urban cattle

URBAN CATTLE

What makes the city so attractive to so many people? It isn't just the availability of jobs. People in small towns have connections, built over a lifetime, and while there isn't the same kind of job market as the city they know people who know people who can get them some kind of work. Even if there is a long commute, the low cost of living compared to the urban hive pays for that commute. Even if it is local and part time, they can survive on that, also. If they want to. Something attracts people to the city, besides work.

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I'm not necessarily speaking of those born in the city, who have connections there also. In that case, only knowing the concrete jungle probably means you wouldn't be attracted to real vegetation and wildlife, far out of your comfort zone. You don't hear about all that many folks leaving the city ( not lifelong urban dwellers ) as compared to those attracted to them. Not the job aspect, as much as the lifestyle or cultural difference. They don't like fellow small town folks in their business, gossiping about them. They want a “wordly” education.

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They want excitement. Now, to be clear, I've lived in small towns growing up, mostly outside of that small town in the boonies. I only lived in the bigger cities for about ten years, chasing enough dollars to pay off Bitch From Hell Baby Momma. I'm prejudice against larger cities, seeing only teeming crowds, hostile “OH-pressed minorities”, stink and rudeness. To me, what city folk want is silly, and pointless. But I'm trying to be as neutral as possible here as I strive to understand these people. Me? I've thought the smaller the town, the more secure. Others must chaff under the microscope.

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I can see how some people just want to be left alone. I see friends and surrogate family ( or just family ) providing a safety net for you, in a small town. They might know everything about you, know everything you do, but they also know all that and so can protect you. You are one of them. And the folks they don't know, they all watch very carefully. You are protected by the group, and from those NOT of the group. Yet, some people don't like that. It feels smothering rather than protective.

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And what does the city offer them? The glorious chance to be left the hell alone, without the need to be a hermit. We are social animals. We need a herd, most of us. Some can get that visiting others daily, others want to leave well enough alone with a once a month visit. City folks would not make good hermits. They want MORE solitude, but it isn't from hating and avoiding people. It is under their control, and they can adjust as needed. To them, solitude is needed in hourly rather than weekly amounts.

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We all need both other people and a respite from them. Some people are such extroverts they need people even as they fled from them, but those are some weird bastards. They are deathly afraid of being AWAY from people. How natural is that? But, anyway, the main attraction of the city ( again, culturally and psychologically, leaving the employment question aside ) is that you can still socialize, but without those other people being so far up your ass you can't feel free to be your own person, or do your own thing.

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You feel unjust expectations to perform to other people's standards, in a small town. And sometimes you just hated some people so much that just being in the same town as them gave you anxiety every time you went out ( think, ex-spouses for instance ). What if the cool kids harassed you all through school? Would you want to continue living in a small town with them your whole life? The only gratification to you would be when their beauty faded or their muscles atrophied and they lost what they relied on to be special. But that would be small comfort. Sometimes, people who want to ignore you are the best company.

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To accept the shallow social existence of the city, surrounded by people but always alone, friendships more like acquaintances, you really have to hate small towns. This new reality is better than the old one. Neither was good, this one is just less worse. And I think I would include most suburbs in this analysis, now so crowded that they feel just like a city. Not as bad, obviously. You don't have Tyrone and his disadvantaged youth friends asking for a reparations tax, at gunpoint. The suburbs are even more alienating and lonely than the city, with no social venues.

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But the suburbs are just that much less dangerous to be more attractive than they should be. That is one thing Kunstler doesn't dare touch on. One of the main reasons people move to a home that offers no socialization, no nearby services and requires an unnatural dependence on the automobile is because men don't want their wives to be raped by OtherColors in the city, and their children to be jumped by gangs in the schools. That is all on his beloved Democrat party. Republicans screwed us on Jobs To Latino's ( and overseas Asians ), but Democrats made our country unsafe.

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This is a huge reason for recommending the countryside over the city for a retreat, although that is a subject I'm slowly moving my way forward to. Right now, it is important to understand why so many people WANT, not just need, but desire, to move to and/or stay in the city. Not just jobs, not just the insecurity of moving in this era of high unemployment ( The Donald, who never met a poor person he had a problem lying to to make money, tells you unemployment is 4%. The Shadow Stats guy says 20%. I say 38%, but a lot of those folks are in the black market or on welfare. Splitting the difference with Shadow Dude gives you a higher rate than during the 1930”s Depression ).

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The mental state that rewards remaining urban. I can “prove” to you that I am right, about the imminent danger of the collapse of civilization, but you'll ignore me because every day you are better off than country folk. To be fair, I don't listen to people trying to prove to me how dangerous the countryside is either, as my mind is made up. Logic is about the furthest state from our reality as you can get. No matter how we lie to ourselves, we are emotional beings. We only confirmation bias. The only thing we can do is try to see a little clearer how irrational we are, and try to change that. Don't EVER kid yourself how clear you are seeing reality. NONE of us do. You can only see better how you are not seeing reality.

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Make sense? Probably not. Don't worry, continued tomorrow.

( .Y. )

( today's related Amazon link click HERE )

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note: Yeah, baby!  Low-Tech magazine has now come out with the second volume of articles in print form.  These are actually one of the few times I don't hesitate to spend $30 on a book.  That is how good I consider this material.  You can bet I'll be ordering my copy by the end of the day see HERE 
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Please support Bison by buying through the Amazon links here ( or from http://bisonprepper.com/2.html or www.bisonbulk.blogspot.com ). Or PayPal www.paypal.me/jimd303 

*** Unless you are in extreme poverty, spend a buck a month here, by the above donation methods ( I get 4% of the Amazon sale, so you need to buy $25 worth for me to get my $1 ) or mail me some cash/check/money order or buy a book ( web site for free books, Amazon to pay just as a donation vehicle ).

