Posted on 06/13/2011 10:16:32 PM PDT by Kartographer
sounds like great tips. thanks.
China’s sold off 97% of it’s US debt,
///
i believe they only sold off their short term debt.
and i small part of their long term.
but, they still have plenty for now.
rest of your post is very interesting.
Now, I’m sure every survivalist here could probably take on 30-40 armed thugs, just ask them. Heck, they all have enough water, and they don’t need to sleep. How one gets to the barn, and takes care of crops is another thing, we wont’ worry about that.
...
Either place was bloody as heck, but those in rural areas who think they are Charles Bronson are going to be in for a rude awakening.
/// lots of great posts here. but you make a key point here. getting overconfident, can get you, and those who depend on you, killed.
can’t predict anything. but you can prepare the best you can, be cautious, and team up with people you can trust.
Been stocking up and prepping for years now.. bring on the doom already.. quite frankly I am ready and if others are not.. oh well they didnt listen.
Sorry my limit is only 29 to 39 armed thugs. :-(
You’re welcome :)
Our names are so similar, and we keep winding up on the same threads. Pretty soon somebody’s going to get us mixed up :p
Did you see bolden from NASA warning everyone to prepare for
Collapse?
The way that works in the Obama world is to set up a panel to decide who gets treatment and who doesn't and the ones who don't get treatment go to a place that plays pretty music while they grind you up into Soilent Green. Ergo, we save trillions on future payments. Chuckles Jr, by that time, will be paying so much in taxes that he will bring me to the factory himself. Course, he will collect the bounty Obama set up to turn in everyone that mentions they may need a hip replacement.
I live in a middle size town in the middle of the middle west. Perfect.
Now, imagine instead of just you it is 40 people attacking a couple of homesteads in some sub urban area.
Civilization is an illusion that requires the existence of a functioning system, rule of law, and anticipation that tomorrow will be a better (or similar) day to today. Muck up things sufficiently and in a couple of hours ‘civilized neighbors’ can start acting funny (the example of an ATM machine malfunctioning at a Walmart comes to mind). I believe Esoxmagnum mentioned Eastern Europe. My favorite case study is Rwanda (although Eastern Europe, and South America – particularly Argentina during the collapse – are better examples of SHTF situations, but I look at Rwanda because of how an entire country basically went ‘zombie’). Anyways, in sub-urbia you have many families that rely totally on food and provisions being available from the local Target/Walmart, that have no saved up resources, and where ‘safety’ is basically the availability of the local police force (and the cops are humans who will be too busy fending for their own families in a SHTF situation). Most security (outside firearms in the home) in the US is a mix of dialing 911 for the cops and alarm systems that vector in cops or other responders. Basically, passive security systems that require a functioning system. What happens when the cops do not come? You get murdered while your alarm goes off! As for the gun in the home …let us assume you live with three of your brothers, all of you are great shots, and you have bricks of ammo in the basement. You are in suburbia, and the four of you are really good with guns (heck, you even have Charles Bronson, Omega Man, Rambo, Chuck Norris and what-not DVDs playing on a loop while you act ‘Last Man Alive’). Alright.
Sad thing you are ALL still dead!
F.W Lanchester, a theorist who applied higher math to warfare in 1916, came up with an equation to show just how ‘good’ you have to be to defeat a weaker adversary who has higher numbers (he applied it to the WW1 air battle, but his theory is applied to infantry and other engagement types). According to his theory, numbers (quantities) get squared, but effectiveness (quality) does not. This means, to stalemate a force thrice as numerous as your force, you need to be 9 (i.e. N^2) times as effective. Thus, the suburbia Rambos have to be N^2 times as effective as any force they are facing to be effective. Thus, if the 4 of you are facing a force of 16 people, you need to be 16 times as good as each of them (4^2). If you meet a force that is comprised of 20 people, you need to be 25 times as good as they are (5^2). Now, let us assume you meet 50 people with hungry children that think you are ‘acting unfair’ by keeping all your provisions to yourself. That Mossberg, that AR-15, that Glock is not going to help you. You would have to possess military grade weapons (and I do not mean M-16s …I am talking about Claymores).
Suburbia would be a deathzone.
