Peak chaos on the world stage is going to center around the United States presidential elections. It will define conditions in the nation, outside the nation, and the broader game plans of the rich and powerful. The fate of the world in the face of war will be largely dependent on who is in office and what choices they make.
This is particularly true these days since that silly old Declaration of War thing has been tossed out the window. America wages war through a collaboration between the Pentagon and the Executive branch. Period.
The timer is running. The countdown has begun. At any time in the next 10 months you must be prepared for your world to change dramatically.
WHAT REMAINS OF WINTER
Democratic Winter Meeting
In the United States we are facing an election where so much is up in the air. There is nothing particularly solid underfoot. The Democrats will have their winter meeting to discuss strategy amongst other things.
It would not be a surprise to Republicans or Democrats if the candidate in the 2024 election was not Joe Biden. What other curveballs could come from this meeting?
Israel Hamas Houthis & the US Military
The declaration of war seems to have been eliminated in the US. We are now trading fire with Iranian proxies on a weekly basis.
We are effectively at war with these groups though we have not voted on it in congress.
Despite pressure from the White House, Israel has no intentions of slowing down their assault.
This is a full-scale war that the US refuses to admit it is in and will only add to the chaos abroad and at home.
Iran
Iran is watching things very closely. They know their proxies have killed Americans. We know it. The world knows it. Most of all, the US Military is keeping eyes on Iran and they don’t like it. (source)
This is going to become a bigger issue as the 2024 gathers steam. Something tells me Iran is waiting for a wider war where America won’t be able to focus all its power on punishing the Persians.
A HIGH TENSION SPRING
Putin’s Election
There is something to be said about the DEVIL YOU KNOW but I am sure most people would like to see Putin dethroned. This is not a likely outcome though the election could create greater strife inside Russia. The public is already up in arms about the prolonged war and conscription.
Steadfast Defender NATO Exercise
To call the Steadfast Defender a major military exercise is an understatement. It is the largest collection of NATO nations, military personnel, and vehicles in any exercise in the 21st century.
We are talking about 90,000 service members, 31 nations, 50 ships, 80 air vehicles and 1100 combat vehicles.
These are the maneuvers that would be used to mount a major attack on Russia. That is why they are practicing. This is one of those situations that could really heat up should anything unexpected happen.
A SUMMER OF WORLDWIDE CIVIL UNREST/TERROR
The Paris Olympic Games
If you were a terrorist, could you imagine a better target than the Paris Olympic Games. It’s in Europe, which we know is overrun with terrorists just waiting in the shadows, it’s going to garner massive attention, and with the war in the Middle East it will only embolden the lunatics.
Civil Unrest
As the weather warms, protests will increase. Wars, elections, and discrimination will give rise to even more unrest than what we are witnessing all over the world right now.
These events will stretch the resources of the government to their limits.
THE FALL… IT’S THE PERFECT NAME
Russia Hosts BRICS Summit
Russia will be no doubt still sore from the Steadfast Defender will take this opportunity to push forward on BRICS and try to really hurt the West, particularly the US Dollar and its dominance. Protect your wealth. Understand that the US Dollar is part of the greater war and nations want to dethrone it.
Catholic Reexamination of Direction
This story is getting lost in the more exciting talks of war and world leaders but a massive reaffirmation of the Catholic faith, brought on by the Pope, is big news. How much change can the world endure in one year? How much chaos?
This is not a story on your dashboard yet but it very soon will be.
Massive Virus Digital Dark Age
China has staged its malware all throughout the United States’ digital infrastructure. I am sure we have done the same to them. (source)
Still, it could be the big attack waiting to happen. You have to imagine that when China moves on Taiwan they at least want something to hang over the heads of the Americans to give them pause.
Election Day in America
This is that moment when the ball is up in the air and the last seconds are winding down off the clock. What happens in the end? Who comes away with the victory. Truth is we are still not sure what election day might look like. We are not even sure who might be on the ballot for either side.
It will be an exciting day, to say the least but what’s come next will make it all look like a walk in the park.
THE AFTERMATH…
Remember, the real chaos in America didn’t kick off till after the 2020 election.
We will see very much the same in 2024.
Should Donald Trump be elected president we are going to see calamity in the streets like nothing you have ever seen in America.
The chaos will reach its peak in the AFTERMATH of the 2024 election, particularly if Donald Trump becomes president.
This chaos will also be well funded by other nations and powerful people.
Elections, wars, and grid down chaos seem to be what’s on the menu for the rest of 2024. The countdown to chaos has already begun. I think what most people are struggling with is how much of it is out of their control.
You cannot stop the wars, NATO, the actions of Russia or Iran. There are a ton of things that will happen throughout this countdown that make you feel powerless and maybe even hopeless. That’s just the nature of this life.
Prepping, self-reliance, homesteading, off grid living, these are all things that render immense power unto you and yours. That power grows the more unstable things become.
For a long time, we used to talk about the future and how bad things might get one day. Well, it’s 2024, we are living through those dark times, and they will get darker before things start to get better.
As prepared people we can all be a little light in the darkness. Dig DEEP into preparedness in 2024. It’s an investment that will pay you back 10-fold.
This article was originally published by James Walton on www.askaprepper.com
Is this country facing the end of times? Are the people in this country oblivious to any reality or truth, or are they simply consumed by ignorance, passivity, cowardice, and mediocrity? Will this onslaught of tyranny by the controlling class and the politicians continue unabated, or will enough wake up in time to stand against the total decimation of their lives, their property, their freedom, and their land? What could possibly motivate the masses to voluntarily accept their own servitude, a servitude that can only lead to their imminent demise? Even the most simplistic life forms on this planet possess the basic instinct of self defense, so why is it that the supposed most intelligent of all living beings can be controlled and brutalized to the point of extinction, without lifting a finger to protect their own interests? Today in America, the people are drowning in a pool of their own blood, while their chosen masters are feasting on the remains.
There is very little time left to change this course we are on today, as this plot toward the great reset of the world is close at hand. In the past when liberty has been threatened, some fought back and won, but most sat back and waited, hoping others would come to their rescue, and save them from themselves. Every time threats have come and gone, there was less freedom and much more control. Each and every tyrannical event brought an assault against liberty that remained long after any so-called ‘return to normal’ was expected. ‘Normal’ has been forever changing, meaning every new normal resulted in less freedom and more authoritarian measures. That is until today, as now we face an end to any freedom, and a life of submission and enslavement. Unless and until the current ruling oligarchy is eliminated or weakened to the point of impotence, and by whatever means necessary, the tyranny will run its course until it has total control or the entire system collapses under its own weight.
Throughout history, kingdoms, states, and nations have come and gone. Empires reign, but always eventually fall. After societal failure, a better system may be in place temporarily, as happened here in this country after the ousting of British rule, but due to power, greed, and weak and complacent populations, the collapse of societies has always been inevitable. This one is no different. The real question is how long will it last? Considering the ‘assumed’ founding, this nation has only existed for a little over 240 years. Historically speaking, this is a very short time indeed, but the march toward a totalitarian end is near. We are now on the brink of that precipice, with one foot already dangling over the cliff. There will be no return to ‘normal’ or any notion of freedom, unless a complete dismantling of this very flawed governing system is forthcoming. That can only happen if a majority of the people not only desire it, but also are willing to take any and all risk to regain their own independence.
At this stage, our probable downfall will not be due to the few evil oligarchs that are perpetrating this fraud called a ‘virus pandemic,’ it will be due to a complete abandonment of self-responsibility by the people themselves. This truth has to be acknowledged before any relief is possible. So long as blame is spread wide in order to appease the feeble psyche of the pitiful masses, and no accountability for one’s own life and existence is accepted, then no resolution will be attainable. We now live in a society that has lost its ability to function without rule. The herd is forever looking to find a master instead of looking to self. So long as this attitude is present in the majority, individual sovereignty will not prevail, and a population of order-takers and rule-followers will be the result. That cannot lead to freedom, but only to complete subjugation of the American people. Five hundred years ago, Étienne de La Boétie wrote “The Politics of Obedience and The Discourse of Voluntary Servitude.” The people of this country have voluntarily given up their freedom, and in the process have become obedient serfs. In this passage below, he summed up the essence of voluntary slavery through obedient behavior.
