Ever at those gatherings where there is lots of talking and little listening?
Trump: I think that her bodyguards should drop all weapons. They should disarm, right? Take their guns away, she doesn’t want guns.
I think that her bodyguards should drop all weapons. They should disarm, right? Take their guns away, she doesn’t want guns. Take their — and let’s see what happens to her. Take their guns away. OK, it would be very dangerous. – Donald Trump
Again the liberal media tries to spin this as advocating violence. Anyone who doesn’t understand that he is pointing out the hypocrisy of Hillary wanting to ban guns and yet requiring armed body guards is either (a) very stupid or (b) trying to make people who are pretty stupid believe he is advocating violence.
So, every time that the authoritarian democrats advocate for taking people’s guns away, I guess they are advocating for violence too. Good to know.
#Apple hit with $15 billion tax bill, #EU socks it to the #poor
Apple’s Tim Cook advocates for big, authoritarian-style government yet doesn’t put his shareholder’s money where his mouth is (thankfully).
Perhaps the authoritarians in the EU should become competitive in terms of tax policy instead of using corporations to stealthily raise taxes on the citizens of the EU. Of course, all the people saying, “yeah, sock it too Apple” seem not to realize they are really saying, “yeah, sock it to everyone buying Apple products – particularly the poor who will pay a much larger percent of their income for these extra taxes.”
It is odd how all the supposed champions of the little guy want them to pay more taxes or have to forgo the newest tech. Do they really just want to keep the poor from having the latest tech and the ability to compete with the elites?
Sticks and stones may break my bones but words will never harm me
Nearly every adult told their kids to remember that “sticks and stones may break my bones but words will never harm me.” Today we are living in a time where a sizable majority of the people seem to believe that “sticks and stones may break my bones but words will mortally harm me.”
So much for freedom of speech, so much for freedom. So much for being an adult.
Shocking Slap In The Face: Hillary Clinton JUST HIRED Wasserman Schultz As Campaign Head!
You really can’t make this stuff up.
In a shocking slap in the face to Bernie Sanders supporters, Hillary Clinton’s campaign has reportedly hired disgraced DNC head Debbie Wasserman Schultz.
Wasserman Schultz, whose leaked emails showed that the Democratic National Committee worked to scuttle the Sanders campaign while ensuring a Clinton primary victory, will now serve as “Honorary Chair” for the national Hillary Presidential campaign.
Here is the full text of the Clinton Campaign’s statement:
“I want to thank my longtime friend Debbie Wasserman Schultz for her leadership of the Democratic National Committee over the past five years. I am grateful to Debbie for getting the Democratic Party to this year’s historic convention in Philadelphia, and I know that this week’s events will be a success thanks to her hard work and leadership. There’s simply no one better at taking the fight to the Republicans than Debbie–which is why I am glad that she has agreed to serve as honorary chair of my campaign’s 50-state program to gain ground and elect Democrats in every part of the country, and will continue to serve as a surrogate for my campaign nationally, in Florida, and in other key states. I look forward to campaigning with Debbie in Florida and helping her in her re-election bid–because as President, I will need fighters like Debbie in Congress who are ready on day one to get to work for the American people.”
Hillary just gave anti-establishment Sanders supporters the middle finger.
Also See: Wasserman Schultz gets booed by Democrats on the opening day of their convention
SHTFplan and Mac Slavo www.shtfplan.com
Report: Mexico Wants To Build Trump’s Wall To Stop Illegal Immigration
It turns out that Donald Trump’s proposed border wall is not such a bad idea after all. Though Mexico’s current and former Presidents have both lambasted Trump for implying that a wall would curb immigration, it turns out that Mexicans like the idea.
There is one small caveat, however. Mexicans don’t want to build the wall on the U.S.-Mexico border, but rather, they want to stem the tide of immigration into their own country by building the wall on their southern border with central America:
One of the largest newspapers along Mexico’s border with Texas is calling for a border wall with Central America, similar to the one being promoted by Republican Presidential Candidate Donald J. Trump.
The editorial board of El Mañana, one of the largest newspapers in the border state of Tamaulipas, penned a piece called “Yes to the Border Wall … but in Mexico’s South.” The piece praises the idea of border wall, not on the border with Mexico, but on the border with Central America.
“Along the Mexican border peace and quiet came to an end, Central Americans played a large influence,” El Mañana’s piece claimed.
The Mexican border newspaper provides a controversial view on the Border Wall; which is one of the main topics in Trump’s campaign.
“Mexico’s southeast has two borders; one with Guatemala and one with Belize, that do not provide any benefit, but on the contrary only problems are brought by these crossing points that are being used for the new invasion. The one use by Central American’s looking for a way into the United States. ” El Mañana’s editorial board wrote.
One of the issues mentioned in the editorial piece points not only to the hordes of Guatemalans, Salvadorans and Hondurans that flock to Reynosa in an effort to get to the U.S., but also to the large number of Central Americans that are left in Mexico after deportation.
Full report at Breitbart
Eastern European countries are expanding their border fence networks to keep middle east refugees from crossing into their countries, a strategy that has cut illegal immigration by over 90% in those nations.
President Obama made the one in front of the White House even higher and more elaborate.
Prisons tend to build them, too.
The Mexicans want one.
And now even the Democratic National Committee has decided that fences work to keep out the riff-raff. They’ve built an 8 foot high, 4 mile long fence around their convention.
It seems like these days everyone wants to build a wall.
But according to former DHS chief Janet Napolitano, walls don’t work to keep people out and are ineffective immigration policy, so we’re not sure what all the fuss is about.
Related:
Trump Hammers Mexico: “Mark My Words… The Wall Just Got Higher… And You’re Paying For It”
CONFIRMED: Border Patrol Confirms Islamic Terrorists Have Been Smuggled In Through Mexico
Pope, Who Lives in Walled Citadel, Condemns Trump for Wall on Border: “They’re Using Pope As A Pawn”
Pro Migrant Zuckerberg Builds Massive Six Foot Wall Around Property
Trump Finally Explains How He Would Force Mexico To Pay For The Border Wall
SHTFplan and Mac Slavo www.shtfplan.com
Salesforce.com says platform can send spam email advertising
[updated, see below]
After receiving unsolicited commercial email that SpamCop ID as coming through Salesforce.com, we reported it to Salesforce. The email used is one that is only available on a web site with the word “spam” in it and is only used on one web site.
Their response shows they are okay with spamming:
Hi …,
Salesforce customers are allowed to use the Salesforce platform to send advertising. The email has provided opt-out instructions, thus is not violating our TOS. Please try the opt-out instructions. If you continue to receive email, please let us know and we will action it.
Regards,
Naresh Madhavan
Security Incident Handler
Salesforce CSIRT
[Update:] After asking for clarification, a second person at security@salesforce.com replied:
Hi …,
No this is not acceptable. We will let the customer know that the email you have received is unsolicited and that you wish to be removed from their distribution list.
We are curious as to which is the accurate policy, and will be monitoring for UCE sent from Salesforce.com going forward.
#Anonymous Declares War on Mainstream Media: Attacks Fox, #CNN, NBC and More
(ANONHQ) As of June 1st, Ghost Squad Hackers – the same group leading #OpIcarus – have launched a series of coordinated attacks against leading members of the corporate mainstream media. Giving credit where credit is due, Tec.mic and Softpedia were the first to report the operation. But their reports only tell a portion of the whole story, we will explain why in a moment.
Broadly speaking, the goal of the #OpSilence is to attack all the corrupt major news networks that mislead and censor information from the general public. More specifically, the news agencies who conceal the crimes of Israel, while misleading the population about the mistreatment of the Palestinian people. The operation is off to a quick start, Ghost Squad has successfully” carried out DDoS attacks on CNN and FOX News” already just this month. More attacks are promised, NBC and MSM appears to be their next target.
When Tech.mic and Softpedia presented their coverage of the hacks, they included images and references directly to Anonymous. But upon reading these articles, Ghost Squad had a message of their own that they want everyone to hear:
ALL OF THE MEDIA WHO REPORTS ON OUR ATTACKS #OPSILENCE IS GSH OP NOT ANONOP WE ARE NOT AND I REPEAT NOT ANONYMOUS
— s1ege (@s1ege_) June 1, 2016
It is no secret Ghost Squad has a close affiliation with Anonymous; I am sure this is how the group got started in the first place. The group insists they speak for themselves, they are essentially trying to get their own reputation – credibility.
But there is a second layer to this discussion highlighting the recent divide within Anonymous. There has been a “Civil War” of sorts in recent months, and the reputation of the Anonymous collective as a whole has been damaged. Last winter, prominent hacktivist group Ghostsec also cut their ties with Anonymous. In a statement they said “Anonymous has a habit of shooting in every direction and asking questions later.” In other interviews they imply that Anonymous has developed a reputation for behaving immature – more concerned with silly DDoS’ing attacks than changing the world.
Since the quarreling of #OpWhiteRose many people have splintered off, or left Anonymous entirely – just another in the long list of strange effects Donald Trump has had on the entire world. Ghost Squad is one of the groups effected by this ‘Civil War.’ In the time since this happened last March, the group has exploded onto the scene, quickly becoming one of the most influential and talked about hacking groups in the entire world in 2016.
I have no doubt about the origins of this operation though, this goes back to#OpMediaControl which began last June. The operation called for the hacking of every major news network in the United States, testing their email systems, DDoS’ing web sites, attempting to hack in teleprompters or live feeds – anything you could think of. Last I heard back in December, they were still trying to recruit people to join them for an event this summer. Sound familiar to what Ghost Squad is doing right now?
The following video was from #OpMediaControl release last June:
For the purposes of accuracy, AnonHQ News reached out to our contacts in #OpMediaControl. We gave them a preview of the article and asked them what they thought. They showed us a press release dating May 28, 2016, a video proclaiming that#OpMediaControl has been re-engaged. Of course, #OpSilence proceeded to begin June 1st. In another interesting note, earlier last month Anonymous Resistance Movement, one of the groups behind #OpMediaControl, conducted an interview with GhostSquad. So as you can see, the two groups are well acquainted with one another – these operations are no coincidence.
Ghost Squad may be stepping up from the pack here, but make no mistake, this operation has been in the making for over a year and Anonymous led the way.
This article (#Anonymous Declares War on Mainstream Media: Attacks Fox, CNN, NBC and More) is free and open source. You have permission to republish this article under a Creative Commons license with attribution to AnonHQ.com. Anti-Media Radio airs weeknights at 11pm Eastern/8pm Pacific. Image credit: AntiMedia. If you spot a typo, email edits@theantimedia.org.
From theantimedia.org Team
Mourn the Death of the #UnitedStates: “Soon We Will Be Ripe For Internal #Collapse… Or A Large War”
This week we remembered our fallen veterans.
We may also remember the United States, as she was, for she, too, has fallen: from forces inside that have collapsed and denigrated it. The good old days are long gone. The country is now in a soft-tyranny, a semi-totalitarian state. All it will take is a spark to turn it into a full-blown totalitarian regime. For decades, this planned destruction of the United States has been orchestrated: by the “progressive” oligarchy, the politicians, and foreign forces in both of the aforementioned categories.
