NASA Warns: “If A Space Super Storm Like The 2012 Storm Hits Earth We Will Be Picking Up The Pieces For Years”

by | Apr 29, 2014 | Headline News | 114 comments

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    A new video from NASA’s science division highlights the fact that earth is one X-Class solar flare away from a situation that would completely alter life on earth as we know it today.

    Such events have played out at various times in our history, with the most notable recent examples occurring in 1859 and 1989.

    The 1859 ‘Carrington Event’ was so powerful that newspapers of the time reported communication lines showed visible surges and telegraph offices literally went up in flames.

    The Great Geomagnetic Storm of 1989 was responsible for taking down Hydro-Québec’s electricity transmission system and reached as far down as Salem, New Jersey. Pictured below is what one of the transformers looked like after the storm hit. What’s scary about the following image is that it was taken at the Salem Nuclear Powerplant and shows just how susceptible even our most protected facilities are to solar storms.

    salem-transformer

    Solar storms are nothing new and scientists watch them via early warning satellites systems on an hourly basis. But even if a large solar discharge was identified, there’s not a whole lot we can do except brace for impact.

    As we’ve reported previously, we came close, very close in the summer of 2012. Had the sun’s rotation been just a week ahead of where it was at the time there’s a strong chance you wouldn’t be reading this information. That’s because the flare was so powerful it would likely have fried the entire global electricity grid according to the NASA report below:

    They [researchers] have concluded this was one of the strongest in recorded history. “If it had hit earth we would still be picking up the pieces,” says Daniel Baker of the University of Colorado.

    This storm might have been stronger than the Carrington Event itself.

    A similar storm today could have a catastrophic effect on modern power grids and telecommunication networks.

    Multi-ton transformers fried by such a storm could take years to repair and impact national security.

    Video via The Daily Sheeple:

    Though our dependence on electricity is often taken for granted, the fact is that a downing of the grid would lead to serious and immediate repercussions across the globe. Without it transportation would come to a standstill, gas pumps wouldn’t work, cellular phone service would be inoperable, and any job requiring the use of a computer or an electrical outlet would be instantly made irrelevant.

    Had it hit Earth, the July 2012 event likely would have created a technological disaster by short-circuiting satellites, power grids, ground communication equipment and even threatening the health of astronauts and aircraft crews.

    (Colorado.edu via SHTFplan)

    It would be a technological disaster of unprecedented proportions. So much so that the Center for Security Policy estimates 90% of Americans would be dead within a year.

    Former Congressman Roscoe Bartlett noted in the documentary Urban Danger that the problems are within the outdated national power grid. There are scores of transformers required to switch electricity from one place to another. Should those go down simultaneously there simply aren’t enough backup transformers available to repair those damaged by the storm and since we source this equipment from foreign countries like China it could be anywhere from 18 months to four years before the grid would start being restored.

    We could have events in the future where the power grid will go down and it’s not, in any reasonable time, coming back up. For instance, if when the power grid went down some of our large transformers were destroyed, damaged beyond use, we don’t make any of those in this country. They’re made overseas and you order one and 18 months to two years later they will deliver it. Our power grid is very vulnerable. It’s very much on edge. Our military knows that.

    There are a number of events that could create a situation in the cities where civil unrest would be a very high probability. And, I think that those who can, and those who understand, need to take advantage of the opportunity when these winds of strife are not blowing to move their families out of the city.

    But is this just fear mongering or is there something to it?

    How likely is it that we could be hit by a solar flare powerful enough to take down our grid?

    Coronal Mass Ejections and Solar Events happen on a daily basis. Most of them are benign and don’t rate high enough on the scale to affect anything except maybe radio communications. This year we’ve already experienced scores of the medium sized “M-Class” flares, as well as various low end “X-class” flares.

    But the 1959, 1989 and 2012 events aren’t out of the ordinary either. In fact, in 2003 the sun delivered what researches call a “whopper.” A flare that, had it been facing earth, would have caused some serious damage, certainly on the order of the 2012 event.

    Researchers from the University of Otago used radio wave-based measurements of the x-rays’ effects on the Earth’s upper atmosphere torevise the flare’s size from a merely huge X28 to a “whopping” X45, say researchers Neil Thomson, Craig Rodger, and Richard Dowden. X-class flares are major events that can trigger radio blackouts around the world and long-lasting radiation storms in the upper atmosphere that can damage or destroy satellites. The biggest previous solar flares on record were rated X20, on 2 April 2001 and 16 August 1989.

    Congresswoman Yvette Clarke (D-NY), a senior member of the House Homeland Security Committee recently suggested that the chance of a serious solar event on our planet is a certainty.

    “The Likelihood of a severe geo-magnetic event capable of crippling our electric grid is 100%.”

    Though the stars (and earth) would need to align in order for such an event to take place, history shows that it happens quite regularly in the grand scheme of things.

    At the very least we would be facing weeks without power, perhaps on a national level. As depicted in the recent NatGeo documentary American Blackout, it wouldn’t take more than a few days for the entire system to collapse in on itself as grocery stores ran out of food, water utilities were unable to deliver potable water, and emergency response became non existent.

    According to Tess Pennington, who provides useful preparedness tips for various emergency disasters scenarios including long-term power outages, the thin veneer of society would become apparent rather quickly.

    When the needs of the population cannot be met in an allotted time frame, a phenomena occurs and the mindset shifts in people. They begin to act without thinking and respond to changes in their environment in an emotionally-based manner, thus leading to chaos, instability and a breakdown in our social paradigm.

    Should we be struck by a high level X-class flare the effects will be felt within seconds.

    If you happen to see a power surge, your cable/satellite TV no longer works and you can’t get your cell phone or car to turn on, then chances are that we’ve either been hit with an electro-magentic pulse weapon or the sun has sent a solar flare our way.

    Either way, we’ll be in for a long and arduous recovery period that could span a decade or more.

