America 'Disintegrates' in 2010?

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123051100709638419.html
Russian Professor Predicts End of U.S.














MOSCOW -- For a decade, Russian academic Igor Panarin has been predicting the U.S. will fall apart in 2010. For most of that time, he admits, few took his argument -- that an economic and moral collapse will trigger a civil war and the eventual breakup of the U.S.

A former KGB analyst, he is dean of the Russian Foreign Ministry's academy for future diplomats.

Mr. Panarin posits, in brief, that mass immigration, economic decline, and moral degradation will trigger a civil war next fall and the collapse of the dollar. Around the end of June 2010, or early July, he says, the U.S. will break into six pieces -- with Alaska reverting to Russian control.

The professor says he began his career in the KGB in 1976. In post-Soviet Russia, he got a doctorate in political science, studied U.S. economics, and worked for FAPSI, then the Russian equivalent of the U.S. National Security Agency. He says he did strategy forecasts for then-President Boris Yeltsin, adding that the details are "classified."

He based the forecast on classified data supplied to him by FAPSI analysts, he says. He predicts that economic, financial and demographic trends will provoke a political and social crisis in the U.S. When the going gets tough, he says, wealthier states will withhold funds from the federal government and effectively secede from the union. Social unrest up to and including a civil war will follow. The U.S. will then split along ethnic lines, and foreign powers will move in.

California will form the nucleus of what he calls "The Californian Republic," and will be part of China or under Chinese influence. Texas will be the heart of "The Texas Republic," a cluster of states that will go to Mexico or fall under Mexican influence. Washington, D.C., and New York will be part of an "Atlantic America" that may join the European Union. Canada will grab a group of Northern states Prof. Panarin calls "The Central North American Republic." Hawaii, he suggests, will be a protectorate of Japan or China, and Alaska will be subsumed into Russia.

Thoughts for Today

A democracy is nothing more than mob rule, where fifty-one percent of the people may take away the rights of the other forty-nine. - Thomas Jefferson

Experience hath shewn, that even under the best forms of government those entrusted with power have, in time, and by slow operations, perverted it into tyranny. - Thomas Jefferson

They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety. - Benjamin Franklin

Firearms are second only to the Constitution in importance; they are the peoples' liberty's teeth. - George Washington

Government is not reason; it is not eloquent; it is force. Like fire, it is a dangerous servant and a fearful master. - George Washington

A (Very) Few Good Men

I have heard many stories from guys who were preparing about their wife/girlfriend/significant other who refused to get with the program. Some just did not like guns and the implication of violence and could not conceive that 9-1-1 would not buffer them from the cruel world WTSHTF. Others could not deal with the negativism of war, rioting, economic collapse, hunger, terrorism, our out of control government. The myriad of contingencies to be planned for sometimes overwhelm me but I keep on planning. I thought that was a “guy thing”, having been raised during the height of the Cold War with my grandfather as primary role model. You know, a guy goes to work to financially provide for his family (even though most of my adult life it required 2 full time salaries!) and ensures their physical safety and protection as well. Most of my friends and long time associates have that mindset.

I am the first to point out the sheeple among us but never realized that term applied to much more than preparedness and freedom from the Nanny State. I am ashamed to admit I know of “men” who work all day and that is all they do. I’m not speaking of 1950’s coal miners exhausted after dirty, dangerous and backbreaking shifts who depend on their stay-at-home wives but those of today, doing anything from physical labor to bean-counting and mouse-clicking. It is their wives who leave work, wrangle their kids from school or daycare, make dinner, supervise homework and orchestrate all the movements of kids’ to after school events. The Old Man arrives, usually clueless about the evening’s events, has to be re-reminded about the still-expired inspection sticker on his vehicle, etc. He worked all day, period.

It didn’t work that way for the 22 years we raised 2 kids. Yes, we were lucky in that one or both of us could choose which shift we worked or had start/stop times a couple of hours apart when the kids were too young to be left alone. In the home, my wife and I were virtually interchangeable. Whoever returned home first started dinner, dealt with homework, etc. Wife took daughter to Girl Scouts; I took son to Boy Scouts and was a scout leader. I did that while working rotating and midnight shifts. We took turns with daughter’s evening gymnastics class.