The universities have been paid by the oligarchs and enriched to pursue a path of scholastic curriculum to inculcate the desires of those paymasters into the youth. The college students are being molded into globalists, communal group-think, and to reject the history and greatness of the United States. Embraced in the schools and trickling down into our society are foreign views and foreign ways that, if not antithetical to our system are openly hostile to it.
And the net draws closer to closing. Look at all of the things that are happening, and see. Everything is being brought under control…so slowly that the sheep do not know they are being sheared and the frogs do not feel the temperature rising in the five-gallon pot. Cameras are rapidly appearing on virtually every corner. License plate readers are being installed. Drivers’ licenses will need to be “in-sync” in 2017 just for domestic air travel. If this is not the dawn, the precursor to an internal passport system then what is it for?
Banks fill out a SAR (Suspicious Activity Report) for the withdrawal of cash transactions even less than the original $10,000 initiated by the RICO Statute back in the 80’s. People are being denied the ability to withdraw their cash, as with JP Morgan. People are being harassed by the bank managers, and these being customers with long histories of banking with the establishments. Larry Summers inserts his diatribe regarding the abolition of larger banknotes and openly is contemptuous of any kind of cash transactions.
The death of cash will be the death of any kind of privacy or financial freedom. Every purchase then will be recorded, every location where you made the purchase, and all of the amounts and details of your purchases. There are the “loyalty cards” that further categorize and monitor what you bought to predict (as marketing) your shopping habits. The problem: that information is no longer private, thanks to the NDAA and the Federal Government’s ability to sequester (for whatever reason, however inane) those records “in the interests of national security.”
They didn’t build that $50-billion-dollar data collection center in Ogden, UT for nothing.
The First Amendment of the Constitution of the United States of America has been decimated, under the guises of social responsibility and “political correctness.” The states, as well as the federal government are designing a “Newspeak” type of language that does not allow us to voice our opinions or even use certain words in the context of a conversation, a protest, or a dispute. The influx of foreigners that are both undocumented and illegal is staggering, and the system cannot support it. Those foreigners are not only the illegal aliens from Mexico and Central America. The influx also includes foreigners from the Middle East, coming first to Mexico and finding anonymity in the groups of aliens that come across our borders from Mexico.
The prices of goods such as food and fuel are rising. This is deliberate on the part of the corporations with the “sanctioning” of local, state, and federal governments. Small farmers are almost extinct, with only 5-7% of the population of the U.S. being full-time farmers. The gigantic businesses such as Monsanto and Cargill, to name a few, are gobbling up the tracts of land and the farms. The “factory” farms are now more than just a reality: our entire consumer base is dependent upon the harvests of these gigantic corporations. “Soylent Green” is right around the corner, as all of the farms in that movie were under the corporate-governmental control. Agenda 21 is not just a catch-phrase: it is happening now.
The feds and the states are “partners” in taking away the federal and state lands in the interests of conservation, funded by the oligarchs and their NGO’s and the funds also sequestered to bribe politicians at the local level to institute legislation that enables the theft of the land. The CKST water compact in Western Montana is a prime example: The Democrat-controlled legislation and the Democratic governor passed the laws. These laws grant the Indian Tribes all of the surface and subsurface water in the outlined region…off of the reservation…to be monitored by the Bureau of Internal Affairs and Indian Affairs, and enforced by none other than the Department of Homeland Security. The “birth” of such took place last year, and the slow, incremental process of completing the thefts of everyone’s (including mine) water rights has begun. Meters on every well, with the monies going to the tribe as handled by the Bureau of Indian Affairs, and enforceable by DHS with the complicity of the Sheriff’s Departments here in Montana.
Social unrest has been promoted, and an artificial racial divide is fostered and funded: from “Black Lives Matter” to the recent nonsense of all Caucasians being “racists and bigots” as reported in various news and alternative news segments. Bull. Absolute bull. The President of the U.S. is black, and would never have been elected…twice…if he hadn’t captured the white voters. And what a president: promoting racial divide on his own, in his insidiously-subtle manner, whether over the Zimmerman shooting affair or the riots in 2015.
The per-capita income in the U.S. has plummeted. Obamacare has forced businesses to keep all employees under 30 hours a week, forcing people to take two or three jobs…taxed on all of them, of course…just to eke out a meager “leftover” after the governments (federal and state) have gorged 33-40% of their labors. Businesses are shutting down all over the United States, closing their doors for good or shutting down a large portion of their operations, and firing tens of thousands of employees nationwide in the process. The Baltic Dry Index is up and down, and contracts are not being fulfilled to the end.
We were at the tipping point. The TPP will finish us off, along with the destruction of the military by Obama. Just look at the Secretary of the Army. When will it be that latrines in the service will be “transgender” or such? The deliberate weakening of the United States military is almost complete. Soon we will be ripe for either one of two things, or both, either in conjunction or succession: the internal collapse of the United States or a large war. May God help us, although we don’t deserve any help. We deserve judgment, and perhaps that has already been rendered, as the United States falls farther every day.
Jeremiah Johnson is the Nom de plume of a retired Green Beret of the United States Army Special Forces (Airborne). Mr. Johnson is also a Gunsmith, a Certified Master Herbalist, a Montana Master Food Preserver, and a graduate of the U.S. Army’s SERE school (Survival Evasion Resistance Escape). He lives in a cabin in the mountains of Western Montana with his wife and three cats. You can follow Jeremiah’s regular writings at SHTFplan.com or contact him here.
This article may be republished or excerpted with proper attribution to the author and a link to www.SHTFplan.com.
Also Read:
Russia Has Been Encircled And Pushed To The Brink Of War: “They Have Exercised Remarkable Restraint”
How an Attack on America Would Probably Begin: Possible Courses Of Action By Foreign Military Powers
How To Survive Occupied America: “Red Dawn Just Started… And You’re In It”
Collision Course: As Obama Weakens America, The Russians And Chinese Prepare
SHTFplan and Mac Slavo www.shtfplan.com
“There Is Something Changing In The Market” – #CEO Hints Of Massive Shortages As Tech Manufacturers Are Now Going Direct To Mining Companies In Search of #Silver
If there’s one thing we know about precious metals, it’s that everyone has an opinion about how gold and silver will behave as we delve deeper into global economic crisis. So, who better to give us a bit of perspective than the Chief Executive Officer of one of the world’s largest primary silver producers?
Keither Neuemyer, who has been an outspoken critic of rampant price manipulation on commodity exchanges is the CEO of First Majestic Silver and the Chairman of precious metals mineral bank First Mining Finance. His latest revelation suggests that despite billions of dollars being traded daily on paper exchanges, physical silver supplies around the world have tightened to such an extent that manufacturers have been left with no choice but to come directly to mining companies to acquire the precious metal for their high-tech products. With this in mind, and the fact that silver demand today is greater than when it was trading at nearly $50 in April of 2011, one can’t help but think that based strictly on the fundamentals we should see a much higher price in coming months and years.
We got approached by an electronics manufacturing company that manufacturers cell phones and computers about four weeks ago… There were three of them in the meeting and they wanted to bid on our silver… It’s the first time in the fourteen years that I’ve been with First Majestic that we’ve ever been contacted by an electronics manufacturer… That tells me there is something changing in the market.
Full interview via Future Money Trends:
Despite the supply demand fundamentals clearly indicating prices should be significantly higher, Neumeyer understands that this isn’t always the driving force behind market moves.
I don’t think it’s supply demand fundamentals… You can’t tell me for a second that when silver was trading at $50 in April of 2011 that the demand for silver was greater than it is today. Actually, silver demand at current levels at $16-$17 is greater today than it was when silver was at $50.
So, if the price was impacted by supply/demand fundamentals silver would be trading at much, much higher prices than it is today.
And fundamentally, Neumeyer doesn’t even consider silver a precious metal, but rather, a strategic metal that is absolutely necessary for the modern age and one that is a lot more rare than most people understand.
This is what I don’t really get and this goes to the pure rarity of the metal… I look at silver as a strategic metal not a precious metal because it is so required for the human race for everything we do on a daily basis… and people don’t really understand that… nothing of yours would work… your computer… your cell phone… everything requires silver.
Right now, for every ounce of gold we’re mining only nine ounces of silver. So that would suggest we should be trading at 9-to-1… So at $1200 gold that would be $140 silver or so… If you just look at what we’re mining today that’s where silver should be trading… and we’re trading at 75-to-1.
I just don’t think that ratio can last.
Fundamentals aside, looking strictly at gold’s monetary position in the world as the only physical currency available to central banks, Neumeyer explains that while average investor sentiment remains muted, the big players, including financial institutions and some of the world’s most well known investors, are already anticipating the fall out:
I’m a big bull on gold [and silver]. I think that we’re going to see a major reset in the world… It’s coming, maybe not to mainstream thinking, but definitely in some of the upper circles… it’s pretty well understood that the debt in the world is never going to be paid off.
We have to have some kind of major reset that is likely going to include gold… The Americans have the largest hoard of gold and to pay off their debts they’re going to need probably north of $10,000 gold, which I think will happen.
I’ve been quoted many times saying I expect to see triple digit silver… that’s assuming gold doesn’t move. If gold goes to $10,000… silver will be some ridiculous number… it could even be $1000 silver.
And like China, Russia and investment fund managers positioning themselves for when this reset does come to pass, Neumeyer’s First Mining Finance has been rapidly acquiring gold and silver mining assets around the world, to the tune of some 15,000,000 ounces.
As crisis accelerates and physical demand becomes so overwhelming that paper markets can no longer contain it, the broader sentiment of market participants will drive the next bull market, a trend that according to Neumeyer has already started:
It was almost like it was this last capitulation of selling that took place at the beginning of the year.
Then all of a sudden there were no sellers left. Gold started to get a bit of a bid… then due to all the talk about negative interest rates… and some very influential and large well known players started to come into the sector and the press started covering some of these investors who were coming into gold…
There were a lot of things that suggested the sector had bottomed… all of a sudden there was this huge rush of money… it was like there was all this money sitting on the sidelines waiting for a reason to buy gold and silver mining stocks… and it just all happened…
I’ve never seen such a broad-based move in such a short period of time… It was pretty dramatic.
I’m hearing from a lot of big institutions that they completely missed this move… this correction is well welcomed by many of these big investors because this is their opportunity to start coming into this market in advance of the next big move.
While we may not be able to time markets, we can certainly identify trends.
If you’ve been paying attention then you have no doubt noticed that investors big and small are realizing that when the economic, monetary and financial systems detonate on a global scale there will be only one safe haven asset class left to preserve and grow wealth.
You can learn more about Keith Neumeyer’s First Mining Finance mineral bank and the various mining projects they are involved in by clicking here.
For more interview likes this one visit Future Money Trends.
SHTFplan and Mac Slavo www.shtfplan.com
Shock Report: Secret Law Will Give #FBI Full Access To Your #Email Without A Warrant: “Massive Expansion of Government Surveillance Authority”
You probably haven’t heard too much about a new law making its way through the U.S. Senate. The reason, of course, is because all discussions on this new provision are being debated in secrecy.
Once passed, however, it will open a massive doorway for the FBI and other domestic law enforcement organizations to read every single email sent across internet lines in the continental United States without a warrant or probable cause.
The new “law” is a gross violation of the fourth Amendment which provides for Americans the right to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizure.
