The truth is dark, but it’s something everyone needs to hear.
“Collapse” requires definition. Here it means rapid, large-scale loss of central government control, major state institutions failing, or descent into widespread civil war and state disintegration within ~2–3 years. Predicting exact collapse is impossible; instead, identify countries where credible risk of severe state failure by 2027 is meaningful based on current trajectories of political fragmentation, economic shock, elite fracture, external intervention, and insurgency. Factors considered: weak state capacity, severe economic crisis (inflation, currency collapse, debt default), active or escalating armed insurgencies, elite splits, loss of monopoly on violence, humanitarian breakdown, and major external interference.
High-risk cases (elevated probability of collapse or severe state failure by 2027)
Libya: Persistent fragmentation between rival governments, powerful militias, foreign backers, and a stagnant political process. Renewed fighting or collapse of a fragile power-sharing balance could produce rapid state failure.
Yemen: Ongoing multi-sided war, collapsing institutions, and chronic humanitarian catastrophe. A political or military shock—renewed large-scale offensives, foreign withdrawal, or fragmentation—could accelerate collapse in the near term.
Somalia: Longstanding governance gaps, fragile federal-local relations, and an active al-Shabaab insurgency. Setbacks in international support, internal elite splits, or major military defeats could tip parts of the country into broader loss of state control.
South Sudan: Deep elite polarization, recurring localized conflict, weak institutions, and economic distress. Renewed large-scale ethnic fighting or breakdown of power-sharing arrangements can lead to rapid unraveling.
Haiti: Severe political vacuum, gang rule in Port-au-Prince, economic collapse, and limited state capacity. Continued inability to restore security or credible governance creates a substantial near-term risk of de facto collapse in major population centers.
Significant risk (not imminent collapse but materially elevated chance of serious state failure)
Sudan: Though a major collapse occurred after the 2023 military–militia war, the country remains at high risk of further breakdown, wider fragmentation, or long-term partition depending on conflict dynamics and foreign intervention patterns.
Afghanistan: Taliban controls territory but faces economic collapse, governance legitimacy deficits, insurgent pockets, and humanitarian crisis. Renewed insurgency, external shock, or loss of central cohesion could produce deeper state failure in certain regions.
Lebanon: Economic collapse, dysfunctional politics, and Hezbollah’s armed autonomy create risk of institutional paralysis, local state-within-state dynamics, and potential escalation into broader collapse under a severe shock.
Burkina Faso / Mali / Niger (Sahel states): Military regimes, insurgencies, economic strain, and eroding public services increase the chance of deeper state failure or de facto fragmentation if insurgent gains accelerate or coups produce prolonged delegitimization.
Ethiopia: Tigray war and other internal conflicts undermined national cohesion. Broader spread of ethnic violence or renewed large-scale interstate war could precipitate severe loss of central control in regions.
Moderate risk or conditional vulnerability (vulnerable to collapse given severe shocks)
Pakistan: Economic crisis, political instability, and tensions between civilian elites and the military create vulnerability; outright collapse remains less likely absent a catastrophic chain of events, but regional destabilization could produce severe governance failures.
Venezuela: Deep economic collapse and institutional erosion have created de facto state dysfunction already; full institutional breakdown or fragmentation is possible if supply chains, security structures, or elite bargains break down further.
Myanmar: Military junta controls much territory but faces an increasingly effective armed resistance and economic collapse; prolonged insurgency and loss of control in border regions could produce de facto partition or collapse in parts of the country.
Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC): Chronic localized violence, weak state capacity, and resource-driven armed groups make certain provinces liable to state failure if conflict intensifies or international response weakens.
Argentina / Sri Lanka cases: severe economic crisis combined with weak institutions increases risk of deep instability, though collapse into total state failure is less probable within this timeframe.
Key caveats and framing
“Collapse” is a spectrum: full territorial collapse is rarer than regional state failure, institutional paralysis, or prolonged civil war. Many countries slip into de facto fragmentation without formal dissolution.
Time horizon matters: 2027 is near-term; most state collapses result from multi-year deterioration plus triggering shocks (civil war spark, elite split, economic default, major external intervention, natural disaster).
External actors and international responses matter: foreign military support, sanctions, peacekeeping, or emergency assistance can prevent collapse or, conversely, exacerbate it.
Prognostic uncertainty: forecasting political violence is inherently probabilistic. The listed countries are those where existing evidence—ongoing conflict, governance failure, economic collapse, elite fragmentation, and foreign entanglements—produces a meaningful near-term risk profile.
Practical indicators to watch through 2026–2027
Loss of government revenue or hyperinflation/currency collapse.
Major defections in security forces or breakdown in command-and-control.
Large-scale internal displacement and humanitarian access collapse.
Significant territorial gains by non-state armed groups.
Public elite fragmentation (competing governments, rival capitals).
Withdrawal or escalation of foreign backers and peacekeepers.
Examples of typical collapse pathways (illustrative)
Rapid military defeat of central forces by insurgents combined with elite flight and international disengagement (e.g., scenarios similar to 1990s state failures).
Fragmentation of the capital into gang-controlled enclaves, paralysis of national institutions, and humanitarian breakdown (Haiti-like trajectory).
Prolonged siege/war between rival factions with foreign proxies turning the conflict into de facto partition (Libya-like).
Summary judgment By 2027 the countries with the most credible near-term risk of collapse or severe state failure are Libya, Yemen, Somalia, South Sudan, and Haiti, with Sudan, Afghanistan, Lebanon, Sahel states, and Myanmar carrying significant conditional risk. Many other fragile states remain vulnerable to collapse if compounded by major shocks. Continuous monitoring of the indicators above will give the best short-term signal of accelerating failure.
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More recent figures suggest that violent crime seems to be decreasing from the recent peaks, with the local police department using new camera technologies such as ‘Flock’ cameras to bring rates down. These cameras can detect license plates of cars that are of interest to law enforcement and alert the police instantly.
I study these trends, so I can give you the real statistics. Too many writers focus on the most populated cities and fail to consider all U.S. cities.
Readers often ask me such a question- which are the most dangerous places in America?
Of course, since I am asked such a generic question, it depends on what you consider dangerous. You’re probably thinking of crime rates. But I once wrote a about why Miami, Florida, is statistically the city in which you are most likely to die an untimely death, including characteristics such as vehicular accidents, weather, and crime. East St. Louis ranked second, largely based on crime.
The following research confirms that East St. Louis is probably the most dangerous place in the U.S. for criminal activity, which I’ve often written about. It dispels the common myth that Camden, New Jersey, and neighboring Philadelphia are among the most dangerous American cities (but they certainly have their problems). New York and Los Angeles aren’t even close to the most dangerous U.S. cities based on crime rates, which debunks another widely held myth.
Murder rates
If you only want a list of the top 10 U.S. cities with the highest homicide rates (based on the most recent data), here they are. East St. Louis is double Gary’s murder rate!
1.) East St. Louis, Illinois (164.88 homicides per 100,000)
2.) Uvalde, Texas (144.58 homicides per 100,000)
3.) Jackson, Mississippi (102.16 homicides per 100,000)
4.) Gary, Indiana (83.42 homicides per 100,000)
5.) St. Louis, Missouri (66.48 homicides per 100,000)
6.) Baltimore, Maryland (58.46 homicides per 100,000)
7.) New Orleans, Louisiana (57.83 homicides per 100,000)
8.) Detroit, Michigan (48.86 homicides per 100,000)
9.) Baton Rouge, Louisiana (38.26 homicides per 100,000)
10.) Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (35.65 homicides per 100,000)
Of course, the tragic massacre at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, has skewed their homicide data over the past 365 days. But if you weren’t in that building on May 24, 2022, your chances of being killed in Uvalde are practically 0%. This actually serves as a metaphor when it comes to American crime, something that is very centralized and almost never puts the average American at risk, nor visitors from other cities, states, or countries.
Violent crimes
If you consider danger to include murders and non-fatal assaults, here are the top 10 U.S. cities with the highest violent crime rates (again, mostly occurring in localized areas):
1.) Detroit, Michigan (2,475 violent crimes per 100,000)
2.) East St. Louis, Illinois (2,155 violent crimes per 100,000)
3.) St. Louis, Missouri (2,145 violent crimes per 100,000)
4.) Baltimore, Maryland (2,021 violent crimes per 100,000)
5.) Memphis, Tennessee (2,003 violent crimes per 100,000)
6.) Kansas City, Missouri (1,724 violent crimes per 100,000)
7.) Milwaukee, Wisconsin (1,597 violent crimes per 100,000)
8.) Cleveland, Ohio (1,557 violent crimes per 100,000)
9.) Stockton, California (1,415 violent crimes per 100,000)
10.) Albuquerque, New Mexico (1,369 violent crimes per 100,000)
In a typical year, about 91% of the homicides in the U.S. are committed by someone the victim knew. In general, if you don’t consort with nefarious characters, your chances of being murdered, or even attacked, are extremely low. Even when crime skyrocketed in 2020 during the pandemic, only 1 in 170,000 Americans were killed by a stranger. The vast majority of those deaths by stranger occurred in impoverished neighborhoods, while very few American citizens living outside those neighborhoods ever become a victim of a violent crime. It’s an unfortunate issue.
On that note, one of the scariest statistics is to rank the top 10 U.S. cities with the highest rate of random attacks by an unknown assailant, eliminating the majority of crimes which are committed by individuals known to the victim and focusing on our worst fears, the unexpected random assault. I’ve estimated the rate of assaults, rapes, robberies, and carjackings committed by assailants unknown to the victim. This data changes dramatically from the previous list of cities with high violent crime rates.
1.) Baltimore, Maryland (1,021.0 violent crimes by strangers per 100,000)
2.) Cleveland, Ohio (828.9 violent crimes by strangers per 100,000)
3.) Oakland, California (723..9 violent crimes by strangers per 100,000)
4.) St. Louis, Missouri (719.7 violent crimes by strangers per 100,000)
5.) Memphis, Tennessee (620.0 violent crimes by strangers per 100,000)
6.) Albuquerque, New Mexico (606.2 violent crimes by strangers per 100,000)
7.) Milwaukee, Wisconsin (563.4 violent crimes by strangers per 100,000)
8.) Minneapolis, Minnesota (556.8 violent crimes by strangers per 100,000)
9.) Chicago, Illinois (504.4 violent crimes by strangers per 100,000)
10.) Cincinnati, Ohio (497.5 violent crimes by strangers per 100,000)
When crime between family members and affiliates is eliminated, Baltimore and Cleveland rocket to the top, Chicago and Oakland jump into the top 10, and Detroit drops to 11th. Most surprisingly, East St. Louis and Gary plummet beyond the top 25. Although, I suspect much of that is influenced by the fact that few outsiders in their right mind would intentionally travel into East St. Louis or Gary, both notorious places for citywide danger with essentially no safe sections. So maybe it isn’t a surprise that two smaller towns where few people dare to go has crimes that predominantly involve individuals who know one another.
Poor health
All of the rankings above take into account places that are dangerous for anyone, including both residents and visitors. I consider that true danger. But if you’re curious about the cities that are most dangerous for only their residents, with visitors not necessarily incurring any sort of elevated risk, we can analyze the top 10 U.S. cities that are most dangerous for their residents based on the probability of heart disease, the number one reason for death in the U.S.
