This shorty story has been contributed by Brandom Smith of Alt Market, an organization that facilitates networking, local community action, and the exchange of knowledge and ideas and promotes decentralization, localism, and the de-globalization of human economic systems. To contribute to the growth of the Safe Haven Project, and to help us help others in relocating, visit Alt Market’s donate page here: http://www.alt-market.com/donate.
Special Note: In this latest Alt-Market piece we try something a little different; short fiction based on fact. Make no mistake; while the characters and events in this story are products of imagination, the issues presented and their probable consequences are anything but fantasy. The message? What will you choose to be in the face of hardship and crisis; a mountain? An impassable obstacle to tyranny? Or, a silent and beaten passenger of the Redline?
Adam awoke to a distant murky warbling in the back of his mind, just beyond the sound of the wind and the gentle clap of cold rain against the vinyl tarp overhead. His fresh morning eyes stung as they met the chilled air within the tent. The thin fabric membrane rippled with the rush of the dreary weather outside and he curled into a ball, burying his head under the folds of his rather inadequate sleeping bag, attempting to stay warm. He wished he could remain there, just lay there within his cotton and nylon shelter forever, and never again step outside into the harsh world. If it weren’t for the love of his wife, Sarah, six months pregnant and hungry, he probably would have given up a long time ago.
She lay next to him blissfully still, her swollen belly rising and falling with her breath, the kind of rhythm that comes with deep and all encompassing dream. He loved her. Unbearably so. The thought of anything terrible happening to her frightened and enraged him. He had never felt so useless in his life, or so lost. Only a year ago he had everything; his prosperity was acquired, his destiny assured. He was in control of his future, or at least he thought he was.Homelessness and destitution was something that you heard about in passing, a fact of life for “other” people. Fifteen minutes of cable news a day had somehow convinced Adam of the otherworldly nature of catastrophe. The theater of disaster was meant to be observed from a distance, not actually experienced first hand. That was absurd! Who ever heard of affluent upper-middle-class people actually losing everything and being cast to the roaring tides of fate?It was something out of a movie. It wasn’t reality.
Of course, here he was, bankrupt, without a home, and unemployed. Unemployable, in fact. His banking background and mutual fund middle-management experience was virtually useless in a country that was in the midst of losing its entire financial structure, not to mention lacking any investment class to speak of. Such paper coated industry was truly an illusion, utterly dependent on the existence of easy capital often derived not from savings, but from debt. If only he had realized that months ago.
Adam pulled on his socks and leather boots, unzipped the tent, and stepped onto the moist grass and weeds at the doorway. Rows of cars, tents, and motor homes stretched across the open field before him. The patch of land near the edge of Highway 5 cutting through the Central Valley of California used to hold only a few dozen migrants. Now, it was a veritable tent city occupied by hundreds of people traveling the corridor north looking for work, or looking to stay with relatives still above water. The area was relatively peaceful, but with the growth of the camp, and the ever increasing poverty of its residents, problems were beginning to arise.
He once made the mistake of leaving his shoes outside the tent in order to avoid tracking in mud, which seemed to quickly spread over every surface until he and his wife found themselves sleeping in it. The concept of a sterile living environment was difficult to let go. A certain level of cleanliness was always possible, but never near what they used to expect in their long gone suburban castle.
The next day his shoes were gone. Such quiet pilfering was not commonplace yet, but the frequency of these kinds of crimes was more blatant now. People were becoming more desperate and taking greater risks. They were starting to abandon their principles more often, and trust was beginning to bleed out of the makeshift town. The ultimate dysfunction of the whole situation was rooted in the fact that most of these wayward travelers (some would call them refugees) sat around waiting for help instead of helping themselves. Rarely did anyone try to build anything of value. There was no neighborhood watch, no community garden, and very little organized trade, primarily because most of the tent city dwellers were still deluded enough to think the system would soon correct itself, and that there was no need to take such measures. Adam knew enough not to fall into that mental trap, but his inability to conceive of alternative ways of living, his 38 years of neo-American pro-collectivist conditioning, was sabotaging him at every turn. He simply had no experience in self reliance, and certainly not self sustainability. He saw the many troubles that lay ahead for the migrants, but practical solutions were beyond him.
Adam searched the surrounding grounds for kindling of any kind for a morning campfire, but the place had been picked clean. Newer residents, some of them either unintelligent or unconcerned, had started burning trash in their open fires. The noxious rubber and plastic fumes poured over the surrounding camps and people became sick. A group of original migrants, including himself, confronted the newcomers over the practice and an argument ensued, almost coming to blows. Luckily, the older migrants outnumbered the trash burners, and they finally relented, some leaving to start their own tent city a mile away. He chuckled at the thought. Many of the people in the large camp were there because they had not had much foresight, including himself, and now the most ignorant of them had separated to launch their own little tribe of super-imbeciles. How far can an amoeba self divide, he wondered…
On returning to his tent, he came again upon the sound that had woken him earlier. A middle-aged man, beginning to grey, and physically worn by a lack of proper nutrition, sat hunched over the steps of his RV in expensive loafers sobbing like a child. In the beginning, Adam felt disturbed by similar sights. Now, all he could think was “What the hell does that guy have to cry about!? He has a god damned RV! All I have is a useless tent and a car with almost no gas…”Adam hated that he was becoming callus. He hated that he was allowing the darkness of the world to corrode away his heart the way it did.
Later that week, he learned that the man had been robbed at knifepoint in the middle of the night. Two drifters made off with what little food he had left. One advantage of living out of a run down car and a patched up tent was the overt poverty of it. No one had ever pulled a knife on Adam. What could he possibly have to steal? Just the same, he was carefully arranging a deal with a gruff man named Samuel who lived out of a beastly truck at the far end of the tent city to trade an extra car battery for a small pistol. He was a former light aircraft mechanic on the way to Oregon to live on his brother’s farm. His battery’s lead oxide plates had corroded beyond resurrection, and his enormous hulking steam roller of a vehicle simply refused to turn over one day. He pushed the car a mile and a half by himself down I-5 until he came upon the migrant camp. That was 6 months ago and he had been there ever since.
One of Adam’s few preparations before leaving the Monterey Bay area for the north was to collect as many extra vital car parts as he could. He hadn’t counted on gas prices exploding to $16 a gallon from $8 a gallon in the span of only a few months. Looking back, more than one emergency gas-can would have been prudent. All the car parts in the world couldn’t save a man whose hopes rested on a quarter of a tank. Almost no one had extra fuel for trade, and few even had as much left as Adam did. He was constantly on guard for thieves with siphons. The pistol would hopefully act as a deterrent in the event that someone decided to get bold.
“I’ve never touched one of these things, Samuel. What do I do if I have to use it?” He asked begrudgingly, almost embarrassed to admit such a thing to the old man. Samuel didn’t blink.He knew Adam was a semi-reformed lemming.
“Don’t get fancy with it. Aim it right at the bastard’s guts and squeeze the trigger straight back.Don’t yank it. And don’t aim for his head. You’ll miss…”
Adam fumbled with a box of ammo trying to load the worn .38 revolver. His discomfort with the process of loading a gun was readily visible. Samuel mumbled with concern.