Why is this important? If the day-to-day load always seems to fall on the shoulders of the female (to support my argument) can she then expect the “man” to step up WTSHTF? Probably not. He was probably “preparing” for this weekend’s big game by checking out 52 inch plasma screen TVs instead of sinking that amount of money (or even credit) into a long-term pantry should one of them gets laid-off. This isn't the Theory of Relativity and I'm not Albert Einstein. It’s a matter of priorities dictated by childhood role models and the next generation is in deep trouble.

Coming Soon to USA, Inc.?

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123032660060735767.html?mod=article-outset-box

This past fall, every bank that matters in this tiny nation -- that is, all three of them -- failed. Iceland's currency, the krona, became worthless beyond its shores. The country's financial system stopped working.
"We are pissed off at the government," said one young man.

Until very recently, the 21st century had smiled on Iceland. Last year, it boasted the highest standard of living of any country, according to the United Nations -- outranking the U.S., for all its McMansions and drive-through coffee shops, and Sweden with its government-paid parental leave and other generous social benefits.

To a degree, the wealth Iceland enjoyed during the boom years was a mirage. It was conjured by high interest rates, which attracted vast sums of foreign money.

Stampeding the Sheeple

I came across a good article or those of you who carry a firearm, concealed or openly: http://www.pennlive.com/printer/printer.ssf?/base/news/123033842527050.xml&coll=1
I disagree with the Sheriff, agree with the woman that she was within her legal rights to carry openly but think that open carry puts one at a tactical disadvantage with the criminal because one loses the element of surprise in additional to stampeding the sheeple. The bottom line is that it is up to each of us to protect ourselves and our own. How we do so is the question.

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Whatever you celebrate and however you celebrate it, remember the true meaning.

Ice

We had our first substantial ice storm overnight. Thankfully it wasn’t enough to cause power problems in my area but it made driving interesting. Ironically the 2-lane state roads were an easier drive than the interstate, not because of condition but because of drivers.

My drive to work is roughly 30 miles and I kept it to 55 mph on the interstate, in the right lane with many other motorists. As soon as I went over the first overpass I noticed the car began to yaw. That unnerved me so I backed off the gas. Each subsequent overpass resulted in the same yawing, the front wheel drive car’s answer to rear wheel drive “fishtailing”.

Meanwhile, the passing lane was populated by hyperactive, short attention span motorists driving Acuras, BMWs, Lexi (is that the plural of Lexus?) and even 18-wheelers and tandem trailer rigs…all oblivious to the film of ice beneath us. They would pass, bunch up, someone would brake and I held my breath. So much for their Situational Awareness!

No French Toast Festival!

We are about to have our 4th occurrence of winter precipitation in the past 2 weeks. Except for a dusting of snow, everything we received was in the form of sleet and/or freezing rain which sometimes turned into a cold, miserable rain. Back in February or March of this year we returned from a weekend away to find the trees and power lines coated in ice, heard limbs breaking and lost power early that Sunday evening.

So why doesn’t the chance of sleet and especially freezing rain not send the multitudes to the supermarkets for bread, milk and eggs (hence, the French Toast Festival) like the threat of a plowable snow? I have lived in this area for 25 years and I cannot figure it out! Nor can I figure out why French Toast fixings are in high demand! Must be a local thing!

Water, Water Everywhere!!!

I just spent an “enjoyable” hour washing, rinsing and filling 25 2-liter soda bottles with drinking water for long term storage. The procedure is as simple as it is tedious. Place a single drop of dish washing detergent into the bottle, place a few ounces of warm water into it, cap it, shake it twice so the soap and water mix, then remove the cap, hold the bottle sideways and let the soapy water slowly pour from the bottle onto the bottle cap on its way down the drain. Add an ounce or two of fresh water and slowly swirl, not shake the bottle to collect the soap suds that remain. Repeat this 4 or 5 times. The key is not to agitate the small amount of water while swirling and pouring as a single drop of detergent will form a mound of suds and take forever to rinse! Allow to drain for a few minutes. I then add 10-12 drops of plain (without fragrance) chlorine bleach, fill and tightly cap each bottle. It is natural to have a faucet aerator cause some bubbles to appear as the water reaches the top of the bottle but anything resembling soap suds must be discarded and the bottle and cap must be rinsed again before adding the chlorine bleach.

