Headline News

Shocking Slap In The Face: Hillary Clinton JUST HIRED Wasserman Schultz As Campaign Head!

July 25, 2016 by mac slavo

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

Crowds Boo DNC Officials, As Party Revolts Against Hillary: “They’re Angry, They’re Upset”

July 25, 2016 by mac slavo

The DNC Convention is already ten times more interesting than Trump’s RNC convention last week, which went more or less smoothly.

A Wikileaks dump on Friday officially exposed a mountain of corruption and scandal inside the Democratic party as documents show its chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz and other party insiders worked feverishly to ensure that Hillary would be the nominee and that all other rivals, including Bernie Sanders, would be suppressed.

Now Schultz has been forced to step down and the Democratic party is having a hard time holding together the appearance of normalcy as crowds everywhere are booing and jeering.

Not only was Debbie Wasserman Schultz, herself a Congresswoman in Florida facing re-election, booed off stage, but security had to escort her out.

As U.S. News & World Report wrote:

Debbie Wasserman Schultz, the embattled outgoing chair of the Democratic National Committee, was forcibly driven out of her own state delegation’s breakfast Monday amid vocal and unwieldy protests by Bernie Sanders’ supporters. [Schultz] attempted to talk over a chorus of heckles and boos at a downtown hotel hosting the Florida Democratic Party.

But the Florida congresswoman, who faces a newly emboldened primary challenge in her home state, could barely be heard over the ruckus.

[…]

Police officers stood before the stage with their hands extended, acting as human shields between a chairwoman and her party… The officers swiftly surrounded her and whisked her out a side door of the ballroom as a crush of protesters and media swarmed.

Furthermore, a crowd likely filled with Bernie supporters heavily booed Sen. Sanders after he urged them to vote for Hillary in the name of stopping Trump.

It is clear that many of these people WILL NOT be simply shifted over onto the rolls for Hillary.

It seems the revolution is ready to topple over Bernie who bent under pressure and endorsed the very opponent who worked those both inside and outside of the party to make sure their primary rivalry was never a fair fight. Apparently, their anti-establishment momentum is not as easily bought off as their former leader was.

There are reports that many of these supporters are planning an open revolt against Hillary and her selected running mate Tim Kaine. And they have every reason to turn on the DNC and the ultra-establishment nominee-to-be.

As The Atlantic reported:

Presidential nominating conventions are intended to be carefully stage-managed shows of party unity, but Democrats so far seem to be in turmoil.

Now, Bernie delegates are actively discussing the possibility of revolt. On Monday morning, Norman Solomon of the Bernie Delegates Network told reporters “the exact configurations of the protests are unclear, but it’s evident that a substantial majority of the polled survey delegates … want to participate in protests on the floor.” His group is talking to Sanders delegates to see what they want to do at the convention.

“A Bernie delegate is a person who was elected by the people that support Bernie’s values. We’re here representing them. … People that are at home, they’re booing, they’re angry, they’re upset. They don’t want us to stop.”

“Now that all these emails have come out, confirming that the party was colluding with the Hillary Clinton campaign, it throws another wrench in it, and makes it a little bit more sour,” said Amanda McIllmurray, who said she was with the Pennsylvania delegation. She added: “There’s been talk about protests both during Tim Kaine’s acceptance speech, and Hillary Clinton’s acceptance speech. I adamantly support people speaking out, using their First Amendment right, and expressing their discontent.”

Of course, it is this possibility of open revolt, and the wider threat of riots and unrest that led to security putting up a fenced wall all around the convention site.

Is this the beginning of the end for a Nixon-like downward spiral for Hillary and her enablers in the Democratic party?

Or will Hillary be catapulted into the White House with the clear knowledge of everyone in the entire country that she is indisputably, and without any doubt, completely and thoroughly corrupt?

Is America ready for its first true dictator?

Democrats Fear Violence At Convention: “Don’t Want To Go Back To ’68 Riots”

Off the Hook and Unstoppable: Hillary Cleared By FBI For “Lawless” Presidency in Failed State

Martial Law at Republican Convention? Riot Cops “Preparing For A Siege Rather Than Political Event”

“Hillary For Prison”: Hackers Re-Message Billboards to Target Trump, Clinton

SHTFplan and Mac Slavo www.shtfplan.com

Report: Mexico Wants To Build Trump’s Wall To Stop Illegal Immigration

July 25, 2016 by mac slavo

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.

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

Mourn the Death of the #UnitedStates: “Soon We Will Be Ripe For Internal #Collapse… Or A Large War”

June 1, 2016 by contributing author

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:

Sculpting Public Opinion from Birth to Death: “Schools and Media are Completely Complicit in the Destruction of This Nation”

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

June 1, 2016 by mac slavo

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:

(Watch at Youtube)

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.

www.SHTFplan.com.

