Monthly Archives: December 2014

A Must Watch – The Shelter

Please take the time to watch this 24 minute Twilight Zone episode.

The short movie shows a depiction of the real nature of people, and just how quickly your friends, neighbors, and even family will turn on you. The threat in the video is an atomic bomb, but the reaction from those around you would be the same if you were down to your last can of beans and they had none. They would kill you and your family to take it to extend their life for a few more hours.

 

The show depicts a group of close friends who hear on the radio that enemy missiles are on their way and they need to take shelter within 30 minutes.

Utilities were shut off. One friend had the previous foresight to build a bomb shelter and load it with two weeks’ worth of food and supplies, just enough for him, his wife, and child. His friends, however, never prepped. I won’t tell you the rest but this is a true realization of how human society reacts in a dire emergency scenario. At the end of the episode ask yourself one key question: Which side of the door will you be on during a major crises?

 

 

Although not a twilight episode but a movie in the same theme, the trigger effect is a good movie. (1 hour 35 minutes)

 

 

 

Start now to make sure you are staying prepared.

U.S. Supreme Court Rules 8-1 that Citizens Have No Protection against Fourth Amendment Violations by Police Officers Ignorant of the Law

In a blow to the constitutional rights of citizens, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled 8-1 in Heien v. State of North Carolina that police officers are permitted to violate American citizens’ Fourth Amendment rights if the violation results from a “reasonable” mistake about the law on the part of police. Acting contrary to the venerable principle that “ignorance of the law is no excuse,” the Court ruled that evidence obtained by police during a traffic stop that was not legally justified can be used to prosecute the person if police were reasonably mistaken that the person had violated the law. The Rutherford Institute had asked the U.S. Supreme Court to hold law enforcement officials accountable to knowing and abiding by the rule of law. Justice Sonia Sotomayor, the Court’s lone dissenter, warned that the court’s ruling “means further eroding the Fourth Amendment’s protection of civil liberties in a context where that protection has already been worn down.”

The Rutherford Institute’s amicus brief in Heien v. North Carolina is available at www.rutherford.org.

“By refusing to hold police accountable to knowing and abiding by the rule of law, the Supreme Court has given government officials a green light to routinely violate the law,” said John W. Whitehead, president of The Rutherford Institute and author of the award-winning book A Government of Wolves: The Emerging American Police State. “This case may have started out with an improper traffic stop, but where it will end—given the turbulence of our age, with its police overreach, military training drills on American soil, domestic surveillance, SWAT team raids, asset forfeiture, wrongful convictions, and corporate corruption—is not hard to predict. This ruling is what I would call a one-way, nonrefundable ticket to the police state.”

In April 2009, a Surry County (N.C.) law enforcement officer stopped a car traveling on Interstate 77, allegedly because of a brake light which at first failed to illuminate and then flickered on. The officer mistakenly believed that state law prohibited driving a car with one broken brake light. In fact, the state traffic law requires only one working brake light. Nevertheless, operating under a mistaken understanding of the law, during the course of the stop, the officer asked for permission to search the car. Nicholas Heien, the owner of the vehicle, granted his consent to a search. Upon the officer finding cocaine in the vehicle, he arrested and charged Heien with trafficking. Prior to his trial, Heien moved to suppress the evidence seized in light of the fact that the officer’s pretext for the stop was erroneous and therefore unlawful. Although the trial court denied the motion to suppress evidence, the state court of appeals determined that since the police officer had based his initial stop of the car on a mistaken understanding of the law, there was no valid reason for the stop in the first place. On appeal, the North Carolina Supreme Court ruled that even though the officer was wrong in concluding that the inoperable brake light was an offense, because the officer’s mistake was a “reasonable” one, the stop of the car did not violate the Fourth Amendment and the evidence resulting from the stop did not need to be suppressed. In weighing in on the case before the U.S. Supreme Court, Rutherford Institute attorneys warn against allowing government agents to “benefit” from their mistakes of law, deliberate or otherwise, lest it become an incentive for abuse.

Affiliate attorney Christopher F. Moriarty assisted The Rutherford Institute in advancing the arguments in the amicus brief before the U.S. Supreme Court.

 

Start now to make sure you are staying prepared.

