A. Mark Levin: Government Is “Simulating the Collapse of Our Financial System, the Collapse of Our Society and the Potential for Widespread Violence”
8 Mar 2013, SHTFplan.com, by Mac Slavo
Pasted from: http://www.shtfplan.com/headline-news/mark-levin-government-is-simulating-the-collapse-of-our-financial-system-the-collapse-of-our-society-and-the-potential-for-widespread-violence_03082013
Along with Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity, leading conservative radio host Mark Levin reaches tens of millions of listeners weekly, and what he talked about recently on his nationally syndicated show has sent shivers down the spines of many of them.
A few years ago this was fringe theory, restricted only to the sphere of alternative (conspiracy) news.
Warnings of a massive economic collapse, government stockpiling of weaponry, and the idea that Americans could be broadly classified as terrorists and then detained indefinitely or killed often fell upon deaf ears.
Today, as more information ‘leaks’ into the mainstream, it is no longer just conspiracy theory. We now have some of the most influential journalists and commentators in the country alerting Americans to the possibility that everything the government has been preparing for the last several years may soon be realized.
I’m going to tell you what I think is going on. I don’t think domestic insurrection. Law enforcement and national security agencies, they play out multiple scenarios. They simulate multiple scenarios. I’ll tell you what I think they’re simulating. The collapse of our financial system, the collapse of our society and the potential for widespread violence, looting, killing in the streets, because that’s what happens when an economy collapses.
I’m not talking about a recession. I’m talking about a collapse, when people are desperate, when they can’t get food or clothing, when they have no way of going from place to place, when they can’t protect themselves.
There aren’t enough police officers on the face of the earth to adequately handle a situation like that. I suspect, that just in case our fiscal situation collapses, our monetary situation collapses, and following it the civil society collapses – that is the rule of law – that they want to be prepared. There is no other explanation for this. Sourced via Red Flag News
Levin: Government Simulating the Collapse of Our Financial System and Widespread Violence
YouTube video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d63GRfBo0Vg#t=16
The Pentagon and military have been war-gaming large-scale economic collapse and civil unrest for nearly four years. Those within our government who understand the ramifications a massive breakdown in our systems of commerce, transportation and justice are preparing by stockpiling weapons and ammo, tens of millions of food rations, and even emergency shelters. They are spending hundreds of billions of dollars on continuity of government programs and exercises, preparing for what they know is coming.
Now why would the government be doing this if there wasn’t a reasonable chance that such events could come to pass?
We’ve urged our readers to prepare a well thought out contingency plan for the very scenarios our government is spending your hard earned tax dollars on.
- Have, at a minimum, two weeks worth of emergency food and water in the event of a breakdown in the just-in-time delivery systems that keep our grocery store shelves stocked. (Two weeks is a bare minimum, plan on 90 days)
- Plan on having to defend yourself, your home, and your food stockpiles, because if law and order breaks down, you’re on your own.
- Learn critical skills that may be the difference between life and death including basic medical skills, survival skills and self defense strategies
- Have physical precious metals on hand as a mechanism of exchange should the monetary system fall apart.
- Look for a home or retreat in strategic locations that will help insulate you from widespread chaos in high population areas.
The government may be stockpiling and preparing, but understand that none of these emergency supplies are reserved for you and your family. Only essential personnel involved directly with government operations will have access to these critical survival supplies.
So you’d better have your own reserves. For those who fail to prepare, it will be horrific. See article at: http://www.shtfplan.com/emergency-preparedness/how-horrific-will-it-be-for-the-non-prepper_05122012
B. 50 Shocking Questions That You Should Ask To Anyone That Is Not A Prepper Yet
17 Jan 2013, SHTFplan.com, by Michael Snyder of Economic Collapse Blog Pasted from: http://www.shtfplan.com/emergency-preparedness/50-shocking-questions-that-you-should-ask-to-anyone-that-is-not-a-prepper-yet_01172013
Share this list of shocking questions with everyone you know that needs to wake up. Sometimes asking good questions is the best way to get someone that you care about to understand something. When I attended law school, I became very familiar with something called “the Socratic method”. It is a method that has been traditionally used in law schools all over the United States. Law professors will bombard their students with questions, and the goal is to stimulate critical thinking and allow students to discover the answers for themselves.
