Where Are We Headed (IMHO)

This post turned out to be longer than intended so here is part one. I (like everyone else) don't know what the future has in store but his is just some 'gut felt' observations.

I was reading over on Matt's Blog the other day and it got me to thinking especially considering I have had this discussion with my friend Stephen as well.
 Matt was talking about conspiracy theories and such and I also try not to get too wrapped around the axle over them but having said that I do think we are over due for a major reset in the country. I basically see two things happening (besides a huge natural or nuclear disaster)
Short answer either Romney wins or 0bama does. 
If 0bama wins I believe he will continue push us over the cliff into collapse. Clinton when backed by a Republican Senate and Congress went along with them to make things work. 0bama will not do so, he is arrogant enough to do whatever to drive us to ruin. He hates America with a passion or at least our system of laws and economy. 0bama is driven by power and has no love for our values as a nation.
Romney on the other hand is a rich capitalist. First let me back up. I am not rich, never have been and probably never will be but I am smart enough to know money is king when it comes to power. (like it or not) I do believe big money wins elections for a reason, you see if America collapses I stand to loose my  home and property and  retirement account but the mega rich have a lot more to loose. I don't believe the ultra wealthy want to loose their money either. Some of them may have been fooled into backing 0bama for whatever reason but in the long run they like their money more.
0bama has a African chief mentality (IMHO) he doesn't mind you living in the mud hut as long as he has the big house and all the power but I can assure you all the big money celebrities and power brokers of this country don't want to live in the mud hut any more than I do. You see in the end all the big companies and corporations like, Delta, IBM, Dell, Apple, Microsoft, GM, Ford.........(the list is endless) can't function without us, the middle class, poor people don't buy the bulk of new cars etc. The rich know they are not an island if we are destroyed so are they.  If you doubt my thinking tell me how many 'Bill Gates' you think live in Cuba or Kenya or any other third world country. Other countries may have 'a Walmart' but do they also have a Target, and Kmart and Home Depot and Lowes and Ace Hardware and hundreds of other retail choices for everything from BB's to bulldozers. I can tell you I have been to many other countries and none have the choices we do for goods and services, I would include Canada with the US because we are adjoining have a similar form of government and travel is common across borders, anyway the  reason for this is our free enterprise system.
 Bottom line is the 'big power money brokers' don't want to loose that and 0bama is not on board with the plan. The 'big evil corporations' don't want us turned into Cuba or China or Russia etc.
(BTW I doubt China wants the US to fail either, who do you think they would sell all their stuff to, do you think Kenya or Iran or Haiti or Mexico will take up the slack in sales?)
 What I am trying to say is I do believe there are big money and big power brokers who have a lot at stake, don't get me wrong I am not saying 0bama can't win, he can however both parties have been kicking the can down the road a long time because neither party wants to be the bad guy and do the 'tough love' thing which is inevitable. As a side note I marvel at why the media is so gullible to follow 0bama do they really think their life will be good if we end up like Greece? does Greece have a CNN, CBS, MSNBC, FOX, ABC, CBS etc. These networks only exist due to free enterprise advertising on their stations.
Anyway what do I think is likely to happen? I think Romney is likely to win, (at this point anyway) but I don't see it preventing a meltdown of some sort only because we are at a point where drastic reform has to take place and the entitlement crowd will protest, loot and riot but I do see it as something we can recover from.
On the other hand if 0bama wins he will drive us to ruin sooner (or try to) but I don't think the 'power machine' will allow it and you will see all the stops come out to neutralize him. This may be in the form of impeachment due to his lack caring for the rule of law or being forced out of office because of his ineligibility to be president or he may go the way of JFK. The reason it has not happened sooner is two fold I think, first 'they' hope to hang in till November and let the voters straighten it out (isn't this in effect what Roberts of the SCOTUS said in the 0bama tax ruling) second, they don't want to cause an unnecessary rift in the population,  if they don't have to (and do they really want Biden to be president)
Who are these rich power brokers?, I don't know but going back to the days of the mega wealthy pulling the strings and creating the federal reserve from within the Jekyll Island Club till now money is king when it comes to power and judges, politicians and all kinds of powerful people can be paid off......it has always been thus. 
The only unknown factor in this is 0bama, he could trigger a disaster to bring about martial law but I tend to think his leash would be jerked at some point if things went too far South.
I have an idea as to what it might look like for us.
More to come.................................
 