    Hattip The Daily Sheeple

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      114 Comments

      1. If this ever happens, I hope the useless bureucrats at the EPA that are doing their very best to ban woodburning stoves are among those that freeze to death.

        • “World made by Hand” James Howard Kuntsler
          Great read for just such a scenario. As well as what life may be like after such an event.

          http://www.solarham.net/
          I have left it here many of times but a good site to check daily for solar activity. Updated daily.

          • AC

            Even if the EPA banned the burning of wood,

            it would be completely ignored world wide.

            The discovery of fire was one of man kinds

            greatest quantum leaps in our evolvement.

            I believe people would set off forest fires

            everywhere in retaliation.

            The EPA can’t control anger.

            • I ordered a couple extra airtight barrel stove kits just in case the new EPA rules make them unavailable. They’re not as good as my real wood stove, but they’re better than my non-airtight barrel kit where it’s hard to control the burn rate. Vogelzang’s were about $75 each with free shipping, but it appears I’m not the only one with that mindset because they are on back order till June. Since I don’t need a building permit to replace an existing stove where my retreat is hopefully they will leave me alone rather than get out of the car and hike up a mountain.

              • How You Can Prepare For An EMP Attack

                “Being forewarned and prepared for the unexpected insures a safe transition to grid-down, and there are many things you can do now, before the unexpected hits, that can make a world of difference.

                Consider protecting all critical electronics with something as simple an inexpensive as a galvanized garbage can that can be modified into a home-made Faraday cage. Here’s how…”

                http://survivethecomingcollapse.com/3627/how-you-can-prepare-for-an-emp-attack/

              • “Like the superstorm of 2012?”

                Well why didn’t that one do it?

                • it missed the earth by a few degrees(a week).learn to read!

                  • You missed my point. Maybe I shouldn’t assume so much when posting on the internet.

            • Howdy, Defiant. EPA bureaucrats can also suffer from “accidents”.

          • Salva baby, I think you had a Freudian slip there; it’s Kunstler. But anywho; I get so sick & tired of hearing how these transformers take 2 to 3 years to build and they can only be built overseas at that. BS!!!! We can build them here! And does anyone really believe that the one’s who knock out our power are going to be the one’s who help us restore it???? Really???

            • I agree wholeheartedly. Those of us living in South Mississippi will be okay….lol. There’s a huge transformer manufacturer in Laurel and Ellisville, MS, called Howard Industries. It’s one of the biggest employers in the area. They’ve got several plants that create transformers and ballasts. BUUUTTT….” For instance, if when the power grid went down some of our large transformers were destroyed, damaged beyond use, we don’t make any of those in this country.”

              • @All; While the txfmers are ALL made overseas, they are designed and spec’ed here. And we CAN build them as well. We just don’t cuz it costs more here. Doesn’t mean we can’t. I can promise you that if we had to we could, period. HOWEVER, there is a limit to what we can do. Even if we could replace them all in 3-4 years (or even 1-2 years), what happens in the first 6-8 weeks of no grid? THAT is when the majority of the population will starve to death. The average home has a 3 day supply of food, the average grocery store has a 3 day supply of food, and then what? THEN it will require SLAVE LABOR, conscripts, to build the replacements. JUST SAYIN’. It takes 6-8 weeks to starve to death. If the grid is 100% down for TWO MONTHS, 70%-95% of the population will starve. That’s LOGISTICS…LOL. There is no way to move, with no fuel or power reserves, food to the metro centers and prevent mass starvation. That still leaves 20-33 million potential slaves to rule over. Peter the Great should have had such an empire. Be well.

        • AC, you got it. I wrote something about this–you might find it amusing.

          “Yeah, they are coming after your guns, your water, your land, your wood stoves, your food and your seed while they are taxing your air and sunlight. Nothing personal here. Nothing to see. Move along. Class enemies are completely expendable – mere pests to be exterminated in a kinder, gentler, incremental, Fabian way if the sheeple cooperate. A more painless, humane gas if you please. This way to the relocation camps.

          “Resist and the spell is broken. Then, they are through your door. You are on the floor with a boot on your neck and the muzzle of an M-4 in your ear.

          “What’s next? Better to have ambushed them in the stairwell Solzhenitsyn-style?” (“Fried Frogs and Commissars” RockyMountainCornDOTcom

          • The gov’t would blame it on Putin.

            • No, George Bush.

              • No, Putin and Palin. They used to be “neighbors”.

            • What govt? No power basically kills mass means of MSM communication (and we all know its just govt propaganda)

              People will wake up or die waiting for the idiot box to come back on.

              Those pics of FEMA coffins come to mind now…

          • There is much speculation in the astronomy world that the Sun has actually had mega super flares that lead to some of the past mass extinctions of 75-95% of species on the planet. That and/or a gamma ray pulse from a close enough super nova going off. A solar flare can of course destroy most or all of the electric grid, but there is a possibility of it being way above a X-45 flare that sends cosmic radiation into the atmospehere and right down to ground level.

            These charts that the NOAA puts out with these solar storms shows that certain storms are strong enough to give people in airplanes a substanial amount of radiation and the planes are actually grounded or diverted away from the higher concentration of radiation, usually closest to magnetic south or north. You can have a super flare that is strong enough that it could expose life to some very high levels of cosmic radiation. They think this could have happened about 250 million years ago during the end of the Permian period when 95% of all life marine and land based died off.

            When you have a mass extinction such as this that has a wide reaching effect of kill off, something very serious should have happened to do this. A gamma ray pulse could have by frying the ozone level and exposing shallow sea life to increased ultraviolet rays. So could have a super mega flare and such an event would leave no geological evidence such as a huge asteroid impact like 65 million years ago or a series of super volcanoes.

            JustOneGuy is the one to ask about this, but I have always wondered about a direct radiation storm hit. What is so disturbing about even a large Carrington event is that you can have an area of the Sun that is much less than spectacular and then a few hours later a massive belch and a X-20+ is coming right dead on to end the electric grid. The Sun can be sudden just as many geophysical events. Again, JustOneGuy would likely spot this before any of us would. Hope he is doing well void of the modern world up north.