I used to use 1 gallon plastic water bottles for storage but I heard the plastic is porous and can absorb contaminants from the air. Even worse, the plastic was designed to be biodegradable and I ended up with rusty shelves as bottles began to leak. I have since standardized on 2 and 3 liter plastic soda bottles and have sent all the defective bottles to the recycle bin but those that have not yet leaked are destined for toilet flushing. I also have half a dozen 5 gallon buckets that I cleaned and filled with a mixture of water and Parsons cleaner. These would be used during a prolonged power failure for toilet flushing. I estimate each bucket could flush a toilet 4 times and the cleaner’s scent would help to minimize odors since toilets would be flushed perhaps once a day.

One item on my wish list is a galvanized well bucket, available at Lehman’s (http://www.lehmans.com/shopping/product/detailmain.jsp?itemID=97&itemType=PRODUCT&RS=1&keyword=well+bucket). The 3.5 inch diameter X 52” long bucket is designed to be lowered down a 4” well and retrieve just less than 2 gallons of water. [Below, left: Well casing cover which must be removed. Below, right: well bucket]

A 30-gallon food grade barrel (thoroughly scrubbed, aired out and with chlorine bleach added) and a siphon pump provide bulk storage. Water is life and needs to be a priority in your survival plans.

The Truth about Government

The Democrats will be running the White House, the House and the Senate soon. Before they make drastic changes, they may want to consider some interesting quotations on government.

My favorites reveal a general wariness of government -- a key principle upon which our republic was founded:

http://www.caglepost.com/column/Tom+Purcell/15203/The+Truth+about+Government.html

Lou Dobbs Show on Martial Law, Posse Comitatus
http://www.infowars.com/?p=6525
YouTube | The Lou Dobbs Show asks difficult questions the rest of the corporate media will not touch.

Ammunition Accountability: Maybe we’d better take this bill seriously
http://www.infowars.com/?p=6476
Dave Henderson | New York, Pennsylvania and 16 other states have already enacted legislation that would mandate the engraving of a unique serial number on the base of each handgun and “assault weapon” bullet, and an identical number on the cartridge’s case.

Buy NOW!

http://www.gunshows-usa.com/index.html

American Deja Vu?

This is from an email that I sent 6 years ago. The information below was taken from http://www.roman-empire.net/diverse/faq.html My comments [in brackets] were added to draw a parallel between the two societies.

Why did Rome fall ?

Well, the old-fashioned, traditional explanation for the fall of Rome points out the mass migration as the biggest reason for the collapse of Rome.

In ancient European history it happened two or three times that huge migrations took place, hundreds of thousands, even millions of people set out to find new homelands.
The fact that such a mass migration took place whilst the Romans were still in power, must be seen as at least a major contributor to their fall. For as we see in modern days too, armies can fight other armies, but they cannot fight entire peoples. The Romans were overwhelmed in a human deluge.

But today one tends not to rely so much on the idea of mass migration and rather understands Rome as having suffered from an entire list of problems.

Rome had always had its fair share of bad emperors. Caligula, Nero, Commodus are such examples. But there always followed good emperors to correct their errors. At Rome's end however, there was really no good rulers. For example great generals like Stilicho were killed because the emperor feared losing his throne to them. If you kill your best generals, your army will never be as good as it could be.

Also important to the weakening of the Romans was that they began to get more and more civilized. Civilized people were not as good warriors on the battlefields as barbarians. For a long time the Romans had their own barbarians. Gauls, Illyrians, Belgians, Helvetians, Germans, etc.; they all joined the Roman legions. But soon they too were living like Romans. They enjoyed the fruits of Roman civilization and hence became less barbarous, - and less able to fight the barbarian Goths, Vandals, Sueves, etc..

Another important reason is perhaps that of Roman unity. The early Romans who built the empire stood united. By the end of course Rome had two capitals, Rome and Constantinople, each with its own emperor. But to the earlier Romans, Rome had been something special, something they served. But the later Romans only sought power for themselves. Almost every military commanders secretely had his eye on the throne and was ready to overthrow the emperor and take power himself. The armies spent a lot of time fighting each other for power in Rome, rather than fighting the enemy.

To this cataolgue of troubles one needs also to add economic problems. Rome was spending more than it could afford. The free food rations for the poor of Rome and Constantinople were costing a fortune. The Purchasing of exotic spices and silk from the orient meant that over time Rome was spending its gold on overseas luxuries. Gold which didn't return. Soon Rome didn't have enough gold to produce coins with.