“It amazes us to hear accounts of the valor that liberty arouses in the hearts of those who defend it; but who could believe reports of what goes on every day among the inhabitants of some countries, who could really believe that one man alone may mistreat a hundred thousand and deprive them of their liberty? Who would credit such a report if he merely heard it, without being present to witness the event? And if this condition occurred only in distant lands and were reported to us, which one among us would not assume the tale to be imagined or invented, and not really true? Obviously there is no need of fighting to overcome this single tyrant, for he is automatically defeated if the country refuses consent to its own enslavement: it is not necessary to deprive him of anything, but simply to give him nothing; there is no need that the country make an effort to do anything for itself provided it does nothing against itself. It is therefore the inhabitants themselves who permit, or, rather, bring about, their own subjection, since by ceasing to submit they would put an end to their servitude.”
How many times have Americans criticized those in other lands for allowing tyrants to rule over them without rising up to protect their own liberty? How many times have those in this country condemned totalitarian monsters across the world, and called for them to be removed or killed? How many times have Americans cheered for aggressive war against other nations because they lived under brutal regimes? How many times have Americans bragged about being exceptional, and falsely declared that they are the freest people on earth? How many times has this American population allowed that same tyranny and brutality here at home and done nothing?
I can tell you, most all in this country are voluntarily allowing this takeover today, and are doing absolutely nothing to stop it. Civil disobedience and mass dissent would be enough to quell this onslaught of government lies, carnage, murder, and liberty destruction, but while you condemn others, you sit idle and watch your own freedom taken away without ever lifting a finger to stop it. Shame on all of you who refuse to disobey, and refuse to defend your own freedom!
The best time to leave for your bug out location is just before a major crisis occurs. But all of your carefully made plans and preparations will easily go to waste if you do not know how protect them from spying eyes.
Do you know how to avoid being followed and how to escape any tails that try to follow you?
Never forget that in the days leading up to a crisis, there may well be people that have access to information that you do not have. They will use that information to stop people like you that choose independent survival means.
Sharpen your senses and read this article, because this tricks will be really useful to plan your escape.
Do You Know the Signs of Other Groups Traveling Your Selected Route?
That very strong nagging feeling that you are being followed, but you do not see, hear, or observe anything or anybody around.
New or increased numbers of vehicle or human tracks on dirt roads or pathways.
Increase of trash or garbage along your chosen route.
Actually seeing other groups in the distance or way behind your group.
When to Switch to Alternate Routes?
Once you feel reasonably certain that your group is being followed.
When other groups are trying to close the gap between their group and yours.
Search aircraft or vehicles are observed in your area.
Adverse weather like heavy rain, snow, or heavy wind make it harder for tails to follow your changes. Keep in mind that advanced technologies may still give your location away. Always try to stay on paths where the ground features break up radar and heat signatures.
After dark when no one can see the groups change in direction. Once again, be wary of technologies that may detect your position. If necessary, have everyone scatter and meet at a safe location.
Use point scouts and rear guards to secure your road because these individuals are the group’s eyes and ears as to what is going on around the group. If there are any problems, these individuals will be the early warning system to any kind of offensive actions. Also, these individuals can act as decoys when the group is being followed.
In order to cover or mislead your group’s true direction of traveling, take into account a few tricks, as follows:
Back tracking or set up a new trail that doubles back through the old trail to confuse followers or trained trackers.
Set up false trails to confuse trackers or are used to split up the tracking parties.
Erase the true path and send the followers in the wrong direction.
Travel over hard ground or rocky ground. Under these conditions it is very hard to track people because there would be very few readable tracks to be followed, and the trail will easily end without the trackers knowing which direction the trail goes.
Never travel in a straight line to the bug out site. A good tracking party would be able to figure out where the group is going and send out an advance party to cut you off and wait for the group to arrive.
When in doubt, take to the trees or other high locations where you can travel from point to point.
Survival decision point:It is my belief that all point scouts and rear guard individuals should have small tools concealed on them to be used to aid in escaping if captured, or to use while leading others away from the main bug out group.
Escape and Evasion (E&E) Tools and Where to Hide Them
Just about anything can be used as an E&E tool. The tools you choose should be small, concealable, light weight, and serve multiple purposes. Most tools are not specialized escape tools, but are fashioned out of everyday items that are modified for this particular escape.
{adinserter aliveafteramerika}Your E&E kit must have some type of cutting tool such as a dog tag knife or a modified religious medallion. These items can be worn around the neck on a cord. Mini knife blades or knifes, wire saws, and other flexible cutting devices can be hidden either in your belt or behind your jean brand tag.
Handcuff keys, lock picks, button compasses, and other escape tools can be kept in a hollowed out portion of the heel of your shoes. Shoe seams can also be cut to hide small items like hair pins, needles, or piano wire.
If your bug out group could be traveling in hostile areas, E&E planning should be a regular part of your day to day routine. Take the time to hide E&E items on your body and clothes.
Finally, practice and keep practicing with the tools till it is muscle memory. Never forget to keep a survivor’s mind set- never give up and be prepared to fight to your last breath.
Escape and Evasion Techniques
It is human nature to run away from a threat as fast as possible. If you do this without a plan you are asking to get caught. It is always best to prepare for the worst and carefully execute the plan with discipline instead of fear. You, as an evader, must know how to react to such things as tracking dogs, possible air surveillance, night vision, thermal imaging, and satellite tracking of any electronic devices you are carrying or even within your vehicle.
It is important to remember that the people who catch you will most likely be the least qualified people in the chain of command looking for you. In most cases they are only to hold you until they can arrange to turn you over to the higher ups. It is important to get away now before you are moved to a location of tighter security.
If you are unlucky enough to get captured by another group your attitude, condition, and preparation will largely determine the successfulness of your attempt to escape. Even a high tech team can be evaded if you know what to look for and how to escape.
Attitude
Have a good mindset that you will win at all costs, even if you must fight and kill those who are holding you.
Conditioning
Keep yourself in good to excellent physical fitness.
Eat healthy foods and do not drink alcohol.
Learn to constantly exercise your memory.
Mindset, do not take anything for granted. Memorize all exits in a new building and which one to use in an emergency.
Always be on alert. What seems wrong is usually wrong. Listen to that little voice in the back of your head.
Preparation
Always keep minimal tools on your person knife, flashlight, cash, or a multi-tool.
Know your surroundings, be aware of where you are, and which way is to safety.
Evade
When trying to evade it is extremely important to get outside of your captor’s perimeter. The odds are they will not find you and give you a head start to develop a better plan of action. Staying inside of the perimeter will get you nothing other than recaptured. Perimeters are fluid they change with each group. They can be as small as 100 yards to miles in diameter. Once on the run, put as much distance as possible between the captor’s and yourself.
Camouflaging Yourself
If you manage to escape, camouflage yourself so you do not stand out in the surroundings. This can be done by using natural materials like grass, twigs, leaves, or other vegetation that grows in your location. Remember to replace all natural vegetation before it fades or wilts.
The individual must blend with the surroundings, otherwise you will be very easy to spot and capture. Do not over camouflage or use incorrect garments for specific settings, as this can also draw attention.
Never have shiny objects exposed to bright sunlight like eye glasses, watches, or anything else that could flash. Keep them well covered. Always use the prone position to observe an area from good concealment.
Survival decision point: Is it safe to build a small shelter while on the run to rest or hide? If there is bad weather are you safer in a shelter than exposed to the elements? You will need to take into account the technologies used by potential captors as well as how much of a lead you have on them. Never forget that exhaustion can be just as dangerous as being within the captive’s perimeter.
In addition, lack of proper scouting can also cause you to fall straight into the hands of someone else looking to capture you.
How to Build a Shelter
If you decide that you need to build a shelter, it must blend into the surrounding area. It must be a small irregular shaped structure in a secluded area that is less likely to be searched. There must be an escape route that you can leave without being observed.
Entrances to the shelter should be located along ridges, ditches, and rocky terrain to keep from making paths to your shelter location. With proper camouflage and concealment, this could buy yourself some time during the first disorganized hours after your escape.
How to Find a Shelter
If you find an old abandoned building that would be safe to stay in, choose the second floor. Make a mental map of the building showing all possible escape routes. Try these escape routes both at night and in the daylight. Block all doors and windows that will not be used as an emergency escape route.
