"time For Survival" Message From Flyover Land

https://www.politico.com/news/magaz...hington-coronavirus-hartland-heartland-240238


Good morning all,

Per ...

A commentary - a dash long to read - about a restaurant - owner and the dire problems of the lockdown.

The lead paragraph reminds me of a famous movie line I love. The link's lead para tells of the citizenry looking to D.C. for for expertise and competency. This left after after Vietnam War. In the movie "Apocalypse Now", searching for the renegade Colonel somewhere in Southeast Asia, the famous line: "Looking for a murderer here is like looking for a speeder at the Indy 500".

The 2017 Atlantic quote is interesting re restaurant trade.

I agree with Joe. It's the failure of the institutions.

 

It is a heart wrenching story, and you know he is not alone. There are millions out there just like him. He is probably better off than most since his business was financially successful.

I too agree it is an institutional failure on both sides of the aisle. I have not seen the country this divided ever; not even during Viet Nam. You would think a crisis like this that affects everybody would bring people together, but it is just the opposite. Political differences are worse than ever.

 

"It’s located in a neat little strip mall off M-59 in Hartland, Michigan."

And guess who you can blame? Not the president, but that actual BITCH of a governor for extending the lock down.

 

I am thankful the economy has been awesome otherwise many businesses will not survive. If this pandemic would have happened during the Obama years, it would have been devastating. I don't think my business would have survived, almost didn't. Come to think of it those years where similar to a pandemic.

 

Another victory for international collectivism.

 

UK and the USA can't buy 'in country' much due to the loss of manufacturing industry, the USA has more than the UK but its still a pale reflection of what it was 50 years ago.

C19 has shown how fragile industry is, how easily the bubble can burst, the likes of major airlines going tits up in a matter of weeks etc. Look at Trump, compared to a lot he's not much of a billionaire and was only worth around $3B then in a few weeks of lockdown he's lost 1 billion dollars of 'paper worth'

Some smaller business will be gone for good but I think a lot will come through and even thrive, if businesses go under it leaves a bit of extra elbow room for others to grow into.

 

I know what you mean Lonewolf but SFA in terms of consumer goods is made in the UK. We do have really good but very focused speciality small businesses, lots in technology but for instance you could not move into a home and buy all you need with goods made in the UK.

My recent experience:

I'm an armchair prepper, yes I love the outdoors, love hill/mountain walking four seasons (winter is my fave season), I played a bit with bushcraft when it was a fashionable hobby about ten years back. I've read the books, watched the videos so I've got a head full of prep/survival knowledge and realised how important awareness of whats going on around the globe is.

My thoughts on a social/economic event that could occur and effect me came in two ways.

1. Sudden increase in a global conflict leading to a nuclear exchange. If the UK only got a dozen hits it would be game over, your dead sooner rather than later so your house full of food etc will be at best prolonging the agony.

2. A virus, I've always thought a virus would be 'the one'. We've had plagues throughout history, we were due one but.....you would have time to prepare. Real life ain't like the movies, you don't wake up one day and all around you people are dead or zombies, plagues move slowly even given the vast and fast transport systems we use which would speed the event up. This coronavirus for some reason pinged my radar and when it landed in Europe and my contract (perfect timing) was up I came home.

With a virus in mind back around 2010 when I bought this house I started a spread sheet on a computer to list what I'd need to hopefully ride out the plague, everything I could think of really and broke it down into groups. My house is only used a max six months a year, usually only about 4 because when I'm off platform I piss off and get some sunshine so my house is minimalistic, very basic furniture and gadgets etc and this is where my spreadsheet came into play.

I decided to ride it out onshore and went shopping, I new exactly what I needed and the luxuries I wanted. Got back here and had a hectic few weeks but my plan has gone like clockwork, I've got everything I need and have some home/garden projects to keep me occupied and downloaded more films and music than I could watch in an very long time. That said, I could only do this because I had money, to be honest I earn a lot and don't have a mortgage or time to spend it so I could afford my prepping this way; I've been lucky.

Having babbled on my point is that when I look at all I bought next to nothing is made in the UK. The majority of the tech stuff is made in China or its components are, the lot mate, telly, sound system, laptop, PC upgrade components, two chest freezers and a load more.

I love the idea of 'Buy British' but its just not going to happen and won't happen anytime soon in the States, they're stuck too.

Lonewolf, look around your house at what you've got then go online and try and replace it with UK made products.

Sorry for the ramble.

 

No such thing as a surgical strike with a nuke Lonewolf, odds are that if it came time to go balistic the UK would be blanket bombed so your end of the country would either be smelling of burnt lamb instantly or you'd be going 'glow in the dark' with direct and slower cross wind contamination in fast order, you'd not survive long enough to eat your food stock...you'd be stuffed, I've seen that old cold war map many times over the last few years.