“Oh, and don’t bother with the safety. It’ll get you killed. You don’t have kids to worry about. Not yet anyway.”
The ripple of a small jet engine echoed overhead, and both men instinctively veered their eyes skyward. A menacing missile like craft with wings hovered, circled the encampment, and then flew away after a few short minutes. The sight was becoming more and more common. The use of predator drones within U.S. borders had been ongoing for a few years now. It started as a measure to secure the southwest, at least, that was what the government claimed. It didn’t take long for people to realize that the roving weapons were in no way being utilized to solidify the porous border. Instead, their use escalated to city and highway surveillance, supposedly in the name of quelling “terrorism”.
The world was, indeed, ready to burst. At first, Adam had rationalized aggressive federal actions as necessary in the face of expanding crisis. BRIC nations in a surprise joint statement a year ago had announced a widespread trade agreement similar to that which was implemented bilaterally by China and Russia in 2010. The U.S. dollar was no longer the primary mechanism for the exporting and importing of goods between developing economies. China and the ASEAN trading bloc moved quickly to distance themselves from all U.S. debt instruments, especially after the U.S. executed trade embargoes on Chinese goods in a bid to force a valuation of the Yuan. What Congress didn’t seem to understand (or pretended not to understand) was that the Chinese had planned all along to speed up Yuan appreciation. Inflation was ravaging their economy. Increasing bank reserves on several occasions did absolutely nothing to stem rising prices. Their only other option was to trigger a massive spike in the Yuan’s purchasing power before Chinese citizens began to revolt in response.
Chinese holdings of American dollars and treasuries were quickly dumped to ignite an expedient devaluation of the greenback, and a subsequent rush of investment into the Yuan.OPEC nations soon followed, spurred on by very unpopular U.S. and NATO incursions into Yemen and Syria. At first, they took the diplomatic route, accepting Euros and gold in tandem with dollars for oil purchases. Soon, the dollar was overwhelmed by a basket of currencies represented by the IMF’s burgeoning trade security; the SDR. The greenback’s world reserve status was lost, and it all happened so discreetly, that few people noticed before it was too late.Energy prices rocketed to historic heights, and pump prices changed almost daily along with the violently erratic swings of the commodities markets.
Food prices doubled, then tripled. The government quickly moved to divert blame for $8 bread and $75-a-bag rice on “crop shortages”, and a “dry growing season in Russia”. A thorough examination of global crop production numbers revealed this excuse to be fraudulent. Numbers were down, but barely below record crop yields the year before. The truth was, supply had nothing to do with extreme price spikes. It was all due to the devaluation of the dollar, pure and simple. The privately owned and operated Federal Reserve Bank, in the name of saving the economy, extended fiat printing beyond all reason. Eventually, they became the only buyers of U.S. debt. All foreign investors had abandoned treasuries after ratings agencies S&P and Moodys downgraded American credit twice in a single month. Resulting monetization led to an inflationary groundswell.
A catastrophic combination of scenarios came together in what the mainstream constantly referred to as a “perfect storm”; as if it was all some kind if accident, or an act of nature. A percentage of the American populace, ever growing, began to see it as deliberate; an engineered breakdown of the dollar meant to usher in a new era of global IMF control. Adam didn’t know what to think of these accusations of conspiracy, but his background in financials told him that far too many pieces of the debt puzzle had to come together in a very particular manner to create the disaster the country now faced. First, the Federal Reserve had to artificially lower interest rates to spur the cheap flow of money into banks, all without any oversight from government. The banks would then have to fashion the debt instruments created by these easy loans into toxic assets. The ratings agencies would then have to rate those toxic assets as AAA despite all common sense. The SEC then had to completely ignore these shady practices and let the banks run wild. The government then had to respond by allowing the Fed to print mass amounts of fiat as a stop gap despite 80% opposition from the general public. All leading to the exact conditions needed to ignite simultaneous deflation in employment, wages, housing, and stocks, and inflation in goods and services. Stagflation like this was not the result of “coincidence”.
Federal reaction was swift, and all wrong. Austerity measures and higher taxes were launched simultaneously, but the cuts seemed to target the middle class, and so did the taxes, despite posturing against the “super rich” on the part of the White House. A public works program similar to that which permeated FDR’s New Deal during the Great Depression was set in motion. There were rumors of a high speed train system called the “Redline” which supposedly ferried work groups across the Midwest from Denver to the Mississippi. Almost every man at the migrant camp talked about the Redline with quiet awe. It was the answer to their prayers. To join the Redline was the ticket to prosperity and the means to save their families. It was a return to the old life.
Food stamp programs were continued until the dollar tanked. The government knew that when the welfare and entitlement handouts ceased, civic anger would be unleashed. Riots in major cities soon became a daily activity amongst forlorn urbanites.
Other citizens decided to decouple from the system altogether in a process of unspoken secession, building their own local economies, using their own currencies, and organizing into mutual defense groups. Adam had only heard bad things about these people. Though they had no specific leadership or top down organization, the media always labeled them domestic terrorists who were destabilizing the U.S. economy by debasing the use of the dollar, refusing to pay income taxes, and defying DHS oversight authority over states rights in times of danger.He partly blamed them for the prolonged nature of the collapse, as well as the insertion of armed troops into California. The government was a mess, and obviously influenced by outside interests, but that could all be sorted out after the crisis had abated, Adam thought.
A state of national emergency was declared, but only small portions of the country were locked down at any particular time. Military personnel were too limited in number to be dispersed to every city that had issues of civil unrest. China also pushed further and further into disputed South Sea territories, leading some Congressmen to suggest the initiation of a new draft for what they felt would become the next world war. National Guardsmen and Northcom units were strategically placed around eastern population centers, as well as LA, San Francisco, Seattle, and Denver. Privately contracted security forces (corporate military) roamed the interstates, setting up random checkpoints. They answered to no one, and were accused of taking advantage of their position. Horror stories of robbery, rape, and murder spread through migrant cities like Adam’s. He believed they were probably overblown. Panic generated rumors and tall tales, a plague of unverifiable perceptions and assumptions. But all of this was irrelevant to a man who can barely feed his wife and unborn child. Adam had better things to worry about than the sway of socio-political ties.
About a week had passed when Adam found Sarah staring off at the western horizon one early morning with a look of dread. The camp had grown by 70 families in that short time alone, and they had discussed the idea of leaving permanently the night before. There were too many hungry mouths packed too tightly together for the tent city to be safe any longer. He thought at first that the thought of leaving without an exact destination was what was causing her tension.They certainly couldn’t go back to Monterey, so close to the riots of LA and San Diego. Then he followed her eyes to a hill only three miles off. Two humvees rumbled along the ridgeline and then cut down across a field towards them.
“What are they? National Guard?” She said, trembling slightly.
He squinted, straining to see any identifying marks. He could find none.
“I don’t think so. They have to be private.”
“You have to hide your gun, Adam. If they find it…!” She was beginning to turn frantic. The pregnancy was straining her beyond the ability to cope. He wrapped the weapon in a piece of cloth and shoved the barrel into his right boot. She was right. Gun ownership was strictly prohibited after the national emergency was declared. They used to merely confiscate them when discovered, but that policy had evolved into often violent and brutal arrests.