TEOTWAWKI, Can You Handle it ?

My good friend  Stephen did a post the other day showing a picture of a girl doing laundry during the great  depression. My first thought was she was how different people are today, I doubt any of us would be ironing, we would just be content to have clean clothes.
I had done a post a while back on what maybe to expect from TEOTWAWKI (you can read it here ) and was reminded a few days ago when Patrice over at Rural Revolution had a piece called "Be Careful What You Wish For" , she did a good job of making us think of what may be to come. I think one thing that is underestimated in a survival situation will be mental stress. There are people who get stressed out now if their hair is the wrong color or their favorite restaurant is out of chicken strips or their car has a flat tire or their boss wants them to work on Saturday. If you get stressed out now do you think you could really handle TEOTWAWKI.
We can learn a lot from history, when we read about WWI and WWII or the great depression, or communist Russia or Cuba we need to take note. We can speculate about what may happen but one thing is an undeniable fact, we cannot sustain our current level of spending in this country, if it keeps up we will have a collapse. The biggest difference between then and now is we have an entitlement class today who will not  accept their need to work on their own to survive neither will there be any means for them to survive, they will resort to riots, looting, killing and stealing to get what they want.
Martial law will almost be a certainty in most city's and towns, rural areas will for the most part have to set up some kind of similar structure among themselves using existing police forces.
 After Katrina, New Orleans had the government to bail them out....who will bail the whole country out ?????
You think things can get stressful now just wait till you have to deal with what could happen in TEOTWAWKI.

 Everything you enjoy now to make you and your children's life enjoyable will be gone.
All fast food places will cease to exist, there will be no grocery store or mall. Food will be bartered on the black market. You will not be eating, frozen pizza or Little Debbie cakes, you will not have to choose between Coke, Pepsi or store brand soda because there will be none of them. You will not pick up your kids favorite cereal. You will not be buying paper towels, toilet paper or toothpaste. You will not get a new car when you need it, either you fix what you have or ride a bike or walk. (also see Cuba, all their cars are from the 1950's) Gas will be scarce or non-existent, there will be no Sunday drives, date nights with the wife or running the kids to their games. There will be no birthday celebration at your favorite restaurant. You will not swing by Dunkin Donuts for a coffee and snack. There will be no taking the family out for ice cream on a warm summer evening. You will not be going to the movies anymore, you will not relax with a stroll on the beach or the city park.
There will be no cell phones or internet. If they do still exist you wont use them for fear of being traced.
If you have to bug out forget everything you left behind including you home. If you bug in or live in the country be prepared to feed the people who find out you have food or be prepared to defend yourself against them, this also means there will be no trips to Wal Mart to pick up a box of 12 gauge or 9mm ammo. There will be no gun stores either. Your paper money will be worthless along with your coins unless they have silver or gold content. (also see Germany during the great depression)

You will probably have no electricity so expect no heat or A/C. learn to sleep while you are hot or cold  while listening to you child cry because they are hungry. You will grieve because you cant provide for your family like you have in the past. You will cry because you will never know what happened to your mother, father, aunt, grand child, sister or brother.

