economics and finances 1 of 3

ECONONOMICS AND FINANCES

Today, let’s talk about your finances as if economic collapse matters.  It would seem that all of us think economic collapse is already here ( and we are just waiting for the water to overlap the deck of the Titanic ) or it will be here any time ( as in, months to single digit years rather than decades ).  Yet, how many of you conduct your financial affairs as if this is the case?  I can hear you all mumbling now, “well, I’ll just enjoy the good life until I can’t”, or “I can’t disrupt my life too much or the Old Lady will kick my ass”.  And that is pretty much the standard attitude.  Hell, those are MY attitudes.  But if the ass falls out of the economy tomorrow ( as opposed to civilization collapse-the difference is that with an economic collapse you can still buy food if possible even if there are no jobs and with a civilization collapse you can’t get food shipped to you no matter what.  They will merge one into the other but here we speak of the initial pre-die off phase ) I have all my ducks in a row.  Do you?  Or are you still encumbered with debt and an untenable location? 

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We’ve talked about this many times before, as I imagine we’ll discuss it a few more times ( perhaps-I really do think we are mere months away.  Although, truthfully, this is based on little more than a fear factor inspired on increased instances of remembering cataclysmic dreams whereas prior I haven’t recalled ANY types upon wakening for many years ).  You can’t be living the American Dreamscape of all encompassing debt if you really believe economic collapse is nigh.  You don’t just wake up one day and all the banks are closed and the angels dart from behind clouds and a beautiful chorus is bellowed out about the Jubilee arriving.  No, reality is that you lose your job first, there are no others,  the banks and creditors strip you of your ability to live beyond a bare ass savage existence, THEN and only then do the banks close up and the ghettos vomit forth their brand of savage who are a lot more scarier than your unshaven unkempt malnourished tent under an overpass living sad sack-ness. 

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How shackled are you to your obligations?  You can leave tomorrow if you wish?  I’m not talking about emotional entanglements, but legal ones.  You may love the pay or security of the job you hold now ( I can’t imagine very many like the work itself or the layers of idiots you answer to ) but could you leave it tomorrow if you changed your mind?  More importantly, if THEY changed their minds and laid you off.  Or are you stuck in a mortgage with two vehicle payments and college loan obligations?  If your job disappeared tomorrow and you could get no other, could you escape your current location?  This isn’t just an amusing wargame you play as a prepper.  Not anymore.  To my mind this is the reality right around the corner.  Of course, yes, I could be wrong and the can is kicked down the road some more.  I don’t see that myself-the Fracking Industry which was responsible for most of the last eight years of reprieve is imploding now.  We might very well be at the cusp of the EROI energy critical threshold ( some calculate the global average is under 10:1 which in anyone‘s book is bad ), whereas before things barely worked with almost enough energy inputs and suddenly there isn’t quite enough even for that.

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I don’t think the Dow Jones or the bond market or waiting for a critical signal in the demise of the petrodollar or any other “flashing light indicator” is going to warn you in time.  I think that one day the system is smoking and clanging and noisily crawling along and the next it just all goes to crap.  You didn’t get to time the housing bubble popping ( whether you were aware of the danger or not ), so what makes you think you can time this collapse?  If you don’t act prior, you won’t be able to act after.  Not this time ( if you disagree with this, I can’t change your mind.  I’m acting pessimistically and you are optimistic.  The twain shan’t ever meet ).  You really should be “three days early rather than three seconds late”.  And it isn’t difficult at all.  It might be uncomfortable, but it isn’t hard.  Living without food is hard.  Living without a McMansion or a SUV is merely uncomfortable.

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Anyone can find cheap shelter.  You don’t even have to leave your present job.  You just need to decide to downsize.  If your mortgage is $1500 a month, giving that up and moving into a travel trailer in a park is one third the cost, with a storage space included ( sell all your expensive house crap to buy the used trailer for cash ).  If you locate that trailer in a park close enough to work you can bike and give up a car payment.  Suddenly, you are saving half your income whereas before you were in the red every month.  Then, when your junk land payment is complete you can move the trailer out to it while you build a better shelter.  Then you can survive on a casual income.  See what no rent/mortgage, no car payment and no debt can do for you?  There is no need to get into debt to live free in the country ( and “living free in debt” is an oxymoron ), all you need is to downsize.  And, no, a trailer isn’t mandatory.  When I was in Florida renting out my mobile home rooms ( which almost paid the payment and lot rent ) we had a married couple as renters.  They were the best we ever had, single men being a whiny worthless lot.  For one third the cost of most other types of rent, they lived in town on grid near jobs.  They just had a much smaller space.

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They just had to decide to make a short term sacrifice.  You think it is too hard to give up a car?  For the cost of insurance alone I could have had a unlimited bus pass ( I didn’t want it because it was faster to bike-and this was in Florida with heat, humidity and always getting rained on ).  Now, why would I want to go back to a motor vehicle?  A bike is how I get my cardio and it costs me under $100 a year in replacement parts.  Why do you have a gym membership when you could save money by NOT having one, and NOT having a car, but by having a bike.  Yes, of course, some areas are dangerous on a bike.  Not for long, as an economic collapse will do wonders for road congestion.  But I’m not saying YOU must have a bike.  It certainly works for me.  You can bus or walk-believe it or not there are plenty of fully functional people who don’t own a car.  And they can afford to live on half hours. 

