Since I’ve been posting about the return of Depression to America for more than 20-years – suggesting people do quaint things like pay off debt, get rural, invest in food, make some of your own power, live where there’s water…you know, stupid ideas like that – I’d like to offer some perspectives to anchor your future with.
1 – Collapse is No Joke – It Happens
Acclaimed anthropologist and historian, Joseph Tainter, wrote a defining book people haven’t read widely-enough: “The Collapse of Complex Societies.” Tainter argues, with plenty of historical examples, like the Chacoans, Anasazi, and more, that societies collapse when the “…marginal rate of return on additional investment (of work) falls below zero….” That’s about now.
Our second read under the heading “Collapse Paradigms” is Jared Diamond’s more contemporary “Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed
.” Politics isn’t the answer, it’s the problem.
Once you “dive into the pool” on this stuff, you’ll find plenty of additional grist. We sure wish, though, that Dr. Donna Armstrong’s 2014 book “Seducing Ourselves: Understanding Public Denial in a Declining Complex Society
,” was available in honest electronic format. (That is, as differentiated from digitally stolen torrents and such…)
2 – Depressions Are Cyclical
Societies go through successive waves. A look at America’s history illustrates many of these.
- Hardscrabble Life. Barely living through the foothold period following the Mayflower’s arrival.
- Expansion and Assertion: The Colonies crystalize and expand, leading the the War of 1812. Phase two would be the genocide of First People.
- Economic and Banking Collapse: Study of the Second Bank of the United States, falling in 1836. The lead-in to this was when (President) “Jackson proceeded to destroy the bank as a financial and political force by removing its federal deposits, and in 1833, federal revenue was diverted into selected private banks by executive order, ending the regulatory role of the Second Bank of the United States.“
- Recession, Panics, and Depressions: Shortly thereafter, the Panic of 1837 arrived. “On May 10, 1837, banks in New York City suspended specie payments, meaning that they would no longer redeem commercial paper in specie at full face value..” The Bankster class exploits confusion.
These cycles repeat.
3 – Depressions Revise Sexual Trends
A study of the “Flappers” of the 1920’s is useful to the template-fitting searcher. I’ll show you what I mean:
“Flappers are icons of the Roaring Twenties, the social, political turbulence and increased transatlantic cultural exchange that followed the end of World War I, as well as the export of American jazz culture to Europe. However, there was a reaction to this counter culture, mostly by older, more conservative people who belonged in different generations. They claimed that the flappers’ dresses were ‘near nakedness’, ‘flippant’, ‘reckless’, and unintelligent. “
Overt sexuality was a key market indicator that a Great Depression was approaching. Especially the “petting parties…”
“”Petting parties”, where the activity was the main attraction, became popular. In youthful imagination, it gave the lie to the old clichés of “the only man” and “the only girl”. This was typical on college campuses, where young people “spent a great deal of unsupervised time in mixed company”.
In present times, may be passing the zenith of the LBGTQ+ era. The gay, lez bar scene? Don’t look now but ALL gathering places, including those expanding on the back of social-marketing of genderism, are closing due to COVID.
4 – Hunger Will Come Next
The book “Hunger in America” is a hair-raising account of what happens with a Nation begins to run out of food and the equitable means to distribute it. Although it hasn’t been publicized nor promoted by the Left and promoters of online Digital Mob Rule, marketing mass-dissidence (impeachment, etc.) hunger has been evolving between our toes, barely out of sight:
“Research by the USDA found that 11.1% of American households were food insecure during at least some of 2018, with 4.3% suffering from “very low food security”.
In 2019, over 12.5 million children, and 40% of US undergraduate students experienced food insecurity.
The United States produces far more food than it needs for domestic consumption—hunger within the U.S. is caused by some Americans having insufficient money to buy food for themselves or their families. Additional causes of hunger and food insecurity include neighborhood deprivation and agricultural policy.”