*** My e-mail is: jimd303@reagan.com My address is: James M Dakin, 181 W Bullion Rd #12, Elko NV 89801-4184 ***E-Mail me if you want your name added to the weekly e-newsletter subscriber list.

*** Pay your author-no one works for free. I’m nice enough to publish for barely above Mere Book Money, so do your part.*** junk land under a grand *  Lord Bison* my bio & biblio* my web site is www.bisonprepper.com *** Wal-Mart wheat***Amazon Author Page
* By the by, all my writing is copyrighted. For the obtuse out there

got wheat, pete?

GOT WHEAT, PETE?

I'm normally not a big fan of the theory we start a new ice age, any day now. I think far too much emphasis is placed on countering Gore Warming, which, while a laudable goal, is still mainly just mental masturbation. It makes the mistake of thinking that something besides bullets will cure communism, like rational arguments. Just use this as a guideline: like women or cats, logic does not work ( sorry ladies. Just flash your chest and I'll forget what I was talking about ) on communists. Plus, the only longer winded gasbags on YouTube than Ice Agers are gold bugs.

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I have enough problems limiting my time on that platform, I don't need to hear you yammering on for fifty minutes about minutia. Get to the point. I appreciate the fact we no longer use valuable silver for film, but Christ On A Trapeze, I'm not as in love with your flapping lips as you are. Luckily, one of those channels ( Ice Age, We Are All Going To Die!!! niche ) had a short ( only fifteen minutes! ) segment on the falling quality of wheat. Wheat? Did someone say wheat? I don't care about corn ( except as it effects animal prices ), or soy ( ditto ), not to a huge degree. But wheat, well, you have my attention.

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Here is the deal, conveyed to you after viewing the video ( with the understanding I'm paraphrasing on subjects previously unexplored ). Folks test wheat for starch content, which is determined by when the grain germinates. A high number means the wheat is good enough for bread making ( or barley for beer, etcetera ). Well, the crop out of Canada is starting to have too low of tested numbers ( the US is still working out of last years crop ). There isn't enough starch, due to the poor growing conditions.

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I don't know what they do with “rejected” wheat. Animal food? Low starch wheat products like pasta ( I've noticed, for what its worth, to get any pasta under $1-$1.50 a pound, it seems the bastards are slipping non-Durum regular wheat in there. And it tastes like crap! )? I'm sure it isn't wasted. I'm not panicked about higher priced wheat, as most of our cost seems to be tied up in transportation and packaging and advertising, so in recent times the rise in plastics cost seemed to be a bigger deal than the cereal cost. But something else he said did catch my attention.

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There was a chart of recent Grand Solar Minimums, now, and the last one in 2008. What happened in 2008, you wonder, scratching your noggin? The global rice shortage, only alleviated when Japan released its national stockpile of American rice ( bought under pressure for concessions on manufactured goods. They were released as the rice is NOT what Japanese consumers prefer, I like to think for regional bribes to mask the stench of their behavior in the world war ). You do remember, right?

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Wal-Mart was limiting everyone to two bags of rice ( if memory serves ), and that was even if you could find it. If it hadn't been for Japan, the rice shortage might have gone on as long as the rimfire one. So, solar minimum, worse crops. The year prior in 2007, global drought had caused a wheat shortage ( the problem this year is wet weather ). The 2008 economic meltdown and oil price explosion certainly did nothing to help. I'm not sure what effects if any the solar minimum had on wheat, last time. I just think that if we combine the two, we might have a cause for concern.

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It seems that the solar minimum did in fact have an effect on at least one cereal crop last time, AND, it seems like this solar minimum currently is effecting another. The more important one, wheat. Now, perhaps you are full of mirth, discounting my concerns. Jim, you ignorant slut, I already have all the rice I need and I don't plan on buying any wheat, not even for sprouting since I live east of your pathetic desert and we have wild plants. Okay, fine. Geez, relax there, Francis. I'm just trying to help a brother out here. I'm merely suggesting that if you want wheat, this might be a really good time to get it.

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Let me share once again my least glorious moment in prepping ( all the mistakes I make fun of you for? I've made most if not all, or more, of them ). The stock market takes a giant puke in 1987. Black Monday? We had just had a giant wildfire in the region, and as I later found out, all the areas marijuana crops burned up. The local economy crashed, I was fired from my job ( I can't remember why, but feel a manufactured reason was used, as I've never been fired before or since ). I had panicked after Black Monday and ordered a bunch of wheat buckets, freight COD.

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Well, not only did it take OVER three months to deliver ( I had to rejoin the army right before Christmas, the small town of a thousand offering no hope of employment. Yeah, more than one lesson there, like, save some friggin money ), I had no way of knowing what the freight was. Could I have paid it, unemployed? You NEVER wait for a panic before panic buying. I went for periods after that not very prepared, but I always did at least have food after that, once I got back out of the Green Machine ( little hope of surviving there, tripwire for North Korea ).

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I don't want to tell you a wheat shortage is guaranteed. Nothing is guaranteed except death, taxes and ( Internet ) trolls. It certainly SMELLS like trouble is brewing. I don't want you to take the wrong lesson from this, either. I was buying wheat through the drought, and after price hikes. With very little competition, the price increases were never a deterrent, even on my pathetic wages. I just think that this time, perhaps, we won't be so lucky.

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We just had all the issues with corn and soy, although I do tend to MOSTLY discount the immediate danger there. But adding this POTENTIAL issue with wheat, on top of that? If you are the only one prepping with whole grains, you might be okay. But what if more people start doing the same? A lot more folks here now than in 1987, and look at the delays then. If you don't have a feed store nearby ( about 50-70 cents a pound after bucket ), and Wal-Mart is constantly out of stock ( about a buck a pound ), there is BePrepared dot com ( $1.50 a pound after shipping ).

