A dark skyline means the electricity is off. What could shut off the lights of an entire city? A geomagnetic solar storm could do it, or an electromagnetic pulse (EMP) from a nuclear blast could fry electronic equipment (including the power grid), or even an outdated electrical grid trying to cope with increasing demands could fail. And it's not just the lights, it's everything: fire and burglar alarms, elevators, drink machines, the subway, office equipment, city street lights, everything run by computer, you name it. Countless things run on electricity. It's the warp and woof of our society. Could you live without electricity? Think about it.
Better yet, turn off your electricity at the box and live for a day without it. What works in your house without electricity? Stove? Fridge? Cofeemaker? Water? Toilet? TV? Clock radio? Lights? You get the point. Our lifestyle is completely dependent on electricity. How would we survive without it? And yet, there are very real threats to its continued existence.
And loss of electricity isn't the only threat. What if the economy collapses? What if your bank closes and you can't access your money? Even with "FDIC Insurance," you could be prevented from accessing your money for six months or longer. By then, the dollar could be so devalued that it is almost worthless.
Remember the bank runs on IndyMac Bank in California and Northern Rock Bank in the UK? Those were the visible runs. You can't see the on-line bank runs by big corporations and the wealthy. And there have been debates about whether there would actually be significant bank runs in the U.S. versus waking up one morning and finding out that we must trade in ten (or more) of our old US dollars for one Amero dollar.
Many Americans have seen their wealth vaporized over the past year. Who says more wealth theft can't happen? In any scenario, the result is the same: you end up broke. With no money, how do you put gas in the car and food on the table? How do you pay the rent and pay the doctor when the kids get sick? And everything else it takes to just live day to day?
And, more bank failures are coming. We've been following this story since February 2008, when the Wall Street Journal originally reported that the FDIC anticipated the need to hire more staff becaused of anticipated bank failures: FDIC To Add Staff As Bank Failures Loom. They knew then that a lot of banks were going to fail. Following up in December of 2008, the Wall Street Journal announced job openings with the FDIC: Looking For A Job? FDIC Is Adding Staff. And more follow-up, in February 2009, the FDIC was still adding more staff: 3 More Banks Fail; FDIC Still Hiring Staff. And this July 2009 article, FDIC Gearing Up For Bank Closures.
So which is it? It either takes a lot of time to fill FDIC positions or they are expecting so many bank failures that they need an enormous amount of staff, or could it be both? Whatever the case, once they are fully staffed we will see more bank failures, as this July 2009 article warns: Bair: Bank Failures Ahead 10 Times Worse.
And, as if those aren't enough troubles, CDC says the Swine Flu pandemic will be back and worse in the Northern hemisphere this Fall. Worse still, it looks like the 2009 Swine Flu pandemic and the 1918 Spanish Flu pandemic have a lot in common. The law has been amended to allow for martial law for a "novel" flu (as the A/H1N1 Swine Flu is now labeled).
What if martial law is implemented? Could you be put in jail or government quarantine for simply leaving your home to get food or medicine? Or would the military just force you back into your home to starve or die from lack of medications? Would they shoot? Would you even want to risk it? Do you have enough food, water, medicine, etc. at home to survive for a week? A month? What if the pandemic lasts longer? Are you prepared to wait it out?
We wish we could stop here, but there's more. Any one of the above scenarios could create panics and riots. What will you do if the infrastructure collapses? What if you live in a city and there are riots and no police to protect you. Could you defend yourself and your family? Let's visit Koreatown during the 1992 Los Angeles riots to learn a valuable lesson:
We lived in Los Angeles in 1992 when the riots happened. The situation escalated out of control quickly. After the truck driver was pulled out of his vehicle and beaten, all hell broke loose. People ran wild in the streets, windows were smashed, fires started, and stores looted. Interestingly, the only stores and neighborhoods that did not get looted were owned by Koreans, who defended their property with guns. In a situation where there is no law enforcement that can help you, you HAVE to be able to help yourself. Otherwise, you and your family will end up like this:
Further, you might not be able to get to a doctor or a hospital if there is civil unrest. Could you take care of basic medical needs at home if you couldn't get to a doctor? Not only would you need basic medicines stocked at home, you would also need basic medical knowledge and equipment.
