Monthly Archives: December 2013

December 21st, 2013
post by policysup | | 0

Areas Of Probable Power System Collapse: “130 Million Lacking Power For Several Years”

In just the last twelve months Congressional members and top level administrators at the Department of Homeland Security have warned of threats to the national power grid so serious that should they occur life in America as we have come to know it would change almost instantly.

Former DHS head Janet Napolitano, in a letter to her successor, advised that “a massive and serious cyber attack” on the US Homeland is imminent and that a “natural disaster — the likes of which the nation has never seen — is also likely on its way.” This was followed up by a comment from House Homeland Security Committee senior member Yvette Clarke (D-NY) who noted that, “the likelihood of a severe geo-magnetic event capable of crippling our electric grid is 100%.”

Couple those threats with the realistic possibility of a rogue or state-sponsored attack on America by way of a super electro-magnetic pulse weapon, and the odds of a widespread American Blackout increase dramatically.

With our complete dependence on the power grid to maintain the regular flow of commerce, communications, and emergency services, even a short-term grid-down event could lead to serious consequences.

According to a report commissioned by the Department of Homeland Security which cites data from the Oak Ridge National Laboratory, the infrastructure supporting our power grid is so outdated and vulnerable that an attack or natural disaster could lead to an outage scenario of unprecedented scale.

If you live in or around any of these areas you can expect a societal breakdown within 72 hours or less – and with traffic systems inoperable and roadways likely jammed, there’ll likely be no way out.


The core of our grid – what makes it tick – are the transformers that pass power from one node to the next. These often weigh in the hundreds of tons. Most are no longer produced in the United States, so any damage would require the importation of parts or complete units from China. If one or two go down, the outage is manageable. But a cascading collapse resulting from extreme electrical surges across our power lines, such as those originating from an EMP attack or solar flare, could result in scores of transformers being put out of service simultaneously.

There are roughly 300 of these mega-transformers that make up the backbone of America’s electrical infrastructure. At current world production rates it could take anywhere from 12 – 18 months to manufacture and deliver a new unit if it is destroyed.

As noted by The Daily Sheeple:

The report has generated great interest in government and the public, largely owing to the projected scenario of catastrophic damage, including:

– More than 300 EHV transformers destroyed
– 130 million people lacking power for several years until damaged high-voltage transformers are replaced
– 1-2 trillion dollars of economic loss.


All things considered, the restoration of power across the United States in such a scenario would be 4 to 10 years.

Chris Carrington of The Daily Sheeple highlights the fall-out and what we can expect if the threat to our power grid is ever realized:

We have become so reliant on electricity in the last 200 years, it’s difficult to imagine life without it. Those who rely on refrigerated medications would be hard hit within hours of the power going off, as would those who rely on regular oxygen cylinder deliveries to their homes.

The usual back up power in hospitals is 72 hours. After that life support machines and operating rooms will cease to function.

Pumps at gas stations will no longer dispense fuel affecting everything from the family car to the food supply.

Water treatment and pumping stations will cease to function, again this will affect a wide range of services we take for granted, drinking water, sanitation and even firefighting will be limited or non-existant for millions. Contestation over water in lakes and rivers will be a source of ongoing conflict for years after the event.

Many factories that make parts for transformers will not be able to do so, leaving the United States at the mercy of foreign powers for transformers and parts. (If those countries have not been affected by the event themselves.)

The very fabric of the only society we know will come to a grinding halt within a week of the grid going down.

We know it would be mere days before panic, looting and rioting took hold. Law and order would fall apart.

Based on previous studies, we know that out of those 130 million people east of the Mississippi who would be affected by such an outage, 117 million would be dead within a year.

Unless you have nearly unlimited financial resources, stockpiling supplies for a four to ten year grid down scenario is pretty much out of the question. But you can take the brunt of that first year and beyond if you prepare ahead of time.

 

Start now to make sure you are staying prepared.

 

Via: shtfplan

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December 20th, 2013
post by policysup | | 0

SHTF Can Take Many Forms

Here is a great article by Road Warrior

What do you think of when you hear “SHTF” or “TEOTWAWKI”? I’m willing to bet that something along the lines of a huge societal breakdown, catastrophic weather event, nuclear war, or other doomsday-type scenario pops into your head. And why shouldn’t it? When we make the decision to prepare for bad things, the worst of the bad things tends to be what we focus on, so we can tell ourselves we can handle most of anything that comes down the pike. However, some of these scenarios are so ingrained into our worldviews through popular accepted media portrayal, that they become almost stereotypical and tend to be what we focus 100% of our efforts on when we prep for emergencies. While it’s good that we’re prepping, sometimes we get caught off guard with immediate, personal catastrophes…ones maybe you didn’t see coming. That happened to me last week: the SHTF in my world, and not in a way that ever was expected. And let me tell you, it was worse that I ever could have imagined.

Worst Day Ever.

I’m going to give you guys a little glimpse into what happened to me, not because I’m looking for sympathy and a million comments of “I hope you/your wife/your baby are fine”, but because I’d like to open your eyes a bit. What happened was a vindication of some prepping, and a complete glaring lack of basic plans that should be absolute #1 priorities.