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BePrepared is also known as Emergency Essentials, and I have always loved them. Great folks. There is buying from an LDS pantry, or even a “normal” supplier who does the COD on freight after a large order by semi ( sorry, I have no one to recommend. After I moved from Florida, I've always lived near a feed store. Yes, you suck. Sorry ). Don't panic, but don't delay. Wheat shortages might be on the way ( a poet and I DID know it )

( .Y. )

( today's related Amazon link

 HINT: IT's WHEAT BUCKETS HERE )

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Please support Bison by buying through the Amazon links here ( or from http://bisonprepper.com/2.html or www.bisonbulk.blogspot.com ). Or PayPal www.paypal.me/jimd303 

*** Unless you are in extreme poverty, spend a buck a month here, by the above donation methods ( I get 4% of the Amazon sale, so you need to buy $25 worth for me to get my $1 ) or mail me some cash/check/money order or buy a book ( web site for free books, Amazon to pay just as a donation vehicle ).

*** My e-mail is: jimd303@reagan.com My address is: James M Dakin, 181 W Bullion Rd #12, Elko NV 89801-4184 ***E-Mail me if you want your name added to the weekly e-newsletter subscriber list.

*** Pay your author-no one works for free. I’m nice enough to publish for barely above Mere Book Money, so do your part.*** junk land under a grand *  Lord Bison* my bio & biblio* my web site is www.bisonprepper.com *** Wal-Mart wheat***Amazon Author Page
* By the by, all my writing is copyrighted. For the obtuse out there

civilization infrastructure 2

CIVILIZATION INFRASTRUCTURE 2

I think we can all agree that there has been enough post-apocalypse writing done on the subject of EMP's/solar flares that anyone at all familiar with prepping understands how fundamental electricity is to the functioning of society at every single level. The only way the author can continue Business As Usual in their universe is to have our intrepid hero stockpile enough goodies that even J.P. Morgan ( of 150 million ounce physical silver stockpile fame ) would take notice. Which must be why zombies are so much more popular. The lazy humps way to write in indefinite supplies.

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Every time someone brings up the book Earth Abides, gushing in admiration, I cannot help but projectile vomit blood. The very few survivors ate canned goods for decades. Now, granted, nuclear weapons were new, and one can be forgiven for flawed world building. You can even excuse the author as he was a liberal University puke and had as much common sense as a box of rocks ( okay, I don't know his politics. But, come on! California state English professor, also writing ecology novels. Hello! ). So, at best, the novel is an applauded attempt. But certainly should not be revered.

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Even assuming a diet of canned food doesn't kill you sooner rather than later, enough bombs that kill off everyone so you can get all those cans should have killed you off also. I know I'm overly harsh, but I simply detest sloppiness when it comes to logistics. And, contrary to all the slop you read ( van Creveld, as usual, being the exception ), logistics isn't warehouses of crap. It is having the resources to produce that crap. Which can never be gathered to begin with, without infrastructure. Let's take Germany in WWII.

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If I'm not mistaken, the first automobile was made over in Germany, by a chap named Benz ( actually, there isn't universal agreement, but close enough. I'm making a point here, people ). But Germany did not have abundant natural resources, nor, really, the colonies needed to get them ( not on the scale needed ). Cars were not going to get priority there, as trains did. Trains were much more efficient, and when you don't have excess resources to piss away, you always pick More Efficient.

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Once Germany needed internal combustion engine decentralized transportation for military use, she couldn't get it. She lacked resources, but, as a separate issue, she also didn't have a three to four decade head start building the infrastructure needed to build up an automobile infrastructure like the US did. The engineers going to school, the death of companies that weren't the best at production ( but leaving behind innovative ideas ), the road building with its maintenance infrastructure. The roads, with the zoning and resettlement issues. The government laws built up around auto's.

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More importantly, the US had built up its petroleum industry. Now, there was little to no oil IN Germany, but again, that is a resource issue. Switching to Russia, which had oodles and gobs of oil ( as fascinating as the question is if the Soviet Union would have attacked Germany if the Nazis hadn't struck first-read the book over at Unz.com, “Germany's War”-I think the assumption that Hitler needed Caspian oil is closer to the mark ), she lacked the infrastructure for auto and trucks ( we shipped over a butt ton of those on Lend-Lease. Which was a program getting taxpayers to fund the war before it started, bless FDR's evil black heart ).

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Having the resources and the infrastructure to use them can be interconnected, or they can be a separate issue. But one doesn't automatically include the other. I know I harp continuously on resources, what with oil and all, but resources are half of the equation. Infrastructure is nearly as important. A LOT of the dysfunction we are seeing now can be blamed on the decline of energy, our share tumbling, but that isn't because we are running out of oil as much as the infrastructure built on cheap and abundant oil has been falling apart for fifty years.

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Well, the infrastructure was already old before then, the famous example that of Japan and Korea having new factories after the war, but the US still having factories old BEFORE the war, but by 1970 the US started en masse abandoning the infrastructure. Not just the factories but the Unions that counteracted harmful corporate policies, the public education schooling for the trades, the tool and die infrastructure, the experienced workers employment, the cheaper rail transport infrastructure, and etcetera. It was a death by a thousand cuts as every swinging dingus grabbed his share of the shrinking pie all at once.

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The oil supply fiasco certainly was the excuse needed to abandon the already aging and unmaintained infrastructure that was our industrial economy ( compare the state of our war machine suppliers at the beginning of Vietnam to the end ). The drop in oil wouldn't have been so severe had the infrastructure not already been so old and our dear leaders so inclined to leave behind the hard work of building for the easy banker money made by destroying ( how much economic stimulus was from Alaskan oil, during the Reagan era, and how much was due to getting into debt and selling off the last factories for parts? )?