“We have to go, honey. We have to leave.” She stepped towards the car, but he knew it was too late. The military style vehicles lurched the last few yards to the edge of the encampment. A surprisingly unassuming and unthreatening looking man popped out of the top of one of the humvees with a bullhorn. His skinny frame looked hilarious in his full body combat gear. The bullhorn crackled.
“Attention. This has been deemed an unlawful settlement by FEMA and the Department of Homeland Security. You have been asked to disperse and have refused to comply…”
Adam wondered what the hell they were talking about. As far as he knew they had never been asked to “disperse” by anyone.
“I repeat. This is Federal land. Permission has not been given for any settlement or public residency…”
That was news to him as well. He thought they had been careful to position the camp on state land, not federal.
“We will be transferring you to a FEMA designated facility via the Redline. You may bring only items that you can carry. Please form a line towards the west of this camp in an orderly fashion and await inspection…”
Some in the crowd actually cheered when they heard mention of the Redline, rushing to grab armloads of their vital possessions (mostly food), and clambering to be the first transported. A river of personnel trucks flowed from the western hills and straddled up to the tent city. Adam’s wife gripped his arm and the shock began to set in. They were being forced to move, without warning, and they didn’t even have a choice in where they went. The settlement was far out of the way of any public activities. It was not an obstacle or a hindrance to anyone. Yet, they were being shipped off to some unnamed location like criminals. Memories of FEMA actions during Katrina came back to Adam in a rush, and his mind raced with thoughts of veritable imprisonment in a sweltering unsanitary makeshift hellhole.
During the Great Depression, millions of Americans survived by the migrant life. Certainly, it was not a crime to be poor, was it? Apparently, attitudes had changed.
Over half the camp lined up voluntarily for transport, including Adam and his wife, but some stayed, staunchly refusing to leave their makeshift homes behind. The man with the bullhorn repeated his previous warnings and made further offers of food and shelter. A string of mercenaries began patdowns of those in line. Adam cringed as a man in a black Kevlar vest ran his hands across his pant legs. Somehow, the guard missed the .38 packed into the side of his boot. He suddenly heard furious shouts from the tent city as troops began enclosing the resistors. Rocks and glass bottles rained down, launched by hundreds of the holdouts. Adam was led to the cramped corner of a truck, and as it sped away, brimming with tired and frightened migrants, he could see the streak of tear gas grenades rip through the air, and hear the screams of men and women in the distance.
The trucks sped on, tearing down I-5. There seemed to be an expediency to this operation that eluded Adam. He couldn’t understand what the rush was all about. The line of vehicles braked abruptly, and more men with weapons sprinted back and forth slapping down tail gates and barking orders at the passengers. Adam’s truck was unloaded at gunpoint even though they had all come on board willingly. The guards roared, dragging people out of the trucks and snatching away the possessions they had originally been allowed to bring. The goods were tossed to the side of the railroad like garbage, a simple act that instilled so much pure terror in the migrants that they did everything they were told without question. Their eyes had become saucers, their minds operating in an adrenaline saturated tunnel.
Finally, Adam stood before the Redline, Sarah still clutching him. It was so far beyond what he expected the sight of it turned his insides to ice. His stomach curdled. This was no Amtrak passenger train. It looked more like an armored gulag on wheels. The windows were barred, there was only one entrance in or out of each car, and there were no seats. Migrants were forced on board in groups. The old and disabled were filtered from the ranks and pulled away towards a separate section of the train. As Adam and his wife reached the entrance, a guard wrapped his gloved hand around the nape of her neck and jolted her away from him. He instinctively reached for her, only to be met with a solid backfist to the bridge of his nose. He wheeled, stunned, and found himself kicked into the train before he could compose himself.
The doors slammed shut and the dull drop of a dead bolt could be heard falling into place.Through the window Adam could see Sarah shaking, loudly protesting as she pulled back towards the train car. The guard wailed obscenities at her, then struck her fiercely in the eye.Adam thought about the gun in his boot. He thought about killing. But his fear overtook him, and he instead begged quietly for Sarah to shut up, to just shut up and do what she was told. He cursed her pregnancy and her hormone driven acts of insanity and her inability to understand the inevitable cost of her stupid quarreling and blind panic. The guard struck her again, and she pressed her hand to her nose as a trickle of red dripped through her fingers. Finally, he dug his fist into her scalp, snatching up a ball of hair and dragging her away. Adam could not see her anymore, and there was quiet.
Tremors ran through the train as its engines rumbled to life, and the machine rolled forward.The overpacked belly of the monster was silent. No one cried. No one even moved. The migrants looked like pale facsimiles of life; statues, remnants of humanity long passed the waters of some wretched otherworld. They might as well have been in the ground. They left their souls behind on the boarding platform of the Redline.
The railway crossed into a placid valley between the jutting towers and dark recesses of a vast mountain range. These rocky edifices were ancient, unchanged by millennia of human accomplishment, sacrifice, and atrocity. The sight of them drove Adam to question what little he had ever done with the life that was given him. He was certain he was soon to die, but the knowledge of this troubled him far less than the knowledge that he had squandered every opportunity he ever had to leave something behind. He couldn’t even protect his own child. Like the primeval citadel before him, Adam realized that some men are mountains, and others are shadows. Adam was a shadow. A specter. A spectator. A nothing. Tossed about by the tides of fate, leaving an empty space in time behind him. His refusal to think and act beyond his own immediate world had consequences that spanned into the very future of all things. Only now, when he had lost it all, did this become clear.
A ringing struck his ears. At first, he thought it was a psychological snap; a break in his mind that cut to his core. He overlooked the leaping and screaming of the men and women around him. It didn’t matter anymore. Only when the crack and the ping of another bullet burst through the metal wall of the train car did he take a breath and look at what was in front of him. A peeled mushroomed hole only inches from his right ear lit up the inside of the car as sunlight streamed in. The migrants dropped to the floor, gasping in a huddled mass as the Redline was enveloped in small arms fire. Without warning, a shockwave throttled the train and it derailed, flipping several cars and bashing the prisoners about. Shrapnel peppered the exterior and several migrants were struck. The floor of the wheeled cage became slippery with blood. The fighting was fast. Ten minutes, maybe less. The shooting stopped immediately. There were no voices. Only the sounds of the coursing wind. A twisting metal bolt signaled that the door was being unlocked. Adam peered out the window but could find no one.
He reached cautiously and quietly for the door latch and pushed. It swung open to the smoking wreckage of the train. Slowly, the migrants who survived crawled through the carnage and sat stunned in the scorched earth. Adam wandered for several hundred yards towards the back of the Redline. In a small patch of trees, at the gentle bend of a beautiful crystalline stream on the far side of all that death, sat Sarah, looking up at the snowcapped mountain tops, bruised, but breathing. He knelt down and softly pressed his lips to her swollen eye. She watched the hills intently and smiled, her belly full and alive.
Bootprints were scattered all around, congregating at the mouth of the forest and marching off into the wilderness. The attack had saved them. Whether that was the ultimate purpose or not, it had saved them. Adam saw the absence of the emancipating army as a stark message: “This is your last chance”. In the foundations of that old and unforgiving place, the choices were not immediate, but they existed, and that was enough. Whatever he chose to do with this new beginning, he knew one thing without doubt; never again would he do nothing. Destiny, responsibility, freedom, life. They were his, and no one, would take them.