My wife is epileptic. She’s known this since she was 14, and takes medication for it to control seizures. The medicine she WAS on that worked for many years, very well, ended up being toxic to developing fetuses, with a huge rate of birth defects, so when we started planning for a baby over a year ago, switching medications was at the top of our list. After a couple trips to her neurologist, she was given a new medication for her epilepsy. It was much safer for fetuses, but it didn’t do as hot of a job at controlling her issues. Granted, she didn’t flop to the floor and start having crazy Grand Mal seizures, but she’d have sudden sharp intakes of breath, or her arms would jerk uncontrollably, or she’d have hand and finger shaking that was out of her control. Sometimes  her balance would be bad and she’d fall for no reason. But, we put up with it, and in November, we had a beautiful little baby boy, who is the absolute light of my life. We were, and still are, both on cloud nine! She took 12 weeks off from work to be with the baby, and I had been back to work for a couple weeks. It was at work where I found myself when I got a rather cryptic email message from my wife.

“Call. Barb     now”

Huh?

I raced outdoors to try calling her. No answer. We have terrible cellphone reception at the house, so I wasn’t surprised. I tried calling Barb, our next-door neighbor. They weren’t home. Then I got two more emails:

“fell”

“help”

I promptly called 911 and gave them the pertinent information, my heart racing. I ran inside, told my boss I had an emergency, and bolted out the door…I don’t even think I punched out. Follow-up emails didn’t get any responses. I kept telling myself to stay calm as I drove home – another accident wouldn’t help anything. But then I’d realized that if emergency services took her and/or my baby, I had no idea where they would actually bring them. By this time, I really had to fight to keep myself from panicking. Having no information as to what happened, knowing my family needed me and I wasn’t there, and not knowing what the end game was and where it would be was too much to process. I was about 10 minutes from home when the emergency dispatcher called me (thank God!) and let me know where they were taking my wife and child ( local hospital with a less than savory reputation). I asked if they were okay, and the dispatcher took a deep, foreboding breath, and said, “all I know is the mother was holding the baby when they got there. Good luck, sir.”

I turned the truck around, and bolted to the hospital dispatch mentioned. I got there early, and saw the ambulance come in, lights and siren blaring. Bad news. They opened the doors, and I saw my 5-week-old son strapped in his car seat to a gurney, his head swollen to unbelievable levels and my wife crying like I’d never seen. She was physically fine; it was clear the baby was not. My heart sank, and I about died inside, right then and there.

My wife had had a small seizure while at home alone with the baby. She was standing, holding him when it hit. Her arms jerked out uncontrollably, and my son fell onto the tile floor head-first. She fell backwards, bruised her backside and elbows, but the boy got pretty banged up. We ended up being rushed to a much better hospital with a  stellar pediatrics ward, after the local hospital ham-fisted an MRI and a few other things, so my complete anguish. But the new hospital deals with stuff like this all the time, and after four days and a first-rate, amazing staff looking after my little guy, we returned home safe and sound, no lasting damage to the little guy, just mom dealing with guilt and dad reeling with everything. I’m happy to report that my son is awesome now, and follow-up checkups have shown an incredible recovery after skull fractures and brain bruising. It’s amazing what kids can bounce back from, I tell ya.

Unknown to us, though, (and just to illustrate the fact that there are things behind-the-scenes that you can NEVER see coming and will give you stress, making things worse) DHS and child protective services are all over us with investigations. We were told 80-90% of infant head trauma cases are abuse (can you BELIEVE that?!?) so we’re getting calls from them almost daily, scheduling visits, interviews, pulling my 13-year-old stepson out of class to interview him. It’s a clusterf*%k of the highest accord, and truly stressing us out and dragging things badly while we just want to recover and get over things.

Lessons

So, after bearing through that little insight into my life, what can we learn? Some may not view this as a true “SHTF” event, but I can tell you this: I’d rather deal with a zombie apocalypse any day than re-live that short span of time from when I got the first email to the point where we were told our son would be OK. It was completely unplanned for, completely out of my control, and life-changing. That, to me, qualifies as a SHTF event.

Lessons learned

-Have a plan: we were still so overjoyed and distracted with our little guy that we never made any emergency plans. Make a piece of paper with emergency contact info for close relatives, hospital choice(s), medications (if any) taken by each member of the family. Doctor names and numbers. Have a copy in each vehicle, and a couple at home so you can give the paramedics and doctors the info when you’re too stunned by events to think of these things, or worse yet, get them wrong. Give this info to any nearby relatives as well.

–Have supplies: we were in the hospital four days. As I said before, my wife takes medications for a couple issues, and she certainly didn’t think to bring any with her when she jumped into the ambulance with our injured infant. Luckily, my BOB was vindicated (and she ALWAYS gave me crap about dragging it around) when the weeks’ worth of her medications that I can stowed away in it meant that we could stay at the hospital and focus our attention on the issues at hand. Also, the spare clothes and basic hygiene items I had meant that we could be relatively comfortable – which doesn’t sound like much, but man, being able to brush my teeth and wash my face made the HUGEST difference.