Totally memorize locations of stairs, ladders, or ceiling accesses that might help in an escape. Always sleep fully dressed and wear your shoes. Any other personal gear should be kept packed and ready to go at a moment’s notice.
Another good place to hide in cities or towns is in the underground drainage system. Here a person can travel around without being detected. If the drainage system is extensive, it will take a large group of searchers to go into the system and flush you out. With good training and a bit of luck, it is possible to change you appearance to match that of your searchers and escape the man hunt.
Silence Is Golden
There can be no noise allowed as you are running to freedom. This means there will only be total silence.
You must secure all loose items on your person. To check after securing all loose items, jump up and down. If anything still makes noise pad it or wrap it to quiet the sound.
Remove all Velcro and tape it up. Velcro makes a very distinct sound when ripped open.
If possible, move during bad weather so that natural sounds cover your noise.
Use car or train traffic noise to mask your presence.
Shut off all electronic devices and remove all batteries.
Be Wary of Light at Night
Do not use any light sources unless absolutely necessary. That means no smoking because that little red glow can be seen at a great distance on a pitch dark night.
Do not wear black or white clothing because they project a strong infra-red signature at a distance. Try to wear earth tone clothing because it blends nicely with surrounding terrain.
Remember that moonlight can be reflected off vehicle glass and clear water bottles and be seen at a long distance.
Only build a small fire when absolutely necessary for your survival. Build it under a tree canopy to help dissipate the smoke as much as possible.
When observing at night always scan with your eyes. Do not try to focus in only one direction. Scanning and the use of your peripheral vision will help you pick up faint light quicker than direct vision.
Keep in mind that search parties usually have poor light discipline when moving through woods or open terrain. Use this to your advantage. Remember bright lights make hard shadows and cause the user to lose their peripheral night vision.
Safe Methods of Movement
When moving always be aware of being outlined by any light source that could silhouette you or make you stand out in the terrain you are crossing.
Carefully move from areas of concealment to an area of concealment. While in these areas check out the location by stopping, looking, listening, and smelling the wind to check for any human activity or other signs that the area is occupied.
When walking, move slowly and carefully so that you do not move rocks, leaves, grass, sticks, or other ground cover.
Pad your feet in clothing to muffle the sound of breaking sticks or twigs.
If you must cross soft ground, try walking in the vegetation and not in the plain dirt. Always try to use hard or rocky ground whenever possible for it leaves less evidence of your traveling.
Try to stay in vegetation that is less than your knee height.
In heavy vegetation use a walking stick to move leaves carefully aside, and then move them back to their original position.
Finally under no circumstances do you liter. Any trash or lost equipment can be easily spotted by trackers.
Survival decision point: To steal or not to steal? If you must steal, do it very low key and do not draw attention to yourself. If you must steal a car, take an older model which is easier to hotwire. Remember to disable the dome, internal, and dash lights. When driving away, do not draw attention to yourself by a burning rubber acceleration or high speeds. Just drive slow and easy to fit in with other traffic.
How to Disrupt the Tracking Party
If being pursued by dogs try to defeat the dog handler. Use zig-zag patterns of movement through rough heavy bushy terrain. This makes it very difficult for the handler to work his dog on a long lead. This action can cause doubt on the abilities of the dog handler. Walking a box maneuver can also help loose the trackers.
Survival decision point: Is it to your advantage to set out simple booby traps? Setting out simple booby traps like trip wires will slow down the tracking team because now they must slowdown in order to search for these traps. Be careful when using distraction techniques. They can tire you out, leave more of your scent in the area, and reduce the time-distance factor that is important to your escape.
No matter what you do, never travel in a straight line. If this is done the trackers can send an advance team to cut you off and intercept you. Never head directly to an obvious location. Keep the trackers guessing.
Survival decision point: Is it in your best interests to enter possibly hostile urban areas? It is usually best to avoid hostel urban areas. If you must go into these areas, then try to look like you belong there and use the crowds to your advantage.
Do not run or appear frantic.
Stay away from groups of children because they are quicker to spot strangers than the average adult.
Dress down and remove all signs of who you are. Wash as soon as it is safe to do so.
Beware of any curfews or other habits of the area.
Do not over eat or appear to hungry.
Keep your escape tools well hidden.
Stay out of market places during normal operating hours. This will be one of the first places the trackers will look for you and it will be staked out by observers.
Market places are good places to hide and pick up thrown away food or tools after they have closed for the night. Just be wary of surveillance cameras and technologies like Google Glass that can be used to determine your location.
In the time before a crisis it is important to learn how to travel without being spotted and how to loose anyone that might try to follow the group. If one of the members of the group gets captured during the process of misleading the followers it is important that all members of the group be well trained in escape and evasion techniques that could save their lives.
The key to surviving an escape and evasion is to remain calm, think before you act, and stay low key.
Over the last couple of years, many more people have come to recognize the value in preparing and getting ready for when times get tough. Prepping is no longer a fringe activity but is becoming increasingly mainstream.
That’s because many people are recognizing that the world is actually not as stable as they originally thought, and that all it takes is one or two things to go wrong for life to completely change for the worse.
For example, all it takes is for a collapse or a major interruption to occur in the supply chains and people will no longer be able to get the food and supplies like they are used to. This alone would throw society into mass hysteria and lead to rioting and societal unrest.
Here are likely to be the biggest threats to preppers in 2024:
Supply Chain Issues
This applies to everything from food to beverages to medicine to personal hygiene items to other common household products.
Unfortunately, today people are so used to being able to buy what they need and when they need it from grocery stores and supermarkets.
But every store you shop at is dependent on getting products on its shelves from the trucks and planes shipping in everything from distributors.
Once this flow of goods is disrupted in any way, it’s going to have incalculable effects on the rest of society. People will panic, and societal unrest will get out of hand quickly. Stores would be forced to ration goods, and many restaurants would be forced to close down.
Cyberthreats
Cyberthreats have become significantly more frequent as society is almost entirely dependent on the internet and electronic devices.
Cybersecurity threats are the most severe to major power companies and banks. If major companies in either of these industries are forced to close down in response to a cybersecurity attack, it’s going to affect millions of people overnight.
Societal Unrest
Societal unrest has been growing in concurrence with tightened economic situations and heightened political tensions.
In 2020, we saw mass rioting throughout major cities across America largely in response to perceived political injustices. Those riots only serve as a glimpse of what could come in the future.
In the event of the supply chains collapsing, for instance, mass rioting and looting of stores is almost guaranteed to take place for any city or region that’s been affected.
Mass rioting and societal unrest in this manner will cause chaos and violence in the streets, forcing businesses to board up and families to barricade themselves inside of their homes.
Economic Collapse
The threat of a complete economic collapse has become significantly more real due to the tightening economic conditions that we have been experiencing over the last few years.
Inflation has devalued the dollar considerably, the prices of food and water and other household supplies have been skyrocketing, rising interest rates have made it more expensive to afford homes and cars.
The monthly cost of a new truck or SUV, for instance, can approach the vicinity of a thousand dollars a month, while interest rates on used cars have gone up so much that they aren’t much more affordable either.
Even if an all-out economic collapse does not occur, people are feeling the negative effects of the tightened economic situation every day of their lives. Not only does it cause a significant amount of stress, it also makes prepping much more difficult as well.
It’s simply less easy for people to afford buying stockpiles of food and other needed supplies when so much of their cash flow is going to rising housing payments, car payments, and other unexpected expenses that pop up.
Many people simply cannot afford to make the necessary preparations that would be sustainable for their families. For example, a typical family of four would need at least five thousand gallons of water stored to have enough water set aside for drinking and hygienic purposes for a six month period.
But storing that water will require families to invest in massive water tanks that are designed to store several thousand gallons of water, and those tanks can cause several thousand dollars individually.
Families already throwing several thousand dollars each month at basic living expenses won’t be able to afford buying those kinds of water tanks… which then begs the question, how can they feasibly store all the water they need to be prepared?
Natural Disasters
Some of the greatest threats to our way of life can come from mother nature.
Earthquakes and volcanic eruptions have been on the rise over the last few years, and depending on where you live in the world, blizzards, famines, droughts, flooding, and hurricanes present very severe risks as well.
Terrorist/EMP Attacks
The eruption of wars in the Ukraine and the Middle East, among other places, has made many people remember the days of 9/11 when the threat of a terrorist attack was very real.