You can contact Brandon Smith at: [email protected]
To contribute to the growth of the Safe Haven Project, and to help us help others in relocating, visit Alt Market’s donate page here: http://www.alt-market.com/donate.
Just read this on Drudge Report
GLOBAL MELTDOWN: INVESTORS DUMPING EVERYTHING
http://www.cnbc.com/id/44626413
DOW/Au ratio down to 6.1!
Knowing that area, it is unlikely that something like the deus ex machina in the end will occur.
Just got an email from Gains & Pains Capital. Seems fitting here. I’ll share it with you.
“Yesterday I warned you that we had a CONFIRMED SELL on my Crash indicator.
This is the SAME indicator that registered before the1987 Crash, the Tech Crash, and the 2008 collapse. It’s just triggered again… and already the markets are down over 6%…in just 24 hours.
This is just the beginning. The GREAT COLLAPSE, the Crisis that I’ve been warning about for over two years…the one to which 2008 was just a WARM UP… is here.
The markets will be going to new lows(below the March 2009 lows) in the coming months.
We’re also going to be seeing major banks go under, market crashes, food shortages,government shutdowns, and SYSTEMIC FAILURE.
Yes, I believe that before this mess ends, the financial system as a whole will have collapsed. What’s coming is going to make 2008 look like a joke.
Many people will lose everything in this mess. Yes, everything. The US is going to be defaulting on its debt, paper currencies around the world will fail. It’s going to be a dark dark time.”
Then go look at the Drudge headlines.
Dow plunges 400 points…
Global markets tumble 4%…
ZOELLICK: ‘World in danger zone’…
SOROS: US already in double-dip…
GLOBAL MELTDOWN: INVESTORS DUMPING EVERYTHING…..
My friends, I’m afraid our worst fears are coming true.
There is no way they going to save the system.
It will fall because of greed and intolerance.
The only good thing that globalization did, is the ability to communicate. We exchange opinions and views and we pass this knowledge to our friends, relatives, and coworkers.
This kind of information is what helped people to understand the extend of the lies and robery.
People wake up, slowly but they wake up. And this is the worst fear of the system; to see the slaves rise and turn their backs.
I also believe that we are watching the most crucial page in history, being developing in front of our own eyes.
Be safe Mr Blutarsky. Protect your beloved ones, and may God be with you.
Thank you Manos. I know you are right but even I, as a hard core prepper am having trouble coming to grips with the reality of it.
You stay safe too. God be with you all!
Manos: You are right the system will fall; there is no way they can save the system. But sorry to say, its YOUR system that will fail.
OURS will not fail. OUR system is different than yours as OUR dollar is the world reserve currency and OUR system is designed very well.
That doesn’t mean that I like what is going on, BUT events have proven that the mechanisms of the American banking system are flexible enough to withstand the stress.
I hate the GB’s but I have to give them credit, they have designed a remarkable system. So far, it has worked, well beyond OUR expectations.
OUR banks have been recapitalized at the expense of the American taxpayer, but they are more than solvent now. Still, there are two grave dangers to the American financial system right now.
The first is lack of consumption and this is manifested in the unemployment rate. Unemployment must begin to drop and consumpotion must begin to increase over the next six months. I think it will, but thats no guarantee.
The second and much larger problem is the housing bubble which has not yet been resolved, because there are so many REO’s (8 million?)and so many more mortgages “underwater”.
If these underwater mortgages “drown” OUR banking system is back to where WE were in 2008. That is the real danger for US.
The Germans will not save Greece. They will save their own banks, but your system will crash.
Anything could happen and my magic eight-ball doesn’t have the answer, but if Greece defaults, exits the EU, dramatically devalues its new currecy (the old dracma?), global demand for cheap products from Greece will stimulate your economy. Prices will be high locally, but jobs should become available for those who are unemployed and people should be able to eat and not starve.
You have many friends here who I believe will give you and your family some help if it becomes necessary. Don’t be afraid to ask if that time comes.OK?
Durango Kid,
i always respect your opinion, and thanks for the comment.
Yes you’re right. Greece will go down. In fact we are already down.
It’s more like a collapse of the political system rather than a failure of the Greek nation.
The most important factor for the EU collapse, in my opinion, is that there is no Union at all.
No common interest, no common goal, no common culture, no common market, no common invoicing policy, no common attitude, no common evaluation system.
Just a common coin which cannot ensure the preservation of the system.
The best way is for EU to split again back to its members. The best way for Greece is to throw away all illegals, lock its borders, and start producing again. Proceed with self-consuming, and as soon as we satisfy our needs again, the we must start exporting, and importing again.
Good morning DK
You people have short term memory loss OBVIOUSLY ! did you already forget that this happened last month and what was the end result ? We also heard the same comments…:…I’m afraid our worst fears are coming true ……..HOGWASH !
Mark my words here……RICH SAID THIS , after this temporary setback the market will climb back above 11,000 ! Any bets from the doom club ?
Rich,
It’s not the stock market which gives you a hint of what’s happening in our society.
Yeah, the Dow may go (and probably will go up to 11.500)up again.
But have you seen your neighborhood changing every time the Dow goes up?
Have you seen the food coupons decrease every time the Dow goes up?
Have you seen the homeless fellow citizens standing on their feet again, every time the Dow goes up?
We are not talking about stock market my friend.
And if you really want to understand what’s happening, start watching. Start watching people, behaviors, poverty, food prices, false flags, shortages, society’s anger, riots, you name it.
Stock markets all over the world are a big globalized casino today.
Instead of going to Vegas and spend the moneda, you lose it buying papers. But it’s not an indicator of what actually is about to happen.
Wish all the luck
The Dow is holding its own because of the fed and QE1, QE2 and QE3. Government manipulation.
Rich, you are exactly right.
It must be nice to always be the smartest person in the room.
Mr B: A 4% drop in global markets is not teotwawki. The “Global Meltdown” is a teaser headline. LMAO! Read the article! 🙂
Investors are dumping equities and fleeing to treasuries because gold is overpriced. It happens all of the time! Investors take their profit and park their cash in DOLLARS!
And Zollick? He is head of the World Bank. One of the TOP NWO Globalists GB’s who wants to control EVERYONE through the World Bank. LMAO! 🙂
Of course he is Mr Doom & Gloom. HE is the man who can save US all if We will just capitulate! GMAFB!
You people are being consumed by your own irrational fears. You are hopeless!!!
The business I worked for is barely staying afloat. Not that there would be a stromg demand but we were the most well known, popular and cost effective provider of overhead electric cranes in the Pacific Northwest. Heck, the service department is not even getting any inspections and those are mandatory. Fed OSAH requires a periodic inpsection at least annually and the companies are even refusing to do that. On the side business, which is purely discretionary I know, we have not received one antelope, bear, cougar or deer head so far. Just a couple of heads for European antler mounts.
What I have not heard you discuss (nor Clark) is derivatives. I know that they are extraordinarily complex. I really don’t understand them exactly other than I know they are very highly leveraged bets. I have heard numbers that are just insane. 600 trillion….maybe double. What is $1,200,000,000,000,000.00 ? Is a 4% drop enough to make margin calls come in? Any explanation will be gratefully appreciated and carefully studied?