–Have a network: be sure you have someone you can call who can take care of issues for you if you’re away from the house for an extended period of time. Thankfully, my father and my mother-in-law were able to take care of my 13-year-old stepson, and get to the house daily to let out my dog, feed the cats, etc. Not having to worry about these things will make one less thing to stress about. Also, having someone who can grab clean clothes, food, or any other needs will make a big difference.

–Stay calm. Being able to have at least one person in their right mind (or at least close to it) to be able to answer questions for doctors, police, paramedics etc., could be a literal lifesaver. If there are two of you, great! Take shifts dealing with emergency stuff while the other person has a bit of time to cope. It doesn’t take long to completely bug out in high-stress situations. Also, if you’re driving somewhere to meet them to help with a SHTF event, drive calmly, obey traffic laws. Driving through a red-light in a panic and getting T-boned will just add to anguish.

–Take care of yourself: My wife didn’t eat anything for quite some time, and when she went to stand up, she almost collapsed. Stay fed, stay hydrated. This will comfort you, and it will promote mental and physical well-being. If she’d passed out from hunger or exhaustion, it would have created just another problem for others to deal with. Rest up too, when the time presents itself – even if it’s just a 15-minute power nap. These little things make a huge difference.

-Have communications: we have dodgy cellphone service at our house and no land-line, which was a clincher in this situation. My wife didn’t even have the reception to call 911, and it freaked her out. Her hands were shaking so bad she almost couldn’t email me after she’d crawled across the floor with a screaming baby to her iPhone. Having a land line she could have just dialed 911 into would have saved a lot of time and possible injury. Needless to say, we now have a land-line.

Granted, these are all lessons that are kind of “DUH” items for anyone who can look over the whole situation, but sometimes we get distracted by life. Remember, things like when happened to me, terrible as it was, are far more likely than a nuclear war, EMP blast, or…? Being ready and prepared for possible every day problems will help us learn and keep us prepared mentally and physically, for when there IS a huge doomsday event.

Again, I’m not looking for a bunch of “I hope everyone is OK” comments – everyone IS OK (more or less)… but any questions or comments are more than welcome. I hope my little lesson will help others prepare for theirs.

 

Start now to make sure you are staying prepared.

 

Via: shtfblog

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December 19th, 2013
post by policysup | | 0

Why It’s Time You Learn How to Hunt NOW

When the shelves go bare, the supply systems shutdown, and chaos hits the populated areas, it’s highly unlikely you’ll be frequenting your favorite restaurant for some time.

If you’ve been a reader of my blog for even a short time, you know how much importance I put on setting aside a years supply of food storage; but the reality is, food maybe taken from you or it may have to be left behind…

However, knowledge and skill will always be with you.

It’s during times like these that the skill of hunting will come in real handy.

After all, the more skills in self-sufficiency you can develop for obtaining food through either growing or harvesting (a.k.a. hunting/trapping) the less dependence you’ll have upon either commercial food sources or your own food storage.

Why it’s Time to Learn How to Hunt Now


Lest you think that you will simply walk into the woods and harvest a cornucopia of animals when things go south, think about this:

The sad reality is that our wild-animal population cannot support the total population in a country such as the U.S.

As an example, let’s just look at the deer population…

In the communist state that I live in (Massachusetts), there are a total of 85,000 whitetail deer. We have roughly 6.5 million people living in the state.

If you figure a generous 100 pounds of meat from each deer (the avg is probably more like 75 lbs), that equates to only about 1.2 pounds of meat per person — but get this — now the entire deer population is gone. It doesn’t take a genius to figure out that that’s not a lot of meat.

Sure, the deer population may be a lot better in other states, but still, the numbers of wild animals cannot support the numbers of people for any sustainable amount of time.

The good news?

Well, it’s going to take some time for the rest of the population to figure out how to do this.

For someone, who has been hunting for a little bit now, I know that you can’t just simply walk into the woods and take your pick of deer and other animals.

It takes some time to learn how to hunt and although there’s overlap, each animal has its own unique strategy.

Sure, in times where rule of law is void, you won’t be restricted by many of the laws and regulations that we as hunters deal with now. But, even without them, it will still not be that simple.

This will grant those who have developed the skills ahead of time a window of opportunity to harvest a good amount of animals to put away before a large portion of the population catches on.

Of course, this is all conjecture anyhow.

I can’t say what type of situation we’d be faced with. It could be a plague that wipes out millions upon millions of people leaving competition for the animals a non-issue; or it could be a total systemic collapse that leaves millions of desperate people in its wake — forcing them to leave the cities and spread across the countryside like a swarm of locusts.

Whether it’s the next “great disaster” or just tough economic times, the importance of learning to hunt now shouldn’t be overlooked.

The Benefits of Hunting

Learning to hunt now goes way beyond survival or even beyond supplementing your current meat requirements.

First off, there’s the obvious health benefits of eating free-range, organic meat.

