Welcome to this week’s Urban Survival Newsletter, brought to you by the famous Urban Survival Playing Cards, available at www.UrbanSurvivalPlayingCards.com. They’re not only fully functioning playing cards, but they also include 52 urban survival tips, tricks, and techniques that you’re likely to forget in a stressful survival situation.
Before we get started, I just want to say that the response to last week’s newsletter on picking a permanent retreat location was awesome…more than 240 comments so far! You guys are an incredible group of people and I really appreciate you.
On to this week’s newsletter.
It’s been a crazy last 5-10 days…
-4 major underwater internet trunk lines were “accidentally” cut within days of one another, disrupting internet and voice connectivity across much of Africa.
-Tornadoes killed at least 12 so far in “rare” February tornadoes. Having grown up in tornado country and having had one F4/5 go directly over my head and another go within feet of a house my family was taking shelter in, my prayers are with everyone who was impacted by the tornadoes.
-The American Institute for Economic Research reports that “real” inflation is at 8%, rather than the paltry 3.1% reported by the CPI (Consumer Price Index). I’ve been beating this drum for quite some time and it’s great that this story is getting more attention. In case you’re wondering, the CPI that gets reported by politicians and the media discounts silly things like food, fuel, and any other item that happens to be going up in value, whereas the AIER inflation numbers reflect what people are actually buying.
What’s all of this mean?
First of all, the first two stories illustrate how incredibly vulnerable we are to forces completely outside of our control.
Whether the under-sea internet trunk lines were purposely cut or accidentally cut, the impact is the same…a breakdown of internet commerce, electronic commerce, and multiple forms of communications. Just because it happened half a world away doesn’t mean that it can’t happen here.
Even though our current internet networks have multiple redundancies, they have chokepoints that can be exploited…both with kinetic and with digital attacks. Every day that we continue to have efficient communication and electronic commerce is a gift that we should appreciate and be grateful for…not something that we expect to continue indefinitely without interruption.
In practical terms, that means enjoying it while it lasts, but having a plan in place for when the system breaks down.
Personally, I make a majority of my income through the internet taking electronic payments. I also have physical products that I sell and have multiple ways of taking payments. I’ll continue to use the online options for as long as possible, but know that I have the ability to switch over to physical delivery whenever necessary.
I also encourage people to keep some cash on hand at all times…balancing the fact that cash is an easy target for thieves with the flexibility that cash gives you when ATMs and credit cards stop working.
As a quick note on this, I LOVE safes, but I recognize them for what they are…a big “cookie jar” for thieves with lots of good stuff all bunched together.
Safes only protect your stuff when you’re not home. If you and/or other family members are home during a home invasion, you WILL open your safe and give the home invaders everything inside at some point to save yourself or your family.
How do you get around this shortcoming? First, you accept that a safe is simply a tool to delay thieves from getting to your stuff. Second, you diversify. There are dozens of caching techniques, but one that’s relatively easy and straight forward is to keep a sealed envelope with cash and an encrypted USB drive with digital copies of important documents with a couple of friends.
“Rare” February tornadoes…
Again, my prayers go out to those impacted by the tornadoes. For them, the statistics or historical context of the event don’t matter…the only thing that matters is what they’re experiencing.
For everyone else, though, it’s important to keep the big picture in mind. February tornadoes aren’t THAT rare. 2010 was the first February in recorded history without a tornado in the US. Since tornado detecting equipment is advancing at a geometric rate and since tornadoes typically occur in clusters and not evenly spread out across the country or across time, it’s easy to say that any cluster of tornadoes is historic. Since homes and the contents of homes seem to be getting more fragile and more expensive, it’s only natural that the damage done by storms keeps going up over time and constantly hitting new records.
One example is actually January 2012…a month that had the 2nd highest number of tornadoes in recorded history. That being said, most of those tornadoes happened in 2 clusters and most were only detected because of advances in tornado detecting technology.
So, before you jump to any conclusions about tornadoes happening more often and being more violent, keep in mind that what you’re hearing may just be the media’s attempt to get and keep your attention. It could also be that they’re reporting statistically significant news, but more often than not, they’re just trying to get and keep your attention.
Why Current Real Inflation Numbers Mean a 40% Drop in Real Estate Prices is Likely
If someone has $1,000 a month to spend on a mortgage, they can get roughly $187,000 of house at 5% interest.
Right now, 30 year mortgages are being advertised at 5% or less. Meanwhile, real inflation, according to the St. Louis Fed and the American Institute for Economic Research is in the 8-8.5% range. To explain why this is a problem, we need to look at banks quickly.
Some businesses are easy to understand. A hardware store buys a wrench for $1, sells it for $3, and if they sell it in a short enough period of time, and cover all of their expenses, they make 30-60 cents apiece. Do that enough times with enough items, and they stay in business.
The bank version of a wrench is cash. They buy dollars from customers in the form of CDs at a low interest rate, and they sell those dollars to other customers in the form of loans, like mortgages with a higher interest rate. So, a bank might offer 2% interest on CDs, turnaround and loan it out at 5%, and if the borrower pays on time, they’ll make 3%. Historically, the spread has been about 2.7%, but it tends to get smaller as rates go lower and get bigger as rates go higher. There’s a whole extra layer of complexity when you include fractional reserve banking, but it’s not necessary to talk about that right now.
With proper underwriting, this is a fairly stable system. Banks compete for CD money and usually have to pay customers close to the rate of inflation, or even a little more.