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This stuff isn’t rocket surgery people.  It is called living below your means.  Now add to that living below your perceived future means.  Done.  Simple.

END

Please support Bison by buying through the Amazon ad graphics at the top of the page.  IF YOU DON’T SEE THE AD, DISABLE AD BLOCK ( go to the Ad Blocker while on my page and scroll down the menu to “disable this site” ). You can purchase anything, not just the linked item. Enter Amazon through my item link and then go to whatever other item you desire. As long as you don’t leave Amazon until after the order is placed, I get credit for your purchase.  For those that can’t get the ads because they are blocked by your software, just PayPal me occasionally or buy me something from my Amazon Wish List once a year.  Pay your author-no one works for free.  I’m nice enough to publish for mere Book Money, so do your part.*** 
*Contact Information*  Links To Other Blogs *  Land In Elko*  Lord Bison* my bio & biblio*   my web site is www.bisonprepper.com           *wal-mart wheat
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* By the by, all my writing is copyrighted. For the obtuse out there

bison ten year plan

BISON TEN YEAR PLAN

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note: nothing for sure, but I believe Walking Dead starts next month on Netflix.
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note: right now, The Road is on Netflix.
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note: if you have KU, check out "Richter Ten" by Rob Leininger.  The disaster doesn't happen until the last 10% of the book, and the thing last forever ( if you prefer shorter books ), but it is wonderful for a character driven story.  I really enjoyed it myself.
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Why isn’t it a Five Year Plan?  Negative connotations to communist regimes.   Also, ten years is when it will be obvious this plan must be implemented.  Okay, this year I’m fifty-one years old.  Hard to believe that I was barely over thirty when I finally got off my ass and started writing full time, every day, rather than my previous attempts which were undisciplined, sporadic and unprofessional ( I write on weekdays now and take the weekends off, whereas previously I wrote six or seven days a week.  As long as I meet my word quota I consider it all “writing every day” ).  As you all probably remember, I’m not overly fond of writing fiction.  I’m not all that great at it, but that is lack of practice.  I can quickly catch up on quality once I was doing it regularly.  I just prefer non-fiction.  In fiction, you are writing 99% entertainment with 1% education thrown in.  Writing non-fiction is the exact opposite.  Plus, fiction readers are a very demanding, fickle bunch.  They want a thousand page book, several times a year, and they want it to be perfect in every way.

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At least with non-fiction you just need to be accurate and minimize grammar blunders.  The information is the main prerequisite, not how well you are transported to another fantasy bubble ( despite my disdain, I’m exactly the same as every other demanding reader of novels ).  Writing a novel, you need to work ten times harder for far less reward or loyalty.  So, I prefer to NOT write fiction.  Life is too short to cater to a snarling rabid pack of never-satisfied ingrates.  That said, I find myself dissatisfied with my current situation.  I always seen to find something to babble about, but there is no longer a challenge in it.  Don’t get me wrong- I’ll NEVER stop writing as long as I’m healthy and my mind works reasonably well.  I can’t not write any longer.  It gives life a lot more meaning than sitting around picking my ass and indulging in yet more navel gazing.  This is THE hobby I’ve selected for my life.  So, I’m asking myself how I can mix this up a bit now.  How often can I convey my alarm and desperation to our predicament?  All I’m doing is repeating myself so that my warning will “stick” better.  I don’t mind that, per se.  I’ve always needed to repeat instructions multiple times to absorb and remember it.  And every time I repeatedly study the same material I add to my knowledge which in turn increases my analytic content pool.  But you also need new stimulation in life.  I can’t just be content with the same old content.  I need to learn something new every day.

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 And I need to challenge myself.  Now, add this to what shall transpire in ten years and a few months.  I turn 62.  I have always, all my adult life, been convinced Social Security would not be there for me.  When I was a teenager going through High School I read all the magazines and large newspapers of the day ( waiting in the school library for classes to start as I was on the early rural bus ).  I was well versed in the politics of the time.  This was the period the media ( back when it was socialist in bent rather than the fascism of today where the ONLY concern is profit for Mother Corporation ) was harping on how the poor Seniors of the time were eating cat food and were being abused and were indeed sad sack creatures.  So right about the time I started working, the withholding percentage was jacked up.  I took this personally.  Not only was I being screwed to placate the current retirees, I very soon thereafter learned ( after studying economics ) that I would never see a dime of that increased tax.

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And nothing I’ve learned since the early Eighties has changed my mind.  If anything, I became more and more convinced things were far worse than we all imagined.  If I actually see a Social Security payment ( and you can bet your ass I’ll be taking it.  I was screwed to pay the Oldsters, the Youngsters shall be screwed when it is my turn ) I will be incredibly shocked.  In fact, it will shake the very bedrock of my convictions.  My paradigm will be in danger.  And so I have decided that if indeed this impossible contingency comes to pass, I shall have to suffer.  I’m placing a bet right now that I am right and that I shall never see Social Security.  That I’m right the country has collapsed ( if they jack the age up past 62-yes, I’ll have to take a 30% cut to get the early retirement but I’ll be so crippled from my current job I can’t wait to 67-then I’ll still consider this a win on this wager.  To lose, I must be eligible for the same amount at the same age and actually start collecting it ). 

