Category: Prepper

No One Is Coming To Save You: You’re on Your Own When it Comes to Civil Defense-Government Will Not Do Anything to Protect You as That is Counterproductive to Their ‘Strategy’

Sometime between the First World War and the start of the Second World War the concept of civil defense or civil protection was born. The original purpose was to protect civilians from aerial bombing. After World War Two, the United States dismantled its civil defense corps. With the US the sole possessor of atomic weapons, there was no perceived need to spend money on civil defense. That perception did not last long due to the Soviet Union testing their first nuclear weapon in 1949. President Truman re-established civil defense with the goal of protecting the civilian population against a nuclear attack.

Over the next 29 years there would be several renditions of civil defense until the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) was formed. President Carter empowered FEMA to prepare for disasters and to continue civil defense efforts. In 1994, with the repeal of the Civil Defense Act of 1950, FEMA suspended preparations for nuclear attack. Without the federal mandates and grant requirements many states started to follow suit. Following the terror attacks of 2001 and the advent of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), FEMA started to plan for a nuclear terrorist attack. The problem with the current DHS/FEMA nuclear terrorist attack planning is that DHS/FEMA assumes that only one city will be attacked. Other assumptions include a relatively low-yield weapon and that the unaffected surrounding areas can assist with the response. The current DHS/FEMA guidance is totally insufficient to address the needs from multiple nuclear weapons detonating across the nation.

With the current situation in Eastern Europe it is extremely important to understand both the past civil defense capabilities and the current non-existent civil defense capabilities of the United States but we also need to understand the civil defense capabilities of the former Soviet Union and those of Russia today.

It is important to understand past civil defense capabilities so that as the war in Eastern Europe widens, we can understand why our elected officials will do nothing to protect our nation. We also need to understand that the Russians will take steps to protect their population.

To start with, we a;; probably have heard of the concept of Mutually Assured Destruction (MAD). The basic premise of MAD was that if two adversaries started to launch nuclear weapons at each other, both sides would suffer massive damage to both its population and its economy, thus fighting the war doesn’t gain either nation anything. The United States adopted this theory, however the Soviet Union did not. There were great debates about whether or not the United States should pursue an extensive civil defense program. This brings up the concept that a nation’s Civil Defense capabilities can play into the nation’s strategic capabilities just like nuclear weapons. To be clear, when a nation chooses to have, or not to have, a robust national civil defense program it isn’t necessarily about protecting people but rather “the system”. The United States believed that if it took prudent civil defense steps then that would somehow diminish our nation’s vulnerability, hence we would not be subscribing to MAD because we, in fact, have not assured our destruction. More on this later.

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The Soviets on the other hand had a much more robust civil defense program. The Soviets spent about ten times as much money on their civil defense than the US. Why? Simply because the Soviets never subscribed or followed the concept of vulnerability, in other words, the Soviets never believed in the MAD theory. While the US decided to be weak, so as to say look if we exchange nuclear weapons we looe so we really don’t want to play that game, the Soviet Union actively planned not only to fight a nuclear war but took steps to “win” it. This is extremely important to understand. Those in the upper echelons of the current Russian government are products of the Cold War and Cold War strategies and tactics run through their sins and brains.

At this point in time, the US still holds dear its strategy of being vulnerable. We have heard Biden state that Putin isn’t bluffing about using nuclear weapons and that we are facing Armageddon, so why is thee no big push to dust off old civil defense plans and not just by the executive branch or the democrats but the GOP is silent on the issue of civil defense? So the US government is still subscribing to the “let’s be vulnerable” theory within MAD while the Russians are planning to win. Basically, the two nations are planning for and practicing two different “games”, and when they meet for “game day” it won’t be good for us.

Since people are creatures of habit we can assume that both Russian and US leaders will fall back to the concepts of the Cold War as tensions escalate to the nuclear level. Back in the Cold War era the anti-civil defense crowd actually argued that no American president would contemplate America’s civil defense capabilities when making a decision to launch nuclear weapons. This is not only wrong, nut we can actually prove that it is wrong! During the Cuban Missile Crisis President Kennedy specifically asked about our civil defense status and how those capabilities would have us fair if Soviet missiles hit the US. Going back to the concept of Civil Defense, as a strategic capability, we can see that when the closest thing we have had to a nuclear war played out, civil defense was in the equation. And just so you know, the answer President Kennedy received wasn’t a good one. While the Soviet Union prepared blast shelters for their nation the US focused on “fallout” shelters. The fallout shelter system was specifically designed to protect people from radiation not the other blast effects from a nuclear weapon such as the fireball and shockwave.

With the Soviets not following the vulnerability concept of MAD, the US government believed that about 90% of the Soviet Union’s population would survive an attack by the US with nuclear weapons, compared to about 20% for the US. At least that was the US number up until the US government started what is known as “Crisis Relocation” in the 1980s. With crisis relocation, that is, evacuating urban areas to rural areas, the US government believed it could increase the survival of the population to around 80%. The only problem with the concept of crisis relocation for nuclear attack is that the plans assumed we would have one-week advance warning before the missiles started to fly, from what I understand, at the time, Soviet nuclear missiles were liquid-fueled and the missiles were not kept fueled due to corrosions issues with the fuel and it would take about a week to fuel them for an attack.

So how does this all relate to the current situation?

Understand that Russia’s new 5th-generation warfare strategy has an “escalate to de-escalate” component. That is Russia plans to “escalate” tensions with the threat of nuclear attack in order to have the other side come running to the negotiating table. This escalation could be achieved by mere threat however the US/NATO are not buying into the threat which means that the risk for Russia to have to resort to some type of actual use of nuclear weapons increases. The thing about nuclear arsenals is sort of like in the movies when one person shoots, everyone lets loose.

Russia still believes it can win a nuclear war. The old communist lead anti-nuclear weapons crowd liked to say that nuclear war was “unthinkable”, but we should think about nuclear war critically, considering the destructive power and the number of nuclear weapons on the planet and we also better be prepared for when they are launched. Since the US has no real civil defense capability, it is conceivable that the US could be placed in a very bad geopolitical bargaining situation since our population is so vulnerable and the Russian population is not.

Both Russia and the US will revert back to the Cold War strategies when they face the next “Cuban Missile Crisis” arising out of the Ukraine war. Russia will perceive that it can win a nuclear war while the US will perceive that Russia will not launch since they too will loss a lot of people and economic capability. Keep this in mind, the Soviets were expected to lose 20 million people in a US retaliatory nuclear strike, that is 10 million fewer people than they lost in all of World War Two. Sounds like a win to me.

If the situation gets bad enough you will see an evacuation out of the cities. Polls conducted in the late 1970s indicated that there would be two distinct evacuation waves. First would be the spontaneous evacuees who leave the cities without there being an official evacuation order. The second wave will be those leaving when the official order is given. According to the polling data, many of the spontaneous evacuees in the first wave would be going to “friends and relatives” in the country. What isn’t identified in the polling data is whether or not those relatives and friends in the county know those people are coming their way. Crisis relocation when implemented will have profound effects on those living in rural areas. One other thing to keep in mind about crisis relocation is that there was a debate that as soon as one nation saw the other nation evacuating their cities an attack would be launched. There was no indication that either the Soviets (Russians) or the US targeted the evacuation “reception” area with nuclear weapons, however Russian nukes are somewhat larger in there megatons of TNT power. I suspect that this was done due to the Soviet missiles not being as accurate as the US missiles.

This presentation PROOVES WITHOUT DOUBT that America is in for a major fight that will put you and your family in the firing line, literally… So make sure you watch this presentation while it’s still online…

The reason why you should pay attention now is that is because these techniques don’t come from books, they’re taken from actual 21st century warzones, from lawless states where social chaos is the name of the game… … and where not having enough time or money to prepare doesn’t stop real-world preppers from creating virtually impenetrable defenses for their families.

With today’s hypersonic missiles the concept of crisis relocation may or may not be moot. I suspect there may be a few people who still self-evacuate out of the cities before a warning. I would, however, suspect that if one side did order an official evacuation of cities that then that would trigger an immediate attack. If you even hear discussion of crisis relocation or evacuation you should take this as warning that the crisis is spiraling closer to missile launch.

Stop believing that survival isn’t possible, that is if you don’t live in a large city or military target. Location is one of the best factors helping to ensure your survival in a nuclear exchange.

There is a belief, or hope, that nuclear weapons will not be used. Just remember that “hope” is not a plan. Government will not do anything to protect you as that is counterproductive to their “strategy”. That means You’re on Your Own (YOYO) when it comes to civil defense.