In recent years, this system has been turned upside down. Instead of borrowing money from customers in the form of CDs, banks are increasingly borrowing money from the Federal Reserve at incredibly low rates that have driven CD rates and mortgage rates down to unrealistic and unsustainable rates. In simplified terms, we’re both creating money out of thin air and borrowing money from China and other countries at rates that are lower than the rate of inflation, and that cheap, plentiful money is propping up the real estate market.
At some point, China, other Treasury buyers, and CD buyers are going to demand a return on their money that is at or above the rate of inflation in the US. So, let’s see what would happen if banks started offering CDs at 8%, or slightly below our current 8.5% inflation rate, and they loaned it out at 10%.
That $1,000 payment that used to buy a $187,000 house at 5% only buys $114,000 worth of house at 10% interest. This is HUGE. That’s a 40% drop in value, and in my mind it’s not a matter of if it happens, it’s how soon and how quickly it happens once it starts.
Houses have historically gone up in value due to inflation and rising wages, more demand than supply, low interest rates, and poor underwriting. In most parts of the country, low interest rates is the only one of those factors that’s still having a positive effect on housing. Inflation without rising wages doesn’t necessarily help housing. More restrictive underwriting and higher down payment requirements has squeezed many buyers out of the market and made supply higher than demand. All in all, we’re starting to pay the piper for the artificial increases in real estate prices since 2001.
Enough of the doom and gloom…what can you do to put yourself in a good position if this happens?
The first thing is to not worry about it happening. You have control over the decisions you make, but there isn’t anything that you can do as an individual to keep food inflation or higher interest rates from happening. I see this playing out in one of two ways. Either prices will suddenly and catastrophically drop due to an event, or China and other Treasury buyers will pressure the Fed to start raising rates gradually but consistently over the next several years.
The Fed says they’re keeping rates low through 2014, but they also have to keep the IMF, credit reporting agencies, and Treasury buyers happy, so there’s no telling what will happen.
If you have a home that you intend on staying in long term, enjoy it and don’t worry about the value.
If you just bought a home at “historically low” interest rates and don’t plan on staying there long term, you may want to reevaluate your plans with a trusted and competent financial advisor. As a former stock broker, I’d suggest finding someone who understands and enjoys macro and micro economics and real estate. This isn’t a conversation to have with someone who only understands insurance or only understands stocks. Forward this article to them, have them look at it, and get their thoughts. HOPEFULLY, I’m all wet and there’s no basis at all for my concerns.
If you are looking to buy a home in the near future, get to know the major players in the real estate investor community in your local area and try to buy a house that’s significantly under market value. There are incredible deals (25%-50% below retail) across the country right now that will give you some cushion if interest rates shoot up and prices drop.
If you’re currently living in an urban area and looking to buy a piece of rural land that you could use as a retreat location and grow food on, don’t waste any time but don’t make any rash decisions. Specifically, don’t pay too much for a bad piece of property. Also, look in non-conventional places to find properties for sale. As an example, if EVERYONE in your area looks in the MLS, Craigslist, and the newspaper to find properties, then make sure you’re also looking in the Thrifty Nickel and on Ebay.
Also keep in mind that the increase in farm prices, the drop in inventory, and increase in demand make it more likely that if a disaster happens in the near future that you’ll need to survive right where you currently live. Remember, the workable plan that you have in place will ALWAYS beat the perfect plan that you haven’t taken action on. Keep making daily forward progress in improving the survivability of your current living situation. And if you haven’t checked out the www.SurviveInPlace.com Urban Survival Course lately, I encourage you to head over to www.SurviveInPlace.com and check it out.
What are your thoughts on the cut internet lines in Africa and how they exposed the vulnerability of the Internet…not only in Africa, but right here? How about the tornadoes and other extreme weather…are we getting more, or is it just being reported more? And how about interest rates and the future of real estate?
These seem like pretty diverse topics, and they are, but they all matter to preparedness minded people living in an interconnected society. That’s why it’s SO important to have a broad based preparedness plan and why I focus so much on fundamentals in the www.SurviveInPlace.com course.
Until next week, God bless and stay safe!
David Morris
P.S. My sympathies also go out to Andrew Breitbart’s family, who died on Thursday at the age of 43. Some people on this earth die inside in their 20s and are buried 40-50 years later. Andrew was a warrior who lived every minute of every day to the fullest.
57 replies to "Internet Trunk Lines Cut and Real Inflation Over 8 Percent"
[…] in the Depression-era years between 1928 and 1933.” As David has written about before >Low Mortgage Rates Virtually Guarantee a 40% Drop In RE Prices< , the real estate market STILL has another 40% to drop before the market will be able to […]
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Alan mentioned Park County Colorado. You might want to check up on the water situation. A few years ago, there were rumblings regarding an adequate water supply due to so much building taking place. It is lovely but not if water is at a premium or limited. Just look at the Ogallala Aquifer. A definite plus to Colorado is the seed bank in Fort Collins. It is one of only a few world wide. Unless it goes the way of the main one in Norway. There was an article written by a man who use to work for Seed Savers Exchange, Kent Whealy’s Land Institute Speech, regarding the agreement made by SSE before they were “allowed” to donate seed. Though this does not mean that the average person would have access, which I highly doubt.
David,
This message is for you [and in turn all of us]. This morning I was surfing the internet and came across this story: Marine Sgt. Gary Stein says on his facebook page that he WILL NOT obey the Presidents order or any orders to, in any way, infringe on our [Citizens] constitutional rights.
Of course the military and the powers that be are trying to get his comments removed…so far he is holding tough to his ideals [which seem to benefit us all].
One question I have is: Why has he suddenly taken this path [does he know something we don’t?]. I know there has to be a bunch of soldiers that feel the same way, but did not want the wrath of the military[from the top down] to have to deal with.