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And the bet is that if the system stays together after another ten years, I’ll do one of two things.  Write fiction, or turn my writing into for-profit.  Believe me, I don’t want to do either.  I hate writing fiction and I hate grubbing for enough money to replace my day job.  I’ll still do a good job, even if I don’t want to.  I’ve always strived to do better than the average, because I think that highly of myself.  Those other idiots suck, and I’m neither an idiot nor do I suck.  It isn’t to prove anything to other people, but to myself.  Everyone who matters isn’t going to be impressed anyway.  I could just collect my pension and tell the rest of you to piss off, but as I said, I can’t NOT write.  And there is little point in writing if nobody reads it.  But if I’m collecting Social Security that far down the Peak Oil road, I’ll be wrong about pretty much everything I’ve written previously.  So I’ll just accept that I might as well capitulate and join the masses either making money or pissing away a life in cheap and tawdry entertainment.

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Of course, I’ll be starting the transition now, prior to that.  Nothing happens instantly.  This will give me the challenge I am currently lacking, plus will be my insurance policy.  Having done all the prepping I can, I might as well start prepping for Business As Usual.  So, a for-profit publication and/or fiction writing.  I’ll be sharing these in a short time after things solidify plan-wise.  I’ve done both before, but half-assed.  This time I’ll put more effort into it.  More details soon.

END

Please support Bison by buying through the Amazon ad graphics at the top of the page.  IF YOU DON’T SEE THE AD, DISABLE AD BLOCK ( go to the Ad Blocker while on my page and scroll down the menu to “disable this site” ). You can purchase anything, not just the linked item. Enter Amazon through my item link and then go to whatever other item you desire. As long as you don’t leave Amazon until after the order is placed, I get credit for your purchase.  For those that can’t get the ads because they are blocked by your software, just PayPal me occasionally or buy me something from my Amazon Wish List once a year.  Pay your author-no one works for free.  I’m nice enough to publish for mere Book Money, so do your part.*** 
*Contact Information*  Links To Other Blogs *  Land In Elko*  Lord Bison* my bio & biblio*   my web site is www.bisonprepper.com           *wal-mart wheat
*Link To All My Published Books
* By the by, all my writing is copyrighted. For the obtuse out there

tactical tammy

TACTICAL TAMMY

Uniforms serve a purpose besides the conventionally taught “be able to distinguish friend from foe in the heat of battle”.  That is of course of paramount performance, but ritual and superstition and mental performance also have a lot to do with it.  Pre-Agricultural Empire groups of combatants also have distinguishing combat dress ( think: war paint, for instance, or gang colors ).  This was an easy way of advertising to your enemies that, 1) don’t screw with me, you can see I’m wearing the Kick Ass Combatants Dress, and 2) when attacking without warning a quick visual of the identifying “flag” could further destabilize the victims on a mental level leading to a tactical advantage.  Of course, a uniform, flag, identifying item, all have to be backed by the promise of a world of hurt.  If not, then the uniform is merely a costume.  Then the wearer is just playing a child’s dress up game in a world of adults.  Let me give you an easy example.  You see a Marine Corps uniform, more often than not you are impressed.  The institution behind the uniform has impressed, inspired or instilled fear in you. 

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You look at a navy uniform, and you think “pussy” ( I’m not playing favorites here, the Army had its share of less than macho traditions and behavior-but you have to admit that without knowing insignia and being unaware of any special status such as aviation or special forces, your initial reaction is most likely going to be “your hats look like orange juice squeezers”, “you swab decks”, and “until recently you were all a bunch of faggots” ).  What has the Navy done for us since 1945?  Granted, Navy nuke missile subs are our best defense against aggression, and the Brown Water Navy did look pretty cool in Apocalypse Now, but other than that what are they other than a really deep hole to pour money in?  I don’t know about you, but I’ve been less than impressed with surface ships since the Falklands War when it was demonstrated to everyone how vulnerable multi-billion dollar vessels are to cheap missiles.  Well, everyone except Congress and the Defense Department-but since politicians are both lower and less intelligent than a lump of whale feces on the bottom of the ocean, as are officers from any branch of the military a mere one step above them on the evolutionary scale, one shouldn’t judge either too harshly.

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And, really?  An orange juice squeezer?  Even if you are introducing some pretty wicked warriors, you can kind of screw that up dressing them like buffoons ( at least at first.  Given time, that clown costume will inspire the desired effect regardless ).  Look at the Army thirty years ago.  BDU’s were hideously ugly and had the strange ability to highlight whatever ugly body attribute the wearer possessed.  I haven’t kept track of the many and varied uniform changes since then, and it would be interesting to know the percentage of the budget which was wasted on all the unnecessary switches when all that was ever required was to change the OD green fatigues to match different terrains.   Uniforms matter.  Both to the wearer, to feel a sense of pride and conformity to the organization, as well as to feel a surge of confidence.  And to the enemies of the uniform. 

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I’ll admit the current Army clothing and equipment is an improvement, but for all that they still screw it up by overburdening the individual and any gains are hidden under a proverbial pincushion of crap that covers any advantageous design.  You see one of our guys laboring up a hill under 50% of their body weight in gear, what is your response?  Fear?  Or the knowledge you have time for a quick snack before you need to retreat?  Now let’s move to law enforcement.  Watch some TV shows or movies from the ‘80’s or prior.  You see what?  A web belt with a pistol, a little bit of ammunition and a night stick, with a pair of handcuffs thrown in.  That is it.  Since then, add Mace, Tazers, multiple communication devices and a non-optional kitchen sink.  It is stupid the amount of crap they are carrying.  Of course, just like the military, admirers can happily recite reams of excuses for each and every piece of equipment.  And will in the future as more are added.  In the meantime, you see a cop all encumbered, fit or not, what are you going to think?  I can outrun this bitch.  Why fear him?

