The Domino Effect.

Traveled to a small city today where there was a Field and Stream store. they had gotten-in handgun ammunition in .380, 9mm, .40 Auto, and .45 Auto. The ammunition was off-brand and non-lead. I can't remember the name. If I've never heard of an ammo brand, then it is very new or very rare. They had this in FMJ and in "self-defense"(? hollow-point?). The bullet weights were very light due to the non-lead-core. Whatever(?) ...

But the Field and Stream store did have stacks and stacks of handgun ammunition. Still too pricey, but available to those who have failed to stock up years back when they should have.
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Preppers try to project the future and prepare accordingly . Those that don't try to project the future are in for expensive stuff , if they can get it at all . I sometimes find my predictions unfolding a decade after I have already prepared for the event . Sometimes I might get it wrong , but not often . I expect other members could also honestly claim they prepared a decade in advance . Like Nostradamus , I look for tools to help my predictions . As for as a global financial collapse , I look at Venezuela . -- With almost total certainty , if I had been foolish enough to have been in Afghanistan as a civilian to begin with , my instincts and distrust of the Biden regime , I would have evacuated that place long before Biden and friends betrayed U.S. Citizens and U.S. allies .

 

I concur, we cannot see into the future ands a result it would be unwise to assume a particular reason for prepping. Even a societal collapse could have multiple unconnected reasons. I believe it is best to prep generally and keep aware of world and local events.

 

To a degree I agree with the above statements made by LoneWolf and Brownbear . Here in the U.S. the military trains at least some of its personnel in following their instincts . Those classes effected the rest of my life . Some people are simply better in developing their instincts than others . By following , as Old Geezer says common sense and a combination of instinct have benefited my life and prepper preparations . When my instinct tries to tell me something , I don't shove it off but give it , at least to some degree serious credibility . --- I have mentioned this before but will repeat , Here in the U.S. ranked enemy number one " John Dillinger " the F.B.I. thought was getting inside information and kept escaping the clutches of the agency . When he was eventually brought down by his hormones and a woman that turned him in for cash , the F.B.I. discovered that he kept alluding them by sheer instinct . Whenever he felt they were closing in , John Dillinger would jump up and leave his adobe running .

 

Survival needs to be as general as possible. Each area has a few more likely possible disasters but if you only prepare for that you may be short and out of luck if that is not what happens.

To survive you need to cover the basics FIRST. Food, water, health, shelter, and physical protection. Exactly what this entail will vary somewhat from place to place Once you have these basics covered then you can worry about comfort and better conditions.

I have talked to people that don’t seem to understand the priorities. The exact order of what is most important ia also somewhat variable. Lack of water will kill you after just a few days, lack of food takes a lot longer. If you can’t protect what you have and need then you may be dead before you run out of water.

Because I live in Texas having guns is just a must. Nearly everyone is armed and many of us well know how to use them and are PREPARED to use them in defence of ourselves, our family and our place. If you assault my place you will probably be dead in short order. The first thing I will do is get my family out of the house and under it. I have cement and treated 4x4 landscating timbers under pinning my house and have places down there where I can shoot out and cover my front.

There are bushes all across the front of the house with a cleared lower view under the bushes. Throw in the fact that I live sort of out in the middle of nowhere in the suburbs of a tiny town population a scattered 500 people. When the people evacuate the towns, they won’t find me at first.

Survival means being prepared for what is most likely to happen rather THAN prepare for the other things that are less likely to be encountered. If I put up a KEEP OUT sign on my front gate and you come in any way you may end up in my garden…as fertilizer! The hard thing for a lot of people is going to actually DO the things that will be required when you encounter people that are there to TAKE what you have. If you wait until they open fire on you it may be too late. A sign with a STRICT explanation of what WILL happen and they come on anyway you need to just DROP them. I will have a closed gate and a loud bell. If they don’t use it they will be killed without further warning.

Survival after a collapse is going to be and require a lot of SUDDEN adapting and change in your entire world view. If you can’t adapt and adjust FAST you may be in trouble. The people that are little more than animals now are going to be deadly to those that try to hold on to their civilized views after the fall. If you allow someone to threaten you and you don’t respond you are going to get killed sooner or later by someone that is already pass that point.

We here are several steps ahead of most. We here at least regularly consider the harsh realities that a fall will force upon us. The living and the dead will be separated by the QUICK and the dead. The day that you decide that the end is on us and not going to ever return to normal you need to mentally shift THAT day. A threat now means very little most of the time. A threat when there are no consequences to the action many of the low life’s will become little more than animals. You need to BE there right with them as far as using deadly force in your defense.

