Category: Survival

I ran across this a short while ago; on it’s face looks innocuous. I mean we all got it right? Were in debt and it’s going to get worse.

But, when you give it a little thought, why would the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) throw this out there? Why, do tell, is the forecasted future debt depicted as a percentage of Gross Domestic Product (GDP)? And why the strange title: ‘Global Financial Crisis, Pandemic Drove up US Debt.’

While there was some debt that accumulated because of these two events, it’s important to remember that we are talking about dept as a percentage of GDP (not debt alone). When all of those folk fell idle due to the recession following Lehman’s collapse (by the way, the fall out could have been minimized but congress pooh-poohed the solution) GDP took a huge hit and the table was set for last meal of anything resembling rational budgeting.

So, Congress explicitly voted down a $700 M solution to the largest financial crisis the world has seen in 80 years. This chart, produced by the same ‘honest brokers’ in the CBO that advised Congress against saving the nation, introduces ‘the pandemic’ as a cause of the debt problem (actually the debt to GDP problem).

It’s all bullshit designed to deflect.

Here is the same chart with two added lines. The solid yellow starts exactly where the CBO started their line (2000) and ends exactly where CBO ends their line (actually I moved it a little lower so that their blue line would remain visible.

The second line, the yellow dashed line shows what our debt to GDP ratio would be if Lehman had not happened. The bottom line demonstrates something all of us already know: Congress is the cause of all debt problems. How nice of them to have the CBO, an office they control, publish propaganda for our casual consumption.

Here is how hosed we are: Everyone knows that the CBO is using the most optimistic assumptions about what the out-year GDP will be. When they use the most optimistic assumptions and the debt to GDP still rises by at least 50 percent, then the true level of the debt, in absolute dollars (vice a ratio of GDP), must be mind boggling.

OBTW, it’s now safe to begin wondering what the GDP would be without all of the ‘new arrivals’ at our southern welcome centers. Without the demand signals they place (purchases) and the labor they provide our GDP numbers would be so far into the tank that taxes would go through the roof and those untouchable institutions known as Social Security and Medicare would collapse.

When you really think about it, the movie ‘The Matrix’ is pretty much spot on in terms of the value of a human life: it’s to produce fuel (revenue) for ‘the machine’.

Where have I heard that before…….Oh, of course…

I ran across this at the BRM’s site and could not quit watching it. It’s absolutely incomprehensible to me that folk would allow their world to degrade to the point where they fear so completely the city in which they live.

I feel a little naive for having posted all of the ‘the sky will soon be falling’ warnings when for some, the SHTF moment arrived some few years back. What they should know, but obviously don’t, is that no one is coming to help.

We should all learn from their terrible circumstances.

The author of this piece talks to the 10 things that happen after a societal collapse. I had been thinking they were ‘leading indicators’. Almost all ten of these things have happened in the last year, it’s just that they haven’t happened all at the same time (or in the same place).

Are we close to ‘spicy time’?

Every so often I post a video created by this young lady in China. For me it is relaxing to watch and listen as different produce/products cycle through the year. You may have noticed their posting and thought less of them (oh well).

If you haven’t looked into what is actually going on with this child, your missing an amazing story. I’m not going to repeat the whole story, but the short notes (as I understand them) are:

–she ran away from an abusive home when she was 14.
–waited tables in a huge city
–move to her grandmothers to take care of her.

About the videos: Her objective early on was to show people who lived in cities how food was really grown and prepared. There are million upon millions of Chinese that have never lived outside of these overcrowded cities.

–Originally she filmed every shot.
–She set up the camera, performed the action needed and then moved on.
–She actually performed all of the work necessary to prepare, plant, grow, harvest, cook, and then serve what is shown.

She now has a photographer and an assistant as she is kind of busy: she has about 24 million (or so) followers.

When you think about it, this kid is a prepper. She’s missing the weapons and ammo, but there wouldn’t be a survival community in the world that would kick her from the train once the balloon goes up.

A number of survival camps with bunkers, weapon arsenals, guard towers and enough food for 25 years will activate after the election amid fears of ‘widespread loss of law and order’ and ‘looting and violence’.

Fortitude Ranch camps in West Virginia and Colorado will open on election day to protect members.

For $1,000 a year, members can vacation at the camps in good times or use them for survival if the collapse of society comes.  Camps are fitted with bunkers, guards towers and enough food to last for 25 years and members are expected to come armed and prepared to assist in defending the camps.

The camps are equipped with solar panels, wells, radio equipment, greenhouses and a farming environment.  Full story is here.

For folk that live in and around the city this is probably the best route to go.  I can’t see how membership of a grand buys you food for 25 years (or one year for that matter), and I can’t imagine how much space is required to store food for 500 people for 25 years.  Activating the camps serves good purposes thou, it will allow organizers and the organized to walk through what initializing the camp encompasses and shakeout any critical errors in planning.