This is a sneak peak at NBC’s new show Revolution. It is the latest TV show in the post-apocalyptic genre. The plot is a global EMP destroys all of the electrical grid and everything with a circuit board. The world falls into a state of chaos. The story picks up 15 years later and life as we know it has changed dramatically. Suburbia has been reclaimed as farm land and small self sufficient villages have developed. A power hungry warlord has recruited his own militia and rules by the sword.
Grab some popcorn and enjoy the sneak peak of Revolution.
Wow! I was very impressed. It was quite a show. I noticed a lot of things that were fairly realistic. I saw some things that were not so much, but I think it will be a great conversation starter especially for non-preppers.
First was the EMP. I thought it was a good visual of what an EMP attack would look like. I would like to think that we would be able to rebuild in less than 15 years, but we do have to grant some poetic license here. Revolution is a TV show and I am glad NBC made it.
Second was the self sustaining villages. They were laid out like old frontier forts. I thought that was very well thought out and it would be very realistic for the scenario.
The third thing I noticed was the militia. They imposed their will on everyone else through force. They were the only one allowed to have firearms and operated a police state with the power derived from their superior weapons.
At the end of Revolution, we see a woman using a system similar to WINMOR . WINMOR is a system that uses your computer and Ham radio to send e-mail without the internet. It is very realistic that these types of communication systems would be used in this type of situation. That is assuming you had the forethought to place a functioning computer and Ham radio system in a Faraday cage prior to the EMP.
I hope you enjoyed the show. Revolution will be on NBC, Monday nights at 10pm.We will be posting a great informational post on EMP threats next week. Come back to see us soon at Prepper Recon.com
Mario Draghi has just announced that The European Central Bank or the ECB will be buying bonds. This is an unprecedented action by the ECB. Up to this point, members of the Euro Zone, primarily the Germans, have rejected the idea of bond buying programs. When a central bank like the ECB buys bonds, they do so with currency that is created out of thin air. This is what the US Central Bank, the Federal Reserve do regularly. By creating more money, the monetary base or M-O money supply increases. This creates inflation as you now have more currency competing for the same amount of goods and services.
This action will likely diminish the value of the Euro. As we have seen today, it will also make hard assets like gold and silver more attractive. At the time of this writing, gold was up $10 to $1705 and silver was up $.33 to $32.60. The devil is in the details as to what may actually comes out of today’s announcement, but it represents a fundamental shift in policy by the ECB. This will have dramatic effects to global markets in the long run.
Why did the Germans cave in?
Germany has been the best looking house in a bad neighborhood for a few years. They have been responsible with their spending and maintained a strong economy as a result. Other countries around them like Spain, Italy and Greece have squandered their wealth in wild living. They have given away hoards of cash in social welfare programs and young retirement age while failing to generate the required revenue to support such spending sprees. These countries are now teetering on the brink of collapse and the spill over will have devastating effects on Germany.
In an article by CNBCwritten Monday, the problem in the Spanish banking system is covered in some detail. Spaniards have lost confidence in their government to handle the sovereign debt problem. They fear a Greek type meltdown in their own economy. The Spanish see the possibility of a Euro Zone exit and return to the Peseta as an independent form of currency. It is expected that the Peseta would lose 25- 50% of its value against the Euro within the first year of the exit. This fear has driven Spanish depositors to withdraw savings en masse. The numbers for August have not been finalized or released, but they withdrew the equivalent of nearly $100 billion USD in July. Under the fractional reserve banking system, this destroys nearly $1 trillion in wealth. An explanation of the fractional reserve banking system is beyond the scope of this article, but I promise to write a full explanation of it and the hazards it creates in the next 2 weeks, so stay tuned.
A credit contraction of this magnitude is certainly wreaking havoc on the Spanish economy and threatening to spread a crisis of confidence through all of the struggling Euro Zone countries. I believe the Germans have come to terms with the fact that there is no other way out of this crisis. However, it is not a cure. It is, in fact, only a mechanism for kicking the can down the road and causing the final day of reckoning to be worse. With this year’s French election, the Germans lost their only ally in the fight for fiscal responsibility. With the election of new French president Hollande, France voted against austerity and joined the ranks of the rest of the drunken Euro spending festival.