 

Via :  zerohedge

Why I Feel Survival Moms Should Carry – My Opinion

Post by Tammy Trayer at thesurvivalmom.com

———————–

I feel very strongly that women should not only carry a firearm, but be very knowledgeable on the gun they carry, know gun safety and know how to very accurately use their gun.

Women and children are vulnerable and I feel today, more than ever that women should be knowledgeable on the varying ways they can protect themselves and their families from two and even four legged predators.   Not to mention, it is our RIGHT!

Ladies, if you are unfamiliar with a firearm, you can get assistance with AGirlAndAGun website.  I highly recommend them and know that you will be well taken care of.  I had the privilege to interview Julianna Crowder who established A Girl and A Gun.  They are spread out all over the United States and I am sure there will be a chapter near you.

As a woman that regularly carries a firearm, I’d like to also recommend the FlashBang holsters because they are designed for women by women and therefore they are light in weight and are available in varying styles to accommodate your attire and carrying preferences.  I also had the privilege to interview Lisa Looper owner of FlashBang Holsters.   I had a hard time finding a comfortable holster and one that did not leave my hips sore after a long trek until I found the FlashBang holsters.

Another for-women-only holster that has been reviewed on this blog is the Can Can Concealment Holster.

Once I became a mother, my whole world changed.  It was no longer just about me, it was about how I could protect my children no matter what the circumstance.   The only thing more important than my family is God and their livelihood is always my first concern.  Being sure that I am capable of protecting them became of utmost importance to me.

Ladies, I’d like to leave you with one last thought regarding firearms.  We were out adventuring one day and we left in a rush.  I forgot my pistol and my husband said to me “GREAT, so who is going to have my back?“.  That is all I needed to hear and I have never gone anywhere else without it.  It is just as much a part of my attire as are my shoes.

Original image care of:  MontanaHomesteader.com

 

Start now to make sure you are staying prepared.

 

Via :  thesurvivalmom.

WEEKLY THREAT ROUNDUP – 12-27-14

 

From AlertsUSA


 

New Russian Military Doctrine Names the U.S.
and NATO as Main Foreign Threats

Dec 27, 2014

On Dec 26, 2014, AlertsUSA issued the following
related Flash message to subscriber mobile devices:

12/26 – Vladimir Putin signs new mil doctrine naming NATO, US as main foreign threats, retains strategy to use nukes if country or allies are under conventional attack.
What You Need To Know
Readers will recall that last week, AlertsUSA and Threat Journal reported on the announcement made by the White House that President Obama would be signing a bill from Congress which adds new sanctions on Russia and would codify into law the provision of lethal military aid to the Ukrainian government. (If you have not had a chance to read the piece, it is well worth taking a few min to review). This week Russia responded and they are clearly not backing down.

On Friday the 26th, AlertsUSA subscribers were notified via SMS messages to their mobile devices that Russian President Vladimir Putin signed the country’s new military doctrine (See the original Russia version here (PDF)) which “reflects the emergence of new threats against its national security”, names the U.S. and NATO as the federation’s main foreign threats, and which retains the strategy to use nuclear weapons if the country or allies are under conventional attack.

According to the revised doctrine, “NATO’s military buildup” and the bloc’s expansion toward the Russian borders are among the main external threats to Russia’s security.

Other external threats include the development and deployment of the U.S. strategic missile defense system, the implementation of the ‘global strike’ doctrine, plans to place weapons in space as well as the deployment of high-precision conventional weapons systems.

So as to reinforce their message to the West, just a few hours prior to the new military doctrine being signed, Russia’s Strategic Missile Forces carried out another test of an RS-24 Yars ICBM with multiple warheads. Launched from the Plesetsk military cosmodrome in the country’s extreme northwest near the border of Finland, the missile flew across the length of Russia to it’s target at the Kura test range on the Kamchatka Peninsula in the Far East.

AlertsUSA continues to closely monitor growing tension in Eastern Europe and the Ukraine and will issue additional alert messages to subscriber mobile devices as threats and events warrant.