A terrorist attack on the United States could target the power grid, such as an EMP attack, which in the worst case scenario would completely knock out electricity, the internet and cell services, banking services, and even most cars and planes.
This would bring a screeching halt to the supply chains like we discussed above, and it would also result in a total economic collapse and mass rioting as well. An EMP device detonated high enough in the atmosphere would be one of the most devastating and long lasting attacks that could possibly occur.
Unexpected Illnesses or Injuries
Rising medical and insurance costs has also become a chief concern for preppers, and with good reason.
All it takes is one unexpected severe illness or injury to land someone in the hospital and knock them out of commission from focusing on their preparations.
And if insurance is unable to cover those expenses, it would inflict even stronger financial hardship on families as well, thus making it even more difficult to make adequate preparations like we just discussed above.
It’s an unfortunate reality that we don’t live in a very stable world. It’s also an unfortunate reality that prepping adequately has become very difficult due to the economic burdens that many people are feeling today.
The above threats that we’ve covered are likely to be the biggest ones that we’ll face collectively in 2024.
It’s been a bumpy couple of years for the US economy. In 2020 we had the pandemic and all the government’s panic measures to slow it down, which saw the first fall in per capita GDP since the global financial crisis in 2008.
That eventually ended, despite some states trying to keep businesses closed and us stuck in our homes for as long as possible, but the pandemic dealt a massive blow to our economy.
It wasn’t much of a surprise that, as life started to return to normal, inflation started to rise fast. Then, on top of that, gas prices shot up too, reaching an all-time record in summer 2022.
There have definitely been times when it looked like the US was wobbling on the edge of an economic abyss, and a collapse seemed like a real possibility.
Everything’s fine now, though, isn’t it? Inflation is half what it was a year ago. Gas prices are high, but nowhere near as high as they were last June. Can we all relax, stop stockpiling food and ammo, and turn the vegetable garden into a flowerbed?
Not so fast.
The economy has bounced a little, but there’s no guarantee it’s going to keep on improving. In fact there are some red flags that suggest we could be facing more economic problems, even worse than the ones we’ve been through since 2020.
Inflation Is Creeping Up Again
According to the government’s July report, year-on-year inflation was 3.2% in the twelve months to July 2023.
That’s higher than it’s been for most of the last 40 years, but a long way below its terrifying peak of 9.2% in June 2022.
Unfortunately there are signs it could be heading up again.
In fact even the official figures show a slight upward tick from June’s 3.0%, and the reality could be a lot worse.
Although grocery prices are rising more slowly than they were the cost of energy is still high, and that tends to force up the price of everything else.
The post-pandemic recovery is overheating, too; GDP grew by 5.6% in the third quarter of 2023, pumping more money into the economy. Over-fast growth almost always fuels inflation.
Former White House economist Kevin Hassett is pessimistic, and thinks another wave of inflation is on its way.
The Fed Fears Recession
If high growth risks bringing inflation back, low growth would be bad for a host of different reasons – and the Federal Reserve seems to think the present economic surge isn’t going to last.
While they admit last year’s predictions of a recession were wrong, they’re less optimistic about the longer term.
Recently they’ve downgraded their predictions for growth from an annual 2.5% to 1.8%. That seems strange, considering the economic boom in the third quarter, but that’s what they’re saying.
Ironically the thing most likely to cause a recession is the Fed’s own policies. In their drive to cut inflation they’ve pushed interest rates to their highest level in more than 20 years, leaving millions of Americans struggling to pay their mortgages.
If there’s a sharp rise in repossessions people aren’t going to be happy, and with the country as angry and divided as it is now that could give our social stability a hard knock.
Debt Is Out Of Control
Kevin Hassett thinks the current administration is borrowing and spending crazy amounts of money. Many other economists agree.
The federal government is rapidly building up an already huge pile of debt.
At some point, all the money the IRS collects in taxes will be needed just to cover the interest on that debt; at this point, the idea of ever paying off the debt itself is a sick joke.
Republican lawmakers are trying to slow down the administration’s wild spending, which is why the threat of another government shutdown is looming.
Up to now these have always been ended by a compromise that lets the government borrow some extra money, but GOP patience is running out and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy is losing control over his own party.
There’s a real risk that the federal government might not be able to pay its employees. That’s going to leave millions of very unhappy people – many of them armed.
We Could End Up At War
The war in Ukraine shows no sign of ending anytime soon.
And the US is slowly being dragged deeper into it.
Ukraine, understandably, wants advanced western weapons to beat back the Russian invaders.
Whether or not helping Ukraine is the right thing to do – and it’s hard to argue the country doesn’t have a right to defend itself – there’s always a risk that if Russia starts losing badly enough they’ll lash out at anyone they blame for their problems.
And if Russian forces are being pushed back by US-made tanks and aircraft it’s not too hard to work out who they’ll blame.
It would make no sense for Vladimir Putin to attack the US, because he has no chance of winning, but Putin does a lot of things that make no sense. It’s very possible he could react in a rage, and trigger a major – maybe nuclear – war.
Things Can Get A Whole Lot Worse
For now, things seem better – a little, anyway – than they were a couple of years ago. This would be a bad time to let your guard down, though. If you know what to look for there are some warning signs it would be very dangerous to ignore.
Our economy is finely balanced, and could crash into a recession at any moment. The government is gambling dangerously with the national debt, and risking a complete collapse of the country.
You might not be able to stop the dollar from going down, but you can be less dependent on it. Saving money that’s losing its value won’t help you and your family stay afloat. Instead, consider using your money for simple projects that make you more self-sufficient.
Being prepared for the worst has never been more important, because it could be just over the horizon.
I wish I could say that this world of genocide, democide, torture, terror, and slaughter of innocents was something new, but of course it is not. The story of mankind is one of horrible brutality, and it is never-ending. The latest atrocity is the ethnic cleansing and slaughter of innocents in Palestine, and the majority are children. This is the purposeful slaughter of Palestinians at the hands of the Zionists; this after 75 years of ruthless savagery levied against them. My comments here are in no way meant to support Hamas, or any State, government, or terrorist organization, but then that is repetitive, as all States, governments, terrorists, and those who control them, are cut from the same cloth, and are pure evil. That is the nature of all States, organized ruling governments, and criminal terrorists.
Because of the history of man, many would think that his natural state would be that of evil, and given what has occurred over thousands of years, one might be justified in accepting this conclusion, but I think it is much more complicated than it appears. On the other hand, one comment I hear consistently, at least by Americans, is that most people are basically good. I think this incorrect as well, so where does that leave us? It seems to me that the natural state of man, at least psychologically, is more sympathetic and peaceful than is evident, but the stoking of hate and division by very nefarious forces, and the purposeful instilling of great fear, has been voluntarily accepted by the majority, and this has caused constant turmoil among nation-states, leading to horrendous nationalism. Because of this intentionally structured antagonism among peoples, constant war has been the result, and this has led to a common behavior that would be best described as dual hatred. What is meant by this statement, is that governments and rulers are certainly evil, but due to the intentional instilling of nationalism, the majority supports State evil due to false ‘patriotism,’ apathy, and fear; this greatly enhanced by the collectivist nature of nationalism.
We live in a ‘modern’ world where the bulk of populations, if given the opportunity to do so, will more than not, choose non-aggression, but they are willing to turn their heads in the face of brutality, war, and carnage instead of facing the truth. Human nature is fickle, and a spectacle of inverted logic. When one is confronted with a death of friend or family, there may be a cry of agony. When a small group of innocents is mercilessly slaughtered by horrendous means, torment may occur. But when thousands or millions are murdered by States and their armies, a heavy fog of indifference takes over the psyche, and a cloak of silence spreads, covering the crowd. One might say that this is just a protective mechanism, but in reality, by remaining silent, it is an acceptance of evil, which is in and of itself, evil. Until this is understood, evil will reside not only in those who perpetrate this terror, but also in those who stay silent and support or condone it.
First and foremost, there is no real war between Israel and Palestine, there is only war against Palestine. There is no war against Hamas, at least not in any conventional sense, because Hamas was created, built, funded, and supported by the Zionist Israeli government and Mossad, with the assistance of the U.S. government and the CIA. This is also true of groups like ISIS and al Qaeda. The Palestinian people have no military, no navy, no tanks, no rockets, and no arms. They are virtually helpless civilians, mostly children, locked inside a completely walled concentration camp, that is heavily guarded by the Israeli military and Mossad. They are relegated to throwing rocks at Israel’s world class military that consists of advanced weaponry that qualifies as the third most powerful military in the world. This is a slaughter and genocide of these people for political, geopolitical, and monetary purposes, and is nothing more than intentional, unbridled, and inhuman wrath against a persecuted population.