This is a VERY serious matter and I hope you read this and check it out, as your insights are what guides us to the correct decision for each of us.
I have also been trying to figure out communications after an event. I have short distance radio comunications, but I have family hundreds of miles away and they only way I can think to contact them is a ham radio. Ham radio requires a large commitment of time and money. So the questions is – How far do you need to talk? I also have a good SW radio to get info if the grid goes down. This is fairly inexpensive and is usefull in hearing what other countries point of view in non SHTF times.
On the topic of internet being tampered with…
I’ve been thinking of making preps on the commo front. What is your opinion of a good commo plan if phones are down? Is it the ease of use and cost friendly regular walkie talkie; the frequency hopping walkies out now; a cb, or the more expensive but farter reaching HAM?
Any input is appreciated!
Greetings,
I’m a first time responder on this forum. I’d like to start out by expressing my appreciation and respect for a lot of the opinions and comments posted by a lot of the participants here. Over the years my interest in urban survival has grown for many of the same universal reasons shared by those on this forum. Naysayers may label it delusional paranoia, but I call it well-educated and well-informed precautionary measures. Or more simply put, the ‘better safe than sorry’ philosophy.
When creating and constructing a plan for surviving something I pray will never happen, one of the biggest fears I have that keeps me second-guessing myself and doubting the success of my plan is…the government. Don’t get me wrong, I am well aware of the possibilities in how things could go terribly awry in a major catastrophic event, but I believe we have something more ominous to deal with when the shit hits the fan! And it’s not the hoards of flesh eating zombies, or the marauding gangs raping and pillaging their way across the burning landscape. It’s Big Brother disguised in local Sheriff’s, ATFE, FEMA, and National Guard uniforms.
For instance, let us look at the Katrina event? While victims were huddling on their roof tops and scrambling for higher ground, the gubmint goon-squads were putting their efforts toward rounding up the legally acquired firearms from law abiding citizens and unconstitutionally forcing them from their homes in hand-cuffs! This was being done in the name of ‘saving them from themselves’ and for the better of the common good. There were several cases of good people minding their own business and making the sound decision to ‘bug in’ and hold out, that had their doors kicked in, their guns confiscated and their families carted away for their own good!
So, when we don’t have the luxury of ‘bugging out’ and running to the hills in a safe haven out in the wilderness, what potential situations are we going to be faced with? What are you going to do when the local authorities come to your door to take your guns and round you up for the FEMA camp?
I welcome all comments, opinions and advice.
DB,
I share your concerns too. If you survive the first wave of “whatever” hits the fan, only to be subjected to the amendment rights violations like Katrina, what’s the use? NO amount of logic will make them leave [armed in their riot gear, etc.]. Yes, they will KILL American citizens [YOU!].
They can sign ALL the “rights of the people” bills in non-critical times, only to obliterate that document [and the constitution] in a heartbeat if marshall law is declared. I do not, nor will I EVER, trust them on ANYTHING they say. To many lies too many times [ fool me once shame on you, fool me twice shame on me].
I think every American citizen has to decide what they will do in that scenario. Everyone of us should know how we will react to those type of ultimatums. Sure, some will just have to abide as bidden, others will not go peacefully, if at all. It is difficult, as I write this, to contemplate U.S. soldiers, policemen, etc. gunning down American citizens who choose their constitutional unalienable rights not to comply , but happen it will, if the right circumstances come about.
Just pick your line in the sand that your going to defend and then prepare for that scenario to the best of your ability and what works for you.
DB,
If one has ample warning and a manditory evacuation of a city like New Orleans of an oncoming catastrophe, leave, take a car, ride a bicycle, walk or run out of town to high ground. Manditory was not heeded by all. Those who stayed suffered the consequences of Martial Law because it was declared a disaster. I wouldn’t want to be subject to Martial Law. Officials can violate all your civil rights.
I had trouble where I used to live close to town where goons were threatening me with guns and their friends were the sheriff dept, so I was always put in danger when authorities ignored me. It was a war zone. I feft like a combat vetran with the bullets flying towards me and gun shot next to my window to scare me. They were Nazi’s exploding their Nazi hate “music?” on boom boxes aimed towards me and blew their speakers doing so. I am not a Jew. They threatened to do me harm. They forced me to leave. That’s why I moved to the edge of the wilderness and left the towns and cities. My choice to be safe.
If you noticed, bug-out is mentioned alot on this forum as an escape from the goons to a safe place. You don’t need a vacation home, cabin, relatives, or a motel. Many stay in their vehicle or camp, taking supplies with them. A bug out place is what you make of it.
Dear David and readers,
Not everyone expects chaos immediately. We may have several years before our situation (here in the U.S.) becomes serious enough for people to be hungry and unruly.
Realistically, if conditions reach the point where people are hungry, one had better be prepared because there are enough people in our society who have the “entitlement Mentality” and who will justify their criminal actions in their own mind.
This crisis will not be solved easily and congress does not have the will and necessary knowledge to solve it. Most of them (congressmen) do not believe that we have a crisis here!
If one has accumulated lots of toys, now might be a good time to start disposing of them. Otherwise, they may have to be abandoned. My earlier comments recommended Colorado, my home, as a good place to be. Another reader was writing about the advantages of living in Park County–I agree. It is a huge sparsely populated county in Colorado, not too far from the major ski areas. One can find good foreclosed homes at a good price there. Of course, if home prices drop another 40% as David Morris is predicting, it may be prudent to wait longer before buying, if one has the resources to buy.