If your lappy says made in Japan its old you need to have a standby machine to hand. The top three things to fail on a lappy are keyboard, DVD drive and the old style hard drives, they all 'move' all mechanical so it will fail. At least fit or get someone to fit an SSD drive and clone your old drive. Are you backing up to at least one off machine form of backup, USB/external drive, the cloud, DVD discs? If not get your arse into gear NOW not tomorrow. You can pick up a Thinkpad i5 machine used off ebay for £150, good solid reliable machines.

Right, I'm off to make a strawberry and banana flan and custard for tonight I'm going to binge watch season 4 of Fear the Walking Dead tonight and drink far too much wine

Keep safe you lot.

 

I agree that the chance of a full on all out exchange is pretty much non existent, maybe a dirty bomb in a major city could happen. Technology I enjoy, its how I earn my living (hydraulics actually) but sort out your computer, its old and it will fail and no, not been here before and this is one of only two prep sites I'm on.

Now back to FTWD and my flan...

 

The Naval Base at Devenport is ground zero for nukes. It does the refueling and nuclear support for the Royal Navy. It's the only one -- at least that is what is published. Its a HUGE Naval base for Western powers. It is a certain nuclear target. It could even receive ground digging nukes to take out the nuclear storage bunkers (as is the case with the U.S. Naval port in San Diego).

There is a nuclear fuels manufacturing site right in the middle of my home territory in S.Appalachia. Actually there's a bunch of targets in the middle of nowhere. To include one of the largest military conventional explosives manufacturing sites on Earth. Its storage bunkers are right underneath a mountain where I used to take our kids to hike and to have fun at a outdoors recreational center.

One must consider that once the balloons go up, the subs go deep and silent until they launch. They most assuredly will not be back to port to reload nuclear fuel nor nuclear warheads. Still Russia or China would remove such places off the Earth due to standard protocol.

The Norton Manor Camp, Royal Marines, would get its own balloon or two. Taunton could get wiped so as to take out key personnel. Wouldn't be anything like what would visit Devenport.

Oh, I just read that Devenport also has the old obsolete radioactive junk there also. Makes sense because they have the nuclear handling equipment necessary to deal with this. This article says that the nuclear trash at port there is NOT being cleaned up, having trouble or whatever. But then that's the Bolshevik BBC talking / propagandizing. BBC = "British Bolshevik Crap".
https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-devon-28157707

 

I don't think so. It could be in the form of an EMP burst if you're lucky. But there will be no invading force because Trump et al will see the nukes incoming and launch themselves. Either by missile silo, submarine or B-2 bomber. So the nuke option cancels the whole damn thing out and is pretty much a last resort weapon when you see yourself losing. Which if there was a war with China, they would find themselves owned right quick. They only have one piss ass aircraft carrier, many countries will probably join us (the U.S.), and we'll own the air and bomb the hell out of them and their forces. Not only that, but I'm willing to bet a lot of people in China would welcome freedom. I know they do in Hong Kong and perhaps Taiwan.

 

At this time invading the US would be an almost impossible thing. When you have a place that is armed like we are it just wouldn't work. That is why nobody ever tries to invade Switzerland. Now if the liberals have there way, they will disarm the American people AND turn or military into an even bigger joke than it already is. We have a military and veterans museum here and not long ago the military was here salvaging parts off of display planes and helicopters. At this time in the US we actually have way more guns than we have people and that doesn't even count what is in the many National Guard armories all over the place.



Obama left us like it was during the Carter administration when the military couldn't come up with enough working helicopters to ever try and pull the hostages out of Iran. They tried but halfway there so many of the choppers lost power that they had to call off the mission. Our military is underfunded, spread all over the world protecting people that won't protect themselves and what money that they are given they blow on stupid crap like the rail guns that they can't afford to shoot and the fancy "New" ships that they can't keep at sea because they break down or the huge Aircraft Carrier that they can't flush the toilets on.

I don't see any of the major world powers getting in a major nuclear exchange but the little countries ruled by megalomaniacs that have that ability will eventually toss one. The place that I actually see doing more than a one-shot deal may be between Pakistan and India at some point. the most likely if the little fat guy in North Korea. If he ever feels like he is going to lose control he is going to toss a nuke if he can.

America's greatest enemy and the biggest threat is in Washington DC.

 

Only a country that wanted to commit suicide would throw a nuke at the US. Even if they thought that they could take out all of the bases in the US, the others all over the place would turn the attacking nation into a slag pile. Among the big three, it is truly mutually assured annihilation if any of the three attacks any of the other three.

Just what we know about that we have sailed around in submarines would flatten every major city and military complex in any nation targeted. Nukes now are not one bomb going to one city. they have multiple warheads that when the missile reaches the peak break into several bombs each with a different target. The shotgun method will be almost impossible to stop because at the same time as the primary breaks up there will be a huge release of other chaff making it nearly impossible to sort out which are the bombs in time to do anything.