Apparently, since the Founding Fathers made no mention of email, Congress believes they can have free reign on your personal conversations.
A provision snuck into the still-secret text of the Senate’s annual intelligence authorization would give the FBI the ability to demand individuals’ email data and possibly web-surfing history from their service providers without a warrant and in complete secrecy.
If passed, the change would expand the reach of the FBI’s already highly controversial national security letters. The FBI is currently allowed to get certain types of information with NSLs — most commonly, information about the name, address, and call data associated with a phone number or details about a bank account.
Since a 2008 Justice Department legal opinion, the FBI has not been allowed to use NSLs to demand “electronic communication transactional records,” such as email subject lines and other metadata, or URLs visited.
The spy bill passed the Senate Intelligence Committee on Tuesday, with the provision in it. The lone no vote came from Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., who wrote in a statement that one of the bill’s provisions “would allow any FBI field office to demand email records without a court order, a major expansion of federal surveillance powers.”
Wyden did not disclose exactly what the provision would allow, but his spokesperson suggested it might go beyond email records to things like web-surfing histories and other information about online behavior.
When we wrote five years ago, to the disagreement of many a government sheeple, that everything Americans do is being monitored this is exactly what we meant.
They’ve been watching us for a long time – recording every call, cataloging every email, aggregating every purchase.
Now they’re making it legal.
And if the provisions extend, as Senator Ron Wyden warns, outside of just standard emails and encompasses all electronic communication or activity, then you can be assured that the government is now legalizing a full surveillance society, meaning that not just your text messages and emails will be monitored, but even the conversations you have in the privacy of your own home.
If your phone, computer or smart TV has a microphone and/or camera, they will give themselves the legal authority to capture this information, too.
Perhaps, as Jeremiah Johnson noted in a prior post, it is time to mourn the death of the United States of America as we once knew her.
SHTFplan and Mac Slavo www.shtfplan.com
Building An #Igloo Alone: “Survive In Ice and Snow”
OK, I know it isn’t anywhere near winter, and there aren’t many people reading this site who live in or even visit the remote tundras of the extreme north and south of this planet.
However, I find it fascinating how people have figured out how to survive and thrive with next to nothing.
Shaping an igloo out of blocks of ice cut from the snow covered surface is a great example, and has many survivalist and SHTF applications for those who find themselves in extreme climates. Besides that, it is just cool.
This man shows how it can be done by anyone – even alone:
YouTube channel: Overthehill Outdoors
Traditional development of igloos by Inuit tribes migrating across a vast frozen wasteland no doubt followed a formative conversation sometime early on addressing how desolate was their setting, and how little there was to work with.
“But we have nothing but snow and ice.”
“Then we shall build with ice and snow.”
And so the idea occurred to someone that with nothing else around, the ice itself offered a valuable resource as protection against the blinding winds and extreme conditions of the area. Clearly, it was born out of necessity, but became beautifully mastered over time.
Surrounded by little else, the stuff itself offered insulation, warmth and shelter. And with it, a way of surviving for people in harsh environments.
How the careful crafting of this snow and ice turns around into a secure yet temporary, and if desired, long-term location is no small wonder. Nature had to be reverse engineered.
The principles of construction are as solid as any other building material, and the practical use by man with only limited tools is nothing short of miraculous.
If nothing can be simply and skillfully transformed into life supporting stuff there, then it can be done anywhere.
Here’s a video showing it in timelapse:
Youtube channel: Daniel Kessler
Has anyone here actually tried to build one?
Read more:
The Prepper’s Blueprint: This is the Code to Live By In Order to Survive Anything
Are You Prepared to Survive in the Wilderness Alone? “Natural Shelter, Blend In”
“Simple Offers Freedom”: Building a $500 Cabin Without a Permit
Living Free Without Permission: “Building Without a Permit, Driving Without a License”
SHTFplan and Mac Slavo www.shtfplan.com
Fed Up With #Traffic? Highway “Straddling Bus” Would Carry 1400, Allow Cars to Drive Underneath
Innovation is the only way out of tough jams.
And few problems are more frustrating and impeding than traffic.
A company in China has designed and developed plans to launch a giant bus that would be elevated above the highway, straddling rails and even allowing other cars on the highway to pass underneath.
The futuristic rail-bus could carry as many as 1,400 and may someday prove to be a great solution for alleviating traffic – all without the need to build expensive new infrastructure.
via the London Guardian:
A Beijing company has unveiled spectacularly futuristic designs for a pollution-busting, elevated bus capable of gliding over the nightmarish mega-jams for which urban China has become notorious.
Plans for the so-called Transit Explore Bus or TEB were showcased earlier this month at a technology expo in the Chinese capital.
The “straddling bus”, which owes more to Blade Runner than China’s car-clogged highways, is supported by two legs that run along rails laid along the roadside.
Those legs allow the TEB’s giant frame to glide high above the gridlock at speeds of up to 60km per hour. Equally, vehicles that are less than two metres high will be able to drive freely underneath the bus, even when it is stationary.
“The biggest advantage is that the bus will save lots of road space,” Song Youzhou, the project’s chief engineer, told Xinhua, China’s official news agency.
It isn’t clear when the inventive bus could appear on Chinese roads, but it may be a worthwhile solution.
Experts claim it will be drastically less expensive than expanding underground subway tunnels or adding lanes.
Here’s a video of how the Transit Explore Bus might look like in action:
Instead, this bohemoth could be added to existing roadways with the simple addition of rail, and may prove to help with traffic woes.
What do you think?
Can highway travel be improved, or is everything doomed to simply grind to a halt?
Meanwhile, self-driving cars and other forms of automation are geared up to take over travel and revolutionize, for better or worse, they way people and stuff gets moved around.
Read more:
Self-Driving Cars Programmed to Sacrifice As They Hit the Road: “Someone Is Going to Die”
New Legislation Would Place Breathalyzers in All New Cars: “Drunk Driving Demands Bold Action”
Could You Escape Your Vehicle In a Disaster? “The Potential Is All Too Real”
SHTFplan and Mac Slavo www.shtfplan.com
A Story the Media Doesn’t Want You to See, Weird (and Wrong) Science, & Crybaby #College Kids
May 28, 2016
Survival Saturday is a round-up of the week’s news and resources for folks who are interested in being prepared.
This Week in the News
There’s a story that the media does NOT want you to see but you can find it on this week’s Survival Saturday. Also included is news about some science projects that will send a chill down your spine, some crybaby college kids who don’t understand life, and the rise of the Libertarians in response to the Idiocracy on parade that is otherwise known as our presidential race.
Weird (and Wrong) Science
What the heck, Science? Why is it that lately, scientists seem intent on pushing the envelope of ethics a little further with each experiment?
A few weeks ago I wrote about a current scientific course of inquiry – reanimating the brains of the dead. I said, “Just because you can do something doesn’t mean you should.” But that wasn’t unsettling enough, because this week, there’s something even more horrifying in the science news.
Chimeras.
Previously considered the stuff of legend, science has made them real. A chimera is a hybrid that is part animal and part human, and for some horrific reason, scientists have created chimera embryos by adding human cells into animal embryos. They are attempting to grow human organs in animals so that they can farm organs for people who need transplants. While on the surface that may seem like a noble goal, what happens when these scientists create an animal with human cognitive function? Is it still okay to kill that creature for the use of organs? What happens if they manage to create an entirely new race that combines human and animal? Is that still cool? The ethical ramifications of this line of experimentation are simply staggering. Back in 2006, President Bush asked Congress to prohibit such experimentation, following a 2004 report from the President’s Council on Bioethics that denounced it. Clearly, no such prohibition occurred.
But that’s not all from the Dr. Frankenstein files today.
An ethics committee in the UK has given the go-ahead for scientists to modify the genes of “surplus embryos” in fertility clinic settings. The scientists say that they are looking for the genetic anomaly that causes some embryos to fail to develop, thus causing miscarriage. They purport that once they figure this out, genetic editing can improve the chances of a successful pregnancy. But will the editing end at simply increasing the chances for successful pregnancies?
I bet you didn’t know that Anonymous took down the New York Stock Exchange, the World Bank, The Fed, and the Vatican this month.
Over the past 30 days, the hacktivist group Anonymous has taken many of the world’s most corrupt and bloated financial institutions offline.
But you probably didn’t hear a word about it, did you? That’s because there is a global media blackout on the attacks.
A few weeks ago, when I first wrote about the story, I shared a screenshot of what happened when I tried to share an article about it on Facebook. The link was banned from being shared.
Here’s a very thorough story about the attacks – it’s a must-read.
We would just like to make it very clear that all targets of #OpIcarus have been Rothschild and BIS central owned banks. In fact most of the targets so far such as Guernsey, Cyprus, Panama, Jordan, British Virgin Isles, etc are in the top 10 places of tax havens for the elite. No on-line consumer accounts were harmed, no ATM’s were blocked and no personal client data was leaked. This has been a protest against the Central Banks and the 1% — no innocent or poor people were harmed.
I did find a small story on a UK mainstream news site about the hack attacks, but the American media remains mum on the subject.
Crybaby College Students Object to Midterms and Grades Lower Than Cs
A group of more than 1300 college students in Ohio has petitioned Oberlin College to lighten their loads and change the parameters so they can find success. They want to abolish grades that are below a C and they would like to simply have a conversation with their professors instead of midterms. They’ve been really busy protesting, you see, and just haven’t been able to keep up with their work due to their activism.
Then there’s this classic quote that sums up what education is all about:
“You know, we’re paying for a service. We’re paying for our attendance here. We need to be able to get what we need in a way that we can actually consume it,”student Zakiya Acey told The New Yorker. “Because I’m dealing with having been arrested on campus, or having to deal with the things that my family are going through because of larger systems — having to deal with all of that, I can’t produce the work that they want me to do. But I understand the material, and I can give it to you in different ways.”
Aw, Muffin. Wait until you have a full-time job, are a parent, and hope to actually have a life outside of your normal responsibilities. No one adjusts the parameters in adulthood so that you can feel successful.
The higher education system has utterly failed. Common sense and cause/effect thinking are dead. If this is an example of the leaders of the next generation, we are well and truly screwed.
Is a Libertarian revolution brewing?
In brighter news, there are some people who are finally beginning to wake up to the corruption within the two-party system. Voter registration for the Libertarian Party jumped 20-fold during the month of May, indicating that people are refusing to vote for the “lesser of two evils”. The ridiculous ballot of Trump vs. Clinton just might be enough to shake people out of their apathy.
If you’re wondering what Libertarians stand for, here’s a quick list of the main ideas. (Hint: It’s about personal freedom and personal responsibility.) This is a classic primer on libertarian thinking if you’re interested in more information.
Libertarianism is becoming “cool” too. Recently, Breitbart posted an article called “Rise of the Cultural Libertarians” which discussed an insurgent movement away from the two party system. “Authoritarians of all stripes, from religious reactionaries to left-wing “social justice warriors,” are coming under fire from a new wave of thinkers, commentators, and new media stars who reject virtually all of their political values.”
As an example, this campaign video is like nothing you’ve ever seen from the Democrats and the Republicans. I was definitely impressed.
