Tag: prepper

Preparedness Isn’t Just For Preppers

Emergency Preparedness

In case you hadn’t noticed, the world is a mess. The Left has successfully created so much chaos that here in America, while the “fundamental transformation” Obama promised isn’t complete, virtually everything we’ve held dear all our lives has been damaged and if we don’t arrest the metastasis, we WILL reach a point of no return.

The COVID pandemic didn’t meet the most dire predictions or result in what Preppers describe as the TEOTWAWKI (The End of the World As We Know It) worst-case scenario, but it most certainly exposed many of the problems of which they have long warned. Illness, death, flaws and inadequacies in the health care system, contradicting expert opinions, supply disruptions, economic distress, societal breakdown and lawlessness were all manifest. Life as we know it for most of us may not have ended, but it certainly changed.

Add to the pandemic the impact of hurricanes, wildfires, shells and bullets flying in Ukraine, inflation that we really feel (1/2 gallon of milk and a gallon of gas above $4.00!), strikes, the Russians and North Koreans getting cozy with one another, the Chinese continuing their hegemonic aggression not just in the Spratly Islands but in Latin America, Africa and even Europe, and everything else that has increased tensions and insecurity, and things are pretty damn unstable!

The Left has infected and corrupted all our institutions: not just politics and government, but the military, education, healthcare, banks, corporations, the judiciary, sports, journalism, entertainment, agriculture (yes, even agriculture) and on and on. Just about EVERY aspect of our lives has been infected with a virus far more deadly than COVID…WOKEISM, or LEFTISM, or the euphemistic “PROGRESSIVISM” or “SOCIAL JUSTICE”.

ALL OF IT, really, reflects the age-old battle between the have’s and have not’s, between the makers and the takers, between the productive and the indolent, between people of faith and the godless, even between Mars and Venus!

Tech and the Internet have amplified/given a megaphone to a whole generation of “victims” of oppression, of racism, of corporate cronyism, “white male aggression”, repression, institutional bias, etc. giving rise to a hyper-acute and hyper-active “grievance industry.”

It’s a mess! The guardrails, the yardsticks we used to have to separate right from wrong, good from evil, are almost gone.

Against this backdrop there is one vulnerability we ALL have, one that truly could transform our society into a scene from The Walking Dead minus the zombies…

THE LOSS OF POWER.

Everything we do from morning to night is dependent on electricity.

We’ve all experienced temporary power losses in our homes. The impact ranged from minor inconvenience to life-threatening. When Isaias hit in the Eastern U.S. in 2020 it knocked out power for millions of people for as much as two weeks. If you were affected, you know how bad things were. But even if you weren’t, the anxiety, misery and even devastation caused by the storm was felt across the nation.

Natural calamities that we have absolutely no control over, (notwithstanding the nonsense spouted by the climate alarmists to the contrary), are one thing. MAN-MADE calamities, such as the cyber attack on the Colonial Pipeline in May 2021, and just yesterday, the ransomware attacks on two casinos in Las Vegas, are another.

Cyber-attacks/cyber-crimes are rising at an exponential rate. So long as we can go about our daily lives unimpeded, we don’t pay attention to the war being waged in front of computer screens at all levels of government and industry. Only when there’s a blip or significant outage do we even raise an eyebrow.  Even then, aside from salty words mumbled under our breaths, the refrain “they’ll figure it out” is the standard response with an expectation that the disruption will only be temporary.

But have you ever contemplated what would happen if the power went out, either from a natural disaster or a man-made one, for, say, 3 weeks? I’m not talking about TEOTWAWKI, but an outage beyond what we’ve already seen becoming more and more commonplace. What would you do? How would your life and the lives of your loved ones be affected?

The impact would range from inconvenience for those with backup generators and enough fuel to last through the crisis to catastrophe for those without electricity to heat their homes, power their well and sump pumps, refrigerators and medical devices.