What is so confusing is that this torturous brutality, land and property confiscation, mutilation, starvation, and humiliation by Zionists against Palestinians, has gone on relentlessly for the past 75 years under the guise of a false claiming of a long-inhabited territory; all in the bogus name of defense of a forced Zionist State. But in the bright light of truth and honesty, this has been only offensive and unrestrained aggression. Zionism is not Judaism, it is a tyrannical political cult bent on power, control, and the elimination of Palestine in favor of a singular ‘Jewish’ State.. Zionism is colonialism, pure and simple, a political/nationalist movement, formed and plotted for the purpose of taking over lands of the peoples in that region, and by any means necessary. This plot was decades in the making, with deals solidified with Nazi Germany, the U.K., and the U.S. According to Jewish historian, Ilan Pappe, “Zionist leaders were well aware that implementing their project would necessitate the ethnic cleansing of the indigenous Palestinian population.”
This is a very deep and complicated subject matter, and this short essay is obviously not meant to be an historical accounting of Zionism, but it is vitally important to understand the background of this heinous movement that is not what it has always been falsely portrayed to be. There is no innocence in Zionism, as would be true of any brutal and violent nationalist movement.
The bottom line is this: We are witnessing the unrelenting genocide of a people at the hands of the world powers. It is being sold as a defensive effort due to aggressive terrorism by Hamas, an Israeli created organization, used as a patsy, whether accepted or not by the casual observer, to allow for the long-planned and final elimination of all Palestinians from their homelands. But it is so much deeper than this implies. The West, especially the United States government, the CIA, the U.S. military, and the entire U.S. military industrial complex, among many other Fascist corporate partners, are in full support of this genocide. What this means, is that the U.S. population, the masses if you will, are complicit as well in this inhumane, immoral, and brutally evil plot to slaughter and murder an entire people. They are after all, at least a majority, condoning it through taking sides, and allowing the funding of this murderous rampage with their own tax dollars stolen by the government they support.
Geopolitically, this becomes a springboard for regional or world conflict, all for the purpose of continuing the drive toward a one world government; a secret global governing cabal, which has the one goal of attaining total power and control of all populations. Depending on the agendas sought, the involvement of powers due to this plot, could include Russia, China, Iran, the entire Middle East, the U.S., the U.K., and all of NATO. One can just imagine the carnage possible in the future due to what is deceptively claimed to be a struggle between only Israel and undefended Palestine. It is anything but that, but by framing this as a localized regional conflict, the masses of plebiscites will take sides, thus allowing the rulers and their enforcement monsters, to assume a much larger aggression, and one that will affect everyone on earth.
How can any accept this horror? How can any not speak against it, and refuse to support any factions and nation-states, instead of embracing the plight of all innocent victims, regardless of sides? Condemn all who harm the innocent. Condemn the governments and rulers, and their murderous armies, who stoke and perpetuate this violent assault on civilians. People have the ability to live together in harmony, but governments have no ability to live in peace, because the only mission of ‘authority’ is to attain power and control by any means necessary in its rule based only on the dominance of others. Reclaim the higher ground as individuals, and completely eliminate and destroy all forms of government and rule, as war is their health, fear, violence, and killing are their tools, and elimination of dissent is their only means of survival.
“We will expel the Arabs and take their place. In each attack, a decisive blow should be struck resulting in the destruction of homes and the expulsion of the population.”
David Ben-Gurion: Zionist and first Prime Minister of Israel–Letters to his son, 1937
“For over four decades of the Cold War the world lived under the threat of nuclear annihilation. Nuclear powers spent two trillion dollars on nuclear arms; enough to make sure that there was overkill for the overkill. All this was kept “stable” by the concept of “Mutual Assured Destruction” which isn’t even good grammar, but certainly was MAD enough for anyone.”
But surely not as mad as our “terrorist enemies” who pray for Mutually Assured Destruction.
The media doesn’t talk much about this, but during the Cold War the US lost 7 nuclear bombs and now, more than ever, they are becoming a big threat to our national security.
The One we lost in the swamps – when the US Air Force accidentally dropped two atomic bombs on North Carolina (March 10, 1956)
An American B-52 went into a tailspin during a routine flight along the east coast, causing a pair of 4-megaton hydrogen bombs to dislodge and fall near the town of Goldsboro. A low-voltage safety switch was all that prevented a disaster. Had the bomb exploded, the blast would have been 265 times more powerful than the bomb detonated over Hiroshima and the fallout would have reached as far as Washington DC, Baltimore and New York City, given the strong northerly winds, after eviscerating Goldsboro and much of North Carolina.
Controversy continues to surround the event as newly declassified information reinforced public suspicions that one of the bombs came very close to detonating and one has never been found.
The bomb that was not found plunged into a muddy field. The tail of the bomb was discovered about 20 feet below ground, but the core has never been recovered since excavation was abandoned because of uncontrollable ground-water flooding.
To quote a sarcastic comedian: “OK… We nearly blown up one of the Carolinas, but that’s basically why we have two”.
The one we lost in British Columbia (14 February 1950)
A Convair B-36, carrying a Mark 4 nuclear bomb crashed in northern British Columbia. The B-36 had been en route from Alaska to Texas, on a mission that included a simulated nuclear attack on San Francisco. Seven hours into the flight, three of the six engines began shooting flames and were shut down, and the other three engines proved incapable of delivering full power.
The atomic bomb was jettisoned, the crew bailed out (parachuted) and 12 of the 17 men were eventually found alive.
It is said that the nuclear bomb blew up on impact with the water and only pieces remain on the bottom of the ocean. The bomb’s uranium components were lost and never recovered. According to the United States Air Force the plutonium core was not present for this simulation.
The two Nuclear Cores that not even The US Army knows where they are (March 10, 1956)
A Boeing B-47 Stratojet took off from MacDill Air Force Base, Florida for a non-stop flight to Ben Guerir Air Base, Morocco, but mysteriously disappeared.
The unarmed aircraft was carrying two capsules of nuclear weapons material in carrying cases. Since a nuclear detonation was not possible, the nuclear cores of the bombs are probably intact even today.
Despite an extensive search, no debris were found, and the crash site has never been completely located. Aircrafts last known position was over the Mediterranean Sea.
The One that “rolled” over the deck of U.S.S. Ticonderoga (5 December 1965)
31 days after Ticonderoga ‘s departure from U.S. Naval Base Subic Bay in the Philippines, an A-4E Skyhawk attack aircraft carrying a hydrogen bomb rolled off the deck of the U.S.S. Ticonderoga and fell into the Pacific Ocean. The plane and weapon sank in 16,000 feet of water and were never found. As to this day, the fate of the weapon has been a mystery.
The Two Lost Nuclear Bombs when the U.S.S. Scorpion Submarine mysteriously sank (22 May 1968)
The Nuclear Sub sank about 400 miles to the southwest of the Azores islands with 99 crewmen dying in the incident. In addition to the tragic loss of all 99 crew members, the Scorpion was carrying two nuclear weapons.
Today, the wreck of Scorpion is resting on a sandy seabed at the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean in 9,800 ft of water. The U.S. Navy periodically visits the site to conduct testing for the release of nuclear materials from the nuclear reactor and the two nuclear weapons aboard, and to determine whether the wreckage has been disturbed.
But since the site is located in international water, basically anybody can visit it.
It is true that you need some equipment to dive a probe under 9,800 ft of water, but it can be done. For example, Titanic rests under 12,500 ft of water and we managed to dive there and recover some artifacts. In fact current technology allows us to dive under 21,414 ft of water .
So you may ask yourself: wouldn’t that be too expensive? Not even 1% of the costs of building a nuclear bomb – plus: it’s not that easy. On Manhattan Project we spent $26 billion (plus 130.000 people working for more than 5 years). India, Pakistan and even North Korea spent huge fortunes before making their first nuclear bombs. Iran has been working on this for more than 7 years now, and still doesn’t have one.