In the picture below, what starts as the normal flu can turn into pneumonia. Do you know the signs? Do you know what to do if you or someone in your family develops pneumonia and can't get to a doctor? Do you have a vaporizer? If not, do you know how to jury-rig one? There's more to it than just the vaporizer, and it might or might not save a life depending on different factors, but it also might extend a life until medical help becomes available.
Face the facts, in a pandemic the hospitals will be overloaded. You may be forced to provide care to your family. Are you studied up on what you can do at home? Do you have personal protective equipment so whoever is well can nurse any who are sick without the fear of getting sick themself?
Do you know that the N95 mask is a "one-size-fits-all" and is not a fool-proof device? Do you know its weak points? Do you know where to find the information to help you? Do you know what treatment had a 0.7% death rate compared to conventional or no treatment having a 30% or more death rate in the 1918 Spanish flu pandemic? If not, then you're not ready for the coming pandemic.
Uh oh!
What if you are forced to leave your home? The reason does not matter: a wildfire, a tornado, an earthquake, a flood, a hurricane evacuation, a chemical spill. Could you be ready on a moment's notice? Could you provide shelter, food, water, heat, defense, first aid, hygiene, and communication while away from home in an emergency? Further, could you get out of the city by other means than the freeways when time is critical? In this picture, a hurricane was coming and no one could move.
Even if none of the above ever happens (highly unlikely) what about the increasing global droughts and food shortages? What about the increasingly severe weather, earthquakes, and other earth changes? When the government can no longer feed its people, do you know how to grow your own food? Preserve it? Cook it using alternative methods?
A "secret garden" Could you and your family survive any one of these scenarios, much less multiple scenarios, if there was no other help available?
Could you feed your family if food distribution lines are disrupted? Grocery stores have about a 3-day supply of food that has to be replenished by truck from central warehouses hundreds of miles away every 2-3 days. In a panic, the shelves will be bare in a heartbeat. Further, it could be dangerous to go into a store when people are panicking.
Shortages are already showing up on the shelves because of droughts and floods, as well as lowered production and distribution because of the economy. Read the following article to see just how much our government will be able to help us in times of emergency.
The Coming Starvation of America We live in a society where we have a highly specialized division of labor. Only a small percentage of people know how to grow food (farmers and gardners) and preserve it (canners, processors). Without them, or the distribution lines (trucks, warehouses, grocery stores) to get the food to us, we don't eat. For most people (especially in cities), your closest contact with a gun is the one strapped to the side of a police officer who gives you a speeding ticket. You don't own one much less know how to shoot one. And when you get sick, you run to a doctor or clinic. You don't know how to treat the most minor of ailments (many of which could blow up into full-scale medical emergencies if not treated).
So, what are you going to do if the grocery store shelves are bare and you are hungry and your children are crying for food; or no police are anywhere in sight as you watch, through swollen and bloodied eyes, as your screaming teenage daughter is being carried away by a biker gang; or there is no doctor or hospital available and your son just fell down the side of a rocky hill, got a concussion and broke his leg?
UNDERSTAND THIS: When the infrastructure collapses, WE WILL BE ON OUR OWN. There will be no help. No 9-1-1. No law enforcement. That "thin blue line" between law-abiding citizens and the criminals will be gone. Gone where, you ask? They will be gone with the wind, to defend their families at home. The rest of us will have to fend for ourselves. They'll be leaving in their private cars, squad cars, whatever will get them home. There they go. Wave good-bye to the life you used to know, another civilization gone with the wind.
Now, if the outlaw bikers in the next video have no problem striking armed and trained police officers, imagine what liberties they will take with you and your family when they see you unarmed and helpless. (Note: Outlaw bikers make up 1% of all bikers, the rest are not necessarily "bad guys." Your gut instincts can usually tell the difference.)