The real thing is though that there is no doubt that even this stuff in probably now old school and not the best of what the big three have. What is the point in destroying the enemy if you won't survive either?

Why would either Russia or China want to nuke the US? as Khrushchev said, give us time and we will be just like them and then have little to disagree about. Look how close we came to electing a second round of the Clinton insanity. It is just a matter of time before we elect our next socialist dictator. At that point, civil war will eliminate us as a problem.

The people of Europe and Great Brittian wouldn't last a month if Russia decided that they wanted to take them without the US acting as their hired mercenaries. The stupid thing is that we protect the world and WE pay for the privilege of doing it. It is way past time to stop doing that. We are not making friends doing it and even the people that would be slaves without us seem to hate us.

 

A nuclear war in the U.S. - California , New York City and Washington D.C. would be on the top of the list for annihilation . I am not fond of any of those places . Rural areas well away from any military target would not be seen as worth a nuke . Preppers living in such areas main concern in relation to survival would be radiation contamination from the dust clouds . Those properly prepped in such areas as to having things such as uncontaminated water source and food likely would survive . Rather than live in a survivable location most people simply proclaim " it will never happen " or " it is futile to try to survive " . I disagree - I don't know if there will ever be a nuclear exchange but I certainly prepare for any such event and will give survival for me and my group one huge try . Quite frankly I think my group would survive .

 

Good morning all,

Have been following the comments.

Here's 2 pieces of jade worth;

Many of the military targets have their personnel and stuff - subs, aircraft, trucks - activated sometime within the tension band of the international relations.

This allows me to introduce 2 nearby targets that are not pure military.

One of these targets is the US oil refinery at Bantry Bay, Ireland, somewhat close to Wales, relatively speaking.

The other target, famous for allowing the Scottish politicians to push their devolution, is the North Sea oil fields, at least for now. They do produce real wealth whereas London moves cyber paper.

Both the above oil assets are fixed locations and would hurt Atlantic Alliance (notice I did not say NATO) capabilities at some level. We have much redundancy on purpose but the redundancy is also on the target list of adversaries.

 

Hitting population centers is down on the list. However, a retaliatory strike would obviously target populations and economic infrastructure.

Good info. Thanks.

I remember that you had said you'd lived in the north of Devon. That's good. I've had to live in and near some large cities; one rather nasty, got out of there as soon as I could. I'm back down home in the SouthEast of America; tiny town next to valley agriculture and forested mountains. The Appalachians are 1600 miles long (2575 klicks).

Living within the natural order of things is conducive to one's physical and mental health. Although they wouldn't use the word, many folk here are "survivalists". Home supply, hardware stores, and gardening shops / greenhouses sell out of their products. This bespeaks self-sufficiency. Even younger folk grow gardens, plus the whole area here is agricultural with families being the owners -- industrial agriculture here in this region is not so much a presence. Out West, industrial agriculture rules; I've lived there, right in the middle of it.

 

Woke up this morning with a nagging urge to eat watermelon...strange; anyway I went shopping got melon and some other fresh food. The superstore was quite fully stocked etc then I went to get some building materials and the DIY center was packed with people, looks like the whole of the UK is getting a paint job!

 

Quick update on my cheap (plastic) greenhouses. Finally assembled both, 6' x 4' and the frame is really crap quality, no weight in the tube frame so what I've done is drilled the frame and screwed to the garden breeze block wall so they won't take off in the wind. I painted the wall white behind them and now intend to paint all the garden (three sides) walls white which should really brighten things up. I've got various seeds that are growing but I cheated yesterday and bought tomato and cucumber plants to speed things up. I've got some timber and fancy knocking up a couple of raised beds but not sure if I can get a drop off of soil, need to check into that...no rest for the wicked.

Edit, are raised beds worth the effort?

 

This virus and subsequent economic failure should be a wake up call for those sitting in an un-survivable location . As government restrictions are eased though probably " temporarily " some might want to ratchet up the survivability of themselves or descendance by establishing a real survivable retreat .Whether this would serve as a permanent residence , vacation retreat or bug out location such a place could be crucial . Many of our members are up in years with a personal bleak prospect for their future . All the more reason to look into their available finances and provide a legacy that might help the future of their genetic lineage to survive . Even raw land with no structure as long as it had a natural and useable water source is better to have than sitting somewhere depending on the electrical grid and a community water system . Me and other people I know started off living in a tent and bathing and getting drinking water from a stream and simply grew from there . If someone or their spouse doesn't have the fortitude to live primitive perhaps their children or grandkids have the rustic fiber to survive and perhaps prosper starting from sleeping in the dirt .