AlertsUSA.com

 
* Know Instantly If Ebola is Detected in Your
Child’s School District.
* Get Away Early, Give Your Family Extra Safety.
* In Wide Use By Gov, 1st Responders, Travelers.
* 24/7/365 Monitoring. No Hype. Just the Bad Stuff
* Issued Hours and Days before the MSM.
* On your Cell Phone, Tablet or Email.
* We Give The Clear Truth, Unlike the MSM.
* Over a Decade in Operation!
 
We are NOT part of the government.
In fact, they are our customers!

 

Start now to make sure you are staying prepared.

 

Via: threatjournal

CDC Quietly Monitoring 1400 Active Ebola Cases In the United States

As was pointed out earlier in the article: Ebola Has Not Gone Away it was suggested that during October 2014 the mainstream news media had been told to ‘shut up’, it has just been revealed that the CDC is monitoring 1400 ‘active’ Ebola cases in the United States – and it’s NOT on their website…



Investigative journalist Sharyl Attkisson said the CDC is not putting out the current information on how many potential cases of Ebola they are currently tracking in the Untied States.

Attkisson recently said on a FOX News segment,

“I called CDC not long ago and I said how many cases are being monitored in the United States and they said 1,400.”

“Where are these updates on your website?”

“They said they’re not putting it on the web.”

This is public information we have a right to know.

 

By the way, Sharyl Attkisson, a former CBS News reporter who was constantly at odds with the Obama administration, is the same reporter who was a victim of sophisticated hacking of her computers by ‘big brother’ – a highly publicized event several months ago. Can you say, NSA?


While some people reading this do understand the bigger picture (that the ‘government media complex’ is well known to be working together – sometimes covering up or distorting the real facts), it is my opinion that the behavior (of hiding this Ebola information) is not in our best interests as American citizens.

It is the self-responsible duty of every American to dig (or at least scratch the surface) beyond just the mainstream news to discover more about what may be happening in the world around us – some of which may directly affect our life or the decisions we make.

I am actually very surprised that we have an investigative journalist who actually reported this – and it was actually aired on FOX News. That in and of itself is surprising.

Do you think we will find out more about the 1400 ‘active’ Ebola cases being monitored in the United States, or where they are located? I doubt it… at least not from the CDC or mainstream.

Stay alert.

 

More on Ebola…

 

Start now to make sure you are staying prepared.

 

Via :  modernsurvivalblog


Sony Hackers Make New Demands… This Is What Happens When You Negotiate With Terrorists

Though the U.S. government’s official position is that North Korea is to blame, it’s not clear exactly who has hacked Sony and one could argue that it is nothing more than a propaganda show designed to distract the American public from more important matters like a collapsing global economy, problems in Russia or the fact that our Congress just passed a spending bill padded with all sorts of goodies for banking behemoths.

But it has nonetheless been interesting to observe.

So much so that even the President of the United States has now gotten involved. After Sony reportedly pulled ‘The Interview’ from theater distribution earlier this week in response to threats of a “9/11-style attack” from the hacking collective that calls itself the Guardians of Peace, the President said in a press conference that Sony executives made a mistake.

“I am sympathetic to the concerns that they faced,” Obama said. “Having said all that, yes, I think they made a mistake.”

“I wish they’d spoken to me first [before canceling the release of the film],” Obama said later.

“We cannot have a society in which some dictator someplace can start imposing censorship here in the United States,” Obama said. “If somebody’s able to intimidate folks out of releasing a satirical movie, imagine what they start doing when they see a documentary they don’t like, or news reports they don’t like. Or even worse, imagine if producers and distributors and others start engaging in self-censorship because they don’t want to offend the sensibilities of someone whose sensibilities probably need to be offended.”

Indeed, that’s one statement from the President we can agree with.

Sony supposedly pulled the movie because theaters that were going to show the flick were threatened with terrorist attacks. That, of course, is an easy out for executives at the firm, because just a couple of days earlier the ‘GOP’ hackers warned Sony of a Christmas surprise. Specifically, they said that if the movie opened as scheduled they would release even more damning evidence and information against the company. In fact, they even released a massive digital file named after the CEO of Sony, Michael Lynton, and said it would be decrypted for the public if Sony didn’t back off.

Given what we saw from the previous Sony hack, Lynton must have realized that failing to heed the hackers’ warnings would be a career ender for him. So, in the interests of self preservation, Lynton jumped on board with ‘The Interview’ ban in the hopes that all of his problems would go away.

