR-15 type clone - these are all lightweight (as they come) and would allow you the firepower to defend yourself against multiple bad guys. And here's a hint, almost everybody will be a bad guy.

I have recently been in contact with a lady who just could not afford a modern magazine fed rifle such as an M-4/AR-15 type.  She already had a .22 LR revolver, so she ended up buying a Ruger 10/22 semi-auto .22 LR rifle and a couple of large capacity magazines for it.   Certainly a person would not want to have their safety dependent upon a rimfire cartridge,....but the first rule of a gun fight is to have a, gun and ammo compatibility plus affordability was paramount to this lady.      

Lastly, Medications. I know this is a primary concern of yours. Medications have a shelf life, which is usually several years after the expiration date if you store it in a safe and controlled manner. Research what Vet (animal) meds could possibly be used to mitigate or treat your child's seizures.   Locate the nearest Vet. Many rural vets operate out of a truck with a refrigerator. Vets can also serve as make shift Doctors too in an emergency. You may be able to stock up some meds if you don't use them but continue to get scripts for them but be aware that this is likely illegal. 

You may need to have some silver in order to barter for some meds during a collapse.  Consider having a silver bullion in 1 ounce rounds of bars in case this is the case.  

You have tough conditions to work out, but I know you can do it as you have no other choice.  Get to know your neighbors around the farm (your Bug Out location).  If the houses are close enough you may be able to string a couple of TA-1 military phones and wire between to facilitate communications.  Make sure that stocking food, seeds and having a safe water source are taken care of at the farm as well. 

I hope readers will respond with some additional advice. Many, if not most, of the readers will have better ideas.  Good luck and be safe.       

As Oil Prices Go, So Does Silver - Prepare for Economic Collapse

An article posted on Deviant Investor makes the case that silver is related to crude oil prices. The original title of the article is: "What Crude Oil Says About Silver" - If you want to know where silver prices are going, ask crude oil! Prices are volatile, spiked high and low in 2008, and have, on average, risen steadily for the past 14 years.

Crude Oil Prices:

December 1998 Crude Oil price was under $11 (silver roughly $4.85)

January 2000: Crude Oil price was about $24 (silver roughly $5.25)

July 2008: Crude Oil price topped about $147 (silver roughly $18.40)

December 2008: Crude Oil prices crashed to about $35 (silver roughly $10.50)

June 20, 2014: Current price is about $106 (silver roughly $19.80)

Summary:

Politics: The situation in Iraq, a major oil producer, seems to deteriorate every day. The chaos and violence could easily spread and that chaos and violence will reduce supply and kick crude oil prices higher. Adding to the chaos, central banks will “print” more euros, yen, and dollars and governments will add to their mountains of debt. Price inflation will accelerate and the dollar will weaken further.

Demand: More cars in Asia need gasoline. Even if the world economies contract, demand for crude oil should continue to rise.

Crude Oil Outlook: Crude oil prices have many reasons to explode higher and few to drop lower. The trend has been up for more than a decade. Central banks will print, politicians will instigate more wars and invasions, and each euro, yen, and dollar will purchase even less crude oil and gasoline. It is business as usual, but with an extra dollop of chaos, war, and price inflation tossed into the mix….

Conclusion: Higher oil prices, more military spending, more debt, more chaos, higher consumer prices.

1) Higher oil prices, more military spending, more debt, more chaos, higher consumer prices.

2) Crude and silver have been trending upward for 12+ years. Politics and war will accelerate the price increases.

3) The 52 week moving average of crude is about $100 – below the linear trend. Market price is a bit higher with plenty of room to spike much higher as Middle-East and Ukrainian warfare escalates.

4) The 52 week moving average of silver and the current market price are both about $20 – well below the linear trend. Silver could more than double in price and not violate the 12+ year upward trend.

5) Crude oil prices are moving higher and silver prices will follow.

6) Rig for stormy weather – coming in from Iraq, Syria, Ukraine, Russia, South China Sea, “amateur hour” in foreign policy, more wars and invasions, and much of Asia reducing their dependence upon the dollar and Treasury bonds.

7) Statistical correlation between crude and silver for 12+ years of weekly smoothed prices is about 0.84 while correlation between unsmoothed weekly prices is about 0.79. Crude and silver prices are closely aligned in the long term.

7) Preparation is essential.

8) Silver purchases are good preparation.

UrbanMan's Comments: I manipulated the Defiant Investors article only in re- arranging how the facts and opinions were presented, and added the Silver Price to the month and year crude oil price listing, but the facts remain the same. We will have an increase in oil prices. It will drive prices on all other commodities higher - it only remains undetermined whether or not the increase will be fast or slow and if the prices will cause a food crisis and therefore an economic then societal collapse as the Government cannot handle another 20 to 50 million on food stamps, nor would food stamps pay for much food stuffs with the increased prices. Imagine the now 50 million people on food stamps, living day to day, and another 20 to 50 million added to that population. That's close to 1/3 of the population starving and maybe more importantly, being extremely pissed off at government who they see as the entity that should be saving them.

Silver (and gold) is a safe bet as a survival prep. It's the same as having medical kit and supplies as if you need it, you really need it. It may be the only thing that is worth bartering with. As the Defiant Investor articles explains if gasoline goes to $5.00 a gallon, today's Silver at under $21.00 an ounce will in al probability be worth $50 an ounce. Imagine if gasoline is higher in price and availability is greatly reduced. What will silver be worth then? I put my money where my mouth is, I bought another 42 ounces a few weeks ago when it was around $19.50 an ounce.  

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.

Are Hand Tools and Hardware Included in your Survival Preparations?