All elected officials, in their aspirations to obtain a level of power through appointment, are dependent upon financial support. Financial support is a manifestation of a current or future obligation to be repaid through the granting of privileges or privileged status back to the benefactor for an ultimate financial reward. Regrettably, our nation’s electoral process is now measured in the billions of dollars with commensurate rewards expected. Only a very few have the financial power to influence outcomes at the highest political levels.
Should it happen that the goal of a cabal is to diminish or restructure a republic chosen by the people so as to remake it into a more socialistic or totalitarian state, then only a few steps coerced upon an benign populace can bring about that disastrous event.
First, they would promulgate a societal mentality of dependency. Next, destroy the personal wealth and purchasing power of the middle class of that society ( in order to render a larger portion dependent ). Next, alienate that dependent populace against any class of the society who’s wealth or resources cannot be controlled. Finally, obtain control of all resources, initially through taxation ( redistribution ) and ultimately by confiscation guised under a protective mandate. To accomplish this final phase, it would be necessary to gain de facto control of civil laws by subverting the acting judiciary ( politics from the bench, not the code of law ) and to override the protection of our Constitution by suborning it through executive orders. Finally, it would be necessary to quash the voice of the people by controlling their means of communication.
How far are we along this dangerous path? However far, we can only reverse the course by an individual standing up for the unalienable rights granted under the Constitution of our Republic, and then another and then another; unbreakable in their conviction and resolve to restore our Founding Father’s vision of freedom and right.
I found what the old timers did during the depression gave me thought…. along with Geraldo Rivera’s opening the EMPTY vault of Al Capone…..
What’s wrong with burying your extra paper cash in the back yard in high ground? If water/airtight and buried at night secretly, no one raiding your home will find it, it is safe from fire and storm, earthquake, tornado, hurricane, flood, riots, and even the spouse and relatives. (heh, heh, I had to do this before so I know)
Safes have limits in a SHTF senario. Many can be carried away, wheeled away with a dolly the same way it was wheeled in, and fires, tornadoes, earthquakes and floods may hinder you from getting that quick cash needed to bug out fast. Even a hidden safe would be hard to get to during a destruction of the home.
Often, people tell me banks are the safest place, but only in a normal situation since they insure your money, but in a SHTF senario, there might be a panic of withdrawls leaving no cash left; earthquakes, floods, and tornados may delay you getting the cash if the building is destroyed or unsafe to enter, and if there is a power failure and no backup, banks can’t give you your money. If there are riots or organized violence in front of the banks, you risk your safety going to the banks, and most likely, they would be closed.
Get big pvc pipe that you can seal with the caps and glue and bury it.I haven’t done that but I did see that in a book.
Breitbart was getting ready to release some tapes from Obama’s college years. I hope that wasn’t the reason that he died but if it was I hope his family will transfer all that info to someone who can release it even though Breitbart can’t do it. He was a brave and outspoken man and I pray for his family but that info might cause them problems if they don’t get it out of their hands and into someone elses that can release it and make it a non issue because he is outed on his views or persuasions.
Great Comments!
Related to Real Estate market…
Even with inflation, couldn’t you make a case
for current Real Estate prices being possibly fair,
based on all of the money being printed?
This week I went to the LDS (latter day saints)cannery in plant city fl.We were informed the gov. shut them down.They are no longer able to have canning done there and instruct or #10 cans sealed in the facility.After all these yrs they now need permits and all kinds of things done($50,000 worth)so they cannot do it there now.You can still buy the cans already sealed or 25 lb bags of beans, flour ,or oats and many other great storage foods but you must carry them out as bought.They were not very happy.What happened to separation of church and state?I love this.You can’t mention prayer,God or have the 10 commandments in a gov. setting but they can stick they’re nose in a church facility that only wants to donate their time and help people prepare in case of emergency.Well I walked out with 75lbs. of oats,milar bags and oxydators. We went to the farmers market and got a little over 20lbs of tomatoes for $5 and have been dehydrating them.I figure I’ll experiment with the $5. After I watched “dehydrate2store.com that was what I wanted to try.Makes sense.It’s long term storage.I get 10 buckets at a time from a donut place,put in a milar bag with an oxydator and in the closet they go(on top of 2×4″s for circulation) Start with rice,oats,flour or beans.But people need to start doing something.There are so many people on food stamps that could take $25. a month and get one bag of them.It will build up fast.But like most families, I’m one in 25 of them that do not believe there is anything going on or care to know. It’s the”I’ll worry about when it happens”TO LATE!Now you don’t have the food stamps.Meanwhile I had to work for every penny that was spent on the food.Now I’ve been going to garage sales looking for dehydrators.When I wasn’t needing one it seemed everyone had one.I must of went to 20 today and all the salvation armys.vincent St. dupauls and other consignment shops and not one.I always asked if they had one to sell and if they did they said they were keeping it cause they were starting to get into food storage.GREAT.now it’s getting popular-wish it would with my family.But anyways the next thing I will store is dried apples.they are $72. for a case.So I guess I’ll be doing it myself.Anyways, I hope I didn’t bore anyone,I guess I just need to vent from this Mormon episode and maybe suggest reading Zechariah(will only take 15 min to read that book of the Bible.)
Northern NY is a quiet safe place to be, but it is vital to have some gardening skills; a greenhouse would be handy as well, because the growing season is short up here.