“America’s Hungry Years” spanned the Great Depression. So it’s with great confidence we expect that universal hunger will be along presently. If you’re not preparing for it now, you’re an idiot.
Societies are deeply impacted by famine. But it’s also when people of great character are revealed.
I remember years ago, an afternoon spent with the late Western writer Louis L’Amour. We talked about The Depression in depth.
He recalled a time he was going to sea as an Able Body Seaman. Trying to “ship out” from San Pedro, California, cargo steamers were hard to come by, as global trade was in collapse, by then.
The men, mostly sailors stuck ashore, would go through the trash cans and store waste bins around San Pedro looking for anything edible. What was discovered was brought back to a ramschackle lean-to on the beach, cobbled of flotsom and jetsom. Thrown into a large pot, over a driftwood fire, it became a “Mulligan stew.”
Mulligans, a sort of “dinner made from scraps” was served across America in that time, on beaches among sailors; in the hobo jungles that sprang up in great numbers.
The sequence of societies includes the reversal of fortunes, the re-tightening of family bonds, and a great “swing back to normalcy.” It this what begins?
5 – Pivoting on Delusion, I
America – home of the invention of mass media and the post-book era – has always done very well at “self-marketing.” While there are stories about hunger here, the American political class has made an artform of demonizing other types of government in comparison to our own. Exceptionalism runs deep.
While America was going hungry in the Depression, people were being outright killed en masse in Stalin’s Soviet Russia, for example:
“The Soviet famine of 1932–33 was a major famine that killed millions of people in the major grain-producing areas of the Soviet Union, including Ukraine, Northern Caucasus, Volga Region and Kazakhstan, the South Urals, and West Siberia. The Holodomor in Ukraine and Kazakh famine of 1932–33 have been seen as genocide committed by Joseph Stalin‘s government. It has been estimated that between 3.3 and 3.9 million died in Ukraine and 2 million (40% of all Kazakhs) died in Kazakhstan.“
A review of history’s list of major famines is shocking to those who’ve never contemplated food; having never missed a meal. And why should they? After all, it has always been available…what could go wrong?
6 – Pivoting on Delusion, II
Another delusional data point is the assertion of “Leaders for Life.”
We have expected the Second Depression to be along shortly, ever since Chinese president Xi proclaimed himself to be a “leader for life.”
The American press didn’t use the occasion to be a “teachable moment” to any great extent. If they had, people would realize that president Xi is simply playing the same role that president Roosevelt occupied for America. Hitler, more grimly, was cut of the president for life cloth.
Our own version of “president for life” held the White House for three full terms and part of a fourth. He’s the reason we now have term limits. Thanks, democrats. That was Roosevelt.
7 – Jingoism and Small Minds
Socialist academics, busily licking their chops (as they seem to read history better than conservatives) have been planning for these times.
Unfortunately,, they’re not particularly inventive; witness their half-ass “Green New Deal.” Not that it’s bad, but with the global economy sliding into deep, deep Depression as the globalist corporate One World decomposes into regional states and blocks, any fool can see that down-sizing lifestyles (it’s what Depression DO) will solve lots of environmental issues.
Only idiots would be pandering environmental issues right now. Let’s see who survives, first, shall we? I mean 3-5-years out.
Put another way: When no one is working, where’s all this warming or climate change coming from? OK, except perhaps overtime at creamatoriums?
Americans forget it was our “president for life” who sold the first New Deal Here’s what the original New Deal was all about:
“The programs focused on what historians refer to as the “3 Rs”: relief for the unemployed and poor, recovery of the economy back to normal levels, and reform of the financial system to prevent a repeat depression. The New Deal produced a political realignment, making the Democrat Party the majority (as well as the party that held the White House for seven out of the nine presidential terms from 1933 to 1969) with its base in liberal ideas, the South, traditiona Democrats, big city machines and the newly empowered labor unions and non-whites and ethnic whites. The Republicans were split, with conservatives opposing the entire New Deal as hostile to business and economic growth and liberals in support.”