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And if it is a Her?  Really?  If a female LEO is pointing a gun at me, or has multiple male back-ups, I’m very worried and very respectful.  Without a drawn weapon or real cops behind her ( sorry, I‘m very Old School when it comes to the warrior professions-not to say male cops are necessarily any tougher, but they start off and stay with a huge natural advantage )?  Righhhhht.  How can you be all that worried?  In her case, no amount of institutional fear/respect or dazzling uniform is going to inspire much of anything other than disgust.  Unless she is a dyke.  Then I’d worry a lot more.  I certainly wouldn’t get close enough to get my ass kicked.  So, here is today’s lesson, boys and girls and minions.  A uniform doesn’t make you something you ain’t.  It won’t magically transform form over function.  You can dress up as Tactical Tommy as you want, stiffly starched fatigue cap, knee pads, rigid plastic Glock holster, chest bandoleer of AR mags.  And I won’t be impressed.  You can bet the Ghetto Dwellers won’t pause in fright.  You might think that if you look deadly, you are.  And in SOME cases that would be true.  But with today’s pussy-fied military and LEO, you no longer have the backing of an institution to transform you as it once did.  Now, if you think looking deadly will make you so, you are deluded on the way to dead.  Leave the costumes to the clowns, then wait for your tribe to earn its street cred before you treat your uniform as a talisman.

END

Please support Bison by buying through the Amazon ad graphics at the top of the page.  IF YOU DON’T SEE THE AD, DISABLE AD BLOCK ( go to the Ad Blocker while on my page and scroll down the menu to “disable this site” ). You can purchase anything, not just the linked item. Enter Amazon through my item link and then go to whatever other item you desire. As long as you don’t leave Amazon until after the order is placed, I get credit for your purchase.  For those that can’t get the ads because they are blocked by your software, just PayPal me occasionally or buy me something from my Amazon Wish List once a year.  Pay your author-no one works for free.  I’m nice enough to publish for mere Book Money, so do your part.*** 
*Contact Information*  Links To Other Blogs *  Land In Elko*  Lord Bison* my bio & biblio*   my web site is www.bisonprepper.com           *wal-mart wheat
*Link To All My Published Books
* By the by, all my writing is copyrighted. For the obtuse out there

less evil 3 of 3

LESS EVIL-THE DIE OFF 3

In fiction, as in most blogs of the militia or 3% or Christian patriots or Constitutionalists, gun control is declared by a mean old Democrat ( never a Republican, even if they are just as destructive to liberty as the Dems are.  If all these fools really believed in freedom rather than empire, and they do indeed believe in a strong central government because that is their iron rice bowl, they would be voting Libertarian rather than Republican ) and immediately a solid wall of defiance is erected and in the end they triumph and the evil is purged from the land.  Let me tell you, the best thing that could happen to the Republicans is the Democrats.  These people who accept if even begrudgingly the Less Evil Party are so blinded by fear of communism that they eagerly embrace fascism.  I don’t know about you but that sort of sounds like Hitler’s Go To crowd control technique.  Lest we forget, the Republicans were founded to defeat the Confederacy and kill states rights ( what few remained after the Constitution was ratified ).  It was the party of centralists.  Long before the party of what started as the peoples rights party turned into The Peoples Socialist Party. 

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I know you aren’t making the connection so let me spell it out for you.  Those people who want freedom are supporting the anti-freedom party.  The anti-freedom party is using the document that centralized government and overthrew the confederacy of individual sovereign States at our Revolution.  The Constitution is a centralists rule of law ( only the Bill Of Rights is left from a time prior to the FedGov taking over ).  But the supporters of the anti-freedom party are “fighting” for a return to the rule of law by the central government to save them from a socialist party.  To me, it mostly sounds like all our freedom fighters are in the pocket of the federal government.  Every time they vote either Democrat or Republican they are voting for the continuation of the suppression of the Bill Of Rights and their own subjugation.  And these people are going to risk their lives to keep their guns?  They might risk yours, but their own?

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But let us just assume gun control is passed through for whatever reason.  You should be aware that most of those freedom fighters will not be fighting by your side ( IF their standard of living is compromised.  The fellow poor workers will be a much more likely comrade than the bloated spoiled Yuppie blowhards ).  You will mostly be on your own with very few you can trust.  You will NOT be joining a brotherhood of resistance fighters.  Most likely, they will be in conflict with you ( see above tirade ).  So immediately you seem to have only two choices.  Meekly give in, and die by one of many factions.  Or fight back with no support from the previously indignant Freedom Bloviators and die in a concentration camp.  Your third choice is to head for the hills, and that is the only rational choice.  If you stay armed, you are betrayed and go to a camp.  Even if that doesn’t happen, as soon as you defend yourself against invading criminals, you get busted.  If you stay unarmed either criminals, government agents or gun control resisters will kill you in a crossfire.  If you head for isolation, you immediately start the clock ticking on your supplies running out, because you don’t have the luxury of growing food undetected.  If you make supply runs you are in conflict with government troops or resistance fighters. 