After worling for 10 yrs at the Perry Nuc Plant in NE Ohio we seen how far behind they were in safety requirments,such as while we were pouring concrete in the Radiation Waste holding area that it was out of date even before we started.And in Japan,when i seen them pouring seawater on the reactors to cool them, i knew that they were skrewed. It’s all stainless steel,from the fuelrod holding pools thru the reactors to the core.We used urea based to melt the ice so as not to corrode any stainless components.When the Japanese dropped sea(salt) water they destroyed any containment and as reported,the vessels cracked wide open letting out masive amounts of radioactive particules into the ocean and into the air,following the jet-stream right to our westcoast,Canada.radiating the air and water.Ofcourse they did’nt report on how devistrating this ‘Accident” was and is as they can’t contain any of it.The fall-out from this will for decades if we’re lucky, but most likely for thousands of years. Silly human race.The writings on the wall my co-patriots.Prepare as you can, but the way Iran and other crazies in our world are determined to annialate us and Israel any means posible, Thank you so much for the info you and others are passing out to us.Hug your kids,wife and friends who will stand with you. Shalom,A Christian Patriot
Ahh, Safes. I am using the giv’em a dummy gun so they will quit looking…. for safes. I have a cheap [walmart] safe? under the bed with a few hundred dollars in it [all ones so it looks like a lot more than it is]. Hopefully they will stop looking thinking they have it all. I do not believe in the 1000lb monster safe. You mostly cannot hide it from prying eyes.
A lot of my friends and family have safes and the FIRST thing they do is ” Hey, ya wanna’ see my new safe?” It seems that safe owners are really proud of their safe and cannot help showing it off and how nobody’s gettin’ in this baby! It IS great if you are not home, but if they do happen to get past your defenses they WILL get into your safe.
I myself built a dummy wall [suprisingly cheap to do] with a secret opening to a real safe [albeit smaller than the monster type but still fireworthy] in my biggest closet. It is virtually impossible to find without knowing it’s there and since most home invasions are “snatch and grabs” it is highly unlikely to be discovered. Once they have the “dummy” cash they will be on their way, and yes you and yours will be at their mercy as to whether they are going to leave any witnesses. Dilemma: stop them from entering at ALL costs or take your chances? That’s a whole ‘nother article.
Dr. Pepper,
Would love to know how to build: “I myself built a dummy wall [suprisingly cheap to do] with a secret opening to a real safe [albeit smaller than the monster type but still fireworthy] in my biggest closet. It is virtually impossible to find without knowing it’s there and since most home invasions are “snatch and grabs” it is highly unlikely to be discovered.”
I have been trying to figure out how to hide the items governement would take if situation similiar to Katrina happened. I have heard people speak of dummy walls, and caches neither of which I have enough knowledge to build. Would you be willing to share some knowledge? Of course, I ask not for anything that would give away your personal safeness.
Sincerely,
Brenda
Brenda,
Thank you for your interest. I was a home builder for 25 yrs and have a very good understanding of home construction and what it takes to build a “Secret room” or dummy wall. Since ALL homes are different and all situations different there is no exact way to show or tell you how [ without seeing your layout]…and as the famous saying in this survival busines goes “it depends”.
It IS a very cheap thing to do however if you have the skill and tools to do the job. However if you have to hire it done….well, there goes opsec.
If you have a crawl space under your home there is ample opportunity for hiding places and also as a secondary escape route. Basements are great spaces for “Secret rooms” and other safety areas.
There is probably a lot of the information you seek available on the internet and possibly youtube….Good Luck on your journey!
Interesting; social, financial, economic, religion, ethics and morality, etc. These are all in flux with any catastrophic event. Can you plan for anything beyond the immediate and crucial needs of your family? Yes! The problem presented is that most people live for the NOW not what will or may be in affect due to a disaster of any sort. Will the Fed keep interest rates artificially low for the next two or three years? Probably not, China is already moving to supplement or even replace the current monetary reserve currency, our US dollar, so this could very well be the destabilizing catalyst. In 6 to 15 months, maybe sooner, they will have the largest gold reserve of any two countries combined. Not only gold but platinum, palladium and precious stones mostly diamonds [industrial and jewels] not to mention heavy metals required for many technologies! The Fed interest rates of today are unsustainable and will spark upwards probably after the final phase of QE3. About four to eight years or months from that point our economy will be sub standard or in chaos. Hopefully there will be a stabilizing force to interrupt and control the inevitable in a positive way! “In God we trust” really? I do… so be prepared for the worst and pray for the best so you will not be disappointed.
I had internet failures once last week and yesterday afternoon. Overloaded? Never happened before in the 16 years I have been using the internet. Suddenly couldn’t travel to websites. Something is going on…Didn’t BO take over the internet to shut it down when he felt it necessary?
To add towards Tornado activity, in the last 20 years suburban sprawl has gone far out into the country, so damage is reported more often as compared to an open field where not many notice and no damage to report.
I stick to local small banks and desolved my relationship with large ones which started charging me high fees for their mistakes and taking taxpayer money. They were snotty as well. I have seen a sudden increase of Contract for Deed and property owner financing properties that was practically non-existent in the last 10 years because regular financing is too difficult these days and people need to sell their properties in a down market. Reminds me of the Carter years…
Inflation in food has gone higher than 8% in the last year. It has reached over 25% in most cases for the stores around here.
Increasing fuel prices will effect food prices and EVERYTHING.
In Food—planting it, growing it, feeding it, cultivating it, drying it or processing it, shipping it, storing it, and stores selling it. Fossil Fuels are what delivers the coal to power plants that creates electricity for the stores. I believe the cost of oil ties into inflation, besides other causes fear, OPEC, and regs.
My Investment / insurance: I bought freeze dried and dehydrated food last year. I see a savings next year if I have to use it, and more savings the following 24 years……
My sympathies go to Breitbart’s family, a great loss to us as well.
If oil prices keep going up, I would like to see David put out an article in the near future how this will affect us in every aspect so it can teach how to be ready for it.