This Week in Preparedness
Lately, those who live the preparedness lifestyle have been more concerned than ever about the events going on in the world, and for many of us, the urgency to convince loved ones to prep is at an all-time high as worries increase. The economic collapse of Venezuela, our own shaky markets and banking system, the threat of natural disasters, and worries about cyber attacks all have the potential to become life-changing catastrophes. These are the events we prep for and we clearly understand the ramifications of facing them without the necessary supplies.
And many of us have friends and family without those necessary supplies. Have you ever tried to convince those loved ones to prep?
Here are some suggestions to help you gently persuade those who are not on board.
The cautionary tale that is the rather spectacular collapse of Venezuela continues. Were you aware that Venezuela banned guns for private citizens a mere four years ago, in 2012? Although the country was already in trouble, it seems like that was the beginning of the end. Does this remind anyone else of the campaign promises of a certain presidential hopeful?
The Bookshelf
We Are Anonymous: Inside the Hacker World of LulzSec, Anonymous, and the Global Cyber Insurgency
The Libertarian Mind: A Manifesto for Freedom
The Pantry Primer: A Prepper’s Guide to Whole Food on a Half-Price Budget
Anything to add to Survival Saturday?
If you haven’t signed up for my newsletter, you should. This summer, I’ll be co-hosting a Summer Prepping Intensive with Lisa Bedford, also known as The Survival Mom. We’ll be helping you to get prepped if you’re not there yet, recover your mojo if you’ve gotten off track, and interact with others who are traveling the same journey. It’ll be like a summer camp for grownups and I’ll be offering this for early bird sign-up in a week or so via my mailing list. (Sign-up is on the right-hand sidebar and at the top of the home page.)
Do you have any news links you want to share? Now’s the time! Please post your links in the comments below. Also, be sure to let me know what you think about today’s articles!
6 #Prepper Laws You Should Never Break: “Things You Need To Have Ready”
Prepping? You should be thinking about what you might need.
But focusing all your time and energy on the wrong priorities can leave you just as ill-prepared as if you had done nothing at all.
City Prepping shares his top 6 priorities for being ready – starting with the most obvious necessities and working towards an expanded plan for survival in case of the worst.
Whether or not you agree with his specific order of operations, starting with a solid foundation and working towards the more extravagant possibilities is a good way to plan and develop skills.
Becoming fully prepared is an ongoing process and will undoubtedly require a lot of effort on your part, but starting here will make sure you can survive most situations, as further steps will cover the less likely “what ifs.”
Check out the video:
- Water is an absolute necessity, and drinking unsanitary water will make you sick. Make sure you have plan to have enough clean water. Store it, treat it, purify it, have access to it. How much water do you need? 1 gallon per person per day for drinking, cooking, sanitation and the like. Water preservative can help keep it long term, and make sure it doesn’t become contaminated.
- Storable Food. Extra food can be built up gradually a few cans at a time, and rotated out. Get items that you would actually eat, and balance your needs between protein, fats and carbs. Many canned foods have lots of extra sodium, which requires more water to balance out. In the event of a power outage or other emergency, eat the perishable foods you have on hand first, since they will of course go bad soonest.
- -How will you cook your food? Keep extra fuel and useful stoves, grills, etc. on hand that aren’t reliant on the electric grid, or far away resources that would take a lot of effort to gather or obtain.
- -Where to store food an water? Basements, closets, under stair storage space, etc. to keep it cool and away from sunlight.
- Medical care preps, supplies, equipment and, of course, skills. First aid kits and basic medical skills, including C.P.R., are essential. Know how to handle major and minor cuts, stop bleeding and keep wounds from becoming infected. Learn how to clear an airway, when and how to use a tourniquet and take classes from your local medical authorities if you can. Know how to treat shock, since it is very common during stressful situations – and basically anything that falls under SHTF.
- Having cash on hands. If/when the grid goes down, credit cards and online payment systems will be out altogether.
- Securing your home. The widespread instability will leave countless people desperate and willing to invade your home and/or attack your family or group. Avoid conflict when possible, but have firearms and other weapons to defend your family, your preps and your property. What type of gun is best for you is a matter of preference, training and the amount you are willing to invest; however, ideally you would want a rifle or shotgun as well as a handgun, among other options. Train and continue to train as much as possible.
- Prepare to bug out (but don’t leave unless it becomes necessary). Bugging out early and without need could put you in greater danger of exposure to the elements or bad circumstances, and your home may be the best place to stay. Nevertheless, you should have your bug out bag and plan ready to go, and execute when the time is right. It should provide all your vital needs for 72 hours, and will be different for each person and geographic area.
Tailor this list to your own specific needs, and do your due diligence to be ready for whatever may come.
Stay vigilant and protect those that you love.
Read more:
The Prepper’s Blueprint: Step-by-Step Guide to Prepare You for Any Disaster
How to Start Prepping Without Breaking the Bank: “All About Self-Reliance”
10 Prepping Mistakes That Could Get You Killed (And How To Avoid Them)
SHTFplan and Mac Slavo www.shtfplan.com
How to Convince Loved Ones to #Prep (and When to Give Up)
May 27, 2016
Lately, those who live the preparedness lifestyle have been more concerned than ever about the events going on in the world, and for many of us, the urgency to convince loved ones to prep is at an all-time high as worries increase. The economic collapse of Venezuela, our own shaky markets and banking system, the threat of natural disasters, and worries about cyber attacks all have the potential to become life-changing catastrophes. These are the events we prep for and we clearly understand the ramifications of facing them without the necessary supplies.
And many of us have friends and family without those necessary supplies. Raise your hand if you have ever tried to convince loved ones to prep. Yep, just as I thought. Hands everywhere.
Chances are that when you brought up the topic, your friends and family considered you anywhere on the nuts scale from “a bit eccentric” to “downright certifiable.” If you’ve ever broached the subject with them, the responses were probably one or more of the following:
“Lighten up!”
“I don’t want to sit there and think about the bad things all day long.”
“You don’t need to worry about me.”
“Live a little!”
“If the disaster is that bad, hopefully, I’ll just die in it. Who’d want to live in a world after ***fill in the disaster of your choice***”
“Hahahahahaha!!!!”
“You worry too much.”
“I’ll just come to your house.”
There’s the smug dismissal, the deer-in-headlights fear, the rolled eyes, and the outright denial that anything bad could ever happen to them. There’s the justification of “We keep a case of water in the pantry at all times” and the “I have survival skills” delusion. Most folks just don’t even want to think about it.
So. Incredibly. Frustrating.
This viewpoint, of course, makes it very difficult for you to talk with these loved ones and bring them over to the “dark side” of preparedness with you. It’s painful to see people about whom you care, blithely going along, spending money frivolously, buying their groceries a couple of days at a time, and living in places that are totally unsustainable should disaster strike.
So, you have to try.
If you really care about the people in question, you probably feel strongly compelled to talk with them about emergency preparedness. But, how do you convince your loved ones to prep when the idea has never even crossed their minds before?
Why People Won’t Listen
First of all, it’s important to understand why your loved ones see the world through rose-colored glasses. While they are busy casting mental health disorder epithets your way, it is actually the people who refuse to accept reality who are suffering from a psychological phenomenon called “cognitive dissonance”.
The phrase “cognitive dissonance” was coined by Dr. Leon Festinger in his book When Prophecy Fails, which was originally published in 1956.When two diverse values collide – the reality of a situation and the moral belief system of the person, it causes mental discomfort that for some people is quite extreme. The person must make alterations to one or the other in order to regain his mental equilibrium. According to Dr. Festinger
Dr. Festinger’s theory states that “dissonance reduction”can be achieved in one of three ways: lowering the importance of one of the discordant factors, adding consonant elements, or changing one of the dissonant factors. This bias sheds light on otherwise puzzling, irrational, and even destructive behavior.”
- lowering the importance of one of the discordant factors
- adding consonant elements
- changing one of the dissonant factors
This bias sheds light on why people behave in manners that are puzzling, irrational, and even destructive.
It’s very frustrating to watch otherwise intelligent people completely avoid the acceptance of our reality. Those deeply into cognitive dissonance are simply NOT going to come around by hearing you preach to them. If anything, it will only drive them further away from you. The concept of, for example, a long-term disaster like and EMP or an economic collapse followed by total social failure are incomprehensible to them.
Because of this, no matter how fervently you believe these epic events to be likely in the future, it’s best to water down the reality into manageable bites.
Breaking Them In Gently
When trying to convince loved ones to prep, it’s best to break them into the concept gently. If you go too hardcore survivalist, too doomy, or too outrageous, they’ll simply shut down, as described above, and all of your efforts will be for naught. Below, you can find a few ways to introduce the concept.
- Point out weather-related events that have occurred nearby. Everyone has had an experience with the weather that inconvenienced them in some way. Because of this, it’s a disaster that seems more likely than something they’d consider far-fetched or overly dramatic. You can easily provide recent examples, like Hurricane Katrina and Superstorm Sandy. Other regions are prone to tornadoes, ice storms, snow storms, or earthquakes. For those in regions where events like this occur, you can often persuade your loved ones to stock in at least a 2 week supply. Because you can give legitimate and recent examples of these occurrences, this can be a gentle introduction to preparedness. You may be able to build on this base acceptance and begin to help your loved ones begin to extend their supplies. Note: always use mainstream sources when trying to gently nudge someone in the direction of preparedness. Those sources are familiar and to most people, thought to be more accurate and reliable.
- Teach them how building a pantry saves money. Another great tactic is promoting the economic logic behind a well-stocked pantry. Prices are only going up – it doesn’t take a prepper to see this. If you can convince someone of the investment value of a food supply, sometimes you can persuade them to prep without them even realizing that is what they are doing. Then, when that supply comes in handy during a disaster event or a personal period of economic hardship, you can gently reinforce the lesson.
- Send them articles of interest…but don’t go overboard. Sending gentle nudges via email is sometimes helpful, but inundating a non-prepper with preparedness advice will generally fall upon deaf ears. Repetition of preparedness concepts without the scare tactics can help break through the normalcy bias, but it is important to limit yourself within the tolerance level of the person with whom you are communicating. Remember, you do not want to be the Jehovah’s Witness of preparedness, knocking on the door during dinnertime while the non-prepper pretends not to be home.
- Sometimes fiction can really get people thinking. If your loved one is a bookworm, try giving them the gift of some good prepper fiction. You don’t have to preach to them, “This is what could happen.” Just find a good story that you enjoyed and pass it on as such. Some of my favorites are One Second After, the A. American Survivalist series, and Max Velocity’s Patriot series. If you’re nudging teens in the right direction, this is a list of our favorite books to inspire the preparedness mindset for young people.
- Use movies as launching points for conversations. What could be better than prepper night at the movies? There’s nothing like a good disaster movie to get people contemplating the what-ifs. Host a movie night and invite your friends and family. Be sure that a discussion follows the movie – this can help you to learn what their thoughts are, which can aid you in your persuasive endeavors. Here is a list of 40 survival-oriented movies that might help you devise the evening’s entertainment.
- Buy them preparedness-related gifts. If it’s a person you are very close to, sometimes you can set your mind at ease a little by making certain that they have the supplies that they need on hand. Buy them supplies that they can stick in a closet and forget, like buckets of emergency food. If you’re feeling really generous, add some water, a filter, and an emergency cooking method to keep them fed and hydrated, if not completely prepared. Create an emergency kit for their car, put a multitool or Sawyer Mini filter in their Christmas stockings, or give them a pocket survival guide (this is my favorite) to stash in their purse or backpack.