            Fortunately though you need a near direct Earth hit to cause such a scenario. ONLY about 25% to maybe 35% of the time the area of the surface of the Sun is in position to have an Earth directed hit. Like 10 years ago, the flare was 2-3 days too late for any energy directed towards the planet. A sun spot has about a 5-6 day window to erupt that is Earth bound. Like current sunspot AR2049 would be in position around May 1 or 2 to May 7 or 8 to be in the right location for anything from this region towards the Earth. Space Weather says it is large but magnetically simple and as of right now poses no imeediate real threat for any flare. This of course could change and what makes any large sun spot potentially a problem.

            • Prepare the best you can. Life is short. Remember to spend time with your loved ones and be thankful for the many blessings you have.

              (Received this in an email from Canadian Canuck. Thank you C.C.!)

              Count Your blessings

              I dreamed that I went to Heaven and an angel was showing me around. We walked side-by-side inside a large workroom filled with angels. My angel guide stopped in front of the first section and said, “This is the Receiving Section. Here, all petitions to God said in prayer are received”

              I looked around in this area, and it was terribly busy with so many angels sorting out petitions written on voluminous paper sheets and scraps from people all over the world.

              Then we moved on down a long corridor until we reached the second section…

              The angel then said to me, “This is the Packaging and Delivery Section. Here, the graces and blessings the people asked for are processed and delivered to the living persons who asked for them.”

              I noticed again how busy it was there. There were many angels working hard at that station, since so many blessings had been requested and were being packaged for delivery to Earth.

              Finally! At the farthest end of the long corridor we stopped at the door of a very small station. To my great surprise, only one angel was seated there, idly doing nothing. “This is the Acknowledgment Section,” my angel friend quietly admitted to me. He seemed embarrassed.

              “How is it that there is no work going on here?” I asked.

              “So sad,” the angel sighed. “After people receive the blessings that they asked for, very few send back acknowledgments.”

              “How does one acknowledge God’s blessings?” I asked.

              “Simple,” the angel answered. Just say, “Thank you, Lord.”

              “What blessings should they acknowledge?” I asked

              “If you have food in the refrigerator, clothes on your back, a roof overhead, and a place to sleep you are richer than 75% of this world. If you have money in the bank, in your wallet, and spare change in a dish, you are among the top 8% of the world’s wealthy.”

              “And if you get this on your own computer, you are part of the 1% in the world who has that opportunity.”

              “If you woke up this morning with more health than illness, you are more blessed than the many who will not even survive this day.”

              “If you have never experienced the fear in battle, the loneliness of imprisonment, the agony of torture, or the pangs of starvation, you are ahead of 700 million people in the world.”

              “If you can attend a church without the fear of harassment, arrest, torture, or death, you are envied by and more blessed than three billion people in the world.”

              “If your parents are still alive and still married, you are very rare”

              “If you can hold your head up and smile, you are not the norm. You’re unique to all those in doubt and despair.”

              “Okay. What now? How can I start?’

              If you can read this message, you just received a double blessing in that someone was thinking of you as very special, and you are more blessed than over two billion people in the world who cannot read at all.

              Have a good day. Count your blessings. And if you care to, pass this along to remind everyone else how blessed we all are

              ATTN: Acknowledgement Dept.
              “Thank you Lord for giving me the ability to share this message and for giving me so many wonderful people with whom to share it.”

          • Many people are concerned about where they live from a nuclear power plant, whether they’re up wind or down wind. The wind changes direction so much that I don’t think there would be a safe place to escape the fallout. Check out this wind map on any given day. http://hint.fm/wind/ You may be suprised. Trekker Out.

          • The government did the exact same thing to the native americans and the majority didn’t care. Now its the so called blue collar producing middle class that’s no longer needed or wanted. and the majority don’t really care. they think the middle class has more than their fair share. There isn’t any viable political or ballot box solution. There isn’t and wont be a revolution or reset. So Im hoping that we do have great clatyclismic events that destroy & cripple the goverments & UN ,NWO Agenda21 plan. And the present shifting of the Planets magnetic poles are very likely to make my hopes a reality.

            • Old Guy,
              I’m not wishing or hoping for the outcome of the great clatyclismic events you speak of but I will state that if such an event happens we deserve the results. The above ” URBAN DANGER TRAILER” was first downloaded onto youtube in or around April 2009. We are just as unprepared as a society as we were then (5 years ago).
              Shame on our political system,corporations,and we the voters.
              I just hope that because of what I am learning here on this site and the other similar sites of knowledgable and concerned folk , I have a snowballs chance in hell to smile long into the future.
              Take Care,
              — Miss Dee Dee

            • I think ….like anyone cares….that without Russia and China and India and Brazil …..
              “Their” plan to take over the world , with bankers… Is OVER…
              But they’re just too simple… The puppets…Ovomit, Reid, pelosi ,john banger, mcPain…
              And continue to be told by wall st… We can do this….

              And so we drag on, in reality, it can’t be done…
              They can do a lot of damage…but take over the world….

          • New Ordnance, they have to get thru your door alive before they can do something to you. If/when they come thru my door, they DIE.

        • I Very seldom wish ill on others, but I’ll second your notion, AC.

          What comes around,… goes around.

          The fate of a mosquito?

        • An industrialized society is an anomoly in human history. Less than 200 years old.