1.) Flint, Michigan
2.) Camden, New Jersey
3.) Reading, Pennsylvania
4.) Youngstown, Ohio
5.) Detroit, Michigan
6.) Cleveland, Ohio
7.) Dayton, Ohio
8.) Trenton, New Jersey
9.) Canton, Ohio
10.) Gary, Indiana
Even more shocking, these are the 10 U.S. cities with the lowest life expectancy for their residents.
1.) Beckley, West.Virginia (average resident loses 6.14 years from the American life expectancy)
2.) Gadsden, Alabama (average resident loses 6.12 years from the American life expectancy)
3.) Anniston, Alabama (average resident loses 6.11 years from the American life expectancy)
4.) Charleston, West Virginia (average resident loses 5.83 years from the American life expectancy)
5.) Pine Bluff, Arkansas (average resident loses 5.52 years from the American life expectancy)
6.) Ashland, Kentucky (average resident loses 5.49 years from the American life expectancy)
7.) Springfield, Ohio (average resident loses 5.22 years from the American life expectancy)
8.) Florence, South Carolina (average resident loses 5.03 years from the American life expectancy)
9.) East St. Louis, Illinois (average resident loses 5.02 years from the American life expectancy)
10.) Alexandria, Louisiana (average resident loses 4.54 years from the American life expectancy)
Conclusion- Typically within the U.S., the farther you can stay from the mega-cities, the safer you are. These seem to be the locations of the majority of violent crimes, property crimes, and murders.
All in all, if we can boil it all down to one point, it would be this: It’s safer away from the city.
What are your thoughts on all this? Are there other variables you believe we should have analyzed? Do you think this is a pretty fair shot given the current data at hand? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below!
You have to define “economic collapse”. The Bush Recession of 2008 was a serious economic collapse and came close to being a major catastrophe. The Trump Recession of 2020 was also quite bad and we experienced economic hardships not seen since the Depression.
So, what would be an economic collapse to you? Could those things happen again? Sure. As bad as those times were, it could be worse. I think the economic collapse of 1929 was much worse because we didn’t even have the tools or the knowledge we now have. At the time, Herbert Hoover’s solution was to raise taxes. No one would ever raise taxes in a collapse now.
The US has, through it’s history, suffered many major economic collapses. If not for the war of 1812 it’s possible the US would have dissolved as the result of economic crisis.
In the old days there were absolutely no mechanisms to ease the pain of collapse – no unemployment insurance, no CCC, no food stamps or welfare, no tax breaks or rebates – nothing. When the economy collapsed it stayed broken until it fixed itself, something that took a long time and a great deal of hardship requiring enormous sacrifices.
The first big collapse in 1819 changed the fabric of the nation. It was caused by land speculation, lack of any banking regulation and the crazy inflationary practices of banks that printed their own money. When the crash occurred, they refused to honor their obligation to trade gold for their worthless currency. In addition, the US government defaulted on 19 million dollars of war bonds it issued to pay for the War of 1812. The crash was precipitated by world economic woes after the Napoleonic wars and exacerbated by poor government polices and inaction by President Monroe. The impact was major migrations of people who lost everything, notably to what later became “Texas”. Without the collapse, there would be no Texas. It also created the understanding that the country needed a national school system and began the policy of the “One Room Schoolhouses” as an organized, metered and supervised government activity.
Other huge collapses happened in 1837 and 1857. In 1837 the lack of a central bank and any bank regulation led once again to runaway inflation and the lack of real gold and silver to back the money. The major banks in the US refused to honor the gold commitments again and there was no regulation of bank of last recourse. The panic was started by a worldwide collapse in the price of cotton, America’s biggest export and resulted in a domino effect of unemployment, stagnation and deflation. In those days, the US was a resource exporter dependent largely on Europe to consume our resources and when a recession hit Europe, it crippled the US. Once the deflation set in, the collapse fed on itself. There were food and flour riots by people who had no money for food and no jobs. However, at the time, the US was undergoing a technological transformation and railroads, steam power, industry, and so on began an explosion that suddenly employed people at good wages and literally saved the United States. At the same time, the Gold Rush began which caused migration and forced a lot of specie into the system that was starved for gold and silver. The sudden need for lumber, coal, steel and so on outstripped the power of cotton on the economy and great fortunes were made. However, no banking regulations or central bank was created to help solve future problems.
In 1857, the first worldwide Depression occurred. The US had rapidly over expanded to meet the needs of local and international needs and when Europe fell onto hard times, the newly invented telegraph sent the news around the world which caused rash financial decisions the were bad for the economy. The telegraph was the main cause for the rapid and massive collapse as all over the US people became immediately aware of the crisis, which allowed it to feed on itself. It was exacerbated by the loss of the SS Central America caused great panic because New York, the financial controller of America, was depending on that gold to pay off its debts and back its specie. The US still had no monetary controls, central bank and all the banks printed their own money, as much as they wanted, resulting in local inflation. The Panic of 1857 was remarkably similar to the crash of 2008. The nations biggest food supplier collapsed, precipitating the collapse of the insurance companies backing it resulting in the collapse of credit and the bankruptcy of many railroads. Midwestern farm communities collapsed as commodity prices fell to pennies. Entire towns went bankrupt, but compared to the North, which was dependent on railroads and supplies coming from the South and Midwest, the Depression was much less felt and helped lead to the Civil War by making southern politicians realize the power of their products and the weakness of the Northern financial system. Some banking regulations were put into place and all paper money 20 dollars and over was ordered destroyed to help quell inflation. There were also limits put on fractional lending. It became among the first time the Federal Government exerted its authority over the banking system, something Lincoln would expand during the Civil War.
One thing we have learned is that nations need strong central banks; there needs to be tight monetary control and that we are all interconnected across the world, moreso than ever now. The US has 3 trillion dollars in exports – 1/8th of the economy. Should exports fail due to world crisis, America would fall into a self-perpetuating collapse of all its interlocked systems. Unemployment would skyrocket. The other thing we’ve learned is that no matter how bad things get, they always seem to recover. People have to eat, they have to live somewhere and they have to move around. This means some minimum level of economic activity will always be supported.
One need only look at Russia in its current circumstances to see how resilient nations are economically. The US could sustain its economy through government intervention alone. There would be hardship but it would be cushioned. So a total collapse of the US is highly unlikely. The US can grow all the food it needs and can produce all the oil it requires. Based on those two factors alone, the US can survive any major economic cataclysm albeit at some seriously reduced circumstances and with enormous hardship, homelessness, migration and pain. In a major economic collapse it would take enormous national will to prevent a dictator from seizing power – will we probably don’t have. A dictator could command the economy with all the pitfalls that entails, but it would also feed the people and in the end, bread and circuses have always served dictators.
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On the morning of January 24, 2026, Alex Pretti was shot and killed in broad daylight on a Minneapolis street by a U.S. Border Patrol agent. His death marks the second fatal shooting by federal agents in Minnesota this month, following the killing of Renée Nicole Good on January 7. Even as the details were still emerging, something far more disturbing than the incident itself was crystallizing in its aftermath: the number of Americans rushing to defend why shooting him was justified.
I’m not just talking about official government statements or legal defenses. I’m talking about ordinary citizens—people who claim to love freedom, who post about the Constitution, who say they support the Second Amendment—arguing that this man somehow deserved to die.
Their reasoning follows a disturbingly familiar pattern. I’ve heard it before. So have the Holocaust survivors I know. It’s the logic that precedes every slide into authoritarianism, and it’s being normalized in American discourse right now, in real time, by people who think they’re defending law and order.
They’re not. They’re defending tyranny. And they don’t even realize it.
“Why Was He There?”
This is always the first question. Not “What did he do?” Not “Did he break any laws?” But: “Why was he there?”
The implication is that mere presence in a location where law enforcement is operating is inherently suspicious. That being a witness to government action is, itself, a provocative act deserving of consequences.
Think about what this means.
If “being there” is justification for being shot, then no one can ever observe law enforcement. No one can document federal operations. No one can serve as a witness to how government power is exercised against citizens. The very act of watching becomes criminal.
This isn’t law and order. This is a police state.
In a free society, you have every right to be present in public spaces. You have every right to observe government officials performing their duties. This isn’t interference—it’s the foundational check on government power that separates democracies from dictatorships.
When people ask “Why was he there?” they’re really asking “Why didn’t he just look away?” And when citizens learn to look away from government action, atrocities become not only possible but inevitable.
“He Should Have Just Complied”
The second argument follows quickly behind the first: Whatever happened, he should have just done what the agents told him to do. Immediately. Without question. Perfect obedience to any command from anyone wearing a badge.
I’ve been in emergency services for over 40 years. I’ve been a firefighter, a paramedic, and a Fire Chief. I understand the need for scene control and the importance of following directions from emergency responders.
But here’s what civilians saying “just comply” don’t understand: Compliance is not the same as surrender of one’s constitutional rights.
When I’m working a fire scene or a medical emergency, I can ask bystanders to step back for safety. I cannot demand they stop filming me. I cannot order them to identify themselves without cause. I cannot shoot them for having a legally carried firearm.
The fact that someone is law enforcement does not give them unlimited authority over citizens. The Fourth Amendment exists specifically because our Founding Fathers understood that “just comply with the authorities” is how free people become subjects.
Every authoritarian regime in history has demanded perfect compliance. Everyone. And in every case, people like my friends defending this shooting would have said the same thing: “If you have nothing to hide, just do what they say.”
Until, inevitably, they came for someone those people cared about. And by then, there was no one left to object.
“Don’t Interfere With Law Enforcement”
Here’s where the logic gets truly Orwellian: The claim that observing law enforcement is “interfering” with law enforcement.
One person I know actually compared witnessing a federal raid to jumping out of your car at a traffic stop and yelling at the officer. As if these situations are remotely equivalent.
But let’s take his analogy seriously for a moment. Even at a traffic stop, you absolutely CAN film the officer from a safe distance. You can stand on the sidewalk and document what’s happening. Courts have repeatedly affirmed this right. The officer cannot arrest you for it, cannot confiscate your phone, and certainly cannot shoot you for it.
Now apply that to a federal operation in a residential neighborhood. Citizens have exponentially MORE reason to document what’s happening when armed federal agents wearing body armor and masks without identification or warrants are operating in their community. This isn’t interference—it’s the most basic form of accountability that free societies maintain over government power.
He also asked me: “How would it go over if you were working on a patient and I came over and interfered with you saving a life?”
Here’s my answer: If I’m working on a patient and you’re standing at a safe distance filming me, that’s not interference. That’s documentation. And if I shot you for it, I’d be arrested and prosecuted, badge or no badge.
The difference? I’m accountable to the public. I work in the light. I don’t demand that citizens look away while I do my job.
Why should federal agents be held to a lower standard than a small-town Fire Chief?
“Try That In Another Country”
This might be the most accidentally revealing argument of all.
“Try interfering with police in another country and see what happens!”
Yes. Exactly. In authoritarian countries—China, Russia, North Korea, Iran—you cannot question law enforcement. You cannot film government operations. You cannot be present as a witness to how state power is exercised.