Take steps to plan for and implement a fallout shelter in your home now. There are still a number of good sources of information on this on the internet today. Start looking for in now and reading it. Second, locate and acquire any needed equipment and supplies you may need. I have a gun range on the property with a large backstop that is filled with sand. We will use the loader on the tractor to scoop out the sand and bring it closer to the house where we will then fill feed sacks up with the sand and place them inside the house on the floor above where we will be sheltering. We have on hand, wood and jack post to beef up the support of the floor joist due to the added weight of the sand. We will also put dirt up against the foundation for added protection. In the basement we will construct an area where we can sit and lay that will have additional dense materials (things like ammo cans) on top for additional shielding. Planning and preparing for the protection against fallout now will give you and your family an immense leg up when the time comes to act.

We can anticipate that at some point Russia will give the West an ultimatum. Russia has already told the West to stop interfering or else. The ultimatum that we should be looking for is one with a specific date and time. Of course the West will not comply with the ultimatum and this will probably mean the end of Putin’s power or Putin will push the button.

Never underestimate the power of stupid people. There are people on both sides who train regularly to launch or drop nuclear weapons at a moment’s notice. They go through quick reaction drills so that the motions become second nature, so that when the order is given these people resort to just going through the motions like they have hundreds of times before, verses thinking about the ramification of what they are about to do.

The old Cold War analysis predicted that most Americans would need to shelter from radiation for a two-week period. That means literally staying in a very confined area for sleeping, food prep, going to the bathroom and everything else. I’m sure with our current generation’s addiction to electronic devices the mere withdrawal from these games due to the combination of the effects of EMP, no power and no Internet connectivity will be just as challenging as trying to live in cramped quarters for two weeks. Statistically speaking, I have lived over half my life. What this means is I can afford to absorb a little more radiation than my kids who are in their teens still. This won’t mean anything the first week since radiation level will be so high that it could cause radiation sickness even with only a few minutes of exposure. The second week, depending upon actual radiation reading, I could probably do a quick task like taking out garbage or human waste. Perhaps I would even go out to the barn and throw a few bales of hay out for any surviving animals. The most likely farm animal to survive will be chickens, since they can withstand an impressive amount of radiation.

Fortunately, we have metering for measuring radiation. I have sat my daughter down and taught her how to use them. I have taken background radiation readings in areas where we are going to shelter. It is good to know what your normal level of radiation is. The background levels of radiation were written down for several areas. One where we are going to actually shelter, then a reading at the door to the room that has the door to the outside and the third reading was at the door itself. The readings were annotated and then laminated and attached to the handles of various meters.

Nuclear war is survivable but you need to take action to be prepared. If you live in a location that isn’t a target but will probably be affected by radioactive fallout it would be a shame to die slowly from radiation poisoning that could have been avoided with some very simple preparedness.

Regardless of what does or doesn’t happen with the current war in Europe, the notion that we will not be confronted with another geopolitical crisis where the chances of a nuclear war increase is very naive. At some point we will be in the same situation with China. Perhaps that will be sooner than anyone realizes. Prepare now.

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What Would Happen if We Lost Electricity for a Lengthy Period of Time? I Reached a Strange but Compelling Conclusion: The Food Distribution System Would Collapse

It does not take much imagination to realize that our society will come crashing down without the cheap, steady flow of electricity. The world’s electric grids are the lifeblood of our modern lifestyle. Many predictions believe that if the electrical grid was shut down, by something like an electromagnetic pulse (EMP) or a very strong Coronal Mass Ejection (CME), then civilization would be thrown back into the 1800s. Some predictions even think the 1700s or even further back. Regardless of what time period we are all transported back to, we are going to have to find ways to replace all the modern conveniences, instantly made useless, that we currently depend upon for our daily life and survival.

As a society, we do not realize how good we have it. Americans and others enjoy several hours of “free time” compared to those living in the 1700s and 1800s. All that “free time” will evaporate along with the electricity. Many of us stock months or years of food and other supplies to hopefully survive long enough for society to get back on its feet, that is for the power to be restored.  Society getting back on its feet will take people with the knowledge, skills, and the tenacity that spurred the Industrial Revolution. However, unlike our ancestors, our generation will have some disadvantages. These disadvantages are nothing that cannot be overcome with a little foresight and preparation.

When the great industrialists and inventors of the late 19th and early 20th century invented, developed, and manufactured their products, they were built with the technology of their day. It was the blacksmiths and their forges that helped build the machines and tools used to usher in the Industrial Revolution. It was computer-programming languages like Pascal and COBOL that laid the foundation for our current digital technological wonders, like artificial intelligence. But as technology progresses, the old technology disappears the building blocks to help rebuild from a catastrophic collapse are lost. So, in order for the people in today’s world to start re-building the low technology machines of the early 1900s the technology of the late 1800s will have to be recreated.

A DAY IN THE LIFE OF THE APOCALYPSE

I like reading post-apocalyptic fiction, but it never ceases to amaze me how many authors make a day in the life of an apocalypse survivor seem like a cakewalk. Can this be what the authors really think life will be like? We moved to our bug-out-location full-time in the summer of 2019. Our “spare” time is spent building infrastructure for us to use to survive TEOTWAWKI. We have cows, pigs and chickens. Feeding and watering our animals, who will feed us, takes about a half hour to hour each day thanks to electric.  In the summer watering is an easy task, but when the temperatures fall, the days become shorter and snow is on the ground, it is not so easy. Then I think about how my ancestors had to manage these same chores and how good I really do have it.

Last year we did not have any electricity in our barn. This year we do and we feel spoiled. I recently sold two piglets to an Amish neighbor. I realized how much we take for granted something as simple as lights in a barn. When we got to the Amish neighbor’s barn with his piglets, his wife and a few kids were busy milking the family cow as we got the piglets into their new home by the light of headlamps. Thinking about this, most tasks we do in the night will be done with light from some other source than a lightbulb powered by the grid.  I see and hear many preppers talk about having generators and fuel stored but at some point, those will be used up.  Then, our survival will be by the sweat of our brow, instead of the internal combustion engine or the electric motor powering the world.

So, how do we prepare to live a life that resembles that of the 1700s or 1800s? Very simply, we find the tools, devices and methods used in those time periods and learn how to use them. Let us look at some long-forgotten things and some items that are still around but their utility has been marginalized compared to what it was back in the pre-industrial revolution days.

CALLUSES WILL MAKE THE WORLD GO AROUND, NOT OIL

About 42% of Americans are deemed to be “overweight” compared to about 10% in the 1950’s. Instead of burning hundreds of calories collecting and cutting wood to stay warm, we instead turn up the thermostat via our smartphone without expending 100 calories. Our great technological advances have, unfortunately, made us lazy. Our lives do not require us to burn calories doing simple everyday tasks that need to be done for our survival. I think it was in the movie Cool Hand Luke, where one of the characters says, “Laziness breeds inefficiency.” It isn’t that we want to be lazy, it is that societal norms have driven many of us to a life style that does not necessitate much, if any, manual labor.  However, when technology fails, we become an inefficient society. As Preppers, we should not fall into this trap.

I like to use non-powered hand tools when I can. Why? Simply so my body becomes accustomed to using those tools. I can also gauge how long a task may take in a post the end of the world as we know it (TEOTWAWKI) world.  It also keeps me from falling into a pattern of always choosing the easiest way to do something (That is not to say I do not own and use cordless tools). It is good to sometimes do things “the hard way” that way when we are not given a choice, we don’t view it as “the hard way” but just another way. Of all the years reading about survival, I have never read anything about the need for calluses for survival. Our forefathers had callused hands, we need to consider this and try to get our hands prepared for hard use in a post-electrified world. The good news is developing calluses on our hand does NOT require money but rather time. The best way to do this is to look for tasks that you will have to do post-TEOTWAWKI. For example, I split our wood with a hand maul. Other examples could be using a shovel instead of a snow blower or using a rake instead of a lawn tractor to bag the Fall leaves for composting. Get your hands prepared now, they will thank you later.

WHEN THE #10 CANS AND 5 GALLON BUCKETS RUN OUT

I consider myself Blessed to have a decent supply of food stored away, but I do not have illusions that the world will be “back to normal”, should we suffer an EMP or massive CME, before our food runs out. That means we must be ready to scale up our food production right after a TEOTWAWKI event. To do this, we have had to study the past to prepare for our future. As agriculture has changed, it has gotten to the point where it is highly dependent upon electricity, like everything else in our world. As a Prepper, I am trying to be prepared to farm without all the new farming technology. Some of our adaptions follow.