The only way a SHTF situation would pan out well is if you, and your neighbors, are in an area that has natural resources (fresh water, game, etc), is far enough from ‘civilization’ that it will not soak up the initial wave of people (and yes, just like in zombie movies, there will be waves of people coming in …people that used to be civilized but, due to desperation and starvation are now more akin to beasts than people …by the way an interesting read is to check on what starvation does to the frontal cortex of the human brain. The place that is the seat of higher thinking basically stops being too functional during the more moderate to extreme cases of starvation, which is why you see people eating each other in such cases). The only way to survive is if you and your neighbors (this is one situation where being a social unit is important ….being solo, even with all the guns in the world, will require to be a mix of Superman and Batman to survive) …anyways, if you and your neighbors (and hopefully there are many able bodied neighbors) have been preparing and training together, all have deep provisions, and all have a strategy on what to do if the SHTF.
In my opinion, Preppers that have done all the preparations but are loners, will actually be the FIRST to die as the hapless masses home in on them. Sure, they will probably take a dozen or so of the shuffling masses, but the other couple dozen will kill them and take their provisions. Loner-Preppers die off first, and then the starving masses will try to take on the more organized preppers (and fail). The only force capable of taking out organized masses of Preppers would be a more organized and professional raiding force (maybe ex-military groups that have conglomerated together, or even OTHER organized masses of Preppers that take to raiding near-by Prepper groups that are weaker).
But the fact is, unless you are Superman, lone Preppers die first. Especially if they are in suburbia. How can they even fight off the fires that will eventually breakout (some accidental, others arson)? Shoot them with the Remington? If you are a Prepper, and you are in suburbia you are dead. If you are a Prepper, and you are by yourself (or only have a couple other similar minded people), you are dead. If you are a Prepper, and have all these provisions and no way of protecting them (and no, I do not mean 10 guns and a thousand bullets), then all you are is a goods-store for the shuffling masses (oh, and you are dead). The only Preppers that survive are those that are organized before hand, and have enough numbers that Lanchester’s Law doesn’t work too badly against them. Imagine a force that has 50 able-bodied men (not to include women who are also well armed and trained). They could mount a sustained and effective defense against any foe-group (apart from a larger organized Prepper group or a large and well armed military group, and even against those two they may provide enough of a threat to just be left alone). They would definitely be able to sustainably fend off even large groups of the shuffling masses.
What you described is exactly what my father in law described in Hungary when it went apesh*t.
He said the church groups and tight-knit families did well... until the soviets started targeting them with military force. But the funny thing is, even then, those church groups, Catholics, fought back hard enough that the losses were huge on the Soviet side, and eventually Hungary settled into a sort of agreement with the USSR where they were a bit more autonomous than say Poland or Czech.
Those church groups stood up and survived where individuals could not. 30 years ago, when I met my wife, those churches in Europe were still strong. Now when we go back, they are all but abandoned. They are a curiosity, a museum, nothing more. Except for the older generations, they mean nothing, there is no more unity, they have followed in America’s footsteps.
He told me that those churches used to house rifles and grenades in the basements, and they had fortified walls and doors for a reason. He also explained that church bell towers doubled as look outs, and the villagers knew by the ringing of the bells (which seemed innocent enough to the Soviets) what was coming and from where.
The old man has a lot of great stories to tell, and I was even lucky enough to meet his father (my wifes grandfather) back in the 80’s before he died. He was conscripted by the soviets to fight back the germans as they marched north. Now he had some real brutal stories of winter fighting, and how folks were rounded up for “re-education” and they never came back. They welcomed the Soviets with open arms at that time, but soon grew to despise their saviors. Very intriguing story.
BTW, the father in law told of how the thugs from Budapest took over farms that were armed, just like someone said, fire. They would burn the crops, and molotov the homes. They would use carts to push their way up close (providing cover from rifles), then push the carts into the doors, so no one could escape, then burn the houses down. But again, those were thatched roof buildings with no running water.
I hope we never come to that here.
/agreement
It says the Nation Debt is $22.7 trillion instead of $14 trillion? I would worry about it’s accuracy.
14 Trillion is the national debt.
The unfunded liabilities are not debt, but promises to pay benefits (social security and medicare). Unfunded liabilities are greater than the national debt.
Why should I believe that number if they can't get the debt right?
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.