Also the health-building benefits of being in the outdoors in the fresh air, exercising, enjoying solo time or the camaraderie that comes with the group hunt.

Let’s not forget that the skills you learn in hunting carryover to a great many other areas that are very beneficial to preppers.

For example with hunting you get practical experience in:

  • weapon handling, safety, maintenance, and function
  • how to fire dynamically and under pressure
  • scouting
  • tracking
  • camouflage
  • stalking
  • ambush
  • orienteering
  • and even building campfires and pitching tents during multi-day hunts

All these skills would easily carryover in a world where chaos rules.

So, if you’re interested in learning a new “hobby” that can provide just as many benefits in your life today as it would in a survival situation, I highly recommend you learning how to hunt.

 

Start now to make sure you are staying prepared.

 

Via: tacticalintelligence

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December 18th, 2013
post by policysup | | 0

5 Steps: Preparing for Widespread Looting & Rioting

Some advice from FerFAL at SURVIVING IN ARGENTINA

 

 

1)Have a gun. The moment to rush to the gun store to buy a firearm is not when looters are around the corner. Get it now. Any gun is better than no gun but you want a big bore handgun (for example a Glock) and a long arm, carbine or shotgun.

 

2)Get training. Owning a gun and not having professional training on how to use it is like having a car but not knowing how to drive it, and its just as dangerous. One of the store owners that got killed in the recent lootings that took place in Argentina died because he had no defensive shooting training and lacked proper tactics on how to deal with the situation.

 

3)Organize. Talk with your neighbors, get to know them. Some of your neighbors may end up on the looter’s side, so get to know them well ahead of time. If the rioting gets out of control, it is you and your neighbors that will build barricades, post guard and protect your own community.

 

4)Stock up on supplies. Food, water, fuel, first aid, means of cooking food if light goes out. Besides the obvious disaster kit supplies, some tactical gear would be invaluable as well. Body armor would be priceless for times like these, while bugging in or posting guard outside with your neighbors. A good flashlight and a radio would be very useful too.

 

5) Stay put. When there’s rioting on the streets the best thing you can do is stay put and avoid the risk of traveling. It is usually stores that looters go after but some do attack private residences in which case a few shots are likely to send them away looking for an easier target. While there’s a small chance of looters going after private homes, it is much riskier to drive around in a city overrun by riot and looting. Not to mention, your home is much more likely to get picked clean with no one armed on the inside to look after it.

 

My comments on this advice:

1)I agree with advice up to the point when arson appears. I think it worth looking at how vulnerable your neighborhood is to arson and to be ready to run at the first signs of smoke if one’s area is vulnerable (densely builtup with lots of flammable material,etc.)
Every jerk out there knows about Molotov cocktails from the movies.

Older suburbs with large 1 acre lots are obviously less vulnerable, depending upon vegetation, time of year, climate,etc.

Some pictures from the USA urban riots of the 1960s:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Wattsriots-burningbuildings-loc.jpg http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Wattsriots-burningbuildings-loc.jpg%20

http://yearofgiving.files.wordpress.com/2010/07/day-193-dc-riots.jpg
(Washington DC with Washington Monument in background)

2) However, the lists of deaths associated with the 1967 Detroit riots show Ferfal’s warning is valid –a lot of men were shot by snipers or by security forces who were frightened after being fired upon by snipers–especially if they thought someone was fleeing or trying to run through a roadblock.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1967_Detroit_riot

But note the damage: 412 buildings destroyed and 2509 stores looted or burned. 45 years later and the area has not recovered — it is slowly dying because anyone with any assets packed up and left.

 

Start now to make sure you are staying prepared.

 

Via: ferfal

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December 17th, 2013
post by policysup | | 0

How to Make Homemade Probiotic Sauerkraut

How to make homemade sauerkraut, a very nutritious fermented food that fills your gut with healthy probiotics. No special equipment needed.

 

 

Start now to make sure you are staying prepared.

 

Via: thesurvivalistblog

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December 16th, 2013
post by policysup | | 0

“100% Chance of a Severe Geo-Magnetic Event Capable of Crippling Our Electric Grid”

With the sun’s solar cycle in its peak stage this year and militaries around the world rapidly developing super electro-magnetic pulse (EMP) weapons, the threat of a catastrophic event that disables the U.S. power grid has never been greater.

In 2003 a solar flare emitted by the sun was the most powerful in recorded observational history, measuring in at levels so high that had it hit earth it would have likely disabled everything from the internet and mobile phones, to water utility plants and the whole of the U.S. electricity infrastructure. And, earlier this year in another near-miss, experts claimed the world escaped another large-scale EMP catastrophe.