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Infrastructure is always way more expensive than it first looks, and without it you cannot do a darn thing. The Greek navy was needed to trade the denuded soils Crap Crops of olives and grapes for wheat from afar. The end of that infrastructure spelled the end of food and civilization. The Roman economy was built on free wheat and free Farm Implements from war. Once the war machine was blocked from expansion ( just as with the Confederate States ), the infrastructure started cannibalizing itself, just as we are doing with our oil economy.

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Once the Oil Age civilization has imploded, what infrastructure do you see being developed? When energy is in decline, no new infrastructure is built. At best, the old failing machines are fixed. By definition, in a energy decline, you cannot build new infrastructure to replace your failing structures. It is all you can do to fix the regional lakes. By no means can you instead install rain catchment in all the houses. A similar problem for the Mayans was that they couldn't replace village level aquifers, having centralized the dry season water collection spots.

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Another terrible staple of survivalist fiction is just such a fantasy of rebuilding from the group retreat. What is that putrid “classic” on the church rebuilding to the stars, because “they just needed the information on how to build the machines”? What, because rocket fuel by the ton can be supplied by backyard tinkerers? Chemicals on an industrial scale need an infrastructure only delivered by OIL. And not an old stripper well that oozes out ten barrels a day. You cannot supply an army, who needs to conquer the territories holding surplus resources, on a handful of ammunition primers from the occasional pilfered jug of stump remover.

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Do you know WHY my outlook on the future is so bleak? Because I know I am a lone stocked ship, and every stop at an island sees only desert with no food or water. There will be NO infrastructure.

( .Y. )

( today's related Amazon link click HERE )

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note: EB, most excellent PayPal donation-Merry Christmas to me!  Thank you.
*

Please support Bison by buying through the Amazon links here ( or from http://bisonprepper.com/2.html or www.bisonbulk.blogspot.com ). Or PayPal www.paypal.me/jimd303 

*** Unless you are in extreme poverty, spend a buck a month here, by the above donation methods ( I get 4% of the Amazon sale, so you need to buy $25 worth for me to get my $1 ) or mail me some cash/check/money order or buy a book ( web site for free books, Amazon to pay just as a donation vehicle ).

*** My e-mail is: jimd303@reagan.com My address is: James M Dakin, 181 W Bullion Rd #12, Elko NV 89801-4184 ***E-Mail me if you want your name added to the weekly e-newsletter subscriber list.

*** Pay your author-no one works for free. I’m nice enough to publish for barely above Mere Book Money, so do your part.*** junk land under a grand *  Lord Bison* my bio & biblio* my web site is www.bisonprepper.com *** Wal-Mart wheat***Amazon Author Page
* By the by, all my writing is copyrighted. For the obtuse out there

civilization infrastructure

CIVILIZATION INFRASTRUCTURE

A minion was recounting his experience with hunting and gathering. It was EXTREMELY illuminating ( November 26 article, Demented Guy, 9:59 PM posting in comments ), at least to me, as I was holding the gentle minion up as my example of someone who could make a go of it with few stored foods, if anyone could. That in no way faults DG, as he is quite knowledgeable and industrious, going far beyond all of our abilities. His point was it was nearly impossible to get enough of your own food, even in an area abundant with nut trees and wildlife.

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He had to return to civilization to restore the fat he lost while living as Danial Boone. Now, I could use this as an example to once again remind you of the basics of storage food, but we all know that. More wheat than you can imagine needing, some for sprouting for fresh veggies, long lasting fat ( shortening ), as many beans as you can afford for protein and vitamin pills. What I'd like to cover is the hidden need of civilization's infrastructure that we know exists but don't give enough importance to post collapse.

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You read, “feather Indians had abundant fish and nut trees”, and you think, hey, my area has abundant wildlife and food trees, so I'm in like Flynn. But that ignores the infrastructure that the Indians had in place to be assured of that food supply. They either had thinned competitors of that food, such as deer for the vegetation or bears for the fish, or eliminated them altogether in that area. In other words, you can't share and still have enough. Which includes sharing with other tribes. There were how many generations of warfare behind that abundance?

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Which might include offensive warfare to continue keeping encroachment minimized. I had to laugh my very junk off the other day. I'm reading a new to me book, “History Of The World In Seven Cheap Things” by Patel and Moore, the very cream of modern universities, pull some really stupid crap out of their backsides trying to refute Malthus. And I quote, “but carrying capacities swell or shrink depending on who rules”. This is the best minds Rhodes and Binghamton can field. Just think about that quote. In essence, it's all about politics, not resources. This sounds EXACTLY like a low information voter pulling the lever for Bernie.

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And that was just a few pages into the introduction, so I know what I have in store for me the next few hundred pages. Luckily for me, these idiots are still capable of making some good points on capitalism, and is written in a pleasant manner, so I didn't waste money on the thing. I just need to refrain from hurling the object far from me in anger, potentially necessitating a drywall repair, as I continue reading. Which brings me to their other moronic statement, which ties in here. They thought that if the kings didn't “steal” all the crops from the serfs, there never would have been famine ( despite the shift to colder weather ) if only the serfs had more food to eat, minimizing the Black Plague.

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Yes, plague shows up with a vengeance during times of hunger. And yes, a king COULD extract too many crops from the serfs on land failing due to overpopulation. But you cannot ignore two important aspects. The King was not JUST there to be a parasitic bandit. These jerk-off's must be Libertardians. Kings also protect against the other kings. They are a necessity to safeguard the food, even if their price for doing so is a percentage.

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And ALL of Europe was affected similarly from the plague. Either every king was greedy and short sided, or crap like weather does matter. Friggin DUH! This brings us around to infrastructure. There was not enough surplus to protect against future failed crops. This probably had little to do with any administrative issues. As population increased in neighboring kingdoms, the tendency to gain resources through war would need to be counteracted by increasing your own population to protect against that.

