Wednesday, October 19, 2016

malthus' gore warming 3 of 4


MALTHUS’ GORE WARMING 3

The fabled and feared Golden Horde ( feared by pampered suburban White Bread as the mixture has a certain darker skin tone than what one is accustomed to.  Hey, no judgment here, my brother.  You’d be an idiot not to be afraid of an alien culture of malcontents ) usually has a certain characteristic dictated by the reality of our time-the Oil Age transportation industry.  The Golden Horde is fleet of foot as they mostly all have automobiles.  As with military tactics, so with personal civilian ownership.  Autos allow better mobility ( rail is of course far better at efficiency but is static-while Blitzkrieg owed much to the tank and more advanced aircraft, you can’t discount the ability to move beyond the rail head that characterized the first World War ).  This is where your Drift Lines and Interstate Danger guidelines come from in advice on the Golden Horde, and they are largely correct ( with an important caveat being that some highways are simply a lot busier than others and the isolated ones don’t automatically spell danger ).

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The Golden Horde is a particular danger to that breed of complacent survivalist who believes that catastrophe is both Either/Or and Short Term.  They mostly think that since ever increasing amounts of petroleum have constantly been applied to the ills of our society that they always can be and shall be forevermore, that only when those supplies are instantly cut off will there be a problem, and that once the problem occurs it will be over with pretty darn quick.  Hence the four months of freeze dried foods, a generator with four months of fuel, the fourteen semi-automatic weapons with four months of ammo with tactics set on “spray and pray” and the whole host of other short term solutions to preserve the non-negotiable American Way Of Life.  To them, the Darkies invading from the big city is the danger.  Of course Wonder Bread Survivalists also live in those same cities but obviously think themselves smarter and wilier and they can outthink their nemesis’ by fleeing the urban area quicker.  Let me respond to that with one word-hubris.  However, back on point. 

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The Golden Horde danger is era specific.  It is equivalent to planning a military invasion with horses and carriages.  Once the equipment changes, so do the results.  Gore Warming Refugees will be, by definition, afoot.  The economic collapse has already occurred ( if it hadn’t, we’d still have a near monopoly control on global oil and be able to use that to negate the effects of climate change up to a certain point ) and there won’t be fuel to move by auto.  And, allow me to underline an important point, if you have hoarded gasoline and you do move this way, there are a hundred different ways for pedestrians to stop you-so don’t do it.  The bulk of the population will no longer have internal combustion conveyances.  They also are not as compressed of a mob.  It is more of a continuous wave.  You can, mostly, assume that they will stick to roads, but they won’t be funneled down Interstate highways only.  And since everyone lives at the end of a road, only one in a thousand a cranky old hermit living at the end of a game trail, you will have visitors.  And they won’t be as nice to deal with as Golden Horders.

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The Golden Horde mostly arrives as a mob or two.  The valiant townspeople ( along with legions of kickass babes with Linda Hamilton abilities because no prepper fantasy discards that required plot line ) spray the evil darker hued crowds with semi-automatic fire! ( phew! Phew! ) and the worthier richer volk are saved and rewarded.  Damn, dude!  Aren’t you glad you bought a bug out location?  Anyway, then everyone works happily ever after, all men of sturdy jaw and industrious natures, all gals both warriorly studly AND biblically compliant to their Tactical Tommy husbands  bristling with appropriately approved and Grade A stamped plastic space guns.  Jesus friggin weeps.  Again, short term thinking and planning ( the Yuppie Scum Survivalist Guru’s  might include, in the fine print far away from any ads for $5k FLIR scopes and quarter million dollar Idaho retreats, the warning to prepare for a multi-generational collapse.  Then he goes ahead and publishes a series of novels which return our survivors to near normal hereby negating the small hidden warning on the projected time line ).  The Gore Warming Refugees will just keep coming, wave after wave, and by NOT driving up in an automobile, be a bit more stealthy.  I challenge you to assume your soldiers on constant patrol will not degrade in supplies and ability very quickly after this.