Many times those of us that can see what is happening to this country get frustrated when we try to get others to see what is so apparent to us. But instead of preaching to them, perhaps asking questions would be more helpful. When you ask someone a question, they are almost forced to think about what you just said and come up with a response. And without a doubt, the fact that America is in decline is undeniable. Those that would choose to blindly have faith in the system are foolish, because it is glaringly obvious that the system is failing. Our economy is heading for collapse and the world around us is becoming more unstable with each passing day. So it shouldn’t be a surprise that the number of preppers in the United States is absolutely exploding. Some estimates put the number of preppers in the U.S. as high as 3 million, and the movement continues to explode.
So exactly what is a “prepper”? Well, the truth is that there is a tremendous amount of diversity among the people that fall under that label.
To me, you don’t have to move to Montana and store 500 cases of MREs in a nuclear fallout shelter to be considered a prepper. I believe that anyone that can see a very serious crisis coming and that is taking steps to prepare for that crisis would be considered a prepper. You might be living next to one and never even know it. Many families have converted spare rooms into food pantries or are taking survival training on the weekends. Others have renewed their interest in gardening or have started to invest in precious metals. As far as I am concerned, anything that you can do to become more self-sufficient and more independent of the system is a good thing, because the system is rapidly failing.
Perhaps you are reading this and you are thinking that people who are “preparing for disaster” are being rather foolish. Well, I encourage you to read the list of questions that I have compiled below and come to your own conclusions.
The following are 50 shocking questions that you should ask to anyone that is not a prepper yet…
#1 Why are sales of physical silver coins breaking all sorts of all-time records? The U.S. Mint is on pace to sell more silver eagles during the first month of 2013 than it did during the entire year of 2007.
#2 Why has Germany announced that it will be moving gold from New York and Paris to its own vaults back home? Is this a sign of a breakdown in trust among global central banks?
#3 Why is China systematically hoarding gold.
#4 Why have billionaires such as George Soros and John Paulson been hoarding massive amounts of gold?
#5 Why are billionaires buying up so much ranch land up in Montana?
#6 Why is Russia warning that we are rapidly approaching a global “currency war”?
#7 Why has Barack Obama chosen this moment to launch an all-out attack on the Second Amendment?
#8 Why does Barack Obama want doctors to ask their patients questions about firearms?
#9 Why is there an incredibly severe nationwide ammunition shortage all of a sudden?
#10 Why has a bill been introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives that “would ban Internet or mail order ammunition purchases“?
#11 Why are gun control advocates such as Piers Morgan pushing for us to become more like the UK when the UK actually has a much higher violent crime rate than we do?
#12 Why was a Forbes article that made a connection between the use of psychiatric drugs and the mass shootings that we have seen in recent years almost immediately taken down from the Internet?
#13 Why does the federal government want to start putting “black boxes” in all new motor vehicles?
#14 Why are some U.S. states now using computers to predict “future crimes“?
#15 Why are “black-clad federal SWAT teams” raiding farms and ranches all over the United States?
#16 Why are we all being trained to spy on one another?
#17 Why are highly advanced facial recognition cameras being put up all over the United States?
#18 Why have police departments all over America begun to deploy unmanned surveillance drones in the skies over our cities?
#19 Why are schools all over America beginning to require students to carry IDs with RFID microchips in them wherever they go?
#20 Why are more Americans not outraged that nearly 400 TSA employees have been fired for stealing from travelers since 2003?
#21 Why are Americans not more outraged that TSA goons are manhandling the private areas of our women and our children in the name of “national security”?
#22 Why is an elderly survivor of the Nazi occupation of Austria, Kitty Werthmann, warning that America is heading down the exact same path that she experienced?
#23 If the economy is in good shape, then why are more than one out of every four U.S. workers with a 401(k) raiding those funds in order to pay current expenses?
#24 Why does the Federal Reserve continue to insist that the economy is “improving” when it obviously is not?
#25 Why can so few Americans explain how money is created in the United States?
#26 Why has the U.S. dollar declined in value by well over 95 percent since the Federal Reserve was created?
#27 Why is the U.S. national debt more than 5000 times larger than it was when the Federal Reserve was created?
#28 Why isn’t the mainstream media in the U.S. discussing the fact that the U.S. dollar is in danger of losing its status as the primary reserve currency of the world?
#29 Why don’t more Americans know about the quadrillion dollar derivatives bubble?
#30 Why did the U.S. national debt grow during the first four years of the Obama administration by about as much as it did from the time that George Washington took office to the time that George W. Bush took office?
#31 Why is the middle class in America bringing home a smaller share of the overall income pie than has ever been recorded before?
#32 If the U.S. economy is producing a healthy number of good jobs, then why are we spending nearly a trillion dollars a year on welfare?