And then there were the plagues. Deadly diseases brought in from the east swept across Europe, killing vast numbers among the population of the empire.
Even if the mass migration of the wild, Germanic people of the eastern plains is no longer seen as the all-important reason for Rome's demise, it naturally still is seen as one of the capital problems which caused the empire to fall.
As a last reason I'd also see the disastrous decision of emperor Valens (who was emperor of Constantinople) to allow the Visigoths to settle in Moesia.

The Roman empire's borders to the north had been the river Rhine and the river Danube. They are wide streams and therefore hard to cross. This means, the border was easy to defend. But when the Huns from the east attacked the Visigoths on the other side of the Danube, emperor Valens let them settle on the Roman side of the river. True, the Visigoths then were friends of the Romans. But that soon changed. It didn't take long and bad living conditions, poverty and starvation led the Visigoths to revolt. In the following war, the Romans no longer had a protective river from behind which to defend themselves. The enemy was settled within their own empire. - And it should be the Visigoths who eventually sacked the city of Rome itself.

So, the main points for the fall were:

1. bad emperors [presidents]
2. increasing civilization of the people of the empire (which means weaker soldiers) [sensitivity, don't offend anyone, political correctness, aversion to military service in America]
3. Roman disunity, endless infighting [diversity, a country of Hyphenated-Americans instead of the old melting pot]
4. economic decline [our decades-old and worsening welfare state and now, recession/depression]
5. plagues
6. mass migration [unchecked, out of control illegal immigration]
7. and the settlement of the Visigoths in Moesia ["guest worker" status and amnesty for illegals]

"Proof" of Global Warming

STORMS TARGET MAJOR CITIES COAST TO COAST
Vegas: Biggest Snow in 30 years...
Spokane shut...
WATCH: NYC May Get 6 Inches Tomorrow...
Chicago: One Foot...
FREAK: SNOW IN MALIBU...
MAP: WATCH/WARNING...

But seriously, how ready are you to endure the extended power failures almost half a million residents of New England have been dealing with all week? My 5KW portable generator will keep the well pump going and power to the core of the house, but that is for intermittent use. I wish we could afford a propane backup power system but they are expensive and only good for short term emergencies not for a long term grid down event.

The fireplace insert and kerosene heaters will provide heat and kero lamps will provide lamp but it will be a miserable existence. For 2 years our power company deferred having contractors prune trees in their right-of-way and we had outages ranging from a few to 40+ hours every time it snowed , iced or got windy.

There is something freaky about being in almost total silence and darkness (except for the sound of an occasional generator) at night, even in my rural area. Calming and primeval, yet unsettling. I'm always concerned that having a house with lights or some amount of power can make it a target so we're extra vigilant during power failures.

'Survival Panic'

It's not what you might think! The sheeple are staring at the grounds in the bottom of their mocha cappuccino of life. Imagine their response during a real, life or death crisis! The bottom line is that there are a lot of unhinged people among us. Here are some excerpts from the article at http://www.cnbc.com/id/28249915

Downturn Spurs 'Survival Panic' for Some in the US
DEPRESSION, RECESSION, PANIC, PSYCHIATRIST, MENTAL HEALTH, ANXIETY, VIOLENCE
Reuters
16 Dec 2008 07:58 AM ET

In the coming months, mental health experts expect a rise in theft, depression, drug use, anxiety and even violence as consumers confront a harsh new reality and must live within diminished means.

"When we are in a survival panic, we are prone to really extreme behaviors."

It is also a rude awakening for a generation of shoppers who grew up on easy access to credit and have never had to limit purchases to simply what they needed or could afford. [The way our generation was raised and lived, for the most part.]

Instead, buying and consuming have become part of the national culture, with many people using what is in their shopping bags to express their own identity, from the latest gadgets to designer handbags. [As I have so often said, we are a nation of consumers, not producers!]

"People that have been ... identifying with and defining themselves by their material objects and expenditures are losing a definite piece of their identity and themselves,"

After the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001 killed thousands and shuttered U.S. financial markets, consumers were encouraged by politicians and business leaders to spend as a way of saving the economy and proving capitalism could not be crushed.