Thanks, POA
Plain Old American, might I suggest this article:
Derivatives: Facts and Fallacies
“Derivatives are worth some thought for investors, but they’re a side show.”
http://www.lewrockwell.com/rozeff/rozeff92.html
See, the root of many of the real problems are that Some People (Bankers and Keynesian politicians) are focused on a lack of consumption, but, according to People like Peter Schiff, consumption isn’t the problem, lack of savings Is, because that is what builds wealth.
Savings is what needs to increase.
We need less consumption.
Another thing that needs to happen is to let the Free Market clear out all the bad mortgages.
The banks with bad loans on the books have to be allowed to sink, and That is not teotwawki, but don’t expect a banker/politician to say so.
SOmething commonly said on thehousingbubbleblog.com is, Homeowners don’t have anything to fear from falling house prices so long as their intent is to stay in their homes.
The rest of the population will benefit from lower house prices, but again, don’t expect a banker or beholden politician to say that.
I think your comment about how well our system is designed is indicative of a delusion. The US system is NO better then the Euro zone’s system. Both are fiat money systems based on debt. You’re fooling yourself if you think everything in the US is going to be coming up roses. Let me know how that works out for you.
The collapse is in high gear now!
You people are hilarious !!!! Lmfao
Times are different now…..The global system, is broken, and all FIAT currencies are collapsing… ( be design )…
We are heading in to the most horrific global depression ever imagined.
True and Total…HELL ON EARTH!!!
Get prepared Rich, or lose everything you have….
Rich is a paid, obama internet troll. Ignore him/her/it.
OMG Run for cover…. Ahhhhhhhhhhh
Man, that would be an awesome job! Why can’t I get a job as a troll – just think of all the fun I could have, being annoying for a LIVING!!!
Sigh.
Some folks have all the luck.
IF and i mean IF we even have a collapse it wont be for at least…..at the very least 10 years from now….look how long it took to get from 2008 until whats going on now , so like i said we have at least 10 years so go enjoy life and stop waiting for the next piece of bad news from the DOOM CLUB !!
Rich is right. Its you people who are being consumed by your own irrational fears. The sky is not falling.
You people are being consumed by your own ignorance of the actions of financial markets and how they work; or there are individuals here deliberately spreading propaganda and you are accepting it as gospel.
It isn’t and the markets are not collapsing. LMFAO too!
I think Durango Kidd and Rich are like Burt and Ernie, if you catch my drift!!!!!
they hate it when you sound realistic and damage their hopes of doom and that makes me laugh my ass off ! if you call it like it is you are a troll and they are the ANNOINTED ones !!
Group-think.
Personally I think this is another leg down, probably a large one like seeing a convenience store either close up or get new owners who thinly stock the shelves with “bobo” brands.
Have we had recessions? Yup.
High unemployment? Yup?
Huge banks downgraded by S&P, Fitch & Moody’s? Eh, not so much but we’ve had weak banks before.
Have we tried paying social security benefits for the largest aging demographic in history? Nope.
With only 1.75 private sector employees per recipient? Oh, Hell no.
Far more people working for government than working in manufacturing? That line was crossed over a decade ago and is the reason MOST of the GDP growth for years has been due to spending home equity. Now equity is vanished…the debt? Yeah, still here.
An economy where far more than half of the GDP is from takers as opposed to makers as Umair Haque refers to them in The New Capitalist Manifesto. Not sustainable.
Bottom line…has any nation ever controlled the world’s economies with a reserve currency like the US has while simultaneously possessing enough nuclear destructive power to end life? Not yet.
Anyone can say what is going to happen. The truth is that only God knows and He hasn’t told me.
Good luck, Rich. You’re gonna need it.
Well, possibly the “collapse” is here.. however; please don’t get your panties into wads and think with cool heads. When literally everyone is doing one thing, most of the time, smart people do the opposite. ( stress, most of the time ). Whether or not this is the time to join the herd in running away; or whether this is the time to stay in place and pick some now VERY low hanging fruit; you each have to decide for yourselves.
Currently, there is NOTHING available with sufficient liquidity to replace the dollar on the world market venue. That can change in the blink of an eye; BUT it has not changed as yet.
Great words Sam.
Good points Sam…
Does anyone know what this is about??
http://shtf411.com/where-s-everyone-going-hiding-t17136.html
You people need to give it up already , every god DAMN time a government figure or figures goes somewhere it automatically has to be doom ! We have gone through this conspiracy nuttyness many times before and when this time period passes and no ELENIN passes and no doom , we can wait for the next set of DOOM dates !
THAT, is not my father’s last name, thank you very much
WELL said Sir…
Isn’t Denver the fictitious US capital in Alas Shrugged? But if the community organizer is headed there with others then its likely a secret communist conference or something.
Denver is the city with the second largest concentration of federal employees/agencies/etc. outside of DC.
Visited the Denver Mint, saw $1,000,000 on a pallet behind secure glass. Could’nt five finger a dime.
Western
GENERAL SEASON
Cascade Buck Area
Coast Buck Area
Oct. 1 – Oct. 14 &
Oct. 22 – Nov. 4
Oct. 1 – Nov. 4
Western Oregon
Deer Tag
Western Oregon
Deer Tag
One buck deer
having not less
than a forked
antler
One buck deer
having not less
than a forked
antler
Dixon, Evans Cr, Indigo, McKenzie,
Rogue and Santiam units.
Alsea, Applegate, Chetco, Melrose,
Powers, Saddle Mt, Scappoose,
Siuslaw, Sixes, Stott Mt*, Tioga,
Trask*, Willamette and Wilson units.
Exception: That part of Saddle Mt Unit
north of Burlington Northern railroad
tracks to Astoria is closed to all deer
hunting except during authorized
emergency hunts.
Deer season opens Oct 1st !
Few people here reading this web site would be caught dead on a highway camp of homeless bottom feeders or on a train to a FEMA camp.
Most likely if the govt enacted a weapons ban as illustrated we’d all be dead.
The fema camps issue is an easily proven lie and conspiracy…….the government doesn’t have the manpower , money and supplies to house and feed or control millions of Americans ! Believe what you want but reality is reality and conspiracy bullshit is just that…..bullshit !
The Nazis didn’t have the manpower, money and supplies to do it either, right? 6 millon jews and another 10 million or so others
16 million people is a campfire compared to the people of the u.s.
Stalin, Lennin, and Mao didn’t have the manpower either. Just policies to starve people, deny medicine, and citizens turning on each other. Read the recently published book, Nothing to Envy, by barbara Demick about life in North Korea.
Scary truth, silver bean.
You have much reasearch to do. The interenet is like having a huge library at your finger tips.
Try using it for something other then trolling sites to help fight off your own fears. Try other sites rather then porn and facebook.
Sorry you are so inmature. History does not happen over night. All events build up over time. And actually with a little research you will find such camps do exist. What there true purpose is yet to be seen.
i know it doesnt happen overnight and its already been 3 maybe 4 years and guess what…..its going to be at least another 10 until this mess gets fixed and unless you have a date or a timeframe you dont know whats going to happen any more than i do or anybody else does so SHUT YOUR CUMDUMPSTER ! you dipshits act like you are the annointed ones and have all the answers , so give the answers DOOMER !!!