#33 If the U.S. economy is not collapsing, then why has the number of Americans on food stamps grown from 17 million in the year 2000 to more than 47 million today?
#34 If America is still an economic powerhouse, then why have we lost more than 56,000 manufacturing facilities since 2001?
#35 Why are we losing half a million jobs to China every single year?
#36 Why were one out of every ten homes sold in the state of California last year purchased by Chinese citizens?
#37 Why has the percentage of men with jobs in the United States fallen so dramatically? Back in 1950, more than 80 percent of all men in the United States had jobs. Today, less than 65 percent of all men in the United States have jobs.
#38 Why are so many Americans poor today? According to the U.S. Census Bureau, more than 146 million Americans are either “poor” or “low income”. Why is this happening?
#39 Why does the U.S. government have a website that teaches immigrants how to sign up for welfare programs once they arrive in the United States?
#40 Why has the number of gang members living in the United States risen by an astounding 40 percent just since 2009?
#41 Why does approximately one out of every three children in the United States live in a home without a father? Can such a society prosper in the long run?
#42 Why are our supermarkets being flooded with genetically-modified foods when a whole host of studies have shown that they are potentially dangerous to human health?
#43 If the economy has “improved” during the Obama years, then why are hunger and poverty still absolutely skyrocketing in the United States?
#44 Why are more than a million public school students in the United States homeless?
#45 Why are more than 50 percent of all children in Detroit living in poverty? Detroit used to be one of the greatest cities in the entire world. How did such prosperity turn into such desolation?
#46 Why did a violent riot break out at an event where government-subsidized section 8 housing vouchers were being handed out in a suburb of Detroit earlier this month? Is this the kind of unrest that we can expect to see all over the country when things get really bad?
#47 Why are cities all over the United States making it illegal to feed the homeless?
#48 Why is the UN trying to take control of the Internet?
#49 Why have global food supplies sunk to their lowest level in nearly 40 years?
#50 Why is global power concentrated in so few hands? According to the Swiss Federal Institute, a network of 147 mega-corporations control 40 percent of all the wealth in the world, and in a previous article I described how just six obscenely powerful corporations completely dominate the media industry in the United States. Is it good for such incredible power to be concentrated in the hands of so few people?
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C. First Things First: Key Questions Facing The Beginning Prepper
16 May 2012, SHTFplan.com, by Norse Prepper
Pasted from: http://www.shtfplan.com/emergency-preparedness/first-things-first-key-questions-facing-the-beginning-prepper_05162012
The following article has been generously contributed by Norse Prepper.
SHTFplan Editor’s Note: While there may be three million Americans preparing for a paradigm shift which promises to change our very way of life, that leaves roughly 99% of our population that has failed to take any serious steps to insulate themselves from catastrophe. Earlier this week we asked “How Horrific Will It Be For the Non-Prepper?”, in which we detailed the disastrous consequences that await those who will get blindsided by a widespread natural or man-made disaster. Hopefully, that article will be enough to convince some “non-preppers” to start putting their well-being into their own hands by developing personal and familial preparedness and response plans for far-from-equilibrium scenarios that may strike at anytime.
As Norse Prepper points out in the article below, one of the key motivators for ramping up your personal larder, supplies and skill sets is to avoid ever putting yourself and family into a situation where you are left with no choice but to tell your loved ones that you’re, “going to get us some food and will return with it or die trying.” In a scenario like that your odds of survival diminish significantly.
If you’ve turned the corner, or been ‘awakened’ as we like to say in alternative media, then the notion that the system as we have come to know it could fall apart around us without warning can be very overwhelming at first. So, too, is the daunting task of determining what steps to take next and how to go about creating your own personal preparedness plan to shield you from whatever may befall us.
The following questions, suggestions, considerations, and topics of discussion are a primer for those who have chosen to take control of their personal safety and security, and may help to point beginning preppers in the right direction.
First Things First: Key Questions Facing The Beginning Prepper by Norse Prepper
Inspired by the article regarding how horrific it’s going to get for the non prepper, I thought I might also submit the following article on what it is like to be a new prepper. See article at: http://www.shtfplan.com/emergency-preparedness/how-horrific-will-it-be-for-the-non-prepper_05122012
The purpose of this article is not to tell my story, but to give perspective on how overwhelming it was for me as a beginning prepper. With the amount of knowledge that readers at this website display, what could I possibly add? My answer to that is perspective.