This is why you MUST learn how to defend yourself and your family. This is exactly how Americans defended themselves down through the centuries. It is historically correct to own a gun and use it for self defense. That's what the Second Amendment is all about.
So, how do you feel right about now? Probably much like we did when we first heard about Y2K. We felt dumb, inadequate, depressed, and out of shape from our sedentary city lifestyle. Back then, we thought bread grew on grocery store shelves, guns were something to be scared of, and our fitness was, well... to become self-sufficient, we had to lose weight!
So if you need to lose weight too, you need to begin right now. We tried the South Beach Diet and really liked it. You can get a used copy of the book through amazon.com. Our doctor recommended it to us. It is written by a practicing cardiologist who developed the diet for his heart patients. It's a well-balanced diet, the theory is good, and you only have to walk 20 minutes a day (even we could do that). After the first two weeks on it, you lose cravings for all those bad-for-your-health things we all love to eat. It works. It really does. We lost 50 pounds. (But we still can't move rocks.)
However, we did know that if Y2K turned out to be the worst case scenario, we were going to be in deep kimchee. We weren't farmers, we didn't know how to grow vegetables or milk cows or even feed cows. And what if they got sick? We didn't know how to cut firewood, much less know what the best kind of wood for firewood is. We didn't know what seasoned firewood is. We didn't even own a wood-burning stove. Were they even still made? (Yes, and in certain areas you can still find them used.) We had to buy a book to learn how to use it and after having lived the "electric life" it was a major hassle! Our advice is propane, if you can afford it, with a backup wood cookstove.
Yep, the one below is just like what grandma used to cook on. (Cleaning the ashes is not our favorite fun thing to do, but ashes are good for growing potatoes. And the food cooked on a wood cookstove is indescribably delicious.)
So, continuing on about everything we didn't know, we knew nothing about planting a garden, knew nothing of molds, mildews, blights, bugs, pesticides, different types of soils, soil amendments, plant nutritional requirements, too much water, too little water, too much sun, too little sun, and every other kind of garden enemy out there, much less know which plant needed what, and how much and when, and how to protect the garden from foraging animals, above ground and below. We do now, and even know ladybugs and wolf spiders are good for the garden. (You know what a ladybug looks like and we'll spare you the picture of the wolf spider, but not the rabid skunk.)
Moving on, we didn't own a gun and if one had fallen from the sky, fully loaded, we wouldn't have known how to take the safety off or hit the target even if we did. Thankfully, the rabid skunk weaving across our land kept on going.
Thanks to Durin Day for "shooting" the skunk. Did you know that animals that normally wouldn't attack humans will attack because they are so crazed by rabies? For instance, skunks are normally nocturnal, quiet, secretive, and afraid of humans. So if you ever see one suddenly charging at you or acting contrary to its nature, you better have a loaded, ready-to-fire gun on you. In the above example, we didn't and, if it had suddenly charged at us, there would have been no time to call for help.
Further, did you know there are two common types of rabies? There is the "ferocious" kind (like the skunk above) that snap and bite and attack (which most people are familiar with), and there is a paralytic or "dumb" kind (which most people have never heard of), and the most common kind of rabies is, guess what, the "dumb" kind.
An animal with this type of rabies becomes very timid and shy. It often rejects food and has paralysis of the lower jaw and muscles, so keep your kids away from an animal that is acting timid. It's too easy to feel sorry for the timid animal, not knowing that timidness can be a sign of rabies, and your kids may try to pet it or pick it up. Rabies is transmitted via animal bite. However, if the animal didn't bite but its saliva got into an open wound, say a scratch on your kid's hand, the rabies could transmit that way as well.
Why all this information about rabid skunks? It's intended as a demonstration of real life and an example of how much there is to learn before we are all suddenly forced to fend for ourselves. Since most of us have never faced true life and death situations, we decided to walk you through a few scenarios to bring alive the danger we will all face when the infrastructure collapses.