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This was not a failing of feudalism. That system was the way forward after the Roman civilization collapsed, the only way to maintain governance after the end of trade. Remember, trade requires surplus, because you are feeding men and animals that do nothing but transportation. Which is more costly in energy because THOSE calorie consuming units must in turn be protected by a military with a monopoly on force. The US with its eighty year old obsolete technology still rules the waves, because its job is not to defeat other navies but to protect the shipping lanes.

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The shrinking food and overpopulation was a failing of infrastructure, which is a feature of agriculture. No matter what type of government rules farmland, the civilization always fails. Even rice empires still denude surrounding areas and crash, regardless if the paddies still stand. If population grows, eventually you exhaust the soil. You don't have to run OUT of food, you just have to run out of ENOUGH food. Which is EXACTLY the same if you grow with oxen and oxen crap or tractors and petroleum products.

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Today, any discussion of resources is drowned out with that of politics, as in the above book. Even the Club Of Rome dude over at Cassandra's seems to be focused on politics rather than resources, embarrassingly. Yes, Tiny Tim, politics does effect food distribution and protection, but it does NOT produce food past a certain point. In the US, we face two very dangerous trends, corn to corporate profit fuel and immigration eating the remaining corn. But this is about politics controlling surplus. Thankfully. For now, anyway. But I'll bet you a jelly filled donut ( and not just ANY donut, but raspberry, with real fruit ) that Deplorables are starving before those policies are changed.

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When the fracking oil stops pumping from bankers failing or the wells production plummeting ( we are already at Fracking Peak, and the right side plunge will not match the left side growth ), and at that moment foreigners all dump the PetroDollar, while at the same time the Chinese Road & Belt takes over Old World transportation, we don't have enough resources to feed ourselves. The infrastructure WILL fail from Not Enough Oil, not from NO oil.

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Hell, our infrastructure is already failing from lack of surplus. Why do you think we'll still be able to feed ourselves when right now we can't even protect the existing structure we built up. We have semi-sovereign entities already occupying large areas ( Black hoods, southern border, California ). If THAT infrastructure is failing, how do we feed those areas? Continued tomorrow.

( .Y. )

( today's related Amazon link click HERE )

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note: free for today books.  Hard to tell if it's just sci-fi, or there is a bit of Racing To Save The World From Ending element.  I wouldn't normally recommend but it sounds strange enough to check out HERE 
*

Please support Bison by buying through the Amazon links here ( or from http://bisonprepper.com/2.html or www.bisonbulk.blogspot.com ). Or PayPal www.paypal.me/jimd303 

*** Unless you are in extreme poverty, spend a buck a month here, by the above donation methods ( I get 4% of the Amazon sale, so you need to buy $25 worth for me to get my $1 ) or mail me some cash/check/money order or buy a book ( web site for free books, Amazon to pay just as a donation vehicle ).

*** My e-mail is: jimd303@reagan.com My address is: James M Dakin, 181 W Bullion Rd #12, Elko NV 89801-4184 ***E-Mail me if you want your name added to the weekly e-newsletter subscriber list.

*** Pay your author-no one works for free. I’m nice enough to publish for barely above Mere Book Money, so do your part.*** junk land under a grand *  Lord Bison* my bio & biblio* my web site is www.bisonprepper.com *** Wal-Mart wheat***Amazon Author Page
* By the by, all my writing is copyrighted. For the obtuse out there

prepping absolutes

PREPPING ABSOLUTES

There are some prepping absolutes that I would not compromise on. First, One Is None. That is just To The Bone Marrow basic. You cannot afford to be without tools. Another is, Got Wheat? You cannot have enough wheat and I would never advise stopping under three years worth. Five is much better. The world is too fragile, the lies too pervasive to leave to chance your life in the hands of government and gov minion soothing reassurances. Food First, always and forever. Obviously, with a hat tip to 'Ol Remus, Stay Away From Crowds. Those three are your bedrock. Yes, we could tweak that.

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But why hurt yourself? Sometimes staying basic is best. I could list a half dozen Gun Safety rules, but no one would remember them. If you just remember, “always loaded” and “never point anywhere but target”, you are close enough. With prepping, I could add things like, “you never have enough ammo”, or “you should be so lucky it only gets as bad as my worse case”, but all that isn't core basics. Hell, far enough away from people and you won't need all that much ammo anyway. And, while I insist on preparing for the worst, I do have to admit past mistakes.

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It has rarely gotten as bad as I've foreseen. Not to say I won't be right one day. I just lose sight of the probable events prior to complete collapse and die-off. I do have tunnel vision with Worse Case. Remember Mohave Rat? A minion in the Devil's own rectum, Las Vegas area, he got tired of living in his RV in the boonies and took a VA loan on a house. I warmed him to no end how this would turn out badly ( this was 2009-ish ). I was wrong, he had the thing paid off in like seven years, and even if I was right his RV was parked there and ready to bug out.

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I don't think it is wrong to assume worse case. Obviously, you cannot lose sight of enjoying life and not burning any bridges. You must have an ultimate crapfest plan, no matter what. While Mohave Rat was enjoying his new air conditioning, I had been conducting such prepping duties as digging the hole for the B-POD, and beefing up ammo and food supplies. I wasn't suffering, nor was he wasting time or funds, as he was as prepped as he perceived he needed. My advice was sound. For me.

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Now that I'm well enough prepared to relax enough to enjoy life, with the new wife, I've relaxed a bit on panicking. Now I'm mainly just filling out the second location stockpiles, and detail orientating on the old ones. Which doesn't mean YOU can relax, unless you are already ready for worse case. And note, by this I do NOT mean all out nuclear war. I mean the end of your ability to prep. You must make hay while the sun shines, and YOUR sun could set any time.