You won't kick your feet up on a Sunday afternoon and watch sports, the stadiums will be growing weeds in the field, the stands will be silent. If there is TV or radio it will be propaganda or information from the government  telling you where to get a ride to the nearest "survival camp" or when they will be delivering beans and rice to your city (but there will only be enough to feed a small percentage of the population so you can fight for it)
OK, I can hear some say "I am a prepper I can stock up on food and lie low, I can wait it out"  I say good for you, you will be pleased when the bottom falls out and the earth is purged of all the less than desirable people. You should be pleased that all the dregs and leaches of society are gone, I understand that reasoning and I agree we can't keep up our giveaway society. What will you do however when you wife is sick and needs antibiotics to stay alive, what will you do if your child or even yourself gets diabetes and needs insulin to live, how will your family cope without you. What will you do when your son or daughter or grandchild is crying because they are dying from an infection, will you help hold them down while someone amputates their arm or leg. What will you do when your young children or older parents or yourself have teeth that are rotten and causing extreme pain? will you be able to pull it for them or let someone else try, will you hold your hands over your ears to block out the screams? Will you give in to your spouse crying and begging you to take your terminally sick grandchild to the FEMA camp to turn yourself in with the slight hope they will get some kind of treatment? Will you be able to look into your child or wife's eyes for the rest of your life and see the pain of the tough decisions you had to make?
Does any of this seem far-fetched ?  Think over the last 5 or 10 years, how many times have either you or someone in your family had to go to a hospital or doctor to get life saving treatment or medicine? I dare say the stress will drive many to suicide and rest assured the pain and suffering you endure will be long forgotten in the years to come much like the much of the suffering experienced by civilizations past. I hope and pray it does not take total collapse to set us back on the right path. I have seen pain and suffering in war torn countries and I hope we never see that type of suffering here. My point here is to hopefully get some to think how we need to solve our problems as quickly as possible but I don't know if it's possible..... We have and generations to cause all this and it may take generations to solve it. 

Welcome to Camp FEMA, we're here to help.

TEOTWAWKI may be the 'reset button' our country needs but it will come at a very high cost and it will leave those of us who survive rubbing our heads wondering if it is or was worth it. I for one don't want to see it come to that.

TEOTWAWKI, What to do.

Yesterday I tried to express some of my feelings about what we might be in for. Thanks for all who commented, I think most of us see things very similar. The main point I was trying to convey is get your mind ready for what may be coming. We know we can't sustain our current situation without things boiling over, whether its triggered by inflation, wars in middle east, terrorists attacks, bankruptcies of governments or people just getting fed up. In a post SHTF we will not be in a recognizable society, we tend to think that if it goes that route we will eventually come out victorious and things will be all hunky dory again, I don't think so, we may be building out of ashes and starting from scratch with only what we were able to salvage before things went south, and with less family and friends.
So what are our options and what do we do? I don't wish to tell anyone what to do but I can tell you how I prepare. As some of you know we have a BOL with a few friends including my friend Stephen we like to camp and cook out and shoot and this serves two purposes,  it lets us prepare and train but at the same time it is fun so if the SHTF we have a place to go but if it never does or is a long ways off we still have a good place to go hang out do what we like. We also brainstorm about strategy, supply's and logistics on a monthly basis. Next is the food, I like to store up stuff I like to eat right now. Personally I don't want to invest thousands of dollars in MRE's (or similar stuff)  which may never be used, if you want to do that go for it. I prefer to buy way ahead in bulk and use up older stock to keep it rotated and fresh. I do buy bulk rice and beans etc, which can be stored but for the most part I like to rotate food so regardless of when it is needed it will always be up to date and I have saved money because by purchasing early I have the option buying when on sale and beating inflation somewhat. So the way I see it is regardless of what happens I have saved money and am still prepared. I won't go into seeds, gardens and all that stuff but you get the drift. As for guns, ammo and other protection tools it is a hobby with me so it is a non issue and I wont go into what you may need, there is tons of info out there and it can start more arguments than religion and politics.
I want to be prepared to tackle what may come and still stay sane doing it. I mentioned earlier about getting your mind ready, do not underestimate your mental state. You have all heard of PTSD which effects war vets it is caused by things they do and see, in my opinion in a SHTF scenario we may see it worse, let me explain. A combat troop has an 'out' so to speak, they can reason they are doing what is ordered by their government and are therefore exempt from their actions now they may or may not see it quite that way but the point is in a SHTF case we will not have that option. We may be acting to save ourselves or our friends and family but the responsibility will all be on us. We will see a problem, decide what to do, attempt to solve it and regardless of the outcome take full responsibility for the action. I can promise, you will never know how it will effect you till you walk down that road, there is no training to prepare for it. Maybe that is why in the Bible it mentions in the last days men will cry out for the rocks to fall on them, no doubt to stop the torment.
So with all this doom and gloom what do I hope for, I would like to see people wake up and start being responsible and not wasting all our money and government stop restricting us, I know I'm living in fairy tale land but this did not all occur in the last year or so and it may take generations to reverse it, I know  not a very realistic option but I never stop trying to educate when I can. I do see some hope (believe it or not) in some of our young people......I said some. They realize they don't want to work their whole life to support the leaches in society. Things tend to go in cycles, my generation, the peace and love generation probably won't be able to reverse it but maybe there will be enough young people who make a difference, they don't have the phoney guilt that was thrown on the baby boomer generation to solve all the problems in the world, or at least they reject the guilt for the most part.
To sum it up, we know for a fact things can't possibly stay like they are, there is no way to sustain it. Maybe it can be reversed, I don't know. In all likelihood it will take a major event throw us into a tailspin, it will not be pretty and the outcome will not be sure. In a SHTF scenario it will be TEOTWAWKI, we will be changed forever and things may not be better.