CULTIVATION

With a little education and preparedness, we do not have to live like a peasant in medieval times post-TEOTWAWKI. Instead of your family and others spending most of the day tilling the land with shovels, we can incorporate some more modern technology to help grow our crops. There are two basic choices, hand tools or implements that are pulled or pushed.  At one point in history, humans pulled plows but animals, being more efficient, quickly replaced humans. Some of the first plows in the American colonies were made of wood then metal ones became all the rage around the 1880s. A post-TEOTWAWKI world will require us, at some point, to till the land. We have several raised beds and three patches of land that we currently rototill. Since these plots are already tilled regularly, they will be somewhat easier to till in the future without modern means. So, perhaps I do not need a single bottom plow and a team of oxen, perhaps I can get by with an old-style push powered wheeled cultivator to break up our soil. The nice capability of some of the push-powered wheeled cultivators is that you could change the “implements” depending upon the task needing to be done.  Another possibility is the use of pigs.  Pigs are very good at breaking up the ground by rooting with their snout.

PLANTING

A good old-fashioned seed broadcaster maybe a good device to put back as well. The good news is they still manufacture these. I use mine in the mid-Spring to seed my hay field. I use a technique an old timer passed down to me. The method requires no tilling of the dirt. Just broadcast the seed right before it rains. When it rains, the seed will be transported into the “duff” or layer of decaying materials, where it should spout. I did this and had decent results. Another variation of this method was to broadcast the seed on a very dewy morning. Many of us may garden now but when commercial food production is non-existent, our gardening will need to expand to ensure we have food to last until the next harvest. A wheeled seeder will make quick work of planting many seeds and the saved time can be used for other important tasks. I normally plant my direct sow seeds individually by hand but post-TEOTWAWKI I will definitely be using the wheeled planter.

GROUND-DRIVEN

I originally was not going to get into haying, but I saw an opportunity to buy some used haying equipment cheaply.  My tractor is on the smaller side so it will not run many of the newer power-take-off (PTO) driven implements.  Instead, I bought a ground drive rake and Tedder that is powered by the wheels turning that in turn moves a chain to turn the rake and Tedder.   Some would buy these pieces of equipment, manufactured long before I was born, as antiques but they will be operable in the post-TEOTWAWKI world.  The Amish still use ground drive technology and have even offered to buy mine since these implements are getting harder to find.  If the tractor can no longer operate, the ground drive equipment can be powered by oxen or horses.

HARVESTING

We have a couple old scythes that we can cut hay with or if we can use to cut grains like wheat or oats with.  We even have extra handles put aside.  Once a year we take them out and use them for a half hour or so.  I have been studying the old art of making a haystack since we will not be putting our hay into hay bales post-TEOTWAWKI. Using a scythe takes some coordination and of course muscle.  We also have some hand-held corn cutters for taking down stalks of corn, as well as, hand cranked corn-shellers that quickly and efficiently take the corn kernels off the cob.  For out fruit trees we have a hand-held harvester that is a basket, made of wire, mounted on a long wood pole, that helps get the fruit high up in the trees.

HOURGLASSES

Many people no longer require hourglasses.  Their usefulness has been relegated to a timer for board games.  I recently picked up a vintage brass hourglass that wasn’t made in China.  I timed the amount of time it took the grains of sand to empty several times.  It took 3 minutes 15 seconds for it to empty so I assumed this was an old egg timer since it takes roughly 3 minutes to soft boil a chicken egg.  The survival value in being able to measure the cook time of an egg is to help ensure the food is properly cooked thus limiting the possibility of contracting salmonella. An hourglass can also be used to time other processes as well.

THE ICE HOUSE

Where we live there are a few different sects of Amish.  Some are allowed to use propane fired refrigeration, others rely upon the use of ice.  Unlike the ice houses of 100 plus years ago, the Amish have capitalized on the use of Styrofoam.  I have not been inside an Amish ice house yet, but have seen several from the outside and talked to a few Amish about them. I have also studied their making via the internet.  So, where do the Amish get their ice for their ice houses?  One day, the wife and I stopped at one of the local Amish bulk food stores.  Outside were four pallets of red, 5-gallon plastic buckets with more scattered around their lawn.  I asked if they were selling the buckets and they said “no” they were for making ice for ice houses.  I talk to them about how they did it and they giggled and said they just put the buckets outside and let them fill up with rain water and then let them freeze, then get them out and stack them in the ice house.  From talking with them their stored ice will last until the next winter.  So, now we have another use for all those empty 5-gallon food buckets after TEOTWAWKI.

KITCHEN UTENSILS AND THE LIKE

There is no doubt that modern conveniences have drastically lessened the time for meal preparation.  While today meal preparation ranges from 20 minutes to about an hour our foremothers were not so lucky.  Eating is one of the basic survival tasks that we all must accomplish, but today most people don’t even consider it a “survival” task. Many of the kitchen utensils that our grandmothers used have been pretty much replaced with gadgets with electric motors. Blenders, food processors, electric coffee pots, toasters, have helped save time in the kitchen. I have been to homes that don’t even have a simple potato masher, since the people use instant potatoes. Many of the mixing spoons and spatulas are now made of cheap plastic and are from China. Good quality kitchen knives, that keep a good sharp edge, are no longer needed since food bought at the Piggly Wiggly is often already cut and cooked and just needs heated up in the microwave. We need to realize that, in the post-TEOTWAWKI world, we are all going to revert back to being our own butcher, baker and candle stick maker. Good quality knives will make our work both safer and quicker. Hand cranked meat grinders and food choppers will also save on time.

One of the assumptions, that I have made about post-TEOTWAWKI life, is that we will be needing larger pots and pans. Why? First, the preservation of the harvest will be much easier. This past Fall I spent a lot of energy and effort in preserving sweet corn. If I had had larger stock pots, I could have processed the corn much faster and saved on propane as well. I have picked up several large commercial grade pots and pans from the Salvation Army for next harvest season and for our post end of the world kitchen that will probably be feeding more than four people. When I go to auctions and second-hand stores, I am always looking for usable crocks. These will be used for brining, fermenting and storing things like meat, kraut and vinegar. Besides utensils I have been stocking up on packages of cheese cloth and 100% cotton muslin cloth for various task such as pressing apples. Since paper towels will be quickly used up, I have also stocked up on 100% cotton flour sack kitchen towels that can be washed and reused.

TUBS AND BASINS

Another item I do not recall being discussed in the Prepper world in having tubs and basins stored away. The good news is that most people do not see the utility in the old galvanized tubs anymore. In many instances their usefulness has been relegated to being a decorative plant holder so they are normally cheap on the second-hand market. In the late 1800s and early 1900s the old galvanized tub was the world’s washing machine and in many cases their bathtub too. Keeping things clean will help in cutting down on disease and in the case of clothes may prolong their life. I have a few ceramic wash basins and pitchers to use for personal hygiene in the post-electric world much like people used in the past.

COGS, SPROCKETS, BEARINGS, PULLEYS AND BELTS . . . OH MY.

We all use mechanical advantage in our everyday lives, but for the most part, we never give it much thought. We purchase our tools and devices with the calculations and parts already figured out and put together. At some point, in the post-electric world, people will need to hobble together machinery to help perform simple tasks. I will go out on a limb and say that most people, probably do not have an on-hand supply of cogs, sprockets, bearings, pulleys, and various belts. When I look at and study the tools and devices of yester years, I conclude that the simple cog and a handle to move a cog is the most under valued inventions that are still used today. When I look at my ground drive hay equipment, I see sprockets and cog and roller chain. When I look at my corn shellers, I see a series of cogs moved by a simple hand crank. Even the simple old hand-cranked mixer uses cog and a hand crank. It would be very advantageous to learn about the various aspects of mechanical advantage and the various configurations that turn regular human strength into industrial strength.

THE HUMBLE TREADLE

Most of use do not pay much attention to the value of the treadle. Watching a movie, we see a woman spinning wool using a spinning wheel, we may watch another movie and see a man sharpening an axe with an old sandstone fashioned to a bench and powered by the simple push of a foot. And let us not forget the treadle showing machine which was all the rage in a bygone era. The humble treadle provided power to many simple machines throughout the ages, and will enjoy a massive resurgence when the lights go out for good.

There are many, long forgotten, pieces of technology whose usefulness have been marginalized to relics in a museum or antique shop. As Preppers, we need to recognize that these old devices play a vital role in our TEOTWAWKI future. There usefulness is not just the task that they help do, but rather sharing the long-lost art of simple old technology. Google will not be around to ask what type of gear ratio or “V” belt you need in your post-electric world so learn as much as you can now.

HOW WELL YOU CAN SURVIVE, AMIDST LOOTING, VIOLENCE AND THE DESPERATION OF THE UNDER- OR COMPLETELY UNPREPARED, WILL DEPEND ON YOUR OWN GOOD SENSE AND YOUR ABILITY TO PREPARE AHEAD OF TIME.