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It doesn't matter what you are prepping for. You don't have to agree with me, although I feel it is my job to constantly lecture you as if that were true. All I'm asking is that you are already prepared, because we can't time the collapse. And that you meet me half way on the food issue. Even if you don't think civilization is going to end, as I do, at least have the extra food you don't think you need. It is SOOO cheap, it is a very easy bet to lose.

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If you ONLY do one thing, and have that extra food, almost anything else is a surmountable problem. You can fashion weapons out of scrap, fashion a solar cooker from the same ( take the money from one Sawyer filter purchase-you do own several, right?-and get one or two of those wax gauges to tell you when water is pasteurized-link at end of article ). You can take off into the woods ( and return for the buried wheat-although wilderness caches are better ), participate in a Hobo Gladiator game for extra clothes, whatever.

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But food is NOT as easy as anyone, trapper, hunter, gatherer, gardener, make it out to be. You MUST have stashed calories. The One Is None rule isn't even as important as Got Wheat. With tools, you can go lower on the technology scale, and hence have much cheaper tools more easily duplicated financially. I don't want to bring a spear to a gun fight, but I can also avoid gun fights by avoiding people, by and large. Once in the land of black pajamas there were a thing called primitive booby traps. Didn't even require a gun. The operator DID require energy from rice to set them, however.

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Charlie was also pretty good at NOT being in the village when Joe came calling. He was avoiding crowds. You don't fight towards the enemies strengths. You don't notice Habeeb fielding armored cars, do you? You don't notice Afghans climbing the hills with 150 pound backpacks. Funny, we “Own The Night!” and yet are losing over in the Sandbox. Keep telling yourself we aren't allowed to win by the politicians. It might be true, because our wars are about enriching the elite ( the military industrial complex in Vietnam, the bankers with their PetroDollars in Iraq ). But that doesn't mean we could win otherwise.

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The economic collapse is already here, ten years ago. All we are waiting for now, during this new round of worry, is the actually personal catastrophe that was promised to each of us back then. A lot of you are since permanently unemployed. Your prepping days are nearly over. But that fate awaits us all, soon enough. Hurry, in your prepping. Food, more food, adding in some wheat ( yes, I understand some prefer rice. Fair enough. Just have calories, taking into account the need to compensate for the nutritional issues in White Food ) just for good measure.

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If you can't afford duplicate tools, lower the bar on what you consider necessary. If you can't buy multiple AR's, get multiple bolt actions. If you can't afford those, get single shot break opens. If you can't afford 308 ammo, be content with carbine rounds. Odds are most of us can't hit spit at the battle rifle rounds ranges anyway ( mine are more to defeat wind and cover at short ranges ). Anyone can be prepped, cheaply. You just can't be Yuppie Scum prepped. No loss. I'd wager they have a very hard time duplicating most of their expensive tools. Who is better off? The peasant with a pen full of donkey's or the man only able to afford one nice car?

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At the end of the day you CAN have it all, prepping and an enjoyable life. And being ready NOW. You just have to adjust expectations. You could be on a homestead now, if you were willing to sell all your toys, give up the salary, and live in a tent ( then a shack ). You could have a mountain retreat in the redoubt now, if you lived in a RV in the high desert, rather than insisting on Idaho land with a McMansion. Nothing is impossible, unless you dream above your pay grade.

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I think this article was a bit all over the place, a steaming mess. I think I even forgot my point. Let's just say, this stuff is easy, once you simplify.

( .Y. )

( today's related Amazon link click HERE )

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Please support Bison by buying through the Amazon links here ( or from http://bisonprepper.com/2.html or www.bisonbulk.blogspot.com ). Or PayPal www.paypal.me/jimd303 

*** Unless you are in extreme poverty, spend a buck a month here, by the above donation methods ( I get 4% of the Amazon sale, so you need to buy $25 worth for me to get my $1 ) or mail me some cash/check/money order or buy a book ( web site for free books, Amazon to pay just as a donation vehicle ).

*** My e-mail is: jimd303@reagan.com My address is: James M Dakin, 181 W Bullion Rd #12, Elko NV 89801-4184 ***E-Mail me if you want your name added to the weekly e-newsletter subscriber list.

*** Pay your author-no one works for free. I’m nice enough to publish for barely above Mere Book Money, so do your part.*** junk land under a grand *  Lord Bison* my bio & biblio* my web site is www.bisonprepper.com *** Wal-Mart wheat***Amazon Author Page
* By the by, all my writing is copyrighted. For the obtuse out there

I am spartacus

I AM SPARTACUS

Yeah, you sure are ( for those crawling out from under a rock, some ancient film called “Spartacus” staring ancient dudes-if you cannot detect my sarcasm, this was before my time. I have rarely met a film prior to “Lawrence Of Arabia” I enjoyed, “Bridge Over The River Kwai” being an exception. Just not of my culture, sorry-which I never saw had the famous scene I thought everyone had seen clips of, where everyone is claiming to be the slave revolt leader to deflect blame ). You stay your silly ass in the city, you will soon enough be a slave.

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Now, don't misunderstand me. Slavery will be widespread after the apocalypse, and you could end up a slave for any number of reasons. But if you are in the worst place, with the highest need of slaves as our Petroleum Slaves all die off, you will be enslaved quicker than most. It isn't bad enough you shouldn't live in the big cities because they have been turned over to a OtherColor tribe? You need ANOTHER reason to fear the urban areas? There it is. How deliciously ironic do you think it will be to our Oh-Pressed disadvantaged youth to become hunting groups to round up crackers for the auction?

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Now, I will be all too pleased to cheer them on, laughing my ass off, as the Blue Forces more pale, privileged members are themselves rounded up, after they thought they had won the culture wars for Stalin, but besides that moment of levity, I don't think we take this danger seriously enough. Part of the Resource Wars is depopulation and Race War, and even if you feel all inclusive and want to embrace diversity, minority groups certainly do NOT care for your casper looking ass. They want to kill you. Nothing personal. But you are in THEIR hood.