That’s the point.
The fact that authoritarian regimes don’t tolerate public oversight of law enforcement is not an argument for why America should follow their example. It’s a reminder of why we fought a revolution to establish a different system.
When Americans start saying, “Try that in another country,” they’re expressing envy for authoritarian power structures. They’re admitting they want the government to have the same unchecked authority that dictatorships enjoy.
They think they’re being tough. They think they’re being patriotic.
They’re being neither. During World War II and after, at the Nuremberg Trials, they had a name for those people. Collaborators.
The Firefighter’s Perspective: Accountability Makes Us Better
I’ve run fire scenes where bystanders filmed everything we did. I’ve had people second-guess my decisions, question my tactics, and yes, sometimes get in the way.
You know what I did? I dealt with it professionally. I explained what we were doing when appropriate. I asked people to step back when necessary. I documented my decisions so they could be reviewed later.
Because here’s what 40+ years in emergency services has taught me: Public accountability makes me better at my job, not worse.
When I know citizens are watching, when I know my decisions will be reviewed, when I know I might have to explain my actions later—I make better decisions. I stay sharper. I remain professional even when I’m exhausted or frustrated.
The same principle applies to law enforcement. Agencies that welcome public scrutiny, that accept the presence of witnesses, that operate transparently—these are agencies that maintain public trust and constitutional legitimacy.
Agencies that demand citizens look away, that treat observation as obstruction, that respond to witnesses with violence—these are agencies that have something to hide.
What The Holocaust Survivors Recognize
I know people who survived the Holocaust. Not family members, but individuals whose stories have profoundly shaped my understanding of how civilized societies collapse into barbarism.
They recognize the pattern in arguments like “Why was he there?” and “He should have just complied.”
They heard these same arguments in the 1930s. Not about concentration camps—those came later. But about the early stages, when the Gestapo started conducting raids. When SA troops began “maintaining order” in Jewish neighborhoods. When ordinary Germans were told to look away, stay inside, don’t interfere with authorities doing their jobs.
Good Germans asked: “Why were they there?” “Why didn’t they just comply?” “Don’t interfere with law enforcement.”
By the time those good Germans realized where this logic led, it was too late. The machinery of state violence had been normalized, step by step, argument by argument, until atrocities became administrative procedures.
I’m not comparing ICE to the SS, although they do appear to run the same playbooks. I’m not comparing immigration enforcement to the Holocaust.
But I am absolutely comparing the logic patterns that enable state violence to escalate unchecked. And those patterns are identical.
When a society accepts that mere presence justifies violence, that observation equals obstruction, that compliance must be absolute—that society has laid the groundwork for tyranny.
Every single time. Without exception.
The Constitutional Firewall
The Founders understood this. That’s why they didn’t write the Constitution to say “You have rights unless law enforcement is doing something.” They wrote absolute prohibitions on government power:
First Amendment: The right to observe, document, and speak about government action is fundamental. It’s not a privilege granted by authorities. It’s a right that exists whether authorities like it or not.
Second Amendment: The right to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed. Not “unless you’re near law enforcement.” Not “unless federal agents are uncomfortable.” Shall. Not. Be. Infringed.
Fourth Amendment: The right to be secure against unreasonable searches and seizures. Government agents cannot simply grab people off the street because they’re present during a raid. They need probable cause. They need warrants. They need constitutional authority.
These amendments exist because the Founders had lived under a government that demanded perfect compliance, that treated observation as obstruction, that used violence against citizens who questioned authority.
They fought a war to escape that system. They wrote a Constitution to prevent it from taking root here.
And now, 250 years later, we have Americans arguing that the Constitution doesn’t apply when federal agents are “just doing their jobs.”
Where This Logic Leads
Let me be absolutely clear about what’s at stake.
If we accept that being present near law enforcement justifies being shot, then:
No one can film police activity
No one can document ICE operations
No one can serve as a witness to government action
No one can exercise their Second Amendment rights in public
No one can question whether authorities are operating lawfully
This doesn’t create law and order. It creates unchecked government power.
And unchecked government power, historically, leads to the same place every single time: Abuse. Brutality. Atrocity. Not because every government official is evil, but because humans with unchecked power eventually abuse it. Always.
That’s not cynicism. That’s the entire lesson of human history.
The Founders understood this. The Holocaust survivors understand this. Anyone who has studied the collapse of free societies into tyranny understands this.
The only people who don’t seem to understand it are Americans who think authoritarianism only threatens people they don’t like.
The Warning
I’ve responded to disasters on three different continents. I’ve seen what happens when institutions break down, when social order collapses, when violence becomes normalized.
It never starts with concentration camps and mass graves. It starts with arguments about who deserved what happened to them. It starts with people saying, “He should have just complied.” It starts with citizens learning to look away when government agents use force.
And it ends—always, without exception—with people asking “How did we get here?” and “Why didn’t someone stop this?”
Someone is trying to stop it. Right now. That someone is the people saying, “Wait, why did federal agents shoot a man with a legal carry permit? Why is that acceptable? Why are we defending this?”
But they’re being shouted down by people who have embraced authoritarian logic without even realizing it. People who think they’re defending law and order when they’re actually defending tyranny.
People who would have been “good Germans” in the 1930s, asking why those Jews were there anyway, why they didn’t just comply, why they had to interfere with authorities just doing their jobs.
I never thought I’d see this logic take root in America. But here we are.
A Final Question
To everyone defending this shooting, everyone arguing that presence justifies violence, that observation equals obstruction, that compliance must be absolute:
What will you say when they come for someone you care about?
When your son is shot for legally shooting video at a protest? When your daughter is detained for filming a raid? When your neighbor is beaten for asking questions?
Will you still argue they should have just complied? That they shouldn’t have been there? That they interfered with law enforcement?
Or will you finally realize that the logic you’re defending doesn’t protect you or anyone else—it endangers everyone, it makes you the next target.
Because by then, it will be too late. You’ll have already normalized the very authoritarianism you thought only threatened other people.
That’s how tyranny works. It convinces good people to defend bad logic. And by the time they realize their mistake, the machinery of state violence is already operational.
We’re not completely there yet. But we’re closer than we’ve ever been.
And the people enabling it are ordinary Americans who think they’re defending law and order.
They’re not. They’re dismantling the constitutional firewall that stands between citizens and tyranny.
And they’re doing it one “He should have just complied” at a time.
In an emergency, you can only survive as long as your food does. Luckily, building a stockpile is easy with these valuable tips on the best long-term food storage practices and choosing survival foods.
How preppers choose food to stockpile
Preppers have criteria that they follow when they stockpile food for emergencies. These foods don’t have to be gourmet, but they need to be safe to store for long periods, can be eaten with minimal effort, and provide adequate nutrition. Long-term food storage is essential to prepping, and this survival guide gives you everything you need to know, from food safety to essential items.
You can only survive as long as your food can in an emergency. By stocking foods with long and indefinite shelf life, your only problem will be finding enough room to keep them.
Another tip to maximizing your food’s shelf life is understanding that the predetermined expiration date is more of a guideline for most foods. For example, man foods like cereal can be eaten up to 8 months after the “best if used by” date (they just won’t be peak quality).
Carbohydrates, proteins, and fats age differently. While carbs will remain mostly stable, proteins and fats can break down and spoil. With time, you’ll learn to look for the right signs of food spoilage and know when your food is safe.
Calories
When stocking your pantry, look for foods with the most calories per serving. Calorically-dense foods are key for survival since they provide the most bang for your buck in terms of energy. Foods like sugar and protein bars are lightweight and easy to store, yet pack a punch with a burst of energy.
You’ll also save space in your pantry and be able to fit more meals into your stockpile if you choose calorically dense foods.
Types of survival foods
Before disaster strikes, you’ll want to have three main types of survival foods in your emergency pantry. They’re great options for long-term food storage when preserved properly in ideal conditions.
Pantry foods
Pantry foods refer to the base ingredients for all your recipes and other dried foods with a stable shelf life. If you have your pantry foods stocked, you’ll be able to make a wide variety of tasty and nutritious meals. Things like beans, honey, and rice are stable pantry food items and can last very long.
Canned foods
Commercially canned foods are cheap, easy to stock in bulk, and a favorite among preppers. If you’re feeling really ambitious, you can even can your own food and keep it for up to a year!
Canned food is a broad term, but there’s guaranteed to be something in it for you. Because there are many kinds of canned foods and methods to can your own food, their shelf life can vary from a few months to a few years.
Frozen foods
If you’re able to keep a freezer running in an emergency, it’s great to know that frozen foods remain safe indefinitely, even meat. The quality and taste may be lacking, but bacteria are unable to grow on frozen foods (so long as it is below 0º Fahrenheit).
Frozen foods are not to be confused with freeze-dried foods, however. Most freeze-dried food has a safe shelf life of up to 25 years or more and doesn’t have to be refrigerated to stay safe.
This is because freeze-drying foods removes up to 99% of their liquid content, preventing bacteria and microorganisms from growing in your food.
Best survival foods
Now that you know the basics preppers look for, here are our top picks for the best survival foods and why we put them on this list.
Kitchen essentials
No kitchen is complete without salt and sugar, and neither is your stockpile.
Pure salts without additives, such as pink Himalayan salt and sea salt, have an indefinite shelf life and many survival uses. You can use it to cure meat, extend your milk’s shelf life, and stay hydrated with sufficient electrolytes and minerals.
Some salts with additives, such as ionized salt, are still a good idea for shorter-term stockpiles that are often rotated, but be aware they only have half a shelf life of about 5 years due to the additives.
Having sweet treats is important to balance out the salty, savory meals from your salt cache. When stored properly, sugar has an indefinite shelf life and has more uses beyond baking. While brown sugar is also stable, it contains a lot of moisture, meaning the texture can change or turn into a rock-hard lump after about 2 years. This is still safe to eat but makes it less desirable than sugar.
Sugar can be used as a preservative in jams and jellies or as a key ingredient in comfort food. Medically, it can prevent Hypoglycemia and can be dressed around a wound to be used as an antibiotic.
Grains are a stable pantry good for several reasons: they are high in protein and nutritional value, they’re highly versatile, and most varieties can be stored for as long as 25 years if packaged in airtight, oxygen-free containers.
There are 2 primary grain groups: soft grains and hard grains. Soft grains include things like oats, rye, and quinoa. They are stable for about 8 years on average, but this can be increased to 20 years in ideal conditions.
Hard grains include buckwheat, corn, flax, mullet, wheat, and more. These grains can last from 12 years to 30 or more!
However, avoid grains with long processing methods, such as brown rice and barley. These processes can cause them to go bad after only 6 months.
Beans
Under the right conditions, dry beans can last more than 10 years! Beans and legumes are also bountiful in key nutrients, proteins, fibers, and calories and can create a variety of dishes.
Not all beans are created equal, however. Kidney, pinto, and black beans are the most common, making building a stockpile easy. They’re also packed with 15 grams of protein per cup – not bad for a pantry food item. When they’re combined with grains, they also provide complementary amino acids for a complete protein meal.