Whether you’re unsure of how to plan for a bug out situation because you don’t know where you would bug out to, or you simply prefer the idea of battening down the hatches in your current dwelling to weather whatever catastrophe may strike, urban survival and bugging in are two important topics that are quite worthy of consideration.

Most people now live in developed suburban and urban areas rather than out in the countryside, so in the event of an emergency, many people are going to find themselves trying to survive in the concrete jungle.

How well you can survive, amidst looting, violence and the desperation of the under- or completely unprepared, will depend on your own good sense and your ability to prepare ahead of time. Aside from stocking up on basic supplies like food and water, you don’t have to spend a fortune to prepare yourself for urban survival or bugging in, either.

First and foremost, one of the most important things to consider is self-defense for yourself and your loved ones. If an emergency crops up or a disaster strikes, law enforcement will likely be overwhelmed or possibly disbanded entirely, leaving civilians vulnerable to criminals. Those who are clearly well prepared become immediate targets of the unprepared.

To mitigate your risk of being targeted there are some very good things you can do (please note that these are basic guidelines, which can and should be adapted to the specifics of your circumstances and the emergency or disaster that has occurred):

  • Identify local resources ahead of time, including water alternative water sources for if / when the taps run dry. A reliable water source and method of purification is critical not only to basic survival but also to maintaining any semblance of cleanliness and proper hygiene, which is in turn necessary to avoid the spread of infectious diseases.
  • Avoid detection by boarding over the windows, keeping lights off at night (don’t underestimate the pitch black of a night without urban light pollution; your lights will stand out and draw attention to you, so keep them off) and entering or exiting your home from a discreet location or when no one is around.
  • Secure your home or dwelling as well as you can, without being too obvious and drawing attention from the exterior. Additional reinforcement at doors (if not to stop then at least to slow intruders) such as door jammers or barricades, chain locks and additional bolts can all make entries and exits more secure. If it is within your means to do so, you can also use the Russian method of a double door; the front door of an entry point is a heavy, solid metal door with multiple bolts and chain locks, followed by a secondary door of heavy, solid wood with a peep hole or viewing hole, additional chain locks, bolts, etc. If you’ve ever seen a traditional Russian tenement, you know what this looks like.
  • Whenever possible, try to cultivate a closer and more unified community amongst your neighbors ahead of time. If SHTF and you’re prepared but no one else on your street is, you may find yourself having to hide from or deceive the people you live alongside. Alternatively, your needy neighbors may end up targeting you in their desperation. A closer and better-developed community is especially necessary in the event of any long-term survival situation that may arise following a serious collapse or disaster.
  • Maintain an unattractive appearance to your house; while many people may be inclined to erect a veritable fortress around their house, this is more apt to draw attention to your location; a house that looks guarded and well stocked is an attractive target to roaming gangs who will probably outnumber and/or outgun you eventually. By comparison, a house that doesn’t look like much, is overgrown in the yard, and has every appearance of having already been ransacked a time or two, is far less likely to attract attention.

Now, in terms of your food and water, when you’re planning on bugging in you are at something of an advantage. Bugging in has its disadvantages, too, but if you have the room for food storage, you can eat like a proverbial king while bugging in.

Compared to bugging out, when every ounce of weight in your pack matters and canned food is a heavy luxury item, if you’ve got an empty pantry to fill, canned foods offer a great, economical investment in tasty, quality food that will generally last 3 – 5 years or longer. Compare that to an MRE (Meal, Ready-to-Eat) or some astronaut food.

Also, avoid burning your dwelling down; keep a few fire extinguishers stored for use in case of an emergency and practice safe cooking rules when using fire at any time. Lighting fires inside your home or using a grill is not recommended; if you don’t have a fireplace, don’t light fires inside, period. Likewise, don’t leave anything cooking unattended and if you ever try to dispose of trash or yard debris by burning it be extremely careful.

Finally, a well-packed urban survival bag (also sometimes called a get home bag) can be invaluable in case of an emergency that strikes while you’re away from home. Packed with slightly different supplies than a standard bug out bag, an urban survival bag is designed to help you survive an emergency long enough to travel from your current location to your home or to another suitable location you intend to bug out from.

Items commonly packed in an urban survival bag include:

  • A basic emergency first aid kit
  • Fine particle masks (or possibly a gas mask)
  • A window punch (for use escaping from a vehicle or building when glass obstructs you)
  • A crowbar
  • Potentially a small quantity of cash
  • A pair of sturdy shoes (and possibly socks) esp. for women who wear heels regularly
  • Sunglasses, a handkerchief or bandana, and;
  • Some water and/or snacks for the trip home, it might be a long walk

You’ll probably also want a flashlight with spare batteries, a small, portable radio and a thermal blanket and/or warm jacket, depending on the climate you live in. You might want coins for operating a payphone, and if you rely on your cell phone for important numbers then write down those numbers in an address book and toss it in your emergency bag just in case.

For long-term urban survival following a bug in, there are several additional points to take into consideration, but to get into everything here would go beyond the scope of this article.

Suffice to say, for long-term urban survival following a crisis, emergency or other collapse, there would be concerns with trash, vermin and rodents, as well as sanitation, human waste removal, medical care, new food production, guard duties and additional security, and keeping yourself healthy.

Full Scale Cyberwar: One of the Greatest Threats to Critical Infrastructure That We Currently Face – Scariest Thing Will Be Not Knowing What’s Going on

Cyberattack. Not a localized focused incident, but a highly coordinated wide reaching major cyberattack. An event or series of events that attack modern infrastructure.

With what goal? To cause internal social chaos to the extent that we fight ourselves to a state of collapse. Cyberwar.

We are vulnerable beyond belief. Electronically interconnected. Networks jam packed with devices. The ‘internet of things’. The integrated electronic systems keeping infrastructure operational..

The scariest thing about a cyberattack, at least at first, will be – not knowing what’s going on.

The ensuing confusion. Broken communication systems. The resulting isolation. People desperately wondering what happened. Who did it. What to do..

Coincidently I watched the Netflix movie, “Leave The World Behind”. I happened to view it during the first day of release. A unique view (and well done, IMO) of this article’s topic. It didn’t take long afterwards for the preparedness world to start talking about it.

Cyberattack to the extent of devastating consequences – is a very real threat. It’s not science fiction. It’s cold-hard-fact.

Cyberwar concerns me more than EMP. Why? Because I believe it’s more likely. There are a handful of nation states that could pull off an EMP. However a major cyberattack is different. More potential ‘actors’. And ‘the enemy’ might not be effectively identified.

Cyberattack – Not Knowing What’s Going On

The focus of this article. Food-for-thought. The fact that the public (except for a few who have been ‘awake’ and prepared) will not know what’s going on after telecommunications goes down.

Every subsequent minute without their screens.. Social media Apps.. No Facebook, YouTube, WhatsApp, Instagram, WeChat, TikTok, Messenger, Telegram, Snapchat, X (Twitter), Pinterest, etc… Not knowing what’s going on.. Not knowing how to find out.. Increasing anxiety.. And the ensuing panic.

Internet pipelines used for effective avenues of cyberattack into all sorts of infrastructure, including communications. An enemy objective –> cutting off flow of information. Leading to confusion and not knowing what’s going on.

Social media datacenters are attacked and platforms are taken down. Mainstream alphabet-channel networks are broken due to reliance upon affected datacenters, digital chokepoints, and the internet infrastructure itself. Cell phone provider networks. Any communications system reliant upon a smooth running internet. Hampered or broken.

Even worse, the likelihood of power grids being targeted and going down. When the lights go out, so do most communications systems.

There will be massive confusion resulting from not knowing. It will quickly lead to major stresses, indecision, bad decisions, internal conflict, and ultimately…social chaos.

Preppers Will Know..

Those educated within the realm of common sense preparedness will know. At least to the extent of knowing that a devastating cyberattack will require having prepared for it. Having known the probable consequences thereof. And, when it happens, making quick and smart decisions to stay ahead of the social chaos that’s sure to come soon afterwards.

It will be time to get to one’s ‘home base’ and pull up the drawbridge, so to speak.

Everything will become quite local. Communications will require face-to-face, in-person. Or, devices like 2-way radio communication, Amateur radio (ham radio), which are battery powered and don’t require the internet or the power grid.

Information and Intelligence gathering. Methods that don’t require the grid or the internet. Monitoring your radios. That’s how you will find out what’s going on.

Security can be greatly enhanced within a local area with 2-way radios (as long as you have a way to charge them, exemplified in an article linked below).

If you’re into practical preparedness and prepping, you already know this. And you likely already are well equipped in this area of communications. If you’re beginning, you might consider learning more about communications without the internet or without the electrical power grid.

An important point to all this is knowing how most people will react when there’s no reliable or functional communications during, and following, a major cyberattack.

Their coming to grips with it. It will be troublesome, and eventually dangerous.