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The one they worked hard in conquering and occupying. Do you Honest Injun think that Detroit, Baltimore, Atlanta and the like are American cities anymore? Sure, they fly the flag and a couple of residents are left that still speak English ( is Ebonics a branch of English, or a separate language? ), and US police do have a few Green Zones set up there, but they are enemy occupied territory. Racially, if not also politically. When the real economic collapse is followed by the energy implosion ( at least in the US, as the imports cease and most fracking goes unfunded, being a money loser even at $100 a barrel ), a white face is a guaranteed target.

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I'm not claiming there aren't legitimate grievances, even though as we view it nobody now has owned any slaves, and no one forced Latino's to meander up here, but from their point of view as long as being a victim pays there will be more of that. What I'm saying is that however much of a racist YOU are not, those OtherColors ARE, and they will kill you quicker than snot on a broom handle if given the opportunity. So stop “proving” you aren't racist and move the hell in with your own kind. Even the Blacks want segregation now.

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Tribe Up or get screwed up. At least on the macro level ( yes, I understand it is problematic on the street level, for prepping ). Now, since we have settled that staying in the cities is dangerous now, and more so later, because of the race issue, add a few more groups who hate you. The local government will NOT be pleased that you have failed to keep them in the style they are accustomed to. They will take it personally.

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How DARE you not work and give them all your money in taxes. That cop worked hard, going to college on the GI Bill and then sitting in a squad car driving around. Then writing reports! Why, these dastardly deeds ( done dirt cheap ) demand a pension! ( I'm being harsh, unduly. We are ALL going to lose our pensions, and we will ALL feel butt hurt about it ). But the cops can DO something about it, and will. They will become bounty hunters. If you live in an area that barely sees a surge of four deputy sheriffs during a crime spree, you'll be a lot safer than if you live in a city where thousands are employed. One cop, you can grease his palm. Twenty of them? They are here to capture and sell you.

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This isn't going to be a repeat of the Mexican drug cartels. There might be kidnappings, for those with some wealth left. But as far as well funded criminal groups, no. The oil is running out, and so has money. Just as in times of yore, slavery will be THE money maker with captured people. They are free energy barter items. Don't think civility survives past other peoples loss of comfort. Gang members will be after you. The government paid guns for hire will be after you.

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Granted, raiding parties WILL visit the country for rural folks. Crack Heads will be after you there, also ( another article will discuss how dangerous it is for both locations, but the short of it is that the city is only as safe as your ability to pay taxes to the authorities or to the reigning criminal gang. And we are entering a period where everyone loses their wealth. So how safe are you without paid protectors? ). But here we must deal with raw numbers.

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With far less people around there are less hands holding guns aimed at you. It is as simple as that. The more folks per square mile, the more foot troops oppose you. Not to say city troops don't invade the countryside. If you are a farmer, within range of the city, you are hosed. The only safe space ( much safer, anyway ) to farm is up in the hills. But troops invading are not on their home turf. If you are in the city ( which most likely includes suburbs ), you are on THEIR turf. Where would you rather be?

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If you view the War Of Northern Aggression as a war to free the slaves, you think of slavery as a one-off form of barbarism, like OH-pressing bitches. But the harsh truth is that Whites in both the South and the North didn't much care for Blacks. Certainly not enough to risk dying for them. Lincoln was even in favor of shipping them back to Africa, until one of his sponsors reminded him that the factory owners wouldn't make any profit off of that. And, just to be clear, women got both protection and support on the backs of their wombs. They were about as oppressed as my nut sack.

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What Blacks were was energy for the South and an impediment to the wealth pump in the north. But until coal came along, there was ALWAYS slavery. Coal freed Blacks, not northerners. But as soon as that coal is gone again ( we are already running out of oil-coal is a more open question, being ill studied ), you can bet the farm slavery returns. And the first idiots enslaved are those living right where they will be needed. Plan accordingly. Or don't. Enjoy your Starbucks, slave.

( .Y. )

( today's related Amazon link click HERE )

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note: HC, most excellent PayPal donation, many thanks.
*
note: free for today books, plague HERE 
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Please support Bison by buying through the Amazon links here ( or from http://bisonprepper.com/2.html or www.bisonbulk.blogspot.com ). Or PayPal www.paypal.me/jimd303 

*** Unless you are in extreme poverty, spend a buck a month here, by the above donation methods ( I get 4% of the Amazon sale, so you need to buy $25 worth for me to get my $1 ) or mail me some cash/check/money order or buy a book ( web site for free books, Amazon to pay just as a donation vehicle ).

*** My e-mail is: jimd303@reagan.com My address is: James M Dakin, 181 W Bullion Rd #12, Elko NV 89801-4184 ***E-Mail me if you want your name added to the weekly e-newsletter subscriber list.

*** Pay your author-no one works for free. I’m nice enough to publish for barely above Mere Book Money, so do your part.*** junk land under a grand *  Lord Bison* my bio & biblio* my web site is www.bisonprepper.com *** Wal-Mart wheat***Amazon Author Page
* By the by, all my writing is copyrighted. For the obtuse out there

waste not, have not

WASTE NOT, HAVE NOT

Benjamin Franklin was a pretty cool dude, an old lecherous hump sniffing around the Frog gals panties when he wasn't busy selling the government on the pleasures of depriving the Limey's of a North American colony. And he had a million nuggets of wisdom, one which MIGHT have been “waste not, want not”. If he did print that, he probably stole it from somewhere else. But no matter, if he didn't say it, he should have. And that was true, before the Industrial Revolution. At the end of it, not so much.