I haven't been a hardware store that I didn't want to spend thousands of dollars in, and I have a significant collection of hand tools and hardware, just in case, so this article on non-power tools interested me. Very good article from Survival Cache on the 10 Non-Power Tools you will need for Survival:

• Cross Cut Saw
• Hacksaw
• Standard Hand Saw
• Large Hand Drill
• Small Hand Drill
• Battery Free Battery Tester
• Battery Free Circuit Tester
• Hand Powered Grinding Wheel
• Hand Powered Air Pump Scythe

Pretty decent list, but why limit it to 10 tools? This above list is completely diferent from my own. Survival Cache is a very good site, just disagree on this one! But his recommendation of hand grinding wheel is something I did not consider before- great idea and will incorporate it into my preps.

Urban Man's Hand Tool and Hardware List:

• Claw Hammer. Don't forget about boxes of nails of all types as well, concentrating on 8 and 16D size.
• Cross Cut Saw. These usually have a removal blade so have an extra blade or get a different type of blade.
• Hack Saw and extra blades,.....many extra blades.
• Long Handle D shovel. In fact, have a couple of these.
• Short D handle shovel,...again have several.
• Axe. Better yet a wood axes, a wedge and a fire axe which is a regular axe with a pickaxe end.
• Combination pliers/wire cutters. Include a couple of rolls of fencing wire, sometimes called baling wire.
• Box and Open wrench set, standard and metric. Have a couple of cans or buckets of assorted bolts with washers, lock washers and nuts as well. Think 1/4, 1/2 and 5/8ths diamter in legnths of 2, 4, 6 and 8 inches long.
• Screwdriver set, slotted tip and cross tip. Include boxes of medium and long wood screws, metal screws and rubber washer sheet metal screws.
• Sledge Hammer.
• Ball Peen Hammer.
• Garden hoe. Makes things easy when you have to put in that survival garden,.....which you will have to do if you want to eat and suplement your stored food supply.
• Hand air pump is a good idea. I did not think about this. These are cheap - have several.
• Hand drill - another thing that passed me, but brought to my attention by the article referenced above.
• Wire Cutters and/or fencing tool.
• Slip Joint Pliers.
• Needle Nose pliers.
• Pipe Wrench.
• Steel pry bar and smaller crow bars.

I think the thing to do is to carry a notepad around with you to write down your prep ideas as they occur to you.  One of these headings can be hand tools, hardware and material.  Work off the list as you can. 

Related to hand tools would be material such as lumber, PVC and you could probably add some metal stock to this list.  Mush like people in Florida have pre-cut plywood to cover windows to hurricane protection, having some plywood, 2x4's and PVC pipe (don't forget the connectors, etc.) can be stored in your garage.

I have flower beds around the house with rail road ties as borders.  I intended this so I can pull the rail road ties up and use them to fortify the house, provide small arms protection and/or build protected fighting positions if necessary.  Sure would piss my wife of, but it's there is needed.   

The Secret American Army?

An interesting article sent to me by a another reader, posted on a blog site and written by  Brett Redmayne-Titley. What this letter talks about, open armed conflict in the U.S. is very disturbing as that end would devastate this country. And I know all the arguments about the coming collapse being as devastating as well, but I just hope a solution can be found that keeps this country intact.  I hesitated on posting this, but I am confidant readers can figure out what is B.S. and what is not.

A new American army is growing on American soil. They are prepared.

In hushed tones during conversations across the breadth of the heartland of America there are whispers. Quiet talk. About an army. Of Americans?

An army prepared to defend an increasingly oppressed population craving reprieve from their government’s increasingly draconian methods. This army, they say, is growing.

After firm handshakes all around, Dan T. and Gene R., who I had good reason to believe were both retired military, settled into our task at hand. I was in their company for the day on business. During the one-day meeting Dan and Gene revealed that they were indeed career military. Dan, Army. Gene, retired Navy. I attempted to politely avoid political discussion in the interest of decorum.

So at the first comment on politics from my hosts I took a long deep breath. My opinions, despite being armed with facts, don’t go-over well in conservative America. Much less with ex-military. No doubt, patience would be needed.

Two hours later we clashed the mugs of our third round of beers together in a boisterous toast.

“This country is going to hell!,” I offered just a bit too loudly in the confines of the cramped bar.

“Damn right it is,” agreed Dan. At 6’4”, and a stout 280 pounds, Dan would make a fine nose tackle. “Quite frankly, I’m in favor of ringing America with an expanded Navy to protect us. It’s time our Military went back to protecting our Nation. Leave the world alone. But… the real question right now in America is…,” and he lowered his voice, giving me a direct stare, “are you prepared?”

Indeed America is going to hell. A sleeping America has no idea of the depth of the plot against them. Those few who are paying attention have good reason to fear the direction of their country and their Government.

The savvy American knows about the FEMA incarceration camps. These camps are intended for them. This is confirmed by a leaked two-hundred- fifty-four page US Army manual showing the designs of the camps, defining who is to be culled from the population, and who is to be put to death.

These same Americans also know that their America has recently purchased 1.5 Billion rounds of hollow point ammunition and 800 million rounds of double-aught shotgun shells. This ammo is designed for one purpose; killing… people. While police and National Guard are having trouble getting their own ammo, this massive arsenal is being distributed via the Dept. of Homeland Security to points unknown.

They also know that the FBI formally requested in writing to assassinate with a high powered rifle the leaders of the Houston Occupy camp.

Now, on Tuesday April 29, 2014 the US Supreme Court approved this behavior and a myriad of other authoritarian controls straight from the manuals of Dachau, Auschwitz, or the Gulag.

The informed American should be terrified.

I had heard and read rumblings of a ground-swell movement within the American military. This quiet, passionately pro-American, pro-Constitution, pro-democracy, army is rapidly growing. It has already faced down the US empire twice. Their mission: to save Americans from their Government. They call themselves, “Oath Keepers.”

“I Do Solemnly Swear (Or Affirm) That I Will Uphold the Constitution of the United States of America, Against All Enemies, Foreign and Domestic…Pledging My Life, My Fortune, and My Sacred Honor. So Help Me God.” – US Military Oath of Service.