If you live in the city and think rabid skunks won't affect you, think again. Any kind of animal can get rabies. If you live in the city and the economy collapses, for example, imagine all the pets that will be roaming the streets, starving when their owners can no longer feed them and acquiring diseases their vaccines used to protect them from, as well as other diseases they acquire from living on the streets and being in close proximity to other diseased animals. This is an effective lab for the growth of all kinds of nasty germs.
Best advice is to avoid all animals and carry a gun, just in case. If you insist on an alternative, consider carrying a walking stick or cane. At least you have something to defend yourself with, other than your bare hands. However, don't expect to survive if a pack of large, ravenous dogs attack unless you are adept with nunchuks.
To someone living in the country, this is common knowledge. For city folk, there is so much you don't know because of that "division of labor" concept, which makes for really good legal secretaries and advertising executives and cooks and salespeople and attorneys and accountants, but makes for people lousy at taking care of themselves in an emergency situation. It works fine as long as the infrastructure is there for support, but the narrow focus leaves those affected wide open and vulnerable when the infrastructure is suddenly yanked out from under them.
Remember Y2K? Thankfully, it didn't turn out to be a catastrophe. Why? Because of the advanced knowledge of the problem and the preparation that went into fixing the problem before it arose. But no one could have known how it would turn out until the clocks rolled to midnight on January 1, 2000. If we hadn't prepared, and it had turned out to be a disaster, we wouldn't have survived for long.
Y2K was the fire drill. It woke some of us up and got us thinking and preparing for other kinds of emergencies. And a good thing too, because more are on the way.
The world is changing, and changing rapidly. The unpleasant reality that hard times are here and getting worse can't be denied any longer. The depression we are in is going to be bigger and badder than the 1930's depression. Further complicating matters is that we are a different people today than our grandparents and great-grandparents were. We are no longer an agrarian society. Much knowledge on how to live off the land and grow or make what we need to live has been lost. We, as a nation, don't know how to survive on our own, without the trappings of civilization.
Our government can't possibly take care of every person in this country. Remember the article above, "The Coming Starvation of America"? That's one reason. And Hurricane Katrina is another reason, a prime example of our government's inability to protect its people, and that was only a localized event.
Imagine, if you will, an event that sweeps the entire country. It could be an economic collapse, it could be a solar flare or a nuclear explosion high above our country that wipes out the electrical grid, it could be devastating earth changes or a weaponized pandemic flu. It really doesn't matter what the cause is because in any of those scenarios help won't be coming to your area. Why? Because every other area of the country will have the same problems in their face. Resources to help another jurisdiction simply won't exist.
Can our government handle a nationwide meltdown when it couldn't even handle a regional event such as Hurricane Katrina? No, and don't fool yourself. The government is padded with cronyism and incompetence. There is no more money. Most of the emergency supplies were wiped out after Katrina. You need to take full responsibility for you and your family and prepare for what's coming ... whatever form "it" may take.
Why? Because in a meltdown situation no one is going to do it for you. And if YOU don't learn how to take care of yourself and your family, you will be in for a very rough ride. Don't assume that your friends or neighbors will help. They will probably be blindsided by these events and will have their own problems to deal with (unless, of course, you educate them).
But, you ask, why? there's no problem. True. There's no visible problem at the moment. The grocery stores and supermarket shelves are fairly well-stocked in most areas. Right now. But our economy is hanging by a thread. Only by manipulating the markets has our government been able to avert total catastrophe, so far. But we have come close, several times.
But that could change in the blink of an eye. Just one more hurricane like Katrina would probably bring our government to its knees (in terms of assistance) and wild weather is predicted for the next year and the El Nino weather pattern has been called a menace for frail economies. Or China could stop buying US debt. Or the derivatives market could explode. Or hyperinflation could take off from all the money the US is printing (think Zimbabwean dollar or the Weimar Republic). Or North Korea could go nuts, or the Israel/Iran situation could escalate, or (fill in the blank).