 

Most people are not anti gun ownership, they just have absolutely no interest is firearms.

You can embrace technology and still possess good survival skills.

 

Lonewolf I am with you on the horrific deathtoll the U.K. will experience from an economic collapse . Without individual firearms , amo and wild game to harvest in any volume , the expectancy of surviving a economic collapse is bleak . Now to compound this survival expectancy is the fall of other countries . When other countries fall such as the U.S. , imports to the U.K. will cease . Our member that was gleeful at the rise to power of the Biden / Harris regime now can witness the incompetent mess in Afghanistan as Biden betrayed the U.K. as well as the economic collapsing of the U.S. . It will effect our gleeful member as imports and the economy in the U.K. will be hit with the economic U.S. tsunami coming his way . I suppose the U. K. members are aware of one of their leaders making the comment about the Biden debacle in Afghanistan being like the ringing the death bell of NATO . This is exactly what was warned about on this forum . Now the U.K. as well as the entire globe can no longer depend on the U.S. for their security . That leave the U.K. fluttering about in the wind with no teeter and few individual firearms for defense .

 

The British and citizens of continental European countries being unarmed leaves some newcomers fearless to do as they please.

"UK: Muslim who threatened ‘non-believers’ was followed by nine cops, still stabbed two people"

https://www.jihadwatch.org/2021/08/...ollowed-by-nine-cops-still-stabbed-two-people

"He was released two-thirds of the way through his sentence, despite holding to extremist views and indicating that he would remain a danger once released.

"A search of his cell uncovered handwritten notes in Arabic that appeared to show loyalty to ISIS. Days before his release, he told a prisoner that he was “not finished with these non-believers yet”, a senior detective, Dominic Murphy, told the inquest into Amman’s death in central London.

"The fears were so great that police had asked the governor not to release him from Belmarsh top-security prison in south-east London, but the request was turned down, the inquest heard."
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These newcomers also believe that the men of their new homes cannot protect their women and female teenagers.

https://www.jihadwatch.org/2021/08/uk-muslim-rape-gang-police

https://www.forbritain.uk/2020/01/17/not-asian-nor-pakistani-these-rape-gangs-are-muslim/

https://www.askthe.police.uk/content/Q589.htm

I guess if a person had an iron-clad excuse for defending himself in England, he could walk free; however, the onus is on the citizen to prove his innocence and not on the criminal. The police in the UK expect that British subjects should only rely on "professionals" for their defense. In the USA -- especially in pro-Constitution states -- a felon considering pulling a home-invasion must take into consideration that he stands a very real possibility of getting shot. This is why home invasions are rare in the Southern U.S. and in the agricultural Midwest. Americans do not have a problem with shooting low-life felons. Scummy people are considered expendable. Nobody wrings their hands about what socio-economic conditions drives thieves and rapists to be the aggressors they are.
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ANY government that is more interested in protecting criminals from armed citizens than protecting honest citizens from criminals is a government in name only and needs to be overthrown. Then they need to be replaced with CITZENS instead of politicians. I believe that term limits of one per life time would do a lot. Make them go out and work in and under the laws that they make.

 

Huge anti gun lobby in the UK? Headline news everyday LOL, no theres not. anti blood sports is aimed at fox hunting really and it must be your circle of friends interested in guns mine aren't. I've told a couple I'll be getting an FAC and its like "OK" not interested at all. The only one at work who showed an interest was an American fella I worked with who thought it was a great idea.

Sandwiches are a wonderful culinary invention, a meal wrapped in bread, perfect for a day in the woods or on the hills so nowt wrong at all in giving you lunch for a day some thought is there. Why on earth would you think hand cream was anything to do with survival? Sun block/cream for sure is very handy and can stop serious injury if you think about it so in the right conditions I'd say its a survival aid...don't suppose you've seen someone badly burnt by the sun (I mean really badly burned) but its not nice.

My big worry at the moment is my lad. He sent a picture my cheapo polytunnel which is full of tomatoes, he said "don't worry, I've watched youtube and I'll pressure cook them and freeze". I don't think he's used a pressure cooker before so I hope my roofs intact when I get home !!!!! Keep your fingers crossed

 

Just adding a lighter note to the thread, doesn't do any harm and I'm now a prepper and better prepared than some others and all down to covid 19 which made me assess my skill/knowledge base and expand them as needed. Out of curiosity what have you added to your skill/knowledge base this last year and a half that you can share with others?