Oath Keepers are the predictable historical reaction by populations to endemic political, financial, and corporate corruption and the destruction of their society. With a puppet president, malicious congress, and constitutionally irrational court system, to more and more Americans Oath Keepers is becoming the only effective counter weight to a tyrannical empire.

There are approximately 21.5 million military veterans of all ages and ethnic backgrounds in America. Estimates put Oath Keepers membership in excess of 200,000. Within this growing army are every military rank from all four branches of the US military. From Gunny Sergeant to Admiral, from Army Chaplain to Naval Captain, Marine Corp. General to PFC, America’s veteran military corp. remains full of a vast wealth of very expensive and thoroughly trained military.

Oath Keepers include many active duty service men and women who keep their membership very private. Their numbers are reportedly also swelling.

All these men and women were trained to fight. They remember their training. They remember that they are first and foremost American’s, sworn to protect the constitution and the American people. That never changed. These real American patriots have not for gotten the Oath of Service they swore to so many years before.

Few thought the day would come when, rather than providing protection from foreign adversaries, they would actually heed the currently two most important words, “…and Domestic.”

By all current reports Americans hold over 320 million non-military fire arms of all makes, models, and calibers. That figure is only the guns that are accounted for. Actual numbers are higher. With the recent gun buying surge across America, this number is ever rising. Many of these people are buying these weapons whether they are aware of Oath Keepers or not, and hold very similar views on our Government’s authoritarian intentions.

Combine all these weapons with the millions of American veterans and you have a highly trained and well- armed militia ready, willing, and waiting to protect Americans from their own government. Was this not the original wisdom of the inclusion of the American Constitution’s very controversial Second Amendment?

Freedom loving Americans have only two distinct choices. Either use their First Amendment right to assembly and free speech to produce a massive showing of outrage that retrieves the remains of true democracy…

Or… it will be the Second Amendment. Guns.

I asked Dan and Gene to comment.

Dan slams his glass down in agreement, since it is empty, looking intently out from under a beat-up, bleached out, somewhat reddish baseball cap.

“That’s a good way to put it,” he says while eying me carefully over the foam atop a freshly poured beer. “The question really is,” he says again quietly, “are you prepared?”

In America’s desperate condition being prepared runs the gambit from eliminating one’s personal debt, eliminating unnecessary possessions, putting assets into gold or silver, and stocking a sensible amount of supplies and provisions away just in case. It means having the presence of forethought to realize the dire reality of America’s real social and political condition.

It also implies being prepared to protect and defend those possessions, and freedoms, from a growing government tyranny.

A whole lot of well trained, well-armed, Americans have seen this day coming.

The Oath Keeper motto is, “Not On Our Watch!” Their own pro-American, pro-constitutional oath has been sworn by all Oath Keepers whether active military, veterans, police officers, national guardsmen, TSA officials, firemen, or peace officers. The Oath is defined clearly in ten separate guarantees:

Oath Keepers will NOT obey any order to:

1. Disarm the American people.

2. Conduct warrant-less searches of the American people,

3. Detain American citizens as “unlawful enemy combatants”

4. Impose martial law or a “state of emergency” on a state.

5. Invade and subjugate any state that asserts its sovereignty.

6. Blockade American cities, turning them into giant concentration camps.

7. Force American citizens into any form of detention camps.

8. Assist or support the use of any foreign troops on U.S. soil.

9. Confiscate the property of the American people.

10. Infringe on the right of the people to free speech, to peaceably assemble, and to petition their government for a redress of grievances.

Only two Days ago the US Supreme Court of the United States formally gave approval for US Government goons to reap all these horrors on all Americans. On Tuesday, the court in Hedges v. Obama, U.S. Supreme Court, No. 13-758, refused to review the 2nd US Circuit Court of Appeal’s (traditionally the president’s pocket court) decision to overturn a lower court decision that did, temporarily, protect Americans from these unconstitutional war crimes of Sect. 1021 of the Obama inspired of the National Defense Authorization Act. All ten horrors are, right now, legal across America.

Foolishly I had mistakenly interpreted the Oath of the Oath Keepers to mean that those who take the oath would lay down their weapons under such extreme circumstances.

“Wrong!” said Paul immediately, inching forward and giving me a penetrating glance while setting down his beer. “We’re not laying down our weapons for anyone!”

Gene was also eying me keenly. Quickly forgiving my small indiscretion, he offered support saying, “Yeah. You’re absolutely right about the Oath. But if you don’t have your weapons you’re not going to fight back. That’s what the huge recent increase in gun sales is all about.”

Gene’s a retired Navy aircraft carrier pilot, one of the Navy’s most highly trained servicemen. Of a Bantam weight’s build, and just as feisty, at sixty Gene is looking as youthful as his days in the cockpit. He is just as assured and straight talking.

I told them about the FBI study that concluded that American citizens and their massive private, and growing, arsenal could never defeat the US military, should the populous finally fight back.

Gene smiled slyly, then laughed. “They’ve got that one wrong,” Gene is quite likely correct. Quantifying the totality of a potential armed push back by an armed American public, truly shows the dire consequences about to befall America. It is no wonder that Gene is smiling.

Sadly, that result will be bloodier than the Civil War, just as apocalyptic, and spell the darkest days in the history of America, should it remain a nation when the sands of time have finally cleared the wreckage.

The American Empire has been keeping any news of Oath Keepers out of the media. The regime does not want an example of courage and successful opposition getting to the minds of its subjugated and fearful people. The regime fears the Oath Keepers for a very good reason; this army has already beaten the devil back-down below.

Twice.

When the sequestration cuts agreed to by a criminal congress took effect in late 2013, the Obama administration decided to punish Americans for his failure as president. He proceeded to close the ocean to recreational fishing and boating, and close access to lakes and national parks. His dark minions in the Forest Service went so far as to ring the famous geyser, “Old Faithful,” a US tourist attraction, with a twelve foot high solid plastic fence. This made sure that no-one could see and enjoy it. Tourists who went to the third floor of an adjacent hotel to sneak a peek, were arrested.