In an inflationary period, this could be the cost of a loaf of bread. You can't prepare for a problem unless you know a problem exists. And our mainstream media has been doing a great job of keeping the truth from us and our government has been doing a fantastic job of illegally propping the markets up. However, events are starting to spiral out of control. Leaks are springing up. They can't prop up and cover up much longer.
So, with all this in mind, who ya gonna call? We believe anyone can surf the tsunamis coming our way but it takes time and planning and hard work. You need to act now and act quickly because time is running out. In one word, this is what you need to do to protect yourself and your family:
PREPARE! A prepared family will have a much better quality of life than an unprepared one. You won't have to go out into the middle of winter or the middle of danger trying to scrounge daily bread and water for you and your family. You will have bread to eat even if you don't have $100 Million Dollars.
What is preparation? It is looking to the future and deciding to survive no matter what. That is mentally preparing. It is stocking up on food, water, medicine, and other items you will need if everything falls apart. It is moving out of the cities or fortifying in place if you can't. It is having the means to defend your hearth and home if you have to. It means being able to generate heat in the winter without the power company's help and knowing how to clean your water if the water company becomes defunct. It is learning how to raise your own fruits and vegetables, and livestock for eggs, meat and milk. It means knowing how to bake bread, process meat, can your own food. It is knowing how to make your own butter or soap. It means knowing how to take care of routine medical needs. It is knowing how to knit sweaters, make quilts, repair clothing. It is converting your wealth into tangible forms so that you can use those forms (livestock, garden produce, storage food, land, silver or gold coins, guns, ammunition, medicines, etc.) to survive with. It means knowing how to be self-sufficient.
Think about all those Hurricane Katrina victims who weren't prepared. If you do nothing you will end up like them, on government buses (if you can get a seat), heading toward some government shelter (if you can get in) with the barest of necessities (if you are close enough to the head of a rowdy, smelly line to get anything).
And Katrina also proved that you can't choose your neighbors, or the kind of bed you sleep on (if you get one), or get any privacy. The amenities degrade very quickly (think of the bathrooms). You sit around all day long waiting...for what? The disaster to end? What if it doesn't? And if you brought any necessities with you, imagine how fast they will be taken from you "for the common good."
However, it doesn't make sense to wait to see if you are one of the "lucky" ones who gets a government lottery ticket when you can take responsibility for you and your family's future and ensure it is a safer, better one.
Preparing for hard times is a form of insurance. It's just investing your money in tangible goods (real things) rather than investing your money in an intangible insurance policy which the issuing company could fight to not pay out, or may become bankrupt and will never pay out, or it pays out but it is too late to prepare because everything has been taken. Good preparation puts what you need in your hands under your control when you need it.
You cannot wait to prepare until you see disaster on the horizon because it is impossible to prepare at that point. Why? Because everyone else sees it approaching too. You will be competing with crowds of people in the same predicament, trying to grab that last can of tuna or bottle of water off the shelf at Wal-Mart.
Speaking of which, remember the situation at that Wal-Mart store in New York during the holidays of 2008, where an employee was killed and a pregnant woman injured in the stampede? That stampede was just for some holiday bargains. Imagine if someone's very survival is at stake! Then take that will to survive and multiply it by crowds of people trying to survive just like you. How much of a chance do you have against that?
Time is growing short and you have a lot to do very quickly and you don't know where to begin. You can turn to the internet. It has a wealth of information, free and otherwise, if you know what kind of information you need. Do you know what you need to survive without the trappings of modern civilization?
Even if you find information, that is just the beginning. It takes time to read it, digest what you've read, compare with other sources, look for the best prices, what websites have the best information, allow time for products to ship, to return items (if necessary), practice new skills, find solutions to problems that will arise, and on it goes. Preparations of this magnitude take time. We have been doing it for over 10 years.
Are you scared yet? You should be. Fear is a natural reaction to a bad situation, a situation you find yourself stuck in and then realize that you don't have a clue what to do or where to turn, where you ask yourself, "How did this happen to me?" But you don't have to allow it happen to you and your family. Knowledge is power, and that is why we are offering a compilation of our experience and knowledge as the 21st Century Survival Guide.