Truth is, the Constitutional basis of the New Deal always was dicey. But, it did the ONE THING that needed to be done prior to launching into World War II: It rebuilt American manufacturing. Infrastructure drives the futures and we haven’t been in that driver’s seat.
As for the present-day, watered down, false-hope pandering, bastardization of concept? You know, The Green New Deal? You’ll see how little this latter-day political marketing scam is when you read it’s agenda:
“The approach pushes for transitioning the United States to use 100% renewable, zero-emission energy sources, including investment into electric cars and high-speed rail systems, and implementing the “social cost of carbon” that was part of Obama administration’s plans for addressing climate change within 10 years. Besides increasing state-sponsored jobs, this Green New Deal is also aimed to address poverty by aiming much of the improvements in the “frontline and vulnerable communities” which include the poor and disadvantaged people. To gain additional support, the resolution includes calls for universal health care, increased minimum wages, and preventing monopolies.”
Wet dream stuff: Doesn’t feed, doesn’t heel. It’s merely a rehash of 88-year old consensus.
And so, a thoughtful student of Depression Economics (and long wave cycles) can judge the two pretty easily: The Roosevelt plans were both specific and measurable, they put people to work, and they provided for an obvious public need. New technology through the Rural Electrification program was expanded and although the budgets to get the job done were big – forcing inflation in the future – the people of that era understood finance arguably better than people today. Deficit spending was required, but not unsupportably.
The Green New Deal (GND) on the other hand is an agglomeration of left-wing wish list items. People spouting it properly sensed the time for a New Deal 2.0 was at hand, but specificity was *(and still is) lacking. The delusion that Modern Monetary Theory (.eg. making up money like Zimbabwe did) isn’t considered.
But, our currency is already debt-logged. It wasn’t last time. Last cycle’s answers are dead horses before the bell.
Personal Contexts and Action Plans
Imagine for a moment, that we could be – due to CV-19 – on the cusp of a massive decline both in population and social norms that have evolved over the years.
80 percent of the American economy is service-based while only 20- percent are needed to produce that we consume.
Yet the sham solutions, such as senator Markey(ist) and rep. Ocasio-Cortez are promoting misses the historical contexts pretty-much completely. If we’re working only half, climate drivers are halves, too.
Politics is a scam. The way out of depression is war and war is a racket, and Gen. Smedley Butler reminded. Google it.
The 100-Year Toaster Problem
Peoplenomics subscribers have a better handle on the problem than most, in that they already know we have a bigger problem than just “a repackaged” New Deal problem.
What COVID makes us consider is the whole notion of “Is it all about Money???”
The failure of humans – which we may be able to address in the coming Depression – is that we operate as stimulus-response critters. WIIFM – What’s In Ity For Me?
China is ahead of us, to an extent, in that they recognize that “social credits” may be a non-financial answer. But, being a communist, totalitarian government, we have 100% confidence that they, too, will miss the opportunity to “de-financialize.” Money matters to the CCP.
As a result, we’re hanging out in the woods expecting the following elements to appear shortly:
- CV-19 will continue to grow, perhaps into June and with it, the death toll will mount up.
- Markets will crumble as recovery hopes fade.
- Social distancing will both increase the return of America to the home & family on the one hand, while actually accomplishing much of what the political hacks are trying to get in Green New Deal: Recreation travel, commuting, reducing non-essential services, all that is coming… But to the digital insurgency, be careful what you wish for; you’re a class that’s never hand blistered hands from hard work. Arrogant, self-righteous young prick – still riding the greatness of a previous generation.
- As a result, the economy will continue to implode. As it does so, we will continue for a several months deeper into deflation and from there, perhaps by year-end, we will cycle into “hyper-inflation lite.”