While an outlier, the real possibility of an EMP event – be it natural or manmade – is more probable than most people think:

We are only one act of madness away from a social cataclysm unlike anything our country has ever known.
-Congressman Trent Franks (R-AZ), Senior Member House Armed Service Committee

…

EMP is one of the small number of threats that could hold at risk the continued existence of U.S. civil society.
-Dr. Robert Hermann, Commissioner US Congress EMP Commission

…

Just one violent active region on the sun can cause continent-wide, perhaps even planetary-scale impacts to our critical infrastructure.
-John Kappenman, Principal Investigator US Congress EMP Commission

…

The Likelihood of a severe geo-magnetic event capable of crippling our electric grid is 100%.
-Congresswoman Yvette Clarke (D-NY), Senior Member House Homeland Security Committee

 


 

The fall-out from a grid-down scenario would be absolutely devastating, as noted by a spokesman for the Center for Security Policy who recently responded to the potential for EMP capable weapons being deployed over the United States:

And experts forecast if such an attack were a success, it effectively could throw the U.S. back into an age of agriculture.

“Within a year of that attack, nine out of 10 Americans would be dead, because we can’t support a population of the present size in urban centers and the like without electricity,” said Frank Gaffney, president of the Center for Security Policy.

NASA has already begun implementing plans to deal with large scale power failure from a space weather anomaly, and NASA head Charles Bolden recently issued a video alert through the NASA Headquarters of Emergency Operations in which he claimed he had “been made aware of some things” that prompted him to urge NASA employees and their families to prepare for an event that could come like 9/11.

This was recently echoed by outgoing DHS Secretary Janet Napolitano, who has said that a cyber attack or natural disaster on the U.S. power grid the likes of which we have never seen is imminent.

Following Napolitano’s comments it was revealed that the United States, Canada, Mexico and hundreds of private companies were planning a massive power grid down drill to simulate what an EMP attack or solar flare might look like.

The disaster drill is being described as a crisis practice unlike anything the real power grid has ever experienced. The GridEX II drill Nov. 13-14 will focus primarily on how governments will react if the electrical grid fails and, for instance, the food supply chain collapses.

As we saw in limited grid-down scenarios like those following Hurricane Katrina and Hurricane Sandy, when the grid goes down you better be ready. Within 72 hours of such an event taking place the supply chain infrastructure in affected regions will undoubtedly collapse. This is a certainty, as evidenced by what we played out within a few days of Hurricane Sandy hitting the east coast last year:

SHOCK: 72 Hours After Grid-Down: Starvation, Supply Shortages, Food Lines, No Clean Water, No Gas, Transportation Standstill

For tens of thousands of east coast residents that worst case scenario is now playing out in real-time. No longer are images of starving people waiting for government handouts restricted to just the third-world.

In the midst of crisis, once civilized societies will very rapidly descend into chaos when essential infrastructure systems collapse.

Though the National Guard was deployed before the storm even hit, there is simply no way for the government to coordinate a response requiring millions of servings of food, water and medical supplies

Many east coast residents who failed to evacuate or prepare reserve supplies ahead of the storm are being forced to fend for themselves.

Frustration and anger have taken hold, as residents have no means of acquiring food or gas and thousands of trucks across the region remain stuck in limbo.

Despite our modern infrastructure and technological advancements, we are one catastrophe away from being thrown back into the stone age.

If the grid goes down the gas stops pumping, America’s trucks stop running, and grocery store shelves stop getting stocked.

Within three days of that all hell breaks loose.

We’re talking about nothing short of a total breakdown in law & order and tens of millions of people scavenging, looting and killing for food.

The threat is as real as it gets, but you can insulate yourself should it come to pass if you take the steps to prepare now.

It starts with getting prepared for a two week power outage, and then focusing your efforts on more long-term plans that can protect you against the possibility of EMP, solar flare, and a host of other potential wide-scale disasters.

Former Congressman Roscoe Bartlett issued what is probably the most stark warning about the U.S. power grid, which he says is not only outdated, but incapable of being repaired in a timely manner should elements of it be paralyzed by an EMP weapon of geo-magnetic storm:

We could have events in the future where the power grid will go down and it’s not, in any reasonable time, coming back up. For instance, if when the power grid went down some of our large transformers were destroyed, damaged beyond use, we don’t make any of those in this country. They’re made overseas and you order one and 18 months to two years later they will deliver it. Our power grid is very vulnerable. It’s very much on edge. Our military knows that.

…

There are a number of events that could create a situation in the cities where civil unrest would be a very high probability.

I think that those who can, and those who understand, need to take advantage of the opportunity when these winds of strife are not blowing to move their families out of the city.

 

 

When we talk about collapse – our grid going down is as horrific a scenario as one can imagine.

Preparing one second after is going to be too late.

 

Start now to make sure you are staying prepared.

 

Via: shtfplan

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December 15th, 2013
post by policysup | | 0

Lethal Self Defense, Castle Doctrine, and you…Can you? – One Opinion


Post By Richard Fleetwood

This month, we had another school shooting, at a high school just ten miles from Columbine, Co. We also had a potential suicide car bomber try to blow up an airport in Kansas, and a kidnapping/hostage situation, that ended up with one freed hostage, and one dead kidnapper, taken down by a SWAT team. These kinds of incidents seem to be an everyday occurrence now. Why is that? Where is our humanity going?