‘Accidents’ are relative. If you are on the G’s Sh–t list as a more ‘serioius’ pain in their tax stealing fat butts, and you happen to be a street jogger, one of their favorite ‘accidents’ is a hit and run. Doesn’t matter if you die or not, You definately get ‘the message’.
I do some occasional international ‘trending’ research for a company and there are some interesting not publicized integrations going on in Africa, particularly Kenya. We just did a redux of the early start of the Nam war by sending a couple hundred Special Forces ‘advisors’ to Africa. The below radar international midEast ‘war prep’ is getting ready for an ‘October Surprise’ in case the Obama cartel needs it. Communications, or lack of it, is paramount in any government coup attempt or regional power shift. Conrolling this is critical.
With a recent survey of people with their smart ‘pads’ asking if they had to give something to keep them, what would they be willing to be without, it was amazing that most would even prefer going with out food, cigarettes, alcohol, their cars, and even ‘companionship’! What a way to control mass dissent. Just electronically shut everybody off! Wouldn’t even have to bring out police riot forces. Wthout the ability to text, people would become mind numb and confused and wander around in circles until they fell down. The widespread total eliminationn of electronic communications would be almost as devestating as an outbreak. Everyody and everyone else on all sides are working on this. Like virulent bio-weapons, internet and commo destruction ability are another form of ‘poor man’s nuke’. In my humble but not minimal experience. A combination of a massive epidemic and a major internet shutdown would be worse than a nuclear war. And more ‘preferable’ for a conquering enemy entity, when you think about it?
I don’t know if the NSA has to physically ‘cut it’ to install spy or malware to shut off cell phone commo at will, With Google and Facebook and the large telecommunications corporatists more than willing to hand over all their illegally compiled info on us just for the asking,… But it would be good practice for them or anybody to see how much permant black out control they could get with just a couple divers with explosives in fifteen minutes? Remember, this is how all the ‘brotherhood’ and the CIA controlled these Arab spring mass movements. With Cell phones. Recently, the supposedly unbreachable blackberry sytem got ‘tweaked’.
I was at Joplin the morning after and nobody’s cell and many ground lines were working right or at all. People were walking around in a daze. Had to search around and pick them up and take them to ‘help stations’ for food and water. Even though surrounding communites were working fine. Businesses who relied on such went many days and weeks before full operational ability was restored. And this was only one relatively small city. Inside the city the responders had to use radio band communications. You must have alternate means of communication besides cellphones in your resource prepped community A.O.
Speaking of Tornadoes. It’s a combination of changing climate and weather conditions and increased population in areas where this weather always occured but never did much structural damage, like severe short term microbursts were just ‘recently’ identified as a distinct weather phenomenon, apart from the mysterious ‘windshear’ which caused large jets to stumble and stall and sometimes crash during take offs and landings. as urban sprawl continuted, air traffic increased and more runways were built, the phenomenon became less rare and was studied more. And as also as David mentioned, the interesting tendency of mainstream media to either obfuscate or distract,, by news censorship or re-direction, for the manipulation of their agenda, mainly political at the moment, is right on the money.
The most egregious example of this MSM censorship is the Japan tsunami disaster. Over 45 thousand people are dead and many more irradiated. Did anyone notice how quickly the MSN got off the coverage? At least in this counry. A week later virtually nothing was being mentioned or covered? No special reports, no helicopter videos from a distance at least, nothing! Why was that?
It’s a long and dirty little (big) secret but our own domestic nuke plants are old and worse than Japans, which we are now finding out were in bad safety shape which was a major part of the disaster problem, not just the wave hit. Upwards of VA. on the East coast are enough close enough to shore nuke power plants to make most of the people and critters in three neighboring states glow in the dark if a similar (and inevitable) tsunami from that ‘coming’ African Island shear or a Cat 5 surge thats long over due wipes out the coastal areas.
But guess what?! the NRC fed just announced they just ‘okayed’ a couple huge new nuke power plants to be built in Georgia, or ARk, i believe? Hmmm. Think the people would have maybe ‘not’ wanted these new nuke plants if they ‘knew’ and saw the horror scenes in Japan blasted on TV every day like we see the campaign coverage?
I helped build two of the USA’s latest PWR’s (Pressurized Water Reactors) that have now been running for over 20 years with a spotless safety record. That was acheived by safety built right in. Every system was built with three redundant circuits. The lessons learned from TMI (Three Mile Island) were applied in STP (South Texas Project) and CPSES (Comanche Peak Steam Electric Station). Redundant electrical and physical system control is assured by literally millions of dollars of engineering innovations.
The new power plants have the advantage of knowing the safety records of all the Nuclear Generating Stations across America. Any possible scenario has engineered defense systems.
The public is informed at great detail about the accidents and problems in the obsolete 40 and 50 year old nuclear plants, but they do not hear about the excellent safety record of the newer ones built since TMI. There is nothing to fear from building new nuclear power plants… and everything to gain. Each plant will require literally thousands of workers. There are unemployed laborers, skilled workers, management and engineers that will be removed from the unemployment rolls and the statistical workers that have fallen off the unemployment list thru attrition. It’s a Win-Win!
It’s a NO-Brainer. Build the plants! America needs them badly.
Thanks, tkishkape. Sometimes it takes comments like the last one to expose people to the facts that you presented.
iF YOU MUST HAVE NUK PWR PLANTS THEN PRESSURIZED PRIMARY SYSTEMS ARE THE WAY TO GO. hOWEVER THE FACT STILL REMAINS THAT ALL IT TAKES IS 1 SEVERE ACCIDENT AND POTENTIALLY MILLIONS OF PEOPLE SUFFER, NOT TO MENTION THE NEXT GENERATION OF MUTANTS. sOLAR, WIND, GEOTHERMAL, TIDAL, AND WAVE ENERGY NEED TO BE EXPLOITED TO THE MAX WITH NUK PWR PLAYING AN EVER DECREASING ROLE. IMHO ANYWAY.