If you want to expand your options, split peas, garbanzo beans, and azuki beans are great for soups, dips, and curries and store well long-term. Just be aware that beans high in oil, such as soybeans, won’t last as long as their counterparts.
Honey
While honey maintains its peak quality for up to 12 months, it is safe to eat indefinitely, according to the USDA. This makes it an invaluable food item, but preppers often forget it’s also a great tool in your first-aid kit.
More effective than sugar, studies show that honey can be used as a wound dressing to promote quicker healing as it contains anti-bacterial and anti-oxidant properties. This may not be as effective as modern medicine, but it’s better than nothing in an emergency.
Nuts
Although the high-oil contents of nuts make storing them long-term difficult, their high levels of essential fats and proteins keep them on our list. Pistachios, almonds, peanuts, and pecans are a few of the many options available.
With numerous ways to process and preserve nuts, you can make them fit your pantry needs.
Protein bars
Protein is vital for survival, but keeping perishable proteins like milk and meat isn’t viable in most disaster situations. This is where protein bars are very important.
These protein-filled bite-sized snacks pack a punch, are one of the most calorically dense foods you can keep on hand, and are loaded with fiber and vitamins.
When kept refrigerated or in a cool, dark, and well-ventilated pantry, they can last up to a couple of months after their pre-determined best-by date. Just be sure to check them regularly for freshness and replace them as needed.
Dried produce
Most dried fruits can be stored for up to a year, and vegetables can last about half that. They can be packed in serving-size portions for each recipe for quick and easy meals and maximize the freshness of the food. For these reasons, dried foods are an essential item in any stockpile.
Canned products
Since commercially canned foods are generally safe to eat after long periods of time, they’re great options for preppers. According to the USDA, canned foods that are high in acid, such as tomato sauce, are safe to eat for up to 18 months, and low-acidity foods can last up to 5 years!
However, keep an eye out for bulging, leaking, or badly rusted cans – these can become contaminated with Clostridium botulinum and should be avoided at all costs. Botulism is the biggest danger concerning home canned goods if moist products are stored in low-oxygen packaging.
If you’re dry canning goods like crackers, wheat, and pasta, don’t forget to add oxygen absorbers to the mason jars to maximize longevity and freshness.
Spices
Long-term food storage doesn’t mean tasteless food. Enjoying your meal can provide great comfort in disasters and emergency situations. Herbs and spices can quickly transform your meals and can effortlessly be stored for long periods of time.
Ground spices can last 2 to 3 years, while whole-dried spices and herbs have a longer shelf life of 3 to 5 years. Store them in a cool, dark place, and preserve them in mason jars or vacuum-sealed bags if possible to extend their freshness.
They are safe to store in the freezer if they are in an airtight container, but you should avoid storing them in the fridge due to the higher humidity.
How preppers store food
Storing food long term looks different than what typical homeowners may be used to, unless you’re a homesteader. Stockpiling food can require strategy and work to ensure everything is accounted for and doesn’t spoil. Here, we’ll show you how this is done using 2 main strategies.
Containers
The container material and quality can make or break your pantry. If your container allows moisture or air to enter, your food could spoil unexpectedly.
You’ve probably heard mason jars are the holy grail in food prepping, and for good reason. They’re popular for canning food and general food storage because glass is an effective pest and moisture barrier.
Not packing your food properly can also cause your pantry to fail. To keep them dry, you should wrap cookies, crackers, and dry foods in plastic bags inside an airtight container. Similarly, store your loose powers and sugars, nuts, and fruits in secure containers to protect them from pests.
Other popular container options are 5-gallon buckets for bulk foods and mylar bags to block out light, moisture, and oxygen (with oxygen absorbers). Dedicated water storage containers should also be in your stockpile.
Labeling
Labeling your foods before storage is a surefire way to protect yourself against spoiled and forgotten goods, which can be detrimental in an emergency. Label all your foods with their purchase date and expiration date. If you can your own food, label the container with the name of the food and the date it was canned.
Ready-made survival buckets and kits
Emergency food buckets, also known as survival food buckets, may seem like a quick and easy way to build a stockpile of food. However, you often pay for convenience over quality, taste, and nutritional value.
With just a little planning, you can create a tastier and healthier survival bucket for a fraction of the price.
Best food storage practices
You should use the First In, First Out, or FIFO method when storing food. It’s an efficient way to rotate your food, ensuring nothing expires. It can keep your pantry free of spoiled foods by preventing older food from being shoved to the back, where it will be forgotten. Since you’ll also label your foods, FIFO is an unbeatable practice.
Build your survival pantry in a cool, dark place like a dry basement, laundry room, or closet if possible. If you’re limited on space, don’t be scared to get creative with your pantry!
Unfortunately, receiving your necessary daily vitamin intake can be hard using only shelf-stable foods. Keeping a stockpile of vitamins with your food is good practice to supplement any missing vitamins and nutrients.
Final thoughts
With strategic planning and a little time, you can start building your long-term food storage pantry using everyday groceries. Many foods have a longer shelf life than what we’re led to believe, and many more foods can easily be prepared to store long-term. Become familiar with your pantry, build a FIFO system you can follow, and get creative with your stockpile. You never know when disaster will strike, but now you have everything you need to know to stay fueled.
This post will focus on shopping, but first, a brief overview of American agriculture:
Crop failure in the Dust Bowl (more on that in another post) is a common image of Great Depression hardship, but despite this regional crisis, America was overproducing food during the Depression to the point of economic disaster. There are several books that talk about this phenomenon including Harvey Levenstein’s Paradox of Plenty. This overproduction stemmed largely from World War I, when farmers responded to a massive increase in demand for agricultural goods by ramping up production. Future president Hoover headed up the Federal task force responsible for helping feed Europe. After the war, farmers kept producing at wartime levels even as demand dropped, resulting in a glut of nearly worthless crops. The government tried to address this by buying up excess crops to stabilize the market, but farmers just kept growing at wartime levels and selling to the government. This paradox — too much food and starvation at the same time — is the central topic of Levenstein’s book. People struggled to feed themselves during the Great Depression not because there wasn’t enough food, but because they were unemployed and couldn’t afford to buy the plentiful food. There are some exceptions, such as where regional issues caused food shortages, but poverty was the biggest factor in food insecurity.
I should note that getting food differed significantly depending on where you were in the country — food production and distribution was far less standardized than it is today. The rural/urban divide is one of the most significant areas of difference. You might have noticed that most of the recipes I’ve written about use primarily shelf-stable dry ingredients. If you didn’t live in a rural location or near a distribution hub (like Omaha for meat) reliably acquiring fresh ingredients could be costly and difficult. If you didn’t live on a farm, chances were pretty good that you were getting meat, produce, and dried goods from three different places. Supermarkets were in existence (Piggly Wiggly opened in Tennessee in 1916), but clusters of smaller independent stores and vendors were more common. In Putting Meat on the American Table, Roger Horowitz discusses how these general stores, butchers, and pushcart vendors would frequently operate in close proximity.
Small regional chains of grocers existed, including some that are still around today like Kroger. Despite anti-chain legislation (especially at the state and local level) aimed at protecting small businesses, it was mostly chain stores and supermarkets that survived the economic uncertainty of the Depression. Counter service –where an employee would fetch items from a list — was still common. We think of curbside pickup and grocery deliveries as something new, but they were much more common than self-service. Speaking of food delivery services, milk delivery was still common during the Great Depression, especially in urban areas. Animal-based fats and proteins were a major part of the American diet (dietitians thought animal-derived nutrients were healthier than plant-based nutrients) during the Great Depression even if people were forced to find ways to stretch how far they went.
There are almost too many catastrophic possibilities for the end of the world as we know it these days. It’s almost creating an inoculation effect on the public and supporting normalcy bias.
Everything from giant meteors immolating most of the population, to a new and especially violent nation destroying civil war, fomented by billionaire totalitarians manipulating us all against each, other to burn our country down to the ground in anarchy, if they can’t continue their tyrannical agenda.
But most of these are not an imminent threat yet. What I’m talking about is the real time super SHTF world class catastrophes like war, weather, bio-pandemics and terrorism.
Things that are always hanging over us like a hellish cloud that can release its deadly hail storm at any minute.
Here are the ones hitting critical mass. Brace yourselves…
1. Strike on North Korea and the Potential Start of WWIII
In case you haven’t been paying attention, North Korea has been purposefully expanding its effort as an irascible world pestilence since the new Trump Administration arrived.
But history has shown North Korea to always have more ‘bark’ than ‘bite’, and nothing has ever come of it. In fact most people think it’s just their cultural mentality to threaten to nuke the U.S..
It’s the way they do diplomacy. Negotiation shave always failed because right up front the fact is stated that nothing The West wants them to do will be negotiated in talks. So there never will be any talks. This has been going on for decades. So what’s the big deal with all this now?
After all, in a military conflict with the U.S., NK would be like ant’s motor scooter getting run over by a 400 horse power Dodge Ram Charger!
We wouldn’t even need tactical nukes to reduce this insolent rogue country and its Maniac-in-Chief into a bomb crater pockmarked replica of the dark side of the moon? So why not Just continue the status quo and ignore NK altogether?
And maybe release their sanctions on high fructose corn syrup saturated foods, and maybe the tubby Corn flakes bowl haircut tyrant will die of morbid obesity, and be replaced by a less malevolent leadership?
Because this time it’s insanely different. NK has reached a threshold that emboldens him to new heights of deadly hubris. He is building intercontinental nuclear warhead ballistic missiles, and flaunting them in our faces, and then overtly threatening to nuke us with them!
One of Trump’s serious campaign promises was a “vow” to never let North Korea become a military nuclear power able to hit our mainland with nuclear weapons. If that ‘vow’ is not honored, there’s no chance for a second term for Trump and no future for his party.
So when Kim Jong-Un pulled his in-your-American-face missile test stunt last 4th of July, the final tune up of the Pentagon plans to strike North Korea were in play.
Trump doesn’t really have to justify a strike to anybody. You won’t find too many who’ll disagree with the notion that nobody wants to make the mistake made by Germany in the 1930’s by ignoring a similar mad dictator by the name of Hitler, who was basically ignored until it was too late, and he eventually amassed a military powerful enough to cause WWII, which destroyed entire countries!
In the past few weeks, Trump and his advisors carefully orchestrated world opinion to make it appear that we are not aggressors, only peaceful defenders of our land from a severely cracked nut job. Trump’s media courtship of the Chinese to try to persuade North Korea to stop their long range weapons development had everything but the engagement ring on bended knee.
The Chinese, however, threw it back on the U.S. saying that it’s our problem. Beijing confirmed that Kim Jong-Un doesn’t care about threats of military action from the U.S. or any increase in sanctions. He simply will NOT give up his nuclear missile efforts. Period. For Any reason.
Then Trump appealed to other UN world leadership to re-unite against NK for serious pressure and collective sanctions. This kind of obligatory politically correct groveling received no real patronage, and Trump exited the scene of international political ballroom dancing with the ‘anticipated’, but necessary world viewpoint that he did his best to find a peaceful alternative.
But nobody seems to care. So if “it’s only the responsibility of the U.S.”, then the rest of the story will soon become future American Military History.
Any Other Peaceful Options?