Renewed Concerns

I have renewed concerns about the probability or likelihood of a major cyberattack, or series of devastating cyberattacks. It’s in the news and media, more and more. Even the WEF (World Economic Forum) is warning about this. Is it predictive programming?

We are exceedingly vulnerable. And there are many entities around the world who consider us an enemy. Seems like an opportune period of time for those who wish our demise, especially given the present climate of divisiveness and division. All that’s seemingly needed is a way to trigger descent into social chaos, lessening the need for a ‘traditional’ attack. We can do it for them. We can do it ourselves..

Are you new to preparedness? It might be a good time to get started.

Are you a veteran at this? It might be a good time to re-evaluate and have a look around. Maybe grease the hinges on the draw bridge..

Have a plan of action.

2024 is coming.

Prepare for a Nuclear Blast: EDC Gear for the Nuclear Threat

For a generation and a half, young people have lived their lives free from the specter of nuclear attack. People were not compelled to contemplate the horrors of nuclear war and how they would survive a nuclear blast or fallout, what food would be safe to eat or drink, or whether the air would be safe to breathe.

Unfortunately, the U.S.A. has scant preparations to protect its citizens from nuclear attack. While politicians have gone to great lengths to ensure the continuity of government, there are no fallout shelters for common citizens, only advice and plans to build your own.

You could build and stock a fallout shelter and there are ways to inexpensively improve the protection factor any building already provides, but the average American spends over a third of their workday away from home. What could you possibly carry with you during your day that would improve your chances of survival if a nuclear weapon is detonated on U.S. soil?

How Would You Know a Nuclear Attack Has Occurred Elsewhere or is Imminent?

Who attacks the U.S., what their objective is, what nuclear weapon systems they have at their disposal, how many they use, and how they deliver them, would all affect how much notice there is or whether there is any notice at all.  

A nuclear attack by a nation state with a nuclear arsenal and a space program would likely begin with a HEMP attack to blind our radar, take out much of out command and control and cripple our power grid. We may not see such an attack coming at all, much less in time to do anything about it or warn the populace by issuing a warning via WEAS (the Wireless Emergency Alert System). Nuclear weapons optimized for HEMP are probably orbiting the earth in satellites as you read this. Here is a link to a previous article of mine on how to tell if an EMP has happened.  

Even if the federal government could warn the citizenry of such an attack, I doubt that they would. Their reasoning being, “Why cause panic and clog the roads and airports and prevent the almighty brass, politicians, and bureaucrats from getting safely to their shelters?” What good would it do to tell the average citizen anyway? Afterall, in their eyes, we are all helpless, defenseless, and utterly dependent on them in every way.

Most of them probably couldn’t care less whether the tiny fraction of the population who is prepared makes it to their fallout shelters or not. They are afraid of us and see us as more of a problem than an asset.

Radiation Meter

You can’t see, hear, smell, taste, or feel ionizing radiation. It can only be detected with specially designed instruments, such as a radiation meter. Without one, you won’t know whether it is safe to stay where you are or whether staying where you are means certain, and very painful, death.

If your local emergency services have radiation detection equipment, have had it calibrated at the proper interval, know how to use it, are able to broadcast measurements to the public, and you are able to receive their transmissions, then you’ll know the severity of radiation exposure inside or outside the fire station or wherever they took, their measurements. You need to know how intense the exposure is where you and your family are sheltered so you don’t die… terribly. Once you are home, you’ll also need to know the intensity of exposure outside to know when it’s safe to go outside.

If HEMP effects have damaged the power grid and radio stations, using radiation detection equipment will likely be the only way to know if you are safe where you are or whether you need to get to someplace safer.

I carry a small radiation monitor and alarm called the NUKALERT that is designed to be carried on a keychain. This radiation monitor is always on and constantly samples about every two seconds and has a battery life of 10+ years.

Chart on back of NUKALERT

The monitor produces a series of beeps when radiation is detected. By counting the number of beeps and referencing the chart on the back of the device, you can quickly calculate how long you have to find, improvise or improve shelter.

Cellphone, Small Amateur Radio with Wide Band Receiver

If there is any warning preceding a nuclear attack and the government does warn the public, then you may receive an alert on your cellphone. However, if the nuclear attack is preceded by a HEMP attack, it is likely that your cellphone may not work.

If your local emergency responders have their act together, they will break out their radiation meters, take readings and report them for broadcast to the public so folks can know whether they need to seek shelter or whether it is safe to be outside. Of course, their ability to get this information out to the public may be degraded if the power grid is down, cell towers are down, and radio stations are down. But do not fear, before long, radio operators will soon get radio back up and transmitting.

The beauty of radio is that you only need a transmitter and receiver to get the word out and they can run on batteries so little infrastructure is needed. That’s why it’s a shame that several auto manufacturers are trying to build vehicles without AM radios. No other technology would reach as many people as quickly in a catastrophic event that takes down the power grid.

Some amateur radios with wide band receive can also receive AM, FM, and shortwave frequencies, giving you the ability to receive broadcasts in addition to monitoring local amateur radio traffic and potentially communicating with family and friends even if phones, SMS, the internet, and the grid are all down.

Faraday Bag

Most handheld transceivers are well shielded and may work even after a HEMP depending on many factors. If radios weren’t well-shielded, they would damage their own circuits when they transmit. You can greatly improve the odds of having a working radio and/or cellphone by storing it in a non-conductive bag and then storing that inside a Faraday bag.

Some tests indicate that many handheld transceivers would likely survive a HEMP with a field strength at or below 50kV/m. However, it is possible that super-HEMP weapons may generate much higher field strengths (Russian military literature references field strengths of up to 200kV/m), so storing sensitive microelectronics you may need to survive in a Faraday pouch that provides at least 73dB of shielding is a reasonable and inexpensive protective measure. It might not protect sensitive electronics if the weapon went off directly above you, but it would improve your chances in much of the rest of the country.

Dosimeters

A dosimeter measures how much radiation you have been exposed to over a given period. This is important to know and, if you have the money, this greatly simplifies tracking. Ideally, each member of your group should have their own dosimeter.

Dosimeter charger and analog quartz fiber dosimeters

You don’t need to carry the charger constantly, but you will need it to periodically zero dosimeters as gamma rays pass through the ionization chamber, bleeding off the charge at a measured rate. To read them, you hold the tube up to a light source and look through it. If you buy these old surplus dosimeters, you’ll need to have them tested and calibrated.

Watch, Notebook, & Pen

If you only have a radiation meter and don’t have a dosimeter, you’ll need to record the total REMs you have been exposed to and over what period of time. If you have older analog dosimeters that look like pen, they only record exposure within a specific range. You must record when you charge them, how much radiation you have been exposed to, over what time period, and then they need to be recharged and zeroed.

Even if you have a newer digital dosimeter that tracks your total exposure, I recommend making a copy of the exposure scale so you will know how many REMs you and others in your care can be exposed to before they become ill and how many are fatal. This information may help you make important decisions, such as when you really shouldn’t spend any more time outside the shelter, when you need to try to move someplace safer, when you are safe and when it’s time to get your affairs in order.

Potassium Iodide

If you receive notice that a nuclear attack is eminent, you should begin taking potassium iodide. One of the effects of exposure to fallout is that radioactive isotopes of iodine can build up the thyroid gland increasing the risk of thyroid problems, tumors, or thyroid cancer.

When unpredictable winds caused a little over 60 indigenous inhabitants to be exposed to fallout during nuclear testing in the Bikini Atoll, approximately one third of them eventually developed thyroid problems, tumors, or cancer over the next 20 years.

Outerwear & PPE

If there is a chance that you may be directly exposed to fallout before are able to get someplace safe or improvise shelter, protect yourself as best you can.

  • Lightweight Outerwear – Lightweight outerwear is no substitute for a fallout shelter, but it can keep fallout particles from sticking to your skin and help ensure that they they do not stick to you during the decontamination process. Outwear with a zipper is best. You don’t want to contaminate your head and neck by pulling of you top over your head.
  • Gloves – Gloves will help protect your hands.
  • Hat – A hat will help keep fallout particles off of the head and out of the hair, where they can be difficult to remove. When you wash, use tepid water and do not use conditioner which will cause particles to bond to proteins in your hair.
  • Eye Protection – Because your eyes are moist, fine particles can stick to them and eyte protection can help prevent this.
  • N95 Mask – Fine fallout particles can be inhaled and ingested, and they are far more damaging once inside the body. Fortunately, the largest and most dangerous particles drop out of suspension the fastest.

Real World Reality Check – We Are Witnessing the First Stages of Civilization’s Collapse: How Does an Emergency Crisis Affect a City

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:

  1. Riots after the collapse of social order.
  2. Lack of water filtration or deliveries of fresh food.
  3. A food supply shortage.
  4. 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.

