Clean Underwear .. check... What's next?

The Event creeps closer... hour by hour ... day by day...

What will be the tipping point be?

World War III beginning with the invasion of Iran?

The coming economic collapse?

Flu pandemic?

An EMP, a Solar Storm or Dirty Bomb?

 

Are you prepared for the unexpected?

It’s Tuesday so we’re talking about being prepared again. This is the second in our series about how to get you and your family ready or anything unexpected!

Last week in my post, “Mom always told you to put on clean underwear” we talked discussed the evaluation of your budget and what you could eliminate wasteful un-needed expenses.   

Remember the homework I gave you?  How much money did you come up with to set aside?   Did it surprise you how much you waste?

Did you evaluate how you would survive without your stove?

Your computer?  

Your Freezer?

What did you learn?  Scary huh?  

 Did you feel motivated afterwards or frightened?  Did it over whelm you?

Good… now take that fear and let it get you motivated!  Your family needs you, your kids need you, and eventually your friends and neighbors will need you!

Now let’s focus on our new equation that I rolled out to you last week; “Beans, Bullets and Band aids”.

We’re going to specifically focus on “Beans” today.

Food is the first and most important of any plan to become prepared.  Food helps create energy and energy is what keeps you alive.  

 It is what will keep your kids alive.Think of what would happen if you didn't have any!

Imagine if you will, the currency has failed, the grocery stores are closed, the power is out, and the water coming out of the tap has to be boiled before you can drink it.  

It is the dead of winter.

Its dinner time, your kids come to you and ask, “Mom/Dad… what’s for dinner?” 

You panic.  Last night’s dinner finished up the rest of the oatmeal, and what was left of the fruit snacks… and that was the only meal they had all day.

You hope and pray as you head to your pantry… you open the doors… nothing… absolutely nothing. 

You turn around to see their little eyes staring back at you.   

You tell them, “I’m so sorry … we don’t have anything…”

You see their eyes well up with tears… and then the tears come.  You offer them some water… but that only goes so far.   

They cry for a while only to fall asleep in your arms from lack of energy and you cry yourself to sleep wondering,

“God… why is this happening…. What will I do tomorrow morning?" 

When the morning comes you have nothing for them.  Days go by and eventually their hair begins to thin and their teeth begin to fall out.  Their bellies become distended.  You do everything you can to find food.  Water is only going so far.  You beg, you dig in the snow till your hands are bloody.  You had a dog, but it disappeared weeks ago. It was one night ... then later you swore that you smelled cooking meat.

But time continues on an you find nothing... everyone else has had the same idea... there is nothing to be found... anywhere.

Then one night the unthinkable happens.  Your babies simply fall asleep crying from the pain in their tummies  and never wake up.   

You have just killed your children.   

Your selfishness and need for other "stuff" like the boat, the newer car, the bigger TV, the newer more shiny gadget killed your children.  It took away from being prepared. You made your stuff a bigger priority than them!

Can you imagine this?  Terrible huh?

Well, it has happened before.  In 1941 - 44 during the siege of Leningrad.

When Hitler began his siege of the city in 1941 it lasted 900 days. 800,000 people or one third of the population of Leningrad died from starvation. At times people just dropped dead from starvation on their way to work. 

During the time of the siege crime was rampant, civil unrest was very common and people did horrible things for food.  They mixed pine shavings with flour to make bread.  They ate the steel bar bearings out of the equipment to feel "full".  They made "cottonseed" cake, and "meat jelly" from boiling the bones and skin of the cattle they slaughtered.  The worst I read about was "yeast soup".  It was made from fermented sawdust, joiners’ glue boiled and jellied, toothpaste, cough mixture and cold cream - anything that contained calories. 

They even licked the dried paste off the wallpaper of their homes.  

At one point later in the siege some reverted to cannibalism to survive. Horrible stories of people eating amputated limbs from hospital morgues, young children who just "disappeared" when the neighbors were hungry. People even ate the corpses out of the cemeteries. 

If you want to read more I would recommend the book, "Leningrad: Tragedy of a City Under Siege, by Anna Reid".  

It is just another great book to read if you want to mentally prepare for "The Event"

Do you want to live in that type of world?  Do you want your kids too? It is happening already.  Read this! 