You have to balance your life, live for now, yet for the future. One thing to think about; food prices. Two weeks ago at wally world, big box of powdered milk was 13.98, today it was 18.98. Food prices are on the rise, wages are down. It is going to get worse folks
Coffee likewise. Last month a 39oz. can was $10.99 at local Kroger. Yesterday it was $16.49. Decaf even higher.
Your posts all say the same thing: We’re nuts! OK, we get it. That’s your opinion. Do you think continually posting the same thing over and over is going to change anyone’s mind?
Do you remember the definition of insanity?
yes i do…the definition of insanity is posting year after year about how the economy is going to implode and you will escorted off to a fema camp and martial law will be declared and banks will close and mad max will ensue, so yes i know what the definition of insanity is ……hows thats for turning the tables on your STUPID ASS quote ????? hahahahahah
Pretty good.
Doesn’t detract from the fact that the real reason you post here (where you are as popular as a bean eater on a bus trip) is either because you have no intellectual interests greater than trolling OR you are really just trying to convince yourself it’ll be all right.
And you’re still a blind moron. Come up with a fact occasionally. It might help.
so tell me again what the definition of insanity is ?????? i would love to know………hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahah………a proven hypocrite ! this man is guiltyof stupidity and i have nothing more to say your honor……hahahahahahahaha
Durango Kidd wrote, er I mean, RICH wrote, “banks will close and mad max will ensue”
Have you seen the list of recent bank closures?
Have you been to Detroit or the bad section of most cities lately?
Ever dial 911?
http://freedominourtime.blogspot.com/search?q=dial+911
Yeesh, I guess reality has yet to catch up with some People.
RICH is a bitch..
All he is just angry he has no friends and gets no love and the system has got to him..RICH is the kind that is so far behind everyone else he thought he was first.
It’s ok RICH you may not like us but your not well liked here either you troll, I’d STFU if you have nothing better to say, you are the type that when and if things go to crap you’d be the first at the FEMA door begging to get in and then get your ass pounded by trailer trash for a food coupon. Your best ignored going forward…
@ PO
Don’t sweat this troll it’s like talking to a 14 year old whose balls haven’t dropped but yet they know everything , you and others here are mountains of knowledge in being informed and preppared for emergencies, he has nothing posted that can be useful to bring to the table when the SHTF for anyone, he has an intellectual disabitlity that there is no cure for, probably passed on from Uncle-Daddy, I’m sure his IQ is not above 85, I’d would say lower but he can at least use his parents dial-up and hen-peck..
@ RICH…
Life is like a game of chess, you need to think moves ahead, that is what TPTB ( the powers that be incase you don’t know) are currently doing try think about how long a spider waits for its next meal until you relate to what is happening you are a SHEEPLE, until you can grow up from checkers and play with adults other then your free porn and twitter you will not ever get what’s happening..
history says you’re wrong.
Thank you for the story Brandon. Unfortunately it is a glimpse behind the curtain to what our future may hold. I have my as many preps as I can afford…..BUT I wonder if it’s enough and IF I’ll be able to keep them.
Case in point.. Corn Futures are down almost 6%.. did someone just discover a vast cache of corn that everyone forgot about ? Did someone develop a pill that we can take and not need to eat anymore ? ( poison doesn’t count 😉 ) Nope.
Perhaps the markets WILL completely tank.. but aren’t people still going to need to eat ? Panic selling, and this is what I think we are seeing, is a buying opportunity for those who keep things in perspective..
Right on Sam not sam! I saw silver at $36 and said to myself ‘hmmm, they’re having a sale! Maybe I’ll mosey down to the pm store and pick up a bargain.’ So I did. Just a couple though. I think they’ll be having a better sale soon. Maybe not the ‘buy one- get one free’ I was hoping for, but some more bargains nonetheless. Until I see the zombies actually on the front lawn, I’ll just keep it all in perspective.
Everyone, check your pulse. Is it still there? OK then. Proceed as planned. Stay awake, but remember to live, work, laugh, love. And forgive your in-laws. They don’t deserve it, but it’s the right thing to do anyway.
“mosey” mo·sey (mz)
intr.v. mo·seyed, mo·sey·ing, mo·seys Informal
1. To move in a leisurely, relaxed way; saunter: moseyed over to the club after lunch.
2. To get going; move along.
3. To go over and ask your future wife to dance.
4. To not be obtuse.
His first post, Okie cost me two silver dimes. He never made a sound.
I could see why some of the boys took him for invert. He had a quiet way about him, a walk and a talk that just wasn’t normal around here. He strolled, like a man in a park without a care or a worry in the world, like he had on an invisible coat that would shield him from this place. Yeah, I think it would be fair to say… he’d be good company at a diner five states away.
LMOAO! (that’s laughing my okie ass off!)
gotta love that “Shawshank redemption” line tied into this discussion 🙂
“forgive your in-laws”? don’t push your luck!
Quite a startling scenario. Food for thought, as I collect cans of food. The presence of trolls on this thread only furthers my belief in the plausibility of such occurrences coming to pass.
I have to admit, the headlines are giving me a little adrenaline buzz.
However, I don’t feel like “this is it”. I do feel like I should keep preparing.
I’m honestly more concerned about the plans for the weekend, what with the Big Wigs all going into hiding.
As some of you may know, gun laws in EU are terrible. there are only two kinds of people that are allowed guns over here – Mafia and Government Mafia
so what to do? today I bought a slingshot. it is maybe a child’s toy, but at 30 yards it is almost as lethal as pistol.
prove shot it already, and I must say it is deadly accurate up to 60-70 yards. and it cost only 59 lt (about 26 bucks) so it is a bargain and legal at the same time.
in the case of SHTF I intend to spit on the law and get that gun from nearest gunshop, with any means necessary.
I envy you your constitution, which actually acknowledge that citizens owning guns is the best protection a country can have. besides, armed human is more free than unarmed one by whole ten yards 🙂 (and maybe even more)
and I do understand how laughable it may sound to you – a “slingshot”. but it is still better than bare hands. besides, one can get ducks, small fowl and rabbits with it.
What do you think of it? was it a worthless waste of precious money, or was it worth it, despite the fact that it is no match for a gun?
Well worth it. If you’re good with it; it is definitely a deadly weapon. Goliath can attest to that.. 😉
Giurza,
Where do you live in EU?
We have very strict laws also here in Greece. In the best case scenario you can buy a shotgun for hunting purposes or skeet shooting.