Many on this site and others have been preparing for years and are prepared. I know one of the first replies will be that you can never be fully prepared and it’s a journey more than a destination and I subscribe to that 100%. I personally will never be done prepping. One thing that I have found in my years of work is that after someone has done something for some time, it’s hard to remember what it was like in the beginning. I work in an engineering field and things that are very simple and seem like basics can be complicated and not easily understood by someone who is new in their engineering career. Hopefully this article takes you back to when you first began prepping and helps you relate to us newbies.
Think back to when you first felt the tugging of something in the back of your mind leading you to do more research and eventually coming to the conclusion that you must become a prepper. It may have been as blunt as a Katrina event, or possibly it was just little things here and there that eventually and gradually led you to where you are at today. Regardless of the journey, I believe it to be important to remember your roots and by doing so you will be more armed to help other people to come in to the light of what is going on in the world around us and help them get more prepared.
How I was first awoken from my state of unpreparedness was when I watched the End of America video produced by Porter Stansberry. What I saw scared the heck out of me and after watching what he had to say and showing the facts of our economic system, I went from being a SHTF ostrich with my head in the sand, to fearful that time is running out for our country as we know it. Even after seeing the End of America video, I still wasn’t aware of what it was to be a prepper. I focused more on investing in silver and things like that to hedge against the coming hyperinflation. It wasn’t until about six months ago that I came across the term prepper and dug in to see what this movement was about and frankly, I found it extremely overwhelming.
Below is my top ten list of the thousand questions that came flooding in to my head upon my awakening as well as what I am doing to answer these questions. I believe these are all questions that every new prepper should answer as fast as possible and take steps to prepare for immediately.
- What am I preparing for? I needed to identify what it is that I’m going to try to protect myself from. If I was going to prepare for a one week loss of power in a winter storm then there isn’t much to prepare for. If I am preparing for a global collapse of the financial system or EMP that would send us back to the early 1800’s I’ve got some work to do. At a minimum I would suggest that new preppers start with a plan for being self reliant for 3 months. By the time you are prepared for this, you will have learned much and can then set out on whatever your phase II duration will be. I live in a northern climate with harsh winters so my phase I goal is to be prepared for six months. Personally, I am still in this stage of prepping, but phase II will be for preparing for a multi-year grid down scenario.
- Am I going to bug in or bug out? I agree with the opinion that bugging out should only be considered if you have somewhere to go. Heading out to
the woods is not an option unless you are trained in surviving under these conditions. I’ve got a wife and three kids, heading to the woods is not an option for me. If you are going to bug out, it needs to be earlier in the collapse rather than later or you will find yourself stuck at a road block. Read the book, One Second After, for a detailed description of what happens to refugees attempting to flee to already starving communities. Personally, I have chosen to bug-in. It is where my preps are located as well as familiar neighbors. - Can I defend my family, property and preps? Let’s face it, when the SHTF, my preps will be viewed as “their” preps to the golden hoard. Is a stranger more likely to watch their children starve or are they more likely to tell their wife “I’m going to get us some food and will return with it or die trying.” The prepared need to ask a different question. When they arrive at my doorstep, what will I do? Will I give them some of my preps as charity? Every meal I give out gets me closer to the time when I will be telling our family, as I head out the door, “I’m going to get us some food and will return with it or die trying.” This is a huge decision to make because we need to have resolve in our minds what we are going to do when this day comes. In a SHTF situation there can be no indecisiveness. I won’t go in to any detail on how to defend yourself as there are novels of information on this subject. I believe a defense plan is more important than a food plan because if you can’t defend it you might as well not have it.
- Do I have enough to feed my family until order is restored? That is assuming order will be restored. Personally, if it gets as bad as it can, I do believe eventually a new nation or nations will form and there will again be public services. I had to figure out what my comfort level is for the amount of time that I will need to eat from my preps, supplemented by gardens, hunting, fishing…etc.
- How will I heat my home? Since my plan is to bug-in in a northern climate, I need to figure out how I will heat my home. I live in suburbia and it scares me to see that relatively few people have wood burning…anything. I have a fireplace in my house and will secure enough firewood this summer to heat my house for two winters. All of my neighbors depend on electrical or natural gas for heat. I personally have seen the temperature in my location get to -60 degrees below zero with a wind chill of over 100 below. Many in my surrounding area will die of exposure unless they can be in my living room. I honestly don’t know the answer to the question of what will I do when people in my area are freezing and there is smoke coming out of my chimney. Anyone who has driven past a house burning wood in the winter knows it is fairly impossible to not alert people to a nearby source of heat. To me, this poses one of my greatest threats. Suggestions here would be helpful.