You have to get ready!

 

Its astounding how much of the American population refuse to acknowledge that, “The Event” will take place.  

I assure you it will.  We made the mess were headed for. God gave us free will, and now we must live with the consequences that are coming our way.  You must protect your family.

There is too much data that points to "The Event".  

People like to think they live in a happy world where we will always have McDonald's, Subways and Domino's and that food with the push of a few buttons can show up on your doorstep and be shoveled down the fat, greedy American  pie hole.

You have to wake up!  It is time to get ready!

"So…Jay ... if this is so incredibly important, where do I start?  How do I start? We have never attempted anything like this!"

I want you to start with the basics my friend.  You’re going to need protein and carbohydrates.  Not steak and lobster. Not hot pockets, not Twinkies. 

Protein and Carbs.  The building blocks of real food. 

Start here! I personally would first recommend going to this resource; http://foodstoragemadeeasy.net/fsme/docs/3monthfoodsupply-new.xls

This calculator is a great way to find out what you need to begin your food storage.  It is a great list of the breakdown of protein and carbs that your family will need to survive on a daily level.  It allows you to customize your months of food you want to store and then gives you how much you need to have on hand.

Here is an important note... you need to get used to eating these foods!  Eat what you store. Get used to Beans, TVP, Tuna, and canned foods that you normally don't eat.  Practice cooking with it so when the time comes you and your family will not experience "food shock". 

Eat simply. Grow a garden.  In fact you can grow vegetables and fruits out of large bakery buckets (5 gallon) and they work great fine if you don't have the space for a garden.   We did it this year and found we were able to get better seed yield and fruit / Veg when we tended to the plants we grew.  

Bakery buckets are available everywhere.  Most pastry shops, and restaurants will let you buy them for a buck or two.

You can shuffle them around to the different sunlight areas of your yard and you are recycling by using the buckets!

You will need to find alternative ways of getting your vitamins.  Look for natural ways of getting things like vitamin C and D.  God put many, many plants on this earth that our predecessors used to eat / steam / steep to get what they needed. Consult your local book store to find additional books and study materials that are about edible plants in your area!

 

I would also recommend this; make sure that you incorporate foods that you eat every day into what you store ahead. Going from "Captain Crunch" to "plain oatmeal" can have a damaging affect on the mind.  It is good for the body... but in your kids and family it can cause damage moral.  Keep things like brownie mix or cake mix on hand... If you can follow a meal up with a plate of brownies, sometimes it can help the time and the trauma go a bit smoother.

Here is a good rule of thumb, when putting aside things for your family, remember this "3 is 2 and 2 is 1". 

It means if you have three of something its really like having two and if you have two ... well that is like having one of something, and one of something won't get you that far.

Now some of you reading may already be thinking that I missed one of the bigger parts of the food equation.

Water!

I'm going to hold that one off till next week... So much can be said about that!

To wrap up today's post... You need to begin right away! Take that money that you found from last weeks assignment and go out and use it to buy up your food supplies.  

Take a cue from history and from what I have said and get planning for your family.  

I have said it before.  Please don't let your family suffer.  Please don't be foolish and selfish.  

You were not put on this planet by God to care just for yourself.... Be prepared. "The Event" is coming.

Until next time...

You are not special…

America… here is ugly truth… you are not special. 

You are not better than anyone else.  There is nothing you can do better than anyone else. 

Everyone is just like you.

You are not faster, smarter, prettier, or more special in the eyes man and God.

But somehow you still think so.

Check this video out... 

Depressing huh?  This young ladies parents are doing her a huge disservice.  By telling her that she is good at what she is doing is actually really, really bad for her.  It is a false sense of hubris.  

I can't help but just cringe while I listen to this.  She is absolutely butchering an important piece of our history, and her parents think this is just wonderful and special.  

Wow...

But I can't blame her. It was her Dad or Mom that decided that this is a good "confidence" builder.  "Your voice is soooo wonderful dear ... Please sing the National Anthem in front of thousands of people!  A talent scout will see you for sure!"

They were so, so wrong. 

