a sign?

A SIGN?
I should have titled this article "Take that karmic blow, you Satanic minion!" but I have to pretend this has something to do with survivalism so I'm going with the economics. I doubt it is even a real indicator, but who knows? Perhaps it is pertinent. The ex-wife, the one person in my life that ranks below Bush or the bankers ( and that is quite an achievement ), has been laid off from her job. Wait! Don't tune me out just yet. She WAS a pilot for a company that was a contracted by FedEx. And FedEx is supposed to be an indicator for how the economy is doing. Less business activity equals less FedEx business.
*
In actuality I'm just nearly orgasmic at the thought that the One Who Sits At Lucifer's Right Hand Side will start to suffer financially as much as she has forced me to for almost fifteen years. I don't fear for the kids, as their mothers new boyfriend owns his home so they have a place to stay at least. And between my support payments and FoodStamps they won't starve. So it will just be the ex suffering as all her toys are slowly but surely lost never to be returned. No more eating out or fancy cars or other luxuries. Yes, she could get hired somewhere else. I can't count my chickens just yet. But it is still a delicious victory nonetheless. I know most of you just don't care, but I had to share. Back on topic tomorrow.
END

world made by hand

WORLD MADE BY HAND
"World Made By Hand" by James Howard Kunstler has pretty much been reviewed by everyone and his brother. In the Peak Oil community its arrival was regarded with more anticipation than the actual end of Petroleum Man. You get the review anyway since I'm convinced that you all hang on my every utterance and you are slaves to my wisdom. Okay, you're bored and the other survival blogs didn't post today so you are reading my slop. I'll take it anyway I can get it.
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This was a great read. It really is the first serious mainstream attempt to explore life after oil. I finished it as quick as I could, as it definitely held my interest. It was worth every penny. That said, the author is victim to his limited world view. I really think his perception of the world around him mirrors his liberal politics. To him, life after the collapse is a close rebirth of an agrarian economy. True enough. But he seriously downplays the prospects of violence. He doesn't ignore it. The protagonist is a band of biker types that seriously mess with our heroes when their livelihood is threatened ( seriously mess with as in grievous physical harm ). But that is my point. They only become violent when threatened, not violent without provocation as in marauders. Collapse and post collapse will be much more dangerous and deadly than in this novel. Again, an extremely good book. I should hope to one day write as good as this. But a serious limit on reality as far as I'm concerned.
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On another note, let's pause a moment and bow our heads in grief. Another bank bites it big time. The Federal Reserve bribed one bank to buy the failing Wacovia. Nothing to see here, move along. No bank failure this weekend, just healthy capitalism in action as a wonderful institution buys a sick and unhealthy one. Excuse me while I dribble vomit down my shirt front. The meltdown continues and you can bet I'll drone on about it until you are sick and tired of it. If you haven't figured out yet I suffer from oral diarrhea, I feel for you. And this is just typing with one finger. Be thankful I never learned proper typing. Be good, talk at you Tuesday. And buy my crap at www.bisonpress.com
END

guest article

GUEST ARTICLE

How I Made a Killing When the Lights Went Out

Part 3 of 3

So here it is three years after the lights went out and I havea big piece of land, crops growing on it, sheep, cattle,horses, chickens, and people working for me. How did Ido it? By providing something in high demand.

GUNPOWDER!

I had been concerned and preparing since Y2K. Icarefully examined the breakdown scenarios. I alwayscame to the conclusion that when it happened, it wouldbe violent with a lot of shooting.

In a firefight even trained, disciplined soldiers use lots ofammo. The average scared citizen was not going to beany different.

The average individual survivalist or groups had cases of7.62x39, .308, .223. and 7.62x54. All military surplus. Howwas this going to help Charlie with his 38 special, Billy Bobwith his 30-30 or Sally Ann with her .243? All over Americawhen it started these people only had 2 boxes of shells onaverage.

I came to the conclusion that my value to the community wouldbe to reload empty cases.

I bought the basic equipment and dies for 222, 223, 22-250,243, 270, 30-30, 30-06, 300wm, 7mm rem. mag., 380, 9mm38 special, 40s&w, 45acp, 44 special, 12ga. and 20ga.

I bought large and small pistol and rifle primers and shot shellprimers.

I also bought bullets for all the popular calibers.

But more than anything else I bought powder. I had 100pounds of rifle powder and 25 pounds of pistol/shotgunpowder. Far in excess of all the other components I hadpowder. One pound of rifle 3031 will do 175 .308 cases or291 .223s. One pound of Unique will do about 1600 9mm or38 special.

My reasoning was this:

Bullets.....sooner or later someone would start casting

Empty cases would be saved.

Primers.....Every time some politician comes up with a new gun law, gun owners would stock up. Primers were what the majority bought. Remember the last primer shortage? There would be a lot of primers salted away.

Powder.......Yeah, I know. Back then, I saw the web sites on making black powder. Did those guys get their sulphur from a natural deposit? Or a chemical supply company? And what about the saltpeter? Right or wrong I stocked up heavy on powder. Turned out I was very right.

If people needed food they could live for about 3 weeks. Ifthey needed bullets then they needed them RIGHT NOW!

Ask any infantryman what does he feel in his guts, when theorder "FIX BAYONETS" comes down.

Ammo got used very quickly and it came down to hand tohand combat in many neighborhoods.

I only reloaded for family, friends and neighbors I trusted.Of course they all knew people that needed reloads too.

Hardly anyone expected charity. Some people tradedlivestock such as chickens, sheep, goats, cattle, you nameit. I even got an emu one time. Very tasty.

There were other things too, like tools and livestock feed.

Some had nothing to trade except labor. They were morethan happy to chop wood, do laundry, weed, butcher, etc.

Others wanted to trade TVs, DVD players, computers, goldor silver. I always said no.

The ones that I trusted completely I allowed to them to providesecurity/sentry services.

I also got a lot of offers of sex for reloads.

Anyway, by being able to provide reloads to my community, Ibenefited greatly. The community maintained its self defenseability, and this resulted in stability in our area. Because ofthis the recovery in this area will progress at a faster pace.

I had a unique, high demand item to trade, but I never triedto gouge people on the trade. Without the reloads that Iprovided many would have starved or died defenseless.Now you know how I made a killing when the lights went out.

END

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GUEST ARTICLE


How I Made a Killing When the Lights Went Out

Part 2 of 3

People had five basic needs.

Shelter was the first.

At first everyone put on extra clothes for warmth and huddledtogether in the same room. The lucky ones had wood stovesor fireplaces. Some of the campers had portable heaters.Then there were the ones that tried using the charcoal grillto heat and cook with indoors. The smart ones openedwindows for ventilation. A lot of fires got started that way.Same thing for the idiots with candles. More fires.

Water came after shelter. Rule of 3 was: the averageperson could live 3 days without water.

In some areas people did OK. They used up the liquids inthe refrigerator, then the water heater, then the toilet holdingtank. Some had pools or their neighbors did. There wereschool pools and lakes and ponds in the city parks. Lots ofcities were built on the nations waterways. For some thebiggest water problem was transporting it and having woodor bleach to sterilize it. At the other end of the spectrum,there were lots that died from dehydration. Those living inthe drier parts, or those whose neighborhood turned intoa war zone. Too paralyzed with fear, too confused to act,they died.

Food. The next need and the big killer.

The stores were looted. The most they had for populationsin the cities was 3 days. No trucks came to re-stock.People ate whatever they were lucky enough to have intheir house. Then they ate the dog, cat, goldfish and gerbil.A few, did not have a food problem. They saw themselves ina food rich environment, surrounded by protein! Some sentraiding parties to the closer farms. Some just raided their neighbors. Some tried hunting the forests. Some triedmigrating to the countryside. A lot of bullets got used in thepursuit of food.

Security. The fourth need.

Being in a safe place.Having a defensible location.Having the needed weapons, both quality and quantity.

When the lights went out, things got nasty fast. Those thatdid not give up, armed themselves. For some, the bestthey could do was a kitchen knife, baseball bat or shovel.For others it was a .22, shotgun, .380 pocket pistol orhunting rifle. And for still others it was an SKS, AK, or AR.

This last group was a small percentage of the overallpopulation. It was also the most capable or dangerous.