 

I may not agree with LoneWolf on a lot of things. But then, we live in different cultures and in differing geographies. One true reality however is that LW is a grownup. He is someone who does not depend on others.

All sites get arrogant trolls. It's like bringing home a roach hidden in a grocery bag. Seems we have one who must put down others to build up himself -- attempt to ... in his own mind, of course. Many trolls have father issues and so they seek out father / grandfather types, then attempt to put them down. For some reason they cannot stand up to their own father, or that father is no longer in the picture ... or maybe that father never was in the picture. Then again, the father of a troll could have realized early on that he'd fathered something not quite up to the family's standards. Sh## happens.
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People in general are much more followers than leaders. When it is your nature it is hard for you to step out in front and separate yourself from the herd. THEN you have the asshats like me that have a hard time fitting into any group that doesn't have a LOT of leeway. Over my many years now I have realized hat I often don't even agree with my own opinions when I look back on them from a few years down the road.

As you learn more it is inevitable that you will begin to see things in a different light. If you don't then you have not learned very much. The wildly liberal young man (hippie!) seems to inevitably become the very conservative older man. (Redneck) How in the hell did THAT happen!!!???

That young man had very few responsibilities. At 19 I had a great job making a lot of money. I lived in a really nice garage apartment that had the amazing rent of 75 dollars a month. I probably had more free cash on hand then than I had until I was a much older man with my kiddo out of the house. The best thing that I ever did was to drop out of school take the GED test and go to work in the skilled trades.

I was not meant to ever be an office worker. I am creative and always liked making things and fixing things. For me that was a perfect place to be. So many went to college and then had a hard time getting a good job because they were in their mid-20s with no job references. By the time I was in my mid 20s I was at a journeyman level in several skilled trades. In the end that allowed me to easily work for myself doing things that I mostly enjoyed.

Some people are not cut out for self-employment. It is strange I was usually a terrible employee. I would take off work whenever I wanted to and changed jobs pretty often. When you are good at something you can always find a job and nearly all my past employers would take me back if I wanted to come back.

I think that what it is, is that I am not a person that liked to be bossed around by people that can't do my job and don't know what they are doing and THAT seemed to describe the supervising staff in most places that I worked. They learned pretty fast not to tell me to do some stupid crap. I would just do it and when it blew up in their face, I made sure that everyone knew that I was just doing what they TOLD me to do.

At that time nearly everywhere that I worked was 90% white people working for nearly 90% minority supervisors. I guess when they were totally incompetent as workers they would just make them supervisors to minimize the damage. They couldn't fire them or discipline them or they got hit with discrimination lawsuits. The minority workers that were good at their jobs never got the promotions. Slowly over the years the WORK ended up being done over seas and I think that this was a big part of it.

In the end I found my place in life. I was a terrible employee but when I worked for myself, I was top shelf and never missed a day of work. I am good at nearly anything having to do with machinery. I can run it, fix it, or build it. In the very end there was more money in fixing machines for others than running them or building them myself. I also liked the hours a lot better. WHY is it that they think that blue-collar workers need to go to work early? White collar folks work 9 to 5. Most of my jobs were 7 to 3:30 and a few were 6 to 3. I preferred sleeping later and working later.

I tried to hire a helper a few times but nobody seemed to want to learn a trade that only paid a 50 dollar service call and 50 dollars and hour wage. I was paying 15 dollars and hour which was twice minimum wage and they worked a full day occasionally and no showed more often. I would try and teach them and they just were not interested. I didn’t need to pay someone 15 dollars to just hand me tools and show up late or not at all often. If they were going to act like minimum wage workers that is what they should earn. I finally gave up. My daughter could do that for a lot less and did so in the summers from 8 to 18. I paid her better than she could get anywhere else so she stayed with me until college.

 

And yet Old Geezer continues to make personal remarks and you do nothing? In fact your gettin a bit personal yourself which is not a good trait for a mod. If your going to throw your weight around spread the load little please.

When joined here I was no prepper, lots of other personal skills, four season bushcraft/mountain/survival skills yes, physical fitness yes, military and tech background yes, plenty of those skills but with covid I decided to look and learn and I have so given my skill sets and life experiences I'm to happy to class myself as a prepper.