Not everyone is special, not everyone gets a trophy. But why do we feel the need to give one to anyone who breathes, eats and poops? 

Not everyone is a winner! Sometimes we lose. Sometimes we are just who we are.  

Some times we are just average Americans who put one foot in front of the other each day.  

There will be people who dont revolutionize the world, don't create a vaccine for cancer, don't create personal jet packs, and don't create a pill that can magically make you loose weight.  Some times you are just "you" and not someone special. 

But we as Americans think too much of ourselves.

 

I love this comic by the Oatmeal…. He is an absolute genius, and absolutely right on with his social interpretation of who we think we are as Americans.

Is it crude and inappropriate?  Yes.  So I’ve edited a bit for my audience.

Would I recommend this for everyone? No… but does it get the point across?  Yes, yes it does.

We Americans think we are better than everyone else in the world and we are dead wrong. 

We aren’t.  We are not better than anyone.  

A while back I was referred to watch this great commencement speech done by a teacher back east.  It is brilliant.

I think that every junior hight, high school, every college, heck, every grade school, VO/TEC and kindergarden should read this to their students.

The Parents arn't doing the job these days... so who does that leave to try and straighten out our kids?

Americans are proud.  Americans think too much of themselves. Americans are anti-American! 

Do you think George Washington, Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Jefferson would have given two bits about the hot button issues we are currently dealing with?

No!

They had bigger fish / chicken to fry! :-) Freedom, liberty, tyranny is what they delt in.  


Not "Keeping up with the Kardashians"! Not the Olympics! Not who's wearing what the Oscars! Not who is going to be America's next top model and fierce they are!




Not this trivial garbage that we keep hearing about day in an day out!

Remember America… the higher you are the on the ladder.  The further the fall and harder the hit you will experience!  "The Event" is going to be our fall and our experience!

It’s time for us to become humble again.  It’s time for us to let go of the hubris we know and feel and decide to shut our mouths and listen!

Things are going to get bad.  You know it and I know it.

We have to many people who are living for themselves!  Selfishness is running rampant.  We are too reliant on the Government for our "trophy" we get each month.  We like it.  It is our safety blanket.  We are proud of it.

But our Government, like bad parents who tell us that we are winners are doing things like this; telling the USDA to throw parties where they invite people from the neighborhoods around their offices to tell them to join up and get on food stamps!

I can just hear it now, "Come on down to the USDA office!  The Government thinks your a winner and wants to reward you with free food, yes, yes... we know we can't afford it ... but dog gone it... Your a winner... come on ... take the food and rely on us!"

Its the sickness of hubris that is affecting the American people!

We also have stories like this.  Meet Amanda Clayton.  She won the lottery earlier this year and decided to stay on the food stamps she gets each month because she has two houses.  She won a million dollars. 

A million dollars!  She could have paid off both houses, hired someone to watch her kids, and gone to work!  But instead she held onto her pride, and decided to be selfish and continue to look for her trophy each month in the form of a food stamps card!

We have to stop this madness!  

We have to decide to work for everyone's best interest!  "The Event" is coming and if we are not all in this together, it will be worse for everyone! 

This is our country.  We will shape its future!  "The Event" is coming.   


Its time to plan to survive it and not just drown in it. 

“Denial” is not a river in Egypt…

"In other periods of depression, it has always been possible to see some things which were solid and upon which you could base hope, but as I look about, I now see nothing to give ground to hope—nothing of man."

- Former President Calvin Coolidge, 1932

I had an interesting conversation yesterday with someone who has just recently started to get their head around this idea of coming “The Event”.

She had an interesting viewpoint on why so many people are offering up resistance to this idea of what's coming. 

“People continue to keep their head in the sand because they don’t like their world to be rocked! They don’t like change, they see something that is obviously wrong and will find the most asinine reason to justify ignoring it.

They are like birds with their nests in a dead tree and ”they” like it that way.  Then the wind comes and knocks the tree down… then they flit around make a whole lot of noise and generally don’t know what to do!”

She is so right… right now people are feeling more comfortable than ever.  They have their house, their big screen TV, some type of fried food product a drink made of out High Fructose Corn Syrup or cheap beer.

Their country is doing well at the Olympics and that is just fine with them. 