I’ve had my own confrontations in many areas of my life, many before my marriage, and the more dangerous ones after starting to raise my family. As a letter carrier for 10 years in southwest Birmingham in the 1990s, I saw near anarchy on the mean streets of a town called Bessemer (now listed on a few websites as one of the 16th most dangerous cities in the US).

I had the normal postal run-ins with gangstas and their Rottweilers and Doberman, and more than my fair share of pit bulls. I had guns pulled on me in attempted robberies and drive by’s, but never had to duck a shot, or go offensive. I had car wrecks occur feet away from me while standing on street corners that could have easily put me under ground.

It wasn’t war, but it wasn’t safe, nearly every day. I came across bodies on porches, from drug deals gone bad. I was first on scene to fatal and near fatal car accidents, near where I stood as it happened. I paid attention to my entire 360 area of operations on my route, and had a photographic memory for incidents. Situational awareness in these crime ridden areas, right here in the good old USA, kept me on my toes, and while not exactly antsy…at least knowing deep in my soul, that these streets at some point in the future, could be the death of me…at any given second…rendered thoughts that led me to bug out with my family and I to rural settings just a few years later.


The only two fights I was ever involved in was my brother at age 13, in our backyard, at my dad’s behest to deal with a sibling squabble, and it was one punch from me, and 10 from my little brother. I went for the stomach, and hit him in the gonads. He proceeded to beat me about the head and shoulders for a minute or two, before his pain took some fight his fighting spirit out. Wasn’t intentional, but I realized after my first punch, that “What the fuck am I fighting my BROTHER for? It was just not right…and I let him punch me until HE stopped.

The second involved my oldest son, a lost soul at the time, who was delving into drugs for bit of rebellion in his early teen years. I did what my dad did to me (years before), and got in his face trying to egg him on to get him to REALLY discuss what the hell his problem was. Long story short, and with him being 8 inches taller than me, and 50 pounds heavier, he took the bait….and he pushed me hard, back across the kitchen/dining area, into our fridge, with enough force to knock some frying pans off the top and hit me in the head with extreme prejudice. It took me a moment to see a fight has started, and got back to my feet, and jumped toward him, hitting him in the side of the head with a round house…the only punch thrown. My wife and other two kids were right there and the screaming ensued. Cops were called, and we both went to visit the PD, coming home an hour later. He went to the hospital for x-rays, which showed no damage. The next day I had a bruise on my ass the size of a medium sized watermelon…and I don’t know what the hell I hit to cause that.

Over those nearly 40 years, up until today, I’ve stepped into a lot of ongoing frays, usually of someone I know, and tried to bring tempers down several notches with rational thoughts and having them step back and breath for a moment. Somehow, in all those years, I’ve only seen a few fistfights break out in my presence…and one was little bro in middle school who got his ass handed to him with a broken nose while I watched on one afternoon.

So, years of experience on the fringe, in the danger zone, and refereeing.


Like I said, I’ve seen death up close and personal, but have not dealt it or suffered it personally. These days, however, are different. Now I work full time in Corrections/LEO for a western state.

I work with, direct, supervise, or manage all day, every day, dozens of inmates at a minimum facility. I am not an officer, which means on one hand, I carry no protective gear, handcuffs, pepper spray, or anything else but my wits at all times, while on the other hand, I have the training and skills, to take down anyone that is attacking me, or anyone else, with my hands and body only…including some strikes that if used incorrectly, and without power control, could absolutely be lethal, using training known as NRCT (look it up…).

Being a minimum facility, we have the entire spectrum of inmates: murderers, rapists, sex offenders, child molesters, blue and white collar crime, and even former cops, public servants, and the like. Every staff member, uniformed or otherwise, knows that THESE inmates are at the last facility they’re going to be at before they reenter society. All of our jobs is to keep the local community SAFE AND SECURE. The guys hitting the streets for the most part leave the town or county, including a lot that leave the state.  However, some do stay in town and reenter our own society and outside environment. I’ve seen many about town, and even done business with a few, learning only later they were former inmates…such as the gentleman I bought my Xterra from 4 years ago at the local Fremont Motors dealership.

Manned with a two-way radio and a personal protective alarm, I am around them, between them, working with them, teaching them, and oh yes, ROLE MODELING what citizens and non-felons need act like today. 800 sets of eyes, and 200 cameras watch me and everyone else on the facility…every day. You can add 400 horse eyes and 950 cow eyes if you really want a total count of eyeball spying at our facility.

Having been in this position for many years now, coupled with the 10 years on the truly mean streets of Alabama, I, too, like many of you, can read a man or woman’s eyes and gauge intent or potential threat. And, as I’ve just said, that includes men convicted (and of course capable again later ) of those same horrible disgusting crimes they came into prison for…murder…rape…child molestation….multiple DUI’s, and on and on.