If you have no money to begin with, no hope of buying land or a house and you know you will simply live out your life renting a spot in a trailer park with nothing to show for it, you get used to “preparing”. When your income is sparse at best and you never know what you will take in from month to month, you look ahead and plan for all possibilities. You structure your life to be debt-free at all times. You make sure that nothing and no one has a hand in your pocket and you don’t overextend your assets so that you know you will always have something to “fall back on”. That said, emergencies for someone like me can be a total horror unless you understand that every day is an “emergency”.
If you haven’t secured your daily life so that you can enjoy what is abundant around you then you will never understand the insanity of trying to secure that which hasn’t occurred as yet. “Security” like “insurance” is an abstract concept born of wishful thinking and good salesmanship…lol We are only as secure as we think ourselves to be and a lot of that is based on how we see ourselves and our ability to work with our surroundings. Insurance is simply a ruse to make money for fancy companies and to fool ourselves into thinking that we have the ability to CONTROL our surroundings. The best “insurance” is our own ability to deal with whatever comes along.
There will always be that faction of a society which will seek to dupe and use the other factions. Refusing to comply with those sorts of lies will level the playing field. However, when fear becomes a factor and enough fear mongers are able to tilt the field in their favor (whether for monetary gain or simply from falling under the spell of the seduction) then there is a lack of balance to the equation and things begin to go awry. We live in that particular unbalance today. Nature is about balance, ying and yang, etc. The unbalance will always try to balance and while that is happening, those caught up in it will suffer from the throws of the action. Once it is achieved, things settle down and living becomes easier, possibly even more sane for awhile. Either way, life goes on.
a VERY GOOD ASSESSMENT OF THE CURRENT SITUATION.
David
If you list to Lt. Col David Grosman the majority of people are sheep, a small percentage are sheep dogs and a very few (fortunately ) are wolves. It falls to the sheep dogs to protect the sheep. My point here is that it takes a particular type of person to do that. I see a lot of comments about doing what is necessary but I question the ability of most to make good on their bragging. For those who have been there, nuff said for those who haven’t maybe they need to take a real hard look at what they are capable of doing in a SHTF scenario.
Here is a Stand to take. Our mentor, David Morris, realizes that for most of us ‘average’ city dwellers, Survive in Place is the ‘only’ strategy unless forced to flee. In the three part series, “The Human Spark” science evidence concluded what separates us from the animals is conceptual speech and ‘the willingness to cooperate with others when there is no immediate gain for our selves’.
IF my city of a million and a half dissolves into chaos, my best hope is a ‘united community’. That means I have to ‘run toward the burning car to try to free a total stranger’. That’s the courage it takes to STAND FOR SOMETHING – rather than hiding out. Daily, I tell someone about being better prepared.
There’s no place to hide. At a business meeting last night, I spoke to a CERT’s (Community Emergency Response Team) trained gentlemen who said that when “The Event” happens he’s fleeing to his retreat about 12.8 miles into the mountains. I didn’t point out that This is when we would have needed his skills the most. Instead, I asked him which direction he thought the population of our city would travel when they flee. “Every way,” he replied. I asked, “How many can you defend against, … and do you want to?”
No one is suggestion we all talk about ALL of our tips, tricks, plans, caches or retreats (IF …).
I respect ‘the unexpected’ which protects My Family. But I have a bigger family, with a vast array of skills – these are my neighbors, my city, my region, my country. I risk because I care.
I wish the ‘Man’, the “Liberal Media” & “Reality TV” didn’t portray people who value Basic Survival Skills, required to exist for millions of years, as ‘weird’. My wife and I can hardly wait to find out which way we were edited for their reality. <> BUT, I promise – all of those “Newbies” who tune in to ‘make fun of the freaks’ – I will teach them a dozen survival tips at least. Like hide in plain sight.
I also demonstrate my new prototype, EDC survival tool which I envisioned after the 2010 Haiti Earthquake. I look forward to your reaction to my ‘people’s survival tool’.
Be Honest, Be Excellent & Walk About Prepared™
“The time of the Lone Wolf is over. Gather together.
WE are the Ones we’ve been seeking.” The Hopi Elders
I Agree, survival skills will be beneficial in the long run.
Most of the Nat Geo Preppers are of a higher income bracket.
Not everyone can afford to prep on an exorbitant budget.
we can prepare offensively as well as defensively.
what is this tool?
A lot of purchases for prepparedness can be made in five dollar incriments.
andrew breitbart might be another Vincent Foster .no 1 can keep up with bill clinton’s people who passed away in his administration ,that were former friends or state troopers !!! great info .
I believe the preppers tv series is to make preppers look like nuts to non preppers so there will not be the outrage when uncle sam moves on the weapons in everyone hands. They will just put out we are a danger to ourself and everyone else,or am I just paranoid, hell i’m already on list as x-military, x-dod employee maybe I am paranoid!!!!!!!!!
If your’e paranoid … in this case it would be “healthy paranoia,” i.e., the appropriate response to the situation.
Shades of Paranoia is ok. It makes you think of possible outcomes before going head-long.
Interesting observation. And certainly not ‘paranoid’ when you consider the elaborate fiasco extent they went to withFast and Furious gun walking just to create an illusion of U.S. caused gun violence justify Hilary and her UN gun gestapo can get our wuss congresss to cave and vote for the registration and control mandate because of ‘public presssure’.