America’s “New Peso”
Both of our crooked political parties are of such monstrous ego’s that mistakes can nevever be admitted. Not Trump, not Pelosi, not Schiff, not McConnell.
The one mistake of the previous Depression, long-ago forgotten in the wake of World War II, was the evil of interest compounding on the national debt and the hollowing-out of our nation’s money. I warned of this in 2001 when we still had 5% of of the dollar’s 1913 purchaisng power left. Today? We’re just about 3-1/2% now.
We have screwed the dollar, but the Virus is about to sort that out whether we like it, or not.
Why a New Peso here?
Imagine you took out a high-interest loan and it keeps compounding. At some point, no matter how hard you work, there is never any way to repay it. You can’t even pay the interest at some point. What do you do?
The solution well-implemented by Mexico in 1993-1996 was the repudiation of debt packed into their currency. Basically, Mexico had gotten into that unsustainable zone to where no matter how hard they worked (and the Mexican worker is admirably industrious!) there was no way they could ever get out of debt.
So they renounced all old debt. By 1000 to 1. Called it the Nuevo Peso...
“Throughout most of the 20th century, the Mexican peso remained one of the more stable currencies in Latin America, since the economy did not experience periods of hyperinflation common to other countries in the region. However, after the oil crisis of the late 1970s, Mexico defaulted on its external debt in 1982, and as a result the country suffered a severe case of capital flight, followed by several years of inflation and devaluation, until a government economic strategy called the “Stability and Economic Growth Pact” (Pacto de estabilidad y crecimiento económico, PECE) was adopted under President Carlos Salinas. On January 1, 1993, the Bank of Mexico introduced a new currency, the nuevo peso (“new peso”, or MXN), written “N$” followed by the numerical amount.[5] One new peso, or N$1.00, was equal to 1000 of the obsolete MXP pesos.[5]
On January 1, 1996, the modifier nuevo was dropped from the name, and new coins and banknotes – identical in every respect to the 1993 issue, with the exception of the now absent word “nuevo” – were put into circulation. The ISO 4217 code, however, remained unchanged as MXN.
Thanks to the stability of the Mexican economy and the growth in foreign investment, the Mexican peso is now among the 15 most traded currency units.”
That dear reader is the big context of where we are, I believe, though I wish it weren’t so:
- A global economic collapse has been triggered by CV-19.
- Sexual mores are changing, the family is back.
- Collapse of the economy solved Green New Deal points.
- Food is the currency (along with water and a roof) that you need to secure above all else.
Within a year, we expect the dollar to be gone, crypto currencies banned,, and a kind of Virus-oriented “Victory Garden” will become critical to future life on Earth:
“In the war time governments encouraged people to plant victory gardens not only to supplement their rations but also to boost morale. George Washington Carver wrote an agricultural tract and promoted the idea of what he called a “Victory Garden”. They were used along with Rationing Stamps and Cards to reduce pressure on the public food supply. Besides indirectly aiding the war effort, these gardens were also considered a civil “morale booster” in that gardeners could feel empowered by their contribution of labor and rewarded by the produce grown. This made victory gardens a part of daily life on the home front.”
All the rest of it?
Mostly bullshit pandered by Blinders-on-Media which lacks both the non-corporate context as well as lessons of history and is therefore swayed by transitory political distractions.
If you aren’t putting in a garden, watching how to use cardboard as mulch on Youtube, and how to store food without power, you’re nailing your own coffin shut.
There are many things we can do, especially with time off: Prepare, think, garden, sprout, learn, and above all, embrace the change.
So we can stop making disposable, climate-wrecking products that rely on crooked economics. We might even get back to things like making 100-year toasters, ultra-light high mileage cars, and getting back to Nature.
Our problems on the Outside reflect our problems on the Inside.
I guess some things never change.