"We're getting these messages that it is, in effect, patriotic to spend money," said Stuart Vyse, a psychology professor and author of "Going Broke: Why Americans Can't Hold On To Their Money." The United States is deeply dependent on such spending, with consumption generating two-thirds of economic activity.

But problems arise when consumers become dependent on buying goods and services to cope with their emotions, Vaccaro said.

"I wouldn't be surprised if we see an uptick in crime, related to stealing," said UCLA's Fong. "I wouldn't be surprised if we see more workplace violence and more violence at the malls."

Beans, Bullets & Band-Aids

Most people preparing to survive uncertain times concentrate on the first two. As I stated in my first posting, some think preparedness is 10,000 rounds of ammo, a room full of various weapons and a 2 year’s supply of food are sufficient. But what happens when someone becomes ill, injured while working or wounded in an altercation? There may be a time when we will be responsible for caring for our own in the absence of access to hospitals or 9-1-1 service.

I was fortunate enough to attend a 3 day hands-on class in Ohio this past September. "Medical Response in a Hostile Environment" was taught by, among others, a former US Navy hospital corpsman. A thumbnail sketch of topics covered includes:

• suturing and minor surgery
• bandaging wounds and lacerations
• medications
• sterile procedure
• Nuclear, Biological and Chemical preparedness
• fracture management & casting, and
• dental emergencies, temporary fillings and recementing crowns

Complete details about the course are on the Medical Corps web site:

http://www.medicalcorps.com/

The 3 day course was well worth the 6+ hour drive to Ohio, 3 nights in a motel and the $325 tuition. Classes are usually held in Ohio but a group of 30 may justify a road trip for the trainers. The class would then be 4 days and $425 per student. I believe we depleted the county’s supply of fresh chicken parts as we used them to practice suturing and stapling wounds as the pub we went to for dinner said they were fresh out! I told you this was hands-on!!!

Of course an ounce of prevention (practicing safety, good hygiene and maintaining a low profile) to avoid medical emergencies during bad times is worth a ton of medical supplies, instruments and techniques. After all, just what is the acceptable amount of causalities that can be sustained among a family or close knit group

Homeland Insecurity

Wouldn't it make more sense to position 20,000 troops along the US border with Mexico??? That would allow the illegals and drug runners to "get accustomed to a military presence out there"!

http://www.infowars.com/?p=6532

Marines Establish Military Presence in San Bernardino County, California

Posted By admin On December 14, 2008 @ 4:53 pm In Featured Stories 63 Comments
Kurt NimmoInfowarsDecember 14, 2008
Branson Hunter, writing for the Big Bear Observation Post blog, reports that the Marine Corps Air and Ground Combat Center (MCAGCC) and the local California Highway Patrol will be working together over the holiday “in a joint effort to reduce accidents and drinking and driving” in San Bernardino County.

Hunter contacted Corporal Knuesn of the MCAGCC Provost Marshal office and MCAGCC Public Affairs Chief, Gunny Sgt. Chris Cox. Both confirmed the USMC will be present on public roads in order to setup a military presence during routine DUI check stops. “They will be working closely over the month to cut down of traffic accidents,” said Cox, “the Military Police will observe DUI check points and watch for their own guys. The intent is to have military presence out there.”
Infowars attempted to contact the MCAGCC Provost Marshal office and MCAGCC Public Affairs to confirm the story but we were unable to reach them.

Dispatching Marines on California highways is an obvious violation of the Posse Comitatus Act (18 U.S.C. § 1385) passed on June 16, 1878. The Act prohibits members of the federal uniformed services, including military police, from working with state and local police and law enforcement.
However, since September 11, 2001, the federal government has increasingly ignored Posse Comitatus. On October 1, 2008, the U.S. Army announced its 3rd Infantry Division’s 1st Brigade Combat Team will be under the day-to-day control of the Northern Command, ostensibly “on call” to respond to emergencies and disasters.

“They may be called upon to help with civil unrest and crowd control or to deal with potentially horrific scenarios such as massive poisoning and chaos in response to a chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear or high-yield explosive, or CBRNE, attack,” the Army Times reported on September 30. “Training for homeland scenarios has already begun at Fort Stewart and includes specialty tasks such as knowing how to use the ‘jaws of life’ to extract a person from a mangled vehicle; extra medical training for a CBRNE incident; and working with U.S. Forestry Service experts on how to go in with chainsaws and cut and clear trees to clear a road or area.”
It is not explained how assisting in traffic accidents falls within the purview of Homeland Security and the military. It appears that the Marines are using this very pretense in San Bernardino County to “cut down of traffic accidents,” a task normally reserved for local law enforcement.