Two major group types existed:

Gangs. These people were organized, heavily armed anddisciplined. Some of the gangs set up little kingdoms in their territories. Others became roving raiders. Killing andtaking whatever they wanted. Always searching for lucrativetargets.

Survivalists. This was the second type.Not just any survivalist! A certain type. The gun nut.These guys were armed to the teeth and had thousands ortens of thousands of rounds of ammo. And that's ALL theyhad. No food, no medicine, no stored energy, no seeds,nothing. A lot of them justified their next gun buy with "HEYI'm going to need that rifle. I'm getting ready for the end ofthe world you know!" Most of these guys were urban orsuburban. When the SHTF these guys were in locationswith little food or food producing ability. No cars meant theywere unable to move their arsenal to the country where the food was. Instead of providing safety and stability these arsenals caused more violence and destruction.

Community is the last need.

With community we are able to start the division of laborprocess. Without community, every family had to be ableto do hundreds of skills. Blacksmith, miller, butcher, raisinganimals, farming, trapping, medicine, preserving food andlots more. With the division of labor, survival odds increasedramatically. Everyone needs to have a skill, product, orservice to offer to the community. The more demand for askill, product or service the greater the benefit for providingit.

END Part 2 of 3

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GUEST ARTICLE

HOW I MADE A KILLING WHEN THE LIGHTS WENT OUT

Part 1 of 3

It has been three years now since the "event". Some speculate agiant solar EMP. Others that it was some scientific experiment runamok. Perhaps, what it was will never be known.

All across the Earth the electricity stopped. Were there somemilitary installations that were not affected? Who knows? Not me.

Whatever it was, suddenly there were 7 billion system dependentpeople without any functioning systems.

Transportation system: FAILED No motorized means of distributing food, fuel, parts etc.

Communication system: FAILED No way to determine what was needed where. (i.e. food, fuel, police) Even if it could have been moved.

Food system: FAILED Most people only kept a weekly supply of food at the most. How clever they thought they were. Why keep extra food on hand when they could put the money into their 401k and have extra money in their "Golden Years". Four weeks after the event, the rule of 3 kicked in (the average person can survive for 3 weeks without food), and the just in time inventory system caused the deaths of hundreds of millions by starvation. Even squirrels are smart enough to store food. Were those people as smart as squirrels?

Everyone experienced the bloody violent chaos that followed.

For the majority the usual pattern was:

Confusion. Typical thoughts were: What happened? or When are they going to get it fixed? or How many are affected?

Fear. Typical thoughts were: Why have there been so many gunshots? or Where are the police? or Maybe it was not such a good idea saving $200 a month in rent and picking to live in this crummy neighborhood.

Starting with the fear phase, people started to group up with friends family and/or neighbors.

Desperation. Typical thoughts were: Dammit! I knew I should have made the grocery trip the day before the power went out, instead of watching the game. or What the f&%# am I going to do?? Two kids and we are down to our last gallon of water. or Sounded like a gang went thru the apartment complex two buildings over, last night. With all the shooting and screaming they must have killed or raped everyone.

Violence. Typical situations were: Only had enough for the kids to have half a glass of water today and a couple of crackers. Talked to some of the other guys in the apartment. There's a Mom & Pop convenience store three blocks away on the corner. We've decided if we don't hit it someone else will. We will try to reason with them, but one way or another we are going to get what we need. or

Increased gang activity. Six armed gang members came by yesterday. They said they entire block was now part of their tribe. They are coming back tomorrow for us to surrender all food and weapons, and be registered. The men will be initiated into the gang with raid missions. They said not to worry, they don't discriminate. The women get initiated into the gang also, but in a different way.

END Part 1

panic complacency

PANIC COMPLACENCY

Panic complacency may or may not be an original term. I just came up with it and liked the ring of it ( it could have popped up from my subconscious ). You are sure it will soon be time to panic, but not just yet. For now you are complacent, at ease with the way things are. I'll panic later, when X, Y or Z condition is met. The problem there is that none of us, not media appointed survival experts, not armchair self appointed survival experts, are capable of reading the future. Experts in the government or academia are even worse as they are looking down a tunnel to avoid thinking that anything can happen to their paychecks. We can't know what is going to happen. Educated best guessing is as good as it gets. And that is fine, since the average Joe Blow doesn't have the time to do the research. It is better than nothing.
*
My thought is, are we asking the wrong questions? We ask, when should I panic? The question should be, why shouldn't I panic? If the only reason you can think of why the future looks okay is from past experience, you are using the wrong set of filters. Of course the past looks good. There were resources to fight the problems. As those resources dwindle, by definition future problems can't be solved the same way. Did we fall asleep after Katrina, after Enron, after the summer black-outs, after the Bush election? The old ways are no longer with us. We are living in a new, unimproved time. Things are worse. We have already passed the point where our ruling systems fail to contain new problems. More and more money is thrown into a problem and less and less is fixed. If we are no longer containing problems, the future is no longer the same as the past. Just because a financial crisis was averted in the past doesn't mean it will be in the future. We don't have the resources left to achieve the old results.
*
Who really believes their job will last as long as their mortgage? Who really thinks your retirement is safe? Who thinks the US dollar won't be inflated to worthless toilet paper? Who thinks oil will last forever? Our system is going to fail. We just don't know when or how. So why are we clinging to our old way of life? Clinging to a good paying job that won't outlive us. Clinging to the luxury of grid electric power, cable TV, etc. Clinging to climate controlled gum and glue tract housing. Clinging to a motor vehicle that allows our fat ass to avoid any exercise. We cling to our past life and keep putting off jettisoning our luxuries in the vain hope that a UFO will land on the White House lawn and deliver the secret of room temperature fusion so the American Way Of Life will remain sacred and secure.
*
You can fool yourself every time waiting for the end. You just keep changing the criteria for panic. Guess what, the end already started some time ago. But you are lazy and scared ( and I'm including myself in this accusation, so relax and put your hair down ) so you invent justifications. You are part of the baboon herd and don't want to look stupid moving off grid when you can still live on the cheap juice. You can't conceive of losing any pay. If a job offered you more, you would abandon your relatives and moved in a heart beat. But a move to secure your life in the event of the collapse is too much. I'm not trying to dog on the average survivalist. I understand about procrastination, having done it myself a few times. But I would like you to think about your justifications and ask yourself, is that a good enough reason to die? You want to die at your present great job, or near family, or in the town you grew up in, or in your almost paid for house?
*
You stay where you are, waiting for more bank failures or increased inflation. Life limps along as usual. Then, one day you are vaporized in a mushroom cloud as the alphabet soup agency of choice performs another false flag "terrorist" attack.
END
Stay tuned over the weekend for a couple of guest articles. Thanks a million, guest writer dude.
And would you please buy my crap at www.bisonpress.com