SHTFplan and Mac Slavo www.shtfplan.com

Elite #SpecialForces Insider Warns Of Serious Civil #Unrest This Summer: “Everything Is Right For Things To Go Very Wrong”

May 31, 2016 by mac slavo

In the lead up to the Presidential election we’ve seen pockets of riotous behavior across America. Whether supporting Trump, Sanders, Hillary or Cruz, average Americans appear to be ready to go to war with their government or with each other. This sentiment, coupled with continued economic degradation and a general feeling of a populace that has for decades been marginalized by the political machine in the United States, is showing all the signs of serious civil unrest on the horizon.

In the following interview with Infowars.com special forces commando Tim Kennedy weighs in, describing the current situation as a trench having been dug and filled with accelerants just waiting to be ignited.

Kennedy is a continuity of government expert, which means he’s well versed in not only how the powder keg of civil unrest could potentially explode, but what The-Powers-That-Be will do once it does.

For civil unrest to happen you have to have a bunch of little things that set up for the perfect situation. You have to have a reason.

People are so emotionally involved in this Presidential election right now… and finally for the first time realizing there is something wrong with our country… the eyes are open… we know that something’s not right.

Even though we have a President saying ‘I’m trying to break down borders‘ we’ve never had so much hate between different racial segments… what’s even more scary is that we know all of these things individually are setting up the perfect opportunity for serious civil unrest…

Now that we’re moving into summer… we’re moving into the Presidential election… we’re sending troops into Iraq… we’re looking at groups and segments of people who are supporting specific Presidential nominees…

We have a perfect conducive environment for some serious problems… you think riots in Missouri were bad? Just wait until July… wait until August.

The trench has been dug and it is full of accelerants… everything is right for things to go very wrong.

Kennedy warns that once civil unrest happens on a nationwide scale, you’d better have taken steps to prepare, because just as we saw in Venezuela, Argentina and elsewhere during such tense periods, essential goods disappear from the shelves almost overnight.

And while such events are often dismissed by Americans as improbable, your concerns over the possibility are not without merit.

As an individual you have to get ready.

Don’t care if people think that you’re crazy… don’t think that you’re being a fanatic… that you’re being a prepper.

I’m only responsible for my family… My family is going to have food… My family is going to have water… We are going to be safe.

And if you think I’m crazy because I want to make sure my family is protected, fine, that’s the way it is.

But as an individual you need to look and research about ways to prepare in whatever city you live in.

In short, should widespread civil unrest, whether this summer or at any point in the future, spread across America and be followed by military and law enforcement intervention, you absolutely cannot depend on the government to be there to provide any meaningful assistance.

That means you need to take steps to prepare your own personal continuity plan.

In her best-selling book The Prepper’s Blueprint, Tess Pennington succinctly summarizes the reality of the situation:

Disasters do not discriminate. In the aftermath of the event, you will be on your own, left to provide for your family with the supplies and knowledge you have accrued. If you are prepared with the mental and spiritual foundation to overcome disaster, then you will transition into survival mode more quickly.

…When you plan for extended disasters you must take into account that you could be on you own for up to a month or longer. To carry you through this unpredictable time, you must add additional layers to your preparedness foundation so that it incorporates essential knowledge and additional supplies.

Excerpted from The Prepper’s Blueprint: The Step-By-Step Guide To Survive Any Disaster

By preparing for the possibility of a widespread civil unrest scenario you’d also be readying yourself for other potentially deadly events, thus focusing on core supplies and knowledge is key.