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Let’s go back and revisit THE best post-apocalypse book ever to be written or that ever shall be written, amen, Lucifer’s Hammer.  For a California author(s) to avoid wish-fulfilling cars galore into the picture was a testament to his scientific and logical mind ( although there was a bit of too violent condemnation of organic farming, as well as his too enthusiastic promotion of nuclear power ).  There was a bit of read-between-the-lines of weather refugees covered here and the arrivals to the Big Money Sponsored Bug Out Location came on foot.  The various ways of keeping them from trespassing were all well and good ( such as blowing bridges ) but of course you can’t have alpine security along with a huge enough population to secure and feed everyone.  Without tractors and chemicals and greenhouse glass, the concept is not viable ( isn’t it amazing to the degree that even today over thirty years later most survivalist writers still feed directly from this books trough?  Ragnar Benson’s latest on a “self-sufficient” ethanol tractor homestead to weather the economic collapse ).  Again, the origin of another survival strategy-the quick recovery ( this time in the form of surplus energy from the nuke plant ).

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Tomorrow, finishing up, the direct conflict with the refugee waves.

END
 
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15 comments:

  1. “Anyway, then everyone works happily ever after”


    I recall my liberal former boss outlining a very similar plan following a collapse, in which he and all of the “good citizens” would relieve those nasty prepper folk of their weapons and supplies, and then distribute them all throughout the community (Sort of as they do now politically) as everyone worked together in harmony to rebuild government and society. I'd actually pay good money to see something like that (From a good safe distance of course) as the first one takes a bullet to the head, and all the others promptly run like scared little rabbits into the woods, where they starve to death in short order. Now if that's not a classic Kodak moment (picture Mariette Hartley and James Garner looking on, smiling for added effect) I don't know what is :D


    Off topic, but in keeping with the forever gun theme, I might, after all my other preps are in place, reward myself with this:

    K-39 Musketoon Blunderbus

    http://sittingfoxmuzzleloaders.com/k-39/

    Now if you really want to get radical (I don't) you might get something like this:

    K-4 4 Bore Blunderbuss

    http://sittingfoxmuzzleloaders.com/k-4/

    To give one an idea of just how large a 4ga is, it's about the same diameter as Rosie O'Dumbbell's big fat pie hole :D

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    1. I like that blunderbuss. Too cool. As for a 4 guage, I'd image a kick far worse than a Barret 50 cal sniper?

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    2. I was reading a thread on them James, and the people that owned them said they were loads of fun like the 4th of July, with fire and sparks emanating from them upon firing. I'd imagine a wicked little defense gun too. I imagine a 4 bore would give a good jolt considering the enormous size of the bore, but keep in mind that black powder as a low pressure propellant, doesn't have the energy of smokeless powder, so it's not quite as bad as you would think.

      To give a better example of bore size, the gauge determination was based on an old English system. For a 12ga, 12 round lead balls, each weighing 1/12 of a pound would slip into the bore, and 12 of these balls would equal a pound. For a 10ga, 10 balls weighing a 1/10 of a pound and so on. The only deviation from this rule is the .410 which is actually the bore diameter. So a 4ga equals 4 leads balls at a whopping 1/4lb each!

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    3. So, while fun and cool, it would seem to me a mere four balls would have a better chance of missing. Best to go with more of a smaller size. Not saying you wouldn't load as you wish, just that the design itself is off.

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    4. “So, while fun and cool, it would seem to me a mere four balls would have a better chance of missing.”


      Sorry for the confusion James, no, that's not what I meant. You wouldn't actually fire the 4 lead balls. That was just the old English system for determining gauge size. So a 12ga equal 12 lead balls that slip fit into the bore weighing 1/12 of a pound, and 12 equal 1 pound. So it's the same formula across the different gauges. 24Ga equal 24 lead balls weighing 1/24 of a pound, and 24 equal 1 pound, etc and so on. As I said, the .410 is the only deviation from this formula, and I do believe that there is also a tiny little 9mm shotshell that someone makes, although I've never actually seen one. By the way, below is a photo of a guy firing the 4 bore Blunderbuss (Scroll to bottom). Even if you somehow missed, your adversary would be in dire need of a change of shorts, that is, if his heart didn't immediately lock up upon hearing the fierce roar of the enormous 4 bore!

      http://www.stonewallcreekoutfitters.com/customer-photos/

      With regards to horses, I hope that enough breeding stock survives the collapse. Today's worthless recreation nags, are tomorrows farm machinery and transportation. For 20 years from now, those among us who have survived will be living an Amish like existence.