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You think you can hold out indefinitely in the hills with a modern nation state surrounding you?  Ever hear of the coco leaf eradication program in Columbia?  All the government has to do is declare the area a national wildlife refuge, prohibit occupation, and bomb your ass with Agent Orange.  This stuff gets a lot more complicated with the federal government involved ( which it wouldn’t be after a collapse scenario since the troops lose their mechanization and long distance re-supply ).  The only way to survive would be to band together with fellow patriots in a populated area so that guerrilla activity is masked, but what I fear happening is the general American public being so brainwashed by our federal masters that you lose your hope of a support group.  Taking off to the wilderness will be problematic if the collapse doesn’t proceed quick enough.  But staying puts you in conflict with more groups.

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The point of this wargame exercise is to point out how easy your plans go off the rails at the slightest pause in the orderly rapid collapse.  Again, I’m not saying the mostly quick collapse won’t happen.  I firmly believe it will based on all my research and analysis.  But I used to believe in Santa Claus with all my heart, using all the knowledge I had up to the moment.  You can be wrong.  It never hurts to think things through outside of your “convictions zone”.  Now, what about other scenarios messing up your plans?  Let’s say a coastal area experiences a disaster unfathomable.  San Andres lets go and absolutely decimates all the critical L.A. infrastructure such as water works.  The population has no choice but to flee inland.  Right where you retreated to, there is a uncomfortably large percentage of the ten million Southern Californians.  Since the collapse hasn’t occurred yet, all these fools have gas and road protection to go elsewhere and you can’t stop them.  I’ll even wager the local idiot politicians will welcome them in, the idiots counting on federal subsidies to feather their own nests, not thinking how the local economy will be destroyed by crime and infrastructure overload.

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Or, what if the New Madrid fault gave way?  Tens of millions suddenly disperse throughout the nation, and every Podunk town triples in population, with no extra shelter or jobs.  Camping cities become your neighbors, there aren’t enough local cops to combat the meth sellers, the local stores keep experiencing shortages, your country home is invaded.  And all this is PRIOR to the collapse.  Use your imagination to add to the above.

END

Please support Bison by buying through the Amazon ad graphics at the top of the page.  IF YOU DON’T SEE THE AD, DISABLE AD BLOCK ( go to the Ad Blocker while on my page and scroll down the menu to “disable this site” ). You can purchase anything, not just the linked item. Enter Amazon through my item link and then go to whatever other item you desire. As long as you don’t leave Amazon until after the order is placed, I get credit for your purchase.  For those that can’t get the ads because they are blocked by your software, just PayPal me occasionally or buy me something from my Amazon Wish List once a year.  Pay your author-no one works for free.  I’m nice enough to publish for mere Book Money, so do your part.*** 
*Contact Information*  Links To Other Blogs *  Land In Elko*  Lord Bison* my bio & biblio*   my web site is www.bisonprepper.com           *wal-mart wheat
*Link To All My Published Books
* By the by, all my writing is copyrighted. For the obtuse out there

less evil 2 of 3

LESS EVIL-THE DIE OFF 2

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Must Read! :
global EROI
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It is easy to mock the Near Clueless.  Steve The Survivalist Yuppie Scum works some cheese dingus job like a lawyer who screws over taxpayers by championing corporate loopholes or a contractor who screws over taxpayers by kicking back bribes to his politician brother in law to get fat city contracts using substandard materials and illegal day labor, and like all the rest of his ill repute ilk he thinks he is smarter than the rest of us.  So he pays a consulting fee to an Idaho survivalist expert to tell him how to turn a quarter million dollars into a luxurious collapse retreat in the boonies.  Of course, Steve spends as much as he makes, mostly on blow and hookers whatever doesn’t get spent on the trophy wife.  So he gets a nice low interest loan from another connected friend/relative.  He thinks he did good, paying a mere 2% vig for this sweet reclusive retreat.  But he is in such massive debt that he can’t quite his job and he can’t move away to safety.  He is stuck in the overnight collapse/bug-out paradigm.

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Which is a perfectly asinine thing to do, and everyone knows it.  A kid with a busted knife blade attached to a spear shaft with a collection of traps and a few dozen buckets of grain cached for wilderness survival has a better chance of surviving than Steve does.  “Survivalists” counting on an overnight collapse to void their debt exposure deserve the ridicule and mockery of those such as The Druid Dude.  You could say that his preps are better than nothing but I would counter that his preps essentially amount to nothing.  Steve is going to stay in an increasingly dangerous urban hive until that bites him in the ass.  Heck, he might even be in jail before the collapse because of his desperation in making over X amount of money.  You can’t just prep for the end, but also the lead up to the end.  Steve could see the economic collapse unfolding around him if he wasn’t blinded by his own brilliance.  Yes, Steve, of course we recovered from 1929 and the 1970’s.  We had the energy surplus to do so ( just starting to pump the Super Wells in the Depression and just starting to control the distribution of Saudi oil forty years later-not to mention the Alaska bonanza ).  Now we don’t.  Yet Steve can’t see that vital distinction.  He applies fifty year out of date information to count on-what?  Honestly, I can’t tell you what is going on in Steve’s mind.  What a douche.