        • Faith and trust in the Lord Jesus Christ… check. Fireplace with insert and fans… check. 15 cords of firewood… check. Live in a forest… check. Raise chickens, a milking cow, hogs, and a one acre garden… check. 4900 watts of solar stored in the basement and another 6800 on the roof and four mikes windmills… check. Two years worth of food stored… check. Carbureted VW and diesel Samurai (all mechanical injection) and hundreds of gallons of fuel (with PRI)… check. Multiple fire arms with tens of thousands of rounds… check. Full field surgery set up and meds… check. Out building with wood burning stove set up as a dormer for team members… check. A still… check. Two wells and one spring… check. Tons of hand tools, knives, axes, jacks, latter’s… check. Books… tons of them on all subjects… check. Defendable property, several Bug Out fall backs and an ever growing cache… check. Several ATV’s and two enduro motorcycles… check. Team members with similar preps, multiple skills, armed to the teeth… check. Full communication suite … check. Gold, silver, cash, lead, building supplies… check. Sure glad I, or my mates, did not buy the big flat screen, bass boat, turbo car, RV and other crap folks at work did on credit. Don’t care about flares, war, economies, or zombies. PRAY, PLAN, PREP, FORM TEAMS.

        • What if they turned the power off before it arrived and turned it back on after the storm
          Passed

          • Due to the amount of charge in the atmosphere, you’ll still get induced currents in the line. This happed in 1859. Even with the telegraph system shut down, you could still get communications out. If the charge is high enough, it can still fry your system. I’m sure the big wigs at NASA have analyzed this.

      2. The power grid is soooo vulnerable to “Carrington Events” and other threats.

        The dirty secret is the 100 plus nuclear reactors in the U.S. that will go “Fukashima” with a power outage over a week or so. The PTB know this. An interim fix is available but they refuse to act it.

        THAT is the greatest existential threat IMO.

        • ummmm, and we gotta order the new parts from CHINA???? oh dear…..hope they realize that “made in china” is a warning label!

          • If we order before ” Midnight Tonight ” , Do we get
            FREE SHIPPING ?
            — Miss Dee Dee

            • Just need Amazon Prime

        • Nuke plants only keep a 30 day supply of Diesel fuel on hand to run the cooling pumps for the spent fuel rods. Once that runs out the meltdown starts. So you have 30 days to evacuate any area from a Nuke plant. See where yours is located on this map. http://Www.Radiationnetwork.com. put this web app on your phone as the map updates every 5 mins. For Radiation activity. Go up wind from the exposure and load up on Potasium Iodide tablets. Prepare today for tomorrow.

      3. 90%?

        Or 100% when all the nuclear reactors go China Syndrome?

      4. Militia: (Part One)
        Q: What is the Militia?

        A: It was best defined by George Mason, one of the Framers of the
        U.S. Constitution, who said, “Who are the Militia? They consist
        now of the whole people, except for a few public officers.”

        Q: If they’re the whole people, why do we need a special word
        like “militia” to refer to them?

        A: The Militia is the people in a certain capacity, as defenders of
        the community and enforcers of the law. In that capacity, they are
        expected to have and use the tools needed to perform that role:
        personal weapons, and particularly firearms.

        Q: Isn’t that what we have the military and police for?

        A: Yes, we do hire some of us to perform these duties on a full-
        time, paid basis. But that does not relieve us of the power or the
        duty to perform those duties when the situation calls for it.

        Q: Power? Don’t the military and police have powers ordinary
        civilians don’t have?

        A: Yes, the police have special powers to enforce certain
        regulations, like traffic regulations, that civilians don’t have. And
        the military can engage in combat operations on foreign soil
        representing the United States. But all citizens have general powers
        to repel invasions, suppress insurrections, and enforce the laws, the
        three duties of the Militia, just like the military and police. They
        just don’t do it on a full-time, paid basis.

        Q: Come on. If I tried to go out and enforce some law,
        wouldn’t I be subject to arrest for something? Like
        impersonating an officer, or maybe obstructing justice?

        A: Not if you only tried to enforce the laws that civilians have the
        power to enforce, which are laws against felonies and more serious
        misdemeanors, and didn’t misrepresent yourself as an officer, who
        outranks most civilians, and who therefore is authorized to issue
        orders to civilians in situations where he is present and is himself
        acting in accordance with law. As for obstructing justice, anyone,
        including a law enforcement officer, can do that. Everyone
        involved is expected to cooperate with one another in enforcing the
        law and not jeopardize one another’s legitimate efforts. That applies
        to everybody, officers and civilians alike. When there is
        disagreement about how best to do that, the dispute is ordinarily
        resolved by deferring to the officer with the highest rank, but he
        may be out of line. Ultimately, it is up to the courts to decide who
        is obstructing whom.

        Q: So don’t federal law enforcement officials outrank state
        officials, who outrank local?

        A: No, each can investigate and apprehend under all the same laws,
        just as any citizen can. The problem arises with the attempts by
        the federal government to extend its authority to act against “crimes”
        that it does not have the constitutional power to prosecute, and to
        try such cases in federal courts. The Constitution delegates only
        very limited criminal prosecution powers to the federal government
        for acts committed on State territory: treason, counterfeiting, and
        crimes on the high seas and against the laws of nations (that is,
        war crimes). It has broad legislative authority on federal territory,
        which includes State land ceded to the federal government by a State
        Legislature, but there is very little of that left since Hawaii and
        Alaska joined the Union. It does not include land that is merely
        owned by the federal government, nor does it include land on
        which some activity is conducted that is regulated by the federal
        government. The federal criminal laws which have been enacted
        which are not on the above list are ostensibly based on the
        constitutional power of the federal government to “regulate”
        interstate commerce, but it was never the intent of the Framers that
        the power to regulate was the power to prosecute criminally, nor
        was “interstate commerce” intended to include everything that ever
        crossed a state border, or might cross a state border, or is done by
        a party that operates across a state border, or that might “affect”
        interstate commerce. This “interpretation” of the interstate
        commerce clause is clearly unconstitutional, and amounts to
        amending the Constitution by statute instead of by the amendment
        procedure the Constitution prescribes.

        Q: That may be the way things once were, back when this
        country was founded and during the frontier era, but does the
        concept of the Militia have any relevance for today?