Then the puppet went too far.

American veterans come from across America to remember their friends and loved ones at the Vietnam and World War Two war memorials. When Obama closed these, it was a call to action for the Oath Keepers.

Wearing side arms, some in uniform, Oath Keepers showed up en-mass. They proceeded to escort arriving visitors past the equally armed Capitol Police and then protected them during their visit. To everyone privy to this successful operation, the Oath Keepers were heroes.

Two weeks ago a corrupt US Senator Harry Reid (D-NV) tried to use his equally corrupt connections at the Bureau of Land Management to then order US Marshal’s Service to seize Clive Bundy’s Nevada ranch so he could sell it to the Chinese. Two thousand people showed up to defend the ranch, but the siege was turning ugly. Marshall’s were tazering peaceful protesters, and slamming women to the ground. Things were getting bad.

Then the Oath Keepers road in.

Armed and ready, several dozen Oath Keepers took up positions and began patrols on Clive Bundy’s property. Many publicly stated that if they were fired on they would return fire.

So, two hundred plus Federal Marshals went home.

UrbanMan's comment: Not U.S. Marshals, but BLM Law Enforcement Rangers and possibly some US Forest Service Special Agents. There were reports of military personnel supporting the BLM operation against the Bundy Ranch, those reports have been discounted. Some of the BLM personnel were National Guardsmen, which is perfect understandable as they can work for governmental agencies during the week and be members of the National Guard during a weekend a month.  And the militarization of Federal LE, e.g..mainly weapons and cammie uniforms supported that misperception.

The cheers were world-wide.

Our conversation had been enlightening, optimistic, supportive, but at the same time terrifying. To discover that so many American active and retired military are of like mind to just as many passionate pro-American progressives holding radical viewpoints was heartening.

Knowing that former members of America’s military had already sworn an oath to protect me, and other Americans, from the very real threat of being shot, or incarcerated without a warrant, by our own government was reassuring.

Assuredly the Oath Keepers will be called to order again soon.

That is terrifying.

Monetary Collapse on July 1st?

Most of you have seen the ads and the alerts that on July 1st, the Dollar will collapse. I received the same spam that Bob talks about in the article. I was in the process on trying to figure this out because I have received several questions from readers about it, then all of sudden I come across Bob Rinear's article which is much more articulate than I could ever be. Did I previously mention in a post that Bob Rinear is becoming one of my favorite sources of common sense information?

Does The World Stop July 1st?

By Bob Rinear

Over the past few months, my inbox has been littered with spam Emails suggesting that on July 1st, the US dollar will collapse, the lights will go out, and martial law will be put in place. All I have to do is cough up a few hundred bucks to get the authors letters, and I’ll know everything I need to get around this disaster.

But, it has been so effective at stirring people up, that I’ve probably fielded a couple dozen questions from our subscriber base, asking indeed if July 1 is going to usher in some form of collapse. So, I figure I best do a quick outline of what this is all about, and see if we’re all going to be reduced to babbling rubble in a month.

The basis for this doom and gloom scenario is that House bill HR 2847 which is titled “Hiring Incentives to Restore Employment Act” goes into full effect on July 1. Well that sounds tame enough, what’s the issue? Well, inside this monstrosity is a section labeled the “Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act” which most will know as FATCA, and that is the basis for the apocalypse warnings.

If you’ve ever truly read any Government “bill” you know it is loaded to the gills with “blah blah blah” of Article 2 of section blah blah blah, which is subnoted in index 9, subset 4, of blah blah blah….. but I can wrap it up for you relatively compactly. Basically the gist is this.. Uncle Sam is broke. When nations go broke they start looking for income in every nook and cranny. So, they pass more and more laws to make sure they know what everyone has, where it is and how they can tax it. FATCA does that for all the US citizens with foreign connections, such as offshore accounts, foreign stock holdings, etc.

They want to make sure no one’s making a dime they can’t get their ransom on. FATCA requires foreign financial institutions (FFI) of broad scope — banks, stock brokers, hedge funds, pension funds, insurance companies, trusts — to report directly to the IRS aall clients' accounts owned by U.S. Citizens and U.S. persons (Green Card holders).

Starting July 1, FATCA will require FFIs to provide annual reports to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) on the name and address of each U.S. client, as well as the largest account balance in the year and total debits and credits of any account owned by a U.S. person. If an institution does not comply, the U.S. will impose a 30% withholding tax on all its transactions concerning U.S. securities, including the proceeds of sale of securities.

In addition, FATCA requires any foreign company not listed on a stock exchange or any foreign partnership which has 10% U.S. ownership to report to the IRS the names and tax I.D. number (TIN) of any U.S. owner.

FATCA also requires U.S. citizens and green card holders who have foreign financial assets in excess of $50,000 (higher for those who are bona-fide residents abroad) to complete a new Form 8938 to be filed with the 1040 tax return, but this has been in effect since 2011.

Okay, so why the utter doom and gloom sales pitch about this act collapsing the dollar, and forcing us all to eat bugs in the front yard? Well, the underlying theme is actually correct. It WILL accelerate the move OUT of US dollars that I’ve been showing you all for two years now. I’ve been telling you of the “global reset” for more than two years as a new global reserve is going to replace the dollar. Many think FATCA will be the straw that snaps the camels back.