When War Comes Right to Your Door: Many People Will Wake Up to Reality and Struggle to Be Human ‘If I Had to Be an Animal, I Was an Animal. It Was About Survival’

Our friend Selco at SHTF School will change everything you may think about your life in a post-collapse world. For many of us, the idea that the world around us may fall apart and lead to the worst that humanity has to offer is mostly theoretical. For Selco, it was a reality. He experienced a total grid-down collapse in war-torn Sarajevo during the 1990’s – and he lived to tell the tale. He has shared his knowledge with our community over the last few years, and in the article below he changes our perceptions once again. Just because we are making preparations – stocking food, or supplies or guns – means nothing if the mind is not prepared to comprehend the absolute horrors that may come.

Do you want to know what it will be like when law and order break down, when people turn on each other, and when there is no one to depend on except for those in your inner circle?

Then keep reading.

THIS IS REALITY.

As many long term reader or members of my survival course know, I like to talk about important but some maybe call “not so spectacular” part of survival that is not so much fun like for example talking about latest guns and gadgets.

Today I want to talk about dignity and what it means in survival scenario. Before I talk from own experience, read the extract below from the diary of Lieutenant Colonel Mervin Willett Gonin who describes what happened after his unit freed the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp during second world war.

At the moment of his writing every day hundreds of people still died and it was place of pure horror.

It was shortly after the British Red Cross arrived, though it may have no connection, that a very large quantity of lipstick arrived. This was not at all what we men wanted, we were screaming for hundreds and thousands of other things and I don’t know who asked for lipstick. I wish so much that I could discover who did it, it was the action of genius, sheer unadulterated brilliance. I believe nothing did more for those internees than the lipstick. Women lay in bed with no sheets and no nightie but with scarlet red lips, you saw them wandering about with nothing but a blanket over their shoulders, but with scarlet red lips. I saw a woman dead on the post mortem table and clutched in her hand was a piece of lipstick. At last someone had done something to make them individuals again, they were someone, no longer merely the number tattooed on the arm. At last they could take an interest in their appearance. That lipstick started to give them back their humanity.

Importance of still being human and not become complete animal is often overlooked part for people who prepare for long term survival. I had over one year to fight against becoming like rats around our house during war.

EXPECT TO BECOME MORE LIKE ANIMAL

You can have all equipment ready for SHTF, ammo, weapon, gear… you can even be perfectly good trained in lot of different skills and fields and still when SHTF you can end up dead in the first days just because you what i call „refuse to believe“ whats happening.

It is that state of mind when man simple do not want (or not able) to comprehend new situation.

It can be one quick life threatening situation like folks attacking your home and you just waited few seconds too long to shoot some attacker, and then you are dead, end of the story. Or it can be whole process of failing to recognize new world around you and new rules (or absence of rules) and then again you just not doing correct things for the situation, and again you end up dead.

Example would be that when SHTF you are trying desperately to have and use power generator and light all rooms in your houses just because it mean normal life for you. And that normal life is gone, and trying to bring it back in that situation usually means more troubles.

Holding onto all comforts and behavior you are used to can be dangerous.

To make long story short, what I am trying to say is that you may be trained and equip like SEAL member and still you can be killed easily from some 70 years old dude, with even older rifle just because you were surprised when SHTF with amount of destruction and violence and you did not seen that old dude coming (or being so evil).

On the other side that old dude maybe lived through couple of SHTF events in his life, and he knows when it is time to act without hesitation and mercy.

There is still fine line you have to walk between losing your human side and becoming pure animal.

One of the things that changed a lot when SHTF is fact that everything became really dirty.

It was something like slow process, first people tried to keep it as clean they could, but without all normal services, like garbage trucks, running water and all other community services that make normal living soon it simple became impossible.

Later all garbage was used somehow, but in beginning it started piling up everywhere, when you add to that ruins on the street, human waste and dead bodies it was very ugly picture.

After some time, we started to accept dirt outside and it then was priority to stay clean and keep clean only inside that small circle inside your home, and when I say „clean“ I do not mean „clean“ like today. Maybe as clean as we could be.

For example simply moving through the city in the middle of the night meant that you needed to crawl, jump, hide, walk or run trough all kind of things, and very often some real nasty and dirty things.

Many times I was hiding on places so dirty that stench was almost paralyzing, once in the middle of the night I jumped behind some wall because sudden shelling, and when I jumped there I realized that I landed on dead guy.

His face was smashed with broken wall, and partially buried, place there was so small that I had to actually lay on him for some 20 minutes. He died probably when wall from the house collapsed after some shelling, who knows.

Fire from the shelling was so strong that I actually loved that dead guy and that place in that moment. I almost hug him while I was trying to be as small as possible because pieces of steel and rock were flying around me just like some crazy rain, while my stomach was rising and floating from the detonations and smell.

All I was saying at that moment was „thank you, thank you, thank you“ like some magic words, and I even was not aware who do I thank to, that dead stinky guy, my brain for noticing that small space, or God for saving me.

Today years and years later I still carry that smell inside my nose. But I did not move from there before danger was gone. It is survival and luckily I was already used to dirt enough to just stay with that dead guy.

Some folks just stopped to care about cleanliness and hygiene completely. So for them washing and cleaning become something like not wanted luxury. They went complete animal.

They simply stopped to care about these things, so I also knew some guys with look and smell so awful that even dead guy smelled like parfume store.

It was easy to surrender to stuff like that, I mean in trying to keep yourself clean.

But it was stupid not only in terms of the hygiene and illnesses, also by surrendering yourself you admit that you do not care anymore, and when you admit that you are only few steps from becoming animal with what you do too. People give up on themselves.

For me being as clean as I could be had something like preserving one of the last connection with “normal” life, with life before sh!t hit the fan, when things like neighbors, breakfast, car etc, were just things we took for granted, like things that always gonna be there unchanged.

Of course I was aware that being clean is important in order to stay alive because all diseases problem, no doctors hospitals etc. but on some psychological level it kept me sane and it kept me normal man.

Even in survival situation you need to still care about few little things to keep your dignity, to keep spirit up, to not lose yourself. If you stop caring about everything it is like disease that eats you.

When I came back from trading or scavenging in the city, I would clean or wash myself thoroughly in my yard before entering my house, again of course because common sense, hygiene and diseases, but maybe even more important I tried to keep all chaos and violence, suffering outside of my home on some psychological level.

I try to stay out of the everything, or actually I tried to keep everything outside of my home, like some ritual. I would keep the clothes for outside in bag, my boots were in one corner, never entering my room in it etc.

One of my relative wears pink slippers (mittens) when he was home sometimes, he would say that he just felt that everything is fine when he wear it. It was spooky and strange to see him in pink slippers while outside world is going to hell, but we all have some strange ways I guess to keep ourselves sane. Maybe wearing those slippers after he was forced to shoot some folks kept him sane, reminded him on some normal times when grandma wear it in the evenings.

On the other side, like I said in beginning if you stick too much to old habits you are not doing best for survival too.

So if I had to be animal, I was animal. It was about survival. For example there was a period when I eat just to survive, like animal, without paying attention what I eat or how. If I found some food I ate it in quick way, if there was some food with worms in it, I would eat it in dark, without looking what I eat etc.

Point was (and still is) to be man, but to be ready to be animal if you are forced to be animal, and thats it. It comes down to being flexible, adapting to situation and I hope this helps to crush the idea some Hollywood or fantasy survival scenarios show that survival is about being complete animal. No, it is fine line to walk.

You can (and you have to) have as much hand sanitizers, soap, disposable face masks etc. as you can but you can still end up dead if you are not ready to accept fact that one day you might be forced to „hug“ dead guy in order to survive, or eat roast rat or pigeon.

Once next collapse comes many people will wake up to reality and struggle to be human like they were or become animals and as skilled survivalist I hope you will walk fine line in between. The people who were walking that path were and Im sure will be those who have biggest chances to survive.

What Happens When the Stockpile is Gone and There’s Nothing Available to Eat? It Can Be Hard to Imagine a Looming Food Crisis When You Can Walk Into Your Local Grocery Store and See Shelves Overflowing With Abundance

It can be hard to imagine a looming food crisis when you can walk into your local grocery store and see shelves overflowing with abundance. You can find easily find everything you need, and plenty that you don’t.

You might even ignore those around you warning you to stock up on food while you still can. In fact, they might seem like Chicken Little desperately calling out, “The sky is falling!”

But don’t let the full shelves fool you. While the sky may not actually be falling, the world is facing a food shortage. It’s only a matter of time until it hits. Until then, the government wants you to keep walking into the stores, feeling like everything is fine.