What If They Won’t Listen?
Unfortunately, you have to realize there isn’t a lot you can do to convince others that preparing is vital. People have to come to their own realizations, just the way you did. You have to accept that constantly harping on preparedness will do nothing more than to drive a wedge between you and those you love. Sometimes, you have to know when to give up.
But that isn’t the worst of it. Remember back in the intro to this article, that casual statement that makes every prepper grit his or her teeth?
“I don’t need to prep. I’ll just come to your house.”
As a prepper, you have to make a difficult decision. Are you going to prepare for a few extra people, adding supplies and making room for them when the SHTF? Or are you going to go about your preparedness business quietly, embracing OPSEC and building up your supplies with only your immediate family members in mind?
Some people state that they have absolutely no compunction turning away unprepared family members when disaster strikes, because they spent years warning them to get ready. This is a choice that you may have to make one day, and there is no “one size fits all” answer.
If you allow unprepared loved ones to come to your house, that means there are fewer supplies for your immediate family. You’ll be sharing whatever you have and it won’t stretch for as long a period of time. As well, if they are unprepared despite your best efforts, there could be other problems down the line, like wastefulness, folks who talk too much (and to the wrong people), and loved ones who just don’t grasp the importance of every decision in an emergency. What if they can’t accept the necessity for armed self-defense? This could cause a lot of discord, and even be life-threatening if the situation is dire.
On the other hand, the guilt of turning people away will be too much for some folks to handle. Many hands make lighter work, so if the family members will do their fair share or if they have special skills, then having them at your retreat will probably be worth the division of supplies. Plus, family is family. Sometimes you have to go beyond the call of duty for those you love.
This is not something that should be decided at the spur of the moment when adrenaline is running high. To make a rational choice, it is important to discuss this among the decision-makers of your household and present a unified front, whichever conclusion you reach.
*****
Have you been able to help friends and family see the writing on the wall? If so, how were you able to convince them that it was time to get ready? If not, are you preparing for extra people or are you planning on locking the doors?
This #Survival Capsule Could Insulate You Against Any Disaster: “More Control Than Safe Houses”
Depending on your outlook, this could be the ultimate in survival gear.
In the wake of an extreme threat – such as a tsunami or earthquake – this capsule could be the best place to withstand the impact, no matter what.
It is water-tight. It is extremely durable. It floats, and it can withstand against the impact of super-strong winds, crashes, heat and many other factors.
For the right price, it could hold between two and ten people, protecting them from literally just about anything that could come your way.
As the London Guardian reports:
The Survival Capsule – a personal safety system in the form of a giant ball – has been designed to combat this issue.
This capsule, which features two small porthole windows so the occupants can see what is going on around them, was created to give individual groups and families more control of their survival in emergency situation than traditional ‘safe houses.’
It is designed to float so it will never be inundated by water levels rising too high, as they do in tsunami situations.
[…]
The sphere is designed to withstand the initial impact of a natural disaster, as well as sharp object penetration, heat exposure, blunt object impact, and rapid deceleration.
Occupants are strapped in to the seats with crash-test proof seat belts and can expect to survive in spite of rampant destruction and perhaps unsurvivable conditions.
It appears that the unfortunate loss of life and vast property destruction that took place during some of the most recent tsunamis inspired the ball’s inventors to hedge against all possibilities.
Since earthquakes, tsunamis, volcanoes, hurricanes and other extreme weather events seem to be increasing right now, particularly surrounding the Ring of Fire, that could be a good thing.
Watch the video:
The test model is bright red and would be easily spotted by rescue crews once they arrive for clean-up after the event, though it could be camouflaged for those who also want to stay off the radar after a SHTF situation in which the political situation may be part of the threat.
Read more:
The Prepper’s Blueprint: Your Step-by-Step Guide to Survive Any Disaster
The Ultimate Prepper Bug Out Home
Elite Bunker Down in “Secure, Safe Rooms Hidden in Plain Sight”… And You Can, Too
The Safest Areas in America: An Expanded Western Relocation Zone
Nukes and Fallout: How to Survive When Others Won’t
SHTFplan and Mac Slavo www.shtfplan.com
Watch: This Is What #Trump Did When Event Organizers Cut The #NationalAnthem
While President Obama can’t even go so far as to wear an American flag pin on his lapel, it appears that Donald Trump is a bit more Patriotic when it comes to supporting American traditions.
The following video was recorded in Anaheim, California where event organizers, pressed for time because of television cameras, opted to remove the singing of the Star Spangled Banner from the agenda.
Trump was none too pleased. Here’s what he did.
“Guess what, we’re gonna do the National Anthem, OK?,” Trump told the screaming crowd.
Somewhere on her private jet Hillary Clinton is lambasting staffers for not having thought of it first. We’re sure her team is trying to figure out a way to stage a patriotic display at her next rally.
SHTFplan and Mac Slavo www.shtfplan.com
Expert Warns Of #Venezuela-style #Hyperinflation: “This Will Not End Well For The United States”
Though completely outside the realm of possibility for an entertained, well fed, and oblivious American public dependent on ever-growing debt to make ends meet, there are serious economic, financial and monetary headwinds set to flip the entire system upside down. If there’s one thing we can learn from the collapse of monetary systems in Zimbabwe, Argentina, and most recently Venezuela, it’s that printing money only works until you lose the confidence of your creditors and the public at large, at which point the whole thing detonates with such velocity and speed that millions are left scrounging for even the most basic of necessities.
According to K92 Mining President Bryan Slusarchuk, this is exactly the kind of scenario Americans should be concerned with because central banks and governments around the world have not only printed obscene sums of money to keep the system afloat, but used even more worthless foreign currency reserves to further prop up their own. As Slusarchuk notes, there is absolutely nothing of real value backing any of it, which spells disaster for Western nations:
Western nations have central bankers colluding together trying to prop up eachother’s reserve with equally worthless foreign currency reserves that are fiat-based paper. Unfortunately, I just don’t think this ends well for Western countries like the United States and Canada who have lost sight of this…
In his latest interview with SGT Report, Slusarchuk explains why a hyperinflation scenario akin to what we are witnessing in Venezuela is a distinct possibility and what those who will take the brunt of the pain – the average people on the ground – can do to prepare themselves for this inevitable future reality. As Slusarchuk warns, most people won’t figure out what has happened until it’s already too late:
…There are lessons [we can learn from Venezuela]… It appears to be spiraling out of control… and this all results from the fact that you had bankers that didn’t understand how to ensure there is a real worth to their fiat currency… this lesson is a lesson we’re going to figure out once it’s too late.
Some 65% of Americans receive more in federal transfer income than they pay in total taxes. There are estimates that this can grow to 80% in the not-too-distant future. So when you have a situation like this that is clearly not sustainable and you have central banker collusion supporting one another’s worthless paper currencies with more worthless paper currency reserves… it just doesn’t end well.
Slusarchuk suggests hard assets as insurance against this eventuality. As we’ve seen in Venezuela, core necessities for survival like bread and meat, as well as supplies we take for granted like toilet paper, are the first to go because a country whose currency has collapsed and lost the faith of its creditors can no longer trade with foreign companies to import these goods, nor can they pay domestic workers to produce them. As the President and Director of a gold mining company, he does, of course, recommend precious metals as a currency of last resort to counter the effects of hyperinflating fiat dollars.
It’s a strategy, notes Slusarchuk, that has protected and preserved wealth for over 5,000 years. And it’s one that’s being aggressively implemented right now by China, who unlike their Western counterparts that have sold their precious metal reserves, are acquiring massive stores of gold.
A similar strategy, he argues, should be a part of everyone’s collapse-proof portfolio:
I think it’s so important for investors to consider, not just for the upside, but for protection… for safety… gold and silver as part of their investment strategy.
And when things don’t end well… It’s going to be very worthwhile to have that real store of value.
I think people in Venezuela are seeing that today… and you’ve seen that in other countries like Argentina.
History continues to repeat itself.
But, central bankers want to assure us that everything is OK… that gold no longer has real value.
… as groups and governments in places like China continue to gobble up everything they can get their hands on… you’ve really got to question what side of the trade you want to be on.
…
Venezuela is a great example of the hyperinflationary currency collapse that all countries potentially face when they don’t have true holdings as a store of value that act as a guarantee to redeem promises to creditors.
Contrarian economists like John Williams have repeatedly warned of hyperinflation in the United States. That some 60% of Americans are now dependent on government subsidies, including nearly 50 million on food stamps, is a critical warning sign. So, too, is the fact that incomes are dropping and meaningful jobs are drying up.
Media pundits and government shills, just as they have done in Venezuela, continue their propaganda campaigns with many pointing to stock markets as a measure of health and marginalizing those who warn of impending collapse as “peddling fiction.”
But to those paying attention, even that is a massive warning sign of a system so heavily injected with artificial stimulus that when the central bank’s dope finally runs out there will, quite literally, be a life threatening crash.
Those without hard assets to get them through the aftermath could well find themselves with no food, no shelter, and no prospects for recovery.
To learn more about Bryan Slusarchuk and his latest production projects visit K92Mining.com.
For more interviews like the one you just watched visit SGT Report.
SHTFplan and Mac Slavo www.shtfplan.com
“Slacking Off”: Young Adults Living In Parents’ Basement Most Common For First Time Ever
Covert art: The New Yorker
Moving into the basement or prolonging a stay in a childhood bedroom filled with outgrown toys and posters used to be a last resort for struggling 20-somethings, but now it is officially the most common situation for millennials and even those in the their early 30s.
These cold statistics reveal not only a brutal economy with few good job prospects, but a generation that is failing to branch out and start a new life on their own – a necessary phase of continuity in the human species.
All of this paints a grim future and a disappearing American Dream.
According to the Associated Press:
Many of America’s young adults appear to be in no hurry to move out of their old bedrooms.
For the first time on record, living with parents is now the most common arrangement for people ages 18 to 34, an analysis of census data by the Pew Research Center has found.
And the proportion of older millennials — those ages 25 to 34 — who are living at home has reached its highest point (19 percent) on record, Pew analysts said.
The vicious cycle between an economy that is too brutal to make young adults comfortable and secure enough to start out on their own is also further declining as 20-somethings and 30-somethings shelter in place and avoid consumption, spending, investment, etc.:
The pattern may be a contributing factor in the sluggish growth of the U.S. economy, which depends heavily on consumer spending. With more young people living with their parents rather than on their own, fewer people need to buy appliances, furniture or cable subscriptions. The recovery from the 2008-09 recession has been hobbled by historically low levels of home construction and home ownership.
Millennials are also putting off buying cars, buying houses, getting married, having kids and other grown up activities that used to be a default of adult life for the majority of Americans.
Instead, it is a future of mostly singles with a tough time finding the jobs they want to become careers.
To her parents, it looks as though she’s slacking off.
“It’s definitely a generation gap,” she said. “I think they literally think I just sit down and watch Netflix all day.”
Along with that goes a later and later average age for marrying and having kids, further stalling the birth rate which has already fallen sharply below the replacement rate of 2.1 children per couple.