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And yet, knowing what a bloody wanker Steve is, I think a lot of us have a similar thought process.  Not as naïve, certainly, but still only one step removed from his silliness.  We don’t fall into the debt trap, because it is about as obvious as the hemorrhoids on your ass that the Banksters have been screwing the pooch for over a decade ( ever since the increase of oil supplies turned into the plateauing of the oil supply-which was enough to screw up the central bank money minting machine of lowering interest to increase debt.  The actual fall of the oil supply as seen from EROI or net energy return was enough to take a big squishy on all their plans, hopes and dreams ) and it can’t last much longer.  And since 2008 it is also plainly obvious that EVERYONE gets thrown under the bus to save the bankers.  Everyone.  Local government police or firemen, retirees, military readiness-everyone.  The banks might not last too long but they certainly will be the corpse on top of ours in the end.

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So debt is a suckers game.  Getting into debt for survival preps is a rookie mistake ( not all debt is silly-paying off junk land is better than paying rent, and paying off on a car is fine as long as it takes you back and forth to your debt free country property.  The debt I’m talking about is the overbearing, unpayable, payments hinging on a job you can’t keep in a downturn type of debt used to buy Too Much Preps of the luxurious type ).  What it boils down to is that you can’t time the collapse nor can you guarantee the type of collapse.  We wargame and balance probabilities, then we act like we know what is going to happen.  I’m enamored with the energy shortage economic collapse causing centralized farming feeding delivered by long distance transportation to fail and the urban masses comprising most of our population to spasm in an orgy of desperation and die off. 

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While I avoided the sin of relying on too quick of a collapse, of an overnight apocalypse, I certainly have acted as if I’ve figured out the type of collapse to prep for.  I certainly didn’t make the mistake of trying to time the collapse, but that is all I can congratulate myself on.  I’m still relying on a relatively swift collapse.  Energy quickly becomes unavailable due to a global credit freeze and all the local asswhores move away for lack of jobs, affordable rent or winter heat.  THEN the real civilization collapse begins.  But I could easily throw any number of monkey wrenches into my “plans”.  For instance, what if gun control really happened?  Overnight I’d be faced with the choice of fighting back ( helping to start a chapter of a civil war ) or facing death by violent criminal or being rounded up into a concentration camp.  Far less simple than just waiting for the die-off and then herding goats and raiding settlements to the north.  In a gun control scenario, things are a hell of a lot more complicated than fictional tales lead you to believe.  Let’s talk about that tomorrow.

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Please support Bison by buying through the Amazon ad graphics at the top of the page.  IF YOU DON’T SEE THE AD, DISABLE AD BLOCK ( go to the Ad Blocker while on my page and scroll down the menu to “disable this site” ). You can purchase anything, not just the linked item. Enter Amazon through my item link and then go to whatever other item you desire. As long as you don’t leave Amazon until after the order is placed, I get credit for your purchase.  For those that can’t get the ads because they are blocked by your software, just PayPal me occasionally or buy me something from my Amazon Wish List once a year.  Pay your author-no one works for free.  I’m nice enough to publish for mere Book Money, so do your part.*** 
*Contact Information*  Links To Other Blogs *  Land In Elko*  Lord Bison* my bio & biblio*   my web site is www.bisonprepper.com           *wal-mart wheat
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* By the by, all my writing is copyrighted. For the obtuse out there

less evil-the die off 1 of 3

LESS EVIL-THE DIE OFF

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note: for those with KU, a decent read touching on energy EROI:
click here "Briton's Coming Energy Crisis"
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I was going to title this article along the lines of “the lesser of evils” but I didn’t want you thinking this was about the upcoming presidential election.  I mean, what else is there to talk about?  One devil spawn with Parkinson’s Disease, just who you want with the nuclear launch codes, and a liberal New Yorker dressed up in Republican Big Boy Pants who has lied about everything-business as usual.  The lesser evil is obviously The Foul Haired One.  But since elections are nothing more than rigged eye candy for the weak minded, we will just have to wait and see if Toupee Mussolini or Evil Epilepsy are put on the throne.  There is little reason to talk about it other than to laugh uproariously.  No, what we shall discuss today is the whole concept of the die-off and how it might be wishful thinking covering up the more probable reality of an anarchist devolution which will much more problematic to your health.

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Okay, here is the standard survivalist paradigm.  An asteroid hit’s the earth, or Yellowstone blows.  Neither is improbable.  Nobody saw coming the rock that hit in Russia a few years ago, so the movie “Armageddon” scenario is plain delusional.  And the super volcano has seen strange behavior recently like animals fleeing in mass and fairly large land upwelling.  Both will happen but nobody is sure of the timing.  Both events are high possibility low probability.  The point here being, a sudden civilization ending event occurs.  This can include EMP’s or solar flares, the previously discredited Y2K, etc.  The other accepted events have a slightly longer time frame but not enough to keep peace or order.  A terrorist attack demolishes the Saudi oil processing facility and within a few weeks the global petroleum flow seizes up ( the Saudi scenario is most plausible as it takes place in a very unstable area with a rather centralized location-but anything that takes one fifth  of the global energy supply offline qualifies ).  Or, a major bank implodes from the weight of its derivatives overexposure ( which at this point could be almost any one of them-even if Deutch Bank looks to be the current favorite ).  You can’t actually believe the bail-out will succeed next time, can you?  The fundamentals are exponentially worse than last time.  Or, a major weather event ( and take your pick on those-I’m not necessarily endorsing Gore Warming but it is obvious that the Gulf Stream has already broken down and hence the New Normal is severe weather happenings ) repeats Katrina or Fukishima and the cities with Obammy’s coddled minorities erupt in riots that spread and are uncontainable.  Note to Blacks: remember how Saddam was given the green light to invade Kuwait?  Then we turned on him?  No?  That’s okay, those of us evaluating events with Monkey Minds can’t comprehend your Lizard Brain mindset.  And primal violence will rule during the die-off.  Perhaps you will prevail anyway.