Would civil unrest be a possibility? You bet it would. Could your bank account be frozen, your ATM card useless? Yup. Would grocery store shelves empty? Unquestionably.

“Grumps, you’re fearmongering” some of you may be thinking.

I urge my readers to take heed not to the grifters trying to make a dime on your insecurity (the purveyors of “72 Hour” survival kits come to mind) and not to turn their lives upside down, but to think about these questions.

The Boy Scout motto, “Be Prepared” has never been more apt.

And if you’re serious about wanting to figure out how you’ll deal with emergencies beyond inconvenient and shy of TEOTWAWKI, I have a suggestion for you: get in touch with our affiliated entity: https://graybriarassociates.com.

Prepping at the Tipping Point

America, Economy, Education, Emergency Preparedness, Entertainment, Government, Headlines, Health Care, History, Politics, Reason, Society & Culture

I’m not a fan of what I call “Prepper Porn”.  That’s the content of thousands of books, websites, articles, etc. predicting the Apocalypse and what everyone must do to survive scenes like those depicted in “The Walking Dead.” On the other hand, I was a Boy Scout in the old days when the BSA was the character and skills training ground for young men. The slogan was “Be Prepared.”

While it’s impossible to be prepared for everything: TEOTWAWKI (The End of the World as We Know it), SHTF (‘Stuff’ Hit the Fan), Armageddon, a nuclear holocaust, reversal of the Earth’s geomagnetic poles, a direct hit from an asteroid, EMP (Electro Magnetic Pulse), CME (Coronal Mass Ejection), a Zombie Invasion…common sense suggests that being prepared as much and as realistically as possible for life’s emergencies is a hell of a lot better than being unprepared!

Once upon a time I had two 55 gallon drums of water in my garage, several buckets of raw wheat and a few other items that amounted to “preparation.” The fact that I never used them didn’t discount their value, but even if a catastrophe had occurred, they wouldn’t have done me or my family much good.

As I look back on the emergencies that befell us during various times and in various living locations, I’m nevertheless grateful for the preparedness mindset that my Scout days imprinted on me. While the worst hasn’t happened yet, our family was subjected to a lot of natural and man-made problems: hurricanes, tornadoes, thunderstorms, high winds, bad snowstorms, localized floods, heat waves and other harmful natural events; relatively sudden general and personal economic downturns; supply disruptions of food, gasoline and staples; strikes; prolonged power outages; mass transit failures; accidents; pest infestation; injuries; illness; and of course, 9-11 and the Pandemic. Each was a wake-up call.

Yet each time, once the emergency had passed, we retreated into complacency and a sub-conscious attitude that “we weathered it and we’ll do so again when and if it happens.”

Does any of this sound or feel familiar?

Some of the emergencies were man-made, some were natural. We survived them all, and our pain ranged from mild inconvenience to some downright difficult times where we thought our lives were ruined and we thought we’d have to completely change them.

The vicissitudes of life are such that it’s likely we’ll be faced with emergencies, mini and moderate disasters and other trying times in the future.

However, TODAY, the risk of man-made hazards is greater than I’ve ever seen in my lifetime!

If you have any doubt about this, just open your eyes and look around. If you still think everything’s either just fine, or will work itself out as it always has, don’t bother reading any further.

On the other hand, if like so many millions of our fellow Americans you clearly see what’s happening “right here in River City”, right before eyes, and are not just alarmed but pessimistic that for the first time in many generations we won’t be able to give our children and grandchildren better lives than we had; if you sense the threats to our freedom, peace and prosperity are mounting as each day goes by; if you see our very civilization being systematically destroyed (“fundamentally transformed”) then friends, “Be Prepared” needs to become your slogan as well!

If you’ve spent any time thinking about Emergency Preparedness, however, you know how long the lists of considerations, questions and answers are.

There are literally thousands of resources available. I’ve spent countless hours researching the available literature, videos, websites to get answers. The array of products, services and printed/published information dedicated to “prepping” is vast. It’s available from government and commercial sources, some of it general, some of it very specific, some of it good, some of it bad, some of it useful and, in my opinion, some of it useless or even harmful.