Last month, Defense Secretary Robert Gates added yet another dimension to this incremental domestic militarization when he ordered the Pentagon “to conduct a broad review to determine whether the military, National Guard and Reserve can adequately deal with domestic disasters and whether they have the training and equipment to defend the homeland,” according to CBS News. According to a report issued by the Commission on the National Guard and Reserves, the Pentagon “must use the nation’s citizen soldiers to create an operational force that would be fully trained, equipped and ready to defend the nation, respond to crises and supplement the active duty troops in combat.”

On December 1, the Washington Post reported that the “U.S. military expects to have 20,000 uniformed [rapid reaction] troops inside the United States by 2011 trained to help state and local officials respond to a nuclear terrorist attack or other domestic catastrophe, according to Pentagon officials.” The Pentagon admitted that this move represented a “long-planned shift in the Defense Department’s role in homeland security,” never mind the obvious violation of the Posse Comitatus Act. “But the Bush administration and some in Congress have pushed for a heightened homeland military role since the middle of this decade, saying the greatest domestic threat is terrorists exploiting the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction.”


Gunny Sgt. Chris Cox explained more than he probably intended when he told Branson Hunter that the “intent is to have military presence” on California’s roads. As Alex Jones documented in his film The Road to Tyranny, the military has trained for more than a decade in domestic military operations and specifically “training for urban warfare against the American people,” as Marty Proctor, owner of the Main Street Deli in Swansboro, North Carolina told WorldNetDaily in April, 2000, when the 26th Marine Expeditionary Unit from Camp Lejeune invaded her town. “Members of the elite unit have been in Swansboro all week training with the local police at checkpoints and neighborhood patrols,” David M. Bresnahan wrote at the time.
In addition to the incremental dispatching of soldiers to assist local law enforcement in operating checkpoints and other duties, the federal government has largely taken over the financing, training, and direction of local police. “Under the 1981 ‘Military Cooperation with Law-Enforcement Officials Act,’ the US Department of Defense is supplying the local police with paramilitary training and equipment, especially for SWAT teams, for use against civilians. According to Peter Kraska in his article ‘Militarizing the Police’ in Social Problems (issue #1, 1997), many SWAT teams are being trained by former military special operations officers,” Fred E. Foldvary wrote for the Progress Report in 1999. It should be noted that this was well before the events of September 11, 2001, and the creation of the Department of Homeland Security.
Militarized police at the Boston DNC, 2004.

The purpose of this “heightened homeland military role” and the militarization of local law enforcement has little to do with a potential terrorist attack or natural disasters. It is part of a long-standing plan to implement martial law in America and control the populace through a military dictatorship. The National Security and Homeland Security Presidential Directive,” otherwise known as PDD 51, was signed into law through executive order by George Bush on May 9, 2007. It allows Bush — and soon enough, Barack Obama — to “take total control over the government and the country, bypassing all other levels of government at the state, federal, local, territorial and tribal levels, and thus ensuring total unprecedented dictatorial power,” as Paul Joseph Watson has noted.

In order to effectively establish a dictatorship and martial law, the government will need troops stationed in the country and that is precisely what the 3rd Infantry Division’s 1st Brigade Combat Team and the Pentagon’s 20,000 rapid reaction troops are all about. It has nothing to do with al-Qaeda, the CIA contrivance, or Fox News hyped homegrown terrorism. In addition, numerous TOPOFF (Top Officials) national-level domestic and international exercises staged around the country are desgined to get the populace ready for the possiblity of a false flag terrorist attack and the presence of troops on the streets.