Death doesn’t touch all of us, until late in life for the lucky ones. A very tiny number of war vets who sometimes might have personally killed dozens or hundreds of enemy combatants (and later suffering PTSD nearly every time), mentally disturbed sociopaths and psychopaths, many disenfranchised democrats (nearly every mass shooting in the last several years has been committed by registered democrats, including the teen socialist in the Arapaho High School shooting last week), and lots of new immigrants from nations who grew up seeing death and rebellion always around them in some kind of political or civil war, and let us not forget lots of wannabee criminals that grew up with one parent and a Nintendo with first person shooter games…all of these miscreants create most of the bad things in all our lives these days. The ever falling decrease in the value of human life by a majority of Americans is driving us down a proverbial road of IEDs, snipers, entitlement wars, and pretty much all but mostly dead liberal zombies.

Death is a part of the life cycle. Being aware of potential events that might touch us, taunt us, or barely miss us (that situational awareness thing) is a skill that can always be improved, every day, in some way. Whether through fiction, movies, history, or personal observation, the world is learning at a maddening pace just how far apart each side is from equality, justice, and the law…be it extreme liberals or flaming conservatives…violence is a foul beast, barely restrained, and easily loosed on those who don’t see the world through our special colored glasses.

I’m not a fighter, but I can fight. As our (and most other) correctional facilities in the country have, there is a use of force matrix that tells us exactly what we can do with an individual who is causing problems. We can only use that force necessary to gain compliance of that individual, in that situation. In higher level facilities, the Medium and Max joints, the use of lethal force can and will be used, if any life is threatened. It’s rarely used, but policy and procedure, during these times of emergency, are there…because at some point in the past, it was needed, and history is always going to repeat itself.

Once you’ve crossed that line and taken a life, even in defending yourself and/or your loved ones, you understand that you may have had to kill, or at least end the immediate threat with a shot of any

caliber, because the only other alternative you could think of was your own immediate death. You have to know, both in your heart, and in your head psychologically and physiologically, what can occur in those precious few seconds of action to save those lives and end that immediate threat. Guilt, anger, self-questioning (after the fact) is as inevitable as the sun rising in the east every day.

Regarding Castle Doctrine, the short and sweet explanation is that if your home is invaded and your life is in imminent danger, you can shoot to kill. BUT, this law or variations of it are NOT congruent or supported by law in all 50 states. The news of the past few weeks has been full of home invasion stories…many where the homeowner died or was injured, and more to the point, MORE stories where smart families or older men and women have killed their invaders or wounded them seriously enough to end the threat.

If you’re going to have weapons in your home, know your legal rights for owning them, storing them, and USING THEM. Nearly every community of any conservative bent should have concealed carry classes that provide you with the law that you need to understand, what to do and NOT to do, should an incident involve a home weapon, and a fatality (hopefully the bad guy). There are also five states where you can concealed carry WITHOUT a permit, known as “unrestricted carry”. These states are Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, Vermont and Wyoming. Again, do your own research and investigations, including going to your local sheriff or police department and simply asking them what the current law is where you live.

Just remember this, should you ever find yourself in a life and death gun fight within your home. You didn’t make the choice to take a life…you reacted to an immediate threat. The perp who elected to receive for this game made the choice to cross that boundary. That door or window was locked to protect HIM. He get’s his just reward when HE has brought the aggression to your face.

It sucks to have to make a decision between life or death. If you’re the one doing the crime, good luck. You deserve what you get. If you’re on the other side, threatened with death, the death of your family and loved ones, or imminent deadly harm, you are the only one that can change the outcome of the situation, and it’s not going to happen unless you’ve prepared, mentally and physically beforehand. If your defense is going to be a handgun or shotgun, you want to have the experience and practice on a proper range setting, so that if and when needed…you’re ready.

Of course, as is always possible, your mileage may vary. Better to have it and not need it…than to need it and not have it.

 

Start now to make sure you are staying prepared.

 

Via: survivalring

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December 14th, 2013
post by policysup | | 0

Legislators To Introduce Bill That Would Nullify Obamacare in Georgia – It Begins

Four state representatives announced today that they are introducing legislation to block Obamacare in Georgia.

State representative Jason Spencer (R-Woodbine), with three other representatives, will hold a press conference on Monday, Dec. 16 to discuss the proposal.

In a press release, Rep. Spencer explained the bill’s goal:

“The bill’s main thrust is to prohibit state agencies, officers and employees of the state from implementing any provisions of the Affordable Care Act, leaving implementation entirely in the hands of the federal government, which lacks the resources or personnel to carry out the programs it mandates.”

Michael Boldin of the Tenth Amendment Center explained the legal grounds for state nullification of Obamacare, and the possibility of other states following suit:

Based on the long-standing legal principle, the anti-commandeering doctrine, the legislation is on strong legal grounds. In four major cases from 1842 to 2012, the Supreme Court has consistently held that the federal government cannot “commandeer” states, requiring them to enforce or expend resources to participate in federal law or regulatory programs.

Tenth Amendment Center (TAC) national communications director Mike Maharrey suggested that a large-scale effort would be coming in 2014. “Kudos goes out to all the people in South Carolina who have worked the past year to get things this far.  And kudos to Jason Spencer for stepping up to support their effort. Our contacts here at the Center tell us to expect at least ten other states considering similar legislation in 2014, but it’s going to require people getting on the phone with their state reps and senators to make that happen.”