Emergency Food Supplies will be absolutely critical. Even during a snowstorm or hurricane that are often forecast well in advance we see panic in grocery stores in the lead up, often leaving store shelves razed and completely empty. Stockpiling easy-to-cook, highly nutritious meals will be critical. Such supplies can be acquired in grab-and-go buckets or family packages for multi-day or multi-week emergency scenarios.
Portable food supplies may come in handy should you be caught in the middle of civil unrest and riots. These come in the form of high-calorie-food bars that can be hidden in a backpack, your car, or supplement existing food storage supplies. At a whopping 3600 calories per bar, five of these are enough for a week’s worth of emergency survival nutrition.
Emergency Water will be essential in a scenario where city governments are overwhelmed with rioting or looting. A number of disaster scenarios could lead to water in an entire city being either too dangerous to drink or simply turned off at the source. Having a gravity water filter at home will allow you to stay hydrated during times of crisis. If you’re caught out in the open, keeping a portable water filtertration system like the Katadyn Hiker Microfilter or Micropur Water Treatment Tablets in your back pack could be a life saver.
Nuclear, Biological, Chemical (NBC) Protective Equipment is an additional safety measure, especially in riot scenarios where poisonous gases could be used by both law enforcement or rioters. Moreover, such gear is the last line of defense in the event of a serious NBC disaster that could include the release of poison gases in crowded, tightly confided spaces like subways, or in a worst case scenario, an attack on a domestic nuclear power plant.
Firearms, Ammunition and Body Armor will be essential. People will panic. People will become violent. And people are going to get hurt. Be armed with enough ammunition to keep your family safe and secure, and know how to use your equipment. But remember, if you have to shoot at a threat, there is a strong possibility they will be shooting back. As such, consider body armor as a means of protection in extremely volatile and potentially violent situations.
First Aid and Trauma Supplies will be essential to your safety. In a serious emergency there will be no hospitals and you will need to become the doctor. Collapse doctor Joe Alton has written The Survival Medicine Handbook for just this reason. You’ll want to have a first aid kit, but we also strong encourage you to consider trauma kits for serious injuries. And it’s always a good idea to have antibiotics to prevent infection in the event you can’t get to an emergency room.
Barter and Trade could come into play as well, especially when store shelves are empty. And while the above supply list could be used for barter, so too can silver bullion like coins and bars. Hard currency has been used in Zimbabwe, Argentina and Greece when either currencies collapsed or banks were closed down due to emergencies.

The above supply list includes some of the very basics one should have in their preparedness supplies. For extensive supply lists and scores of disaster scenarios we encourage you to read Tess Pennington’s highly acclaimed The Prepper’s Blueprint.

Whether it’s civil unrest this summer or as the result of an economic collapse in the future, or any number of other disaster scenarios, having at least a 30 day supply of essential necessities will mean the difference between life and death. At the very least, they will help make a very uncomfortable situation a bit more bearable.

As Tim Kennedy has highlighted, the trenches have been dug and the accelerant has been poured.

All we’re waiting for now is the spark.

The Prepper’s Market – Emergency Preparedness Supplies

Free Web Series: 52 Weeks To Preparedness

The Anatomy Of A Breakdown

http://www.shtfplan.com

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”

May 31, 2016 by mac slavo

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.

Full report at The Intercept

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.

www.SHTFplan.com.

SHTFplan and Mac Slavo www.shtfplan.com

Another #RealEstate Crash Is Coming: Legendary #Market Timer Unloads His Positions: “They’ve Sold Deferred Reality For So Long…”

May 31, 2016 by mac slavo

If you haven’t heard yet, median home prices in the United States are on a tear having reached all-time highs in April. To boot, rental prices have gone insane, showing a year-over-year inflationary increase of 8%. On top of that, stock markets are rocketing back to their own all time highs based on the premise that the U.S. economy is seeing healthy growth. By all official accounts, it appears that we’re back on track.

But appearances can be deceiving and highly acclaimed investment guru Sam Zell isn’t buying the hype. In fact, he’s taking this opportunity to sell… in a very big way.

Wolf Richter explains:

And he has been selling. Back in 2007, he once again proved his sense of market timing. As the commercial property bubble was already teetering, he sold Equity Office Properties Trust to Blackstone for $23 billion, not including $16 billion in debt. Then prices crashed, and commercial property defaults hit the banks. As the dust was settling at the end of the Great Recession, he went on a shopping spree.

Now he’s selling again, unloading multifamily properties at peak prices on a massive scale just when a multi-year construction boom is flooding the market with new supply.

…

So when Sam Zell speaks, our ears perk up.

Read the full report at Wolf Street

In a recent interview with CNBC Zell noted that zero interest rate policies are removing the risk of borrowing, making it easy for big banks and finance companies to keep pushing supply onto the market.

Easy credit. What could possibly go wrong?

A lot, according to Zell:

“Overall we’ve come off this extraordinary period of liquidity and this extraordinary period of low interest rates… I think we’re unlikely to see a repeat of that going forward, and I think we’re going to see more supply in what had been pretty tight markets.”

…

“In the most simplistic terminology, I would ask you the question, if something is free, is it valued? Is it appropriately risked?”

“We have distorted markets. Maybe we have bubbles.”

…

“The problem is I think the Fed should have raised interest rates two years ago, and therefore today would be able to make a much more rational decision as to what to do. The problem is that they’ve so deferred reality for so long that I think they have a serious credibility problem if they don’t raise rates.”

Everything seems to be booming again – easy money, easy lending, rising prices, and a bread and circused populous.

Never mind the nearly 50 million Americans on food stamps, the six million millennials living in their parents’ basements, or the massive spike in business debt delinquencies.

Should Americans be preparing for another collapse?