Instead, we are entering a dark future where “me” comes before any other unit of society, and nearly everyone is becoming a self-absorbed and self-centered automaton whose closest relationship is with a smart phone.
Is it too conspiratorial to suggest that governments will have a far easier time controlling everyone with a nation full of (adult) children?
If people never grow up enough to move out on their own, how can they be prepared to deal with emergencies of any kind, face dangers and problems or, gasp, help others to deal with the harsh realities of life, too?
shtfplan.com
Read more:
As the Middle Class Dies, Millennials Give Up: “The American Dream Is Not Really Alive”
Can’t-Do Generation: “Expect Everything to Just Work,” and Throw Out What They Can’t Fix
29 Percent Of All U.S. Adults Under The Age Of 35 Are Living With Their Parents
SHTFplan and Mac Slavo www.shtfplan.com
This Country Is On Its #Deathbed and #Obama Has Placed It There: “A Deliberate and Treasonous Weakening of our Defenses”
We have all seen the buildup of U.S. and NATO troops facing Russia’s western border and the steady push by those two groups in conjunction with the MIC and the IMF to enter the world into a new Cold War against Russia. Some of the equipment is pretty impressive, such as the U.S.S. Admiral Zumwalt that has just been rolled off of the assembly line. But there is an interesting point I wish to make that you may have seen. Did you notice that in terms of effectiveness, the U.S. military has had its hands tied behind its back in terms of overall combat readiness?
The Zumwalt can be taken out with one of those nice new hypersonic missiles the Chinese and Russians have integrated in their systems. As of this piece, the Russians are emplacing new radar detecting equipment to offset the “Aegis ashore” ABM station that has been up and running in Romania since last Thursday. Measure and countermeasures, yes, but in terms of combat readiness, in the words of our own military, we are not up to standards.
On March 22, 2016 a hearing was conducted by Republicans on the House Armed Services Committee to discuss the shortage of parts and equipment suffered by the armed forces. The Chairman, Mac Thornberry visited Beaufort Marine Corps Air Station, and found that parts were actually taken from a museum to refit aircraft, as follows:
“…an F/A-18 based at Marine Corps Air Station Beaufort that flew in the raid against Libya in 1986 needed a part. The part is no longer made and there were none on hand. Crew and pilots checked the F-18s on display at Beaufort to see if they might find a part. No luck. A lieutenant colonel visiting the USS Yorktown aircraft carrier about two hours away in Charleston, South Carolina. saw an F/A-18 of the same model, a HASC staff member told me today. They scrounged the part from what would appear to be the A model on the carrier’s deck. (It’s the only F-18 at the Yorktown. They got the part, but sadly, it didn’t work.”
Breakingdefense.com, article by Colin Clark, March 23, 2016
Reports have mentioned out of Fox News recently that the Air Force is short 4,000 personnel to conduct maintenance, and is short 700 pilots. The Air Force is reduced to relying on spare parts it can scrap out of a desert scrapyard of aircraft known as “The Boneyard.” Fox interviewed a Master Sergeant in the Air Force, stationed at Ellsworth Air Force base in South Dakota and he told about burned-out, overworked air crews and maintenance staff and equipment shortages:
“It’s not only the personnel that are tired, it’s the aircraft that are tired as well,” Master Sgt. Bruce Pfrommer, who has over two decades of experience in the Air Force working on B-1 bombers, told Fox News. “We have only 20 aircraft assigned on station currently. Out of those 20 only nine are flyable,” Pfrommer said
The report went on to state that only about half of the 28th Bomb Wing’s aircraft are even able to lift off of the ground, let alone perform combat missions. The piece detailed some good information on the B-1 fleet and its capabilities, as follows:
“When operating effectively, the B-1 can be one of the most lethal bombers in the U.S. military’s arsenal. Designed as a low-level deep strike penetrator to drop nuclear weapons on the Soviet Union in the early 1980s, the B-1 has evolved into a close-air support bomber. Flying for 10-12 hours at a time high above the battlefield, B-1’s can carry 50,000 pounds of weapons, mostly satellite-guided bombs. “It can put a 2,000-pound weapon on a doorknob from 15 miles away in the dark of night, in the worst weather,” said Col. Gentry Boswell, commander of the 28th Bomb Wing at Ellsworth.”
This is what the airmen and aircrews have been suffering. What is very monstrous is the big picture, taken over the past 7 years under Obama: the systematic dismantling and deliberate reduction in combat effectiveness and defense capabilities.
Obama has cashiered the senior Officer and Enlisted Personnel at the Command levels, and the ones with the most combat experience derived from the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. Obama has degraded the military’s combat effectiveness by the lowering of standards regarding personnel: assignments are done according to political “correctness” and quota, not by ability. Case in point the appointment of Eric Fanning as the first “openly gay” Secretary of the Army.
Not one day as a soldier, and this is what the Senate confirmed as their Secretary of the Army.
It is all deliberate…the dropping of the TARS system that augmented NORAD, the mothballing of production for the A-10’s and the Tomahawk, and the lackadaisical stance for coastline scrambles when a “foreign partner’s” bomber or submarine ventures into U.S. territory.
It is a deliberate and treasonous weakening of our defenses. Obama is a traitor that has managed (with glacial slowness) to implement his policies and destroy the country. His greatest tool has been the American public, who are too busy trying to wrangle free cell phones and money to care about anything but their own desires. The country is on its deathbed, and Obama has placed it there. While he golfs, vacations, and raises funds, our Air Force is reduced to a scavenger hunt to obtain the parts they require, and our military is understrength and weakening by the day.
Jeremiah Johnson is the Nom de plume of a retired Green Beret of the United States Army Special Forces (Airborne). Mr. Johnson is also a Gunsmith, a Certified Master Herbalist, a Montana Master Food Preserver, and a graduate of the U.S. Army’s SERE school (Survival Evasion Resistance Escape). He lives in a cabin in the mountains of Western Montana with his wife and three cats. You can follow Jeremiah’s regular writings at SHTFplan.com or contact him here.
This article may be republished or excerpted with proper attribution to the author and a link to www.SHTFplan.com.
Also Read:
Russia Has Been Encircled And Pushed To The Brink Of War: “They Have Exercised Remarkable Restraint”
How an Attack on America Would Probably Begin: Possible Courses Of Action By Foreign Military Powers
How To Survive Occupied America: “Red Dawn Just Started… And You’re In It”
Collision Course: As Obama Weakens America, The Russians And Chinese Prepare
SHTFplan and Mac Slavo www.shtfplan.com
#Target Is At It Again: This Time They Are #Suing A Man For Saving A Woman’s Life From a Knife-Wielding Killer
(Target is suing Michael Turner for stopping a knife-wielding murder)
If Target’s latest non-family-friendly bathroom policy hasn’t convinced you of their total lack of common sense, then just keep reading.
In 2013 Michael Turner saw Leon Walls attack and then stab a 16-year old girl. The attack was so violent that Allison Meadows would have been murdered right there at the Target checkout counter had two other men and Turner not stepped in with a baseball bat.
As the surveillance video below shows, after Walls had begun stabbing Meadows, Turner tackled him and then chased him to the front of the store.
A clear case of self defense, right?
You’d think so, but not for Target.
The mega-retailer is now suing Turner and the other two men who stepped in to help the victim of the attack, claiming that it was their actions that led to the stabbing of Meadows:
While Meadows thanks Turner, Target blames him. Court documents say the company claims Turner chased Walls with a baseball bat into the entrance of the store, creating more danger to those inside.
Target filed a counterclaim against Turner, adding him as a defendant to the case. The trial is expected to being on Monday. Meadows and his family will commute to Pennsylvania on Sunday to attend.
Two other men are also being sued by Target, however Turner is the only one without an attorney. Instead, he will be representing himself.
Watch the surveillance video:
Meadows and her family vehemently disagree with Target’s legal assault on Turner, calling Turner’s actions heroic and crediting them with preventing Meadows’ murder. The Meadows family has sued the store, claiming that the retail company had inadequate security, and alleging that the store, by suing Turner, is just trying to blame someone else for Target’s own refusal to protect the safety and security of its customers.
“Suing Michael Turner is just Target’s way of trying to blame someone else for what happened under their own roof,” an attorney for the Meadows family said, “The family certainly doesn’t blame Mr. Turner and they are thankful he was there that day.”
Via The Federalist
Is there anyone left at Target corporate offices who has a bit of common sense?
Related:
Viral Video: Woman Chases Sex Offender Trying to Film Her at Target
SHTFplan and Mac Slavo www.shtfplan.com
Armed #Patriots Prepare to Defend Against #Federal Encroachment: “This Is The Beginning of The Revolution”
It seems that many voices within the federal government are quite concerned about the growing patriot movement throughout the country, and especially in rural strongholds where land and liberty go hand and hand.
More events like the Bundy Ranch standoff seem likely to occur, as the BLM and other agencies show no sign of changing policies, and more and more individuals are waking up to the abuses and tyrannies taking place.
It is isn’t just hypothetical – environmental regulations and bureaucratic land management continues to undermine ranchers and farmers who are, in many cases, forced out of business or taxed & penalized to death.
Many are refusing to take it lying down, and groups across the country are training and preparing in case of the worst – a standoff with the feds over land and their very way of life.
According to the Washington Post:
Deep in the heart of a vast U.S. military training ground, surrounded by spent shotgun shells and juniper trees blasted to shreds, the Central Oregon Constitutional Guard was conducting its weekly firearms training.
“The intent is to be able to work together and defend ourselves if we need to,” said Soper, 40, a building contractor who is an emerging leader in a growing national movement rooted in distrust of the federal government, one that increasingly finds itself in armed conflicts with authorities.
Those in the movement call themselves patriots, demanding that the federal government adhere to the Constitution and stop what they see as systematic abuse of land rights, gun rights, freedom of speech and other liberties.
Law enforcement officials call them dangerous, delusional and sometimes violent, and say that their numbers are growing amid a wave of anger at the government that has been gaining strength since 2008, a surge that coincided with the election of the first black U.S. president and a crippling economic recession.
[…]
“It doesn’t say in our Constitution that you can’t stand up and defend yourself,” Soper said. “We’ve let the government step over the line and rule us, and that was never the intent of this country.”
That virulent strain of resistance, despite being the very stuff the country was founded upon and which much of its character is made up of, has the government and its supporting voices quite worried.
The powers-that-be are downright freaked out that so many individuals are willing to put their life on the line for principled reasons… and recognize the historical dilemma between quelling a rebellion and creating martyrs that can, in turn, inspire more to stand up.
The Washington Post spent thousands of words on the growing conflict, which organizations like the Southern Poverty Law Center and Anti-Defamation League see as a “second wave” of the violent militia movement they say characterized the atmosphere surrounding Waco, Ruby Ridge and the Oklahoma City Bombing:
The movement received a huge boost from the 2014 standoff at Cliven Bundy’s ranch in Nevada […] Bundy’s supporters claimed victory and were emboldened to stage similar armed face-offs last year at gold mines in Oregon and Montana.
In January, dozens of armed occupiers, led by Bundy’s sons Ammon and Ryan, took over the headquarters buildings of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge…
[…]
Shortly after the Bundy ranch confrontation, two of Bundy’s supporters who had been at the ranch, Jerad and Amanda Miller, killed two police officers and a civilian and also died in a Las Vegas shooting rampage. Police said the couple left a note on the body of one the officers they had shot point-blank.