        A: As much as it ever did. This country still faces threats from
        foreign enemies. Maybe not invasions on the ground from a foreign
        army, but terrorists, guerrillas, and criminal gangs, either foreign
        or domestic, are a growing threat. Urban riots are always possible,
        and looters are a potential threat following natural or manmade
        disasters. The police can’t be everywhere, and rising crime means
        that everyone must be prepared to act on his own or in cooperation
        with other citizens to enforce the laws until the professionals can
        assume control of the situation. Everyone must also be prepared to
        perform emergency services until emergency professionals can take
        over, sometimes under circumstances in which they must also be
        prepared to use armed force.

        Q: Come on! I’m not trained or equipped to act as a
        policeman, a fireman, or a paramedic. How can I be expected
        to do that?

        A: Because you are an American citizen, and it goes with being a
        citizen, whether you like it or not. What you need to do is get
        trained and get equipped.

        Q: Come on! It takes those guys years to learn those skills.
        Wouldn’t I just be doing more harm than good if I tried to get
        involved?

        A: No one is expecting you to jump into a raging river to save
        someone from drowning if you don’t know how to swim, but what
        you should do is learn swimming and lifesaving. Likewise, you can
        learn other skills that may be needed, and keep some of the tools
        you might need. For a reasonable investment of time and money,
        most citizens can prepare themselves to function effectively in most
        such situations, sometimes even better than the professionals. For
        example, statistics show that in shootouts against criminals, law
        enforcement professionals are five times more likely to hit innocent
        bystanders than armed civilians are. Part of this may be due to the
        civilians being on the scene first, and therefore knowing who the
        bad guys are and are not, but it also indicates that civilians are
        more careful, and often more skilled. Many civilians are also
        skilled in the unarmed martial arts, skills that many law
        enforcement departments actually forbid their members from
        learning and using, fearing lawsuits.

        Q: Are you really saying we should all carry guns all the time?

        A: Most of the time, yes. It’s not that difficult. After a while, you
        barely notice it.

        Q: Wouldn’t there be a lot more deaths and injuries from
        firearms if everyone carried them all the time?

        A: Well, we don’t say everyone should always carry one.
        Obviously, some people shouldn’t. But they are exceptional. Most
        people will carry them safely and responsibly, with a little training.
        Of course there will be some additional incidents if most people
        carry most of the time. Professional police and military have
        accidents and incidents, but we don’t disarm them, because on
        balance we are better off if they carry most of the time. Same with
        most other civilians. On balance most of us will be better off if
        most people carry most of the time, after receiving training, and
        with regular practice. In a large population of people, there will
        always be a certain number of injuries resulting from the possession
        and use of any common implement. But firearms, with proper use,
        are remarkably safe. Statistics show that injuries are more likely to
        be caused by common appliances like toasters and vacuum cleaners
        than by firearms.

        Q: You are talking about handguns, but what about military-
        style semiautomatic rifles, such as those banned under the
        recent Crime Act? Are they really good for anything but killing
        people?

        A: In a sense, all functional firearms are for causing potentially
        deadly injury to their targets, but their primary purpose is to
        provide a credible deterrent against criminal attack. In a tactical
        situation in which both parties are armed with semi-automatic or
        full-automatic weapons, such weapons shift the balance in favor of
        the defender, and partially offset the advantage of surprise enjoyed
        by the attacker. It is not practical to carry them everywhere, but in
        many situations, like defense of a fixed position, such as one’s
        home or workplace, they can provide the margin of survival.
        It should also be pointed out that military-style rifles, whether
        semi- or full-automatic, are the primary weapons for use in
        performing militia duties, and therefore bans against such weapons
        are in violation of the provisions of the U.S. Constitution, such as
        Art. I, Section 8, and the Second Amendment, which provide for
        the Militia and recognize the right to keep and bear arms.

        • OK… I’m on board with the premise of this…but I need to know the source…
          In my research…I don’t remember this at all… I must be stupid to have not seen this somewhere…

          I’m not doubting YOU… please…provide the source.
          Am I suffering from… what is that brain deseise…beganins with a…

      5. This is one of those instances where mother nature steps in and slaps the Earth upside the head and says’ “How do you like me now?!!”

        As with any catastrophe however, the poor would still suffer the most and the rich would still try to lord over them. We shall see.

        And as New Ordnance (and myself several times) have said…all those Nuke plants are not going to keep on running and keeping the spent fuel pools cooled. Ain’t gonna happen. Think Fuk-US-Hima was bad? Try that with the U.S. and over 104 nuclear reactors. The Russian credo of ‘Scorched Earth Policy’ comes to mind- ‘Leave nothing behind usable by the enemy.’

        • Soc,

          They could start protecting us with cheap and simple measures – store more diesel fuel on-site at the nuke stations for the back-up generators. It,s a no-brainer yet they refuse to do it. Why?

          • This isn’t as easy as adding more fuel reserves.
            With a large enough impact, both the onsite transformers could domino and overload, frying them AND more importantly- the starting circuits for the onsite diesel generators themselves….they are not EMP hardened.

            I have posted this information here (in great detail) on several occasions and people still do not get it.
            The reactors themselves have mechanical ‘failsafe’ measures via a SCRAM event. This inserts control rods in between the fuel bundles to reduce power output.
            This will reduce output but does nothing for all the ‘spent fuel’ rods sitting in the spent fuel pools.
            They require constant coolant flow and temp exchange to keep from melting down -ala Fukushina style.

            There are 2 main ways to help prevent this scenario.

            1. EMP harden the Generators and starter circuits AND faraday cage the entire generator building.

            2. Add substantially more diesel fuel at all plant locations.

            These are NOT extremely expensive safety measures to take (as you stated). But they refuse to do it. Why? Apparently someone wants us all dead.

            Agenda 21 anyone?

            • “Apparently someone wants us all dead.

              Agenda 21 anyone?”

              I see that thought a lot online.

              It’s too bad my clueless friends offline … Ahh, never-mind. Most of you guys “get it”. The rest who don’t, the rest who want to pretend like there’s a difference between The Left and The Right, and who want to fight to maintain The System as it is… there’s no hope for ya.