I also suspect there was a back room meeting similar to the one we had in DC in 2008 where Hank Paulson and Ben Bernanke told members of congress if they didn’t pass this bail out, they should expect something resembling a zombie apocalypse in the next week. Nothing like the undead to scare you into doing the right thing. A continued run on the Spanish banks would create a scenario just short of this threat. I doubt German Chancellor Angela Merkel has any greater affinity towards zombies than the rest of us.
Here is quick video on the ECB decision. It is about 6 minutes.
We will have more on the threats of a financial collapse and a banking system meltdown in our coming posts. For now, keep your eyes wide open and happy prepping!
Part of prepping is being ready to bug out if the need were to arise. The most critical element to bugging out is the bug out bag which we discussed in our 7 step Preparedness Plan- Step 2. If you haven’t read it, please check it out. Just look under “Categories” on the left had side of the page and select “7 Step Preparedness Plan” then click on Step 2. Any number of things can cause you to have to evacuate or bug out. Just a few possible scenarios include a nuclear or biological attack by a terrorist. an accident at a chemical or nuclear facility, a train wreck involving hazardous materials, hurricanes, earthquakes, and prolonged civil unrest.
If it is possible, always try to stay where you are. When you are in your home, you are in a familiar environment. If you leave, you can find yourself in a more volatile situation than you left. When you gotta go, you gotta go. And if you gotta go, go fast and go first. A mass evacuation will cause a traffic grid lock. Think about rush hour traffic in your area, then multiply it times 10. This threat is why a bug out bike is part of my plan. Other possibilities that would create a need to add a bike to your motor vehicle is a lack of fuel because of shortages or lack of electricity to pump the gas. In my plan, my wife and I each have bikes that go on to the back of our car on a bike rack. We keep those bikes in good working order and ride them regularly. If you are thinking of adding a bike to your bug out plan, get some tire liners and an extra inner tube the next time you get it serviced. MR Tuffy tire liners will repel common threats to your tires like nails and glass. Also have a way to pump up the spare tube and tools to change it. If prepping has left you with a big bug out bag, it will be hard to ride with that on your back. There are some expensive and not so expensive cargo options to a bike. Baby wagon trailers can be bought for around $200. Other bike cargo trailers can go up to $400.
I like unexpensive solutions, so I modified my household hand cart to be a bug out trailer by drilling holes to accept zip ties to secure it to the bike rack. The picture just shows two zip ties, but I would reinforce that with some 550lb para cord, available on the Amazon bar to the right of the blog. I also zip tied a milk crate to the rack for some extra food and water storage. This would still allow me to carry a regular pack on my person. Here are some pictures. Let me know what you think and tell us what your alternative bug out transportation is.
Nouriel Roubini earned the nick name Dr. Doom after accurately predicting the 2008 financial crisis. He has served as an economist for the IMF, World Bank, and US Treasury. In this interview, Nouriel Roubini speaks about the possibility of a perfect economic storm. The elements of that financial storm include the upcoming US fiscal cliff, a break up of the Euro Zone, and a possible conflict with Iran which would send oil prices soaring.
We have spoken about the US fiscal cliff on Prepper Recon before, but here is a recap. The Bush tax cuts expire in January which will raise most everyone’s tax rate by 5%. This 5% would come straight out of consumer spending which makes up 70% of GDP. That would lower GDP by 3.5% by itself. This is a recession on top of an already anemic economic environment.
Part 2 of the cliff is in the automatic sequester,as Nouriel Roubini points out, this was the deal struck to make spending cuts across the board during our last debt ceiling debate. This will force government agencies, and government contractors to make job cuts, adding to our already high unemployment.
Part 3 of the cliff is another debt ceiling debate which caused us to loose our AAA credit rating. Another rating cut would all but insure bond yields to soar, creating an accelerator to our already out of control debt burden. It is the equivalent of being maxed out on all your credit cards and making the minimum payments by taking out new cards. Suddenly you miss a payment and all of your rates go up to the default rate, which in case you haven’t looked, is probably 25% higher than your current rate.