It said: “This is the beginning of the revolution.”
Of course, it is important to note that the SPLC and groups like it love to conflate together radical individuals like the Millers – who were suspect to the Bundy Ranch crowd and asked to disassociate and leave the site long before they ever carried out their Bonnie and Clyde-like massacre.
Most people lumped into this category are nothing like Jerad and Amanda Miller, who sought conflict.
But one thing that is common to nearly everyone is a sense of being fed up. People recognize that there is a problem, that tyranny is taking place, and are on watch for potential abuses from the government.
Whatever happens next, these constitutionally-minded patriots are prepared. They are training with guns, survival skills, communications and working out scenarios.
Everyone in the group keeps 30 days’ worth of food and emergency supplies on hand. Group members learn gardening and raising livestock. They go camping and learn survival tactics, including how to fashion a shelter, find food and water, and make a fire.
McNeely and Lisa Soper are taking an emergency medical technician class to learn to treat wounds, including combat trauma. They all are working on getting ham-radio licenses to communicate in the event that the cellphone network fails.
But a bedrock of their mission is to be an armed and trained paramilitary force. Soper said group members train on “basic infantry” skills: “working a patrol, patrolling with a vehicle, arriving at ‘contact’ and how to protect yourself and escape from that.”
“We are not soldiers,” Soper said. “But we know the basics.”
B.J. Soper, who was heavily profiled in the Washington Post story, typifies the sense of disillusionment with how far the federal government has gone, and how important the role of complacency among the populace has been – until now:
“I was very disappointed with myself,” he said. “I realized that we’re here in the predicament that we’re in as a country because my generation, and my parents’ generation, have done nothing. We let this happen. We got used to our cushy lives where everything’s easy. We have forgotten what’s really important. We’ve forgotten what liberty and freedom really mean.”
It was like being shaken out of a lifetime of slumber, he said: “Before 2014, I was blind. I wasn’t awake. I wasn’t paying attention. But Bundy Ranch woke me up.”
Suddenly, his weekends watching the San Francisco 49ers or the Portland Trail Blazers seemed like anesthesia numbing him against real life.
[…]
Soper, who carries a pocket Constitution with him everywhere, said he thinks the Constitution does not give the federal government the right to own land, and that the government’s increasing emphasis on environmental regulations is putting ranchers, miners, loggers and others out of work and devastating local economies.
“We need to be able to raise and grow food,” Soper said. “Wealth comes from the land. I want to take into consideration endangered frogs. But at the same time, that frog can’t be more important than the survival of the human race.”
In past years, these media outlets and so-called “watchdogs” have relied heavily on trying to make those in the patriot movement appear “crazy” and “deranged”… but that really won’t work anymore. Ordinary people everywhere can see what is going on through streaming video and information on the Internet.
Not everyone is perfect, but there is a real honest backbone of genuine concern about the direction things have taken in this country.
The federal government has amassed incredible centralized power, and there is an attempt to undermine liberty.
There are many who are getting prepared and staying vigilant, for whatever may come.
Read more:
The Prepper’s Blueprint: Prepare for Anything that Comes Your Way
Harry Reid Calls Cliven Bundy Supporters “Domestic Terrorists”
FedGov Moves To Seize Water Rights From 100,000 Montanans: “All Surface Water And Wells”
SHTFplan and Mac Slavo www.shtfplan.com
Chilling Prophecy Predicts Total Destruction of #Europe In 2016: “Wasteland Almost Entirely Devoid Of Any Form Of Life”
[Ed: For what it is worth.]
It is said that an eastern European clairvoyant has predicted a wide range of events including the attacks of September 11, the Boxing Day Tsunami of 2004, the election of an African American as President of the United States, and an invasion of Europe by Muslim extremists. With a purported 85% accuracy rate, the late Baba Vanga counseled powerful politicians, business leaders and even heads of state.
She died in 1996, but not before making several other dire predictions.
One foretells the collapse of the United States of America as we know it today.
The other is perhaps even more frightening.
Vanga prophesied the total annihilation of the European continent, claiming that the entire region would be a barren wasteland resulting from a ‘great Muslim war’ that would begin in the middle east in 2010, an eerie reference the rise of the Arab Spring.
Baba Vanga died in 1996 at the age of 85 and was known as the ‘Nostradamus of the Balkans’ because of her success rate which was supposedly as high as 85 per cent.
The blind pensioner, who has previously been credited with predicting the 9/11 terror attacks and the Boxing Day tsunami of 2004, warned of an invasion of Europe by Muslim extremists next year [2016].
Vanga is said to have made hundreds of predictions in her lifetime, including that there would be a ‘great Muslim war’ which would start with the Arab Spring in 2010.
She predicted it would take place in Syria and would come to a conclusion in 2043 with the establishment of a caliphate with Rome at its centre, News.com.au reports.
Vanga reportedly said Europe will ‘cease to exist’ by the end of next year, leaving the continent ‘almost empty’ and a ‘wasteland almost entirely devoid of any form of life’.
…
The pensioner once predicted that the 44th US president would be African American – but she also warned that he would be the ‘last US president’.
Via The Daily Mail
It is clear that an invasion of Europe by Muslims has begun. In fact, several million refugees remain isolated in Turkey as Turkish President Erdogan holds the rest of Europe hostage by demanding billions of dollars in aid. Failure to pay what amounts to nothing short of protection money, says Erdogan, will force him to release these hordes of people on the whole of Europe.
Thus, Vanga has been at least partially right about the prediction of invading armies, because as has been noted previously, among the real refugees seeking political and religious asylum, are literally millions of fighting age men with extremist views who are preparing to launch attacks on European countries.
The attacks in Paris and Belgium in recent months are proof positive of this.
The fact that terrorist organizations have been found with caches of war grade weapons and are actively trying to compromise nuclear power plants in the region suggests that, should they effectively coordinate attacks utilizing weapons of mass destruction, be they chemical, biologicial, radiological or nuclear, Vanga’s prediction of turning Europe into a total wasteland could certainly come to pass.
We know weapons of mass destruction have been smuggled into Europe, leading many concerned citizens to not only acquire self defense firearms, but personal protective equipment for CBRN attacks.
We also know that a similar threat exists on the Southern border of the United States, where terrorists have already been captured attempting to cross into the U.S.
Further highlighting the threat, the Obama administration recently issued a report outlining four ways that a nuclear or radiological device could be used to attack Americans on U.S. soil. That report was followed by a new policy in Texas where game wardens operating close to the southern border are being issued radiological and nuclear detection equipment along smuggling routes.
The threat of attacks that could leave millions in Europe and the United States sickened or dead are real. Our governments are already preparing for them.
And though prophecies of destruction and mass die-offs are nothing new, Baba Vanga’s date-specific predictions made twenty years ago seemingly coincide with events that are happening all around us.
Also See:
A CBRN Attack On U.S. Soil Will Happen – Are You Prepared For It?
The Prepper’s Blueprint: A Step-By-Step Guide For Any Disaster
White House Warns Of Nuclear Terrorist Attacks: The Four Ways They Could Strike…
Nuke Threat On Southern Border: Texas Game Wardens Issued Radiation Detectors
Texas Rangers Dispatched to Secure Border Amid Stolen Mexican Nuke Threat
Preparing For the Next Attack: How To Survive a Nuclear Meltdown
SHTFplan and Mac Slavo www.shtfplan.com
Did You Know That #Venezuela Banned #Guns for Private Citizens Only 4 Years Ago?
May 24, 2016
The cautionary tale that is the rather spectacular collapse of Venezuela continues. Were you aware that Venezuela banned guns for private citizens a mere four years ago, in 2012? Although the country was already in trouble, it seems like that was the beginning of the end.
Under the reign of Hugo Chavez, the government introduced a law that banned personal purchases of firearms and ammunition in an attempt to “improve security and cut crime”. The law was designed to keep guns in the hands of only police, military, and some security companies.
At the time, Chavez’s government said that “the ultimate aim is to disarm all civilians.” Shortly after the law passed, Chavez lost a battle to cancer, and bus driver Nicolas Maduro became the new president.
Maduro invested $47 million in “disarmament centers” in 2014, where citizens could turn in their firearms without fear of repercussions. This was at about the same time as the government declared that prepping was illegal and those “hoarding” could be detained on criminal charges and when the country instituted a fingerprint registry for purchasing groceries so that they could ensure people only purchased what they were allotted.
But Who Does Disarmament Really Protect?
Does a gun ban actually reduce crime? Is the reduction of crime truly the motive behind disarmament? Or is disarmament actually an effort to make it more difficult for those who object to subjugation to fight back?
It’s interesting to note that nearly all repressive regimes take away the means for the citizens to stand up for their rights. Right before the proverbial S hit the F in Venezuela, guns were taken away from the general public. It was then a slippery slope into chaos as the government failed, socialism itself failed, and the country collapsed.
However, now that the people are ready to revolt against Maduro’s government, they no longer have the means to do so. It’s suicide for unarmed people to fight the well-armed military, something that the government undoubtedly counted on when Venezuela banned guns, disarming the populace.
Meanwhile In America
There are some unnerving parallels we can draw to the disarmament of Venezuela and the plans for America.
Presidential candidate Hillary Clinton is adamantly anti-gun. Her own website has a long list of the anti-gun measures she has supported. Make no mistake, if she gets the magical president’s pen, there will be anti-gun Executive Orders. She could also be the person responsible for choosing Supreme Court Justice Scalia’s empty seat, which will not bode well for the next challenge to the Second Amendment heard by the highest court in the land.
If you’re wondering how this relates to Venezuela, it’s simple.
Our ship here in the US is sinking.
Our economy is in the toilet. We may be watching a premonition of our future down there in South America, with riots at the grocery store. With abject poverty. With the third world medical care.
And if the wrong person is making Executive Orders and appointing Supreme Court Justices, gun owners could be targeted.
The American government doesn’t really represent the American people anymore. Do you feel that your wishes are taken into consideration when corrupt politicians benefit from big corporations against the desires of their constituents? Our system is broken, and every day we lose rights, incrementally.
The Second Amendment is not in place so people can go hunting for deer. Thomas Jefferson summed it up. “The strongest reason for the people to retain the right to keep and bear arms is, as a last resort, to protect themselves against tyranny in government.”
If you’re watching Venezuela, you understand why you need to be armed.
There are many lessons you can learn from analyzing the fall of Venezuela, like what items they have run out of that you should be stocking up on. You should be buying long-term food, stocking up on medical needs, and preparing for a down-grid scenario.
But as the country descends into chaos, you must also see how it got there. An armed society is a polite society. You’re seeing via the news report what happens to a disarmed society.
There’s a distinct pattern when society breaks down, and as our society becomes more desperate, poverty-stricken, and lacking of moral compass, this trend will become more obvious. Note that the “lacking of moral compass” part doesn’t just refer to the thugs rioting and looting, but also to a certain sector of cops who think that their badges give them permission to behave like street thugs, too.
Here’s the pattern:
- An outrage occurs.
- Good people react and protest the outrage.
- Those perpetrating the outrage try to quell the protest because they don’t think that the outrage was actually outrageous. (And whether it was or not can fluctuate – in some cases, force is necessitated, but in more and more cases, it is flagrantly gratuitous.)
