Posted on 03/14/2019 8:42:28 AM PDT by Sean_Anthony
The U.S. does not have to be Venezuela, either socialist or grid down
As if the complete — and inevitable — collapse of Venezuela’s disastrous socialist experiment were not bad enough, the long-suffering population there is now five days into a near-total collapse of its electric grid.
People are increasingly desperate for the most basic necessities of life, most especially water.
Correct, but not as much life.
Most Americans depend on a complex system to deliver the requirements (water/food/shelter/safety). This system needs consistent reliable electricity to operate. Take it away and the system goes into cascading failure and is incapable of supporting the ~310 million Americans and our ~15 Million illegal “guests”. Some guessstimates put the number of dead a year after the grid collapse at 90%.
How many Chicagoans/New Yorkers/Denverites etc. could survive a winter without water/sewer/heat/food?
the sequel(s) are all good. Everything by Fortchen is good, especially Pillar to the Sky for sci fi fans.
Good points and it could happen FAST considering that you can’t do anything these days without electricity. You can buy groceries, gas or even get a prescription. Not like the old days where prices were actually marked on a product. These days it couldn’t be done manually because no human has a clue what anything costs. And even if they did no ATMs or credit card/debit card transactions.
I’m surprised that Venezuela has been able to hang on for as long as they have without a total meltdown. Perhaps that’s because they are inured to it.
Here I’d give us 2-3 days.
No.
I would say so. Something (electricity ?) powers the pump station that moves the product along the pipe line.
Our electric company used to have cyclone fencing around sub stations. After 9/11, they put tall brick walls around the sub stations. Uh, hellooooo, you can’t see if there’s someone sneaking around behind a big brick wall. What idiots. What a waste of time and money.
If/when the grid goes down, I’m eating the ice cream first from the freezer. Outside of losing what’s in the freezer, the worst would be no FR. The best thing would be no more scammers calling 24/7 and no more CNN.
We’d be fine for a while with water and food and protection of those.
Two to three for you or for the general public who can’t live without their phones?
Darwin will cleanse the gene pool so maybe not such a bad thing to happen.
If you are willing to suspend all reason and logic that the book is premised on that a 3rd rate adversary could come close to pulling off something like described, especially considering that the Russians and maybe Chinese are the only other ones with the tech and know how to accomplish such a thing over such a wide part of the continent.
A carrington type even could cause real problems but worrying over soemthign like the scenario in that book is pointless.
A coordinated carefully planned cyber attack could potentially shut a lot of the grid down but not likely for more than a few days or weeks at most.
Operation Fishbowl proved this was possible. Since then nuclear weapons optimized to this end have been built.
If I recall, Fishbowl was in 1952. The Russians were the first to realize there was a strategic use for this phenomena that the US regarded as ‘annoying’.
You just need the means to park three ICBM warheads into position above our ionosphere in North America.
“not much of a life.”
It’d force people to interact face to face with people rather than live their lives around how many likes they get. Maybe it’d force them to appreciate their families. Maybe they’d get to know their neighbors. Maybe kids would have to play outside i the fresh air and sunshine and ride bikes and use their creative minds. Maybe they’d open a book. Maybe that would be a history book. Maybe they’d learn something.
We were out 11 days in 07. Big ice storm knocked out the whole area.
Here in the house we were only out for 60 seconds till the genny kicked in. Water is no problem since we have a well.
Yeah, going phone cold turkey is gonna take out half the population in a day quickly followed by those who’s heads explode because they can’t use their EBT card.
I’m not as prepared as some but I’m sure we’d be okay for at least a year but beyond that it would depend a lot on how quickly the deer population is taken out.
Getting rid of the rats with hooves kinda makes it appealing...
At the exact right altitude, with exact timing, with a weapon specifically built for the emp effects damage is possible, the premise of the norks or Iranians or such pulling this of is the more than implausible part
What many people do not understand is that many of the effects that were witnessed in those tests in the 50’s were not as severe nor were they proven to even be directly linked to the tests.
Fortschen wrote this to sell books and generate hysteria for certain lobbyist groups.
When I read these kind of books, I never take them for gospel of things to come. Instead, I like the way they make me think, and to challenge myself to becoming even more self sufficient.
I don’t feel fear by them, but I do learn a great deal in innovative ideas and thoughts. And they are an entertaining good read. No tin hats on my head from reading any of them.
I have....both are highly recommended.
I have....both are highly recommended.
It’s a trilogy and very good
You raise good points - hope we never find out....until then, I also keep a few bottles of gas handy.....just made me remember the “bombola” (not sure if that’s correct spelling) stoves in Italy...had a door on the side to put a gas bottle which made them similar to gas grills.
We fixed both problems with a military diesel generator.It’s hardened against EMP and is a class A generator.Check MEP-802A on Ebay.
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