guest article

GUEST ARTICLE
REPRINTED WITH PERMISSION FROM THE LMI MAGAZINE - theindependentamerican.freeyellow.com
Henry AR-7reviewed by Douglas P. BellSorry folk, we had JENNINGS JUNK and KIMBER KRAP, but I just can't think of anything that rhymes with "Henry" or "AR-7" to let you know what to expect and what a worthless piece trash this .22 rifle really is. And it is a worthless piece of junk too!Normally we here are the LMI are only concerned with what the factory puts out the door in the first place, not what they are willing to repair or replace when what they are putting out turns out to be absolute trash and it is returned to them. The brand new $2500 Wilson 1911 that jammed every shot. The new out of the box S&W 25-2 that had the barrel unscrew while firing. The Kimber Custom straight from the factory that came with something like a 70 lb trigger pull (we had nothing heavy enough to weigh it for sure) and unfinished extractor (the review is listed above as KIMBER KRAP. Kimber has NO quality control!).
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The Lee LOAD MASTER reloading press that the factory admitted had a warped ram from improper heat treating but refused to repair or replace after being returned to the factory 20+ times (so much for the Lee 2 year warranty and money back guarantee!! Both lies!) which is up coming in another review. Sure the factory or company in question was always willing to "look" at the products, and they might actually fix or replace them, or not, but the point is, either there is no quality control or test firing of the guns or checking of the products, or the factory doesn't care what sort of junk it turns out. They might repair it, or they might, like Lee, try to extort more money out of you while the product is still under warranty or just refuse to fix it. Like the original Detonics 1911 style autos put out before the company went belly up the first time.If you read the gun rags, the Detonics was the greatest thing since sliced bread. There was not a single hint in the popular press gun magazines there was a worm in the apple, trouble in paradise, but the ugly fact is, according to the head gunsmith at Detonics at the time, something on the order of half the guns sold were returned to the factory because they simply didn't work!
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At least a third of the guns returned were scrapped and replaced with a new pistol with the same serial number because the pistol was unrepairable as is! Think about that, some where between 15% and 20% of all the guns sold by Detonics to the public were later scrapped by the factory as unrepairable when returned to the factory to be repaired! Who knows how many were just sold off or put into storage because the pistol refused to work and was never returned to the factory! So what does that have to do with the Henry AR-7? As it turns out, a fair amount, but first, a little bit of the history of the AR-7 design to give you some background. The AR-7 was originally designed by Armalite as a bolt action .22 Hornet survial rifle for Air Force pilots. The barrel unscrewed from the receiver and the stock had a screw through the pistol grip that bolted it to the receiver.
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Both barrel, receiver and magazine (clip) stored in the hollow plastic butt stock, which floated.Charter Arms bought the design and started making the AR-7 as a semi-auto .22 LR, and the problems started. The AR-7 was/is one of the most jam prone gun designs since the Stevens Visible Loader, popularly called the "Miserable Loader" shortly after hitting the market! Charter Arms worked and reworked and tweaked and tinkered with the design and guns and finally got the AR-7 to the point where it was mostly reliable and generally worked, not great, but somewhat anyway. Charter Arms then went belly up (and back again), and Henry Arms bought the AR-7 and brought it out again. Unfortunately Henry seems to have brought out the original design which lacks the Charter Arms refinements so the gun is once again a jam-a-matic.
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The model bought was the basic black, it also comes in silver at the same price or with Mossy Oak Camo for about $30 more. The rifle comes with two eight round magazines as well. Out of the box the bolt was a little rough, a slight catch when pulling it back and letting it pop forward, but nothing that should interfer with proper functioning, otherwise it looked fine. So much for first impressions.At the range, the Henry AR-7 jammed every shot to every other shot, that is, when you could get the first round from the magazine to feed in the first place, which was rare. No matter how many different AR-7 magazines were tried, from both Henry and Charter Arms or after market, it jammed every other round, that is when it worked at all. It didn't matter if we tried Remington, Winchester, Federal or CCI .22 ammunition, it jammed every other round when we could get it to work at all. Since this was not my gun, but bought for someone else, it was returned to the Henry factory to be repaired under warrenty.
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When the Henry AR-7 was finally returned from the Henry factory, all they did was ream the throat of the barrel larger, so it was more of a cone. Judging by the tool marks, it was throated with a rasp or rat tailed file that had seen better days. So off to the range we went to try it out again. The Henry factory reaming (and oh boy did the Henry factory ream us!) helped to the point where the Henry AR-7 now shot twice before jamming, with all magazines and all types of .22 ammunition. To be fair, we were able to fire seven rounds with out a jam, ONE TIME, out of eight rounds in the magazine, when the AR-7 was locked down into place, with the last round jamming. But off the bench or off the shoulder the best anyone could do was fire twice and then the AR-7 would jam. We were never able to get the Henry AR-7 to fire more than two rounds after the one time it almost fired a complete magazine full, no matter what we did either. Apparently, it was like those five shot one hole groups you see over shooters' work benches, it did it once and that was the last time in this lifetime it is going to happen.Bottom line?
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As is, the Henry AR-7 is not recommended and even returning it to the Henry factory to be fixed is not a cure. I can not believe any one at the Henry factory test fired this gun after it was "repaired" and called it good. Like Kimber and Lee, Henry must have no quality control or test their product before it goes out the door. Do NOT buy!
END
Random paragraphs inserted by Jim, sorry.

diminishing shopping

DIMINISHING SHOPPING
I wish to thank Comrade Simba ( all hail! at www.comradesimba.com/blog/ ) for this great idea I'm ripping off here. For those of you that have yet to join the Jim-kateers Club, sending me ten percent of your gross ( not net ) income and hanging posters all over town of a only slightly altered likeness of me in profile looking really confident and worthy of ruling the unwashed masses, I have covered the Comrade before. In short, I was all gushing and respectful like and you would think a nice Thank You card would have been in the mail with a few hundred dollar bills. But no. Obsequiousness in this case did not pay off. But I still can't help just loving this guy all to pieces since he has such a poor attitude and is not afraid to share it with you. My kind of guy.
*
Our economy is basically little more than houses, cars and sitting around planning the rearrangement of the Titanic chairs. So as this pathetic excuse for financial activity implodes, the proletarian masses are finding the old shopping existence being altered while they weren't looking. Planning the trip to the mall got a bit more difficult, sure. But history tells us the spikes in gasoline prices are temporary. Not to sorry. Shop on, dude! So perhaps a few SUV's are repoed, or trips are rearranged, or Junior is to stop playing the flute, since it is really gay and that way you save an extra round trip of gas five days a week. So the consumer lifestyle can continue. Then, surprise. In a bid to control the entire economy the banks let a few investors lose a few hundred billion and suddenly the credit tap dries up. No more second mortgages, the credit card interest rate goes to 30%. The cash flow situation looks worrisome. Now, even after you get to the mall, you can't buy anything.
*
Simba's point was simple. It is not just about substituting for lesser quality items, suddenly it is becoming a matter of having to do without certain things all together. Everyday small indulgences start becoming the target of shrinking budgets. He used soda as an example. The first casualty was the ability to head down to the store on a whim and buy cheap crap. After we adjusted to that, the next thing to be eliminated from our consumerists lives was cheap crap. Soda turns into not an everyday treat but something we can't afford anymore. That is an easy example. The AgriCorps met Peak Oil and the result was sharply raised corn and corn syrup prices. Throw in our shrinking supply of steel and the increase price of energy to process plastics or aluminum and cola prices go up 25-50%. It is no longer a small indulgence. It goes into the column of "several times a year as a treat". If you aren't working for the government, that list already includes eating out, going to the movies, a new car ( even one from Korea ), a house close to work, etc.
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All this is just the middle class being squeezed and shrunken. Wait until you get to the fun stuff. Unaffordable luxuries start to include most produce, most meat, any car, heat any time other than the dead of winter, air conditioning. A two income household. Plane travel, college education for the kids, a two car family. Doctors visit for non-life threatening injuries. Any dental work. I hope you get my point. Peak Oil, the Greater Depression, the end of suburbia, the end of the American Dream. The end of the happy consumer. We are on a roll, it is just going to get worse.
END
Thursday is going to be a guest article, as I have to run the wife into the doctors and must work through lunch to minimize lost work.

basis of US wealth

BASIS OF U.S. WEALTH
I am going to write this knowing in advance that all the trolls will scream out in righteous indignation, their pitiful howls echoing through the ghetto, mothers tightly embracing their offspring in fear, dogs answering with cheerful yaps. They will madly start scribbling a reply in the comments section, making the point at least to themselves as the rest of us scratch our heads and wonder if they actually read the thing to begin with. The trolls do provide a useful service, training me to ignore snide barbs. My writers ego has hardened under their onslaughts. But they almost never make a point so you can safely ignore them. I do allow unedited comments because I hate censorship, and self-censorship is the worst kind as it allows you to lie to yourself and others. The price, however, is the need to wade through a sea of crap for the treasured nuggets. Enter at your own risk.
*
The basis of the wealth of our country is not anything you want to believe. It is not our unique brand of governance, which is really little more than the best of others ideas. I won't even get into how most of it is an illusion anyway, but everyone from the Greeks to the Iroquois Indians had a hand in the Constitution. The Founding Fathers put out a great product but it wasn't that original. It certainly isn't the fact that we were a melting pot of the best and brightest from elsewhere. Anywhere else a mixture of races and cultures would just have led to war. It had nothing to do with the fact that whites made up the bulk of the original settlers. The Chinese beat us to wondrous civilizations far before. It is not even capitalism, as good as that system is compared to almost any other. And we never really had true capitalism anyway but more of a government favored corporate structure.
*
The one and only reason America saw its wealth was the fact that we stole a continent ( we might not have owned Canada but by and large controlled it where it counted ) from the inhabitants. And that continent had not been exploited past the hunter/gatherer stage so all the resources needed to build an agricultural and industrial super economy were in place waiting for us. The Europeans stole it from the Indians and the Americans stole it from them. Not that this is anything new. The human race uses war to survive. Two groups will perish from starvation after over-populating an area. So one group defeats another in war and has all the food and fuel needed to survive. War, despite all the hallucination based protest songs to the contrary, is good for something. We tame our environment through large numbers and we sustain those large numbers through stealing from each other. Americans got lucky. They stole a country rich in soil and lumber. Then it just so happened that the same land had some of the richest deposits of metal and petroleum.
*
We are not better than other cultures or groups. We don't live more virtuous lives, nor do we have a better work ethic. We are not blessed by our creator. We just stumbled into an unexploited land by dumb luck. Then we pissed it all away. And now there is nothing left. We deny it, clinging to our myths. And by doing so we don't prepare ourselves for the inevitable decline. We are already several generations into a falling living standard and can't admit it. What a sad and pitiful display.
END

a trillion here...