Even if we dodge all of this, the sequel is more scary than the other 3 parts put together. It is known affectionately as Obama Care. It is the single most financially devastating event in our history. In 2014, small businesses with 50 employees or more will have to provide health care for their workers. So if you are an employer with 60 employees, what is your solution? For most, it will be “lay off 11 people”. That will be the solution for thousands of small businesses around the country. You don’t need me to do the math for you to see this is economic Armageddon.
I am a Ron Paul fan myself, but the reality is we have to stop this time bomb from taking us out. We will not survive Obama Care, and if that means voting for someone you really don’t like, join the crowd. I think we can all agree that the flu is not pleasant, but it is a lot better than cancer. We can all wish that Ron Paul was a choice and we could be happy and healthy, but the sheeple have spoken and our choices are the flu or cancer. This election cycle, if you don’t choose one, someone will choose for you.
Combined with the other forces Nouriel Roubini has pointed out, this could be the beginning of a global financial collapse. Most people expect it to play out rather slowly, but you may be surprised how fast it can happen once confidence begins to erode.
Do what you can to pay down debt. Save as much money as possible and explore alternative income streams. The next few years could be rough.
Water is one of the most important commodities to survival, second only to air. It is said you can survive about 3 minutes without air, 3 days without water and 3 weeks without food. It is also very susceptible to disruption. Chemical spills, power outages, sewer leaks, and terror attacks are all potential disruptions to our water supply. A fortunate few live on land that has its own water source. The vast majority of us do not and are highly dependent on a municipal government to provide water for us.
Storing water for such instances is quite prudent. Having the capacity to store large amounts of water presents a problem for many people. It may be very easy for you to store 20 or 30 gallons, but two people would go through that in 10 days if they would only us it for drinking, cooking and brushing teeth. If you have the space and desire to put in an above ground pool, this is an excellent method to store water although it will require a lot of maintenance as you will need to keep chlorine levels good and keep up a pump system. Another possibility is to dig a well and install a hand pump. This option will cost quite a bit up front.
For prepping on a budget, building your own rain catch system can be done for less than $100. Simply run a length of gutter in an area that will catch a lot of rain and won’t be to unsightly for the neighbors. Many cities do not allow rain catch systems, so keep this in mind when you decide if this option is right for you. Be sure to put a gutter filter over the gutter to keep out leaves and debris. Attach a down spout and feed it into a 50 gallon food grade bucket that you can likely find on Craigslist. If you feel handy, you can drill out a small hole at the bottom of the bucket and install a spigot for a few bucks more. If you decide to, place tight fitting rubber washers around the inside and outside of the spigot pipe and screw on an open threaded connector cap tightly on the inside of your water barrel to prevent leaks. To cover your rain catch system, you can use thick plastic sheeting and a bungee cord. This won’t make your rain catch system air tight, but it will keep out most critters.
Here is my set up:
Painting them to match your home will make them less conspicuous if you are concerned with Op Sec, but not necessary if you don’t care.
Between now and TEOTWAWKI, I use the water to keep my garden well watered. I rarely use the hose for the garden since I put in this rain catch system.
I think I paid $25 for each barrel, $14 for 20 feet of gutter, another $10 for the down spouts, $4 for a 20′ roll of gutter guard, $10 for the spigot and washers, and $5 for 2 heavy duty bungee cords. The plastic sheeting I had laying around. That totals to $93.
Let us know what you do to be prepared for a water service disruption.
Yesterday was the 7 year anniversary of the day Hurricane Katrina brought so much death and destruction to New Orleans. Once again, the best and brightest were unable to stop the flood waters from rising and massive losses in property from Hurricane Issac. The average elevation of the city is between 1 and 2 feet below sea level. At some point I would think that becomes uninsurable. We haven’t learned that lesson yet, but there are several lessons that we can take away from Katrina.
Hurricane Katrina opened the eyes of America to a new level of what it can look like when it hits the fan in our own country. The following video is good footage of the desperate situations that were present in the aftermath of Katrina. The video is from MSNBC. Anyone who reads Prepper Recon.com regularly will probably guess that I am not an avid MSNBC fan. In fact, this video epitomizes the leftist propaganda that they regularly broadcast. It is fitting as I believe the socialist mentality that MSNBC promotes and was a prime element in making the Katrina aftermath as bad as it could be.