Oh, you mean like the North Korean leader suddenly having a “change of heart” and bowing down to the U.S. wearing olive branches on his mandatory state haircut with surrender papers in hand, so he’ll have a new chance to live long enough to grow into middle age while South Korean and Nato inspection teams sweep his country for WMD’s? FAT chance, HaHaHAH!
And How Bad Is That?
According to my mil-intel sources, the only reason this new administration hasn’t initiated a major surgical strike yet to take out his current nuclear arsenal is because of the politically formidable retaliatory response tactics deployed by North Korea in the form of the so-called Pyrrhic Victory principle, making it far too costly in terms of human life to be worth any perceived spoils of victory.
However, as we might painfully see, this might be a moot, and eventually irrelevant factor in the larger analysis for military action justification. With the subjectivity in the decision weighing in the same way it did with the decision to Nuke Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
To prevent even MORE loss of lives and treasure later on in a future conflict with decisive action now. It’s not even a very tough decision for the Trump Administration, considering that WWII precedent and weighing the cost of waiting too long.
It is estimated that there will be over a half million civilian casualties in the first few days of action before it “calms down”. But there will be no escaping the carnage not seen since the Viet Nam conflict, which will be paled by comparison as tens of thousands of heavy artillery and rockets rain down on Seoul. And a massive phalanx of military tanks and choppers on both sides demolish everything in their paths along the DMZ in a firestorm of death.
To preclude the escalation of a larger full scale war between South and North Korea after any initial surgical strike against North Korea’s nuclear missile program, Seoul is now allowing the THAAD anti-missile defense system in South Korea which is the advanced big brother of the Patriot shield system in Israel.
There are also two other relatively secret systems in play and now also being surreptitiously deployed for use to assist THAAD deployment in the taking down any Scud or other medium range heavy payload missiles launched by NK before they reach their targets.
Then What?
“Dogs of War always growl before they attack…but their biting fangs are swift and silent…”
P.J. Klipangle.
Whitehouse Press spokesperson Sarah Huckabee, when asked at a recent press conference about North Korea after an earlier U.S. intercontinental missile test, stated that “no option is off the table but we’re not tipping our hand with details…”
Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) also said this week that “Conflict is inevitable, unless Pyongyang stops testing weapons”.
North Korea’s foreign minister Ri Yong Ho just emphasized in an international interview that NK will never quit their nuclear ballistic missile defense program. NEVER!
Kim Jong-Un threatened massive retaliation for the latest sanctions voted on by Congress to cripple at least a third of North Korea’s already brutal economy.
Trump tweeted the other day, that “North Korea best not make any more threats to the United States. They will be met by fire and fury that the world has never seen”.
Up until now, we didn’t care much about his threats. It was estimated that he only had a few nuclear weapons. None capable of threatening the U.S.
That suddenly all changed. The Intelligence community just issued a new devastating alert. It appears that NK had been moving much faster than expected and now has powerful miniaturized nuclear warheads ready to install on their long range intercontinental missiles when perfected in the near future that will be able to reach Chicago.
What they’re not telling you is that one type of nuclear weapon that North Korea had always been interested in developing with the help of Russian and Chinese technology was a high electromagnetic pulse (HEMP) warhead!
Do they also have one of those as well? Vegas won’t give you odds that they don’t.
So here are the details of the military operation they won’t reveal. When our Asian war machine gets revved up and good to go, collateral damage is prepared for and can be controlled and minimized, and South Korea and allies are firmly on board, with a first strike attack, the supercomputer at the Pentagon will give the info and the War Department will analyze the algorithmic percentage of success probabilities and when it gives the “nod”…
Then the U.S. would want to be able to portray an initial attack as just a counter attack which followed a first move by North Korea. So we will wait patiently and likely attack during a future repeat North Korea long range missile test later claiming the missile’s trajectory was analyzed at launch to be a direct preemptive attack on Japan or Guam, or our own mainland.
Or, as just happened these days, we will “set the stage” for this by instigating and goading Kim Dim Wit to take the first punch to get things started. So Trump escalated the testosterone tirades to higher levels by stating that the U.S. war machine will be conducting massive joint allied military staging exercises this month off the coast of Korea, and that the U.S. Armada will then be “locked and loaded”!
And the toady Tyrant Boy responded with a detailed threat to immediately wipe out Guam if that occurred!
“ When the instruments of death are tuned up and the Orchestra of War is ready to play, The ‘Conductor’ will raise his mighty baton, and begin the ‘concert’ of death and destruction…”
P.J. Klipangle.
Will you be “enjoying” the music? I hope you are at least prepping for it?
The more serious problem with this powerful poker hand are the two wild cards that are still waiting to be turned over on the world gaming table.
One, is whether or not the Pentagon will decide to use smaller scale tactical nukes on NK to end the war quickly and save prolonged engagement and allied casualties?
Considering the complications of nuclear weapons deployment, it would set a precedent if a country like Iran or China, or Pakistan decides to take advantage of the military preoccupation of the U.S. and its allies to bust a military move elsewhere for its own hegemonic agenda. Then all hell could break loose and seriously affect our own economy and lifestyle here.
The other wild card is considering the now serious “Russia-gate” problems with his “dark state” enemies homing in forcefully on Trump’s family and associates for serious prosecutions, Trump might just decide to pull the trigger on North Korea ASAP for ANY acceptable excuse? After all, there are no impeachments or potential criminal proceedings allowed against a sitting wartime president.
It all would get put on hold for the duration which would be more than enough time for the Trump administration to fix everything by firing whoever needed firing and put a stop to “Russia-gate” investigations once and for all.
That alone would be worth pulling the trigger. But if it succeeded in quickly taking out the North Korean regime and destroying their nuclear capability for future without creating WWIII in the process for the defense of the American people, that would likely ensure his second term and make the risks even more worth taking.
2. A Mortally Wounded Power Grid
The second imminent nationwide catastrophe will be the power grid, and I’ve already told you about it. Many prepare for a potentially imminent Solar event, HEMP attack, or devastating grid hack by cyber terrorists, the worst case scenario(s) for a major grid collapse are far more mundane, and about to happen any time now. Interestingly, major cyber attack power outages happen to be FEMA’s major priority right now.
Just this week the major vacation area of Cape Hatteras Carolina Islands on the East Coast experienced a total power outage black out when the main power source to the area was severed by a piece of heavy construction equipment. The situation got worse when there is no telling when the power will be restored.
Fresh water is gone and thousands of tourists are being evacuated and a state of emergency has been declared. There are virtually no backup generators on the islands. And they can’t get them there fast enough before the situation goes from bad to worse. The business losses will not be recoverable for years.
There was little significant MSM coverage of a recent event where three major cities in the U.S. had three very curious major, but brief, power outages simultaneously one morning. Then a nuclear power station out West was hit with a cyber attack but managed to resist it with advanced counter-cyber IT.
There are outages across the country almost every week. These are warnings of severe power infrastructure problems currently at dangerous levels that are only deteriorating until a major Domino effect can shut down enough of the country’s power to throw it in mass chaos. Because when that many areas are blacked out, there will NOT be help coming any time soon, if at all.
But we are so dependent upon electricity in our lives that if you are a master off grid bushcraft perish right along with their dying homesteader, you might be one of the fortunate few. Most of the world simply is NOT. And many will flashlight batteries.
Then there’s the other way to cause a major grid collapse: a concentrated well planned commando style attack on certain power stations, to begin the domino effect widespread blackout. It’s unnerving to realize how weak and fragile our grid system really is. And how all three of these “in progress” events could all somehow contribute to nation-wide blackouts.
At a recent privately held world summit in Washington on the impact of a massive cataclysm and its effect on the infrastructure and survivability of societies attended by experts from 200 countries, one of the hosts former Florida Congresswoman Michelle Vasillinda made an alarming statement that “it’s not ‘if’ a Black SKY (massive power infrastructure collapse) event will occur, it’s when!”
SHTF events don’t get much worse than a dead and buried power grid. Where nothing is ON anymore. And life as we need it comes to a grinding, unbearable halt.
3. End of the World Geoengineering
AKA Chemtrails/Haarp weather control. Despite the grave imminence of the aforementioned SHTF scenarios, this one is, by far, the most ominously horrible. Because the catastrophe is being created by OUR own Dark State government, and We, The Sheeple, are virtually oblivious to it and do nothing about it.
And because this apocalypse is NOT imminent. It Is Not Near. It Is Absolutely Happening Right HERE AND RIGHT NOW!
It just may become the worst apocalypse humanity as ever seen even ushering in an actual human species extinction! Just look up in the sky? It’s a bird, No, it’s a plane! But it definitely ain’t Superman. More like the Grim Reaper.
I wrote about celebrities like the late Prince and Merle Haggert who were Chemtrail activists, and I was amazed at how many people still thought chemtrails were a conspiracy theory. That’s got to be one of the World’s Greatest Hoaxes continuously perpetrated on the people.
But unauthorized criminally covered up geoengineering and chem-trails are a proven fact. But the dark state government has cleverly kept us “under heavy cloud cover” in the form of target focused brainwashing. And it has gotten much worse lately.
I won’t elaborate now. Combined with the above doom and gloom it might be too depressing for you all at once. But prepare yourself for a life-changing revelation. You’ll learn why the only real global warming is the one intentionally created by the geoengineering totalitarian monsters!
ENDGAME
The major prep focus for the above events are food and power back up. Each above event in expanded danger could affect these areas tremendously. If you haven’t done so already, you should at least get some of the survival guide books we have here to start planning!
According to- abcnews.go.com: Beyond the banking world, a parallel universe of shadow banks has grown in the form of hedge funds and money market funds. They’re outside the reach of conventional financial regulation, prompting authorities to plan introducing new rules to prevent the obscure sector from triggering a new financial crisis. But in doing so they risk drying up an important source of funding to banks and firms.
In the financial world, there is a narrow divide between heaven and hell. Frenchman Loïc Féry realized this when he was 33. He was a rising star in the banking world, managing the trade in complex loan packages for an investment bank. According to his business card, he was the bank’s “global head of credit markets.” But then one of his employees gambled away about €250 million ($317 million), and suddenly Féry was without a job.
In any alternative media space, you are sure to find much talk about US dollar dominance, as well as optimistic forecasts of its imminent decline. This is also true in the radical right, where nationalists pine after an end to US imperial hegemony and the rise of a more multipolar world.
Often though, this hope is little more than wishful thinking, with unlikely challengers to US power much overhyped. This is especially true concerning US dollar hegemony, a topic that is ripe for misunderstanding at the best of times.
It’s important to keep in mind that people have been forecasting the decline of the dollar ever since it attained its status as global reserve currency. As far back as 1960, the economist Robert Triffin was warning of an “imminent threat to the once-mighty US dollar”. Understanding the reason for Triffin’s pessimism, and why it turned out to be misguided, is crucial to understanding today’s global monetary system and the enduring dominance of the dollar.
Triffin’s concerns were more informed than most: his “Triffin dilemma”, as it came to be known, highlighted an inherent problem with a country’s national currency also serving as the reserve currency of choice for the international system. The country supplying the world with the reserve currency has to produce a surplus of money, thereby creating a trade deficit. In other words, the supplier country needs to be continually losing money to fill up the reserves of other countries and make the currency a low-risk option to hold as a reserve. But if the supplier country becomes too indebted to the rest of the world in this scenario, then its currency ceases to be such a low-risk asset, and that’s the dilemma.