I set out in 2020 to start to learn how to grow food and I did, made a lot of mistakes but learned from them and while I've made mistakes this year I'm getting way way better yields from my garden and will improve this next year ready for when I live somewhere with a lot more land. I decided ham radio is a needed prep skill (as shown on many other prep/survival forums) and passed two of the three ham tests and will pass the advanced test next month and this is because I wanted to learn. I've said I want a firearms ticket and doubt I'll start that route in 2021 but will have one before the end of 2022 because I'll learn whats needed (and brush up on old skills). Can you see a pattern emerging here? I'm flexible and prepared to learn and refuse to be stuck in some time warp where I believe I know it all.

The preppers who'll survive are the ones with good skill sets and are flexible enough to adapt to changing circumstances.

Just my pennies worth.

 

Lone Wolf I generally considder these boards to be DISCUSSION places. The topic is a conversation STARTER. If all was posted was a comment strictly applying to the first post this topic would be made up of about 4 or 5, 10 to 15 word statements and then DIE. If every post does like that then in an amazingly short period the entire board slows to a stop. I don't have much intrest in a board strictly as an information source sort of like an encyclopedia. My intrest is in the people and their differing ideas, points of view and then their plans.

The thing is that my plans to survive a collapse of our current civilization is not going to be very applicable for other people in other places. We have almost no winter here. Our gardens are year around. Thre are lakes, ponds, rivers and creeks full of fish all around me. I have seen deer in my yard pretty often. There are way more cattle than people within a couple of miles from me right now. My plans are based on thes resources an my special tallents and skill sets. This might be of intrest to others BUT most of my plans wouldn't work at all for someone in a cold northern urban area. Basically if I did as you seem to want I would have posted the first three sentences of this post and that would be the end of my contribution to this thread.

That would not allow for much DISCUSSION...

 

The dominos are indeed falling . As medical personnel quite rather than mess up their bodies with the vaccine , hospitals are now struggling to keep the doors open . Some facilities are offering nurses over $50,000 to work 6 weeks in their dire nurse shortage . As medical personnel quit it leaves a ever increasing load on those trying to stay .

 

I know what you are saying LoneWolf. It is hard to decide where the line is and happily for me, on this board that 2is your job. I just wanted to make sure what your wishes are. Some people just can't avoid taking things personally and if you don't rein people in sometimes chaos takes over.

The problem you have with this board is that survival is a very personal thing. Different people see it vastly differently. Some people see survival as an opportunity to cast aside all of the reins of civilization. Some seem to want to force their beliefs on others. Most of us are very focused on a very regional plan. I have no worries about surviving blizzards. People in the Midwest don't have to sweat hurricanes. I know a LOT about what it will take to survive where I live. I learn a LOT from the people that live in very different places under different conditions and rules.

You live in a place where guns are not in EVERY house and in most automobiles. There is only one place in my home that doesn’t have a gun or three in it. My bathrooms are gun free. I LIKE guns and the security of knowing that I will most likely come out on top of any home invasion. I like having a gun in every gar or truck. I have never shot or even pointed a gun at anybody. I HAVE allowed it to be known a few times that I was armed with good results.

Th nice thing about people being armed is that other than stupid asshats it tends to make people be polite. The few times that I have been threatened I just put a hand in my back pocket and asked them if their life insurance was paid. That seems to have a calming affect on people that are not just stupid as a post.

If they pull a gun I will shoot them until they stop moving!!! NEVER pull out a gun as a threat!! When you see my gun it will have a bright flash coming out of the muzzle. I will always win a gunfight where an idiot pulls a gun as a threat. If they intended to shoot me, they would have shot as soon as they pulled the gun. If I pull out a gun, I have already decided to shoot you. There will be bullets in you before you can make up your mind to shoot me. My decision was made before I even reached for my gun.

 

I usually take a firearm w/me when taking a shower and put it within reach. Just a habit to keep.

I'm always reminded by something or another of the story of a white farmer in South Africa who put his gun out of reach while taking a bath one night. Home invaders tortured him and his wife to death ... just like thousands upon thousands of other white farmers.

I do not live in fear. I just keep good habits. There was a home invasion within less than a mile of my house a couple of years ago. Some trash "humans" left a small city and hit the wrong home. Police said that they were part of the drug trade and were likely targeting their own sort, but invaded the wrong place. Fortunately no innocents were killed. One does not go around fearing fire, but one still keeps fire extinguishers and fire insurance. It's just what one does. God gave snakes venom and gave scorpions stingers. He included a crinkly cortex in our cranium to create our own killer constructs.

The dominoes have been tipping in the former USA for a few decades now.