Probably not, because despite all of the market distortions, there is really no need for concern. This time it really is different.

http://www.shtfplan.com

SHTFplan and Mac Slavo www.shtfplan.com

Building An #Igloo Alone: “Survive In Ice and Snow”

May 30, 2016 by mac slavo

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?

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”

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SHTFplan and Mac Slavo www.shtfplan.com

Fed Up With #Traffic? Highway “Straddling Bus” Would Carry 1400, Allow Cars to Drive Underneath

May 28, 2016 by mac slavo

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.

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”

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SHTFplan and Mac Slavo www.shtfplan.com

6 #Prepper Laws You Should Never Break: “Things You Need To Have Ready”

May 28, 2016 by mac slavo

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.
1. -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.
2. -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.

How to Start Prepping Without Breaking the Bank: “All About Self-Reliance”

“All The Prepping In The World Is Immaterial If You Don’t Survive Long Enough For Your Supplies & Planning To Matter”

10 Prepping Mistakes That Could Get You Killed (And How To Avoid Them)

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SHTFplan and Mac Slavo www.shtfplan.com

#Democrats Made #AR-15 Popular: Gun Sales “Driven By The #Ban Concept” #2A

May 27, 2016 by mac slavo

Ever wonder if all the anti-gun rhetoric isn’t just a grand reverse-psychology trick?

After all, perhaps there is a reason that Barack Obama has been branded the world’s greatest gun salesman.

That’s the feeling that gun dealer, historian and author Martin KA Morgan has developed – after watching Americans turn feverishly towards buying up semi-automatic “assault weapons” in the wake of Clinton’s 1994 assault weapons ban.

Before that? Hardly anybody was focused on or buying these guns, and there wasn’t much to say about them.

via the London Guardian:

US author and historian says allure of the taboo may explain why measures such as the 1994 assault weapon ban led to an explosion in popularity

When Martin KA Morgan was a kid in the 1970s, military-style rifles were only a “small sliver” of the firearms market in the United States.

More than twenty years later, Morgan said, American firearm ownership has been radically transformed. “Semi-automatic, magazine-fed rifles – they dominate the market,” he said.

[…]

By 1994, the Clinton administration was close to passing a federal assault weapon ban… In the months before the 1994 crime bill, which included an assault weapon ban, passed, “there was a mad scramble among the shooting public”

[…]

“I believe that we can assign Freudian psychology to it,” he said… Today, Morgan believes, the popularity of military-style guns “continues to be driven by the ban concept”.

Of course, that doesn’t change the fact that many of the worst villains in government are indeed dead set on stripping down the 2nd Amendment until is has no real meaning.

The attempts at gun control are sincere, in a sense, but they are also quite frightening – perhaps intentionally.

On Wall Street and in the realm of economic crashes, there is money to be made on the way up, and on the way down. The manipulation of all phases of a bubble is key to those who would make a fortune off of the misery of others; it is the essential Machiavellian stroke.

Here, with firearms like the AR-15, a huge money making opportunity has developed around the mad dash to stock up on guns and ammo before and in case of new legislation banning “assault weapons” or anything else.

Perhaps it should come as no real surprise that many of the biggest gun control liberals on Capitol Hill secretly have stocks in gun manufacturers and ammunition supplies, as well as the raw materials.

Many of them hide behind the fact that funds they invest in have such diverse holdings that a bit of firearms-funding is all-but unavoidable.

Nonetheless, intentional or not, President Obama and cohorts like the Brady Center, Sen. Diane Feinstein, Michael Bloomberg, George Soros and plenty of others are driving sales of the very guns that they despise in the hands of citizens:

The Washington Post estimated last year that Barack Obama had given the gun industry at least a $9bn billion boost, in part because of his high-profile advocacy for gun control in the wake of a series of mass shootings in 2012. Gun sales have spiked since the very beginning of Obama’s presidency, with record-breaking sales in recent months, and the trend seems likely to continue if Hillary Clinton occupies the White House.

The question is: why? There is definitely a deception at hand.

Maybe it isn’t fair to apply the saying that a sucker is born every minute, but it is clear that the herd is being fleeced to some degree. Wallets open, and FBI background checks go crazy every time Obama opens his mouth or signs his pen regarding gun control.

More accurately, a populace that is rightly fearful that its 2nd Amendment rights are under threat also make good consumers/ easy marks during their time of greatest fear.

Word on the street is that a shorting of the market, dumping of the stocks and/or drastic tightening of the supply (particularly with ammo) may soon be at hand.

Could it get any more conspiratorial?

Watch wisely, and keep and bear arms like your liberty depends upon it.