Why don’t we get those two bombs out of there, before someone else will? Nobody seems to care about this nuclear threat that will eventually come as a BIG “surprise”.
It sounds outrageous to me that we’ve managed to simply lose some nuclear weapons and we’re doing nothing to recover them. We’ve made so many enemies… that “ignorance” becomes a problem of national security.
Most of our recent failures in the Middle East resulted from taking no stand and just letting events drift.
When you talk with people about crisis preparedness (be it in regards to natural disasters, war, economic collapse, terrorist attack, or whatever) you quickly realize that most folks have the same tendency to react with categorical denial of the obvious. We all create certain safe and predictable ways of dealing with the world that involve some slanting of reality. In order to cope with life, and make it more tolerable, we may distort, embellish, or ignore certain aspects of our environment, our feelings, or our memories. There are things we just don’t want to deal with because they are too painful, we fear them, or because we may get overwhelmed by such information. For most people, crisis preparedness topics fall into this category.
Curiously, the most common excuses for people refusing to prepare are also the most irrational. If you talk to people about this subject, you will most assuredly come across the following illogical reasons.
It is comforting to believe we would be safe if a city-wide crisis ever occurred. However, most of us are not prepared for living in a city without power and with low supplies if any of food and water.
If such an event happened, most people wouldn’t remain in the city they reside in for very long. Those of us who live in metropolitan areas are dependent on the things that come with it.
Cities Cannot Feed Themselves!
Every populated city is man-made. Towns are constructed so people can socialize, participate in commerce, and benefit from public services like water, sanitation, education, mail delivery, and much more. But just as we are dependent on the things a city provides, the city itself is reliant on a supply of resources like water, food, and power in order to provide that functionality. Even though water and electricity may still be available from outside of the city by means of pipelines and cabling, the population of a city still needs a regular incoming supply of food to live on.
No city is capable of feeding itself. Not one. Cities are ultimately reliant on food that is imported by farms. Without food coming in, grocery stores would run out of their stock within a week.
Risks in the City
The city can undergo a major crisis in the event of a water, food, or power shortage. In the event of a disaster, cities would face:
Riots after the collapse of social order.
Lack of water filtration or deliveries of fresh food.
A food supply shortage.
Long-term disruption of electricity.
Even though these outcomes won’t happen in every populated city, they could in yours. Let’s go over some of these scenarios:
The Collapse of Social Order
“Social order” is a fragile thing. It stands as a psychological obstruction that could easily fall apart. We have all observed massive riots in the news, many of them instigated by an unfairness of some kind that results in a dispensation of repressed anger and frustration. The L.A. riots that followed the verdict of the Rodney King trial saw Los Angeles citizens torch their own city. Residents were pulled from their own automobiles and literally beaten to death. Firemen trying to put out fires were shot at! In 2005, we all observed the violence, looting, and complete disintegration of civilization after Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans. We are days away from ending this year and 2020 wasn’t so different, and trust me when I am saying the problems are just starting.
What leads to such chaos in any of the above examples?
The concurrent disintegration of the psychological obstacle of order!
After people realized law enforcement wasn’t able to manage the chaos or weren’t around to help, the police were perceived as being incapable of protecting them. Some saw the police simply leave their posts behind to leave citizens fending for themselves, which canceled out the concept of “Law and Order”.
Nothing was stopping anyone from simply going to the local store and simply taking things without paying for them. They unleashed their frustrations about racism on innocent victims who were driving in the vicinity, and they ran amok on a path of ruin that only ceased when the National Guard, armed with rifles, arrived to restore order. As such, only the risk of sudden death brought violence and looting to a stop. It’s amazing what the sight of a rifle can do. Think about store owners seeking shelter on the roofs of their establishments armed with AK-47’s, shooting at anyone who came close.
Even worse, think about the reckless mob shooting at the rescue helicopters attempting to deliver supplies to helpless victims of the rioting. The National Guard ultimately restored order. This was an isolated incident in one city. Consider hundreds of cities going through a similar experience. Could the National Guard save them all?
Very unlikely, I’m afraid to say.
What about each town’s law enforcement divisions? They aren’t idiots; if things look bleak, they’ll choose to protect their own families first, and more than likely find safe refuge elsewhere as many officers did during the crisis in New Orleans. A pension isn’t worth dying over. Some towns could be changed into combat zones in one night. It would warrant complete military force and martial law to feasibly restore order to the area. There just aren’t enough people in the military to protect every city, should such events occur.
This downfall of social order is maybe the biggest risk to consider when contemplating remaining in a city amid a catastrophe.
What, then, would provoke this downfall of social order? An absence of three key necessities: water, food, and money. When people lack food, they may start to ravage their neighborhoods to replenish their stock. Before long, cities are under attack. Some locales may be able to keep things under control, and the Red Cross will be able to help them. Other cities will see their levels of violence escalate. Visualize the gang-ridden areas of Los Angeles, New York, Chicago, New Orleans, and St. Louis. It is unlikely people are going to behave in a civilized manner under chaotic conditions in those areas.
Already armed with guns, many people will feel the need to use them in such situations. Racial tensions have been building up to give people a reason to begin shooting at others of the same or of different colors in order to get what they want.
In the event that food and supplies make their way into chaotic cities successfully, a lack of money will lead to mass theft and looting. As crime increases, the social order will further collapse.
A lack of water will also lead to the “every man for himself” mentality, and perhaps very quickly. The disassembly of social order is disastrous since it doesn’t warrant any specific breakdown of telecommunications, a power grid, banking, or transportation. Social order is a psychological frame of mind, and any worldwide scare can hastily eliminate the mental barricade that essentially maintains order.
The Failure of Water Treatment and Delivery Systems
Can water treatment facilities prevail in the middle of a crisis? Some will and some won’t. The issue lies in determining whether the one you depend on will. Water treatment facilities rely on electricity, and experiments administered on several plants have already isolated some system weaknesses.
During one particular experiment, a water treatment plant discharged a deadly dose of fluoride into the water system. The computers mistakenly believed they were 99 years behind in distributing fluoride dosages, so they tried to adjust the difference. Anyone who was downstream and drank the water met an early death. Regardless of how much a dentist tries to say otherwise, fluoride is a lethal poison. A large disaster is probable in multiple cities.
The most vital question to ask here is what will happen if the water supply ceases to flow, or if it becomes contaminated. You might be aware that, even though individuals are able to remain alive without consuming food for as long as three weeks, ongoing consumption of water is mandatory for every human being. You can last as much as three days without drinking water, but past that, you’ll be struggling and could very quickly die.
With that said, it should come as no surprise that people will do what they feel they must to get water in order to stay alive. The hardest places to acquire water will be in populated cities. Most trusting people will assume any water stoppage will be temporary, and that the government will work diligently to resolve the deprivation. The panic will set in mere hours after a lack of flow of water, though.
A couple of days into the water shortage, people will become worryingly aware of the problem, and social order will start to collapse, as referenced in the prior chapter. People will start to scavenge for water, and they’ll immediately check retail stores first. Needless to say, in such scenarios, it won’t take long before all shelves inside these stores will be ransacked. Since the liquids won’t last for very long, you’ll see the population displace quickly, as people will relocate or go on searches for water outside of their own locales. Some will take to rivers and streams in the country, while others will go on looting sprees, stealing from homes and shops, using violence to take what they need.
Should a stoppage of water occur, you can expect the following events in run-down cities:
Small disruptions of violence while looting is happening. Retail shop owners will be inclined to defend their businesses with firearms, whether or not it is legal to do so.
Large traffic jams on outbound highways as a result of gas running out in vehicles, mid-transport, which will inevitably block main exits, trapping people in cities.
Grocery stores will be purged of all food by at least the third day of the crisis.
Farms and houses near major cities will be raided for supplies by people likely to be carrying weapons for protection and intimidation purposes.
Populations will dwindle down rapidly as a result of people abandoning their homes to find water supply sources.
A water-based epidemic will break out as people start to use rivers and streams as a bathroom. Those using streams and rivers as a toilet will infect the entire drinking water supply. Filtration units can only prevent so much and will become overrun, eventually shutting down. Once the flow of water stops, the disease will start to set in.
The Depletion of Food Supplies
Food supplies will probably diminish fast as the potential crisis draws nearer and residents will be stocking up for worse-case-scenario outcomes. After the crisis starts, anticipate disruptions in food replenishment. If food does arrive, it will be in short supply.