All the articles I’ve penned about the Chinese wanting out of the US dollar, how they are forming alliances with dozens of countries to use Native currencies and bypass the dollar, etc, are all real, and YES…FATCA will push even more countries that have been sitting on the fence to say “the hell with this US regulation stuff, we’re not dealing with all this”

Multiple reports have suggested that small and medium-sized firms, unable to bear the compliance costs or the crippling withholding taxes, would be especially likely to ditch American markets. "On the institutional side, the cost of becoming FATCA compliant may be prohibitive for some foreign institutions, and therefore they will divest from their American holdings," explained Douglas Goldstein, author of The Expatriate's Guide to Handling Money and Taxes and director of Profile Investment Services Ltd. Indeed, compliance costs borne by the private sector are expected to dwarf the amount of additional U.S. tax revenue — perhaps by hundreds of times.

Okay, so now you know what the hype is all about. The question is, do we all come to a grinding halt on July 1? No, we don’t. This bill was crafted in 2010 folks, and it has been postpone/delayed a couple times. Nations, and institutions have had years to work the system, and decide if they’re going to play ball or go home. So, most of them are “ready” for this nightmare. But there’s no doubt that some of the fence sitters, when finally faced with “doing” the work, instead of just planning for it, are going to toss in the towel.

I think that the biggest “problem” isn’t going to be chasing down Ex-pats for their income taxes, those numbers won’t be significant enough to make a major difference. Where things could go bump in the night, is that it very well might push more foreign investors to completely shun our markets. In other words, why buy US stocks, if Uncle Sam is going to butt in on every transaction? They can instead buy emerging markets, BRICS markets, and not have to have us breathing down their neck.

It is moves like this bill, that proves to you all that the US is in the final stages of a long drawn out collapse. When nations do stupid things as ours has since the early 70’s, they run up debts they can’t pay. Before they toss in the towel and give up and let everything crash, they first go on a witch hunt for every penny they can scrape up to keep the illusion alive. We’re in that stage now.

Just like I mentioned in Sunday’s letter, the elites don’t pick up the phone and tell you what they’re doing. You have to be a forensic economist and put the pieces of the puzzle together to see the big picture. This act is simply another, albeit a very large…piece of the puzzle.

On Sunday I showed you the Deutsche report on bringing the Chinese yuan to the “world stage”. I also showed you the groundbreaking EurAsian pact that Russia is forming, as dozens of nations shun the West, for the economic stability of the East. Add up the times that the foreign nations have said that they’re tired of the US dollar hegemony, and toss in the gold that China, India, Russia and others are amassing and you can easily see the big picture emerge. The US is a desperate old gal, who wants to keep her façade of strength and superiority, but it’s all just make up. Everyone knows it except her own citizens, who are kept in the dark by the main stream media.

I think it also bears mention that our Government continues to militarize itself inside our borders. Years ago we made serious mention of the billions of rounds of ammunition that the Dept of Homeland defense was amassing. Then I showed you all the armored vehicles that have been populating cities and towns across the Country. Just a couple weeks ago the Dept of Agriculture started submitting for bid applications to acquire Submachine guns, Body armor, ballistic vests, etc. I don’t think you have to be a paranoid conspiracy freak to want to know just what on earth the Dept of Agriculture needs with a bid for .40 caliber “full auto” tactical weapons capable of holding 30 or more rounds???

The explanation for billions of rounds of hollow point orders and all this military style armament is that it is for training purposes, etc, but let’s be realistic. I pump more rounds out of my guns than just about anyone you’ll ever meet….yet I don’t use hollow points for my target shooting. I’m supposed to believe that this is all for training purposes? I’m supposed to believe that towns having tanks and half tracks, is all about better policing? I don’t think so. It’s just another part of the big picture. As the dollar continues to be shunned and collapse, as the Emerging markets join at the hip and create trade zones that exclude the US… we’re going to break down both economically and socially. They see it coming and they’re arming for the day.

UrbanMan's Comment: Hollow points for training ammunition? Yes. Most agencies practice and qualify with the same duty ammunition. I believe the LARGE governmental ammunition purchases were because of new EPA lead restrictions would necessarily drive up ammunition prices and drastically effect ammunition availability for the civilian population. That's your clue to stock more ammunition while you can find it, AND afford it.

Just Tuesday we learned that the Russians and the Chinese have created a joint “Ratings agency” for investments. They’re tired of the old boy network of Moody’s and S&P. They’re tired of having them place ratings on things based on political pressure versus fundamental economics. So, they will discard the ratings agencies, just like they’re discarding our dollars. But sometimes you have to pay attention to see just how pervasive this move “East” is becoming. Sometimes it isn’t broadcast in big headlines for all to see. For instance in April the Saudi’s held a very public parade, and what was rolling down the street? Chinese made missiles. Not US made. Many wouldn’t notice and others wouldn’t care. But that was a very public “thumbing of the nose” to the US by the Saud’s.

No, the world doesn’t stop on July 1. No, the dollar doesn’t collapse in a heap. No, we don’t have martial law in every town. No, the lights don’t go out. None of the doom and gloom you’ve been warned of is going to happen on July 1. It is however ALL going to happen. It just won’t happen then. It comes in fits and starts, a little at a time. The dollar has been in a slow motion collapse for years. The economy has been sinking for years. This will continue until the day they “pull the plug” on it. When is that? No one knows.

But the one thing I do know is that a date won’t be broadcast. It won’t come because of a bill that’s going to go into effect. No, when the collapse hits, or the reset or what ever you wish to call it, it will come out of the blue, probably on a Sunday night/Early Monday morning, with NO warning. So, don’t sweat July 1 folks. That’s just noise. You can however sweat all the things that point to the fact that all the evils are indeed going to hit at some point. Okay? Good.

UrbanMan's Comment: Perhaps Rinear's most significant point is that "the date of the monetary or dollar collapse WON'T be broadcast. It'll come without warning." Get prepared for it as it coming. It would sit you well to have some silver and maybe some gold bullion on hand as well. Think about it.