But as you might have expected, when you negotiate with terrorists, it will only lead to more demands.

Appeasement was a failed policy under Neville Chamberlain that allowed Hitler to continue to Blitzkrieg Europe, and as noted by well known Hollywood actor Rob Lowe, it is a failed policy for Sony.

In the spirit of Kim Jong Il, Un and the rest of the world’s dictators, the hackers now want all traces of the movie’s existence removed from the annals of history… or else.

“It’s very wise that you have made the decision to cancel the release of The Interview. It will be very useful for you,” CNN reports the message as reading. The email concludes, “We will ensure the security of your data unless you make additional trouble.

Unfortunately for Sony, that “trouble” includes a laundry list of perceived issues: “Now we want you never let the movie released, distributed or leaked in any form of, for instance, DVD or piracy,” the message reportedly says. It also says, “And we want everything related to the movie, including its trailers, as well as its full version down from any website hosting them immediately.

But why stop there?

Why not force all American movie companies to simply submit all of their scripts and production plans to the hacking collective for approval?

We understand Sony’s decision was based on the self preservation of its executives in this matter. But from public relations perspective the company completely fumbled the ball on this one.

They could have taken the short-term pain and went with the release of the film. The hackers would have released the emails. More than likely heads would have rolled at the executive management levels of the company. But the company would have, at the very least, been seen as an organization that is prepared to do as they said, which is to “stand behind the free expression” of the artists involved in their films.

Now they are seen by the American public as weak and spineless.

And guess what? Chances are that all that sensitive data is going to be released anyway.

This is what happens when you cave in to the demands from terrorists. Moreover, Sony just sent a clear signal to the rest of the world that American companies are more than willing to negotiate.

 

Start now to make sure you are staying prepared.

 

Via :  shtfplan

US Families Increasingly Prepared For “Modern Day Apocalypse”

From the outside America may seem to be a land of endless optimism and confidence. But, as Sky News reports, an increasing number of Americans seem to think it is danger of falling apart, and they’re preparing for the end. “We’re not talking about folks walking around wearing tin foil on their heads,; we’re not talking about conspiracy theorists. I’m talking about professionals: doctors and lawyers and law enforcement and military. Normal, everyday people. They can’t necessarily put their finger on it. But there’s something about the uncertainty of our times. They know something isn’t quite right.”

A now-privately-held ex-nuclear-missile base in Kansas has been turned into luxury “post-apocalyptic refuge for the very rich”



“It’s an undergorund complex straight out of a bond flick”


As Sky News reports,

They call themselves preppers. Mainstream suburban Americans hoarding supplies and weapons while leading otherwise perfectly normal lives.


[they are] afraid of some impending catastrophe but also what that will do to American society.

“I think that is what I’m scared of the most,” he told Sky News, “Not the actual events. I’ve already prepared for that. It’s the aftermath, when there are no police, there are no military to protect us, we’re going to be protecting ourselves.”

The trigger could be a terrorist attack, a monetary collapse, cataclysmic failure in power generation, or a natural disaster. Preppers fear what comes next and have no faith in either their government or human nature.

“Once people use up all their resources, they’re going to come after the people that prepared and had more resources. So basically we have to take care of ourselves.


“We’re not talking about folks walking around wearing tin foil on their heads,” Jay tells Sky News. “We’re not talking about conspiracy theorists.

“I’m talking about professionals: doctors and lawyers and law enforcement and military. Normal, everyday people. They can’t necessarily put their finger on it. But there’s something about the uncertainty of our times. They know something isn’t quite right.”

Jay is a celebrity in the strange but increasingly mainstream world of preppers, writing prepper books and touring America, speaking at prepper expos where a bewildering range of survival supplies and techniques are on offer.


But it’s also arguably a sign of a country coping with economic decline. The end of the American Dream has left people more uncertain about their future, and their country’s.

Katy Bryson is in Jay’s prepper network. Prepping, she says, puts Americans back in charge of their destiny.

“They’re not in control of whether they lose their job or not but they are in control of whether they are prepared. So I feel like that’s why the industry is just booming right now for preparedness,”Katy added.

Read and watch more here…

 

Start now to make sure you are staying prepared.