Report: Feds Take Down Preppers Accused of Stockpiling Guns and Ammunition: “Federal Conspiracy Charges”

Obama’s Stealth AR-15 Gun Ban Targets Ammo: “No One Can Import, Sell or Even Produce It”

DHS To Purchase 62 Million More Rounds Of AR-15 Ammo: “They’re Going to Control How Much Ammo is Available”

Texas Police Chief Warns Obama That Gun Control Will “Cause A Revolution… You’re Not Our Potentate, Sir”

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SHTFplan and Mac Slavo www.shtfplan.com

This #Survival Capsule Could Insulate You Against Any Disaster: “More Control Than Safe Houses”

May 27, 2016 by mac slavo

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.

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

May 26, 2016 by mac slavo

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.

(Watch at Youtube)

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.

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SHTFplan and Mac Slavo www.shtfplan.com

Expert Warns Of #Venezuela-style #Hyperinflation: “This Will Not End Well For The United States”

May 25, 2016 by mac slavo

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:

(Watch at Youtube)

…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

May 25, 2016 by mac slavo

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

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

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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”

May 25, 2016 by contributing author

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 28^th 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 28^th 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.

This article may be republished or excerpted with proper attribution to the author and a link to www.SHTFplan.com.

Also Read:

Sculpting Public Opinion from Birth to Death: “Schools and Media are Completely Complicit in the Destruction of This Nation”

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

May 25, 2016 by mac slavo

(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?

Viral Video: Woman Chases Sex Offender Trying to Film Her at Target

650,000 People Sign Pledge to Boycott Target Stores After Company Announces Transgender Bathroom Policy

SHTFplan and Mac Slavo www.shtfplan.com

Armed #Patriots Prepare to Defend Against #Federal Encroachment: “This Is The Beginning of The Revolution”

May 25, 2016 by mac slavo

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.

Harry Reid Calls Cliven Bundy Supporters “Domestic Terrorists”

Federal Snipers Train Guns on Family For Filming Cattle: “Outside the Bounds of Designated First Amendment Area”

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”

May 24, 2016 by mac slavo

[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

Nobody Knows What This Secret #Spacecraft Is Doing: “A Source of Anxiety For Weaponization of Space”

May 23, 2016 by mac slavo

One fourth the size of the space shuttle, this secretive unmanned vehicle is capable of launching into space, and returning into orbit for a landing.

Created by Boeing, it is one of the U.S. military’s most talked about secret vehicles and has been orbiting the planet for a full year now.

But no one officially knows just what the X-37B is being used for… it’s mission is classified.

As the Daily Mirror writes:

Speculation about the true purpose of its mission has lit up the internet.

Several articles have been published in the Russian press suggesting it is actually part of a space warfare mission designed to allow America to destroy satellites.

Meanwhile, America has remained tight-lipped about what the space plane is doing.

NASA claims that the spacecraft is carrying ‘100 types of materials’ to test their response to the ‘harsh conditions of space,’ but several scientists have questioned the legitimacy and necessity of using this classified vehicle for a relatively simple test.

Instead, there is every appearance that this purpose is more like a cover story:

“Describing some of the activities on this X-37B flight may be meant to lessen its mysterious nature,” said [Laura Grego, senior scientist at the Global Security Program at the the Union of Concerned Scientists]

“So it still seems to be a source of anxiety for some of those concerned about the increasing weaponization of space.” (Daily Mirror).

As PC Magazine notes, there is every sense that the X-37B represents a new level of weaponization of space:

“The revelation that the Air Force has a space plane caused some concern among foreign governments, with some questioning whether the U.S. has deployed a space-trotting spy vehicle or weapons platform for taking down satellites.”

Though the Air Force denies it, there is a great deal of speculation that the vehicle is capable of covert maneuvers and stealth tactics that conventional weaponry can’t do.

It is truly a Brave New World.

The weaponization of space may someday soon unveil a whole new era of global conflict.

What the Hell Was That? Space Station Feed Catches Mysterious Object Hovering Over Earth

Watch: This Is Why Russia Can’t Attack America: New Weapon Has “Near-Instantaneous Lethality”

SHTFplan and Mac Slavo www.shtfplan.com

#SHTF In #Movies: “Lost, Wrecked and Left Alone to Survive”

May 20, 2016 by mac slavo

When it comes to prepping for a truly serious SHTF, experience is the best teacher.

Planning, preparation and learning from experts is also critical.

But can cinema also be a good teacher?

Obviously there are plenty of things in the average Hollywood flick that are ridiculous and far from accurate when it comes to real-life disaster scenarios.

But others have gone to great lengths to be as realistic as possible, and seeing these situations play out on the big screen, before the real stuff happens, can be a great way to start thinking about what you would do in a similar situation, if you ever found yourself in it.