The Insight to Prepare for the Collapse

We received this letter from Phil the other day: "A friend of mine recently started prepping after a number of telephone chats with me examining the economic climate here in Canada and in the US. We talked about bug outs vs bug ins, food storage water storage/filtration, the whole 9yds. Up to this point he hadn't really been more than mildly concerned about things, he is retired and on a tight budget. After I directed him to your site and the Survival Blog site he started doing his own research on the possibility of a collapse or just really hard times. He now has acquired firearms, ammo, reloading equipment and is getting long term foods, medicine and first aid gear and all this on a tight budget!

While I must admit that I have created "a Monster" it is good to see that a rational and logical man reading on his own can come to the same conclusions about possible future outcomes. Sometimes one can get wrapped up in the doom and gloom side of prepping and loose sight of the reality, that is, be prepared to the best of your ability to get through any hard times that may be coming down the pike. It's not about being ready for TEOTWAWKI, it about being ready for all of the lesser evils that may occur as well. The other lesson I take from this is that it's never too late to start your preps and spend within your means. I hope this finds you well. "

Hey Phil, I would be interested in knowing what prompted your friend to start prepping. Was it all the signs of an economic collapse? Was it the possibility of EMP type or other terrorist attack and the resulting chaos or at least governmental martial law? Maybe just a slow slide into devastating inflation? I think many people start prepping just to be more self sufficient - they don't want to rely on other people or institutions such as the government for their safety and indeed, their very lives. Anyway, no matter. If any country is going to come out of a collapse, it'll need self responsible, capable people to survive.

There are MANY "survive the collapse" sites on the internet that provide much more and more complete information than I do. Among these sites are the following (please pass them to your friend):

http://urbansurvivalsite.com

http://www.secretsofsurvvial.com

http://survivethecomingcollapse.com

http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com

http://www.shtfplan.com

http://www.survival-homestead.com

http://survivalblog.com

Additionally, there are several books he probably should read to get an idea on how a devastating collapse may ocur and the problems in the aftermath:

The Going Home, Surviving Home, Escaping Home, and soon to be released Forsaking Home series by A. American.

One Second After by William Forstchen

Lights Out, by David Crawford

and of course, Patriots by James Wesley Rawles

You mentioned creating a monster. I did too with Jim who's survival preps I have reported on. Jim is now slowed down on prepping but that's okay as he rapidly set himself with stored food, silver and to a lesser extent gold bullion, and firearms/stored ammunition. He has also procured necessary survival gear as well. But I think where Jim has backslide is that his Survival Plan has been overcome by the events of his employment. He travels extensively which places him at risk of being way too far away from his assets and being able to implement a Bug In then Bug Out plan. I have talked to him about curtailing his traveling when the conditions make a collapse imminent, however some conditions we just won't see - like a nuclear attack or terrorist conducted EMP type attack. An attack on the banking system, cutting off money and therefore food to the population masses would be another catalyst we just probably won't see coming.

Another point of yours, and one I have made often, is that prepping is possible on a budget. It starts with buying extra food for your pantry to extend what people call the three day pantry. If you look close enough you'll find those deals.

Procuring suitable firearms and stocking ammunition, maybe some silver bullion, long range food supplies and some gear is obviously more costly. I've always been a proponent of the first rule of a gun fight and that is having a gun. While some people think that if you don't have a high end M4 or clone and can't dress to look like a Navy SEAL then you are basically dicked when it comes to survival. I think you can adequately cover security and protection otherwise. In fact, you may have to when you just don't have the funds for high end weaponry. If I only had a 12 gauge shotgun and a handgun (with suitable ammunition stocks), then I would most likely be filling other holes like food, water storage, precious metals, seed bank, etc., before I went back to modernize firearms.

Anyway Phil, thanks for writing. Thanks for helping others to prep.

Social Breakdown - Societal Collapse

This is an article by Bob Rinear, titled "Social Breakdown", published in the International Forecaster. Rinear is rapidly becoming a favorite of mine and while this article is long, it is a good read,...even with my comments. So keep reading. I'll think you'll see how it pertains to not only the "whys" of the collapse but the threats that will be released during the economic collapse which will in turn collapse society as we know it.

Social Breakdown

Maybe I just didn’t pay attention to it when I was in high school, but we didn’t seem to need diversity training, and endless classes telling us how we’re supposed to view other people. I don’t remember grief counselors when one of our classmates jumped off the roof and killed himself. I know for a fact we didn’t have all this racial tension and “fat shaming” and all the rest of the 2014 Social bugaboos that we have now. The word “intolerant” was unheard of.

My personal social policies taken in today’s atmosphere; probably lands me in the column of being some form of a terrorist. I really don’t care if you don’t like black people. I don’t much care if you don’t like white Scottish Newsletter writers. I don’t care if you think I’m fat. I don’t care if you want to live in a neighborhood of like minded and like colored people.

But today, considering that the social engineers have been pushing for a homogenous, one size, one thought, one color fits all…if you have the slightest difference from what they consider the “norm” you’re a racist, homophobe, hater, terrorist. Thus they have to make the biggest shows out of someone that doesn’t toe their line. Chew a pop tart into the shape of a gun?? You’re expelled and placed under Psych care. Don’t approve of gay marriage? You’re forced out of your job, your name in the paper as a hater who gives money to anti gay groups. Say in private that you don’t like your girlfriend bringing black people to basketball games, and you’re headline news…24/7…and forced out of your position.

Hey, lets talk. Let’s cut the crap for a few minutes and as they say in the “hood” lets keep it real. People are “fulla crap”. The same preacher that on Sunday morning screams of you burning in hell for being gay, just happens to get busted for child porn. That upright political candidate that kisses babies and shakes your hand gets busted for tax evasion, larceny, insider trading. That woman leading the “family power” workshop, gets caught cheating with her spa manager. On and on it goes. Hypocrites. Liars. Cheats. Nasty people. Bullies. Criminals. You can dress it up like a Thanksgiving Turkey, smother it in gravy to hide it, but it’s still there. All the classes, all the political correctness, all the “goody-goody” talk is a cover up for the rot that continues to fester below the surface.