              Bring on The Fourth Turning, faster pussy cat, Sell, Sell.

              • Let the Hunger Games begin!

            • They only need the small amount of time to get into their underground digs before the fuel runs out. Then the doors will shut..

              • one persons bunker is another persons prison cell if you get my meaning.

                • Caterpillars.

                  • concrete and a whole lot of pissed off.

      6. “90% of Americans would be dead within a year”

        I believe it. 95% of Americans are so dependent on the grid that it would be chaos inside the first few weeks. Thats how long it would take for everyone living paycheck to paycheck to realize that those checks arent coming. Everything is now run electronically making what most of do from 9-5 completely irrelevant. it would all out anarchy.

        • What paychecks, Focus?

          With the vast majority of people now being forced to sign up for electronic direct deposit, their paychecks are automatically transferred into their bank accounts. With the electrical grid down, the bank’x computers and the Internet would be down, and there would be no way for the average citizen to extract any of their money from their account. For that matter, the employers wouldn’t even be able to execute the payment transaction – because, on their end, their computers would also be down.

          This means, once people had exhausted whatever emergency pocket cash that they might have stashed in their houses – they would be flat broke. No money means no way to purchase food, gas for your vehicle, or to pay for medicine or medical treatment.

          Make no mistake. If we lose the grid, we will be seeing chaos, panic, and desperation on a scale that would set world records.

          • Unfortunately, crack whores might get a whole lot of new competition.

        • Focus,

          I also believe the death toll would be closer to 95%. The American system is so dependent on the grid. As in the book, “One Second After”, I believe there would be a huge die out in the beginning. Later, there would be waves of additional deaths, due to illness, epidemics, lack of medications, etc.

          I believe knowledge of (and access to) healing with natural methods (herbs, etc.) would become very important.

      7. When this does happen, not if, because it is only a matter of time before it does happen. Many people will die. No power at hospitals, no power at nuke plants, water plants, sewer plants, cities, farms, airports, cars, trains,planes, boats or ships. Not to mention refrigeration, heat and the all impotant cell phones. M People will flip out everywhere. Yep its not if, but when…

        • and to make matters MUCH worse…….the 20% of americans on mood-altering drugs won’t be ABLE to get their fix…..talk about a MASSIVE freakout!

          • Yeah, but mostly they’ll all kill themselves. It’s the MKUltra candidates who take everyone around them with them.

            • hope springs eternal!

      8. This type of event would fall under a Biblical reboot.

        • y99

          nrcDOTgov/reactors/operating/map-power-reactors

          The map at the NRC website makes a persuasive case for moving upwind to the Northern Redoubt. You do want to be upwind from the missile fields in the Great Falls, Montana area however.

          • Does Washington state count? Always figured we’d have about six months if the caldera go’s.

      9. I’m pretty tired of the global situation and getting bitter and old. Would warm my heart to have a big CME/EMP hit us and reduce TPTB to our level or lower.

        The strain of humanity that works hard and prepares would continue on for the most part.

        • Show This to Anyone That Believes That “Things are Getting Better” In America

          “By almost every economic and financial measure, the U.S. economy has been steadily declining for many years. But most Americans are so tied into “the matrix” that they can only understand the cheerful propaganda that is endlessly being spoon-fed to them by the mainstream media.

          …the economic collapse is not a single event. The economic collapse has been happening, it is happening right now, and it will continue to happen. Yes, there will be times when our decline will be punctuated by moments of great crisis, but that will be the exception rather than the rule.

          A lot of people that write about “the economic collapse” hype it up as if it will be some huge “event” that will happen very rapidly and then once it is all over we will rebuild. Unfortunately, that is not how the real world works. We are living in the greatest debt bubble in the history of the world, and once it completely bursts there will be no going back to how things were before.”

          “Right now, we are living in a “credit card economy”. As long as we can keep borrowing more money, most people think that things are just fine. But anyone that has lived on credit cards knows that eventually there comes a point when the game is over, and we are rapidly approaching that point as a nation.”

          “We are a nation that is completely addicted to debt, but as the financial crisis of 2008 demonstrated, all of that debt can have horrific consequences.”

          “Overall, the value of the U.S. dollar has declined by more than 96 percent since the Federal Reserve was first created.”

          The Economic Collapse blog

      10. If our known Universe is sitting ever so silently just below the cork, in that air pocket, in the neck of a bottle of properly aged red wine, and the owner, of that fine vintage, happens to be celebrating her “39th” birthday and goes down into the wine cellar and chooses that particular year, then maybe, just maybe, our time has come.

        Raise the glass up…

        “And may ye be in heaven a half-hour
        Afore the devil knows ye’re dead!”

      11. Saudis parade nuclear missiles for the first time in defiance of US-Iranian nuclear accord
        Saudi Arabia exhibited its nuclear-capable missiles for the first time Tuesday, April 29 in a military parade ending a large-scale war game. Displayed was the liquid propellant DF-3 ballistic missile (NATO designated CSS-2), purchased from China 27 years ago. This missile has a range of 2,650 km, carries a payload of 2,150 kg and a single nuclear warhead with a 1-3 MT yield. By showing off the DF-3, Riyadh was displaying its readiness for use in a potential war with Iran and its non-reliance any longer on a US nuclear shield.
        More>
        debka.com/

      12. « Breaking News »
        Putin approves sale of newest S-400 air defense system to China

        DEBKAfile April 30, 2014, 9:06 AM (IDT)
        Coinciding with the last day of US President Barack Obama’s Asia tour, Vladimir Putin Tuesday gave the green light to sell China Russia’s newest S-400 air defense guided missile system. Moscow says this will give Beijing an edge in the airspace over the Taiwan Strait and the Diaoyutai islands disputed between China and Japan. China voiced strong opposition to Obama’s pledge a week ago in Tokyo to come to Japan’s defense in any conflict with China over the islands.

        debka.com/

      13. Would it be possible that NASA to either mixed or reversed the disastrous impact between Obama’s health care garbage Vs the mother nature’s act?