Katrina Lesson 1- Get out when you can.
When an evacuation is issued, a prepper should have his bag packed, cash on hand and ready to leave in 15 minutes. This insures that you are one of the first people to get out of the area in the case of a disaster that requires a mass exodus. The people who have to run around the house looking for their important papers, find a bag to pack and think about what to put in it will also have to stop at the bank for money and then to get gas. The majority of these people will be in grid locked traffic for hours. Depending on the disaster, they may not make it.
Many people stayed because they didn’t have money to leave. Financial discipline is the foundation to preparedness. Everyone should have enough money for a bus ticket and a hotel. Whatever it takes, you should start an emergency fund of $1000. After that, you should build it to cover 6 months total expenses. Cut off your cable, quit eating out, find cheaper rent and work an extra job. Most of the people in the Katrina video look like they were capable of those things. You have to have an emergency fund. Your life may very well depend on it.
Katrina Lesson 2- Don’t get caught in the desperate masses.
I don’t like crowds when things are good because they can be very unpredictable. Every year people are trampled on Black Friday trying to save $5 on a toaster and end up loosing their life. This is how we ring in the Christmas season, our time of good will towards men. People leave their favorite sporting events and flip over cars in celebration. How do you expect a crowd to act when times are bad?
Katrina Lesson 3- Don’t depend on the government.
It is not their job to take care of you. It is your job to take care of you. I understand that there are people who are incapable of taking care of themselves. Taking care of them is the Churches job. Additionally the Church is much better equipped to determine who really needs help and who is working the system or just lazy. I will stop here because I could go on for days about the level of mission creep that our government is experiencing.
Tony Zumbado says in the video that the people in the convention center are well behaved and organized. I think they mixed up the footage because the people I saw were freaking out. I understand that this was a horrible event and the government should be in the position to help out in such a dire situation. We seem to be able to help out the rest of the world which, by the way, I also think is the job of the Church, not the government. And yes, I put my money where my mouth is, I support my Church financially so they are in the position to help where needed and I give to para-church organizations that provide relief around the world. I also have money confiscated from my paycheck on a weekly basis so the government can do something it was never intended to do. So it would be nice if they could get some water to dying Americans after a devastating hurricane, but it is not their job.
Our government has breed a culture of dependence that is totally unnatural. When disasters like Katrina strike and people need to depend on themselves and their community to pull through, they have lost the skill set to do so. This dependency is the greatest potential threat to our society. When the IMF steps in and imposes austerity measures on our country, like they did in Greece last year, like they did in Argentina in 2001, the gravy train ends. It is obvious that we are unwilling to vote for any leaders that are ready to make the hard choices to avoid a financial collapse, so that day is coming. Since we can’t make those choices,when it comes time for the IMF to bail us out, they will make them for us. That is when government programs like welfare and food stamps get decimated and every city will look like the New Orleans Convention Center after Katrina.
Remember to do what you can when you can. What you do today can significantly improve your chances for survival tomorrow.
Urban danger is a documentary that makes a strong case for heading to the hills. It features Republican Congressman Roscoe Bartlett of Maryland. The first part of the film talks about the difference between those who lived in the city and those who lived in the country during the great depression. While neither had jobs, those who owned farm land were able to sustain themselves and avoid starvation. Urban Danger goes on to talk about several threats to out society. The film discusses briefly the just-in-time inventory system used by our grocery stores today. Every major metropolitan area has approximately enough food to feed its population for 3 days. This is where we get the saying that every city is only 9 meals away from anarchy.
The film talks about the threats of viral outbreaks and how much worse the threat is when living in a congested population center. It speaks to the threat of our decapitated power grid. Urban danger also mentions the vulnerability of our grid to terrorism. It says that there are 12 critical sub stations that could be attacked which would disable the entire grid.
The next segments are about families who have purchased rural properties and what they are doing to be self sustaining. The first family has bought a rural retreat in the mountains and built there own home. They have a wood burning cook stove that is located in the center of the home to maximize the warmth in the house. It is also connected to a water heating system that provides hot water stored in a tank on the second floor. The storage tank then acts as a radiator to warm the upper level of the small home. The next family made a move to the mountains to return to a more simple life as well and are learning as they go.