After this occurs, food will quickly become quite a commodity to people. As such, any shipment of food, no matter the size, will be immediately seized by the first person capable of taking it. It takes a mere 7 days of not eating before people realize how reliant they are on food, so the city will be in a state of panic if the food takes even more than a few days to be replenished.
The frenzy and hysteria to be expected will differ per city. Some towns might undergo minimal hardship obtaining food, while others will face situations involving potential starvation; cities rely on food sent from food processing companies and farms that are more often than not shipped in via road networks that may now possibly be severely disrupted if functioning at all.
Also be mindful that if there is an issue with the water supply, as referred to in the earlier chapter, bulk evacuations will begin, which will flood the highways, resulting in gridlock.
A deficiency of food eventually produces the same outcome as a shortage of water. Initially, people will feast on whatever is stored in their pantry. From there, they will loot whatever is left on grocery store shelves. Once those options are ruled out, they will start ransacking homes scouring for food. Most city folk won’t know how to hunt, so they won’t be able to acquire their own food. Anyone who is able to leave the city will do so immediately after the shortage of food kicks in.
The Failure of the Power Grid
Nothing has a greater impact on your psyche than the fear of living without something you take for granted – in this case, electricity. Without a power grid, everyone will start to panic the minute electricity conks out. Over the course of the first three hours or so of living without power, should such a disaster happen, most people will be under the mistaken assumption that the outage is only temporary.
After waiting for the power to come back on for a while, they’ll eventually grow frustrated and angry, not knowing what to do in such a circumstance. Without power, nothing operates as per the standards we’ve all become accustomed to.
The looting will begin within hours of such an outage in cities with a high crime rate. The social disorder will grow worse the longer the power remains off. The power loss will stop activity throughout the city. Automobiles will be able to function with the gas and power that remain within them, but commerce certainly won’t continue. Houses reliant on electricity to heat up their households will feel the draft the natural winter weather brings.
People who need air conditioning to remain cool in the summer will begin to feel the effects of the sweltering heat. This could be fatal, as the elderly and those with weakened immune systems could succumb to heatstroke. Police stations and hospitals will continue to run on generators, but those, too, will become depleted.
Without power, the water treatment plant will go offline, instigating the events referenced in the water section. Power is something we just can’t survive without unless we are properly prepared for such an eventuality. People might be able to survive on low levels of food supplies and water, but without electricity, the order goes completely out the window.
So what steps can you take if you live in the city in preparation for a crisis?
What you have read so far will have no doubt filled you with a sense of dread should your city ever have to deal with a crisis that results in some if not all of the problems that have been outlined previously. You will also be wondering, very wisely, what you can do to best protect you and your family if these types of situations threaten your safety.
You have two options; the first is to stay put and ride out whatever crisis is looming and the second is to leave the city at the first sign of a problem, Regardless of which option you decide best suits your situation, both will require a certain degree of planning.
The most ardent preppers will make plans to do both because with many urban crisis situations they will very often get past a critical point within a few days and recovery will often happen very quickly after that point has passed. However, there is always a chance that such a recovery is not going to be possible and it is at that time when bugging out of the city as quickly as possible would be the wisest thing to do.
Making plans for surviving a disaster or crisis situation, or prepping as it is commonly referred to, isn’t something that you can sort out in 5 minutes, it requires ongoing planning that can be quite meticulous and encompasses everything from storage of water, supplies, and medicine to communication, protection, and evacuation/relocation protocols.
It may seem like overkill to plan to this degree but when you consider that doing so could not only save your life but also the lives of your loved ones then it really does seem like the sensible thing to do, particularly in these uncertain and worrying times.
Surviving in the City
If you have decided that you don’t feel that prepping for a TEOTWAWKI (the end of the world as we know it) type situation is for you but you still want to know how to be best prepared for a short term urban-type crisis then this list is the minimum you should have for surviving a two week period with no available food, water or power.
Water: You should have at least 1 gallon of water per day, per person stored. This is primarily for drinking and food preparation. Don’t forget that your pet dog or cat will need water too!
Food: You should look to store plenty of non-perishable foods that do not require cooking and that are high in energy and protein. Anything canned or in a jar is a great idea. Peanut butter is a high-energy food source that keeps really well. If you have a baby or toddler, remember to store formula or jars of baby food. Don’t forget pet food too. It’s also a good idea to write the contents directly onto all tins and jars with a permanent marker in case labels fall off, something that tends to happen a lot with flooding situations. Meals ready to eat, MRE are a great idea too as they can be stored for a long time, years in fact!
Important note: Always make sure you have a can opener or two stored away!
Medicines: You should always have a well-equipped first aid kit containing all the essential and prescribed medicines your family will need.
Lighting: If you are without power for two weeks then lighting will be essential. A hand-cranked lamp or kerosene lanterns as well as some torches with plenty of spare batteries are ideal. Before using always ensure your premises are light sealed; you do not want to draw attention to yourselves as having stuff others want.
Radio: A hand-cranked or battery-operated radio for getting essential updates. Don’t waste battery life by listening to music, if you can find any!
Warmth: Blankets, sleeping bags, thick sweaters, woolly hats, and gloves. You will probably have most of this in your home already; just make sure it is to hand for when you need it.
Communication: Hopefully mobile phone networks will still be up so make sure you have fully charged phones or spare fully charged batteries. Walkie-talkies are handy and can be purchased relatively cheaply nowadays. A whistle is a simple yet effective way to communicate and costs next to nothing.
Money: Cash machines will not be working at best, destroyed and ransacked at worst so always make sure you have a stash of hard cash available.
This list is what I would class as being absolutely essential for surviving two weeks in your own home and in all fairness I’m only scratching the surface of what you may need. I haven’t even mentioned sanitation, hygiene, and home and personal protection which in the city, depending on your neighborhood, could prove more important to your survival than anything else!
My hope is that by reading this article and putting into action some of the steps I’ve outlined for surviving a short-term urban crisis you will be more prepared and ready should anything happen to your city.
More than 5 billion people would die of hunger following a full-scale nuclear war between the U.S. and Russia, according to a global study led by Rutgers climate scientists that estimates post-conflict crop production.
“The data tell us one thing: We must prevent a nuclear war from ever happening,” said Alan Robock, a Distinguished Professor of climate science in the Department of Environmental Sciences at Rutgers Universityand co-author of the study. Lili Xia, an assistant research professor in the Department of Environmental Sciences at Rutgers,is lead author of the study published in the journal Nature Food.
Building on past research, Xia, Robock and their colleagues worked to calculate how much Sun-blocking soot would enter the atmosphere from firestorms that would be ignited by the detonation of nuclear weapons. Researchers calculated soot dispersal from six war scenarios – five smaller India-Pakistan wars and a large U.S.-Russia war – based on the size of each country’s nuclear arsenal.
These data then were entered into the Community Earth System Model, a climate forecasting tool supported by the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR). The NCAR Community Land Model made it possible to estimate productivity of major crops (maize, rice, spring wheat and soybean) on a country-by-country basis. The researchers also examined projected changes to livestock pasture and in global marine fisheries.
Under even the smallest nuclear scenario, a localized war between India and Pakistan, global average caloric production decreased 7 percent within five years of the conflict. In the largest war scenario tested – a full-scale U.S.-Russia nuclear conflict – global average caloric production decreased by about 90 percent three to four years after the fighting.
Crop declines would be the most severe in the mid-high latitude nations, including major exporting countries such as Russia and the U.S., which could trigger export restrictions and cause severe disruptions in import-dependent countries in Africa and the Middle East.
These changes would induce a catastrophic disruption of global food markets, the researchers conclude. Even a 7 percent global decline in crop yield would exceed the largest anomaly ever recorded since the beginning of Food and Agricultural Organization observational records in 1961. Under the largest war scenario, more than 75 percent of the planet would be starving within two years.
Researchers considered whether using crops fed to livestock as human food or reducing food waste could offset caloric losses in a war’s immediate aftermath, but the savings were minimal under the large injection scenarios.
“Future work will bring even more granularity to the crop models,” Xia said.
“For instance, the ozone layer would be destroyed by the heating of the stratosphere, producing more ultraviolet radiation at the surface, and we need to understand that impact on food supplies,” she said.