A TRILLION HERE...
A trillion here, a trillion there and pretty soon you are talking serious money. Are they friggin serious? $700 billion for a banker bailout. And you know that any project the government proposes is sold to the public less than it actually turns out to cost. So you know you can count on at least a trillion if not a lot more. Not that we have that much. The country has been insolvent for some time but other countries that actually have savings keep loaning us money everyday so we can keep acting as their customers. We borrow two billion a day from foreigners because the only thing we produce are movies and software. And health care equipment. Maybe that's a great market for greying Japanese but it won't last long as they all die off. You can bet that the Chinese will look at a potential pool of a half billion retirees and tell them to scrape by on their own. And won't a credit contraction that closes down productive gold mines also spell trouble for Hollywood?
*
When a sick pathetic economy such as ours, surviving for eight years after the Tech Wreck on over-inflating our home values, needs to double its borrowing to put the first of many band-aids on the derivative meltdown you should be afraid to the point where you are depositing a hot, wet, steamy load into your G.I. Joe print boxers. How many of you can survive another doubling of gasoline prices? Or food prices? Or heating fuel prices? Don't forget ammo prices doubling again ( quadrupling if Ossama Obamma gets elected/ Russian steel cased ammo becoming unavailable if Georgia flares up ). And that is just the effects from inflation as the Fed creates more hundreds of billions. Add to that another hurricane destroying oil production, or a few more years of global drought. Then food and fuel costs go up even more than what inflation causes.
*
Inflation is going to be ramped up. There is no other way to pay our bills. When the bought and paid for politicians stand behind the bankers ( those responsible for this fiasco ) and tell us they are going to bail their buddies out regardless of what us pathetic moronic voters might want, regardless of the cost, you should have a three alarm, double alert, Def-Con Four scrambling for the jet fighter reaction. Stop pissing and moaning and get off your fat dimpled butt. Finish up your preps regardless of how much you have to sacrifice. Stop sending me money if it conflicts with your purchasing plans. I love you guys sending me fifteen and twenty bucks ( you know who you are ) but don't cut yourself short doing it. I can easily get excited with a buck or two donation or e-book purchase ( if you have yet to help feed my cats, go to www.bisonpress.com and make a small purchase ). And speaking of such, I got some ad revenue after a few months which got me all heated up. If I buy another solar panel with it I can start writing at home ( not the daily-remember the memory stick transfer problem?- but I can start back on my booklets ). Do any of you remember the company recommended by www.survivalblog.com? I can't find it and they had really cheap units, like $125 for 30 watts.
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I understand we are all leery of more Chicken Little warnings. That is the one thing we all do well as survival writers. Over react and panic at the slightest provocation. I do it at least once a week. But don't you feel really bad about this current financial problem, down in your gut? Isn't your primal brain sending you signals to flee in panic? Doesn't this seem like the huge incoming financial nuclear missile attack? Would it really hurt to panic and run to the fallout shelter?
END

no fridge

NO FRIDGE
I was pretty spoiled for five years. Three years at the casino and I got a free meal each shift. That was my main meal of the day, fatty fries and a lot of meat on a sandwich. Then the last two years I got two free meals a day, both bread. A white flour item for breakfast and a whole wheat bread for lunch. Hey, bread was free for the taking ( about my only perk there ). Now, I have to buy all of my food and it sure hurts financially. The last time I fed myself all three meals a day meat was an average of $1 a pound. Now it is more like $3. And on top of that I have no freezer to buy sale items. I will eventually substitute canning for the freezer, if things hold together that long and meat is still affordable.
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Not having a fridge is really no big deal. In actual fact the only thing one is good for ( assuming the average urban worker lifestyle ) is leftovers and condiments. If you plan your meals carefully you won't have leftovers. And most condiments will survive without cold. We started living without the fridge in the middle of summer so it was a good test to what could and couldn't survive in a hot metal box. Mustard and relish and ketchup are all okay without an icebox. For mayonnaise I had to buy the little packets at a restaurant supply place. Almost twenty bucks for two hundred, but mayo is a luxury we decided we really wanted. Try eating a tuna fish sandwich without them ( and don't forget the scurvy scum sucking bastards raised the price twenty percent while reducing the sized by 15% as the can size went from six ounces to five- thanks for the overfishing! ). I'm not really too sure about the survivability of jelly. It looks okay but I seem to get a bit ill after eating it. Well, it could be the peanut butter. I'm still alive, so it didn't kill me, but just to be sure I'm eating honey now instead of jam.
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Monday, Wednesday and Friday are meat days. I pick up whatever is under three bucks at the store on my way home. We eat rice or canned beans or noodles along with it. Tuesday is tuna sandwich day. Thursday is rice mixed with a can of chili. Eating rice along tastes bad and eating chili alone gives me indigestion. Combining the two works much better and relatively cheap. Saturday is fried egg sandwich day, at least as long as I can afford to drive into town each Saturday and don't have to cut back on my gas consumption. If I go into town by bike every other weekend I could still do eggs. I have a 45 minute commute each way by bike and nothing goes bad in the heat except fresh hamburger. On Sunday it is fried potato day. So fresh meat is under ten bucks a week. Canned meat and eggs about $3 or $4. I won't eat meat with preservatives in it so I insist on buying the fresh ( to speak nothing of the taste ).
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Yes, as time and money permit, I'll get an icebox. And right now I could easily do the buried ( dead ) fridge for a insulated hay-box type. But we can't afford much produce except potatoes so we don't have to protect that from the heat. And if we could I could always just buy it a day or two at a time since I'm already in town for work. Instead of butter, which is expensive, we sparingly use a room stable margarine ( the Parkay squeezable is $1.50 and is refrigerator recommended, all other types are refrigerator required ). There is the butter crock method, but as I said about cost... ( and the wife won't eat room temperature stored butter, I've tried in the past ). For cheese you could always use a lightly wetted with vinegar cheese cloth for hard cheeses.
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I don't know how much this will help you. Back East with the humidity it won't be this easy. And it is cheap and easy to build your own icebox and ice block maker ( detailed previously ). But perhaps due to power grid failure or loss of income or going to live grid free you might find this information helpful.
END