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Here is my point.  All of the collapse scenarios presuppose a rather rapid collapse and die-off.  We actually can’t survive in another type of collapse ( which is a partial reason to mock and ridicule those such as The Druid Dude with his 300 year ultra uber slow tree hugging permaculture collapse-we hate what we fear ).  Think about it.  How could our limited supplies survive a five year civil war?  Forget just surviving physically.  Here we are with faction fighting faction, one group ( based on race or political affiliation or geological occupation, etc. ) allying with another one week then attacking them the next, a brutal guerrilla war just as bad as the Balkans since far too many religions and races and Rice Bowl groups ( economic security from a similar source-the iron rice bowl in China is the name for that ) are/were forced into the country and bribed to assimilate but without surplus there is no reason for any of us to cooperate or keep us from hurting each other.  If that goes on too long, your chances of survival drop to zero.  If not from the constant combat than from running out of supplies.

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THAT is why a sudden collapse is so necessary.  All our planning presupposes it.  Without a compressed time frame you can’t survive.  You need to hide out and let the supply-less quickly die off so you can emerge and fight for control of the resources necessary to supply you with a post-oil means of livelihood.  You only have so much food to sustain you before you must grow/raise more ( remember the analogy of eating off food in the lifeboat until you find an island to farm/fish? ).  If the current levels of population do not shrink quick enough, you can’t commandeer the means of production with your limited force.  War is notoriously slow in population reduction ( look at the thirty years it took to reduce many areas of Germany by 90% ).  And if warfare is constant, for years, you WILL run out quickly ( and, no, that is not a valid argument for semi-auto’s.  Your ammunition is still a weak link and you simply can’t stock enough if you Pray And Spray ).  You really, really need a quick die-off to stretch out your limited supplies.

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Note that I am NOT saying a civil war is far more likely than a sudden die-off.  I’m firmly convinced when the waterfall collapse picks up enough speed it will be over quickly thereafter ( just as the Seneca Cliff Italian dude postulates ).  We might see a period of modern armed factional fighting within a framework of modern nation state nominal control.  But it won’t last for years as it has in Africa, Eastern Europe or the middle east.  Those conflicts were supplied by interested super power states.  The coming conflict won’t see an oil rich re-supply by an industrial state.  Already the Chinese economy is imploding and the US military is incapable of any action outside garrison duty.  Only Russia seems a viable survivor, and they are more traditionally defense orientated.  Without a competing dangerous power they will tend to their immediate area ( good news for the US, probably not so good for China with its shared border.  She is buddy, buddy with Russia now but that is because of the threat from America.  Russia knows who her traditional enemy is and will strike as needed when advantageous ). 

Continued Tomorrow.

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Please support Bison by buying through the Amazon ad graphics at the top of the page.  IF YOU DON’T SEE THE AD, DISABLE AD BLOCK ( go to the Ad Blocker while on my page and scroll down the menu to “disable this site” ). You can purchase anything, not just the linked item. Enter Amazon through my item link and then go to whatever other item you desire. As long as you don’t leave Amazon until after the order is placed, I get credit for your purchase.  For those that can’t get the ads because they are blocked by your software, just PayPal me occasionally or buy me something from my Amazon Wish List once a year.  Pay your author-no one works for free.  I’m nice enough to publish for mere Book Money, so do your part.*** 
*Contact Information*  Links To Other Blogs *  Land In Elko*  Lord Bison* my bio & biblio*   my web site is www.bisonprepper.com           *wal-mart wheat
*Link To All My Published Books
* By the by, all my writing is copyrighted. For the obtuse out there

no stinking gun control

NO STINKING GUN CONTROL

As survivalists, we have to worry about a LOT of things.  Once you start worrying about something, you do one of two things.  One, you select an “expert” who tells you what to do.  Inevitably, he is just one another in a long line of Yuppie Scum Guru’s and so he gives you one problem to worry about-making oodles and gobs of money.  And that is barely even a problem with you, as you were worrying about that your whole life.  Money for college, money to prove to prospective mates you have money by buying a car with a mortgage equivalent payment, money to keep bribing your spouse not to leave you and taking all your money, money to buy the kids love, and money to fix all the health problems money causes.  You got the Mo Money deal all figured out.  The other course of action you can take is to figure out how to do things without money, or at least a whole lot less of it.  That is where I come in, I hope.  I’m living on the same amount of money I was earning thirty years ago.  Not the same money adjusted for inflation, just the same actual number.  You are welcome.