After World War II, the US sent lots of dollars abroad through the Marshall Plan, military spending, and the American middle-class importing lots of foreign goods. So how did the domestic US dollar get around Triffin’s dilemma? It didn’t.
Enter the Eurodollar
Triffin’s dilemma was especially a problem for the US dollar because it was backed by gold. After all, what would happen when the world needed more dollars than US gold reserves could back? Much like the kind of collapse that would happen if everyone tried to withdraw their money from banks at the same time, the whole system faced implosion if the US could not keep its foreign dollars backed up with gold.
The standard story is that this problem was resolved in 1971, when Richard Nixon ended the Bretton Woods international system and finally decoupled the US dollar from gold. But by this point, private banks had already long replaced gold exchange and quietly adopted a new form of exchange, extricated from any reserves or real currency, this was a truly global, offshore economic system outside the purview of central banks. This was the Eurodollar system. In this context, “Euro” is used as a synonym for “offshore” rather than referring to actual euros. So, the Eurodollar system is the shadow, offshore money system denominated in US dollars.
No one is really sure of how the Eurodollar system emerged (more on that later), but by the late 1950s there had been a huge growth in US dollar deposits in European banks, mostly in the City of London. With pre-war practices, these deposits would have been remitted to the central bank or deposited to the banks’ accounts in the U.S., but gradually, banks began to use these dollar deposits to issue loans denominated in US dollars. By 1959, the economist Paul Einzig reported that
The Eurodollar market was for years hidden from economists and other readers of the financial press by a remarkable conspiracy of silence. I stumbled on its existence by sheer accident in October 1959, and when I embarked on an enquiry about it in London banking circles several bankers emphatically asked me not to write about the new practice.
Britain’s economic goal of making London a center for international financial capital manifested in deregulation and comprehensive secrecy protections; this gave the city a competitive edge against other European countries, and put it and its web of British offshore territories at the very centre of this emerging system.
Since the election of Margaret Thatcher’s Conservative government in 1979, Britain has undergone a great experiment. Economically, the UK became the exemplar of neoliberalism in Europe. Politically, the UK has quietly transitioned to a postnational state, undergoing one of the greatest demographic transformations in the West.
As the Eurodollar market exploded, it became the lifeblood of the global economy, quickly fulfilling a need banks had for an international currency system. Banks could now transact rapidly and efficiently across countries and continents without the need of a physical currency, an innovation that helped unleash economic activity. The Eurodollar system functioned like an early cryptocurrency, existing as a digital ledger and communications network rather than a traditional currency.
Driving the global economy is a kind of bankers virtual currency, created by and used to satisfy the demands of banks, a series of claims and liabilities exchanged between banks to meet their monetary needs. How can you travel to Indonesia and make an instant withdrawal from an ATM, withdrawing from your local bank back home? Only with a vastly complex and efficient communications network connecting the global banking system.
The Eurodollar was the emergence of this system, and central banks have little control over it. For all the scare-mongering from libertarians about “Fed money-printing”, it is international bankers — outside the regulations of the US Federal Reserve — who are the ones in control of creating the US dollar supply on international markets. Big commercial banks create Eurodollars using the offshore system without the backing of the Federal Reserve. This is done through fractional lending, where dollar deposits are used as collateral to loan out a higher amount of dollars.
Again: private banks create money out of thin air by creating debt
Discovering money creation rests with private banks is a revelation that tends to shock people and send them into a state of denial — surely the state would not outsource something this fundamental to private actors.
But don’t take my word for it, a source as good as the Bank of England wrote in a report titled “Money creation in the modern economy” that:
Most of the money in circulation is created, not by the printing presses of the Bank of England, but by the commercial banks themselves: banks create money whenever they lend to someone in the economy or buy an asset from consumers. And, in contrast to descriptions found in some textbooks, the Bank of England does not directly control the quantity of either base, or broad money. Of the two types of broad money, bank deposits make up the vast majority – 97% of the amount currently in circulation. And in the modern economy, those bank deposits are mostly created by commercial banks themselves.
So international bankers have created a shadow money system, with the Eurodollar system functioning as a kind of “dark energy” of the global economy, ever-present but unseen, something which the US Federal Reserve or any other central bank can do little to control. In fact, no one even knows how much money exists in the Eurodollar system, with estimates measuring it in anything from tens to hundreds of trillions. As the economist Fritz Machlup once told a meeting of his colleagues:
We don’t even know enough about the Eurodollar market to say that it should be controlled.
If you want to visualise what this shadow money system looks like, this is an attempt at illustrating all the instruments involved in the supply of the US dollar:
Still confused? You’re not alone. If this illustrates anything, it’s that the federal reserve and central banking is just a small part of the story. This enormously complex web developed over decades through private institutions, satisfying the need for a truly global money system unconstrained by national barriers.
But in the process of decoupling the dollar from Federal Reserve reserve control, bankers have given themselves the power to create unsanctioned and unregulated money. This translates to enormous power to override national government’s monetary policy and fulfill many of the roles most people assume central banks and their governments are handling:
Because Eurocurrencies give private financial institutions the unrestricted ability to expand the availability of a particular currency, the country whose currency is the target of the Euroinstrument no longer has exclusive control over its money supply.
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Furthermore, the lack of reserve requirements on Eurodollars creates a potentially infinite money multiplier, potentially leading to an infinite degree of inflation, all without the input of the Federal Reserve or the U.S. Treasury. Thus, the power to control the number of dollars (or dollar-equivalent instruments) in the market has been taken out of the exclusive control of U.S. authority and diffused among foreign banking institutions.
Discussion around economics is still heavily focused on central bank monetary policy and government programs like Quantitative Easing, which helps maintain the illusion that it’s still accountable, elected representatives with the final say.
It’s understandable we are biased to focus on government institutions: it has always been understood that monetary sovereignty is a prerequisite for political sovereignty. But it is now clear that governments have quietly surrendered a great degree of monetary sovereignty to the private interests running the international banking system — one of the most significant and revolutionary political changes ever, yet one hardly discussed.
It’s shocking to discover the scope and influence of this system, and to discover everything presented here has been out in the open for years, strangely ignored or overlooked by popular economists, financial analysts and politicians alike. Yet some esteemed economists like Paul Einzig and Milton Friedmandid identify and study this system, and both also wrote of a grand “conspiracy of silence” by the global banking cartel to hide its existence. Since most economic analysis still ignores it, we are left with an always partial view of how the economy functions.
Why the dollar isn’t going away
There is another important realisation that comes with understanding the shadow money system: the Eurodollar is the real global reserve currency. The emergence of the Eurodollar system was an emergent innovation, coming from the many players involved in the global financial system seeking the maximally efficient form of money to handle their business. Understanding this helps us understand why it will be so hard to dethrone the dollar from its dominant position.
Imagine a world without the dollar. Suppose a German manufacturer needs to import raw materials from Brazil. The Brazilian exporter prefers to be paid in Brazilian reals, while the German importer has funds in euro. Only, there isn’t much from Europe the Brazilian company is interested in spending its new euro on, and constantly exchanging currencies can be costly and time-consuming.
However, with the Eurodollar system, the German importer can use its euro deposits to create a Eurodollar deposit in a German bank. This Eurodollar deposit can then be transferred to a Brazilian bank, which converts it to Brazilian reals and pays the exporter. The Brazilian bank can hold the Eurodollar deposit or use it to fund its own Eurodollar lending activities. Everybody wins! (Or so it must have seemed to the people inventing this system.)
Now imagine a government or governments trying to replace this. There are decades worth of highly complex and interwoven technological arrangements that have made this system function seamlessly. The dollar retains its strength because there is a constant demand for US Treasury securities backing this system.
Looking at how financiers are treating these securities, the dollar looks more secure than ever: US Treasury data reveals the foreign demand for these securities has massively increased in recent years. Holdings of long-term US Treasuries by private foreign investors jumped about 52% over the past three years to $3.4 trillion, for the first time overtaking the holdings of central banks.
Notice that the story here is not about US aircraft carriers or puppet regimes, but the private interests of the bankers that make up this system. A lot of dollar-doomers make a case that is all about geopolitics. The US is an ailing empire they say; it has a large and growing list of enemies, as well as potential challengers on the world stage like China, and we are entering a multipolar age where the US cannot dominate the world’s affairs like it did in the 20th Century. That may all be true, but it doesn’t make the Eurodollar system any less efficient for the global banking cartel.
China has put much effort trying to make its yuan a viable alternative to the dollar, and for all that, less than 3% of the world’s foreign-exchange reserves are denominated in yuan. By one estimate, the dollar is a part of 88% of all international transactions, the euro 31%, while the yuan is involved in just 7% (more than one currency can be involved in a transaction.)
If China wanted to make the yuan a true global reserve currency, they would need to embrace massive financial deregulation and abolish their currently strict capital controls, in order to allow massive inflows of foreign held currency and yuan into China. But China needs to maintain its strict financial regulation for domestic economic success, and political stability. China is unlikely to ever decide to abandon the statist model it has followed for decades just to make itself a better hub for the international financial system.
Some have touted BRICS, of which China is a member, as potentially leading the way in establishing an alternative monetary system. On paper, this looks more promising: BRICS countries have 42% of the world’s population, and an estimated 37% of the world’s GDP.
Could BRICS go about establishing a currency? Presumably, it would need a central bank, and presumably that would be centered in China, representing an unacceptable loss of sovereignty to other countries in the alliance, especially India, with whom it has ongoing territorial conflicts. The idea of a “BRICS coin” has been floated a lot over the years, either backed by gold or fully digital. But just last year, the head of BRICS’ New Development Bank made it clear there are no immediate plans for the group to create a common currency.
Even if BRICS were willing to put aside their disagreements and commit to a BRICS coin, it’s hard to see what competitive advantage it would have over the current system. A gold-backed currency? Bankers abandoned gold and embraced the Eurodollar system in the first place because gold-backed currency was a hindrance to their activities.
What about the “R” in BRICS? Perhaps Russia’s fortunes point to a potential alternative to dollar dominance. After all, since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the US government has weaponised the financial system in ways previously unseen. Is this not a display to the world of the precarity of relying on the good graces of America to sustain your financial system? Many reasoned that if the United States overplayed its hand sanctioning Russia, this is the lesson the rest of the world would take, and then it would only be a matter of time before enough interested parties conspired to take down the mighty dollar.
The most headline grabbing sanction against Russia came when the US and its Western allies invoked what some analysts called “the nuclear option”, and colluded to take Russia off of SWIFT (Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication). This was highly significant, as SWIFT is used by banks worldwide as a kind of instant messaging service. President Biden promised that this would “ensure that these banks are disconnected from the international financial system and harm their ability to operate globally.”
With the basic understanding of the US dollar as something strictly under the control of the US government, many assumed they could just deny Russia access to the dollar by cutting them off from the SWIFT system. But despite the high-profile deplatforming, Russian banks suffered little more than an inconvenience from being denied access to SWIFT, because of how effective the Eurodollar system is.
