War in Europe may spread. War in the Pacific looks more and more certain every day. Our military is in questionable shape. Are we ready to survive here at home?
Do you mean how will the home front survive cut off from China trade? I think the prescription drug shortage that will produce will result in a large die off of elderly and other people dependent on prescription drugs for survival. No matter how a war with China over Taiwan goes, the home front will take a large amount of casualties from the it.
We live in troubled times indeed. There is no excuse for the fact that modern civilization seems to be rapidly swirling down the drain. I give no small blame for this though to our mass media information sources. The news business in today's world is how many clicks can you get rather than informing people.
Most people in this nation are not even prepared to survive for 2 weeks in the wake of a power outage or a storm of any sort.
I am. Our house is totally solar. We are "preppers'... food, hygiene items, medical supplies, water PURIFICATION, solid survival library, items in Faraday Cages, tools, ammo, lots more. Its easy if you do it over years... little by little... as we have.
I've got a few cases of MREs and plenty of canned goods. The MREs are fresh from last year's hurricane and the national guard so they should be good for at least 5 years or better. Should we have to bug out I have two tents and both of them are Earth tone colors like olive drab. I also have basic survival gear. I should do two things though I need to stock up on more water and I also need to get some water filtration devices because that's an important piece I'm missing. Prescription medicines is another area that we are lacking in as is most people. That would be the big one for a lot of people
Its politicians who are in opposition and the media who support them who want you to think swirling down the drain. If driving transvestites into the closet is our biggest problem and top priority, then times must be good indeed.
All good stuff. When we retired five years ago we retired to a place we would have run to when we lived in San Diego, so we aren't planning on "bugging out". We chose carefully. This town has three large medical complexes. There's a mall less than a mile north of us, town center less than a mile south of us... and if we walk east or west we can buy eggs right from the chickens and beef strait from the cattle. We're not in a place where evacuating crowds will pass through here on their way to somewhere else. If they end up here they are coming here in the first place. The winds here come across the Gulf of Mexico from Mexico so its unlikely they will ever carry contamination. Water is plentiful and like we both realize, water purification is essential. (Look at "Katadyn" systems. Their filters are reusable.) MRE's are actually pretty good... except for the few months in Iraq when we had nothing but "Black Beans and Rice"... a whole semi-tractor trailer full. We would have killed for some MEAT!
Ever since I was a child I always liked spending time in the woods alone and I still do. I don't plan on bugging out either but it's nice to have a plan b. Where we live is nice because it's outside of the city limits a couple of miles of a small town so you're out in the country without having to drive 30 miles to a store. Far enough outside of the city to be largely left alone but not so far as to be impractical. I used to do a bit of bicycle touring combined with stealth camping. I have a nice two man tent and a three man tent. You always want a tent that is one size bigger than you need. I got the three man tent for me and my girlfriend in case we do some camping and a very important feature of a tent like that is a door on either side so that when one of you has to get up in the middle of the night you don't have to crawl over the top of the other one. I would not waste money on a two-person tent without two doors. Several times in my life I have done 100 mi days on a bicycle within 12 hours and that's carrying a 40 lb load of camp gear some food and water and what mechanical repairs one might need such as two spare tubes and two small pumps in case one pump should fail... ( And also the other vital tools you need for basic bike repair) But it's been probably 9 years and 40 pounds ago since I did that and nowadays I would expect the 30 mi day to be plenty for me. Now I'm older fatter and lazier so I go out to the shed and get my motorcycle and turn the key. Lol..... I do need to get my fat ass back on the bicycle for some exercise I know how to hunt and fish and forage and I am also pretty well versed in urban scavenging, having been dirt poor for a number of years. I know a bit about basic food preservation but I do need to Bone up more on the ways that our ancestors did it. I'm in a much better place now financially but it is always nice to know that should I fall on hard times I can get down the road and keep the rain and bugs off of me and disappear into the bush even if it's only a camouflaged stealth camp on the side of a road and survive.
We are the product of our own experience. I've spent too many years in the army cold, hot, wet, dry, climbing mountains, waking up under a foot of snow, crawling on my belly in a sandstorm, sleeping in the crook of a tree to escape the roaring waters below, etc. to ever enjoy camping. I'd much rather hit myself in the head with a ballpeen hammer. Nowadays, a Marriott with poolside service is as back to nature as I want to get. But Uncle Sugar did teach me how to survive just about anywhere. (I still remember dropping a rock on a frog to use as bait, then unraveling my underwear to make a fishing line.) But you can't know everything. That's why a library is essential. The military has some great publications on how to establish a defensive perimeter, survival skills and more. The RANGER and SPECIAL FORCES medical manuals are especially valuable. And they are ALL available for download online.
I have seen a very good device advertised for perimeter security. It takes 12 gauge blanks and it can also use 22 blanks or other calibers and it's cost $35 to $50 depending on which one you get and you fix it to a location like a fence post or the door of your shed or whatnot..... And you slide the blank cartridge into a breach and it has a trip wire with a cotter pin that holds back the spring loaded firing pin. Perfectly legal to use and not harmful and it will scare the bejesus out of any trespasser or animal.... In addition to alerting you. I need to get at least one of those and put it inside the locked door of my shed so if anyone should try to steal my motorcycle I would certainly hear them in the middle of the night. Here is a link I found. https://fithops.com/products/12-gauge-perimeter-alarm
I have a few. I'd never use blanks... I do hav some similar ones that set off a light stick though. Illuminate the bad guys...
But some of us are ready. We are solar... no dependence on the grid at all. We have water PURIFICATION, lots of food (and when it gives out we have seeds/tools and lots of barter items like chocolate, booze, paper goods, tobacco, ammo, etc.). Hygiene items... medical supplies... perimeter defense stuff.. clothing... and a library filled with military manuals on operations, explosives, medical procedures as well as electronics manuals, agriculture information and lots more. If SHTF we have two doctors, a fe nurses, a teacher, a software guru and some veterans to join us.
They are much MORE likely... - US military unable to meet its recruiting requirements so military manpower is decreasing - US military is draining its war stocks of weapons by sending so much to Ukraine - Biden's unbelievable cowardice so aptly demonstrated in Afghanistan has been reinforced by his failureto react to the Chinese violation of us airspace and then reinforced again with his lack of response to Russia shooting down a US multimillion dollar aircraft - Biden's total failure to perform his duties as President, from securing our country's borders to managing debt and more clearly demonstrated the weakness of our current leaders The only thing keeping China from grabbing Taiwan today is the certainty that we will get weaker and weaker until someone new gets into the White House. When we start showing signs of recovering, China would be foolish not to attack. Such an opportunity has never presented itself in history.
I think it was Eisenhower that said if a country has a weapon they will eventually use it. I am not prepared for nuclear war. Nor do I know how to prepare. I think I would rather be vaporized.
I have retired to the Texas coast where the prevailing winds come up from Mexico... potentially carrying any contamination away from me. There are no significant targets within 100 miles. This are produces enough food to support the local population. We have a higher than average level of medical assets here. We've built some Faraday Cages to protect critical electronic items from EMP. We have various man-worn and electronic devices to measure contamination. We'll see what the future holds.
Grave men, near death, who see with blinding sight Blind eyes could blaze like meteors and be gay, Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