 

Via :  shtfplan

American Black Out – National Geographic

This has been out for a while. I finally got around to watching it totally.

There are some lessons are in there; or there is at least a good reminder of the importance of preparing.

If nothing else it’s not a terrible show to watch.

It did bug me how the one survivalist is a complete goober.

Try not to be a goober. (Learn” if nothing else what “not to be like.)

 

 

A cyber-attack takes down the grid and leaves millions of ordinary people without electricity. Follow the first-hand stories of five different groups stranded in the darkness as their desperate scenarios unfold. What happens when the lights go out? How long would it take for civilization to crumble? Would you know what to do?

 

Start now to make sure you are staying prepared.

 

 

 

 

Prepping When You “Have No Room”

Guest post by Sandra R.

———————

I live in an RV.  Want to talk about limited space and nowhere to store things?  I have an undersink cabinet, four drawers, and three overhead short cabinets tall enough to stack 2-3 cans in my “kitchen” area.  I have a half closet and under sink cabinet in the bathroom.  The aisle going through the kitchen is 2.5′ wide.  The aisle by the master bed leading to the bathroom is 1.5′ wide.  It’s hard for 2 people to move around in here.

What else I have though is three other beds in that back area –two that pull down for visitors to sleep on.  The other is permanent on the floor.  I’ve taken those and converted them to storage along with the bathroom cabinet.  I’ve taken various tops off things like small desks to create an extra shelf settled on top of box halves to store things above and below thereby creating yet another set of “shelves” on the two beds near the ceiling.

For the one built on the floor, there is quite a bit of space between the one bottom bed and the top, and I’ve put a small shelf set on top of that.  I also have my cooler and printer stored on top of that.  Eventually I plan to take out at least half of that bed and install shelving from floor to ceiling.  I will then install shelving on top of the other half up to the ceiling…this has an electrical panel underneath so it cannot be removed…and remove that top bed.

I have a larger master bed, and the water heater is underneath.  It doesn’t work.  I plan to take that out and install an on demand water heater when money allows.  That way I will be able to use the full amount of storage under the bed instead of merely half as I’m able to do now.  I’m not able to lift the bed since it is built into the wall, but I will install rollers underneath so I can simply pull out the section I need to get to.  This will eliminate the need to take everything out to get to one thing.

The next step is taking out one of my kitchen benches and turning it sideways creating an “L”.  One side has heating ducts inside.  Those will be taken out creating yet another space for storage (no, my heater doesn’t work either).  The other side already has room for that…a drawer that will be taken out since I won’t be able to pull it out the side, and a pull down door.  I will take the drawer off, open up a hole in the front and cover it with a removable panel.  The benches are made of wood, and the top isn’t very sturdy so I will replace that with stronger wood adding in a storage area a few inches tall that will lift up…more storage for things like tools or weapons.

I have already taken out the passenger seat on my RV.   What’s left is the pedestal it sat on.  For now, there is ANOTHER bed above that which pulls down.  I will remove that bed, remove the pedestal, and install a small wood stove.  The hole from the pedestal will create the air movement needed from below, and I will cut a hole in the roof to install the stovepipe.

My RV also has a rack on half of the roof.  I’m debating how to keep the water from getting hot in the summer.  Once I figure that out, I will install a water bladder on the roof.

If you don’t have room to store things needed, then you don’t have a home.  Even if you live in the woods, you can find places to store items.  Where there’s a will, there’s a way.

Resources:

 

Start now to make sure you are staying prepared.

 

Via :  thesurvivalistblog

This Is What a Currency Collapse Looks Like: Shopping Frenzy: “We Have A Lot Of Rubles Losing Value Every Second”

Russians have seen the writing on the wall and they know that they’re economy and currency are in serious trouble. Though the Russian central bank has pledged to protect and stabilize the Ruble, which has collapsed by nearly 50% versus the dollar in the last several months, people aren’t taking any chances.

It’s a scenario we’ve seen repeated throughout history when a nation’s currency was threatened with destruction and it’s one we may soon witness in America should confidence in the dollar as the world’s reserve currency ever be lost.

This is what a currency collapse looks like:

“It is a real panic,” said Kirill Rogov, an independent political and economic analyst who is often critical of the Putin administration. “The ruble is being devalued by 5 or 6 percent every day, and nobody knows how to stop it.”

