Posted on 11/07/2013 1:08:51 PM PST by backwoods-engineer
Full text as always for my FRiends, from a humblegunner-approved blogger. Many links embedded in the text at the source, and pictures.
You would have isolated areas with power. Some power plants have black start capability. In other words, they don’t need grid power to start up.
Ping everyone
You are mentioned.
Yeah, I noted that. Hydropower, in particular, has black-start capability. But do you agree that re-constituting a full-black grid would take years? And that in that time, millions would die?
“When the power goes out nationwide, there is not a systemic way to get it back. Ever.”
That’s really an absolutely inane statement. it is fully equivalent to “the oceans are rising and will be 35 feet higher in 11 years”.
Yes, we are highly dependent upon an aging grid. But the same author who decries all this pathetic dependency (and don’t get me wrong, I agree with the general theme) must thus be advocating for all manner of INdependence and completely discounts the notion that out of the 50% of people who are NOT leeches, there are probably 5,000 NON-SYSTEMATIC ways to restore the power grid and/or parts of it.
Global politics have ALWAYS worked on a pendulous continuum. As long as the politics remain moderate, the pendulum swings slowly to the left and right, keep a moderate pace and time. As soon as the pendulum swings far to the right or far to the left, the resulting “equal and opposite reaction” means a shift in geopolitical winds in the opposite extreme.
The problem with this is that as things become harder to control, people believe those peddling promises of stability, and the end result is anything but. Obama is a PERFECT example of this. 8 years of Bush and Republican rule sent people in droves to the polls to vote out who they saw as a threat: Republicans. In reality, the idiocy of the American populace saw the policies of Congress and the Senate, both in the hands on leftists, causing headaches for a Republican president, whom they blamed for the problems.
Americans only see party affiliation. They don’t care who’s in Congress or the Senate, because the President is an “everyone” representative, even though he’s anything but that. If the President is Republican and the country is reeling, they’ll vote in a Democrat. The opposite is true. The true issue, as I see it, is that with the Democrats stuffing the ballot boxes, illegals becoming a voting force for Democrats, and blacks consistently voting for Democrats, at some point it will be impossible to combat their agenda, and Republicanism, the actual idea that we are a Constitutional Republic, dies. Regardless of the pendulum effect, we either become a communist dictatorship or a right-wing fascist police state. Neither is desirable, but one or the other is on our eventual path.
Thanks, Laz. I was going to ping the illustrious Mr. Bracken.
Love the guy.
Besides, that isn't the point of the article. The point is, there is more than one destructive force acting on American civil society. I contend that a collapse is inevitable.
Yes. I hope to God only as an intermediate step. But history is unkind in that regard.
Preppers’ PING!!
Thanks for the preppers ping.
5.56mm
I am so screwed.
Theres a Great Storm coming everyone is feeling it and its one of the reason everyone is on edge. Deep down the alarm bells are ring the nerves on on edge and the mind is unsettled.
Its your choice you can prep or you can stand around on a bridge waiting for FEMA to bring you a bottle of water, a MRE, a warm blanket and a kiss for your boo-boo and maybe you can even get your picture as you stand there on the national news.
Any one with half a brain can look around and see for themselves what is happening right before their eyes.
So listen to what the bible says: A prudent man sees danger and takes refuge, but the simple keep going and suffer for it. NIV Proverbs 22:3
One of the things Selco covers in this article is the fact that many will not accept that a breakdown is occurring even as they watch it happening before their eyes. Why dont they realize it? Its caused by a condition called Normalcy Bias a mental state people enter when facing a disaster.
It causes people to underestimate both the possibility of a disaster occurring and its possible effects. This often results in situations where people fail to adequately prepare for a disaster, and on a larger scale, the failure of governments to include the populace in its disaster preparations. The assumption that is made in the case of the normalcy bias is that since a disaster never has occurred then it never will occur. It also results in the inability of people to cope with a disaster once it occurs. People with a normalcy bias have difficulties reacting to something they have not experienced before. People also tend to interpret warnings in the most optimistic way possible, seizing on any ambiguities to infer a less serious situation.
A good article on Normalcy Bias is on our own ChocChipCookies Blog The Survival Mom:
http://thesurvivalmom.com/2010/12/29/normalcy-bias/
You either prepare and stand on your own beholden to no one or you become dependent on others to provide your basic needs and become their serf. Me I dont want to be beholden to anyone for providing what is needed for me and mine. I certainly dont want to have to kiss some gubberment third class bureaucratic to try and coax some help from them, I dont want some jack booted thug herding me in line and telling me where to stand, sit, eat or sleep. And last but not least I dont want to be shut up in with a bunch of zombies and have to worry about not only trying to get basic necessities but having to fight to keep what I manage to get.
http://tomeaker.com/kart/Preparedness1j.pdf NOTE! THIS IS A FREE DOWNLOAD. I DO NOT MAKE ONE CENT OFF MY PREPAREDNESS MANUAL!
For those of you who havent started already its time to prepare almost past time maybe. You needed to be stocking up on food guns, ammo, basic household supplies like soap, papergoods, cleaning supplies, good sturdy clothes including extra socks, underwear and extra shoes and boots, cash (I myself have been putting up change for the past few years both for the metal content and the fact that using change to make what purchases you can will move you down the the list of possible marks during shtf), tools, things you buy everyday start buying two and put one up.
As the LDS say When the emergency is upon us the time for preparedness has past.
Again I like to recomend FReepers ChocoChipCookie Blog The Survival Mom (Please Blog Police let this one slide!) Where you can get lots of useful information like:
http://thesurvivalmom.com/2011/11/20/8-morale-boosters-for-any-worst-case-scenario/
http://thesurvivalmom.com/2010/02/02/survival-priorities-the-rule-of-three/
And More
Also there is Ferfals Blog a survivor of Argentinas first collapse:
And there is Selcos Blog a Bosnian War survivor at:
There is also this documentry:
Sarajevo: A Street Under Siege
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4kuCAOlQSEA
There is no greater disaster than to underestimate danger. Underestimation can be fatal.
Mark
I'm thinking THIS one will devolve into a right wing communist fascist police-state dictatorship.
With drones.
Laz,
You would have a better chance if you updated your BOB, but you insist on keeping that old Air Force issue one.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vPwW7RaPO_g
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.