I'm mellllting

I'M MELLLLTING
Burn, baby, burn! I hope the friggin economy melts down so far that Yuppie Scum are living in their SUV's, stock traders are jumping from upper story windows, little fat kids ( puffed up from cases of Cheese Doodles and watching eight hours of TV a day ) are forced to run for their lives as hungry mobs chase them for stew meat, and especially, most importantly, I hope the airline industry implodes and Satan's Little Helper my ex-wife is without any job and must sell her fat sagging ass for cigarettes and pocket change. I used to care. I used to think any exploitation was better than the economy failing. Yet as soon as it starts to fail, as soon as panic sets in, I find myself cheering its demise. I simply just can't force myself to care anymore. I hate too many people and want to see them suffer.
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I hate the remaining middle class, almost to the man working in privileged positions as civil servants or government protected or promoted industries. I hate corporations. It used to be I enjoyed studying and learning about them. I even subscribed to Forbe's. Yet now I loath their ways. Influencing politics. Selling shoddy products. Screwing over the workers and/or retirees. I hate the entire government we have been forced under. It used to be that a small class raked off excess wealth and in return paid lip service to public good such as protection or fire suppression or social safety nets. Now after no functioning economy is left and parasitism is the only road left to wealth more and more government demands more and more blood from their hosts and offers less and less in return. I hate bankers and their unlimited greed. Not content to live off a half trillion dollars a year ( and that was just from the interest on the Federal deficit ) they had to leverage all loans sixty to one or worse until there is now no hope of recovery. Only hyper-inflation and starvation is what is left. I hate them all, and many more besides.
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Yes, I understand that individuals are not to be blamed. They are just doing what is necessary to survive. The system is rigged and they are just playing the game. I forgive them person by person but I still want to see the system melt away. Stupid, as I won't survive either. But wishing for something doesn't make it happen. It just does, regardless of your wishes. But I will enjoy their pain while I can. Living my pathetic life for others selfish lazy pleasures. Screw them all. Now, I'll fight the good fight. I am preparing so I can survive as long as possible. I have a cheap lot to live on. If prices get too insane I have another lot I am making payments on that is even cheaper ( $100 for my lot six miles to town, $75 for the other lot nine miles from town with both a mile from the river ). Total unemployment and no job and I have a lot bought and paid for nine miles up the freeway from town and then four miles up a poor dirt road. It is five miles from the river, but it is free and clear. I have a ton of food stored ( literally a ton ). It won't feed two very long but I figure the wife will die soon without her beer so that will free up a lot of chow for me.
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I'm done talking out of the side of my mouth. It used to be, well, I hope nothing bad happens but I'm prepared just in case. Now, I want all the miserable sucking puke buckets that have helped screw me over to suffer horribly. I want you to feel a little of what you have caused. I am tired of carrying on with a small shred of politically correct attitude. I want to banish that shred. Some of you get all bent out of shape when I talk about cannibalism. Well, guess what. It happens time and again during famine. If you don't think the end of oil and an overpopulation problem are not a recipe for people eating people you are in denial. We are adults, we're supposed to be able to face the unpleasant facts of life. And plan for it. And don't get all holier than thou on me. If you are so full of love for the mass of over breeding mouth breathers that surround you that you can't feel any hate for wrongs directed against you, good for you. I hope that works out for you. The rest of you, you know you want this as bad as I do. The melt-down will do a lot of collateral damage, but it will also serve up a mass of just dessert. Let's enjoy it.
END

guest article

GUEST ARTICLE
REPRINTED WITH PERMISSION FROM THE LMI MAGAZINE - theindependentamerican.freeyellow.com
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Lee Load Master Reloading Press - A Load of SOMETHING Alright!reviewed by Douglas P. BellFor quite some time now I have been meaning to write a review of the LEE LOAD MASTER reloading press vs. the DILLON 550 reloading press. This would not be a fair comparison however, for a variety of reasons, so I never did it. First off, the Lee Load Master was bought brand new. The Dillon was bought used, and not only that, it started life as a 450 and thirty years or so ago the original owner converted it to a 550 by shipping it back to the Dillon factory to be upgraded. A brand new, straight from the factory reloading press being compared to an used one that is quite a number of years old and not even in it's orginal condition, not fair by any means, especially as the Dillon works, so we will review the Lee Load Master reloading press by itself, as is.According to the Lee advert, the Load Master is "A massive press with advanced features. The ram is 1 3/4" in diameter. Stroke and clearance sufficient for the largest magnum rifle cases, loads rifle and pistol rounds with equal ease. Load progressively or singly without spilled powder or components."
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The Lee Load Master comes from the factory in at least eight pistol cartridges with carbide dies, deluxe auto-disk powder measure and case feeder, and four rifle cartridges with Pace Setter dies, Perfect Powder Measure, universal charge die and case inserter (no case feeder). Also available from the factory are eighteen shell plates, large and small primer feeders, spare five hole turrets and primer explosion shield.So much for the factory hype. What the "advanced features" are is unknown. The ram is hollow and the primers fall into it and are removed when a small sliding door on the bottom of the ram is slid out of the way so they can fall out the bottom. As far as I can tell, it does load rifle and pistol rounds with equal ease, which is to say it doesn't work at all well for either, but more on that later.While the press is advertized as "massive", it really isn't very heavy. This is due to the ram being hollow and the press being made of some sort of pot metal. I'm sure the factory prefers "aluminum alloy" or some other fancy name for pot metal, but here at the LMI, we are into telling the truth, not feeding you a load of something. This pot metal frame is fine, as long as everything else works correctly and is strong enough, and a properly designed "O" frame press can resize just about any case you'd want to fire from the shoulder when made from cheap pot metal without breaking.
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Lee designed the lever linkage to break before the press does, so you can't over stress the frame. The pot metal base, where you put the bolts to bolt the fame to the bench seem to break on the smaller presses fairly regularly however, so be warned. In the book "Modern Reloading 2nd ed." by Richard Lee (Lee Precision, 2003, 719 pages, 5 9/16"x8 5/8", which is highly recommended by the staff here at the LMI as one of the three best reloading manuals currently available, inspite of a number of factual errors. For example, on page 15, the .45 ACP is listed as being introduced in 1911, the correct date is 1905. The other problems are that the claims that Lee equipment is the best available, which much of it actually is, and the two year guarantee and satisfation or your money back, page 26, which is a pack of lies.) it is stated the Lee Load Master was introduced in 1992 and called it "the finest progressive press of all time" and "a tool anyone would be proud to own...indexing is lightening fast and silky smooth". All lies.
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They also admit the press didn't work right when introduced and changed this and replaced that and upgraded the presses as they were returned to the factory to be repaired. Mine has been returned to the factory repeatedly and not only did they refuse to repair or replace it under the two year warrenty, they claimed the satisfaction or your money back guarantee didn't apply. So much much for Lee customer service!Being young and believing the gun rag hype, both problems I've gotten over quickly, I bought a Lee Load Master reloading press as my first progresive press, after all, satisfaction or your money back, two year warranty! What could go wrong? The box came and I carefully read the instructions, and eagerly bolted the press to my reloading bench and started to reload. That is I TRIED to reload. The indexing, far from being "lightening fast and silky smooth" was in fact slow, clunky and rough as a wash board, that is when it worked at all. The primer feed was worthless, with many primers being seated sideways, upside down or not feeding at all.
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Finally the press locked up and had to be taken apart to be put back in working order every few rounds. After three days of aggravation and struggle, and possibly 100 rounds of pistol ammunition loaded, the plastic primer feed parts failed completely. I boxed the press up and sent it back to Lee requesting they replace the press or give me my money back after only four days of ownership.Shortly after that, a box arrived on my door step, the Lee Load Master with a letter stating they were refusing to replace the defective press or refund my money, but the press had been "repaired". I then bolted the press back down and tried it again. Same thing, rough as a cob indexing, when it indexed at all, primers seated upside down, sideways or not at all, the press seizing up and having to be taken apart to get it working, and after three days and possibly 100 rounds of ammunition loaded, total failure of the primer feed parts. Back to Lee, "replace the press or refund my money!" Back to me "We refuse to replace the Lee Load Master press, or refund your money, but it has been 'repaired'."
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Again rough as a cob indexing, locks up, total failure of parts, returned to Lee. Lee refusing to honor their warranty, returns press. Repeat. Locks up, total fairure of parts, returned to Lee. At least once Lee returned the Load Master press STILL seized up and all broken installed, just as it had been returned to the factory. After the first two years of returning the press to Lee monthly, or more often, they said it was no longer under warranty, which they had refused to honor anyway, and the problem was the ram was warped due to being cooled too fast after heat treating, but they would now, after two years of refusing to honor their so called warranty, repair or replace the Lee Load Master press if I paid another 50% of retail to have it fixed. They would not repair, replace or refund my money when the Load Master was returned to the factory 20 some times under warranty, but then admitted that the problem was their fault, but now wanted ANOTHER 50% of retail to fix it after refusing to do so under their two year warranty and waiting until the worthless warranty expires to try to extort more money from me to again "repair" the press! Wonderful.
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The case inserter is another part of the Lee Load Master that never worked, and as far as I have been able to tell, has never worked, ever, for anyone. Oh it sometimes could be made to work, sort of, kind of, generally, if you were lucky and careful, but, and I'm serious here, to do so requires a STP Oil Treatment drip be rigged to lubricate the case inserter. One magazine, having the same problems and "repair" service that I did, was able to get the case inserter to work, sort of, generally, not every time however, by rigging a STP Oil Treatment drip, but concluded it wasn't worth the trouble to do so.Not content to let well enough alone, current owners of new Load Masters were contacted to see if quality was improved. It hasn't. One of the very few owners who admitted he liked the Lee Load Master said it was a "ride 'em and wrench 'em press and needs constant tinkering and adjusting to work.
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This is not a press for someone who just wants to sit down and reload", but he went on to say he enjoyed "messing with the Lee Load Master press and trying to get it to work" as having a properly, and possibly THE only, working Lee Load Master press had become something of a hobby for him that was turning into an obsession. The rest of the Lee Load Master owners (or more accurately FORMER owners) reported problems the same as I had and the great majority had dumped the Lee Load Master in favor of some sort of Dillon progressive press and were very happy with the Dillon presses they bought. The bottom line? The Lee Load Master press I bought was a total POS. The factory refused to repair, replace or refund my money after the press had been returned near weekly to the factory in the first three months and constantly in the first two years, after which they washed their hands of the worthless press. From all reports, the Lee Load Master is still junk and if my experience in trying to get the Lee Load Master press I bought fixed is any indication, Lee customer service is as bad as Charles Daly or Jonathon Arthur Ciener. Do NOT buy a Lee Load Master!
END
( I inserted breaks at random-Jim. This was merely to help with reading. Sometimes the original breaks stay intact, sometimes not. And I was in a hurry so I couldn't do a better job of it. So any fault on that account is mine )