This Guide will help overcome fear by showing you how to grab this raging bull (fear) by the horns and learn how to kill it, skin it, process its meat, preserve it, and cook it without an electric stove. Too messy? Then stocking up on canned, dehydrated, and freeze dried food for long-term storage is an acceptable substitute. The point is that fear vanishes when you are adequately prepared. You don't worry about emergencies like you used to because you know you can take care of yourself and your family no matter what happens.
We have been preparing for hard times since before Y2K and we are sharing the information learned from our time-consuming research and actual preparations. Time is what you are short on right now and this Guide will help save you time and get you up to speed quickly and that's important because you don't have time to do what we have already done. Our way of life is unraveling faster than anyone believes possible.
The Guide will direct you to preparedness websites that share information for free, websites that carry products and knowledge for a "post-apocalyptic" world, and forums where you can meet like-minded people and share information. It will provide a "battle plan" on how to start preparing, including low-cost ways to get ready if you don't have much money. It will give you tips and point you in the right direction.
As our gift to you for just visiting this website, we tell you where to find free information on how to prepare for the hard times that costs you nothing. Just click on the Planet X link above. Not only will you learn about our government's best kept secret (and yet another reason to prepare), but you will learn of two excellent websites that offer practical preparedness and survival information FOR FREE. You can get started right now in your preparedness education, and you should.
But the Guide is so much more. You will also learn how to find free items, how to save money on your grocery bill, and learn of a website that can save you a lot of money on your vitamins and natural personal care products. This one website alone will save you more than the price of this Guide on your first order. We found it to be up to two-thirds cheaper than our local health food store. And the Guide will reveal what treatment had the best results in the 1918 Spanish flu pandemic, as mentioned above.
And you will also learn of the best, most practical publications you should have to help you through the hard times. There is not enough time left to learn everything you need to know, so the next best thing is to have books that can explain what to do so you have a fighting chance.
The Guide is a download. We decided to do it this way to save you money. The cost, besides the download fee, is your paper and ink and a binder to put it in for safekeeping.
So, even if you can't see the storm clouds just beyond the horizon, we can. We want all our friends and neighbors to use this information. You should get your friends and neighbors to use it, as well. Why? Because if your friends and neighbors are prepared, they won't turn into competitors for your food and supplies.
How quickly the thin veneer of civilization vanishes in times of emergency. The more people that are prepared, the easier the transition will be through the hard times. We also encourage you to stock up on extra food and anything else, if you can, to give away as charity because many people are going to be blindsided by the coming events.
We're not going to beat you over the head to buy the Guide. You don't even have to go through checkout to find the cost. It's 10 bucks. But we believe it's a good investment. This website has enough information on it to help you decide if that is a true statement. What can 10 bucks buy these days? Not much. But here, it will buy a goodly chunk of peace of mind. Where else can you find that, at any price?
GET READY. GET PREPARED.
DOWNLOAD THE 21st CENTURY SURVIVAL GUIDE NOW!
GUIDE WILL BE RELEASED ON AUGUST 1, 2009
If you are curious about the red planet in the picture at the top of the page, that is Planet X. If you don't know about it, then click the link above and find out. If you have heard about it, click on the link and find out more. It makes all of the above combined scenarios look like warm-up acts. Planet X is going to be the main event. "Global warming" is a cover story for Planet X's approach. So is El Nino.
Don't believe the economy is ready to collapse? Then catch up on some of the news you may not have seen from top economists from the US and the UK at the link at the top.
And, also, the pandemic swine flu will be back in the Fall. We look daily for news about it (check it out at the link at the top). You should prepare to be homebound for several months, at the very least. If it doesn't turn out to be as bad as predicted, be glad! You are that much further ahead in your preparations.
Finally, if you are happy with the Guide and it helps you prepare, and you want to help us keep on preparing, consider buying this novel, To Infinity and Beyond. We thank you for your support.
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