Many of them are pure survival films after being lost in the wilderness, others are prepper-minded but all are thought provoking and depict the kind of desperate scenarios that may well occur someday.

(in alphabetical order)
All is Lost (starring Robert Redford)
Cast Away (starring Tom Hanks)
Goodbye World
Panic Room (starring Jodie Foster)
Red Dawn (starring Patrick Swayze and Charlie Sheen)
The Edge (starring Anthony Hopkins)
The Road (starring Viggo Mortenson)
The Snow Walker
The Way Back (starring Ed Harris)
Wrecked(Starring Adrian Brody)

Obviously there are many, many other great films with these themes of lost, wrecked and left alone to survive.

What do you think are the best films with a survival, prepping or SHTF mentality as a major part of the plotline?

Preparing For Worst Case Scenarios: Using Pop Culture Media as a Forecasting and Training Tool

The Prepper Movie: When Survival Is All That’s Left

SHTFplan and Mac Slavo www.shtfplan.com

#WWIII? A “Hybrid Geo-Financial War” Between #NATO and Russia Is Dangerously Escalating

May 20, 2016 by mac slavo

Russia is preparing for war against the West.

Putin is being urged to do so because the U.S. and NATO have been preparing for war themselves.

Syria and Ukraine have just been warm ups. The real thing could be around the corner, and other proxy flashpoints are ready to line up.

The rising tensions for military conflict are sharply complicated by the stealthier financial war that is nonetheless taking a serious toll across the globe, in particular as collapsing oil prices put incredible pressure on those regimes who have cast a big social benefits net financed primarily by $100/barrel oil.

As SHTF previously reported, that made Venezuela the most vulnerable, and it is plain today that the oil rich nation is collapsing. However, the manipulation of these prices was also meant to put pressure on Russia (as well as other countries)… while the attempt to undercut Russian natural gas by taking over Ukraine and have NATO supply gas to Europe instead of Russia has so far failed.

It is a sophisticated geopolitical gamble that perhaps no one is winning, apart from who manages not to topple over.

A detailed, but nonetheless alarming article by Alastair Crooke reports that there is significant pressure on Putin from other Russian leaders to take a hard line in the days ahead.

via the Huffington Post:

Putin carries, at one end of his balancing pole, the various elites more oriented toward the West and the “Washington Consensus“ and, at the pole’s other end, those concerned that Russia faces both a real military threat from the North Atlantic Treaty Organization and a hybrid geo-financial war as well. He is being pressed to come down on the side of the latter, and to pry the grip of the former from the levers of economic power that they still tightly hold.

In short, the issue coming to a head in the Kremlin is whether Russia is sufficiently prepared for further Western efforts to ensure it does not impede or rival American hegemony. Can Russia sustain a geo-financial assault, if one were to be launched? And is such a threat real or mere Western posturing for other ends?

What is so important is that if these events are misread in the West, which is already primed to see any Russian defensive act as offensive and aggressive, the ground will already have been laid for escalation. We already had the first war to push back against NATO in Georgia. The second pushback war is ongoing in Ukraine. What might be the consequences to a third?

In mid-April, General Alexander Bastrykin, the head of Russia’s Investigative Committee (a sort of super attorney general, as Cohen describes it), wrote that Russia — its role in Syria notwithstanding — is militarily ill prepared to face a new war either at home or abroad, and that the economy is in a bad way, too. Russia, furthermore, is equally ill prepared to withstand a geo-financial war. He goes on to say that the West is preparing for war against Russia and that Russia’s leadership does not appear to be aware of or alert to the danger the country faces.

[…] A retired Russian general entered the fray to confirm that the West is indeed preparing for war — he pointed to NATO deployments in the Baltics, the Black Sea and Poland, among other places — and underlines again the unpreparedness of the Russian military to face this threat. “This is a heavy indictment of Putin,” Cohen says of the revelations from this analysis. “It is now out in the open.”

[…]

The government’s economic policy is being criticized. The opposing faction wants to see an immediate mobilization of the military and the economy for war, conventional or hybrid. This is not about wanting Putin ousted; it is about pushing him to wield the knife — and to cut deeply.

There is every reason to think that the clashing interests of NATO and Russia can and will spark more flashpoints across the map and around the arc that generally surrounds the former Soviet empire, which the United States hopes to contain in order to maintain its own crumbling empire.

While President Obama, now officially the president to oversee the longest period of war (albeit somewhat contracted), may be reluctant to pursue in form of open conflict with Russia, a president like Hillary Clinton may be all-too willing to do so. She has already called in recent days for an escalated ‘war against ISIS,’ which handily also gives an open ended pretext to challenge NATO-Russian conflict points wherever they might appear.