food banks

FOOD BANKS
If you had been paying attention, which I doubt since I have yet to hear from any of you moving up here to Elko so that we can begin our evil genius plans for taking over the Great Basin after PODA begins, you know I am on my second job at a homeless food bank. I love my job since it actually involves helping people instead of catering to their vices. Don't get me wrong, I'm not a bleeding heart liberal, jumping out of my Volvo to hug a tree and then getting on an airplane and flying half way across the globe so I can attend a meeting trying to figure out if global warming is caused by too many jet airplanes flying people around on useless errands. I am Green because I am poor. Not because I want to be. I don't get all warm and fuzzy helping drunks shovel in a bite or two in between pints of Mad Dog. But if you have to work like an illegal immigrant, earning one third of poverty level wages after all the parasites that have singled you out for special treatment have taken their cut, at least it helps to be doing something somewhat positive. Past jobs, such as propping up old farts in front of slot machines long enough to take the left overs of their Social Security check just don't give you that much of a special glow. I won't even get into the pleasures of opening up the gas station early Christmas morning, not so booze saturated idiots can buy more beer, or a family can get enough gas to make it to Grandma's house for the yearly visit, but so crotchety old biddies can come in multiple times to buy Lottery tickets and complain about being on a fixed income.
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So, I'm aware of the shortcomings of a Food Bank. They mainly cator to people who have refused to help themselves. But you do get enough families that genuinely need help that it is all worthwhile. But you do need to be aware of how they work. And while I can't personally attest to other states, I have talked to volunteers who assure me they pretty much all work the same. An individual or group donate time, do fund raising. Retail stores and others donate goods. Thrift stores are opened to generate funds. And a lot of Federal money sees its way to them. A lot of the operating capital Food Banks need are nothing more than welfare. And also keep in mind that a surplus of grocery stores ordering a surplus of items or over producing at the bakery generate a lot of what is donated.
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So, come truly hard times, the Food Bank is not going to be a resource you can count on. Federal money will dry up. Donations will dry up as more grocery chains go out of business or at a minimum cut back on inventory. Since donations are tax deductible there is an incentive right now for businesses. The bakery items not sold are given full retail price tax credit. To the store it is like a sale. But only up to a certain point. Once loses reach a certain point there will be no more need to create those surpluses. The loses that can't be helped will be the new tax reduction ploy. There will be no need to take more real loses by baking more pastries or bread. And if sweeteners and flour continue to go up ( as well as the energy needed to bake them ) as they have this could be a good area to reduce costs. As far as Federal money, just think of how many areas will need to see cuts after we start fighting on a third front. Even after inflation is reved up.
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Even if donations and funding escape those fates, right now only a very small percentage of the population is serviced by these organizations. The kitchens and the food pantries both feed about one person in a thousand. Any increase in those in need most likely will overwhelm the system. This is no longer about unpaid church members helping the needy. It is about paid professionals running a costly bureaucracy. Plan accordingly.
END

merrill melt and lehman lumps

MERRILL MELT AND LEHMAN LUMPS
I was planning on babbling something profound but since I started work to the radio news of the Lehman bankruptcy and Merrill Lynch rescue buy-out I figured I just had to use that as a tie in to nothing more than gloating and jeering. After 150 years, through a Civil War, a Depression and other conflicts and financial calamities, Lehman is now unable to secure financing and will declare bankruptcy. The Federal government has politely declined to bail them out, virtuously declaring that they must draw a line in the sand and stop bailing out everyone and his dead beat brother. That is Orwellian speak for either, 1) we are broke and can't get extra cash either, or 2) you don't have enough pull in our organization and it won't benefit anyone that matters to help you out. Either way, go pack sand.
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Next in line is Merrill Lynch. They do have some pull somewhere and Bank Of America is buying them out. There of course was talking head BS about a fire sale and acquiring a valuable asset, but that is just Corporate Screw Job Talk meaning they are only buying this toxic lump of dog crap because it benefits them someway they don't like to talk about. They bought Countrywide so they wouldn't lose more than it cost them to buy it in sub-prime loses. They are most likely buying Merrill to put the brakes on the credit meltdown. It won't do much good, but since it will all be wiped out anyway in the end it is worth trying.
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There was also news of Detroit wanting at least $25 billion or they wouldn't come out with any fuel economy cars. I suppose that makes sense if they shipped over to China all the '80's factories that put out small cars. But I can't see them getting too much help. Uncle Sam has a new toy, the US mortgage market, and doesn't have time to play with that plus little cute cars. Or airplanes for that matter. If I was a retiree of any airline of aircraft company I would be worried about my pension. If I was working for BofA I would be saving my extra cash and getting out of debt. As it is, I'm making close to minimum wage and I know it is just a matter of time before my job is gone.
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And it also seems that the next company up for implosion is going to be the insurer AIG. Their stock just took a huge beating. I want to say 50%, but don't quote me on that. The financial sector has been going down hill for a year. It just keeps getting worse. I see no other end than a economic collapse. Over the weekend I was bitching and moaning to myself, not in financial quicksand but at a point where there was no moving ahead. I had given up $400 rent for $175 land payments and yet I was still at the same point each month of scrapping by on my last dollar with savings being depleted rapidly. I lost over $100 a month in overtime from my last job ( I worked seven days a week ) and my writing revenue was also shrinking. So I gained nothing financially from moving. But coming in to work on Monday and hearing the above news, I was cheered up, knowing it was the correct course of action. In the long run, come economic collapse, I'll be sitting pretty up here. Peace of mind.
END
I forgot to keep bugging you. Buy My Crap!! www.bisonpress.com