Nothing else outside them matters.

"We the People" are far too comfortable in this country. We don't think that anything we ever do has any negative consequences.  We go through our lives creating a wake of destruction politically, environmentally and financially. 


Why is that?  

Because we live like this.

What is wrong with this picture? Besides leaving you feeling itchy and highly claustrophobic?

Whoever these folks are, they have left their backsides exposed to anything that could come along and bite / kick / hurt it.  This is no way to go through life.  But they think it is.

They live in their "world" that we are not a part of.

We in the USA have ignored our big problems for too long, and now we can’t go back.  We can't fix the mess we created. 

So when the "winds" come and knock people out of their comfortable nests, they like the birds, will flail about, blame someone else and never be able to recover, because they never "saw" this coming.

We have crossed the point of no return.

If you haven’t read the news today the Federal Reserve and ECB have been meeting to discuss how to fix our staggering world economy and yet again out of this meeting they provided no answers. 

You can read the full text of their release here.

But this press release couldn’t have been any more general in nature. It was full of fluff.  There wasn't anything it it of value.  Sure they used some big fancy phrases to describe how they are still committed to their current course of action.

As you read through it, one thing becomes very clear.  They have no idea how to fix this.  You see phrases like;

“Consistent with its statutory mandate, the Committee seeks to foster maximum employment and price stability. The Committee expects economic growth to remain moderate over coming quarters and then to pick up very gradually. Consequently, the Committee anticipates that the unemployment rate will decline only slowly toward levels that it judges to be consistent with its dual mandate. Furthermore, strains in global financial markets continue to pose significant downside risks to the economic outlook.”

This is just Fed speak for, 

“We really don’t see this economy thing turning around, in fact, we hope by some magical wish businesses will start hiring people who will then start spending money.  And we feel that since Europe is on the brink of financial collapse we really know this economy is deader than a doornail.

We are going to turn around, blame the US Government and tell them they need to fix it and we will stick to our guns about talking people into swapping their short term bonds for long term ones so we will never have to pay out on what we actually owe on them.  We will continue to sell debt that we will never be able to recover, that way when everything collapses we will be able to blame the American Government for everything that went wrong.”

Did I hit that close to the mark?  Some of you may think not, but from my insight into the industry that looks pretty spot on to me. Once again it is about control and how once this all collapses they will be able to control us through the debt we as a nation owe. 

So where does that leave the rest of us?  In a terrible, terrible lurch that's where. 

You see not only has the Fed allowed the US Government to borrow into a position that we will never be able to pay out of, but they have also made us fully reliant on their system.

Its as if we were given a credit card we thought didn't have a limit and now we find out that not only does it have a limit, but very soon it is going to have to be paid in full.

There are no options around this.  We have to let debt default and the economy collapse before we can rebuild something that is actually tangible, real and will benefit all who are involved.  Not just the rich and powerful.  As I have said before, "The Event" is part economic too.

There are no solutions.  Any way you look at it, we are headed for "The Event".

They cannot print any more money because it will cause inflation, severely devalue the dollar and cause the economy to collapse and cause mass civil unrest.  People would then begin to return to bartering again or even go back to Gold and Silver coin, leading to a possible Governmental collapse, and civil war.

They cannot force the Government to cut all social entitlement programs because then people would riot, starve and would lead to mass civil unrest and a collapse of the Government structure as well as possible civil war.

They cannot cut military funding and pull all the troops home because there are not any jobs for them to come home to, So former military families would starve, riot which would then lead to mass civil unrest. Not only that, it would open the door for our enemies to come in and take over the US with our defenses down. 

They cannot "infuse" more money through a "quantitative" style easing because that would devalue the debt we owe to other countries and show that we will just print more money and they will never be able to be paid back.  If other countries stop buying the debt, the money fountain turns off and once again we are faced with riots, civil unrest or civil war.

So as you can see no matter how they look at it.  The FED is really hosed in terms of fixing things...

They are going to stall it off as long as they can until all the excuses are used up.



You need to make sure your family is ready for that time.  You need to be thinking of what I am saying.  Like yesterday.  Find out what you can save!  Then put your money into things that last and will protect your family.

Until next time....