- Others react to the quelling and join the protest.
- A mob mentality erupts. Thugs say, “Hey, it’s a free for all. I’m gonna get some Doritos and while I’m at it, beat the crap out of some folks for fun.”
- All hell breaks loose.
- The military gets called in.
- Cities burn, neighborhoods get destroyed, and no one in the area is safe.
- Cops act preemptively, out of fear, and for a time, there is no rule of law.
- If you happen to be stuck there, know this: you’re completely on your own.
Tess Pennington wrote about societal breakdowns in more detail – read her excellent article for more information on these predictable scenarios. In an event like this, you can try to call 911, but most likely, the police aren’t going to be coming to save you. You will be completely on your own. Will you be an unarmed, yet law-abiding citizen, hoping to somehow fend off the criminals who must have missed the memo to turn in their firearms? Good luck with that.
Here are 3 reasons why preppers need to be armed.
The thing that I believe it’s important to remember here is that if you have stacked your supplies to the rafters but refused to plan for defending your home and family, you’ve basically just made them bait should a desperate situation arise.
Just in case you think that chaos and violence only happen in places like Venezuela, where they’re undergoing a full-on collapse, the following examples are all from America.
Reason #1: Those who are desperate, unprepared, and feel entitled to be cared for
Remember Black Friday? People climbed all over each other for cheap electronics. Fist fights erupted over vegetable steamers. People were ready to throw down and do battle for sale items.
I’d hazard a guess that folks who spend time and money fighting over electronics are not the kind of people who prep. That means that these are the people who will be hungry in a long-term disaster. Look at those people, stampeding to get to a sale on things that they don’t actually need to survive. Their inhibitions are loosened because those around them are behaving in the same way.
You have to look at the psychology of this. People can justify pretty much anything when they or their children are starving. And I can understand that to a large degree – who could stand to watch their babies suffering? But if someone can devolve to the above degree just to because everyone else is doing it, the chaos we saw above is only a tiny sample of what could come if people were truly hungry.
Do you really feel like you could prepare them one meal and they’d go away politely? Do you really think that reason and a polite but firm conversation will be sufficient to make them go away? It only takes one person to start the charge against you in a tense scenario, and when that happens, unless you take swift and shocking action, the others will follow, and your retreat will be overcome. Sort of like when the walkers overtook the prison after the fence got knocked down on The Walking Dead.
Reason #2: Those who are planning to take the supplies of others
But wait, there’s something even worse out there than the hungry unprepared. There are the folks who have built an entire preparedness plan around taking the things that other preppers have stored. Remember this guy from another episode of Doomsday Preppers?
If you aren’t ready for people like this, your survival retreat is a soft, easy target. These people are not nice, but desperate. Their entire survival plan hinges on taking what someone else has amassed using superior force. This yahoo (who was subsequently arrested after his appearance on Doomsday Preppers) blatantly explains his plan, and I can guarantee that he is not alone. He’s just the one dumb enough to announce it on national television.
These are the types of people who are only careful about breaking the law because they don’t want to be caught. If a situation arises in which being caught and thrown in prison is unlikely, it will be a free-for-all. Morals and ethics won’t stop them, because they don’t have any. The only thing capable of stopping people like that is people who are able and ready to defend their homes
Reason #3: Those who loot and pillage because, doggone it, they like it
Finally, there are those who simply enjoy mayhem.
Some people are just waiting for the opportunity to behave in this fashion. They enjoy destroying things and venting their anger on any person who has “more” than they do. They’d love to act like that every single day, but they don’t want to spend the rest of their lives in jail. But when a verdict gets rolled out, when a storm takes out the power, when a disaster strikes, they delight in the chance to rob, pillage, loot, and burn. Who can forget the day before Superstorm Sandy hit the East Coast, when thugs were coordinating looting rampages via Twitter?
Here was the scene in Ferguson, Missouri. These are definitely not folks out fulfilling needs.
I remember learning about “sublimation” in a high school psychology class.
Sublimation is a defense mechanism that allows us to act out unacceptable impulses by converting these behaviors into a more acceptable form. For example, a person experiencing extreme anger might take up kickboxing as a means of venting frustration. Freud believed that sublimation was a sign of maturity that allows people to function normally in socially acceptable ways. (source)
If you believe Freud’s theory, then it’s easy to see that many people look for an excuse to revert to their true natures. In a situation where “everyone” is doing something, they are able to cast off their normal control of their impulses without much fear of reprisal. The number of looters and thugs far outstrips the number of arrests going on in Baltimore, so there’s a very good chance that someone swept up in that mentality can go burn somebody else’s home or business and completely get away with it.
These are the people who burned down their own neighborhoods after the verdict in Ferguson. And what businesses were left untouched? The ones for which the owners stood out front, armed, to defend their property.
You owe it to your family to be ready to protect them.
What if the world as we know it ended? What if there wasn’t food in the grocery stores? What if there was no longer any such thing as EBT, for those who have made a career out of milking the system? What if the police and military finally threw their hands up in the air, gave up, and went home to protect their own families? What if the scenes on social media from Venezuela become the scenes from America? Who’s going to keep your family safe then?
You are.
You have to realize that at any point in time, you could find yourself on your own, without backup from 911.
Whether civil unrest is right outside your door.
Whether a group of thugs decides to invade your home to rob and/or terrorize you.
Whether the world we know goes down, via an EMP that takes out the grid, civil war, economic collapse, or a breakdown in the national transportation network.
The only person you can rely on to protect your family is yourself.
You can stockpile until you have a decade of supplies put back, but if you can’t defend it, you don’t actually own it. You only have it because no one has bothered taking it away from you yet. You have what you have based on the goodwill of others, who are stronger, greater in number, and better armed.
Take a long hard look at the threats you face during civil unrest, and develop a plan for protecting your retreat. Wherever you live, whatever your situation, you need to plan as though 911 does not exist. Whether riots are occurring in the streets or not, in the seconds during which the lives of your family hang in the balance, you are completely on your own.
In some situations, it won’t stop with the destruction of your property. You may have to defend your home. And for this, you MUST BE ARMED.
I’m sure I’ll receive another barrage of email wishing me and my children dead by our own guns. (It always amazes me how people who swear vehemently that they’re against violence can send me those letters that fervently hope for bloody and terrifying deaths for us.) Some people are so terrified of self-defense tools that the very idea of using one causes veritable spasms of cognitive dissonance and denial.
Those very same people will tell you that they’ve survived riots or unrest and never had to have a gun or shoot anyone.
And do you know what?
Chances are, you won’t have to unholster your weapon. But this is a plan based on pure luck and the goodwill of others. Survival favors the prepared. I do not base my preparations for my family on the hope for good luck and nice people.
Firearms are an equalizer. A small woman can defend herself from multiple large intruders with a firearm if she’s had some training and knows how to use it properly. But put a kitchen knife in her hand against those same intruders, and her odds decrease exponentially.
You are your own first responder.
If the situation does escalate and the lives of you and your loved ones are in danger, there is no substitute for meeting force with force. You may not wish to engage, but sometimes there’s no time to escape. Sometimes there’s no place to escape to. In these situations, you won’t be able to talk your way out of it, hide from it, or throw dishes at the intruders to fight them off.
When you need help in seconds, the police are only minutes away. By the time they arrive during a collapse scenario, your family will be dead, raped, or kidnapped, and your supplies will be long gone.
If you plan to survive a scenario of civil unrest or a Mad Max society meltdown, you are going to have to accept that preppers need guns. This doesn’t mean that you want to hurt someone. It means that you intend to keep your loved ones safe by any means necessary.
Here are a few tips to prepare a home defense plan.
Your plan has to be unique to your situation. Be sure when making your plan to take into consideration things like: the layout of your property, your family, and their skill sets, your comfort with firearms, your neighbors – the list of variables goes on and on
Here are some specifics to help you begin planning.
Know how to use your firearm. Whatever your choice of weapon, practice, practice, practice. A weapon you don’t know how to use is more dangerous than having no weapon at all. You have to spend time at the range. It’s a must. During a stressful, frightening situation, you will be relying on muscle memory, so make sure the muscles are well trained. I’m not a firearms instructor, so I can’t recommend “the best gun” for preppers. The guns I chose for my rural property aren’t necessarily the same ones I’d choose if I lived in Suburbia. Every situation is different, and your firearm choice should reflect that. (Here’s some advice from someone who knows a lot more about weapons than I do to help you with that decision.)
Make sure your children are familiar with the rules of gun safety. Of course, it should go without saying that you will have pre-emptively taught your children the rules of gun safety so that no horrifying accidents occur. In fact, it’s my fervent hope that any child old enough to do so has been taught to safely and effectively use a firearm themselves. Knowledge is safety.
Spend time making a plan unique to your situation. You need to prepare your battlespace and make plans for defending it. Those plans will be different based on your experience and that of people in your family or group. For example, a family of preppers in the suburbs would most likely have a very different plan than a group of former military guys protecting a compound.
Don’t rely on 911. If the disorder is widespread, don’t depend on a call to 911 to save you – you must be prepared to save yourself. First responders may be tied up, and in some cases, the cops are not always your friends. In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, some officers joined in the crime sprees, and others stomped all over the 2nd Amendment and confiscated people’s legal firearms at a time when they needed them the most.
Be armed and keep your firearm on your person. When the door of your home is breached, you can be pretty sure the people coming in are not there to make friendly conversation over a nice cup of tea. Make a plan to greet them with a deterring amount of force. Be sure to keep your firearm on your person during this type of situation, because there won’t be time to go get it from your gun safe. Don’t even go to the kitchen to get a snack without it. Home invasions go down in seconds, and you have to be constantly ready.
Have a safe room established for children or other vulnerable family members. If the worst happens and your home is breached, you need to have a room into which family members can escape. This room needs to have a heavy exterior door instead of a regular hollow core interior door. There should be communications devices in the room so that the person can call for help, as well as a reliable weapon to be used in the unlikely event that the safe room is breached. The family members should be instructed not to come out of that room FOR ANY REASON until you give them the all clear or help has arrived. You can learn more about building a safe room HERE. Focus the tips for creating a safe room in an apartment to put it together more quickly.
Plan an escape route. If the odds are against you, devise a way to get your family to safety. Your property is not worth your life. Be wise enough to know if you’re getting into a fight that you can’t win.
Civilization is just a veneer.
Only four short years ago, the people of Venezuela were armed. Look at how the situation has devolved since then. People are starving. They are burning muggers alive. Doctors are doing surgeries in the blood of previous patients.
The argument could be made for the chicken or the egg, but regardless, I’d certainly feel a lot better in a chaotic place like that if I was armed to the teeth.
So many times, when interviewed after a disaster, people talk about being “shocked” at the behavior of others. Their level of cognitive dissonance has lulled them into thinking that we’re safe and that we live in a civilized country. They are unwilling to accept that civilization is only a glossy veneer, even when the evidence of that is right in front of them, aiming a gun at their faces, lighting their homes on fire, or raping their daughters.
They refuse to arm themselves and prepare for an uncivilized future.
Accept it now, and you’ll be a lot better off when the SHTF.
(Thank you to KY Mom for the awesome tip!)