The following segment is about a gentleman who has a great solar system and is completely independent of the grid. He speaks about the different types of engineering that went into his solar system. The next family takes you around their farm and shows you a glimpse of the wonderful ways of rural living.
Here is the link to watch the entire film online for free. It is a long film. Urban Danger is about 2 hours, so pop some popcorn, grab a soda and enjoy the movie!
Preppers everywhere are learning the value of having a garden. Not only is it far superior to the produce you find in the grocery store, but it can be a big money saver if you do it right. Multiple threats to our food supply are everywhere. Threats like the recent drought may not close the grocery store doors, but it may make fresh vegetables prohibitively expensive for many consumers. Fragile supply chains also threaten food security. Wars and political instability in the middle east can set off an oil crisis which could send the price of everything through the roof. Prices are subject to the fuel expenses associated with moving those items. Very few items are locally grown in any metropolitan area. Growing even the smallest garden can help you have fresh produce available.
In Florida, as with many parts of the country, the soil is sandy and very poor. To combat that, I garden in a raised bed garden. This allows me to compost my yard waste, produce scraps and used coffee grounds into dirt to fill the raised bed garden box. It is simply a bottomless box constructed of wood salvaged from old pallets.
First, I dug up the grass and roots from the area where I plan to set the boxes. I left the grass and sand there, I just want to break it up so roots can get through it if they want. Next, I mixed in some “Use Everywhere” Milorganite fertilizer which sells for $12 for 36lbs at Lowe’s. It is cheap, it has a slow release and it is virtually idiot proof; meaning it is hard to over fertilize with it. My next step is to lay down my box frame which I made 3 feet wide. This allows me to reach to the middle of either side with out stepping in the dirt and compacting it when I weed or harvest. The length is at your discretion or whatever your space will allow. If you are already composting, you can fill it with your homemade dirt. If not, you can buy the dirt the first time and then start composting to keep the dirt replenished and revitalize the nutrient content in the soil.
Placement of the raised bed garden will depend on what you want to grow and when you want to grow it. The photograph I have provided is my small garden that I use in the summer to grow mustard greens and mixed field greens. They cannot tolerate the hot Florida summer sun, so I grow them in the shade of a large tree. I have two more garden boxes that I use in the late fall through early spring to grow broccoli, tomatoes, peppers, green beans, mustard greens, mixed field greens and cabbage. They are about 15 feet long each and are in the sunniest part of my yard. Winter is the best growing season for me, here in South Florida.
Below is the same bed 1 week later. The mixed field greens and mustard greens are starting to grow. I prefer mustard greens over collard greens as they are much more tender. They will cook in a fraction of the time that collard greens will, which would be a big plus in a grid down scenario where fuel efficiency is very important. They can also be eaten raw but are a little spicy. Mixed field greens are best when eaten raw.
Other places that can benefit from raised bed gardens are low lying areas. Those areas can hold too much water and rot the roots of your vegetables. A raised bed garden will keep the excess water drained off and promote a healthier crop. Here is a great link to find information on gardening. Even if you just grow 3 tomato plants or 1 basil plant you will get a great feeling of accomplishment from producing your own food.
The Stuxnet computer virus brought virtual warfare from the back channels to the front line and the front page. The attack on Iranian nuclear facilities showcased what is possible in the arena of a computer virus. Stuxnet moved from computer to computer on thumb drives and stayed dormant until it found the specific machine it was manufactured to attack. When it found its target, it caused the nuclear centrifuges to spin faster than they were designed to spin. This damaged them and temporarily halted Iran’s nuclear ambitions.
The Stuxnet virus was speculated to have been developed by the US Government. A leak from an anonymous official confirmed those suspicions last June. While Iran may have known the US was to blame, this confirmation buys them a lot of political capital with their allies such as China and Russia.
Former head of the N.S.A., Michael Hayden said in the following CBS interview that in the case of a physical weapon, it destroys itself. He goes on to explain that this is not the case with a computer virus. The evidence is left in the data to be analyzed by the victim of the attacks. That data can then be reverse engineered and turned against enemies of the state that was attacked.