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The Oil Age and the Industrial Age were a pretty good time. Even Bush Bitches in darkest Africa can drink Coco-Cola and get free plastic bags to defecate into ( a nasty habit of city dwellers without toilets, who then dispose of them rather carelessly )( I'll never forget a short lived survivalist magazine, late 80's, which had an article by a thrifty Scot who found a perfectly fine coffee can housing a human turd, who could not stop himself from rescuing the container ), compliments of greedy humps turning irreplaceable oil into disposable containers.

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But that time, oil & industry, is wrapping up. Just as a silver mine will close with ore still left inside, because the remaining amount won't pay the heavy machinery, workers and financiers, so too will the oil stop flowing, with plenty left in the ground. The last barrels down below won't be sufficient to pay the bankers, who are failing after twenty billion barrels of fracking oil, and whatever is left won't do the trick either. Without funding, production halts, and the bankers are doing the funding. But the bankers also used the derivatives market to make a profit. And that is unraveling.

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In theory. I could be wrong, and I pray that I am. But I don't think so, not really. My apologies for my inability to blow smoke up your ass in return for profit. If there is a heaven, I'd like to think I can be admitted for doing some good. And as God is a jealous god, prohibiting false idols and all, I don't think Mammon worship is looked upon favorably. What is the problem with derivatives? The leverage. Leverage is your friend until it turns on you and consumes the very air you need to breathe. And I'm pretty darn sure the bankers are suffocating right now.

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Banker McStinkyhead needed to fund the fracking industry, because energy IS collateral for creating credit. The more energy that flows, and who cares if you birth or borrow money to get the energy, the better your economy does. The better your economy does, the longer you last after foreign oil ceased, your Tech Wreck loans went bad, your housing bets went bad and you are one quarterly lose away from the house in the Hampton's being foreclosed.

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The problem is that fracking loses money. How do you buy hookers and blow for that mansion, if your loans are to a money losing enterprise? You use wonderful, beautiful derivatives that came through so many times before ( as they crashed and burned every time before ). And what better way to use derivatives than leverage the crap out of them? What was one of the causes ( besides central bank manipulation) of the Great Depression in 1929? Leverage. The Housing Bubble ten years ago? Leverage. The more crap changes, the more it stays the same.

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The Federal Reserve is pumping up to $100 billion in short term loans each working day, and the definition of “short term” is being stretched out. The bail-outs have begun, and I believe it is because the leveraging has already gone bad. This is GLOBAL, which means it is most likely the biggest and the last unwindings financially. As such, would it perhaps behoove you to diversify out of cash and bankers digital wealth? Again, no one can guarantee this is a spot on analysis. I've been wrong before on the timing of the collapse, and I could be again. So the question you want to ask yourself is, do you feel lucky, punk?

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Now would be a good time to ask yourself, is it a suitable gamble to perhaps waste your investment monies? I've wasted more money prepping than I have money invested. Wasted money on real estate I abandon. Wasted money on shelters I end up deciding are in the wrong location. Wasted arsenals I decided could be improved. Items paid top dollar for, when I could have waited a few years to drop drastically in price ( those who bought a $2k AR-15 during the Clinton gun ban know what I speak of ). But it simply didn't matter how much you wasted. The point was, you were prepped.

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Right now, seemingly time being short, you might be thinking you needed to be hurrying up and prepping. Buying junk land you weren't sure you wanted, buying a pallet of expensive freeze dried food because that was better than not having enough food ( say, if you were worried about the midwest flooding and/or the grand solar minimum ). Buying cases of canned food that weren't your favorite. Buying more crappy ammo than was prudent, because waiting for sales on higher quality might be LESS smart. We could continue on all day how easy it is to waste money prepping the wrong way.

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But sometimes it is simply better to waste money and have SOMETHING, than to keep money and have nothing. I don't advocate waste, not in Frugal Prepping, but no one is going to be mistake free, and sometimes it is better to somewhat throw caution to the wind. Sometimes you just say, screw it, I'm taking this risk. Err on the side of caution, by having assets. Even if they were overpaid for. No one is saying bet the rent money. Just beware if time is short, better something less than perfect you overpaid for rather than nothing.

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Junk land buying got me thinking on this. Something that is quite easy to procrastinate on, trying to avoid mistakes. But everyone that has that land is happy they at least have something, anything. Even if they wish they bought elsewhere. At least they are better off than before. And if they waste that money, as they buy another, better lot? So what? They were covered before, safer. It might be a very expensive feeling, but it isn't a waste of money by all metrics. Who claimed peace of mind was free?

( .Y. )

( today's related Amazon link click HERE )

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note: payday, my minions!  Novembers earnings came in at a respectable $143 donations, $243 Amazon commissions and $11 book sales.  $397 total.  You can't beat that with a sharp stick!  Thank you one and all, I appreciate it more than you think.  
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note: free for today books.  Zombies, but a new ( to us ) author with lots more published HERE 
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note: SF, you beautiful bastard, many thanks for the PayPal donation of generous proportions.  
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Please support Bison by buying through the Amazon links here ( or from http://bisonprepper.com/2.html or www.bisonbulk.blogspot.com ). Or PayPal www.paypal.me/jimd303 

*** Unless you are in extreme poverty, spend a buck a month here, by the above donation methods ( I get 4% of the Amazon sale, so you need to buy $25 worth for me to get my $1 ) or mail me some cash/check/money order or buy a book ( web site for free books, Amazon to pay just as a donation vehicle ).

*** My e-mail is: jimd303@reagan.com My address is: James M Dakin, 181 W Bullion Rd #12, Elko NV 89801-4184 ***E-Mail me if you want your name added to the weekly e-newsletter subscriber list.

*** Pay your author-no one works for free. I’m nice enough to publish for barely above Mere Book Money, so do your part.*** junk land under a grand *  Lord Bison* my bio & biblio* my web site is www.bisonprepper.com *** Wal-Mart wheat***Amazon Author Page
* By the by, all my writing is copyrighted. For the obtuse out there