TEOTWAWKI

A lot has been written and speculated about TEOTWAWKI , I have said (and heard many say) "bring it on" meaning the sooner we start the sooner we end and get things back to normal.
I can certainly see some appeal to this. I have brained stormed with others and put a great deal of thought about our current situation and how things might play out. I have read quite a few books on this topic as many of you have and as you know there are many ideas of how it could evolve. We can only guess what might happen or how it will occur but one thing seems certain it will involve civil unrest (riots, food shortages etc.) which is the reason many of us prep. My point of writing this is to try and inject some thought provoking dialog and give my reasons for the way I see it.
Let me start by saying what I am talking about when I say TEOTWAWKI or SHTF and we have to bug out (or bug in) is basically war, not in the traditional sense but still a conflict against whoever is trying to take our freedom, food, shelter or whatever. You can call it what you want but bottom line is when someone is trying to kill you or take away your ability to survive or protect your family the result is the same as war.
 Some survivalist or preppers might say they will bug out or they have the ability to hide and be totally isolated. While that might be so (although the longer it lasted the harder it would be) there are other things to consider. For example, do you plan on bringing all your friends and family along and feeding them. What kind of toll do you think it will be on your wife/husband if they are concerned about in-laws, kids, grand parents, grandchildren,  friends etc. Being in a high stress situation is bad enough  if you don't have to worry about family but you add that into the mix and it can drive you insane. I knew guys in Iraq who had issues at home to deal with and it sent them over the edge. Think of how taking the family camping and roughing it for a week can start fraying the nerves how is it going to be doing it with all the stress of survival.
Without going into detail and at the risk of sounding crazy I know from experience there are worse things than death (been there) and some of you have also and will agree this may be what we are talking about here. You can talk, train, plan and prepare all you want but when the SHTF you will pray for it to be over with and be safe, if you don't believe anything else I write believe that.
Military units with extensive training and resources have difficulty getting all their members to work in harmony as a unit under stress......... is all of your group, family, kids etc that prepared and well trained ? The average family would be killing each other in a close camp or compound if they went for weeks on end without, cell phones, I pods, TV, movies, malls, McDonald's etc especially when you add the survival mode.

Another concern is your home or even your BOL.  In a worse case scenario forget about going back to your house, it will be trashed and or burned, Insurance if it covered riots and civil unrest would send company's into bankruptcy. Look how they are thrown for a loop with a hurricane or flood how do you think it will be if the whole country is a disaster area. Eventually over long term anyone who lives within a gas tank range of major towns will be in the same boat.
People, today is not like it was during the great depression, if things go really bad the thugs and leaches in society will kill or do what ever to try and survive. Bottom line is while it might sound macho to want to 'bring it on' I dare say unless you are a uncaring, sadistic individual you will come to curse the day it all started, things will snowball out of control, your life will never look or be the same, ALL of us will loose sons, daughters, parents, cousins or other family members who aren't prepared or strong or are careless. Go read eyewitness reports of experiences people had down through history in cases of civil wars, famines, situations where people had to fight to survive, no one writes about it with fondness and most have nightmares about it till the day they die for many of the reasons I have talked about here.
I for one pray we never have to see that day but if we do be prepared to NEVER be the same again.

TEOTWAWKI Part Two