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    5. Okay. The only thing I pay attention to regarding shotguns is "lower number gauge equals bigger". Wild mustangs here in Nevada are a built in means of easy horse access in the future ( for those able to gain the skill ).

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  2. Traveling by auto mobile when evil stalks the land will be a very dangerous thing to do. The whole concept of a bug out car is another one of my pet peeves. Walking will be the safest way to travel. A close second would be traveling by horse back. Riding a horse frees up the rider from the need to watch were he puts his feet and enables the rider to scan the horizon from a elevated vantage point. Horses are quiet so the rider can listen for trouble and lastly and probably most importantly, horses are prey animals, they have evolved for millions of years by avoiding being eaten by wolves and tiger etc so a horse will let you know if something is amiss. And if you do happen to wander into a ambush a horse can turn on the spot and hustle on out of there quick. Unfortunately most horses will end up in the stew pot during the initial sheeple die off.
    Aussie

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    1. The Commanche built an empire on horse, as did the Mongols. But by all means lets cling desperately to our autos.

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    2. Bicycle + trained dogs = Horse (?)
      Cars = Covered wagons (and note that the settlers didn't ride *inside* their covered wagons much if at all, for lots of good reasons....)

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    3. But dogs don't eat roadside weeds. Unless you are herders, then they survive on offal.

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    4. Well that is true, but you can eat the dog when the hunting is too poor, and some dogs can and do extend their diets with vegetation and grain (Q. what is dog food? A. Corn with a little bone meal and scrap meat.) If you are forced to eat your horse you are out transport and animal assistance. If you have the bike/dog combo losing one is not the lose of both. Ideally I imagine you would want all three - a mount mainly to carry supplies, a bike to ride, and a dog for extra final security. But any combination of two will be better than being on foot, and better than being in an enclosed car in a security sense and long term transport sense too. As long as petroleum exists some combo with a car(read also 4x4 truck) and maybe motors for the bikes, involved for the bigger faster cargo carrying capacity could also be good, especially if you can drop the motors and get them to be animal powered.

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    5. Not bad-I like the redundancy. I worry, myself, on how a LOT of stuff is going to get transported. For instance, beams up the river valley to a look out spot for intercepting trespassers. You need an underground hovel for shelter ( reduce firewood needs ) and for that you need beams. That is just one example. Just transporting a few years of wheat berries is a nightmare.

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  3. Dogs will often run ahead of you as you travel and would let you know if there is a ambush ahead before you get there, they might get shot in the process, but hay you can get another dog.

    The problem with dogs is they eat a lot and will take a lot to provide for. I got 3 working dogs and most of what they eat I kill for them. 3 dogs would eat about 1 sheep or one largish kangaroo a week. In the wild, there really isn't that many top order predators as they need to kill a lot of animals to survive. Dogs are top order predator and most modern people are so out of touch from the natural order of things that they don't appreciate how many animals must die to keep there pampered pooch. Sure dogs can eat other stuff, but I suspect, due to there higher metabolic rate, pound for pound they would require more calories than a human, ie a 100pound German shepherd would eat more than a 100 pound girl.

    Don't get me wrong, dogs would be a great asset pshtf, if you can supply food for them. Horses on the other hand just need grass. Many modern high performance horses may need supplementary feeding but the pony breeds and some of the other breeds(such as mustangs) will do just fine on grass.

    I have done a bit of horse packing, and its rather depressing how little they can actually carry. A saddle horse that can easily carry 300 pounds of ridder and tack can only really carry about 150 pounds on a pack as the rider naturally centers his weight and is not dead weight. For really heavy duty hauling, back in the day, oxen were used. Most of the wagon trains didn't use horses they used oxen. They move slower than horses, but are a lot tougher and easier to handle than horses.
    Aussie

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    1. I think dogs are better sentries, and you can cut their meat rations with meal, but the travel niche is probably not for them. Home base is better.

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  4. Hi! I'm at work surfing around your blog from my new apple iphone!
    Just wanted to say I love reading your blog
    and look forward to all your posts! Keep up the great work!

    ReplyDelete

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