Write when you get rich well,
george@ure.net
(Feel free to share and mention urbansurvival.com, thanks)
Andy:
Especially now, I think your off the planet personality is ripe to be monetized. I am looking for a meditation DVD for $19.95. I am already in on the Cult DVD. I prefer video for this type of training. Maybe You Tube. George could be your manager for a piece of the action. I am ready to buy.
NC…youtube has some wonderful meditation music up on it already. You’ll have to check some out to see what affects you.
I personally like zen musical bowls.. deep relaxation is pretty impressive and fun. I’ve never seen blue lights or whatever.. nothing of a mysterious nature. Just the feeling of inner peace and relaxed..
I’ve personally been contemplating tai-chi
https://youtu.be/lXjM37jmBK0
As a morning exercise.. theres actually videos through the whole half hour exercise and I believe before this mess classes were offered at many gyms
https://youtu.be/cEOS2zoyQw4
Tai chi
You can put me in for the cult leader DVD too! I only need one follower/devotee/co-master if she’s the right one. The only candidate so far is thousands of miles away, and she’s got her own challenges for now. To find the right one(if any), it may be necessary to have many thousands of hangers-on. Sad, but ignoring reality is never a good idea.
“The Collapse of Complex Societies.”
Thats a really good book.. its been a while since I read it last.. but will put it back on my must read again list..
I am personally getting what I can now.. of the things I see that I might need in the future.. once hyperinflation hits.. well we have seen how that works in other countries.. first the idiots will think.. oh hey war is a good alternative.. it builds up the economy with jobs.. ( they forgot we don’t have and industrial nation anymore.. we have a consumption nation.. we consume.. not build.. we don’t even take care of our own infrastructure..because we are so damned busy trying to get some joker more crap that doesn’t even live here or pay taxes here)
hyper inflation and if we have a poor crop year and the end of civilization virus killer…. along with the rest of the planet having poor crops a killer virus and war to boot…. it could be interesting.. have to run back over to http://www.theageofdesolation.com and read up on what is predicted by nostradamus again..
I have an interesting question though.. to make collidal silver.. I don’t want copper in it.. so to hook up the anode and cathode.. and use silver bars .. how would you hook them up to keep the copper out of the solution..
dip part way in, so silver only is in water. tiniest pinch of pure salt if the water is too pure
use a 9 v battery
Good start, but it works better with 3 batteries in series connection to get 27 volts. Then run the silver water thru some coffee filters to remove large particles. Let stand a couple of day if you can to let gravity filter out all but the smallest particles. Store in cool dark place. The stuff really works but not on everything, mostly bacteria. Good luck!
Seems to me, if I recall correctly, you will need to use fine silver, .999
Thanks.. I got the good silver
GOT MILK ?
https://www.yahoo.com/news/u-dairy-farmers-dump-milk-100952217.html
That is a real issue Perry…
I know a dairy farmer that was told that theres a real possibility that they will stop bottling milk.. I dug out my cream separator and pasteurizer just to be ready
Perry, good find.
Note: Borden and Dean Foods went udders-up before the COVID-19 came to town.
Ford is now in the begging stages of begging Trump for a government run Cash for Clunkers program. Ford is blaming COVID-19. Ford is bunch of scammers.
February 5, 2020
Ford Doesn’t Know Exactly Why It’s Losing Billions of Dollars
https://www.thedrive.com/news/32093/ford-doesnt-know-exactly-why-its-losing-billions-of-dollars
Updated February 5, 2020
Profit-sharing checks give hefty bonus to Ford, GM workers
https://buffalonews.com/2020/02/05/profit-sharing-checks-give-a-hefty-bonus-to-ford-gm-workers/
And here we are, the bailouters. “investment (of work) falls below zero”
My great uncle (he lived to be 105) said many times to me, “you don’t know what hard times are, but they will come again.” He also said he could go all day eating just one banana and drinking one small coca-cola.
Profit Idea: A Covid19 flag to hang in front of your house temporally in place of the American Flag you are waving. “COVID19 FREE DWELLING” or “COVID19 INFECTED DWELLING”.