The world’s food situation is not fine. Here are just eight of the many indicators that it’s time to stockpile food, and start growing some of your own.

1. Raising Food Prices

Have you noticed the price of groceries rising in your area? I sure have here, especially for basic staple ingredients such as butter, flour, and rice. Every time I head to the store, it seems like I have to stretch my food dollars a little further.

It’s not just in my neck of the woods where prices are creeping up. According to a study by the USDA Economic Research Service, supermarket prices are expected to rise .25-1.25 percent during 2016, and 1.0-2.0 percent during 2017. While those percentage points may seem low, they’re still moving up.

But, since the price of gas and food are intertwined, those numbers could soar past predictions if gas goes up again. Most of the food in the supermarket wasn’t grown in your local area. It was shipped there, requiring fuel.

As food prices continue rising, it’s getting harder and harder for families to buy what they need. That means the number of families now getting food assistance from the government continues to grow. It’s not a healthy outlook for our food supply.

2. Drought

Plants need water to grow and produce harvestable yields. As temperatures around the world rise, droughts are becoming more common.

Widespread droughts are hitting fertile cropland across the planet. From California to India, low rainfall and high temperatures cause devastation on crop production. Long-term forecasts indicate these weather patterns are likely to continue.

3. Diseases Wiping Out Crops & Animals

It’s not just the weather wreaking havoc on our food supply, it’s also disease. From the virulent Panama disease taking out bananas to African Swine Fever that can wipe out entire pig farms, diseases are running rampant in the food supply.

Modern food production techniques such as CAFOs create the perfect environment for peril. In a natural setting, you’d see a couple of pigs on farms across the landscape. They’d be interacting with nature, and have other animals and plant life around to help keep disease causing parasites at bay.

Instead, the majority of today’s pig farms are just pigs and concrete all around. When a disease comes in, it quickly moves through the whole herd. Often entire farms have to execute their animals to prevent the disease from spreading.

The loss of that many animals plays a role in rising food prices. Supply can no longer keep up with demand.

These issues aren’t just a problem for pigs. Cows, chickens, and other animals are being raised in conditions that make them prone for disease.

Crops are being raised in similar fashion. Instead of farmers growing a variety of crops, you see corn growing in huge fields for miles around. There are similar fields for soybeans, wheat, and other crops.

4. Food Safety Concerns

Have you noticed how often food is being recalled? From peanuts to frozen vegetables, meat to processed foods, it’s hard to trust the establishment to deliver safe food to your table. Listeria, e-coli, salmonella, and a host of other food borne illnesses are harming and killing people around the globe. Modern food handling practices have led to these food safety concerns.

Factories play a part in the production of numerous food products. When one factory has a role to play in the bulk of the food system, a containment can quickly spread.

Add transportation, storage, and unsafe handling, and you’ve got food that’s ready to play host to multiple strains of bacteria. Then there’s that whole GMO debate. Some countries don’t believe that genetically modified foods are safe for consumption. Others have drunk the GMO Kool-Aid and are pushing them on the marketplace at an astounding rate.

That’s another reason to grow your own food. You can pick heirloom varieties that haven’t been modified. No matter what you grow and preserve, be sure to inspect what you stockpile to ensure it’s safe.

5. Crops Being Used for Other Purposes

Crops aren’t just being grown to feed humans anymore. A huge portion of our food supply goes to feed cows. Cows were never meant to eat grains in the first place! Let them eat hay, and that’ll relieve a huge burden on our food supply.

Then there’s the whole ethanol thing. About a quarter of US corn is being used for fuel instead of food now. With a food crisis already in the works, using food for other purposes adds to the problem.

6. The Death of Small Farms

The family farmer is slowly become obsolete. Small family farms are being bought out by large mega-farms.

When single companies have their hands in so much of the food chain, a blow to one can cause huge problems. Conversely, when you have hundreds of small farms producing, it’s easy for the others to step in and make up the difference if one experiences loss.

But with rules and regulations definitely favoring mega-farms, it’s no wonder that small ones are selling out and shutting down. As governments continue persecuting small farmers, the number of farms producing your food will continue to shrink.

7. Mistreated Soil

The Fukushima crisis spewed nuclear material onto much of Japan. That soil isn’t safe to grow food in, and probably won’t be for a long time.

Nuclear disasters aren’t the only thing polluting our soil. Farming practices that strip all the nutrients out and dump chemicals back in also play a role.

Mega-farms don’t tend to care about the soil. They just like the money. Until sustainable practices are used in the ag industry, our soil will continue being mistreated.

Bad soil won’t grow as much food. However, it will keep bringing the food crisis closer to our reality.

8. Dependence on Processed Food

The majority of food on supermarket shelves is highly processed. This is the food that many people rely on to supply their nutrition on a daily basis. This boxed and packaged food hardly resembles real food. Because of this, people are becoming further removed from the source of their food.

Many don’t know how to make bread. They don’t know how to cut apart a chicken. They don’t know what animal hamburger comes from. For many people, food just comes from the store. That’s all they know, and this attitude is dangerous.

The further people get from their food, the easier it is for a crisis to occur. They’re totally dependent on other people to supply what they eat. When those farms or factories shut down, they simply won’t have a clue how to begin feeding themselves and their family.

How to Prepare for the Food Crisis

It’s not too late to begin preparing for the coming food crisis. You can begin taking steps to ensure your family’s survival when the grocery store shelves are empty. Here are a few important ones:

Education

Ensure you know where your food comes from. If you are currently food ignorant, make friends with some farmers. Do some research. Learn all you can. Feeding yourself doesn’t have to be complicated!

To take it a step further, you can educate yourself about local food regulations. Be on the lookout for laws that are restricting your right to feed your family. Play an active role in the political process to end the regulations that are strangling small farms.

Buy Local

Source food that’s grown as close to you as possible. Not only will you be supporting your local economy and farmers, you’ll also be eating food that’s fresher.

Local sources of food are less likely to be affected by national food shortages. If you’re already used to finding food that’s not in a supermarket, you’ll be a step ahead when the time comes.

Start Producing Your Own Food

No matter where you live, you can begin growing your own food. If you don’t have much space, put a couple of containers in your windowsills. Learn how to grow food in small spaces.

If you have more space, consider getting some livestock. Rabbits and chickens are allowed in many cities, and you’ll be producing your own meat and eggs.

You can continue to expand your survival garden as space allows. 

If you grow too much, learn how to preserve your harvest. Freezing, dehydrating, canning, and fermenting are some of the methods used to save food for later.

Producing your own food will help you lower your food bill and gain self-sufficiency. Everything you grow better prepares you for the food crisis.

Learn How to Cook

Stop buying processed food and take back your kitchen. Learn how to prepare simple, nutritious food that your family enjoys. Good food doesn’t have to be complicated!

Stockpile Food

Each time you go shopping, make it a point to buy some extra food. But, you shouldn’t just buy any food. You really need to stockpile what you actually eat.

Otherwise your family will have to adjust to both a crisis and new food when the time comes. It’s much better to have food on hand that you enjoy.

You don’t have to spend a ton of money to stock up. If your budget is really tight, try allocating just $5 or $10 a shopping trip. While it doesn’t sound like much, you’ll begin growing your reserves.

Be sure you store your stockpiles properly to keep pests and bacteria out. You also need to rotate your stores, which is why you should be eating what you’re storing. When I add to my stockpile, I put the new in the back. That way I use the older food first.

Never in all of history until now has the technology existed for a world dictatorship to rule the world. All they need is the right conditions: a totalitarian world dictatorship to put it into effect

In the relentless race for military supremacy, the shifting sands of the global power balance have taken a sharp turn. With modern technology and advanced systems, computer chips and hi-tech surveillance, “Big Brother” is watching, and it’s now “all systems go!” Everything’s falling into place for the global economy to take off, and the technology and necessary computing power are with us now, the actual infrastructure is already in place, developed, tested and proven.

The Anti-Christ world leader will be the author of confusion, the master counterfeiter, and through his many images he will deceive the nations. The Antichrist will come on the world stage peaceably, with flatteries, via powerful persuasion and propaganda. By this means he is able to creep into houses and lead captive the masses.

Through his many images and idols he shows himself clever, for acceptance of his 666 mark of the Beast (Revelation 13:16-18) will be the fashion–the logical, the reasonable, the convenient, the safest, the securest, the vital, the norm, that which is accepted in the eyes of man, both small and great.

It’s getting darker and colder all the time, and many people in the world can feel it. They may not understand it, and they don’t always want to admit it, but it’s happening. The sun is setting, the darkness is falling, and the world is looking for hope, for some ray of light. The nations question “Why this and why that? Why all the pain and strife in the world? Why the slaughter of the innocents? Why troubles and sorrows?” These questions are being raised in people’s hearts and minds, and those whose foundations have been built on the sand, or others who had no foundations to begin with, have no answers.