The ruble has lost 50 percent of its value since the beginning of the year. Russian consumers afraid of losing their savings, as happened in a financial crisis in 1998, flooded stores, rushing to dump rubles that seemed to shrink in worth by the minute.

Source: New York Times


“I don’t need this car,” he said with a shrug. He already owns two Porsches and a Land Rover. But, he figured the prices will soon go up and the ruble will probably go down. “We are headed for a crisis,” he said.


Electronics stores were packed late into the evening as shoppers scooped up iPhones and iPads at prices over $100 lower than what they cost in the United States. Apple’s Russian website halted online sales “due to extreme fluctuations in the value of the ruble… while we review pricing.”


We came here because we have a problem. We have a lot of rubles which are losing value every second and we were too late to buy dollars at good price. We came here because prices on cars will increase tomorrow,” Katya said.

Source: ABC News

What’s happening in Russia with the collapse of the Ruble is that merchants are being forced to raise their prices on goods every day. If the slide in the Ruble continues that could turn to hourly adjustments as was seen in Zimbabwe when their dollar crashed.

It’s a scenario that closely mimics the Argentine hyperinflation of the early 2000′s. As noted by author Fernando “Ferfal” Aguirre in his first-hand account The Modern Survival Manual: Surviving The Economic Collapse, when the country’s currency collapsed citizens had no choice but to spend their money immediately on anything they could get their hands on. Failure to do so would cut their purchasing power in half within a matter of hours.

Ferfal explains:

The banks had closed, and no one knew how much the paper currency was going to be worth tomorrow, or even in the next couple of hours.

I vividly remember being at the local Home Depot (called “Easy in Argentina), and buying a few tools. The clerks would run around like crazy, replacing the old prices with the new ones, which sometimes changed within the same hour. 

It was depressing to see a price and notice that after peeling it off, the old price was still there. There was no time for the clerks to remove them. There would be a five layer sandwich of ever increasing prices that were maybe just a couple of days old.

After a few months, people found that they were in a very delicate position. Many were without a job, and those who had a job were paid in a currency where the value was dropping by the hour. Sometimes you had the problem of reaching the cash register and finding out that the price had already changed.

Excerpted From: The Modern Survival Manual: Surviving The Economic Collapse

This isn’t some theoretical forecast of what might happen during a currency crisis. This is how it was for people in Argentina in 2001-2002.

People didn’t believe it was happening at first and figured their government would save them. Of course, government officials saved themselves and their rich cohorts, but left the people with nothing. Eventually the banks shut down, ATM’s ran out of money and cash became scarce. As Ferfal recollects, the economy quickly turned into a barter system where currency became physical assets like gold, silver, food, real estate and cars.

Russia is yet another warning sign of what’s to come for the United States.

The timeline for the collapse of the U.S. dollar is unclear. But that it will happen is an inevitable fact of life. And given the current national debt, long-term liabilities, economic malaise and deteriorating wages, it is only a matter of time.

When that time comes it is in your best interests to already positioned for it. You need to answer the question: What is money when the system collapses?

The answer, when you think about it, is pretty simple. When currency becomes worthless, physical assets will become money.

In her book The Prepper’s Blueprint Tess Pennington outlines some key “assets” that will still have value – both for your use and as barter – should your dollars become worthless.

Things like foods that last a lifetime, precious metals, fuel, clothing, footwear and firearms will be essential. Beyond that are other consumables that we take for granted today but will be worth a great deal should the currency collapse and stores run out of offerings. Cigarettes, alcohol, lighters, hygiene products, over the counter medicines, antibiotics and as Ferfal noted, hardware tools, are all worthwhile investments that will pay off in the future.

While most Americans refuse to even contemplate the possibility of something like this happening in the United States, history has proven that every fiat paper currency ever invented has eventually fallen. We can pretend that this time is different, but we’d only be deluding ourselves.

Confidence is a very fragile thing and given the economic, financial and monetary troubles we face, it wouldn’t take a whole lot to crush the world as we have come to know it. When it starts it will happen fast.

Be prepared for it or face the horrific consequences that will follow.

 

 

Start now to make sure you are staying prepared.

 

Via :  shtfplan