It is called the Q flag. As I told my buddy Gaye over at strategiclibingblog.com
Plain yellow flag carried on sailboat (OK, stinkpots, too, lol).
Flown when arriving in a foreign port and hoisted to indicate the vessel is under Quarantine and needs to be visited by local officials (customs) and “cleared in” – as which time the Q flag is struck. (taken down).
At this time, the flag of the arrival nation may be flown from the flag halyard, but on America-flagged vessels, no higher than the U.S. Flag (or Union Jack if a UK yacht in the Caribbean).
Best paper ever George. So few people can connect the dots as you do so consistantly. I fear the world has no idea what is about to befall them through the coming months. We were all placed here for “such a time as this” and it will sear our souls as never before. We will, in fact, find out what we are made of as we struggle each day. The creator said”I show your the end from the beginning so that when you see these things you will know that I AM God”. I think we about to see it all in blazing technicolor.
I 2nd your emotion Kathleen. Great work, George. Spot on.
Great post today George,
One of the initiatives we have been working on with our developers this last week is installing Container/Urban gardens on all of our housing assets being developed this year.
This week, we will be looking at designs via Zoom on the aesthetics, irrigation technology and digital interactive care/use/instructive steps to successful crops from seed to harvest. We recognize that 80% of our future and present homeowners are employed in STEM, and if we speak and utilize their language to engage them in the ancient practice of agriculture, we feel this will be a win/win for the environment, sustainability, health and welfare of Bay Area residents.
Coupled with our state law that all new construction must have solar, we are beginning to build communities that can weather future shutdowns and disasters.
In areas where a lower water table allows…we are also building small cellars…(Most, if not all of the Bay Area, which is built on the Valleys Floors, do not have basements). These cellars will be marketed now as wine cellars, but can be converted to food and canning storage as well.
We are going on our 4th week of Shelter-in in the Bay Area, and because the everyday figurative “fires” we have had to always put out in the past have slowed, the past 3 weeks have been the most productive in terms of strategic planning and goal setting for post Shelter-in implementation.
“installing Container/Urban gardens on all of our housing assets being developed this year.”
AMEN MARK..
I’ve been preaching greenscaping for years it makes me happy to see someone finally implementing it within the confines of the concrete jungle..
We always have had home gardening here…It was more of a suburban/Berkeley thing in the past. Now it’s mainstream
Ah, Californians: Talk and vote liberal, live conservative. Unless they want something, of course.
George
“While America was going hungry in the Depression, people were being outright killed in masse in Stalin’s Soviet Russia,”
THAT HIT A NERVE!
My son who turns 49 today is somewhat of a mongrel. He is 25% French, 25% German, 25% Cajun, and 25% Russian Jew.
His maternal Great Grandmother is one of the people who escaped the purges in Russia that you mentioned. She was one of the early ones who saw it coming and got out while the getting was possible. The story told to She Who Must Be Obeyed was that Grandma was tied to the under carriage of a car and driven across the boarder to evade the guards. Seeing how the cars of that era was made I can believe it.
She made her way to Brooklyn New York where she meet the man who would become my son’s maternal Great Grand Dad.
So my family has a direct connection to the event you described!
Small World!!
Here we are yet again observing the collision at the intersection of East Egg and West Egg. One can only crack a yolk, remain hard-boiled, and scrambled or not, maintain forward momentum.
It’s not all sugar plums and fairies in the Land of Kublai Xi. One may have noted mention in the media of an “Irish” aircraft leasing company cancelling a large Boeing Max order late this past week. The leasing firm is apparently a subsidiary of China’s HNA Group of convoluted mixed-parentage leading perhaps to a charity domiciled in a New York tenament and a Cayman Island numbered company. It seems the mongrel has dug a big debt hole for China’s banks such that the palace rotweilers are on standby for some chinese traditional medicine misery relief. Hong Kong media report that purebred Island chaebol families have realized profit from chasing the bastard from KaiTek airport landholdings back to the Mainland. At one time the Group was the largest shareholder of a certain Germanbank although holdings are believed to have decreased by half. This is not investment advice, but still, raise a toast to a glass half full, ja?