After this last national election, the domino fall rate has accelerated mightily. The current Middle East destabilization is a primary example. Just read that megalomaniac Merkel cancelled her trip to Israel due to the biden "administration's" Afghanistan debacle.

https://www.israelhayom.com/2021/08/27/germanys-merkel-cancels-israel-trip-due-to-afghan-crisis/

"It was canceled in consultation with Bennett "because of current developments in Afghanistan," Merkel's office said in a statement. Germany is one of the countries that has been scrambling to evacuate from Kabul its own nationals and Afghans who helped its forces during a nearly-two decade deployment in the country."

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"Is Afghanistan the First Domino to Fall"

https://www.strategic-culture.org/news/2021/08/22/is-afghanistan-first-domino-to-fall/

"It certainly looks like a domino that has been put in position poised to fall waiting for others to take their places in the line.

"With America withdrawing from Afghanistan abruptly after some 20 years, one big question is being discussed throughout the strategic sphere by those both in big institutions and lying on their couches – is the American loss in Afghanistan the first domino to fall in the eventual collapse of the Global Hegemon? After all, Afghanistan is the “graveyard of empires” probably because it is an expression that sounds nice and because the Soviets fell apart a few years after losing to the locals. So this must be the 'beginning of the end' right?

...

"Abandoning the Maidan Regime in the Ukraine

...

"Taiwan, Hong Kong and/or South Korea

"Simply put, if Washington gives up on Hong Kong, Taiwan and/or South Korea it is another sign of the end for sure as China would be more or less rid of these weak points that have been exploited against it for decades.

...

"A Loss of Control Over the 'Bigs'

"Big Tech, Big Pharma, Big Agro and so on, have dutifully served Washington’s interests despite their theoretically international nature. But we should never forget that large for-profit entities are quite “whoreish” and will serve whichever master they need to. If Washington cannot control the Bigs as it used to, this would be another domino.

...

"Mexico, Lakotastan and African-America

...

"The death of the Dollar or collapse of the Federal Reserve

...

"Is Afghanistan 'the first domino to fall' in the death of the American Empire? This cannot be proven, but it certainly looks like a domino that has been put in position poised to fall waiting for others to take their places in the line. Other major defeats would be required to say for sure that this 'New American Century' is over, not even making it to the one-fourth mark. It is really the other potential signs of the end that are of most concern not squabbling over Afghanistan’s domino status. So the big question is, if Washington is losing its Monopolar World Order, then where will be the next grand retreats?"

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Middle East war:

https://foreignpolicy.com/2021/09/28/iran-power-vacuum-middle-east-nuclear-power/

"Iran Seeks to Fill a Middle East Power Vacuum"

"The United States and Israel worry the “Afghanistan effect” allows Tehran to covertly pursue nuclear capability."

"The Biden administration said it is still hoping for a return to the 2015 nuclear deal with Tehran, but privately, senior U.S. officials fear Iran is already moving to a “Plan B”: stringing out negotiations while it positions itself for a nuclear weapon’s swift breakout.

"This dire outcome comes after U.S. President Joe Biden’s hurried pullout from Afghanistan and the ensuing Taliban takeover, which signaled to U.S. adversaries and allies alike Biden’s eagerness to withdraw from the region to focus on the China threat. Some call it the 'Afghanistan effect, and it seriously damaged U.S. credibility in the Middle East."
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"'War with Israel already started' says Iranian FM spokesman"

https://www.jpost.com/middle-east/war-with-israel-already-started-says-iranian-fm-spokesman-680796

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https://news.un.org/en/story/2021/09/1101372

Quotes in color Blue:

With Iran’s nuclear programme at a “watershed moment”, the country must be stopped from acquiring a nuclear weapon, Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett said on Monday in his inaugural speech to the UN General Assembly.

Iran’s “great goal” is to dominate the region “under a nuclear umbrella”, he stated.
‘All red lines crossed’

“Iran’s nuclear weapon program is at a critical point. All red lines have been crossed, inspections ignored, all wishful thinking proven false,” he said.

Mr. Bennet said that in recent years, Iran has “made a major leap forward” in nuclear research and development, production capacity and uranium enrichment.

The country is “violating” safeguard agreements with the UN atomic energy watchdog, the IAEA, “and it's getting away with it”, he said.

“Iran’s nuclear programme has hit a watershed moment, and so has our tolerance. Words do not stop centrifuges from spinning,” Mr. Bennett told fellow leaders.

“There are those in the world who seem to view Iran's pursuit of nuclear weapons as an inevitable reality, or they've just become tired of hearing about it. Israel doesn't have that privilege. We will not tire. Israel will not allow Iran to acquire a nuclear weapon.”