        “Space Super Storms” my or may not happen and God is in charge of it.

        “Obama’s Health Care” has already hit America and it is here to stay and continues to kill.

      14. How many times to you preppy yahoos have to write about the same thing. Mac Slavo has written basically this same article over and over again. So we get the point already. There are some things out of our control and we could all be dead. How about writing about something new Mac or are you too lame to have any creativity.

        • BigYank, let’s watch it about Mac.

        • I guess we’ll do it until you disappear BigYank.

      15. IF IF IF If we had any ham,we could have ham and eggs if we had any eggs.

      16. Guess I’ll go out today and buy the biggest metal trash can I can find so I can store my flat screen Tv in it. Ha! I’ll still be watching tube while you guys are all trying to figure out what happened.

        • There is just so much “wrong” with that statement. 😉

          • See…. street people are smart as they are already living in a big garbage metal faraday can. Way ahead of most of you folks…lol…As in the end, the preppers and the meek shall inherit the earth.

            • I’ve often wondered if a trailer would be a good Faraday cage…

        • Hope you’ve stockpiled a lot of dvds, because there wont be any cable or tv to watch. The stations will be shut down for good.

          And I love these articles that say were going to have to get our transformers from china. Have they built their grid to withstand an solar event or EMP? Im just saying, if we get hit by a solar flare worldwide it might take a whole lot more than a year or two to bring back the grid when your starting from scratch.

          • I hope this doesn’t come as a shock to you, but to keep people buying new dvds… they actually design them to break after so many years (its actually the lazer wearing down the little bumps until they don’t work anymore).

            they could make them better, more efficient, and last forever. but they choose not 2, more money in it for them if you throw away your petroleum plastic case and dvd. and buy a new one.

            • What you say is true. Just dig out one of the really old CDs and notice how thick they are. I have some that are almost “historical”. I met a microsoft representative at the airport once. He threw his entire laptop in the trash can, which got our conversation started.

              He told me flat out that all CDs are (were) being made of softer material, so they scratch easier and that they are actually made with a much shorter life expectancy on purpose.

              It was one of 4 reasons why he said he just quit microsoft.

          • I have the whole set of Leave it to Beavers so I’m good!

            • I have the “I Love Lucy” set.

              Also remember that videotapes last much longer than most people claim. I have transferred 30-year old tapes to DVD for others. Just keep the tapes away from extreme heat and moisture. I have transferred audio reel-to-reel tapes that were over 50 years old. So I have restored-to-brand-new-condition reel-to-reel, 8-track, and cassette tape recorders with a ton of recorded material.

              BTW, my CDs from 30 years ago play just fine. Keep your CDs and DVDs away from extreme heat and moisture also. Some of the cheaply made CDs don’t have plastic over the edges of the metal layer, so oxidation might be possible. The better CDs feel smooth along the edges because the metal layer is totally encased. I don’t know how long home-made CDs will last. I have some 20 years old that still work.

              I would try to have backup copies of everything in multiple media so maybe something would still be working 40 or 50 years from now.

              • Archivist, I have 3 boxes of VHS tapes and an old VCR in storage. I even have an old AM/FM 8-track component set from the late 70s which still works.

                • I found a company a few years ago that restores vintage equipment to new condition and sells the equipment for a reasonable price considering all the work that goes into it. The website is: www (dot) oaktreevintage (dot)com. I bought my reel-to-reel and 8-track machines there. You can see a photo of the Pioneer RT-909 reel-to-reel I bought at www (dot) oaktreevintage (dot) com/web_photos/Stereo_Turntables_CD/Pioneer_RT-909_R2R_Web.jpg. Besides audio equipment, they also have VCRs and heavy-duty aluminum Christmas trees.

          • I think it was Hunter who once posted something about we still have the capacity to build our own transformers here in the US. Hunter, where fore art thou? What can you tell us about that?

      17. We wont need electric lights after a events wipes out the grid. Because after all the nukes melt down everything will glow in the dark.

      18. What has to be done will never be done and all is wishful thinking. No extra replacement transformers. Nuclear power plants are not EMP safe. People don’t care about solar flares.

        There are a few of us that are aware of catastrophic incidents that can happen to us and even fewer who take the time to prepare.

        Now remember when the EBT cards went down? Imagine your in the store, the lights go out and the cash registers don’t work at all. There are a few hundred people with you.
        Power outage is one thing. Solar flares another.

        • Some of the large transformers can’t be replaced by the same kind, even if they were available. There was a transformer replacement test done recently. When they checked the transformer site, they found that the railroad tracks had been removed years ago. The only way to deliver a transformer that large was by train. So they had to get a number of smaller transformers trucked in to take the place of one large transformer.

        • I’d be heading for the nearest exit…

      19. This doesn’t scare me at all. I’m prepared for it.
        It will just push us back to the 1850’s. What I’m more afraid of is the Zombies and Leaches coming out of the big cities looking for something or someone to eat.
        again that is why I PREP!!!!
        A.S.M.S.
        Sgt.

        • Yep, not a pretty thought…

        • Sarge,,
          The majority of those people will never make it out of the cities or burbs,, save walking it, they will be like crabs in a bucket.

      20. sooner the better I say,,
        FRY IT ALL!

      21. There is no nuclear power plant in Salem, Mass. and thre never has been.

      22. This is what I prep for. I actually can’t wait.

        Keep preppin’

        • What a dumbass thing to say.

      23. Glen Beck sucks. He is not conservative. He is one of “them”. If I saw him on the street I would punch him so hard in the pie hole that his last 3 meals would fly out his butt.

        • Poon Tang:

          Gave me my laugh for the day.

          I would punch him so hard he would land in the ghettos of israelie. He loves them so much surely he belongs there. He is their lapdog for sure.

          All you patriots keep sending the shill your money. He seems rather desperate these days…..