Punters, don’t leave the coliseum just yet!
“While America was going hungry in the Depression, people were being outright killed en masse in Stalin’s Soviet Russia,”
Chosen as our wonderful “Allies of World War II.” Go figure! ;-((
Patton said why don’t we invade Russia now why we have our Army here. Patton was not a fan of Russia & they silenced him for that at the end of the war.
I bought a diary.. I got it on a box of books. The diary was of a farmer. The czar asked for help because the people were starving. They asked the YMCA for help and they asked farmers to see if anyone was willing to help teach the farmers in russia the advanced methods of the USA. They had to be evacuated when the bolshevik army attacked.. he took pictures lol..
I use to believe that the czars daughter made it to the USA because one of the royal family young ladies asked to go with them posing as a young nurse.
It was a pretty impressive diary. Way to brittle for me to thumb through these days and most assuredly my prized possessions
I always thought it would make a great movie..
Now THAT is an interesting book! You should take it to a museum for restoration. They’ll likely do it for free if you either allow them to display it, or will it to them…
I took you advice on cardboard mulch videos, and I came across a little jewel I’m GOING to use this spring. It’s called straw bale gardening. I’ve always had problemswith weeds encroaching into the garden through the fencing, and I hate weeding that out all the time. Put the bales along the fencing, grow viney fruits and vegetables that’ll use the fencing for added vertical space, and you’ve just expanded the usage of the garden. Alot. So, along with cardboard, I’m putting bales along my fence. This ought to be a good year for farming in Indiana!
Straw bale gardening…
Lol.. one of the people I let live in nm my spare bedroom was one of the liberating forces at Auschwitz.. anyway he went through the dust bowl and loved gardening.. many wonderful stories. So I tried it . I dont know what I did wrong . But I ended up with more weeds than I ever want to see again. I’m not saying it isnt a good idea. My friend had wonderful luck with it.. I didnt so obviously I did something wrong..
The bad thing was he had left and I couldn’t ask his advice..
Using straw bales is fine, except you have to be careful where the straw comes from or you will end up with a huge amount of weeds……speaking from experience. (The weeds from straw bales once wiped out a strawberry crop of ours.)
“If they had, people would realize that president Xi is simply playing the same role that president Roosevelt occupied for America. Hitler, more grimly, was cut of the president for life cloth.”
Had he not (tangled?) with antisemetism he would have been adored by today’s popular standard, because he knew how to get it done ;-).
I was walking through the store the other day and it stuck me extra motor oil, WD40, carb cleaner, etc. I know it does not fill your belly but if you do not have it when you need it………………….
Ure has a few cases of the finest Royal Purple for just such outcomes…oh, and filters, 2 boot
Note for the unwary: It’s fine to keep these essential liquids(oil, antifreeze, diesel conditioner, etc.) in stock for the long term, but in many cases they are in plastic bottles or containers. These can/will become brittle and fracture over the years – especially if exposed to ozone and/or sunlight. The result is that your precious fluids will escape from the slightest bump or squeeze. I’ve had to carefully transfer such things to newer containers and carefully re-label them, since most of such will dissolve marker pen inks.
George, today has lots of implied questions. For example:
If an important work is unavailable(for research or education) through legal channels, what’s the ethical position regarding torrenting or other questionable acquisition? What about sci-hub?
Since hyperinflation can be assumed, given the 10%+ dilution of the currency and uncertain distribution from the recent bailout bill(with more likely to come), what will happen to real-estate taxes for those with fixed or limited income? Will there be any way to retain this regularly taxed wealth?