Eurodollar economist Jeffrey Snider summarised the problem with this attempt at deplatforming the Russian economy:
SWIFT constitutes very little insofar as the inner workings of the offshore banking network is concerned.
…
Deprive some of Russia’s institutions their ability to message to correspondents using SWIFT and they’ll simply communicate (how’s that for more irony!) with them some other way (including just picking up the phone) because the offshore correspondents are still there. They will continue to conduct their monetary business regardless of the method payments requests are sent and received.
Ironically, the very fact the US government could do so little to hinder Russian banks’ access to the Eurodollar market shows why it is so effective, and why the dollar will keep its position for the foreseeable future.
This takes us back to the start of this story, when the Eurodollar market emerged under shady and secretive circumstances in the city of London. I wrote no one is really sure how the Eurodollar emerged, but the most likely theory is that the real origin actually lies with the Soviet Union.
In 1956, the Soviets were also in the position of fearing international sanction for invading a smaller neighbour. After they crushed the 1956 rebellion in Hungary, Soviet officials feared the US would target their holdings of dollar deposits in American banks.
In response, the Soviets withdrew their dollars and moved them to two Russian banks based in Europe: Commercial pour L’Europe du Nord (BCEN) in Paris, and the Moscow Narodny Bank in London. Using those dollar deposits, these Russian banks may have become the first lenders in the global Eurodollar market.
On February 28, 1957, the Moscow Narodny Bank in London lent out $800,000. This modest sum was borrowed and repaid entirely outside the American banking system — or any centralised banking system. Bankers had just discovered an amazing innovation. BCEN in Paris also took some Narodny dollars and lent them out. The Paris bank was known by its telex name EUROBANK, and that, supposedly, is how dollars deposited in banks outside the US came to be known as “Eurodollars”.
And so, in one of the great ironies of history, the 20th Century’s great communist regime sparked an innovation on the financial markets that greatly expanded the power of capital and moved the activities of bankers beyond the scope of governments.
The Eurodollar system became so dominant because of innovations from people trying to avoid US government control of their dollars, and that’s precisely why the system is so resilient — to alternate currencies, to geopolitical shocks, and to the US government itself.
Nothing lasts forever, but for now, global dollar dominance is on pretty solid ground.
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For those professing a preference for one type of government over another, anugly reality is they all cut from the same cloth. Whether we are talking about Democracy,Communism, Socialism, or Fascism the strong link they share is one of dominance and a desire to control. While seen as vastly different systems with distinct goals, each is rooted in the promise people should sacrifice as needed for “the greater good.” The main flaw in a democracy is that it allows a simple majority to force their desires upon others. This is why our forefathers set checks and balances in the Constitution, however, even these do not guarantee freedom will remain.
Today, the burden of risk and the amount of “skin in the game” is not equally shared by all of society. Over time our financial system and institutions have been corrupted by crony capitalism and a political system that panders to the masses by exchanging favors for baubles. It could be argued that those in power don’t have to take away our freedom by force if we are willing to surrender it or trade it for a few paid weeks off work. Nor do they have to be fair in how they go about this if they simply get a majority of the populace to go along with their plan.
The suspicion governments are self-serving creatures is apparent in the old school British imperial definition of “commerce” which used free trade as a cover for the military dominance of weak nations. Those put in a position of being exploited often saw this as simply a ruse promoted by those wishing to abuse them. In short, opening borders and turning off protectionism simply makes it easier to rob countries of their wealth. America, a wayward child of England, has been accused of following this same path.
In a 2020 article a case was made that the world was headed towards an economic crisis due to several factors. The problem is that such a scenario encompasses all aspects of life, from food and energy, to supply chains, geopolitics, and possibly even war. This article is an effort to offer up some ideas on how governments might respond to such an event based on current trends and some of the events that have occurred during the covid-19 pandemic. If we accept the idea that governments are self-serving and that a huge majority of the people suffer during an economic depression, we should expect frictions to develop as the populace seeks solutions to ease their pain.
Sadly, governments across the world have overreached and crushed the rights of individuals during the pandemic. People have been denied the ability to travel, locked in their homes, followed by drones, and even been jailed. This may have been just a taste of what we might expect if governments are put under pressure to perform. Many people have pointed to the fact that in the past “war has been the go-to answer” often used to take our eyes off of problems. Hopefully, that will not be the case, however, many of the other options possible in the age of almost total surveillance do not seem much better.
It is wise to remember that when all is said and done, those in power will not be kind to us but they will rapidly throw us under the bus without a thought. Silencing dissidents or those that protest or disagree by limiting free speech is only a start. Lock-downs and curfews take on a whole new meaning when harshly enforced. They can include things like house arrest, cutting power, links to the internet and communication, and even water to areas where unrest gets out of hand. You can expect governments to remove anything that gives us the power to control our fate.
The topic of our future and culture always circles back to and is directly linked to the issue of jobs vanishing as automation and an army of robots march into our workplace. This can result in a future that takes on a very grim dystopian appearance. The fear of being replaced by a robot or seeing your job being outsourced or eliminated is on the rise. Do not be surprised if in the end those displaced from the job market are only given enough to ensure they remain docile and behave. If and when this becomes an issue conflict and violence will arise.
While some people credit Rahm Emanuel with the saying, Winston Churchill was the first to say, “Neverletagoodcrisisgotowaste.” He said it in the mid-1940s as we were approaching the end of World War II, and history indicates those in government have taken heed. The one thing we can count on is that when things crumble, the old, “we should have done more” or the “it would have been far worse” lines always flow forth from those in charge. Under this logic, we should be prepared to be subjected to massive abuse by those with strong agendas.
Possibly, one of the most dire threats we face flows from the combination of big tech and those in pursuit of the highly touted one-world agenda. This brings together a slew of organizations, governments, companies, wealthy, individuals, and bankers with the goal of expanding their power. The gathering in Davos of the World Economic Forum is not for our benefit but more for plutocrats like Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg and Amazon’s Jeff Bezos that desire to “break the world” with their ruthless agendas to bring more political power into their hands. Recently a great deal of attention has been given to some of the ideas and vision the WEF has floated. One of the most powerful became visible when WEF public relations released a video entitled: “8 Predictions for the World in 2030. Its 2030 agenda offers a telling glimpse into what the technocratic elite has in store for the rest of us. It promotes the idea that by 2030 “You will own nothing. And you’ll be happy.
How do you begin to fight or turn back a force that has even incorporated and leveraged the ever-present smartphone as an ultra-powerful surveillance device? By developing programs to organize phone data so that it provides real-time intelligence on every citizen, and using it to guide and influence our actions the power of the state has been deeply enhanced. The digital age has made it far easier for government to seize our computers and records to shape a case against anyone by massaging the data as they see fit. The reason we hear so little criticism of these actions from our government may be that we are next in line to have our freedom culled. Governments are not the friend of the average man. Orwell wrote about how governments could take on a life of their own and criticized totalitarianism throughout his writings.
Totalitarianism, the most extreme and complete form of authoritarianism is a political concept that defines a mode of government, which prohibits opposition parties, restricts individual opposition to the state and its claims, and exercises an extremely high degree of control over public and private life. Political power in totalitarian states is generally pushed by those on the far left or right with strong agendas and an all-encompassing propaganda campaign, which is disseminated through mass media. Signs of its growth are often marked by political repression, growing control over the economy, restriction of speech, and mass surveillance.
Of course, a huge step in individuals losing control over their lives would be the adoption of a single world currency.Those in charge of our financial machinery have indicated to the public their desire for more power. This means creating a truly global centralized economic system and a highly controlled world currency framework dominated by a select cult of banking oligarchs. This would, in effect makes the rest of the human race their slaves. The banking elites are positioning themselves to avoid blame for a disaster in which all fiat currencies fall in value by selling us on an elaborate recovery con-game which includes converting to a new worldwide currency. Remember, this is conceived and perpetuated by those with the most to gain.
For years the IMF has been discussing replacing the dollar with the SDR as the world reserve currency. It would require governments to borrow from the world central banking authority, rather than printing currency to finance their infrastructure programs. With governments floating the idea of going cashless and to digital currencies, this would give them even greater control over our lives. To be clear, the elites are positioned and merely waiting for a geopolitical disaster or catastrophe so overwhelming that when the time arrives they can portray themselves as our saviors by carrying out this plan.
This is all part of the New World Order and globalization idea pushed by many of the rich elite and world leaders. It contends that larger, more cooperative governments under one financial unit will benefit us all. The fact is Americans have a great deal to lose if the dollar is dethroned and declines in value. Those who will be crucified are the middle-class Americans whose wealth is locked into or are holding long-term USD bonds thinking they are a safe investment. To Americans, the fate of dollar-dominated assets and their value when the dust finally settles should be a huge concern but most Americans fail to grasp the implications.
The transition to a world currency would take a far greater toll on paper assets than tangible goods. While recognizing the flaws of the dollar and our current system I have come to believe the other fiat currencies such as the euro and yen hold even less merit. This includes cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin. Regardless, in the end, we should expect to be told and not given an option as to what is coming. If events unfold in the way those promoting a one-world currency hope, they will be able to portray cleaning up a financial mess as a blessing. The truth is, they will benefit greatly from putting a dagger in the heart of freedom. This is not written to frighten or as a prediction of doom but to dampen any illusions those at the top value those below them.
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It’s one or two years after an EMP attack and you are safely tucked away in your retreat somewhere in the middle of nowhere. Your storage foods have mostly been used and your high tech electronics is useless. The really bad stuff is mostly past. Now it’s try to stay fed and alive and pray that civilization as you know it is coming back. You’re going to have to work your environment to live. Ever wonder what life might be like? What would it really be like to have no running water, electricity, sewer, newspaper or Internet? No supermarket or fire department close at hand?
I have a good imagination but I decided to talk to someone who would know first hand what it was like: my mother. She grew up on a homestead in the middle of Montana during the 1920s and 1930s. It was a two room Cottonwood cabin with the nearest neighbor three miles away. She was oldest at 9, so she was in charge of her brother and sister. This was her reality; I feel there are lessons here for the rest of us.
There was a Majestic stove that used wood and coal. The first person up at four thirty A.M., usually her father, would start the fire for breakfast. It was a comforting start to the day but your feet would get cold when you got out of bed.
A crosscut saw and axe was used to cut wood for the stove and after that experience, you got pretty stingy with the firewood because you know what it takes to replace it. The old timers say that it warms you when you cut it, when you split it, and again when you burn it. The homes that were typical on homesteads and ranches of the era were smaller with lower ceilings than modern houses just so they could be heated easier. The saw and axe were not tools to try hurrying with. You set a steady pace and maintained it. A man in a hurry with an axe may loose some toes or worse. One side effect of the saw and axe use is that you are continuously hungry and will consume a huge amount of food. Lights in the cabin were old fashioned kerosene lamps. It was the kid’s job to trim the wicks, clean the chimneys and refill the reservoirs.
The privy was downhill from the house next to the corral and there was no toilet paper. Old newspaper, catalogs or magazines were used and in the summer a pan of barely warm water was there for hygiene. During a dark night, blizzard, or brown out from a dust storm, you followed the corral poles-no flashlights.