Never in all of history until now has the technology existed for a world dictatorship to rule the world. All they need is the right conditions: a totalitarian world dictatorship to put it into effect. The Antichrist government will use the computer to rule the world in the form of an image to the antichrist. The image of the Beast!

REVELATION 13:14 And deceiveth them that dwell on the earth by the means of those miracles which he had power to do in the sight of the beast (Antichrist); saying to them that dwell on the earth, that they should make an image to the beast (Antichrist), which had the wound by a sword, and did live.

REVELATION 13:15 And he had power to give life unto the image of the beast, that the image of the beast should both speak, and cause that as many as would not worship the image of the beast should be killed.

REVELATION 13:16 And he causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads:

REVELATION 13:17 And that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name.

REVELATION 13:18 Here is wisdom. Let him that hath understanding count the number of the beast: for it is the number of a man; and his number is Six hundred threescore and six. 666

The technology for the Antichrist’s One World monetary system and “Mark of the Beast” is already developed and ready to be put into effect. Just think, all the peoples of the Earth united, on the same wavelength, the same channel.

All around, every single day, there are signs of the coming End, signs of the Antichrist, signs of the coming One World Order. Man’s knowledge has also increased in these last two years, as it has in other recent years, but it now heads in more dangerous directions than in the past, including attempts to clone human beings, fuse man and beast in the embryo, or genetically modify man. As men seek to unravel the secrets of life, they also seek to combine it with machine. They seek new and improved robots to serve man, giving them artificial intelligence and mobility such as they’ve not had before. They seek to make man himself more of a machine, implanting chips, sensors, and electrodes to enhance man’s powers and intelligence.

These chips and implants come with many benign purposes: They increase security for children and protect them from abduction; they monitor criminals; they check the health of their subjects and release medicine into the body; they make identification quick and easy; they prevent fraud; they monitor and increase productivity; they make life more convenient in many ways. In the last two years we’ve seen a great increase in the knowledge that has made such things possible and public acceptance of the devices themselves.

Despite the promises of technology, modern comforts and conveniences, and affluence unknown in the past, poverty persists. War threatens. Disease stalks and kills many. The world thinks they’ve entered the great new age of technology, and the 21st century is going to thrust them into the greatest glories of their “techno-age.” The technology known as biometrics, for example, the process of collecting, processing and storing details of a person’s physical characteristics, has excited the interest of governments and companies because, unlike other forms of ID (cards, papers, etc.), it knows the target human as well as a mother knows her children. The most popular forms of biometric identification are retina scans, hand geometry, thumb scans, fingerprints, voice recognition, and digitized photographs.

This is the sort of power that will be needed to run the Antichrist’s computers and government. here’s nothing intrinsically wrong with the technology and being able to do things faster and better. But these will be useful mechanisms of the Antichrist’s New World Order. Technology has broken down borders and nations are becoming less important, which will make the creation of his one-world government relatively simpler. It’s happening so gradually that global government will just be a logical next step.

The world will accept him, only to find that the heaven on earth he’s promised them has become hell on earth, with hell hereafter for those who take his 666 Mark of the Beast. They’re trying to control living beings with technology, with chips that they’ve finally managed to incorporate in their brains. And they’ll go on developing that technology until it reaches its apex in the Mark of the Beast, with which evil men would seek to control and monitor men even more.

Are you ready for these great and final events of the end? You can get ready now by receiving Jesus into your heart. Simply pray this little prayer and He will come in: “Dear Jesus, I believe that You are the Son of God and that You died for me. Please forgive me for all my sins. I ask You, Jesus, to please come into my heart and give me Your free Gift of Eternal Life.

The End Is Coming Very Soon, and Few Americans Are Willing to Do Anything to Stop It: You Have Been Warned Many Times in the Past Few Years and to Have to Suffer in the Future Because You Did Not Know What Was Coming is No Longer an Excuse

What does it take to make you sit up and take notice of the problems surrounding society today? What will it take to make you respond to the many crises taking place today? You have eyes so you can see and ears so you can hear but for many people any negative news is a reason to tune out the world and only think good thoughts.

The problems we face continue to pile up and doing nothing is not an option if you expect to survive the next few years in tact. Prior planning and execution of a plan is now required to stay out of the flood zone when the dam breaks and everyone starts to drown. It does not matter what kind of person you are. You have to be able to save yourself before you have the ability to help others including your own family.

You cannot protect your family if you cannot protect yourself from dangerous situations or people. You cannot protect your family if you are too weak from lack of water or food to get others to safety. You cannot protect your family from the elements if you have no cover for them due to sudden loss of your shelter. 

You have car insurance just in case you have an automobile accident. You have health insurance just in case you get sick. You have life insurance to help your family just in case you die. You have homeowners insurance just in case your home is destroyed. There is unemployment insurance just in case you lose your job.

So where is your food insurance just in case you cannot find any food in the store? Where is your personal protection insurance just in case you are threatened and cannot depend on the police? Where is your water insurance just in case your water supply is shut off or becomes contaminated? Where is your communication insurance just in case the power is out and normal systems do not work? Where is your energy insurance just in case energy supplies are cut off and you need to drive to safety, cook your food or stay warm?

People think that the types of insurance for cars, health, home and life are just fine to have but the other ones listed are crazy and paranoid to think about. Even in the first case, your insurance policies depend on other people to fulfill them and those people depend on a system that is still functioning such as the banks, communications and the insurance company itself. So what happens to all those other types of insurance when the insurers themselves are no longer functioning. Any crisis that takes down the stock market, power grid or the banks will also take down all of the insurance companies.

The events of the past few weeks should have been a warning shot across the bow for many. Our financial and distribution systems are in a delicate balancing act right now and any sudden shifts could send them tumbling off the cliff rendering the services they perform extinct in a matter of hours. When that happens it will be too late to think about what you should have done when you still had the opportunity. 

You cannot get your money out of the bank after the doors are shut, the ATM is empty and the POS systems are no longer working. You cannot get the food you need after the stores have been cleaned out and the distribution system has stopped functioning. You cannot get fuel for your car after the gas stations are empty and deliveries have been suspended. You cannot get police help when everyone calls 911 at the same time and most of the police have gone home to protect their own families.

If your alarm bells have not gone off already what will it take for you to realize you are in serious trouble? When that finally happens what do you plan to do to protect and care for your family? Having no plan means having a plan to suffer and persist through unpleasant situations for no good reason. Not knowing something is excusable but you have been warned many times in the past few years and to have to suffer in the future because you did not know what was coming is no longer an excuse. Failure to prepare at this time will not only cost you but it will likely put an unnecessary burden on those that will have to help you in the future.

The warnings continue to go out. The situation continues to deteriorate. The mass of humanity continues to go about its normal daily business. The Earth continues to rotate with no chance of going back from here. The early warning alarms have sounded advising people to take a defensive stance just in case. Do you hear the alarms yet or have you hit the snooze button for a few more minutes of sleep?

So far in this plot to subdue and take over humanity, much has been lost. There is little freedom left, and what there is has been restricted and is constantly monitored, because any act of individuality or independence is now viewed as an uprising and is a bane to the state. Mass censorship of any opinion or truth concerning this scam is rampant. Everything of value is being destroyed, and speech has in most cases literally been disappeared. When the government and its fascist partnered henchmen hide or erase all free speech, what is left is tyranny. Families are being systematically decimated, and the purposeful spread of hatred is promoted at every level of society by the controlled media and the governing gang of criminals. The entirety of this government can only be described as organized crime, but is much more sinister and criminal than any mafia. This is what this pathetic population has created for itself, and blame should be placed on all those that continue to worship this nation-state and adhere to its evil demands.

Human nature is on trial today, and for very good reason. It is the human that controls his own fate. It is the human that allows others to control his thought and actions. It is the human that cowers in the face of adversity. It is the human that worships the state as God. It is the human that acquiesces to the demands of tyrants. It is the human that fails to protect the innocent. It is the human that applauds war. It is the human that causes his own and all other’s misery.

In conclusion, you may take this to heart, or you may ignore the warnings. You may continue to wallow in indifference. You may run and hide. You may cover your emotionless face with a mask. You may watch your family die in seclusion. You may turn in your neighbors to ‘authorities.’ You may follow every rule. You may in fact die at the hands of this heinous state.

Or you may curse this writer. This rant is for all or none; I care not anymore about those that have chosen to harm freedom!

“Freedom is the sure possession of those alone who have the courage to defend it.” – Pericles

Sources for this article include: https://www.lewrockwell.com/2021/03/gary-d-barnett/why-do-americans-need-and-seek-masters-to-rule-them/