bad times prices

BAD TIMES PRICES
First off, about yesterday. I couldn't get online at work during lunch. So I jumped on my Commie Classic ( with new super-duper chain ) and rode over to the library. No luck there, either. So I had to wait until a short break at work and spewed some drivel quickly just so you knew I was still live. Not that it does any good, I've lost another ten percent of my fair weather readers since I went back to daily. I can't figure people out.
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Baby Jesus, or whatever other deity amuses him/her/itself tormenting me evidently knew the game was too heavily rigged against me recently and decided to cut me some slack. As I was wasting time at lunch yesterday ( since I wasn't on the InterWeb ) looking through our thrift store, I came across a paperback. Bad Times Primer by Cobb. I was tickled pink, besides myself and simply overjoyed. Not because it is a great book. It's not. It advertises itself as survival on a budget, and only in relation to say, Patriots, does it save you any money. But I love cheap survival books of yesteryear, good or bad. You can always find some nugget of info. And this one was only fifty cents. As I was flipping through it I was amazed at the prices.
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Almost thirty years ago and the prices, besides semi-automatic firearms, are almost identical to today. Grain grinders, ammunition, surplus bolt actions, stoves. As far as prices the book could have been written fairly recently. No food or land or new vehicles were priced, but that which was is spot on for today. This tells me a thing or two. Namely, as far as preparedness supplies go, we are still under priced. Let oil double in price, let gold go up to two thousand and see five to eight years of panic push a lot more of the population into survivalist mode and you can double or triple preparedness prices from today's level.
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This is of course based on historic trends. If we match the Seventies collapse. Which we might not. For the first time it seems to me deflation is back as a possibility ( and this is not my guess, I follow better advice than my own on economics over at www.urbansurvival.com ). But it seems that almost two decades of lower oil prices ( thanks to Britain selling off their energy sources, plus Alaska and the Gulf Of Mexico ) and exporting from Commie nations has really lowered equipment costs for us survivalists. I can't help but see how that is coming to an end. Just from inflation alone, excluding oil and demand forces, all prices should be at least doubled. But entry level war surplus guns used to be $50-75. Now the MN Russian bolt is $75. Ammo was listed at twenty cents a round. Until recently it was still that much ( thirty cal. ). Grain grinders were listed at $50. Now they are even lower than that. Sheet metal stoves were listed at $80. Now they are $90.
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Sad to think that the early years of this century are going to be the good old days soon enough.
END
Sorry I didn't get all emotional yesterday on the False Flag Attack anniversary. And it only took seven years to build a memorial. I think the moon landing was executed faster. Be good, see you on Monday.

credit scarce as gold

CREDIT SCARCE AS GOLD
Okay, here's a bit of news you may not have heard. One of the northern Nevada gold mines closed, due to the inability to get needed credit. The mine has gold. The mine owners don't have credit to extract it. Of course I laughed at any of the laid-off workers that was living the typical indebtedness lifestyle, overpaying on a stucco McMansion or a Detroit conveyance. I shouldn't have, but how can you help yourself? Enron was a glaring lesson, ignored at one's peril.
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Does it mean the credit crunch is that bad, when precious metal can't be mined? Is it just another mismanaged company? Is it just another industry super-sizing? We'll see. I guess it depends on how paranoid you are. News, for what its worth.
END
Okay, it's a bit short. I'll do better on Friday.

best laid plans

BEST LAID PLANS
I'm writing this on Tuesday and pre-posting it for Wednesday. Another day driving into work since I had to leave the bike in the shop overnight. The gas is going to cost about half as much as the bike labor and parts. So I won't really have time to write much either day. This is about the best laid plans of mice and men. I hope this gets you thinking about all the things that can go wrong with things you think you've planned for. It would be easy just to call me an idiot and convince yourself you won't make any mistakes. But it would not be very smart.
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I was all set for bike failure when I started commuting into town, six to seven miles one way depending on destination. I had a spare tube and the wrench to take off the tire. I don't like patches, in case I ran over more than one sharp object ( usually Goat's Heads ). I'm on my way to a job interview, get a flat. I can't change the tire because, although I had a screw driver, I was stripping the head of the screw by not clamping down the back nut. I needed another wrench. So I power-walked into town ( I was half way, no reason to turn back for the truck ) and was twenty minutes late for the interview. Needless to say I didn't get the job. So I added the second wrench to my tool kit. The next time I got a flat I was all set. When it happened less than two weeks later I needed to do what I should have the first time and bought an expensive tube that was five times thicker than the normal $3 tube. Then my chain broke. Walked six miles and put parts and a chain tool into my tool kit. My chain broke again a few weeks later. I thought I was all set to fix it on the road, but I had forgotten one part of the replacement link. Walk home another six miles, another set of blisters. Now I'm doing what I should have the first time, paying for a quality chain.
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This isn't just a tale of being poor and being unable to afford quality. That is an everyday occurrence, living with substandard everything, from food to indoor climate to transportation. It is a warning that even when you think you are prepared, you might not be. I'm not advocating Yuppie Survivalism. Buying quality means you don't have quantity. I'm saying, this is a reminder to have back up plans. And to expect the worse.
END

guest article

GUEST ARTICLE
I have to take my bike to the shop at lunch today, so you get a guest article. If I get back in time I'll try to give you something. Damn Chinese crap. I knew I would need to replace certain items as they broke with quality parts, I just didn't know it would happen so quick. Another day yesterday of walking home six miles and taking the gus gzzler into town today. Six bucks for a twelve mile trip. Anyway, here you go.
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SLOW CRASH VS FAST CRASH

Peak oil, food, resources, population, bird flu, WW III or whatever. I believe it willstart as a slow crash and quickly accelerate into a fast crash.

I use two examples to illustrate my thinking.

The first one I call "Avalanche." Think of all the mistakes that our civilization is making. Depletion of resources, overpopulation, just in time inventory, germwarfare etc. These mistakes and all the others are building and compoundingupon themselves. Just like the snow on a mountain until finally.....Avalanche!Everything comes smashing down at once.

The second one I call "Musical Chairs."Illustrating this one works best when considering the "Peak" scenario (oil,food or resources)

Imagine a giant room. In the room there is one ambassador for each country.For simplicity we will say there are 1000 ambassadors.

It is year one of Peak.The game begins, then the music stops.

Oops! Sorry Zimbabwe no oil for you. Someone passes the hat to make surethe ruling elite there have enough fuel to run their private generators. Also theyget sent extra bullets to keep the masses in line.

Year two937 chairs. The music stops. This time its Tibet and 61 others that get no oil.Go stand with Zim on the sidelines. Everyone makes sure these guys getextra bullets and weaponry. Electric companies in these countries are unableto obtain enough coal or diesel. Brownouts and blackouts are frequent.Mining companies shutting down.

Year threeThis time only 649 chairs. When the music stops there is lots of fighting overwho got the chairs (ie oil). Even if a country is a winner in the game, internallythere are losers. The poor, who can not afford high priced energy. Increasedcrime, mob violence, revolts and uprisings accelerate.

Over on the loser sidelines it seems two things are happening:

1. Just now realizing that the musical chair game was rigged, Zimbabwe, Tibetand some of the others have formed an alliance and are going to "whack"some of their neighbors and take their oil. In the fighting 70% of what theyare fighting over is destroyed.

2. Some of the countries, such as Orwellvania have begun an aggressivepopulation reduction program. Call it culling the herd, racial cleansing orterminating certain disruptive social elements, the results are the same.In the beginning, the good little sheep head for the showers. Howeverlittle by little the truth gets out. Mixed in with the sheep is an occasionalwolverine that just wanted to mind his own business and be left alone.Now he is pissed!

Year fourOnly 322 chairs. There would have been more except the have nots realizingthat any of their neighbors having oil also have tremendous military superiorityover them. (ie planes and tanks vs infantry). The have nots target all oil/energyassets of their neighbors. Internally, elements of the masses realize the sameand seek to neutralize their own governments energy assets.

Trade at all levels comes to a standstill. Realizing that to trade away surplusfood, weapons and energy today could turn out to be a deadly mistake tomorrow.

World wide currency collapse. On an individual level everything reverts tobarter and only an occasional gold/silver transaction. Massive die offbegins.

Mad Max, warlord, and gangster environment now exists in many locationsin formerly first world countries.

Back at the game many of the players now refuse to stand up and playanymore. Trying to hang on to what they have the best they can.

Some of the stronger players are now seriously considering the "Dust Off"option. Their lab people have assured them the "Plan" will work.

Shutting down "ALL" air traffic on 911 was not to prevent more terroristhi-jackings. It was a test to see how quickly air traffic could be shutdown in the event of a bird flu outbreak or small pox attack.

With all commercial air travel now non-existant, the country of Rojoestrellais convinced it can "dust off" North and South America and Australiasafely.

On the other hand Blancoestrella is convinced being separated from therest of the world by two oceans, it can safely "dust off" Europe, Asia,Africa and maybe Australia for good measure.

Bottom line:

The PTB will try to cover up Peak as long as possible, whilethey jockey for better positioning.

The truth will out. Facts will speak for themselves.

No oil, or unaffordable oil.

No food, or unaffordable food.