@manos
Lithuania. yeah, shotgun would be perfect, but hunting license is even more difficult to get than gun permit. Gun permit requires courses and exam and other check ups. hunting license practically requires you to “know” the Guy Who Will Get You Made 😀
@Sam not sam
oh yeah! Goliath can truly attest to that. one minor difference however. Goliath got it from a sling. I bought a slingshot, it is 100 times easier to shot with than sling. I know how to make sling and I made one once. however, shooting with one is a different matter entirely. I almost got my own eye knocked out with the sling… and I watched the “educational” movies and read all I could before I even tried to sling the stone…
with a slingshot I can hit man’s head target at 20 yards with a stone, with a bullet (a lead or steel ball for a slingshot) I can stretch that to 30-35 yards (on the good day that is)
I heard Lithuania had a small incident called the “Mountain Brothers” back in the 40s which would make sure people follow KGB laws for private weapon ownership. Or was it Latvia?
mmm, not sure what you mean… We had our “Forest brothers” aka resistance fighters, but I have no idea how that’s tied to the gun laws… I hear of Mountain brothers for the first time…
What about a bow? Have you seen how powerful modern bows are? Silent, swift, deadly accurate, and quite the range!
yeah, and completely illegal as far as Lithuanian government #%$^@&!%#@ think…
however, I have a low powered bow (30lbs) at home. it is good for target practice only. you need a bow of 70-80lbs at least for hunting. trust me on this, I know what I am talking. I’ve been hunting with one such. however, it was not mine, and there is no way to get one legally.
damn I wish we had your gun laws! I truly envy you guys and gals!
Think like a criminal. Get a gun.
I’m in Canada now and it isn’t too easy to get properly armed here either. If I go about getting guns legally, they are so stringently registered that I fear just owning them would make us a target of government intimidation in a bad situation.
One thing I own a lot of is bear spray. Don’t laugh. It’s like mace for bears, so it’s stronger than mace for people. And just for fun, it dyes the ahem “BEAR” indeliably orange. That’s just kinda fun, don’t you think?
Since we are such avid hikers it is all perfectly legal.
Unfortunately our family armory is pretty flimsy due to the laws here.
It is, by definition, ALWAYS a criminal act to oppose tyranny. You choose to do nothing or you choose to be a criminal. It is the old risk vs reward thing….
Ever think to look up an atalal spelling may be off though, its a spear throwing device that can use 1 meter spears and they will penetrate light armor. The Aztecs used them against the Spanish and it penetrated steel breastplates. They will also down larger game and are easily made. My kid made some at 10 years old and gets plenty of rabbits and birds each year. They aren’t toys they are lethal with a sheet metal broadhead. Good luck over there.
MM2nuke,
I think I know what you mean. it is a sort of grove with the handle, you set the spear into the grove and then cast it using that whole…arrangement. I saw it working, it is very effective.
I’ll have to try to build one and train with it. Thanks for the tip. I knew about it since the times I participated in medieval reconstruction club, but it flew out of my mind when I thought of survival guns
Giurza, although I have guns and ammo, a slingshot is in my arsenal as well. Can you purchase a bow and arrows? Even better than a slingshot.
AZeady: Those ninja metal “stars” look pretty awesome. I was looking at some last month and as soon as I get back to Prescott Valley I am going to buy some.
They may not be deadly but I think they could keep your adversary’s attention long enough to terminate him with another weapon; if you do not object to hand to hand combat.
Giurza, you could probably make some of those cheap enough out of large washers if you wanted too.
nah, too outlandish for my taste… if all comes down to this, I would rather cast a stone or even go in with bare hands, than use those shurikens.
otherwise it’s a good thought, though it is doubtful if one can make a worthwhile shuriken out of washer… but that was just a thought, I never tested such arrangement… if you did, please post your experience about it!
G; With the washer, if you can find steel instead of zinc it would work; otherwise you would have to use some “magic’ weld to bond two or three zinc washers together with enough mass to be effective.
Just saying.
AZ Ready
the bow is better than slingshot in some ways, but slingshot has one major, Zeus-like advantage over other weapons – no special ammo 😀 there will always be stones around
although stones are not as good as lead or steel bullets…
but nice to hear that even those with guns have slingshot in the arsenal! means I didn’t throw my money away.
one thing remains for me – to test the penetrating power…
Giurza, What would happen if someone sent you a bow from mail order catalog for Christmas? Would it be intecepted by govenment?
yes that one would be intercepted and I would get in trouble 🙁
Slingshots are excellent. They’re also nearly silent and cheap to feed. They are much more “sustainable” than firearms. In a pinch, its better than nothing.
It angers me about the gun laws in the EU. We’re all human, right? So why do Americans have the right to defend themselves but Brits, Italians and Grecians don’t?
ALL MEN ARE CREATED EQUAL DAMMIT! ARE AMERICANS MORE VALUABLE? MORE TRUSTWORTHY? NO! WE JUST MANAGED TO *NOT* GET BRAINWASHED AND SUBSEQUENTLY SCREWED OVER BY CORRUPT GOVERNMENTS.
The more I think about it, the more it pisses me off. Just remember that: ALL MEN ARE CREATED EQUAL. The uSA started out like that. They’ve tried and tried to take away the heritage of that phrase. They can’t do it.
you are quoted for truth! I agree with every word!
Equal in the eyes of the law but few are graced with the awesome good looks of POA………BWAAAHAAAAAAA
J/K
No need to buy a silencer……
Giurza,
Thank you for saying that about our Constitution….sometimes we need to hear it from others to feel that pride well up inside us! We hear so often these days that it is a “worthless” piece of paper…but you are right, having gun ownership is what will help keep us free!! And as for your slingshot…you are taking steps to protect yourself…be proud of that..VERY proud! It’s more than what a lot of Americans are doing!!
I wonder if you could modify, “the rock” somehow and improve things a bit?
Dang, according to Wiki, “Carrying or attempting to use a Slungshot is a felony in the states of California and Oklahoma.” I had no idea.
Nothing you said is laughable. In fact, I greatly admire your spirit. You are doing the best you can with what you have. You have, in fact, somewhat partially disspelled my stereotype of all Europeans being totally opposed to lawful private ownership of firearms by a sovereign state’s citizens. I think your character is similar to some of our founding fathers and Continental Soldiers such as Francis Marion, Robert Rogers, Gen. Nathanial Greene, etc.
I would never say your slingshot is a “waste of money”. As long as you know its advantages and disadvantages and work within its capabilities, it can be a very useful tool. Even firearms have technical and tactical limitations but, as long as you use them within their capabilities they can be a useful tool.
Properly used weapons and good tactics – in combination – is more important then weapons alone.
Oh you are so right!!! the last sentence sums it up perfectly, you took it from my lips! –
Nebraska Plainsman said:
Properly used weapons and good tactics – in combination – is more important then weapons alone.
as to my convictions about gun laws, I hold Founding Fathers and original idea of the Revolution of 13 colonies and Constitution in its raw form in very very (did I say extremely?) high regard. it’s just that USA went so far away from what it was… not much remains from the true and untarnished image of almost complete human freedom that was established back in 1787…
now you (and we do too actually, it’s all over the world in fact) have FRB, dumb education, oblivious masses, dumb TV etc…
I weep for humanity… we are more enslaved than Spartacus was before rebellion….
NE plainaman there is a great sale in kearney, apple market…, chili beans and canned tomatoes 50 cents a can! I filled my van! Goes till Monday. Hope this is of use if your close enough. We may want to chat later if we live in the same AO
I don’t really give Adam and his wife good chances.
To begin with, it’s amazing that the wife had followed him that far down. Being a successful guy back then, he would have picked up a pretty one, and if she had any brains she would have gotten rid of the child and shacked up with the gangsta who would own their block now.
That’s how millions of women had survived throughout the ages.
Also I wonder why no one bothered to rape her. It’s like carrying a porcelain during an earthquake and pray the vessel won’t break.