Donald Trump’s positions here are as yet unclear, but he is beginning to surround himself with the same type of advisers – including Henry Kissinger – that have brought us to this point.

With economic decline and a definite fatigue for war, Americans face an end of the dollar as the world currency standard and an era where the BRICS nations, and in particular the militaries of Russia and China, pose an existential threat to the world that the U.S. and Britain carved out in the WWII era and which they essentially won away from the Soviets by the end of the Cold War.

These waxing and waning empires are dangerous as their vulnerabilities and short-comings become exposed, and their territories challenged.

That fact that Putin is being prodded from within Russia to be less diplomatic and more aggressive in posturing for war is downright unsettling. Many of our most dangerous American leaders are all-too willing to poke the bear and evoke a reaction.

Ukraine and Syria, as well as the Georgian conflict before it in 2008, prove that the U.S. will continue waging war and posturing for global domination in spite of the lack of a coherent narrative (but there’s ISIS), or any convincing pretext for sending troops and sponsoring proxy armies.

The American people are sick of war, but the misleaders in Washington are eager enough to reinvigorate their sense of power and entitlement to control the affairs here and abroad. After all, war – in a sick kind of way – is good for the economy, and a big one means a mandate of emergency powers and a period of unquestioning obedience from the domestic population.

The threat is all-too real, and a serious provocation, like the false flag attacks that have sparked most of the wars in the past, could be on the horizon.

That all basically points to WWIII… or at least a full second Cold War. It could be a long way off, but the sense is that the scent is in the air.

What do you think will happen next?

Falling Oil Prices Could Cripple ‘Vulnerable’ Russia, Trigger World War III

Putin “Prepared to Use Tactical Nuclear Weapons” If Turkey/Saudi Invade Syria

Sudden Death In Putin’s Inner Circle: “These Two Guys Just ‘Die’ With Barely A Ripple In the Media”

Putin Targets US Monetary System: “Aims to Eliminate the US Dollar and the Euro From Trade”

SHTFplan and Mac Slavo www.shtfplan.com

#Democrats Fear #Violence At Convention: “Don’t Want To Go Back To ’68 #Riots”

May 19, 2016 by mac slavo

Any way you slice it, the Democratic National Convention coming up in Philadelphia in late July promise to be tumultuous.

Though Hillary Clinton and the party insiders long ago expected the 2016 primary to be a formality (which conspicuously few hopefuls in the race), the grassroots voters are feverishly demanding Bernie, and vehemently against the establishment candidate who is widely known for her duplicity and dishonesty.

As California Senator Diane Feinstein makes clear in this short and sweet video below, the establishment fears the riots and backlash that could come from a contested, or at least highly protested, convention as Sen. Sanders vows to continue the fight ‘until the last ballot is cast.’

Instead, she and other figures inside the Democratic party are trying to nudge Sanders into dropping in order to save face and avoid damaging the party’s share in the duopoly of political power.

But regardless of whether Sanders pushes through until convention or not, there will be lots of angry people who remain unsatisfied with another Clinton and more of the same. Tensions have been especially high since the controversial events in Nevada last week, as CNN notes:

The public outpouring of anger began last weekend at the Nevada Democratic Party convention, where Sanders supporters who said Hillary Clinton’s backers had subverted party rules shouted down pro-Clinton speakers and sent threatening messages to state party Chairwoman Roberta Lange after posting her phone number and address on social media.

That led Democratic National Committee Chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz, Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid and other top party leaders to demand an apology and publicly ruminate on the possibility of violence at the Democratic National Convention in July as they prepare for a general election battle with Donald Trump.

Commentators and politicos have also speculated on potential violence unfolding at the Republican National Convention, though that was largely before most of the GOP began to come to terms with Trump as the nominee.

Clearly, the broiling political anger, which has been heating up for years, is one of the major scenarios that riot police and other members of law enforcement have been training for for years. As Paul Joseph Watson reported:

Police advised by FEMA officials how to conduct “mass arrests”

The Department of Homeland Security oversaw a first of its kind three day training exercise in Texas this week during which police officers from fifteen different departments took part in drills on how to deal with riots and conduct mass arrests.

Although the threat of riots is real enough (it happened back in 1968 largely because the Democrats forced unlikable establishment tool Hubert Humphrey as the nominee), it also gives a pretext for larger security budgets, more riot gear and other tools and a rationale for forceful treatment of peaceful protesters exercising their rights.

The American people are angry. There are many reasons, and the shamefully rigged elections have been one of the major outlets for their outrage.