- How will I keep clean? Personal hygiene will be a huge issue in a SHTF scenario. I realized quickly that I need to stock up on toothpaste, TP, laundry/dish/hand soaps, medical supplies, and everything else needed to keep sanitary conditions in an unsanitary world. I made lists of lists of all of the things I will need. [Lists and more lists] See list at: http://thesurvivalmom.com/a-list-of-lists/
How will I provide light and electricity? In an EOTWAWKI situation having some rechargeable batteries to use will be a luxury that we currently take for granted. I plan on getting a stockpile of rechargeable batteries and solar equipment. I have a basement with a sump pump, when the grid goes down what will keep my basement from getting inundated with groundwater? I picked up a secondary battery powered sump pump that runs off of a deep cycle battery. Solar rechargers can be purchased to ensure that the batteries can be kept charged. How great would it be to be able to watch a movie on a laptop? With respect to light, when there is no power, it will be very dark. Children (and some adults) can get spooked easily when there is 14 hours of darkness per day in the winter. I am going to stock some solar powered garden lights. These can be placed in the light during the day and provide for a night light during the hours of darkness. Radios, flashlights and other things can be hand cranked for power. Anything that is sustainable and will produce light or energy will become extremely valuable.- How will I keep up on information and communicate with the outside world? Obviously my TV will become useless. Who knows if there will be radio stations transmitting, and if they are, what is the source of the information? Personally I plan on eventually getting a HAM radio and learning the trade. I believe this will be the best information available as it will probably be filled with info from other preppers in the nation.
- What do I have to offer others? In a collapsed society, skills, knowledge and items for trade will pay off in a huge way. The only thing that will help me acquire supplies that I don’t have or want will be the ability to offer something to someone who has it and they find the value of my goods or services to be more than what they have. If they don’t, then they will not be willing to trade. I have personally chosen to stock up on more of the convenience things for these situations. I plan on stockpiling coffee and lighters. People will trade for a hot cup of coffee and from my perspective, coffee is a convenience. People will need to be able to start a fire for cooking or heating their homes and a source of fire will be invaluable in a SHTF scenario. Personally I won’t be bartering away guns or ammunition because the person who I just armed would also realize that if I can spare these essential items I probably have other essential items and now they have a way to get them from me.
- How will I fight off boredom? One thing that has haunted me is when the SHTF, how can I pass the time without going completely stir crazy? Obviously, there will be many chores and a lot of labor involved in daily life after a collapse, but there will also be hours upon hours of sitting in a quiet house. My kids will be involved in chores of the day, but what can I do to reduce the monotony of a grid down situation? I plan on stockpiling books on many different subjects. Fiction and nonfiction. How to’s and stories. A bow and arrow can provide hours of target practice as well as developing a survival skill. Decks of cards can provide entertainment as well as bartering potential. If you go to a casino, you can get decks of cards for 50 cents. Puzzles, board games, pads of paper and plenty of writing utensils. Anything that can hopefully make life more fun for the family to escape reality, even for a moment. Don’t forget the most important book of them all, the Bible.
- How do I pay for all of this? OK, I know I said top 10, but this question needs to be taken care of pre-SHTF where as my top 10 deal with issues post-SHTF. Most are living paycheck to paycheck, so how can preps be paid for when we are in survival mode? My plan is to sell off anything that I don’t feel is necessary. Have a garage sale and go to garage sales – you would be amazed at what you will find. I recently found three oil lamps for 50 cents each! Sell things on Ebay and Craigslist. Get a second job and dedicate all income from it to preps. Don’t worry, if the SHTF doesn’t happen and you are prepped, you can always go back and replace these items, but get prepared first. I would rather have a stocked supply room than shares of Google.
What am I preparing for? Will I bug in or bug out? How will I defend myself, family and home? What will I eat? How will I heat my home? How will I keep clean? How will I produce light and electricity? How will I get information and communicate with the outside world? What skills do I have and items can I use to barter? How will I fight off boredom? These are but the tip of the iceberg of questions needing to be answered for when life as we know it comes to an end. When talking to and dealing with anyone new to prepping, please remember that they are entering a large and complex world where their decisions on what to do next could mean the difference between life and death. Help them to make a list of priorities and offer them advice on what the list should contain. This article is just a primer, but is more than what 99% of people have done to prepare themselves and their families for what is coming.
Also, please let me say thank you to Mac, the contributors and people who comment on the SHTFplan.com web site for helping me and my family prepare. You truly are today’s patriots. God bless.
(Survival Manual/Prepper Articles/Questions & answers for the Non Prepper)
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