Most likely, the wife, already in the brink of a nervous breakdown, will die of childbirth in a few months and he will join the drifters sooner or later to fall in some unknown corner.
although your words are harsh Comenius, I think I must agree… those that are prepared will find the going tough, those that are not prepared, will find themselves dead or demented by the situation…
Women? No. Those are called “whores” or “harlots”. There are attributes of females that we all know about. But, just like there are many males that aren’t men, there are many females that aren’t women.
A real woman knows there is more to life and more to existence than just surviving. Maybe Adam’s wife is a woman instead of a female.
I suspect Brandon, a familiar acquaintance of mine since the days of NeitherCorp.us and the author of Sons of Darkness, Sons of Light, will be gracing us with future episodes of the developing manhood of Adam.
BTW, if you haven’t figured out why things happen the way they happen you should go to YouTube and query “Sons of Darkness Sons of Light”. Brandon & Josh have created a cinema quality, 30 minute video that will knock your socks off with it clarity in both quality and thoughtfulness.
Also, the site, Alt-Market.com is a great place to start to learn how to combat failure in the aftermath of possible systemic collapse. See you all there!
I must say that this Adam, we all discuss now, is a victim of modern society. earlier there was INITIATION into manhood and it was a defining point in every man’s life. you had to be at least a minimum man to become one. now you can be a totally worthless piece of garbage, whose only skill is to type fast messages in Facebook…
my son will not get off that easily! he will be required to pass survival exams before I let him drink a beer with me!
A car is sitting at a red light. The driver sees a 747 falling out of the sky and coming right at him, but he won’t move because he doesn’t want to get a ticket. The moral of the story? He deserves to die.
I knew a fella that had people beating on their windows when his buddy stopped for a red light in LA, back in 92. Just before the guy with the iron bar got there the light changed and he took off. My friend wasa screaming at his buddy driving but he wouldn’t go. I don’t think B ever rode with the guy again, LOL.
My point exactly. Some people are programmed to be sheep.
That is so bizarre, Plain Old American, and totally supports this notion:
Left on Red
“Just wait for the light. Good doggy!
What’s wanted are three things: Docility, passivity – and (most of all) obedience.
These are the true underlying principles of American traffic law – not “safety.” …
http://lewrockwell.com/peters-e/peters-e95.1.html
The reason that Persia came up with public education was to teach supremecy of the state. They got pissed when they lost the war.
I don’t know if you’re a reader but there is a book called “The State VS The People” by Ckaire Wolf & Aaron Zelman. I bought mine from JPFO. Very educational read.
Claire
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GcxYHHTwazc
Isn’t crazy how all the people are just standing around watching everything fall apart. Almost like it’s happening in slow motion. You just might want to try and save yourself and the future of your kids if you give damn.
I’m not afraid anymore!
The Revolution has started –
Read “Common Sense 3.1” at ( http://www.revolution2.osixs.org )
FIGHT THE CAUSE – NOT THE SYMPTOM
Mary, please don’t push common sense 3.1. It is for people that have never read history, do not comprehend natural law, liberty and the idea of self government.
Case in point: This “group?” promotes FDR’s “new” Bill of Rights” which includes a bunch of “stuff” that has to be taken from someone else by force. Typical Marxist type rhetoric…”from each according to his ability to each according to his need.”
My needs are a new Hewes Craft Pacific Explorer…I have no abilities that I would admit to the committee
+1
Mary: Been there. Read that. Its Marxist plain and simple. Your Revolution 2.0 is called Communism by any other name.
No interest here.
Hey, Daisy, your attacker would be easy to spot if he got away AFTER you spray him!!
“Yes, I can describe him, Officer. He’s about 5’10”, medium build and he’s orange.”
😀
And missing a testicle!!
I believe as we get even closer to the full collapse Internet communication such as this site will be shut down. They are already working day and night to restrict youtube communication. Be safe out there, always have your bug out bag in your car and carry your weapon with you even on short local trips! If it happens when I am around know I’ll have your back!
This will never happen here.
Partial support for this SHTFPLAN article, video:
Marc Faber Warns of Huge Financial Catastrophe
“Marc Faber, publisher of the Gloom Boom & Doom Report, warns of a huge financial catastrophe on the way, which will make the 2008 financial crisis pale in comparison.”
http://www.lewrockwell.com/faber/faber119.html
Fractional reserve banking is what is killing us. Governments borrowed more than they taxed. The banking cartel arranged this for their personal gain. They have become one in the same. All one can do is protect them selves and their families. I think that this is going to turn out to be one ugly mess and remain that way for years to come. Even if politicians made all of the right moves, put us back to a path of sound money, it will take years and personal sacrifice. I like to think positive and believe that the future holds promise but see no end to this greed and madness until all has gone down the crapper. That’s my 2 Euros….
A friend of a friend here in Australia sold up and moved out into the Bush to a place that is off the power grid, has a ‘bunker’ and underground stores – looking like a good move if (when) the system unravels.
Quite a dilemma I find myself in. I have a limited supply of goods for WTSHTF. My other half believes I’ve lost my mind, which puts me in a precarious situation.
All of the comments here range from 0 to 100 yet Informative indeed.
Yes, I am new to all this information, but still believe in the “Don’t put all your eggs in one basket” scene.
If it ever does come to TEOTWAWKI……….I’m out. Who could ever watch another starve and resort to the unimaginable? Ever been hungry???? It’s an extremely painful process………one that I wish never to see again. All should do at least the minamal in food storage, our Forefathers did and therefor survived.
Bless One and All
Good and lively discussion. Very infomative. Thanks to all.
buty your gun and some gear in a remote fall-back position soon…
D.C. will throw us all under the bus to sustain the debt machine that feeds the coffers of their puppet masters…
not if but when shtf there are many ways to lessen the impact on your pockets.buy a little extra each time you shop.food, meds,basics.store in buckets or other type of storage container.weapons can be made[arrows for aslingshot,walking sticks,staffs]even as simple as a hammer.lots of homemade weapons on the net.booby traps can collect wapons from agressors of all kinds.practice trapping now for profficiecy latter[better than hunting.
Now that Rich has revealed himself to be nothing but a potty-mouthed troll, I am glad to see this community has begun to assist him in getting what he “rich-ly” deserves: IGNORED.
CitznKate: You must be talking about me. Rich is not me and I have the potty mouth.
You see there are lies, damn lies, and FUCKING LIES.
FUCKINF LIES are propaganda mixed with truth to sell US bullshit, usually, fear, hysteria, hyperbole or FREE TRADE as fact when it is not.
Well, I wouldn’t call prepping a “hysteria”… as long as that fearmongering gets people into the business of prepping I would call it a positive result. it is only when people freeze with fear, or start doing some crazy shit because they panic, that’s when it gets non-constructive…
I use the same fear tactic to get my family in line of thinking “I need BOB, BOV and BOL” some people need a little scare in order to start thinkin’ about tomorrow…
Video of Peaceful unitedstate Female Protesters Penned In on Wall Street sidewalk, Then Maced by soldiers, er, I mean cops, reminded me of the Redline story:
http://www.economicpolicyjournal.com/2011/09/peaceful-female-protesters-penned-in.html