      24. Some can’t wait for the calamity of the collapse, all prepped up and ready for anything. Let er rip, it’s inevitable. Depressing how we have been farmed like sheep to pay for our own demise.

      25. I know several people at my job who would likely jump from a high building if their cellphones quit working. Every chance they get they whip them out and start texting.

        I can’t help but to label them as zombies.

        As did KYMom and a few others above, I also believe a death toll nearer to 95% after such an event.

        KySSG . . . out.

      26. It could happen soon but it’s not very likely when you consider the distances involved. The earth is 7900 miles in diameter and its average distance is 93,000,000 miles from the sun. It’s the same proportions as the earth being an inch in diameter and being 981 feet away from the sun.

        • Not so. CMEs are very large in width. You don’t need that much accuracy to hit something small with something many times larger. In other words, you don’t need the center of the CME to hit, just some part of it. That increases the probabilities a good bit. If CMEs were small, they would have to originate at the equator of the sun and leave within a very small window of time when that part of the sun exactly faced the earth. Actually, very few CMEs originate at the equator of the sun, but we’ve still been hit in recent years.

          The historical record shows we’ve been hit before, and we’ll certainly be hit again. Better safe than sorry.

          • Actually, just 4 days ago. A strong X-class (X1.4) solar flare early Friday triggered some radio blackouts in the western Pacific, astronomers say.

            • Our lights went out for a couple of seconds too. I thought the loud bang that came a second or two after, was thunder…problem was, it wasn’t raining here.

          • “ou don’t need that much accuracy to hit something small with something many times larger”

            That’s why we hit flies with a fly swatter, instead of the other way around…LOL

      27. Forgot to mention, I recently bought a box of 12 solar lights, with on/off switches, that you put around the house for landscaping. They were the brightest available. With a full charge they would work for six or eight hours. I’ve already set them out and charged them and have them ready.

        Could be useful after an event described above. Just put a couple in each room, and switch them on as needed. Wouldn’t even need to take them outside to recharge. Just set them in an east or west-facing window during the day.

        Just a suggestion.

        KySSG . . . out.

        • KySSG,

          Good post! Solar lights are a very useful item to have. If there is bad weather forecast, with possible hail or sleet, be sure to take your solar lights inside to protect the solar charging unit.
          When we had a tornado here a couple years ago,hail destroyed the charging unit on half of Our solar lights.

          If you put the stake of the solar light in a container (can filled with pebbles will work) and set it on a shelf, it will light up a room good. Set a mirror in back of the light and it will be even brighter.

          Smaller solar lights work well as night lights when the power is off.

      28. they wont let the grid go down..its what keeping their surveillance state, and police state up and running

        when it will go down, is when the failure of the police state comes in, and when the internet and other powered forms of truth become too big for them to deal with…than they would allow it to go down for death to be its only tool to the masses for their agenda of mass population die off

      29. There is something more pressing and just as bad. The government is ordering police departments to stop arresting blacks. Tampa PD now issues “Adult Civil Citations” for misdemeanor crimes committed by blacks. They say it lowers the crime rate. Really? No it doesn’t. The crime rate is the same. Only the counting of crimes is lower. The Feds say if you arrest blacks for crimes at the rate at which they commit them, then it causes a disparate impact on the black community. No. The arrests don’t cause disparate impact, the act of committing the crime does. This is nation wide.

        • Poon Tang

          Hahahahahaha! Next they will give them the Keys to the City.

          What about the Mexicans? Do they get a Get out of Jail Card.

        • Poon Tang

          Just an example.

          Athletes Starving? Heisman Trophy Winner Caught Stealing Crab Legs From PUBLIX…

        • In Tampa / Hillsborough county, Florida Blacks commit 75% of the crimes but only make up 17% of the population. But then bitch that they are being targeted. Duh!!!!

      30. How to prepare for a CME, EMP or a Grid Down Terrorist Attack. Through the use of small solar systems you can make your own usable power for long term use. See more info at: http://www.iplantosurvive.info

        • Those pulsating line gifs hurt my eyes.

      31. insulating the grid from solar flares is as simple as disconnecting the neutral line from the ground, and installing a sparkgap in parallel with a capacitor in its place.

        the impedances and energy levels are such that for each of the biggest 1000 EHV transformers, the capacitor will cost about 10-50 grand.

        solar events place single digit volts per mile into the 3 phase lines relative to ground, and those single volts dc are sufficient to push hundreds to perhaps thousand amps DC flowing through the transformer’s neutral line back into the ground.

        this dc current saturates the transformer, and the grid’s AC power is what melts the windings, not the solar flare.

        a capacitor installed in series with the neutral line will pass the 60hz harmonic current but will be charged up with DC during a solar event.

        the utilities have known this information for a very long time.
        they estimate it will cost $100,000 per large transformer..
        at least, that’s what they seem to be telegraphing to congress…

      32. At present im jaded. Im tired of waiting for a widespread SHTF event that would separate the wheat from the chaff. If it keeps dragging on with localized SHTF I might not live long enough to witness the much anticipated big one? Every day I Check the local Obituaries and every day At least two who are taking the dirt nap I am aquainted with. Im 63 and the tele tubby hormone laced food fattened folks are dying like flies and lots of them not nearly as old as I am. The one good thing about them dying the Social Security disability check payout comes to a screeching halt.

      33. If the grid were wiped out I could still imagine the student loan bastards sending a courier on horseback to present me with a bill.

      34. Bring it on! Maybe the US government would start concentrating on what’s important like people, and infra-structure. I’d much rather see us building, or re-building, instead of destroying people and structure with war machines!

        The human race is overdue for a wakeup call. We’re not the center of the universe, or the galaxy, or the solar system, and we certainly are not capable of changing any of the above, including nature, and our immediate environment! Better a good solar storm than a 100 km rock!

      35. I know this blogs advertisers like everything hyped, but seriously, when you quote from a report you should make it easier to find the original report. You’ve f-all credibility as it is and not linking to the report just adds to this view.

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