Homeland Trains Police for Riots, Civil Unrest: “This Training Has Never Been in Texas Before”

Strapped Americans Headed for “Civil Unrest and Riots,” With Poor Spending 60% on Bare Essentials

Study Finds “Presence of Professional Protesters to Incite More Violence” in Baltimore and Ferguson

SHTFplan and Mac Slavo www.shtfplan.com

Sculpting Public #Opinion from #Birth to #Death: “Schools and Media are Completely Complicit in the Destruction of This Nation”

May 18, 2016 by contributing author

The biggest problem with the Mainstream Media (MSM) is not just one that is based in objectivity. The powers that be actually “sculpt” the media’s position and craft it to their own making, to end up being their mouthpiece at a minimum. With the majority of news reports (mislabeled as such), the slant is no longer a balance between to opposite spectrums. The newscasters, televised news broadcasts, the radio, and news media (newspapers, magazines, and their ilk) are no longer even platforms for the dissemination of information. They’re product, and their productivity is determined by the handlers and controllers of the media and whether it fits inside of their overall objectives.

There is a famous quote that is often overlooked:

“Power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.”
-Lord Acton

The interesting thing is this quote has many applications, varied in scope and encompassing a general truism that finds use with many things…reference to power, and also to corruptibility. What Acton was referring to, however, was actually the media. He was heaping subtle derision about the manner in which media and news found itself kowtowing to the powers in charge…allowing those powers – king, prime ministers, and presidents – to influence the media and squelch truth and objectivity. The media (wanting to sell newspapers and still keep a front seat press box and all access passes) traded its objectivity for lucre and position.

The problem also lies within the school system. The public schools (as well as private) are rapidly “losing” the truth in their curriculum, which is being redacted on a daily basis. The founders of the U.S. are portrayed in a negative light: all of their personal problems within their lives are magnified and even exacerbated. The purpose is to destroy the United States of America in terms of perception and education, to create a shift in paradigm and public perception.

We had eight years of a Democratic administration under Clinton in which the attack on the established school curriculum, begun in the 1960’s, took root, and completely metastasized during these Obama years. By destroying the concept of America and how she was founded, the progressives strike at the root and have a completely different tree by the time those inculcated with such fallacies reach the age of voting and earning capacity for taxation purposes. Meanwhile, the stultified parents in the PTA meetings protest the changes in the curriculum that have already been placed in motion by federal legislation. This is not a new concept, as illustrated with the following:

“We must start with the children – the seed corn – in order to grow them into what we wish.”
-Adolf Hitler speaking in the Nuremburg Rallies

This concept is what we are facing now, as we have a generation that hold these untruths to be the norm and factual. It is a forced paradigm shift to change the concept that the youth holds of America and destroy the potential for them to develop creative thought. The curriculum (never truly being perfect, as there is no such thing) introduced children to generalities that could be expanded upon, for the desire of pure education is to introduce evidence and facts and enable someone to draw an opinion on their own regarding the matter.

The concept of creative thought (not in reference to artists and musicians, mind you) is to allow the student to ponder the “why’s” of a matter. Little by little this is being destroyed, but they are replacing it with a canned, sterilized curriculum that only rewards rote memory and the absorption of concepts alien to those originally in the schools.

The media, then, is to feed controlled disinformation to the entire population. This takes the form also of a plethora of useless information, such as who won on “Star Search,” or what some celebrity is wearing in attendance at the Oscars. All useless information that keeps everyone consuming and prevents anyone from seeing the true state of the world as it is. The news itself cannot be used to “dupe” everyone…that is why there are alternative media sites, and other sources of information not corrupted by “the thumb of the Duke” on the reports. Still, take Fox News as an example.

The manner in which Fox News reports is markedly different from the way it was 10 years ago. You can see the capitulation of the newscasters as they begin to echo the platform of the establishment media, and reject objectivity and conservative programming to follow in the overall paradigm shift begun by the administration.

We see it in the schools, as an entire generation is made to not feel any true identity except some “membership in the global community,” let alone the patriotism and pride in the U.S. as a place where dissenting views by the minority is allowed, and (prior to Obamacare) a free nation where you could go about on your own and do your own thing pretty much undisturbed.

They are waiting for the generations that were brought up in an era of conservative actions and critical thought…. waiting for them to either die off or become so hopelessly outnumbered – by the new, sculpted generation, by illegal aliens, and by influx of foreign thought and systems – that the demographics all change in their favor.

The seeds have been planted. The schools and the media are completely complicit in the destruction of this nation, along with their handlers. It is an amazing thing that the country was so free as to allow the very people who are destroying it to come out with and force their socialist and progressive platforms on the country as a whole. This is what is happening, and it is doubtful whether or not we will reverse the tide. It can be done, but until then The-Powers-That-Be sculpt and form the public through the media and schools to make people into their own images, and those images are not good.

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