END

taking it in the fannie

TAKING IT IN THE FANNIE
What we all pretty much figured was just a matter of time was made official. Freddie and Fannie will be covered by the Feds. Taxpayer bail out time. Now, don't get sidetracked here. It isn't a matter of increased taxes. Only below the radar taxes will raise. You won't know how much of a ten dollar loaf of bread is due to Peak Oil, hyperinflation or more hidden taxes. All you know is everything costs more and you can't afford it. And it isn't a matter of socializing the economy. In case you kind of missed it, that has been going on since FDR. One more poorly run quasi-public entity won't matter much. And it isn't really too much about interest rates. They will go up. Not because 50% of the loan market just got taken over by the Federales. Because the bankers need the money and the bankers control the economy.
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What the bottom line is, at least for me, is that this is just another strong indicator that we are all seriously screwed. Regardless of what happens. And I can't tell you how for sure. If I could I would be charging you for the advice and be living pretty in a much more secure location. Deflation because the credit sector is imploding? Or inflation as the only way the government can pay its bills? I have no idea. I don't know if I should sell my remaining assets, chiefly a gold coin, and skirt my trailer for the winter. Will gold keep going down? Will it spike up? Will metal prices keep increasing? I can't even chart my own future, so don't listen to me.
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I can safely guess that now is not a great time to be dinking around. Don't save up for the perfect gun, buy what you can afford now. Don't wait until you can afford some freeze dried foods, or wait until they become available. Buy grain and beans now. Don't wait until retirement to buy the perfect retreat. You most likely won't see retirement anyway. Just get what you can afford now. A tent and a bike trailer is better than apartment rent or a mortgage that depends on continual employment. It is just a matter of time before things get worse. And it is not a question of if but of when and how bad.
END

message in a bomb

MESSAGE IN A BOMB
One has to wonder about our little incursion into Pakistan. Was this par for the course, with this time actually getting attention? Was it a message that we can do as we wish, nuclear missiles and sovereignty be damned? Just another manipulation of Pakistani politics ( I've wondered if we were behind an assassination or two )? Reminding India to play on our team or our puppets would be told to start another war?
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Of course the US has always felt as if we could dictate to everyone else how to do things. It's good to be the big boy on the block. So I wonder how long we've been treating the border of Pakistan and Afghanistan as nothing more than an effective mouse trap for naive terrorists that think sovereign nations are in control of their own destinies. And how deep are we into trying to influence politics there? The CIA did a pretty poor job of things ( at least those publicly admitted ) for such a huge budget. Could fear of losing funding actually improve their job performance?
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Iran got all of the press recently. Could a lot of that been a decoy while we played in Pakistan? If we control the leaders there we control the Muslim nuclear weapons. Iran's threat to develop nukes pails compared to the actual arsenal Pakistan has. And Pakistan not only keeps India in line, it could also give both Russia and China pause before they intervene in "our" oil area. Under guise of protecting a fellow Muslim nation that only coincidentally has oil, our two biggest rivals are checked from intervention.
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A lot of questions, no answers. This is just me being paranoid and trying to think big picture. But it bears thinking about. Oil is our survival, so those things oil related are very important. But you won't find much talk about this vital issue. "Bush" McCain and "Stalin" Obama took all the headlines as soon as the Commie Olympics were done. Both are controled by big money interests and it doesn't matter which one wins, but the media has to act like it's important. If the media covered what mattered it wouldn't be doing its job.
END

false economics

FALSE ECONOMICS
Since I've been back west an annual event that usually stirred my heart and brought a twinkle to my eye has been the Smith's grocery store case sale. Buy a case, get unimaginable savings. Don't just buy a can or two, buy the case and we save on labor displaying the thing so you get a deal. Passing the savings on to you. Well, this year yet another of my cherished dreams and illusions was shattered. I mean, come on guys. Throw me a friggin bone here. Now, I could be reading much too much into this, but this does seem to be just another symptom of our declining economy and the end of the oil age.
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This year the case sale was a cruel joke. Buy a case of tuna, spend ten cents more a can than if you had bought Wal-Mart generic. Buy a case of up O Noodle, save a whole three cents each. Out of about two dozen items only chili and peanut butter had any real savings. The rest of it was not worthy of mention. Now, I can't recall if Smith's is still owned by the LDS Church. I think they sold out to corporate types. If true, I can easily see how the idiocy of the typical CEO is shining through. Or it could just be that with the credit crunch devastating the economy ( and only slowed down by massive Federal intervention ) and oil prices still moving through the supply chain this is as good as it gets anymore. There may be no savings that can be passed on to the consumer. The only way to increase business used to be to expand or buy competitors. Without available cheap credit the only way to increase your profits, or make up for lost profits since you can't cut prices, is to cut your workforce, cut hours, decrease stock. All actions that will hurt your business even more. But there is no choice since previous loan payments must be met.
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And it may be that consumers can't put hundreds of extra dollars into food, even if the savings as a whole makes it worth it. They know prices will only go up. But fuel costs are still darn high. People are only spending ten or twenty bucks less a fill-up from a few months ago. And they have to save for the coming shock of winter heat. Perhaps Smith's knows they shouldn't try too hard on discounts because the business most likely won't be there. Remember, something doesn't smell right. The dollar up, gold down? It has to be manipulation. So I think the bad case sale is just an indicator of things to come. Business will fall, more layoffs to save money. Worse service as prices increase ( think Post Office Economy ). More pain at the ( dinner ) plate.
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Okay, that's it for that panic analysis. On to the nuts and bolts of Bison Publishing. Even before I announced that I was going to be moving and interrupting postings I had noticed a big drop in my profits. The disposable income of my readers went into the gas tank instead of to me. Normally, as I'm huffing and puffing along on my bike in one hundred degree heat or below freezing cold I tend to curse such selfishness. But I certainly can understand it. After I stopped posting everyday my earning nosedived into the toilet. Google Ad revenue down over 90%. My e-book sales down 50%. Amazon revenue down 75%. Reader numbers down 30%. So in truth I was in no hurry to start posting regular again. That's the main reason it took an extra month to start posting daily again. No more profit incentive. Well, despite that, I can't help myself. I have to write. It is now in my blood and I can't stop.
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I preferred to write for two or three days for one long article ( I am unable to write at home due to lack of electricity so it all gets done at my lunch break ). But I had too many problems with getting files to a USB memory stick ( I can't find a driver, or even discover which version of Win98 I have ). So I am back typing while on the Internet. So I need to write shorter articles. So it became a daily again. Well, at least Monday through Friday while at work. No weekend articles unless I get guest articles and I pre-post them. And I might even cheat once in awhile and post a guest article instead of my own. In truth I think I've pretty much said all there is to say. But I can't stop writing, and if I write enough that means occasionally I'll still have flashes of brilliance. So let's see how it all goes.
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Thanks for still tuning in to read. Thanks for the generosity you have shown. I complain about profits only because they got so high and have now fallen. I still know you are all very generous and have rewarded me as an author. Don't think I don't notice. Talk at you tomorrow.
END

book review-afterblight

BOOK REVIEW-AFTERBLIGHT
Before you get all disgusted and uptight and curse me to the lower depths of Hades for wasting this weeks article on yet another book review, I have good news of a sort. Until further notice, and explained in detail tomorrow, I'm back to a daily posting. So tune in for more Bisony goodness in 24 hours.
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The Afterblight Chronicles, The Culled, by Simon Spurrier is a pretty kick butt post collapse novel. Yes, it is far from perfect. I will address these issues. But it does do what a fiction book requires. It holds your interest, it is a page-turner, it entertains, it is worth the money. In that aspect I have no complaints. That said, the author is far from a survivalist or a pepper. Thank goodness this wasn't another zombie book, which I hate. That is a lazy way of portraying the end of the world. The Culled, first in a series, merely uses a disease to end the world. Hey, it worked for King.
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The main character is a ex-special forces/assassin for the Queen type. In this way he easily overcomes whole armies trying to kill him. We had enough of that crap with the '80's pulp survival fiction. And, post-collapse is not well thought out. Several instances of mentioning eating canned dog food and going hungry, yet there is jet fuel available as well as lots of military weaponry and ammunition.
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So, don't read this just for post-collapse ideas. You won't find much here. If you want to be entertained with Apocalypse fantasy, this is a great read.
END