 

We are well on route to the biggest economic depression in history and we ain't going to recover any year soon. In the words of Robert Zimmerman "The Times They Are a-Changin'" and I doubt anyone aged 65+ will see a full economic recovery in their lifetime.

On a happy note I'm have beef stew and dumplings tonight, lots of Guinness and starting to watch Designated Survivor, been meaning to watch it a long time. 53 episodes to work through.

 

Will they scrap furlough? Is paying 80% of minimum wage more expensive than paying unemployment benefit?

 

https://www.insurancejournal.com/news/national/2020/05/13/568411.htm


Good afternoon Max,

You brought up a matter relating to a MAJOR public policy concern.

At link, at section titled "Societal ...", note policies such as sick and disability leave".

It's a BIG issue.

 

I just filled out a survey sent from one of my local politicians. It had questions like "how concerned are you about the safety of holding elections?" and "how concerned are you for the safety of first responders?" Obviously I care about those things, but the wording of the questions was clearly designed to justify more restrictions. In the comments section I said that the most dangerous part of COVID is the power grab by politicians who are taking away our individual freedoms. I doubt they will read my comments, though. I think the article about Joe Mackle is right on. It's the people who suffer while the government implements there big agendas, spending our money they stole from us and our futures.

 

Bigger issue in the States I think, thankfully we have universal health care in the UK and don't rely on insurance for treatment.

UK economy will shrink @25% this year which will be worse than the 2008 collapse and it took a decade to rebuild GDP back up and in real terms wages have not truly grown by much since that collapse so the economy won't 'bounce back' if and when C19 is tackled.

I'm not shiting me pants worrying about starving but there some long term changes in the pipeline for all of us; no more cheap flights to the sunshine is really pissing me off though...I should be by a pool sipping a cold one and chatting up the first 30+ year old single tasty tottie I meet and not painting the bloody garden wall

 

25% is the projected figure for the next 12 months, if you look online its down 2% or more in just a couple of months. Its OK getting people back to work but all industries are inter dependable on others and getting all them up to speed and synchronised and the supply chain up to scratch can't happen overnight, plus your customers need to be in a position to buy from you so its all a bit of a catch 22 situation. I don't care, I've got plenty of pasta and bog roll

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/...virus-economy-2020-gdp-forecast-a9503006.html

Break over back to painting and I hate painting.

 

Here's a covid update. Maybe this isn't the correct thread. Sorry.

Western nations have gotten their first wave of covid economic injuries, but there will be waves, plural (one of my physicians has had the virus and we were talking shop about the reality of it being near-impossible to come up with a vaccine for this due to its multiple DNA configurations). Now, the virus is digging in to nations less prepared. We'll have to see how bad it goes for them.

https://news.yahoo.com/experts-believe-mexicos-coronavirus-cases-033800826.html

https://sputniknews.com/africa/2020...-as-covid-19-fallout-triggers-food-shortages/

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/ar...ca-fire-RUBBER-BULLETS-hundreds-shoppers.html

British economy
https://en.news-front.info/2020/05/...recession-at-least-2-years-of-problems-ahead/

 

Good afternoon Old Geezer,

I'm hearing similar re near impossible for a COVID vaccine.

A local county paper here had a letter published by a young M.D. saying the only solution is national test, treat and quarantine. Combining arrogance with ignorance adds to the health problems. We've got a population of a third of a billion and can't even monitor paroled felon immigrants. Hurricane season is soon and part of our social safety net is private-sector, yet our Governor has additional restrictions on the elderly who do much of this work.

Interesting links. Rubber bullets fired here and the cities burn. What I do appreciate is that, at least, uniformed police were present at the tension centers like grocery stores.

Much of the US experience with this pandemic is less about mass medical / public health and much more about poor quality government.

 

The food supply chain is doing well, I was talking about industry.

It might all be mumbo jumbo, shit, what do places like the Bank of England know LOL A new report suggests the UK economy shrinking by 30%. Time will tell.

 

I hope your right Lonewolf and that the experts are wrong, we got through WW2 with your type of Dunkirk spirit and lets hope we can do it again.

My lad wants to come here, he's cooped up in a one bedroom apartment so we need to think this through. My first idea is that he and I really lock down for 14 days and if we are symptom free then he just drives here, no stops and we isolate for another 14 days. At the moment he needs to get in 14 days of all he's going to need. I've stocked up well, two freezers full etc and I seem to be able to get home deliveries every 7 to 10 days so its just a matter of doing it as safely as we can.

Why would he want to come here apart from more space and better grub? Well, he loves his dad of course..........oh and his girlfriend wished him goodbye lol

Need to think this one through.

 

Only about 25 miles away where he shares a place with his girl friend but she moved back home and he's stuck on his own. He works from home so no commute problem with commuting. He's doing a major shop today and locking down so he'll be with me on the 30th if all goes to plan, can't wait to give my little 1.88m / 102kg baby boy a hug.