But it would backfire with the prepper show. Seeing all those super preppers on TV just encourages the not so ready to move out more! Just like when Obamas got in and gun nazis started licking ther swastika chops, there was a mass surge in ammo and better defense weapons that actuallly caused an ammo shortage. And now reasonably priced AR-15 weapons platforms are a household word!
There is an expression – Just because you are paranoid does not mean they are not out to get you.
“If you have a home that you intend on staying in long term, enjoy it and don’t worry about the value.”
Thanks for this statement! With all that is said and going on – you get to wondering “does this effect me?” Not everyone mentions the “You are okay” point. ; )
Yup, The ones who are not “TOTALLY” prepared will be the targets of the ones that are totally prepared. This goes for those with the guns and ammo only mindset of preparedness. Know what I mean?
No Sir, I don’t know what you mean. Why would those who are “Totally”prepared make targets of those with only “guns and ammo”? This is not sound logic.
Sure,it makes sense.If you have everything in place,and all some scumbag has is guns & ammo,sooner or later,y’all are gonna meet.
Underground or underwater internet lines may be safer than some of the broadcast towers.
What percent of internet traffic and communication gets to the wires from wireless bridges like cell phones and iPad internet connections? Another, also apparent potential loss of communications ability happens with magnetic storms — eg sunspots.
Survival in place — after doing followup work — floods and tornado — I’m not so sure even the 1960s bomb shelters would have been strong enough to withstand the onslaught of nature. Major floods — particularly bad if entrance and ‘safe’ area is below even the 500 year flood crest. I’m located on top of a hill, still vulnerable to tornado — have had severe damage to an outbuilding here over years, the high water mark came within inches of the lower end of gated corral. Speaking of entrance — can you exit your ‘safe’ location? Do you have the minimum of tools with you inside to make a new exit?
The whole deal is rigged. The banksters and politicos should by hung. Start over.
Guns, ammo, food and some silver!
One acre of land with access to water, is enough to survive on.
Good articles in old Mother Earth News.Here in the Carolinas there is plenty of small plots around. Long growing season and enough good old boys to keep the varmints at bay
Where are those “afordable plots at”, I need one. David
Dave, depends first, on your price range and what kind of bang you want for the buck. These are definately in ‘balance’ to location. Once you’ve determined your level of affordability, then you can search around for whats out there based on that. Next important factor is whether or not your income is based on finding a job in your relocation area.
I’ve done a couple years of research on this and if you are retired on a fixed income, this is actually a good thing in terms of getting a better deal. Carolinas are nice but still pricey for a decent location. For many people it’s too close to the coast and fault lines.
My area is one of and maybe even the best for natural disaster safety and no crime. Surviving in place around here is a pleasure. Lots of like minds. Maurading zombies would probably be a welcome diversion for some live-action target pracice. But it’s unlikely too many would get that far.. The only problem with this location is there’s not many jobs.
David,
Here in Southeastern Idaho, plots are still relatively cheap. You actually don’t need much more than an acre to have enough for your house, garden, pasture and whatever else you need. I live on 1.1 acres with plenty of room for gardening, my 2400 sqft house, a 25 by 50 shop, an apple orchard and plenty of room for chicken and a cow if I want it.
My kids just bought a house nearby, a ways outside of town for 76000 dollars and their payment is less than they would pay for rent. It sets on 1.2 acres with a shed and lots of fenced room. It all depends on where you want to live. I love it here myself.
Jim
Correction: SOME of the bankers. There IS such a thing as an honest, pro-free market banker. Some banks (such as BBT) were FORCED against their will to take bailout money they didn’t need, by the fascists/socialists NOT JUST of the obama regime but of the bush regime as well! They were told they HAD to take the money (and entanglements) OR the regulators would harass them with audits and FRAUDULENT bad publicity, till they were ruined!
Amen Mike, the Carolinas are the place to be, we can survive.
Accidental cuts? No way. I was in China about 4yrs ago, when they cut the internet cables near Hong Kong and the a week later, near Dubai. That was the backup line that most traffic was rerouted thru. Bush was making a statement to the Chinese. Possibly in response to a cyber attack on a sensitive site. It will happen again…
“The deepest darkest place in hell is reserved for those who fail to take a stand” A paraphrase of Dante, I think. If the converse is true whe know where Andrew will be seated.
If home invaders come while I am at home, they will die coming through the door. I agree that a safe is a delaying tactic, but I won’t need to open it for dead scumbags. A lot of gun fighting is mindset. Bill Hickok had it, and so did John Wesley Harding, the Earps, Doc Holiday, and others of that era. I was born too late to meet and learn from them, but I have learned one thing that they all had in common. And that is, they were willing to use the weapons they had without hesitation. I never want to harm anyone, but I am willing…..
Virtually each time I go to the grocery store I see at least 2 items that have increased in price since I last purchased them, and with the cost of fuel rising almost daily (15 cent in the last week alone), food prices are going to continue to rise as a result. I think it’s going to come down to a choice of eating or getting to work for people who haven’t prepared themselves for such situations. We have become such a consumer society that people have no idea how to conserve, prepare, re-use, repair, or do without, such as our grandparents and parents lived daily. I believe many are going to be forced to learn to survive in ways they never thought about as things continue to deteriorate.
The timing of the cut lines is suspect since the US had a major outage about a week ago. I suspect the NSA cut service to install new snooping equipment.
I doubt the NSA would have had anything to do with the US outage. With network switch technology, there’s no need to interrupt service to install snooping equipment, unlike end-to-end physical circuits that would require such interruption (like old-time phone taps).
Steve
“You” don’t need to cut service to “install” new snooping equipment.