The fundamental problem with most of these sources is that they don’t address the individual needs, preferences and budgets of families living in diverse locations, with different circumstances.

So concerned am I about the future of our country and the impact the Leftist juggernaut is having on the lives of my immediate and extended family, however, that I’ve solicited help in making sense of the matter. I have become a practitioner of the principles espoused by a new organization: Suburban Readiness Institute (SRI). One of their key tenets is secrecy – it stands to reason that the more people know about your preparedness, the less secure your family will be if things get bad. All communications and interaction with them have been and will remain discreet. Thus, I won’t be describing their means, methods, etc.

But I urge my readers to visit their website (https://suburbanreadiness.com) for a general overview of what they’re about.

And whether or not you engage with them or some other organization to assist you with your planning and preparation, I can’t overemphasize the importance, AT THIS PIVOTAL TIPPING POINT IN OUR COUNTRY’S HISTORY, of thinking seriously about and systematically, methodically, pragmatically and resolvedly preparing for what may lie ahead.

Once an emergency happens or is about to happen, with or without warning, the time for preparation is past.

The Coming Unrest

America, Emergency Preparedness, Family

If you think what you’re seeing on television in major cities is bad now, wait till Trump wins the election on November 3rd and the Left doesn’t just refuse to accept the outcome, but puts into effect their plans for escalated violence! It is already plotting to move the riots to the suburbs and their leaders are hell bent on sending their minions out to “resist”. It is NOT hyperbole to suggest that a full scale revolution is brewing, right before our eyes and right here in River City.

Gun sales have soared – no surprise! 9MM and .223/5.56 ammunition are virtually unavailable. Rural America has been armed and ready for years. Suburbia is just catching up. The BIG QUESTION is: “What will you do if and when a mob comes down your street with molotov cocktails in hand, stops in front of your house, and prepares to throw them at you?”

The time is now to think about preparing for this previously unimaginable scenario. And preparation doesn’t just mean stocking up on supplies of basics. It also means preparing contingency plans for family members who may need to escape the violence. It means preparing for widespread power outages, no internet, no cell service.

Are you prepared to take the steps necessary to protect your family and yourself? Do you know what criteria you will apply to make the decision as to whether to shelter in place or bug out? And what if a mob indeed threatens your family or your property? Have you considered under what circumstances you’re prepared to pull the trigger? It’s one thing to arm yourself. It’s another to fire a weapon in self defense. Even showing that you’re prepared to defend yourself can lead to trouble. Just ask the McCloskey’s of St. Louis who are being charged with felonies for daring to do just that!

There are scores of websites dedicated to preparing for the kind of civil unrest that’s happening and accelerating. I urge my readers to spend some time thinking about their unique circumstances, needs and considerations should the disasters we’re seeing in major and now even minor cities come to your doorstep.

A caution. Just as it is with the news, which I’ve urged readers to largely ignore, visiting prepper websites can scare the hell out of you! Just remember that preparing for the worst doesn’t mean it’ll materialize. As one site put it, if nothing terrible happens “chalk up your preparedness efforts to being that much better prepared for future disaster or crisis. But if we do see problems, do you really want to face them blind and unprepared?”

It’s really hard to believe what’s happening in America today, but the Left, ill-defined and chaotic as it may be, is absolutely dedicated to destroying our country and that unifying theme makes them not just a competing ideology anymore, but a “clear and present danger”.

An individual elected or appointed to an office of honor or profit in the civil service or uniformed services, is required by law to take the following oath: “I, (name), do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; and that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office on which I am about to enter. So help me God.”

There is no higher responsibility, in my opinion, than the defense of one’s life and that of his or her loved ones. The Left is now precisely the “domestic enemy” cited in the oath. We must be prepared to bear true faith and allegiance to defending our Constitution, and our lives, against them.

May God Bless America in this time of trouble.

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