How will we maintain (physical) contact with those we love who live many states away? So far there’s no federal mandate to stay within your state, but there’s no federal prohibition on states refusing safe passage. This also holds for maintaining your business affairs across the nation. I fail to see how our nation can remain strong if there’s no legal way to do these things.
I don’t see the CV-19 and variants going away anytime soon. If we’re lucky, we’ll get a reprieve sometime during the summer – though just for a while. Of course, by then there will be such a confused mass of state regulations that we’ll have to violate some of them just to function. Travel beyond an adjacent state may take massive research or just winging it in real time.
We’re folding ALL of our human interaction into the internet(including phone service). This is a massive single point of failure for the entire society! Surely I’m not the only one to see this. While ham radio has it’s place, it can’t handle finances and business/banking transactions at all.
I don’t see any reasonably secure supply chain of anything from anywhere in the near future. People are afraid – and fear is never good for commerce. It’s also not good for human interaction in any form – including new relationships. I can see a much harder line being taken with those who flout the law – especially theft or violent crimes. That’s not all bad considering how many currently get away with these things, but it will lead to a far more conservative culture, and this could happen very fast.
“what’s the ethical position regarding torrenting or other questionable acquisition?”
My personal ethics dictates that I acquire the information, but that I not share it, and that I make an effort to pay the author, if I can find him(her.)
HDOH has changed how they report… again… showing only ‘cumulative’ totals. No breakdowns of new cases by islands anymore.
Total cases: 371 (20 newly reported)
Hawai’i County: 22
Honolulu County: 281
Kaua’i County: 16
Maui County: 43
Pending: 7
Residents diagnosed outside of Hawai‘i: 2
Required Hospitalization: 21
Hawaii deaths: 4
Released from Isolation: 85
Cumulative totals as of 12:00pm, April 5, 2020
“Stay at Home” orders. Mandatory 14 day quarantine for air travelers, including interisland travel. Travelers arriving without a place to stay are immediately turned away at airport and sent back. Most business closed.
For many years I knew this was coming. DIdn’t know when. I consider myself fortunate to have completed my career and ‘retired’ in a way that is as prepared as I can be. It has been engaging to read George’s prognostications and visions… and I thank him profusely.
pay off debt, – done
get rural, – done
invest in food, – done
make some of your own power, – done
live where there’s water – yup… tropical windward.
I’ve got my ‘survival island’.
“hunger within the U.S. is caused by some Americans having insufficient money to buy food for themselves or their families.”
I disagree with this for the majority of “hungry Americans.” The underpass and cardboard box crowd excepted, many of whom are deadbeats and those who game the system, only Americans who suffer a calamitous financial blow should fall into this category.
The remainder, the vast majority and the ones to whom the politicians cater (because they might vote) are those who’re spoiled — who through ignorance or stupidity, prioritize their spending on convenience, luxury, and “sin” items, then have little or nothing left with which to buy food (or shelter…)
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“Depressions Revise Sexual Trends”
Yeah, they “revise” them downward. Many have heard that women’s hemlines are an indicator of the coming year’s financial market trends (shorter skirts = up market, longer skirts = down market), but, as pointed out to me by Howard Ruff, the Depression brought “loose morals” to a screeching halt. Suddenly, hemlines fell and “families” and “morals” shot sky-high, as either enticing or enjoining personal or marital discord was seen as an unaffordable distraction to families so close to the edge that any distraction could cause them to starve. Families became close again, God became high on most folks’ priorities lists, as did “God-fearing.”
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We might even get back to things like making 100-year toasters, ultra-light high mileage cars, and getting back to Nature.
I’d like to remind y’all that my 1930s International half-ton pickup truck is made of heavy-gauge steel (everywhere), yet weighs less than 2800 pounds with a full tank of gas. Modern vehicles are made of thin-gauge steel and plastic, yet good luck finding one which doesn’t weigh at least 3500 pounds.