For a terrorist supporting state like Iran to have the source codes of such a computer virus, presents endless possibilities for them to express their hatred for the West. They could launch cyber attacks against critical infrastructure such as water plants, electrical grids or nuclear power plants. The computer virus could be used to infiltrate military installations or government agencies.
The most recent reuse of Stuxnet has now been identified in the Lebanese banking system. The new strain of Stuxnet-like computer virus is called Gauss. We know very little about this virus or what its purpose is other than it has infected more than 10,000 computers. An infection in the American banking system of this nature has the potential to bring us to our knees. Imagine for a moment, no paychecks issued, credit card machines down indefinitely, the only cash you have access to is what you had in your house or pocket before the attack. Commerce would halt and panic would envelop the streets in a matter of hours.
I am sure we will hear more about the Gauss virus and others that are derived from Stuxnet in the future. All I can say is, be prepared .
Many preppers who have any yard space at all are beginning to use that space for gardening. I think this is a great idea for multiple reasons. Reason number 1 is to grow your skill set. I see endless advertisements for these survival seed buckets. Seeds may indeed become a great barter item at some point in time but most people buy them with the intention of producing their own food. Any one who thinks they are going to start their first garden the day after TEOTWAWKI is in for a surprise. Not only is there a tremendous learning curve on gardening in general, but every region has its own challenges with things that will and won’t grow there.
Reason number 2 is to eat better and get a little exercise. What you grow in your yard is going to taste so much better than what you buy in the store. You are in control of the fertilizer and the types of pesticides you chose to use. Reason number 3 is that you can save some money as opposed to purchasing all of your produce at the grocery.
Finally, reason number 4 is to develop the infrastructure you will need to grow a garden if SHTF. Just buying the seeds will leave you with many challenges if you have never grown a garden before. You will need tools. You will need some type of pest control. You will need a means of keeping the nutrients in the soil you use, if you have any at all. I live in South FL with sandy soil that is great for coconuts, avocados and mangos. For vegetable gardens, not so much. What I do to overcome that issue is to build a raised bed garden. this allows me to keep 6″ to 8″ of good soil above the sand line in a box. The problem is, where do you get the dirt with out breaking the bank. A bag of dirt at Lowe’s can easily be $7 or $8, this can get expensive quick. Problem number 2 is Lowe’s may be the forward operating base of the local gang after it hits the fan.
So what do we do? I bet you guessed it from the post title. We make our own dirt! Most everything organic will turn back into dirt. All of your grass clippings, leaves, coffee grounds, tea bags and all vegetables and fruit peels will make rich, nutritious dirt for your garden. All you have to do is to create an environment to help the bugs and bacteria do their job. I constructed my compost bin out of discarded decking that I picked up on bulk trash day. You could also use wood from old pallets. The size of the wood you find will determine the size of the compost bin you are able to build. Just construct a simple wood box with no bottom. Take a measurement and construct a top of the same size, but leave some space in between the boards on the lid. Also don’t get the boards to tightly together on the sides. Remember, we are trying to induce rotting. We need oxygen for that process. We also need moisture. leaving some space on the lid will let rain in but keep the sun from drying everything out. Here is what it should resemble:
It will take a while to get the decomposition process going but it will happen. Once you get it going, always leave about 1/4 of your dirt as a starter for your new material. That has all of the little micro organisms that break it down into dirt. It will break down much faster than the first round. Keep it moist by adding a little water each time you throw out some produce scraps. Once a week, mix the compost with a garden rake or shovel. Avoid putting any meat products as this will become rancid and stink. The process will go much faster if you keep a mix of green and brown material, such as grass (green) and dead leaves (brown). You can even use cardboard for your brown material. You can put any trash from your produce and any paper product that doesn’t have a lot of ink or that is not glossy. Yard waste is the biggest contributor to my compost bin. Click here to learn more about soil microbiology.
You will be recycling and getting a lot of great nutrients for your garden. You will love having the great tasting food and saving money for other preps or to get yourself in a better financial position to weather the coming storm.