So what brings up this little rant today? Well, as you might guess I am not impressed by the untold millions that walk around all day with their face planted in their phones. They’re all so busy texting and “apping” and being so techno cool that they have become true social idiots. No one talks to each other any more. If you go to a local pub, half the youngsters are all sitting at a table that is dead quiet as they’re buried in their phones. And one of those “aps” has been making a real mess of things. Enter Yik-yak.

Yik Yak is a smart phone application that lets anyone post anything they want in message form, and here’s the cinch…there’s NO identification. You don’t need a user name or anything else. You are completely anonymous. Well as you can imagine, when it swept through a High school recently, the REAL feelings of people were everywhere to be seen. People being called fat, people called sluts, people called the dreaded “n” word. (yawn) people called worthless, hope they were dead, who gives good sex, who’s a loser, yada yada yada. Yep, a bunch of our sweet little environmentally aware, non hater, upright diversity trained, precious children just “going off”. They had the freedom to say what they really feel because there’s no way to trace them. And “say” they certainly did.

This is reality. This is how people really are. When given the chance to go off with no ramifications, a huge percentage do. What does that tell us? It tells us that just about everyone has opinions that differ. It tells us that all this sensitivity training is a patch for a deeper underlying problem. And just what is that problem anyway? Or better yet, is it a problem? If it is, where did it come from? Could it be all this social engineering we’ve been exposed to is actually backfiring? You bet it could…because it is.

Stick with me here folks. I understand that I’m wandering off into a bit of pshyco babble on you. But there’s a point, you’ll see. I just want to set the stage here. There has always been “haters”. There’s always been homophobes, nasty people, opinionated bigots, cheaters, liars, whores, pimps, fat people, Rich jerks, nerds, rednecks, the whole gambit. So why are things “worse” now in 2014 after all these years of good-goody social engineering, than in 1970 when one of the most popular shows was “all in the family” with “Archie Bunker?” A show like that today would land the producer in jail. In 1970 it was something to laugh at. Expose our differences, see how goofy they were, try and mend some of them and move on. But today, no. Today you can’t talk about it. You can’t humor it out. You can’t just leave it alone and let it hide. Nope, you have to drag everyone into it. Force it. And the results? Escalating madness. Lack of civility. Rudeness. But most of all… violence. All the icky stuff bubbles to the surface.

As you might know, I’m involved in a company that trains folks for their concealed carry permits. We also offer a wide range of self defense classes on proper use of firearms for self protection. From the person that’s never held a weapon before, to tactical response SWAT training, we teach it all. And, just what do we see? As you can imagine, we hear a lot of stories. When we ask folks why they are interested in obtaining a permit to carry a concealed weapon, it is rarely just about “being robbed” like it was many years ago. Now the big concern is “violence”. Too many people have seen too many instances of wicked violence that endangered them or their loved ones. They’re scared and rightfully so.

Road rage. The “knockout game”. The tough guy looking for a fight. The rape attempts. Car Jackings. Random shootings. The list is endless. For all the social engineering to make us a big happy family, the fact is we are creating more violent people than we ever did. That in itself is more than enough reason for you and your loved one’s to be trained on proper firearm use.

But you’ve all waited long enough for “the point” to this whole article. That point is that violence is escalating despite all the social engineering to make us all “happy”, and this is with the economy still functioning. What happens when things really get tough? Last week in Chicago 44 people were shot. However the EBT cards were still functioning. What happens if they didn’t? If we can see the levels of evil we are seeing when things are still “working” so to speak, what unspeakable evils will we see during a melt down?

Last week in the IF there was a wonderful article about the amount of ammunition that Uncle Sam has been buying. Every Federal agency, right down to the post office has been buying hundreds of thousands if not millions of rounds of very lethal ammo. Why is this? I have always believed as the author has, that they feel there could be serious societal breakdowns when the wheels come off our fake economy and they’re stocking up for the eventual shoot outs that very well will occur. I think they know that the economy is doomed, the currency situation is doomed and when it fails, if things don’t go well on the work around, all manner of hell is going to break loose. They’re buying up these billions of rounds of ammo…to shoot US citizens if society breaks down. Read that over a few times to get the full effect. It isn’t pretty.

I don’t say this stuff to scare you, that certainly isn’t my goal. I say this stuff to wake you up. Shake you up a bit. When some lunatic high on bath salts drags you out of your car and starts trying to eat your flesh as happened in Miami last year, it seems other worldly, like that is just too bizarre! So, it makes the news. It makes the late night comedy circuit. But the road rage guy that drags your son out of his car and beats him into a coma because he pulled out in front of him, ( as happened here in Sarasota) is quickly stifled. Why? Because unfortunately things like that are the norm today. They don’t want that on the news. The other thing they don’t want to tell you, is that base line fact that the head of the NRA stated after the Sandy Hook situation. The only way to stop a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun. But I think it is more than that. The only way to stop some cracked up lunatic with a tire iron, is indeed a gun. The only way to stop the rapist with a knife is a gun. The only way to stop the home invasion is…with a gun.

Look across the pond folks. Don’t just watch a few news clips, go on line and watch some real video’s from people that live in Ukraine. Mobs cutting off a mans leg, burning people alive, beating someone to death with a metal bar. It can’t happen here right? That’s what you want to believe, what we all hope. But look at the yik-yak posts. Look at our inner city violence. Look at the hostility. We are not immune. We’re one banking holiday away from the same thing. We’re one failure of the EBT system from the same thing.

Look folks, here’s the bottom line. I’m not talking about acting like Rambo with a knife in your teeth swinging through trees on a vine, with a 50 caliber strapped to your back. That isn’t my goal. But I do want you to be able to defend yourself and your loved ones. It starts with home protection, then a carry permit if you live in a state where that’s possible. Then onto some advanced training on how to properly use that tool. Even if we never see the true melt down that I do think is ultimately coming, just this incredibly violent society we live in dictates that you really should be proficient at personal protection.