Maharrey said that TAC’s state-plan to nullify Obamacare includes four key parts. The main part, as bills in South Carolina and Georgia are proposing, would ban the state from enforcing or providing material support for the enforcement of the Affordable Care Act. The plan also includes a rejection of the Medicaid expansion, steps to reduce the impact and enforcement of the mandate tax, and press for an ongoing challenge to the taxes themselves.

“Each piece might seem like a small piece of thread,” said Maharrey. “But when you tie all kinds of threads together you have a strong piece of rope.  By refusing to comply in multiple states and various areas, we’re going to pull the rug right out from under Obamacare.”

South Carolina fast-tracked a bill entitled “South Carolina Freedom of Health Care Protection Act” (H.3101), the basis of which is the anti-commandeering doctrine:

“Congress can pass laws, but it cannot compel the states to utilize either their treasury or personnel to implement those federal laws,” explained state Sen. Tom Davis.

The Tenth Amendment Center has outlined the steps to follow to nullify the Affordable Care Act at the state level. Several other states have introduced legislation to nullify the law, and perhaps South Carolina and Georgia will inspire more to do the same.

 

Start now to make sure you are staying prepared.

 

Via:  The Daily Sheeple

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December 13th, 2013
post by policysup | | 0

Obama Admin Plans To ‘Force’ Americans To Move Into Cities

Manhattanize America! Wildlands Project=Where You Can’t Live in America After Agenda 21 NWO Takeover

 

 

 

Great Leap Backward? China to Move Millions into its Cities

 

 

China’s government recently unveiled a plan that would result in the largest migration in human history, moving 250 million people into its cities in the next ten years in order to increase productivity and consumption.

 

Start now to make sure you are staying prepared.

 

Via: thesurvivalistblog

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December 12th, 2013
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Victory for Self Defense as Judge Rules Students Can Keep Guns on College Campuses

All over America local and state governments are attempting to restrict the individual’s ability to protect themselves from harm by banning the ownership, possession, and carrying of firearms for self defense. So much so that even businesses and quasi-government entities are jumping aboard the bandwagon.

But every time they try to pass legislation or regulations contrary to the spirit and letter of the Second Amendment, advocates for gun rights step in to fight the good fight.

The latest victory comes from Florida, where 24-year old college student and mother Alexandria Lainez was threatened with expulsion and arrest for her decision to keep a firearm in her car while attending class.

Florida Carry Inc. and  Alexandria Lainez vs. the University of North Florida centered around Lainez’s ability to store a gun in her vehicle while attending classes at UNF so she would have available for self-defense while traveling to and from campus.

Lainez is a young mother, Friday said, “and she takes seriously her responsibility to protect herself and her child.”

Lainez, who’s 24 and has had a concealed weapons permit for three years, said she takes firearms safety and training pretty seriously, too. A Jacksonville resident with a half-hour one-way commute to school, she said she’s working to get students at other schools interested in gun training, too.

“I think it’s pretty important to be able to protect myself and my son, especially with that long commute to and from school.”

And making that commute armed means storing the gun on UNF property.

UNF regulations prohibit weapons on campus. According to the student handbook printed in 2011 when the case was filed, expressly threatened that violators could be arrested.

“No college or university has the authority” to make such a regulation, Friday said.

Lainez, a member of Florida Carry, sued UNF to change the regulation, but lost at trial to UNF’s argument that it could ban weapons because state law allowed school districts to do so. UNF argued that since it’s a school, it should be considered like a public school district.

In Tuesday’s decision, the 1st District Court of Appeal ruled otherwise.

“From the beginning, the argument was an absurdity in my mind,” Friday said.

But the broader issue, Friday said, involved the powers of local governments – such as counties and cities – to violate gun rights through control ordinances that in effect in one part of the state but not another, putting gun owners at risk of arrest depending on the jurisdiction.

It’s a gun rights battle being fought in other states – where officials in places like libraries and bus companies try to make petty authority grounds for violating constitutional rights.

BizPacReview

 

Check out video:

http://landing.newsinc.com/shared/video.html?freewheel=69016&sitesection=bizpacreview&VID=25435489

 

 

It’s simple:

A well regulated militia being necessary to the security of a free state,the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed.

If Alexandria Lainez was getting into her car after dark and was attacked, how long would it take campus security to arrive?

And if they did arrive, by what legal statutes do they have to act in Lainez’s defense?

There are none.

If the perpetrator of a crime was armed, and campus security chose not to get involved, there would be no one there to save her. This has been upheld by the courts. A police officer, and by extension a private security employee, is not required to get involved if they feel their life is in danger.

Thus, as any responsible individual and parent should do, Ms. Lainez has taken it upon herself to protect her and her child’s life by arming herself.

She is not going to go out and murder a schoolroom full of children, or theater goers, or anyone else. She is intent on defending herself if the situation calls for it.

And according to the Second Amendment of the Constitution of the United States, the law of the land says she has every right to do so.

 

Start now to make sure you are staying prepared.

 

via: shtfplan

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