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One thing you shouldn’t have to worry about is gun control.  The standard advice has been to buy a gun with a private sale so there is no paperwork, build your own gun with a 80% lower receiver or to buy an older gun that isn’t subject to paperwork ( prior to 1896 I believe, but don’t quote me on that ).  The problem with all of them is they cost a lot of money.  Not oodles and gobs of money, but enough money if the stuff is hard to come by like if you are seeing your income decrease like most of us are ( if for no other reason than you keep spending more on medical insurance.  I could not believe what my Old Lady is paying.  $300 a month, with a deductible of SIXTEEN GRAND!!!!  It costs that much so soon for simple catastrophic coverage!?!? I agree with the deductible, but certainly not with the monthly payment part ).  After all, gun control insurance is NOT the same thing as Collapse Arsenal Insurance.  We spend quite enough on the basic arsenal, so I for one look at a spare gun for gun control as a lower priority spending item. 

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At one time I had both a rifle and a pistol off the books, but I Dumb-Assed one and had the other stolen.  I think I told you about the pistol recently, the ex’s daughter stole it.  Surely just out of spite as she also stole several hundred dollars worth of wool blankets and sweaters ( and she lives in a apartment that includes heat in the rent ).  The rifle was an exercise in stupidity.  I had a bolt action hunting rifle offered to me for a mere $100 and bought it, then stressed about the odd caliber for a time ( I was very cash poor at the time and while still buying 303 in war surplus, the hunting ammo would have been full retail for an oddball type ).  I then gave it away to a buddy that helped me move from Carson to Elko.  What NEVER occurred to me the whole time was that this was actually an off the books firearm.  I was so focused on the addition of a caliber to my arsenal I completely spaced that aspect of it.  Unbelievable, right?  I cannot to this day ten years later believe I did such a bonehead thing.  So, needless to say, I am in no hurry to waste any more of my limited funds on buying a private sale firearm.  I did look in the classified just the other day and saw a 357 for only $200, and I was tempted.  But one must remain strong in conviction in the face of financial collapse.  The money will be much better spent on additional insulation for the B-POD.

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Those old timey manufactured firearms are certainly NOT cheap anymore.  Not like they used to be when they couldn’t give them away.  Then you have to worry about what kind of ammunition to use in them, getting spare parts, and the like.  I’m not tempted at all by this strategy.  The eighty percent lower receivers are not a bad way to do things.  You can get an AK, although finding the parts kits seem to be problematic anymore.  They even have a 1911, but I haven’t priced them.  The most popular and least PITA is the AR-15.  But we are still talking $500 here.  And with the old guns and the 80%’ers we run into another issues besides the cost.  Even if you don’t fill out an official gun purchase form, there is still a record of your purchase.  With the NSA recording everything, you might want to just assume they know you bought an Off The Books firearm.

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So, to me, that leaves the most obvious, simple and cheap solution to prepare for gun control.  The pipe shotgun.  You can get the original article by Kurt Saxon, “The Four Winds Shotgun”.  Do a search under that title, but add “PDF” to it.  I got mine at Survival Library Dot Com ( which in itself seems a real sweet resource ).  It’s basically two pieces of pipe, one with a screw on cap and a dowel with a blunted nail in it.  Cheap.  Simple.  Buy the parts prior and of course the ammunition.  You can legally build it, which might even be preferable to leaving threaded pipe around the jack booted thugs can claim is for bomb making, but you want to hide both the parts and especially the ammunition.  This is your gun control insurance.

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Now, while I was You-Tubing on this subject ( which wasn’t too helpful, mostly being scenes at the firing range ) I ran across guys building improvised guns out of a flare gun.  No, you don’t want to use a regular shotgun shell in a flimsy plastic 12 gauge pistol.  What they did was take a smaller metal piece of pipe containing a 410 shell then wrapped duct tape around it until it jammed into the breech of the flare gun.  When fired, the metal insert was sufficient to contain the pressure of the smaller shotgun gauge.  I like this idea, both because of the reduced recoil of the 410 verses the 12, and the fact you could aim it much better than from a Slam-Bang and only need one hand.  The problem was, you can’t find a flare gun under $60 or so.  Well, not that I could find ( I only checked about five online stores ).  Then, later, it occurred to me it SHOULD be feasible to build the Slam-Bang out of PVC pipe, IF you used both the 410 AND the metal pipe insert ( of course, do so at your own risk.  I‘m on the fence whether I want to try it myself.  This is ONLY in the idea stage-I can‘t guarantee it is a good idea ).  Watching the video, that flare gun looked a lot more flimsy than PVC pipe.  Of course, I haven’t tried it yet.  And I understand a 410 might be grossly underpowered and cause problems in itself.  But it is an idea that might warrant following up.  Comments?

END

Please support Bison by buying through the Amazon ad graphics at the top of the page.  IF YOU DON’T SEE THE AD, DISABLE AD BLOCK ( go to the Ad Blocker while on my page and scroll down the menu to “disable this site” ). You can purchase anything, not just the linked item. Enter Amazon through my item link and then go to whatever other item you desire. As long as you don’t leave Amazon until after the order is placed, I get credit for your purchase.  For those that can’t get the ads because they are blocked by your software, just PayPal me occasionally or buy me something from my Amazon Wish List once a year.  Pay your author-no one works for free.  I’m nice enough to publish for mere Book Money, so do your part.*** 
*Contact Information*  Links To Other Blogs *  Land In Elko*  Lord Bison* my bio & biblio*   my web site is www.bisonprepper.com           *wal-mart wheat
*Link To All My Published Books
* By the by, all my writing is copyrighted. For the obtuse out there