I’m going to expand on this theme for Sunday. I don’t care if you’re the most gun hating pacifist that ever was… please read it. If just one of the things I happen to mention helps you or your spouse survive a bad time, I’ve hit the proverbial home run. A few years back, just after the Colorado Incident I ran a few articles about weapons and self defense training. It inspired quite a few people to write in and tell me they had finally “done what they wanted to do but never got around to….” And that was great. They went out, bought their first weapon, went to a good range and got some safety training and target training. Bravo! Congrats! One couple; Beverly and Dan, actually got so into the shooting sport they’ve become members of a target team in Texas. Pretty amazing, considering neither had previously fired a weapon in their lives.

While I love the shooting sports, whether target, clays, timed, etc…what is most important for me to express to all of you is the personal safety and defense side of things. What good does it do, to amass a small fortune in the markets or in business, only to have your life shattered by violence? So, we’ll be stressing the protection side of the equation. I think you’ll find it interesting.

UrbanMan Comments: I recently had an experience like Bob mentioned above. I worked with a older, married couple, 72 and 66 years old, respectively. Not your average senior citizen. They participate in walks, hikes and swimming, and appeared to be in good shape and health, but neither one had shot a gun more than twice in their life.   They asked me to help select a couple guns for them.  I picked out a S&W M&P in 9x19, a used Taurus .38 Spl revolver, and a 12 gauge Savage-Stevens pump shotgun. Before I get hate mail on these selections - this couple are on social security and a little savings. Back on point,....I gave them three separate 3 hour blocks of instruction at the range, culminating using cover and fighting as a two person team. I started them on a .22 LR Ruger Mark II to work out the fundamentals then they shot their new gun purchases.  Over three days they each shot all the firearms expending over 600 rounds of 9mm, 200 rounds of 38 Spl and 50 rounds of mixed Buckshot and Slug. I have since been told that they plan on buying a .22 LR rifle, stocking more ammunition and shooting more rifles at a local gun club to see what center fire rifle may work for them. They also adopted a mixed breed, medium sized dog for security purposes and are also planning on stocking pantry food,....just in case.  What drove them to this point in the evening of their lives?   Well, that would have to be fear and concern over what is likely to happen to this country in the near future.  Even if a collapse isn't likely, it is certainly possible.   

Americans Fleeing to the Cities?

Wait a minute,...you're heading in the wrong direction!! This is an article from the Daily Ticker, by Nicole Goodkind. That discusses the economy based reasons why the trend of the population fleeing the cities is now reversing. Those same factors are making a coming economic collapse likely in the next couple of years if not sooner. If you click on the link above you should still be able to watch the short video associated with this article.

I understand that having a means of support,..e.g.. a job, is necessary to live most places, however moving into a high rise apartment or condo in a city places you at much greater risk when the collapse, from whatever angle, hits this country. I would make every effort to secure the safest lodging even if it meant a commute from there to your place of work. The safest off site or out of city lodging while still having a job within the city should include determining and staying off the likely refugee routes. And this out of city lodging while you work therein, should be considered a temporary rally point. A Bug Out plan to a secure location is still required. This makes the stockage of supplies and materials problematic.

Not that staying in the suburbs is safe. As it is not. The only common advantage to living in the burbs is perhaps having just a little more time to make a decision, like to execute a controlled and planned Bug Out,....but we're not talking a week or even days, it may just be a 24 hour advantage. Anyway, without further rant, this is the article. At least the reader can understand the economic issues forcing moves back to the city and these economic factors are what is helping drive the U.S. train to collapseville.

Americans Fleeing to the Cities?

The American dream: a white picket fence and a patch of grass to call your own. In 2002 President Bush declared “owning a home lies at the heart of the American dream,” and wanted, "everybody in America to own their own home.” Twelve years and a housing crisis later, it seems as though that’s no longer the case: Americans are packing up and booking it to the city.

“The American dream is fundamentally about opportunity,” says Vishaan Chakrabarti, director of the Center for Urban Real Estate at Columbia University. “It’s not so much where you live but whether you can do better than your parents and grandparents and a lot of young people today are finding those opportunities in cities. The data are very clear, we’ve seen an enormous migration to every urban area in the country.”

The nation's urban population increased by 12.1% between 2000 and 2010. According to the Census, urban areas accounted for 83% of the U.S. population in 2012. And The Brookings Institute notes that "among the 51 metropolitan areas with more than one million residents, 24 saw their cities grow faster than their suburbs from 2011 to 2012-- that was true of just 8 metro areas from 2000 to 2010."

Single-family homebuilding is at its lowest rate in decades, as only 600,000 single-family homes were built in 2013, down from 1.7 million in 2005. The purchasing of single-family homes is also down 13.3% year-over-year. High-rise apartment buildings now make up 40% of all new construction and metro areas are growing more quickly than the U.S. as a whole. According to The Nielsen Group 62% of millennials would prefer to live in urban centers.

And it’s not just millennials; baby boomers are also leaving their suburban homes for apartments with much less square footage. So why this exodus from the suburbs?

People want to closer access to health care facilities and culture, says Chakrabarti. Gas prices are a factor too.

“Most people have been hit really hard by this last recession and are worried about mortgage debt and auto debt, so this is a pocketbook issue at a significant level,” says Chakrabarti.

The tightening of purse strings is a prevailing issue but there’s more to reurbanization.

“If you look at the millennials they grew up with Hurricane Katrina, Deep-water Horizon, a lot of things that were around the environment—it’s a socially conscientious generation and they are interested in driving less and walking more,” Chakrabarti explains.

There’s also a social aspect to living in a city that people in the suburbs tend to lack. “People like the amount of diversity they find in cities," Chakrabarti notes.

According to Chakrabarti, it’s the perfect storm of economic, social and environmental issues that are driving the suburbs into extinction.