Climate scientists at the University of Colorado, which partnered with Rutgers on the study, are also creating detailed soot models for specific cities, such as Washington, D.C., with inventories of every building to get a more accurate picture of how much smoke would be produced.
Robock said researchers already have more than enough information to know that a nuclear war of any size would obliterate global food systems, killing billions of people in the process.
“If nuclear weapons exist, they can be used, and the world has come close to nuclear war several times,” Robock said. “Banning nuclear weapons is the only long-term solution. The five-year-old UN Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons has been ratified by 66 nations, but none of the nine nuclear states. Our work makes clear that it is time for those nine states to listen to science and the rest of the world and sign this treaty.”
The Rutgers-led study was conducted with scholars at institutions around the world, including Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Louisiana State University, the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies, Columbia University, the National Center for Atmospheric Research, the University of Colorado Boulder, and Queensland University of Technology.
Historically speaking, inflation or stagflation have always been disastrous affairs. One is hard pressed to find any legitimate examples of a country that experienced an aggressive inflationary episode that came out better for it. A rare scenario would be one in which a nation inflates to fund a war that they then win, but usually negative consequences still happen later down the road.
The problem is that the effects of inflation can be subtle and far reaching, quietly creeping up on a population until suddenly there’s a tidal wave of societal crises. In the U.S. (and much of the western world) we are already witnessing elements of inflationary disaster; there’s a good reason why around 60% of Americans now have a pessimistic view of the future. A majority of people say life is worse for them today than it was in the past.
These kinds of dark sentiments usually coincide with inflationary or deflationary pressures. Inflation in particular can be devastating because it represents an ever expanding hidden tax on the life of each citizen. Not only that, but the cure is often worse than the disease, with central banks instituting interest rate hikes that continue longer than most people expect, which eventually lead to an engineered deflationary kick in the gut for the economy. For a time, prices will remain high on an array of necessities while wages stagnate, consumer demand shrinks and businesses go bankrupt as borrowing becomes impossible.
A system might be able to absorb this shock as long as it is not burdened with immense debt. In the case of the U.S., we are heavily burdened with over $33 trillion in national debt (officially) and over $17 trillion in consumer debt. The damage from stagflation and the Federal Reserve’s inevitable response will make matters worse.
So what should we expect?
More labor strikes
Labor strikes tend to occur in inflationary environments because, at least initially, demand for labor is high, giving labor more leverage against businesses. When people know they can easily jump into another job tomorrow the temptation is to leave their current job at the drop of a hat today.
Strikes were a common crisis in Weimar, Germany and Yugoslavia among others, in some cases because of legitimate concerns and in other cases because of communist provocateurs. The stagflation of the 1970s led to what is known as the “decade of strikes” in the U.S., with labor seeking higher wages to offset rising prices. The strikes sometimes lead to higher wages, which then in turn only lead to even higher prices as production shrinks and the costs are transferred to the consumer.
Wages are stagnant in the U.S., even after the minimum wage unofficially doubled due to labor shortages. Labor demand is high (for now), but the difference in our era compared to previous inflation events is that the vast majority of labor is focused into superfluous markets. It’s not as if manufacturing is a major component of the U.S. economy anymore. Rather, most employment is in the service sector.
No one really cares if McDonalds workers or Walmart workers or Hollywood writers go on strike. This does little to affect their daily lives. What it does do, though, is wear down the business sector over time until a portion of employers eventually downsize operations. If you have enough strikes and businesses can’t find workers in certain regions, they will close up shop and cut their losses. There were multiple incentives for major manufacturers to leave the U.S. for places like China in the 1970s and 1980s, but the constant union strikes during that period played a large part in the decision.
Today, you will have retail and food deserts; places where no businesses will dare set down roots because they can’t keep their stores staffed. In the end, the jobs disappear entirely.
Rising crime and government lies
Speaking of retail deserts, spiking crime rates are another factor that drives employers away from certain neighborhoods and cities.
Obviously this is a situation we are seeing play out in the past couple of years, but the interesting thing is the level of disinformation and denial that public officials have displayed in response. There has been a conspiracy among certain leftist state and local governments and the corporate media to dismiss or hide the rising crime problem in the U.S. The most important aspect of this has been the bizarre overhaul in the way U.S. cities report crime stats to the FBI and to the public.
It’s just a coincidence I’m sure, but starting around the beginning of the Covid pandemic there was a shift in procedures for criminal data reporting within the federal government. That change has allowed a number of cities to withhold crime stats until the new system is finished; this means that some cities will not be reporting reliable stats until 2024-2025.
So, when a leftist journalist says “Gee, conservatives keep complaining about rising crime in San Francisco, but crime is actually going down…” this is a lie. Cities like San Francisco are simply not required to provide full criminal reports for another year.
The crime rate is not only a symptom of high prices. That is a part of it, but the atmosphere of chaos that surrounds inflation also acts as a kind of signal to the mentally unstable and morally corrupt. Bad people will slither out of the woodwork because they view the instability as good cover for their criminal activities. With enough crime overwhelming police, a larger percentage of miscreants are likely to escape scrutiny.
More looting
Again, this is happening right now, but it is generally limited to short bursts in compact urban settings. As inflationary heat boils over, looting will become a daily occurrence and it will move away from retail areas into residential areas.
The fascinating thing about looting is that if you have one man stealing from a store, he is considered a criminal. If you have a group of people stealing from a store, suddenly they become “activists” that are fulfilling their “right to reparations.” There is a political weaponization of looters in the midst of inflation.
The looters are not looting because prices are higher and they need the resources, they are looting because inflation gives them an excuse to loot and political elements are encouraging them to do so.
Population migrations
Inflationary effects can move awkwardly through an economy, with some places far more damaged than others depending on how local governments respond. The worst governments will react with higher taxes in order to offset falling revenues in other areas. They will also reduce public services in order to save money, and this includes reductions in police even in the face of higher crime.
As people realize they are living in a dead zone that is draining their bank accounts dry, they will try to leave if they can. In the U.S., people have migrated by the millions away from blue states in the past few years, but this was more to do with them escaping Covid mandates and lockdowns than escaping economic malaise. The next wave of migrations will happen because of financial decline and the crime that comes with it.
This happens during most economic crisis events. It was common during the Great Depression to see Americans moving around like nomads to places they thought had more work and more prosperity – just like in John Steinbeck’s novel The Grapes of Wrath. Men left their families for jobs across the country so they could send money back home. The homeless spread out from urban areas into the countryside to beg for work or food from farmers.
During inflation, the cost of relocation can be debilitating. There will come a point when moving will be impossible. Until then there will be a swell of populations flowing like water from one place to the next seeking relief from the storm. Expect to see nomadic cultures return to the U.S. with RV caravans, tiny home meccas, tent cities and Hoovervilles (called “Bidenvilles” this time, perhaps).
Balkanization
In the former Yugoslavia, economic disaster accelerated existing social and political divisions to the point of national breakup. “Balkanization” is the fragmentation of a nation into smaller, mutually-hostile (or at least uncooperative) regions.
These kinds of conditions might be a way down the road for the U.S., or, they might be a lot closer than you think. In our case, the divisions will be between the people that want to continue going down the path that is taking us to oblivion, and the people who want to stop and reverse course.
It might seem like insanity, but a large part of the American populace still thinks the direction we are going is necessary and beneficial. They think the destruction of western culture is part of the greater good, that economic calamity is a means to an end and that they will be largely unaffected. There are also people who are just plain stupid and don’t realize that they’re supporting policies which will end up making their lives significantly worse.
Inflation creates chaos, but it can also bring clarity. That which is truly important moves to the forefront of the public mind. The decadent and the vile can no longer hide, but float to the surface like so much putrid ocean froth. People figure out quickly what they can live with and what they’d rather live without. Take steps now to prepare yourself and your family from the chaos ahead. Make certain you have untrackable, uninflatable and totally anonymous stores of wealth (necessities like food and water for survival, barter goods for trade and physical gold and silver for everything else). When you depend others for your very necessities, you’re at their mercy. They have you right where they want you.
Entire subcultures will form and separate to survive and thrive while other groups will try to stop them. Conflict is probably inevitable (as it was in Yugoslavia) but the point remains: Inflationary crisis has the ability to change almost everything.
This is no longer about prices – it’s about survival.
SURVIVAL BLOG 