Marines supposedly assisting the California Highway Patrol is part of this effort as well and is designed by the Pentagon and Homeland Security to get citizens accustomed to a “military presence out there.” It dovetails with FEMA’s so-called Clergy Response Teams trained by the federal government to “quell dissent” and pacify citizens to obey the government after a declaration of martial law (see Feds Train Clergy To “Quell Dissent” During Martial Law). Hurricane Katrina played a part in this emerging long-standing plan when police and National Guard patrols forced home owners to hand over their legally owned firearms at gunpoint.
As Branson Hunter notes, the citizens of California and San Bernardino County should immediately voice their concern over the violation of Posse Comitatus and the Constitution. “The bottom line: I urge anyone and everyone who believes in the Constitution, United States Codes, and Posse Comitatus — to do something! What can you do? To begin with, I suggest you contact the local Joshua Tree CHP Public Affairs Officer, Officer McLoud, at: 760. 366.3707 and voice your concern. Further, you can contact the MCAGCC Public Affairs Chief on the base at: 760.830.5476 or 760. 830.6213. Moreover, contact the Provost Marshal office at: 760.830.4215.”

Situational Awareness (SA)

I observed 3 incidents this morning of how out of touch some people are with their surroundings. I went for a 3 mile walk (actually, a forced march!) early this morning along a trail that connects two township parks. There are usually few people walking early on a weekend morning but people usually greet each other with a "Good morning" or "Hi". Half way through my walk I noticed a college-aged female wearing those telltale white ear buds of an iPod. I said "Hi" as we passed but she kept her eyes front in the 1,000 meter stare. The same was true as she was jogging on her return trip, just before I greeted one of the regulars.

I like the sounds of nature when I walk but more importantly, I like to hear the footfalls of a jogger approaching from my rear and hearing the panting of the dog that accompanies him. In the wild, an animal deprived of one of its senses becomes a meal. Also, by not making eye contact with an approaching person one denies oneself of a quick & dirty way to size up his intentions.

The second incident was on a state road at a 3-way intersection. A marked state police patrol vehicle pulled out in front of me, signaled and stopped to make the left turn after the opposing traffic passed. Since it technically isn't legal to pass a vehicle on the shoulder of the road, I and at least one vehicle behind me stopped to wait. I saw someone several cars back pull onto the shoulder to pass on the shoulder then quickly stop just before coming abreast of me when the driver saw the patrol vehicle. Once the patrol vehicle turned, this driver had to wait until someone else was making the left turn in order to continue straight. I have noticed that the reaction of many of the short attention span persuasion have to anything that slows the flow of traffic is to immediately change lanes without determining why traffic has stopped. One could drive into the middle of a bad situation such as a road rage shooting or wreck.

The third incident was another runner, a 30-ish female who was apparently in "the zone". She stepped off the curb just after a motorist had made a complete stop and ran directly in front of him! He made a panic stop and without missing a step, she ran around behind the car and kept going, apparently oblivious to what almost happened!

I was born and grew up in a large east coast city where I sometimes rode the subway to high school and college. If I wasn't aware of my surroundings I could have been mugged, stabbed or tossed onto the tracks or just had a general ass-kicking. I was downtown there a few weeks ago and marveled at how many highly educated business professionals would walk in front of moving vehicles because they were obsessed with their cell phone conversation or the email on their BlackBerry!

Today, before TSHTF, situational awareness can keep you out of trouble. Noticing what items people are stocking up on at the supermarket, shortages and price increases or decreases can give you an idea of near-term shortages or bargains. After TSHTF the situational awareness of others may lead them to you, whether the smell or sight of smoke, the sound of your generator or the fact that your home looks occupied and others don't. But without SA today, you may not make it until then!

Welcome!

This is not the same America in which you and I grew up. The two party "system" is nothing more than opposite sides of the same tarnished coin. Our elected officials do the bidding of corporations and special interest groups. “Preparing for Tyranny” is for those who recognize that what was our country is now out of our control both politically and economically and are preparing to survive the chaos. That chaos will take the form of one or more of these: economic collapse, more oppressive government, the surveillance state, natural disasters and the government’s lack of response, power grid failures, yet more gun control, militarization of domestic law enforcement (LE), threats of domestic and international terrorism, just to name a few.

If you think that 10,000 rounds of ammo or 2 years worth of food are panaceas, this is not the blog for you! I do not know of anyone who can retreat to BFE, live off the grid on land without a mortgage, home school their kids and have thousand of dollars in cash to buy what is necessary be prepared for every possible contingency. Those of us in Reality, USA need to mitigate what we can with the resources we can afford and information we can obtain. That is the reason for my list of blogs and for the postings I hope will follow. Surviving the chaos is not about race, politics or religion. It’s about preparation.