There were two springs close to the house that ran clear, clean, and cold water. The one right next to it was a “soft” water spring. It was great for washing clothes and felt smooth, almost slick, on your skin. If you drank from it, it would clean you out just as effectively as it cleaned clothes. Not all clean water is equal.
The second spring was a half mile from the cabin and it was cold, clear, and tasted wonderful. The spring itself was deep – an eight foot corral pole never hit bottom- and flowed through the year. It was from here that the kids would fill two barrels on a heavy duty sled with water for the house and the animals. They would lead the old white horse that was hitched to the sledge back to the buildings and distribute the water for people and animals. In the summer, they made two trips in the morning and maybe a third in the evening. In the winter, one trip in the morning and one in the evening. They did this alone.
Breakfast was a big meal because they’re going to be working hard. Usually there would be homemade sausage, eggs and either cornmeal mush or oatmeal. More food was prepared than what was going to be eaten right then. The extra food was left on the table under a dish towel and eaten as wanted during the day. When evening meal was cooked, any leftovers were reheated. The oatmeal or the mush was sliced and fried for supper. It was served with butter, syrup, honey or molasses.
The homemade sausage was from a quarter or half a hog. The grinder was a small kitchen grinder that clamped on the edge of a table and everybody took turns cranking. When all the hog had been ground, the sausage mix was added and kneaded in by hand. Then it was immediately fried into patties. The patties were placed, layer by layer, into a stone crock and covered with the rendered sausage grease. The patties were reheated as needed. The grease was used for gravies as well as re-cooking the patties. Occasionally a fresh slice of bread would be slathered with a layer of sausage grease and a large slice of fresh onion would top it off for quick sandwich. Nothing was wasted. Some of their protein came from dried fish or beef. Usually this had to be soaked to remove the excess salt or lye. Then it was boiled. Leftovers would go into hash, fish patties, or potato cakes.
Beans? There was almost always a pot of beans on the stove in the winter time. Chickens and a couple of milk cows provided needed food to balance the larder. They could not have supported a growing family without these two resources. The kitchen garden ran mostly to root crops. Onion, turnip, rutabaga, potato and radishes grew under chicken wire. Rhubarb was canned for use as a winter tonic to stave off scurvy. Lettuce, corn, and other above ground crops suffered from deer, rats, and gumbo clay soil. Surprisingly, cabbage did well. The winter squash didn’t do much, only 2 or 3 gourds. Grasshoppers were controlled by the chickens and turkeys. There was endless hoeing.
Washing clothes required heating water on the stove, pouring it into three galvanized wash tubs-one for the homemade lye soap and scrub board, the other two for rinsing. Clothes were rinsed and wrung out by hand, then hung on a wire to dry in the air. Your hands became red and raw, your arms and shoulders sore beyond belief by the end of the wash. Wet clothing, especially wool, is heavy and the gray scum from the soap was hard to get out of the clothes.
Personal baths were in a galvanized wash tub screened by a sheet. In the winter it was difficult to haul, heat and handle the water so baths weren’t done often. Most people would do sponge baths.
Everybody worked including the kids. There were always more chores to be done than time in the day. It wasn’t just this one family; it was the neighbors as well. You were judged first and foremost by your work ethic and then your honesty. This was critical because if you were found wanting in either department, the extra jobs that might pay cash money, a quarter of beef, hog or mutton would not be available. Further, the cooperation with your neighbors was the only assurance that if you needed help, you would get help. Nobody in the community could get by strictly on their own. A few tried. When they left, nobody missed them. You didn’t have to like someone to cooperate and work with him or her.
Several times a year people would get together for organized activities: barn raising, butcher bee, harvest, roofing, dance, or picnics. There were lots of picnics, usually in a creek bottom with cottonwoods for shade or sometimes at the church. Always, the women would have tables groaning with food, full coffee pots and, if they were lucky, maybe some lemonade. (Lemons were expensive and scarce) After the work (even for picnics, there was usually a project to be done first) came the socializing. Many times people would bring bedding and sleep out overnight, returning home the next day.
A half dozen families would get together for a butcher bee in the cold days of late fall. Cows were slaughtered first, then pigs, mutton, and finally chickens. Blood from some of the animals was collected in milk pails, kept warm on a stove to halt coagulation and salt added. Then it was canned for later use in blood dumplings, sausage or pudding. The hides were salted for later tanning; the feathers from the fowl were held for cleaning and used in pillows or mattresses. The skinned quarters of the animals would be dipped into cold salt brine and hung to finish cooling out so they could be taken home safely for processing. Nothing went to waste.
The most feared occurrence in the area was fire. If it got started, it wasn’t going out until it burned itself out. People could and did loose everything. The most used weapon was the .22 single shot Winchester with .22 shorts. It was used to take the heads off pheasant, quail, rabbit and ducks. If you held low, the low powered round didn’t tear up the meat. The shooters, usually the kids, quickly learned sight picture and trigger control although they never heard those terms. If you took five rounds of ammunition, you better bring back the ammunition or a critter for the pot for each round expended. It was also a lot quieter and less expensive [in those days] than the .22 Long Rifle cartridges.
If you are trying to maintain a low profile, the odor of freshly baked bread can be detected in excess of three miles on a calm day. Especially by kids. Twice a year the cabin was emptied of everything. The walls, floors, and ceilings were scrubbed with lye soap and a bristle brush. All the belongings were also cleaned before they came back into the house. This was pest control and it was needed until DDT became available. Bedbugs, lice, ticks and other creepy crawlies were a fact of life and were controlled by brute force. Failure to do so left you in misery and maybe ill.
Foods were stored in bug proof containers. The most popular was fifteen pound metal coffee cans with tight lids. These were for day to day use in the kitchen. (I still have one. It’s a family heirloom.) The next were barrels to hold the bulk foods like flour, sugar, corn meal, and rice. Everything was sealed or the vermin would get to it. There was always at least one, preferably two, months of food on hand. If the fall cash allowed, they would stock up for the entire winter before the first snowfall.
The closest thing to a cooler was a metal box in the kitchen floor. It had a very tight lid and was used to store milk, eggs and butter for a day or two. Butter was heavily salted on the outside to keep it from going rancid or melting. Buttermilk, cottage cheese and regular cheese was made from raw milk after collecting for a day or two. The box was relatively cool in the summer and did not freeze in the winter.
Mice and rats love humanity because we keep our environment warm and tend to be sloppy with food they like. Snakes love rats and mice so they were always around. If the kids were going to play outside, they would police the area with a hoe and a shovel. After killing and disposing of the rattlesnakes- there was always at least one-then they could play for a while in reasonable safety.
The mice and rats were controlled by traps, rocks from sling shots, cats and coyotes. The cats had a hard and usually short life because of the coyotes. The coyotes were barely controlled and seemed to be able to smell firearms at a distance. There were people who hunted the never-ending numbers for the bounty.
After chores were done, kid’s active imagination was used in their play. They didn’t have a lot of toys. There were a couple of dolls for the girls, a pocket knife and some marbles for the boy, and a whole lot of empty to fill. Their father’s beef calves were pretty gentle by the time they were sold at market – the kids rode them regularly. (Not a much fat on those calves but a lot of muscle.) They would look for arrow heads, lizards, and wild flowers. Chokecherry, buffalo berry, gooseberry and currants were picked for jelly and syrups. Sometimes the kids made chokecherry wine.
On a hot summer day in the afternoon, the shade on the east side of the house was treasured and the east wind, if it came, even more so. Adults hated hailstorms because of the destruction, kids loved them because they could collect the hail and make ice cream. Childbirth was usually handled at a neighbor’s house with a midwife if you were lucky. If you got sick you were treated with ginger tea, honey, chicken soup or sulphur and molasses. Castor oil was used regularly as well. Wounds were cleaned with soap and disinfected with whisky. Mustard based poultices were often used for a variety of ills. Turpentine, mustard and lard was one that was applied to the chest for pneumonia or a hacking cough.
Contact with the outside world was an occasional trip to town for supplies using a wagon and team. A battery operated radio was used very sparingly in the evenings. A rechargeable car battery was used for power. School was a six mile walk one way and you brought your own lunch. One school teacher regularly put potatoes on the stove to bake and shared them with the kids. She was very well thought of by the kids and the parents.
These people were used to a limited amount of social interaction. They were used to no television, radio, or outside entertainment. They were used to having only three or four books. A fiddler or guitar player for a picnic or a dance was a wonderful thing to be enjoyed. Church was a social occasion as well as religious. The church ladies and their butter and egg money allowed most rural churches to be built and to prosper. The men were required to do the heavy work but the ladies made it come together. The civilizing of the west sprang from these roots. Some of those ladies had spines of steel. They needed it.
That’s a partial story of the homestead years. People were very independent, stubborn and strong but still needed the community and access to the technology of the outside world for salt, sugar, flour, spices, chicken feed, cloth, kerosene for the lights and of course, coffee. There are many more things I could list. Could they have found an alternative if something was unavailable? Maybe. How would you get salt or nitrates in Montana without importing? Does anyone know how to make kerosene? Coffee would be valued like gold. Roasted grain or chicory just didn’t cut it.
I don’t want to discourage people trying to prepare but rather to point out that generalized and practical knowledge along with a cooperative community is still needed for long term survival. Whatever shortcomings you may have, if you are part of a community, it is much more likely to be covered. The described community in this article was at least twenty to thirty miles across and included many farms and ranches as well as the town. Who your neighbors are, what type of people they are, and your relationship to them is one of the more important things to consider.
Were there fights, disagreements and other unpleasantness? Absolutely. Some of it was handled by neighbors, a minister or the sheriff. Some bad feelings lasted a lifetime. There were some people that were really bad by any standard and they were either the sheriff’s problem or they got sorted out by one of their prospective victims. These homesteaders had a rough life but they felt they had a great life and their way of life was shared by everyone they knew. They never went hungry, had great daylong picnics with the neighbors, and knew everyone personally within twenty miles. Every bit of pleasure or joy was treasured like a jewel since it was usually found in a sea of hard work. They worked hard, played hard and loved well. In our cushy life, we have many more “things” and “conveniences” than they ever did, but we lack the connection they had with their environment and community.
The biggest concern for our future: What happens if an event such as a solar flare, EMP, or a plague takes our society farther back than the early 1900s by wiping out our technology base. Consider the relatively bucolic scene just described and then add in some true post-apocalyptic hard cases. Some of the science fiction stories suddenly get much more realistic and scary. A comment out of a Star Trek scene comes to mind “In the fight between good and evil, good must be very, very good.” Consider what kind of supplies might not be available at any cost just because there is no longer a manufacturing base or because there is no supply chain. In the 1900s they had the railroads as a lifeline from the industrial east.
How long would it take us to rebuild the tools for recovery to the early 1900 levels?
One of the greatest advantages we have is access to a huge amount of information about our world, how things work and everything in our lives. We need to be smart enough to learn/understand as much as possible and store references for all the rest. Some of us don’t sleep well at night as we are well aware of how fragile our society and technological infrastructure is. Trying to live the homesteader’s life would be very painful for most of us. I would prefer not to. I hope and pray it doesn’t ever come to that.
Preppgroup 